A parting gift from King Sombra has left Cadance unable to bear a foal. In order for her and Shining to become parents, Shining must become a mare and get pregnant in her stead.
Cadance has a problem.
The Mad King Sombra may be gone, but the echoes of his cruelty still live on in one final parting gift: A curse on her body that prevents her from having children. She quickly devotes herself to finding a cure, but even she, the Princess of Love, is at a loss to finding a solution. It seems that her efforts are hopeless.
That is, of course, until she comes up with an idea. A crazy, hilarious, monumentally silly idea, but an idea nonetheless. With nothing else working and all other avenues leading to dead-ends, Cadance is forced to think that this ludicrous notion may be their only chance. It will definitely leave the entire world scratching their heads, but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures, and it's certainly not the strangest thing to have happened in Equestria.
Good thing she's been practicing that genderswap spell...
A unicorn in a white lab coat walked through the halls of the castle of the Crystal Empire. His face was stoic and calm, but his rushed movements and tensed posture drew more than a few glances. He navigated the halls quickly without pause and arrived at the Throne Room, where he was admitted inside. He trotted down the faded pink carpet until he reached the Crystal Throne.
“Princess Cadance.” The pony bowed low. “I have the results you requested.”
Cadance cringed at the look on the pony’s face. “How bad is it, Doctor Endo?”
Endo’s ears drooped. He hovered the clipboard over so she could see. There was a fair bit of technical jargon on it, but the flatline on the graph told Cadance all she needed to know.
“Zero?!”
Endo hung his head. “A powerful hatred-based curse has been cast on you. Conception will be impossible until it dissipates. I’m sorry, but for all intents and purposes, you’re completely barren.”
Cadance closed her eyes. She took several deep breaths, trying hard to keep her face from twisting.
“Sombra…”
Endo nodded. “I’m afraid the magic signature matches his to the letter.”
The throne room rumbled, the air around Cadance thickening into a pink haze. A corona of white light formed around her eyes as she fought not to scream.
Endo took a step back. “Your Highness…”
Cadance growled. The rumbling and haze died away, but when she spoke again, her voice echoed with barely restrained power.
“This isn’t fair,” she whispered.
Endo fiddled with his hooves. “I’m sorry.”
Hmph. Sorry wouldn’t let her have a foal, but she kept that comment to herself. “Is Shining Armor affected?”
Endo gulped. “A-Actually, there’s a b-bit of good news there! Our tests show that the Prince Consort is completely healthy! No abnormalities of any kind. This leads us to believe that the effects are not contagious.”
Cadance let out a heavy sigh. “Thank Celestia for that, at least…”
Endo shifted back and forth. “I, um... have to return to the lab now, but if I might be so bold, I’d advise you to inform Equestria of this. There are too many involved for it to be kept a secret for long, and I imagine your aunts would prefer to hear about it from you.”
Cadance slumped down in her throne. “Thank you, Doctor. You can go.”
Doctor Endo bowed, then turned and left the throne room. As soon as he left, Cadance groaned and lowered her head into a facehoof.
“It never ends, does it?”
Cadance sat alone in the ancient archives beneath the castle with her nose buried in a book with a green and red eye. To her left was a teetering stack of ancient tomes three times her height, and to her right was a massive pile of scrolls.
“Ironic,” Cadance muttered. “The bastard did research on love so he’d know how to fight it. Heavens above, this is supposed to be my special talent and even I didn’t know some of this!”
The Mad King Sombra had been a lot of things: violent, tyrannical, sadistic, power-hungry, devious… brilliant. His notes were methodical and detailed, building off of base concepts and formulas that even left Cadance scratching her head. It was depressing to think how much good he might’ve done had things been different.
Cadance pounded the table and groaned. Not for the first time, her thoughts turned to sending word south for help. Endo had been right that Celestia would inevitably hear of this, but Cadance wanted to at least try to solve the problem herself before getting others involved.
“I’m not going to run home crying to Equestria at the first sign of trouble.” She got up and stretched, then trotted over to a nearby chalkboard. “I’d never live it down if there was a simple solution I overlooked.”
Cadance took a few moments to recall all she understood about the curse that’d banished the Crystal Empire for a millennium, filling in the gaps with what she’d just learned from Sombra’s journals. Once she had a decent picture in her head, she started writing out diagrams and equations, intent on coming up with a counter-curse.
“All right.” She took a deep breath. “Let’s take this from the top.”
Hours went by. She quickly filled up the board in tiny font, then abandoned it and switched over to parchment. She filled up over a dozen pages in no time at all, all the while cross-referencing Sombra’s journals with her own knowledge of Love magic. She came up with a few ideas, most of them centered around the idea of undoing the damage already done, but she quickly realized that wasn’t going to work..
“There isn’t a single thing here that so much as mentions infertility!” Cadance shouted. “Either he didn’t write it down, or this is a side effect to something else he was trying to do! ERGH!”
Her head hit the desk with a dull thud.
…
Silence reigned as the candles around her burned.
…
“This is like grasping at vapors,” she mumbled into the wood.
Cadance stayed like that for a few minutes, miserable and fatigued. She’d been at this for so long already and had almost nothing to show for it...
...then, as she sat back up and scratched her stomach, she suddenly got an idea.
A ludicrous, silly, absurd idea.
“Snrrrk...” Cadance grinned. “Now that would be funny! I’d almost pay to see that…”
But yet the idea remained stuck in her mind. She continued think about it for a while longer, and amazingly, she realized that maybe, just maybe...
Cadance drew out some formulas, did a little bit more research, then picked her brain for a hole in her reasoning. All the pieces were in place, all the necessary players were in their positions, all the required components were readily available. It was just a matter of setting it all up.
Cadance stared at the parchment before her. “This… this might actually work.”
She sat up straight as the implication of those words hit her.
“It might work!” She threw up her hooves and cheered. “It might work, it might work, it might work!”
Cadance danced in place, spinning around and laughing. This was it! The answer she was looking for! She’d just had to think outside the box!
She chuckled as she put away her notes and headed out of the archives. She’d keep looking around for something a little more proper, but if nothing else panned out, then this really could be a potential solution.
Cadance ran a hoof down her face. Months of tireless searching had yielded no results, and so now she was taking the plunge.
“I want to turn you into a mare, then bring my future-self to our era with a time spell so he can impregnate you. We’ll use the Crystal Heart’s power to ensure the zygote remains fertilized when he goes back to the future, and you’ll carry the foal to term,” Cadance said. “Honestly, I thought I was pretty clear the first time.”
Shining snorted. “Oh, you were clear. I just wanted to make sure I heard right before I called you bonkers!”
She’d sprung it on him right after he’d gotten home from drills. She probably could’ve done it at a better time, maybe waited until he was in a better mood, but honestly, there wasn’t ever going to be a good time to bring this up.
“I’ve explored every other possible alternative before deciding on this,” Cadance went on. “There’s no other way for us to conceive.”
Shining shucked off his armor and put it on a stand beside the wall. “Look, Honey, I’m not going to pretend that I know as much as you about Sombra or Love magic, but this is pretty, well…”
Cadance raised an eyebrow.
Shining chose his words with care. “...drastic. I’m not saying you haven’t looked into alternatives; I’m sure you have! But if you want to convince anypony of this, most of all me, you’re going to have to make one hell of an argument!”
An odd smile crept up on Cadance’s face. “I know.”
The door to their walk-in closet opened with a BANG. Dozens upon dozens of books, scrolls, and loose leaves of parchment suddenly flew out at Cadance’s command. On them were written diagrams, formulas, plans, equations, arrays, graphs, theories, theses, experiments, ramblings, musings, ideas, schemes, observations, postulations, engineerings, all written in Cadance’s neat and tidy script.
Shining stared at the swarm of literature now surrounding them. “Wat.”
“Twilight helped me with my research!” Cadance gestured to the veritable forest circling them. “It’s alphabetized, cited, cross-referenced, and even verified by the Equestrian Arcanaeum. Would you like me to go into detail about all the avenues we’ve explored? Want me to tell you about the lengths we’ve gone to try and spare you from this? Do you need some time to go through our findings, hmm? I’m sure you’ll find it all fascinating.”
Shining opened his mouth, then closed it again. He picked out one of the floating pieces of paper, going over it briefly before looking back up with a blank look.
“...Mind giving me the abridged version?”
Cadance giggled. “The abridged version is that nothing else will work. However, if you want a little bit more, I think I can sum things up.”
Shining nodded.
Cadance set the papers and research down on the floor in stacks. “There’s a biological and magical component to pony conception. The biological component is the combination of reproductive cells within a supporting environment, and the magical component is the love one feels for their mate, which ‘orders’ the fertilized egg to begin the process of cell division. When these two components are present, the mother’s body is signaled to begin releasing the appropriate hormones for gestation, and a pregnancy begins.”
Cadance looked down at the floor. “The biological components in my body are all there. Ovulation is normal, I’m going in and out of season, and conception can technically go off without a hitch. But since Sombra’s curse was powered by hatred—the antithesis of love— neither the fertilized egg nor my body is getting the signal to do anything. The zygote just sits there until it’s absorbed into my endometrial lining, then expelled through the normal menstrual cycle.”
“Hold on.” Shining held up a hoof. “Sombra’s doing this?! How? He’s been dead for years!”
“We think it’s a side effect of a curse he was trying to put on me before he died,” Cadance said. “It probably would’ve done more to me, but the bulk of it was nullified by the Crystal Heart.”
Shining sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. He was pretty learned in magic himself, so he had enough knowledge of curses to connect a few dots.
“What’s the curse’s rate of decay?”
Cadance exhaled out her nose. “Half a percent a year.”
“And when will true conception be possible at that rate?”
She winced. “A century.”
Shining winced as well. “Ouch…”
“Yeah.”
Shining rubbed his chin. “Is there a way to amplify the Crystal Heart’s power? Maybe speed things up a bit?”
Cadance shook her head. “It’s already operating at max, and it’s not like I can just make another one if we break it. Ancient relics don’t exactly grow on trees.”
Shining ran a hoof through his mane. “What about some kind of counter-stasis spell? If Sombra’s was powered by hatred, maybe we could just do the opposite with love—”
“If you think for longer than five seconds, you’ll realize why that’s a terrible idea,” Cadance said. “Even if such a spell existed—which it doesn’t—I really don’t want to be in stasis for one hundred years. Our ponies’ morale would suffer, you’d be in stasis with me so we’d have to have a steward running things, and even after all that there’s not even a guarantee it’d actually work—”
“Okay, I get it,” Shining said. “You’ve clearly given this some thought. But I still don’t see why your solution requires me. If the issue is just magical sterility, why don’t we recruit a surrogate? I know it’s possible to transplant fertilized eggs into others."
“Doctor Endo already did some tests regarding that,” Cadance said. “He found that the curse is bonded to my very essence. Even through a surrogate, the magic would still linger in my cells and prevent gestation. Twilight confirmed it with some tests of her own. It’s not something we can get around.”
And that’s when it all hit Shining like a freight train.
“We really are backed in a corner here, aren’t we?”
Cadance’s eyes grew distant. “Twilight’s the one who suggested the time spell. We summon my future self as a stallion from when the curse has worn off, he provides the genetic material, then use the Crystal Heart to stabilize any temporal irregularities during conception. Brilliant, really...”
Shining mulled all of that over. He didn’t doubt Twilight and Cadance’s research and findings, and the idea of two Cadances was certainly appealing, but…
“I’m still getting hung up on the whole ‘turn me into a mare and knock me up thing.’”
Cadance gave him a funny look, her eyes flickering down a moment. “I know for a fact that this idea has got you more than a little intrigued... or do you have a boner for some other reason?”
Shining was beginning to sweat. He didn’t deny anything, particularly not the reason why his stallionhood was free of its sheath and throbbing with his heartbeat.
“No fair,” he grumbled.
“Nothing about this is fair,” Cadance replied. She glanced at his cock again and licked her lips. “Though I’m happy you’re interested, at least...”
Shining looked away. “L-Look, fantasies are one thing; but reality’s quite another! I’m not sure I—”
“Twilight and I have found several spells that will help with the more uncomfortable parts of pregnancy,” said Cadance. “Nausea suppression, heartburn relief, malleable skin tissue, reinforced bladder, better blood flow, improved circulation, that sort of thing! It’ll be a cakewalk.”
“You’re asking me to abandon my bloody gender for a year!” Shining burst out. "A part of who I am! My identity!”
Cadance went to him and put a hoof on his cheek. “Once the baby’s born, you can go back to being a super-macho stallion. Does eleven and a half months really seem like that long a time?”
Shining didn’t react to her touch, but neither did he shy away. “...I didn’t think that swapping genders a few times to spice up the sex would lead to something like this.”
“Hey, I’d still be frantically searching for a cure if you hadn’t gotten curious about the other side of the fence.”
Shining face reddened. “W-Well, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy our… ‘experiments,’ but this is way, way different! This is a home run when our little sessions have been hits to first or second base!”
Cadance circled around him with a coy look. “I seem to recall you saying several things to the contrary...”
Shining hesitated, but then shook his head back and forth. “That was in the heat of the moment. I was just trying to get you riled up!”
“‘Do it inside, Eros!’” Cadance said in a deep, erotic moan. “Yes! I want it all! Give it to me! Let me have your foals!”
“Heat. Of. The. Moment,” Shining said through clenched teeth. His breathing was shallow, his cock twitching below. “Nothing more, nothing less.”
Cadance crossed her hooves. “I think the Princess of Love can tell the difference between sexual banter and actual desire. Whether you’re aware of it or not, there’s a part of you that very much wants this, and it comes out strong when you’re a mare.”
Shining swallowed hard. He was running out of things to hide behind, and it was clear that Cadance was ready for whatever excuse or problem he could bring up.
“What about labor and foaling?”
“Pain-to-Pleasure spell,” Cadance said. “We cast it once your water breaks, and your contractions suddenly feel like having sex. You’ll have the best orgasms of your life.”
Shining bit his lip. “I thought that that spell was dangerous.”
“If a normal pony tries to cast it,” Cadance said. “But your sister and I aren’t normal ponies, are we?”
Shining’s eyes flitted back and forth. It all seemed insane, but deep down inside he’d pretty much already made a decision. His sense of duty had pretty much sealed the deal from the start.
“What are we going to say to everypony? Especially the new recruits!” Shining adopted a mocking tone. “Hey guys, Shining Armor’s gonna turn into a mare and have a foal! Don’t mind that, though! Keep doing push-ups!”
Cadance shrugged. “I doubt anypony’s gonna care too much. Besides, it’s not the craziest thing that’s happened since the Empire’s returned. Remember the dafflewarks? Hmm? Recall that little escapade?”
“Yes, well… um…” Shining put a hoof behind his head. “W-What about the rest of Equestria? They’re gonna have a field day with this!”
Cadance threw her hooves in the air. “Who gives a damn? They’re not the ones with the problem! Celestia’s sake, I’ll handle the press myself if you’re so concerned about the rest of the world!”
“But what about—”
“Do you want foals or not?!”
“YES!” Shining stamped his hoof. “Gods, yes! I want them more than anything else, and I want to have them with you!”
“THEN LISTEN TO WHAT I’M SAYING!” Cadance shouted. “I! AM! BARREN! No sons, no daughters, no nothing! How about you explain THAT to Equestria?! See how well that goes over!”
“...”
“Your sister and I have tried everything we can think of to try and spare you from this, but the bottom line is that there’s no other way!” Cadance’s eyes were glistening. “The only way you’re gonna have a kid with me is if you get knocked up yourself, because by the time this curse wears off, you’ll be DEAD and BURIED!”
“All right, all right, I get it!” Shining looked away from her watery gaze. “You’ve made your point! Sheesh… I’m just… I’m just a little scared, you know? I wanted to make sure that you’d thought this through.”
Cadance snorted. “More than anything else in my life.”
Shining said nothing. He walked over to a full-length mirror to examine himself: his square and chiseled muzzle, his broad chest, his thick and sturdy legs, his trim and stocky frame. His athletic body reflected the long years of his successful military career. He was big, handsome, and strong, a towering stallion and a prime example of his race.
All of that would change. Everything would be reshaped and modified for a completely different purpose.
Cadance walked up behind him. Her face was neutral as she put a wing around him.
“In the long run, nopony’s even going to remember that you did this. It’ll just be remembered as another heroic act you did, and before long, it’ll be overshadowed by other amazing things.”
Shining clicked his teeth. Did he need more time to think about it? Maybe mull it over for a while? He supposed it wouldn’t hurt to go and get someone else’s advice, but the longer he stalled, the worse it was gonna wind up being.
Shining sighed and nuzzled Cadance’s cheek. “You owe me big time for this.”
Cadance giggled and nuzzled him back. “Trust me, I’ve got a few things planned you’ll enjoy.”
Yeah, it was a huge commitment, but Shining supposed it’d be worth it in the end. And considering the reasons for doing it in the first place, he doubted it’d do much to his image. He just had to grin and bear it for a while.
Cadance had already drawn up plans before talking to Shining, so it was just a matter of implementing them. Most of it went off without a hitch, but Cadance had been oddly insistent that things be moved along. Shining later learned that it was because the time spell had to be cast at a specific date and time, and they’d have to wait a year to try again if they missed the window.
The two of them now stood in their bedroom making a few last-minute preparations. On the floor was an incredibly complex magical array filled with arcane symbols, and hovering in the center was a beautiful blue crystal cut in the shape of a heart.
“How long until Future-You gets here again?” Shining asked for the eighth time. He was still a stallion (though not for much longer) standing before a mirror with a forlorn expression.
Cadance didn’t look up from the parchment she was poring over. “Ten on the dot.”
Shining checked the clock. “Uh… then we kinda only have five minutes. Shouldn’t we, y’know... get ready ourselves?”
“In a minute, in a minute...” Cadance scratched something out and wrote in something else in its place. “Ugh, Twilight, I love you, but you really need to work on your hornwriting…”
Shining watched his longer mane and tail swish back and forth. He’d never let them grow out this far before. “Is she—er, future-you, I mean, coming as a stallion or a mare?”
Cadance’s eyes flitted up and down Twilight’s writings. “Probably a stallion. The spell only gives us fifteen minutes to get the job done, so we can’t really waste time with preamble or prep… oh! That’s supposed to be the derivative of the value! Didn’t see the prime symbol… okay, that all makes sense. I think we’re good to go!”
Shining chewed on his lip. “You’re sure you don’t want me to cast the time spell?”
“We’re not going over this again,” Cadance said. “Now come stand in front of me.”
Shining couldn’t help glancing at the mirror one last time before going over to her. “I-I just don’t want anything to go wrong. I trust you, but this is pretty advanced magic...”
“Good thing I’m a pretty advanced magic user.” Cadance moved Shining over a little bit before lighting her horn. “But hold that thought. Let’s get the easy part out of the way.”
A cool wave of magic washed over Shining. He tensed at first, but then relaxed and allowed it to envelop him. It teased and brushed along his coat, sweeping through him with a pleasant tingling as it took in the contours and functioning of his body. The same thing happened to Cadance at the same time.
The changes started internally. Shining first felt a slight twinge in the back of his head, followed by a sudden shiver that spread throughout the rest of him. His entire frame rippled and morphed in its wake—his barrel lengthened and became more compact, his coat softened, his legs shortened, his hips widened, his neck thinned. The world seemed to grow larger around him as he shrank several inches and shed a significant amount of muscle mass. He felt an abrupt shortness of breath as his internal organs shifted slightly, and his muzzle itched as it shrank and rounded out. There was also a sudden, maddening tingling in his throat, but he kept silent for Cadance’s sake.
And then the most relevant change occurred. He was well-acquainted with what it felt like, so he didn’t react much when his balls and sheath went numb. However, he—or she, rather, did gasp a second later when her new marehood formed, as she’d accidentally brushed it with her tail. She ceased the motion before it happened again.
“All done, my little Gleaming,” said a male voice.
Gleaming Shield opened her eyes. Looming over her was a handsome pink stallion, tall and sure, looking down at her with twinkling eyes and a playful smirk.
Gleaming cleared her throat and chuckled, her ears twitching at her new silvery soprano. “You say that every time, Eros.”
Eros was masculine, but not overly so. His muscles were firm, his wings were angular and sleek, his jaw was rugged, his flanks were slim, and his hooves were unshorn. His mane and tail still had Cadance’s telltale curls, but they were cut short to give him a more dashing look. There was a mysterious air about him, one both bizarrely alluring and enticing, and while it was certainly unique, it was also very reminiscent of his female form.
And sweet mercy, was he ever big. Gleaming swore he was at least as tall as Celestia, and with her shrunken down quite a bit...
Eros looked his transformed mate up and down. “That’s because it’s true. You won’t be little for very long, though. Not if I have anything to say about it, at least…”
“Whoa there, lover-boy.” Gleaming tilted her head towards the circle. “We still have work to do.”
“Work that’s all done for the moment.” Eros stepped to the side to take in Gleaming's new form. She was lithe and curvaceous, sporting a soft downy coat and a bright blue mane that spilled down her slender neck and shoulders. She was a touch taller than most mares, but he still looked teeny-tiny to him. Her military training was still evident in her athletic build, most notably in her shapely legs and deliciously toned flanks, and she had the same calm, analytic demeanor that gave away who she really was.
Gleaming cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
Eros chuckled. “The only thing I needed to do for the time spell was lock in the point I want to come back to.” He bent down to nuzzle her withers. “Mmmm, everything else is done on the time-traveler’s end.”
Gleaming shivered from Eros’ hot breath in her mane. His touch was fond and familiar, his feathery lips peppering her neck with kisses. “Sh-Shouldn’t we wait, though? We don’t wanna ramp things up too quickly…”
Eros hummed from her clean and fruity scent. Using each other’s shampoo was definitely a good idea. “Hehe, things are going to ramp up quickly regardless. The book said it takes a few seconds to kick in, but you should be feeling it riiiiiiiiighhht abouuuuuuuut....”
It hit her like a freight train. Gleaming’s entire body grew warm, her heart rate picked up, her mind grew fuzzy, her mouth went dry, and her tail lifted of its own accord. A deep, throbbing ache developed in her belly, a sudden trickle of fluid running down her leg.
“Hooooolllllly...” She blushed as she caught whiff of a mare’s scent—her scent. “I-I forgot that I’d be…”
“Ohhhh,yes.” Eros raised his head and inhaled deeply. “You’ve got it bad, too.”
“D-Damn it...” Gleaming flushed as the feelings picked up. “Why didn’t you remind me of this?!”
“I didn’t think I needed to.” Eros’ wings were spreading now, fanning out to their full span. “It’s kind of a necessary component of the process.”
Gleaming's eyes drifted to Eros’ groin. His long and thick stallionhood was slipping free, twitching and inflating larger with every beat of his heart. Unbidden fantasies of being stuffed full with that wonderful rod danced through her mind, his heavy weight atop her, pinning her down...
“Nngh, I don’t know how long I can wait...”
Eros looked up at the clock. “Don’t worry, Future-Me should be arriving any—”
There was a flash like lightning. Crackling sounds filled the room as a jagged tear in space formed over by the closet door. Multicolored light spilled out as the rift became taller and wider, causing both of them to squint and shade their eyes. The silhouette of a stallion appeared and carefully stepped through the tear, and when he was fully through, the rift disappeared behind him with a CRACK!
The newcomer grinned. “Hello, hel-lo.”
Gleaming blinked several times. Standing before her was a second Eros, identical in every to the first! Same body, same manestyle, same boyish smirk… even the same raging boner.
“My sweet Gleamy...” Eros waggled his eyebrows before sauntering over. “Feeling frisky? Antsy? A little wild, hmm? Don’t worry, we’re about to fix all of that…”
Now Gleaming was the one licking her lips. The haze in her mind was getting thicker, the fire in her core burning hotter...
“Hey there, handsome,” Past-Eros cut in. He gave Gleaming one final kiss on the cheek before guiding them both into the arcane circle. “Ready for some fun?”
Future-Eros’ smile turned devious. He took a sniff of the air, his wings spreading as well. “You have no idea.”
“You’re good to go, right?” Past-Eros asked. “No problems?”
“None.” Future-Eros stopped at the edge of the array, giving Gleaming a teasing wink. “Operation: Family is go.”
Gleaming’s knees were growing weak. She was in the center of the ritual circle with two horny alicorn stallions circling around her like sharks. Every fiber in her body was screaming at her to lunge at one of them, but her willpower held her fast.
“Eroooooos…”
“Almost ready, Honey.” Past-Eros cast a spell under his breath, and an enchanted glass vial filled with a clear substance suddenly appeared in his magic. “But we can’t start without this.”
Gleaming frowned. “What’s...”
Past-Eros lifted the vial up to examine it in the light. “Just a little insurance to make sure this takes. We’ve only one shot at this.”
Gleaming swallowed hard. “Th-This is really happening, isn’t it… we’re really g-gonna do this...”
Past-Eros smiled. “Having second thoughts?”
“NO!” Gleaming felt her folds winking. Her eyes unfocused as her breathing became fast and shallow. Past-Eros began casting a spell behind her, and the Crystal Heart above responded with a ringing that drowned out the pop the enchanted vial’s cork. “Gods, no… I want this...”
“Ah, I never forgot these months,” Future-Eros purred. “How happy you were the whole time, how good you said it all felt. You kept going on about how full you felt, but somehow, all you wanted was more...”
That did it. Gleaming tried to tackle him right then and there, but her hooves were... stuck to the ground? She realized that the lines of the array had started glowing, the light already up to her knees...
“Bastards!” Gleaming ground her teeth as the light fully enveloped her. “Double-teaming me whiiii—OHHHH, YES!”
Her tail had been yanked to the side. A tendril of liquid probed at her glistening entrance before slipping in and traveling up her newly-christened passage. It entered her fertile womb to become embedded in her walls, and the instant it did, the heat between Gleaming legs became an inferno.
“FFFFFFFFUCK!” She wriggled and squirmed as hard as she could, the edges of her eyes glowing pink with the ritual’s magic. “HURRY AND TAKE ME ALREADY!”
Past-Eros nodded to his future self. They both entered the glowing circle, cocks bobbing as they advanced on their frazzled mate.
“Shhh,” Past-Eros said from Gleaming's left. He nipped and pulled on her ear. “It’s alright, Honey….”
Future-Eros pressed a hoof into one of her cutie marks. “Everything will be fine…”
“We promise you’ll enjoy this…”
“Oh, very much so…”
“THEN HURRY UP AND DO IT!” Gleaming snarled. “F-FUCK ME HARD!”
Future-Eros snickered. “As our love wishes.” He positioned himself behind Gleaming and reared, settling on her small, sturdy frame. His eager cock slapped up against her as he adjusted himself.
Past-Eros kissed Gleaming's forehead before licking the base of her horn. “Oh! Just one more thing before we start, Dear...”
His slippery tongue nearly made Gleaming go cross-eyed. “Unnnnngghh, whaaaaaat…”
“Mmm, It’s not something you’ll object to.” Past-Eros licked up and down the fluted length. “See, the fluid I just put in you is to make you more fertile. That means there’s a good chance this pregnancy may result in you having twins... triplets… or more.”
The words were powerful enough to punch a hole in the fog.
“You mean…”
Future-Eros leaned down to whisper in her ear. “You’re gonna be a great parent.”
Then he plunged into her with a smooth, powerful thrust. At the same time, Past-Eros took her horn into his mouth and started sucking on it, and Gleaming screamed her approval so loud and long that half the castle heard. The Crystal Heart above began to hum, tendrils of the ritual’s magic coiling around it.
Future-Eros could only fit himself halfway into Gleaming's snugness. He pulled back with a grunt and spread his backhooves a little farther, then shoved back into her with even more force. He sank in another inch, and from there on he began moving back and forth like a piston that drilled a tad deeper each time.
Meanwhile, Past-Eros was running his tongue all around Gleaming horn while bobbing his head up and down. He mostly kept his attention on her tip, which was now emitting constant sparks that tickled his throat. He’d occasionally tighten his lips and swallow so he could properly suck on her off, causing a torrent of sparks to surge out. He continued this pattern while gradually increasing his pace, and as he did, his hoof unconsciously strayed down to rub his neglected shaft.
Gleaming was in heaven. The weight of a stallion on her back, the heavy scent of sex, the feeling of fullness and being stretched wide, the warm slickness of Past-Eros’ tongue, the lewd squishing and sucking sounds, their hot breaths in her ears. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t cum already, but then remembered Eros has said the spell prevented orgasms until the Crystal Heart was fully charged. The pressure in Gleaming loins was well beyond her normal peak already, but still it built and built without any sign of stopping. Fortunately, both of Eros’ efforts to ravish her were gradually picking up, and as they did, the Crystal Heart above hummed louder, louder...
“E-Er—” Gleaming cut herself off with a throaty moan. She took a shuddering breath and tried again. “E-Eros, more... I n-need… more!”
Future-Eros squeezed her tighter. “More, eh?”
Gleaming queaked. A tendril of magic had was poking at her backdoor, gradually snaking its way inside her while getting thicker. It assumed the shape of a phallus and began vibrating, occasionally rubbing against the thin barrier that separated it from Future-Eros’ thrusting member.
Gleaming's eyes rolled into the back of her head. The pleasant tingling added to the roaring firestorm within her, the Crystal Heart above now shining with sapphire light.
But it wasn’t near enough.
“More!” she cried.
This time it was Past-Eros who complied. While still servicing her, he reared and put his forehooves on her shoulders. She saw that his stallionhood was enveloped in a pink hue, the the foot-long rod growing—thirteen inches... fourteen inches... sixteen… nineteen… Her jaw hung slack as she realized what he intended, and she found herself drooling as it came closer and closer to her face.
When Past-Eros’ dick reached two feet, she was able to stick out her tongue and touch his tip. It continued to grow until it entered her mouth proper, quickly pushing past her lips and filling all of her maw. She sucked on it like a lollipop, swishing her tongue all around it and greedily swallowing his pre. Past-Eros groaned and took in the full length of her horn, wrapping his lips around the base and making his mouth as tight as possible.
The Crystal Heart was ringing now. The thick air sparked and crackled, the magic swirling around the three of them like a tempest. Gleaming was drunk on the sensations, lost in them like a rowboat in a raging storm. The pressure just kept on building. The fire inside her just kept getting hotter. Future-Eros was fully hilted in her now, the rhythmic slapping of his relentless pounding filling her ears. His magic vibrator had reached a fever-pitch, and Past-Eros’ twitching cock was completely filling her mouth. He yanked on her mane as he pushed deeper into her mouth, causing it to slide down her throat.
The three of them became fully enveloped in the Crystal Heart’s light. Pulses of magic were now radiating off the artifact that funneled into Gleaming, the pulses coming faster and faster. Their efforts became erratic and frenzied as all three of them felt their climaxes approach and with one final thrust each, the Crystal Heart released a shockwave with a clear, deafening note.
It was like the hottest fire being extinguished with the coldest water. Gleaming’s body shuddered and convulsed as her muscles clamped down on Future-Eros’ rod, even as it pumped her full with shot after shot of virile cum. She could feel magic erupting from her horn and into Past-Eros’ mouth, and also his cock swelling within her own, his seed spilling down her throat. She was being filled from both ends, swelling with their divine fertile essence, and the torrent of endorphins made her feel like she was flying. It just kept stretching on and on—and Gleaming could only hold on for so long before she whited out.
The first thing Gleaming noticed was that she’d been moved over to the bed. The second thing she noticed was that she was on her back with her hips propped up on pillows. The third thing she noticed was that Eros was right next to her, nuzzling, cuddling, petting, and generally just spooning the daylights out of her. His warmth added to the warm, tingling heat deep within her belly, which was one of the greatest feelings she’d ever felt.
She was about to ask if he was the past or future version of himself, but he beat her to the punch.
“Future-Me’s gone,” he said with a smile. “It’s just us again.”
“...Oh.” Gleaming shifted her lower half so she was more comfortable. “That was quick… How long was I out?”
“About forty-five minutes.” He kissed her and hugged her tighter. “I half expected you to sleep through the night. You absorbed some pretty potent magic there.”
Gleaming's kissed him back and looked down at her own elevated torso. “Did it work?”
“Mmhmm.” Eros patted her stomach. “Congratulations, Honey. You’re pregnant.”
“Heh.” Gleaming leaned into his embrace. “I suppose I should enjoy sleeping while I can then.”
“Oh, hush,” said Eros. “I already told you you’re going to be comfortable.”
“Yeah, but...” Gleaming hugged him tight. “I’ve… I-I’ve never done anything like this before.”
He stroked her mane. “I’ll be here for you every step of the way. No matter what, I’ll be there for you.”
Gleaming leaned more into his embrace. “Even when you’re listening to petitions in court?”
Eros laughed. “Oh, now that’d be an interesting backdrop. Petitioners coming in with petty problems only to be snarked at by a hormonal, pregnant mare. I can only imagine the reactions.”
“Hey, It might deter some of the whiners,” Gleaming said with a small smirk. “Heavens know we get enough of them.”
“True,” Eros said. “Although they always wind up coming back.”
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “Unfortunately.”
A silence formed. They cuddled for a while, but Gleaming's gaze was inevitably drawn down to her currently-flat belly. She focused in on the warm feeling inside her and let out a contented sigh. She thought she’d be nervous or panicking, but in truth, all she felt was peace. She was doing something that almost all mares did, wasn’t she? It shouldn’t be too—
“Ohhh, yessssss…” Gleaming lay pinned on her back, legs wrapped around Eros in a lover’s embrace. “Eros! ErosErosErosErosErosErOSEROSEROOOOOOS!”
Gleaming and Eros typically liked to have a morning quickie to start the day. However, that morning quickie the last two weeks had extended into at least an hour of frenzied fucking. Gleaming’s heat had been petering out though, thankfully, so today was going to be her first day back running the Guard.
Eros continued to thrust into Gleaming at a steady pace. “Gonna… g-gonna need to…” He grunted as she gave him a particularly strong squeeze. “G-Get ready soon. You don’t wanna be late…”
Gleaming shivered and arched her neck. “Just… just keep going a little longer yet… Please…”
Eros kissed her, his tongue darting in and mingling with hers. She moaned into his mouth as their hips met with wet slaps that pushed her deeper into the bed. They made out fiercely while their hooves ran through their sweaty manes, making out and pushing back and forth for nearly a minute. Finally, Eros pulled back and resumed his task of rutting her silly.
“Things are gonna.... be picking up now,” he panted. “Gotta resume some routine… Will be easier now… than later…”
Gleaming held him tighter. “Y-You’ve got this... all planned out… haven’t yooOOOOUUUUYESYESYESHARDERHARDERHARDER!”
Realizing he’d found her g-spot, Eros abandoned all pretense and hammered her for all he was worth. Gleaming’s girly cries filled the room, and before long her walls were spasming around him once more. Eros grunted shortly after as he coated her tunnel with long ropes of thick seed.
He stayed inside her a little longer after that, hugging her close and rubbing her belly. Gleaming hummed at the renewed warmth inside her, then touched her horn to Eros’ and touched their foreheads. “I still can’t believe it. I just really, really can’t… this is all so nuts...!”
Eros kissed her again. “Still scared?”
Gleaming nuzzled him. “Not as much as before. Just nervous now.”
Eros smiled. “If you need anything at all, just tell me. I’ll do whatever I can.”
“I know.” Gleaming looked past him and up at the ceiling. “I just hope that everypony else is as understanding.”
Eros chuckled. “C’mon. I’ve gotta turn back into a mare, and we both need to get cleaned up. Let’s go.”
Gleaming whined. “But that requires movemennnnnnnt…”
“We can fuck one more time in the shower if we hurry.”
“...I’ll get the towels.”
Sweat formed on Gleaming’s brow. She tried very hard to ignore the clock on the wall as she paced back and forth in her office. She was in a new set of crystal armor custom made for her smaller frame (also with adjustable straps), but the damn thing was nowhere near as comfortable as her old set. She sighed and looked at herself in the mirror for any missed task of hygiene.
No such luck. Her coat was like new fallen snow, with neatly-trimmed fetlocks and a tightly braided mane and tail that glistened with a healthy sheen. Her periwinkle armor was spotless, the fine etchings and runes flashing back at her with glints of magic. Her styled sabatons had been resized for her, immaculate and free of any scuffs. The magenta star of House Sparkle was displayed proudly on her chest clasp, and her horn was expertly filed to a delicate point.
“Guhhhhhhhh.” Gleaming looked away. “This is gonna suck. This is really, really gonna suck...”
She’d soon be in front of greenhorn troops, holding back a cringe as they tried not to draw attention to the fact that she was now a chick. Maybe she should just cast an illusion spell so that she looked like a stallion again. Save everyone all the damn trouble.
“Ergh. No, dammit.” Gleaming hung her head. “Cady already made the announcement! Shit…”
She paced back and forth for a few more minutes. A part of her knew that this was just going to be like ripping off a band-aid, but that didn’t mean she was looking forward to it.
“Gotta set the right example,” she muttered. “Yeah… newbies aren’t gonna respect me for shit otherwise! If I’m nervous and tripping all over myself, they will be too. Gotta let ‘em know that I’m still me.”
She threw around a few ideas, each with pros and cons. These were military ponies; they’d jump on any sign of weakness. A strong start was required to let them know that she was in charge. That she was worthy of respect.
“Well...” Gleaming raised a hoof to her chin. “Like Dad always said, ‘there’s no kill quite like overkill.’ May as well go for broke.”
Gleaming stood still and closed her eyes. She centered herself and steadied her breathing, focusing on the gentle rise and fall of her chest. She concentrated harder and delved deeper into herself, calling upon the vast wellspring of power that everypony in her family was blessed with.
The air shimmered as the room’s temperature rose...
Inside the Crystal Stadium, a group of freshly-inducted unicorn recruits of the Crystal Guard stood in a disorganized clump. They were shifting uncomfortably in their new suits of armor, some exchanging nervous glances, others chatting casually amongst themselves. They weren’t exactly sure what they were supposed to be doing at the moment, but they did know that they were going to meet the Prince—er, Princess today. Supposedly she was going to be personally overseeing their next leg of training, but nopony had said what that entailed.
Said Princess was now fifteen minutes late with no kind of update. The troops were starting to murmur and crack jokes, the latest being that she was preparing a speech on what it’s like to lose your d—
WUMPH The recruits were all knocked off their hooves by a blast of sizzling wind that reeked of discharged mana. Almost immediately they scrambled to re-orient, the afterimage of a blinding magenta bolt etched into their retinas. They thought they were ready for anything, but when the spots in their eyes cleared and they saw what’d caused the shockwave…
It was a pony, yet all they could see of it was its silhouette thanks to the scintillating waves of energy. It’s mane and tail were blue flames that gave off sweltering heat and crackled with power. If one squinted hard enough you could make out the being’s eyes; incandescent and sparking with white contrails of magic. A silver circlet set with a heart-shaped sapphire was crowned atop its head.
The recruits stood agape. Nopony moved, or said a single word. The Stadium had gone from cool and airy to like an oven.
“AT ATTENTION, RECRUITS!”Gleaming boomed.
She may as well have cracked a whip. Some of them yelped, some them even fell over again. It took several seconds before they’d re-formed into a straight line, waiting with nervous, twitching eyes.
Gleaming dialed it back just enough so that she could approach without causing burns. Her mane and tail went back to normal, but she still gave off heat like a furnace. She allowed them to see her altered form in full so she could gauge their reactions.
Widened eyes. A few sets of parted lips. A few of blinked several times, but not much more than that. It seemed that her little shock and awe tactic had softened the blow.
“Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room.” Gleaming let a little bit of power creep into her words, just enough so they were laced with a faint echo. “You all know why I look this way, and you all know what’s going to happen to me in the coming year. For the purposes of your training, that is irrelevant. All you need to worry about is the regimen I set before you. Is that clear?”
“YES, GENERAL!” the soldiers said at once.
Gleaming walked down the line of newbies. She knew most of them probably respected her regardless of what she looked like, but she also knew that one bad apple could spoil the bunch.
Speaking of bad apples, a mare in the middle of the line was glaring straight ahead, jaw clenched, lips pursed like she was sucking on a lemon.
Gleaming stopped in front her. “Is there a problem, recruit?”
The mare didn’t meet her eyes. “Was that really necessary?”
The silence that followed was so thick you could’ve cut it with a knife.
“What’s your name?” Gleaming asked.
“...Emeraldine, ma’am.”
Gleaming almost flinched at ‘ma’am’, but kept it together. “Would you rather I show up like a little blushing, stammering filly, Emeraldine? Should I be sniveling and whining about how terrible and traumatic it is not being a stallion, sniffling and sobbing in front of you all like a little bitch?”
Gleaming tapped into her magic a bit more, just enough to give her eyes a dangerous glint. The sky above them flickered as a colossal magenta dome formed around the entirety of the Crystal Stadium.
“Or would you rather I demonstrate that I’m still the same pony?”
Emeraldine gulped. She grit her teeth harder, but stood her ground nonetheless. “I-I know that you are, General. You don’t need to prove yourself.”
“I don’t, eh?” said Gleaming. “I wasn’t aware that you spoke for everypony. If that’s the case, why don’t you give everyone a reminder of just who I am, hmm? ALL that I am, as much as you can think of.”
Emeraldine hesitated a few seconds, but then, she took a deep breath and said loudly, “Y-You are Shining Armor, Prince of the Crystal Empire, Leader of the Crystal Guard, Brother to Princess Twilight Sparkle and Firstborn of House Sparkle. Hero of Equestria, Defender of the Realm, and husband of Princess Cadance.”
Gleaming let her power ebb away. The stadium-sized shield faded as she stepped closer and spoke quietly. “All correct, my little pony. Do I need to explain myself any further?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Then will you—” Gleaming stepped back and raised her voice. “—ALL of you, follow my instructions to the letter?!”
“YES, MA’AM!” came the response.
“Will you use the spells I teach you ONLY to serve and protect?!”
“YES, MA’AM!”
“Will you defend the Crystal Empire to your dying breaths, and make any blithering, scum-sucking MORONS dumb enough to attack our home regret the day they were born?!”
“YES, MA’AM!” the recruits thundered.
“DAMN RIGHT, YOU WILL!” Gleaming stomped her hoof with a burst of flame. “You are the sons and daughters of the Empire! You are its swords and shields! You are all that stands between your loved ones and certain doom! With the tools I’m about to give you, you WILL have the strength to defend our land and lady! ARE! WE! CLEAR?!”
“YES, MA’AM!”
Gleaming hid her smirk. She could see it in their eyes now—the spark that she was looking for. She could work with this.
“I’m going to be educating all of you on the finer points of large-scale barrier spells.” Gleaming pointed down the field with a slice of her hoof. “Not as large as I just made, but by the time we’re done, you’ll be able to envelop a two-story building in an alpha-class forcefield. The more adept of you will likely be able to protect larger targets, but that’s the baseline to pass my course. We’ll start by…”
That Night- “How’d it go, Honey?” Cadance asked as Gleaming walked into their castle apartment. “Did you have any troubles?”
Gleaming didn’t reply. She simply smiled, gave Cadance a kiss, then brushed past with a swish of her tail. She made for her armor rack to take off her gear.
Cadance hesitated. “Uh… Shiny?”
“Mmmhh…” Gleaming cracked her neck and stretched out like a cat. “I thought you were gonna call me Gleaming while I was like this—oh, Celestia, that’s better—new barding’s stiff as all Tartarus! S’gonna take at least a week to break in…”
Cadance came over and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Hey, come on. How’d it go?”
“Huh?” Gleaming looked over. “Oh, right. It wasn’t as bad as I thought! I just put up a strong front and rolled with the punches. They’ll be in good shape before long.”
Cadance cocked her head. “It was that easy?”
Gleaming put her circlet on a shelf. “Well, I wouldn’t say easy. I just took care things before they got out of hoof.” She shrugged. “Most ponies hold us in pretty high regard, Cady. They don’t really care what we do with our personal lives.”
“Huh! Would you look at that,” Cadance said with a lilt. “It’s almost like I was telling you that the entire time! What’re the chances?”
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “I just had some nerves, that’s all.”
Cadance nuzzled her. “Nerves aren’t good for the foal. Try to stay calm for their sake, hmm?”
Gleaming laughed. “I think it’s a little early to be worrying about that.”
Cadance’s tone grew serious. “A lot of birth defects and disorders originate from things the mother did in the first few months of pregnancy, hun. You need to be more careful.”
Gleaming mulled that over. She exhaled out her nose, then leaned over to rest her chin atop Cadance’s withers. “I think I should probably read up on this.”
Cadance nodded. “How about we read up on it together after dinner? That sound good?”
“Mmm.” Gleaming looked past her to out the far window, admiring the skyline and the setting sun. “What’re we having?”
“Seafood alfredo with parsnips and cranberry jelly,” said Cadance. “Sound good?”
Gleaming brightened. “Wow, that sounds—”
And just like that, her stomach did a violent somersault. She gagged as her throat tingled in the worst kind of way, followed by a numbness creeping into her jaw.
“Oh, god...!” Gleaming bolted for the bathroom and slammed the door. A few seconds later, Cadance heard the muffled sounds of vomiting.
“Yeesh. So morning sickness really can happen at any time of the day.” Cadance pursed her lips. “I’ll have to talk to Twilight about those nausea suppression spells...”
Gleaming stared at the open anatomy book before her. “What’s ‘fundal height’? I’ve seen it mentioned in here a few times.”
Cadance looked up from her own book. “That’s the distance from your pubic bone to the top of your uterus. It’s how the doctor measures your tummy.”
The two of them were in their sitting room going over a stack of pregnancy books. Along with the ones Doctor Endo had given them on prenatal care, Twilight had also sent a few books along with the instructions for the nausea spell.
Gleaming groaned. “Please don’t say ‘tummy.’ Just… don’t.”
Cadance giggled. “Why not? It’s cute.”
“Because we’re gonna be drowning in baby talk soon as it is.” Gleaming turned the page, grimacing as she beheld a picture of a mare’s reproductive system. “We’re gonna be jibbering and jabbering and spouting nonsense at this kid soon as we see them, so I’d rather use adult words while I still can.”
Cadance blew a raspberry. “You worry about the silliest things sometimes.”
They’d been spending most of their free time lately like this—reading up on things and trying to make preparations. Even though it was still early, they just couldn’t help themselves.
Gleaming sighed and glanced down at her stomach. “So the little tyke’s just a ball of cells right now, eh?”
“Pretty much,” said Cadance. “The first few months are mostly internal changes, hence the nausea and other junk.”
Gleaming flipped through the book a bit more before picking up another. “When d’you think I’ll, uh…” She gestured to her middle. “Start ‘showing’?”
Cadance chuckled. “Not until the fourth month or so. You’ve got time yet.”
Gleaming stretched her limbs with a small grunt. “Was pretty sure Doctor Endo had said something like that when he gave us the prenatal vitamins, but I wasn’t sure.” She glanced over at the small white medicine bag on the table. It seemed innocuous enough, but it was just another reminder of how much (and how fast) things were changing.
Cadance watched Gleaming roll her shoulders, the weak morning light shining through the eastern window. She looked like she had a golden glow around her in that moment, the streak in her mane glinting with greenish-blue highlights.
“Y’know…” Cadance said. “A part of me is kind of hoping it’ll be earlier.”
Gleaming hesitated. She looked over to see Cadance eying her with a familiar look. “Eh?”
Cadance licked her lips. She got to her hooves, slowly, innocuously. “I can’t wait to see you properly pregnant. All big and round, filled out with nice curves, teats filled with milk, your tummy growing more and more…”
Gleaming’s heart skipped a beat. A hungry gaze of her own crept into her eyes, her body fluttery and warm. “Y’don’t say...”
Cadance smirked. She put her book aside and took a few steps forward. “I was actually hoping you’d let me spoil you some these next months—let you experience some girly things. Trips to the spa for pampering, makeovers with my beauticians, maybe some maternity outfits, that kind of thing.”
Gleaming bit her lip. A part of her was shrieking alarm, but the rest was oddly thoughtful. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, after all.
“...I’ll think about it.” She met Cadance’s eyes with a small smile. “And I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you find all of this sexy. You find almost everything sexy.”
“Not everything-everything.” Cadance kissed her. “Just everything about you.”
Gleaming hummed pulled her back in. Their tongues met in a familiar dance, and Gleaming wrapped her hooves around Cadance to lean back. The two of them collapsed onto the pillows as their kisses grew more and more fevered.
Cadance ground against Gleaming with a growl. She wrapped them tight in her downy wings, their tails entwined and tugging. Tiny sparks of magic flew from their horns that glittered and glowed, and Gleaming’s hoof trailed to Cadance’s dampening slit—
Knock, knock, knock.
They broke apart in a flash. Cadance flew back to her spot and picked her book back up, Gleaming teleported to the far side of the room and grabbed a few papers from the desk.
After sharing a look filled with later promise, Cadance smoothed out her mane and turned to the door.
“Come in!”
In walked in a pegasus guard they both recognized. Her curly coat was a dull gray with a two-toned mane of black and violet, her eyes were a muted shade of green, and her piercing gaze was impassive as she looked between them.
“I interrupted something, didn’t I,” she said.
Cadance and Gleaming chuckled.
“Don’t worry about it, Rex,” Cadance said. “What do you need?”
Rex yawned and inspected her shinguard. “An emissary from Equestria just arrived. I’m pretty sure Princess Luna sent them.”
Cadance raised an eyebrow. “How d’you know they’re from Luna?”
Rex’s expression didn’t change. “Who else would send a thestral?”
Cadance blinked. She glanced over at Gleaming, who’d was already preparing to go.
“Really?” Cadance asked.
Rex nodded. “Really.”
Cadance sighed. “Then I can guess what Auntie Luna wants.”
Rex shifted her wings. “I, uh... wouldn’t keep them waiting. She’s pretty cranky as is.”
“Great.” Cadance got up and floated over her crown and regalia. “A moody batpony who’s probably up way past their bedtime. Just what I was hoping for on my Saturday.”
“I’m sure you’ll manage to find a way to placate her.” A smile tugged at Rex’s lips. “Or is the great Mi Amore Cadenza afraid of a little ol’ messenger?”
Cadance rolled her eyes. “Remind me again why we’re friends?”
“Because you liked to sneak out back in Canterlot for some late-night flying,” said Rex. “And I wasn’t very well about to let you go alone.”
“Heh.” Cadance looked off towards the window. “Good times…”
“Go tell them we’ll be down, Rex,” said Gleaming. “We just need a minute.”
Rex bowed and walked out the door.
Cadance turned to Gleaming. “You don’t have to come.”
“It’ll look better if I do,” Gleaming replied. “You know how certain ponies are with these things.”
Cadance sighed. “I wish we could just say we’ve already agreed to Auntie’s proposal. Save everypony the trouble.”
“Appearances are important, Cady,” Gleaming said. “Gotta make it official and all that.”
Cadance blew a lock of hair out of her face. “Being a Princess is such a pain sometimes.”
“I dunno…” Gleaming brushed her tail against Cadance’s leg. “I’m kinda getting used to it.”
The castle was mostly empty on weekends. Usually it’d remain sleepy and silent until Monday, but a rare visitor or event would bring about some infrequent activity. A small contingent of guards was always present for this purpose, and they were the ones who escorted the Canterlot messenger into the throne room.
The messenger was a small navy mare with leathery wings and cat-like eyes. She was clad in silvery scout armor emblazoned with a crescent moon, and the saddlebags at her sides were still peppered with flecks of snow. There were dark circles under her eyes as she yawned, tapping her hoof and flicking her fuzzy ears.
The click of a second door echoed throughout the chamber. Cadance and Gleaming walked in side by side, and Rex pointed them over to their guest.
“Welcome to the Crystal Empire!” said Cadance. “Who might you be?”
“First Lieutenant Apogee,” grunted the mare with a salute. “Forgive my curtness, but I’d rather not waste time with pleasantries. My mistress has a message she wanted delivered to you personally.”
Cadance didn’t miss a beat. “Of course. Go ahead, then.”
Apogee produced a scroll of midnight blue with an ornate seal. Her eyes were unreadable as she gave it to Cadance.
Cadance opened the scroll, Gleaming standing on her tippy-hooves to read over her shoulder.
“I see,” said Cadance after a few moments. “So Luna’s taken it upon herself to participate in her little program? I didn’t realize the situation was that dire.”
“There are less than a thousand of my kin left, Highness,” Apogee said flatly. “It’s to the point that the elders don’t want us leaving the capitol anymore. It took a royal order to get me here.”
All Cadance could do was shook her head. “Why have you all waited so long? We could’ve done something long before now.”
“The Dark Lady was gone, Princess.” Apogee was small and wiry, but the passion in her voice made her larger than life. “All these long years we’ve waited, wasting away, the light eating away at us—”
Apogee’s voice wavered. She hung her head and took a deep breath. “I don’t expect you to understand. We are guardians, Highness—sentinels, safeguards of the sleeping mind. We only fight when there’s something worthwhile to protect.”
Gleaming put Luna’s letter down to watch Apogee like a hawk.
“Everything we had… gone,” Apogee whispered. “W-We tried to keep going, b-but all that was left was fear. Fear and sadness... sadness and anger… so much anger. Equestria had become all light—the shadows were being burned away and no one cared—”
“But Luna’s back now,” Gleaming cut in. “Which means you all have a purpose again. Yes?”
Apogee raised her head. “It was like a fog lifted from our eyes. We remembered who we were, what we’re meant to do. We will serve Equestria once more under the Dark Lady, but there are so few of us left now...”
Cadance bit her lip. She and Gleaming had already heard most of this from Luna, but to hear it firsthoof from a sufferer?
No, not just a sufferer… a survivor.
“So you need help repopulating,” Cadance said. “It’ll be generations before your ponies are back to a healthy population, but with help, it’ll be considerably fewer generations.”
“Which Princess Luna is managing through a nationwide volunteer surrogate program,” Gleaming finished. “Correct?”
Apogee knelt down before them. “On behalf of the thestrals, will you speak to your citizens of the mistress’ plan? Even if it only leads to one volunteer, it’ll be worthwhile to us.”
It was all Cadance could do to not to hug Apogee. She could feel the turbulent emotions within her, but there was also a dark malaise; the dregs of a melancholy that’d once gripped her. Cadance couldn’t imagine a depression that’d make a pony lose the will to live before, but now...
“Seems the thestrals are in a bit of a jam,” Cadance said to Gleaming. “What do you think? Can we lend a helping hoof?”
Gleaming pretended to think for a moment. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt to make an announcement. Gauge the interest, at least.”
Apogee perked up. “Thank you, Your Majesties!”
“Although…” Gleaming continued.
Apogee’s smile froze.
“I’m just thinking this might be a larger project than we think,” said Gleaming. “If we get a surplus of volunteers, we’ll have to do a lot more than just an announcement. Wouldn’t be very practical to have that many doctors travelling back and forth, for one. We’ll probably need to establish a branch of the program here in the Empire.”
Apogee’s eyes widened. “B-B-Branch?”
“I mean, it’s only logical,” she went on. “According to the last census, the Crystal Empire is home to a little over two hundred thousand ponies. About sixty percent of that number are mares, and a little over half that number being the proper age to bear foals. That means we have sixty thousand possible volunteers, with say... a sixth of those already expecting or incompatible, that’s still not much of a dent. Let’s go on the low-end and say one percent of fifty thousand decides to enter the program. Even then, five thousand ponies is more than enough of a demand to require a facility.”
Apogee could hardly believe what she was hearing. “F-Five thousand… f-facility…”
“And that’d just be the first round!” Cadance chimed in. “We’ll likely have extras filter in from surrounding areas once words gets out! We could wind up with twice as many for the next wave for all we know! Maybe even three times that many! We’d definitely need an organized system and establishment then! Maybe even a whole complex!”
Apogee was reeling. She wobbled back and forth like a windchime, muttering and making strange squeak-like chirps.
“Ooh! Ooh!” Gleaming clapped her hooves. “We could add a new wing of the Crystal Empire Central Hospital! It’ll be completely dedicated to obstetrics, fertility treatments, the works! We could also go to the medical schools and let them know of the increased demand. We’re going to need a lot more doctors trained in with that many foals, after all—”
Apogee fell in a dead faint.
...Or at least, she would have. Rex caught her at the last second, then gently lifted her to begin carrying her off. Gleaming and Cadance snickered as they watched them head off to the guest rooms.
“Put her in one of the suites!” Cadance called to Rex.
Gleaming put a hoof around Cadance. “Think we overdid it?”
Cadance shook her head. “She needed that more you’ll ever know.”
“Mmm.” Gleaming rested her head on Cadance shoulder. “So Luna is pregnant, too. That’s a surprise.”
“Not as surprised as our citizens will be when we tell them about this whole deal,” said Cadance. “Think we’ll get a good number of volunteers?”
Gleaming shrugged. “It’ll depend on how we present it.”
Cadance sighed. “This is gonna be a tough sell...”
Gleaming took a deep breath, taking in the scent of Cadance’s mane. “Do… do you think it’s wrong that I’m more concerned about the wellbeing of our own foal than with the thestrals? Does… does that make me a bad pony?”
Cadance turned so she could look Gleaming in the eyes.
“No.” She leaned in and touched their horns together. “It makes you a parent.”
And at those words, all the feelings from earlier resurged in a mighty swell.
“Cady…” Gleaming kissed Cadance hard, pulling her in tight with her hooves trailing south. Cadance responded in kind, her hooves tracing circles around Gleaming’s stomach. They groped each other in the silence of the empty throne room, their gasps and grunts amplified in the vast chamber.
The broke with a gasp of air, a tendril of saliva still connecting them.
The sterile white walls of the Crystal Empire Central Hospital stared back at Gleaming. Cupboards filled with medical supplies lined the far wall, and in the corner, a complicated machine with wires and strange-looking wands was hooked up to a black screen. The unnaturally-bright lights above made her squint, but at least that made it easier to ignore the pictures of mare and fetus anatomy all around.
Gleaming stifled a yawn. She probably would’ve dozed off already if her bladder wasn’t so full. The ultrasound required her to drink a lot of water to provide a better picture, and it was exactly helping that the blasted nurse was taking her sweet time to come in.
“Damn it all...” Gleaming ran a hoof down her face. She felt jittery, almost like she’d just gotten over being sick. She took a deep breath and let it out, but it did little to quell the butterflies in her stomach. She tapped her hoof and bounced her legs up and down.
At last, the door opened with a soft squeak.
In walked a bluish-green unicorn in nurse’s scrubs. A clipboard floated in her magic as she pulled out a quill.
“Good morning, Highness!” The unicorn held out her hoof. “I’m Aqua, one of the senior nurses for obstetrics and gynecology. How’re you feeling?”
“Tired,” Gleaming mumbled. She yawned again as she shook Aqua’s hoof. “Dunno why—I got eight hours of sleep and I still wanna crash.”
Aqua giggled. “Fatigue’s pretty common in the early months. You can think of it as your body gearing up for things to come.”
“Mrghghghggh.” Gleaming sat back flat on the bed, her eyelids drooping. “Still sucks.”
Aqua examined Gleaming’s body for any obvious abnormalities, taking note of basic things like pulse and blood pressure. She jotted them down before going over to the machine by the bed. “I think this’ll be your first ultrasound with us. Is that right?”
Gleaming nodded. “Would’ve done it last week, but we had to reschedule.”
Aqua made a note of that. “So this’ll be the first time seeing your foal. You excited?”
Gleaming didn’t reply. She idly stroked her abdomen as she endured a mental whirlwind.
Aqua patted Gleaming’s shoulder. “The first child is always the scariest, but it gets easier after that. Heck, the whole thing almost becomes routine by your third!”
Gleaming’s eyes flew open. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!My third?! Hold on, there’s no way I’m going through all of this more than once!”
Aqua snickered. “If I had a bit for every time I heard that.”
Gleaming frowned at her. “I’m a stallion, Miss Aqua. You know I am! ! This isn’t something I’m going to make a habit of.”
But Aqua just smiled. “No disrespect, Princess, but my special talent is to recognize the nurturing instinct in others. It’s easy for me to see which mares will only want one foal, which ones likely conceived on accident, which ones’ll want more, things like that. And not just in mares—I can spot it in stallions, too.”
Aqua leaned a bit closer. “You have the strongest nurturing instinct I’ve ever seen. If Princess Cadance can’t carry your kids, then I’ll bet my cutie mark you’ll be doing this again.”
Gleaming felt her insides flutter. Words failed her at first, which allowed a little voice in the back of her head to point out that being a guardian had always been in her blood. She’d made a freaking career out of it.
“Yeah, well… we can’t do it again,” Gleaming finally said. “There were special circumstances that allowed us to do this at all, so… yeah. One-time thing.”
Aqua shrugged. “Maybe for genetic children. There are other ways to become a parent besides having a foal of your own.”
Gleaming’s ears twitched. “Like adoption, you mean?”
Aqua nodded. “And others. Surrogacy, in-vitro, thaumic cell manipulation, aether gene therapy, to name just a few. The foal in each of those cases wouldn’t be both yours and Princess Cadance’s, but it’d be better than nothing. Might be something to look into.”
Gleaming bit her lip. She didn’t say anything, but her lips scrunched up like she was trying to swallow something sour.
Gleaming’s voice was distant. “For the last two years or so. We’ve never given up on going that route, but our hearts haven’t really been in it. I’m sure that if we did adopt or have a surrogate we’d love the child just the same, but there’s a part of us that wants our kid to be the result of… well, us. I never would’ve considered something like this on my own, but after Cady told me it was the only way she could find…”
Aqua started up the ultrasound machine. “The situation is strange, I’ll admit. Most couples wouldn’t go so far as you two have, but the desire you mentioned—for the child to be both hers and yours—that isn’t strange at all. A lot of couples feel that way, which is why it takes such a special couple to adopt. I’m not going to pretend like I know what you should do, but I do think that you two aren’t doomed to just one child if you want more after this. You have options.”
Well, that wasn’t the greatest silver lining, but it was still better than nothing. A silence fell as Gleaming yawned again and let her eyes fall closed, her thoughts drifting.
The ultrasound machine started up without any difficulty. A lulling hum filled the room that made Gleaming even drowsier, and she nearly dozed off as Aqua picked up long, thin wand with a rounded end. She covered it with a rubber casing and slathered it with blue, goopy gel.
“Er, you DO know what an early pregnancy ultrasound entails, right?” Aqua asked.
Gleaming grunted. “Gotta stick it up in me. Can you at least warm it up with a heating spell?”
Aqua giggled. “Already did. Won’t hurt a bit, promise.”
Gleaming spread her legs and and gestured southward. “Then have at it.”
Aqua situated herself. She fiddled with a few settings on the machine, then slowly, gently, she pushed the ultrasound wand into Gleaming’s labia.
Gleaming failed to bite back a moan. The tool felt like a dildo, except it was thinner and made of a harder plastic. Her heart rate picked up as inch after inch of the wand sank into her.
“Yeah,” Aqua agreed. “It feels pretty good.”
Gleaming felt her tension melt away. She let out the breath she didn’t even know she’d been holding as she relaxed further into the bed.
“I’m about to come up to your cervix,” Aqua said after a moment. “I’ll be pressing the wand against it to try and find the foal, which may be a little uncomfortable, but it shouldn’t hurt.”
“Mmmm...” Gleaming purred like a contented kitten. “Sure thing…”
Sure enough, Gleaming felt something hard come into contact with her innermost barrier. She tensed up at first, but thankfully Aqua was gentle. Gleaming gradually got used to the strange prodding as they both watched the black screen.
“Gotcha!” Aqua said after a few moments. She pointed at a gray bean shape with a darker gray blur inside it. “There you go, Princess! There’s your baby.”
Gleaming blinked like an owl. Said ‘baby’ was nothing more than a fuzzy blob! Were the features of a pony even there yet?
Gleaming tilted her head. “Uh…”
Aqua laughed. “Not much to look at, I know. Things’ll get more interesting in the coming months.”
Gleaming simply stared. It didn’t really look like anything but at the moment, so she didn’t have any context. She thought she maybe saw a hoof? Or that could’ve been its head… or its tail… oh, who was she kidding.
“Looks healthy,” Aqua remarked. “Good size and everything. Lemme see if I can move around for a better angle..”
She moved the wand up a teeny tiny bit so she could get a different view...
Aqua gasped. “Well, would you look at that!”
“What?!” said Gleaming. “What is it? What’s wrong?!”
Aqua chuckled. “Nothing at all.” She pointed at the second bean shape she’d just found. “Although it seems that it looks like you’re gonna be having more than one after all! Congratulations! You’ve got twins!”
Gleaming’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks. The world slowed to a grinding halt as she looked at where Aqua was pointing, the second bean shapes clear as day.
“T-Twins…”
Aqua moved the wand again. “The second one is in a good spot. Not too close to the other one, not too far away. Looks like you got lucky! They both have plenty of room to grow.”
Gleaming just continued to stare, eyes glassy. Her brain was still deciding on what emotion was best suited for this news.
“Baby B looks good.” Aqua fiddled with the machine before pressing sliding the wand up a bit. “Nothing out of the ordinary that I can see. Amniotic sac’s a good size, umbilical cord’s intact… good thing you’ve been taking prenatal vitamins, though. You’d be surprised how much of a difference—”
Suddenly, an afterimage appeared behind the second foal. The bean shape became blurred and indistinct, the lines of its silhouette shifting and overlapping.
Aqua frowned. “What the...”
The shift in Aqua’s voice snapped Gleaming out of it. She jerked her head up. “Huh? What?! What the what?!”
Aqua didn’t reply. With utmost care, she tilted the wand at an angle so she could see behind the second foal.
And that’s when they saw the other two bean shapes.
“Oh,” Aqua remarked.
Gleaming’s voice was a squeak. “Th-Those are...”
Aqua clucked her tongue. She used several methods just to make sure, her lips pursed as she moved the wand back and forth.
“I’ve been a nurse for nineteen years,” Aqua said at last. “And in all that time, I’ve never seen anything beyond a triplet pregnancy. I’ll talk to Doctor Endo, but I think we’re gonna need to call in some specialists here.”
Gleaming fainted.
Later-
“FOUR?!” said Cadance.
Gleaming was back at home in their apartment. Cadance been working on paperwork all morning and afternoon, and her haggard appearance suggested she hadn’t even taken a break.
“At least four,” Gleaming floated over a manila folder for Cadance to see. “There’s only so much you can see with that kind of scan, and Aqua couldn’t count them by their heartbeats because a Greater Detect Life spell is too much for her.”
Cadance looked over the photos. Her eyes widened as she beheld the fuzzy shapes that’d been circled with a marker. The pictures fluttered to the desk as she looked up at Gleaming.
Gleaming snickered. “Looks like I’ll be showing early like you wanted, babe.”
Cadance fell back into her chair. “The ovulation spell I used… oh, dear Celestia... it really DID make you… I was just saying those things to get you riled up! I didn’t th-think it actually would—I never meant for...”
“Well, that’s what happened.” Gleaming went over to the dresser and picked up her bottle of prenatal vitamins. She took one, then pulled out a few new pill bottles and took those as well. “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?”
Cadance blanched. “Wh-What? NO! I’m just worried about you! You’re the one pregnant with four foals!”
Gleaming cocked her head. “And?”
“Oh my gooooooooooosh,” Cadance got up and began pacing back and forth, her wings fluttering. “I’ll need to make changes to the spells I was going to cast, which means I’ll need to recalculate them, and Twilight had helped me with a lot of that and I’m not sure I can do it by myself!”
“So have her come up here,” Gleaming said. “Been too long since she’s visited.”
“But that’s just the start!” said Cadance. “We need advice on what to do! We’ll need more books and reference material! We need to make sure you get the proper diet and exercise! We need specialists and increased protection on you and we need to build a bigger nursery and hire nannies and helpers and Crystallers and oh sweet Luna we’re never going to sleep again—”
“CADY.”
Cadance jumped. She looked over at Gleaming, who was sitting on her haunches with her hooves crossed.
“Here’s what I want you to do,” she said. “I want you to begin all the million things running through your head right now with this—’Because we’re having four foals, we now need to…’ just like that.”
Cadance gulped. She stammered some gibberish and twiddled her hooves.
“There’s no reason to panic,” Gleaming went on. “We have the money to pay for all the expenses. We have ponies ready and willing to help us. We even have the magic and resources to make sure this goes smoothly! There’s really no issue once you realize what we all have going for us.”
Cadance found her voice again. “B-But… you! This is so much more than you signed up for! Why aren’t you...”
Gleaming snickered. “I fainted right there on the table when the nurse found numbers three and four, if that’s a consolation.”
“But you’re so calm now! Why?”
“Because I got to thinking about how well-situated we are,” she said. “Y’know, all the resources we have at our disposal, stuff like that. And didn’t you say something about you and Twily coming up with a slew of spells to make this easier on me? Prevent nasty things like premature labor and foaling pain?”
“Well, yeah but—”
“Some of which you’ve already cast.”
“I know! That’s not the point—”
“We wanted a big family, and now we’re having one.” Gleaming took a swig of water and shrugged. “We make some adjustments, we talk to some ponies, we make some announcements, we come up with new plans, we be a little more careful overall. We’ll be holding our four kids by next summer.”
Cadance was at a loss. It sounded like all those words were right, but they weren’t coming to the conclusion Cadance was expecting. “You can’t possibly—you’re gonna be huge, you know that? You’re gonna gain a lot of weight, so much that you may not even be able to walk by full term!”
Gleaming chuckled. “Doctor Endo said he’d like to see me gain about ninety pounds. I’m supposed to start eating five full meals a day to get there. I already sent word to the kitchens.”
Cadance winced. “How can you be okay with that?”
“Because of why I’m doing it!” Gleaming came over to Cadance, then picked up her hoof and rested it on her stomach. “I was so shocked in the hospital I didn’t know what to think, but later it sunk in that I’d just seen our children. We’re already parents, Cady! We don’t have to wait for them to be born! I want our kids to be as happy and healthy as they can be, don’t you?”
“Of course!” Cadance snapped, a little harsher than she intended. “I’m just confused why you’re taking all of this in stride!”
Gleaming snorted. “I can get my figure back easily enough. This is a small price to pay for us to have more than one, don’t you think?”
Cadance tongued the inside of her mouth. She was still thrown for a loop about it all, but if Gleaming was seeing it as a good thing...
“Yeah… yeah!” Before she knew it, she was laughing and giving Gleaming a hug. “You’re right! We really are gonna be having more than one—omygoshohmygoshohmygoshwe’rehavingmorethanone! EEEEEEEEE!”
Cadance spread her wings and flew into the air. She began sailing around the room in circles while cheering loud and long.
“WE’RE HAVING MORE THAN ONNNNNNNNNNE!” she yelled.
Gleaming couldn’t help but laugh. She watched Cadance for a little while, but then her gaze inevitably drifted back downward.
The Amethyst Platform was the primary train station for the Crystal Empire. Originally a single building with barely any accommodations, the increased flow of traffic had required the station to expand. A dozen platforms now stood amongst the grassy plains outside the city, with plans in the coming year to build another four.
Cadance and Gleaming were snuggled together in a private room within the main station while munching on some snacks. They were each quietly reading a book while occasionally glancing at the clock.
Knock, knock, knock.
Cadance and Gleaming perked up. They got to their hooves with shared grins.
“Come in!” called Cadance.
Rex walked in with all her usual stoic demeanor. She was carrying a set of heavy-looking lavender suitcases and a pair of bulging saddlebags emblazoned with pink stars.
“Announcing Princess Twi—”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
A lavender blur sped into the room in a rush of fuzz and feathers. The blur leapt into Gleaming and Cadance’s arms and hugged the living daylights out of them.
“Foalsfoalsfoalsfoalsfoalsfoalsfoals!” Twilight Sparkle let out a whoop. “Yesyesyesyesyesyes!”
Gleaming and Cadance hugged her back just as tight.
“I take it you’re excited?” said Gleaming.
Twilight gasped at Gleaming’s voice. She leaned back to take a proper look at her brother-turned-sister.
“Oh… my gosh.” Twilight smiled wide. “You look like those old pictures of Gramma Starlight when she was young! You even have—what the... why is your coat so soft?!”
Cadance stifled a snort.
“Seriously!” Twilight ran her hooves along Gleaming’s withers. “Ugh, and your mane! Do you have any idea how hard I have to work to make mine like this?!”
Gleaming gave her a patient look. “Twily, I’m pregnant.”She held a lock of her mane up to the light. “Thick and healthy hair kinda comes with the package.”
Twilight blinked. “Oh, yeah… heh-heh.”
“It’s great to see you, Twilight!” Cadance gave her sister-in-law another hug. “It’s been far too long.”
Twilight nuzzled her. “I keep meaning to get some time to come up, but something comes up every time I try! There’s always an event of some kind, or I have to attend some government thing, or Equestria’s suddenly on the verge of annihilation…”
Cadance snickered. “Don’t you just hate that?”
“Really!” Twilight threw up her hooves. “Why can’t the world just stay safe for a little while? All I’m asking for is one peaceful weekend! Is that too much to ask?!”
“Absolutely not!” Gleaming’s voice was stern. “You must be on guard and watch over Equestria twenty-four seven! CONSTANT VIGILANCE!”
Twilight smirked. “Of course, Princess. I’ll develop a spell immediately to monitor every pony in Equestria at all times! No villain shall escape my sight!”
Gleaming smirked as well. “It’s the only way Equestria will be made safe! It must be done… for the greater good!”
“The greater goooooood!” Twilight waved her hooves back and forth in the air.
“Ooooooh!” Cadance raised her hooves like a zombie.
Rex resisted the urge to facehoof while her three superiors made funny faces at each other. “Royalty…”
“But anyway!” said Twilight. “It shouldn’t take more than a few hours to get the spellwork done, so we’ll have the whole weekend to talk about future stuff! It’s gonna be so great—I have all sorts of ideas to modify the spells for a multiple pregnancy!”
Her suitcases floated over at her command. They snapped open with a sound like rushing wind, and dozens upon dozens of thick spellbooks poured out like a waterfall of literature. Soon they were in the eye of a gently-spinning cyclone of books.
“Uh… Twilight?” Cadance said, eyeing the revolving tomes.
“I couldn’t decide which books to bring when you told me the news, so I just decided to bring every book on reproduction and anatomy I could find!” Twilight said in a rush. “And of course I brought the spellbooks to augment the spells we’ve already cast, but then I got to thinking there might be some other spells we might think of when we start so I brought my whole arcana section! And then of course I had to have some reading material for the trip, so I brought the first ten books of the Daring Do saga, but then I wanted to read the Ahuizotl Chronicles so I figured—”
“Twily.”
Twilight turned to Gleaming. “Hmm?”
Gleaming gestured to the inter-spatial tear in reality floating within both suitcases. “A pocket dimension? Really?”
Twilight was undeterred. “Why not? I have all these books marked with spell tags, so I can have them unshelved and reshelved in seconds! Took me fifteen minutes to pack all this!”
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “We have libraries here too, y’now.”
Twilight stared at her. “Your libraries don’t have a copy of The Asclepius Journals. Your libraries don’t have the genealogy of our family going back ten generations, Professor Helix’s thesis on biological transmogrification, or a manuscript of Starswirl the Bearded’s notes on alicorn anatomy—oh, speaking of which, have you considered the possibility that one of your foals might be an alicorn? If they are, we’ll need to give you a magic infusion of magic so that their magical fonts will develop properly. Do your libraries have any information about that, Smarty Pants?”
Gleaming opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She thought about saying quite a few things, but instead she looked to Cadance.
“Thanks for covering our bases, Twilight.” Cadance smiled. “Especially with bringing all those rare books! I suppose it makes sense that you’d just grab a bunch of stuff in bulk with you coming up on short notice.”
Twilight beamed. “I’m glad somepony understands my thought process.”
“Your ‘thought process’ can make you over-prepare and freak out over nothing,” said Gleaming. “Remember when you were seven and got electrocuted?”
“One time!” Twilight snapped. “One! Freaking! Time! And it wasn’t even that bad! The burns didn’t even leave marks or scars!”
“Can’t say the same for the floor,” Gleaming grumbled. “Or the wall… the door… the ceiling... the tree outside your window…”
“Ugh, if it’s not Mom reminding me of that one, it’s you.” Twilight’s horn flared again, and all the books flew back into her suitcase at blinding speed. “I have one little chain reaction of opposing spell wards, and it’s a holiday dinner topic for the next fifteen years.”
She floated the suitcases back over to Rex, who wisely took them without comment.
“But let’s focus on what’s important!” Twilight said, rubbing her hooves together. “Come, my pink apprentice, and you as well, my precious pretty specimen.” She spread her wings with an odd gleam in her eye. “Let us be off… to the Secret Lab!”
Twilight cackled and cantered out the door.
Gleaming and Cadance shook their heads as they watched her leave.
“Our children have those genes,” Gleaming muttered.
The mention of genes gave Cadance a sudden thought. “Your fire thing’s hereditary, right? The element affinity you, Twilight, and your mom have?”
Gleaming blinked several times. “Uh… yeah. Think Mom told us the chance of it being passed on is fifty-fifty.”
Cadance bit her lip. “So, empowered fire wards on the whole castle, is what I’m hearing.”
Gleaming snorted. “We can just put ‘em on the kids’ jammies. But you still might be relying on alicorn resilience if one of them has a tantrum.”
Cadance groaned.
“I said stop fidgeting, Shiny!” Twilight scowled from behind the trio of floating spellbooks in her grasp. “We’ll have to start over if you keep this up!”
The three of them were in one of the alchemical laboratories adjacent to the Crystal Athenaeum. It originally was the one Twilight liked to use whenever she visited, but seeing as nopony else ever used it (and there were twelve others in the castle) Cadance and Gleaming decided to restrict its use so Twilight could leave things there. Twilight had actually taken to this idea with gusto, so much that she’d requested that they move in a bed and other furniture so she could have her own personal guest room.
Add a few spells to prevent somepony from stumbling in on accident, and you suddenly had something that could very well be called a secret lab.
The room was lit by warm crystal chandeliers that glinted with blueish-white light. The walls were lined with bookshelves filled with ancient grimoires and modern day textbooks, and tables with various alchemical instruments were neatly set up and organized in alphabetical order. The Crystal Mirror was off in one corner, dormant and plain-looking, and Twilight’s personal effects were up in a cozy loft above.
Gleaming was standing (again) in the center of a magical array with complex magical symbols. However this once was different in both shape, design, and intent. Twilight’s magenta glow was emanating from Gleaming’s entire body, and while this was expected...
Art by Cosmonaut
“I’d like to see you try this,” Gleaming grumbled through clenched teeth. “Do you have any idea how much this itches?! It feels like ants are crawling around my insides!”
“Good! That means it’s working,” said Twilight. Her horn flared bright as she muttered another part of the spell. “It’s either a little bit of itching, or you suffer through some, very, very unpleasant things down the road. Take your pick.”
“Urghghghgghhh…” Gleaming ground her teeth as the tingling intensified. “Cady, distract me. Remind me of all the spells we’re using, or something.”
Cadance, who’d been poring over a scroll that stretched all the way down to the floor, looked up and cleared her throat. “The first that we’re doing right now is a modified version of the Irongut spell. It’s mostly to help with the nausea and heartburn right now, but it’s also going to strengthen your bladder, cervix, intestines, and other internal organs. Twilight’s also making it so it helps with oxygenation and circulation, so you shouldn’t have problems with cramps or swelling or compressed nerves.”
Well, that certainly explained the maddening itching, but it didn’t exactly make it any easier to endure. A part of Gleaming knew she’d appreciate all of it down the line, but right now, the magic just made her want to squirm.
“What else?” she asked.
Cadance hummed and went down the scroll. “Next is a big one—a combination of four spells Twilight found in the Aesclepius Journals, all entwined into one matrix. The names of the spells are Old Equuish, but their literal translations are ‘body, to heal,’ ‘body, to stretch,’ ‘body, to refine’, and ‘body, to enforce.’”
“We’re basically trying to make your skin and squishy parts stronger and healthier while letting also them shift as your uterus gets larger,” said Twilight. “You can kinda think of it as we’re modifying your anatomy so that it’s better suited for gestation.”
Gleaming frowned. “Four spells in one matrix? Crying out loud, Twily. If it was anypony but you trying to trying to cast something like that, I’d call them off their rocker! Those spells must be pretty potent if you’re trying to combine them like this.”
Cadance nodded. “The Asclepius Journals is one of the oldest and most powerful spellbooks in Equestria.Aunt Celestia gave us permission to use it when we told her what we’re trying to do, but she insisted we be very careful. The Ovulation spell came out of there, too.”
Hmph. Careful, indeed. “Anything else?”
Cadance moved to the bottom of the page. “There’s one other spell we were going to ask your opinion on. You’ve been eating five meals a day all this week, but I’ve noticed you’ve been having trouble getting through them. It’s a lot to eat, isn’t it?”
Gleaming made a face. She had a caloric minimum she had to meet every day, and it couldn’t be just any old food because there were nutrition needs to consider. It translated to eating a full-course meal every few hours, and while it was all really tasty…
“Doctor Endo recommended an Appetite spell to deal with the discomfort,” said Cadance. “And Twilight’s found one that’ll synergize with the other magic we’re doing, so it shouldn’t cause any serious side effects. What do you think?”
Gleaming didn’t even need to think. “I’d rather be hungry all the time than feel like I’m about to explode.”
Cadance set down the scroll and floated over a small tome with a bookmark. She opened it to the page and began to softly chant under her breath.
“Yesssss, gooooood,” Twilight murmured. “Excellent, my pink apprentice—your skill is improving greatly! Cast that while I finish these incantations, and remember to weave the manathreads into her stomach lining...”
Cadance adopted a raspy voice, hunching over slightly. “Yes, Masterrrrr, thank you, Masterrrrrr. Soon all will fall into place, yes… our specimen shall be readyyyyy...”
Gleaming sighed. She decided right then and there that next time they decided to play Mad Scientist, one of them would be the experiment. “Are you sure everything’s gonna be okay? This kinda seems like a lot, even for you.”
At this, Twilight stopped casting. She looked over at Cadance a moment, then turned to Gleaming with a calm look.
“I think that’s best answered by showing you something.”
Gleaming hesitated. “Uh… okay?”
Without warning, Twilight’s body shimmered. The ambient energy in the room spiked as a wave of harmonious energy emanating out from Twilight’s very core. Her hooves glinted with sigils, the tips of her wings shifted colors, and a streak of yellow appeared in her mane and tail to give it four tones instead of three.
“The power of the Elements was changed in the battle with Tirek.” Twilight’s voice was louder, her eyes dancing with light. “And the way my friends wield it was changed as well. We call this ‘Rainbow Power’, and while we can activate it at any time, a portion of it leaks through no matter what.”
Goosebumps ran all along Gleaming’s body. Pulses of energy passed through her like a refreshing wave, and she couldn’t help but stare as she sensed her sister’s magic, the sheer power difference... She’d heard reports of the fight with Tirek (as well as the sudden castle in Ponyville shortly after), but she hadn’t heard anything about THIS.
Twilight quelled her magic and returned to normal. “I tested everything threefold on the way here. You’re right that I wouldn’t have been comfortable doing something like this alone before, but now, well… let’s just say my confidence is at an all-time high. You’re in good hooves right now, Shiny.”
Cadance gave her a pointed look. “So long as you stop complaining and stay still so the superpowered alicorn can cast her mega-spell.”
Gleaming gulped. “Shutting up now.”
It took the greater part of three hours for Twilight and Cadance to finish the spells. Gleaming had managed to stand completely still the entire time, but the effort was a test of willpower that she’d rather not endure again. Fortunately though, the three of them were now breaking for lunch in one of the private dining rooms.
“Oh, thank Celestia,” Gleaming said. Their food had just been served to them on a series of steaming silver platters, and the sheer smell alone was enough to make her drool. She snatched three of the trays and hovered them over to her plate—one had some kind of casserole, the second was wild rice and cooked spinach, and the third was mostly chilled fruits. She took ample portions of all and began eagerly chowing down.
“Appetite spell working?” Cadance asked.
Gleaming mumbled an affirmative through her mouthful. Without even looking up, she magicked over a fourth platter to load up a second plate with nuts and cheeses.
Twilight smiled. “With that and the other spells, it should be much easier for you to eat for five now.”
Gleaming wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Thinksh sho?”
Twilight shrugged and nibbled on some raisins. “For eight or nine months, at least. There’s a few extra things we were planning on doing once you’re closer to your due date, but nothing major.”
“Like what?” Cadance asked.
Twilight examined her spoon as it revolved in her magic. “Some things to ease the discomfort of foaling, but that shouldn’t affect your appetite any. Although I was thinking we’d use a Lactation spell so you’ll produce extra milk, and that will affect it.”
Gleaming cringed. “Y-Yeah… we thought of that a few weeks back. We’re thinking we’ll use enchanted bottles to save as much as we can once my body, uh… kicks into gear.”
Twilight hummed. “And you’ll need to be eating even more once it does. I still need to do a bit more research, but there are variations of the Lactation spell depending on what’ll work best. We can decide which one to use once we get closer to that time.”
Gleaming resumed her eating. “I supposhe we can jusht use formula if we run out.”
“What about the magic infusions you mentioned?” Cadance asked Twilight. “You said something about that if one of the foals is an alicorn. How soon will we be able to tell?”
Twilight thought for a moment. “I’m pretty sure species development and identification of crossbreed offspring is done at twenty weeks. We won’t need to do anything until then, but as soon as you find out, you need to let me know, okay?”
Cadance cocked her head. “Any particular reason why? Aside from the obvious, I mean.”
“Because it’ll require additional safety precautions like those magic infusions.” Twilight took a deep breath. “Annnnnd if it gets that complex, I’m thinking I’ll need to be up here for at least a year.”
Silence.
Cadance heart skipped a beat. “A… year?”
“What are you saying, Twily?” said Gleaming.
Twilight gave them both a level stare. “Naturally-born alicorns are uncharted territory. The only documentation on it is from Starswirl the Bearded’s manuscripts, and even that isn’t much. Cadance can do the alicorn magic infusions, but what if more’s needed? What if you have more than one alicorn and it gets to be too much? I know I’m being a worrywart here, but I’d honestly feel a lot better if I was close by just in case—”
“So would we!” Gleaming burst out. “Yes! Stay! We’d love to have you!”
“Yes!” Cadance said just as loud. “You’d be so much help! An extra set of hooves alone would be great!”
Twilight blushed. “I-I don’t want you to think I just want to for science or anything—”
“Of course not!” Gleaming said. “You just want to help out!”
“You’re always welcome to stay!” said Cadance.
Twilight smiled. “Thank you. I promise, I’ll do everything I can to make sure everyone is safe through all this. Never fear, Auntie Twilight is on the case!”
“But what about your duties as Princess?” Gleaming asked. “I hate to say it, but you can’t just drop everything to come up here. You have responsibilities.”
Twilight made a very unladylike grunt. “I’ll think of something. I’ll need to look through the old bylaws, but I’m sure there’s something that’ll let me come up here.”
Cadance winked. “You’re good at figuring out problems like this.”
Twilight’s gaze fell to the floor. “I guess...”
“Oh, don’t pretend like you won’t enjoy the challenge.” Gleaming polished off her second plate and dove into her third. “You’re not happy unless you’re solving a problem that’d make most ponies pull out their manes.”
Twilight snorted. “Guess I’m preventing premature baldness in the pony population, then. I’d seriously love to see the analytics of that if it was a thing.”
Gleaming smirked. “You would.”
“I really would!” said Twilight. “We could make a side-by-side comparison of the before and after, the effects on the pharmaceutical market, the economy as a whole, maybe even—”
Twilight realized Cadance and Gleaming were looking at her with identical grins.
“Uh…” Twilight looked back and forth between them. “What?”
Gleaming laughed softly. “Never change, Twily. Never change.”
Entertaining guests—not too unusual for a Princess of the Crystal Empire. For at least an hour every day, ponies of all kinds were invited to sit, chat, and schmooze with one of the Crystal Princesses themselves. How better to strengthen the bond between subjects and royalty? Cadance had originally been in charge of handling the age-old tradition, but seeing as there were now two Princesses, the job had been split down the middle. Now, instead of a Princess with years of experience in the art of social grace, visiting ponies had a chance to sit with Gleaming Shield, her Crystal Highness. At your service.
“Great. Just great,” Gleaming grumbled as she walked down the halls. She’d grown to love her new duty over the last few months, but her old Canterlot friends had dropped by to visit today. Of course, any other time she’d be delighted to see them…
...but right now, she had sex on the brain.
It didn’t help that Cadance’s schedule had forced them to skip their morning quickie. Nor that Gleaming’s thighs had started to rub together as she walked, teasing her marehood with the ever-so-slightest of brushes. A consequence of her expanding hips now that her pregnancy was progressing in earnest.
“Fantastic,” Gleaming muttered. “Just fucking fantastic. Of course I get slammed with hormones today of all days! Of all the worst possible times…”
At least she wasn’t showing yet. She’d definitely been filling out though, gaining about a little over a pound a week, and it was starting to make her look… curvy. The firm muscle had given way to a more feminine shape, and she’d noticed she’d been turning more than a few heads as of late. Most notably Eros’ head, and the last few weeks had been a test of stamina for them both as a result.
She stormed down the castle hallways in a huff. She tried her best to avoid the tingling in her crotch, the cloudy haze in her mind… how she could smell every single damn stallion she walked past. It was taking everything Gleaming had left to not jump one of them; heck, maybe all of them could take turns. Step right up! Form a line to fuck the Princess, no questions asked!
A particularly nasty surge made Gleaming wince. She didn’t know why she was so blasted horny, but it only seemed to get worse as she made her way down to the guest rooms. Her nostrils were flaring, tail flicking from side to side, and anything even vaguely phallic-shaped was so very tempting. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep it together at this rate.
Gleaming stopped when she got to the right door. What were the guys going to say when they saw her? They knew of course what’d happened to good ol’ Shining Armor, but turning into a mare was only half the story, wasn’t it? None of them could possibly know about all the hormonal rushes, or the contagious sex drive of the constantly-horny Alicorn of Love. She’d just gotten accustomed to ponies not staring at her; now she was gonna have to do it all over again.
Gleaming sighed. “Here goes.”
She cracked the door enough to air the room out…
...and was nearly bowled over by testosterone. Thick, hot, and musky, it was the natural result of cramming a bunch of stallions into an enclosed space. Gleaming would’ve hardly noticed were she still a guy herself, but now…
Welp, too late to back out now. Hard mode: engage.
Gleaming opened the door fully with a forced grin. “Guys! Great to see you!”
Her three friends, Cloud Runner, Celsius, and Bastion. They were all seated around a long table wearing forced grins of their own. Their eyes widened upon taking in her features, but at least they tried not to stare.
Celsius was the first to speak. “Hot DAYUM!” He wolf whistled. “You stark-crazy bastard! You actually went and did it!
Cloud Runner took in Gleaming’s appearance with a critical eye. “Solid eight-point-five... nah, I’ll give you a nine... Maybe even higher, actually...”
Bastion’s waggling eyebrows spoke volumes. He nodded to the pulled out chair next to him.
Gleaming bit her lip. She hadn’t realized there was a bar in this room. On the bar counter were a couple open bottles of spirits, along with a few half-full glasses on the table…
“Jerks,” Gleaming said, smirking. “You know full well I can’t drink right now! Way to rub it in”
Celsius held up a hoof. “Now, now, don’t get your panties in a twist. We got ya something special to make up for it.”
At this, Cloud Runner pulled out a sturdy-looking scarlet bottle with an old-timey logo. He held it up so Gleaming could see.
“Ring any bells?” he asked.
Gleaming gasped. She floated the bottle over in her magic.
“This is…”
“Sweet Apple Acres Special Reserve,” Celsius said, nodding. “Non-alcoholic, mind. Called in a few favors to get it.”
“It tastes like liquid heaven,” Cloud Runner said dreamily.
“You say that about everything that isn’t piss water,” Bastion droned.
“It’s true!” Cloud Runner pointed at the bottle. “That stuff is smooth as hell!”
Gleaming opened the bottle and sniffed. The bottle was heated with a simple spell, and the liquid inside was deliciously hot. The dry, steamy smell of crisp apples reminded her of college nights filled with laughter and discovery.
Gleaming summoned herself a glass and sat down in the open seat. She took a long drink from the cider, the delicious warmth cascading down her throat. “Mmm, just like the old days.”
Her friends smiled. The air was still a bit tense, but at least it wasn’t as thick as the smell of stallion. It hadn’t been that long since Gleaming’s seen these three last, but it was the first time she’d seen them since becoming a mare…
...and if she didn’t know better, the redness in her friend’s faces wasn’t just from a buzz.
“So how’ve you all been?” Gleaming asked. “Guard duty as dull as ever?”
“Yup,” said Cloud Runner. “Just stand around and look pretty like always.”
“Drills, duty, and deskwork,” Bastion said. “The three D’s.”
Gleaming noted that she was far more interested in another kind of D at the moment, but she kept that to herself.
“Suppose it could be worse.” Celsius took a pull of his drink and grimaced. “Could be fighting for our lives in some foxhole against some Celestia-forsaken abomination. How about you, though? Enjoying your adventures in the frozen north?”
Gleaming barely even registered the question. Every new breath made her head foggier, and it seemed like the air was getting thicker... hotter. She had her front hooves folded so they wouldn’t stray down below the table, but it didn’t keep her from fidgeting in her seat…
“Huh?” Gleaming jerked up her head. “O-Oh, adventures! Not really much to report, heh… just legislation crap and training new recruits! Nothing exciting at all.”
Another awkward silence, one Gleaming didn’t like at all. If this were only a few months ago, they’d be laughing it up and having the time of their lives. Now they were all silent as the grave.
And if Gleaming didn’t keep her mind occupied…
Cloud Runner, lean and muscled, strong, wide wings and a clipped-short mane. Celsius, positively svelte, with a well-groomed appearance and an expertly-filed horn. And Bastion, so… BIG. Everything about him, his body, his limbs, his eyes, all of it seemed larger than life. I’ve seen him excited a few times in the showers too, I know what he’s packing in that stuffed sheath—
“Mind if I open a window?!” she blurted out.
Gleaming all but sprinted to the wall before any of them could reply, lifting up the glass to breathe deep the pheromone-free air. The cool breeze was enough to jolt her from her deviant thoughts...
But perhaps it worked a little too well.
“Ahhhh...” Gleaming crouched and stretched out her back, cringing as she was reminded how stiff sitting on the throne left her. There was a series of pops as she arched her back and lifted her tail—
Thump!
Gleaming spun. She caught a glimpse of Bastion blushing as he looked away, wincing. He took a hearty pull from his drink and stared at a spot on the far wall, his legs awkwardly crossed.
What in the world? That noise had sounded like he’d made it, but also had come from beneath...
Gleaming looked at her other two friends. They too were blushing, their faces twisted like they’d been gutpunched. They adjusted themselves in their chairs—a subtle move, yet one she knew all too well.
Oh, no fucking way. They didn’t actually...
Gleaming sized up the three horny stallions. The smart move was to leave right now and pretend this had never happened, but no one moved an inch. Never in her life had she ever considered any of them as anything more than friends, but well… things were different right now, weren’t they? Of course anything beyond playful banter would have to be cleared with Cadance, but if she and everypony else was willing...
“So.” Gleaming closed the window shut, walking back to the table with a sashay in her step. “You guys came all the way up here to hang out with me like old times. Pretty considerate of you.”
A trio of half-hearted grunts. None of them dared look directly at her.
“Gotta admit, it’s been lonely without any of you.” Gleaming walked behind Celsius, brushing her luscious flank against his back. “Normally Cady and I usually just hang out by ourselves, but every so often, we feel adventurous and host a get together. We’ve always wondered what it’d be like to have one with ponies we’ve known a long time...”
Suddenly, all eyes were back on her, now wide as dinner plates.
Gleaming moved around the table to Cloud Runner with more strut in her step. “You really do know how to treat a girl. Not only do you come all the way up here to see me, but you surprise me by getting me something super thoughtful and nice? What did I do to deserve you guys?”
She flicked her tail right under Cloud Runner’s snout as she passed. He inhaled deep, his head following as she walked past, his gaze drifting down to her glistening slit.
“Nnnggh…” she heard under his breath.
“Tell you what,” she said, now heading towards Bastion. “What say we do something special to mark the occasion, hmm?” She moved past his personal space until their faces were only inches apart. “How about the four of us all settle in and have some… fun?”
Bastion’s mouth went dry. “Sh-Sh-Shining…”
Sun and moon, it couldn’t really be this easy. Gleaming knew the power a mare could hold over a riled-up guy ever since she’d met Cadance, but this?
The thought made her made her even wetter.
“A board game!” She leaned back and acted like she’d said the most normal thing in the world. “How about our old mainstay, Monopony?”
They all needed a second to snap to.
“R-Right!” Cloud Runner nodded. “Sure thing, babe—SHINING! I’ve been... been p-practicing my skills! Yeah! Beat the others every weekend since you left. I’m practically the new champ!”
“My ass!” Celsius pounded a hoof on the table. “You cheat every damn time! Bastion knows I’m better than you are! Tell ‘em, Bas!”
Bastion was too preoccupied with keeping his dick from bursting through the table to reply at the moment.
“Then Monopony it is,” Gleaming purred. She sat back at the table and wiggled into her cushion, the added friction sending a delicious jolt up her spine. She unboxed the game with a light of her horn and set up the board. “Hope you boys are ready to lose.”
Celsius narrowed his eyes. “Bring it on, mare-boy.”
Cloud Runner leaned forward, wings fully flared and twitching. “Careful not to start what you can’t finish.”
Bastion’s eyes were alight and sparkling. “You’re going down.”
“We’ll see.” Gleaming lazily held up the dice in her magic. “Since this is a special occasion, let’s make this more... interesting. If you all lose, you’ll have to agree to a little proposition of mine. I won’t say what it is, but if you think real hard, you’ll come to the answer. Who knows, it might even thrust itself upon you as we fill the Monopony properties.”
Her friends were quiet, but the hunger in their faces spoke volumes.
Gleaming smiled. “Who goes first?”
She’d play banker, of course. She always did when they played. The money was apportioned, the pieces were chosen, the turn order was decided. Game start.
It was the usual sort of game. Dice were rolled, pieces moved, property bought. Gleaming went through the motions, but her mind was hardly on Monopony. She took the time to fantasize while the others took their turns, thinking how nice it’d feel to be stuffed with her friends’ nice, long cocks. She could almost imagine their heavy balls slapping against her, churning and swelling with warm seed...
It was inevitable her hoof drifted southward. It was the barest substitute for what she wanted, but it’d do for now. She idly wondered how the three of them would compare to Eros, if at all. Probably not very well one at a time, but all three of them together…
A moan escaped her before she could stop it.
The three of them smirked. They could see what she was up to, where her hoof was going between turns. They’d taken little time to do the exact same thing, of course. The bank notes had taken on a slick sheen from their fluids, their soaked, sticky hooves matted and stained dark.
On and on the game went, the four of them taking quick, teasing strokes between turns. Gleaming knew she was going to need to properly tend to herself eventually, but she also knew she could last longer than them. She could tell their self-control was fraying, their faces getting more flushed. The heavy air was filled with the scent of need, and everything was hot and humid, the four of them sweaty and damp.
“Oops!” Gleaming ‘accidentally’ dropped the dice under the table.
It was so quiet you could’ve heard a pin drop.
“Don’t worry! I’ll get them!” Gleaming ducked under, giving her rear a shake as it shot up in the air. She heard small groans in time with her tail swishing back and forth—music to her ears. She gazed hungrily at her friends’ throbbing hard-ons under the table, each of them dripping as much as she was.
“There we go!” Gleaming surfaced and hoofed the dice over to Celsius. “And here you are. Your roll.”
Celsius took the dice and stared at the gauntlet of Gleaming’s properties ahead. Yellow, green, and blue: the colors of certain doom. It’d take a miracle to get him through.
Celsius gulped. “Luck be a lady tonight…”
He threw the dice.
“NO!” His piece fell square on Gleaming’s hotel at Canterlot Gardens. “That… th-that bankrupts me!”
Gleaming giggled. “Sure does. Pay up.”
Sheepishly, Celsius counted up what was left of his money. He didn’t have near enough though, so he was essentially packing up to be out of the game.
“Sure you got these from a reputable bank?” Gleaming took his money inh her magic and gave them a deep sniff. “Seems like dirty money to me.”
Oh, yes. Just the right kind of dirty. Gleaming added the money to her own with a perfect poker face and winked at him. “I’ll take this for now, big boy, but I’m afraid you still owe me more.”
“Hmm, so you are.” She shot him a positively smoldering look. “Guess you’ll just have to pay me back some other way.”
Celsius’ eyes went to the size of dinner plates. Gleaming wondered how much blood his brain was getting. It probably wasn’t much—she could almost hear his pre hitting the table.
The others fell in short order, first Cloud Runner, then Bastion. Both of them were handicapped by a hoof on their dicks, but it’s not like they were really trying. She took their money first, then made similar insinuations about how they’d make up the remaining debt.
By the end of the game, all they owed her a lot more than Monopony money.
“Well, boys,” she said, clearing off the table and placing the game—sticky money and all—back in its box. “Looks like luck was a lady after all. It’s been fun playing with you, but I’m afraid I’ve gotta get going. Still got duties of my own, you know.”
Each of them nodded dumbly.
“See you tonight then?” Bastion asked.
“Mmhmm.” Gleaming trotted to the door (cider bottle in tow) and glanced back at them, her tail parted just so to give them one final view of her marehood. “Be sure to drop by my room this evening so we can get those debts repaid… in full.”
Then she left them to deal with their boners.
Cadance was sitting at her desk going over the latest stack of petitions and other legislative procedures. This was the part of her job she enjoyed the least, and while she hated how tedious it was, at least she’d managed to make a dent in the workload. She really wished she could just sign it all mindlessly without thought sometimes.
She put her quill down a moment and yawned. Her thoughts drifted to Gleaming, wondering what she and and her Canterlot friends were up to. Cadance would’ve also liked to have spent some time with them, but it just wasn’t in the cards today. Although, maybe when she got all this done—
BANG!
The doors flew open. Standing there with a glowing horn was Gleaming—mane frazzled, eyes unfocused, back legs soaked. She locked eyes with Cadance and growled.
“Honey?!” Cadance leapt to her hooves. “What’s wro—NNNNNNNNNNG!”
She was suddenly sailing forward like a hoofball. Her features became distorted as she flew: her limbs lengthening, her frame widening, mane shortening, voice deepening...
Eros landed at Gleaming’s hooves in a daze. Like a feral lioness, she pounced on him with a growl and teleported them to the bedroom.
Bastion, Celsius, and Cloud Runner walked unsteadily up the ornate stairs leading to the castle apartments. They were being escorted by Rex, whose stoic visage remained constant regardless of whatever questions were asked. They’d quickly realized their questions were falling on deaf ears and simply followed in silence. Their gazes wandering at the paintings of forests and lakes on the walls.
There hadn’t been much chat after Gleaming had left, anyways. After all excusing themselves for some “alone time”, they’d reconvened at a bar outside the castle for more drinking. They’d stayed there until Rex had come and got them a few hours later, so needless to say, they weren’t exactly sober. They were barely even paying attention when Rex stopped them in front of a set of double doors emblazoned with a picture of the Crystal Heart, opening them and ushering them inside.
Cadance and Gleaming’s apartment was more spartan than one might expect of royalty. All the usual furnishings and trappings were there, but there was little outside of what might see in a typical middle class home. There were a few things around that the guys recognized as Shining’s—a worn bookshelf laden with Ogres and Oubliettes books, a giant, fluffy rug with his House’s insignia, a cushy beanbag chair, some scuffed up end tables. Cadance’s touch was apparent as well—little knick-knacks of the Crystal Empire here and there, a music stand with choir sheet music, paintings of landscapes on the walls, as well as a few framed pictures of her village hometown.
Rex led the trio inside, seated them on the couch, then promptly left without a word.
They exchanged looks. They trusted Shining Armor, but they weren’t quite sure what to make of Gleaming Shield. They didn’t normally get reduced to blithering dolts at the sight of a mare with a pretty face, but this wasn’t any old mare, was it? Bastion reclined a bit on the couch and settled in, his eyelids drooping. Celsius pulled a small flask out from his saddlebag and took a pull, grimacing as he wandered over to the balcony door to admire the city below. Cloud Runner stretched his wings and decided to take to the air, his flight pattern erratic, but steady.
Their suspicions were starting to rise after a few minutes when the bedroom door opened with a soft click.
A sultry melody floated out that was accompanied by the sweet scent of the cider. A different kind of buzz immediately went off in the three friends’ minds, one that called to them like a summons.
Bastion, Celsius, and Cloud Runner grinned. That buzz was a spell they used to find each other back in the old days. Now knowing where their friend was, they all rose to walk over and enter the yawning darkness beyond.
The bedroom was lit by hovering specks of dim magical light. Said specks gently floated about on gentle breeze, warm as the autumn sun and crisp as the morning. The trio weren’t able to see much at first, but as their eyes adjusted, they were able to discern two figures lying side by side atop an enormous bed.
It was Cadance and Gleaming, both wearing matching red silk lingerie, complete with tight-fitting socks that emphasized their flanks.
“Hello, boys,” they said together.
Three jaws dropped, and three dicks unsheathed.
“It’s certainly been awhile,” said Cadance. She stretched into an exaggerated pose, then got up to approach the stallions from the left. “Gleamy’s not the only one who’s missed you, you know. I don’t think I’ve seen you three since the wedding!”
“I told Cady about our little game earlier,” Gleaming said. She got up as well, tail swishing lazily as she approached the boys from the right. “I figured she should share in the victory spoils. You all don’t mind, do you?”
Bastion’s heart was thudded in his chest. “B-Both of you?”
“Hehe.” Cadance nuzzled Bastion, taking in his subtle, earthy scent. “I know I don’t. So considerate of you, Love.”
Gleaming beckoned Celsius with a smoldering look. “We can’t very well leave Cady out, can we? We can do whatever setup you like… with one stipulation: none of you can stop until she and I are satisfied.”
Celsius slowly approached Gleaming. He was panting, his shaft fully out and ready to go, legs tensed and ready to spring. “And if we want to keep going after that?”
Gleaming didn’t reply. She simply smirked, not betraying the inferno simmering just beneath.
“Confident.” Celsius took another step forward. “Sure about that?”
Gleaming licked her lips. “Why don’t you find out?”
Celsius’ horn flared to life. “Magic fair game?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
Celsius grinned. He muttered a few soft syllables, an aura of azure magic enshrouding him that vanished not two seconds later. Gleaming was left not knowing, but the others saw the magic funnel into his balls, swelling up to the size of grapefruits...
Celsius snorted like a mustang. “Game on.”
Then he tackled Gleaming in a feathery blur, so fast and strong that he pinned them both back against the wall. He pushed his mouth to hers and forced his tongue into her mouth to explore every inch of her with wild abandon. Gleaming squeaked, but said squeak immediately became a growl as she kissed him back. She could feel his hot, long shaft pulsing between them, his pre quickly seeping into her panties to soak both their coats.
“Hey!” Cloud Runner shouted. “No fair! I wanted Shining first!”
Their only reply was their passionate moans. Celsius licked and sucked on Gleaming’s neck, his hooves feverously running up and down her voluptuous form. He felt her slightly-rounded belly and nickered, and Gleaming hugged him tight and raised her head to give him better access. She started grinding herself up and down along his length, her damp marehood now visible through her garment.
Cloud Runner folded his arms and pouted. “Guess I’m gonna have to wait my turn.” He looked over at Cadance and Bastion. “Mind if I join you guys?”
Cadance’s reply was to toss her panties right into his face.
“Only if you promise to put that silver tongue of yours to good use,” he heard her say.
Cloud Runner inhaled deep. “Yes, ma’am.” His eyes took on a hungry gaze as the panties peeled off his face, his vision zoning in on her cunny.
While Cloud Runner moved behind her, Cadance turned back to Bastion’s still-dumbstruck face. “I think it’s finally time to come clean. I know that you used to have a crush on me back in in the Academy.”
Bastion’s eyes regained their focus. “Wh-What?! You—ah, damn it all... Shining told you.”
Cadance rolled her eyes. “I’m the Princess of Love, Bas. I just didn’t say anything because I was afraid you’d get embarrassed. Not everyone likes hanging around an empath.”
Bastion’s gaze fell, a heavy blush in his cheeks. “S-So, I-I’m guessing that means you could tell, then? That it was just puppy love?”
Cadance’s eyes were kind as she brushed his mane out of the way. “We still could’ve had some fun, you know. I wouldn’t have said no if you’d asked.”
Bastion blinked. “…What?”
Cadance nuzzled him again. “What do say that from now on, we say that we’re friends… with benefits?”
And at last the dam broke. Bastion nuzzled her back, but it swiftly became pecks that trailed up her neck. He peppered her with kisses until their lips touched at last, and Cadance hummed and wrapped her hooves around him. They growled and pushed into each other, a decade’s worth of tension bursting forth at once. Their mouths locked in a fierce dance, their tongues dancing and sliding against each other with soft sounds of desire.
Meanwhile, Cloud Runner gazed eagerly at the object of his own desire. He’d had his own fantasies about this for years, burying his face in Cadance’s warm, tight folds and driving her wild. Shining had ultimately won the race, but it seemed he’d get a consolation prize.
Cloud Runner stepped forward to feel the subtle heat from Cadance’s core. He closed his eyes and smelled her tantalizing scent, full and heady and needy. He started with her very edges of her labia, nosing them softly and running his snout all around. Then he took a lick along her right side—nice, long, and slow. Her tangy taste filled his mouth in a flood, and it was all that was needed to set him off. He began licking faster and faster, moving closer and closer towards her cunny... until his muzzle was firmly buried in her folds.
Cadance’s knees shook. She was close to falling over from being serviced from both sides, the pleasure was coming in rising waves. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she let out a loud, pleasured moan, and the sound made Cloud Runner and Bastion all the more eager. They devoted themselves to their tasks with more fervency, faster, and faster…
“MMMMmmmmm...” Cadance pulled Bastion closer with surprising strength. She was soon dominating his mouth, wings snapping out to envelop his giant form. He playfully fought her for a while, but eventually submitted and let her take the lead. He gasped as she pushed him over and straddled him, her tall legs allowing her to look down on him with ease.
Cloud Runner was suddenly licking air. He nearly protested until he saw what they were doing.
“Oho...” Cloud Runner wiped his mouth. “Go, Bas.”
Cadance looked into Bastion’s eyes with a hungry grin. Her feathers teased his body while the soft fabric of her socks caressed his chest. She slid herself along his twitching shaft as she looked behind her.
“Cloudy?”
He waggled his eyebrows. “Hiya.”
“Bastion’s going to fuck me now.” She said it like it was the most normal thing in the world. “I’d like you to take my ass. Is that alright?”
Pomf! went Cloud Runner’s wings.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She swooped down on Bastion to steal another heated kiss. “Let’s move to the bed.”
Meanwhile, Celsius was through with waiting. He adjusted his hips a bit, then surprised Gleaming by ripping away her panties and plunging his cock into mound. Gleaming eyes widened, but then went glassy and unfocused as Celsius began pistoning in and out.
“You… have no idea…” Celsius panted between thrusts. “How long... I’ve wanted you...”
Gleaming’s response was something between a laugh and a moan. “Didn’t know—ah—that you—ohfuck—didn’t know yooooooou—aaaaaa… Celsiiiiii…”
Celsius kissed her, all the while fucking her hard and fast, adopting a steady pace and steadily going deeper and deeper. She helped him by pulling him forward every time he pushed, and before long he was fully hilted, his thrusts wild and forceful while their tails yanked on each other.
“You are… so fucking hot...” Celsius drove in and out in fluid motions, face buried in her mane. “So—nngh—fucking… so fucking hot… why are you so fucking hot… s’not fair… stupid—unf—sexy—ah—bastard...”
Gleaming was lost in a sea of bliss. She felt so deliciously full every time he thrust into her, each one sending electric tingles up her spine. She nibbled and tugged on his ear, her whole body feeling warmer and warmer as the pressure in her core built up. She couldn’t believe how enthusiastic he was, but it was turning her on just as much.
“Inside,” she said in a breathy whisper. "I need it... I-I need it!”
Celsius shivered. His thrusts became slower, but stronger, each one going as deep as possible. He was utterly addicted to her scent, and he tugged on mouthfuls of her mane as his balls swelled up even more.
She could feel him preparing to unload. His cock was flaring, stretching her tunnel and filling her up so well. He pushed her even harder up against the wall, and she surrendered herself and merely hung on as hard as she could.
“Yessssssss…” Gleaming’s voice grew into a yell. "YES!”
He came with a mighty jerk of his hips. His throbbing cock flared and pumped load after load inside her, quickly overflowing her cunny and spilling out to form a puddle on the floor. The thick essence deep inside her stoked her core’s flames enough to explode her world into stars, and she howled and went over the edge, shuddering in his arms as her inner walls spasmed. He filled her over, and over, and over, and over, each load bigger than the last, and before long a waterfall was gushing out between their legs.
Cadance led her two stallions over to the extra-large bed. She got up with a graceful flutter, then lay on her side and directed each of them to nestle on either side of her. She felt a thrill as their stiff, pulsing rods pressed in on either side of her, her more carnal side screaming at her to get on with it.
“Now, then.” She pulled Bastion a little closer and wiggled her rear against Cloud Runner. “Think you’re up for filling me up with those long, thick cocks of yours? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve eyed them over the years…yours especially, Bas.”
Bastion met her eyes. Behind her, Cloud Runner closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in her scent. They took their time exploring her, deliberate and gentle, a forbidden fruit allowed at long last.
“Ooh, so you’d rather take it slow...” Cadance relaxed and gave them free reign. “That works, too.”
The two stallions licked and kissed every inch of her. They moved to her appendages and began servicing her, Bastion sucking on her horn, Cloud Runner preening her wings. She nickered and urged them on, Cloud Runner especially, as while normally Gleaming did a perfectly competent job, there was something about another pegasus’ touch that couldn’t be copied. He knew exactly how to tug her feathers and straighten them with his lips, the little pulls and movements soon generated a heady buzz within her chest, only amplified by the feeling of Bastion’s tongue running all along her horn.
Cadance let them take their time. Their movements gradually became more intense, but never so much that they became rough. Soft grunts escaped them then and now as they ground their stallionhoods on her, front and back. She reveled in the attention, their feelings of love mixing with the scent of their bodies, but she couldn’t help but wonder which one was going to crack first. Would it be sharp-witted Cloud Runner, always on edge and on the go? Or would it be calm, quiet Bastion, his old desires causing him to give in?
It wound up being both of them. They paused in their actions with an odd look in their eyes, and with a silent look, they aligned themselves dicks with their respective targets.
“Mmmm...” Cadance egged them on. She felt their tips brush against her entrances, a shiver running through her. She pulled Bastion into another kiss, her hooves brushing through his mane and feeling the cords of his stout neck muscles. He kissed her back with fervor, and as his tongue pushed into her mouth, his stallionhood pushed into her delicate folds. He went slow and steady, savoring every sensation of her silky walls, always pressing ever onward. Cloud Runner was gentle as well, but after finding that Cadance was already lubed, he gained a little confidence and pushed harder into her snug tightness.
Cadance was in heaven. She could feel both them inside her, separated by only a thin lining that allowed them to occasionally rub up against each other. They began an alternating rhythm of in and out, in and out, so that whenever one of them was pulling out the other was thrusting back in. The fire inside her was steadily building back up more and more, and all she could do was moan her approval.
“Bastion...” Cadance broke her kiss with him and raised her head. He took the hint and nibbled her neck, nipping just enough to send electric tingles through her. From behind, Cloud Runner took a mouthful of her mane and tugged, his hot, heavy snorts giving her delightful goosebumps. They rutted her from both sides like a well-oiled machine, neither side missing a beat, and all the while Cadance could feel their love for her…
FLASH!
Celsius and Gleaming appeared on the other side of the giant bed, entwined in the throes of passion. They separated for just a moment to get into a different position, Gleaming crouching low and presenting her dripping flower to Celsius. He mounted immediately and wrapped his hooves around her barrel, filling her back up to resume his fevered rutting.
Gleaming’s tongue lolled out of her mouth. Her mind was swimming as she squeezed and clenched, never stopping. Her eyes focused for just a moment to see Cadance a few feet away with Bastion and Cloud Runner, and she couldn’t help but be turned on even more. Cadance noticed Gleaming looking, and while moving in time with her partners, she silently mouthed one word.
“Ready?”
Gleaming grinned. She gave her reply in a long, lewd moan. “Yesssssssss…”
Gleaming felt a Cadance’s magic wrapping around her consciousness. There was a brief jumble of sounds and sensations, and a second later, she could feel Bastion’s thick, firm stallionhood stuffed inside her marehood. She could feel Cloud Runner’s big, warm length wedged firmly in her rear. And Cadance could feel Celsius’ weight on her back, the slapping of his engorged balls against her rear, the steady rivulets of cum running down both their legs.
They felt all this in addition to the sensations of their own bodies. The three stallions were taken aback by the sudden frenzy, but they quickly picked up their pace and put more force behind their thrusts.
The room became filled with the sounds of fevered sex. Gleaming bit down on a pillow while Celsius rutted her into the mattress. Cadance squirmed and writhed in tandem with Bastion and Cloud Runner. They were going wild from feeling each other’s pleasure on top of their own, and the sexy cries of the mares made the stallions abandon all pretense and go wild. They kissed, licked, sucked, nibbled, bit, grunted, thrusted, and fucked each other for what seemed like an eternity, but then finally, one side began to reach their peak.
Bastion’s thrusts became erratic. The pressure in his loins boiled over, and with a loud shout, he erupted and coated Cadance’s walls. Cloud Runner was soon to follow, his back arching as he buried himself in her backdoor. Last of all was Celsius, but his magically-enhanced balls didn’t disappoint, an entire quart of sexual fluid spilling out of Gleaming and onto the sheets.
The three stallions went limp with dopey grins. Gleaming and Cadance hummed and extricated themselves, but just as quickly then moved to the far edge of the bed to start kissing. Relentless, they ground their slippery crotches on each other and began scissoring, only hesitating when Gleaming floated over a double-ended dildo from the closet.
Celsius watched them continue go at it with wide eyes. “Seriously?”
Gleaming smiled as she stuffed herself with one end of the dildo. “What? That was just—ah!—the warm-up round. We usually go—nngh—a couple hours.”
“I think our record is—oooh—eleven hours, twenty-six minutes,” Cadance added. She’d slid onto the other end and was already hilted, the toy now completely swallowed by their hungry marehoods. “Was a good honeymoon.”
The three stallions weren’t sure to be impressed, aroused, or horrified.
“Princess of Love, indeed,” muttered Bastion.
Gleaming’s gaze turned to Cloud Runner. “Hey, you said you wanted—mmmm—a round, right? Go clean up and lemme know—hnng—when you’re ready to go. Do you care who’s on top?”
“Ergh!” Gleaming wiggled and squirmed as she fought the straps of armor around her belly. “Come on, you stupid thing! Fit!” She tugged harder to get the strap to go all the way, but even with it so tight that it left red marks, it remained centimeters shy. “Oh, for Luna’s sake... I just adjusted this last week!”
“Looks like you need to adjust it again,” Cadance said from over on the couch. “Both the flanchard straps and the crupper, I think. Your hips look like they’re about to burst right out of that armor.”
Gleaming’s eyes widened. She looked at her rump, groaning as she now realized how tight the back pieces felt. It was a wonder she’d gotten them on at all.
“Damn it…” There was a hum and a FLASH as Gleaming teleported out of her armor. “I don’t have time for this! It’s going to take at least a half-hour for the armorer to refit me, and I need to go in a few minutes!”
“So go without the armor,” Cadance said. “Not much you can do at this point. Or send word to Commander Spitshine to cover for you.”
Gleaming’s jaw dropped. “Are you crazy?! Leave a lecture on reactive adjustment of greater arcanometric pressures to that moron?! He couldn’t even put a barrier around his dick!”
Cadance bit back a laugh. “I’ll admit he prefers bigger and flashier spells, but I’m sure he can explain—”
“He’s a damned blithering idiot!” Gleaming picked up her fallen armor pieces and shoved them into her saddlebags. “Not to mention that he has less discipline than a crackwhorse at an orgy! You should’ve seen what he did just the other day—I specifically told him I wanted the recruits doing magic resistance training at fifty reps daily to strengthen their telekinesis, and how many does he tell them to do?! Forty-five! Oh, he says they can’t handle fifty so he’s trying to work them up to it, but I say I’m ready to shove a bayonet up his ass!”
Cadance pursed her lips. She stayed quiet as Gleaming paced back and forth, magenta sparks jetting from her horn.
“And holy hell, these recruits! Slack-jawed, mouth-breathing, cowardly little bags of smashed assholes! They can barely maintain a level five forcefield, none of them are above a Class A in power, and fuck’s sake, they ask me the STUPIDEST questions! One of the little geniuses thought it was a good idea to use a Gamma rune instead of a Theta in their containment array, and the forcefield popped like a damn soap bubble after only two dozen boulders! That wouldn’t last for SHIT in a real siege!”
Cadance noted the room was getting warmer. She folded her hooves and lay calmly on the couch, her eyes never leaving Gleaming.
“And Luna almighty, another couldn’t recite the formula for Starswirl’s Second Law of Abjuration!” Gleaming’s eyes were crackling now. “Never mind that that’s the fucking foundation of what I’ve been trying to teach them, oh nooooooo, that’s not important at all! They have no pride in their appearance, their techniques are sloppy, they never polish the brass on their uniforms, and I swear to Celestia I’m about ready to—”
“Honey.”
Gleaming whirled on her. “WHAT?!”
“You’re on fire.”
Gleaming stopped. For the first time, she noticed the shimmering heat and blazing magic within her. She glanced at the mirror and saw that her mane and tail were bright blue infernos, her irises pure gold.
Gleaming cursed and quelled her magic. “Sorry...”
Cadance got to her hooves and went over to her closet, pulling out the regalia and crown she wore whenever they left the castle. “I think you need a break—actually, scratch that, I’m telling you that you need a break. For the sake of everypony around you, I want you to take the day off.”
Gleaming sneered. “A break?! I don’t need a fucking break! What I need is a set of armor that fits me, a contingent of soldiers that aren’t morons, a second-in-command who doesn’t have SHIT for brains, and—”
Annnnnnnnnd Gleaming repeated the words she’d just said in her mind.
She hung her head and sighed. “...Okay, maybe I do.”
“C’mon.” Cadance guided her towards the door. “I know just the thing.”
“But the troops—”
“—can handle a day without their fearless leader,” Cadance said with a nuzzle. “If anypony has a problem, they can take it up with me. You need this right now.”
“Mrrrgghh…” Gleaming grit her teeth. “I’m not used to… you know I’m not usually… I didn’t mean...”
“I know.” Cadance put a wing around her. “It’s okay, really. I know this isn’t you.”
Gleaming slumped. “Stupid… body. Stupid everything. I swear, I wouldn’t be able to deal with this if you weren’t so into it.”
Cadance leaned over and nibbled Gleaming’s ear. “I most definitely am.”
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “Such a perv.”
Cadance looped their tails together. “You know you like it.”
“Never said I didn’t…”
They walked out of their apartment and down the hallway. Their usual escorts fell into step as they made their way down through the castle, guards and staff bowing and saluting as they passed.
“Dr. Endo took my measurements yesterday,” Gleaming muttered to Cadance. “He said I’ve gained twenty pounds already, and my fundal height is measuring at twenty-eight centimeters. Do you realize what that means? I haven’t even hit my first real growth spurt yet, and I already look seven months pregnant!”
Cadance giggled. “Oh, I know... I’ve had a front row seat to it all. Were the tummy rubs not enough of a hint of that?”
Gleaming bit her lip. “I didn’t think that those would feel so good…”
“You’re getting big early because of the spells,” Cadance said. “Normally your uterus would push both inward and outward as it grows, squishing all your other organs and making you uncomfortable. But we strengthened your insides a bit to avoid that, so the foals are pushing out more. That’s why your skin’s been so sore.”
Gleaming grunted. “I’ve been liking that coconut butter stuff you’ve been using. Smells good.”
Cadance smirked. “I kinda figured, considering you’ve been putting a touch of it on your muzzle after showers.”
Gleaming didn’t deny it. “I-I just can’t believe how fast this is all happening…”
Cadance guided them down a set of stairs towards the main door outside. “I did warn you that things were going to happen fast. Warned you were going to be huge, too.”
Gleaming looked away. “It’s another thing to experience it, y’know? I know I’m having this a lot easier than it could be, but even still, I just… ugh...”
Cadance kissed her cheek. “I love you so very, very much. Never forget that.”
Gleaming closed her eyes and leaned into the embrace. “What did I do to deserve you?”
“You were the first with the balls to ask me out, you’re a demon in the sack, and you most importantly, you put up with my crazy shit.”
“Ah. Right.”
Ding-a-ling-a-ling!
The entrance bell gave a pleasant sound as Gleaming and Cadance entered a small blue building on the edge of the city. Inside was a spacious waiting room decorated in colors of violet and cobalt with long curtains of sparkling moss hanging from the ceiling like chandeliers. The clean scent of lilacs was in the air, and a harp-like instrument could be heard playing a melody from unseen speakers.
“Azure Mist Day Spa?” Gleaming read aloud the cursive logo on the reception desk. “I don’t think I’ve been here before.”
Cadance waved at the pony at the front desk. “I’d have been surprised if you had. This is one of the best kept secrets of the Empire.”
“Princess Cadance!” The pony behind the counter squee’d and clapped her hooves. “Welcome back! So good to—ohmygoshisthat—AHHHHH! You brought her! And she looks so cuuuuuute~! Welcome, welcome, welcome!”
Gleaming winced at the mare’s high-pitched voice. “Uh…”
“Don’t mind Azzy. She gets excited easily.” Cadance cleared her throat and stepped forward. “It’s great to see you! How are you?”
Azzy tittered. “Things never change around here! Business as usual and nothing more. But what about you? I haven’t seen you in months! And I know I’ve never seen you, Miss Princess-Consort. What’s the occasion?”
Cadance exchanged a brief look with Gleaming before shrugging. “I decided we both could use some R and R.”
“Of course, of course.” Azzy trotted out with a clipboard and jotted down a few notes. “What would you like today? The usual?”
Cadance raised a hoof to her chin. “I know there’ll be some things that Gleaming won’t be able to do, so we can skip on those parts. Definitely everything else though, and we’d like to do as much as we can together.”
“Righty-o.” Azzy circled a few things on the paper while crossing out a few others. “So that’s a nix on the aromatherapy, hot tub and steam room, but we could do a normal warm bath or multi-spray shower in lieu of it.”
Gleaming’s ears drooped. “No hot tub?”
“It’ll still be in one of the jacuzzis with the nice-feeling jets,” Cadance said to her. “They just turn down the temperature. I’ve seen them do it for other mares.”
Gleaming perked up at that. “That’s all?”
Azzy laughed. “Not hard in the slightest.”
“Oh! Well, in that case, that sounds really nice.” Gleaming smiled. “Let’s do that.”
Azzy continued filling things out on her clipboard. “So facials, hooficures, horn filings, wing preening and oiling for one, mild-scent soaps and shampoos for Princess Gleaming, and of course, the massages. One deep tissue and one neonatal. You’re actually in luck—the only one in today certified in neonatal is Amber, and she happens to be free! She’ll need to know how far along in your pregnancy you are, though. What month are you?”
“Fourth.” Gleaming placed a hoof on her rounded tummy. “Just hit sixteen weeks.”
“Sixt—” Azzy did the smallest of double takes. “Right, right… you’ve got four in there. Heh, that’ll be new for Amber. Right then, all that’s settled. Do either of you have questions?”
Gleaming and Cadance shook their heads.
“Fabulous.” Azzy turned and began heading for a hallway. “Follow me.”
Azzy led them towards a quick-responding elevator, which opened and closed its doors with a gentle chime. It then began to take them down, and when the doors opened again...
Gleaming gasped. “Whoa...”
It was a cavern. A natural, underground crystal cavern. It began as a wide grotto with high ceilings and smooth floors, spreading out far with interspersed stalactites and stalagmites embedded with luminous jewels. Crystal formations of all colors were everywhere, each of them meticulously chiseled and sculpted into artful shapes that glinted and glittered. There were a number of pathways leading out of the main antechamber to other caves, and ponies wearing bathrobes could be seeing moving to and fro via these routes. The sound of running water could be heard from far off, the smell of perfume was in the air, and a thin blue mist floated throughout like a serene carpet.
Cadance grinned. “Not bad, eh?”
“How in the…” Gleaming turned to Cadance. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about this?”
“I’ve told you several times,” Cadance said with a patient look. “You said you weren’t interested in coming to a day spa.”
“You never said it was like this!” Gleaming gestured to the natural beauty before them. “This is amazing!”
Azzy laughed from just ahead of them. “Her Majesty approves of my little establishment? I’m flattered.”
Gleaming cocked her head. “You’re... the owner?”
Azzy turned with a small flourish and bowed. “Azure Mist, at your service.”
It took a few seconds for Gleaming to find her voice again. “...Why were you working the front desk?”
“Azzy likes being on the front lines,” said Cadance. “Give her a feel for what her customers want.”
“Customer service is the key to business!” said Azzy. “If you have that sorted, everything else works itself out.”
Gleaming didn’t know what to say. She tried a few times to form a reply, but nothing seemed like it’d hold against Azzy’s air of confidence. Her posture was tall and sure, her smile honest.
“You must be quite the professional,” Gleaming managed.
Azzy beamed and led them further into the spa. “I just know what’s important, that’s all.”
They walked some way through the caves. There were pools, massage tables, steam rooms, and reclining beds, many of which were occupied by relaxing ponies chatting and unwinding in the mist. The employees that saw the royal duo waved and bowed as they passed, and while Gleaming noted that while a good deal of eyes were on her, they seemed more curious more than anything else.
They moved out of the public parlors into a more private area, stopping at a set of doors emblazoned with Cadance’s cutie mark. After searching through her saddlebags a moment, Azzy produced a set of keys and unlocked it.
The rooms beyond looked like they could’ve been an extension of Cadance and Gleaming’s apartment. The overall style and color scheme was the same, although the ceilings were higher and set with bright, shining jewels. A stone garden with flower sculptures was off in the corner and surrounded by a carpet of moss that looked as soft as heather. All of the features of the spa they’d seen so far were present (albeit more luxurious) and everything was alicorn-sized.
Gleaming whistled. “Snazzy.”
Azzy motioned for them to go inside. “I’ll leave you to get comfortable. The staff will see to you shortly.”
Cadance waved at her. “You’re the best, Azzy!”
Azzy just laughed. “Why else would you keep coming back to me?”
And with that she closed the door, leaving Gleaming and Cadance in the suite.
“So…” Gleaming looked around, still taking in the details of their new surroundings. “You’ve got a private room at a secret underground day spa.”
Cadance held up her hooves. “I didn’t have anything to do with the place being built! I didn’t even ask for this room! Azzy just gave it to me.”
Gleaming wandered over to one of the beds to examine it. “Aww, the crystal ponies like to spoil their pretty pink princess.”
Cadance laughed despite herself. “Yeah well, the pretty pink princess is now going to use it to spoil her pretty pregnant partner.”
“Heh. ‘Pretty pregnant.’” Gleaming looked down at her sizeable baby bump. She hadn’t had many issues with discomfort, but carrying so much extra weight was tiring her out more easily. “I’d say that that’s accurate.”
Cadance took a few steps forward with an all-too-familiar look. “You look great, you know. I know I say it I lot, but you really, really do. I get hot and bothered every time I notice that you’ve grown a bit more, and it makes me wanna kiss and rub and lick every inch of you…”
A smile crept up on Gleaming’s lips. She slowly turned to her advancing mate, allowing a bit of her mane to spill over one of her eyes. “That so?”
“Mmhmm.” Cadance’s wings crept outward, extending to their impressive span. “You’re driving me stark freaking crazy with that body of yours, and you’re not even at the halfway point yet. I can barely keep my hooves off of you these days, and the only thing I can’t decide is whether to rut you as a stallion for hours or eat you out ‘til I can’t feel my tongue.”
“Hmph.” Gleaming pretended not to be interested and turned away, walking towards one of the massage beds with a bored look. As she did, she put a small strut in her steps that emphasized her twitching tail. “I bet if you had your way, you’d keep me at home all the time so we could have that much more sex. Would we even leave the apartment at all?”
Cadance’s voice was low and breathy. “I’d fuck you twenty-four seven if I thought we could manage it. I’d make your tolerance for pleasure endless so I could fill you over and over, and I’d alter your body so you could become pregnant countless times over. You’d become the most fertile mare in Equestria, only getting more so by the day…”
Gleaming bit back a moan. She quickly coughed and made it look like a yawn, but she knew Cadance heard. She wiggled her hips and tried not to pay attention to how much she was shivering. “But how would you manage that, hmm? That nasty curse of Sombra’s is why we’re in this situation in the first place. We can’t have any more children.”
“I’ll find a way.” Cadance was now only a few steps away from Gleaming, bent down low and ready to pounce. “By all that’s good in this world, I’ll find a way! So long as you’re willing, we will have more children than this. I don’t care what we have to do.”
That statement struck a chord for some reason. Gleaming turned and met Cadance’s eyes, who almost look like she was bowing from her current position. The thought made Gleaming stand a little taller, as she looked down with piercing eyes.
“Promise me.”
Cadance didn’t hesitate. “I promise.”
Gleaming held her gaze a long time, but Cadance didn’t waver. The spark in her eyes burned strong.
“Then in that case...” Gleaming stroked her growing belly. “I think that that nurse was right. Four’s not nearly enough.”
And Cadance pounced. She picked Gleaming up with a burst of blue magic and shunted her onto the bed. Gleaming suddenly found herself staring up at the ceiling, hind legs spread and presented before Cadance like an offering. Cadance dove into Gleaming’s nethers with a shark-like grin, lapping away like a pony dying of thirst.
“OH!” Gleaming’s voice cracked. “OH, YES!”
Cadance growled. She wrapped her hooves around Gleaming’s back legs and shoved her snout in hard, burying and wiggling her tongue in Gleaming’s slippery folds. The familiar sweetness of Gleaming’s juices filled her mouth, the familiar scent of need assailed her nostrils, and it just spurred Cadance on faster. She alternated between massaging her mate’s velvety walls and sucking on her clit—
There was a knock on the door.
“NO!” Gleaming’s horn glowed as she put a powerful barrier around the entrance. “CADY I SWEAR IF YOU STOP…”
Cadance’s reply was to lick even faster.
“FFFFFFFUCK!” Gleaming pounded the bed. She humped Cadance’s face while her tail thrashed. “OOOOH THERE! THERETHERETHERE! RIGHT THERE!”
Cadance was relentless. She ravaged Gleaming with her frantic tongue without mercy or pause. The taste of Gleaming was familiar, but damn if she couldn’t get enough. She nosed and tickled Gleaming’s clit for a few seconds until suddenly, she pulled back and carefully lowered her head. She peeled back the petals of Gleaming’s flower with magic, then in a fluid motion, she plunged her horn into Gleaming’s slit.
Gleaming lost it. She screamed loud and long as a mighty orgasm ripped through her. Her inner walls spasmed around Cadance’s fluted length, clamping down and shuddering. Cadance started channeling an unknown spell through her horn, and the vibrations very nearly caused Gleaming to white out.
“My dear sweethearts...” On a whim, Cadance called upon on her alicorn magic and willed it forth. They wouldn’t know for sure for another month at least, but a part of her knew that this was the right thing to do. “Hush now… Mommy’s here…”
A hot, syrupy essence bubbled out of her horn. It seeped into Gleaming to imbue her and the foals, and an inner light soon appeared from within Gleaming’s belly. It shone with a prismatic light for a few short seconds, and her navel, which had already been getting shallower and more sensitive the last weeks, now began to swell and throb. A shower of sparks shot out of Gleaming’s horn to fall down over them both in a glittering burst, and Gleaming cried out and thrust her paunch high into the air. With a loud POP, her innie pushed out of its tight prison to become a prominent outie.
Gleaming went limp. She gasped for air while staring up at the ceiling, her whole body warm and fuzzy. Cadance withdrew her horn with a soft shlick and looked her over, and upon noticing the changed bellybutton, she smiled and planted a kiss atop it.
Gleaming jolted. “AH! Whoa, what… what was that?!”
Cadance raised an eyebrow. “That feel good?”
“Your Majesties!” called a voice from beyond the door. “Miss Azure Mist sent us! Could you let us in? The door seems to be locked!”
Cadance winced and glanced at the barricaded door. “Please tell me you soundproofed that.”
Gleaming managed a weak laugh. “What do you take me for? An amateur?”
Cadance pretended to think. “I dunno, your shield spells are pretty basic.”
“Pfft.” Gleaming magicked away her fluids and rolled to a more modest position. “Your face is basic.”
Cadance stuck her tongue out and cleaned off her horn. “C’mon. We don’t want to start a panic.”
Gleaming hesitated. “You don’t want me to get you off?”
“Later.” Cadance went over to the other bed to sit down. “It’s pampering time right now.”
The previously-vacant room was soon filled with the hustle and bustle of spa ponies. They brought in a whole slew of equipment with them, most of them items to see to Cadance and Gleaming’s grooming. They explained that it was going to take them a bit to set up everything, so while they were waiting, one of the spa ponies began adjusting the settings on one of the jacuzzis.
“Nice!” Gleaming stretched her legs and sauntered over to the hot tub. After testing it with a hoof, she carefully stepped down and waded in, the sudsy water bubbling and splashing around her knees and thighs. When it got to her swollen belly, she let out a long sigh of relief.
“Mmmm…” She lowered herself in the rest of the way. She submerged up to her neck and let her mane spread out on the water like a blue-streaked island. Her legs became relieved of a good chunk of the weight they’d been carrying, and she just floated there for a few moments as the water swirled around her. “Yeaaaaah, that’s goooooood…”
Cadance stepped down into the water as well and swept past Gleaming, stealing a peck on the cheek as she went by. She sat on one of the bench seats and let her mane fall down into the water like Gleaming, closing her eyes with a small hum.
Picture by Cosmonaut
“Would your Majesties like to be washed while you wait?” Two of the spa ponies asked. In their magic was a small collection of soaps, shampoos, and brushes.
Cadance fanned out her wings so they could be cleaned. “Could you use the hazelnut oil today? I really liked that last time.”
“Of course,” the first spa pony said. She went over to Cadance and began attending to her with a practiced ease. Meanwhile, the second came up from the side and bowed.
“I have some special shampoos for you,” she said. “They’re mild-scented and specifically made for sensitive skin.”
Gleaming smiled. “That is much appreciated.”
The attendant took out a fluffy-looking sponge and wet it in the water. There was a clinking of bottles as she chose among her selection before pulling out a yellow one with a label in slanted cursive. She squeezed out a healthy dollop of the faintly-sweet soap and began scrubbing Gleaming’s back.
“Just relax,” the attendant said. “I’ll handle the rest.”
Gleaming shut her eyes and leaned into the sponge. The attendant’s touch was like a feather, knowing exactly how much force to apply without irritating. Gleaming soon found herself falling into a lull, the rising steam of the water combining with the light aroma and comfort of the gentle scrubbing.
The attendant started washing her mane. Switching to just magic, she began massaging a shampoo of rosemary and mint into Gleaming scalp. It felt pleasantly tingly, and Gleaming’s head soon fell forward a bit, allowing herself to enjoy the warm buzzing of the product sinking into her roots.
“Don’t fall asleep on me,” Cadance teased from beside her.
Gleaming made a small grunting noise. “Sleep is for the weak…”
Cadance chuckled. “Guess you must be pretty weak then, what with all those extra naps you’ve been taking.”
Gleaming cracked open one eye. “You try eating five full meals a day without falling prey to food comas.”
Cadance leaned to the side at her attendant’s urging. “Speaking of which, I’ve heard through the grapevine that you’ve been making a bit of a spectacle of yourself in the officer mess hall. What’s that about?”
“Oh, heh. That.” Gleaming idly pushed the water around a bit with magic. “The other officers have an ongoing bet that if any one of them can eat more than me in a single sitting, that pony won’t have to pay for drinks the next time they all go to the bar. Pretty silly, in all honesty.”
Cadance suppressed a snicker. “More like flat-out stupid. I’ve seen how much you can eat, and you’ve only been upping your portions! They don’t stand a chance in Tartarus.”
Gleaming snickered as well. “And here’s the kicker—I’ve been using more magic in drills lately, so I’m even hungrier when I come in. It’s getting to the point that they can’t even match half what I put away.”
Cadance lowered her eyes, shivering at the thought of Gleaming eating a group of big, strong military ponies under the table. She wasn’t entirely sure why that idea was hot to her, but she’d long stopped trying to understand such things.
The attendant finished with Gleaming’s mane and tail, before using a few other soaps on the rest of her. For her belly, she used a collagen-rich oil that smelled of vanilla, which was probably Gleaming’s favorite scent out of all the things used. After a few more final touch-ups, the royals were notified that everything else was ready.
“What’s first?” Gleaming asked as she dried herself off.
“Massages.” Cadance wiggled her wings to sluice out the tiny droplets of water. It was actually funny to see her wings like that—like a pair of sodden pink mats that dangled at her sides. “You’ll be getting a different one than me, though.”
Gleaming nodded. “Yeah, ‘deep tissue’ doesn’t sound very appealing right now.”
A duo of crystal ponies were already waiting for them over the beds. Cadance went to the first and immediately began chatting away while the second approached Gleaming with a slight hobble in her step.
“Princess Gleaming,” she said in a deep, smooth voice. “My name’s Amber. I’ll be giving you your prenatal massage today.”
Amber was a small and wiry thing with a brown coat, an almost gaunt frame, corded limbs, and a reddish mane and tail tied back in ponytails. She was an older mare, probably a little past middle-aged, and her eyes held a kindness that immediately set Gleaming at ease.
Gleaming took Amber’s hoof and shook it, noting the hard, toned muscle of the masseuse’s leg. “I’ve a feeling I’m going to be in good hooves with you.”
Amber looked Gleaming over as well, examining her legs and frame with a trained eye. “Your body seems to be agreeing with the pregnancy so far. That’s good. I have to turn some mares down because they’re just not well enough for it. Has your doctor said anything about not getting a massage?”
Gleaming shook her head. “Only to avoid steam rooms and hot tubs.”
“Right.” Amber led Gleaming over to the massage table and directed her to lay down on her side. “Is there any particular part of you that’s sore?”
Gleaming eased herself onto the bed and got comfortable. “Not really. The skin around my stomach feels irritated, though.”
Amber snorted. “I wonder why.” She brought over a few pillows and put them beneath Gleaming’s shoulders and legs. “I’ll be sure to give your tummy lots of love as I go through the motions, so don’t worry about that. I can also hydrate your skin with some special lotions, too.”
Gleaming’s ears twitched at the word ‘lotion’. “Do you… erm, I mean, by chance are you planning on using coconut butter?”
“Among other things, yes. Why?”
Gleaming’s cheeks turned a faint pink. “I really like the smell of it…”
Amber thought for a moment. She turned to a small basket of supplies she’d brought and rummaged around a bit. A few seconds later, she opened up a silver jar and held it under Gleaming’s nostrils.
“What do you think of that?”
A sweet, spicy aroma filled Gleaming’s nose, one that reminded her of fall days when the leaves were just falling and the wind was still warm. It was similar to a perfume her mother always wore in autumn.
“Wow...” Gleaming looked up at Amber. “What is it?”
“Coconut butter infused with frankincense and myrrh,” Amber replied. “It’s a little more fragrant than what I usually use in prenatals, but we can give it a whirl if you like it.”
“Yes, please.”
Amber moved out of Gleaming’s sight, and a moment later, she felt a pair of strong hooves spread a slippery substance onto her back. The scent of the infused lotion wafted past Gleaming’s nostrils as she relaxed further into the bed. She felt her mane being pulled to the side and tied back so it wouldn’t get in the way, the cool air of the room tickling the swan-like arc of her neck.
“That’s really nice,” she murmured. “Your Princess approves...”
Amber snickered. “You’re going to be putty in my hooves, aren’t you?”
“Mmm, probably…”
Amber started by pressing lightly along the base of Gleaming’s spine. She then began making her way up to gently knead the back muscles and work out any kinks she found. She did this a few times going back and forth in a methodical motion, each time she pressing a little harder. She always kept her touch on the soft side, though, and it was never so much that it was bothering.
“You have very good muscle tone,” Amber said after a time. She twisted her hooves a little bit with her touches now to loosen up the tight spots. “Whatever you’re doing, keep it up. It’ll help you support the extra baby weight.”
Gleaming felt like she was melting into the mattress. “Mmmhmm, s’part of the plan... these kids are gonna get big, so the stronger I can be, the better...”
Amber was concentrating on specific spots now, using both her hooves to squeeze and rub out the stiffness. “I can’t say whether I’m jealous or sorry that you wound up with four at once. A normal pony would have a brutal time of it, but you’re not exactly normal, are you?”
Gleaming couldn’t help but laugh. “I suppose not. I wouldn’t say that that’s a bad thing, though. S’made life interesting.”
Amber switched positions to get at Gleaming’s upper back. She rubbed and worked Gleaming’s shoulder blades for a while, humming softly as she fell into a practiced routine. Gleaming’s eyes almost crossed from how good it felt, and her head was starting to buzz, filled with a dizziness that made her feel pleasantly loopy.
“Your pectoral and neck areas are tight,” Amber commented. She started rubbing just above Gleaming’s collarbone in little circles, steadily moving upwards before switching sides. “That’s pretty common in pregnancy, but you might want to consider wearing a maternity brace. It’ll help with soreness and make it easier to keep your balance.”
Gleaming opened her eyes. “A maternity brace?”
“It looks kinda like a snuggie,” Amber said. “Helps distribute the baby weight and keeps your bump from swinging all over the place. Might be something worth looking into, especially since your coat is white. Most ponies won’t even know you’re wearing it.”
Gleaming thought that for a moment. “I’ll do some homework.”
Amber spent a few more minutes on Gleaming’s upper body working out the tight spots and kinks. Eventually she had Gleaming get up and lay on her other side, and after about ten minutes there, she moved down to Gleaming’s belly.
“Alright.” Amber pressed a button at the base of the bed, and there was a whirr as it started moving into a reclining position. “Roll onto your back so I can get at all of you.” Gleaming complied with a small grunt. As she did, she felt the pressure of her womb shifting against her insides briefly before things readjusted. Now settled, the swell of her stomach stuck proudly out into the air, and as Gleaming looked down at it, she couldn’t help but blush.
“Got an outie already, I see,” Amber said fondly. “Cute. Is it sensitive?”
Gleaming squirmed in place. “Ah... w-well...”
Amber snorted. “Leave that area to your wife, got it.”
“Y-Yeah,” Gleaming said. “Probably for the best…”
Amber spread out more lotion onto Gleaming’s womb before kneading it in with a feathery touch. The slick, heavenly-smelling substance combined with the sliding of Amber’s hooves brought about a whole new set of wonderful tingles and flutters in Gleaming’s skin. Amber then started rubbing properly in a clockwise motion, starting at the base of Gleaming’s belly, slowly working her way upward.
“Oh, Celestia…” Gleaming broke out into goosebumps. “This should not feel this good.”
Amber smirked. “If I had a bit for every time I’ve heard that.”
“Mmh.” Gleaming started pushing into Amber’s strokes to get her to push a little harder. Amber kept her force steady though, staying focused on her task. She kept an eye on Gleaming’s reactions as to not go too far, but other than that she let the Princess enjoy herself.
Gleaming felt herself starting to drift off. Amber’s skilled touch was making her entire body feel warm and relaxed, and while she thought about fighting it at first, she finally just let mind sink into a floaty haze. She hovered in that place between sleep and awake, where time has no meaning and everything feels like it’s underwater. She wasn’t sure how long she was like that, but at some point, she did feel Amber begin working on her legs.
“All done, Your Highness,” said Amber in her ear.
Gleaming rose from the syrupy haze feeling the most relaxed of her life. She was still staring up at the ceiling, Amber wiping her hooves off with a cloth beside her. “Whoa,” Gleaming said. “Didn’t think I’d doze off like that.”
Amber smiled. “Don’t worry. I take it as a compliment.”
Gleaming shook her head to try and clear out the fog. “I am definitely going to have to do that again.”
Amber bowed her thanks. “You know… I’d have to clear it with Azzy, but I could probably come to the castle for a session or two rather than have you come all the way out here. I imagine it’d be easier on you.”
“You’re hired,” said Gleaming immediately. “I hereby commission you for services as a Royal Masseuse. I’ll have the paperwork filled out by next week.”
Amber giggled. “Guess I’ll have to clear my schedule.”
“I guess you will.” Gleaming smiled and shook her hoof. “When you come, make sure to bring more of that coconut butter.”
A Few Hours Later—
“Feel any better?” Cadance asked.
Gleaming and Cadance were just walking back into the castle after finishing up at the spa. They’d had the facials, horn filings, and hooficures all at the same time, and they’d both been so relaxed after the massages that they were both content to just let the spa ponies work.
“Yeah,” said Gleaming. She Cadance were both wearing makeup, had had their manes done, and were clad in their finer sets of regalia. The end result was something that drew quite a few stares from the guards and castle staff as they passed. “That really did the trick. Thanks.”
Cadance patted Gleaming’s shoulder. “Anytime. I could tell your nerves were shot.”
“These moodswings are driving me nuts,” Gleaming grumbled. “One minute I’m upbeat and I love life, then I want to watch the world burn the next. I could be having a perfectly normal day, then one little thing goes wrong and I want to start crying. I’m not sure what’s worse, how much it sucks for ME, or how much it’s gotta suck for the ponies who deal with me.”
Cadance waved to a housekeeper as they walked to the dining room. “This is why I’ve been trying to get you to take things slower, hun. You won’t feel like you’re on a hair trigger if you’re not pushing yourself so hard. Trust me, I know what it’s like dealing with a lot of stress while at the mercy of hormones.”
Gleaming didn’t argue with that. “...I’m just surprised that I haven’t gone off on you. I thought pregnant mares were supposed to hate their spouses.”
Cadance giggled. “Your spouse can telepathically sense other ponies’ emotions. Not only can I tell when you’re at high risk of a moodswing, I know when you’re just venting about something. And even if I didn’t, I don’t take volatile emotions personally.”
Gleaming leaned into her. “Thank you. I hate it when I run into somepony that doesn’t understand that. It’s like they think I’m attacking them or something.”
They entered the main dining room. There were many places set up for eating in the castle, but this was the one most ponies preferred. Gleaming and Cadance had a private room here next to the kitchens to avoid bothering anypony, which was where they made for now. It was a small quaint space with crystal floors and a medium-sized table, decorated with transparent hexagonal crystals that allowed them to see underneath. A simple chandelier emblazoned with lavender stars hung from the ceiling, and a large window showing off the castle gardens was on the west side.
Gleaming and Cadance sat at their preferred spots to relax. It’d been quite a walk to the spa and back, and while neither of them were worn out, a short rest was quite welcome.
Gleaming’s stomach gurgled. This was her third meal of the day, but she really wasn’t picky about eating certain things at a certain time. She pretty just went with whatever she felt like.
Cadance seemed to pick up on this. “What’re you in the mood for?”
“Breakfast stuff,” said Gleaming immediately. “Pancakes, eggs, hay bacon, yogurt, granola, fruit, hash browns, muffins, scones, and cereal. Orange juice and milk to drink.”
Cadance took a few seconds to process all of that. “Were... those all just suggestions? Or do you actually want all that?’
Gleaming licked her lips. “I’m eating for five, you know.”
Cadance’s eyes flickered to her wife’s middle. Already so full and warm, and it was only going to get bigger... Cadance eyes became half-lidded for an instant, but she shook her head and coughed.
“I’ll send word to the kitchens.” She got to her hooves and walked away, tail twitching from side to side.
Gleaming zoned out for a while as she waited. Her mind flitted from one topic to the next, never fixating on anything substantial. She raised one of her arms to her muzzle and sniffed, catching the sweet smell of lotion and the perfume the spa ponies had used.
She glanced over at her reflection in the window. A part of her still expected to see a bulky buffed-out stallion, but instead she saw the very picture of femininity. Her face was slender and sultry, her bright, baby-blue eyes emphasized by silver eyeshadow. Her three-toned mane was full and sleek, almost glowing in the light as it spilled around her graceful neck. Her pure-white coat was unblemished, immaculate as Celestia’s, and she smelled of mildly sweet spices that’d make anyone’s head turn. Her frame was filled out and solid, the built muscles adding to her curves for an almost buxom look. Her round, full belly stuck out proudly as a symbol of her impending motherhood, and her soft, plush rump nearly spilled over the edges of her seat.
Gleaming examined herself for a few moments before whispering to herself amidst the silence.
“I really am a mare, aren’t I?”
“GENERAL!”
Gleaming jumped. She whirled and saw that her second-in-command Spitshine was at the entrance of the private dining area, flustered with grit teeth.
“Where have you been?!” Spitshine marched up to Gleaming, face twisted in a savage scowl. “You had a lecture with the troops at oh-nine hundred! I had to give it in your place and—are you wearing makeup?!”
Gleaming narrowed her eyes. “Careful, Commander. I had a matter of extreme importance that I’ve only now just got back from.”
Spitshine’s eye twitched. “...Permission to speak freely, General.”
“Granted.”
“What the FUCK was so important that you needed to skip out on training the recruits?!” Spitshine snarled. “You’ve been on everyone’s asses for weeks running these soldiers to their limits, and here you are looking like you just got back from a day spa! You may be knocked up, but you’re not a real mare, Shining Armor! Stop fucking pretending like you are!”
Gleaming swallowed hard. The sudden outburst left her completely tongue-tied, her usual courage replaced by a knot twisting in her chest.
“I-I—”
“Commander Spitshine.”
Gleaming and Spitshine froze. They turned as one and looked to the kitchens, where Cadance was approaching with a steely glint in her eyes.
“Princess Cadance!” Spitshine bowed low. “I-I didn’t realize you were here. I was just trying to—”
“Princess Gleaming and I have been off getting prepared to make a public appearance.” Cadance adjusted her crown before continuing. “We’re going to make another advocation for the Princess Luna’s B.R.E.A.S.T.S. program this afternoon, and we wanted to look our best.”
Spitshine’s face reddened at the acronym. “Y-You mean the thestral repopulation plan? I believe I’ve heard about that, yes… wait, you both are involved with its logistics?”
“Of course.” Cadance took her seat and folded her hooves. “As you may or may not know, this endeavor is a matter of considerable importance to all of Equestria. The longer we go without proper sentinels for our dreams, the greater risk we run of a mass psychic attack. Mental and psychic disorders have also steadily been on the rise the past millennium, which is largely attributed to the thestrals being unable to do their jobs. This has meant higher government costs overall, which means less money for other things... things like military funding.”
Spitshine fidgeted. “A-Ah, I see…”
Cadance leaned forward in her chair. “Princess Luna can’t be everywhere at once. She can protect us from large-scale assaults, but the smaller ones have been slipping through. The changeling attack on Canterlot happened because nopony noticed the psychic and emotional disturbance around Gleaming or Chrysalis, Commander. Do you want to run the risk of that happening again? Would you like to be left to rot in complete darkness for WEEKS while some filthy parasite pretends to be you?!”
Spitshine was at a loss. He looked between the two royals, but neither one held a note of jest. He blinked several times while he thought of how to reply.
“M-My apologies,” Spitshine said. “I didn’t realize that… I-I mean, I shouldn’t have assumed that—”
“You shouldn’t have assumed that your superior, leader of our military and co-ruler of the Empire, skirted her duties to go play Pretty Little Princess in her own little drag show.” Cadance’s voice grew dangerously quiet. “Your emotions have turned toxic, Commander.”
Spitshine’s eyes went wide. “NO! I’d never… that’s not—”
“DON’T lie to me.” Cadance stared him down as if he were a young foal. “I can see your emotions, Spitshine. The resentment, the scorn, the disgust. I’ve let it slide because you’ve kept those feelings to yourself, but if it’s going to make you do something this out of line, then you need to take a furlough. You can come back when you’ve pulled your head out of your ass.”
Spitshine went white as a sheet. He spluttered a bit for a while, but there wasn’t much of a counterpoint to be had. He fidgeted back and forth for a while until he gave up and hung his head.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Your Majesties. I really am having difficulty accepting the Prince as he is. I’m not sure why—I’ve been trying to push past it, but I’ve found myself frustrated at times…”
“You didn’t just storm in here because you were frustrated,” Cadance snapped. “The very thought of what we’re doing makes you sick. This whole effort is twisted in your eyes.”
Spitshine didn’t deny that. Instead, he looked past Gleaming and Cadance with hollow eyes. “I… accept your order of a furlough. I promise I’ll do my best to come to terms with these feelings. Maybe I can—”
Cadance shook her head. “Scratch the furlough. These emotions have already soured you, and I’m not going to allow that kind of vitriol to fester. I hereby order you to file for a transfer to another city, Spitshine. I don’t care where you go, but if I were you, I’d make it far, far away.”
Spitshine’s ears drooped. “U-Understood...” He gave a halfhearted bow, then turned and walked out of the dining room, tail dragging behind him on the ground. It was a good minute before Gleaming finally unjammed her brain enough to speak. “Was he really…? I mean, did he actually…”
Cadance sighed. “I should’ve done something sooner. Maybe I could’ve helped him better if I had, but he’ll be miserable if he stays here now. It’s better for everypony if he just leaves.”
Gleaming curled her lip. “I-I guess he did seem a little on edge, and I have been kinda hard on him, but…”
Cadance fiddled with her fork. “Seems you’re going to have to find a new second-in-command. Sorry about that.”
“Are there other ponies like that?” Gleaming asked. “That you’ve sensed? There can’t be many, right?”
Cadance watched as their food was brought in, the majority of it going to Gleaming. “You’re never going to please everyone, hun. You know that.”
Gleaming suddenly wasn’t so hungry anymore. “Suppose we’ll actually have to make that PSA about Luna’s program now…”
“Yeah.” Cadance stared blithely at her food. “Let’s do it after lunch.”
It’d been one of those nights where she’d tossed and turned for no particular reason, unable to get comfortable no matter what position she tried. Left side made her shoulder feel sore. Right side made her legs wiggly. Back? Never could sleep like that. Twilight and Cadance’s spells may have made it so the foals wouldn’t squish her insides, but sleeping on her back still gave her muscle cramps.
Gleaming stared out into the darkness. The bedroom was quiet and still, the only sound the buzzing of a fan and the deep breathing of Cadance. Often Gleaming could doze off to those things alone, but he embrace of sleep eluded her while her mind ran a million miles a minute.
Gleaming sighed and slid out of bed. She went over to the closet and pulled out a worn nightrobe to wear, but as she tried to get it on, she discovered a bit of a problem. The robe was the same one she’d had for years (an old Hearth’s Warming Gift from her mother) and not only did the cloth cinch barely fit around her burgeoning barrel, the shoulders were too big while the back barely fit around her hips.
Gleaming fiddled with it for a minute to try and see if she could get it to fit better, but she was realizing more and more that clothing was very nebulous when pregnant with four foals. Finally she gave up and put it back, instead floating over a new article of clothing she’d gotten last week.
It’d surprised her how comfortable a maternity brace was. It was a one-piece article that went over her head and slipped all the way down past her hips, with sleeves for all four of her legs to allow full range of maneuverability. The middle part was made of a stretchy-yet-supportive kind of fabric, and the whole thing was white so as to blend in with her coat—well, except for the back portion. That part was enchanted to be transparent so her cutie mark could be seen.
Gleaming put the brace on and zipped it up. Immediately she felt sturdier with the added support, but not so much as to be stiff or stifling. She’d been told that she’d outgrow the thing in a few months, but personally, she suspected it might be sooner. She essentially looked nine months pregnant now, and within another two weeks she’d probably be the same size as most mares when they were about to deliver.
Heck, maybe bigger.
Gleaming took a few steps to test the brace. It was snug and secure, preventing her belly from swaying back and forth like a pendulum. It did turn her stride into a bit of a waddle, but that was inevitable. She’d gained another five pounds in the last two weeks, and her last fundal height measurement had been thirty-five centimeters. Cadance had actually mentioned that she liked the look. Said it gave Gleaming’s gait the heavy grace pregnant mares were known for—
“Mmh… Honey?”
Speaking of which...
Gleaming turned to find Cadance sitting up in bed with her horn lit. “Ah, sorry babe,” said Gleaming. “I was trying to be quiet for you.”
Cadance rubbed her eyes and glanced at the clock. “S’two in the morning... what’s wrong?”
Gleaming gave her a sad smile. “Brain doesn’t wanna slow down. Think I’m gonna go for a walk to try and wind down. Maybe drop by the kitchens for a snack or something.”
“Mmm, y’sure?” Cadance yawned wide. “Could just make somethin’ here... dun need to go all that way…”
“I want to walk more than I want to eat,” Gleaming said. “Might not even go down that way. Dunno yet.”
“Nnngh, if that’s what’cha want...” Cadance plopped back down and closed her eyes. “Dun’ be gone long though... sheets’ll get cold…”
“I won’t, love. I’ll be back soon.”
Gleaming slipped out of the bedroom and left their apartment, nodding once to her slightly-surprised night guards as she passed. They made to follow after her as she walked down the hall, but she shook her head. Reluctantly, they stayed at their post while she walked off… their eyes lingering on her supple, heart-shaped rear.
“Dat ass,” the first guard whispered.
“Just wanna take a bite out of it,” said the second.
Gleaming wandered down the silent halls without any real purpose. There was a lingering fatigue in her mind, a stretched-out feeling that made her thoughts linger on random things. It was difficult to concentrate on anything meaningful, but she didn’t have anything particular she wanted to sort out, so she just went wherever her legs carried her.
It was currently the third week of September. The signs of Fall were abundant around most of Equestria: Orange leaves falling as the blustery wind picked up, steady rainstorms being moved in and out by bustling pegasi, near-constant overcast skies to allow the earth to shed the heat of Summer. But the Crystal Empire was locked in its usual perpetual state of Spring, so they didn’t have any of those things. Gleaming did sometimes miss the changing of the seasons, but she also couldn’t deny that the consistent balmy weather had its advantages.
She lingered in a stairway to look out a window at the city below. The streets were lit with twinkling lights here and there to create a blend of grays and blacks like a patchwork quilt. A specific patchwork quilt actually, one Gleaming’s father had inherited and had kept out in the family living room. Gleaming had many fond memories of falling asleep wrapped in the warmth of that quilt, and as they came to mind, she made a note to ask if she could be the one to inherit it. She’d love if her own kids could snuggle under it, as well.
Gleaming stopped by the room just below their apartment. Originally just a spare place to store guard equipment and cleaning supplies, it was now in the midst of being renovated into a nursery and playroom. One of the walls had been knocked out to make it an extra-large space, and there were marks on the floor and ceiling where a staircase to the apartment was planned. A decent amount of progress had been made as of late, but things was still very much in the process of construction.
Gleaming patted her belly. “Kinda like you guys.”
She tried to imagine what this would all look like come next summer. The floor was currently covered in plastic sheets to protect it from scuffing, and the walls bare and unpainted. Table saws, drills, workbenches, rolls of fiberglass, nail guns, extension cords, buckets of plaster, and other assorted construction materials were strewn about hodgepodge with various boxes all over the place, and it all felt listless and empty.
Gleaming tried to recall what her parents had told her about her own nursery. The walls were cream-colored, and the carpet was soft. There was a rocking chair in the corner. Lots of assorted toys everywhere. Apparently she’d had a mobile of the sun and the moon over her crib that she’d adored, but she had no recollection of anything.
But Twilight’s nursery, that she remembered. The walls were a pale mauve with swirls on them, the ceiling painted to look like the starry night sky. The carpet was a soothing dark gray, and her crib and changing table were simple things that did their jobs well enough. Her blankets and diapers were all either indigo or purple, and it was a very subdued room that Twilight had seemed to really like. Although she was always awake at odd hours regardless for some reason. Fortunately, Dad was often up at odd hours for his job.
Gleaming tried to see what else she remembered. There was a bookcase filled with children’s books because Mom liked to read bedtime stories. Dad liked to put Twilight on the floor and watch her crawl around. Both Mom and Dad liked to rock her to sleep in Grandma Starlight’s old rocking chair. Oh, and there was always a weird-looking baby monitor by the crib that they kept on when they weren’t around. They’d used it for Spike, too.
Gleaming chewed on her lip as she ran through the list of things yet to be done. They had seven months to prepare, but it was passing in the blink of an eye. There were a lot of things to account for, and worse yet, the amount of things she could help out with was going to decrease as time went on. The ponies they hired as helpers were going to be crucial, as the wrong individual may send everything spiralling out of control... not to mention the ponies they hired to help them look care for the kids once they were born! The wrong pony THERE could be disastrous to their upbringing! And that wasn’t even getting started on who they picked for Crystallers! Plus there was the consideration of spending enough time with the kids while balancing work, meal scheduling, schooling, what toys to buy, how to discipline them, and overall just maintaining a presence—
Gleaming groaned and rubbed her temples. “Breathe, Shining… breathe. Running yourself through the wringer isn’t going to do you any favors.”
She wasn’t overly stressed out now, at least. Of course here was a fair bit of responsibility that came with being a military general and co-head of a government’s legislation, but those were things she enjoyed. And it was mostly routine by this point anyway: Oversee drills, fill out paperwork, instruct the recruits, fill out more paperwork, hold court, even more paperwork, look over bill proposals (which was nothing but paperwork), et cetera, et cetera. She didn’t have as much free time as she would’ve liked, but it was a pretty cushy job all things considered. Honestly, the hardest part was having to tell others to do things instead of doing them herself.
Gleaming exhaled out her nose. Perhaps a midnight snack would help her get out of her own head. Vanilla ice cream with raisins and salted caramel sounded good...
One Trip to the Kitchens Later-
“Who’s there?!”
A pegasus guard by a heavily-locked door flared his wings. On these wings were a pair of wicked-looking wingblades, ones that he raised in a very real combat stance. “Come out! I know you’re over there!”
Gleaming smoothly stepped out of the shadows. “At ease, Lieutenant Steelwing. Just making some rounds.”
Steelwing’s eyes wide. “G-General!” He folded his wings and bowed low. “Forgive me, I didn’t—”
“—think top brass would be wandering the castle at night?” Gleaming smirked. “C’mon, I gotta make sure the Heartguard’s staying sharp. Can’t have you laying around like sacks of shit.”
The Heartguard was a special task force assigned to guarding the Crystal Heart around the clock. It was comprised of ponies whose skills and talents were all different from one another so as to minimize the effectiveness of an enemy attack. The details of said talents were a closely kept secret, and only a few ponies outside the Heartguard knew the specifics. Gleaming and Cadance were among those few.
Steelwing stifled a snicker. “No laying around here, ma’am. Captain Deadeye would put an arrow through my cutie mark if I tried, and I don’t even wanna know what you’d do.”
The smirk on Gleaming’s face turned sinister. “Two words—hedge cutters.”
Steelwing shuddered. “Y-Yeah… like I said.”
Gleaming gestured at the tightly locked door. “How’s the Heart? Slow night?”
“As always,” Steelwing said. “About the most exciting thing that’s happened the past few months is when you and Princess Cadance borrowed the thing some months back.”
Gleaming coughed and looked away. “Y-Yes, erm… right. We, uh... do appreciate the Guard handling that quietly, by the way.”
Steelwing stretched out one of his armored wings, inspecting the scythe-like blade that both protected his limb and made for a deadly weapon. The razor-sharp edge was on the outer portion, allowing him to parry and slash at lightning speed. “We haven’t had any issues otherwise. We usually only see the nightly patrols, cleaning staff... heh, and the occasional lost cook.”
Gleaming blinked. “Eh?”
Steelwing laughed. “One of the new kitchen staff. She stumbled down here on her first day almost in tears. Took me ten minutes to calm her down, then ten more to give her directions on where to go. She was so grateful she brings me snacks now when she’s on break.”
Gleaming noted of the fondness in Steelwing’s voice. “Sounds like you’ve made a friend.”
Steelwing shuffled back and forth, his lips pursed into a thin line. “H-Hey, erm... General, I know this is random, but may I ask about something?”
Gleaming raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t mean I’ll answer, but sure.”
Steelwing put a hoof behind his head. “What did you and Princess Cadance need the Heart for? We all felt the power surge when it was activated that night... Obviously it didn’t do any harm, but the Heartguard’s been going bonkers trying to figure out exactly what happened.”
Gleaming hesitated. She doubted he was asking about the more... passionate events, but most had probably put two and two together there regardless. She supposed some vague details about the ritual wouldn’t hurt.
Gleaming cleared her throat. “Well… as you and the rest of the Empire know, Princess Cadance is unable to carry or conceive a child thanks to a curse cast on her. As she and I want to have biological children, this was a problem.”
Steelwing nodded. “Understandable.”
Gleaming swished her tail a bit, noting (not for the first time) the weirdness of not having any male parts back there. “We found a one-time way to get around this, but we needed a few things in order to do it. One of these things was the Crystal Heart’s power, and another was my agreement to carry the child. Once we’d gathered everything else together and were ready to go, we used the Heart in a ritual so we could conceive.”
“But what ritual?” Steelwing pressed. “What’d the Crystal Heart do?”
Gleaming sucked on her teeth. That... was getting a little more detailed than she wanted to get into. Not so much that it was embarrassing; but more because she couldn’t think of an easy way to say the Heart’s power allowed Future-Cadance’s sperm to fertilize Gleaming eggs and thereby become whole new entities that wouldn’t get rubber banded back to the future.
“I’m afraid that’s classified, Lieutenant.”
Steelwing wilted. “Aww...”
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “It’s not as exciting as you’re thinking. The whole thing was more Cadance’s brainchild than mine, and I’d probably wind up botching the explanation of it. I don’t want to go spreading misinformation.”
Reluctantly, Steelwing dropped it and looked down the hallway with unfocused eyes. “Can I ask something else, then?”
“Shoot.”
The young guard’s gaze fell on Gleaming. He took in her slender neck, her smaller frame, wider hips and rounded belly. There was an odd look in his eyes, not of lust, desire, or disdain, but of something else entirely.
“What’s it like?”
Gleaming tilted her head. “Being... pregnant? Or being a mare?”
“Both.”
Gleaming was quiet for a few seconds. “...Being a mare’s not all that different. Aside from the obvious, the changes have been mostly in how ponies treat me. Some seem more willing to open up, others seem more awkward, a few have been downright hostile, and then there’s curious ones like you. I do get more passive-aggressiveness directed my way, but most get over it once they realize I’m still me.”
Steelwing nodded. “And being pregnant?”
Gleaming’s eyes grew warm. “Let me put it this way. Do you enjoy protecting others, Lieutenant?”
Steelwing stared at her like she’d just asked if snow was cold. “That’s... why I’m in the military, General.”
Gleaming chuckled. “Imagine this, then. There’s an innocent pony, possibly more than one, who’s completely dependant on you for everything. The place that keeps them safe is inside you, and you have to watch over and care for them for an entire year. Everything from the things you eat to the amount of stress you’re under has an effect on them. How would you feel about that?”
Steelwing looked down at the floor. He pursed his lips tight into a thin line, eyes sharp, the gears turning in his head. “I’d... be really self-conscious and probably really nervous, but at the same time? I’d also feel really important. I imagine it’d be easy to get micromanage everything I was doing, but knowing that I’m doing something that cool? Especially if the payoff is that the pony gonna be alive because of me?”
Steelwing looked up and smiled. “I bet that feels pretty awesome.”
Gleaming patted his shoulder. “Do me a favor and spread that attitude around, eh? I’ve run into a few ponies lately that could stand to think like that.”
Steelwing saluted. “Ma’am! Yes, ma’am!”
Gleaming chuckled. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go in and take a look at the Heart. Could you do the honors?”
Steelwing straightened. “At once, ma’am!” He trotted over to the door and produced two things: a set of glowing keys, and a simple black disc. The simple black disc began to whir and hum upon being touched, releasing a quick burst of blue magic that filled the hallway.
“Registered users identified,” the disc chirped. “General and Princess-Consort Gleaming Shield, Unicorn, Female. No undeclared spells found. Lieutenant Steelwing, Pegasus, Male. No undeclared spells found. Declare Authorization Codes now.”
The black disc made a pleasant chime. “Vocalization recognized. Disabling outer security system for thirty seconds. You may now remove the locks.”
Steelwing unlocked the doors and stepped aside for Gleaming. She thanked him and walked inside, the doors closing behind with a heavy THUD.
The Crystal Heart was only put out on display outside during the daytime. There’d been some deliberation about this when it’d been recovered, but it was decided that the courtyard beneath the castle was simply too vulnerable to keep the most the nation’s most important relic there. The more conservative types insisted on tradition, though, so a compromise was made to have it out during normal work hours.
The room was small, only about the size of a living room. Glowing runes covered the floor in intricate arcane patterns, and the only light in the room came from the Crystal Heart’s luminance. A set of stairs led up to its resting place, and the whole place held a solemn reverence.
It was a rather impressive system they’d set up. The outer portion was pretty basic, just a device to detect concealing and mind-control magic, a powerful barrier rigged to an alarm, an enchanted key that could only be used be a member of the Heartguard. That could all be circumvented though, so the inner portion was much, much beefier. Rows upon rows of enchantments were cast to prevent magical infiltration, attuned to only a very small set of ponies. There were also physical defenses—walls of impenetrable crystal embedded into the very foundation of the castle, and if any of them were compromised, it’d trigger the alarm and defense systems.
Gleaming trotted past the enchantments and walked up to where the Crystal Heart was stored. It hovered serenely in midair like always, held aloft by its own magics between two pillars. Gleaming could actually feel the magical energies flowing off the artifact, along with the subtle hum that it always gave off.
“Hey,” Gleaming said. “Remember me?”
The Crystal Heart was an ancient thing. Created by the Crystal Empire’s first ruler, it’d always been a key component in protecting the northern lands. Gleaming was aware that the Heart’s magic had some kind of tie-in with the future and destiny—hence why she and Cadance had been able to use it the way they had—but as to the specifics...
Gleaming circled around the Heart. “Cady told me you used to be able to show ponies the future. Way, way back in the day, all ponies had to do was touch you, and you’d give them a glimpse of their destiny. But you haven’t done anything like that since we recovered you from Sombra. Why?”
She stared into the recesses of the relic, her reflection broken on its facets like a madmare’s self-portrait. Its radiant power washed over her and swept through her body, giving her features a crystalline shimmer.
“I want to see my future,” Gleaming whispered amidst the hum. “No… their future. I want to know if they’re going to be alright. I want to know what role I should play to support them, I want to know whether or not Cady and I will have more after these are born, and if so, how…”
The Heart gave no answers. No insight to her destiny, no comfort for her doubts. It just hovered there and radiated its holy power, a wellspring of magic that’d endured for millennia.
Gleaming reached out and touched the Heart…
tink
...but nothing happened.
Gleaming hung her head. She wasn’t really sure why she’d come here in the first place. Maybe because she was bored, maybe because she was paranoid, or maybe it was because she just wanted to come and see the thing that’d helped make the four miracles inside her. It could’ve been all of those things at once. She didn’t know.
Gleaming let her hoof fall and turned to leave—
thump
“Ah?!” She went stiff as a board. She’d just felt a… a… something tickle her insides, almost like butterflies in her gut! What the hay?!
thump... thump
There it was again! It was coming from her right side, near her belly button! She put her hoof on her stomach... and as she did, she managed to feel the faintest brush of something within her, shifting and wriggling about.
th-thump thump… thump.
It was the most peculiar thing she’d ever felt. It was almost like indigestion, except not uncomfortable. This felt almost… pleasant?
Thump. Thump.
As Gleaming swivelled her neck back to look at her bulging belly, she caught a glimpse of a tiny little bump appear on her right side before disappearing.
And that’s when she recognized it for what it was.
“Kick…”
One of her foals was kicking.
Her child, moving on their own.
Gleaming’s eyes grew warm. Her throat gradually went tight as she sniffled in the dimly-lit room. She made no effort to stop the tears as they fell, sitting down and stroking her womb, watching and feeling the first indication that all of this was real.
“Th-Thank you...” Whether gratitude was actually owed to anything or not, Gleaming didn’t care. “Thank you, thank you thank you, thank you so much...”
The Next Day-
“There!” Gleaming said to Cadance. “You had to have noticed that one!”
Gleaming was laying on the living room couch with Cadance’s head pressed against Gleaming’s belly. She was listening closely, carefully, her ears still as she discerned the soft movements within.
Thump.
Cadance’s eyes flew open. “Holy… they really are moving!”
Gleaming squee’d. “I think it’s just one of them right now. I can’t even imagine what it’s gonna feel like when all four of them start!”
Cadance pulled Gleaming into a kiss, which then rolled into a second, a third, a fourth. Gleaming wrapped her arms around Cadance’s neck and kissed back hungrily, their tears falling between their lips and onto their dancing tongues.
“I love you,” Cadance whispered once they broke. “Thank you for doing this... you’re so very brave...”
Gleaming wiped Cadance’s eyes with a fetlock. “Hey, what’re you thanking me for? It’s not like you were the only one pushing for kids. If anything, I think I was gunning for it more than you were.”
Cadance nuzzled her neck. “Mmm, let’s not make it a competition. We were both pretty gung-ho.”
“But I was the one who first brought it up,” Gleaming pointed out. “And besides, if I’d really been opposed to this idea, it would’ve taken more than a fifteen-minute presentation to convince me!”
Cadance played with a lock of Gleaming’s mane. “You... did agree faster than I thought. I thought it’d take at least a few days to talk you into it, but… well. I was actually worried I came off as too pushy.”
Gleaming sat up a bit, adjusting so that she was laying on her side. “Do you remember when you said you could tell there was a part of me that was actually kinda excited about this idea?”
Cadance nodded. “Back at the beginning, yeah.”
Gleaming smiled and stroked the nub of her outie. “Look, it’s kinda hard to suddenly shake off the morals and role you’ve been brought up on at the drop of a hat. Of course my kneejerk reaction was ‘heck no’, but almost anypony’s would be! It was mostly because I knew how much change it’d bring.”
Cadance looked away. “I… do know you hate sudden change. I should’ve broken it to you more gently.”
Gleaming shook her head. “That doesn’t mean you were wrong. I’ve always been a little curious, and being pregnant was one of the things I’ve wondered about most. I’ve spent my life doing stallion things, but I mostly did it because I thought I was supposed to do them, y’know? I might’ve turned out a very different pony in a different life.”
Cadance rolled her eyes with a smile. “You’re so much like Twilight sometimes.”
Gleaming snorted. “More like Twilight and I are like Mom. She’s the one who analyzes and micromanages. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of our kids follow in the same vein.”
Cadance shook her head. “Such a family of goofballs.” She put a wing around Gleaming and squeezed her tight. “What did I do to deserve all of you?”
Gleaming waggled her eyebrows. “You know you love us.”
Cadance kissed her again. “Never said I didn’t.”
Knock, knock, knock.
Both of them looked to the door. They hadn’t been expecting anybody to come visit today.
Cadance and Gleaming looked at each other, then shrugged. “Come in!” called Cadance.
Rex walked inside, stoic, impassive, and curly as ever. She bowed to them and stood at attention, her lips only twitching slightly when she saw them cuddled on the couch.
“You two are gonna give me diabetes at this rate.”
Cadance laughed. “We have to figure out some way to get you to crack a smile. Can’t have you being a Gloomy Gus all the time.”
Rex’s eyes twinkled. “It’s a rare day that my mood resembles anything close to gloomy. You of all ponies should know that.”
Cadance snickered. “Why do you think I have you work so closely with us?”
“How you doing, Rex?” Gleaming chimed in. “Everything alright?”
Rex nodded and produced a sealed manila folder. “We’ve just received the final count of Crystal Empire volunteers for Princess Luna’s thestral surrogate program. I thought you’d want to—”
“Gimme gimme gimme!” Cadance snatched the folder in her magic and floated it over.
She opened it and leafed through the thick packet, muttering to herself while Gleaming looked on beside her.
“Analysis of promotional marketing campaign… preliminary medical tests exclude twelve percent of initial subjects… national budget will need to be assessed… projected employee needs exceed current medical rosters… draw up proposals for facilities expansion and renovation… we knew all of this already,” Cadance said. “Where’s the final count?”
“Go back to the second page,” said Gleaming. “I think I saw something there.”
Cadance flipped to the front and scanned it again. I took her a few seconds, but when she finally found it...
“Buh.”
“What?” Gleaming said. “Did you find it? Where—oh, there it… is…”
“Care to share?” Rex asked. “I’ve been somewhat curious about this, myself.”
Cadance looked up at Rex, jaw hung slack. “S-Six thousand, two hundred and ninety-four.”
Rex’s wings fluttered a bit at her sides. “A-Ah. Erm… yes. That’s… quite a few.”
Cadance’s mind was reeling. “Six thousand volunteers… six thousand batponies...”
“So Cady,” Gleaming said nervously. “Heh heh… r-remember all those things I was saying to Apogee? You know, building a facility, adding a new wing to at least one of the hospitals, and more? I think we’re gonna need to get on that...”
“I still think it’s an even split,” said Cadance. “Two boys, two girls.”
Gleaming shook her head. “It’s just not that likely. Three girls, one boy.”
The ultrasound room hadn’t changed since Gleaming’s session three months ago. Same sterile white walls, same unnaturally-bright lights with nasty glare, same unnerving pictures of mare and fetal anatomy. Gleaming was lying on her side upon the bed, and Cadance was sitting on a stool with wheels while idly scooting around the room.
“It’s plenty likely!” Cadance had been spending the majority of the time either fiddling with her mane, messing with her regalia, or playing with various things in the room. “Call it a mare’s intuition.”
Gleaming raised an eyebrow.
Cadance giggled. “Guess that one doesn’t work so well right now. But still!”
Gleaming ran her hoof along the edge of her lady bits. Even though she hadn’t had a sheath down there for five months, it still felt weird to her. “I’m still gonna stick with the odds.”
Cadance blew a raspberry at her. “What about species, then? We haven’t talked about that much. Think one of them could be an alicorn?”
Gleaming chewed on her lip. She looked down at her hefty belly, which’d been growing over half a centimeter a day. She’d been gaining about half a pound along with it, and the result was she looked damn near full term already.
“We might?” she said slowly. “I don’t know the odds there. Not even Twily seemed to.”
Cadance came over to rub Gleaming’s side. “Have you felt anything at all? Any particularly strong kicks? Prodding too small to be a hoof?”
Gleaming thought a moment. “Prods, pokes, flutterings, I’ve felt all those things. But unicorn horns don’t get hard until a few weeks after birth, and I’ve no idea what wings feel like. About all I can tell is when they’re awake.”
Cadance leaned down to plant a kiss on Gleaming’s tummy. “And they do like to be awake.”
Sleeping had been proved to be a bit of a challenge. It seemed like at least one of them liked to squirm around at all times, particularly when Gleaming laid down at night. It’d gotten so bad that Cadance had had to start using love magic in order to pacify them.
Gleaming stifled a yawn and rubbed her eyes. “Eh, I’m getting used to it.”
Knock, knock, knock.
“Come in!” Cadance called.
Two ponies came inside. The first was Doctor Endo—Gleaming and Cadance’s primary doctor and obstetrician. He smiled warmly as he entered.
“Good afternoon, Majesties,” he said. “How’s everything going?”
The second however, was a stranger. An old, old unicorn, short and thin, with a snow-white mane in a bun and a pale blue coat. Her cutie mark was a staff with a white snake wrapped around it, and her wrinkled face looked like it had been chiseled out of stone.
The newcomer’s expression was impassive as she bowed to Cadance. But as soon as she saw Gleaming in all her pregnant glory, her watery eyes lit up bright.
“Ho, you’re a big one!” she said in a dry, deep alto. “And here I thought Endo was exaggerating like always. You got knocked up real good there, didn’t ya?”
Gleaming blinked several times. “Come again?”
“Heh, lemme get a good look’atcha.” She pulled out a pair of half-moon spectacles and limped over with a slow gait. “How’ve ya been feelin’ so far? Tired? Woozy? Chest feel tight ever? Light-headed at all? I’ll bet you haven’t gotten much sleep with all them kids kickin’ ya.”
Gleaming noticed that Endo was trying not to laugh. Cadance seemed just confused as she was… until she saw the old mare’s cutie mark.
“Your Highnesses,” said Endo. “You recall our discussion about bringing in a specialist from Canterlot? Allow me to introduce my former mentor, Doctor Natal. She’s the most knowledgeable scientist alive in pony gestation and genetics.”
“Most call me Talia.” She pulled a stethoscope out from her bags and listened to Gleaming’s chest. “And I’m retired, Endo. Only reason I’m here is because you put such a tantalizin’ carrot in front of my nose. Oh, and don’t listen to him, Majesties. I’ve worked on teams with ponies ten times smarter than I’ll ever be. They all just happen to be dead now, that’s all... breathe in deep for me, would ya? Just like that, yeah… now take another one, but this time, hold it in. That’s it...”
Gleaming was a bit taken aback by the dive straight into an examination, but at the same time, something about Talia immediately set Gleaming at ease.
“Doctor Natal?” Cadance’s eyes went wide. “The Doctor Natal? The Neighbel Prize winner and obstetrics guru?!”
Endo nodded. “In the flesh.”
Cadance went pale. “I-I… you… buh…”
“Oh, for Luna’s sake.” Talia took off the stethoscope and set about taking Gleaming’s pulse. “Don’t get all starry eyed on me, Cadance... can I call ya Cadance? Yeah? Good. I’m here to make sure your foals get a chance at life, not to have my ego stroked. And for stars sake, Endo, stop messing with the poor mare’s nerves! I’m too old to be wasting time.”
Endo lowered his head. “Sorry.”
Cadance fidgeted back and forth. Her inner fangirl was straining hard, doing a little happy dance and squeeing in her mind.
“Breathing’s nice and steady,” Talia mumbled. “Good… good… that’s almost always a problem with multiples, but you’ve got a good set o’lungs on ya. Skin’s a healthy color too, so circulation’s good… you go by Gleaming Shield at the moment, correct?”
Gleaming put a hoof behind her head. “Er, yeah. Just seemed easier to—”
“Don’t need to justify it.” Talia pulled out a piece of ribbon with measurements and laid it atop Gleaming’s belly. “My late wife was born a stallion, so I understand these things better than most… forty-three centimeters already, eh? That’s a bit large, even for four foals. How’ve your eating habits been?”
“Er, well... I have been eating a lot,” Gleaming admitted. “Endo’s said he’d like me to gain about ninety pounds, so we’ve upped my meals to five a day.”
Endo spoke up. “I actually made that assessment before your sister came and did her alterations. Now that she’s compensated for several risk factors, it’d actually be better if you gained more than that.”
Gleaming stared at him. “How much more?”
Endo shrugged. “Ideal foal weight is eight to ten pounds. Placenta, amniotic fluid and breast tissue are all usually two to three apiece, additional blood supply is four to five, stored fat for delivery and breastfeeding is five to nine, and the larger uterus is two to five. Multiply all of that by four, and you’ve got a median of about a hundred and twenty pounds. That’s not usually how a multiple pregnancy works, mind you, but I’ve no reason to see why it shouldn’t in this case. Each mare’s body adapts to pregnancy in a different way, and your weight seems to be going to all the right places.”
Gleaming suddenly felt dizzy. “A hundred and twenty… oof...”
“More like unf,” Cadance whispered.
“So some spells are in place already,” said Talia. “Which ones?”
“You should be able to see them in a scan,” Endo said. “I didn’t cast any myself, but I’ve been keeping an eye on their integrity.”
Talia’s horn glowed a deep, piercing blue, the same color as her eyes. “Vitals?”
“Steady.” Endo pulled out a clipboard and gave it to Talia. “Weight gain and fundal height measurements have been consistent. No signs of gestational diabetes, hypertension, anemia, or UTI.”
Gleaming felt a slight tingling as Talia’s magic felt around, the old doctor muttering to herself all the while. “Some kind of Greater Irongut, Appetite, and—what the... ah, this is that modified transmog spell you mentioned back in the office. I recognize two of the matrices, but the others... who cast this on her?”
“Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Endo said. “Shame she went into politics. She’d have made a great scientist.”
“Princess...” Talia trailed off, chuckling. “She’s about the only one who could pull something this complex off, ain’t she? Stars above, there ain’t a single unused spell thread or wasted magic conduit in here! It’s a bloomin’ work of art!”
Endo came over to stand beside her. “The Princess explained some of it before she returned to Ponyville, but I’ll admit it went over my head. I’ve never even seen such complicated magic before, much less worked with it in a patient! It’s working far as I can tell... but even if it wasn’t, the seventeenfailsafes built into it would catch any errant effects.”
Talia met Gleaming’s eyes with a kind smile. “Your sister loves ya something fierce, don’t she?”
Gleaming blushed. “Y-Yeah. We’ve always been close.”
“Um, Doctor,” Cadance cut in. “Gleamy and I were… um, just discussing something regarding genetics and race before you came in. Could we get your input on it?”
Talia regarded her. “Lemme guess, you wanna know the probability of one or more of your kids bein’ an honest-to-goodness alicorn.”
“You wrote half the books Twilight and I have been using for reference,” Cadance said in a rush. “So much of what we’ve done has been based on your work! If there’s anypony who can give us an answer, it’s you.”
Talia yawned and scratched the side of her face. “We could just do the ultrasound and find out rather than have me prattle on, y’know. Or did ya want to hear my thoughts for a different reason?”
Cadance suddenly looked like a filly who’d got caught with her hoof in the cookie jar. “I, er… w-well… maybe you can tell us your thoughts while you’re doing the scan? I know you’ll make it interesting...”
Talia laughed softly. “Silly girl. Not even five minutes and I can already tell you’ve got the baby bug.” She gave Gleaming a sidelong glance. “Ya both do. Normally I’d advise against plans for more kids ‘til you’ve had a chance to see what it’s like with just one—or four in this case, but seein’ you could probably just order me,I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Cadance was taken aback. “What? We’d never—”
“Forgive Talia’s manners.” Endo gave his old mentor a pointed look. “She’s always been a bit brusque when meeting new ponies. Isn’t that right?”
Talia returned his glare for only a moment, but it was long enough for something to pass between them.
“Yeah, yeah, o’course,” said Talia after a time. “Apologies, Princess Cadance. Seems my bedside manner’s slipped a bit in retirement. I’ll share what I know while we do the ultrasound, alright, and you can decide what you wanna do from there, alright?”
Talia hobbled over to the ultrasound machine while Endo helped Gleaming onto her back. “The records we have on alicorn offspring are all from Starswirl’s journals. There’s not much seeing as modern genetics weren’t discovered, but from the studies he did then, we know that Princess Celestia’s and Princess Luna’s parents were a unicorn and a pegasus, and there are strong earth pony bloodlines in their immediate lineage.”
“Starswirl also suspected it’s impossible for natural alicorns to be male,” Endo added. “We’ve never found evidence to support this, but since Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are unable to have foals of their own, we do suspect whatever causes a natural alicorn also results in sterility.”
Talia grunted. “Studies since then haven’t yielded much else. There’ve been plenty theories over what could possibly cause a naturally-born alicorn, but there ain’t been any new alicorn births to test it. We’ve done tests on the Canterlot Princesses here and there and found they do got a different genome, but not how to isolate or recreate it. We’ve also run the same tests on your sister just to see if there’s any difference between natural alicorns and ascended ones, and we found something interesting. Did she tell either of ya about that?”
Gleaming and Cadance shook their heads. This was certainly news to them.
Talia cracked her neck with a loud pop! “Well, I won’t blab too much, but to be honest, there ain’t really much to tell. Turns out natural and ascended alicorns are identical... save one key difference. Think you can figure out what it is?”
Gleaming reflected on what she knew about the princesses and genetics in general. She wasn’t very familiar with the latter, but if Talia thought they could figure it out, then it must be something obvious—
“Ascended alicorns can still have kids,” said Cadance.
Oh. Duh.
“Bingo,” Talia said. “There’s no mention of ascended alicorns in Starswirl’s journals, but there wouldn’t be, as ascension’s something of a recent development. But mark my words, I’ve no he’d be spending all his time researching what makes ‘em tick if he was around today. Celestia knows I have the last twenty years.”
Endo turned to Cadance. “I initially thought your sterility was somehow related to this. However, your medical tests from before the Crystal Empire’s return showed you in perfect health with no sign of decline, so I decided to dig a little deeper. That’s how I found the curse in your system.”
Cadance sucked on her teeth. “But what about that thing you mentioned about alicorns having a different genome, Talia? I think I remember reading about a paper you published about what you called the ‘alicorn gene’. That’s what you’re talking about, right?”
“Yessir.” Talia started up the ultrasound machine with a soft whum. “In a nutshell, I think there’s a rare recessive gene residing in some ponies that’ll allow ‘em to ascend into alicorns so long as the right requirements are met. We’ve yet to find that gene, let alone discover what causes it to activate, but you, Cadance, are obviously a carrier seeing as you’ve already ascended. And as for you, Gleaming, Princess Twilight’s your biological sibling, so there a good chance you’ve got it, too.”
Endo showed a diagram with squares on it to Cadance. “Look here. If both of you and Princess Gleaming are carriers, not only is it guaranteed all four of your children will inherit the recessive alicorn gene, but the combination of an activated one and a recessive one has a one in six chance of a naturally-born alicorn. If Princess Gleaming’s not a carrier, your children will have about a one-in-eight chance of just getting the recessive alicorn gene. All things considered though, those aren’t terrible odds.”
Cadance and Gleaming stared. A potential one-in-six chance? Those were better odds than they’d expected!
“But that ain’t all,” Talia took a bottle of heated gel and began slathering it all over Gleaming’s giant swell of a womb. “There’s another side to all of this that convinced me to come up here. Somethin’ I think the both of ya are gonna be mighty surprised by.”
Endo frowned. “I didn’t think we were going to discuss that just yet.”
Talia glanced over. “Why not? It’s on topic.”
Endo swished his tail. “I already told you, it’s better if we confirm our suspicions before going on about anything more.”
Talia rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine…”
Endo turned back to the royal couple. “Your Majesties, do you mind if we hold off on further explanations until after the ultrasound? I promise it’ll be better for all parties involved.”
Gleaming and Cadance exchanged a look. Neither one of them seemed to hold any objection, so they both nodded and gestured for them to carry on.
“Alright, then.” Talia picked up the wand in her magic. “Let’s have a look see.”
She pushed it into the side of Gleaming’s stomach, then flipped on the monitor while adjusting settings here and there.
Gleaming felt a pleasant shudder run through her from the wand’s touch. Her belly was getting more and more sensitive as time went on, and it was getting to the point that even a simple touch could get her motor running. She could feel the foals wiggling at the sudden change in pressure, and the sensation never failed to give her a warm glow in her chest.
“Couple things to note,” Endo said as they all (save Gleaming) watched the monitor. “The image will show things like the foals’ faces and limbs, but it’ll also show the insides of their bodies. We’ll see spines, kidneys, bladders, hearts, those kinds of things. That’s all normal.”
Cadance came over and held Gleaming’s hoof. “We’ll see their genders too, right?”
Endo nodded. “If you want to know what they are.”
“We do,” they said together.
Talia snorted. “Not on the fence there.”
Cadance gave Gleaming’s hoof a squeeze. “We’ve something of a bet going.”
Endo shrugged. “We’ll be checking other things first before we get to that, but we’ll let you know. There are a lot of other things we’d like to get a read on.”
“Like what?” Gleaming asked.
“Oh, amount of amniotic fluid in the uterus, head and abdominal circumference, umbilical cord positioning, placenta size, overall fetal size, that kinda thing,” said Talia. “There’s a lot of workin’ parts in a pregnancy, and we wanna make sure that they’re all working properly. S’pretty easy to tell gender, though. Girl parts look like three lines, and boy parts look… well, how you’d expect.”
Gleaming and Cadance laughed.
“I think that’s about as clear as I’m gonna get this thing.” Talia pushed her glasses up a bit. “Let’s meet the royal family.”
The screen flickered, going from black, to… well, a slightly lighter shade of black. Speckled blobs of gray and white hovered in and out of view for a moment, until suddenly, the fuzzy distorted image of a tiny pony came into view.
“There,” said Endo.
“I see ‘em.” Talia moved the wand over a bit to try and get a better view. “Annnnnnd it’s a boy. Heh, told ya it’s easy to tell. Lemme see if I can get him to move a bit…”
Cadance stared at the image on the screen. It was blurry and colorless and only just discernible, but there was no mistaking the silhouette on the screen for anything but a foal. Her son fidgeted a bit and turned onto his side, then curled into a ball and lay still.
Her son.
She was looking at her son.
It was an odd feeling. She’d expected to have some kind of swell of emotion, maybe burst into tears or something, but instead all she felt was a sense of… ownership? Responsibility? Pride? It was positive to be sure, but it wasn’t the reaction she’d expected.
Gleaming, on the other hoof, had a somewhat different reaction.
“YES!” She thrust a hoof into the air. “We got one! We got a boy! WOOOOO!”
Endo couldn’t help but smirk. “What, you didn’t want all girls? Think of how easy it would’ve been to get them all the same Hearth’s Warming gifts.”
Gleaming gave him a flat look. “One. Freaking. Boy. I don’t care what race he is—he can be a seapony for all I care!”
“Well, he ain’t a seapony, but he’s certainly somethin’ else,” said Talia. “No horn… annnnnnd no wings. Looks like he’s an earth pony... crystal pony? Not sure how to tell the difference there. Is there a way to tell?”
“Here.” Endo moved around to the other side of the bed, then lowered his horn to where Talia was holding the wand. His horn glowed a dull green, and Gleaming felt a sudden crackling within her womb.
The screen flashed pure white.
“AH!” Everypony shielded their eyes. Gleaming was the only one who wasn’t blinded, and so she was the only one who saw her belly glitter and shine like an iridescent orb.
The flash left as quickly as it’d come, leaving everyone gingerly rubbing their eyes.
“That... was supposed to just cause a small sparkle,” Endo said. “I’ve never seen a response that strong.”
“Well, congratulations on burning out my retinas,” Talia said dryly. She blinked several times to try and get out the white spots. “Does that at least mean he’s a crystal pony?”
Endo coughed. “Er, yes. Most definitely! A crystal pony colt.”
Gleaming and Cadance took in that information with a long pause. They didn’t say as much, but they separately had the thought that this little boy was going to be interesting one.
“Kiddo looks healthy, so let’s get a peek at the others,” Talia murmured after a few minutes of taking notes. She moved the wand up the crest of Gleaming’s belly right next to her navel to start looking around. Indistinct shapes moved in and out of the screen, none of them focused or indicative. There was a few moment’s silence as everypony was lost in their own thoughts, and Gleaming began to hum softly, her mind falling into a dull haze.
“Aha! Got two of ‘em.” Talia moved the monitor over so Gleaming could see. “Take a look.”
Gleaming examined the monitor. It was wavy, but on the screen were the images of two little faces, one of which was sucking on its hoof.
“Awww,” Gleaming and Cadance cooed.
“Right one’s got a horn.” Endo tilted his head and squinted. “Doesn’t look malformed… and overall body size on each of them is good! I believe that the left one’s a… pegasus? Not totally sure...”
Talia pressed the wand a touch harder into Gleaming’s skin. “Come on, darlins, roll over…”
The foals squirmed from the prodding. Talia kept at it, though, and about a minute later, they shuffled around to give everypony a clear view of what they were trying to see.
An extremely clear view.
“Ya got another boy!” Talia said, cackling. “No doubts on that one... right one’s a girl, looks like.”
Gleaming hardly knew what to say. They had two boys?! This was better than she could’ve dreamed! I mean yeah, she wanted girls too, but boys were harder to get! She looked over at Cadance, whose eyes were fixed on the screen.
“Two boys!” Gleaming whispered. “I think you were right!”
Cadance replied with a soft kiss.
“So a unicorn filly, and the colt iiiiiiiis—ah, I was right! He’s a pegasus.” Endo pointed at the tiny wings at the colt’s sides. “You’ve got quite the mix here, Your Majesties.”
A couple more minutes passed while Endo and Talia took more notes on babies two and three, writing down numbers and muttering between themselves.
“Alright, let’s hunt down that last one,” said Talia. She moved the wand to Gleaming’s other side. “I’ll bet the lil’ bugger’s at the bottom. That’s usually where they like to hide…”
Gleaming and Cadance looked on without comment. Neither of them were really sure what to expect at this point, so they kept their thoughts to themselves while the doctors worked. They were both a little disappointed that none of their children were alicorns, but even with the odds supposedly as good as they were, it still depended whether or not Gleaming had this mysterious alicorn gene… which they were starting to suspect she didn’t.
“Hmm.” Talia moved the wand around to and fro. “I see the crystal pony colt, the pegasus colt, the unicorn filly... But I’m not—waaaait, wait, wait. Lemme try somethin’…”
She moved the wand up to the very top of Gleaming’s womb, right underneath her ribcage.
“Ha! Found ya!” Talia exclaimed. “If they’re not at the bottom, they’re almost always… at... “
Beside her, Endo went slack-jawed. Cadance’s hooves flew in front of her mouth, and Gleaming, well...
“Huh,” she said. “No wonder I’m measuring large.”
On the screen were not one, but two little fillies, curled up side by side with their little eyes shut tight. Their tails were curled together to ensure they didn’t drift apart, and their position made them almost look like they were hugging. It might’ve been possible that one of them was a foal that they’d already seen, but a crucial factor shot down that idea straightaway:
They both had horns and wings.
“Stars above,” Endo breathed. “You do have the gene…”
“Wh-Wh…” Cadance found herself suddenly short of breath. “F-Five? I don’t—did… b-but the nurse before said...”
“Hot DAMN!” Talia said with a whoop. “You really did get knocked up good, girlie! Forget gaining one hundred and twenty pounds, more like a hundred’n fifty! Tack on another meal a day or up those portions, ‘cause you’re gonna need it!”
Gleaming looked down at her bulging belly. She was already so big she couldn’t see her rear hooves anymore, and she wasn’t even halfway through! What the hay were the final months of term going to be like?!
“Just a minute, just a minute,” Endo said. He lowered his horn again. “There’s a way to be sure about this.”
“What’re you doing now?” Talia asked.
“The localized spell that detects heartbeats,” he replied. “Easiest way to search for multiples, correct?”
Talia pursed her lips. “That spell’s gonna wipe ya plum out.”
“We can’t afford any more mistakes, Talia,” he replied. “We need to be absolutely sure.”
Talia exhaled out her nose. “Stubborn dumbass like always… fine, go ahead’n do it.”
Endo’s horn flashed again. Seconds later, a dull, much softer dot of light than before began to shine out of Gleaming’s womb, followed by a second dot…
...a third...
..a fourth...
…
…
…
...and finally a fifth.
Endo sat down roughly as his horn shorted out. “Well! That is indeed quintuplets. Ugh… it seems the technician was indeed mistaken before, Majesties.! You’re having five children when you feared that you wouldn’t be able to have any! Congratulations.”
Surprisingly, Gleaming wasn’t all that panicked. Shocked, certainly, but nothing like during the first ultrasound. This was a more like she was walking on air!
“Now can I tell ‘em?” Talia asked.
Endo grunted as he staggered towards the door. “I suppose you may as well. You don’t need me for that though, so if you’ll excuse me, Your Majesties. I’m going to leave you in Doctor Natal’s extremely capable hooves from now on. I’ll make the necessary adjustments to your medical file, and I wish you both luck in the remainder of this pregnancy. Good day…”
And with that he left the room.
Talia’s gaze lingered on the door. “Damn fool’s more stubborn than any mule. Gonna run himself into the ground one of these days, mark my words…”
Cadance’s wings fluttered at her sides. “E-Erm, I’m sorry about that, Talia. I’ve never seen him do anything like that before with anypony, least of all us! It’s not like him to just walk out and dump his responsibilities...”
“He didn’t dump anythin’, honey.” Talia turned back around to begin wiping off Gleaming’s stomach with a cloth. “This is well beyond his expertise, and his time’s better spent with cases in his skill range. I don’t like tootin’ my own horn, but he was right when he said I’m the most qualified to help ya. I can give him updates and see if he can stop in every so often if ya like, but he ain’t gonna be much use otherwise.”
Gleaming sat up a bit. “But he’s been great working with us so far! He’s been extremely knowledgeable—”
“—by burnin’ up scrying crystals left and right asking for my advice every night for the past two months,” Talia finished for her. “He’s just been doing what I’ve been telling him to do, sweetheart. You’re gonna wanna stick with me, especially now that we know you’ve got the alicorn gene.”
Gleaming tilted her head. “Why would that matter? I don’t see how that would change the pregnancy.”
Natal met her eyes. “You ain’t caught on, have you? You’ve got a biological sibling that’s tapped into her recessive alicorn gene, and we’ve just confirmed you got it as well. This the first time we’ve ever been able to isolate it in any way, and we might be able to finally make some real progress on figuring out how alicorns work because of it!!”
Gleaming was silent. She could certainly see the scientific repercussions of that, but...
“What do you want to do?” Cadance asked Talia.
Talia weathered face lit up. “Tests! Tests, tests, tests. Gonna be lookin’ at Miss Gleaming Shield’s DNA a whole lot. I don’t need ya around for that though—I just need a couple samples from ya. Hair, skin, buccal swab, blood if you’re willing. Maybe stool and urine just to cover my bases… I’ve been doin’ research on this for forty years, so I know how to recognize signs of complications, and my experience in obstetrics should help me be able to spot any problems with them little alicorn fillies. I’m hoping I’ll find differences in your genetic code as time goes on, but we’ll just hafta see about that. Oh, and don’t you worry none—you and your kids’ health is my first priority. This is just a side project.”
Gleaming could see the fiery glint in Talia’s eyes now, a glint that she’d seen so many times in Twily. She didn’t still quite understand what was to be gained by looking at her DNA, but there was a very distinct possibility Talia didn’t, either.
“No ulterior motives?” Cadance asked playfully. “No hidden plans to create an army of superponies so you can take over Equestria? No secret formula based off Gleamy’s DNA to turn you into an immortal demigoddess despot?”
Talia pretended like she’d been shot. “Oh no, ya caught me, my master plan of world domination has been exposed. Curses, foiled again, I must now retreat to plot my dastardly revenge. I would’ve gotten away with it if weren’t for you meddling foals, blah, blah, blah, monologue, blah, blah, blah, tragic past, blah, blah, blah, nopony understands my genius. Was that what you were expectin’ to hear?”
Cadance snickered. “Something like that.”
“I’ll be sure to thank you along with the Academy.” Talia put her bags back on and started hobbling towards the door. “Cadance, I understand you already know about the need for alicorn magic infusions, so start giving ‘em twice a day. A nurse’ll be in shortly to get those samples I mentioned... oh, and don’t hesitate to contact me if’n ya need somethin’, alright? I don’t care if it’s three a.m. on a holiday Sunday. You need me, you send for me. Got it?”
Cadance saluted. “Got it.”
Talia opened the door. “I’ll be looking over your records the next day or so to get caught up. I’ll be in touch.”
Gleaming waved. “Thank you, Doctor.”
Talia started to walk out, but then stopped and looked back at them. “Oh, and one more thing…”
Cadance and Gleaming looked up.
Talia casually examined her fetlock. “Curious, ain’t it? A unicorn with a recessive alicorn gene, pregnant with three foals with recessive alicorn genes and two natural alicorns, all who’re about to be exposed regularly to doses of raw alicorn magic. Not only that, but said pregnant unicorn has a biological sibling who’s already unlocked their alicorn gene and ascended without a hitch...”
The chill that ran up Gleaming’s spine was like ice. She looked over at Cadance, whose wide eyes mirrored her own.
Talia shrugged as she strolled out the door. “I wonder what might happen in the months to come?”
There was a dead silence. Thoughts raced through both Cadance and Gleaming’s minds a mile a minute, a whirlwind of emotions raging in the blink of an eye. Gleaming put a hoof on her belly and rubbed it slowly, her eyes lingering on the spot where two little dots had pulsed side-by-side.
“We need to get a hold of Twily,” she muttered.
“Yes,” Cadance said in a faint voice. “That we do.”
October was Gleaming’s favorite month. She wasn’t sure what it was—the changing of the seasons, the slowly shortening days, the comfort of school routine after summer break, the promise of holidays right around the corner, it could’ve been all those things and more. But the latter half of October never failed to make her feel giddy when it came around regardless, and this year was no exception.
“Mmm…” Gleaming was munching away on a fruit platter while she and Cadance sat on a raised platform. They were clad in full regalia sitting on thrones of cerulean crystal while the banner of the Crystal Empire waved above them in the wind. It was early afternoon, the sky was perfectly clear (as always) and a crowd of thousands had gathered along the sides of the streets as soldiers worked to keep the roads clear.
Crystal ponies of all ages milled around in large clumps, either mildly curious about what was going on, trying to go about their day, or just trying to get a view of the Princesses. The guards kept a mindful eye out for any troublemakers, but it was otherwise a calm and peaceful scene.
“Are you sure the platform was necessary?” Gleaming asked. “Spike might like it, but I don’t think Twily will.”
Cadance sighed. “If they’re going to be here for over half a year, we have to give them a proper welcome. It comes with the territory.”
Gleaming made a face. “But Twily hates this kind of stuff. So do you!”
“Sure dooooo~” Cadance sang. “But it wouldn’t look good if a princess and a national hero just showed up here for a few months without any warning, would it? Ponies will think they’re trying to hide.”
Gleaming looked out at the crowd. It was difficult to hear any of conversations among the dull roar, but she was catching snippets of either ‘Princess Twilight’ or ‘Sir Spike’ a lot.
Gleaming popped the last bit of fruit into her mouth and set the platter aside. “Did we bring any more food?”
Cadance glanced over at the empty plate. “Wow, you really demolished that thing.”
Gleaming rubbed her rapidly-expanding waistline. Now that her first real growth spurt had started, it seemed like all she’d done the last week was eat, eat, eat. It felt like there was a hole in her stomach, one that absolutely demanded to be filled at least every hour and a half or so, and the result was that she’d been gaining a whole pound a day. They’d asked Doctor Talia just in case the sudden change was normal, but she’d just laughed and given them a list of her favorite recipes.
“They kick harder when they’re hungry,” Gleaming said. “I need to keep ‘em happy so they don’t use my insides as a punching bag… particularly our crystal colt. Boy’s got some legs on him.”
Cadance cocked her head. “You can tell them apart?”
Gleaming shrugged. “For the most part. They all more or less stay in the same spots.” She began pointing to different spots on her stomach. “The alicorns are always up top, the pega-boy’s right smack dab in the middle, the uni-filly’s towards the bottom, and the crystal colt’s near the middle on my right side. He’s almost knocked the wind out of me a few times, the bugger.”
Cadance fidgeted in her seat. Gleaming was only twenty-one weeks pregnant, and she already looked overdue with one foal. It was getting to the point that even a stranger could tell she had more than one in there.
“Fortunately, it’s seeming like everything’s going straight to them,” Gleaming went on. “Twilight’s spells have certainly been a big help, lemme tell you. I’ve been able to eat as much as I need without feeling sick or like I’m about to explode, and—oh, for Luna’s sake, now I have a craving for something both sweet and salty! How does that even work?!”
Cadance grinned. She could comment on the randomness of pregnancy cravings, but instead she signalled to an aide, who nodded and set off for more food.
“Here.” Cadance reached into a bag beside her. She pulled out a pair of apples and floated them both over to Gleaming. “Something to tide you over.”
"Oh!" Gleaming snatched them and chomped away. “Thanksh!”
Cadance fought to keep her wings folded. The discovery of a fifth foal meant that Gleaming was that much more fertile,that much more pregnant. She’d actually spent most of their private time as a stallion the last week or so, but that was actually a good thing, as Talia had informed them that regular exposure to the father’s seminal fluid was good for the mother’s immune system.
“I wonder if we could get away with a glamour so we could sneak in a quickie,” Cadance mused, speaking just loud enough for Gleaming to hear. “D’you think the smell would give us away?”
Gleaming paused, swallowing her mouthful before looking over. “Well, I did say I wanted something salty…”
Cadance feigned surprise. “Hmm? Oh, sorry Gleamy, I was just thinking aloud! I wasn’t actually serious...”
Gleaming met her eyes with a familiar gaze. “What, you weren’t implying you wanna make up for our morning sexytimes getting cut short?”
Cadance wet her dry lips. There was that damn look again, the one that she could never say no to. “W-Well, but we still got, um... two rounds, I think it was? I-I know we’ve been going more, but...”
“My poor Eros, not able to take me like he normally does…” Gleaming’s horn was glowing from holding the apples, so nopony noticed it shine just a teensy bit brighter. “His balls must be so full…”
Cadance squeaked. She realized she was gaining muscle mass, her frame growing several inches taller.
“...and here I am, so very empty…”
The air around them shimmered. A projection of Cadance and Gleaming sitting on their seats appeared as the real ones faded out. The illusions did normal idle things like swish their tails, flick their ears, their eyes blinking steadily with bored looks on their faces.
“G-Gleamy…” Cadance said in a deepening voice. “Are you sure y-you want to—”
Gleaming’s eyes were glued to Cadance—now Eros’—groin. She licked her lips as his’ privates switched, the delicate slit becoming a hefty sack. His testes formed and began producing seed, more productive than ever and swelling up extra large. His smooth, velvety dick sprouted out from his former clit as well, lengthening and thickening like a veritable fifth leg.
Gleaming looked up at Eros with fierce eyes. “Yes.”
Male hormones slammed Eros like a brick wall. The familiar scent of Gleaming’s arousal was noticeable to him now, like wet leaves after a heavy rain. A rumbling growl escaped him as he watched his naughty wife, who merely smirked as she closed with his twitching pride.
“You missed this morning’s infusion, too,” Gleaming whispered. “Those little alicorn fillies won’t grow up big and strong without that, you know. You do want them to be big and strong, don’t you?”
They were in the center of the platform while thousands stood oblivious around them. Eros was at full mast, wings splayed, already twitching as his lovely pregnant mate advanced, heavy with his foals and purring like a kitten. His breathing grew shallow as she gave him a look that made him twitch even harder.
Gleaming pushed Eros onto his haunches. His stallionhood bobbed and bounced off his own barrel, leaving a wet splotch on his lowermost ribs. Gleaming licked it off in a long swipe, then closed her eyes to inhale his dry scent. She took several lungfuls before looking up into his eyes.
Eros made no move to stop her as she put her hooves around his base. He tensed from her hot breath on his tip, shivers racing down his spine as she softly kissed it. He thrust his hips on reflex, but Gleaming laughed and teased him still, a trail of pre on her lips. She then went further down and to nuzzle his precious testes, baseball-sized and churning with his essence. She licked and suckled each of them while Eros nickered and whined, relishing how they bloated further in her mouth...
“Gleamy,” Eros panted. “Gleamy, please...”
Gleaming returned to his towering spire. She admired it for a bit before looking up with a grin like a wolf’s.
“Please, what?”
Eros grit his teeth. “P-Please don’t make me beg...”
Gleaming winked. She planted one final kiss on his twitching tip, then took in the first third with a muffled slurp. She made a tight seal and rolled her tongue back and forth, savoring how his warm length throbbed around her lips.
Eros threw his head back in a wordless cry. He shoved a hoof in his mouth, his body locking up as Gleaming buried her face in his crotch. Almost immediately he put his other hoof on her shoulder, gripping her tighter as she tongued his glans, relentless as she gulped down more of his length.
Gleaming widened her stance and bobbed her head, every fresh pulse that hit the back of her throat like heaven. Eros was so big that she could barely get around him, but that’s exactly how she liked it. She got to his medial ring and paused, letting the softness of her mouth and tongue drive him wild for a time. He was so very warm, almost hot, and she could feel every little delicious errant move he made. Her favorite spot was the pulsing vein on the side, and she licked over and over as it throbbed in time with his racing heart.
Eros was sweating, face contorted in a silent shout, breathing ragged. Gleaming was relentless in her efforts, the wet, lewd sound of her smacking lips the only thing he could hear. She really was trying to milk him, ceaseless in her efforts to suck down his reserves. She just wouldn’t stop licking, wouldn’t stop swallowing, eager and tight and ravenous...
“Ahhhhhh…” Eros’ eyes flickered with white light. The air around them became thick and heavy, and blue waves enveloped them both in a sparkling aura that flowed into Gleaming in quick bursts. Gleaming’s eyes went wide at first, but quickly rolled into the back of her head as the power seeped into her. Each one was pure adrenaline, lancing through her body like raw lightning, and combine all of that with the delight of a long, thick cock in her mouth, the whole experience was almost as good as being rutted...
Almost.
Gleaming was positively dripping. Her tail swished back and forth, front legs bent low, her burgeoning womb only inches away from the ground. A part of her idly wondered what the crystal ponies would say if they saw her like this, but the thought only made her wetter. Eros bucked his hips and pushed Gleaming down hard, thrusting as the tingling in his balls morphed into a pressure. He poured magic into her with reckless abandon, his eyes brilliant white as he gave her and their foals the energy they needed. The pressure kept rising even as as he tried to gasp out that he was about to peak, but all he got out was an odd-sounding grunt.
Gleaming heard, but she only picked up her efforts. The rush in her body swirled faster, faster, spurring her to keep sucking, licking, slurping, bobbing. Eros’ nuts were now the size of softballs now, until at long last...
But he never did catch her off guard. She was prepared for the first hot jet when it filled her maw, and she pushed his length down more and gulped, groaning even as his second spurt went straight down her throat. His next ones were even stronger, his balls twitching again and again, each burst more than what a normal stallion produced in days. Gleaming gripped Eros’ ass and pushed all the way to his base, lips mashed into his coat, squeezing and relishing the way he thrashed and bucked. She held onto him while he filled her, and she could feel it pooling inside, hot and heavy and potent. His massive loads came in torrents for a whole minute before he finally, finally, finally appeased her, and when it was all done, Gleaming could only hum as she got every last bit.
Eros went limp. He let go of Gleaming and rolled to the side, his coat cold and damp with sweat, fireworks going off in his mind. Gleaming let him be to enjoy the high, sighing happily as she rubbed her taut stomach.
“I can taste the pineapple.” She wiped her mouth and cast a quick spell to remove residual evidence. “Definitely keep eating it.”
“Buh,” was Eros’ only response. His limbs were unresponsive as his dick slid back into his sheath.
Gleaming smiled. He’d need a moment to reboot after that, but nothing was really going on right now…
...save for the aide coming back with food.
“Shit.” Gleaming made her way back to her seat and sat inside her illusion. She made it mimic the pose she was currently in, then dispelled it while keeping Eros/Cadance’s intact. She’d change him back in a little bit.
“Here you are, Highness!” The aide wheeled the cart up to Gleaming. “Lots of goodies for you and the kiddies. Think this’ll keep ‘em satisfied?”
Gleaming examined the spread. Cheeses, oats, granola, a loaf of bread, several ingredients for sandwiches, crackers with peanut butter, and some kind of lettuce salad with alfalfa and purple cabbage.
Gleaming adjusted her now-snugger maternity brace and grabbed a fork. “At least until lunchtime.”
“Announcing!” the herald boomed. “Her Royal Majesty Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship!”
The crowd applauded as Twilight stepped from the train. She was wearing a set of golden horseshoes and peytral emblazoned with her cutie mark, along with a pointed crown with magenta tips. She waved haphazardly while trying to walk down the carpet.
Cadance chuckled. “Not quite experienced with the shoes yet, I see.”
Gleaming examined her own with a grimace. “To be fair, they’re not exactly easy to get used to.”
Cadance tapped a hoof to her chin. “Maybe she’s going through a growth spurt of her own, and it’s messing with her balance. Did you notice that she could almost look me in the eye the last time she was here?”
Gleaming snorted. “You’re both humongous to me. Still can’t believe how much smaller I am like this...”
Cadance laughed. “You’re actually pretty tall for a mare, hun. You just happened to be a giant before, and we alicorns have stilts for legs.”
“Announcing!” the herald yelled next. “Sir Spike the Dragon, Hero of the Crystal Empire!”
The crowd went nuts. A small purple dragon with green spines hopped out of the train car, jumping up and down and waving at everyone he saw. He gave high fives to the nearest ponies before scampering after Twilight.
Gleaming laughed. “Same old Spike.”
“When was the last time he was even up here?” Cadance asked.
Gleaming frowned. “Erm… the Equestria Games? Yeah, the Games.”
Cadance shook her head. “That long? Sheesh, we need to get out more.”
The herald stomped his hooves along with everypony else as Spike and Twilight walked down the carpet, but then did a double-take at his sheet. He straightened up quickly and cleared his throat.
“Annnnnnnd announcing! Ser Rainbow Dash, Paladin of the Knights of Harmony!”
A cyan pegasus clad in mystical armor stepped out from the train. The color of the metal was periwinkle blue, shining in the sunlight like a reflection of the sky. The crest on her chest was a ruby-red lightning bolt within a hexagonal crystal, and long trails of enchanted runes spread out from it like branches on a tree. Her sabatons were inlaid with ivy-like designs that crept up her legs like vines, and her chamfron was an elegant thing that curled around her eyes to cover the top of her muzzle. The same ivy designs were all around the helm as well, and the very top was a three-pronged set of spikes reminiscent of Twilight’s crown. The magic of the armor was almost palpable, and even from the platform, Gleaming could sense the telltale efficiency of Twilight’s spellwork.
Cadance and Gleaming exchanged a look.
“Paladin?” Cadance mouthed.
Gleaming just shrugged. She recognized the name as one of Twily’s friends, but why she was here…
Rainbow Dash drank in their crowd’s dumbstruck faces like the sweetest nectar. She spread her wings wide, saluted, then leapt off the ground and flew down the carpet in a blur.
“Erm, well…” Cadance put a hoof behind her head. “That’s certainly something.”
Gleaming watched Rainbow’s every expression and action, from her posture to her expression to her flight formation. She wasn’t proper military, but there were signs of something there…
Gleaming and Cadance rose as Twilight ascended the platform stairs. The crowd applauded as three of them embraced.
Spike stumbled forward on unsteady legs. His eyes were glued to Gleaming, staring at her like his brain was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
“Hey, little bro,” Gleaming said. “How’ve ya been?”
The voice registered in Spike’s eyes. He frowned and scratched his head, looking Gleaming up and down.
“...You look weird.”
Cadance stifled a snort.
“Spike!” Twilight snapped.
“He does!” Spike said, pointing at Gleaming. “Er… she does! Whatever! I mean I know you warned me, but just… Gah! It’s different, you know?!”
Now Rainbow was giggling.
Twilight blushed furiously. “I-I’m sorry, Shiny—Gleamy! He’s just confused! I’ve tried to talk to him, but—”
“Oh, I look weird?” Gleaming bent down to Spike’s level and booped him square on the nose. “Well, at least I don’t smell like a nasty ol’ butt.”
Spike squawked and covered his nose. “I do not!”
“Pew-wee!” Gleaming waved a hoof in front of her face. “A big, smelly poopy butt! Man, I’ll bet the whole Empire can smell you.”
The others just stared. There was a moment where you could’ve heard a pin drop...
Until a goofy smile crept up on Spike face. “Yeah, well… you have a pretty-pretty girl face!”
“And you have fart breath,” Gleaming shot back.
“Your voice is squeaky!”
“Your spines are squishy!”
“You look like Gramma Starlight!”
“You look like a dumpster with teeth!”
“Mare!”
“Whelp!”
“Fatty!”
“Brat!”
Spike laughed and glomped Gleaming tight. “Shine-Shine! It really is you!”
Gleaming gave him a noogie. “Of course it is, dummy.” She used magic to lift him onto her back. “Who else would it be?”
Spike giggled and gripped her mane, marveling at how soft and full it felt. “Aww, I missed you. Twilight never wants to play the insult game with me.”
Gleaming winked at Twilight. “That’s because she’s bad at it.”
Twilight ran a hoof down her face. “I will never understand boys…”
Cadance cleared her throat. “Erm, right…” She cast a quick spell, now speaking in a loud, amplified voice. “Princess Twilight Sparkle! Sir Spike! Ser Rainbow Dash!! The Crystal Empire has not forgotten your assistance in times past. We welcome you back with open hooves, and may your stay with us be a joyful one.”
Whoops and hollers were heard all around, the ground shaking from multitudes of stomping hooves.
Twilight, Spike and Rainbow waved to the crowd. They were a bit clunky about it (okay, Dash wasn’t) but the smiles on their faces were genuine.
Rainbow spoke to Twilight out the corner of her mouth. “Would be nice if we got this kind of welcome everywhere, eh?”
Twilight spoke out the corner of her mouth. “Right?”
“I still can’t believe you’re having five.” Twilight stared at the ultrasound pictures. “And two of them being alicorns? And here we were thinking you’d be lucky if you just got one regular foal!”
They were all back in Gleaming and Cadance’s apartment after the welcome ceremony. They’d all had a chance to shed their fancy attire and get settled, and now Twilight and Cadance were on one couch going over the ultrasound pictures. Rainbow was looking over their shoulders from the air, and Gleaming was laying on the other couch munching on chocolate-covered pretzels while Spike poked at her belly.
“You can say that again!” Cadance said. “I about fell out of my chair when we found them!”
“It’s still hard to believe,” Gleaming said. She popped another pretzel into her mouth. “It’s been a whirlwind trying to prepare, but our new doctor’s been a huge help—ah! Spike, be gentle around my navel! It’s sensitive.”
“I felt one of them kick there!” he said.
Gleaming grunted. “They do that.”
Twilight’s eyes lit up at the mention of Doctor Talia. “Oooh, can you please, pleeeeeaaase introduce me? Her discovery for the occurrence of monozygotic and dizygotic twins alone was revolutionary!”
“Egghead,” Rainbow whispered in a sing-song voice.
Twilight stuck out her tongue at her. “Princess Egghead to you.”
Rainbow saluted in mid-air. “Of course, Your Nerdiness.”
“Erm, I’m sure you’ll get a chance to meet her at some point or another,” Cadance said, looking between them. “She’ll probably want to talk to you about the spells you’ve cast, so you two can discuss all the magic-babble.”
“You’ll really like her, Twily,” Gleaming added. “She’s a lot like you.”
Twilight squee’d and clapped her hooves. “Oh, I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait!”
“So… can we ask now?” Cadance gestured to Twilight and Rainbow. “This is the first we’ve heard about a knighting.”
Spike bit back a laugh. “Oh, you guys’ll love this.”
Rainbow and Twilight glared at him, but didn’t refute his statement.
“...It’s complicated,” Twilight said at last.
Gleaming laughed. “Things are never simple with you, are they?”
Twilight smiled weakly. “If only.”
“I got it.” Rainbow landed beside the couch and gestured to Twilight. “There’s a law-thingy that says a princess can’t go to another place for a long time without somepony going with her, and that pony needs to be either military or some kind of advisor. Twilight didn’t wanna have some random stranger tailing her for half a year, so she knighted me and the girls, then we drew straws to see who’d keep her company.”
Gleaming and Cadance thought about that for a few moments.
“I... think I recall Auntie Tia mentioning something along those lines at one point or another...” Cadance shuffled back and forth. “It’s been awhile since I’ve looked up the laws, but it certainly sounds familiar.”
Gleaming put a hoof behind her head. “I’m pretty sure they talked about that a bit in officer training? Something about having a witness for posterity or along those lines. Don’t quite remember the details, though.”
“It makes sense when you think about it,” said Rainbow. “We all have that Rainbow Power thing together, and we basically do everything together anyway.”
Meanwhile, Twilight was staring at Rainbow.
Rainbow noticed her gaze. “What? Did I get it wrong?”
“No, actually!” Twilight said. “I couldn’t have explained it better myself!”
Rainbow elbowed her. “I pay attention sometimes, you know.”
“But do you have to do anything special?” Cadance asked Rainbow. “Or do you just have to be around?”
Rainbow shrugged. “If Twilight wants me, I’ll be there. If she wants me to buzz off, I’ll go take a nap on a cloud or something. We’ve got ways to contact each other.”
“I hope you don’t mind her being here,” said Twilight quickly. “I know I should’ve contacted one of you beforehoof, but everything just happened so fast and—”
“It’s fine, Twily.” Gleaming ate some more pretzels and leaned further into the couch. “Even if you didn’t have to have somepony with you because of royal red tape, I’d imagine you’d still want somepony to hang out with. You can only be around family for so long.”
“Not true!” Spike said. “Twilight never gets tired of me!”
Gleaming used magic to flick the top of his spines. “You can be a real booger sometimes, Bud.”
Spike blew a raspberry at her. “Nuh-uh.”
“It’s not a problem, Twilight,” Cadance said. “Really! The more, the merrier.”
But Twilight didn’t seem reassured. “Funny you should say that…”
Cadance and Gleaming blinked. “Eh?”
Twilight looked away and rubbed her forearms. “This isn’t really how I wanted to broach it, but… Mom and Dad got a hold of me before we came up here. They have a proposition to run past you two.”
Gleaming didn’t reply right away. Their parents, Night Light and Twilight Velvet, were both more or less content to live their own lives. They weren’t on bad terms with anypony in the family, but it was unlike them to abruptly contact anyone.
“What kind of proposition?” Gleaming asked.
Twilight chose her words carefully before speaking. “You know how normally we go to their house for the holidays and everything? They wanna, erm… come here, instead. They think it’ll be easier since we’re all up here, plus it’d also mean you won’t have to travel.”
Gleaming sucked on her teeth. She was getting around pretty well right now, but that wasn’t going to the case much longer. Although if her parents were coming to the Crystal Empire, then that meant figuring out all the logistics of hosting...
Gleaming looked to Cadance. “What do you think?”
Cadance wiggled her wings a bit. “We certainly have the space and resources to accommodate them.”
Gleaming noted her wife’s guarded tone, but that was understandable. She turned back to Twilight, who still was looking very pensive. “I’m getting the sense that there’s more.”
Twilight grunted. “They dumped this on me just as we were all heading out the door.”
Gleaming sighed. “Sounds like them.”
Twilight’s gaze fell to the side. “It’s probably more Mom’s idea than Dad’s, and I’m still getting over what it’s going to mean, but they’re both in agreement on it, and with them getting older they’re probably just trying to think about the future, and it affects you more than me but even still—”
“Spit it out!” Rainbow drawled. “Jeez, Twi, only up here half an hour and you’re already working yourself up into a frenzy.”
Twilight looked like she was trying to swallow a lemon. She played with a lock of her mane and looked at the ceiling until finally, she met Gleaming’s eyes.
“Mom and Dad don’t want to just come up here for the holidays. They want to move up here... permanently.”
Silence.
…
…
…
…
…
It was an odd thing, taking in what those words truly meant. Emotions ran through Gleaming rapid fire, but fortunately, none of them stuck. It felt like she’d been flashed with a bright light, and it took a few moments for the spots to clear, idly munching on pretzels and floating a few down to Spike.
“They say why?” she finally asked.
Twilight made a grumbling noise. “Probably because they don’t wanna be sitting around in Canterlot while you and Cadance are starting a family. I’m in Ponyville and travelling around, so it’s not like they see me much.”
Cadance furrowed her brow. “That’s not actually what they said, is it?”
“Not exactly,” Spike said. “They said was there wasn’t much keeping them in Canterlot, so they wanted a change.”
Twilight gave him a flat look. “The subtext on that is clear as day.”
Spike just laughed. “Well, yeah! Even Rainbow picked up on it, and she doesn’t even know them!”
Rainbow shuffled back and forth. “Twilight, I already told you—”
“—to stop taking it so personally, I know.” Twilight made a noise between a whine and a grunt. “But I hate it when they do this! Why can’t they just say what it is they really want?! I shouldn’t have to read between the lines trying to find out what they mean all the time!”
Rainbow gained a far-off look in her eyes. “Pride.”
Twilight turned to her.
Rainbow rolled her shoulders with a long sigh. “Your folks may beat around the bush, but I could tell right away they have a stubborn streak in them. It makes you do weird things sometimes.”
Cadance nodded. “Velvet and Night are good ponies, but they’ve got pretty big egos. For Pete’s sake, Twilight, why do you think they hired me to be your babysitter?”
But Twilight just kept glaring at the far wall. “They never give us a straight answer about anything, they’re always guilt tripping us, and everything always, always has to be about them. I’m sick and tired of it!”
Gleaming didn’t comment. She agreed that was get aggravating when you always had to read between the lines with somepony, but the rest of those things only applied to one of their parents.
“We’ll talk to them when they come up,” Gleaming said at last. “If they’re really serious about moving, then making arrangements shouldn’t be difficult.”
Twilight grumbled something Gleaming only barely caught. “Just can’t win...”
“Let’s change the subject, shall we?” Cadance put a wing around Twilight. “I’m sure you’re eager to brainstorm some alterations for the alicorns, not to mention plans for the fifth foal!”
Twilight smiled. A good bit of tension left her posture, and when she spoke again, her voice didn’t have that edge. “Have you started the alicorn magic infusions?”
Cadance nodded. “Twice a day. They seem to be going well—er, at least on my end.”
“Me, too. They—hold on.” Gleaming hesitated, as Spike was trying to crawl onto the couch. She scooched back to let him sit between her forelegs. “They feel better than I thought they would.”
Twilight chuckled. “It is nice, isn’t it? That tingly rush like a bunch of tiny bottle rockets racing through you.”
Gleaming cocked her head. “How’d you know?”
“Celestia, Luna and I gave her the mother of all alicorn magic infusions when Tirek was on his rampage,” said Cadance. “I imagine the high you get is nothing compared to what she had.”
Twilight shivered. “You have no idea.”
Rainbow laughed. “Down, girl.”
Gleaming sucked on her teeth. “Right… forgot about that.”
“I’d like to be there next time you do one,” Twilight went on. “Have you noticed anything odd so far? Magic surges, negative reactions, changes in how you usually feel?”
Gleaming idly scratched Spike’s neck while she thought. “I’ve definitely had more energy, that’s for sure. I was starting to get winded just by walking, and my usual exercises were getting harder and harder to do. But since then, things have been a breeze!”
Twilight produced a quill and some parchment. “So you’ve had more stamina? Or do you mean something else?”
“Stamina and everything else,” Gleaming said. “I sleep better, get around easier, feel stronger overall, and my magic comes on a whim. I was starting to feel more and more sluggish, but now I can stay alert, no problem! Mood hasn’t been fluctuating as much, either… it’s annoying that I’m a living vacuum right now, but I otherwise feel like a million bucks!”
Twilight’s face was hidden behind the floating parchment, her quill flying back and forth with a furious skritch-skritch-skritch. “How about you, Cadance?”
Cadance looked over at Gleaming. “I’ve felt fine, but pretty much everything Gleamy just said I’ve noticed, as well. Honestly, you wouldn’t even know she was pregnant if not for the baby bump.”
“And what a bump it is,” Spike teased.
Gleaming bent down and made a loud snort in his ear. He giggled as she hugged and tickled him.
Twilight sucked on her teeth. “What kinds of things has Doctor Natal said she’d like to measure as time goes on?”
Gleaming thought for a moment. “Just normal stuff. Height, weight, blood pressure, stuff like that. For the foals, though, she wants a whole bunch of other things. You’ll have to check with her on that.”
Twilight wrote that down. “I’ll work something out so we’re not measuring you twice, but I’d like to start getting weekly readings on a few other things. I wanna make sure we’re not missing anything.”
Rainbow moved behind the couch to look over her shoulder. “What’cha thinkin’, Twi?”
Twilight stared at what she’d written, adding notes here and there. “I... don’t know yet. Everything is just conjecture for the moment.”
“Humor us,” said Cadance.
Twilight tilted her head from side to side. “Well… the alicorn magic infusion I received was temporary, so I can’t be sure on what any long-standing effects are. But in the short term, I experienced an exponential increase in magical and physical ability, as well as boosts in endurance and… well, ‘toughness,’ for lack of a better word. I could fly faster than Rainbow, teleport to anywhere in Equestria, I got punched through a mountain with no harm done, I raised the Sun, and most importantly of all, I fought Tirek to a standstill. But whether I’d have been able to do those things indefinitely had I kept the magic? I don’t know for sure.”
Gleaming was quiet. It was hard to get a read on anything right now, and Twilight was right that they were flying by the seat of their pants. Things were going well so far, but for how long...
“What was that about getting punched through a mountain?” Cadance said.
Twilight waved her off. “I’m fine. Wasn’t even really a punch, anyways.”
“Yeah!” Rainbow said. “Was more like a charging headbutt.”
“Not helping,” Twilight whispered.
“We’ll let you know when we do another alicorn infusion,” Gleaming said to Twilight. “We’ve only done one today, and Talia wants us to do them twice daily. Heck, you can do them yourself here and there if you want.”
Twilight brightened. “We can see if there’s any difference in response between my magic and Cadance’s! How about we do it after dinner?”
Gleaming checked the clock. “Sure, but that’s not for a few hours. What do you want to do ‘til then?”
Twilight and Rainbow looked at each other, something silent going between them. Rainbow yawned and gestured to the door.
“I think I could use a nap,” said Twilight. “It’s been a long day of travelling, and I didn’t sleep at all on the train.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow said. “Some Z’s before food sounds nice.”
Twilight gave Spike a pointed look. “I know you slept most of the way here, so I imagine you’renot tired right now.”
Spike folded his arms and sighed. “I’ll stay up here with Cady and Gleam-Gleam.”
Gleaming snickered. “Gleam-Gleam, eh? That your new nickname for me?”
“Yep.” Spike wrapped his tail around her foreleg. “Like it?”
Gleaming’s heart melted. She nuzzled him while she enjoying the warmth of his scaly body. It was like holding a tiny little heater. “I think I like you as a cuddlebug.”
“I think I like you so soft and fluffy,” he replied.
Twilight smiled at them. “You don’t need to worry about his magic bond. My range still isn’t as large as Celestia’s, but—”
“Twily,” Gleaming said. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Twilight’s eyes went wide. “Right! Right, sorry. Jeez, it really has been a while…”
Gleaming chuckled. “And here I thought you had a photographic memory.”
“Oh, shut up.”
Cadance patted her shoulder. “It’ll be nice having you here.”
“What’s this about a bond?” Rainbow asked.
Twilight turned to her. “Did I never tell you?”
Rainbow shook her head.
“Oh! Well, in that case…” Twilight straightened and cleared her throat. “Different species of young dragons need special things to stay healthy. Spike needs to be directly linked to a strong source of living magic at all times to develop properly, and he can’t go more than a few days being away from a bond. Fortunately, the range is directly proportional to the strength of the magic in question, and he can be linked to multiple sources at once.”
“I can’t even remember the last time I was this close to so many bonds.” Spike snuggled deeper into Gleaming’s chest. “Mmm, I feel all warm and fuzzy.”
Something seemed to click for Rainbow. “That’s how he’s able to send and receive messages from Celestia, isn’t it?”
Twilight smiled. “Yes. Although it doesn’t have to be a unicorn or alicorn to work. Any strong, non-corrupt source of organic magic will do.”
Rainbow thought on that. “Is it a big deal to do? Like, draining or whatever?”
“Not if you’re strong enough,” said Twilight. “The ambient energy a living creature gives off is proportional to how much your body creates, and before you ask, yes, you do qualify.”
“Though it is a pretty big sign of trust,” Gleaming said. “Usually only family or mates do it.”
Cadance nodded. “Even I wasn’t a bond until after Gleamy and I got married.”
Rainbow appeared very thoughtful at this. Gleaming was surprised, but then remembered that she already had a magical link of sorts with Twily. She probably didn’t think much of such things.
“Welp! I’mma crash.” Rainbow stretched and made for the door. “Good to see ya Cadance, and you too, Gleaming! Try not to fill up on junk food before supper, heh...”
In reply, Gleaming dumped the rest of the pretzels into her mouth and tossed the bowl away, floating over a glass of apple juice to wash it down. “Challenge accshepted.”
Twilight followed after Rainbow, her pace a little slower. She waited until Rainbow left, then dragged a hoof to and fro.
Gleaming noticed. “What’s up?”
Twilight looked up, her mane askew. “...I feel like Cadance is right, y’know? The reason I’m here may be unorthodox, but it’s going to be nice spending time with you guys again. I know I don’t say it enough, but I really have missed both of you, a-and…”
Twilight looked away, her voice falling to a whisper.
“...there’ve been a lot of times where I wished one of you could’ve been there to help me.”
In that moment, Twilight looked less of like a multi-time savior of Equestria, and more like a quiet, book-loving filly that got forced into a destiny she could barely wrap her head around. She was strong, smart, wise, a beautiful young mare in the prime of her life, but yet there was a tiredness to her posture, a lingering shadow to her guise.
“You do know we’re here for you, right?” Cadance said to Twilight. “All you need to do is ask.”
Twilight’s wings twitched at her sides. “It’s just… hard at times. Almost feels like I’ve failed in some way… guess what Rainbow said about pride applies to me, too.”
“Pretty sure it’s a family trait,” Gleaming said dryly. “I know I can certainly be pig-headed at times. Right, Cady?”
A smile tugged at Cadance’s lips. “No comment.”
Twilight chuckled despite herself. “I’ll see you all at dinner.”
And with that, she left.
There was an awkward silence in her wake. Gleaming wanted to still be optimistic about things, but with a greeting and news like that…
“Oh, little sister mine,” Gleaming muttered. "You really haven’t changed."
Spike squeezed Gleaming tighter. “Can you please, please get her to stop going a million miles an hour? I’ve tried talking to her, but she doesn’t listen! She’s become even more of a nervous wreck than usual!”
Gleaming looked down at him. “What started it?”
Spike hesitated. “Uhhhhhhhhh...”
Gleaming rested her chin atop of his head. “Spiiiiiiike…”
“I can’t tell you!” Spike blurted out. “I was half-afraid she was gonna put a geas on me as it is!”
“We can’t help if we don’t know what’s wrong,” Gleaming pointed out. “Right, Cady?”
Cadance didn’t reply. She was squinting at the door with an odd look in her eyes.
Gleaming looked over. “Erm… Cady?”
Cadance smirked. “I think I know what it is.”
Spike groaned. “I told her it wouldn’t work…”
Cadance turned to Spike. “Tell you what, sweetie. I’m gonna go for a little walk, and if I just happen to notice anything on my way, that’s no fault of yours.”
Spike bit his lip as Cadance made for the door. “At leasttell me you noticed it before I said something!”
Cadance snickered. “Oh, I did. Twilight’s clever, but she’s never been very subtle. I’ll give her props on hiding it, though. Almost had me fooled.”
Gleamng frowned. “What’re you thinking it is?”
“Hold that thought,” Cadance replied. “Be back in a bit.”
Spike buried his face in his claws. “Not even a minute after Twilight gone and I spill the beans. I’m so freaking dead...”
Gleaming floated down her apple juice to him. “You could always live up here with Cady and me. You can help us babysit the foals!”
Spike took the glass and grunted. “Long as I don’t have to change diapers.”
The nature of love is a complicated thing. It can be an intense feeling of deep affection, an object or individual that one feels attachment to, a fixation that clouds the mind, a kinship, a friendship, or even the very essence of what makes someone who they are. Countless books have been written on it, millions of studies have been made, and scholars for ages have devoted their lives to it. Wars had been fought over love. Ponies did amazing things because of it. It was quite possibly one of the most powerful forces in the universe, and yet what frustrated so many was that they understood so little about it.
Even Cadance, the crowned Princess of Love, found it difficult to explain. To her, love was a tangible thing, ever-present amidst all creatures in some way or another. It presented itself in many forms: A link, a tether, an aura-like mist, a tiny little tie, a bond denser than diamond, even a very fusion of two souls. The world was swimming in love at all times, swirling, flowing, dancing like a stream, and its power was something that was not so much controlled, but rather guided.
If she wished it, Cadance could see any and all ties a being had with others. She called this ability Soul Sight, and while it wasn’t something she used often (the barrage of colors gave her a headache) she always felt little nigglings as to how ponies felt about one another, like a compass needle pointing at its target of affection. She could tell the intensity of said attraction by how hard it tugged on her, and stronger the pull, the more love was travelling back and forth.
Cadance hadn’t felt a thing between Twilight and Rainbow. Not a tug, not a twinge, not a tickle or a twitch. Not even the platonic love of friendship had been there, and that should’ve been there in spades. It was an oddity that’d immediately drawn Cadance’s attention, but mental shielding wasn’t uncommon in spellcasters.
“But that doesn’t mean you’re not hiding something,” Cadance murmured.
It was nearing the end of the workday. The castle workers were just getting ready go home, and the evening shift was starting to filter in. Nopony took much notice of Cadance moving down the halls towards a particular hidden laboratory, although they did take note how unusually focused she was… like a bloodhound tracking a scent.
Cadance stopped in the hall of the Secret Lab. She’d been trying to see if she could get any lingering nudgings from her Soul Sight, but she hadn’t felt a thing. Should she barge right in and demand answers? Should she be up front and just ask about it? Or should she be subtle and coax it out of them? There were many different options to go about this, but which one would actually yield a result?
“Doubt they're going to be honest with me if I just straight up ask,” Cadance muttered. “Don’t wanna make them even more paranoid if I’m wrong, either. And they’re both going to be careful with drinking if they really are hiding something… blegh. Well, if they’re sneaking around, then fair’s fair...”
But not just any old spell would fool a magical genius like Twilight. It’d have to be something Twilight didn’t know much about… even if she’d recently discovered she had the ability herself.
“Should’ve taken some aspirin.” Cadance concentrated hard, and the world shifted from a palace hallway to a three-dimensional plane with no floor, ceiling, or walls. It stretched off into the distance with no visible horizon, and the constantly shifting magic of love became visible to her in full.
It was like a multicolored jungle. Tethers of love ran every which way like chaotic vines and tree branches that linked ponies’ souls together without any heed for distance or perspective. The tethers varied in colors, thickness, and density, and the souls they connected shone brightly like blazing stars that illuminated the dark silhouettes of their bodies.
The first thing that always struck Cadance was how jumbled everything was. Tethers ran every which way in giant tangled strands, and while she could see how they were connected, it always looked so inefficient . Finding ponies in this mess was always hard unless they were relatively closeby, and she had to stay still lest she smack into something she couldn’t currently see.
Fortunately, she didn’t have to move to locate the ponies she was searching for. Just a short ways away (and in a rather… compromising position) were Twilight and Rainbow, bound together by VERY strong ties of love. They were encased in some kind of aura that made their profiles blurry, but even with whatever spell it was, their positions didn’t leave much to the imagination.
“A-ha,” Cadance whispered. “Twilight, you sneaky little filly. But why are you hiding it, hmm? Are you not sure what you want?”
It looked like the ties had only recently evolved from a pre-existing bond of close friendship. But they had all the makings of a serious relationship, and if that weren’t enough, there was also another kind of magic linking them together, one that had a prismatic glint. It was almost like it was strengthening their connection even further...
“Interesting,” said Cadance. “I wonder if they’re even aware…”
She watched them go at it for a moment, but when it became clear that they weren’t stopping, she deactivated her Soul Sight and let the world return to normal. As she did, a telltale pressure behind her eyes made itself known, one that she was all too familiar with.
Cadance turned and headed back the way she came. She had a wife to inform and a little brother-in-law to spoil, and the sooner she could do both, the better. She wasn’t sure if Gleaming would confront Twilight about this, but if Cadance had her way, she’d just let things develop on their own.
After all, a bond this strong couldn’t be hidden for long...
“Happy Nightmare Night, Princess Cadance!” the day guards called.
Cadance waved as she closed the apartment door. She giggled and shucked off her regalia, humming a soft tune as she trotted into the bedroom, intent on breaking out her costume for the night.
“Oh, come ON!” came a shout from the walk-in closet. “You’ve gotta be KIDDINGme!”
Cadance poked her head inside. Gleaming was wiggling and squirming in front of a mirror, trying to fit into the last part of her own costume. They’d both decided to dress up as pirates, and while Gleaming had gotten most of her outfit on, she was having trouble with the coat.
Cadance sighed. “I tried to warn you, hun. This is why most pregnant mares try to make the baby bump part of their costume.”
Gleaming was wearing a black bandana, a white puffy shirt, a moss-green sash, and her mane and tail had been done up in braids with tiny gems. She had three sheathed longswords hanging loosely at her side, and next to the swords was a pouch that jangled with fool’s gold.
“It’s not small around my barrel, though!” Gleaming said. “It’s small everywhere else! It fit me fine when I was trying it on, remember? The tailor even gave it room for the foals to grow!”
Cadance did remember. But regardless of that the coat was obviously too small. Not only that, but the puffy shirt was in the sleeve, as well! It was like everything on her was just too small in general.
Curious, Cadance came up and compared their heights in the mirror. Normally, the tip of Gleaming’s horn normally came up to Cadance’s withers, but now...
Gleaming cocked her head. “What is it?”
Cadance didn’t reply. She summoned a tape measure and held it up to Gleaming, who stood still with a blank look. Cadance measured three times just to make sure she wasn’t mistaken, but she got the same result each time.
“Seems like our foals haven’t been the only ones growing.” Cadance showed her the measurement. “You’re an inch and half taller!”
Gleaming blinked several times. She did another measurement herself, but she found the same thing. “The hay?”
Cadance pursed her lips. It looked like most of the growth had been in her legs. Cadance hadn’t noticed because they’d both been so busy with preparations for the holidays, plans for the new hospital, and just running the Empire in general. But now that she was looking for it…
“Ugh!” Gleaming tossed away the tape measure and wiggled out of the shirt.” As if I didn’t have enough to worry about!” She shucked off her maternity brace as well with a forlorn look. “I knew it was getting harder to zip this up...”
Cadance rubbed her chin. “This is weird. I’d have thought your growing years were behind you.”
Gleaming put a hoof on her barrel. “Well, there’s a lot of hormonal stuff going on...”
Cadance shrugged. “We should tell Twilight and Talia about this.”
Gleaming grunted. “Talia will be at the party, and Twily’ll be here soon with the others. We can ask then.”
Knock, knock, knock.
Cadance swiveled her ears. “Speaking of which...”
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “Early as usual. Are we still playing dumb, by the way?”
Cadance thought for a moment. “...I’ve been sensing Rainbow’s getting frustrated, but something’s holding Twilight back. I’m still hoping they’ll tell us on their own.”
Gleaming exhaled out her nose. “Yeah, well… I get the feeling that they’re starting to make a game out of this.”
Cadance snickered. “They do seem like that type of couple, don’t they?”
Gleaming’s horn glowed with a bright FLASH, and she teleported out of the closet and to the bedroom door. “Go ahead and get ready, babe! I’ll see to them.”
“Okay!”
Gleaming walked over to the door, still muttering to herself. Immediately she noticed the difference between wearing the maternity brace and not, as her gait turned into a waddle without it. Her back legs were being pushed farther and farther apart by her giant beach ball of a belly, and the extra weight was making her have to adopt a more careful pace.
And boy, was that weight piling on. She’d gained twenty pounds in the last week, and her last fundal height measurement was a whopping sixty-seven centimeters! Granted, part those gains were apparently from her getting taller, but still...
Sighing, Gleaming opened the door. Just beyond were Twilight, Spike, and Rainbow, all wearing Nightmare Night costumes and grinning from ear to ear.
“Well, hello!” Gleaming looked the three of them up and down. “Don’t you all look spiffy.”
Twilight had dressed up as a dragon. Her outfit had spines the color of her mane that ran down her back, and she had on a pair of fake horns that rested between her ears. Spike had done the opposite and had dressed up as a pony, his outfit sported a two-toned mane and tail with a cutie mark of a scroll set behind green flame. Lastly, Rainbow had decided to go as a timber wolf. She was wearing a prop set of horseshoes that looked like claws, her wings looked like they were made out of branches, and her mane and tail had a tough look like bark.
“Thanks!” said Twilight. She gave Gleaming a toothy smile, revealing that she was also wearing fake fangs. She’d enchanted her eyes to resemble like cat-like slits, and her wings were magicked to resemble a batpony’s. “You’re still getting ready, I take it?”
Gleaming motioned towards the bedroom. “Cady is. I just discovered that most of my costume doesn’t fit.”
“Aww!” Spike jumped off Twilight’s back. “You can’t go to a Nightmare Night party without a Nightmare Night costume!”
Gleaming stared at Spike. His eyes were enchanted to like a pony’s, and the look was decidedly odd on the little guy. “I… uh, may not have a choice, Bud. I don’t really have anything else.”
“What were you gonna go as?” Rainbow gestured to Gleaming’s braids. “I’m guessing it’s why you have your mane like that.”
Gleaming nodded. “Cady’s a pirate captain, and I was gonna be her first mate. I’ve a puffy shirt and coat with a couple of props, but the shirt and coat don’t fit.”
Twilight’s eyes drifted to Gleaming’s middle. “Too small in the tummy?”
Gleaming shook her head. “Too small everywhere else. I’ve gotten taller since the tailor took the measurements.”
Twilight furrowed her brow. “...How long ago did you have the measurements taken?”
“Few weeks ago.” Gleaming made her way over to the kitchen to grab drinks for everyone. “Weird, huh? I’m thinking it’s a hormone thing.”
Twilight sucked on her teeth. “I’ve... never heard of anything like that happening, especially not so quickly! The measurements were done this month?”
There was the sound of the fridge being opened, along with the clink of glasses being pulled out from the cupboard. “Yeah,” Gleaming said over the noise. “The day before we found the fifth foal.”
A thought occurred to Twilight. “When did Cadance start giving you the alicorn magic infusions?”
The kitchen sounds stopped.
“...the day after,” Gleaming replied.
Rainbow looked to Twilight with a smirk. “Well how about that?”
Twilight lowered her voice. “Correlation doesn’t equal causation, Dashie. Remember what we were talking about this morning?”
Rainbow gave her peck on the cheek. “Maybe, but you gotta admit it’s worth looking into.”
Twilight squeaked, her whole body going rigid. “N-Not here! They might see us!”
“I suppose that might have something to do with it,” said Gleaming. The sounds from the kitchen resumed. “But I’ve never really heard of something like that happening! Why would alicorn magic do something like that?”
“So let ‘em see.” Rainbow nuzzled Twilight’s neck, breathing in the warm scent of her fur. “Let ‘em see that we can’t keep our hooves off each other. Let ‘em see how you turn to putty when I touch you. Let ‘em see how I turned the world upside down for you, and how you TEASED me so much on the way here I almost pinned you to the floor and rutted you until you screamed—”
Twilight whirled and pulled Rainbow into a fierce kiss. Their tongues wrapped around each other as they moaned in each other’s mouths, utterly ravenous for each other. Twilight overpowered Rainbow and pushed her into submission, but she fought back with an intensity that only turned them on even more.
Spike facepalmed. “Oh, for Celestia’s sake.”
“Then again, you did say there wasn’t a lot of documentation on this,” Gleaming mused. “This might be a indication of a bad thing for all we know! D’you think maybe we should stop?”
Twilight pulled away with a wet pop! It was an affair no more than ten seconds, but to them it was far longer. Twilight stared into Rainbow’s fiery eyes, their breathing heavy and fast. She stroked Rainbow’s cheek with a fetlock and smiled.
“Soon. I promise.”
Rainbow’s eyes flickered, but nevertheless she stepped away. The two of them gave each other bedroom eyes for a few more seconds before turning away and played aloof.
Gleaming stuck her head out of the kitchen. “Twily? Did you hear me?”
Twilight jumped. “H-Huh?! Oh, ah… sorry, I thought you were thinking out loud! What’d you say?”
Gleaming came out of the kitchen with iced tea and a bowl of candy, already munching on a piece or two. “I asked if you thought we should stop the alicorn infusions. D’you think this is a sign of something dangerous?”
Twilight accepted her glass, her gaze unfocused. “According to everything I’ve read, the effects of a rejected magic infusion are immediate. The body treats the energy like a poison and removes it as fast as possible, causing things like fever, nausea, fatigue, and even seizure. You’ve been exposed to Cadance’s magic numerous times over the years without issue, and our magic signatures are fifty percent identical due to being direct siblings. If you were going to have an adverse reaction to either my or Cadance’s magic, we would’ve known the first time we tried to cast a spell on you; not when we started mixing our raw energy with yours.”
Gleaming munched on chocolate pieces, tilting her head back and forth. She motioned for Spike to open his mouth so she could float a piece onto his waiting tongue. “So you don’t think the two things are related.”
Twilight shrugged. “I’ve only ever heard of magic having an effect on body size in centaurs, and even then only rarely. It requires a ritual that’s forbidden by their culture, and those that attempt it are either exiled or imprisoned.”
“Or both, like Tirek!” Spike said a mouthful of chocolate.
A shadow fell over Twilight’s face. “Yes, Spike. Like Tirek.”
But Gleaming still wasn’t convinced. “Do you think you can scan me, just for peace of mind?”
Twilight nodded. “Want me to do it now?”
Gleaming swallowed her mouthful. “If you could.”
Twilight took of swig of iced tea before setting it down. “Hold still.”
A feeling of power seeped into the air, and Gleaming felt the telltale tingling of her sister’s magic brush against her mind, requesting access. Gleaming resisted on reflex, but forced herself to relax and opened herself to the scan.
It was a very gentle affair. Twilight was methodical, but was never forceful or jolting. She took great care as she immersed herself in Gleaming’s magic, going through every nook and cranny without so much as a twinge. Her touch was almost was like a massage, like Gleaming was stretching out a muscle that hadn’t been used in a while.
“You’re showing all the signs of receiving regular magic infusions,” said Twilight at last. “Your internal ley lines are widened, your aether gland is active, and your eldritch cochlea is enlarged.”
Gleaming let out a sigh of relief. Rainbow and Spike, however, just shared a blank look.
“Translation?” said Rainbow. “Some of us don’t speak unicorn.”
Twilight quelled her magic and retrieved her glass. “Magically, Gleaming is perfectly healthy. More than healthy, really! Her body’s soaking up the energy like a sponge, and I didn’t see any evidence of rejected magic or abnormal fluctuations in her arcana system. The excess energy is all being funneled to the foals, which is allowing them to gestate normally, and she’d likely be capable of some pretty impressive feats if she wasn’t under such a heavy and constant drain. But as it stands, her overall magic levels are staying within normal ranges, which is what we want.”
“Hear, hear,” said Gleaming. “I’ve heard horror stories that can come with pregnancy. Magic exhaustion is no fun, believe me.”
Twilight giggled. “Then I’d call that a good reason to keep doing the infusions. Wouldn’t you?”
Gleaming shrugged. “I suppose.”
Twilight’s eyes wandered to all of Gleaming’s body. The changes were barely noticeable, but a small part of her couldn’t help but approve of her big sister ‘resuming the norm’. “I wish I could give you a better answer, but I don’t know what’s causing you to suddenly grow taller. All I can say is that I doubt it has anything to do with the alicorn magic.”
“Interesting,” said a male voice behind them. “But that just leaves us with more questions, doesn’t it?”
They all turned to see that at the bedroom door was a pink alicorn stallion, clad a pirate costume and watching while leaning against the doorframe. He came over to them with a smirk and a flourish, his soft, light steps silent and swift as a shadow.
Spike dropped the piece of candy he was holding. “Uhhh...”
“We be needing Talia’s two cents, methinks,” said Eros. He stood beside Gleaming to put a wing around her, his long feathers wrapping around her like a shawl. “Can’t hurt to cover our bases, eh?”
Twilight’s eyes about bugged out of their head. “C-Cadance?!”
Eros grinned. “Aye, Twilight. Though I go by Eros when I’m like this.”
Pomf!
Rainbow’s wings had spread to their full extension like a pair of planks.
Gleaming felt a warm glow. She leaned into Eros’ embrace, the look on her face matching the twinkle in Eros’ eyes.
Twilight turned beet red and looked away, her own wings fidgeting. “W-Why are you—”
“—a stallion?” Eros stretched, his joints popping. “It’s part of my costume! I thought that since Gleaming was already a mare, it’d be fun if we made it a theme! I be the dread Captain Andalus, Scourge of the Celestial Sea! This here be me first mate, the swordsmare Lady Zorona!”
“Ahoy!” said Gleaming.
Eros was wearing a white v-necked shirt and grey captain’s coat that exposed his chest and a pair of mottled saddlebags that hung at his sides. A prop cutlass and a flask were hanging from a pair of belts that wrapped around his waist, and his mane and tail were braided similarly to Gleaming’s. He had on a worn captain’s hat neatly finished off the ensemble, and strangely, he seemed to be wearing some kind of makeup that emphasized his eyes.
Spike walked up and craned his neck up at Eros. “Man, you look cool! You’re like a real swashbuckler!”
Eros smiled. “Avast, young Spike! Ye be excited for tonight?”
“Am I ever!” Spike grinned and held up his arms. “This is my first Nightmare Night party! I can’t wait!”
Eros picked him up with magic to set him on his back. “Best we make it a good one, then! Ye want to serve as me loyal companion? A good helper be worth ten times his weight in gold.”
Spike’s eyes lit up. “Oh, heck yes! Just you watch! I’ll be better than any boring ol’ parrot!”
“You alright, Twily?” Gleaming asked. “You look a little out of it.”
Twilight laughed shrilly and spoke in a high-pitched voice. “Who, me?! I’m fine, yes, perfectly fine! Why wouldn’t I be?! There’s nothing awkward or confusing about this at all! Totally normal stuff here, yep-yep-yep! Not thinking anything inappropriate or sexual whatsoever! This is going to be a GREAT evening! Right, Rainbow?!”
Rainbow snapped her gaze away from Eros, pawing at the ground as she forced her wings to re-fold. “Y-Yeah… real fun... say, uh, not a bad look there… Eros! You’re a real sex—SWANKY! Swanky pirate! Totally swanky! The swankiest!”
Eros winked. “You’re not half bad yourself, lass.”
Pomf!
Gleaming pursed her lips. While Twilight and Rainbow’s reactions were understandable (and priceless), they had plans to take Spike trick or treating after the party. It wouldn’t be much fun if they were both starry-eyed fillies the whole time.
“SAY! You know what’d be fun?!” Twilight said loudly. “Since you two are swapped like this, why don’t the rest of us follow the trend? It’ll be fun!”
Spike did a double-take. “What, what?!”
Eros and Gleaming stared. “Uh…”
“YES!” Rainbow said just as loud. “Great idea! Totally in the spirit of Nightmare Night! IcompletelyandtotallyconsenttothisandyoushouldcastthespellRIGHTNOW.”
“NOPE!” Spike dove behind Eros and Gleaming. “Count me out!”
“Won’t work on you anyway!” Twilight’s horn glowed with gathering energy. “It’s tailored to ponies!”
Gleaming spoke up. “Twilight, stop! You don’t need—”
“Here we goooooo!” Twilight said.
There was the hum of ambient magic, the surge of a spell being cast…
ZAP!
And when Gleaming could see again...
Eros whistled low.
Twilight was now a large and handsome alicorn stallion, his sail-like wings a size too large for his thin frame. His mane and tail were unkempt, his chest was broad and defined, and his costume was now straining to fit him. He swayed back and forth as he struggled to stay on his hooves, horn still smoking.
“Ergh,” he said in a shaky tenor. “That… did not feel good...”
Rainbow was still small and svelte, but now with a swimmer’s body and a jagged mane like lightning. His wings were strong and sleek, his hooves were unshorn, and his muzzle was square and short. His costume still more or less fit him, but he looked just as dizzy as Twilight.
“Agreed,” he muttered in a deep baritone. “Hrk…”
Gleaming grit her teeth. “You just—I was—UGH! You damn… IDIOTS! I You didn’t need to do that!”
“Hey, it’s fine!” Twilight clumsily waved his hoof. “Really! It’s all... for the fun! Now we all match!”
“Don’t try to play it off!” Gleaming stormed to Twilight and yanked his head down level with hers. “I don’t care what kind of power you’re packing these days! You don’t go casting a spell like that on yourself OR on others without testing it first!”
Rainbow rubbed his eyes, staggering from the change in balance. He flared his wings to catch himself and chanced a look over at Eros, and while he still blushed, at least able to keep his wings under control.
“Better than nothing, I suppose…”
Twilight winced from Gleaming yelling in his ear. “Geez, calm down! I’m not some two-bit caster! I have it under control!”
Sparks now literally flew from Gleaming’s eyes. “You could’ve had the spell backfire! You could’ve overloaded the matrix! You damn well could’ve splinched yourself! I KNOW Celestia taught you better than to do reckless shit like this, and even if she didn’t, Mom and Dad definitely did! What the fuck’s wrong with you?!”
“Gleamy’s right,” said Eros. “We could’ve thought of something less extreme to make you two more comfortable.”
Meanwhile, Spike poked his head up from behind Eros to get a look.
“Huh.” He scratched his head. “Not bad.”
Twilight pulled away from Gleaming and stood up to his full height. “For your information, sister, I HAVE tested that spell before! I did it back when you guys first told me you were trying to conceive, alright?! it’s just been a while since I’ve casted it!”
“Oh, and that’s supposed to be an excuse for forcing a spell through with raw power?” Gleaming put her hooves on her hips. “What made you think a genderswap spell was the best solution in the first place? You’re still going to be attracted to Eros regardless!”
Twilight glanced at Eros. Sure enough, that suave face and sleek physique still set his heart aflutter, but his brain was having trouble connecting the dots.
“S’easier to ignore now,” he mumbled.
“Is this how you solve all your problems?” Gleaming said. “I get that you have a lot on your plate—we all do—but you can’t automatically resort to magic every time you have an issue! You’re going to hurt yourself, or worse, the ponies around you!”
Twilight narrowed his eyes. “Well, maybe if you’d WARNED us that Cadance was gonna do this in the first place, I wouldn’t have even considered it! Did you ever think about how others were going to react? Or did you just want to show off your trophy husband?!”
The air around Gleaming shimmered. “Take that back right—”
“Alright, cool it.” Eros stepped in between them. “Snarking at each other while emotionally compromised isn’t going to accomplish anything.”
Gleaming rounded on him. “Don’t start with the emotion crap! I’m not—”
“Your mind is torn between equal parts anger and concern,” said Eros. “The anger is volatile and prone to shifting at a moment’s notice, and the concern is emanating from familial instincts and your inherent desire to protect. Not exactly a stable combo.”
Gleaming’s retort died on her lips. She wanted to argue on sheer principle, empath or no empath, but it was really hard when Eros was looking at her like that. His eyes drilled into hers, and while he was trying to look stern, it was coming off as more…
“Eep.”
“And you.” Eros turned to Twilight. “That white-hot bubbling feeling creeping into your chest? That’s a special kind of anger caused by a mix of adrenaline and testosterone. You’re not used to dealing with aggression like that, so get a hold of yourself before you REALLY flip your lid.”
Twilight’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks. Sure, it was jarring to have Eros hit the nail exactly on the head, but that same ‘stern’ look had showed his brain how to connect the dots again.
“U-Um…”
“How about we talk about something else?” Eros’ eyes fell on Rainbow. “Like that little exchange I saw between you two while Gleamy was in the kitchen. Care to explain yourselves?”
Twilight and Rainbow froze. A long silence followed, nopony speaking or moving, Eros’ question hanging in the air like a guillotine.
“Looks like the cat’s out of the bag, Twi,” Rainbow said at last.
Twilight groaned. He hung his head low, his wings drooping.
Rainbow cleared his throat to speak, but when he saw Twilight’s expression, his face twisted into a frown. “You want us to explain? Fine, I’ll give you an explanation.”
He marched over to Twilight, cupping his head in both hooves and staring into his eyes.
“Where were we?”
And Rainbow kissed him. He kissed him like Twilight’s lips held the key to life. He pulled Twilight into a fierce embrace, his wings enveloping them like a downy shroud, and while Twilight made a muffled noise at first, his eyes soon fluttered closed as he kissed back. Twilight fell back on his haunches and pulled Rainbow onto his lap, hugging him tight as Rainbow wrapped his legs around Twilight’s waist, their kiss growing more and more fevered.
Gleaming and Eros watched in silence. The only sound was Spike making a gagging noise.
Rainbow and Twilight touched foreheads as they pulled away, breathing soft while lost in each other’s eyes.
“Does that ‘explain’ things well enough, Captain Love Guy?” Rainbow asked.
Eros couldn’t have stopped smiling if he tried. “Aye.”
“Any problems?”
“Why would there be? I’m happy for you two!” Eros said. “You make an adorable couple!”
Rainbow smirked. “Not quite the a-word I was going for, but I’ll let it slide. How about you, Gleaming? You against fillyfooling, or friends dating friends? What are your thoughts on sex before marriage?”
“Rainbow!” Twilight hissed.
Rainbow shrugged. “Hey, we’re banging. They deserve to know.”
Gleaming couldn’t help but laugh. “You basically just described all the issues Eros and I faced when we started dating—save for the fillyfooling—soooooo, yeah.”
Rainbow gave Twilight a very pointed look, whispering something in his ear that sounded like, “Told ya.”
Twilight suddenly looked very sheepish. “I… you… really?! When, Gleamy? I didn’t know about any of that!!”
Gleaming lifted Spike up onto her own back. “It was hard enough to pry your nose out of a textbook for meals, Twily. You were in the middle of your studies with Celestia, raising Spike with Mom, all of that. How could you relate to the details of a relationship? It’d be like me bitching to you about what being pregnant is like!”
Spike giggled and hugged Gleaming’s neck. “She’s got you there, Twi.”
Twilight frowned. “Uh, hello? I’ve been helping out with all this, haven’t I? Pregnancy’s not something I have experience with, but I’ve certainly done enough research! I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t crossed my mind.”
Spike laugh died in his throat. “Wat.”
“Yeah!” said Rainbow. “Kinda hard not to think about it when—” He did a double-take at Twilight. “You too?”
Twilight chewed on his lip. “I didn’t want to say anything because I—what do you mean, ‘you too’?!”
They were cut off by Eros laughing.
Spike buried his head in his claws. “What have I done?”
Gleaming clucked her tongue. “Son of a hippogriff whore....”
Rainbow fluffed up his wings. “Hey, I’ve always wanted kids! I help Pinkie babysit Pound and Pumpkin all the time, don’t I? I just wasn’t sure how you felt about it! S’not exactly an easy topic to bring up…”
Twilight stared at him. “I heard you say at the Wonderbolts Hearth’s Warming party that you couldn’t stand foals.”
Rainbow shook her head. “That was Fleetfoot. Who was lying through her teeth by the way, because I’ve seen how she acts when she’s around kids. She’s just terrified having a kid will ruin her figure or some crap. Nevermind that half the mares on the team are moms and are still on top of their game, oh no. I swear, you’d think she’s never heard of Pilates...”
Gleaming raised a hoof to her chin. “I should probably look into that...”
Eros leaned down and nipped her ear. “Can I watch?”
She brushed her tail across his groin. “Only if you help with the ‘post-workout’ routine.”
“Mmmm, that might wear you out more than the workout…”
Twilight shifted back and forth. “That… wasn’t you? I could’ve sworn that…”
Rainbow suddenly seemed to remember something. “I shoulda told you about this earlier, but like, Fleetfoot and I look so similar that we could be long lost twins or something. Seriously, you can barely tell us apart with our manes hidden beneath our uniforms, and even our voices sound the same! It’s gotten to the point that the team just calls us ‘Blue One’ and ‘Blue Two’.”
Twilight’s face lit up. “Are you saying that...”
Rainbow kissed him a second time, fast and eager.
“For an egghead, you can be a real dummy sometimes.” He stroked Twilight’s cheek. “Let’s talk about it when we don’t have an audience, kay?”
Twilight’s eyes flickered to Eros and Gleaming. “I wanna carry the first one.”
“I was more thinking we get each other pregnant at the same time.”
“...I bet I could make that happen.”
Gleaming, deciding that she’d had enough, stepped forward to look between them. “I’m guessing this is the real reason you brought her along.”
Twilight hugged Rainbow a little tighter. “I, erm… w-well, yes. I mean, I did need to bring somepony along, but Spike would’ve served that purpose just fine. But you weren’t really wrong when you initially assumed that she was mostly here for ‘emotional support’.”
Rainbow gave her a saucy look. “Is that what we’re calling it now?”
Twilight covered his face with a wing. “Sweet Celestia...”
Gleaming pursed her lips. She’d never really given thought to Twilight’s romantic life, and part of her wanted to hug Twilight, part of her wanted to hear how they got together, part of her wanted to give them advice...
...and a small part wanted to murder the little shit that’d deflowered her baby sister.
“Why were you worried about what we’d think?” Eros asked. “You know what kind of relationship Gleamy and I have.”
Spike coughed at this.
Twilight swished his tail and gnawed the inside of his cheek. “I just… I didn’t want to take the chance, all right? Yes, I saw the parallels to your relationship, but Rainbow and I have different lives, different expectations, different responsibilities, different images to maintain, different biases, all of that! Expecting everypony would treat us the same as way wasn’t realistic or intelligent, so I wanted more information before making an announcement.”
Rainbow spoke up. “She—er, he, I guess, is worried this’ll turn into some kinda scandal. Oh no, ponies will start gossiping and treating us different! The press will hound us twenty-four seven! Heh… as if that’d bother me.”
Twilight swatted him. “I’m worried that it’ll make you even more incorrigible. The last thing your ego needs is more pandering.”
At this, Rainbow licked Twilight’s neck, his wet tongue rasping against Twilight’s coat. “And here I thought that was what you liked about me...”
Twilight inhaled sharply. “D-Dashie… please...”
“What a perfect opportunity,” Rainbow said so everyone could hear. “Maybe I’ll tell ‘em about our little game, hmm? You know, the one where we keep each other on the edge for as long as possible—“
“As much as I’d like to watch this play out,” Eros cut in. “We’ve got a party to go to.”
“Yeah!” said Spike. “Do your mushy stuff later! I’ve got candy to snag!”
Gleaming sucked on her teeth. Was she okay with this? There was no reason she shouldn’t be, but things weren’t always that easy. She’d have to know Rainbow better in order to answer that question, and familiarity like that didn’t happen overnight.
“I’ll… just pretend I didn’t see any of that.” Gleaming rested a hoof on her belly, grunting as one the foals shifted. “Are you two going to be staying as stallions, or are you going to change back? Your costumes don’t really fit now.”
Twilight winced. “The spell can’t be reverted for a couple hours, so…”
“Cool!” Rainbow said. “We really can say it’s part of a group theme!”
Eros and Gleaming looked at each other, a silent exchange passing between them. Gleaming gestured to herself, wiggling her hips and holding out one of her legs.
“There must be a way we can fix your costumes,” said Eros. “None of you should have to be uncomfortable,”
Twilight’s eyes flicking back and forth. “I might have a solution.”
Gleaming raised an eyebrow.
“A few months back, a friend was showing me the spells she uses to make adjustments to clothes.” Twilight nodded to himself. “It won’t be perfect or professional, but I should be able to make some tweaks.”
Well, that was certainly fortuitous. Gleaming wasn’t exactly thrilled about Twilight jumping straight to magic again, but it might be the only option here.
“Alright, alright.” Gleaming motioned for Twilight to follow her to the bedroom. “C’mon. I’ll show you my stuff.”
“You know,” Eros said as they walked off. “If you and Rainbow are going to be stallions for the night, you should come up with new names for yourselves! It’ll help you mentally.”
Twilight frowned. “That sounds an awful lot like disassociation.”
Rainbow blinked. “Disa-what now?”
“Don’t think of it like that, ya mangy landlubber!” Eros struck a pose. “Think of it like your alter-ego! Yer secret identity! By day, you’re mild-mannered Princess Twilight Sparkle, but by night, you’re a symbol of justice and truth! A beacon of hope and light! The hero that Equestria deserves!”
Spike snickered. “Is it too late to join in on this?”
Twilight grinned despite himself. “Oh, okay. But it’s just for the night, okay? I don’t want to make this a recurring theme.”
Eros chanced a glance over at Rainbow, noting how comfortable he already seemed. Twilight was adjusting quickly as well, and Eros could sense an underlying curiosity in both of them...
“Of course,” Eros said. “We certainly wouldn’t want that.”
“Who you gonna be, Twi?” Rainbow spun around in a circle, examining himself in full. “I thiiiiiink… I’m gonna beeeee... Rainbow Blitz!”
Twilight gave him a dull look. “...Really?”
“Hey! I like it!” Rainbow said. “Who said I have to change both parts of my name?”
Twilight shrugged. “If that’s what you wanna go with...”
Rainbow gained that cocksure look. “What about you? Think you can top mine?”
“I’ve a suggestion!” Gleaming called from the bedroom. “It’s what Mom and Dad were gonna name you if you were a boy!”
Twilight did a double take. “What?! No one ever told me about this!”
“Didn’t we?” Gleaming said. “I thought we did! I’ve always thought it was a good name!”
Twilight trotted into the bedroom. “What was the name?”
Gleaming’s voice faded as they went into walk-in closet. “It was…”
The Grand Crystal Ballroom was where events and parties were held. It didn’t get a lot of usage most of the time, but when it did, the place was thoroughly cleaned, decorated, and stocked in all the best the crystal ponies had to offer. Turnouts for these celebrations depended on what was being celebrated, but tonight, the place was packed with castle staff and their families.
The place was decorated in honor of Nightmare Night. A thin mist covered the floor that gave the place a eerie feel, and all manner of pumpkins, fake skeletons, scarecrows, and monster props were scattered on displays or set in the corners. The walls and windows were lined with cobwebs and glowing runes that changed colors, and the tables were covered with intricately embroidered tablecloths and glowing candelabras. The ceiling above was enchanted to look like the cloudy night sky, and the clouds were parted to reveal a large harvest moon. There was an impressive spread of food on a series of banquet tables on the far side of the room, and up on a stage was a musical band playing a fast-paced seasonal tune. The sun had just properly set outside to allowing the stars and real moon to come out, and ponies of all ages could be seen walking the streets in their quest for sugary treats.
The partygoers were in all manner of costumes. Silly ones like clowns, scary ones like zombies, traditional ones like fireponies, and fantasy ones like jackalopes. Everypony was laughing, talking, eating, playing, or dancing, and there was a feel to the air that put a smile on your face.
But most of the attention at the party was directed at the group of royals who’d just arrived. Gleaming, Eros, and Spike all stood waving at the entrance for a few moments before being escorted to the front of the room. A great many ponies did double-takes upon seeing Eros, with even a wolf whistle or two as they passed.
“Sorry, I’m taken!” Eros said.
“Looks like you’re debut’s a hit,” said Gleaming. She could spot more than a few jealous looks from mares in the crowd. “I wonder how many ponies will be questioning their sexuality after tonight?”
Eros chuckled. “At the very least, I hope this makes more ponies comfortable with things like this.”
Spike, who was curled around Eros’ shoulders like a scaly cat, frowned at this. “What do you mean?”
Eros hesitated. “Well, erm—you see...”
“Some ponies don’t know what they want in life.” Gleaming shook her mane a bit, the braided gems clicking softly. “How do you think you’d feel if you went for years thinking you only liked girls, but then you encountered a boy that completely swept you off your hoov—er, claws? Would you know what to do?”
Spike blinked several times. His face scrunched up, his tail tightening around Eros’ shoulders.
“No,” he said slowly. “I’d be confused. Like, really, really confused! I wouldn’t know what to do at all.”
Gleaming nodded. “Some ponies can’t do it, no matter how hard they try. It can be very stressful.”
Spike cocked his head. “Why would you want ponies to feel like that?”
“Because it’s not healthy to pretend your problems don’t exist,” said Eros. He took a moment to step up onto the platform the guards were leading them to. “Burying them does nothing but make you bitter, and it makes the ponies around you suffer.”
Spike’s face was as blank as a clean whiteboard.
Eros looked out over the crowd. “Trust me, it’ll make sense when you’re older.”
Gleaming’s gaze wandered as she made her way up after Eros. She’d already seen quite a few ponies she knew—her massage therapist Amber chatting with somepony while nibbling on a candied apple, Lieutenant Steelwing by the buffet table with a demure mystery mare, and Doctor Talia, off in a corner surrounded by ponies with medical cutie marks. Strangely, there was a tiny, bright-eyed foal in a carrier atop her back.
Gleaming got to her chair and leaned into the cushions, her profound stomach taking up most of her lap. She was starting to notice how warm she felt all the time, the heat bathing out into the rest of her body to make her feel like she was glowing. She gently rubbed her taut belly, feeling the precious lives within stirring, their movements causing tiny flutters that made her smile.
Eros noticed. “Hmm? They tickling you again?”
Gleaming giggled. “I think they just woke up.”
Eros’ eyes fell on his wife’s pregnant swell, snugly secured in its brace beneath the adjusted shirt. “Are you hungry at all?”
“I haven’t stopped being hungry these last three weeks.” Gleaming licked her lips, glancing over at the buffet line. “I might just let you and Spike handle the greetings once Twi—er, Dusk and Rainbow come down.”
Eros considered that. “So long as you finish before our other special guest gets here. She’ll want to talk with both of us.”
Gleaming’s eyes lit up. “Right, I’ll have to indulge quickly once dear brother arrives.”
“Where’d they go, anyway?” Eros looked towards the door. “One minute they were behind us, the next they were gone.”
“Bathroom,” Gleaming replied. “I’m guessing they’re having trouble getting used to their new ‘equipment.’”
“They just got here,” said Spike. “That announcer pony looks like he’s about to make an announcement.”
Sure enough, the herald cleared his throat and said in a loud voice, “Presenting, erm... His Majesty, Prince Dusk Shine! And his companion, S-Sir Rainbow… um, Blitz!”
The entire crowd turned to see Dusk and Rainbow coming in through the doors. They were both neatly presented in their costumes while standing hoof in hoof, Rainbow’s suave, cocksure grin an odd compliment to Dusk’s shy smile. Dusk’s dragon costume was modified so that it didn’t look like it was strangling him anymore, but it still didn’t look very comfortable.
Murmurs ran through the crowd. Several sets of eyes (mostly female) about bugged out of their heads, but the rest remembered themselves and bowed to Dusk as he passed, sneaking subtle peeks in his wake.
Gleaming stifled a snicker. “Thisis going to make some headlines.”
Eros nodded. “The right headlines, too.”
“Eh?” Gleaming turned to Eros. “This just for Nightmare Night. It’s not like they’re going stallion full-time.”
“I meant their relationship.” Eros gestured at the ponies in Dusk and Rainbow’s wake, all staring wide-eyed at the stallion’s tails. “Looks like they’ve decided to make it public.”
Gleaming squinted. It took a second, but from their higher vantage point she saw. Dusk’s and Rainbow’s tails were looped tight together—the universal sign that two ponies were a couple.
“I’d go get food now if I were you,” Eros said in an undertone. “We’re about to get mobbed.”
Gleaming couldn’t help but agree. “Try not to have too much fun while I’m gone, okay?”
Suddenly, Eros used a wing to lift up Gleaming’s tail, running his feathers across her sensitive slit. “Oh, we’ll be having our fun later tonight.”
Gleaming’s pupils shrunk to tiny dots. An even stronger warmth bloomed inside her now, one that quickly radiated southward to form an ache.
“Eros?” Gleaming said in a strangely calm voice.
He turned with a shit-eating grin. “Yes, babe?”
“Would you like to play a game tonight after trick-or-treating?”
Eros pretended to think. “What game?”
Gleaming was having trouble thinking straight. The stupid sexy bastard was purposely wafting his tail to give her a good whiff of cologne—her cologne. “Th-The one from that book Celestia gave us at… at our wedding! Yeah! I think it’s from… erm, chapter five? Or maybe six… whatever! You know the one.”
It took Eros a moment to get it, but once he did... “It’s been awhile since we played that game. I’m certainly down if you are… if you think you can handle it.”
Spike looked blankly between them. “What game?”
They ignored him. “Of course I can handle it,” Gleaming purred. “Get ready to lose, pink boy.”
In a flash, Eros bent down until he was inches from Gleaming’s face. His eyes captured hers, his parted lips only inches away. Gleaming found herself hypnotized, and before she even knew it, she was leaning in to—
Eros pulled away.
“You can’t win all the time,” he whispered.
Gleaming blushed. She wasn’t sure whether to smack him, tease him, or shove him to the ground and claim him. Ultimately she decided on the second option, but a small (albeit loud) part of her was insisting on the third.
Gleaming swatted him with her tail, using magic to pinch his ass as she walked away. “All’s fair in love and war.”
Spike watched Gleaming go, as lost as a blind pony in a maze. “Ummm, what was that?”
Eros’ ears turned red. He’d forgotten that Spike was with them. “Erm, it, ah… involves mushy stuff, buddy. Kissing on the lips and stuff. You wouldn’t like it.”
Spike immediately made a face. “Eww! Definitely count me out on that! It’s bad enough I’ve had to see all the kissing between Twilight and Rainbow!”
Eros watched Gleaming’s swaying hips as she walked away, suddenly quite grateful that his costume covered his groin. “Give it time, little bro. You might change your mind someday.”
***
Gleaming had half a mind to leave her guards in the dust and teleport over to the buffet, but she knew that wouldn’t reflect well on her in the long run. Fortunately, most ponies were too preoccupied with Dusk and Rainbow to give her any notice. It was an odd feeling; she didn’t often get the chance to blend into crowds.
The food selection was impressive. The kitchens always liked to be festive when it came to their holiday meals, and tonight was no exception. Roasted pumpkin seeds, baked pumpkin bites, a gooey cheddar fondue that looked like webbing, a hot dish with a jack-o-lantern face, a chunky blue cheese spread with pink food coloring to look like brains, bread bowls in the shape of skulls, a huge bowl of steaming mashed potatoes drizzled with ‘blood’, celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins, devilled eggs with olives to look like eyeballs, salted squash fritters, breadsticks in the shape of broomsticks, a delicious-looking hay and cauliflower soup, various candied fruits, cookies in the shape of arcane runes, ten kinds of pie, and at the very end, a bowl of bright green punch enchanted to give off smoke.
“Hot damn.” Gleaming’s stomach gurgled. “I’m not even sure where to start!” She grabbed half a dozen plates in her magic and proceeded to walk down the line. “I think a bit of this... and a little bit of that… some of this… some of that... ooh, definitely some of that… this looks good… that looks GREAT… this’ll go good with the bread… this with the soup… ah, love it when they make this... still need to get the recipe… maybe a little bit more of this… this too, I suppose… do I want some pie? Eh, I’m pregnant, I’m allowed. Sergeant Onyx, go get two more plates.”
One of her escorting guards obeyed, retrieving two additional plates and holding them steady in his magic. Gleaming dished out three large pie slices on each, but then after some thought, she grabbed a several more and piled them on. Lastly, she took a few cups and filled them up with the mysterious ‘smoking brew,’ then moseyed over to a table with her haul.
The guard holding the pie plates glanced at the other half dozen floating around. He didn’t say anything, but the doubt must’ve shown on his face, as Gleaming noticed and blushed.
“...I might’ve got carried away.” She shrugged and kept on moving. “Though I am a growing mare eating for six.”
They got to the table and set the food down. Gleaming took a moment to organize things, get silverware, cast a spell on the punch to make sure it wasn’t spiked, but finally, she was able to dig in.
She raised a soup-laden spoon to her lips...
“Princess Gleaming, Princess Gleaming!” a tinny voice said. “Hello, hello, hellooooo~! I didn’t know you were hereeeeee!”
Damn it.
A pair of ponies emerged from the crowd. One was the crystal pony Azure Mist, the owner of the underground day spa. Trailing reluctantly behind her was Amber, who subtly met Gleaming’s eyes with an apologetic look.
Gleaming withheld her sigh and set down her spoon. “Hello... Azzy, was it? It’s been awhile! Enjoying the party so far?”
Azzy tittered. “Almost two months and you still remember my name? How flatteringly flattering! I haven’t been to the castle in ages, since we all woke up from the curse, in fact! I was just telling Amber it’s amazing to see how much is all the same, and I love how you and Princess Cadance have tried to mix our traditional styles with the modern era! But what about you, hmm? Did you just get here?”
Gleaming’s stomach let out another growl. “That I did. And I haven’t actually eaten yet, so you’ll have to forgive me for seeing to that while we chat. ”
“Of course, of course, of course!” said Azzy. “Need to keep those little four fed, after all.”
“Er... five,” Amber said, her smooth voice easily heard over the music. “They missed one on the initial count. I thought I told you that a few weeks ago.”
Azzy’s jaw fell to the ground. Gleaming took Azzy’s shock as an opportunity to begin stuffing her face, the hot soup disappearing rapidly down her gullet, Gleaming only pausing to tear off pieces of the bread bowl and dip them in the broth.
“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!” Azzy clapped her hooves and danced in place. “Eeeeeeeeee! You’re having FIVE?! I can’t believe it! That’s unreal! That’s simply, utterly, terrifically splendiferously GREAT! You must be so happy! You must be so excited! Ohmygosh, you must be so HUNGRY! Wow, no wonder you’ve got so much food here! Go on, eat, eat, eat away!”
Gleaming snorted. She took another hearty gulp of soup and wiped her mouth. “Kind of ridiculous, isn’t it? It never really ends, especially with me using magic with the troops. This is meal number four today.”
Azzy’s eyes widened. “Meal number… wow, I can’t even imagine what that must be like. You’re taking it all so well, too! Your body’s adjusted to the pregnancy so well!”
Gleaming smiled. “It’s honestly it’s hard to believe how fast the time’s blown by. S’been an interesting ride so far.”
Azzy got a wistful look. “Don’t I know it. One minute you’re finding out you’re pregnant, and the next you’re holding ‘em in your arms. My advice is to enjoy the time as best you can, as it’s an experience from start to finish. Especially since you’re just getting into the really magical part of it now!”
Suddenly, Amber nudged Azzy and murmured something, gesturing to something a ways away.
Azzy looked where Amber was pointing. “Oh, fiddlesticks. Your Highness, I’m afraid duty calls, but do come visit me at my spa again soon, alright? And bring the rest of your family! I’m sure they’ll all have a lovely time.”
Gleaming perked up at this. “I’ll have to see what I can do.”
“Fabulous.” Azzy bowed and swept away in a flash, leaving both her and Amber behind. “Take care! Happy Nightmare Night!”
Amber made sure until Azzy was well out of earshot, watching stone-faced before turning to Gleaming. “She can be a bit oblivious at times.”
Gleaming waved her off. She finished the soup and bread bowl, turning her attention now to her first plate of food. “I was hoping to get a chance to talk with you, anyways.”
Amber grinned. She’d become a fast friend since she’d started coming to the palace twice a week, and the older mare had had more than a few nuggets of wisdom to share regarding life, pregnancy, parenting, and other things.
“I like your costume.” She sat down beside Gleaming and looked her up and down. “How’re you feeling? Skin itchy? Any swelling in your legs?”
Gleaming shrugged through her bite of fruit salad. “The foalsh are growing like weedsh and I feel like there’sh a black hole’n my gut, but ashide from’at, pretty good! Skin’s nice and shmooth, and it’sh not near as itchy ash before. Shwelling isn’t really an isshue; my sister saw to that. Oh, and I like your coshtume, too! Very cute.”
Amber was dressed up as a cheetah. She’d put lightener in her coat to make it look yellow instead of brown, and a simple glamour had made her look like she was covered in black spots. Her gaunt frame and wiry limbs worked well to pull off the look, and to complete it she was wearing a set of fake whiskers, a set of ankle socks that made her hooves look like paws, and her tail was twisted up to look thin and ropy.
Amber seemed pleased with Gleaming’s response. “I was worried this growth spurt was gonna be murder on you, but if the lotions and oils seem like they’re helping, then we’ll keep using ‘em. I assume you’re having Cad—er, Eros, put them on at night for you?”
Gleaming took a swig of the green smoking brew, which to her delight was a mixture of strawberry, kiwi, and lime. “I uh... told you this before, but he really, really enjoys doing it. You could say it helps us, uh... ‘get to sleep’.”
Amber smirked. “You’re lucky to have a partner who finds this attractive, you know. It’s healthy for the mother to stay sexually active during pregnancy.”
Gleaming polished off three breadsticks in a few huge bites. “I’m pretty sure Eros and I would both be going nuts by now if we couldn’t. I’ve heard some couples have next to no sex while pregnant, but we’ve, uh… well...”
“Been the exact opposite?” Amber offered.
Gleaming felt a flare as her eyes flickered over to Eros. “We’ve been fucking like rabbits.”
Amber snickered as she looked over to Eros. “Luna almighty, he’s a dreamboat. No wonder you can’t keep your hooves off him! You’re gonna have some mighty fine-looking kids.”
Gleaming smiled at that. “Thanks. Although to be honest, I’m more concerned about them just having all the right parts.”
Amber patted her shoulder. “Every parent is. I know you feel like pulling your mane out here, but if you do all the things you’re supposed to, then there’s nothing else for it. Just gotta let those buns bake and hope they come out right.”
“What an analogy.” Gleaming finished off the first plate and immediately went for the second. “I get what you’re saying, but it doesn’t make all this any less nerve-wracking. Eros is good at getting me to relax and feel normal, but we’re not together all the time. That’swhen I’ve noticed that I start to get, well… bitchy.”
“Oooh, the dreaded b-word.” Amber giggled. “Now you’re really a mare.”
“It’s true!” Gleaming said. “I get irritated with ponies for no reason, I have next to NO patience, I have to hold my tongue to keep myself from biting ponies heads off and even still I wind up snarking… I’m not normally like that!”
“Eh, sounds about right,” Amber said. “We all have our highs and lows, and pregnancy throws a wrench in everything to boot. Some days are worse than others, I imagine?”
“Yes!” said Gleaming. She ate the last bit of hot dish and started devouring the peanut butter-celery sticks. “About once every two weeks I get so fed up with everything I just want to coop myself up in my apartment with Eros so I don’t blast somepony into the tundra!”
Amber laughed. “You sound like me when I was pregnant the first time.”
Gleaming hesitated. “Really?”
Amber got a far-off look in her eyes. “I didn’t do any blasting, but I did my fair share of ranting. Most of it was directed at my husband, sadly, but he knew none of it was actually directed at him, if you catch my drift. Usually he’d just sit there and listen while I screamed, and once I’d burned myself out, he’d hug me and we’d cuddle until I felt better.”
“Awww.”
“It was... nice,” Amber admitted. She snapped out of her memories to prop her elbows on the table. “Look, I know you’re really busy all the time, but if you want to relieve some of that stress that’s building up, I’d say get a hobby that pulls you away from everything. Something that makes you forget you’re royalty, something that makes you forget you’re pregnant, something that has nothing to do with the military. My hobby’s doing jigsaw puzzles, and I get so absorbed in them I don’t even notice time passing. I must’ve finished at least twenty of the things while I was pregnant with Ocean Spray, and when Heather came around, I went out and bought thirty-five of the really complex ones...”
Gleaming paused in her eating. Amber’s suggestion didn’t sound like a bad idea, and there were certainly more than a few pastimes she could think of. Maybe…
“Find a hobby, eh?” Gleaming set the empty second plate aside and started in on the third. She was still very hungry—it felt like she hadn’t eaten anything at all. “Y’know, Eros and Talia have been telling me a lot lately that I need to slow down. This might be the answer I’ve been looking for.”
Amber nodded. “Lemme know how things go, alright? And if you need any help, just say the word. I’ll try my best.”
Gleaming mumbled her thanks through a mouthful of corn.
Amber snickered. “I should get going. I promised my husband I’d take the kids trick-or-treating, though I do hope he’s managed to get them in the right costumes this year.”
Gleaming nearly spat food everywhere. Amber had a colt and a filly, so getting their costumes mixed up...
Amber winked at Gleaming. “Take it easy, alright? I’ll see you next Tuesday.”
And with that, she trotted away.
Gleaming took a moment to catch her breath. She watched her friend disappear into the crowd before taking a few moments to just eat and take in the whole of the party. A good number of ponies were now mobbed around Dusk and the others, and that number still looked to be growing. Fortunately, ponies had the sense to leave Gleaming be if they happened to notice her mid-meal, and as a result she managed to get through another three plates without any interruption.
It was on the sixth plate that Gleaming had a stray thought. While she was perfectly okay with eating in peace, there were a few others she hoped to talk to. However, she really didn’t feel like wading through a dense crowd on a full stomach... fortunately, being royalty came with some nice perks.
“Sergeant Onyx?” Gleaming said.
The guard who’d gotten the extra plates turned his head. “General?”
“Are you familiar with Lieutenant Steelwing?”
Onyx thought a moment. “Dark green pegasus from the Heartguard? Think I saw him around here somewhere.”
“Find him.” Gleaming turned her attention back to her first slice of pie. She was just about full, but she was pretty confident she could polish off or one... or two... maybe three… okay, she was going to eat them all. “He can bring whoever’s with if he’s not alone.”
Onyx saluted and trotted off.
A new song was just starting up, this one a bit slower and more somber. The lights dimmed to fit the ambience, an excited energy filling the room as ponies did evil laughs and made faces at each other. Gleaming watched for a while as a group of unicorns in the corner projected some illusions to fit the mood, and before long there were ‘bats’ and ‘spirits’ flying around the chandeliers.
“Ain’t that something,” said a dry voice behind Gleaming. “You’n Cadance went all out for this shindig, didn’cha?”
Gleaming turned. There on the edge of the crowd was Doctor Talia, meeting her eyes with a weathered smile. She was wearing a powder-blue dress with glittering snowflake patterns etched in silver, and a thin veil was over her face that emphasized her azure eyes. Her spindly horn jutted through the veil like an icicle, and her snow-white mane was let down to fall around her shoulders. The infant foal was with her as well, still on her back in a carrier, the little one looking around while wiggling her little hooves.
Gleaming waved. “Talia! Wow, that’s a really nice costume. What’re you supposed to be?”
Talia hobbled over and stood beside the table. “Ain’t it obvious? I’mma windigo! I’m here to feed off all the anger and hatred of the Crystal Empire! Ooooooo!”
Gleaming feigned surprise. “What horror! We’ll all be frozen solid!”
“Somethin’ like that,” Talia said. She used magic to remove the straps of the foal carrier, then set both it and its occupant down so she could pull up a chair. “Finally managed to pry myself away from all them medical residents mobbin’ me. They got more questions than there are stars in the sky, I tell ya. Not that that’s a bad thing, mind. S’actually kinda refreshin’ to be around ponies that don’t think they know everything.”
Gleaming was only half-listening. The little foal was now staring at her with those wide eyes, and Gleaming found she couldn’t quite look away.
“Who’s your friend?” she asked.
Talia’s eyes grew warm. “I thought you’d be curious. This here’s my great-granddaughter, Rosetta. She was born six months ago here in the Empire, and I finally got the chance to meet her when I came to help ya out. Her parents called me tonight as a last resort to watch her.”
Rosetta was a grey crystal pony with the same color eyes as Talia. Her blonde mane and tail were wispy shocks of hair that had yet to fully come in, and she was wearing a set of pajamas with stars and clouds on them. Her attention was currently fixated on Gleaming, but at the same time, she was also quite intent on trying to eat her pajama sleeve.
Gleaming scooched closer. “Aren’t you a little cutie?”
Rosetta simply continued to stare at her with those innocent eyes, her mouth slightly agape. She made small snuffling sounds as she kicked her legs, a bit of drool falling from her mouth.
“She’s a mellow one, for sure.” Talia pulled out a pacifier from her saddlebags and put in Rosetta’s mouth. “Thought at first I wasn’t gonna be able to come tonight, but her momma—my granddaughter—said she’d be just fine taggin’ along. Sure enough she’s been quiet as a mouse, and by the way she smiles when I hold her, I daresay she’s taken a likin’ to me.”
Gleaming was entranced. She usually didn’t get a chance to be this close to babies (being pregnant didn’t count) and while it was one thing to tell yourself that you were going to have a child, not even looking in the mirror was the same as this.
“I’d have thought being around so many strange ponies would bother her,” said Gleaming. “Not to mention all the music and the noise.”
Talia shook her head. “Us ponies descended from herd animals, darlin. Our foals are more at ease when they’re with a lotta folks. And as for the noise, well… that ain’t a problem for Rosetta. She’s got some pretty serious demyelination in her auditory nerves, so I’m afraid right now, those ears o’ hers are just for show.”
“Demy-la what?” Gleaming felt a chill. “I don’t—wait. Are you saying she’s…”
Talia placed a tender kiss on Rosetta’s head. “We might be able to repair the damage when she’s older, maybe even completely with surgery. But that all depends on whether or not things stabilize, and hard to tell with her bein’ so young yet. She don’t seem to be in any pain though, so at least there’s that.”
Gleaming’s heart skipped a beat. She stared at the tiny foal before her, so seemingly normal looking, yet… just, wow.
“H-How?” Gleaming looked up at Talia. “What happened? How bad is it?”
Talia shrugged. “About ninety percent hearing loss, give or take. We think it was caused by a hereditary condition on her daddy’s side. Apparently it don’t normally manifest this badly, but Rosetta lost the genetic lottery. Like I said, we might be able to get some, if not all o’ her hearin’ back in a year or two, but them hearin’ nerves just might not be able to carry a signal at all. Sometimes these things just come down to a roll o’ the dice.”
Gleaming swallowed hard. And here Amber had just said things could go wrong simply because. Even with everything else going right, making all the preparations you could and doing all the correct things, there was still a factor of randomness beyond anypony’s control.
“I gotta talk to ya about somethin’, Princess,” said Talia. “You don’t gotta comment on it right now, but you and Prince Charming over there should at least have it on your radar. If ya don’t, you might be in for a nasty surprise.”
Gleaming’s mouth went dry. “I… think I know what you’re going to say.”
“Maybe, but it won’t sit right with my conscience if I don’t go over it with ya.” Talia cleared her throat. “Now, I know you’re hopin’ your kids are born right as rain. Nothin’ would make me happier than to give all five o’them little ones a clean bill o’health, but the reality is that that very well may not happen. I don’t say this lightly—this is comin’ from a mare who’s seen it happen more times than she can count. Plain and simple, ya can’t let hope blind you to reality. No matter how many preparations we make, spells we cast, how closely we monitor ya, or how well you take care of yourself, we ain’t in control of everything here. Granted, ya got a better chance than most with all your resources, you bein’ in good health, and my experience to boot, but even still. You need to accept that your kids may be born perfect, they may have a serious, life-changin’ condition, or anything in between. If you’re not...”
It was a bitter pill to swallow. The idea that any kind of unpleasantness was going to befall her children? Here they all were, trying to do everything they could, trying to make sure these kids were born right, and even with all that...
“That... was actually one of the first things mentioned in one of the books Eros and I read,” Gleaming said. “It might’ve actually been one written by you, now that I think of it.”
Talia grunted. “Ya got some good advice early, then.”
Gleaming gathered her thoughts while tapping the table with her fork. “I really hate admitting it, but I know that there are a lot of risks involved in what we’re trying to do. It’s just hard not to get my hopes up, you know?”
Talia stroked her great-granddaughter’s cheek. “Don’t I know it.”
“Everypony’s concentrating so much on the best case scenario,” Gleaming said. “They’re all talking about how excited they are, making plans for things the Crystallers, baby supplies, hiring a twenty-four hour nanny schedule, making regular time to be with the kids, options for schooling... it all makes it seem like this is a guaranteed thing!”
Talia sighed. “Maybe some day we’ll recognize the warning signs of so many disorders it’ll make pregnancy complications a bad memory. I’m happy to say the field’s grown leaps and bounds in the last few decades, but there’s still a lotta stuff out there that we just plain don’t understand.”
Gleaming probably would’ve lapsed into silence following that. However, there were a few words Talia said there that reminded her of a recent development.
“Er, speaking of growth,” Gleaming said. “I noticed something earlier that I… um, wanted your input on.”
Talia’s ears perked up. “Hmm?”
Gleaming returned to her dessert while she told her what’d happened with her costume. She also mentioned Eros’ concerns, as well as what Dusk had thought of the occurrence. Talia stayed silent the whole time, her face impassive, but her horn did flash as she cast what Gleaming recognized as diagnostic spells.
“Cadance and Twilight are only half right,” Talia said after Gleaming finished. “There’s a lot that could be goin’ on though, so let’s start with the correct stuff: A rejected magic infusion does manifest in all the ways Twilight mentioned, and yes, those symptoms show up almost immediately. In you, the provided magic is being absorbed easily, almost greedily, so it’s pretty obvious we don’t gotta worry about that.”
Gleaming dabbed at her face with a napkin. “Gotcha.”
“However, just because your body’s accepting this new magic don’t mean you’re immune to side-effects,” Talia said. “For example, your DNA tests show that you’ve got an unusually high height potential, which from what I’m told, manifested pretty strongly when you were a stallion.”
Gleaming nodded. “I was big, yeah. Bigger than Cadance, actually.”
“Which ain’t no small feat,” said Talia. “But a chunk of that height potential got suppressed when you became a mare for some reason, makin’ ya only a touch taller’n most gals. Now theoretically, that could happen ‘cause of one of three things: The replacement of your Y-chromosome, an under-stimulation of your pituitary gland, or a third, unknown variable. We know it ain’t the first one because there’s multiple failsafes on the genderswap spell to prevent that, and I even just now double-checked the integrity of the matrix. It’s tighter than the security at Fort Trots.”
Gleaming breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay. Turning back to a stallion now would be… bad.”
“Very bad,” Talia agreed. “Now, the second possibility’s the most likely, and fortunately’s also the most harmless. Basically, the hormone fluctuations in your system mighta signalled your pituitary gland to release a little bit o’ extra growth juice. And if that’s the case, it’ll prolly just result in you gainin’ about two to four inches. Sometimes that can result in problems, but seein’ as your body’s already anticipating it, I expect you’ll take well to it.”
Gleaming mulled that over. She wasn’t exactly thrilled, but she supposed there could be worse fates. At least with larger muscles she’d be able to carry the baby weight better.
“D’you think it’ll carry over if I go back to being a stallion?” Gleaming asked.
Talia hesitated.
“...if?”
Gleaming’s blood ran cold. “WHEN! I meant when. Please don’t think anything of it, and—oh, shit. CORPORAL!” She addressed her remaining guard, who unfortunately had been in earshot. “If you DARE mention this to anypony, I’ll have you scrubbing latrines until you’re as old as the good doctor! Got it?!”
The poor guard blanched. The look on Gleaming’s face was one that could send a dragon fleeing in terror. With a stiff nod and an audible gulp, he managed to reply, “U-Understood.”
“Good.” Gleaming went back to her last plate of pie and began chowing down, perhaps with a little more force than necessary. “Tell me about the third possibility, Talia.”
Talia stared at Gleaming as if she were trying to decipher a particularly complex puzzle. She shifted a bit back and forth on her hooves, the only noise between being Rosetta’s soft grunts.
“Gleaming—”
“Tell me about the third possibility, Talia.”
Talia swished her tail. With a sigh, the emotion left her face as she resumed her explanation. “The third possibility could be anything. It could be coincidence, an isolated incident, a side effect of carryin’ alicorn foals, a symptom of a yet-undiscovered disease, or somethin’ else entirely. I can’t give ya a better explanation without more data points to draw from, and the only way we’ll get those is by continuin’ to monitor ya. If you grow past four inches, then it’ll merit looking further into.”
Gleaming stared intently at her pie. Even if it’d resulted in the subject being changed, there was now an unease between them that shouldn’t have been there. She’d made a mental note to make this up somehow later.
“I did have one other thought,” Gleaming chose her next words with care.“When we did the ultrasound a few weeks back—the one with Endo, I mean, you said something as you were heading out the door. Do you remember?”
Talia regarded her evenly. “I do.”
Gleaming fiddled with the tablecloth. “Think it could be… that?”
Talia was silent for a long time. She pulled back the veil on her face and magically lifted Rosetta out of the carrier to rock her back and forth. Rosetta burbled at this, breaking into a huge smile when she saw her great-grandmother. The time lapse was so great that Gleaming finished her dessert and had stacked the plates beside her, and she was beginning to wonder if the old doctor would answer at all.
“I don’t believe in fate,” Talia said at last. “Don’t believe in destiny, premonition, or any o’ that other crap. I only believe in things that are supported by evidence, and even then, that evidence has gotta be backed up by a good source. There are a whole lotta unknowns goin’ on with you, Princess, and any single one of ‘em could be the reason for what’s goin’ on.”
Gleaming exhaled out her nose. A neutral response like that might’ve disappointed, but she had a feeling there was more.
“But then again,” Talia went on. “I’m real good at probabilities, and when you can reliably determine the odds of things, well... it’s not hard to know when ya should hold, and when you should fold. Drove my wife stir crazy, I tell ya, and if Los Pegasus hadn’t banned me for life, we prolly woulda wound up divorced.”
Gleaming made a second mental note to never play a game of chance with Doctor Talia. Or anyone else in her family. Heck, even the baby might be a force to be reckoned with.
“So what would you do here?” Gleaming asked. “Hold, or fold?”
Talia pretended to give it thought. “Hmm, this might be too close to call… Let’s leave it up to Rosetta, shall we? I’ll pass her to ya, and if she smiles, you must be holdin’ her the right way. If she cries though, ya must be doin’ the opposite. Sound fair?”
Gleaming just stared. “Wat.”
“Oh, come on,” Talia said. “You do wanna hold her, don’cha?”
Against her better judgment, Gleaming looked at the smiling Rosetta, who chose that moment to let out a huge yawn. Her pacifier fell out of her mouth onto the table with a faint plunk.
“Gimme,” Gleaming said.
Talia kept her magic steady while Gleaming summoned her own, enveloping Rosetta in her magenta hue. She was a light and squirmy thing, probably only about fifteen pounds or so, and while her crystal coat glimmered slightly at the change in magic, she didn’t seem to mind the switch.
Gleaming rotated Rosetta around so that they could meet eyes. Rosetta ceased wiggling and looked up at her, and there was a tense moment where Gleaming’s heart skipped a beat...
“Ba!” Rosetta smiled and reached out towards Gleaming’s face, trying to boop her nose.
Gleaming’s heart melted. “Well, hello to you too!” She giggled and nuzzled Rosetta. “Do you wanna be friends with me?”
“Awawa.” Rosetta began chewing on Gleaming’s braids.
“Hehe.” Gleaming began rocking her like she’d seen Talia do. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Talia looked on with a pleased look. “Yes, indeed.”
Later-
“Having fun, Dusky?” Gleaming asked as she sat back in her seat. Now pleasantly full and content, she was ready to greet ponies without being distracted by hunger pangs. Dusk and Rainbow were in seats of their own right beside hers, and while the line of ponies to see them had finally gone down, there was still a decent number left.
Dusk’s reply was a smile that screamed ‘kill me now,’ but Gleaming didn’t grant him any mercy. Instead she stuck out her tongue before turning away.
“Hiya, Gleam-Gleam!” said Spike. He was still curled lazily around Eros’ shoulders as his ‘parrot’, snacking on a ruby with a contented look. “Man, you musta been hungry! I’m actually impressed.”
Gleaming used a bit of magic to ruffle his ‘mane’. “Did I miss anything?”
Spike shrugged. “Most everypony wants to talk to Dusk and Rainbow.”
“—first date? Uh, nowhere special.” Rainbow and Dusk had about a dozen ponies currently around them, including two reporters taking pictures. Rainbow was currently the one talking. “There’s this cool little place in Cloudsdale called The Ozone, and we chilled there for awhile before going to see a Wonderbolts show. Got VIP seats of course, complete with the full-blown royal treatment! It was great!”
Dusk’s ears turned a faint pink. “I wish they hadn’t insisted on the VIP box…”
Rainbow nudged him. “It made for a good view, didn’t it? And the champagne they gave us was great!”
Dusk snorted. “That was Marérignon Rosé, Rainbow. A single bottle of that is worth more than most ponies make in half a year!”
Something seemed to click for Rainbow. “That’s why you freaked when I suggested we make mimosa with it! I just thought you didn’t want us to ask for more things when they were already giving us stuff!”
“What led to you to first realizing that you liked each other?” one of the reporters called. “And who made the first move?”
Rainbow and Dusk exchanged a look. Rainbow gestured to the crowd, and Dusk shrugged his before speaking up.
“Okay, so it probably won’t come as much of a shock to all of you, but I’m not quite the strongest flier yet.” He gestured to his wide wings. “I’m still pretty klutzy in the air, and I only have the stamina to fly for a few hours. I asked Rainbow to help me learn and get better, and we started going flying together a few times a week.”
“But then the plundervine attack happened,” Rainbow chimed in. “After that, we both sorta got involved with other things.”
“Right,” said Dusk. “We did remember eventually, though. It was pretty casual at first, nothing too involved or crazy, but eventually we started doing things that would leave me winded towards the end. We were happy I was starting to show some real progress, and then finally one time when we were both cooling down, we got to talking… and it just kinda happened.”
The crowd leaned forward. Dusk didn’t say anything more though, the silence dragging on for several seconds.
“Uh… what happened?” the other reporter asked.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Waddya mean, ‘what happened’? We kissed! Smooched, puckered up, locked lips, sucked face, canoodled, made out, whatever you wanna call it! I noticed she was checking me out, I didn’t see any reason to say no, so I went for it!”
Dusk cleared his throat. “Erm, not to contradict you or anything, Rainbow, but I wasn’t ‘checking you out.’ You just kinda pounced on me.”
Rainbow’s jaw fell. “You totally were! We’d just finished talking about all the crazy things we’d been through, that weird silence fell, and when I looked over you were staring at my wings with that cute look where your mouth hangs open. That was when I made my move!”
Now it was Dusk’s jaw that dropped. “That wasn’t me ‘checking you out’, that was me noticing how out of place your feathers were! I was about to offer to preen you or something, but then you went all casaneighva on me!”
You could almost hear the gears turning in Rainbow head. The crowd watched him intently, even the reporters stopping to watch.
Finally he laughed and nuzzled Dusk’s neck, a cheeky look on his face. “I don’t remember you telling me to stop.”
Dusk hummed. “That I didn’t...”
Gleaming looked away with an eye-roll and a shake of her head. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”
Eros, who’d been watching as well, simply shrugged. “When the ball starts rolling on its own and you see no reason not to go for it… why not?”
Gleaming looked down at herself. Her curves, her slender legs, her smaller frame, her lustrous coat. The growing foals within her wiggled and shifted as they pushed against each other, snugly secured in her sizeable womb. “Why not, indeed.”
“Did you enjoy your meal?” Eros asked. “I saw you had a few visitors over there.”
Gleaming nodded. “Azzy, Amber, and Talia. We chatted about random things while I ate. I was actually hoping I could track down and talk to one other pony, too, but apparently he and his friend left the party.”
Eros shook the hoof of a castle employee who was dressed up as a cactus. After he was gone, he turned back to Gleaming. “I saw Talia had a foal with her. What’s the story there?”
Gleaming paused. There were a lot of ponies around, so she motioned for Eros to come closer. “That was her great-granddaughter, Rosetta. She was born deaf, and Talia says the damage might not be fixable. Poor kid will probably have to learn sign language and all that.”
Eros stiffened. He clicked his teeth, his eyes flicking back and forth.“That… might be a problem. We don’t have a lot of disability specialists up here, and there’s a pretty big waitlist last I heard. She might have to go down south for schooling.”
Gleaming frowned. “Can’t we contact any universities and let them know we have a demand for social workers?”
“That may not work. Even if we—” Eros paused to greet an older couple, both of which worked in the kitchens. “Even if we reached out to the Equestrian universities, there’s no guarantee any ponies will bite. Not everypony wants to live in the Crystal Empire, hun.”
Spike, who could hear everything, looked between them and cleared his throat. “Erm… why don’t you guys ask one of the other princesses? I’ll bet they’d know who to ask to save some time. Plus you’ll have some extra weight if one of them backs it.”
Gleaming rankled at the thought. “I’d rather not get them involved—”
“They have better networks than we do,” Eros cut in. “We might have to.”
Gleaming stared at the floor. “Yes, but… ugh. Look, I feel like we need to be careful how often we go to them for help. If we start only contacting them when we have a problem, they’ll think we’re using them or something.”
Eros rubbed Gleaming’s back. “They don’t think that, hun, trust me. Actually, I think they might be more offended if we don’t go to them.”
Gleaming didn’t reply to that. She just leaned into his hoof and focused on some ponies coming up to greet them, contemplating the options while speaking with guest after guest. She was asked questions about various things: Her health, the pregnancy, the foals, her morale, her work with the troops, her future plans, her thoughts on Dusk and Rainbow, even what it was like to be a mare. She politely answered all of these things without issue, Eros’ words echoing in the back of her mind.
“Okay,” said Gleaming. “Let’s try Luna first. She can help us get the ball rolling if nothing else, and if all goes well, we might be able to add this in with the new hospital. Rosetta deserves as much.”
Eros smiled. “Works for me. We can bring it up once she gets settled.”
Gleaming stood up a little straighter in her chair. “She should be here pretty soon, shouldn’t she? It’s almost nine.”
Eros cast a quick spell to check the time. “A little past nine. She should be here any minute.”
And once again, Spike found himself lost. “Uh… who are you guys talking about? I thought Rosetta was—”
And then all the lights went dark.
There was a collective cry of alarm amidst the guests, the band stopping their festive tunes. The moonlight from the ceiling and the windows was the only brightness, and the fog on the floor swirled as it grew noticeably thicker, a chill rising in the air...
Gleaming heard the fwissh of Dusk lighting his horn. Gleaming did the same, and the two of them looked to each other under their shared magenta glow.
“Please tell me this was planned,” said Dusk.
Gleaming wiggled her eyebrows. “Mayyyyyyyyybe.”
Suddenly, there was a flare of navy magic from the enchanted moon. The crowd turned their heads skyward to see.
Rainbow was the one who realized first. “Oh, awesome! Now it’s really Nightmare Night!”
The moon’s orange glow became brighter, it's corona pulsing like a heartbeat. The enchanted clouds parted to reveal the glittering stars beyond, the magic building until it gave everypony goosebumps. There was an ominous rumble, the kind that resonates in your ears and gives you the shivers, and everypony couldn’t help but watch with bated breath...
A familiar silhouette appeared upon the moon. The stars were drawn forward to gather in a shifting, spiralling mass, channeling their energy in an intricate pattern. The silhouette absorbed all the energy and glowed ice-blue, fading in and out in time with the pulsing light. Ominous shapes appeared within the swirling clouds, flitting and darting just out of sight, but never disappearing completely. The runes on the walls and windows shone brightly again, humming loudly like a violin climbing up its strings.
There was a moment of silence, and then...
“MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
The moon’s silhouette faded, and in its place appeared a beautiful navy alicorn appeared in a flash of bright light. She was flanked on both sides with a quartet of batponies singing in a haunting chorus, and her regalia was black and silver etched with fine symbols of the moon and stars, her ethereal mane sparkling and flickering with dancing nebulae. She was tall and proud, her mighty wings like shrouds of the deepest blue, her elegant horn thrumming with power…
...and her belly was noticeably rounded, as if she’d been eating too many sweets.
“ANNOUNCING!” the herald boomed. “Her Royal Majesty Princess Luna, The Dark Lady, Mistress of the Night!”
Ponies began cheering and stomping, hooting and hollering as Luna descended like a guardian angel. She raised her hooves in greeting, and at her command, a chill wind swept through the Hall that smelled of fallen leaves. She and her batponies landed in the center of the room, and when she met eyes with Gleaming, her smile became especially wide.
“Greetings, ponies of the Crystal Empire!” she shouted. “It is time once more for the most GLORIOUS of nights!”
The mood was now more merrier than ever. Gleaming and Eros looked on as Luna mingled among the partygoers, not a single one rattled by her glamorous entrance.
Eros chuckled. “Seems like it wasn’t over the top, after all.”
Gleaming shrugged. She tossed a piece of candy to Spike, but it just bounced off his head as he still stared open-mouthed.
Gleaming could never forget the first time she met Princess Luna. It was the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration, and Shining Armor had just spent the entire day patrolling the Canterlot streets waiting for some kind of doom or catastrophe to fall upon the city. But instead the sky returned to normal, order resumed without incident, and Celestia returned from parts unknown… only to shut herself away in her quarters.
Shining was summoned not long after. He recalled how he walked into Celestia’s room, gasping at the ridiculous pressure of the defensive spells inside. It took him a moment before he could regain himself, and that’s when he saw a red-eyed, tear-streaked Celestia, laying by the fireplace with a face like stone.
But what caught his eye more was what was sheltered beneath Celestia’s wing. A periwinkle alicorn, haggard and weak, looking into the flames with a thousand-yard stare.
Shining’s breath caught in his throat. “Princess…”
“Captain Shining Armor,” Celestia said. “Allow me to introduce my sister, Princess Luna. She‘s just been purified of the entity that was Nightmare Moon, and she will soon be resuming her duties as co-ruler of Equestria. You will treat her as you would treat me.”
Luna was weak and pale, slumped against Celestia like a ragdoll. She was shivering even so close to the flames, her body reverted to a filly’s form. Granted, an alicorn filly was still the size of a full-grown mare, but compared to Celestia...
“Your assignment is to protect her until she recovers,” Celestia continued. “There are a great many threats to her while she’s like this, and I will NOT allow any further harm to come to her. She has suffered quite enough.”
Shining didn’t know what to say. He’d heard the legends of the Mare in the Moon, but this?! This had to be some kind of joke! There was no way this little mare could be—
Luna looked over with those ancient, soul-piercing eyes.
Shining was kneeling before he even realized it.
Celestia couldn’t help but laugh. “Erm, apologies, Captain. Her magic is a bit on the fritz right now.”
Shining could barely breathe. It felt like his very essence had been brought to heel with the flick of a whim! His mind was being searched and read like a book!
The brother of Twilight Sparkle… A tired voice sounded in Shining’s mind, soothing his pain with a gentle caress. T’would seem mine fate is entwined with this house. One a scholar, the other a soldier, pure and powerful prodigies both. I sense the wheels of destiny turn around you, young Captain. I believe I shall keep an eye on you...
“Welcome to the party, Auntie Lulu!” Eros made a note to speak loud enough so all around could hear. “Enjoying yourself so far?”
Luna, who was a far cry from how she’d been that fateful night, hugged Eros and took stock of his genderswapped form. “Indeed, Nephew. T’would seem I owe you some bits—you are indeed taller than me in that form. You might even be taller than Tia!”
Luna was a proper adult now, only about a head shorter than Eros. Her mane and tail had regained their starry quality, and there was a calm air about her that was almost dreamlike.
Eros laughed. “We’ll have to test it sometime. Maybe we’ll do it when we come down for your baby shower, hmm?”
Luna laughed and shook her head. “There’ll be no such thing! There are much more qualified parents out there than I’ll ever be. I’m a surrogate for these children, nothing more.”
It wasn’t all that obvious yet, but it was starting to be. At sixteen weeks into her pregnancy, Luna’s middle was filling out, rounding into a proper maternal shape. The curves of her body were softer, a smile on her face that never quite went away. The glow of her mane and tail was extraordinarily bright, filled to the brim with vigor and life, her lustrous coat shining in the moonlight.
Eros smirked. “I think you’d be a better of a parent then you’re willing to admit.”
Luna scoffed. “I wouldn’t know the first thing to do with a foal! They’d likely wind up driving me up the wall.”
“Hi, Luna!” Spike said, waving. “Your entrance was really neat! It gave me chills!”
It took Luna a second to find who was talking. She finally smiled upon seeing Spike curled around Eros’ shoulders.
“What are you doing there, little comet?” She leaned in and gave him an eskimo kiss. “Enjoy doing that while you can. You’ll soon be too big for it.”
“Nuh-uh!” said Spike. “Being big is boring! I’ll just find a way to shrink myself down.”
“Is that so?” Luna tickled his chin with a brush of magic. “Perhaps Twilight Sparkle and I will arrange that then, someday.”
A short ways away, Dusk cleared his throat.
Luna turned. “Speaking of which…”
She swept over to examine him. They could almost see eye-to-eye, with Dusk being just a touch taller.
“G-Good to see you, Princess!” Dusk said. “Erm… surprise?”
Luna smiled. “Surprise, indeed.”
“Wow, Princess! That. Was. AWESOME!” Rainbow scooted closer and put a hoof around Dusk. “Holy hay, you sure know how to go all out! We didn’t even know you were in town!”
Luna turned to him, chuckling. “I’ve found keeping a low profile makes travel much easier, Rainbow Dash.”
“Um, wh-what brings you up here?” Dusk asked. “Is something wrong at all?”
“Quite the opposite.” Luna tilted her head at Eros. “The addition of so many crystal pony volunteers to the thestral repopulation campaign has required us to step up the scale of the operation.”
Rainbow snickered. “So what you’re saying is that B.R.E.A.S.T.S is expan—”
Dusk cuffed him with a wing.
Luna looked between them, noting how close they were with each other. There was a moment of silence before she giggled.
“I was wondering when you two would announce your courtship,” she said.
Dusk and Rainbow both did a double-take.
“What?!” Dusk squawked.
“Oh, cool! You knew!” Rainbow said. “That makes things easier.”
“But of course I knew.” Luna’s expression grew quite serious. “It’s my responsibility to watch over the dreams of ponies at risk of psychic attack. Queen Chrysalis’ assault showed me just how vulnerable we are to such tactics.”
Gleaming and Eros looked away with grim faces.
Dusk and Rainbow exchanged a quick look, something silent passing between them before turning back to Luna.
“I suppose this goes without saying, but uh…” Dusk’s wings fidgeted at his sides. “We’d appreciate it if you keep what you see in our dreams to yourself. Please?”
Rainbow nodded. “Ditto.”
Luna’s smile returned. “Your minds and thoughts are your own. I promise.”
Gleaming and Eros sidled a little closer to each other. Even months afterward they’d still occasionally woken up in a cold sweat, lost and in a daze, dashing for a mirror to see if their eyes held that sickly green...
Luna exchanged a few more pleasantries with Dusk and Rainbow before at last coming over to Gleaming. She sat beside in a newly-arrived chair with a small sigh.
“Well met, Niece,” Luna said. “Your costume is entertaining, although also rather impractical. Forgive me, but I do not see the purpose of having three swords.”
Gleaming laughed at that. “One of my helpers was the one who insisted on it. Said it was a reference to some popular story.”
Luna yawned as she sank back into her cushions. “I’m still catching up the last few decades of popular culture...”
Gleaming took note of Luna’s fatigue, glancing down at her aunt’s smaller baby bump. “How’re you feeling?”
Luna shrugged. “You might imagine that I’m still not used to having only one cup of coffee upon waking.”
Gleaming could relate to that. Limited caffeine was probably in her top five things she disliked so far about being pregnant.
“Though I might pose the same question to you,” Luna said, looking over at Gleaming. “You may not look tired, but my guards informed me of the light showyou put on for your recruits earlier today in your teaching session. Do you think it wise to use so much magic in your demonstrations?”
Gleaming’s cheeks flushed a bit. “I... have a lot of magic to burn. My doctor’s having Twilight and Eros supplement me with energy. The tykes are absorbing most of it, but I start to feel antsy if I don’t keep casting.”
Eros nodded. “It’s been a learning process. We’re getting better about the amounts, though.”
Luna raised a hoof to her chin. “I do recall you mention your healer’s plan for your children’s magic development. Unorthodox, but it does seem to be working.”
Gleaming sighed. The warm, weighty mass of her womb moved with her slow, steady breaths, throbbing gently every time one of her little ones moved. Constant heat blossomed out from her core, swirling lazily throughout her body before sinking into her supple skin. The enormous meal she’d just eaten was merrily digesting away, the fullness of her gut adding to her satisfaction, and soon, her tummy would swell even more from it, larger and larger as her children grew...
Luna noted Gleaming’s silence and followed her gaze. “Your rate of progression is impressive, even for the number of foals you carry. How many was it again?”
Gleaming snuggled against Eros, her horn not even coming up to his chin. “Five. Five big, strong foals from my big, strong stallion. We’re definitely gonna have our hooves full.”
Eros swept his enormous wing over her like a blanket. “Hehe, we’re currently in the process of hiring an army of nannies.”
Spike pretended to gag. He hopped off of Eros before anything more could happen, making his way over to Dusk and Rainbow instead.
“I would caution not assigning all your foalrearing responsibilities to strangers,” Luna said. “You do not want your own children to see you as strangers.”
Gleaming and Eros exchanged a glance at that with shared grins.
Luna cocked her head. “What?”
“Let’s just say that’s a high priority for both of us,” said Eros. “We’re still figuring out the scheduling, but we think we can find a good balance.”
Gleaming giggled. “The problem might wind up being that we’re spend too much time with them.”
Eros rolled his shoulders, his lithe muscles flexing, sending a collective murmur from all the nearby mares. “Gleamy will be the one that spends the most time with them at first, what with needing to nurse them and all. We’ll try to keep it even once they’re older, though.”
“Nursing…” Luna rested a hoof on her moderate swell. “I’ve been considering that, myself. I’ll likely need to take some time off once these little ones are born to rest, but Tia’s already said she’s fine with covering for me.”
Both Eros and Gleaming blinked several times, Luna’s words hanging in the air.
“Little ones?” Eros said at last. “As in plural?”
Luna feigned surprise. “Oh my, that was supposed to be a secret…”
Gleaming’s eyes filled her head. “Oh my gosh! Luna!”
Eros was grinning from ear to ear. “How many how many how many?!”
Luna snickered. “Now that, I think I’ll keep to myself. T’is a cruel irony, wouldn’t you say? Tia and I are unable to have foals of our own, but we’re ideal for having somepony else’s. Destiny is a strange mistress, indeed…”
Gleaming didn’t know what to say. The younger of the royal sisters had never been an easy one to read, but if Gleaming had to guess, there was more than one reason why Luna had chosen to become so involved in her own campaign.
“I know I’ve said this before, but you’re quite brave for doing this,” Luna said to Gleaming. “It must be strange as a stallion to be in such a situation. I do hope you haven’t faced much persecution for your choice.”
Gleaming was indifferent. “I don’t mind if there’s a little bit of muttering because of it. We’re getting more out of it than we ever dreamed!”
Eros perked up at this. “Oh! That reminds me. Is there anything you know about natural alicorn births, Auntie? The doctors have been throwing theories around, but I figured that if anypony would know more, it’d be you.”
Luna’s gaze flicked from side to side. “The healers of today likely have a better understanding of the cause than I. My own mother and father were nothing special, and there was almost nothing known about genetics in millennia past.”
Gleaming’s spirits sank. They hadn’t been expecting much, but it would’ve been nice if Luna had known something more. A new piece to add to the puzzle, as it were.
“Speaking of your healers,” Luna said. “I actually had an appointment with one of them while in between our meetings the other day—Doctor Natal.”
Gleaming perked back up. “What’d you think?”
Luna smirked. “The good doctor’s reputation precedes her. Such bluntness is quite the reprieve to the plot kissing I endure in my day-to-day.”
“Do you think you’ll have any problems?” Eros asked. “I mean, you had to tell Talia how many you’re having. Was she concerned?”
Luna shook her head. “Unlike fair Gleaming Shield, I have the energy and hardiness to support an extreme pregnancy without outside assistance. It does not matter if I’m with two, twenty, or more. The moon and the stars will sustain.”
Hmph. Some ponies got all the luck. Gleaming supposed that it was a good thing in the long run, but she swore, things were never easy for her. Maybe that was another aspect of the ‘destiny,’ Luna was fond of referring to.
“Wanna make it a bit of a contest?” Gleaming asked. “Let’s see who has the bigger baby bump when it’s time to foal, eh? I bet I beat you by a landslide.”
Luna got an awkward look. “Erm… I don’t think that that would be fair.”
Gleaming shrugged. “Hey, if you know you won’t win—”
“I mean it wouldn’t be fair for you.” Luna tilted her head at the crowd. “Remember that we are in the public eye, Niece. We must not engage in such acts of one-upmareship.”
Okay, now Gleaming was intrigued. Wouldn’t be fair for her? She was carrying quintuplets! The odds of getting pregnant with anything more than twins were astronomical! What did Luna do… to…
“You used some kind of fertility magic,” Gleaming realized. “You had to have.”
A bit of pink crept into Luna’s cheeks. “I didn’t want to take any chances! I wasn’t sure whether I was able to become pregnant at all!”
Gleaming wasn’t sure whether to be amused or concerned. But either way, if it was enough for Luna to say a competition would be a landslide in her favor—
Something poked Gleaming in the side.
It started out faint, barely noticeable through the clothing, but as the seconds passed it grew larger, snaking its way out of its hiding place. Gleaming felt the heat of Eros’ privates grow, his stallionhood pressing against her like a throbbing rod of steel, each throb making it that much thicker... heavier...
“Ahem. An unexpected occurrence, but fortunate in the long run,” Luna continued, her ears still pinned against her head. “ And as I said, my physiology is more than up to such a task… although, there may be some challenges. For instance, I’ve had to set the Mage’s Guild with the task of coming up with a spell to prevent me from becoming immobile.”
Gleaming could feel Eros’ length pressing up more and more against her, his wing hugging her tight. She glanced up and saw that his face was flushed, his tongue wetting his lips as he breathed through his nose.
“I’m… glad to hear it.” Gleaming fought to keep her voice even as she started to become randy herself. Sneakily, she picked up one of Eros’ hooves and placed it on her belly, eliciting the tiniest of groans from him. “As long as you and the babies are going to be okay—that’s the most important bit. I imagine the press is going to have a field day with this, though.”
“Most likely,” Luna agreed, grinning. “Though I’m fine with that! A fun little distraction from the regular droll news reports, don’t you think? ‘How Many Foals is Princess Luna Having?!’ I can already see ponies making bets.”
Eros was making louder and louder grunts as he wiggled in place, his hoof massaging Gleaming’s taut tummy with care. Occasionally he’d tease her navel, sending little jolts through her each time, and she could feel a wetness from his tip, their costumes sticking together—
“Oy!” Rainbow walked up to them. Beside him were Dusk and Spike. “We’re gonna trick-or-treating! Wanna come?”
Eros pursed his lips. “E-Erm…” He flicked his tail like he was trying to swat a fly. “I think we’re gonna stay here. Might even turn in early.”
“Yeah!” Gleaming said a little too quickly. She yawned for try and cover for it. “Big day with the troops! Need my sleep.”
“Ah, come on!” Rainbow gestured to the window, the streets beyond still dotted with candy seekers. “We’ve got a whole city to snag loot from!”
Luna brightened. “If they will not accompany you, then I shall!” She rose and made ready to leave. “Candy and treats await!”
Meanwhile, Dusk was studying Gleaming. “Everything okay?”
Gleaming replied with a look.
Dusk’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks. “Okaaaaay!” He turned and ushered Spike and Rainbow off the platform. “I guess we’ll just be off!, then”
“Huh? What?” Rainbow stumbled and jumped into the air on habit. “Twi—I mean, Dusk! Hey!”
Spike seemed just as confused… until he turned back and saw Gleaming’s look. “Y-Yeah! Trick-or-treating! Let’s go right now!”
Rainbow still didn’t get it, but Dusk was now pushing him with magic. “Ack! Not the scruff! Stoppit-stoppit! Okay, I’m going! Sheesh!”
Luna blinked several times. Curious, she glanced at Gleaming... and immediately scrunched up her face.
“Ah. You have a good glare.” Luna laughed and motioned to her guards. “Acquired it from watching your siblings, I imagine? That will serve you well as a parent.”
Gleaming’s thoughts were derailed. “I have what now?”
But Luna didn’t elaborate. “I must return to Canterlot in the morn. The details of our meetings will be my first priority, so you can expect the necessary staff and supplies to arrive by the new year. I’ll also be sending one of my advisors to assist with the logistics. You remember Apogee, yes?”
The image of a fatigued, snow-flecked bat pony surfaced in Gleaming’s mind. “Oh! Um, yes.”
Luna watched her guards clear a way for her through the crowd. “Additionally, I’d also like invite you both to Canterlot to attend the Winter’s Eve Revel. I know travel’s going to be more difficult for you in the coming months, Gleaming, but perhaps something else might be arranged?”
Gleaming blinked several times. “Such as?”
Luna produced a pair of blue, grape-sized glowing jewels. The aura they emitted was like they were sucking in the light around them.
“Summoning gems.” She gave one each to Eros and Gleaming. “Their workings are complex, but if you wear them, I’ll be able to summon you for a few hours time, even from a great distance. You would be able to attend to the festivities then.”
Gleaming frowned. “Do we just hold them or something?”
Luna nodded. “They are of the single-time use variety, so you needn’t worry about me yanking you across Equestria whenever I please. Do keep them in a safe place though, won’t you? They are rather difficult to make.”
Eros and Gleaming exchanged a few quiet words between themselves.
“We’ll be there.” Eros took the gems and tucked them safely away.
Luna winked at them, her gaze lingering for a moment longer on Gleaming. “Then I’ll see you in the morn. Try not to wear each other out too much before then.”
And with that she walked away.
Gleaming watched Luna go at a loss, but any further thoughts were interrupted by Eros’ breathy whispering in her ear.
“I need you. Stars above, I NEED you. Either we go upstairs right now, or I’m going to mount you right in front of this crowd...”
Okay, so they could probably work on their subtlety.
FLASH!
Eros and Gleaming teleported into their bedroom, already making out and groping each other like teenagers. They staggered over to the bed in a zigzag, and when Eros felt his calves bump against the box spring, he lifted Gleaming up onto the mattress with ease. Gleaming squeaked and gripped him tighter, the feel of his bulging muscles surrounding her and taking what he wanted...
Eros loomed over Gleaming. In an instant he’d ripped her costume off, sending all of it flying to crash into a corner. His own followed suit, their privates left free to kiss the air, and Eros’ dry, heady musk hit Gleaming all at once, released from the confines of his trousers to hit her like a lightning bolt on a dry field.
“Eros,” she inhaled deep. “Oh, yes…”
Eros nuzzled her wide belly, taking in her size while panting for breath. It felt like a bubble of air was rising in his chest, and he kissed her navel once, twice, thrice… before peppering her stomach with hard, darting pecks. He inhaled her sweet aroma, tinged with cocoa butter and the cloying heat from her sex, and finally he couldn’t hold back from rubbing his muzzle along Gleaming’s swollen middle, licking and tasting her skin like so many times before.
Gleaming nearly went cross-eyed. Her world was centered around Eros’ lips and tongue, his snorting exhales tickling her over and over. Butterflies were gathering in her stomach and fluttering through her veins, making her feel like she was floating. She rubbed the sides of her belly in small circles, the precious mass swaying ever-so-slightly. Eros was going a bit higher now, trailing upwards to nibble on her ribs, each teasing nip sending shocks through her that made her tail whip about.
“Guuuuuuuuuhhhh...” The groan came from the back of Gleaming’s throat. She caught the tangy smell of saliva-slick skin as her vision was gradually filled with Eros’ massive frame. “I thought… you were g-gonna—go fast?”
Eros didn’t reply. He trailed his tongue in a long, slow lick, going from her ribs to the hollow of her neck. His length brushed against her girth, drooling a sticky streak that dripped down to her heated slit. Gleaming’s world was pink, utterly dominated by Eros. His hooves were nearly the size of her head, his horn was twice the size of hers, and his wings were each the length of her entire body. She felt herself wink as his hooves THUDDED next to her ears, trapping her, and suddenly he was desperately kissing her, his needy tongue in her tiny mouth...
With a bit more magic, Eros moved Gleaming so he could lay on his side behind her. “I wish—ergh—wish I could make you more pregnant...”
Gleaming was still reeling, but the caught the tail end of that. “E-Eh?”
Eros buried his face in her mane. “I’d make you bigger, more pregnant—the rest of you growing to match—you’d tower over the very castle, our family taking up every room...”
Gleaming shivered. Her imagination ran wild—herself as a city-sized goddess. Her mountainous womb would carry entire generations all at once, and creatures from around the world would come to her, beseeching her for blessings, stroking and worshipping her belly, the power of life emanating from her.
Gleaming rolled on her side so Eros could embrace her. The bed groaned under their combined weight, his strong legs wrapping around her, pulling her in close and snuggling her against his chest. Her heart was singing as Eros’ stallionhood pressed against her cunny, and all she was thinking about was how she wanted a family so badly, their own little ponies to guide and protect.
Neither of them noticed the slight flash that glinted in Gleaming’s eyes, but if they had, they might have noticed how Eros’ body responded, his magic bubbling forth to pour into her. She was like a bottomless well that desired to be filled, and she arched back into him, crooning softly, her mind abuzz with power.
Eros slid inside Gleaming’s tight depths, her inner muscles pulling him in with a loud schlick. Inch after inch disappeared into her pregnant pussy, yet still she desired to be stuffed so very full. The thick bulge of his shaft could just be seen as she enveloped him in her hot, wet heat, his pre coating her tunnel as his medial ring slurped inside. His nuts were already swollen from the excitement, but now they bloated even more, his hefty sack resting against his thighs.
Gleaming’s jaw was slack, her shallow breaths fast and frequent. Five foals in her womb, an amazing supper in her belly, and Eros’ size deep inside her. Her horn crackled and sparked as his magic funneled into her, making her fly high, higher, higher, until she cried out and clamped down on his twitching cock. Eros snorted and bared his teeth before pushing harder, and soon he was in a daze, chewing on Gleaming’s ear while hilting again and again inside her.
Gleaming couldn’t get enough. She hadn’t even come down from the first peak and another was building already. Her heart hammered as Eros thrust back inside her, the tension in her core readying to explode once more. A faint glow appeared in her eyes from the magic being siphoned into her, and she pulled Eros’ arms tighter around her, making sure he stayed put. In reply, Eros started sucking on her horn like a lollipop, and her cries hit a whole new octave as he rutted her over and over.
Every stroke was bliss. Eros delighted in the sexy sounds Gleaming made, and he hit all her hotspots while fucking her in a steady rhythm. He played her like a violin, her noises the perfect melody as the muted beat of five heartbeats set his pace. He couldn’t stop if even if he wanted to, and soon he felt the pressure in his groin building, the bounty in his balls building up...
Gleaming swore she was cumming on every thrust. It might’ve just been that she was spacing out so much, but regardless. She did notice when her magic reserves were topped off, and while some dim, faint part of her noted that said reserves seemed a tad more… robust, the observation was forgotten. Her thoughts were centered on how Eros went in and out so easily, even though she was squeezing so HARD. He never went any faster or slower, and she delighted in how his nuts pressed against her pillowy rear, claiming her over and over. Maybe it was just her, but every time his balls seemed just a little bit larger with each thrust... denser… heavier... almost rumbling...
Eros’ hooves moved down to Gleaming’s womb. He dreamed of breeding this lovely mare over and over, to fill her with foals until their progeny spanned all of Equestria. That thought propelled him to go a little bit faster, spurring him on as his thrusts became uneven and jerky. Gleaming voiced her approval and moved in time with him, her silky walls massaging him, her eyes shining bright as his cockhead flared. Eros pushed himself inside one last time, his bowling ball-sized nuts contracting into his body, and then…
He was like a pent-up geyser. He felt every surge travel up his shaft, making his dick bulge hugely and building up with delicious pressure, releasing blissfully into Gleaming’s moist depths. On instinct he bit her mane and yanked, her tensing muscles making him cum even harder, his wings flaring behind him to their full span.
Gleaming’s mouth flew open, her eyes closed in an expression of bliss as she reached her highest peak. Her body flashed with every burst, his essence soaked up by her walls, absorbing the power and adding it to her own. Eros was cumming buckets and yet she drank it all in, a thick, liquid heat spreading out from her crotch to course through her.
Neither of them knew how long it lasted. All they knew was that one moment they were riding the high, and the next, they’d come down. Eros relaxed and went limp with a happy sigh, and Gleaming relaxed as well, humming and purring like a contented kitten. They both lay there for a few minutes in silence, basking in the afterglow while Eros’ member gradually retreating back to its sheath.
“That was... amazing,” he said at last. “Holy hay…”
Gleaming turned her head to give him a kiss. “Good for you too, eh?”
Eros grunted. “I’ll never get over how great it feels to be so empty. So opposite from how it is as a mare...”
Gleaming knew exactly what he meant. “Yeah, well, I’ll never get over how long it takes to empty you. What would you do if I wasn’t so horny all the time?”
“Heh.” Eros wiggled his hips, expecting to feel a sticky mess. “Probably masturbate a—”
He realized their lower halves were dry as a bone.
“—lot?”
He sat up and checked himself. The smell of sex was in the air, but aside from that, it looked like they’d just been laying down together. But he’d felt the cum sloshing around in his balls, even as he’d pumped it all into Gleaming!
Eros scratched his head. “Um…”
Gleaming noticed, too. She reached down and felt her marehood, but aside from the remnants of her own arousal, she didn’t feel anything sticky.
“What the…” She sat up and examined herself. She felt glowingly satisfied, a deep, saturated enjoyment that made her want to soar. She felt strong, too, like the weight between her legs was nothing at all.
Eros frowned in thought. “Did you cast a spell of some kind?”
“No,” Gleaming said. “Did you?”
He looked Gleaming over, curious. There wasn’t anything he could immediately tell, although... it almost was if her colors were brighter, more saturated.
Gleaming tilted her head from side to side. “So I guess… no clean-up?”
Eros wasn’t sure what to think, but he made a note to tell Talia about it the next time they saw her.
“Well, in that case…” Gleaming stole a quick kiss, then pushed him down so that he was on his back. She swung her leg over and straddled him, the weight of her womb resting heavily on his chest.
Gleaming’s smile turned lecherous. “Think you can do that three or four more times?”
Eros was already hard again. “Fuck, I love you...”
“Okay, that should be everything.” Gleaming tossed back her mane as she paced in the apartment. “Could you read it all back to me, Spike?”
Spike, who was reclining on Gleaming’s back with a quill and parchment, took a moment to check his work. “Let’s see, you’ve checked the availability of local real estate. You’ve drawn out a list of accountants, banks, and book publishers, and marked their locations on a city map. You’ve got a pamphlet listing out all the holidays of the Crystal Empire, given the Guard full descriptions of Mom and Dad, added them to the list of VIP’s, and alerted the castle staff. Mom and Dad’s medical and financial records have been sent to us by dragonfire with the medical stuff sent to the Royal Physician. Lastly, Dad’s welcoming gift isn’t ready yet, but Mom’s is, and you’ve got it wrapped over on the coffee table.”
Spike rolled up the parchment and stretched his arms. “You don’t think Mom and Dad will want to look up this stuff themselves?”
Gleaming shrugged. “There’s gonna be a lot of logistics moving up here. This’ll make it easier on them.”
Spike fidgeted on Gleaming’s back. This larger maternity brace wasn’t as comfortable to sit on as the other one. “I still think you don’t need to prepare this much.”
Gleaming sighed. She looked out the south window, where a set of train tracks was visible off on the city’s edge. There was a sliiiight hiccup in that Gleaming and Cadance had kind of... forgotten to tell Night and Velvet their plan to have kids, and they hadn’t found out until the official nationwide announcement.
“Trust me, Bud,” Gleaming said. “I do.”
Spike chuckled. “Well, at least it’s been pretty funny seeing you do all the same planning things as Twilight does. I guess it runs in the family.”
Gleaming couldn’t help but smile. “Pretty much.”
Spike scooched forward, his claws brushing against the silky thickness of Gleaming’s mane. He’d been apprehensive about riding her, but Gleaming had plopped him atop her before he could protest.
“You’re tense.” He gave Gleaming a gentle squeeze. “What’s wrong?”
Gleaming didn’t reply right away. She focused on her reflection in the window, similar, yet so very different. Her first growth spurt was only finally winding down, and she’d put on another sixteen pounds while gaining another half-inch in height. And all the while her belly had just kept on expanding... widening... burgeoning. Her last fundal height measurement had measured eighty-six centimeters, and while so much extra weight and mass should have slowed her down, she actually felt good—no, scratch that… she felt great.
Gleaming’s hoof drifted to her swollen middle. “I’m just not sure how they’re gonna react to all this.”
Spike rolled his eyes. “They’re getting grandkids, remember? I think that’s more important than you being a mare for a little while.”
Gleaming’s mane fell over her face, her voice falling to a whisper. “But what if I want to stay a mare?”
Spike blinked several times. “…what?”
Gleaming felt her muzzle, running a hoof along its smaller outline. “I can’t really explain it, but something about all this just feels right. I’m not sure I want to go back to the way I was anymore.”
Spike was quiet. He could tell there was more, so he waited for it.
“It started with little things,” Gleaming said. “I’ve been happier overall, I’ve been able to relate to Cady better, we do more things as a couple, and almost everypony in the castle’s been really nice to me.”
Gleaming felt a flutter as one of the foals kicked. She was starting to be able to tell them apart, recognizing their movements and places they liked to be. “My special talent is protecting others, and as time’s gone on, I’ve been getting really, really strong feelings of satisfaction from it. Before it was a vague feeling because I was working to protect the Empire, but now it’s more… intimate, I guess? I don’t know if there’s a word to describe it.”
She glanced over at the coffee table where her tiara and gorget lay. “I dunno, Spike. This just feels like who I’m supposed to be.”
“Okay, back up,” Spike said. “Who exactly have you told about this?”
Gleaming frowned. “Uh… Cady, obviously. Annnnnnd I just told you, so…”
“Not even Twilight?”
“I’m not fully decided,” Gleaming said simply. “I’m still trying to work this all out.”
“But why tell me?” Spike asked. “Aren’t you gonna go with whatever Cadance says?”
Gleaming swivelled her head so that she and Spike were face-to-face. “Whether you realize it or not, you, Twily, Mom, Dad… you all have pretty huge pull. Cady’s not the only one who has a say.”
Spike pursed his lips. He wrung his little claws for a while, eyes flicking back and forth. “So you wanna know what I think.”
“Mmhmm.”
“About you staying a girl after you have your foals.”
Gleaming nodded.
A tiny puff of flame escaped Spike’s nose. “You can be such a dummy sometimes. I want you to be happy, Gleam-Gleam! If staying as a girl is what you wanna do, then stay as a girl. It’s not like I’m gonna love you any less.”
Gleaming’s heart skipped a beat. She cocked her head as if she were seeing the little dragon for the first time.
“Spike...”
“I mean, what’s it matter?” Spike continued. “You’re still my big bro—er, sister. I’m not gonna—GAH!”
Spike was pulled into a fuzzy hug.
“I love youSO much.” She planted a kiss atop his head. “Never, ever, ever lose that heart of yours, okay?”
“Ack!” Spike wriggled and squirmed. “Too much fluff!”
Gleaming smothered him for a bit longer before putting him down. Spike immediately made a show of brushing himself off, but when Gleaming started walking over to the kitchen, he was right at her side.
“But I still think Mom and Dad are gonna need some time to adjust to the new me,” Gleaming said. “Like you did when you first got here.”
Spike shook his head. “So I was a little weirded out at first. Now that I’ve had time to think about it, you doing all of this has honestly been pretty cool! You’re basically Supermare! Oooh, oooh, no! Better yet! Supermom!”
Gleaming froze. She looked down at Spike like he’d just given her the last piece of the puzzle.
“Supermom.”
Spike gave her a toothy smile. “Gleaming Shield, the Mightiest of Moms! Princess by day, Superhero by night! Protector of the meek! Avatar of mercy! Something… something, something, more cool words... I don’t know. Just pick out a bunch of heroic-sounding stuff from the comics. That’s what I do.”
Gleaming smiled as well. She went over to the refrigerator and began pulling out some snacks. “Okay, so I’m Supermom. What are my superpowers?”
Spike folded his arms. “Hmm… well, you obviously have super strength and stamina, seeing as you were just pacing with me on your back for like a half-hour even with that big melon between your legs. Are you even tired?”
Gleaming shook her head. “I’ve been feeling a ton better since we started the magic infusions. Combine that with all the spells Twily and Cady cast on me, and I’m basically built to be pregnant right now.”
Spike tapped his claws on the floor. “We’ll call that a superpower, then. Let’s see, what else? Oh, you have super-strong magic, because, well… you’re you, and super healing because of all of those spells like you said. It’s made your magic feels all toasty and warm now... and there’s so much of it! You’re like a big cozy furnace!”
Gleaming licked her lips as she filled a few plates with munchies, three plates for her, one plate for Spike. “Furnace? Nah, I’d say I’m more like an oven.”
Spike grinned. “Because of the ‘buns’ you’re baking?”
“You got it.”
Curious, Spike came up to Gleaming and felt her stomach. Even through the maternity brace he could feel its constant heat, both physically and magically. She was absolutely ginormous from his perspective, taking up the bulk of his vision and then some, and he could feel the weight of her womb moving steadily with her breath and beating heart.
Spike stroked the curve of Gleaming’s belly. “Yeah…”
“You excited to be an uncle?”
Spike swallowed hard. “I-I think so. What do I even do?”
Gleaming closed the fridge and made back for the living room. “You won’t have to worry about much for the first few years. When they’re older, though, just be yourself! Show them who their Uncle Spike is.”
Spike watched Gleaming clamber up onto the couch with a small grunt. The weight of her paunch sank deep into the cushions, it’s bulk shifting slightly before molding back into a maternal shape.
“I haven’t been around babies all that much.” Spike hopped into the chair beside Gleaming and reached for a comic on the coffee table. “Do you think that they’ll like me?”
Gleaming floated his bowl of snacks over to him (agates and amethysts sprinkled with powdered emeralds) and pulled out a book of her own. “Of course! You’re gonna be the coolest uncle ever.”
Spike took the bowl and began munching away. “Uncle Spike… I kinda like the sound of that.”
Later-
Knock-knock-knock.
“Okay!” Gleaming snapped her book closed. “That’ll be them and Twily. Here we go!”
Spike laughed from his chair. “They’re gonna be all starry-eyed over you, so I think I’ll stay out of the way. ”
“Probably smart.” Gleaming got up and took a deep breath. “Come in!”
In walked a beaming Twilight carrying a scroll in her magic. Not far behind her were two middle-aged unicorns: a stallion and a mare.
“And here she is!” Twilight gestured to Gleaming. “Ta-daaaaaa!”
Gleaming waved sheepishly. “Hi, Mom. Hey, Dad.”
Night Light was a tall and slim stallion with a neat azure mane and a calm face. His coat was the color of a summer sky, and his cutie mark was a pair of crescent moons. His piercing amber eyes were like a hawk’s as they drilled into Gleaming.
“Well, now.” Night’s voice was low and smooth. “Look at you.”
“Oh, Honey!” Twilight Velvet dashed forward and pulled Gleaming into a hug. “Are you feeling okay? How’s everything going? Twilight told us you were doing well, but this is—wow!”
The mares of House Sparkle tended to be above average physically and magically, and Twilight Velvet was no exception. As the House matron, she’d done her best to maintain her image, but that wasn’t hard seeing as she was a natural beauty. Shapely and sleek, she was as tall as Night Light and easily able to loom over most mares with ease. She had a full silvery coat with a mane of purple and white, and the rigors of bearing two foals had left her with a curvy form. Her cutie mark was a trio of three lavender stars set upon her wide hips.
Gleaming blushed as her mother circled her. “I’ve been keeping to the regimen they gave me, so things have been pretty steady—”
“You feel warm.” Velvet poked and prodded at her. “You’re not overworking, are you? Oh good, you’ve got a maternity brace. I was going to suggest one… and you’ve let your mane grow out! I like it!”
Gleaming fidgeted. “It was Cady’s idea.”
Velvet put her hoof on Gleaming’s middle, really taking in how large and wide it was. “My goodness, Shining—”
“Gleaming,” Twilight said.
Velvet squinted, mouthing the name a few times. “...Not even six months in, and you’re bigger than I ever was! Good thing you’re as tall as me, eh?”
Gleaming furrowed her brow. She realized with a start that they were indeed exactly the same height.
“Y-Yeah...” Gleaming kept her expression neutral. “It’s a good—AH! MOM!”
Velvet had lifted up Gleaming’s tail to examine her nethers. “Hold still. I wanna see.”
“Ask!” Gleaming growled. “Jeez!”
Oh, are we ASKING each other things now?” Velvet’s voice took on a slight edge. “And here I thought we were just DOING, leaving everyone else to find out via national announcement.”
Gleaming clicked her tongue. She chanced a look at Twilight and Night, but all she got back were glares and swished tails.
Gleaming hung her head. “Sorry.”
Velvet looked over Gleaming’s backside, noting both the physical changes and the magic holding them all place. “Your teats are starting to fill out, dear. It’s early, but it still wouldn’t hurt to go out and get some bras just in case. Unless you and Cadance already have?”
Gleaming shook her head. “Not yet.”
Twilight looked around the apartment. “Is she here? Cadance, I mean.”
“She’s at court yet,” Gleaming said. “Likely another hour at least.”
Twilight tapped her chin. “That means you haven’t had your second infusion today, right?”
Again, Gleaming shook her head. “Did you wanna do it?”
Twilight nodded, trotting closer. “I haven’t shown Mom and Dad the Rainbow Power thing yet.”
Night’s expression brightened. “Oh, you’re going to show us now?” He took Twilight’s parchment, producing a quill and ink. “Excellent. I promised some of my colleagues I’d take notes.”
Night was an astronomy researcher at Canterlot University. He’d never been much for speaking, grading, or delivering presentations, so he tended to focus more on individual efforts. He’d spearheaded several solo projects in his career over the years.
“Colleagues, my ass.” Velvet moved away from Gleaming to stand over by the couch. “You’re just convinced that this new power of hers is—”
“RAWR!” Spike leapt from the chair to glomp Velvet. “Gotcha, Momma!”
Velvet whinnied and nearly bolted before realizing...
“Is that my special little dragon?!” She lifted Spike up in her hooves. “You silly goose, why were you hiding over here?”
Spike laughed and hugged her neck. “I wanted to surprise ya.”
“You certainly did.” Velvet kissed his cheek and held him tight. “Mmm, I missed you...”
Twilight and Gleaming smiled. They watched for a bit longer before returning back to what they were doing, Twilight widening her stance and spreading her wings.
“Hold still,” she said.
“Yep.”
The flare of energy was palpable. Gleaming shivered as Twilight glowed, incandescent like a living flame. Her wingtips shifted color, her hooves shining with sigils, her mane and tail waving with four colors. Her ardent magic swept around Gleaming, seeping into her with an extremely pleasant feeling.
Velvet’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. “Oho…”
Spike snickered. “Cool, huh?”
Night trotted around Twilight at a distance, jaw clenched as he took notes.
“Harmonic, that’s for certain,” he muttered. “Carries an arcane signature… definitely thermodynamic…”
Gleaming let out a long sigh. The incredible feeling was bubbling up inside her to fill her reserves to the brim. There was a definite difference between Twily’s and Cady’s magic, but it was like the difference between your two favorite foods.
A moment later, Twilight quelled her magic and returned to normal. “That’s about the same as what Cadance gives you, right?”
Nopony noticed, but when Gleaming reopened her eyes, they were just a teensy bit brighter. “You gave me a little more, but I’m not complaining. I’ve been feeling like I could use extra.”
Twilight nodded. “You’re likely acclimating. Not to mention that the arcane needs of a fetus tend to increase as time goes on. It’s probably good that you’re able to hold more.”
“Can confirm!” Spike called from Velvet’s back. “Gleam-Gleam has more magic! I was just saying earlier she’s like a big, cozy furnace!”
Velvet tilted her head. “‘Gleam-Gleam’?”
Twilight hummed to herself. “Furnace… I might need to look into that...”
“What’s this now?” Night asked.
Twilight turned to him. “Spike can feel the properties of the magic signatures he’s linked to. For example, mine is ‘bright, big, and alluring,’ right, Spike?”
“Yep!” Spike laughed. “You’re like a big bug zapper.”
Everyone (save Twilight) chuckled at this.
Twilight scrunched up her face. “I am not!”
“You totally are!” Spike said. “Well, save for the zapping part, but you do have this… ‘pulling’ feel? It makes me wanna stay around you.”
Twilight didn’t know how to reply to that, so she just continued on. “There are some obvious positives to this, but I’ve yet to determine what things like temperature and luminosity mean. He says Gleaming’s magic feels ‘warm’, and that mine is ‘bright’, but what does that mean? Does a dragon’s interpretation of the metaphysical correlate with our understanding of the physical?”
Night returned to note taking, his quill strokes light and faint. “There aren’t many ponies who could help you answer that, dear. It’s embarrassing how little we know about dragons.”
Twilight grunted. “I swear, one of these days I’m just gonna pack up and make for the Dragonlands. Maybe then I’ll find someone who call tell me the significance of feeling like a bug zapper.”
“Take me with!” Spike said.
Twilight winked at him. “I wouldn’t go without my Royal Ambassador.”
“Yesss!” Spike pumped his arm. “Can I get some cool armor like Rainbow has?”
“Anyway,” Gleaming said. “That was nice of you to fill in, Twily. Thanks.”
“Isn’t that a drain?” Velvet asked Twilight. “It sure seems like it would be.”
Twilight laughed. “According to my calculations, I’d have to give eight-point-six-two times that amount, twice daily before accruing a deficit.”
Night frowned. “So you’re really not giving her that much? Or... do you just have that much to spare?”
Twilight put a hoof behind her head. “U-Um, well… heh-heh… y’know…”
Night smirked and ruffled her mane. “That’s my girl.”
“But you’re not the one doing these regularly,” Velvet pointed out. “Is Cadance able to keep up?”
Twilight tilted her head side to side. “From what I can tell, the drain is actually stimulating her. A month ago, her magic measured at eighty nine hundred Mordenkainens, and now it’s over nine thousand! It’s almost as if her magic is a muscle, and doing these infusions is the equivalent of a workout.”
Gleaming shivered. Oh, Cadance’s infusions were a workout, alright…
Night frowned. “That’s odd.”
Twilight dragged a hoof along the floor. “I know. I haven’t be able to explain it.”
Night looked to Gleaming. “Any thoughts?”
Gleaming shrugged. “Remember that Cady’s special talent is Love. She has a kingdom that adores her, a caring mate devoted to her, an extended family that’s accepted her, and now she’s about to sire a herd. Haven’t you grown from your studies on Friendship, Twily?”
And just like that, Twilight and Night were left speechless.
“Ha!” Velvet threw back her head. “She’s got you there!”
“I…” Twilight worked her jaw a few times. “Hadn’t thought of that.”
Night tapped his quill against his cheek. “If that’s true, then theoretically…”
Gleaming trotted back over to the sitting area to clear off the coffee table. “Not all explanations are complicated, guys.”
But neither of them heard. The gears were turning fast in their heads, ideas and postulations forming at the speed of thought. A familiar spark was in their eyes, an almost manic look in their faces...
Velvet saw this and facehooved. “Gleaming, Sweetheart?”
Gleaming looked up.
“I think you may have sparked a theorystorm.” Velvet gestured to the father-daughter pair muttering to each other. “What say we leave them to their madness so we can go out for a bit?”
Gleaming thought about that for all of two seconds before moving to grab her regalia. “We can go get those bras.”
“Wait! Don’t leave me here!” Spike hissed.
Gleaming hesitated. She looked up and cleared her throat. “OY, TWILY!”
Twilight’s eyes flicked up.
“I don’t have much parchment up here.” Gleaming pointed down at the floor. “However, I happen to know your lab was restocked this morning...”
Twilight squee’d. There was a magenta FLASH, and she and Night Light were gone.
Spike breathed out a sigh. “Was half worried I was gonna get roped into that...”
“Nah, you’re with me today.” Gleaming slipped on her regalia. “Oh! Mom, before we go, I have a present for you.”
Velvet regarded her. “You do, eh?”
Gleaming jerked her head at the wrapped box on the coffee table. “Call it a ‘Sorry For Not Telling You I Switched Genders and Got Pregnant’ present. I would’ve gotten a card, but I don’t think they make those.”
Velvet chuckled. She floated over the medium-sized box to inspect it, finding that it was decently heavy. She opened it up at Gleaming’s urging...
Inside was a second set of silver royal regalia. The amethyst-set shoes came up to the pastern before becoming like coils that circled halfway up the shin. The necklace glittered like pure liquid, it’s gem cut into the symbol of their House. The circlet was thin and spiraling, its three fine points set with the birthstones of Gleaming, Twilight, and Spike.
Velvet nearly dropped the box. She took several steps back as Gleaming floated the finery out.
“You’re royalty now.” Gleaming indicated the pieces she herself wore. “Twice over, in fact! It’s time you got something to show your status.”
“You mean WE thought,” Spike cut in. “I gave you the idea, remember?”
Velvet stared at the jewelry. She had no words as the necklace was fastened around her neck, her hooves fitted, and the crown set upon her head. A large mirror in front of Velvet, and when she saw…
Gleaming came over and nuzzled her cheek. “Love you, Mom.”
Tears fell from Velvet’s eyes. She turned and hugged Gleaming, stroking her mane while holding her tight.
Gleaming smiled and hugged her back. “Yeah, Mom. It’s me.”
The Crystal Empire was in full festive mode. The castle was currently decorated in an autumn motif, with crystals of gold and maroon and orange on every corner. The days had gotten noticeably shorter (down to about nine hours of daylight currently) and because of this, the streets of the Empire were enchanted with a special spell that let them reflect both starlight and moonlight.
The Commercial District was about a ten minutes’ walk from the palace. A bustling place at all times, it was filled with ponies of all kinds coming and going as they bought and sold their wares. Various other northern races could be spotted here and there, including moose, deer, and even the occasional griffin.
“What’s going on over there?” Velvet indicated a large, crystalline building that loomed over them. Construction notices were posted all around, and an entire side of the building was marked with glowing runes.
Gleaming followed her gaze. “That’s one of our main hospitals. We’re doing a pretty major addition to it.”
Gleaming and Spike tended to garner their fair share of attention whenever they went out, and Velvet’s new attire was drawing some stares. Fortunately, they had a guard escort accompanying them as they made their way down to the street.
“It’s for Luna’s batpony program!” said Spike. He’d switched back over to riding on Gleaming’s back, waving at ponies here and there that recognized him.
“Luna’s…” Velvet laughed. “I’d forgotten the Empire’s involved in that.”
Gleaming shrugged. “We weren’t expecting it to blow up like it did. I guess the Empire’s got baby fever right now.”
Velvet chuckled. “I still can’t get over how big you are… You’re certainly keeping those little foals fed, aren’t you?”
Gleaming snickered. She closing her eyes a moment, savoring the feel of the warm, internal weight swirling about inside her. The fact that her belly had almost doubled in size over the last five weeks wasn’t lost on her, nor was that it was only going to steadily get bigger, and bigger, and bigger…
“I think Gleam-Gleam enjoys it,” Spike teased. “This is like, the ultimate excuse for pigging out.”
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “I still have to stay in shape, you know.”
Velvet looked her daughter over. There was some padding on her, but also a firmness that spoke of the muscle beneath. In addition to her baby bump, her hips, thighs, and rump were supple, the taut skin enriched by lotions and oils. Her toned legs were like iron—unyielding as they carried her on a smooth gait. Her neck and face remained thin and shapely, with full rosy cheeks and vibrant blue eyes, and her plush coat and mane were like heather.
“You really are beautiful,” Velvet murmured. “I’m sorry if I seemed insincere at first, but you actually look a lot like your grandmother, Starlight Glow. She’d be tickled pink to see you if she were still around.”
Gleaming walked a little closer to her mother, her voice going quiet. “So… you’re okay with all this? With me being a mare? Being pregnant?”
“Honey, you’re mine,” said Velvet. “Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, you ever do will change that.”
Gleaming’s heart skipped a beat. Her horn flashed with a quick privacy spell.
“S-So… ngghh…” Gleaming struggled to keep her voice steady. “S-So if… I-I wanted to stay as a mare… for good… y-you’d be okay with it?”
Velvet pursed her lips. They walked for a while down the street in silence, the crowd flowing around them like water in a stream.
“Did you even hear what I JUST said?” Velvet’s tone was cutting. “To even consider that your father and I would...”
Gleaming suddenly felt very small. “I-I’m sorry! I was j-just afraid—”
“Think about your own children,” Velvet said. “If one day one of them told you the same thing, would it matter?”
Gleaming was taken aback. “O-Of course not! No! Why would that change anything?”
Velvet gave her a calm look. “Am I going to scrutinize your decision? Of course, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop loving you. I’m not sure where you even got that idea in the first place.”
Spike leaned forward and whispered in Gleaming’s ear. “Told ya.”
Gleaming felt her throat grow tight. She had to cough and look away, her eyes warm as her mane fell over her face.
“I-I th-think…*sniff*... think I just needed… t-to hear it...“
Velvet patted Gleaming’s shoulder. “Tell me everything.”
So Gleaming told her. She told her about the happiness she’d felt, the contentment, how everything had just seemed to click. She talked about the new level of camaraderie she’d been having with Cadance, and how their love life had been so much better since all of this started. Velvet was quiet through most of it, and her expression was placid by the time Gleaming finished.
“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised being pregnant is triggering your special talent like crazy,” said Velvet. They crossed a street together, making for a maternity clothing store. “You always were a protector.”
Gleaming grunted. “I like keeping other ponies safe.”
Velvet took the lead as they made their way inside. “I suppose my main concern is that you’re doing this for the right reasons. Fortunately, from the sound of things, I think that’s already the case. Some ponies may need time to understand, but all in all, I think you’ll have more supporters than detractors.”
Gleaming followed after her. “I hope so.”
The shop was roomy and spacious. Mannequines were all around showing off maternity outfits for all seasons, occasions, and stages of pregnancy. Accessories and baby clothes were also plentiful, and the store was done in colors of blue and pink. There weren’t a ton of ponies around this time of day, but the ones that were certainly were surprised to see the royal family.
Velvet glanced at one of the store signs and made for the western side. “What does your sister think?”
Velvet looked back at Gleaming. “Who all have you told?”
“It’s a recent decision!” Gleaming blurted. “I haven’t had time to make the rounds with telling anyone! I just need the right opportunity to tell Twily!”
But Velvet sighed and shook her head. “That opportunity may never come, dear. Between you both being Princesses, your responsibility to Cadance, any research Twily does your father, not to mention her new marefriend...”
Gleaming did a double take. How did Velvet know—right, the Nightmare Night party. But wait, had that really been how...
“Did Twily tell you beforehoof?” Gleaming asked. “About her and Rainbow?”
Velvet laughed. “Has Twily ever been good at keeping secrets from me and your father?”
Gleaming snorted. “First to know, then?”
Velvet winked at Spike. “Second.”
The three of them got over to the bras. The intent of the garment, like most maternity accessories, was to blending in with a pony’s coat and not drawing attention to itself. The idea was also to provide support so one’s breasts didn’t bounce and swing around willy-nilly (embarrassing and unbalancing). Most mares only needed bras for the final weeks of pregnancy and the half year to a year they were nursing, but as Twilight had said some weeks earlier, Gleaming was likely going to need to start earlier.
Gleaming mentioned this to Velvet as they browsed.
“When were you thinking of starting that?” Velvet asked. “A month or two?”
Gleaming hesitated. “I’m guessing it’ll depend on how much milk we need.”
Velvet sucked on her teeth. “I can tell you you’re gonna need a LOT in the beginning. Babies need feeding every few hours during the first months, and the more breastmilk they get, the better. Seeing as you’re gonna have five to feed, I’d start collecting milk pretty soon. Just use a stasis spell so it’ll keep... oh, and your milk is gonna look like this thick and fatty yellow stuff in the beginning. Do NOT throw that out. That’s what you give the babies first.”
Gleaming nodded. “What about formula?”
Velvet walked in between the racks, her silver hoofshoes making soft thuds on the cheap carpet. “When I was pregnant, my doctor always told me to use the natural stuff as much as possible. Occasionally I’d use formula if I was in a jam, but you and Twilight never liked it that much.”
“What about me?” Spike asked.
Velvet smiled. “You ate talc the first year. You smelled very nice after meals.”
Gleaming remembered those days. It was about a year and a half before Spike came to permanently live at their home, but long before that, Velvet had been spending a good deal of time with him and Twilight at the castle... or that’s what Gleaming had been told. She’d been at military school at the time.
Velvet pulled out a couple bras and held them out to Gleaming. “Here. You’re going to want about five or six pairs, give or take.”
Gleaming stared at the garments. They looked like oddly-shaped panties. “I, uh… I don’t actually know a whole lot about bras ‘n’ stuff.”
“There’s not much to know,” said Velvet. “The baseline enchantment keeps you from leaking through, although more and more these days have spells for irritation and the like. I’ve also heard there are some that’ll flat-out make your breasts invisible, though I think that’s just silly.”
Gleaming agreed. Having breasts was part of the ‘look’, in her opinion. To have them not there would be odd.
Velvet double-checked the tag of one. “Cup size varies from mare to mare, but this should be good to start. You should get some bigger ones, though.”
Gleaming dubiously eyed the bra. It already looked pretty big to her, but if things continued the way they had…
“Did you grow any taller when you were pregnant, Mom?” The words fell out Gleaming’s mouth before she could stop them.
Velvet gave her a blank look. “Uhm… I don’t believe so? I’ve always been tall, dear. Made it rather difficult to find a date until your father came along…”
Gleaming exhaled out her nose. Should she say something? Spike knew already, but his point of view wasn’t quite the same.
“You and Twily actually have tallness on both sides, you know,” Velvet went on. “Night’s potential never manifested very strongly, but your uncle Vigil, he’s a lanky one. Twily was never very tall, of course... until she became a princess, that is. Now I swear she’s taller every time I see her...”
Spike giggled into Gleaming’s mane. “Tell her.”
Gleaming chewed on her lip. Well, she’d already dropped one bombshell today...
“Have you grown?” Velvet said. “Besides sideways, I mean.”
Gleaming took a moment to make sure the privacy spell was still in place. “My doctor does a lot of work with genetics, and she thinks there’s a strong chance that I could… follow Twily’s hoofsteps, if you catch my drift. She’s not sure how or when, but the pieces seem like they’re all in place.”
The reaction wasn’t what Gleaming expected. Instead of freaking out or exclaiming in joy, Velvet simply returned to browsing the racks.
“You’re just now realizing that? Honey, your father and I came to that conclusion the week after your sister’s coronation. We’ve actually got bets on when it’ll happen!”
Gleaming’s jaw about hit the floor. “What?!”
Spike laughed so hard he nearly fell off Gleaming’s back.
“Your father thinks it’ll be flashy and all at once—some great threat arises and you wind up being the hero, like Twilight was.” Began picking out bras to put in a small stack beside her. “But I don’t think so. Twilight’s growth has been in spurts, but you? You’ve always been gradual. One of you always arrives before the other, but you both always get to the same place.”
She turned and winked at Gleaming. “I see no reason why that would change.”
Gleaming’s mouth was dry. She stood there silent as Velvet took and the bra stack then motioned towards the fitting rooms.
“Let’s see how these look on you. We can make adjustments later…”
Later-
“So you’re really thinking of moving here,” Gleaming asked.
The three of them had stopped at an ice cream parlor. The sun was already going down, and the streets were starting to give off a comforting glow as they all sat out beneath a canopy at a small table.
Velvet scraped at her orange sherbet with a spoon. “Your father and I have talked about it, and we both agree there not much for us in Canterlot anymore. Your sister has her life down in Ponyville, and she and this new marefriend of her are still going all over Equestria with barely any time to sleep. I don’t see her settling down anytime soon.”
“Tell me about it.” Spike took a big bite of his emerald parfait, a bit of chocolate syrup smudging his nose. “And they love it, too! That’sh the craziesht part!”
Velvet wiped his face with a napkin. “Smaller bites, Sweetheart. You’ll give yourself a headache.”
“Shorry.”
“So you want to be up here with me and Cady and the kids since we’re not going anywhere,” Gleaming said. She had the biggest bowl of ice cream by far—almost a tub, really. “Is that the main reason?”
For the third time that day, Velvet’s eyes flicked down to her daughter’s pregnant belly, thoughts racing to what waited for her back down south. Sitting alone with Night on Hearth’s Warming, picnics for two on the Summer Solstice while watching other families play in the park, birthdays gone by without a peep, and always coming home to an empty house with nothing but memories and dust...
Velvet rested her hoof atop Gleaming’s. “I can still hardly believe you’re having foals of your own, but here we are. Night and I want to see our grandfoals grow up to be heroes, and if it means we have to move, so be it. I can write my books anywhere, and your father has no love for Canterlot U. He’s been wanting to go somewhere else for years.”
Gleaming was quiet. She gave Velvet’s hoof a squeeze, her gaze drifting out into the streets. There was a fountain in a square nearby, the top depicting an ancient leader of the Crystal Empire. A few fillies and colts played tag around it, their bubbling laughter echoing off the tall buildings.
“...I can understand that,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure you were coming for the right reasons. I’m sure Cady will be just as glad as I am. It’ll be nice having you and Dad as part of our lives again.”
Velvet’s smile grew. She leaned forward and kissed the top of Gleaming’s brow.
“Now let’s talk logistics.” Gleaming produced the scroll she and Spike had been working on earlier. “Spike and I thought you’d appreciate some suggestions—ideas for a house and the like.”
Velvet’s eyes lit up. “Oho!” She took the scroll and scanned it over. “Well, look at you! This will definitely help.”
Gleaming shot Spike a grin, which he just rolled his eyes at. “I assumed you’d rather have a place of your own rather than be in the castle, although we can certainly arrange that if you’d prefer...”
“No, no,” Velvet said. “Night and I will stay in the castle for holidays, but we’d really be better off somewhere quieter. Somewhere that has an active community, and—oh, with a nice balcony for your father’s stargazing. He’s quite insistent about that...”
Gleaming thought for a moment. “I think I brought a map with me in my bags… here we go!”
She produced the map and spread it out on the table, a few spots already circled with various notes.
“I was thinking the first place to look at will be right over…”
It was around six a.m. when Gleaming’s eyes fluttered open. She sighed. It seemed that even on holidays, her body was hard-wired to wake up at a certain time. She supposed she could try to fall asleep again, but almost always that lead to her feeling sluggish for a few hours—
An uncomfortable pressure made itself known.
Never mind.
“Mmmm…” Gleamng’s movement made Cadance turn over before going still. A gust of air escaped the covers as Gleaming crept out of bed, heavy with the scent of last night’s activities. Cadance was an early riser as well, but Gleaming guessed she was gonna be out a bit longer after the romp they’d had last night.
Gleaming made her way to the master bathroom, her steps soundless on the cushy carpet. She swayed a bit thanks to her misplaced center of gravity, fighting the inertia of the hefty round mass between her legs. It didn’t help that her hips had continued to widen, but a few of the books she’d read mentioned that the trick was “to move with a slow, heavy grace, almost as if you’re underwater”.
The master bathroom was one of the few things in the apartment that could be called luxurious. It was a space as large as the living room with polished crystal floors, intricate light fixtures of gold, and cream-colored walls with patterns like waves. There was a bathtub, a sauna, and a jacuzzi, the first being your standard size, the second medium-sized and made of sweet-smelling wood, and the third an immense heart-shaped recess carved into the floor. There was also a giant walk-in shower with multiple sprayers, two opaque sinks marked with Gleaming and Cadance’s cutie marks, multiple medicine cabinets and drawers, and various towel racks with fuzzy towels of all sizes. Finally, in the far corner there was an unusual inclusion—a full-sized refrigerator, shiny and new, its lulling hum loud in the silence.
Oh, and there was a toilet beside the bathtub, which Gleaming made a beeline for.
After relieving herself, Gleaming flicked on the lights. The spots in her vision faded to let her see the pony in the mirror.
A tall pregnant mare stared back. Her coat was matted where she’d drooled in her sleep, her eyes were red from the sudden light, and her mane and tail were a tangled and crusty mess. And of course her blooming belly remained ever-present, bigger and more prevalent than ever.
Art by Cosmonaut
“Morning, kiddos.” Gleaming admired herself from straight-on and her profile. “Hehe, you’re all still sleeping, aren’t you?”
Her barrel resembled the lower half of a pear, weighty and full and vibrant. She was certainly getting wide… wide and round, and while she’d never been much of a vain pony, there was something to be said about liking how one looked.
Gleaming reached in a drawer and pulled out a cloth measuring tape along with a notebook and quill. She felt around for her pubic bone before unrolling the tape, then stretched it along her underside.
“Four and a half centimeters…” Gleaming marked the measurement on a page labeled ‘Weekly Fundal Height’. “S’about right...”
She next stood up straight so she could hold the tape to her withers. There were a couple ways to measure a pony’s height, but most typically went with the earth pony way.
“Another quarter-inch?” Gleaming double, then triple-checked the measurement, but each time it was the same. “Same as last week! Jeez, I’m gonna catch up to Twily at this rate.”
She flipped the page and jotted down her findings, this one marked as ‘Weekly Standing Height’. She had a few other things marked here—her height as a stallion, her starting height upon changing genders, the heights of everypony in the family, the amount Talia had forecasted at the party in big capital letters…
“Hmm.” Gleaming stared at the ‘TWO TO FOUR’ before examining her reflection. She didn’t think she looked any taller, but there had been a lot comments lately on how ponies needed to look UP at her...
Gleaming eyes unfocused. In her mind’s eye, a ghostly pair of appendages spread wide, their span broad and angelic—
A second pressure in her crotch flared.
“Ugh.” Gleaming squinted and looked around the bathroom. “Where’s that thing…”
It took her a minute to remember that Twilight had taught her the spell for making a pocket dimension. Muttering, Gleaming floated out a device comprised of tubes, nozzles, suction cups, and a segmented large container with measuring lines. The logo ‘EZ-Milk XL’ glinted in the light as Gleaming set it down.
When Gleaming had brought up the milk discussion with Talia, the simple response had been, “More’s better than less.” It essentially meant a couple things, the most obvious being the need for the recently-purchased bras, but there were also some extra accessories to get, some schedule alterations to make, and most of all, Gleaming needing to up her caloric intake again for the energy to produce milk.
Gleaming took the suction cups and used the mirror to align them with the newest change in her anatomy. Her breasts, once just starting to fill out, were now firm and orb-like, taut and ample as they hung between her hind legs. Her engorged nipples were a deep pink, a stark contrast to her white coat, and she could see they were already on the verge of dripping, a tiny, tiiiiny droplet visible on their left side.
Gleaming brought the suction cups closer, feeling a tingling sensation as they floated near...
SHHHPP! The suction cups leapt forward.
“GAH!” She bit back a string of curses. She managed to keep silent as the device flared to life, the jolt of energy tickling as the—fucking frigid suction cups goddammit why were they always so blasted COLD—cleaned each of her breasts. There was a sudden, firm tugging...
“Mmrrhhh…” Gleaming’s muscles went slack. Her eyelids sank as each one of her teats sputtered before expressing two different-colored fluids. Her left was enchanted to produce thick, yellowish colostrum, but her right contained thick, creamy milk. Her drowsy mind sank back into a dull haze as the cups gradually warmed, her head dipping to rest on the cool bathroom counter...
Ding!
“Ugh...” Gleaming lifted her head. Damn it, she’d zoned out again. She looked over at the… ‘pumping unit,’ she thought it was called? She detached the tubes and lifted it up to see the precise amounts.
“Two hundred fifty milliliters each? Not bad.” Gleaming returned to her notebook and flipped to the back, where a chart labeled ‘Daily Colo/Milk Production’ had been started. She noticed that she’d been producing more as her breasts got bigger, but that was a good thing. She wasn’t sure what the upper limit was going to be, though.
Gleaming wrote down the date and amount she’d ‘expressed’ (she was still getting used to calling it that) then floated the container over to the refrigerator and pulled out several sturdy-looking jars. The precious fluid was transferred with a bit of magic, with a little more shutting the jars nice and tight with a special spell.
“Moooooo.” Gleaming chuckled and she etched the time and date on the lids. She pressed the ‘Self-Clean’ button on the milking machine before putting it back in hammerspace, knowing she’d be needing it again about three hours.
Now it was time to weigh herself. The bathroom scale was propped up against the bathtub last she checked… ah, it was still there. She retrieved it and clambered on.
Eiiiiiight… no, nine pounds. A bit more than last week, but gaining a quarter-inch and the extra breast tissue was likely the culprit. Stars alive, everything about her was growing...
“Oh, my!” Gleaming rubbed her womb. “You’re all getting so big!”
She really wasn’t sure why she’d dreaded weighing herself at first. Maybe it was because seeing the increasing numbers would feel like a bad thing, but the numbers actually felt like progress. Weight gain alone wasn’t a good indicator of the foals’ health, of course, but it was a necessary piece of the puzzle.
Gleaming flipped back to the front of the notebook and logged the data in the final chart marked ‘Weekly Weight Gain’. She then put everything back and gave her reflection one final nod.
“Shower time.”
It was the absence of warmth that roused Cadance. She wasn’t sure how long her eyes were open—one minute she was in la-la land, the next she was staring into the dark shadows of her bedroom. She reached out to her right for Gleaming... but found nothing but a slight imprint. That was when true wakefulness came, and she sat up to stretch out her six limbs with a series of snaps and cracks.
Cadance checked the clock and looked around. She noticed that the bathroom door was closed, the light within pooling onto the bedroom carpet. Ugh, of course. Why was even she surprised at this point?
“Not even pregnancy slows that pony down...” Cadance took her time easing herself out of bed, reluctantly separating herself from the satin sheets. As she did though, she suddenly became aware of a certain something enjoying the friction more than the rest of her. She gasped as that something swelled to its full, turgid length… followed quickly by its twin,ALSO becoming fully thick and erect in seconds.
“A-Ah…” Cadance found herself laying back down, her hooves straying beneath the covers to the dual-pronged tent she was pitching. A quick pulse of magic tossed the bedspread and blankets away while pulling the sheet tighter around her, a pair of wet spots seeping through.
“Nnngh...” Cadance lay flat, her six limbs fully splayed. She rubbed against the delectably tighten sheets while spurred on by thoughts of Gleaming. Her thick, juicy rear, so firm you could bounce a bit off of it. Her gorgeous eyes and face, sultry and confident without even trying. Her full, fertile belly, heavy with their foals. Her bouncing, overfilled teats, now producing so much fresh milk, and stars above, her tight, moist cunny, molded to the perfect shape, squeezing and pulling Cadance deeper as the room echoed with their—
Cadance sucked in a breath. She thrust faster, harder. The wet spot was now a wet patch, and a musky scent filled Cadance’s nostrils, dry and earthy and laced with stale sweat. It only made her more eager, and she wanted nothing more than to bury herself in Gleaming’s needy, willing folds…
Cadance paused. Satin sheets were wonderful, but the silky feel of Gleaming’s marehood, so tight and squeezing, the scent and heat of their entwined bodies accompanied by the demands for more, one orgasm rolling into another as they went again and again, trying to outlast each other, fondling and kissing and nibbling and tugging and nipping and groaning and licking and pulling and pushing and sucking and thrusting and biting and fucking and—
She was up in a flash. Cadance’s groin was left exposed to the air, revealing the smooth, dual-shafted marecock she’d given herself last night. Its bulbous twin heads throbbed as she trotted to the bathroom door, pushing it open to encounter a wave of heat and steam.
She didn’t bother to muffle her steps. She could hear Gleaming humming amidst the shower sprayers, her song accompanied by dull splashes. Cadance poked her head inside the shower and saw Gleaming with her back turned, slowly rocking back and forth as she enjoyed the massaging bliss. Gleaming’s tail was lifted and to the side for washing, leaving her hindquarters on full display. Trickles of water ran down and around her freshly-cleaned plothole and vulva, flawless and inviting, her engorged teats swaying with her movements.
Cadance got even harder. She took a loud, clacking step inside the shower, but Gleaming didn’t react. She just kept humming to herself, eyes closed with a serene smile.
Cadance took another few loud steps, but still Gleaming didn’t move, vapor and steam swirling around her like a fog. Her soaked mane was plastered around her neck and shoulders, the three tones of blue blended together. As Cadance neared, she could smell the tantalizing sweetness of mint and rosemary cloying around Gleaming...
“Well, hello there.”
Cadance stopped. She realized Gleaming had turned her head, smirking at the prowling pony princess.
“And here I was hoping I could shower without any gorgeous mares coming up and fucking me with giant, two-headed cocks.” Gleaming’s eyes grew hungry. “I sure wouldn’t want that...”
Cadance didn’t reply. She was a mare on a mission, and her objective was in sight. Without further pause she closed the distance to Gleaming’s marehood and began lapping her honey.
“Mmmnnhh…” Gleaming’s eyes fluttered shut. “You better not stop...”
Cadance nosed Gleaming’s outer lips while flicking her tongue in and out. She started licking in circles, tasting Gleaming’s walls while flicking her clit, pressing deeper and harder and delighting in the sweet taste. Gleaming leaned into Cadance’s efforts, letting her explore to her heart’s content, revelling in the now third pressure swiftly rising.
“Cady…” Gleaming nickered low. “Cadyyyyyyyyyyy…”
Cadance’s dicks were bigger and harder than ever. The heated spray dampened her coat and wings to warm her body even more than the lusty fire inside her. She wiggled her tongue in time with Gleaming’s moans and pants, then put her hooves on Gleaming’s cutie marks and squeezed, her hooves barely sinking into those muscled flanks.
Gleaming moaned even louder. She arched her back and bent her front legs, but Cadance didn’t mount her just yet. She focused her attention on those full, heavy teats, still so very new and exotic. She started at their tops and worked her way down, licking and nibbling, her slippery tongue and moist breath making Gleaming shudder.
Cadance tugged at a nipple, the breasts almost hypnotic in their movements. She wrapped her lips around them one at a time to taste the dregs within.
“A-Ah,” Gleaming cooed through the heady rush. “Yes… ”
Cadance buried her face between Gleaming’s breasts to feel the soft flesh slide against her cheeks. Her hard, fluted horn was pressed up against Gleaming’s marehood, its tip tantalizingly close. Her muzzle brushed up against the underside of Gleaming’s belly, and soon she was smooching it with light pecks, its heat apparent even amidst the steam.
They remained like that for a minute, playful, yet needy... until Cadance lit her horn with a whum.
Gleaming groaned. The magic and vibrations tickled as the energy surged into her. She was lighter than air, soaring amongst the clouds and still rising to new heights, but all she wanted was more… MORE...
Gleaming mewled. She crouched lower, grand ivory belly brushing the ground, her heart-shaped rear high in the air. That familiar ache was throbbing—a half-hunger, half-clench that only intensified as seconds passed. Her wet mane spilled halfway over her face, eyes staring at nothing, the dull pounding in her ears mixed with the roar of running water.
Cadance doubled the magic she gave Gleaming. Her own reserves felt robust, and it made her want to give that much more. The tingling tightness inside was screaming at her not to stop, and eventually she pulled back and reared, twin cocks primed, wings spread wide as she settled atop her pregnant mate. Cadance enveloped them in an angelic embrace, her downy feathers stroking and playing with Gleaming’s navel like she was kissing it. She used magic to slather Gleaming’s plothole with pre, then pushed both her shafts forward...
Gleaming’s moan started soft, then raised a whole octave into a pleasured cry. Pain and delight, panic and euphoria, it was a cocktail of endorphins that blanked out her thoughts. There was a stretching burn in both tunnelsaccompanied by a glorious tingling and fullness, and it made her want to squeeze and relax at the same time. Gleaming thrust back hard against Cadance’s advancing rods, addicted to the electric jolts accompanied by that wonderful weight pinning her down. Cadance’s hooves and wings were rubbing her all over, and even in separate holes Gleaming could feel the twin shafts pressed against one another. Alicorn magic was suffusing her more and more, making her eyes take on a slight glow, but even so empowered...
Cadance snorted in Gleaming’s ear. She pushed and slid further into the thrall of her mate’s velvety snugness. She bit Gleaming’s scruff and sank deeper, groping and fondling, in love with the round, taut firmness of Gleaming belly, the supple skin tight as a drum. Seconds later Cadance felt the telltale signs of the point of no return, that coiling tightness starting to boil over...
Gleaming felt it, too. She neared her own first peak as Cadance’s pushing became frenzied, emerging from the fog like a charging manticore. Her voice cracked when it hit her like a mass of fireworks, and she was still flying high when Cadance’s lengths started twitching, not even halfway inside.
Cadance yelled long and loud. Her medial rings slurped inside with a lewd POP as she coated Gleaming’s tunnels, and Gleaming greedily took it all in, her body flashing as it absorbed each load. Cadance kept pouring magic into Gleaming faster and faster, but Gleaming just crooned as the glow in her eyes brightened...
Yet even with all that, Cadance didn’t stop. She began thrusting in a steady rhythm, twin spears hard as steel and plunging further into Gleaming’s moist depths. That insistent urge was still buzzing and building up as fast as before, and Cadance’s goal was to be fully hilted before it broke again. She started nibbling Gleaming’s ears, licking and sucking on their tips, whispering sweet nothings that Gleaming barely heard. She was more focused on the feel of Cadance’s hot breath, fast and filled with grunting gasps and accompanied by those hard teeth. She squeezed and kneaded with all her might, welcoming every inch and every spark of magic she could have, and as if that weren’t enough, the foals now started to shift and move around, their fluttering kicks tickling both Gleaming and Cadance.
There was a meaty slap as Cadance achieved her intended goal. Just in time, too, as a few seconds later she went over the edge again, yelling loud and flooding Gleaming’s depths. Gleaming screamed as her walls drank in the fresh waves of seed, taking the power it held. The sensation made own orgasm leap forth all at once, so intense it made her see white..
If Cadance kept fucking her beyond that, Gleaming didn’t remember. All she knew was that she was riding a prolonged high powered by the cumulative sensations that fueled both their lusts. Her world was a cloud of warmth, weight, and fullness, accompanied by occasional bursts of wet, sticky heat deep inside her. Her mind was swimming in the best kind of way, her muscles were so relaxed from the warm water, and her legs were standing on autopilot...
“...love you, sweet Gleamy, “ said a voice. “Come back to me...”
Gleaming blinked. She was gently being coaxed to stand by a nuzzling, cuddling Cadance, who’d dismounted and removed her extra bits. She was standing in front of Gleaming with a huge, dopey grin on her face.
Cadance smiled. “Welcome back.”
Gleaming chuckled. She stood back up and straightened, the rivulets of water cascading off her in sparkling sheets. “That’s one way to start a morning.”
Cadance pressed their foreheads together, letting their horns cross with a click. “One of the best ways.”
“Mmmm.” Gleaming stifled a small yawn. “We’ve certainly made good use of this extra-large shower, haven’t we?”
Cadance giggled. “I knew we would.” She stepped away and summoned shampoos, conditioners, and a loofah. “Remember all those shower sexytimes we had at your parent’s house?”
Gleaming’s face turned pink. “I still can’t believe we never got caught...”
Cadance slathered shampoo on the loofah and started washing Gleaming’s back. “We did cover our tracks well. Soundproofing, vibration cancelling, odor removal, cleaning the shower extra well, one of us teleporting in and out each time...”
Gleaming couldn’t help but laugh. “This is the third time this week you’ve wanted to wash me. You really like touching me, don’t you?”
“I just can’t stop.” Cadance’s gentle scrubbing went lower, the loofah moving in tight, slow circles along Gleaming’s left side. “It’s all so hot—how your body’s changing, how well it suits you, what it all means, everything. I’ve never seen a mare take so well to pregnancy, but damn if it doesn’t push ALL my buttons.”
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “You’re incorrigible.”
Cadance stuck out her tongue. “And yet, you still married m—MMMMM!”
Gleaming darted forward to pull Cadance into a ravenous kiss. She swept Cadance off her hooves in a burst of magic, twirling her around and gripping her tight.
Gleaming broke the kiss and pulled away to stare into Cadance’s star-struck eyes.
“Even if I’d known I’d get mind-controlled by a changeling queen, have to fight an evil sorcerer, put up with endless bullshit politics, become a mare and get pregnant, and whatever else is in store for us, I’d still marry you in a heartbeat. Wanna know why?”
Water fell around Cadance as she breathed hard and heavy. She gulped as she looked up at the vision of loveliness above her.
“W-Why?”
Gleaming kissed her again, hard and fierce as before.
“You know why.”
That Afternoon-
Each year in Equestria, on the night before the annual Running of the Leaves race, many communities had high-carb meals for ponies who were participating to ensure they had energy for the next day. These feasts were so common and widespread that they were considered to be part of the holiday, so much so that certain dishes were even practically synonymous with the pre-race meal. Many ponies looked forward to this dinner whether they were running in the race or not!
Except that the Running of the Leaves wasn’t celebrated in the Crystal Empire. Gleaming and Cadance still thought of it as a holiday, but having no change of seasons meant that there was no point in holding a race. They’d been running polls to come up with some actual Crystal Empire-themed traditions (they were toying with the idea of being thankful) but until then Gleaming and Cadance just had the yearly pre-race feast in the castle, complete with all the dishes they knew and loved.
They two of them were now side by side in their private dining room down by the kitchen. Spike, Twilight, Rainbow, Velvet, and Night were also there, as they’d been invited to share in the holiday meal. The normal table had been switched out for a big round one that could easily seat seven, and they were all chatting amongst themselves as they waited for the food to be brought out.
“You should totally still have a race!” said Rainbow. She gestured out the west window where the sunny plains could just be seen on the horizon. “You have lots of room for it.”
Cadance looked out to where Rainbow was pointing. “It’s not a matter of room, Rainbow. A race that’s basically preparing the land for winter wouldn’t go over well up here.”
Gleaming folded and unfolded her napkin with magic. “Winter is death to the crystal ponies. Declaring today a holiday alone garnered us some funny looks. The race would be seen as macabre.”
Rainbow winced. “...I suppose it wouldn’t go over very well if you tried to gloss over that little tidbit? Just had a race for kicks?”
Cadance shook her head. “Our critics would have a field day.”
Twilight frowned at this. “Wait. You guys have critics?”
Gleaming gave her a funny look. “Of course. Would be odd if everypony agreed with everything we did all the time.”
Twilight went eerily silent.
Gleaming blinked. “Do you not?”
Spike laughed. “She’s the Princess of Friendship, Gleam-Gleam! She even turns her enemies into her friends half the time!”
Twilight suddenly became very interested in the floor. “There’s only been a few times I’ve met someone who was truly irredeemable.”
Rainbow let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like *Tirek*.
Twilight flicked her ears. “Not for lack of trying, mind you. But I do realize that not everypony can be brought to the light. It’s always my last resort, but sometimes, you have to meet force with force.”
“And that force is a giant LASER BEAM!” Rainbow’s eyes flashed with a glint of power. “Pchoooooo!”
“Sounds like you should sic these two on your naysayers,” Velvet said to Gleaming. “Might get more things done that way.”
You may as well have told Cadance that Hearth’s Warming was coming early. “Oh my gosh, that’s a GREAT idea! Twilight, Rainbow, would you? You’ve no idea how much you’d be helping us!”
Twilight put a hoof behind her head. “We could… try? I mean, if it’ll help you and Gleamy...”
Rainbow shrugged. “I’m down.”
Night spoke up. “But would that count as… erm, what did you call them again, Twily? ‘Friendship Problems’? From what you were saying earlier, those seem to be all you and your friends can influence.”
Twilight chewed on her lip. She exchanged a quick look with Rainbow, who leaned over and whispered something.
“I wouldn’t say ‘influence’, Dad,” said Twilight. “I get what you’re asking, but saying we influence Friendship Problems makes it almost sound like we’re forcing ponies to get along. That’s not how it works.”
Rainbow sat back in her chair. “Not to mention it wouldn’t do squat for what’s causing the problem.”
Night conceded the point. “In your own words, then.”
Twilight looked over at Cadance. “I think it’s a lot like how your power works. When we encounter a Friendship Problem, we’re able to see what exactly is causing it, who it’s affecting, and how to solve it. The solution isn't always cut and dry—”
“—because the ponies never wanna do things the easy way,” Rainbow grumbled.
“Right,” Twilight said. “So we have to either come up with something else or work out some kind of compromise. It’s usually the latter.”
Cadance smiled. “That’s exactly how my power works—er, one aspect of it, anyway. I can sense those kinds of problems, but only if the bond between the ponies is deep enough to be classified as Love. If it’s more platonic...”
Twilight smiled back. “You know, I think that Love and Friendship are very similar. It’s just that my domain’s more towards the middle of the spectrum while yours is on the deeper end.”
Cadance nodded. “There’s a lot of crossover between Love and Friendship. So much so, that one can quite easily turn into the other.”
Rainbow put a wing around Twilight. “Yup.”
Twilight hummed and snuggled closer. “No comment…”
Gleaming was quiet. If Love and Friendship were just different expressions of the same overarching concept, than said concept was most likely… Harmony? Boy, now THAT had some interesting implications. Would either Twilight or Cadance eventually become sensitive to the other’s domains? Would Twilight become an empath? Could Cadance learn to use Rainbow Power? Could Twilight could attune herself to the Crystal Heart? Could Cadance wield one of the Elements of Harmony?
Or, wait... maybe the Crystal Heart itself was actually…
No, no, no. That was just silly.
“I think you two should look more into this,” Gleaming said, adjusting herself with a grunt. “It sounds like you might be onto something.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying.” Night turned to Gleaming, that old eagerness in his face. “There’s a lot we could learn by studying the connection between Love and Friendship! If these two domains are so closely aligned, then it stands to reason that their foils are closely aligned as well! That could have huge implications for treating magical curses!”
But before Gleaming could reply, Cadance cut in. “You’re not wrong, Ni—Dad. There’s a connection between Hatred and Enmity, but it’s not quite the same. Enmity is just a weaker version of Hate. That’s all.”
Night furrowed his brow. “How do you know?”
Cadance’s face grew grim. “My... predecessor was quite interested in the connection between the two, not to mention their relation to all the other aspects of Entropy. I have his research notes in the Forbidden Section of the archives.”
Night’s eyes about filled his head. “Really?!”
“We can’t let you see them,” Gleaming said quickly. “I don’t think I need to say why.”
Night regarded her coolly. “Can you at least tell me what you found?”
Gleaming’s eyes flicked over to Cadance before answering. “We determined his research is only good for revising our laws on forbidden magic and bolstering our national defense. Nothing else.”
Night pressed his lips in a thin line. “You didn’t see a way to repurpose his work? I understand what he was researching was vile, but—”
“Spells to level entire cities,” said Cadance. “An irreversible mind wipe hex. Mass mind-control enchantments. Instant death curses. Advanced necromancy. Soul dissection. We found some practical application for the stuff he researched, but…”
Gleaming put a hoof around Cadance. “It was bad enough just hearing a report on it. We had to put memory loss charms on the entire research team who gave us the initial report… at their request.”
Cadance looked away. “I had to read through his work myself after that. To put it simply, Sombra wasn’t interested in healing or helping other ponies. He only wanted to conquer, enslave, and destroy. If we hadn’t stopped him when we did, I truly believe Equestria would still be at war with him.”
Silence fell. The dull sounds of clanking pots, sliding pans, and ponies moving in the kitchen were all that filled the void, as well as the smell of cooling food.
“In that case,” Night said in a soft voice. “My only regret is not getting a shot at him, myself. Good job putting him down, everypony. I know it must’ve been hard.”
“Hey!” Spike put his claws on his hips. “I helped, too!”
The ghost of a smile flickered on Night’s face. “And I’m proud of you.”
Cadance bowed her head. “Believe me, there’s a long line of ponies who would’ve liked to be the one to take him out. But only an alicorn... maybe an INCREDIBLY powerful unicorn could’ve gone head to head with him! Anypony else wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
Everyone looked away from Night.
Cadance looked up. “...What?”
BAM!
“Zut alors!” said a mare inside the kitchen. “Ah, apologies, Madames! Ze door was just oiled zis morning!”
Out rolled carts upon carts upon carts piled high with Running of the Leaves Feast favorites. Cheesy potatoes with hash browns and sour cream. Green beans drizzled with soy sauce. Devilled eggs with nutmeg. Pasta with white alfredo sauce. Homemade stuffing. Jellied cranberries. Yams with brown sugar and marshmallows. Hoofolulu rolls and spinach dip. Caesar salad with thick slices of provolone. Sauteed brussels sprouts with onions. Mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy. Steamed wild rice with almonds. It just kept on being wheeled out by various crystal ponies in chefs hats and aprons, all being directed by a small mare with a black bushy mane.
“Oh, look!” Twilight said loudly. “The food’s here!”
“Alright!” Spike grabbed his fork and knife. “Let’s chow down!”
“Place the extra plates by Madame Gleaming,” the mare said. She watched as the first few carts were unloaded and placed on the table. “But where are ze gemstones? Are zhey—ah, merci, Frappe. Give those to Monseigneur Spike. He mixes zem with his meal...”
Velvet watched as five extra carts full of food were placed in an orderly row beside her eldest. The amount on them was far more than what could be placed on the table, but nopony seemed to be worried.
“Honey…” Velvet eyed the carts. “How much did you have them make?”
Gleaming licked her lips. “Enough.”
Cadance grinned at Velvet. “Trust me, it won’t go to waste.”
Velvet just sighed. “Eating for six, I suppose...”
“While nursing,” Gleaming added. “Plus a bunch of other things going on.”
Velvet pursed her lips. Her eyes drifted down to Gleaming’s prominently protruding belly, profound in all its pregnant glory. Its firm mass rose and fell in a steady rhythm, snugly wrapped in an extra-large maternity brace and complete with a matching bra. She’d had to scooch her seat back several inches just to fit at the table, and even with that, the curve of her womb was grazing it.
Velvet shrugged. “As long as you can handle it...”
Gleaming’s stomach rumbled like a train engine.
“No worries, Mom.” She leaned back on her padded haunches, smiling and waving at the chefs. “Just relax and enjoy the show.”
“Bon appetit!” the main chef said with a bow. “Just call for dessert!”
Cadance rubbed her hooves together. “Let’s dig in!”
There was a flurry of magenta as portions were distributed in magical globs. Velvet helped Spike with his, and Twilight helped Rainbow with hers.
“Ha! Neat!” Rainbow watched the glow around her. “Your magic’s all the same color! I never noticed before.”
Twilight, Velvet, and Gleaming laughed.
“The hues are pretty close.” Twilight helped herself to the wild rice, picking out the almonds as she did. “Mom’s is the darkest, mine’s in the middle, and Gleamy’s is the lightest.”
Rainbow squinted at their glowing horns. “Uh… if you say so.”
“It was a sore spot for a while,” said Night, whose own magic was pale blue. “But at least NOW we’ve got someone in the family with the right color.”
Cadance’s horn flashed blue as well. “Hopefully with more on the way!”
Velvet glanced over at Rainbow. “We’re not really—more than just rubies, Spike. You need beryl in your diet—not really sure WHY it happens, but it’s not an uncommon thing. It’s just one of those things.”
Gleaming might’ve commented on this, but she was already eating with gusto. She’d skipped a meal to prepare for this, so she decided let the others chat while she gorged herself.
“Speaking of which, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Twilight looked to Cadance. “Have you and Gleamy thought about foal names?”
Cadance finished her bite of cabbage salad before answering. “We’ve agreed on two so far. We’ve gone through some books and got a list of favorites from those, but we’re having trouble deciding.”
“Oooh! Ooooh!” Spike said. “You should name one of them after a superhero! Like Radiance or Saddle Rager! That’d be so cool!”
Cadance winced. “We’ll… consider that, Spike. No promises, though.”
“Care to share the names?” Night asked. “I’d like to hear what you’ve come up with.”
“Me too,” Velvet said.
“Me three!” said Rainbow.
“Pleeeeease?” Twilight asked with puppy dog eyes.
Cadance reeled. She turned to Gleaming, but Gleaming just motioned for her to continue.
“I… suppose it couldn’t hurt,” Cadance said. “We’ll tell you the two, but no others after that, alright? The rest will be a surprise.”
There was a murmur of agreement at this.
Cadance gave Gleaming a smooch on the cheek. “You tell them the boy, and I’ll say the girl, okay?”
Gleaming, realizing that she needed to speak, took a moment to separate her face from her plate. She said one word before diving back in.
“Vanguard.”
Night and Velvet brightened. “Oh!”
“Vanguard...” Twilight murmured the name a few times, tilting her head back and forth. “Prince Vanguard… yeah! I kinda like that!”
Spike was indifferent. “Not as cool as Prince Saddle Rager.”
“Saddle Rager’s a mare,” Rainbow pointed out.
“It could be a boy’s name!”
Cadance decided not to comment on that. “Erm, yeah. That’s the pega-colt’s name. The crystal-colt we haven’t named yet, and we’re still working on the two alicorns. The uni-filly’s the other one we’ve decided on.”
Everypony’s smile grew wider.
“We were originally going to go with a two-parter with the first being Twilight.” Cadance looked at the other two Twilights in the room. “But having three mares in the family with the same first name would be a bit much, so we went with a similar one instead.”
Twilight and Velvet’s reactions were mixed. Velvet looked thoughtful at this, while Twilight seemed… relieved? Perhaps the same had occurred to her.
“Eventide,” Cadance said. “Princess Eventide, that’s our little unicorn filly. What do you think?”
Velvet went starry-eyed. “Ahhhhhh!”
Twilight smirked. “Knew it. So you finally get your way, Gleamy.”
Gleaming donned a faux-innocent look as she chewed.
Spike, noticing Rainbow’s confused look, leaned in and spoke low. “Eventide is what Mom wanted to name Twilight at first. But Dad vetoed it. Gleam-Gleam’s always wished they’d stuck with it.”
“I’d a feeling you were going to choose that,” said Night. He smirked despite himself. “I suppose it was inevitable.”
Velvet swatted him. “It’s a pretty name, Nighty! I’ll never understand why you didn’t like it.”
“Because it doesn’t sound like a unicorn name,” he said. “It’s more of a pegasus name.”
Velvet huffed and sipped her wine. “Well, phooey on you. I think it’s delightful, and good on you for advocating it, Gleaming. I look forward to meeting little Evie.”
Gleaming saluted in between bites.
There was a lull in conversation after this. Everypony was more concerned on eating than anything else, and Gleaming in particular had been looking forward to this for weeks. She ate so much faster than anyone else that by the time the others were halfway through with their plates, she was almost done with her second.
Velvet paused as Gleaming sucked down plate two like a living vacuum. She now went for the cabbage salad, baked beans, some kind of rigatoni dish, and mashed potatoes, not skimping out on the portions of any. The edges of her muzzle were stained with crumbs and sauce as she tucked back in.
“For pete’s sake, Gleaming!” she said. “You’re going to choke.”
Gleaming ignored her. She demolished the cabbage salad in seconds and moved on to the baked beans, not even noticing (or caring) that all eyes were now on her.
“It’s the alicorns,” Cadance explained. “They’re taking up a lot of energy, far more than the other three. Gleamy’s handling it fine, but as you can see...”
Rainbow frowned. “I thought that was why you were doing those infusion thingies.”
“That’s for their magic,” said Twilight. “We’ve found they also need extra nutrients and calories to boot. It’s been a challenge to balance out their needs with the other three, but they all seem to be getting along so far.”
In the time it took to say this, Gleaming had finished the baked beans and stared snarfing the rigatoni. The edge of her hunger had been sated, but the familiar grip of her stomach was still there...
“What do you mean they’re ‘getting along’?” Spike asked. “How does that work?”
Cadance thought how best to answer that. “I’d... rather not get into that. It’s icky.”
Rainbow shuddered. “Can say that again.”
But Spike just laughed. “I’m not asking for a biology lesson. I just meant how do you know they’re getting along!”
“Oh! In that case...” Cadance pushed her bun around her plate, soaking up the gravy from her potatoes. “Basically, food and stuff passes from the mare to the baby through a special organ that only forms during pregnancy. If there’s more than one baby, you want each one to develop their own special organ, but that doesn’t always happen. Fortunately, we got lucky.”
Gleaming pumped her hoof at this.
“As for how they’re ‘getting along’...” Cadance motioned to her horn. “A big problem with more than one baby winds up being that they don’t all have enough room. We realized this early on, so that’s what most of the spells we cast are for. Not fighting for resources means that they’re all pretty content.”
“You’d be surprised how many problems that solves,” Twilight muttered, half to herself.
Spike nodded as he crunched on an emerald. “Makesh shense.”
Gleaming was only half-listening. She was more focused on the yummy food in front of her, and plate number three was devoured in short order. Now with a clean plate, she decided to go for the devilled eggs, wild rice, hoofolulu bread and spinach dip, another helping cheesy potatoes, maybe some more of that cabbage salad, too. That really hit the spot…
It became something of a spectacle. Everypony at the table chatted about random topics, but the primary interest was on Gleaming. Gleaming was considerate and only went for the food on the carts beside her, but she started grabbing food from wherever when it became clear everyone had gotten their fill.
It was about halfway through the second food cart that Gleaming felt her belly pushing against the table rather than just grazing it. She scooched back to accommodate her growing bulk, feeling the heavy mass of food shift in her gut. Not in a bad way, mind you, just enough to inform her that quick movements were a bad idea right now. She also felt a series of little nudges and twitches from the foals, almost as if they sensed their impending meal and were growing impatient. The sensation just made Gleaming want to eat more...
Velvet and Night were in awe. Gleaming had to have eaten as much than the rest of them combined and yet wasn’t slowing down. She was still plowing through the second food cart at breakneck pace, shovelling as much she could into her ravenous maw.
“Well,” Velvet said to Cadance. “I can see you weren’t kidding.”
Cadance giggled. She nuzzled Gleaming while rubbing her belly with the frog of her hoof.
It took another twenty minutes of non-stop eating before Gleaming started to slow down. She’d just finished the fourth food cart with a flourish, suppressing a belch as the latest plate clattered beside her. She’d started a second stack to avoid the first from getting precarious, and honestly she’d lost count of how many she’d gone through. All she knew was that a warm, sleepy contentment was starting to fill her, but said contentment wasn’t quite as much as it could be. Her stomach was still egging her on, as if to say, ‘keep going, the foals still need more’...
Gleaming stretched her back with a hum… then hesitated. There was a rigidness, constricting feeling around her middle that she didn’t like. She knew what it was, but a part of her couldn’t believe this was happening again.
“Hmph.” Gleaming wiggled and shifted, fumbling with her ‘extra large’ maternity brace. Extra large, her ass. She was going to have some words with the Royal Tailor about this... and they were ALSO going to have words about the zipper, because it was really jammed on there!
“What’s wrong?” Cadance said as Gleaming eased herself onto her hooves, squirming and grumbling. “Are you—oh. Here, lemme…”
It became obvious that Gleaming’s brace hadn’t kept up with her binge. Not only was it just barely containing her, it left absolutely nothing to the imagination, the fabric clinging tightly her curves like a second skin. Even Gleaming’s bra looked tight, the edges of white breast flesh threatening to spill out the sides.
“Just teleport,” Twilight said, looking on. “It’s gonna rip if you keep on like that.”
Cadance and Gleaming exchanged a look, then laughed.
“Right,” Gleaming said. “One sec…”
FLASH!
A second later, the overstretched brace was lying crumpled on the ground.
“Ahhhh.” Now free of its fabric prison, Gleaming’s belly surged free, her insides gurgling as they un-squished and pushed outward. Her gluttony had only added to her girth, her wide, gravid gut round and full like an oversized medicine ball of life. The foals had been getting rowdy from the lack of room, but now they went back to their placid and lazy norm.
Gleaming carefully walked back up to her pillow, measuring the feel of the new weight before settling—and immediately cursed upon feeling the crest of her womb against the table again. She pulled the pillow even farther back and got a fresh plate.
“Don’t mind me,” she said, mostly to herself. “Keep talking about whatever.”
She assumed that that’s what they did as she resumed eating. The fifth cart was mostly filled with chilled fruits, flowers, and herbs, although there were some plain vegetables arranged in assorted platters. Sweet cantaloupe and juicy honeydew, tangy oranges and giant raspberries, tart kiwis and sour green apples, crunchy carrots and sliced peppers. Her stomach was never quite satisfied even as it gradually filled up more of her lap, so she kept right on going, seemingly insatiable, delighting in the myriad of flavors assaulting her tongue. Next were the flowers and herbs—sweet chamomile and mild peppermint, daisies and daffodils sprinkled with oregano, catmint and rosehip. Finally, she finished off the tray with a few slices of watermelon, salting them lightly for that extra zing…
...which is when she realized she was the center of attention.
“Erm…” Gleaming swallowed with a loud gulp. “Something on my face?”
After a brief silence, it was Spike who spoke first.
“Holy hay, Gleam-Gleam!” He actually started clapping. “That was nuts!”
“No kidding!” Rainbow clapped alongside him. “You can eat like a champ!”
Cadance and the others started clapping as well.
“Unless I’m mistaken,” Twilight said slowly. “You just consumed a fourth of your own body weight in food. A fourth… in a single sitting, in only a half hour.”
Gleaming smirked as she reached for a toothpick. “I could still go for dessert, too.”
Twilight was nearly lost for words. “Have… have you been eating this much at every meal?”
“My metabolism’s crazy right now,” said Gleaming. “In about twenty minutes, this extra belly’s gonna be completely gone to feed the kids.”
Cadance leisurely stretched out her wings, wiggling them one at a time at Twilight. “Alicorns, girl! They’re hungry little munchkins! Haven’t you spoken with Doctor Talia at all? I’d have thought she told you about this.”
Twilight shook her head. “I haven’t had the chance.”
Cadance thought for a moment. “You should go with Gleamy to her next appointment, then. It’s next Thursday, first thing in the morning.”
Twilight groaned. “Why does everything always have to be in the morning?”
“Because that’s when normal ponies do things,” Velvet chided. “I swear, between you and your father…”
Night kissed her cheek. “Love you, Dear.”
“Mrhghgh…”
Gleaming was starting to feel that familiar fuzziness creeping in. She gave her head a shake and willed herself to focus.
“Let’s call Cuisine,” she told Cadance. “I think she has pie and cheesecake.”
Cadance nodded. “That and more, I’ll bet. You gonna zonk out afterwards?”
Gleaming rubbed the back of her neck. “Y-Yeah. Food coma always hits me hard...”
“I know.” Cadance summoned a silver bell out of thin air, which she rang in a few clear notes. “It’s fine, we didn’t have anything planned for today.”
A moment later, Cuisine appeared from the kitchen door again, albeit more gentle this time. Trailing behind her were more food carts, these ones laden with desserts like pies, cakes, pastries, cookies, and candies.
Rainbow leaned in and whispered to Twilight. “Wanna place bets on how much Gleaming eats?”
“What?! Rainbow!” Twilight whispered back. “What a thing to do!”
Rainbow just gave her a look.
Twilight chewed on her lip as she looked to the desserts, then over at the wolfish gaze of her sister.
“...Five bits says she can eat three pies on her own.”
“Only three?!” Rainbow said. “Puh-leeze. More like she can eat another whole CART! You saw her just now; she’s a one-mare eating machine!”
“Fine, that’s your bet.” Twilight extended her hoof. “Deal?”
“Well, well, well.” Talia hobbled into the examination room with a crooked smile. “I was wondering when we’d cross paths.”
Twilight waved sleepily from her chair. “Hello, Doctor Natal! It’s—” She let out a huge yawn. “—very nice to meet you! Ugh, sorry we haven’t had the chance to meet before this...”
Gleaming snickered beside her. “Twily’s not exactly a morning pony.”
Twilight mumbled something and rested her head on Gleaming’s shoulder.
“Not exactly one, myself.” Talia came over and shook Twilight’s hoof. “The pleasure’s all mine, Princess. I meant to chat with ya when my team ran tests after your ascension, but I never got the chance. Better late than never, I suppose.”
Twilight furrowed her brow. “Tests after my—” Her eyes lit up. “Riiiiiiiiiiight. I’d forgotten all about that! Wow, I didn’t know you were running that team.”
“Running it?! Hay, no!” Talia motioned for Gleaming to get up and go to the scale in the corner. “I’m a scientist, honey, not an administrator. The gal in charge of that was the daughter of one of my old colleagues.”
Twilight blinked several times. “But, you’ve run so many other research teams in the past! I’d have thought with your experience, you’d want to be in charge...”
Talia shook her head. “Only did it ‘cause there was no one else better suited. I mighta done an okay job back in the day, but to be honest, I prefer flyin’ solo.”
Gleaming carefully stepped onto the scale eyes still on her sister. “Talia was quite impressed with the spells you cast on me, Twily. Especially the modified transmogrification.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “The one I put together from the Aesclepius Journals?”
Gleaming nodded. “Why don’t you tell her about it?”
Twilight jolted awake. “I’d love to! It—”
“Hold it.” Talia held up a hoof. “Twilight—can I call ya Twilight? How’s about we get coffee after this, then we go talk in my lab? Trust me, I know what it’s like when ponies like us get to chattering.”
You may as well have told Twilight she won the lottery. “YES! Yes, I’d love that!”
Talia snickered. “It’s a date, then. But let’s focus on the present, shall we? I gotta run some routine tests here on your sister, and I might have some questions about your spellwork as I go along.”
Twilight remembered herself. “Of course. That’s what we’re here for.”
Gleaming couldn’t help but grin. “So then, Talia. Remind me how much weight you wanted me to gain?”
Talia put on her spectacles and fiddled with th escale. “Eh, my estimates keep changin’ as time goes on. The rule of hoof is if ya feel healthy, ya look healthy, and them babies are still growin’, you’re good to go.”
Gleaming mulled that over for a moment. “But weren’t you and Endo predicting estimates a few weeks back? Er... or was that more Endo?”
Talia chuckled. “Nah, we were both doin’ it. S’an old habit of mine, and Endo likely picked up on it when he did his residency under me. It’s a by-the-books approach, but problem is multiple pregnancies are rarely by the book. I do tend to start with some base estimates, but eventually, I just end up going with my gut.”
Gleaming laughed. “And what’s your gut telling you now?”
Talia balanced the counterweight and jotted the number down on a clipboard. “That you’re doin’ just fine. You’ve gained eighty-three pounds so far, and based off your pre-pregnancy health, all those fancy spells on ya, and you gainin’ some height to boot, I think that’s about where you should be. If we induce you at fifty-two weeks like I want, I doubt your foals will need much time in the ICU.”
Gleaming sighed. Obviously the goal was for no ICU, but they’d just have to see.
“Fifty-two weeks?” Twilight asked. “Wow, that’s on the latter end, isn’t it?”
Talia bade Gleaming stand over against the wall so she could check her height. “I feel like your fancy transmogrification’s gonna allow for it. Between you 'n me, Twilight, we’re gonna make sure these buns stay in the oven until they’re well and done!”
Twilight whooped. “Yeah! No premature delivery on our watch! We got this!”
Gleaming snickered. If only some random nurse had walked in as Twily had said that...
Talia jotted down Gleaming’s height. “Growin’ like a weed, girl. Go and lay on the exam table, would you?”
Gleaming obeyed. She waited until the table had been lowered a foot or two, then awkwardly eased herself onto her back.
“Oof…” She needed a second to adjust to the full weight of her belly pressing on her insides. But it was fortunately only just a second, as that was when Twilight’s spell kicked in, un-squishing and supporting the smooth tissues, her womb being pushed back outwards to rise back up into the air.
Talia shook her head. “S’like a trampoline in slow motion...”
Twilight looked on with interest. “Part of the spell monitors and maintains pressure levels within the body when external factors are introduced. Redistribution of kinetic energy is throttled to a set point, so no matter how fast Gleamy moves, her internal systems will only reassert themselves at safe speeds.”
Talia adjusted her spectacles. “And I assume there’s another part that monitors elasticity... you’ll have to explain to me how that works later. I’ll admit ya got me right curious...”
Twilight beamed. “Sure!”
Gleaming didn’t have any comment. The inflating sensation was nothing new, and about all she could say was how relieving it was. Being unable to breathe easy, having your circulation pinched, your bladder squeezed, and all manner of other unpleasantries at once was not her idea of a fun time.
Talia flipped through some pages on her clipboard as she came over. “Gleaming, d’ya remember that super sugary stuff I had ya drink last week?”
Gleaming made a face. “The diabetes stuff?”
“Mmhmm.” Talia produced a blood pressure cuff and put it on Gleaming’s arm. “Good news: you won’t have to drink it again. I figured your results’d be clean, but it’s pretty normal to test for that in the second trimester.”
Gleaming looked over at Twilight, who understandably had a blank look. “The two alicorns are starting to outgrow the other three. We wanted to rule out gestational diabetes as a possible reason.”
Twilight opened her mouth, but then closed it with a click of her teeth. “Hmm.”
Talia pumped up the blood pressure cuff. “I might be concerned if the other three were showing signs of malnourishment, but seein’ as they aren’t, I don’t think it’s any problem. Honestly, I think it’s just cause them two are alicorns.”
Twilight screwed up her face. “That’s… possible? It’s true that the four alicorns currently in existence are all larger than normal ponies, but that’s such a small sample size…”
“I know.” Talia turned to a page on the clipboard and showed it to Twilight. “But take a look here. You can see from that data the alicorn placentas are larger, the girlies themselves are talking up more space, they’re absorbing the lion’s share of the magic infusions, all o’ that. All that other stuff is resultin’ in extra mass, so it’s not surprising that those two are on the larger side.”
Twilight took the clipboard in her magic. The page Talia had indicated was mostly medical terminology, but there were a few portions she immediately understood. Of particular interest was the portion about the alicorn infusions.
“Placental aether osmosis… Type: ambrosiac… AliF-A absorption thirty-three percent, AliF-B thirty-two, CryspM eleven, UniF ten, PegaM nine… wait, that’s only ninety-five percent! What’s happening to the other five?”
Talia pulled out a stethoscope and listened to Gleaming’s lungs. “No such thing as a perfectly efficient system, darlin’. The remaining five percent’s been bleedin’ into Gleaming’s magic reserves, which we’ve been tracking on the next page there.”
Twilight flipped the page over...
Twilight continued to flip through the pages. More charts were also depicted that showed things like overall magic levels, height, weight.
Gleaming watched her. “Having fun over there?”
Twilight looked up with wide eyes. “Have you seen these charts?!”
Gleaming yawned. “It’s not even two months worth of data, Twily. Weren’t you just saying something about small sample sizes?”
Talia grunted agreement. “Not quite sure what’s happening yet, to be honest. I got theories, but I’m not callin’ anything out until there’s more data points. All I know is that nothing so far’s been cause for panic.”
Twilight reached the last few pages, which was just an outline of the pregnancy thus far. The first chunk read like a scientific journal, but towards the later part, the writer (and thus writing style) changed: electing for more understandable terms and brevity.
...week twenty ultrasound by Natal and Endo found that pregnancy is a case of quintuplets, NOT quadruplets. Greater Detect Life spell has since confirmed this. Initial assumption of quads made in first trimester by senior ob-gyn nurse Aquamarine via routine ultrasound. No Detect Life spell was cast at that time, although it’s understandable why, as greater versions of the spell are considerably taxing for most casters. This presents a challenge, as other lower-level magic scans on the fetuses have since been found to be grossly inaccurate.
These inaccuracies were first noticed by Doctor Talia when a routine chronology scan was used to determine gestational age. The results list four of the fetuses being conceived at the same time, but the fifth registers as being conceived sixteen weeks later. As all five foals can clearly be seen to be in the same stage of gestational development, this cannot be the case. The mother’s cervix is sealed tightly shut (further reinforced by the spells of Princess Twilight Sparkle), and the mother has shown no symptoms of estrus. There is also no record of superfetation or superfecundation in the family’s ancestry.
This inaccuracy is likely due to gestative thaumic noise (multiple overlapping magic fields in a confined organic space). Because of this traditional methods of analysis will now be favored moving on to acquire data to compensate, with the exception select more powerful spells and procedures that Princess Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance have both graciously volunteered to assist with.
Focus shall next be on the reported occurrence on the father’s sterile seminal fluid being absorbed by the mother’s vagina during intercourse. There have been repeated—
“Okaaaay!” Twilight about threw the clipboard away. “I don’t think I’m as curious about the data as I thought! You don’t need to keep me updated on your findings or anything, Talia. II’ll just stick to the spellwork.”
Talia snickered. “Sure thing, Princess.”
Gleaming at least tried not to laugh. She failed, but an attempt was made. “What’s wrong? Stumble across some squick?”
Twilight gave her a deadpan stare. “Just because I understand a thing is happening doesn’t mean I want the details.”
Gleaming privately noted that if Twilight knew how often said thing was happening, she might give herself a mind wipe. “Right, well... what all did you wanna do today, Talia? I have to oversee a training exercise in a few hours, and I gotta eat before that, so...”
Talia hummed to herself while checking Gleaming’s pulse. “How’s the milk collection been coming along?”
“Pretty good.” Gleaming retrieved the milking machine from her pocket dimension to show to Talia. “This is the brand you recommended, right? We got the biggest one they had.”
Talia gave the milker a perfunctory glance. “Yup, that’s an EZ-Milk. I used to—” She did a double-take. “That’s their biggest model? That thing looks like it couldn’t hold more ’n a liter!”
Gleaming winced. “My mom was surprised, too. She said the pumping unit on her old one was twice this size. This milker would be fine otherwise, but seeing as a week ago I was filling it halfway per time, and now I’m getting closer to three-quarters…”
Talia sighed. “That’s how us mammals are wired, I’m afraid. Your body knows how many foals you’re carrying, so you’re gonna be overflowin’ that thing in no time. Tell ya what—I’ve got some friends at a company that used to make milkers, and theirs didn’t have piddly little pumping units. They used to go up to five liters, if I remember right…”
Gleaming noticed that Twilight was interested in the milker. She gave it over for her to examine. “You.. really think I’ll be putting out that much at a time? Five liters is… w-well, that’s a lot...”
“At a time? Oh, no.” Talia sidestepped past Twilight so she could get at Gleaming’s lower half. “I don’t even expect you’ll be putting out half that at a time, even at your peak! These alicorns of yours are little vacuums, but even they won’t need THAT much.”
Gleaming breathed a sigh. “Scared me htere for a sec.”
Talia chuckled. “I’mma take your bra off, alright, honey?”
“Sure.”
Talia gently pulled the garment off, checking the inside pads for off-color fluids before setting it aside. Gleaming’s breasts bounded free, each one the size of a grapefruit, the firm, warm flesh bare of fur with rosy nipples.
“Ya definitely got a nice set comin’ in.” Talia looked over each breast in turn. “Size don’t indicate much, though… did you cast the Lactation spell, Twilight?”
“Yep!”
Talia nodded. “What were the parameters?”
Twilight tapped her chin. “Just what the spell recommended. I was tempted to hasten the ramp-up time of production, but I figured it was better to just see what her natural levels were.”
“Good.” Talia poked and prodded Gleaming’s underside, looking over the dual mounds with a practiced eye. “Lactation spells work by simulatin’ a localized release of the hormone that stimulates milk production, and if you mess too much with it, it can have all kinds of weird effects. S’usually best to just kickstart the process, set the milk type, then let the body take it from there.”
Twilight turned her attention to the milker. “The right breast is already producing mature milk, but the left’s enchanted to make ten days of colostrum, thirty days of transitional milk, and mature milk from then on. It’s been twelve days, so...”
Talia looked Gleaming’s breasts over for a bit longer before muttering a few spells. Gleaming felt a tingling sensation in her groin, but it faded as quickly as it’d come. Talia stepped away a moment later and gave back the bra.
“I had a meeting earlier with the two ponies who’ve been handling your meals—that royal kitchen gal, and some army bloke with a glossy mane. I left ‘em both instructions to start giving you high calorie smoothies with every meal. Drink as many of ‘em as you can, alright? As if eating for six weren’t enough, the more milk your body makes, the more energy you’ll need. Whenever you’re hungry, stuff your face until you’re full. I don’t care how much it takes.”
Gleaming giggled. “That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing.”
“Can say that again,” Twilight said.
Talia patted Gleaming’s belly. “Them babes still got lots of growin’ to do, so don’t let up. Drink lotsa fluids, keep active, and lemme know if anything weird happens, alright?”
Gleaming saluted. “Yes, ma’am.”
Later-
The Crystal Military’s tertiary training grounds were comprised of a strip of land waaaaaaaaaaaaay outside the city by the tundra barrier. It was partitioned off with fences and spells to prevent unauthorized entry, and the training grounds themselves were comprised several dirt fields, targets of various shapes and sizes, and some oddly cheap-looking sheds stored with spare equipment. The place barely looked like anything at all—just a plain, flat slab of land on the edge of the permafrost.
“Lieutenant Steelwing!” A pony beside Gleaming yelled. “You’re up!”
Steelwing stepped into the bare dirt arena, his armor and scythe-like wingblades glinting in the afternoon sun. His eyes were sharp and focused as he dropped into a combat stance.
Gleaming had heard the rumors, but she’d yet to see his abilities for herself. She glanced at the pony beside her.
“I know we’re supposed to be taking turns, Captain Deadeye, but do you mind if I…?”
Deadeye, the rust-red unicorn beside her, looked up from the clipboard she was holding. “I should tell you that Steelwing’s been out with a nasty case of feather flu for the last three weeks, so this is his first anti-changeling field training.”
“That’s what the class instructor was telling me.” Gleaming looked on at Steelwing. “I’d like to make sure he’s caught up.”
Deadeye was about to say go for it, but before she did, she reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a small device comprised of a rubber handle and a meter displaying various numbers.
“You said every three times,” she said.
Gleaming acquiesced. “So I did.”
Deadeye swept the device over Gleaming. There was a sound rapid buzzing and clicking that rose and fell in pitch.
“Well, considering your magic levels weren’t even registering on this thing before...” Deadeye showed the meter’s reading to Gleaming, which was showing at the very highest end of the scale. “Does that seem about right?”
Gleaming did some quick math. “Yeah, I’m still good.”
Deadeye put the device down. “Then by all means.”
Gleaming’s horn flared to life. “Excellent...”
A fraction of a second was all the warning Steelwing had. It was only when the air around him grew thick with charged mana that he noticed it wasn’t the Captain’s horn glowing, but the General’s...
“Shit!” He managed to take wing before…
KR-CCKKK!
...the magenta forcecage where he’d been could finish forming. He managed to get some altitude, but before he could do much else, a construct of pure magic rammed him from the side.
“Hrk!” Steelwing nearly fell out of the air. He righted himself and saw that the construct was shaped in the form of a changeling.
“I’ll be delivering your make-up course, Lieutenant,” Gleaming said through the construct. She made it zip into Steelwing’s blind spot with barely a sound. “Lesson one: changelings favor both traps and hit-and-run tactics. They never attack head-on.”
Steelwing whipped around, his wings flared and blades ready—
—only to find seven more constructs hovering there.
“Eep.”
“Lesson two—changelings ALWAYS attack in groups.” The constructs fanned out to surround Steelwing. “If you ever see just one, it means there’s an ambush waiting nearby. Mind your peripherals.”
Steelwing broke away with a burst of speed. The constructs gave chase behind him like a glittering swarm of locusts. They began firing magic blasts at him in whizzing salvos.
“Holy—” Steelwing swerved and sped up. “She’s not kidding around!”
“Lesson three—all changelings can fly, and use magic.” Gleaming made the constructs match Steelwing’s speed, the foremost literally nipping at his heels. “Drones can only use basic stun spells, but the stronger ones have repertoires that rival a unicorn’s.”
Steelwing grit his teeth. Sizzling bursts exploded all around him like bombs while rays bounced off his armor with metallic pings. He did an aileron roll and veered right, but the constructs moved with him, gathering up in a cluster from the unexpected turn…
Steelwing’s blades snapped out.
SHI—IIIING!
Steelwing slingshotted backwards with pegasus magic to sail towards all of them at double speed. The metal of his weapons turned white as he struck faster than the eye could see.
VWITT-VWITT-VWITT!
There was a split second pause, then...
WUMPH
All eight constructs exploded in a shower of dust. The sparkling magic fluttered to the ground to leave Steelwing alone in the chilly air.
“Ha!” He put his hooves on his hips. “Got ‘em!”
“Mind your ego, Lieutenant.”
Something large and solid smacked Steelwing between his shoulder blades.
“OOF!” He nearly fell into a nosedive. He righted himself and now saw that there were three larger constructs hiding amongst the clouds, these ones with eerie white eyes, curvier horns, and long, forked tails.
“Lesson four,” Gleaming continued. “Changelings will often employ decoys to learn their target’s strengths and weaknesses. If they learn that you’re a melee specialist, they will try to keep you at range.”
The horns of the three constructs glowed bright with a sound like squealing metal.
“Evasive maneuvers.”
CHT-CHT-CHT-CHT-CHT! A flurry of magenta magic missiles rained down on Steelwing. They weren’t strong enough to do real harm, but still felt like being pelted with rocks.
“Fucking—” Steelwing seethed from four spots on his back and wings struck. He swooped into a dive, another salvo already streaming after him. “Gonna be like that, eh? Fine, I’ll play your game…”
He flew low and fast with the missiles hot on his trail. They struck the ground like mortars, chunks of dirt spraying all around him as he serpentined across the field. He eventually began climbing back into the air, his ears filled with the whizzing roar of the General’s magic.
Steelwing concentrated. The magic in his wings pulled in the air around him, building in pressure that focused into his blades. They glowed white again, hot and vibrating against his skin and tickling his feathers. He waited for a pause in the General’s barrage, then looked over his shoulder...
“RAAAGH!” Steelwing whipped around and swung his wingblades, unleashing a trio of air bursts in deadly, scything waves. The attacks were nigh-invisible, but they travelled fast as cannonfire to home in on their targets.
The first attack hit dead-on. It shredded the construct like paper before travelling far, far out into the sky.
The second hit neatly bisected its target in two. The attack sailed out towards the tundra barrier before harmlessly dissipating.
The third, though, went wide...
..REALLY wide.
VSSHHTT! KA-RUNCH!
It suddenly became apparent why the equipment sheds looked so temporary.
Steelwing winced. “Not again...”
A series of laughs and whistles floated up from where the rest of the Heartguard was watching.
“Oh, shaddap!” Steelwing hollered at them. “Like you melon fudges could do better!”
Back down by Gleaming, Deadeye clicked her tongue. “I swear he has a vendetta against those sheds...”
Gleaming shrugged. “Hitting two out of three targets after being sick for so long isn't bad in my book.”
“...True.”
Gleaming cleared her throat and spoke through the remaining construct. “Lesson five, Lieutenant. Skirmishes with changelings will almost certainly be in populated areas. If you can’t execute a technique with pinpoint accuracy, then don’t use it at all.”
Steelwing bowed his head. “Yes, ma’am. Understood, ma’am.”
The construct signalled for Steelwing to land. It followed soon after, and as they both touched down, the construct’s form changed shape to something smaller. Its wings became feathered, its body gained fleshy colors, its horn disappeared, and its mane and tail assumed an oddly familiar shape…
“What the?!” Steelwing’s eyes about bugged out of his head. “F-Frappe?!”
In front of Steelwing was a pegasus with a platinum blonde mane. Her coat was the color of toffee, and her eyes were a deep, pure brown. Her smile made Steelwing’s heart skip a beat.
“Lesson five—if a changeling loses the upper hoof in a fight, they will often try to distract you by assuming the form of a loved one.” Steelwing’s marefriend spread its wings, sprouting wingblades like his with a SNIKT.“Shock is natural, but always remember that changelings prey on the heart.”
Steelwing’s mouth was dry. The likeness was impeccable, down to the fine details. He saw the blades, but when she stepped closer with that same soft smile, the one he could stare at all day...
WHACK!
Steelwing went sprawling into the dirt. His helmet vibrated from the flat of the blade, the taste of copper erupting in his mouth. On instinct he tried to roll away—
—something sharp pressed against his throat.
Steelwing gulped and opened his eyes. ‘Frappe’ was standing over him with her wingblade poised for the coup de grâce, still wearing same smile as before.
“This is how I was captured,” said Gleaming. “A changeling in the guise of my lover, who took easy advantage of my hesitation. Canterlot was nearly sacked for my carelessness.”
The construct withdrew the wingblade. There was a telltale FLASH, and in the construct’s place now stood Gleaming herself.
“We’re more alike than you think,” Gleaming said. “Strong and capable protectors, eager to give our all to defend the ones we love. I never realized that my greatest strength is also my greatest weakness against changelings, and as a result, they fed off me like leeches.”
The sound of ringing metal was still in Steelwing’s ears. “So what do I do?”
Gleaming reached down and helped him up. “Lessons six and seven—never take the changelings for granted, and do NOT engage them alone. There’s a reason why they rely on surprise and subterfuge, Lieutenant. They excel against solitary targets, but in actual battle? They get destroyed.”
Steelwing started to see where this was going. “But they know they’ll get destroyed, so they do everything they can to avoid it. And us getting overconfident is exactly what they want, because then we fall into their traps, and our commanders get frustrated because we can’t use our full strength, which leads to them making rash decisions, which are easily predictable and let them turn things around…”
“It’s all one big trap.” Gleaming nodded. “And if we’re not prepared for it, we’ll get caught like flies in a web.”
Steelwing fixed his helmet and saluted. “Ma’am! Thank you for the lessons, ma’am! It’s a privilege to be taught by you!”
Gleaming looked down at him a moment, then leaned in and spoke under her breath. “Just remember, all it took you to learn this was a few bruises. For me, it took the near-destruction of Equestria.”
The pause that followed was as pregnant as Gleaming.
Steelwing replied in a shaky whisper. “U-Understood, ma’am.”
“General!”
Gleaming’s ears pricked up. Now that was a voice she wasn’t expecting. She turned towards the edge of the field to see Rex beside Deadeye, watching with her eternal stoic gaze.
However, that wasn’t the most surprising thing. Rex was something of a trusted assistant, so she showed up in random places about as often as she was subject to anti-changeling scans.
No, the real surprise was…
Gleaming’s left eye twitched. “At ease, Lieutenant.”
She teleported back over to Deadeye and Rex.
“Duke Night Light,” Gleaming said. “Might I ask what you’re doing out here?”
Night Light, unkempt and nonchalant, stood between Rex and Deadeye like a sore hoof.
“I thought I’d go for a stroll,” he replied. “Care to join me?”
The two of them stared eye-to-eye for a moment.
“Of course,” Gleaming said. “Captain Deadeye, you’ll need to finish the tests yourself. Good work so far—glad to see you’re keeping the Heartguard sharp.”
Deadeye saluted. “Ma’am! Thank you, ma’am!”
“Erm, Captain?” Rex spoke up. “You appear to be... smoking.”
Deadeye suddenly became aware of an extreme warmth emanating from her right saddlebag… along with the smell of burning fabric...
“Ack!” She ripped off the saddlebag and flung it to the ground. The magic reader tumbled out, vibrating and hissing like mad before finally bursting into flame.
“What the...” Deadeye stared at the device. “General, I apologize! I know I left it on, but I’ve never seen—”
Deadeye realized she was all alone.
FLASH!
“I’ll take it from here, Rex,” said Gleaming.
“Of course, General.”
FLASH!
The next teleport brought Night and Gleaming to Gleaming’s office. Gleaming immediately shut the door and locked it.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Night didn’t reply at first. He merely looked around the office with the shrewd look he always had.
“I think this is my first time being in here,” he said.
Gleaming swished her tail. “You used the code phrase I gave you and Mom. What’s the matter?”
Night went over to the bookshelf in the corner, taking note of its contents. “Nothing, really. You and I just haven’t had much of a chance to talk these past few weeks, so I’d hoped to fix that.”
Gleaming withheld her sigh. Typical Dad, using the secret phrase meant only for emergencies just so they could chat. “You really couldn’t wait until I was off work?”
Night looked over his shoulder with a sheepish look. “I’m, ah... usually asleep by the time you’re off.”
As an astronomy researcher, Night’s schedule often involved being up late so he could do, well… astronomy things. But even still, though, Gleaming didn’t think he typically slept during the day. The only times she recalled that were when he went full nocturnal, and Mom only allowed THAT when he was working against a tight deadline—
Gleaming laughed. “So that’s why I haven’t seen much of you. I wondered why Mom seemed crabby at the Leaves feast.”
Night gave her a wry look. “She’s crabby because I’m finishing this semester rather than quitting now that we’ve made up our minds to move. The University’s been screwing me over the past few years, and she’s fed up with it.”
Gleaming did recall her mother mentioning something about Night having some kind of issue with Canterlot University. “What’s been going on?”
Night traced his hoof along one of the bookshelves. “This time? There’s a debate happening about the properties of supermassive black holes, and somehow, the notice telling me I’m expected to contribute got ‘misplaced’. I’ve had to bust my butt to summarize my findings.”
Gleaming hadn’t noticed at first, but now she noticed how slumped her dad’s posture was, his messy and tangled coat, as well the circles beneath his eyes. It hadn’t been this noticeable last week, but maybe he hadn’t gotten the notice before then?
“The easy part was I had to finishing my night-to-night observations, then comparing them to my earlier notes.” Night laughed bitterly. “But then I had to summarize my findings, cite everything, prepare a presentation and a speech… I only just got done.”
Gleaming went over to her desk and sat down. “Why haven’t you said anything before this?”
Night gestured to all around them. “You’ve had enough to handle, Bud. You don’t need to worry about the measly things I deal with.”
Gleaming grit her teeth. “Damn it, Dad! You know I hate it when—”
Night silenced her with a look.
Gleaming’s ears drooped. “...Sorry. I hate it, though.”
Night held her gaze a bit longer before looking away. “I was willing to put up with things thinking they were just a rough patch, but my proposals are getting ignored, my funding keeps getting cut, my colleagues have started distancing themselves, my deadlines have been getting shorter, and now, the notices for those deadlines are getting ‘lost’. I may be dense, but even I can read the signs—this is how they get rid of somepony with tenure.”
Gleaming pursed her lips. Her father could be a little socially inept at times, but he was also the smartest pony she knew. She once saw him explain the nuances of string theory to some middle schoolers in under twenty minutes… and theyunderstood it.
“Why would they want to get rid of you?”
“Oh, any number of reasons,” Night grumbled. “You know I’m no good at dealing with office politics. The new dean might just have it out for quiet blue unicorns for all I know.”
Obviously Gleaming she didn’t know what Canterlot U’s higher-ups thought of her father, but they had to know of his influence by proxy. Regardless of what tactics they used, they’d have to be dumb as rocks not to realize aggravating him would in turn aggravate others.
“Well, hay with ‘em,” Gleaming said. “They don’t want you there? Fine! Congratulations, you’re now the Crystal Empire’s Royal Astronomer. Welcome aboard.”
Now Night laughed for real. “I was actually hoping to apply at the Crystal Empire’s University once it got back up and running. Any idea on when that might be?”
Gleaming frowned. “I can recommend you to the hiring committee if you wanna go that route, but you won’t actually do anything until we’ve sorted through all the red tape, and that won’t be for a few years. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but if you wanna, you know… get paid...”
Night made a face. “Arggghh, I was afraid you’d say that…”
“You don’t need a title if that’s too much,” Gleaming said. “You can say you’re an independent researcher, or whatever! You can even do your research at home!”
“Still doesn’t change that I’m working for my own kid,” Night muttered. “There’s really no other jobs up here for my special talent? What about meteorology? Aeronautical engineering? Theoretical physics?”
“Dad, the Crystal Empire’s been gone for a thousand years.” Gleaming gestured to the window behind her. “The whole reason Luna had her freakout was because ponies back then—THESEponies—didn’t care about the stars.”
Night had to give her that one. “I… ah, don’t know if the Nightmare Moon incident classifies as a ‘freakout’, but—to be fair! It wasn’t just the crystal ponies that ignored her, but I suppose...”
Gleaming’s eyes fell on her father’s crescent moon cutie mark. Out of all the crystal ponies she’d seen to date, not one of them had had a night-themed mark. “I think they feel guilty more than anything else. Could explain why so many of them volunteered for the batpony campaign.”
Night smirked. “I heard about that. I’m sure that’s won you more than a few brownie points with the Sarosian Council.”
Gleaming smiled back, but she could see that her father’s expression remained strained. “Look, I get that you don’t want to be reliant on me or Twily, but if you and Mom are gonna live up here, the only way you’ll have a job is if I make one. Things might changes once Crystal U gets going, but for now...”
It almost looked like Night might refuse. He certainly was having a tough time of it, tossing his head and grinding his teeth.
“Grrrreehhhh, it’s not that I don’t think you’re good enough…”
“I know.”
“...S’just not something I ever expected to happen…”
“Dad, no one expected ANY of this.”
“... just don’t want to be one of those lazy nobles that do nothing but leech off their family’s money…”
“With your work ethic? Seriously?”
“...OR piggyback off your and Twily’s successes without contributing anything myself…”
“Hey, you were pretty gung-ho when we were talking about Sombra during the Leaves feast—”
“—I meant academically.” Night closed his eyes, taking slow, measured breaths. “I want to make a discovery that’ll put me down in the history books! What I said at the Leaves feast was just… heat of the moment.”
Gleaming wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. “Well regardless, you’ll have a hard time making discoveries without funding.”
Night hung his head. “And that’s really what it comes don’t to, isn’t it? The most necessary of evils. You’re certainly able to provide that funding, aren’t you?”
“Along with just about anything else,” said Gleaming. “Academic freedom? It’s yours. Want to set your own deadlines? Done. Need access to the castle archives? Everything but the Forbidden Section. You can do whatever you want, Dad, because I know it’s gonna be amazing.”
The strain in Night’s face melted away. “Aww. Thanks, Bud.”
Gleaming waggled her eyebrows. “And when you do make your revolutionary discovery, you can rub it in the faces of those pricks at Canterlot U! Make those jerks rue the day they took you for granted.”
Night grunted to that. He was silent for a while as his mind shifted gears, now properly looking Gleaming over from head to hoof. Mane and tail in tight braids, fetlocks grown all the way down to the hoof, a barrel like an over-inflated beach ball. She’d given up on wearing armor, instead opting for a periwinkle officer’s jacket with large gold buttons and a glittering insignia on the collar.
“You look good in that,” Night said. “Real professional.”
Gleaming sat up a little straighter. “Thanks.”
Night lingered on the magenta star serving as her chest clasp. “They let you wear the House symbol?”
“I’m General and Princess-Consort,” Gleaming replied. “Who’s going to stop me?”
Night snorted. He looked over at the flag of the Crystal Empire by the window, then at each of the walls in turn.
“You should put some pictures up in here or something,” he said.
Gleaming followed his gaze. “Cady’s said the same thing. I keep meaning to get around to it.”
Night’s hawk-like stare travelled all over. The three armor stands in the corner, the leftmost a gift from him. A full-length mirror with a tiny chip on the top-right corner. A polished mahogany desk free of any and all scuffs. An impressively empty inbox. The slight marks on the crystal floor, set in a single, pacing line. The cold and bare fireplace, not a speck of ash to be seen.
“We don’t have to talk in here if you don’t want,” he said at last. “We can go somewhere more comfortable.”
Silence.
Gleaming examined one of her hooves. “What’s on your mind, Dad?”
Night looked like he was trying to swallow a lemon. He eventually swallowed hard and spoke.
“Your mother told me about the conversation you had when we first got here.”
Gleaming cocked her head. Conversation that they had—
Oh, Luna fuck her with the moon...
Gleaming’s tense up didn’t go unnoticed. “She doesn’t keep things from me any more than you keep things from Cadance,” Night said. “You can’t fault her for telling me.”
Gleaming rubbed her temples. Even fair as that was, she’d really, REALLY hoped to control how her father heard this news. “So you know, then?”
Night sat down in front of her. “Yeah.”
Gleaming waited for him to say more, but he just sat there, watching her. “Annnnnnd…?”
Night shook his head. “I want YOU to tell me what’s going on. Tell me everything that’s led this decision. The whole story.”
Gleaming groaned and ran a hoof down her face. “Fucking-A, Dad… are you really gonna grill me about this?”
“You’re about to be a parent yourself,” Night replied. “Are you not gonna grill them about things like this?”
Gleaming was quiet. She glanced down at the sensitive orb between her legs, heavy, full, and firm.
Night leaned forward. “Talk to me.”
It was frustrating beyond words. Even after all these years and all she’d done, her father’s glare still made her quail. Celestia forbid that edge creep into his voice—that’d make her crack like an egg.
“I’ve decided to remain a mare after the kids are born,” Gleaming said at last.
Night said nothing. Didn’t betray anything, either. Perfect poker face.
“Er, right… the whole story...” Gleaming twiddled her hooves. “I guess it started when I noticed…”
Where Velvet had been mostly quiet throughout the explanation, Night stopped her constantly, asking for more details and having things repeated. He remained agonizingly neutral at all times, his voice never rising or accusing, letting her go at her own pace. The air between them was terse at first, but as time went on, Gleaming fell into a familiar groove, old memories and habits reminding her who she was talking to.
“And that’s pretty much it,” Gleaming finished. “Cady didn’t have any protests, I mentioned it to Spike in passing, and then it came up with Mom. Those are the only ones who know so far.”
Night raised an eyebrow. “Spike knows? What’d he say?”
Gleaming smiled a small smile. “He just wants me to be happy. Doesn’t care about much else.”
Night finally dropped the statue act and chuckled. “I swear, you’d never know he’s a dragon by the way he acts...”
Gleaming laughed as well. “We sure lucked out with him, didn’t we?”
Night’s face suddenly grew grim. He looked past Gleaming out the window, watching the sun hang lazily amongst the clouds.
“Did Velvet or I ever tell you about the fight we had over his foster care?”
The change made Gleaming pause. “Uh, no. You guys never say ANYTHING about your fights. I just remember getting a letter in military school saying ‘You have a new brother’ and that I’d meet him over the holidays. You could’ve at least told me that he wasn’t even a pony!”
Night sighed, long and slow. His eyes grew unfocused as he stared off at something only he could see.
“Your mother had had a miscarriage,” he said. “About ten weeks in, I believe. The pregnancy hadn’t been planned, but Velvet was fine with it because she’d been wanting another baby something fierce. I’d been insisting two was enough, but she had foal fever and… ugh. Anyway, I only found out she was pregnant about a month before she lost it, so I wasn’t too invested. But she, on the other hoof...”
A hole appeared in Gleaming’s gut. Her mother… had been pregnant? Pregnant with a third foal?! She’d never heard once about this!
“Do you know why she lost it? Did she—” ” A terrible thought came to Gleaming. “Oh, oh jeez… please, please tell me it wasn’t because of Twily’s flare.”
Night met Gleaming’s eyes. “The flare was later, but only by a few weeks. The loss was still pretty fresh for your mom.”
And that’s when it clicked in Gleaming’s head. “And then along comes this adorable newborn dragon, freshly hatched and bonded to Twily…”
Night looked down at the floor. “Velvet hid it at first, making up excuses for why she was going to see your sister at the castle all the time. Of course I knew the real reason, but I figured the best thing to do was to let things play out. Sure enough, we got a summons from Princess Celestia in short order asking to ‘discuss some things.’”
Gleaming frowned. “What things?”
Night rolled his shoulders. “You’ve probably already gathered this, but Twily wasn’t actually supposed to hatch Spike. It was a test to see how she’d handle failure, and the fact that she’d actually succeeded presented some pretty serious problems. Celestia could have claimed Spike if she wanted, but Twilight also had a claim since she’d been the hatcher. Except with Celestia running the country by herself and Twily not even a pre-teen...”
Gleaming crossed her hooves. “So, what then? Celestia sees Mom’s completely enamored with Spike, so she calls you both up to talk about foster care?”
“Yessssss, and no,” Night said. “We could all see that your mom and I were the best choices for Spike’s immediate caretakers; that was never really in question. The problem was that Velvet felt if Celestia wasn’t going to take responsibility for underage students attempting to hatch a dragon egg, then she didn’t deserve a say in Spike’s future.”
Night met Gleaming’s eyes. “Velvet didn’t want to talk about foster care at all; she wanted to talk about adoption. She wanted to claim Spike completely and totally so she could get him away from a pony that she felt would be a bad influence. I was trying to make her see reason and keep her from storming off to the castle in a rage, eventually her anger turned on me, and… well.”
That was all certainly news to Gleaming. Her parents hadn’t fought a lot that she recalled, but it was hard to say with them being so secretive. To hear the specifics of an argument now was… weird.
“Why are you telling me all this?” Gleaming asked.
Night noticed a lock of Gleaming’s mane was out of place. He used a bit of magic to smooth it out. “Think about everything I just told you. With all the pressures your mom was under, emotions running high and all that, do you think RIGHT THEN was the best time to be making such an important decision?”
Now Gleaming could see.
“You don’t think I should decide on being a mare right now.”
“No, I don’t,” said Night. “I think it’s okay to talk and think about it right now, but the buck should stop there. You’ve got a LOT running through your system right now, Bud—hormones, foreign magic infusions, experimental spells, and stars knows what else. Can you honestly say with complete confidence that those things aren’t affecting your judgment?”
Gleaming threw up her hooves. “So you think I’m just confused. Loopy from a cocktail of magic and hormones! Gee, thanks, Dad. Sure glad I got that cleared up!”
“Shining, the symptoms of undiagnosed gender dysphoria are nasty.” Night ticked them off on his hoof. “Social isolation, disgust with your own body, anxiety disorders, depression, attempted suicide… you’ve never shown any of those things. I get that you’ve been enjoying this experience, but the way I’m hearing you talk, the reasons I’m hearing you give? I’m not seeing it as gender dysphoria. Gender fluid, maybe—”
“Stop playing armchair doctor,” Glemaing snapped. “Who are you to act like you know what you’re talking about? You’re not qualified to give a mental diagnosis.”
“Neither are Spike, Velvet, or Cadance.”
Gleaming opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Well, something resembling a squeak, but we won’t count that.
“Even still,” she muttered after a time. “I’m not gonna disregard what they’ve all said. You’re the first one who’s been opposed to this.”
“That doesn’t mean you should disregard me, either.” Night squinted at Gleaming. “When you were talking, the uncertainty on your face was plain as day. I don’t think you’re sure what to think right now.”
Gleaming bit her lip. She remained silent and still, save for tracing a small circle on the ground.
Night’s eyes were gentle. “You’re absolutely right that I’m not qualified to diagnose you, but I AM qualified to give you advice as your father. Will you let me do that? Please?”
Gleaming folded her arms and looked away. “I think you’ve already made yourself clear.”
“You want to know what I see in you?” Night scooted closer to the desk. “I see somepony experiencing something unlike anything they’ve ever felt, and is now struggling to understand it. Why’s it all been so enjoyable? Is it because of the spells? The transfusions? The hormones? Your special talent? The change in status? Were you actually miserable as a stallion and just never realized it? Do you like being pregnant? Are you just lucky?”
The stuffy air was getting to Gleaming. Her fight-or-flight impulse was blaring, and it was making her fidget in place.
“Twily’s shown me the whole list of enchantments she’s got on you, and if it were anypony but her, I’d question the safety of all this.” Night shook his head. “I get you and Cadance are pretty progressive when it comes to sexuality, but I doubt even you would’ve gone this far if she’d been able to carry the kids. Just one more thing to blame Sombra for, I suppose… I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the advice the others gave you, but I’m worried that they’re not taking situational factors into account.”
Gleaming’s face was twisted into in a grimace. It felt like a bubbling mass was in her chest, volatile and ready to explode on a hair trigger. Her thoughts were caught in a jam, a pressure building between her ears, her heart rising in her throat...
“Hey. Look at me.”
Reluctantly, Gleaming obeyed. Her father’s eyes held no shame, no judgment... just the calm look he always had.
“Here’s what I think you should do. Wait until those kids are out of you, let things go back to normal— including going back to being a stallion—then decide what you wanna do. If months pass and you still feel strongly about being a mare, then I’ll support you all way. But I think you’ve got enough life-changing things on your plate right now, don’t you?”
Gleaming closed her eyes. She took a deep, calming breath, then let it out nice and slow. A habit she’d picked up from Cadance, and kinda startling how well it worked.
“You know, I kinda feel sorry for whoever’s debating against you.”
Night chuckled.
“And… I suppose you’ve got a point,” Gleaming admitted. “Now’s probably not a good time to be deciding on this. I’ve got too much going on right now.”
“Agreed.”
“But I’m not dismissing it entirely,” Gleaming said. “I still think there’s some merit to it.”
Night’s ears twitched, but that was all the response he gave. Whatever more he thought on the matter, he kept it to himself.
Gleaming looked around the office with a curled lip. “You also were right about going somewhere else to talk. This wasn’t the best place for this.”
Night shrugged. “We still can go somewhere else if you want. Got a spot in mind?”
“Anywhere’s better than here...” Gleaming stretched and got to her hooves. “Wanna just go back to the castle for now? I’ve gotta eat pretty soon, but maybe we can do some Hearth’s Warming shopping afterwards.”
A lone armored figure stood silently in a room. Enchanted braziers of blue flame graced the corners while ornate tapestries covered every inch of wallspace. An ancient chandelier hung above from three strong chains, and on the far end of the room, tall and narrow windows revealed light of the city below.
The lone figure glanced at the floor. There was an intricate array was drawn out with glowing spidery runes. The innermost shape was a circle with three interlocking triangles, there was a diamond around that, and a giant circle connected all four of the outermost sides. The lines of the array glittered with powdered gemstone, and an astral symbol pulsed in the center like it was alive.
vrrrrmmm...
The lines of the array spread a brilliant navy light to each other. There was a tingling in the air, a kind of spark, so much that you’d give yourself a shock if you so much as clicked your tongue.
VRRMMM…
The lone figure stood motionless as the pressure in the air pressed on her eardrums.
VRRMMMMM…
The light of the array shone like a miniature sun. The figure shielded their eyes.
BZAM!
There was a flash, followed by a yank. The POP of displaced air made the windows rattle and the tapestries wave about. The braziers flickered like wildfire as the chandelier swayed with a klink-a-link-link. The light and magic of the array expended itself all at once, and an instant later, all was silent.
The lone figure’s ears twitched. Cautiously, she opened her eyes to behold the result.
Cadance and Gleaming stood side by side in the smoking circle. They were in full regalia with form-fitting dresses of satin, and around their necks were silver necklaces set with eerie blue gems.
The spots faded from Gleaming’s vision. “Huh. That wasn’t so bad.”
Cadance noticed the figure standing before them. “Oh! You’re the messenger Auntie sent a few months ago! Apogee, was it?”
Apogee saluted them both. “Your Majesties. On behalf of the Dark Lady, welcome to Canterlot Castle.”
The Winter’s Eve Revel was a holiday both old and new. Before Luna’s fall, it was a festival that paid homage to both the longest night of the year and it’s shadowy mistress. But in the years leading up to said fall, the holiday garnered less and less notice, until many ponies either forgot... or worse, skipped over it.
Celestia had waited a few centuries before reintroducing the holiday. Once ready, she’d thrown all her influence behind re-establishing it, pushing hard to integrate the old traditions like they’d never gone away. It took half a century before she was successful, but that was barely a blink to one such as her. If—no, when Luna returned, she would be celebrated on her special day.
Apogee escorted Gleaming and Cadance down the familiar hallways and corridors. The whole castle had been done up in colors of silver and navy, and floating constellations could be seen dancing among the ceilings like a lazy spirograph. Sparkling statues of enchanted ice stood at corners depicting the zodiac beasts, and the sky was crystal clear through the windows, a painting of twinkling lights and colors.
“Our old stomping grounds,” Gleaming said to Cadance. She motioned to a stairway to their right. “That one led to your old bedroom.”
Cadance giggled. “Where you conveniently wereposted outside most of the time. I wonder how that happened?”
Gleaming laughed as well. “We may never know.”
Apogee looked back at them. “Did you want to go up there?”
Cadance shook her head. “Another time, maybe.”
Apogee motioned forward. “This way, then...”
The full moon shone through the windows to bathe them in lunar light. Cadance and Gleaming looked around at the decorations that’d been changed since they’d been here, many of which they noted had been updated. They made a note to redo the Empire’s decor.
“So, Apogee,” Gleaming said. “Luna mentioned that you’ll be coming back up to the Empire soon?”
Apogee nodded. “I look forward to working with both of you.”
Gleaming waited for more, but Apogee remained silent. “You... ah, mentioned before that your elders weren’t keen on letting you leaving Canterlot.”
A smile played on Apogee’s lips. “They’ve made an exception after hearing of the Empire’s contribution. They’re quite keen on thanking you, you know.”
Gleaming took a moment to digest that. She conjured a water bottle from her pocket dimension and took a long pull, said pull turning into a chug as she drained the whole thing.
“We could probably make that happen,” said Cadance. “Our time here’s limited, but I don’t see why we couldn’t—”
Apogee shook her head. “The Dark Lady has already organized something. She’ll notify you of such.”
Gleaming wiped her mouth. “Ahhh… Sounds good.”
Gleaming waited for a few seconds as the water bottle began to fill back up with water. She swore, this was one of the most useful things Twily had ever given her. She sucked it all down again in long, greedy gulps as soon as it was full.
Apogee looked on. She wasn’t about to say anything, but...
“She’s under orders to keep her fluids up,” Cadance explained. “It wasn’t so bad before, but the babies have started another growth spurt. I already sent ahead word to Luna about dining.”
Apogee tore her eyes away. “Oh, erm… I believe she did say something about that. There was going to be plenty of food regardless, so you needn’t worry.”
Gleaming drank half of the refilled water bottle before vanishing it away. “Good. If all they’d had were those tiny portions that don’t actually fill you up, I was gonna order every take-out in town.”
Apogee chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll get your fill. The whole kitchen staff has been kept on for tonight. ”
Cadance turned to Gleaming. “That’s not a challenge, hun.”
“Aww…”
It’s always a strange feeling revisiting a place you’ve spent so much time in. The wistfulness of nostalgia, a faint lamenting sadness, the surprise at seeing little things changed, all combined with the wondering question of what might’ve been. For Cadance, the castle had been her first real home, and the warmth and love of past memories lingered around each corner, each one as precious as the last. Gleaming’s attachment was a little more professional, but she too had a fondness for the castle—the spots she’d been stationed, the old patrol routes she’d walked, even the sights and smells associated with specific locations. After all, when you’re forced to stand in one place for up to eight hours at a time, you tend to remember the fine details.
Speaking of guards, they saw plenty as they passed. They all saluted in respect to their former commanding officer, although it was funny how many were unable to hide their surprise at seeing her as a mare.
A hot mare, wearing make-up, jewelry, princess regalia, and a dress that accentuated her pregnant curves…
Gleaming whispered to Cadance. “I can almost hear the boners we’re leaving behind us.”
Cadance giggled.
The most notable thing happened when they got to the second floor. Gleaming and Cadance had rounded a corner to head towards the Grand Hall when they caught sight of a pair of stallion guards standing by the guest rooms: A short svelte unicorn, and a behemoth of an earth pony.
Gleaming kept her voice calm upon seeing them. “Apogee?”
Apogee turned. “Your Highness?”
Gleaming tilted her head at the pair. “Could we have a moment to speak to these two?”
The two guards saluted the royal couple, silent and stone-faced.
Apogee nodded. “They can escort you down the rest of the way, if you’d like. The mistress told me there’s no rush.”
Cadance also kept her voice calm as she spoke. “In that case, tell Auntie Lulu that we’ll be down in a bit.”
Apogee bowed. “If I don’t see either of you during the party, I’ll see you again in the Empire.”
Cadance and Gleaming watched Apogee trot away, leaving them alone in the hall with the two guards.
Gleaming sauntered up to the unicorn. “Hello, Celsius.”
Celsius managed to keep his composure, but only just. “P-Permission to speak freely, Princess.”
Gleaming leaned down to nuzzle the crook of his neck. “Mmm, granted...”
Celsius blushed. “Holy fuck, you look good. I-I mean, you both do! But damn…”
Gleaming laughed. “You’re sweet.”
Meanwhile, Cadance had approached the other guard to sneak in a peck on the cheek. “Fancy meeting you here, Bastion.”
Bastion’s mouth went dry. “P-Permission—”
Cadance cut him off with a proper kiss. Bastion immediately kissed back, their efforts gentle and smooth, tasting each other’s honeyed lips while leaning into each other.
Celsius’ eyes roved all over Gleaming. Her gold shoes and peytral displayed the emblem of the Crystal Empire. Her satin periwinkle dress was tightly wrapped around her motherly form, and she had on a mild perfume that smelled of mint and lavender. She wore a diadem of shifting translucent crystal with heart-shaped earrings of the same make. Her makeup was light from what he could tell: just a bit of blush, eyeliner, and mascara, but he’d never been one for the ‘porcelain doll’ look some mares went for.
“Man...” Celsius couldn’t see her back half from this angle, but he was sure it was just as lovely. “And just when I thought you couldn’t get any hotter...”
Gleaming looked Celsius over in turn. His azure mane and tail were neatly combed and trimmed, a handsome compliment to his jet black coat. He had the build of a swimmer, his lean and lithe muscles deceptively strong and enduring. He was in formal military uniform—a scarlet jacket with gold buttons, matching tie, and a white undershirt. A few medals of service were pinned to his breast, along with his insignia of rank...
“You made Captain?!” she said. “Really?! Holy hay, Celsius! Congratulations!”
Celsius face grew serious. “I-I promise, I won’t let you down. The Royal Guard—”
“—is in good hooves,” Gleaming’s eyes remained on the insignia a second longer before meeting his amber eyes. “You’ll do great. I know it.”
Celsius’ blush grew. Gleaming’s face had a warmth to it, acontentment that set him at ease. Her soft mane draped around her neck like a curtain, the three tones of blue sporting a healthy sheen. Her slender neck was as graceful as he remembered, graceful and so-very-kissable. Her shoulders were strong and well-muscled, as were all four of her long legs… and it was quite understandable why. Gleaming’s belly was enormous, a heated fertile orb that swayed with her movements. The curve of her barrel was gloriously wide and firm, and he could see every contour of her maternity within her dress.
Celsius felt like he was swimming in warmth. Gleaming was overflowing with energy… energy and life, and found he couldn’t look away—
They darted forward at the same time. They pulled each other in without pause, making a game of it as their tongues grazed past each other. They looped hooves around each other and sped up with small snorts of breath.
They broke a moment later, but remained close.
“Are…” Celsius looked Gleaming over again. “Are you taller?”
Gleaming gave his horn a lick. “Mmhmm...”
Celsius nickered. Granted, most mares were taller than him, but Gleaming had only had an inch or so on him when he’d seen her last. He now only came up to her shoulders! And it wasn’t just in height—she’d also gotten longer. Everything about her had gone up a size!
“How?”
Gleaming smirked. “What, am I too much mare to handle now?”
Celsius narrowed his eyes. Memories from months ago played in his mind, a duet of girlish cries moaning out his name...
“I’d rut you silly if you were the size a dragon,” Celsius looked over at Cadance. “And then I’d fuck you just as hard.”
Gleaming shivered. She looked to see if anypony was around. There wasn’t.
“Are all the guest rooms taken?” she asked.
Celsius shook his head. “Rooms 11 and 12 are free.”
Gleaming’s horn glowed. “Not anymore.”
The air around them grew wavy. Celsius’ hackles rose as there was a mighty POWER, followed by a crackling sound like ice forming. Blurred afterimages formed around the four of them for a second… before everything returned to normal.
Celsius blinked several times. “What was that?”
“Little trick my sister taught me,” said Gleaming. “You’ll see soon enough.”
Cadance broke from Bastion with a cheeky grin. “We’ll take Room 11.” They vanished in a blue FLASH!
Celsius was about to say something, but…
FLASH!
...he and Gleaming had moved to a dark guest room. Vague shapes and shadows melded with the inky blackness, the only light the narrow strip of light beneath the far door. The plush carpet sank comfily beneath their hooves, and to their left was the outline of a king-sized bed with a pale bedspread.
Celsius lit his horn. Gleaming did the same, their azure and magenta auras mixing. He realized she was no longer wearing her dress, and a brush of cool air informed him he was without his jacket.
Gleaming pulled Celsius closer and whispered in his ear. “Did you miss me?”
Celsius whimpered. He peppered her neck with darting kisses, his tongue sneaking out to taste her.
Gleaming grinned. Her nostrils flared as she caught a familiar scent—his scent. She nibbled his ear while guiding them to the bed, easing herself onto her back. The mattress sank under her pregnant weight as she stretched herself out to let him see everything.
Celsius licked his lips. Gleaming ample curves had been accentuated by healthy fat, her wide hips to die for. Her stretched navel stood out prominently like a crest on the summit of her bulbous womb, said womb almost like a bed itself, it’s round, squishy weight giving off that alluring heat. He watched entranced as it rose and fell, its curve stretching all the way from her ribs to her...
“Holy...” Celsius noticed Gleaming’s breasts. Heavy and full, they jutted out at an angle between her belly and marehood. They were bigger than grapefruits and jiggling oh-so-slightly, the nipples perky and pink.
“Like them?” Gleaming couldn’t see over the curve of her bulk, but she knew well enough what he was ogling. “They just keep getting bigger, you know. Runs in the family, apparently…”
“D-Do…” Celsius’ voice faltered. “Do they work?”
Gleaming just chuckled and spread her legs a bit wider.
“Mmhhh…” Celsius didn’t even realize he’d been inching forward. He inhaled deep, catching the scents of mint perfume and excited mare. Gleaming was laying on the edge of the bed, her legs hanging over with her tail pooled on the floor. His breath was soon washing over her crotch to make her shudder...
Celsius nosed her left teat, feeling its softness, its warmth. Gleaming twitched at his touch, but soon sighed and relaxed as he explored her. He travelled between each one with utmost care, relishing the feel of supple skin. His nosings eventually turned into fevered kisses, and Gleaming’s voice crept into her sighs as she ran her hooves along her belly. She had to resist the urge to thrust her hips, her marehood leaking more and more.
Celsius had never, ever seen tits like these. He couldn’t help but push them back and forth and feel them move, but his friskiness soon drove him to lick the darker, tougher skin. He swirled his tongue around a nipple before forming a tight seal, greedily suckling, moaning as the first burst of milk splashed into his mouth.
Gleaming coaxed him on, her rear legs resting on his back. “Mmmm, just imagine how big I’ll be in a few months...”
Celsius’ reply was to drink faster. He slurped noisily and messily, soon switching to the other nipple and tasting its bounty as well. His vision was nothing but white fur and pale skin, and being this close to her was like being nestled against a heater...
Celsius released her with a wet pop! He looked over Gleaming’s womb to meet her eyes, drops of milk dribbling down his chin.
“Gleaming...”
Gleaming nudged him forward with her legs. “I’m waiting.”
Celsius didn’t need telling twice. He reared and steadied himself on the bed, his thick cock hard and unsheathed. He loomed over Gleaming and her fertile swell as he walked forward on his hind legs.
“God...” Celsius nuzzled the swirling weight of her belly. “You are… are just… ergh, FUCK…”
The height of the bed allowed Celsius to mount her, but it was so close that Twilight’s spell was on the verge of compensating, sending delightful shocks through Gleaming. She shivered and groaned in time with Celsius’ loving touch, the moment almost surreal.
I’ve been turned into a mare, she thought in a moment of clarity. I’ve been turned into a mare and gotten pregnant with FIVE foals thanks to my genderswapped wife from the future, with two of those foals being the first naturally-occurring alicorns in recorded history. The infusions of magic we’re giving them might be turning me into an alicorn as well, and right now one of my best and closest friends is about to rut me silly after nursing from my huge-ass tits. Meanwhile, Cady is having her way with Bastion in the room next door, who I’ve ALSO fucked…
...and everypony is totally okay with this.
Gleaming almost laughed. Life could be strange sometimes.
Celsius pressed himself to Gleaming’s entrance. They gasped at first contact, their slippery sexes already tingling. Celsius thrust firmly, and with a soft schlp, he parted her lips and squeezed inside. Their mouths parted, their breaths hitched and shallow, yet they remained perfectly still, their eyes locked with one another.
Silence reigned as Celsius sank further and further, Gleaming’s supple muscles drawing him in.
“Yes,” Gleaming breathed. “A-All… all the way in…”
Warm, wet tightness enveloped Celsius. The petals of her flower spread wide as he pushed in his medial ring, swallowing his length and still eager for more. He was now crouched over her, her womb brushing against his abs, the nub of her navel tickling him. Suddenly Gleaming’s taut tummy shifted between them, the foals within rolling over and sending butterflies through both of them.
The sensation made Celsius freeze. Those vibrations had run through him like a tuning fork. Little flutters and tickles within Gleaming, little kicks...
Gleaming gave him a soft smile. “Feel them?”
Celsius’ heart was pounding. He managed a tiny nod.
“It’s like that all the time.” Gleaming let her inner walls do the work, pulling and sucking his thick shaft. “Every time one of them moves.”
She continued to take him, her smooth muscles contracting on their own. The thick bulge of his ring travelled deeper, and Celsius was starting to lean on her as he crept forward. It might’ve been reason to say something, but that’s when Twilight’s spell kicked in proper, strengthening Gleaming insides with a faint gurgle.
Celsius heard. “What’s…”
“Safety spell.” Gleaming pulled him down to show its effects. Her barrel stayed firm and strong as it reasserted itself. “Go ahead and lay on me... It’s fine…”
Celsius bit his lip. He cautiously did so, her womb pushing back to reasserting its shape. He was beyond words as he rested his head beneath her ribs, now hilted all the way inside, his balls nestled against her ample rear. He rubbed the sides of her paunch in small circles, listening to the hypnotic sound of Gleaming’s heart mixed with five faint rhythms.
Celsius’ groaned long and low. “Shiniiiiiiing…”
Gleaming stroked his back. She began moving her hips, massaging his length as her inner muscles worked.
Celsius’ groans grew louder. His whole body tensed, shuddering in a telltale way...
“Relax,” Gleaming said. “Relaaaaaax. Just hold me...”
Celsius melted into her embrace. He tried moving his own hips, but soon gave up and let Gleaming have her way with him. He was putty in her hooves as he caressed—no, worshipped her, her milky teats against his hips...
Gleaming flexed and squeezed, her tight confines rippling around him. Celsius crooned low, lost in the heat as she sucked him in even deeper, wiggling her hips in small circles and getting off to the sounds he made. Again and again she squeezed him... milked him, his moans rising and falling, but he always wanted more. He buried his face in her chest fluff while she stroked his back, hugging her tight and sure, her warmth seeping into his very core.
It wasn’t long before he peaked. Back arching, Celsius came with a single thrust, pumping out thick ropes that filled her. Gleaming clamped down hard, eyes glinting as she absorbed his virile essence, even as he pumped more and more into her.
Celsius kissed and licked Gleaming’s ribs. He rubbed her sides gently, his croons louder, more fevered.
The meaning wasn’t lost on Gleaming. “More?”
Celsius hugged her tighter. “P-Please…”
Gleaming smiled. She resumed squeezing her muscles, but in a different way. Celsius soon went limp and placid again, almost going cross-eyed. Gleaming kept bearing down on him, alternating her movements back and forth, running her hooves through his mane.
The pressure boiled over again a few minutes later. Celsius made no effort to hold back as a second peak crashed over him, this one even more potent than the first. More and more of he gave her, and yet she took it all, liquid heat to racing through her veins.
But even after that...
Gleaming worked Celsius as the flames in her own core built. She kneaded him over and over until he climaxed a third time. He pumped her full again of potent seed… but he somehow felt even fuller. Her warmth had now seeped into his whole body to glow inside him like a tiny sun, and even before he’d come down the third time he wasn’t sated.
Celsius continued to keep going strong, Gleaming’s warmth empowering him, his desires still hot and raring. Her velvety walls were as soft as her dress, and the way they rippled and squeezed him was beyond words. It felt like she got warmer every time he came inside her. Climax after climax burst through him, but fatigue never set in…
Gleaming wasn’t sure how many times it was by the time she started to peak. Her efforts grew unsteady as she reached the tipping point, but Celsius then picked up the slack to provide that last little push. Her muscles gripped him one final time, and he joined her soon after, filling her to the brim before she soaked at all in.
It ended with a pair of contented sighs. Celsius was breathing hard and heavy as he looked up into Gleaming’s eyes.
“What… WAS that…”
Gleaming just kept petting him. “What was what?”
Celsius’ eyes fluttered closed, savoring her touch. “Did… did you do that?”
Gleaming cocked her head. “What, make you recharge that fast?”
Celsius nodded.
All Gleaming could do was shrug. “There’ve been a lot of strange things happening to me lately.”
A chiming sound went off in Gleaming’s head.
“Hold that thought.” Gleaming lit her horn. “Our time’s up.”
Celsius frowned. “Time—”
FWPP-FWPP-FWPP!
Celsius blinked several times. “Erm… what was that?”
“Little trick my sister taught me,” Gleaming replied. “You’ll see soon—oh! Pretty cool, huh?”
Celsius’ mouth fell open. They were back in the hallway and re-dressed in their fancy clothes. A pleasant feeling was in his crotch, his mind still floaty and tingling.
“Twily calls it a ‘Time Snap,’” Gleaming closed his mouth for him and kissed his nose. “We used a variant of it months back to get me pregnant.”
Beside them, Cadance and Bastion snapped out of what looked like a stupor, a pair of faint afterimages fading into their silhouettes.
Bastion’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks. “Whoa...”
Cadance grinned. “Like that?”
Bastion looked her over, then felt himself. “Did... that really happen?”
Cadance looked underneath Bastion to see that his length still dripped with their fluids. She crouched down and licked it clean… then his balls for good measure.
“Sure looks like it,” she replied as she stood.
Gleaming sidled over to brush her tail along Bastion’s flank. “Sorry you and I can’t go a round, Bas. I’ll make it up to you next time.”
Cadance looked over to Celsius with smoldering bedroom eyes. “Same goes for you. And Cloud Runner, wherever he is.”
Celsius put aside his still-eager drive aside to answer that. “U-Uh, Horseshoe Bay. Prince Blueblood’s running an inspection of our naval base there, and Cloud Runner’s his escort.”
Cadance and Gleaming cringed.
“In that case…” Cadance put a hoof around Gleaming. “We’ll have to give him extra-special compensation. A reward for dealing with my irksome cousin.”
Gleaming nuzzled Cadance. “He’ll be a whole different kind of escort...”
Bastion and Celsius looked at each other a moment, then back at the horny couple.
“...Can we watch?”
The Winter’s Eve Revel was when Luna was at the peak of her might. It was her opportunity to pull out all the stops in the night sky, and boy, did not disappoint. Stars twinkled brightly among a canvas of swirling color as long comets and shooting stars streaked across the sky. Arms of spiral galaxies trailed amongst luminous nebulae, their cloudy centers pulsing against the black. Constellations were connected by illusory lines that moved with one’s perspective, and in the center of it all was the full moon, white and pristine.
This was the backdrop for Gleaming and Cadance as they walked into the Main Hall. It too was decorated in dark colors, the lights everywhere dimmer, more gentle. The ceiling above was enchanted to display the full wonders of Luna’s works in all their glory, and ponies all around bowed as Bastion and Celsius cleared a path.
Gleaming immediately caught a whole myriad of yummy smells. “I smell food…”
The doors to the Banquet Hall were swung wide open, where several long tables could be seen. A healthy assortment of ponies were flowing in and out, either working, eating, or both.
“We should probably mingle a bit first,” Cadance reminded her.
Gleaming grumbled, but conceded the point. “Who’s all even supposed to be here?”
Cadance shrugged. “Anypony Luna invited. Do you see her?”
Gleaming checked the stairs where the hosting royal tended to be. Sure enough the princess of the hour was there, clad in an indigo kimono and smiling wide. Luna had forgone her regalia for an elegant starry kanzashi, its twinkling lights arranged in the shape of flowers. She also had on a matching cosmic sash with glittery shoes of pure moonlight.
But that wasn’t as impressive as the long line of ponies waiting to greet her.
Gleaming pointed Luna out to Cadance. “I think she’s busy.”
Cadance looked. “Hmm, if we go up there now…”
Gleaming nodded. “Let’s try to avoid getting roped into standing up there, shall we?”
“On a side note,” Cadance said mildly. “Luna… certainly is pregnant, isn’t she?”
It became clear to Gleaming why Luna had said a ‘competition’ between them wouldn’t be fair. Gleaming had a maternal form to be envied, but she had nothing—absolutely nothing on Luna. Where Gleaming was enormous, Luna was tremendous, her womb so big that it nearly grazed the floor. Her flowing kimono was swathed snugly around it, hugging her middle tightly and emphasizing its grand shape. Her growing brood had to be impeding her ability to walk, but Luna laughed merrily as she chatted with the ponies in line, occasionally gesturing to her bump.
Gleaming creased her brow. “Understatement of the century.”
“Say, who’s that up there standing beside her?” Cadance squinted at the stranger. “I’ve never seen him before.”
And what a Him it was. Standing by Luna’s side was a massive scarlet stallion, a head or so taller than even her! He was wearing an indigo tux that matched Luna’s kimono complete with a pearl-studded bow tie and a moonlily on his lapel. He kept randomly touching and fiddling with his collar, as if he expected to find something there.
“That’s Big Macintosh, heir to the Apple clan,” said a voice behind them. “He and Lulu only started dating last month.”
Gleaming and Cadance froze. As one, they turned to the speaker—an unassuming white unicorn with a pure pink mane. She too was wearing a kimono, except hers was a dull gold.
The mare looked up at Luna and Big Macintosh with piercing magenta eyes. “I like him. He’s a calm, down-to-earth sort. She’s needed somepony like him for a long time.”
Gleaming remembered herself. She searched her memory for the alias...
“Lady Sunbeam!” Cadance could barely suppress her grin. “So nice to see you! When was the last time we even ran into each other?”
‘Sunbeam’ winked. She looked the two of them up and down before noticing their summoning gems.
“I really appreciate you coming. It meant a lot to Lulu. ”
Gleaming laughed. “It helped that she made it so easy on us.”
Cadance stood a little closer to Gleaming. “I wouldn’t have wanted Gleamy to come otherwise. I don’t trust her travelling cross-country at seven and a half months pregnant.”
“I can still handle a train ride—”
Cadance gave her a look.
Gleaming wilted. “...Yes, dear.”
Sunbeam examined Gleaming closely. “Speaking of which, how’s everything going so far?”
Gleaming puffed out her chest, her chin raised high. “Ma’am! No major problems so far, ma’am! All five recruits accounted for and properly gestating!”
Sunbeam snickered. “Glad to hear it.”
“We’ve been monitoring everything very closely,” Cadance added. “We’ve got a really good doctor, and we’ve been reading up on everything we can—”
Sunbeam held up a hoof. “You’ll do fine, Mi Amore. I trust your judgment.”
Cadance blushed. She chewed on her lip, leaning back and forth on her hooves. She noted that the ponies around them were completely unaware, flowing around them like rocks in a stream. “Erm… you’ve heard, right? About two of our babies?”
Sunbeam’s smile grew. “I have. It’s certainly a surprise.”
Gleaming studied Sunbeam’s face. In all the years she’d worked with this mare, she still didn’t fully understand her moods. Just a ‘surprise?’ You don’t have any further thoughts?”
Sunbeam’s eyes became distant. Slowly, her gaze fell on Gleaming’s fertile womb.
“For a long, long time, I thought Luna and I were the only ones. The mages and scholars of our time studied us endlessly to discover how we’d ascended— doubly so after they learned we’d become immortal. Good ponies devoted their lives to figuring it out, but none of them ever did.”
A shadow fell over Sunbeam’s face. “Lulu and I became like statues. Unchanging, always the same as everyone else flowed down a river. Friends, students, rivals, lovers, enemies, acquaintances, assistants, helpers, servants… all of them gone, like dust in the wind.”
Sunbeam’s voice grew faint. “Lulu and I had taken solace in each other for so long, but then suddenly I was alone. Alone for so very long…”
Her eyes returned to the mare of the hour. Luna was beaming, chatting with a noblemare and gesturing to Big Mac. She ran a wing along his side in a fond gesture, and he looped his tail around hers in turn.
Sunbeam smiled back down at Gleaming. “Further thoughts can wait, General. Right now, I’m just glad I’m not alone anymore.”
The smile Sunbeam had was like a scar on her face. A hundred responses ran through Gleaming’s mind, but none of them seemed appropriate.
Cadance looked like she really wanted to give Sunbeam a hug. “You know that we’re here for you, right? Whenever you need us. You don’t have to carry all the weight anymore.”
Sunbeam sighed and hung her head. “A score ago, I was the only one of my kind. Now I suddenly have a whole herd alongside me. You’ll have to forgive me if I cling to old habits.“
Okay, now Gleaming knew what to say. “Habits like going incognito with an Morph talisman, a Magic Masking charm, and a Notice-Me-Not spell?”
Sunbeam chuckled. “I’m not about to upstage Lulu on her special night. I just want to watch her shine tonight.”
The three of them were standing awkwardly in the middle of the crowd, so they signalled to Bastion and Celsius that they were heading over to a table by the dance floor. The crowd parted easily as they went, being mentally urged to move aside for various reasons.
“Speaking of Luna,” Gleaming asked Sunbeam as they walked. “I haven’t heard much comment from you about her batpony repopulation program. How do you feel about it?”
Sunbeam’s reply was a grunt. “In a word? Relieved. I’ve been trying to find a way to save them ever since I learned of their decline. They’ve never been receptive to my efforts.”
It was unfortunate, but Gleaming could understand why. “I’m guessing that’s why didn’t volunteer for the program yourself? Or was there more to it than that?”
“The thestral elders aren’t exactly my biggest fans,” said Sunbeam dryly. “And besides, Lulu and I agreed it’s not smart for us both to be pregnant at the same time. If she doesn’t participate in the next wave of volunteers I might take a turn, but that’s a big ‘might’."
They sat down at a table by the dance floor. A band dressed in all violet was playing a soft melody while chandeliers shaped like snowflakes hung high among the domed ceiling. The music and sleepy glow made everything feel almost like a dream.
“Now THAT’S something I’d like to see,” said Cadance. “You should push for it! Just think how much support it’d drum up!”
Sunbeam pursed her lips. Subtly, she put a hoof to her flat stomach, tracing a circle around her navel. “The Sarosian Council has never gone against Lulu, so… who knows? If nothing else, it might be a step towards repairing my relations with them.”
She then glanced down again at Gleaming’s heavy belly. “Although seeing what’s happened to you and Luna, I think I’ll be skipping the fertility magic.”
Gleaming and Cadance laughed.
“Seems to be quite effective with alicorns, doesn’t it?” Cadance gave Gleaming a quick kiss. “We should probably add a disclaimer in the spellbooks.”
Gleaming had to agree. “In giant red letters.”
Sunbeam grinned. “Twilight’s always been on top of things like that. She’s probably already submitted the request to the Mages Guild.”
A thought occurred to Cadance. She hummed as she thought back to a few months back. “Say, when Luna visited us on Nightmare Night, she mentioned a spell the Mages Guild was making to help her. That ring any bells?”
Sunbeam leaned back in her seat. “I was one of the ones that helped with the casting. It’s a gradual growth spell of sorts, meant to keep Luna’s body proportional to the size of her womb while the foals remain unaffected. Relatively, she’ll look no more pregnant than she does now—but she’ll be getting bigger and larger overall alongside her foals.”
Gleaming tried to wrap her head around that. She got the gist, but the implications of what that could possibly mean...
“How big is she going to get?” Gleaming asked.
Sunbeam pressed her lips into a thin line. “We cast the spell two days ago, and she’s already grown over an inch. It’s hard to say when she’s got so many in there—we can’t even count them all.”
It was a good thing there was music playing, or someone might’ve heard Cadance’s whimper.
“Thankfully her body’s immunities and resistances have temporarily extended to the children, so they all seem to be developing fine,” Sunbeam went on. “Getting around’s definitely going to be challenging for her in a few months, though. Doorways, hallways, ceilings… small buildings...”
Gleaming’s lips twitched. “Sounds like you’re not going to be the big sister for much longer. I’d watch out for noogies if I were you.”
Sunbeam gave her a mock-offended look. “Did you just call me fat?”
“Pffft.” Gleaming pulled out her water bottle and took a swig. “If you’re fat, then what exactly am I?”
Sunbeam watched her slam the rest of the water bottle. “Pregnant. Very pregnant.”
Cadance coughed and cleared her throat. “U-Um, not to change the subject, but it’s actually a good thing we ran into you, Auntie. There’s something we meant to ask Luna’s help for on Nightmare Night, but we, erm… kind of forgot. Maybe you can help instead.”
Sunbeam wrinkled her brow. “What is it?”
With Gleaming’s help, Cadance explained the issue regarding the lack of specialists in the Crystal Empire. And not just disability specialists; as Gleaming had told Night Light a fortnight ago, they were essentially short-hooved on anypony in the advanced sciences.
“I suppose it’s not so bad that we’re seeing this as an issue,” Cadance finished. “Before, we were scrambling just to get the most basic things covered.”
Sunbeam, who’d been taking notes with a scroll and quill, took a few seconds to think. “I assume you’ve already sent word to the Scholar’s Guild.”
Gleaming exhaled out her nose. “And they didn’t seem to view it a high priority. ‘Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We’ll look into sending inquiries to the Equestrian Universities.’”
Sunbeam ran a hoof down her face. “I swear, this new chancellor… Anything short of a royal order, and he moves slower than molasses. His predecessor was never this way...”
Cadance’s ears pinned against her head. “It’s bad enough the Scholar’s Guild’s taking forever to reinstate our University, but now we’re running into roadblocks here?! I’m sick of being held up in bureaucracy, Auntie. We need to get this ball rolling, now.”
“Agreed,” said Sunbeam. “Lack of exposure to current technologies and schools of thought is only going to promote alienation and prejudice within the Empire. I’ll not tolerate that when the crystal ponies have suffered enough as it is.”
She rolled up the scroll and set it aside. “The number of crystal pony volunteers as batpony surrogates has garnered the Empire some good press. I’ve already heard reports of medical schools promoting your city on their own as a place to find work, so if you give me a list of the fields you’ve identified as areas in demand, I’ll give things a boost by distributing it among my personal network. I doubt it’ll be all that hard to build off the rapport you’ve established—the promise of mass jobs is a pretty easy sell. I do not know why Chancellor Ology is giving you the runaround...”
Cadance smiled a huge smile. She was about to say something, but then she noticed the thoughtful look on Gleaming’s face.
“And what if the Chancellor doesn’t approve of us going over his head?” she asked.
Sunbeam looked out over the dance floor. “You two are Equestrian Royalty, presiding over of one the country’s largest cities. If he doesn’t realize brushing you off is reflecting poorly on him, then we’ll just have to remind him who he’s dealing with.”
Sunbeam turned back to them, her face like iron. “And if push comes to shove, he’ll answer to me.”
The next half hour was spent hammering out logistics. Gleaming and Cadance listed out all the potential employment needs they could think of: Medical, business, economic, scientific, the arts, and so forth. Sunbeam wrote it all out on some conjured parchment, making notes and suggestions here and there.
“You can’t just have fresh graduates with an operation as big as this,” she pointed out. “If you have no management, you have no structure. And without any structure, you can’t utilize your workforce.”
Not to say that Gleaming and Cadance didn’t chime in their two cents, but it was Sunbeam who led the conversation, plans within plans already in her head. From there, they talked about pony resource development, management, marketing strategy, industry relations, and organizational behaviors.
Sunbeam hummed to herself. ”Give me a few weeks. I’ll send out announcements to the media outlets, let everypony know you’re looking for management positions. Something like… I don’t know, ‘new, government-sanctioned establishments in the Crystal Empire.’ I’ll get my best marketers on it.”
Gleaming could feel her excitement building. “This is gonna be great.”
Sunbeam scribbled out something and put something else in its place. “The Universities are on holiday right now, but I’ll get the ball rolling over Winter Break. Keep in mind they won’t make the announcements the start of Spring term, meaning you won’t get many college applicants for a few months after. Around March is when the bulk will come in, but they won’t be able to start until May. You basically have until then to get your management in place.”
Gleaming and Cadance winced. Five months was a pretty tight window...
Cadance turned to Gleaming. “What do you think?”
Gleaming mulled it over. “It’ll be tough, but if we delegate the right ponies…”
Cadance raised her eyebrows. “Maybe we can ask a certain purple pony for help.”
Gleaming chuckled. “Now there’s an idea. She might get it done in half the time.”
Sunbeam laughed as well. “So, it’s settled, then? You’re fine with this plan?”
Gleaming and Cadance took a few moments to whisper between themselves.
“This timeline’s right around when the foals are due,” said Gleaming.
Cadance sucked on her teeth. “Liability aside, this is gonna have a lot of stress. I don’t want you dealing with that when you’ve got enough on your plate.”
Gleaming completely agreed. “So what’s the best way I can help?”
Cadance thought for a bit. “Take some of my easier duties. Paperwork, low-key public appearances, maybe a few extra shifts in court. Free up my schedule so Twilight and I can dive into this.”
Gleaming nodded. “You sure you’ll be okay?”
Cadance touched her horn to Gleaming’s. “You just focus on those babies inside you, okay? That’s what’s most important.”
Gleaming rested her head on her withers. It wasn’t the greatest feeling to have to sit something out, but she couldn’t dispute that she had other priorities.
grummmmmmmble~
Speaking of which...
“Erm.” Gleaming’s cheeks became tinged with pink. “Sorry. Let’s do it. Yeah.”
It was hard for Sunbeam not to laugh. She’d heard Gleaming’s stomach even over the music. “I’ll get started on right away, then. I’ll send word through Spike soon as I have news.”
Cadance bowed her head. “Thank you, Auntie.”
“Now, you.” Sunbeam gestured to Gleaming. “The whole kitchen staff’s been kept on for tonight, and they’ve been cooking up a storm all day. Go.”
Gleaming’s toothy smile was like a wolf’s. “If you say so…”
Cadance was having trouble keeping her tail from flagging. Gleaming was leaning against her, and she could feel the vibrations of Gleaming’s gurgling stomach. Suddenly, a single, powerful thump pressed against Cadance’s side, hard and fast like a punch.
“Gah!”
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “Yup, they’re hungry.”
Cadance’s eyes were huge. “What in the… was that Reidy?!”
Gleaming grunted. “Only he kicks that hard.”
Sunbeam raised an eyebrow. “Reidy?”
Gleaming motioned Sunbeam over. “Reidite, our crystal pony boy. Wanna come say hello?”
Quick as lightning, Sunbeam got up and came over. Cadance guided her to the middle-right side of Gleaming’s womb, taking her hoof and resting it there.
“Wait for it,” said Gleaming.
Nothing happened for about ten seconds, but then…
THUMP!
“Oho!” Sunbeam grinned. “Isn’t he the strong one!”
Gleaming couldn’t help but preen at that. “Just like the rest of them.”
Sunbeam’s eyes grew soft as she felt along Gleaming’s taut belly. Even through the dress and maternity brace, Sunbeam could feel a syrupy warmth washing over her—thick and energizing and soothing. It gradually seeped into Sunbeam through their touch, it's comforting heat carrying a familiar feel—
Wait.
Without betraying anything, Sunbeam cast a few spells. Her horn didn’t even glow as she followed a suspicion...
Oh.
Oh…
Sunbeam’s conscience wrestled with itself. They’d just had a discussion about being there for each other and the questioning of old habits. Granted, some of those habits Sunbeam had every intention of continuing, but perhaps others…
…
Hmm...
...
Especially when it concerned family...
...
Yes, family…
Sunbeam reinforced the spells she had on them to prevent notice. “Gleaming… I’m sensing alicorn magic within you.”
Gleaming was unfazed. “Cady and Twily have been giving me infusions to help supplement the kids—”
“No,” Sunbeam said. “I mean a spark of ascension, like I sensed in Twilight during her school entrance exam. If it’s allowed to flourish, it’ll awaken in time. And when it does...”
There was a long pause.
“A spark,” said Gleaming.
“Yes.”
“Which you think could possibly…”
“Will, so long as you don’t hamper it.”
Another long pause.
“...Well, then.” Gleaming turned to Cadance. “Guess my parents were right to take bets.”
Cadance’s reply was a long, deep kiss.
“I knew it…” Tears glinted in Cadance’s eyes. “I kn-knew I wouldn’t lose you...”
Gleaming held her close. “C’mon, you seriously thought a little thing like death was gonna keep me from you? Who do you take me for?”
But Cadance just hiccuped and buried her face in Gleaming’s mane.
Sunbeam said nothing. She was calm and collected as she ever was...
Save for the real smile that now blessed her face.
Later-
The Banquet Hall was one of the oldest sections of the palace. Tall columns stood evenly spaced between the windows, inlaid with wavy grooves that circled up to their tops. The stone floor was carved out of the same material as Canterlot Mountain, and the ceiling was awash in gentle light that illuminated the immense space.
A main tradition of the Revel was for ponies of all social status to eat together. There was no separate table for royalty, no sectioned off area for nobles, just rows of tables stretching all the way down the Hall. Granted, many of the more stuck-up ponies avoided this by just skipping the feast altogether, but that just meant more food for everypony else.
Cadance had gone away to freshen up, so Celsius and Bastion escorted Gleaming to a seat near the kitchen entrance. There weren’t any chairs, just comfortable pillows for ponies to sit on.
Gleaming eventually managed to flag down a server, a smartly-dressed stallion with an orange mane. He did a double take upon realizing who’d called him over.
“Your Majesty!” he dropped into a bow. “Welcome!”
Gleaming situated herself. “I heard you’ve been expecting me.”
The server nodded. “We most certainly have! Would you like to hear—”
He was cut off by Gleaming’s stomach rumbling.
“Just start with quick stuff and work your way up to the main courses,” Gleaming said. “Don’t stop bringing food until I tell you.”
If the server was surprised, he didn’t show it. Instead he whirled around to trot off towards the kitchens.
“Are we about to be treated to a show?” Celsius asked.
Gleaming snorted. “Shaddap.”
There was a few minutes of downtime while Gleaming waited. She fidgeted a bit on her pillow, the sides of her plush rear threatening to spill over. Sitting on her haunches was a bit tricky these days with the addition of breasts, and while it was doable, it required some easing into the position, as Twilight’s spell needed to activate and acclimate.
Gleaming drank some water as she looked around the Banquet Hall. Unsurprisingly, there weren’t many nobles around. Most scoffed at the idea of such ‘rustic’ accommodations, not to mention the audacity of (heaven forbid) serving real food at a party! Most of the ponies were either castle employees, soldiers, or the occasional entertainer on a break.
Speaking of which, Gleaming noticed a rather... unique mare approaching.
It was like looking at a younger version of herself. The mare looked so much like Gleaming, they could’ve been long-lost twins. Her coat was white, and she had on a black tux with a bow tie that matched the tones of her mane. The colors of said mane were a little brighter blue than Gleaming’s (almost electric blue) and she had on a pair of magenta shades that matched her tux.
Gleaming blinked at the newcomer. The newcomer waved with a lopsided grin.
“VINYL!”
A second pony ran up behind the doppelganger; a grey earth pony with a faded black mane. She also was wearing a tux and bow tie in the same style.
“I’m so sorry, Your Majesty…” the pony said in a posh accent. “What in heaven’s name, Vinyl?!”
Vinyl—apparently the other’s name—shrugged. She gestured several times at Gleaming, then back to herself.
The earth pony facehooved. “Yes, the resemblance is uncanny. I could see that perfectly fine from across the way! We didn’t need to bother her!”
Vinyl blew a raspberry at the earth pony.
Gleaming only barely managed not to laugh. “You’re not bothering me. I’m just sitting over here by myself to save the servers some legwork… erm, Miss…?”
“Oh! U-Um, Octavia. Octavia Melody.” The earth pony fell into a curtsey. “This is my fiancee, Vinyl Scratch. I serve as her speaker.”
Gleaming creased her brow. A speaker was a pony mentally linked to another, hearing their thoughts and voicing them out to others. It was an incredibly rare and invasive arrangement, pretty much only done between life partners who had permanent speech impairments.
Gleaming pushed past her surprise. “Nice to meet you. Care to sit down?”
Octavia was clearly about to say no, but before she could, Vinyl plopped down across the way. Sighing, Octavia resigned herself, her movements graceful and refined.
Gleaming noted the cutie marks of both mares as they sat down. Vinyl’s was a pair of black eighth notes, Octavia’s a violet treble clef. “Enjoying yourselves so far?”
“Oh, yes!” Octavia said brightly. “It’s rare we both get to perform at the same venue. At the same time, no less!”
Vinyl nudged Octavia with her elbow.
“Ah, right.” Octavia backtracked a bit. “Forgive me, Vinyl and I are musicians. She specializes in the modern electronic styles, I perform the classics.”
Something about that seemed to ring a bell for Gleaming. She stared a moment at Vinyl, memories stirring. It took her a moment to remember why this pony looked so familiar…
“Ahhhh!” Gleaming pointed at Vinyl. “You played at my wedding!”
Vinyl grinned huge.
“She’s impressed you remember,” Octavia said, smiling as well. “She was almost certain you wouldn’t.”
Gleaming very nearly didn’t. Granted, considering how chaotic that whole event was…
“I wasn’t too involved in the planning,” Gleaming admitted. “But I do remember seeing you behind the mix board during the reception. You really seemed like you were in the zone.”
Vinyl laughed. Or at least, she went through the motions of laughter. Her only sounds were soft clucks of breath.
“She’s…” Octavia paused. “Happy... that you appreciated her efforts. She was specifically requested for the wedding, which was a surprise because she’s not known for such jobs.”
Gleaming tried to remember who’d handled the wedding plans. One of Twily’s friends had been bouncing around like a pink pinball at one point, tying up all kinds of loose ends and smoothing out logistics. She seemed nice, couldn’t recall the name, though...
“You handled it like a pro,” Gleaming said. “Good on you.”
It was then the server returned with four giant silver platters. He placed them all between Gleaming, Vinyl, and Octavia, lifting the covers off of them one by one. They were mostly appetizers, but said appetizers ranged from deep fried goodies like onion rings to gourmet hors d’oeuvres like caviar.
Vinyl’s mouth watered at the sight. Octavia glanced down at the food, then tentatively up at Gleaming.
“Erm…” Octavia shifted in her seat. “If you’d prefer to eat alone…”
FLASH!
Two sets of dishware teleported in front of Vinyl and Octavia, clattering slightly.
“Nah.” Gleaming poured herself some sparkling juice. “Food’s better with company.”
Cadance came into the Banquet Hall as subtle as possible. She’d only needed a few minutes to collect herself, but then had gotten sidetracked by some old acquaintances and had wound up chatting a while. It’d been a good fifteen or twenty minutes by the time they’d parted ways.
The Hall was filled with the murmur of talking ponies. Clinks of silverware and glasses set a familiar undertone, a healthy number of ponies eating and conversing and relaxing. Cadance scanned the crowd for white and blue.
“Closest to the kitchens,” Cadance chuckled as she made over. She waved to those who noticed her as she passed, ducking and weaving while wearing her best Princess Smile™. She noticed a pair of sharply-dressed mares sitting across from Gleaming, the three of them eating their way through a platter of salads and fruits.
Cadance approached from behind and tapped Gleaming on the shoulder. “I’m back, hun.”
Gleaming turned and flashed her a lettuce-flecked grin. “Oh, hey! There you are!”
Cadance raised an eyebrow. Gleaming was wearing a pair of magenta shades, exactly identical to ones the pony across from her had.
“Why’re you…”
Gleaming tilted her head at Vinyl. “Oh sorry, did I not tell you I had a twin? Must’ve slipped my mind… Cady, this is Vinyl. Vinyl, Cady.”
Vinyl gave her a little salute in between bites of peas.
Cadance looked between the two of them. While the colors of Vinyl’s coat and mane weren’t quite the same (and the whole not being pregnant thing), the similarity was eerie.
“Nice…” Cadance sat down beside Gleaming. “To meet you?”
“Forgive her, Princess,” Octavia set aside her sauteed mushrooms to glare at Vinyl. “She’s never been one for table manners.”
Vinyl’s reply was to bounce a pea off Octavia’s forehead.
That got a grin out of Cadance. “To hay with table manners. I went through three etiquette tutors because I drove them all up the wall.”
The server came again to take away Gleaming’s finished plate. He gave her a clean stack in its place, then set a place for Cadance, as well.
“The main courses are ready,” he whispered to Gleaming.
Gleaming put a hoof on her heavy belly. “Bring ‘em out.” She floated a whole pan of scalloped potatoes over and set about devouring them. “And could we get some more napkins?”
Twilight had enchanted Gleaming’s maternity brace to better acclimate to her needs after seeing how much she’d put away at the Leaves Feast. The foals were rapidly gaining weight, feeling bigger and heavier by the day, and that Gleaming’s appetite had only increased. Her breasts were also producing more and more milk, pumping out well over a liter each time these days, and they weren’t showing signs of slowing down, either. Already Gleaming was wearing the biggest bra Velvet had gotten her, and while it fit fine now, her flushed, hefty bosom kept getting rounder, firmer, fuller by the day...
Cadance watched Gleaming scarf down the entire nine-by-thirteen pan without batting an eyelash. “Can I get some of that?”
In reply Gleaming floated over a few meager forkfuls.
Cadance frowned. “A little more, please?”
Gleaming pulled the pan closer. “Nope.”
Cadance sighed. On top of everything else, growing five inches taller over the last two months (they could nearly stand eye-to-eye with each other now) was only exacerbating matters. A few days ago, Cadance had tried to sneak a bite of ice cream from Gleaming’s bowl, and Gleaming had literally snarled at her.
“You’re Octavia Melody, aren’t you?” said Cadance. “I’ve heard you perform at Canterlot Orchestra Hall.”
Octavia sat up a little straighter. “Oh? What performance did you hear?”
Cadance searched her thoughts. “It was… a collection of Neighthoven’s string quartets, I think? I don’t remember the numbers of the pieces.”
“The five Late String Quartets and Great Fugue,” Octavia said promptly. “Neighthoven’s last completed works before his death.”
“That’s it,” Cadance said. “One of my aunts took me the year before the Empire returned. I’ve always had a lot of respect for the dedication of musicians.”
Octavia preened at the praise. She was about to say something, but she then stopped and looked at Vinyl, who was gesturing to her ears, while nodding at Cadance.
“Vinyl wishes to know what kinds of music you like, Princess,” Octavia said.
Gleaming leaned in and whispered in Cadance’s ear, “Speaker.”
Cadance put two and two together. “Oh! Um, let’s see…I don’t have a favorite composer, but there are genres I prefer over others. Is that what you’re asking?”
Vinyl tilted her head back and forth like a metronome.
“Genre, composer, era, specific song, whatever,” said Octavia. “Your taste in music is however you define it. How you use it. What it means to you.”
Cadance dug into her potato while she thought. “It depends on what I’m trying to do. I like classical, but contemporary works can be just as deep. I like music with a steady beat when I’m concentrating, frantic songs when I wanna dance, and slow tunes when I relax. Does that all make sense?”
Vinyl and Octavia nodded.
“Music helps you feel a certain way,” Octavia said. “You use it to compliment your mood.”
“Exactly,” Cadance said. “And I need to be able to follow the song, you know? If the rhythm doesn’t make sense to me, I just wind up feeling lost.”
Vinyl rested her elbow on Octavia’s shoulder.
“For Vinyl, music is about immersion.” Octavia glanced at Vinyl’s arm before leaving it be. “Whether she’s writing it or playing it, she uses it to be in the moment. There’s no surroundings, no ponies around her, no anything. There’s only the song. That’s what she strives for. What she lives for.”
The server returned with a few helpers. They set out a whole spread ranging from casseroles, soups, sandwiches, pastas, and more. It was enough to feed over a dozen ponies, and the assault of heavenly smells was like a kick to the nose. A few specific ones were also given to Cadance with fish in them.
“Ho-ho…” Gleaming’s eyed the bounty set before her. “Now we’re talking.”
Cadance gave Vinyl and Octavia a meaningful look. “I’d grab what you want quick. She won’t hold back for long.”
Gleaming didn’t dispute this. “You have thirty seconds.”
Vinyl and Cadance immediately set about getting what they wanted. Octavia, however, was dubious.
“All of this?”
Gleaming just stared at her. “Twenty-five.”
Octavia gulped. She’d heard stories of the hunger and cravings of pregnant mares, but this was plain ridiculous.
“Some of this, then…” she muttered. “And this, as well… what? ‘Try the fondue?’ Alright, I suppose… Thank you, Vinyl...”
Gleaming waited while the three of them took what they wanted. Her hunger was at that annoying point where it knew the meal had been left unfinished, and the feeling was almost worse than not eating anything at all. She sincerely hoped she never had a meal cut short while like this.
Gleaming was already levitating things over. She started with the sandwiches, scarfing them down in barely-chewed bites.
Cadance paid no attention to the ravenous sounds of gluttony beside her and set about her own plate. “Vinyl, do you mind if I ask a personal question?”
Vinyl regarded her. She nodded, albeit slowly.
Cadance idly pushed a potato chunk with her fork. “Were you born mute? Or did it happen later in life?”
Vinyl gestured to hold on a second. She turned to Octavia, who was still watching Gleaming with a slack jaw. Vinyl spooned up some applesauce and stuck it in Octavia’s mouth.
“Mmf!” Octavia’s lips closed around the spoon. “Vinyl!”
Vinyl snickered. She gestured over at Cadance, who was also giggling.
“E-Erm…” Octavia fiddled with her tux. “I-I’m very sorry, Princess…”
Cadance smiled. “Just Cadance, please.”
Octavia cringed, but quickly masked it. “Yes, of course. Um, your question… when Vinyl was young, she developed a serious viral infection that paralyzed her vocal cords. The cause of the infection was a collection of growths directly on the cords themselves, which were found to be the early stages of cancer.”
Vinyl lifted her chin to show Cadance. Right in the center of her throat, there was a faded horizontal scar.
“They tried several treatments, none of which worked.” Octavia scooched a bit closer to Vinyl. “They finally decided to remove her vocal cords completely to prevent the cells from spreading. She’s been cancer-free ever since… but at a heavy price.”
Cadance exhaled out her nose. Not for the first time, she was reminded just how lucky she was. “I can’t even imagine what it must’ve been like to go through that.”
Vinyl sat still for a moment, then in a gentle motion, she removed her magenta shades. Her eyes were a striking shade of red, but there was a hollowness to her gaze, as if something had devoured her from the inside.
“A politician does not inquire about such things without reason… Cadance.” Octavia’s tone turned frosty.“Why do you ask?”
Cadance’s ears drooped. She fiddled with the neck of her dress, her eyes downcast. “There’s a problem we’re trying to fix in the Empire. We’re short on specialists in a whole slew of fields, but especially medical. We’re starting efforts to get the word out, but I wouldn’t consider myself a good ruler if I didn’t explore every avenue I could.”
Vinyl’s eyes gained focus, her ears swivelling forward.
“I know there are groups dedicated to helping ponies with certain conditions,” Cadance said. “Financial assistance, free equipment, yearly check-ups, things like that. I want to get in touch with them to see if we can get branches established in the Empire.”
You could almost see the light bulb go off in Vinyl’s head.
“OH!” Octavia said. “Well, that’s certainly… w-we thought that you were… erm, never mind. We can most certainly help you, absolutely! Vinyl’s affiliated with of two such associations, and she’s… apologies, she’s talking very fast right now...The first is the ECA—the Equestrian Cancer Association. Their main headquarters are in the Manehatten, but they have a branch here in Canterlot as well. It shouldn’t be hard to get you in touch with the right ponies...”
Cadance did a hoof pump under the table.
“The second is ESHA—the Equestrian Speech-Language-Hearing Association.” Beside Octavia, Vinyl had summoned a quill and ink and was writing something down on a napkin. “Absolutely splendid organization based right here in Canterlot, and they help anypony with any otolaryngology disorder—yes, Vinyl. Why would I not? I’ve had to pronounce it enough times by now—ahem... Doctor Scopy is the Regional Director, a retired surgeon that was on the team that performed Vinyl’s operation… How old were you again, Vinyl? Nine? My, it’s really been that long… He was the one who got us in touch with organization in the first place, so we’d be happy to put in a good word for you.“
Gleaming had perked up at the mention of ‘hearing.’
“Does this organization also help with disorders in infants?” she asked. “Possibly infants less than a year old?”
Vinyl nodded with soft eyes.
“They have a spectacular network,” said Octavia. “If nothing else, they’ll put the family in touch with the right specialists.”
Gleaming’s spirits rose. “And both associations are accredited with the Healer’s Guild?”
A bit of haughtiness crept into Octavia’s voice. “We wouldn’t be affiliated, much less recommend them if they weren’t! They are, as Vinyl would say, ‘totes legit.’”
Vinyl nearly choked on her juice. She doubled over giggling, her clucks of breath punctuated by wet coughs.
Octavia blushed. “Oh, so it’s ‘cool’ when YOU say it, but when I do, it’s funny?! What do you mean, ‘adorkable’?! That’s not even a word, Vinyl...”
Cadance smiled. The bonds of love between these two were quite strong. Perhaps they’d be open to some future shows in the Empire. Fresh entertainment was always nice to have...
Vinyl hovered the napkin she’d been writing on to Cadance. She saw that several names and contact info were listed, including Vinyl’s and Octavia’s.
“Wow,” Cadance observed. “Very neat hornwriting.”
Vinyl shrugged and put back on her shades.
“‘Comes with the territory,’ she says.” Octavia took a dainty bite of stuffed pepper before continuing. “Those ponies are usually quite prompt, but with the holiday season and all… We’ll be sure Doctor Scopy contacts you, at least.”
Gleaming smirked. She adjusted her own pair of shades and went back to her food. “Thanks for the help, Octavia. And you too, Sis. We really appreciate it.”
Vinyl held out her hoof, which Gleaming bumped with a clack!
Octavia looked on, smiling. “What’s family for?”
Later-
Gleaming and Cadance spent the next hour mingling with partygoers in the Main Hall. Although perhaps saying they both mingled was a bit generous, as Cadance was the one who did most of the talking. Gleaming merely stood stoically by, her meal digesting, her Military Aura of Intimidation™ deterring most of the undesirables.
Not that most of the ponies that approached them were undesirable. Most were an absolute delight to talk to, showing genuine interest in the Crystal Empire, some even promising aid with the talent shortage. One stallion in particular, an old friend of Gleaming’s named Fancy Pants, pledged to pull some strings with his friends to help out.
It’s just that the small number of undesirables were hilariously easy to spot. The dead giveaway was that they hesitated or twitched every time Gleaming was mentioned, their lips always teetering on the verge of a sneer.
Cadance made sure to do this as much as possible with this lot.
“By the way, did you know Gleaming is expecting?” Cadance sidled closer. “She’s so brave to carry them when we found out I couldn’t, isn’t she? Just imagine, five foals, all the product of Gleaming and me! I just can’t wait for all those little white coats and blue manes! It’s going to be great!”
The snooty stallion looked like he might have an aneurysm. He barely kept a straight face as his eyes flicked briefly to the object of his disdain... flanked by the ominous forms of Celsius and Bastion.
“Yes!” he said with a plastic smile. “Congratulations to you both!”
“Did you know that Gleaming’s a Canterlot noble? Just like you!” Cadance continued. “She’s the firstborn of House Sparkle! Have you heard of House Sparkle at all?”
It would’ve been funny if it weren’t so pathetic. Judgmental stares and whispers pressed in on them like the coils of a snake, but Gleaming wasn’t even paying attention. The vipers could spit and hiss all they liked—at the end of the day, Gleaming was still a fucking princess… and still fucking a princess.
The Revel was currently in full swing. Ponies were spread out between the Main Hall, the Ballroom, and the Banquet Hall, with groups of ponies filtering in and out of the Gallery escorted by guides. A few ponies were out on the balconies admiring the night sky, although it was a little too chilly to stay out for very long.
Not a bad shindig, to be honest. Pretty normal for the parties Gleaming had been to here, but she did notice Luna and her beau were no longer at the top of the stairs. Strange that they’d go off and excuse themselves so soon—
“Gleaming,” Bastion muttered.
She turned. “Hmm?”
Baston tilted his head to the right, where Apogee had emerged from the crowd like a shadow. Her appearance made a few ponies around her jump like they’d just noticed her.
“Princess,” said Apogee. “The Dark Lady would like to see you and Princess Cadance in her quarters.”
Gleaming nodded. She got Cadance’s attention, indicating Apogee.
Cadance brightened. “Ah! If you’ll excuse me, dear Count, my Aunt calls. I’ll be sure to give those new tax ideas some thought, though...”
She swept past without waiting for a reply. Gleaming followed right after, Celsius and Basion taking up the rear.
As soon as they were behind the first set of closed doors, Cadance cursed and rubbed her head. “How Aunt Celestia put up with ponies like that for a thousand years, by herself...”
Gleaming bit her lip. “D’you think I should’ve…”
“The energy you’d have wasted talking to ponies like that is better off going to the foals,” Cadance spat. “That last lout had his head so far up his rear, he could see out his bellybutton.”
Celsius and Bastion snickered.
“Honey,” Gleaming said. “You know I don’t like standing there like a statue while you deal with this junk by yourself. I get that politics in Canterlot are dangerous, but...”
“Dangerous doesn’t even cut it.” Cadance put her wing around her. “The arena’s a minefield, the goalposts are rigged to blow, and the ball’s covered in poison spikes. Aunt Celestia taught me how to play, but until you can recognize manipulation, answer difficult and loaded questions, know the biases of each House, identify truths from doublespeak…”
Gleaming didn’t reply at first. House Sparkle wasn’t very high on the nobility totem pole, and her parents had never paid much attention to ‘those brown-nosed flip-floppers and their glorified cliques.’ Some ongoing political coaching combined with her military training served her just fine in the Empire, but here…
“I get it,” Gleaming said. “Really, I do. These ponies are looking for something to use against me, so I shouldn’t throw them any ammo. But I can handle some stuff, you know. Don’t forget I grew up here.”
Cadance looked out of a passing window, where could just make out the fountain in the Trader’s District where she and Gleaming had first kissed. “Believe me, I’ve no doubt you’ll be just as good as me before long. But until you’re familiar with the cloak and dagger, let me handle this city. It’s just safer that way...”
She then leaned in to whisper, “...plus ponies tend to respect you more when it sinks in that you’re going to outlive them. Give it thirty or forty years, and we won’t have near as much trouble.”
Gleaming snickered.
Apogee took them past the castle throne room and more heavily trafficked parts. The carpet faded to midnight blue as they rounded a corner, leaving them to now stand at the beginning of a long hallway. An enormous set of silver doors inlaid with a dark circle stood at the opposite end, and as they walked, the darkness gave way to form a waxing crescent. The circle was full by the time they’d closed the distance, shining with a soft and welcoming glow. Two batpony guards opened the way with crisp salutes.
Luna’s room was a huge cozy space with a view the Castle Gardens. Bookcases and star charts lined the walls, and in a corner was a decorated Hearth’s Warming tree. Among the underlying presents were some Gleaming and Cadance immediately recognized as ones they’d sent. The north wall was mostly windows showcasing the snowy gardens and hedge maze beyond, and a massive four-poster bed was along the west wall, the largest Gleaming and Cadance had ever seen.
A giant sunken circle was in the middle of the room filled with plush cushions and pillows, where Big Mac and Luna were currently resting, Mac massaging Luna’s shoulders.
Apogee cleared her throat. “Mistress.”
Luna looked up. “Ah!” She beckoned Gleaming and Cadance forward. “Thank you, Apogee. I’d like a moment alone with my nieces.”
Apogee bowed and left. Celsius and Bastion made to follow, but were held back by Gleaming and Cadance. A few hugs and promises of future visits later, the doors shut behind them.
Luna watched the fond exchange between them. “I certainly hope you showed them a good time. I’ll be quite disappointed to hear I stationed them in your path for no reason.”
Silence reigned for several seconds, Luna smirking, Gleaming and Cadance standing still as statues.
Cadance spoke first. “We dreamed about it, didn’t we.”
“Several times,” Luna said. “Consider it my way of saying thank you for coming tonight.”
Gleaming wanted to facehoof. She should’ve realized it was odd for a warrant officer and the Captain of the Royal-Freaking-Guard to be assigned mundane guard duty in a random hallway.
“Well, uh…” Cadance struggled for the right words. “Thank you… for that, I suppose. We did in fact, erm… take the bait.”
Luna smiled. “We’ll soon be joined by a few members of the Sarosian Council, but before then, we’ve some time to chat.”
Gleaming and Cadance came down into the circle. Gleaming tested the pillows before eventually settling on a feather one, and Cadance sat down behind to mimic Big Mac and rub Gleaming’s shoulders.
“This is Macintosh Apple.” Luna gestured to Mac. “Gleaming, you’ll find you and he have something in common—he, too has a sister that wields an Element of Harmony.”
Gleaming regarded Big Mac with new interest. “Oh?”
“Applejack,” Big Mac said in a smooth, deep bass. “Wouldn’t fault you if you’ve never met her—I reckon ya don’t come down to Ponyville much.”
Gleaming picked her brain. Earth pony, stubborn, had the frame and build of a workhorse… now that Gleaming was looking for it, she did indeed see the resemblance to this huge stallion.
Cadance was just as surprised. “Small world.”
“I think...” Gleaming murmured. “I remember Twilight talking about her a few times. She said Applejack tried to handle one of your farm’s harvests all by herself, or something?”
Mac chuckled, a gravelly sound that was like a plow through soft soil. “Yeah, she ain’t never been too keen on askin’ for help. Gotten better about it these days, though.”
Luna grunted as Mac’s hooves moved down her back. “Applejack and I have had some enjoyable talks on my visits to their family’s farm. T’was I that wielded Honesty in days long past, along with Laughter and Loyalty.”
Gleaming had to take a moment to picture that. Princess Luna, ageless Mistress of the Night and co-ruler of Equestria, walking casually among a field of apple trees while chatting with a farmer. Now that would make an interesting photo.
“I don’t believe my nieces need introduction,” Luna said to Mac. “However, you may be interested to know that Gleaming was my head bodyguard in the months following my return. She is a capable protector and trustworthy confidant.”
Gleaming chuckled. “Oh, don’t blow it out of proportion. We didn’t know fully what the Elements had done, so me being there was just a precaution. Nothing actually happened.”
Mac was quiet. He studied Gleaming with those calm green eyes, vibrant and steady.
“Of all the ponies Celestia has at her beck ‘n call,” he said, “she chose you. You were the one to protect the sister she just got back after a thousand years. Even with Lu at her most vulnerable, Celestia trusted that you’d keep her safe.”
Mac casually went back to his massaging. “Sounds pretty damn impressive to me.”
Gleaming... didn’t really have an answer. She put a hoof behind her head, her gaze wandering while Cadance giggled.
“My fearless hero,” she whispered. “My loving knight…”
“I’m glad you can speak candidly with each other,” Luna winced as Mac moved to her left shoulder. “There’s no need—ergh—need for any protocol between us—GAH! Right there… ugh...”
Mac hovered his hoof over the knotty lump. “Hard or gentle?”
Luna narrowed her eyes. “Hard.”
Gleaming winced as Mac set to work. “Standing up there took its toll, I’m guessing.”
“Indeed,” Luna said. “Speaking with our subjects is enjoyable, but—mmmh—taxing. This reprieve is welcome… nnggh! Blast it all… always that spot—AH!”
Mac worked Luna’s back like he was playing an instrument. His muscles flexed and bulged as he moved, practically straining against the confines of his tux. “Need to keep on those exercises, sugarcube. They’re helpin’ more’n you realize.”
“Yes—ergh—I’m realizing that now…”
Cadance watched Luna and Big Mac, her special talent whispering all the while. She could see a vague shimmer between them, like a pocket of heated air.
“Auntie,” Cadance said. “May I?”
Luna looked up. “I did anticipate thought you… hnng... might want to. Feel free, ‘tis only fair... You are the authority on such things...”
Bracing herself a moment, Cadance’s eyes glowed white. The palace vanished around her to be replaced by a twisting, chaotic plane. Silhouettes of ponies were suddenly everywhere, dark, featureless voids that housed glowing souls.
Luna’s soul was an immutable beacon—enormous and dark and eternal, yet with telltale faded scars. Big Mac’s soul was a mortal blip in comparison, average and unassuming, it's scarlet light deep and full.
However, while nowhere near as big or bright, there was something admittedly… alluring about Mac. There was a surprising depth to his spirit—a potential dormant and untapped. Cadance could sense a powerful resolve that underlied his entire character, as well as a calm that soothed even her nerves.
The ties between Mac and Luna were fresh, but latched tight. More than half of their essences were enveloped by the tethers, and the coloration suggested there was attraction on multiple levels. The connections were already wide and full, with empathy flowing easily between their wavelengths...
Luna watched Cadance’s reaction with a smug grin. “Like what you see?”
Cadance let her power fade. She typically saw these kinds of bonds in a year-oldrelationship, not a month. “I can see why Aunt Celestia likes him.”
Mac’s laugh was a pleasant rumble. “Celestia… now she’s an interestin’ one.”
The pause in his voice wasn’t lost on Gleaming. “Ran you through the wringer too, eh?”
Luna flattened her ears. “She did. And I was none too happy about it.”
Cadance mirrored Luna’s dark look. “She once made Gleamy maintain a forcefield big enough to cover all of Canterlot by herself for a week straight. I didn’t speak to her for over a month afterwards.”
Gleaming’s horn sparkled. “Hey, I did it, didn’t I?”
Big Mac cracked his neck with a pop! “Nah, she didn’t do nothin’ like that. She just stared at me real intent-like for a moment or so, then was downright friendly afterwards.”
Luna’s expression turned sour. “That ‘stare’, as he puts it, was her bearing down on him with the full power of the Sun with no filter. It’s a small miracle he didn’t have a heart attack.”
Mac wrapped his hooves around Luna. “I already told ya, if one o’my sisters brought home a stallion outta the blue, I’d be a mite protective, too. I don’t blame her for it.”
“I don’t appreciate her threatening—”
“—intimidating.” Mac nuzzled her cheek. “C’mon, she was just makin’ sure you’re not gonna get hurt. Can ya really blame her? After y’all have been apart so long?”
Luna scrunched up her face. Gleaming and Cadance knew that look well—it was the look of a pony that knew someone else was right, but they didn’t want to admit it.
Luna leaned her head on Mac’s shoulder, sighing as she looked up at the ceiling. “I wish she’d trust me a little more…”
Mac gave her neck a kiss. “My Ma always said, ‘Trust is a bridge made outta good choices.’ Keep showin’ her that you’re as smart as you are beautiful, and you’ll be right as rain.”
“D’awwwww…”
Luna’s face turned pink. “Not another word, Mi Amore...”
Gleaming didn’t have further comment. She barely understood her own family most of the time. She wasn’t about to get involved with the dynamics of her in-laws.
Luna looked down at Gleaming. “You look positively radiant, fair Gleaming. How fare your little ones?”
Gleaming sat up straighter, the prominent bulge of her belly sticking out. “Getting heavy, the buggers. How’re yours?”
Luna put a hoof on her larger womb. She was about twice the size of Gleaming, her navel visible through her the stretched creases of her kimono. “I’ll admit it’s been a challenge, but I believe that challenge has reached its apex. Tia and the Mages Guild recently cast the spell I spoke of at Nightmare Night.”
Gleaming examined Luna more closely. Not because she was trying to notice if she could discern the change, but to burn this size into her memory. She’d likely need the reference for when they met next.
Cadance rubbed her temples. “We met with her earlier. She said it went off without a hitch.”
“Quite,” Luna said. “It’s been decided this room will be my living accommodations for the next few months, as it’s unlikely my tower will be convenient for much longer. Already I’ve started to feel the spell’s effects, and I only just fit into this ensemble because of it...”
Gleaming felt Cadance twitch at that.
“Not like I would’ve minded,” Mac said, the ghost of a smile on his face. “After all, if she can’t get dressed up, then it’s only right that we match.”
Luna rolled her eyes. “You just don’t like formal attire.”
Mac ran his muzzle through her mane. “Or maybe I like ya with no clothes on…”
Luna shivered. “L-Later, my star… later…”
It was a strange feeling. Gleaming had never imagined Luna being with anypony, so seeing her with someone now was… well. Mac was certainly a prime physical specimen though, with handsome green eyes and a jaw that looked chiseled out of stone. His cut muscles flexed with his every move, and his size, stars almighty… He looked even larger up close, his buffed out form threatening to tear his tux to shreds. Idly, Gleaming couldn’t help wonder if other parts of him were just as large—
“Now, then.” Luna snuggled further into Mac’s embrace. “The Sarosian Council has requested an audience to thank you for your efforts towards re-establishing the thestral race. But in addition to that, the Noctis herself has a proposition for you.”
The Sarosian Council was comprised of seven members, with one of those members being the leader—the Noctis. In older times there were elections and proper legislations for choosing members, but with so few batponies nowadays, members stayed on for as long as they could. The Noctis was chosen amongst the council members and served for a renewable term of five years.
Gleaming cocked her head. “What kind of proposition?”
Luna cleared her throat. “It’s—”
Knock, knock, knock.
Luna looked towards the door. “—something I’ll let her explain. Eliminate the middlemare, as it were.”
Through the giant doors walked a trio of batponies. They were each wearing an ebon choker set with an opal shaped like a dragon’s eye, colored an inky indigo. They bowed low before the three royals.
The leader was a thestral unicorn not much older than Cadance. Her coat was the color of thick fog, and her wiry body was so thin that her ribs were visible. Her gold, slitted eyes were sharp and clear, her horn was like a smooth spindle without any grooves, and her white mane had curled patterns like ocean waves that cascaded down her neck and shoulders.
“Dark Lady,” the mare said. “An honor, as always.”
Luna got up with some difficulty, gesturing for Gleaming and Cadance to follow. Mac stayed behind as the three of them moved over to a table by the bookcases.
“My dear nieces,” said Luna. “May I present Lieutenant-Colonel Maria, Noctis of the Sarosian Council and Sentinel of the Dream Guard. Her companions are Rille and Libra, also Council Members.”
Rille was a short and squat elderly mare with a jagged mane. Her mouth was turned in eternal scowl, and she had narrow eyes that looked like they could pierce through a wall. Libra was a lanky skeleton of a stallion, by far the oldest of the three, his dull, greyed-out eyes not staring at anything. His tufted ears kept swivelling back and forth as he made odd chirping sounds.
“Sentinel?” Gleaming said. “I didn’t think there were any thestrals in the Dream Guard.”
“She’s the first in a thousand years.” Luna beamed at Maria. “The first of many.”
Maria dipped her head. “Stars willing, Mistress.”
“Hello, all of you,” said Cadance. She and Gleaming at the table across from the Council. “I’m glad that we could we meet.”
“The honor’s ours." There was a tiredness to Maria’s voice, but also a power that kept your attention. “Before anything else, Your Majesties, allow me to give my deepest gratitude for your efforts to restore our race. We’ve managed to raise our plight to the attention of the national public with your help, which is far more than we ever could’ve imagined.”
“The amount of surrogate volunteers has skyrocketed,” said Libra. He chirped again, turning towards Gleaming and Cadance proper. “Organizations across Equestria have stepped forward, pledging aid. The Guilds are now working closely with us and helping every step of the way.”
“It’s nothing short of a miracle,” said Rille. She gestured to Luna at the table’s end. “The return of the Dark Lady cured our malaise, but we feared it might still be too late. For the first time in centuries, we’re doing something we thought we’d never do again.”
“Planning for the future,” Libra finished.
It wasn’t often that Gleaming and Cadance were rendered speechless. This was one of those times.
“We thought it’d be a century before our numbers breached ten thousand,” said Maria. “Now, we’re looking to exceed that number in five years. Granted, those ten thousand will be newborn infants, but what once was thought to be a hundred year effort is now going to take a fraction of that.”
“The task of organizing the influx is welcome,” Rille said, chuckling. “Better to handle the logistics of life, then death.”
“Which is what we were doing a decade ago,” Libra groused.
Cadance probed the emotions of the batponies. Like Apogee, the dregs of a deep, deep depression lingered, like an echo that had yet to fully fade. It was most poignant in Libra, and from him she could almost get a sense of what it’d been like.
A hole—a cavernous, all-consuming pit, swallowing up anything and everything that fell into it. It had slowly spread more and more, devouring him ceaselessly from the inside out…
“Not to sound ungrateful, but I do hope you three realize why Cadance and I have thrown our weight behind your effort.” Gleaming rested her hoof upon Cadance’s. “The changelings have already taken advantage of the hole in our defenses, and there’s no doubt they’ll attempt so again. We need the thestrals to protect Equestria’s citizens from infiltration and mind control.”
The council members looked to one another. Libra leaned in and whispered something to Maria.
“We had an inkling that was your motive,” said Maria. She squared her shoulders and met Gleaming’s eyes. “Rest assured, the training new thestral sentinels is a top priority of the campaign.”
“But those sentinels won’t be ready for many years,” Rille said. “You’re quite right that our defenses have holes, but the best we can offer is a long-term solution. Right now, all we have are The Dark Lady’s large-scale defensive spells.”
Luna brushed her mane out of her face. “To clarify, my enchantments protect against a mass psychic attack, but smaller, more individualized assaults can slip through the cracks. Preventing that kind of tactic requires active policing.”
“Which we don’t have the ponypower to do right now,” said Libra. “Certainly not with Celestia’s useless idiots fumbling about, barely able to astral project and—”
“Libra,” Rille warned.
Libra looked like he’d smelled something rotten. He looked away, his ears pinned against his head.
“We agree that we’re embarrassingly vulnerable right now,” Maria said to Gleaming. “The Council has spoken for some time on how to best help in this, and with the Dark Lady’s blessing, we believe we have a solution.”
Gleaming steepled her hooves together. “I’m listening.”
Maria glanced at Luna. “By your leave, Mistress.”
Luna nodded.
Maria cleared her throat. “Our greatest potential threat of psychic attack comes from the changelings. We’ve explored the possibility of attacking them first, but our scouts report that their main hive is guarded by an anti-magic field of some kind. It negates any and all types of magic, save theirs, and any and all attempts to pierce through it have been unsuccessful.”
“It’s worth noting that the field is significantly weaker in the Dreamrealm,” said Rille. “But even then, only the Dark Lady stands a chance at getting through it. Our dream magic is much more suited to defense, than offense.”
Gleaming nodded. The Moon was their shield, the Sun was their sword. Together in Harmony was peace restored.
Luna spoke up. “I’ve kept careful watch on the changelings ever since the attack on Canterlot, but they’ve remain hidden in their nest. However, I do occasionally feel the minds of a small number wandering on the field’s edge, and from them I’ve been able to confirm what I’ve always suspected about their race. They operate via a collective consciousness—a hive mind. Individuality and sense of self is a defect to them, and those that are found with it are exiled.”
Maria saw the question forming on Gleaming’s lips. “We couldn’t learn much else. The drones’ minds were broken, likely on purpose. We never even get to them before they starve to death. Their bodies are all across the Badlands… all headed in the same direction.”
Libra turned to them. “North.”
Gleaming felt her stomach turn. True, she held little love for changelings, but still...
“All were headed north?” Cadance asked. “Why?”
Luna’s face turned grim. “The Crystal Heart. Even from across the country, it’s power calls to them. Without any guidance or direction, they all head for it thinking it’s the nearest available food source.”
Gleaming and Cadance exchanged a dark look.
“Double the army’s anti-changeling exercises,” Cadance said.
“More like triple,” said Gleaming.
“I don’t think you’re in any immediate danger of attack,” said Luna. “I’d have contacted you immediately if that were the case. I believe the sheer obviousness of the Empire being a potential target actually makes it less of one. Queen Chrysalis is much more likely to attack a less protected settlement than a fortified city.”
Too bad that didn’t make Gleaming feel much better. “So what does all of this have to do with solving our defense problem?”
Luna turned to Maria. “Go ahead, Noctis.”
Maria took a deep breath. “When the Mistress and I touched the minds of the drones, I felt an absence in them... one that felt eerily similar to the ailment that consumed my race. We thestrals were driven to apathy by it, but it seems the changelings have reacted differently. Instead of depressed and morose, they’ve become aggressive and cruel, developing tactics for attacking other creatures and stealing their love.”
“The resemblance is uncanny,” said Rille. “I don’t know why we never saw the parallel before now.”
Libra snorted. “Ironic, isn’t it? A race that eats positive emotions, yet they’re the most vile and vicious of the lot. They certainly aren’t what they eat.”
Cadance’s eyes went wide. Now that they mentioned it, the echoes within the batponies did feel similar. Changeling emotions felt like burning acid, but beneath that burning, there was a hole…
“The difference between us is that where we thestrals were starving spiritually, the changelings are starving physically.” Maria’s voice stayed calm, but her eyes were cold as ice. “They’re not attacking to conquer or destroy—they’re attacking us to survive. I believe we can stymie their aggression, we just need to provide an equivalent of what the Dark Lady is to us.”
“The changelings would be effectively pacified,” Luna said. “We might even gain them as allies if we play our cards right.”
It was definitely an interesting plan, Gleaming had to admit. Almost sounded like something Twily would come up with.
But unlike a plan of Twily’s...
“I’m not seeing a safe way to test this,” Gleaming said. “I like your line of thinking, but we’d need several things to even create a field trial from this theory, things that we don’t have.”
Maria’s face grew pensive. She looked again to Luna, who nodded once more.
“Three days ago,” said Maria. “The scouts sent word of a changeling leaving the anti-magic field. Only one, on their own, moving with more sense and purpose than any of the others we’ve seen. It didn’t linger on the fringe like a shell-shocked drone, it flew away fast as it could like it was fleeing. Nor did it head north like the others, it was actually heading southeast, towards the jungles.”
Gleaming raised an eyebrow. “Did we catch it?”
“I made contact with it when it laid down to sleep,” Maria said. “He was indeed fleeing, as he’d been found to have free will and was now scheduled to be ‘scrambled’. He was fully expecting to be tracked down and killed by his brethren, or if not by them, any of the other races who hate changelings. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to talk him down from his panic, and after some coaxing…”
“He agreed to my offer of amnesty,” Luna finished. “The extraction team brought him to the castle late this afternoon, where he’s remained under heavy guard while my physicians examine him. He’s taken the form of a puppy until we come up with a better way to support his diet.”
Cadance’s world was spinning. A live, captured changeling?! They’d actually managed to get one?!
“He’s actually quite docile,” Maria remarked. “When not scared to death, that is. He’s still worried we’re going to dissect him.”
Gleaming was torn. On the one hoof, this had some amazing potential. But on the other, that was only one piece of the puzzle.
“Okaaaaaay...” Gleaming folded her hooves. “We have a sane, captured changeling. Now what do we do for a power source?”
Maria grinned, showing off her short fangs. “We thestrals were starved for darkness. When the Dark Lady returned, our malady vanished. If the changelings are starved for love, then perhaps…”
The Crystal Empire castle had seen a great deal of renovation and repurposing since the lifting of the thousand year curse. Whole rooms and areas of the castle were neglected for years under Sombra’s reign, while others had been used for more vile purposes that are best left unmentioned. The Crystal Heart’s light had scoured the castle top to bottom of the foul usurper’s presence, but in the minds of some crystal ponies, the echoes of his tyranny still remained.
One of the renovated rooms on the mid-levels now served a fitness center. A various assortment of workout equipment was lined up here in rows, said equipment ranging from free weights to leg presses to ellipticals. On the second floor of the area was a jogging track with spots for stretching in the corners, and wide windows allowed the sunlight to give the room a bright and open feel.
Gleaming was under doctor’s orders to work out regularly. She got her magical exercise with the troops, but her physical needs were handled here in the fitness center. She typically went early so as not to disturb anypony, but as today was Hearth’s Warming Eve, she figured a later session couldn’t hurt.
She wasn’t wrong. There were only a few other ponies about, one of which was a familiar mare, who waved as she hobbled over.
“Nothing if not punctual,” Amber said with a grin. “Ready to go?”
Gleaming grinned back. “Thanks again for coming in today.”
“No worries.” They trotted together towards the racks of free weights, their hooves making soft thuds on the padded floor. “Hubby was home today, so I didn’t have to find a sitter.”
Amber was also certified as a personal trainer on top of a massage therapist. She didn’t typically handle regimens for pregnant mares, but a few discussions with Talia had enlightened her to the dos and don’ts. She’d said it was easy enough.
“So, tomorrow’s a big milestone!” Amber said. “Thirty-two weeks on the dot! That’s gotta be a good feeling.”
Gleaming’s smile grew. “I can’t believe how fast the time’s flown by.”
Amber chuckled. “And here most mares say being pregnant feels like an eternity.”
Gleaming’s thoughts turned inward, thinking back on everything she’d been through so far. “I have a lot of ponies to thank for making this easy on me,” she said. “You included.”
Amber waved her off. “You paying me is thanks enough.”
But Gleaming disagreed. “You’ve been patient with me, you’ve worked around my schedule, you’ve been willing to learn new things outside of your comfort zone... not everypony’s willing to do all of that.”
Amber glanced back and winked. “And if you were a bitch to work with, I’d have dropped you as a client after that first massage at Azzy’s! I don’t bend over backwards for assholes.”
That got a laugh out of Gleaming. “Dare I ask how many clients you’ve dropped in the past?”
Amber grunted. “Most ponies are fine, it’s just the real stinkers tend to stick out. You know how it is.”
Gleaming did know. Between the training troops, holding court, and the occasional public appearances, her interactions with ponies were from all walks of life. Her list of ‘dropped clients’ was probably longer than Amber’s.
“Speaking of this being easy,” Amber said. “How’re you feeling? Any discomfort at all?”
Gleaming shrugged. “Not unless being hungry all the time counts. I’ve felt great since Cady and my sister started giving me the magic infusions.”
Amber stopped by one of the leg press machines. “I remember you telling me about that. Your sister had a guess to why that’s happening, right?”
Gleaming nodded. “She thinks alicorn magic has some kind of stamina-boosting property. A similar thing happened to her when the other princesses powered her up to fight Tirek.”
Amber thought for a moment, then laughed and shook her head. “Makes as much sense as anything else, I suppose. If only we could figure out a way to provide that effect to ALL mares, eh?”
Gleaming looked out towards one of the windows. “That’d be the dream.”
Amber bade Gleaming over to stand beside the leg press. “Lemme get a good look at you before we start. I haven’t checked you over in a while.”
A smirk played on Gleaming’s lips. “Worried I’m overeating?”
Amber snorted. “I’m not worried about anything, I just want to note your changes.”
Gleaming squinted. “You totally think I’m fat.”
Amber swatted her. “Take off your brace.”
Gleaming obeyed. She stood up straight and tall for Amber, who began circling around with a critical eye.
Gleaming’s build had been completely altered thanks to the genderswap spell. Where once she’d been like a hoofball player, she was now built like a swimmer. Less strength, power, and bulk, more dexterity, endurance, and range of motion. She’d had a good deal of muscle on her when they’d first met, but Amber’s goal was to restore the things Gleaming had lost while maintaining the things she’d gained. A lofty goal, but it seemed to be within the realm of possibility with some hard work.
Four months later, the results were something to behold.
The first word that came to Amber’s mind was sturdy. Gleaming’s long legs had gained impressive thickness and mass, forming into solid corded limbs that easily supported her weight. Her pectorals had gained considerable definition as well, broad and dense from the steadily increasing load. Gleaming’s back legs were even more developed—powerfully thick thighs, wide and flexible hips, and a shapely rump so big and firm you could bounce a bit off it. Gleaming’s spine remained straight as an arrow without the slightest bit of slouch, and her pelvic floor muscles were strong and supple.
“How’s your balance without the brace?” Amber asked from behind.
Gleaming rolled her shoulders. “It took awhile to adjust when my hips got loose, and then again when my breasts came in. Got it down now, though. Just gotta make sure I don’t go too fast.”
Amber had noted that the maternity bra Gleaming had on was a larger one. And that was nothing to say of Gleaming’s immense baby belly, now level with her knees, the slightly-pink skin stretched tight beneath her coat. It seemed Twilight’s spell was repairing her skin so as to prevent stretch marks, making Gleaming’s womb a flawless ivory orb that rose and fell with her steady breath.
“Gettin’ big.” Amber patted Gleaming’s barrel, feeling it’s swaying, swirling weight. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were ready to pop.”
Gleaming chuckled. “Not a chance. These five are grounded.”
Amber was a shorter mare, about eye level with Gleaming’s chest. Being this close made Gleaming seem all the larger, her blooming, burgeoning womb nearly taking up Amber’s whole field of vision. She looked like she was full-term with triplets, those two big alicorn foals making her grow all the faster.
“Walk over to the treadmills for me,” Amber said. “I wanna see your gait.”
Gleaming did. Her barrel swayed side to side as she walked, it’s heaviness brushing against her legs. The key was to move with the inertia, allowing it to set her pace like a pendulum. She’d learned to keep her movements smooth and fluid, maintaining a gravid grace as the swirling weight rocked from side to side.
Gleaming walked about fifty feet before starting back. Amber watched to see if Gleaming veered off course at all, but Gleaming kept impressively straight, slow but sure, her hooves not dragging or dropping. She also kept an eye on Gleaming’s posture to see if she was slouching or compensating for pained muscles.
Gleaming stopped with a cocky grin. “What’cha think, coach? Am I good to play in the finals?”
Amber continued to study Gleaming for another moment, her eyes sweeping over the taller mare.
“You know,” Amber said. “I doubt there’s such a thing as an ideal pregnancy—”
Gleaming laughed.
“—but if there is…” Amber nodded. “You’re definitely having it. You’re one healthy mama-to-be.”
Gleaming beamed. “I plan to keep it that way.”
It was surreal for Amber. Most mares were drained from being pregnant, but Gleaming was thriving, actually becoming healthier as the weeks had gone by! Gleaming was brimming with energy, her eyes bright and sparkling, subtle waves of heat emanating off her. She hadn’t been this way four months ago, but over the course time she’d flourished, getting bigger and stronger almost in tandem with her foals.
And she still had another twenty weeks to go...
“C’mon.” Amber gestured to the leg press. “The sooner we get through your regimen, the sooner we can start your favorite part.”
Gleaming clambered onto the machine. “What kind of lotion you gonna spoil me with today?”
“Eucalyptus spearmint,” said Amber. “I’ve a feeling you’re really gonna like it, so I brought a few extra bottles for Wifey to rub you down with later. Can’t promise she’ll be as professional, though.”
Gleaming snickered. “I don’t think there’s been a time she’s pampered me that hasn’t led to sex. She just can’t seem to help herself.”
Amber smirked. “And I’m sure you’re totally innocent in the matter.”
Gleaming waggled her eyebrows. “Doesn’t that mean you’re an enabler?”
“...I like to think of it as performing a civil service.”
Later-
Gleaming adjusted herself on the Crystal Throne. She was in full regalia, crown and all, even a bit of makeup to accentuate her eyes and lips. She re-read the top page of the stack of papers she’d been given.
“Miss… Maudeline Pie, is it?” Gleaming said. “What can I do for you?”
Bowing before Gleaming was a slate-gray earth pony in a simple turquoise dress. Her mane was a faded shade of purple, and she wore matching eyeshadow to compliment her pale blue eyes.
“I was told I needed royal permission before travelling up the slopes of Mount Everhoof to explore the caverns there.” Maud’s voice was a flat alto, not even echoing in the large room. “I wish to study the permeation of dark magic in the rock formations for my dissertation in Rock Science.”
“Hi, Maud!”
Maud glanced over. She saw that Twilight and Rainbow were beside the throne, their smiling faces a contrast to her own stoic gaze.
“Princess Twilight. Rainbow Dash.” Maud’s face didn’t change so much as a millimeter. “I didn’t know you’d be here. How very nice to see you.”
Gleaming looked between the two parties. “You know each other?”
Gleaming’s eyes lit up. The name of the pink pony at her wedding. Finally, that’d been bugging her all week.
“Your armor...” Maud narrowed her eyes at Rainbow, her head tilting to the side. “Damarescus truesteel. Alpha-defense runes woven flawlessly into the metal. Few smiths can produce that level of work.”
Rainbow’s face was blank a few seconds. “Uh… yeah! Princess Celestia called in a favor from some old unicorn living near the base of Mount Canterhorn. Whipped it up for me in a flash.”
Maud’s eyes widened a fraction of a millimeter. “Grandmaster Ilya. I referenced his smelting techniques in my master’s thesis. I’m jealous.”
“What’re you doing up here on Hearth’s Warming Eve?” Twilight asked. “Shouldn’t you be back on family’s farm?”
Maud regarded her. “My train leaves in an hour.” She then turned her attention back to Gleaming. “What you’re holding is the preliminary paperwork for my excursion in the spring. I’ve been told it needs your signature to be approved. I’ll also need a guide to show me the entrance to the caverns.”
Gleaming leafed through the papers, taking note of the signatures on the forms. It seemed everypony before her had signed off on this.
“Those caverns are very dangerous, Miss Pie,” said Gleaming. “A team of scientists went up there to try and get readings two years ago, and only one of them made it back. As you yourself have said, the dark magic of Sombra still lingers in the rocks and crystals within the rockbed. The survivor was covered in blood when we found her.”
Twilight and Rainbow winced.
But Maud was undeterred. “I’ve spoken with this survivor myself. She told me her team underestimated the extent of the permeation, and thus didn’t bring adequate protection.”
Gleaming shook her head. “There is no adequate protection, Maud. Nothing save the Crystal Heart, or maybe the Elements of Harmony could—”
Maud reached into her saddlebags. She pulled out a pristine periwinkle gemstone shaped in the form of a teardrop, which flared upon meeting the open air. The energy was so strong it made everypony’s skin prickle.
Gleaming’s lips parted. “What the…”
“I visited my sister Pinkie in Ponyville some months back,” said Maud. “While there, she brought me to see the Tree of Harmony because she said it looked like a rock. I like rocks.”
Twilight and Rainbow gasped as their bodies flickered, echoes of their own holy light.
Maud watching her own reflection within the shining gem. “When I approached, the tree shook one of its branches, and this stone dropped to land at my hooves. Pinkie believed I was meant to have it, although it’s quite unusual for a rock to be self-aware. I can’t say for certain the same is true for trees.”
Maud held out the jewel to Twilight, who examined it while her lips moved in a string of silent spells.
“I’ve also conducted an analysis on the stone,” Maud said with no change in her tone. “It’s comprised of an alloy similar in composition to the Tree, and thus gives off an energy similar to the Elements of Harmony, albeit on a smaller scale. Pinkie also mentioned the stone ‘felt a lot like her Element’, so she decided to call it a ‘Tear of Laughter’.”
Gleaming sucked on her teeth. She didn’t need an advanced degree to know that this was the real deal. The gem’s energy like a lesser version of when Twilight or Rainbow activated their own power.
“And you believe that this gem will protect you while you venture up Mount Everhoof,” said Gleaming.
Maud met her eyes. “I do.”
Gleaming thought for a moment. If Maud kept the Tear on her at all times…
“Do you just have the one?” Gleaming asked.
In reply, Maud reached into her saddlebags again, and now produced a second gem. The intensity of the energy in the room immediately doubled.
“The Tree seemed to believe in overkill,” said Maud.
Gleaming tapped her chin. Judging by the readings the survivor had gotten, the amount of power here would be more enough to protect a pony even while in the mountain’s deepest depths.
But even still...
“I don’t take chances when it comes to the lives of others, Maud,” said Gleaming. “Violent dark magic aside, Mount Everhoof itself is incredibly treacherous. Lose your saddlebag from stumbling, misplace the gems in the snow, trip on a loose rock and fall down a crevasse... all ways to meet a cruel and lonely death. Are you willing to take a risk like that? For a simple study?”
Maud’s face remained stoic. She looked down at the floor, lips pressed in a thin line.
“I—”
“I’ll go up with her.”
Everyone turned as one to Rainbow.
“Hello? I’m a weather pony!” Rainbow flashed them a grin. “Did you forget what Ponyville is surrounded by? Treacherous-shmecherous, I’ll just fly us out of there if it starts to get bad! And as for the dark magic…”
Rainbow’s body shimmered. Glinting sigils appeared on her legs, her mane and tail shone bright, and her eyes and wings swirled like colorful prisms.
“Need I say more?”
Gleaming was silent. She looked between Rainbow and Maud, then over to Twilight. But Twilight’s face was neutral, betraying nothing and giving no comment.
Gleaming took a few more minutes to read through Maud’s documents. A clean physical, powerful earth pony magic, top marks in applied geomancy, and the completed forms from her academic advisors. There were excerpts from her published scientific journals, as well as a letter of recommendation from the Scholar’s Guild.
“What’ll you do with the data?” Gleaming asked. “You said you wanted to study the magic in the rock for your dissertation, but then what?”
“I believe the permeation of magic in the rockbed behaves similarly to radioactive material,” Maud said without pause. “If I can get an idea of its rate of decay, I can determine when it will drop to safe levels. Further study may also reveal a way to speed the process along.”
Well, that seemed innocent enough. Not to mention beneficial, if she figured it out that second part.
But in regards to Rainbow...
“Ser Rainbow Dash,” Gleaming said.
Rainbow perked up. “Princess?”
“You’ve sworn fealty to my sister.” Gleaming tilted her head at Twilight. “Your loyalty is to the Crown, but it’d be improper to give you an order in her presence. It’s up to her whether you can go.”
Twilight scrunched up her face. She fiddled with her peytral, her eyes flicking back and forth.
“I’m almost tempted to say I should go,” said Twilight. “If I didn't need to monitor the spells if I have on you, Gleaming, I’d be all over this! But I’m the only one who knows how to modify your transmogrification matrices...”
Maud agreed. “Family is important. Even more so than rocks.”
Twilight sighed. “I suppose Rainbow can help go. If nothing else, I’m sure Pinkie will feel better knowing Maud’s got somepony capable with.”
Rainbow saluted. “Dang straight! You can count on me!”
All heads now turned back to Gleaming, who still had her poker face.
“...These are my terms,” she said at last. “Maud, the Tears of Laughter will be fashioned into studded earrings you will wear at ALL times while on Mount Everhoof. You will eat with them on, you will sleep with them on, you will take a shit with them on. Are we clear?”
Maud nodded. “Crystal.”
“I’m giving you two weeks to scale the mountain, do your study, then come back down.” Gleaming summoned a quill and stamp with her cutie mark. “Meanwhile, Twilight, I want you to send a message to Princess Luna asking her to teach you how to craft summoning gems. If there’s a way to make the summoning from those things permanent, I want you to learn how.”
Twilight perked up. “Summoning gems? Ooh, I’ve never heard of those! That’d be perfect!”
Yeah, perfect if Rainbow and Maud kept them on their person. All Gleaming could think of was all the potential ways this little scheme could go haywire.
“Maud, you will stay with Rainbow at all times while on the mountain.” Gleaming flipped to the last page of the papers. “You’ll defer to her knowledge on weather, and you also agree to travel back down at ANY time she says. Go no deeper into the caves than you need, and if you can get your readings at the entrance, do it there.”
Maud remained impassive. “Understood.”
Gleaming signed the bottom line and stamped it. “Rainbow, I want you to have our cartographers show you the maps we have of Everhoof. I also want you to fly out and scout the mountain in your free time. Get familiar with the territory so you can put together a plan. Experienced or not, that mountain eats ponies alive.”
Rainbow cracked her neck. “Got it.”
Gleaming floated the papers to Maud with softer eyes. “If we can make the summoning gems, we can use them to instantly bring you both back to the castle in an emergency. Outside of that, the only way we’ll know something’s happened to you is if you don’t come back. And by then...“
Maud stared at the papers for a few seconds, her jaw set tight. “I appreciate your concern for my safety. I know there are risks, but the potential for understanding how shadow magic metamorphosizes rocks is worth it. I believe we might even be able to neutralize it.”
It sounded promising, Gleaming had to admit. With a breakthrough like this, another Sombra wouldn’t be able to channel hatred and fear through the Empire’s crystal network. One of the city’s greatest vulnerabilities would be defended.
Gleaming looked past Maud, her memories filled with jagged ebony spikes. Her horn ached for an instant, those foul barbs stuck to it...
“The mountain will be calmest in four months,” Gleaming said. “Make sure you come prepared.”
Maud curtsied. “Thank you, Highness.”
Gleaming smiled. “Have a Happy Hearth’s Warming.”
“Later, Maud!” Rainbow said. “And get ready to do some climbing!”
“Give Pinkie a hug for us!” said Twilight.
The smallest of smiles graced Maud’s lips. She turned and trotted away, the tall doors closing behind her with an echoing clack.
Gleaming immediately sighed. “How was that?”
Twilight giggled. “You’re still coming off as a little stern.”
Gleaming idly rubbed her belly. “That mountain is no joke, Twily. I had to make sure she knew what she’s getting into.”
Twilight looked out one of the north windows. You couldn’t see it from here thanks to the barrier, but about thirty miles past, the immense Mount Everhoof loomed over the entirety of the arctic wastes. “Have you ever climbed it?”
Gleaming nodded. “Once with a scouting patrol before the Empire returned, and again with Cady while we were exploring the area. Neither time was a picnic.”
“Hey, I’mma go catch the carto-guys,” Rainbow said. “See if I can talk to ‘em before they duck out for the night.”
Gleaming frowned. “I didn’t mean go do it now—”
But Rainbow was already gone. Twilight’s and Gleaming’s manes were ruffled by the displaced air, a colorful momentum tugging at them.
Twilight shook her head. “Probably gonna go check out Everhoof too...”
Gleaming stared after Rainbow a bit longer before turning to Twilight. “I’m surprised you didn’t speak out against her going.”
Twilight smoothed out her mane. “Rainbow’s been in sticky situations before. She knows how to handle herself.”
There was some downtime while waiting for the next petitioner. Gleaming had a tray of food brought to her while Twilight looked over the notes she’d been taking, the silence of the huge room pressing in on them.
“Thanks again for sitting in today,” Gleaming said in between bites. “It’s nice having you here.”
Twilight scratched something off her parchment. “I did say I’d help you and Cadance with your critics. This is as good a place to start as any.”
Gleaming slurped down a helping of jello salad. “I don’t know how good of a sample size you’ll get today. It’s been pretty slim pickings so far.”
Twilight looked around the throne room. It was decorated in festive colors with tinsel wrapped around the pillars in loose spirals. The lights of the castle were already on due to the sun setting early, giving the place a warm and comforting feel.
“Then I’ll just have to sit in on a few more sessions,” she said. “Preferably not on or around a holiday.”
A guardspony approached from the doorway.
“Your Majesties,” the guard bowed. “There are no other ponies waiting for an audience.”
Gleaming checked the clock. Normally she stayed for another half-hour, but she knew she’d just be sitting on her ass doing nothing.
“Court’s adjourned,” Gleaming said. She popped a chocolate cupcake into her mouth and hummed. “Mmmm, cream cheese frosting...”
Twilight rolled up her notes and yawned. “So, what do you want to do? Family dinner’s not for a few hours, and I don’t really have anything else going on ‘til then.”
Gleaming tilted her head back and forth. “How about I get an early second lunch, you give me a quick infusion, and then we could go do some last minute shopping? I keep meaning to get one more thing for Cady.”
Twilight perked up. “Just you and me for a few hours out on the town? Sounds fun!”
Gleaming cringed. “Well, you and me… and our mandatory guard escorts.”
Twilight’s smile faltered. “Erm, yeah… yaaaay…”
Gleaming sighed as she signalled for the guards to lock up. “Comes with the job, sis.”
Gleaming had always loved Hearth’s Warming. The excitement in the air, the build-up throughout the month, the merriment of ponies, the chance to see friends and family, it was all filled with a sense of energy and activity that made you feel giddy. No matter where Gleaming had been in her life, Hearth’s Warming had always been something she’d looked forward to, the whole month never failing to keep her spirits high.
Hearth’s Warming in the Crystal Empire didn’t feel quite the same, but it did have its own charm. The decorations and excitement were mostly similar—pine trees decorated with lights and ornaments, holly and ivy and mistletoe, the songs celebrating the unity of the three tribes, things like that. There were a few older decorations and customs that reminded you the Empire had been cursed for a millennium, but mostly the city had caught up to the times.
Gleaming could still do without the flugelhorns, though.
“Wish we didn’t have to wear all this.” Twilight motioned to her regalia, specifically her fancy shoes. “Keep thinking I’m gonna trip in these things.”
Gleaming laughed. “The instant I went mare, Cady insisted I wear them every time I went out. Took me a month before I finally got the hang of ‘em.”
They were currently in a department store. Gleaming wasn’t lying when she said she wanted to get one more gift for Cadance, but nothing really jumped out at her, so they were just wandering around at the moment with no real goal.
“Heh, this looks dapper.” Gleaming pulled a top hat off the rack and put it on. “Hmm, yes, I could go for a rousing game of bocce ball!”
Twilight giggled. “Bocce ball, you say? How positively sporting!”
Gleaming floated over a second top hat to Twilight. “This will look marvelous on you, my dear. Perhaps we should buy out their whole stock so we have the only ones!”
Twilight conjured up a monocle and bushy moustache. “Stock? Bah! I say we buy out the whole store! It’s the only way to do business!”
Gleaming pretended she was holding a brandy glass. “I say, let’s double the worker’s hours and halve their pay! We’ll make a killing!”
“We’ll start at once!” said Twilight.
The two of them broke out into laughter, which quickly turned genuine.
“I don’t think I even know a pony who wears top hats,” Twilight said, still chuckling. “Always thought they looked silly.”
Gleaming put the hats back. “I knew a guy in Canterlot that did every once in a blue moon. Fancy Pants was his name.”
Twilight made her monocle and moustache vanish with a poof! “Thank Celestia Dad never liked them. I don’t think I’d have been able to keep a straight face.”
Gleaming cringed. “Except Dad likes those stupid flat hats, remember? I keep telling him only stallions with thinning manes wear those, but he doesn’t listen! He once showed up to meet me at Canterlot Castle one time in one, and everypony thought he was going bald!”
Twilight grinned. “And with male pattern baldness being hereditary…”
Gleaming gave Twilight a flat look. “One of my friends got me a toupee for my birthday that year.”
Twilight burst out laughing.
The store they were in was packed. The glances and murmurs they got from passersby provided a low ambience that combined with the Hearth’s Warming songs playing over the sound system. Twilight and Gleaming were more or less used to the attention, so they ignored the stares while casually perusing the racks.
“I wouldn’t mind getting another gift for Rainbow,” Twilight said offhoof. “Problem though is that she always gets all the things she wants herself, and she’s really picky about the books she likes...”
Gleaming clicked her tongue. They’d just walked by the store’s book section, where a large stand had copies of the latest Daring Do book. “She’s an athlete, right? Why not get her something sporty?”
Twilight’s ears drooped. “That’s not really my expertise...”
Gleaming motioned for Twilight to follow. “C’mon.”
They made their way over to the sports section with their guards in tow. Having two princesses casually walking through a department store was a bit awkward, but they did try to be somewhat discreet about it. They didn’t have the herald with them this time, for instance.
The sports section was mostly dedicated to crystal and earth pony sports. Hoofball equipment was the most prominent selection: Knee pads, helmets, hoofballs, and the like. But other than that, the stock was pretty sparse.
“Let’s see…” Gleaming walked down the aisle. There was more general sports stuff here—weights, sweatbands, water bottles, and the like. “Rainbow’s in the Wonderbolt’s Reserve, right?”
Twilight trailed behind while looking at the shelves. “Yes, and they give her all kinds of equipment. Flight suits, hoodies, sweatpants, goggles, water bottles, wingbands, and more things I can’t think of. I swear she’s got another duffel bag of stuff every time she comes back from Wonderbolts HQ.”
Gleaming nodded. The army pretty much did the same thing with new recruits. “And I imagine the equipment has to be regulation.”
Twilight swished her tail. “You see my problem.”
Gleaming chuckled. “I suppose you could order them to allow Rainbow to wear whatever you give her. The Wonderbolts do report to the Crown.”
Twilight sneered at one of her golden shoes. “It’s been tempting a few times.”
Gleaming spent a few minutes looking through the store’s selection of equipment. There were plenty of things for casual athletics, but nothing that really screamed ‘sentimental gift for your marefriend’. It was a bit of a head scratcher.
“Well,” Gleaming said slowly. “We do have full access to the Empire’s armory. We can just requisition something if we wanna go that route...”
“Mmm...”
Gleaming turned to her. “But that’s not what you want.”
Twilight hung her head with a sigh. “I’m not sure what I want. I just know I want to get her something personal! Something special for us both!”
Gleaming gave the athletic section a perfunctory glance. “Guess that sweet pair of military-issue wingblades I was thinking of wouldn’t qualify.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “That can be your gift to her.”
Gleaming had been joking, but now that she thought about it... “Some training ones, maybe. I wouldn’t get her the real things without instruction. She could cut her own head off.”
Twilight rubbed her foreleg. “Now that you mention it, I’m not actually sure if she’s ever used any kind of weapon. She knows hoof-to-hoof, but she fights with her pegasus magic otherwise. Vortexes, windbursts, lightning attacks, stuff like that.”
Gleaming couldn’t help but laugh. “I suppose you don’t really need weapons when you can create a sonic rainboom at will.”
Twilight laughed as well. “Not really.”
Gleaming craned her neck to see if there was anything else that caught her eye. “Guess we struck out. Wanna go check another store?”
Twilight walked up beside her. “Wherever’s fine. I’m just happy being with you.”
“Aww.” Gleaming put a hoof around her. “Love you too, LSBFF.”
Twilight smiled as she felt Gleaming’s warm belly against her. “I really am the little sister again, aren’t I? You’re taller than me now.”
Gleaming did a double take. She hadn’t even noticed, but upon comparing, she realized now had just shy of an inch over Twilight. “So I am.”
Twilight didn’t seem to mind. “It felt weird looking down at you, anyways.”
They headed together for the store’s exit at a gentle pace. “You know what else is weird?” said Gleaming. “Now that we know that this growth is attributed to... you-know-what, it’s gotten me wondering how far it’s gonna go. I might wind up taller than I was as a stallion at this rate!”
Twilight considered that. Celestia had taught her how to monitor the spark within Gleaming, along with some ideas on how to nurture it. Beyond that, though...
“You very well might.” She watched Gleaming out the corner of her eye, feeling the waves of thick heat roll off her. “There’s no telling in what ways your powers will manifest, what order they’ll appear, or even when you’re getting close to the tipping point. You could be the weakest of us, the strongest, or somewhere in between.”
They walked out the doors together into the balmy evening. As they did, Gleaming paused to look up a moment into the darkening sky.
“Maybe you and Cady should start giving me three magic infusions a day,” she mused. “See if that speeds up the process.”
Twilight bit her lip. “You have seemed to have acclimated. And Cadance’s magic is still responding positively to the drain for whatever reason, so maybe..”
Gleaming started down the sidewalk. “I’ll run it past Talia next time I see her.”
The Market District was alive. Ponies, griffons, zebras, and hippogriffs alike were carrying gifts and boxes of all sizes, trotting quickly to and fro as they went from store to store. Mothers and fathers carried lists going through everything they still needed while chattering rapid fire to each other. Young stallions and mares moved purposefully, seeking out gifts for their families and special someponies. Merchants stood on street corners hawking their wares beside carolers, who sang in small groups over the noise of bustling crowds.
Twilight took note of the stores they passed. They’d already gone in a few with nothing really piquing their interest, and now they were starting to get into the fancier side of the market. The thinning crowd was the most notable indicator of this, although there were plenty of window shoppers gazing longingly at the pricey wares.
“Not too different from Canterlot, is it?” Twilight said. “Lots of clothing stores.”
Gleaming looked at her. “It’s funny. Cady and I walk through here sometimes when we’re homesick, and she’ll usually stop in a store or two along the way. All of a sudden, more and more of the stores around her started carrying more clothing for mares! I wonder why that might be?”
Twilight’s eyes went wide. “Are you serious?”
Gleaming gestured to the stores around them. “Three years ago, not even half this many stores were carrying clothes. Now look.”
The stores were smaller and more specialized. Prench names were common for some reason, along with unique, flowery-sounding names in ritzy font. Twilight couldn’t help but notice that a while some had outfits for both genders in their windows, many had only garments for mares.
Twilight sighed. “Desperate for bragging rights, I suppose. Does that mean all the stores we just visited are going to start doing that?”
Gleaming yawned. “Cady and I go to those places all the time. It’s only the more expensive stores that do it.”
Something about the topic made Twilight think back to the past. Growing up, their parents had never shopped at the expensive stores, even though they probably could have. They’d kept their shopping conservative, shying away from decadence and luxury and keeping Twilight and Gleaming from a life of excess.
“Mom and Dad tried hard not to spoil us, didn’t they?” Twilight realized.
Gleaming grunted. “When Mom was growing up, she went to school with a lot of lazy brats who got everything they wanted. Dad wasn’t exposed to it as much because he only came to Canterlot for college, but when they decided on kids, they swore theirs weren’t gonna be born with silver spoons in their mouths.”
Twilight wrinkled her brow. “When did they tell you this?”
“Around my wedding,” Gleaming said. “I asked if there was a secret to raising kids in a wealthy family, and they said, ‘love, trust, humility, stability, and hard work.’. Cady and I took the advice to heart.”
Twilight digested that. “So those are things you and Cadance think you should have as parents? Or what’s important to teach the kids?”
“Both.” Gleaming started chuckling as she felt a particularly strong pair of flutters near the ‘bottom’ of her womb. “Lead by example, and all that.”
Twilight cocked her head. “What’s funny?”
Gleaming shook her head, smiling. “Van and Evie just woke up. They’re kicking up a storm right now.”
Twilight gasped. “Oooh, oooh! Show me where!”
They stopped near the edge of a park area under some maple trees. Gleaming slipped off her brace and eased herself down as Twilight conjured up a blanket. She rolled her back half to the side to allow Twilight access to her undercarriage.
“Just past my bellybutton,” Gleaming said. “You’ll find ‘em.”
Twilight kicked off her fancy shoes. She crouched down in front of her sister’s enormous white belly, a part of her noting that its crest was level with Gleaming’s head while she was laying like this.
It wasn’t long before Twilight indeed felt the kicks of her niece and nephew, like pitter-patterings on a taut drum. “Awwww.” She stroked the spots. “Hey there, little peanuts…”
Gleaming felt a warm glow in her chest. “I’m not gonna lie, it’s gonna be hard to not spoil them. It might be easier with five, but the more I think about it, the happier I am that Mom and Dad are gonna be up here. They’ll keep Cady and me in line.”
Twilight looked at her. “Are you gonna tell the kids that you were the one that carried them?”
Gleaming folded her front legs. “Eventually. This probably won’t be my last long-term stint as a mare, so maybe then.”
Twilight stared at her.
“We want more kids,” Gleaming translated. “If Cady finds a way around Sombra’s curse a second time, I’ll probably be going another round at this. I don’t mind.”
Twilight gently ran her hoof along Gleaming’s barrel. “I’m curious. What’s been the hardest thing to get used to as a mare?”
Gleaming’s reply was immediate. “Pregnancy.”
Twilight snickered. “Besides that.”
Gleaming watched the crowds pass them by. “Probably my sense of identity. I’m still me on the inside, but when I look in the mirror, the pony I see isn’t who I expect. There’s always that split second of confusion before I remember, ‘Oh yeah, I’m a mare.’ Happens a lot when I first wake up.”
Twilight fiddled with the blanket’s edge. She wasn’t about to admit it, but she had the same disconnect every time they met up. “Does it bother you at all?”
Gleaming looked up at the maple trees. “It did at first. I didn’t want to accept it for a while, but then I went to the opposite extreme and became too accepting. I’m trying to settle on a middle ground now—instead of this being a replacement for my male identity, I want it to be an addition. Just another part of who I am as a whole.”
Twilight tongued the inside of her cheek. “So you don’t see yourself as strictly male or female? Is that what you’re saying?”
Gleaming chuckled. “I don’t know what I’m saying. Possibly something like that, or maybe I’m still off my rocker. You don’t have a paradigm shift at the drop of a hat.”
Twilight blushed. “I suppose not.”
They laid there for a few minutes in silence, enjoying both the weather and each other’s company. Twilight scooched so that she was side by side with Gleaming, and the two of them rested while listening to the sounds of ponies playing in the park.
“I wonder if the girls and I could use our power to fix Cadance,” Twilight said aloud. “Somehow extend our immunity of dark magic to her.”
Gleaming was indifferent. “You’re welcome to try, but this curse is like a magical cockroach. The Crystal Heart is anathema to the magic Sombra wielded, and even it can’t undo things.”
Twilight didn’t seem discouraged. “Celestia didn’t think the Elements of Harmony would be as powerful as the Crystal Heart against Sombra, either. But the Elements’ power has manifested in a new way, and the girls and I are stronger than ever. It might be worth a shot.”
Gleaming shrugged. “If Cady thinks there’s some merit to it. Maybe we can arrange an Element zapping.”
Twilight looked over at the stores on the other side of the park, squinting as she read their names. “Hey, what’s that store over there? The one with the funny name?”
Gleaming looked. “That’s Délices Pécheurs. They sell—”
A light bulb went off in Gleaming’s head.
“You know what?” Gleaming rose, her leg and chest muscles bulging. “I just thought of what to get Cady. You might find something there for Rainbow, too.”
Twilight gave her a blank look. “Really?”
Gleaming helped her up. “C’mon. Dinner’s in a half hour.”
Later-
Cadance walked at a brisk trot while carrying Spike on her back. The sun had already set, the moon and stars were out, and she looked at a clock in passing to see that it was ten past five.
“Hay with it.” Cadance’s horn glowed. “Hold on, Spike.”
She felt his legs tighten around her barrel...
FLASH!
An instant later, they were in the private dining room. They saw that Gleaming, Twilight, Rainbow, Velvet, and Night had just finished passing food around the table, their plates now loaded up.
“I’m here!” said Cadance. “Sorry, I had a lot of meetings to get through.”
“She’s not lying.” Spike hopped off her back and took his place beside Velvet. “Her brain would’ve fried if I hadn’t been taking notes.”
Cadance smiled. “Can I keep him, Twily? He’s a godsend.”
“Sorry,” Twilight mumbled through her potatoes. “I already called dibs.”
Gleaming patted the spot beside her. “I already served you up a plate, Cady.”
“Oh, thank you, hun.” Cadance gratefully sat down. “I didn’t even have a chance to eat lunch.”
“Meetings on Hearth’s Warming Eve?” Night asked. “I’d have thought ponies would be wanting to duck out early.”
Cadance chugged down a glass of water. “The meetings ended at one. I’ve been doing paperwork since then... which Spike also was a godsend in.”
Spike laughed. “I’m awesome, I know.”
Velvet put on some gems on Spike’s plate for him. “What kind of meetings? Gleaming was about to explain before you ported in.”
Cadance brushed her mane out of her face. “Batpony stuff, trade route stuff, Crystal Empire University stuff, specialist recruitment stuff… Got a lot of irons in the fire right now.”
Rainbow laughed. “Careful you don’t give yourself a burn.”
“Meh, it could be worse.” Cadance gave Gleaming a peck on the cheek. “I could have buns in the oven at the same time.”
Gleaming was already deep into her third plate scarfing like no tomorrow. She’d milked herself right after getting back from shopping, and expressing a liter and some change of milk meant she also needed to replenish her fluids. A separate cart of beverages was beside her carrying all kinds of fruit juices, and Gleaming was pausing every so often to chug down a glass before continuing her feast.
“How was Everhoof, Rainbow?” Twilight asked. “You’d said you’d flown out there for a look.”
Rainbow fluffed her wings. “Big, cold, and windy. The path the map guys showed me is completely snowed over, and I couldn’t see any other way up. I know it’ll be different in four months, but honestly, I’d rather just fly Maud up there.”
Cadance frowned. “What’s this, now?”
Twilight took a few minutes to tell Cadance about Maud and Rainbow’s expedition up the mountain. Cadance listened in silence, her frown never leaving her face.
“I don’t like it,” she said. “Even with those jewels, even with Rainbow escorting her, this doesn’t bode well. Ponies have died in those caverns.”
“That’sh what—ahem!” Gleaming swallowed her mouthful. “That’s what I told her. Still wanted to go, though.”
Cadance was silent. They’d been putting off another investigation ever since the incident, but they couldn’t procrastinate forever. They needed to figure out what was going on up there.
But doing it like this…
“I’ll support the decision, but I’d much rather you and your friends went up there first, Twilight. If you are immune to dark magic, you’re the most qualified to go.”
Twilight looked down at the floor. “Yeah…”
Rainbow put a wing around her. “Hey, chillax! It’s gonna be fine!”
Cadance leaned over to whisper in Gleaming’s ear. “Have Miss Pie sign waivers. I want it in writing she knows EXACTLY what she’s signing up for, no miscommunication. She doesn’t take a single step past the Empire until she does.”
“Got it.”
“So what’d you do today, Mom?” Spike asked Velvet.
Velvet speared a forkful of glazed carrots. “Wrapped the last of my gifts, explored the castle a bit, then worked on one of my manuscripts until dinner. Pretty low-key, all in all.”
Gleaming and Cadance looked at each other. Gleaming tilted her head at Velvet, but Cadance mouthed the word, ‘tomorrow’.
“Have you and Dad decided where to live yet?” Spike asked.
Velvet flattened her ears. “Your father’s being picky about it.”
“I wanna be able to stargaze,” Night said. “There aren’t spells to nullify light pollution here like there are in Canterlot, so I’d rather we build a new house outside the city limits.”
Cadance smacked her forehead. “I completely forgot Canterlot had those... We need to get those in place, too!”
Night winced. “You’ll need clearance from the Aerospace Guild for that. They’re the ones who maintain and monitor large-scale lux fields.”
Cadance wrote a note down on her napkin. “I’ll send a letter to Auntie. Hopefully, the Aerospace Guild is easier to work with than the Scholar’s Guild.”
“Tell them I can help establish the field myself if that’s what it takes,” Night added. “I know a fair deal about how they work.”
Velvet sighed. “Thank you, Cadance. You’ll be doing us a big favor.” She gave Night a look. “THEN you’ll be fine with being in the city?”
Night pretended to think for a moment. “I dunno, the ponies around here kinda smell funny...”
“I will mess up the calibrations on all your telescopes.”
Night paled. “Yes, dear. Anywhere in the city will be fine.”
A comfortable silence set in, the desire for food overcoming that for conversation. The sounds of telekinesis and clinking silverware was all that was heard, along with the crunch-crunch-crunch of Spike nomming his gemstones.
“What time are we doing presents tomorrow?” Twilight asked. “We usually get up around ten, right?”
Gleaming hummed as she emptied her bowl of prench onion soup. “I’ll be up at eight for breakfast. You all—burp—can sleep in, but brunch is at eleven, so...”
Twilight glanced to the side. “Nine, then?”
Gleaming shrugged. “We could always just open presents in the afternoon.”
“Heck, no!” said Spike.
Gleaming grinned. “Or maybe even in the evening!”
“Noooooooooooooo!”
“Evening it is!” said Twilight. “Sound good, Cadance?”
Cadance clapped her hooves. “We’ll start a new tradition!”
Spike folded his arms and pouted. “My sisters are buttheads.”
That got a collection of chuckles.
“Seriously though,” Gleaming said. “Nine should be an okay time. Just make sure you bring all your gifts up to the apartment. Mom, Dad, you good with that?”
Night and Velvet didn’t have any objections.
“I can do nine,” Rainbow said. “Will have to skip brunch, though. Gotta catch a train back home.”
Cadance nodded. “Your own family’s Hearth’s Warming?”
“Yep.” Rainbow looked out the window towards the gardens. “May parents live in Cloudsdale, so I’ll be up there for a few days.”
The rest of the dinner passed easily by. Twilight talked about her discussions with Talia, Night told them how his debate had gone, Cadance went more in-depth on plans for the batponies were going, and other things. The mention of batponies made Gleaming think about the news they’d learned at the Winter Revel about the changelings, but they hadn’t heard much of an update yet. Luna was still debriefing the exiled drone last they’d heard.
“Ahhh.” Velvet leaned back as she finished her dessert. “So, then! Are we just relaxing for the rest of the night?”
Gleaming looked up from her ice cream. “Unless you had something in mind.”
Velvet shook her head. “I’m fine with a board game or something.”
There was a general consensus at this.
“I’ll have to pass,” said Cadance. “I still have things to do in my office before I can relax.”
Gleaming hesitated. “How long?”
Cadance hung her head. “At least another few hours. I’ll come up if I get done early, but it’s already been a long day.I might just go straight to bed.”
Gleaming glanced at Velvet and Night, her lips pursed. “Do you mind if I help her? I can help knock out paperwork easily enough.”
“Me, too,” Twilight said. “I can help interpret any legalese—”
“No,” Cadance said in a brusque tone. “I’ll not have you two slogging through my workload on Hearth’s Warming Eve. I’ll be fine.”
Twilight’s face fell. “You sure?”
“I’m sure.” Cadance helped herself to more sherbet. “Gleamy can check on me after she eats again at eight if I’m not done by then. Maybe bring me a snack or something while you’re at it.”
Gleaming nuzzled her. “Alright, but fair warning, if you’re not back in the apartment by eleven, I’m foalnapping you.”
Cadance barked out a short laugh. “That implies you’d be taking me against my will.”
Later-
It was quarter after ten when Cadance shambled into the royal apartments. A whole extra stack of paperwork had been brought to her while she’d been out at dinner, and it’d all been plagued with a confusing mix of legal jargon and badly-written proposals. She’d nearly pulled out her mane trying to figure out what the point of it all was, and in hindsight, she definitely wished she could’ve had help.
“Note to self,” Cadance grumbled. “Ignore stupid selfish pride.”
The faint scent of cocoa lingered in the air. Everything was dark save for the Hearth’s Warming tree, and presents of all sizes were piled high around it, a generous amount even for seven ponies. Gifts from Celestia and Luna had come a few days ago, their sun and moon wrapping setting them apart. Decorations she and Gleaming had collected were on the walls and tables.
Cadance noticed a dull glow beneath the bedroom door. Probably Gleaming reading in bed or something, it’d been a common activity for her the past week. The latest edition of Ogres and Oubliettes had come out recently, and it’d been cute to see Gleaming so excited as she went through the latest edition of the Player’s Handbook. She kept talking about how this new edition was ‘so much better than the last’, or something. Cadance had trouble following it all.
Yawning, Cadance opened the bedroom door—
“Happy Hearth’s Warming, babe~”
—holy mother of Luna.
The room was lit by candlelight. A dusting of pink lilac petals had been scattered around, and laying on the bed amidst the petals was an immaculate Gleaming. She was wearing pink maternity lingerie, silk no less, complete with a pink bow in her mane and a come hither look on her face.
“I felt bad you couldn’t join us, so I thought I’d give you one of your gifts early.” Gleaming magically closed the door behind Cadance. “What do you think?”
Gleaming was in a thong that strained against her wide hips and rump, a see-through bra that revealed her rosy nipples, and thigh-high socks that went up to her cutie mark. She was holding a sprig of lilac in her magic, sniffing it as she ran it along her neck and cheeks.
“Buh,” Cadance managed.
“Heh.” Gleaming raised her hoof. “Come here.”
Cadance’s hooves moved on their own. Her wings fanned out, a familiar feeling like a bubble of air rising inside her. She got to the bed and crept forward to kneel before Gleaming.
“You…” Cadance wet her dry lips. “Oh my gosh…”
The dim light made Gleaming look like she was glowing. Her white coat was soft and plush, her thick, shiny mane spilling around her shoulders. Her blue eyes twinkled as she stroked her giant belly, full and warm with growing life.
“Like what you see?” she asked.
Cadance let out a tiny moan. She crept a little closer, eyes glued to her pregnant wife. She caught wind of a fresh, cool scent… spearmint, maybe?
Gleaming blushed from the hunger in Cadance’s eyes. “You really can’t get enough, can you? You’re always touching me, nuzzling me… taking me. I’m already so BIG, Cady, and I just keep getting bigger. Can you imagine how big I’ll be in four months?”
Cadance didn’t even realize she was inching closer. Gleaming’s sexy smile, her elegant neck, her muscled chest and legs, her enormous womb, her milky teats and juicy ass. Cadance nickered as she stopped only inches away, face flushed, all fatigue forgotten.
Gleaming stretched and arched her back. Her barrel jutted out farther, looking even larger than it already was. “You like seeing me with a big baby bump, don’t you? You like watching my body change, day after day, week after week. It makes you so horny you can’t think straight...”
Cadance whimpered. Gently, she touched her lips to Gleaming’s belly, planting kiss after tender kiss on its highest point. She ran her muzzle lower, feeling the smoothness of Gleaming’s stretched skin, her whimpers becoming drawn-out whines.
Gleaming’s voice was a sultry croon. “Do what you will with me, then… W-Worship—mmmhh—your fertile goddess...”
Cadance kissed Gleaming’s grand paunch over and over in slow, sensual smooches. Gleaming’s syrupy warmth washed over her, invigorating her, making her feel light as a feather. Every so often she’d nuzzle a spot where the foals were, and she’d press her cheek against the firm weight to murmur sweet nothings under her breath. The muted flutters made her heart soar, and without thinking she accessed her deepened magic reserves...
“Oh!” Gleaming’s eyes sparked with color. Magic poured into her for the third time that day to bubble up inside like a wellspring. “Ohhhhh, yesssss…”
Cadance licked and sucked Gleaming’s tummy, her wet, slick tongue punctuated by moist breaths. She was slow, making lazy methodical circles around Gleaming’s size, all the while gradually closing on her navel. Gleaming groaned low and deep, her tail already flagging, a thick, cloying scent rising from both of them. Her own reserves were becoming infused with divine power, yet she absorbed it all greedily, the fresh energy making her feel like she was flying...
Cadance admired Gleaming’s popped-out belly button. Once a cute little nub, it was now like a fat, underripe strawberry. Just breathing on it was enough to make Gleaming quiver, and she had to fight the urge to thrust her it in Cadance’s face—
Cadance darted forward. She licked every bit Gleaming’s navel before wrapping her lips around it proper. Gleaming’s breath caught in her throat, her eyes going huge, a loud, girly noise escaping her as Cadance suckled. Gleaming’s need grew stronger as Cadance licked between deep pulls, each one adding to the rising flames.
Cadance now pushed Gleaming onto her back. She never releasing Gleaming’s outie for a second, crouching over her as she kept suckling, her spread wings casting a protective shadow. They were both dripping like faucets, the smell of excited mare thick in the air, their scents fanned by their swishing tails.
Gleaming was purring. The electric stream of magic was coursing through her, empowering her, tiny sparks crackling in her eyes. A dull hunger was rising in her belly like an emptiness yearning to be filled, and Cadance felt much the same feeling, a coiled tightness building deep in her core, roaring at her to go faster… harder… DEEPER…
Cadance released Gleaming’s navel with a wet pop! She met Gleaming’s sparkling eyes, panting and flushed.
“You could almost fuck me with this thing.”
Gleaming groaned. Damn it all, another fetish added to the list...
“What a nice present...” Cadance’s voice grew husky. “Thank you, Honey. I’ll be sure to appreciate it...”
Gleaming cooed as Cadance rubbed her down, all the while still funneling magic into her. “Don’t—mmmh—don’t sprint t-to the finish line. Just—ohyes—e-enjoy this…”
Cadance wore a shark-like grin. “As my goddess commands.”
Cadance began kissing further up Gleaming’s body. She nibbled and tugged each one of Gleaming’s ribs, planting love bites on her ivory coat that showed the grooves of her teeth. Her exploring lips continued to move upward to linger on the hollow of Gleaming’s neck, pressing just enough that it was hard for Gleaming to breathe. Gleaming’s moans turned throaty, every new touch increasing that need, and she let out a sultry sigh, stroking Cadance’s head with her silky socks.
“Soempty...” Gleaming looked at her burgeoning stomach, like an overinflated medicine ball. Her magic reserves were expanding, growing from so much power. “Cady, please... more...”
Cadance kissed up the side of Gleaming’s head. She sucked the tip of Gleaming’s ear, her hard teeth grazing the sensitive flesh. Gleaming squeaked and shuddered, her inner walls clenching, already slippery and slick. It was taking more and more willpower to just lay there and let Cadance take her time, but she knew it’d make the payoff all the sweeter...
Cadance stepped over Gleaming, her wings spread like an angel of sex. She ground her marehood on Gleaming’s belly, matting Gleaming’s coat in warm splotches that made them both moan. The oiled skin yielded to Cadance’s weight, but only just, like a strong, firm mattress.
Then Cadance’s eyes fell on Gleaming’s horn. In a flash she wrapped her lips around it in a tight seal.
Gleaming’s squeal was music to Cadance’s ears. She pumped magic straight into Gleaming’s horn until Gleaming’s vision grew foggy, the slow burn turning into a bottle rocket. They held each other tight as the tension mounted, the ravenous fire gathering, the coiled tightness in their bellies rising notch after notch after notch—
Cadance let go. She cut off the magic and pulled back to step away with a cheeky grin. Gleaming was left a gasping, twitching mess, her brain caught in a traffic jam.
“Wh… What?!” Gleaming pounded the bed. “HEY!”
“Sorry.” Cadance stepped off the bed, moving around to its foot. “I can’t wait anymore.”
Gleaming couldn’t see what Cadance was doing with her belly was in the way, but before she could sit up, she was tugged to the bed’s edge until her legs dangled over.
Gleaming let out a yelp. “Cady, what—”
She suddenly felt Cadance’s breath on her crotch.
“...Oh.”
Cadance basked in Gleaming’s earthy scent. There was also that minty smell again, mixed with—eucalyptus, THAT’S what that was. Cadance took a moment to admire Gleaming’s see-through bra, only barely containing the mammaries within. Each of Gleaming’s breasts was as firm and squishy as Gleaming’s belly, and they were getting to such a size that they smooshed against each other.
“So big…” Cadance licked her lips, recalling the creamy taste. “So FULL...”
“Are you gonna lick me or not?!”
Cadance tore her eyes away to behold the drenched and drooling treasure just beneath.
“Lick you?” Cadance chuckled. “Oh no, sweetie. I’ve done enough of that...”
Cadance bent her head forward. She peeled back the petals of Gleaming’s flower with magic, the buzz of her own arcane field guiding her. She aligned herself on target, then before Gleaming could reply, she plunged her horn inside Gleaming’s pussy.
Gleaming howled. Her inner walls squeezed hard around Cadance’s horn, clamping down as the lost orgasm smashed into her like a wrecking ball. Fresh liquid heat raced through her, synapses firing like mad, muscles clenching and spasming with a gush of marecum.
Cadance went cross-eyed. The magnified sensations made her mouth fall open as she was enveloped by velvety softness. Her mind grew fuzzy, her fluted length now buzzing, and without her prompting, a thick, syrupy essence was drawn out of her horn to seep into Gleaming’s cervix—
ZING!
Gleaming’s eyes shone white. An inner light appeared within her belly that shone bright like a colorful prism. She felt something jolt inside her, then a great rumbling, a hot, hot warmth, and finally an intense spike of pressure. Gleaming’s saturated magic reserves began depleted at a rapid rate, flowing—no, feeding into the sensation. She cried out and thrust her paunch high, and seconds later her stomach throbbed, growing bigger… and bigger… and bigger…
Twilight’s spell kicked in with a loud gurgle. That familiar inflated feeling was in the background as Gleaming’s belly grew, its increased weight sinking further into the bed. Her supple skin glowed as it stretched, her navel rising higher and higher, swiftly swelling to the size of a golf ball. The foals kicked as they were jostled, their haven expanding from the sudden influx of power, and Gleaming’s swirling pregnant weight kept getting heavier and heavier as the seconds dragged on…
SNAP!
The sound of Gleaming’s bra startled Cadance. Weakly, she pulled her horn out and staggered to her hooves, feeling like she’d just run a marathon. But holy crap, well worth it for such an amazing ride. That’d been one of the best—
Her eyes fell on Gleaming.
“Uh…” Cadance rubbed her eyes, but the spectacle remained. “Gleamy?”
“Nggh,” came Gleaming’s tired voice. “Gimme a bit, hun. Need a sec after that one…”
Cadance couldn’t even see her top half from this angle. “Gleamy!” She ran around the bed. “Are you okay?!”
Gleaming gave her an odd look. “I’m... fine? Just been awhile since you’ve done that—oh, heh... was that snap my bra? It’s in your mane...”
“Gleamy,” Cadance said. “Look.”
Gleaming followed where she was pointing, but she couldn’t very well see with her ginormous belly in the way! Hmph, you’d have thought Cadance would’ve realized—
“GAH!” Gleaming flailed, the now-heavier mass throwing her balance off. She swayed before flopping over on her side. “WHAT THE?!”
Cadance grabbed her. “Hey! Heyheyheyheyheyhey. Look at me… I’m right here, okay? It’s alright.”
“The hell it’s alright!” Gleaming’s heart was racing. “What happened?! Why am I suddenly so much bigger?!”
Gleaming’s belly had swelled greatly. Where she’d looked full-term with triplets, she now looked closer to full-term with quads! The fluid mass felt warmer than ever, its heat spreading out to flow through her. She reached down and poked gingerly at it, and while its firmness and strength much the same, the flutters and wiggles felt somehow different...
“I’m casting the heartbeat spell Talia showed us,” she said at once.
Cadance bit her lip. “I—hmm… You... w-well, ugh... Alright.”
Gleaming chanted out the powerful spell. A moment later dots of light appeared one by one inside her… one… two… three… four… five…
Gleaming relaxed. If something had happened to one them—
Six.
...
…
...
Cadance and Gleaming stood there a full minute, counting and re-counting the little dots over and over.
“...Um,” said Gleaming.
“Talia and Twilight?” offered Cadance.
“Y-Yeah.” Gleaming’s voice was shaky. “Get the guards…”
“You really like keepin’ me on my hooves, don’tcha?” Talia eyed Gleaming’s freshly expanded womb, it's ivory size glinting with six dots. “Then again… this might explain some things.”
Twilight and Talia had arrived within minutes of their summoning, and were now examining Gleaming on the bed while Cadance looked on.
“Am I okay?” Gleaming fought to keep her voice level. “Are they okay?!”
“Calm.” Talia slipped on a stethoscope and placed it on Gleaming’s chest. “Breathe in for me, nice and deep... now let it out slow. Few more times... that’s it…”
“Okay, just so I’m following.” Twilight looked between Cadance and Gleaming. “You were engaging in intimacy when Cadance started giving you an infusion. You were caught up in the moment, and thus forgot to mention you’d already had two today.”
Gleaming cringed. “I-I know we talked about that earlier, but I didn’t really—”
Twilight held up a hoof. “So she started giving you magic, one thing led to another, and she started performing cornucoitus while giving you magic at the same time. Upon penetration, there was some kind of reaction that overwhelmed both of you, and when you came to…”
“Gleamy was like this.” Cadance rubbed her sore horn, a headache building behind her eyes. “And my reserves are totally drained.”
Twilight frowned. Without a word, she fired a quick burst of magic at Cadance.
“Oh!” Instantly Cadance felt the pressure lessen. “Ohhh, that’s much better. Thank you, Twilight.”
Twilight barely heard. She was already checking the matrices and failsafes of Gleaming’s spells.
Talia checked Gleaming’s pulse. “Tell me how ya feel right now. What seems different? Anything at all?”
Gleaming clicked her teeth. “I feel... warmer. More than usual, I mean. Not sick-warm or sweaty-warm, just… toasty. And heavier, obviously.”
“Hmm.” Talia produced some instruments from a saddlebag. The first was a thermometer, the second was a cone-like hollow instrument made of metal. “Is it the same kinda warmth you’ve felt since the infusions started?”
Gleaming nodded. “Only stronger.”
“Let’s cover all our bases, then.” Talia stuck the thermometer in Gleaming’s mouth, then the cone on Gleaming’s horn. “Now, I know you’re only thinkin’ about them kids of yours, but they’re not the priority right now. You’re the linchpin in all this, and if six heartbeats goin’ strong in there, that’s good enough for the time being.”
It took all of Gleaming’s willpower to not argue.
“Arcane threshold failsafe was fried,” Twilight muttered, half to herself. “No wonder, didn’t expect a magic surge to come from inside the body... Internal pressure parameters were exceeded and readjusted, that’s intended... Lactation spell’s fine, Appetite spell’s fine, Genderswap’s fine, all the respective spell matrices and their interlocking components are fine. Nothing looks even stressed aside from the one failsafe...”
“Check her arcana system,” Talia said. “See what shape that’s in.”
Gleaming felt Twilight ‘approaching’ her mind. She lowered her mental defenses and tried not to squirm.
“Well…” Twilight said after a time. “I definitely see some kind of activity. Her magic reserves show signs of rapid growth, but also... rapid depletion? The ley line path from her magic reserves to her abdomen is widened, so it’s pretty obvious where the magic went… hmph, also likely what it did.”
“But why?” Cadance asked. “What triggered it?”
Twilight chewed on her lip. “Let’s make sure everything’s stable before we ask that.”
Cadance’s ears drooped. “Sorry.”
Talia checked the thermometer. “Temp’s normal.” She next removed the cone-like device. “Redeposited ambrosiac aether saturation is—”
An unknown emotion flit past her face.
“Twilight,” said Talia. “You know that thing you told me you’ve started checking for this last week? The thing Celestia wrote ya about?”
Twilight’s eyes went wide. She stopped casting and instead focused in on the center of Gleaming’s chest. The light left her horn as she stared at something only she could see...
“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!” A huge formed on her face. “Gleamy!”
Gleaming cocked her head. “Eh?”
“You see something?” Talia asked Twilight.
“Look!” She conjured up an image of a tiny (but bright) spark like a pinprick of pure-white flame.
“This is what it looked like before…”
The spark swelled to the size of a blueberry.
“This is what it looks like now!” Twilight squee’d and danced in place. “Eeee-hee-hee! This is so exciting!”
It took a second for Cadance and Gleaming to get it. Was she referring to...
“I’ll be damned.” Talia now began casting spells of her own, chanting softly under her breath. Gleaming felt parts of her itch, each time accompanied by the icy blue of the doctor’s aura. “Lung capacity’s up… heart strength’s up… pulmonary rhythm and ventilation are steady… overall artery and vein integrities are intact… blood volume and oxygen capacity’s way up… crying out loud, girl! You’ve got the cardiovascular and respiratory systems of a damn triathlon runner!”
It took Gleaming a second to find her voice. “That’s… good?”
“Good?! That’s great!”Talia summoned an orb of light before Gleaming, which she moved back and forth to see if Gleaming could follow it. “Are you in any pain right now?”
Gleaming shook her head.
“Anything numb or tingly?”
Another shake.
“Feel lightheaded or woozy?”
More shaking.
“How’s your vagina feel?”
Gleaming blushed. “U-Um… okay? It’s not sore or anything.”
“No.” Talia trotted over and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I don’t want you doing ANYTHING right now. For shit’s sake, you look like you’re about to pass out.”
Cadance grit her teeth. “Forget me! Gleamy and the kids are more important right now—”
Talia gave her a GLARE. It was if a cockatrice and a basilisk combined their powers together, had had a bad day, then encountered their worst enemy in a dark alley.
“Eep.”
Talia brought the orb of light over to hover it in front of Cadance’s muzzle. She moved it back and forth, but Cadance’s eyes glazed over.
“I’mma be straight with you,” said Talia. “If my guess is right—and it usually is—you just tapped into one of Gleaming’s latent alicorn abilities. But seeing as she don’t got the magic to fuel it yet, the bulk of the power got pulled outta you. I don't mean to scare ya, but if you'd pulled this stunt any later in the pregnancy, you mighta put yourself into a coma.”
Cadance felt her skin prickle. “That spark Twilight showed… Was that...”
Talia nodded. “You got the devil's own luck. Not only’d you just find a potentially repeatable way around your sterility, you also mighta just put Gleaming on the fast track to wings. I’d say you’ve done enough for one night, and I don’t care if you throw me in the dungeon for saying so. Living Room. Couch. Now.”
Cadance didn’t even protest as Talia guided her out the door, the old doctor’s words echoing over and over in her mind.
“R-Repeatable…”
Gleaming scooched to the edge of the bed. Already she could feel the increased mass of her barrel, its hefty bulk buzzing and wiggling. Flutters and kicks tickled her as she made to stand, a helpless smile forming on her face.
Twilight furrowed her brow. “What?”
“They’re ALL awake,” Gleaming said, giggling. She heaved herself up with a grunt, the internal weight swirling around. “Feels like a storm of feathers—oh, geez… yep! Yep, there’s another one in there… yeesh, I feel like a whale... and here I was worried they might be cramped!”
From Twilight’s head-on perspective, Gleaming’s barrel was wider more than anything else. Her pear-shaped middle pushed well beyond her frame to conceal her generous hips while also bulging out below her knees. Even from a simple movement like getting up, her slow, sluggish weight impressed a powerful strength and inertia.
“Try taking a few steps forward,” said Twilight.
Gleaming rubbed her foreleg. “Can you put your field on me?”
Gleaming did some marching in place. She eased her hips back and forth, getting a sense for her warmer, BIGGERbaby bump. She took a few tentative steps, her corded legs tensing and flexing.
Twilight watched her like a hawk. “How’s it feel?”
Emboldened, Gleaming tried an easy trot. Months of practice had taught her the trick, so it was just a matter of rediscovering her center of balance. She half expected her girth to be swaying all over the place, but her own sturdiness surprised her.
“Like I just stuffed my face,” Gleaming said with a snort. “Then again, food weight is—oh, God… I’m gonna have to eat even more, aren’t I?!”
Twilight snickered. “Probably.”
Gleaming cursed. It wasn’t the weight gain that bothered her—it was the damn hunger pangs. They drove her nuts!
“At least we should still be good on breastmilk,” Gleaming grumbled. She waddled at a steadier pace, her thoughts a whirlwind. “Holy shit, Twily! Is this real?! Did I really just get pregnant with a SIXTH foal?!”
Twilight chuckled. “The correct term is ‘sextuplets’.”
Gleaming moved around faster, now almost at walking speed. “We’re gonna need to add to the nursery, get extra supplies, hire another nanny or two, find another crystaller, adjust the feeding schedules, eventually get another tutor… we need more of everything!”
Twilight nodded. “But at least you know what you need, right? You were already preparing for five, so what’s one more?”
That thought was... surprisingly sobering. Almost immediately, Gleaming’s thoughts slowed to form an orderly list that, to her relief, didn’t have any question marks.
“Of course I don’t mean to downplay things,” Twilight said quickly. “One more foal is one more foal, after all! But in terms of preparation, the difference between five and six seems negligible. You still have to do all the same things, right?”
Gleaming looked back at herself. Her line of sight was eclipsed by her own womb—a womb round and teeming with life. The muted wigglings had quieted down, her six little ones settling into their new spots.
“You may need to modify the stretching spells on my maternity brace,” she said.
Twilight laughed.
“Was that my spark you were looking at before?” A rush filled Gleaming’s chest. “Does that mean I did this? Could I do it again?!”
Twilight’s eyes fell on the six shining points of light. “Let’s wait until Talia comes back before I say more. She and I have been meeting all month to talk about her theories. Granted, this instance discredits a lot of those theories, but it supports her main one.”
I didn’t surprise Gleaming to hear Talia and Twilight had been working and comparing notes. “Her main one?”
Twilight tilted her head at the door. “Let’s have her explain it.”
“How considerate.” Talia hobbled back in with a yawn. “Twilight, do me a favor and never lose them manners of yours. They’ll serve ya well in the years to come.”
Gleaming noticed that Talia was alone. “Where’s Cady?”
“Asleep on the couch,” Talia replied. “Leave her be. She needs it.”
Gleaming pursed her lips. “Is she okay?”
“She will be.” Talia motioned for Gleaming to keep walking so she could see. “Poor girl's plum exhausted, is all. You nearly tapped her dry of all she had.”
Gleaming had had a feeling Cadance was more tired than she’d been letting on. “So I did do this.”
Twilight patted her shoulder. “One thing at a time.”
Gleaming sighed. She kept walking around for another minute to get the hang of how the new weight moved with her. Gravid, thick, and prominent, her belly was nothing short of awe-inspiring. The more substantial weight around her middle was considerable, billowing outward in a warm, fertile sphere. The change was definitely going to turn some heads.
“Heh, you got bigger, but more wider.” Talia smirked. “Make sure you have the clearance for doorways, else ya might get stuck!”
Gleaming blew a raspberry at her.
“Alright, I’m satisfied.” Talia cracked her neck with a muted pop! “Let’s have a look at that new foal of yours. Twilight, can you teleport down to my lab real quick?”
“What do you need?” Twilight asked.
“The beam scale right by the window,” Talia said. “It shouldn’t be—”
FLASH!
Half a second later…
FLASH!
“What else?” Twilight stepped off the beam scale.
Talia blinked several times. “Er… Gleaming’s file. It’s in my left desk drawer. And the ultrasound machine on wheels by the culture shelves! S’under a clear plastic sheet, I think.”
FLASH!
“Hot damn, she’s handy,” Talia muttered.
Gleaming elbowed her. “Our whole family’s got a knack for teleporting. Don't worry, I won't be getting stuck anywhere.”
“Guess not…”
FLASH!
When Twilight reappeared, she had a manila file under her wing, and her hoof on a familiar-looking machine with a monitor on it.
“Bully.” Talia bade Twilight wheel the machine over while Gleaming stepped onto the scale. “Now, let’s start by weighing ya. Obviously there’s another baby, but I’m hoping there’s also a larger uterus, more blood and dermal tissue, amniotic fluid, hopefully another placenta and richer uterine lining…”
Gleaming stepped on to the machine. She immediately noticed that Talia had to move the main weight over a good deal more to the right than the last time.
Talia took the file from Twilight and flipped through it. “Looks like you’ve gained about… yup, twenty-three pounds. I’ll bet you’re feelin’ it, too.”
Gleaming stood up as straight as she could, her belly bouncing. “You know? Not so much! I could probably fit a few more in there if I wanted.”
Twilight and Talia exchanged a look.
“Whoa, whoa!” Gleaming waved her hooves. “Learn to take a joke! Jeez…”
Talia was stone-faced. “How’s your back feel? Gettin’ achy at all?”
Gleaming gave her a dull look. “I said I’m fine. Really.”
Truth be told, Gleaming felt better than fine. She did feel the increased weight, but the laden feeling was rather comfortable. Not to mention she was confident she could support it after hearing about her improved physique.
Talia had Gleaming lay back down while flicked some switches on the ultrasound. “Mmkay, so while the machine warms up…” She turned to the six glowing dots and ignited her horn. “Let’s figure out which is the new one.”
Gleaming raised an eyebrow. “How do we do that?”
Talia summoned a quill and parchment. “Like this.”
Gleaming felt a deep-seated tingle centered around one of the six dots that she recognized as a chronology scan. A second later, Talia muttered something and wrote down a figure. Her spell then moved to another of the dots, then a third… a fourth…
“There!” Talia pointed to the lowermost dot. “Chronological age of twenty minutes. HA! Gestative thaumic noise, my ass!”
Gleaming recalled Talia using that term the last time she’d used this spell. “Didn’t you say a while back—”
“I need to check something else.” Talia scanned the rest of the dots, writing down more numbers as she went. “YES! I bloomin’ knew it! Remember me saying that all of your foals all had the same chronological age, save one?”
Gleaming nodded. “Reidy was the outlier. You said he was showing up as sixteen weeks younger.”
“And he still is.” Talia slathered a stretch of Gleaming’s tummy with blue gel. “At first wrote it off as the spell messing up due to feedback. How could it not be? He’s at the same point in development as the others! How could that could that be if he’s sixteen weeks younger? How could he have even been conceived?”
Gleaming didn’t have an answer. It didn’t make any sense, unless...
"This here’s for all the chips.” Talia lifted up the ultrasound wand, eyes glinting. “If the foal with the twenty minute age doesn’t match the gender-race combo of any of your five kids, we’re on the right track. And if that foal also hashave similarly-developed organs and a body size in line with the others, we’re really, REALLY on the right track.”
The monitor flickered as Talia pressed the wand to the newest dot of light. There was a shifting of black, white, and gray before coming into focus, revealing the outline of a foal.
A curled-up little filly… with wings.
“Awwww…” Twilight cooed.
Talia wore a shit-eating grin. “I love it when I’m right.”
Gleaming’s world fell away to just the screen. She stared at her new daughter with wide eyes, watching those tiny, twitching wings. “I-Is… Is she…?”
Talia examined the screen as she moved the wand. “She’s got a placenta... a cord… organs are where they should be… heartbeat’s good… wing bone structure's alright... overall size seems right for thirty-two weeks… unless I’ve gone senile, that’s a healthy pegasus filly.”
The pieces all started to fall together. Azzy’s spa. Being alone with Cadance before the helpers came. The banter and escalation. Cadance ravishing her on the table, using her horn just like she had just now…
Talia checked the locations of other foals to make sure. “Your pega-boy’s over here, so we know Vanguard ain’t had a sex change... Reidite and Eventide are right beside him, annnnnd... your alicorn gals are still up by your ribs. You don’t have names for 'em yet, have ya?”
Gleaming heard enough of that to shake her head. “N-Not yet.”
“Mmm.” Talia looked around at things for another minute or so before switching off the screen. “Guess you can keep thinking about that while you figure out a name for your new girlie. She looks like a thirty-two week old fetus should near as I can tell, despite nowhere near being that old... Heh, seems the age old saying doesn’t apply to you, honey—you can indeed, get more pregnant!”
“Gleamy, this is important,” Twilight said. “Did anything like this happen sixteen weeks ago? Something you didn’t think to mention?”
Gleaming sank back into her pillow. “I... didn’t think anything of it at first. I doubt Cady did, either! She wasn’t drained by it at all….”
Talia poked Gleaming’s side. “Think about it. It wouldn’t take as much to make or sustain a sixteen week old fetus as it does a thirty-two week one. Why d’you think you eat more the bigger and taller you get?”
Gleaming had to admit that made sense. Maybe. “It happened at an underground spa on the edge of town…”
She recounted everything that’d happened: The things she and Cadance had said, the way she herself had felt, how Cadance had been acting. Gleaming was as thorough as possible, Talia and Twilight taking and sharing notes.
“So one thing right off the bat,” Talia said after Gleaming finished. “Do NOT let Cadance stick her horn in ya again. You’re not in control of this yet, and the energy’s gettin’ pulled outta her as a result. Same thing as before still applies—it’s likely the energy required for this is proportionate to the age of the foals you’re already pregnant with.”
Gleaming wet her lips. “Bigger foals, more energy. Got it... but what if—”
Twilight cut her off with a look. “Positive response to repeated drains or not, alicorns aren’t immune to magical exhaustion. Wait until you’re not pregnant to try this again, or you could really hurt Cadance.”
Gleaming gulped. “N-Never mind, then...”
There was a moment’s pause while Talia scratched her chin. “One thing I don’t get though is why Cadance sticking her horn in your vagoo would be the catalyst for this. Any thoughts, Twilight?”
Twilight was quiet. She looked up at the ceiling, wings twitching at her sides. She then looked all around the room, attention wandering as she stared off into nothing.
“Sombra’s curse functions by inhibiting the magical component of conception,” she said at last. “The physical components are all intact, it’s just they never receive the signal to combine and begin mitosis.”
“Which carries over no matter what form she takes,” Talia said. “Small wonder it ain’t contagious.”
Twilight worked her jaw into a pout. “Theoretically... if one were to provide a direct, sizeable injection of raw magic directly into the reproductive system, it might be able to overwhelm the residual hate energy and stimulate a zygote. It’d change what we thought we understood about Cadance’s condition, but… mayyyyyyybe? But it'd also hinge on there being a zygote in the womb to be stimulated, and that shouldn’t be possible while already pregnant!”
Talia sucked on her teeth. “I got an inkling. We’ve known for a while now that Gleaming absorbs Cadance’s gametes when she becomes a stallion and they have intercourse; we just haven’t known why. D’you think Gleaming’s body’s been storin’ it? For this superfetation ability?”
Twilight made a face. “I… suppose? Either that, or the conception works through parthenogenesis. Although that would mean the, ew... m-male gamete absorption… is the result of something else.”
Talia watched the curve of Gleaming’s belly rise and fall, like a living fuzzy mountain with a rosy top. “Makes me wonder if she’s storin’ it for any other reason.Good thing Cadance hasn’t made a habit out of pleasuring you with her horn, eh? You’d be a LOT more pregnant than you already are!”
Gleaming wasn’t sure if she found that disturbing or arousing.
Talia was silent for another moment. “Gleaming, have you recently had sex with any other ponies besides Cadance?”
Gleaming adjusted herself. “A few others, yes.”
“Of course she hasn’t—” Twilight did a double take. “WHAT?!”
Gleaming regarded her. “What? Cady and I had some group sex with our old friends from the Canterlot Guard. What’s the problem?”
“What’s the problem?!” Twilight’s eyes bugged out of her head. “If you can store genetic material for conception at ANY time, then your foals may not be Cadance’s! She may have just been a mana battery for you!”
Now that made Gleaming laugh. She put her hooves on her burgeoning middle, stroking it with her fetlocks. “Don’t worry, they’re hers.”
“How do you know?” Talia asked.
Gleaming shrugged. “I just do.”
Talia raised an eyebrow. She focused back on the glowing dots, her horn flashing with another spell. This one took much longer, the stretched out silence dragging on and on.
“Parental DNA strands are all the same,” Talia said at last. “Half yours, half Cadance’s. Guess you do know.”
Gleaming folded her hooves. “Told ya.”
Twilight pinned her ears against her head. “Gleamy…”
“Oh, relax.” Gleaming sat up, her mammoth, motherly shape resting heavy on her legs. “I love those guys, but not like that. They’re just friends… well, friends with benefits, I guess. The only kids I wanna have are with Cady.”
Talia was taking more notes on her parchment. “Did any of your friends ever insert their magical conduits in your vagina?”
Twilight groaned. “I’m not hearing thiiiiiiiiiiis…”
“No,” said Gleaming. “We just stuck to normal stuff. Oral, vaginal, a little bit of anal. Cady and I had separate quickies with two of them when we went to the Revel, although we had a real good time with the three of them when they came up here five months ago. Won’t be forgetting that any time soon...”
Talia noted that. “Five months ago was before you started receiving infusions, yes?”
Gleaming nodded. “Long before.”
“And your friends are all stallions? Did they ejaculate inside you?”
Gleaming laughed. “Many times.”
Twilight put her head in her hooves. “Sweet Celestia…”
“And nothing came of it?” Talia pressed. “None of the occurrences you’ve told me about when you’ve had sex with Cadance? How about absorbing their gametes? Did that happen?”
Gleaming fiddled with the bedsheets. “Not when they came up the first time, but when we went down for the Revel, yeah. The one friend was also able to have multiple orgasms without a break, and he only got more eager with each one! He didn’t slow down until after I’d had my own, and I figured that was good enough... so I stopped.”
Talia tilted her head. “Stopped what?”
Gleaming suddenly drew a blank. “Uhhhhh...”
Talia sat on her haunches, quill hovering in her magic. “Twilight, I need your input on this.”
Twilight was starting to look a little green. “I need my memory scrubbed…”
“After we’re done,” said Talia. “I need ya to focus.”
“Errrrrgh…” Twilight rubbed her temples. “According to the letters Celestia has sent me, a spark of ascension is nurtured by performing acts within the proper domain. The more significant the act, the more the spark develops. If these occurrences are all linked to Gleamy’s domain, the emotions and desires of the parties involved would serve as an activator, amplifier, enabler, inhibitor, et cetera. Her capabilities are tied to the progression of her spark, so increasing manifestations of passive abilities would be expected. Except these occurrences could be subtle, obvious, gradual, intermittent, ongoing, scaling, or any of the above.”
Gleaming knew that Domains were something all alicorns had. Celestia had light, Luna had darkness, Cadance had love, Twilight had friendship. Twilight and Cadance were still relatively new to their powers so they didn’t have the experience and depth Celestia and Luna had, but all things associated with an alicorn’s domain, they supposedly held mastery over.
“Would an example be Gleaming inherently knowing who sired her children?” Talia asked.
“Possibly,” Twilight admitted. “It’d certainly be in line with her other known passive abilities. But more importantly, Celestia told me a developing spark is quite volatile. In the right circumstances, an ascending alicorn can tap into an active ability—powerful manifestations that can define an entire aspect of their domain. What happened here tonight is likely an example.”
Talia turned back to Gleaming. “Twilight and I have flirted with the notion that the infusions are hastening your ascension. It’s good if they are, but it also means your magic's being put on a hair trigger. There’s no telling when you may do something on accident, so you need to start learnin’ control, quick like.”
Gleaming chuckled. “I don’t mean to downplay any of this, but almost sounds like you’re saying I’m going through alicorn puberty.”
“That’s not a bad way to put it.” Twilight met her sister’s eyes. “This is just the tip of the iceberg, Gleamy. Your spark is only going to get stronger… YOU’RE only going to get stronger. We may have an idea of your domain, but there’s no telling what you can do with it. The better grasp you have of your powers, the more acts you’ll be able to perform. And the more acts you perform, the faster your spark will mature. We pretty sure this process is gradual, but it seems to be happening faster than we thought.”
It took a moment for Gleaming to get her head around that. She rubbed the sides of her belly, the foals all settling down.
“You only have an idea of my domain? I’d have thought it pretty obvious.”
Twilight glanced at Gleaming’s cutie mark. “Fertility likely plays into it, but something that applies to only one gender strikes us as too specific. Domains are broad things that can encompass multiple topics, subjects, and ideals.”
“But it’s not our place to figure it out beyond that,” Talia cut in. “This is your journey, honey. You gotta discover this on your own.”
Gleaming glowered. Answers had led to more questions, all the harder to decipher. “Did you go through something like this, Twily?”
Twilight pawed at the ground. “Sort of. Friendship’s a very passive domain, so much that nopony knew that’s what it even was! I stumbled around a lot, did a lot of things out of order.”
Gleaming remembered that much. “Like becoming a princess before even knowing what you’re the princess of.”
Twilight’s wings fluttered at her sides. “Yeah, heh…”
Gleaming patted the spot beside her. “Did Celestia ever tell you before it happened? That she saw the spark in you?”
Twilight scooched up beside her. “SShe wanted to tell me about my potential, but she worried it’d cause too much pressure. She also knew I needed to go off on my own to flourish, but she was reluctant to do it for… well, a lot of reasons. It was a long time before she worked up the nerve to send me down to Ponyville.”
Gleaming scrunched up her face. “So how’d you know what to do?”
“I didn’t!” said Twilight. “I just did what came naturally. I didn’t even have any accidental expressions of my powers to help figure things out! You’re really lucky in that regard.”
Gleaming sighed. “In more ways than one, it seems.”
Twilight put a wing around her. “What do you mean?”
Gleaming looked away. “I don’t like that I almost hurt Cady.”
“Key word being 'almost',” said Talia. “She’ll be fine with some rest, so don’t go beating yourself up over it. You should be concentrating on that our suspicions just got confirmed on a heap of things! That alone’s a HUGE leg-up over your sister. As long as you're more careful from now on, I’d call this a win-win!”
Gleaming sucked on her teeth. The future just became more uncertain with a lot more challenges and objectives. Something told her the coming months wouldn’t be as low-key as she’d thought. “You said to learn control. How do I do that?”
Twilight smiled. “Our domains may be different, but our powers likely have overlap. I can run you through the gambit of mine to see if you have any response. From there, though, you’ll have to do some soul searching.”
Gleaming nuzzled her. “Oooh, that first part sounds like more quality time with my sister.”
"Hehe." Twilight turned to Talia. “Do you need to check anything else?”
Talia flipped through Gleaming’s file a final time. “There's one more big thing you both should know. The reading of Gleaming’s magic breakdown I took indicated her aether gland’s now producing two separate types—unicorn, and alicorn. It’s hard to say what the ratio is right now, but if I had to guess, I’d put it somewhere around 8:2.”
Twilight stiffened. “She’s producing alicorn magic on her own?!””
Talia floated over the metal cone to show them. “Before tonight, the breakdown in her reserves was ten percent infused alicorn magic, ninety percent unicorn magic. Take a look at what they say now.”
“SHHH!” Talia swatted Twilight. “Your other sister’s tryin’ to sleep!”
Twilight bowed her head. “Sorry, sorry-sorry… buuuuuuuuut ohmygosh this is so amazing!”
Gleaming had a thought. “Wait, does that mean we don’t have to keep doing the infusions?”
Talia didn’t answer right away. “...I’d say keep ‘em up for another six weeks, just to be safe. I suppose it’s your call after that, but I’d keep doing them until everything’s said and done.”
Gleaming decided that could be figured out later. “Well, if nothing else… I guess this explains why I feel warmer, doesn’t it?”
Talia laughed. “I almost wanna say it’s like an ignition system—the infusions have been priming your body, but tonight’s little episode turned the key. I’d imagine you’ll produce less and less unicorn magic moving forward... until you stops making any at all.”
Twilight tickled Gleaming with her wings. "And guess what thaaaaaaat meeaaaaaaaaaans~"
Talia yawned again as she put away her other instruments. “Well, I trust you'll take plenty notes, so I’ll show myself out. Have fun, you two.”
Gleaming frowned. “Wait, have fun? What are we—”
FLASH!
“—doing?”
The sheer cold slammed into Gleaming like a punch to the face. Her vision reasserted to behold a snowy cliffside, the expanse revealing the tundra below. The deafening winter silence pressed in on her ears as she sank into the deep powdery snow.
Twilight got to her hooves. “First off, do you feel cold at all right now?”
Gleaming looked around. “What the—where’d you take us?!”
“The Himaneighya mountains!” Twilight gestured to their right, where the colossal Mount Everhoof dominated the horizon. “Seven thousand feet up Mount Manechenjunga, to be precise."
Gleaming ran a hoof down her face. “It’s Hearth’s Warming Eve, Twily! Can’t we at least wait until tomorrow?”
“No.” Twilight poked her in the chest. “You’re a magical loose cannon right now. We need to get you under control.”
Grumping, Gleaming eased herself up with Twilight’s help. “Is this for squicking you out?”
Twilight swished her tail. “Do you feel cold or not?”
Gleaming kicked at a chunk of snow. “It’s not that bad out tonight.”
Gleaming stared. She cast a temperature spell of her own to verify Twilight’s claim.
“What the...”
Lightning crackled in Twilight’s eyes. “Celestia thought there might be some similarities in our abilities. Mom's fire affinity aside, I started being able to tolerate temperatures of either extreme within a month of moving to Ponyville.”
Gleaming was at a loss. It was one thing to hear Talia and Twilight spout a whole bunch of technical stuff, but this?
“Passive abilities like this are good outward indicators of your spark’s health,” Twilight went in. “The more of them you display, the farther along you are. The challenge comes in recognizing them.”
Gleaming snorted. “And here I thought I was plenty far along already.”
Twilight ignored that. “Certain passive abilities appear to be baseline for all alicorns: Immortality, the traits of all three tribes, heightened resilience, various immunities, rapid healing and regeneration, extraordinary magic capability, increased stature… the things most ponies think of. Many more are internal, so you may not even notice you’ve developed them until after the fact. Also, it’s not a set in stone rule, but the most noticeable physical effects tend to show up much later in a spark’s development.”
Gleaming watched Twilight’s breath float away in a swirling fog. “So the first things to show up are the most subtle? How does that make them good indicators?”
"I’m not finished.” Twilight gestured to their height difference. “Some baseline abilities vary in how strongly they manifest, to the point that they become obvious. There are also passive abilities exclusive to a few, or even just one of us, and those can be anything at all. Exclusive passive abilities usually tie into active ones, so if you do notice you’ve developed one, it’s likely going to build into something else.”
Gleaming tongued the inside of her cheek. Conjecture had been rampant tonight, but a lot of it made sense in context. Talia’s guess on that she was ‘banking’ the seed of her partners suddenly didn’t seem so far off. “What about active abilities?”
Twilight looked up at the stars. “You probably can guess the overlaps there. Luna and Celestia can both control the sun and the moon, Cadance and I can each look into a pony’s soul to see their relationships, things like that. It’s hard to say anything about yours just yet, but outside of a few notable instances, our active abilities are unique.”
A frigid wind blew through Gleaming’s mane. “I suppose…”
Twilight shook her head clear. “But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We’ve got a lot of work to do here, and I don’t wanna call it until we’ve made some progress! We shouldn’t waste any more time.”
“C’mon Twily, you can’t really expect us to get anything done tonight.” Gleaming gestured to herself. “I know I said I was fine, but that doesn’t mean I’m up for staying up late training in the mountains! I’m eight months pregnant! With SIX foals! I've got a whole hockey team inside me!"
"They'll be fine! Your resistances will extend to them while they're inside your body—"
"Do really want me to be sleep deprived right now?” Gleaming asked. “Even if I wasn’t pregnant, we can’t show up to open presents tomorrow exhausted! Mom and Dad will read us the Riot Act!“
Twilight’s reply was to grin like a shark.
Gleaming felt a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. "The last time I saw you with that look, I was picking cookie dough out of my mane for a week. What are you planning?"
Twilight's horn glowed. “Time Snap spell.”
The realization made her groan. “Oh, fuck me…”
“No thanks.” There was a loud crackling sound. Afterimages formed around Twilight and Gleaming for an instant, the air becoming thick and syrupy before clicking back to normal.
“I’m setting the spell to snap us back in an hour," Twilight said. "I can maintain it for thirty-seven cycles, so let’s get to it. Time for some practical application of alicorn magic.”
Gleaming threw a snowball at her.
Hearth’s Warming Day (Week 32)-
The next morning found a sleepy subdued Crystal Empire with almost empty streets. Even at nine a.m, many ponies’ homes were still dark, the lights only just beginning to turn on. Well, those that didn’t have children, anyways. The ones that did had been up long before, tired parents yawning as their kids ransack the gift pile. Sleep would come for them later, likely after brunch when the food coma set in.
Velvet and Night were the first to arrive at Gleaming and Cadance’s. In their magic floated a healthy assortment of gifts sorted out by coat color. Velvet was carrying most of them—all Night had was a single parcel with lavender wrapping paper.
Velvet eyed the lone package. “Set it down. You don’t have to keep carrying it.”
Night shrugged. “I’m fine.”
Velvet sighed and knocked on the door. “Suit yourself.”
The smell of cinnamon greeted them as Cadance opened the door. “Ha! I knew you’d both get here first! Happy Hearth’s Warming!”
“Happy Hearth’s Warming!” Velvet gave her daughter-in-law a hug. “Where should we put the gifts?”
“Anywhere by the tree’s finnnneee~” Cadance pranced to the kitchen while humming a tune. “Want a cinnamon roll? I just had the kitchens bring up a whole spread of goodies!”
Velvet smiled. “Sure!”
“Make it two!” Night called after her. He took his present over to the tree and gently—gently, set it on the floor.
thud
“Coming right up!” Cadance could still be heard humming from within the kitchen...
CRASH! Tinkle-tinkle...
“Cadance?!” Velvet said.
“I’m okay!” she said. “It was just a plate—”
CRASH-CRASH! Tinkle-tinkle-tinkle...
“...Annnnnnd two glasses. Did you want orange juice, by the way?”
Night and Velvet exchanged looks. Velvet was still carrying the presents, so Night went into the kitchen to help.
Velvet hadn’t known Cadance enjoyed Hearth’s Warming so much. She made a mental note of it as she focused on where to put her presents. There wasn’t a whole lot of room left under the tree, but that was because the presents weren’t organized at all!
“Hmph.” Velvet surveyed her prospects. “We could have this here, and that there. This is for Twily… this is for Spike… Cadance… Night… Night again… Rainbow Dash… Gleaming…”
Velvet was so focused she didn’t notice hoofsteps behind her, nor the gentle wave of warmth that washed over her.
“Trying to get all the presents under the tree.” Velvet pushed a stacked pile farther back to create an open space. “I swear, it’s like you just chucked all of these under here!”
Gleaming laughed. “Mom, turn around.”
Velvet rolled her eyes. “I’m just trying to—”
“I know,” Gleaming said. “Just turn around a sec.”
Velvet relented. She did as she was asked—
—and promptly dropped all the gifts.
“Surprise!” Gleaming stood at a three-quarter view, prime to show off her bigger, more pregnant belly. “Guess who’s getting a sixth grandchild?”
Velvet’s jaw hung slack.
“—been awhile since I’ve done a Mending spell,” Night said. He and Cadance emerged from the kitchen with rolls and glasses of juice. “Think it was—Velvet! Why’d you drop all the gifts?! What—”
His eyes fell on Gleaming.
“—uhhhhhhhhh…”
Cadance giggled. She sidled over to put a hoof on Gleaming’s middle.
“We made a little discovery last night…”
Knock, knock, knock!
“Gleamy, it’s us!” Twilight said from behind the door. “Are Mom and Dad there?”
“I wanna see!” came Spike’s muffled voice.
“I smell cinnamon rolls!” said Rainbow.
One Explanation Later-
“And that’s what happened,” said Gleaming.
Everypony was in the living room munching on snacks from a supersized breakfast platter. Gleaming was stretched out on the couch, the grand bulge of her womb impossible to ignore while Cadance stood behind preening like a peacock.
“That’s… quite the revelation,” Night managed. “I don’t know what to say.”
Gleaming smirked. “Too bad this isn’t a debate. I’d have finally beat you.”
“So you went up into the mountains last night to… what, again?” Velvet put a hoof behind her head. “I’m sorry, this is a lot to take in…”
“To see if we could figure out any of Gleaming’s other abilities,” Twilight said.
Velvet frowned. “All the way up in the mountains just for that? Really?”
Twilight gave her a tired look. “I was trying to be safe, alright?”
“Well, obviously you were, soNOW will you say what happened up there?!” said Rainbow. “You wouldn’t tell me last night!”
Twilight got a coy smile. “Gleamy?”
Gleaming tapped a hoof to her lips. “Who should we use?”
Twilight pushed Rainbow forward. “Her. She’s the most curious.”
“Wait, what?!”
Cadance winked at her. “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt... Probably.”
“Rainbow, what’s a thing or pony that you hate?” Gleaming asked. “Something that if you saw it right now, it’d make your blood boil. You’d just wanna smash to bits!”
Rainbow wet her lips. “W-Well… I, uh…”
Twilight leaned in and whispered something in her ear.
The effect was immediate. Rainbow’s nostrils flared, her lips curling back in a snarl.
“Yeah,” Rainbow spat. “That’ll do...”
“You don’t mind?” Twilight asked. “It’ll just be a construct, so you can pound it to bits if you want.”
A cruel grin crept up on Rainbow’s face. “Go for it.”
Twilight gestured for everypony to move back. Her horn sparked as her magic gathered in the center of the living room.
FLASH!
Where once had been nothing, there was now a serpent-like creature with feathers, bird-like talons, and VERY sharp teeth. Its beady eyes were alight with malice, and its snout was flecked with spittle and blood. It made an eerie chuffing sound as it laid eyes on Rainbow.
Rainbow made to leap at the serpent—
Zap!
—only to stop dead in her tracks. She stood from her crouch, still glaring, but not making any hostile moves.
…
…
…
“Erm…” Spike scratched his head. “Rainbow?”
Rainbow regarded him. “Sup?”
“What’s with the statue act?”
Rainbow looked back at the monster and sneered. “He’s... not worth the effort.”
Twilight couldn’t hold back her grin. “I don’t think everypony here has read the latest issue of Daring Do. Why don’t you explain who this is, Rainbow??”
Rainbow scoffed. “You guys seriously don’t know? This is Quetzalcoatl, the main villain of Daring Do and the Calendar of Doom. He’s this Grade-A scumbag that—”
Velvet covered her ears. “La-la-la-la-la!”
Rainbow blinked. “Uh...”
Night tilted his head at Velvet. “She hasn’t caught up yet.”
Rainbow chewed on her lip. “Without giving anything away then, Quetzalcoatl’s bad. Like, really, really,REALLY bad. He’s one of those dudes you just love to hate, you know? And he’s SUPER dangerous, so if you ever got the chance in real life and knew who he was, you would end him.”
Twilight nodded. “So why aren’t you?”
Rainbow blinked. She looked over at Gleaming, whose eyes were glinting with dim light.
“Ohhh.” Rainbow pointed. “This is that one thing Twilight can do, but never does 'cause she’s too chicken!”
“Hey!”
Gleaming chuckled. “Pacify. That’s what she and Cady call it.”
There was a murmur around the room.
Twilight dismissed the construct with a pop! “As most of you know, Cadance and I are able to even out volatile and extreme emotions as part of our domains. Aggression, hostility, zealousness, obsession, depression, euphoria.... We found last night that Gleaming can do it, too.”
Gleaming let her power fade. “Phew… it’s definitely not easy, though.”
Cadance rubbed her shoulders. “It’ll come with time.”
“I was half worried it’d be a lot of time snap cycles before we nailed something down, but it was only a few,” Twilight went on. “And now that she knows how to access her magic, it’s just a matter of practice.”
“Practicing what, though?” Night asked. “How is knowing how to use one ability supposed to provide her better control over all of this new magic? I get that this buildup in her reserves is making her prone to magic surges, but if it’s also speeding up the process, shouldn’t she be saving it?”
Twilight shrugged. “It’s not speeding it up THAT much. A few months, half a year, tops. The infusions are basically supplements now, and as Talia put it, the hardest part of all this was ‘priming the engine and turning the key’.”
Night pursed his lips. “Hmm.”
“There no lesson plan I can follow for all this, Dad,” said Gleaming. “Twily and Cady can help here and there, but the only way I’m gonna learn most of this is through trial and error.”
“AND listening to your gut,” Cadance added. “You’d be surprised how often those little urges and ideas prove right. If you get a strong feeling to do something, don’t sit on it.”
Gleaming laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind. But all my gut’s telling me right now is that the kids are hungry, so...” She took eight of the gooey cinnamon rolls from the platter and used magic to smush them all down to a bite-sized morsel.
Twilight’s skin prickled. Those rolls had each been the size of a grapefruit! “You’re still hungry? After everything you ate at breakfast?”
“That’s my secret, Twily.” Gleaming devoured the compressed pastries in a loud gulp. “I’m always hungry.”
Cadance smiled. “I got the biggest platter they had for a reason.”
Twilight watched dumbstruck as Gleaming attacked the platter without mercy. Muffins, toast, hash browns, eggs, hay bacon, sweets... all of it was funneled into her sister’s maw, many of the things compressed down like the rolls so she could eat faster. Gleaming’s belly gurgled and growled, throbbing more and more as each smushed bite became normal size in her stomach, but still she pressed on.
“I… suppose the last twelve hours have been pretty energy-intensive,” Twilight said. “In the throes of a growth spurt, no less…”
Gleaming patted her expanding paunch. “Plus that new mouth to feed.”
“Do we gotta wait until she’s done now?” Spike tapped his foot. “I wanna open up the presents!”
Velvet nuzzled him. “You’ve been patient long enough, sweetie. Go ahead and start.”
“Yesssss!”
“Wait! I call going first!” Cadance said. “Gleamy and I have a proposal for Night and Velvet.”
“Nooooo!”
Night and Velvet quirked their eyebrows.
Cadance came around the couch to sit down beside Gleaming’s head. “Do, erm... either of you know what a crystaller is?”
A pair of blank stares was her answer.
“I figured.” Cadance gestured out the window. “A crystaller is like a godfather or godmother, except the crystal ponies place a lot stronger emphasis on it. They’re present at a new foal’s crystalling, plays a role in the their education, and essentially serves as mentor to them. It’s a pretty big responsibility.”
Night and Velvet looked very thoughtful at this.
Cadance’s smile became forced. “Gleamy and I are obligated to honor the tradition, which would be fine… exceeeeeept tradition dictates there be a different crystaller for each foal. That means if a couple is blessed with twins, they’re expected to have two crystallers. If a couple winds up with sextuplets through shenanigans...”
“You need six crystallers,” Night finished. “Six separate ponies, each expected to play a significant role in the lives of one of your children.”
Rainbow winced. "Talk about a tough sell."
Cadance blushed. “We can’t ask just any old pony to do this. They need to be living in the Empire, they need to be someone we trust, and they need to be someone who can deal with being in the spotlight. You don’t have to answer right away, but what with you two moving here...”
Velvet and Night whispered some things between them.
“Which two would you have us take?” Velvet asked at last.
Gleaming swallowed her latest mouthful. “The alicorns. You’re the best choices, considering you've already raised two.”
“Technically, you’re not an alicorn yet—” said Twilight.
Gleaming shushed her with a pillow.
Night got a playful look in his eye. “But what if we don’t want the alicorns? Maybe we just want one of the normal ones. What if we want to mix and match—”
Velvet punched his arm.
“We understand,” she said to Gleaming. “Those two are going to have the most eyes on them, so you'll want to be most careful who you let into their lives. Our only concern is that if we’re expected to pay special attention to them, the other four will see it as it’s favoritism.”
Cadance’s ears drooped. “I can’t promise what they’ll think. They could be fine with Grandma and Grandpa spending more time with their sisters, or they could start to get jealous. Your guess is as good as ours.”
“There’s nothing simple about this.” Gleaming put a hoof on her belly. “We can’t guarantee anything.”
Velvet sighed. “Then I suppose it’ll be up to all of us to drive the point home. But you two better be as adamant about it as we are! We can’t be giving them mixed messages.”
“Kids will say whatever to each other, but as long as the grown-ups practice what they preach, the message will get through,” said Night. “Solidarity and consistency are what’ll win out.”
Cadance leaned forward. “Does… does that mean you’ll do it? You’ll both be crystallers?!”
Night rested his hoof on Velvet’s. “Yes, Cadance. We’ll do it. We’ll join your crystaller brigade.”
“YES!” Cadance sprang forward and hugged both of them. “Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!”
“NOW can we do presents?!” Spike demanded.
Gleaming smiled. “Tear into ‘em, Bud.”
He was over by the tree in an instant.
Subtly, Twilight came over beside Gleaming to whisper in her ear. "Not counting Mom and Dad, how many total crystallers have you gotten so far?”
“Shining! Twily!” Velvet called. “Don’t wander far! We’re having dinner soon as your father gets back!”
“We won’t!” Shining scampered off with Twilight towards an outcropping of rocks. “We’re just gonna go look for Smarty Pants!”
Velvet rolled her eyes. She turned her attention back to the bubbling stew she was tending to. “Never out of energy, those two…”
Shining and Twilight began their hunt by nosing around the giant rock pile. Er, giant to them, anyway. It probably wasn’t all that big to a grown-up.
“Of course she’d play hide and seek now!” Twilight searched all around the edges. “I told her not to wander off!”
Shining hid his grin. He’d seen where Twilight had ‘accidentally’ left the doll, of course. She played this game a lot. “I warned you to keep an eye on her.”
Twilight giggled. “I thought I was! She must’ve snuck away when we were playing around the tree.”
Shining feigned surprise. “Do you think she might still be over there?”
Twilight perked up. “Hey, yeah! She can’t have gone far!”
Shining bent into a crouch. “Race you there!”
Twilight smirked, then scampered off in a cloud of dust.
“Ack!” Shining took off after her. “Twily! You’re supposed to wait for my signal!”
“Nah-nah!” She blew a raspberry back at him. “Can’t catch meeeeee!”
It was something of a family secret that the Hollow Shades were a hidden gem to go camping. Nestled in the heart of an ancient pine forest, the valley played host to a wellspring of wild magic that’d caused the trees to grow to titanic size. So large in fact, they stretched up to conceal the sun to leave the valley in perpetual twilight. It was tradition to visit once every summer to enjoy the cool weather and some family fun, taking in the mystic scenery while enjoying the time away.
Shining and Twilight ran to the massive pine tree they’d been playing around earlier. The gargantuan roots were partially exposed, snaking and twisting around to make a perfect playground. Shining and Twilight ducked and dodged around the edges of the obstacle course, and while Shining could’ve easily caught up with and surpassed her, it was only right for his baby sister to win once in awhile.
“There she is!” Twilight pointed beneath the arches of one of the smaller roots. She put on a burst of speed.
Shining did a double-take as he was left behind. “Whoa, Twily! Wait up!”
Twilight covered the last few dozen yards in a purple blur. The trunk of the ancient pine rose up a few scant feet away, looming high, high above. Said trunk was bigger around than their entire house, the far-off branches big and sturdy enough to support even the largest of creatures.
“HA!” Twilight grabbed Smarty Pants in a tacklehug. “Hehe, silly Smarty Pants! Did you get lost again?”
Twilight was so caught up she didn’t notice the thud… thud… thud… from above.
Shining shook his head as he caught up to his sister rolling on the ground. “So this is where she was hiding.”
Twilight held Smarty Pants by the scruff like a mother cat. “Yep!”
Thud… Thud… Thud…
Shining tilted his head. “C’mon. It’s almost time for dinner.”
Twilight’s ears drooped. “Awwww, I wanna play some more!”
“After dinner,” Shining said. “Mom’s gonna wonder where we went—”
THUD… THUD… THUD…
A downdraft hit their manes.
They both looked up...
WHOOMPH!
A mighty blast of air blew them back against the tree. A humongous something landed in behind them with a deafening CRASH, the sounds of snapping roots were deafening as the earth trembling, the smell of fresh earth and moss filling the air.
“Pony filth,” a booming, gravelly voice said. “You pollute this place every year with your stinking presence, and NOW, you even come near my lair?!”
Shining’s head was spinning. The back of his head where he’d hit on the tree felt wet. His vision was blurry, but he could just make out a purple blob beside him shaking and clutching his leg.
“Sh-Shiny…”
There was a terrible set of tremors. The dim sunlight was blotted out by a foul shadow as a putrid blast of air washed over them. Shining’s nostrils burned with smoke and sulfur, but all he could tell upon looking up was the thing was orange, and it was big.
“You won’t escape.” The space around them grew heavy with a loud click. “I’ll mount your charred bones at the entrance of this valley, insects! Let it serve as a warning to the rest of your disgusting kind!”
There was a terrible sound, like the inflating of a bellows—
ZZZRMMMMM!
The thing shrieked. Shining smelled sizzling flesh as something hit the ground with a meaty thud. The shadow spun around, its scythe-like tail slicing over their heads.
“SHINING!” he heard Mom yell. “TAKE TWILY AND RUN!”
Shining’s eyes refocused. He now saw what’d attacked them, but he had no idea what it was. It had claws the size of carts, scales the size of shields, and razor-sharp teeth like longswords. It had wings, but the right one was nothing but a freshly-bloodied stump.
“YOU DARE?!”The creature charged at Velvet, who Shining spotted in the direction they’d just come.
Velvet let loose another vorpal ray. This one’s aim was true, spiralling straight towards the creature’s neck...
The creature dodged, the ray sailing past to drill straight through the enormous tree. It responded by unleashing a cone of hellish fire point-blank in Velvet’s face. She didn’t even have time to dodge as the tsunami of flames engulfed her.
“MOM!” Shining tried to rise, but he fell back to the ground in a dizzy slump.
The creature swiped its tail again. Spines sharp enough to gut a pony lashed dangerously close to Shining and Twilight, the roots snapping and crunching around them. Thin splinters and chunks of wood battered them as the air grew hotter, the roots starting to catch aflame.
POW! A blast of force punched the creature square in the jaw. It squawked and staggered as the silhouette of a mare became visible in the flames.
“YOU DARE?!” Velvet charged out of the scorching blaze, her mane and tail like white brushfires. “I’LL HANG YOUR CARCASS FROM THE CANOPY!”
She rained down a flurry of blows so great it cracked the ground beneath. The creature reeled and fell flat on its belly, covering its head and wounded wing… but still continued to swipe its tail. The deadly limb grew closer and closer with each pass, now only inches from Shining and Twilight...
Velvet noticed. She punted the creature away and dashed past to the tree to her children. She grabbed Shining and Twilight in her aura and galloped away at breakneck speed.
The creature roared. It smashed its fists into the ground, causing a tremor that sent Velvet stumbling and sprawling.
“DIE!” The creature pounced, intending on crushing all three of them with its bulk...
FLASH!
...but it never landed. Instead it hung suspended in the air, it’s multi-ton weight enshrouded in a blue aura.
“Excuse me,” a cold voice said. “That’s my family you’re assaulting.”
Shining felt a chill. A sudden, powerful magic washed over him like an arcane wellspring. A familiar pony appeared beside them, his horn like a miniature star, staring down the massive beast with murder in his eyes.
Velvet gasped. “Honey!”
Night tightened his crushing grip on the creature. “Give me a few minutes with our friend here, won’t you? I’d like to demonstrate something we scientists call vivisection.”
“Y-You…” The creature gasped and wheezed. “WHAT?! How’d you... dispel my dimension lock?!”
Night narrowed his eyes. There was a shrill, humming whine, his horn glowing even brighter. Night’s ridiculous magic kept on building… Building… BUILDING… the oppressiveness of the air wavering…
SNAP!
It was like a curtain of glass fell away. The stifling feeling in the air shattered to tiny pieces, all returning to normal.
Night spat on the ground. “You’re next.”
Then he hurled the creature back, SLAMMING it back against the ancient tree with impossible force. The colossal tree swayed ominously like a willow in a strong breeze.
“Velvet, sweetie,” Night said in a calm voice. “I’m not going to hold back.”
Velvet hesitated. “Night…”
Night whirled on her. “GO!”
Velvet winced. She pulled Shining and Twilight close to teleport—
But then the world froze. Silence reigned for several seconds as Shining blinked and looked all around, still hovering in his mother’s stilled aura. Not a single thing around him moved so much as an inch, the entire world now like a painting.
“What the…” Shining said.
“Quite the interesting dream, nephew.”
There was a sound like swishing fabric. An opening in the air beside him split open wide, then wider still until it formed into the shape of a dark blue door. The crescent moon handle turned, and through it walked a familiar smiling face.
“The reports state your father is merely a reclusive astronomer.” Luna freed Shining and set him on the ground. “Nowhere have I heard anything of him holding such incredible power.”
Shining craned his head up—wayyyyyy up. Compared to a young colt, Luna was an absolute giant! He didn’t even come up to her knees! Thin, tall, and lithe, she radiated a soothing aura that sharpened his senses.
Shining squinted. “Is this…?”
“Forgive me, if I’d known this was an unpleasant memory, I’d have stopped it sooner.” Luna’s gaze lingered on the creature pinned to the tree. “Though I see now where you and your sister have inherited your gifts.”
Shining felt himself. It certainly didn’t feel like he was dreaming. “...I’d totally forgot all about this. I didn’t even have my cutie mark when it happened! Twily couldn’t have been more than four.”
Luna cocked her head to the side. “Tell me, how powerful is your father? To overpower an elder dragon’s dimension lock, let alone shatter it with such ease...”
Shining’s thoughts sobered. He looked at his father, an irate effigy of arcane might. The sight made Shining shudder even frozen in time.
“I don’t really know if I’m at liberty to say.”
Luna gave him a flat look. “Nephew.”
“He’s my dad!” Shining burst out. “You expect me to just go around blabbing his secrets?! He’s kept this quiet for a reason!”
“A quiet that’s not going to be kept anymore,” Luna replied with narrowed eyes. “Rest assured, I shall be speaking with both him and Celestia about this. What you have right now is the chance to do damage control. Take it, or leave it.”
Shining’s ears drooped. The withering glare of an annoyed grown-up drilled into him, Luna’s enormous form even more imposing. His perspective was such that he couldn’t tell if she just looked bigger, but it had the same effect either way.
There was a pause. Shining eyes flicked back and forth as he weighed his options, the edges of the dream growing blurry, then refocusing.
“...We call it the Dad Threshold,” he said.
Luna cocked her head. “Dad… Threshold?”
Shining groaned and rubbed his temples. “I’m so gonna get reamed for this… Look, the only other ponies that know about this are Mom, Twily, Spike, and recently Cady. We only ever talk about it amongst ourselves.”
Luna clucked her tongue. “Hence the name.”
Shining sat back on his haunches. “And I don’t actually know how powerful he is, so I can’t help you there. He may have gone off somewhere in his younger days to push his limits, but not that I’ve ever seen. He’s got the most control I’ve ever seen in a magic user, and he’s never been one to show off.”
The scene faded and reformed into another memory. Night, Velvet, Shining and Twilight were all together in a museum examining the ancient items on display. Velvet had a baby carrier on her back carrying an infant Spike, and both Shining and Twilight had their cutie marks.
“What I DO know is that power and control are pretty much all he has,” said Shining. “No finesse, no dexterity, no maintaining multiple spells at once. Most unicorns can keep up at least five or six spells at the same time, but I’ve only ever seen Dad manage two. That means if he’s holding multiple things in his telekinesis, it all gets affected or moved in the same way.”
The family got to the center exhibit: A display of ancient stone architecture. The dense slabs were each one over twelve feet high and six feet feet thick. Shining’s family walked among the stones to examine the weathered patterns carved upon them.
Suddenly, the fire alarm went off.
BWEEP-BWEEP-BWEEP-BWEEP-BWEEP
Twilight shrieked. Her aura erupted around her, bursts of wild magic shooting off her body that struck the tremendous slabs. There was an ominous rumbling as they wobbled and swayed.
Velvet snatched Memory-Shining and teleported with him and Spike. Night went to grab Twilight, but an errant bolt knocked his hoof away.
The immense stones fell towards them both...
ZING!
Night’s magic field had extended outward to encapsulate the entire room, halting everything. Only Twilight and Night were unaffected.
“D-Daddy…” Twilight whimpered with glowing eyes. “Help…”
Night focused on her. His tongue poked out his mouth as he enshrouded Twilight’s aura and brute forced it back into her. Little by little, her freak power surge died down...
...but Twilight’s aura wasn’t the only thing compressed.
“He’s found ways around his limits like letting go of things one thing at a time, but it takes all the concentration he has.” Shining nodded towards the scene. “Which he can’t always afford.”
Luna cringed. Where once there’d been a display of ancient monoliths were now fifty coconut-sized orbs. “Indeed.”
Twilight’s eyes returned to normal. “Daddy! Stop! The rocks—”
“Focus on me, Twily.” Night kept on muscling her magic down. “Find your center, just like I showed you. Breathe in… breathe out… In… good, now out... that’s it...”
“Imagine a new threat to Equestria’s has emerged,” said Shining. “A threat so terrible and powerful, it could destroy everything as we know it. Something along the lines of Discord, Tirek, Chrysalis, or Sombra.”
Luna’s eyes fell. There was one more villain on that list that went unsaid.
“We’ve got all kinds of defenses against those kinds of threats.” The memory froze, and Shining went over to stand beside his sister. “The Elements of Harmony, the Crystal Heart, the military, you, Celestia, Cady… even me. All are designed to defend our citizens while minimizing casualties and preventing collateral damage, and I’d say we’re successful for the most part.”
The memory returned back to the Hollow Shades. They were back in the clearing where the dragon had attacked, but where once was a grove among the pines...
“By the moon,” Luna whispered.
The land was blackened and scorched. The gargantuan trees were felled and snapped in two, the fallen logs sheared and blown to pony-sized bits. The uneven ground was littered with branches, ripped-up roots, and oversized pine needles, creating a landscape of ruin that stretched out for hundreds of yards. The acrid smell of sizzling mana was heavy in the air… as was the odor of entrails.
Shining surveyed the scene. “If all of our nation’s defenses were to fall... if a situation were ever to go so horribly wrong that Equestria might be no more... if there was no other option left to be able to stop the threat in question... THAT’S the Dad Threshold. A scenario so desperate and hopeless, that ANY solution’s acceptable, no matter the collateral damage.”
Shining turned around to Luna. “The closest we’ve ever got to the Dad Threshold was with Tirek. He seriously considered stepping in then, but when he heard Tirek was essentially an energy vampire, he reconsidered and got out of the country with Mom. If Tirek had gotten ahold of their magic on top of everything else…”
Luna swallowed hard. She’d seen a lot of things in her immortal life, but that incident still frightened her.
“Are you starting to see why my family hides this?” Shining asked. “Control or no control, who’d want to be neighbors with someone capable of this?For crying out loud, ponies are wary of Mom because of her fire affinity! Imagine what’d happen if they knew about my dad!”
Luna frowned. True, Shining sounded sincere, but the subtext was clear as day.
“That can’t be the only reason,” she said. “Your family’s not told anyone of this to my knowledge—not the authorities, not me, not my sister, nopony. Why?”
Shining drug a hoof in the dirt. “It’s like I said. If every single one of Equestria’s other defenses go down, we still have Dad. The enemy can’t prepare for something hidden.”
Luna pursed her lips. Granted, Equestria had faced a lot of threats and calamities lately, and with Shining and Twilight being on the front lines, it was understandable they’d want some kind of ace in the hole.
But even with that being the case…
“The dragon.” Luna’s gaze flicked to the severed tree stump. “Your father killed it?”
Shining looked away. “He never would say.”
Luna decided that was best left unanswered. “What of this?” She gestured to all around them. “Is this his greatest act of destruction?”
Shining snorted. “As if this wasn’t bad enough. He wasn’t even winded afterwards, Luna.”
Luna worked her jaw a few times. Where the sun hadn’t been visible before, it now shone down through a rent hole in the canopy. A hazy magical fog was rising up into the sky that was tinted the slightest bit of blue.
“I’ve heard reports of dragons having lairs inside our borders, but this is the first I’ve heard of one in the Hollow Shades.” Luna glanced at the severed wing. “Granted, ponies seldom come here in the first place…”
Shining idly drew a few shapes in the dirt. “Dad’s family has camped here every summer for over thirty years, and they never saw a trace of it. You’d think a fire-breather the size of a mansion would some leave evidence around....”
Luna shook her head clear. “We’ll discuss this further once I speak with your father. The choice of course is his, but I refuse to accept that his abilities are so specific or dangerous that they cannot be repurposed in some way. If I may be frank, I think his anxiety and paranoia has affected the rest of you.”
Shining kicked at a stone. “Do whatever you feel’s right, I guess.”
“Indeed I shall. But for now…” The memory faded, and suddenly they were on the edge of a serene lake. The moon watched over them as the stars twinkled bright, the distant bubbling of a waterfall tickling their ears. Glowing mushrooms and moon lilies waved in a warm breeze while lily pads drifted in the shallows. Mountains resembling the Canterhorn Valley dotted the horizon around them, their caps topped with snow.
“I’ve come to speak with you regarding our changeling guest,” Luna said. “The probing spells of my examiners found no trace of foreign influence on his psyche, so I believe that what he’s told us is true. We would now like to send him your way.”
Shining barely heard. He was too busy staring at his reflection in the lake.
“Uh...” Shining poked at the water. “Have I been a kid this whole time?”
Luna laughed. “If you wish to take another form, feel free. I’ve personally taken the opportunity to not be pregnant. Perhaps you might enjoy the same, hmm?”
Shining stared at his younger face. Innocent eyes blinked back at him that hadn’t yet been dulled by the weight of the world.
He tore his gaze away from the water. “What was that about the changeling?”
Luna laid on her stomach on the grass. “Ahhhh… Tia and I have decided to send him up to the Empire. He’ll be arriving on the morning train with Apogee. I’ve notified Mi Amore and Twilight Sparkle, as well.”
Shining grunted. “So we’re really using him as a guinea pig.”
Luna’s brow creased. “I don’t know whether Mi Amore can be to his kind like I am to the thestrals, but at the very least, we’ll have created a sustainable environment for young Thorax.”
Shining raised an eyebrow. “Thorax? Who—wait… the changeling?! He has a name?!”
Luna smiled. “He chose it with some help from Maria. He IS self-aware, after all.”
Shining exhaled out his nose. A self-aware changeling… stars preserve him...
Luna plucked a nearby lily. “I expect you and your charges will treat him well. Your feelings towards his race are understandable, but Thorax does not share the cruelty of his kin. He is a not a prisoner, dear nephew. He is a refugee.”
Shining looked like he was trying to swallow a lemon. “Errrrgh… you DO realize how hard this is gonna be for Cady and me, right?”
Luna’s eyes went soft. “You are strong and brave, and Mi Amore is kind and just. Together, you’ve persevered through challenges I thought impossible. If Mi Amore truly does hold the key to the changeling’s salvation, she’ll need her mate alongside her. You must be strong for her sake.”
Flashes of sickly neon green taunted Shining’s memories, echoes of a loopiness that’d once fogged his mind. He could still feel it… a rough, forked tongue on his neck, the sharp edges of a carapace nicking his inner thighs as she commanded him to...
Luna looked out over at the lake. “I’ve soothed your pain with all the power I have. Queen Chrysalis is many things, but I am the master of the subconscious, not she. You have my word that Thorax is free of her influence.”
Shining sneered. Pushing aside the shadows of the past wasn’t something one just did, damn it! It was all too easy to gnaw on a grudge like a dog on an old bone, and you know what? It felt good to do that sometimes! Let go of his bitterness? Ha! That was rich, coming from HER of all ponies! He had every right to resent the changelings, so who cared how he felt about it?! Toxic feelings like that only stood to corrupt alic—
Oh.
…
...
shit.
Shining felt something strange tickle his back. He looked, and now noticed that a pair of ghostly feathered wings adorned his sides. They spread out to their full span at his urging.
“...I can’t really afford to let dark feelings fester, can I?” he said.
Luna’s face was grim. “An alicorn’s most insidious foes are the ones we create in our minds. As you said earlier, we are blessed with the power to fight monsters. But if we’re not careful, we can become monsters ourselves. Our immortality gives those ghosts of the past ample time to corrupt us, dear nephew. Learn to purge yourself now... or fall, as I did.”
Shining looked up at the starry sky. The implications of his ascension had been in the back of his mind for weeks, but he hadn’t ever stopped to think—really think, about what it all meant. Power, immortality, abilities most ponies only dreamed about, influence and social status that lasted throughout history… this was the first time somepony had pointed out it all came with a warning label.
A hollow laugh escaped Shining. “We’re certainly held to a higher standard.”
Luna nodded. “Such is our fate.”
Shining grunted. Letting go of a persistent grudge wasn’t something that happened overnight, but he hadn’t gotten where he was in life by letting a challenge get the best of him. He was too stubborn for that.
“Tell me more about Thorax,” he said. “What else should I know about him?”
Luna patted the grass in front of her. “Please.”
Shining relented. He plopped down on his belly to mimic Luna’s sploot.
“Oh!” Shining stretched out further. “I can’t do this while awake!”
Luna smiled. “A reprieve from procreation.”
“Ahhhhh...” Shining rolled around in the grass like a puppy. “I’m okay with thisssss~”
Luna watched him roll around a moment before speaking again. “You should know that Thorax is younger than he looks. Changeling drones mature quickly in body, but their minds develop similarly to ours. He’s only about nine years old by my reckoning.”
Shining stopped rolling. He listened to Luna on his back, his little legs tucked in to his body.
“He doesn’t understand much about pony culture,” Luna went on. “He only knows as much as we’ve told him, but he’s a quick learner, and he’s comfortable following orders. I doubt he’ll give you much trouble.”
Shining glowered. “How’s Cady supposed to help him, exactly? I get that we think the changelings may be similar to the thestrals, but nopony’s told me HOW you cured them. I do remember escorting you to their part of Canterlot after you were purified years ago, but if you did anything then, I didn’t notice.”
Luna’s eyes widened. Gradually, her gaze drifted to the mountains, the air still and silent.
“I forgot you were with me when I saw...”
“The graveyards, yeah.” Shining rolled back onto his stomach. “I came in one evening to find you panicking because you couldn’t feel the thestrals in the Dreamrealm. I spent that whole day teleporting around with you in my shadow so we wouldn’t cause an uproar. When we finally got to the cemetery… well. That wasn’t a very good time for you.”
Luna looked down at the ground. “F-Forgive me, my memories from those weeks are hazy. The Elements of Harmony...”
Shining waved her off. “You don’t need to explain anything. You were so out of it you couldn’t even remember anyone’s name half the time.”
Luna decided not to comment. Instead she took a moment to gather her thoughts, her wings moving one at a time.
“An alicorn’s magic is… pervasive,” she said. “Regardless whether it’s a passive ability or active one, faint traces of our power always are left behind. It’s normally harmless, but in some unique cases, it can become… toxic.”
Shining clicked his teeth. “I see.”
Luna smoothed out a patch of grass. “I created the thestrals in the century before my fall. I was looking for volunteers to assist me in watching over the night, and once I’d gathered a suitably-sized group, I placed a slew of blessings upon all of them: Nocturnal tendencies, various sharpened senses, an affinity to dream magic, a more stealthy and thematic appearance, and most importantly: souls that no longer craved the light. I was quite lonely in those days, you see, and while I was indeed trying to make a better night patrol…”
Shining could see. “You wanted a community. Actual like-minded ponies to talk to, not just empty corridors and vacant streets.”
Luna hung her head. “Perhaps if I’d done it sooner… but the madness had already taken root in me. Evil infected my mind and soul before long, and in the end, Celestia was left to steward both the day and night. And with her magic being used to use the heavens month after month… decade after decade… century after century…”
“Her magic started seeping into your domain,” Shining finished. “Which… did what, exactly? Contaminated it?”
Luna tilted her head back and forth. “The imbalance wasn’t such that it affected most ponies, but the thestrals are more sensitive to such things. They need my magic to thrive, and with the darkness becoming diluted over time, their souls became more and more starved. It first manifested as malaise, but malaise then turned into apathy, then to depression, then listlessness, and finally…”
Shining had read the reports on that much. The condition had had a ninety-five percent mortality rate by the time Luna had returned. Those that survived rarely lived past forty. “So what was the solution?”
Luna waved her hoof, and the image of a batpony appeared. “Cleansing the night of Tia’s magic was a taxing matter by itself, but even that wasn’t enough. To rouse them, I had to give them prolonged exposure to a most concentrated form of my power I could. I began actively projecting my magic in an aura and letting it radiate from my very being, performing as many acts within my domain as I could in their presence. I exercised my abilities and manifested the power of dreams and darkness to the fullest extent, and that was finally what brought them back.”
The earth and waters pulsed. The air around them grew heavier, the stars growing brighter and clearer. The flowers bloomed and became more alive as a corona of violet shimmered around Luna.
“I did it here.” Her voice now held a faint echo. “I brought them all here when they slept, where my very presence was like a soothing balm to them. They were drawn to me like a magnet through the Dreamrealm, and miraculously, the majority of them stabilized in days. Within a few months, every single one of them was cured!”
Shining raised his eyebrows. “Only a few months?”
“Yes!” Luna said. “Even the worst cases recovered! I’d never seen anything like it!”
Shining sucked on his teeth. That was certainly impressive, but whether or not they should expect those kinds of results here…
Luna made the image shift. Instead of a batpony, it now showed a changeling drone. “Mi Amore’s powers have always been secondary to her knack for leadership, and she’s never developed them much to my knowledge. However, if she manages to get ‘over the hump’, as they say, we can see how Thorax responds. If Mi Amore feels she can still do more, we might be able to go from there. I know her magic is tied to the Crystal Heart, so perhaps she can use it to boost herself?”
The word ‘draining’ made Shining’s ears twitch. His thoughts drifted back to the past few weeks,
“Did you start rehabilitating the batponies here in the Dreamrealm while you were recovering yourself?” he asked. “While I was your bodyguard?”
Luna’s voice faltered. She rubbed her forearms with a small laugh. “I… e-erm, knew you’d have to report it to Tia…”
Shining pushed the annoyance of that aside for now. “I’ll make sure Cady starts slow, but I’ve got a hunch on something I wanna test out. This could have HUGE implications if the ch—Thorax responds somehow, so we’ll all have to meet up then so we can start making more plans.”
Luna’s face was blank. “Plans? Plans for what?”
Shining’s grin was like a wolf’s. “For getting more changelings, of course.”
The red-eye train to the Crystal Empire never had many passengers. A few businessponies and tradesmares, maybe a government official or two. The receiving platform almost never had anypony waiting when it arrived, either, so it was a bit peculiar to see a single curly-coated pegasus guard hanging around.
Rex hated the world at the moment. She’d had one of those annoying occurrences where you wake up forty-five minutes before your alarm is scheduled to go off, so she figured she may as well get going rather than wake up even more tired. It was still dark out, and well before the Canterlot train was scheduled to arrive, but that was fine. She actually liked a bit of quiet time before—
TWEEEEEEEEEEEET!
A train whistle sounded across the rolling hills. The snow-flecked southern train rounded the bend, bits of ice still flying off its roof and windows.
Rex sighed. “Of course.”
The loud HISS of steam accompanied the train’s full stop. The doors opening with a pleasant chime, and a grand total of seven passengers got off. The first six paid Rex no mind as they passed, yawning and muttering and bleary-eyed.
The last, however, was alert and well-groomed, her lunar armor glinting in the moonlight.
“First Lieutenant Apogee,” Rex said as the mare approached. “Welcome back... to—erm, is... that a schnauzer on your back?”
Apogee saluted, careful not to jostle the sleeping puppy. “Major Rex, ma’am! I bring urgent news from Princess Luna!”
She produced a scroll sealed with an embossed crescent moon and presented to Rex.
Rex did a double-take upon seeing the seal. “Who’s the message for?”
Apogee nudged the scroll closer. “To whomever received me in the Empire, ma’am.”
Sighing, Rex took the scroll. It glowed faintly at her touch, projecting a ghostly image of the Equestrian Coat of Arms.
Rex felt a chill. She opened the official message and read its contents...
…
…
...
“...That’s not a schnauzer,” she said.
Gleaming wasn’t sure when she woke. The sun wasn’t up yet, and all was dark and still. A warm presence against her back informed that Cadance was spooning with her, a long wing draped around them beneath the blankets. Her slow, soft breaths felt warm in Gleaming’s mane, their measure almost hypnotic.
It took Gleaming a second to realize she wasn’t a kid anymore. or male, for that matter. The slower sensations of her body faded back in like a wave, accompanied as always by a syrupy, deep-seated warmth. A lack of tickles in her abdomen informed her the kids were still asleep, but they’d likely be active before long.
Gleaming tried not to laugh. Not only did Cadance have her wing around her, she was hugging Gleaming like an oversized teddy bear. Her wife’s infamous sleep-snuggling had once again trapped her in its dreaded grip. It was a bit awkward with her not really being the big spoon anymore (less than half an inch separated them last they’d checked), but judging by how peacefully Cadance was sleeping, she didn’t likely care.
Silly, silly wife. Gleaming smiled. What am I going to do with you?
Excxept there wasn’t much Gleaming could do. Teleporting would wake Cadance up, as would any other efforts to get out of bed manually. About all Gleaming could do was either go back to sleep, lay there like a log, or do something to wake Sleeping Beauty.
She was mulling over her options when an abrupt ache made the decision for her.
O-Oh...
It flared up suddenly like a bubbly giddiness in her chest. In mere seconds, Gleaming’s sleepy mind was snapped awake and alert, overtaken by a familiar frazzled feeling.
What the… Gleaming reeled. REALLY?! I-I know we usually have sex in the morning, b-but...
She fidgeted in Cadance’s hug. Her heart beat faster, her mouth feeling strangely dry. The syrupy warmth in her belly was growing hotter, travelling lower, morphing into a newfound heat. Her tail was unable to twitch or flag between them, but she could already catch whiffs of her scent rising up from the covers.
Almost on its own, Gleaming’s horn glowed with familiar intent. Cadance’s limbs began to lengthen around Gleaming, her wings enveloping them entirely. Her organs shifted with a faint gurgle, followed by a slight creak from her bones adjusting. Her mane shortened as her muzzle squared out, and her breathing stuttered for a second before getting clearer. Cadance’s body swelled, her muscles thickening and bulking, her chest growing deep and broad. Before long she was a proper big spoon, surrounding Gleaming in a strong, feathery embrace.
Cadance’s privates were the last to change. Her clit became engorged, protruding more and more as it shifted size and shape. Her marehood became a heavy sack, the fat testes and internal systems switching. Her nuts finished forming right at the same time as her penis, which remained out of its nascent sheath, already half-hard and twitching.
It was amazing that Eros slept through the entire change. He merely hummed and pulled Gleaming closer, his sail-like wings caressing her. Although he did begon to rouse when Gleaming freed his dick to reposition it at her flower...
Gleaming licked her lips. She waited while Eros rose to full mast, his growing cock inching up to brush against her. She had NO idea why she was so sensitive right now, but Eros’ initial touch sent a delightful jolt up her spine. She held him steady as his head pressed more and more at her entrance, swelling longer... harder... thicker, growing to that huge size she’d come to love. She funneled more magic into his hefty balls, making them bloat bigger and fuller, hearing them churn as they made more and more seed..
Gleaming bit back a moan. Her nethers were spreading from the building pressure, so very eager to swallow their prize! Eros didn’t even have a full boner and he was already threatening to invade her, his glistening head leaking almost as much as her! She forced herself still and just laid there, panting, snuggled in his hunky grip while the anticipation built like a powder keg...
Eros woke right as his head popped in.
“!!!” His sharp inhale was like a hiss. “AH?”
Gleaming let out the moan she’d been holding in. She squeezed her muscles and sucked more of him inside.
Eros only had a second’s hesitation before thrusting properly. “S-Sneaky little…” He snorted as he sensed her emotions. “Holy—you are horny as HELL!”
Gleaming felt every inch of his cock enter her, and it merely spurred her on. She guided his hooves to her sextuplet-filled belly.
“Unnnggh…” Eros nickered and groped her, his dick sinking to the medial ring. “You just get bigger every dayyyyyyy…”
Only eight and a half months pregnant, and Gleaming looked full term with quads. Her latest growth spurt was only now ending, and she ate more and more with every meal, devouring portions that would feed a half a platoon. Her fertile womb was like a heated hill beneath the blankets, and she herself had grown yet another inch, every bit of her blooming with life and heat!
Eros rocked his hips with each thrust, his pushes accompanied by his wife’s sexy gasping and murring and mewling. His nostrils flared with the heady scent of healthy mare, and he nibbled and tugged on Gleaming ears, her sounds peppered with short squeaks.
The blankets did little to muffle their sounds. Eros moved back and forth with practiced ease, Gleaming’s tunnel easily molding to his dick. He barely even registered how big his balls were; all he cared about was the need. His thrusts gained strength,his medial ring slurping into her, his twitching cock coating her insides with slick pre.
So… f-full! Gleaming’s tongue lolled out her mouth. MORE!
Eros bit her mane and yanked. Gleaming yelled and arched her back as he hilted deep, fucking her again and again and again. He claimed her pregnant pussy without pause, his size a boiling rod of steel that fanned her desperate flames. She moved in time while clamping down with her powerful core, and soon his moans joined hers to shatter the morning silence.
Gleaming’s first peak blindsided her almost as much as the lust. Eros hit her g-spot with a particularly strong thrust, and her voice cracked as her walls spasmed and squirted all over Eros’ crotch. Sensing victory, Eros did it again and was rewarded with another stilted cry. He began pleasuring her sweet spot in a horny trance, their emotions caught in a loop, the springs inside them tightening all the faster. He fondled her belly in a rush, its firm size larger and more pregnant than almost any other he’d seen. Even laying down he could feel its weight, like an enormous medicine ball filled with foals… their foals. THEIRS.
Gleaming was awash in the sensations. Eros had found the rhythm and was dragging out her high, a second orgasm crashing right into the first. Thrust after thrust he spread her, feeding her clenching hunger and then some. Every twitch and small movement was bliss, but she wanted… no, needed more! She needed to feel him coat her walls… fill her with all he had!
She didn’t need to wait long. Her lewd noises were always what tipped him over the edge, and soon he fell out of the rhythm, his fat cockhead flaring, his volleyball-sized nuts gurgling. He caught Gleaming off-guard in a deep, moaning kiss, and with one final thrust—
Gleaming saw white. She felt it travelling up his thick shaft before he erupted within her, spurt after spurt of thick jizz only adding to the racing heat. Eros held her tighter, kissed her harder, his swollen balls unleashing load after load that just went on. She kissed him back with equal ardor, their tongues mingling as he thrust mightily, her thirsty tunnel soaking up his gift.
YES! Gleaming squeezed him as hard as she could. YES!
Eros couldn’t stop. There was so much built up, so… very... MUCH! The pent-up feeling consumed him as he clutched and pistoned with lusty strength. He held nothing back as his cock gushed in long spurts, their sweaty bodies entwined, the pressures staying at a peak. Gleaming took all he gave and more, their tongues dancing even as he violently jerked his hips, the smell of sweat and sex heavy in the air.
Every fresh load made Gleaming’s eyes swirl with color. Electric energy raced through her like liquid fire in her veins. Eros was getting rougher by the second, but she matched his zeal bit for bit, the bed rocking and trembling like a dingy in a storm. Gleaming’s third orgasm approached like a looming wave, building with each burst of seed that suffused her as her legs quivered and shook.
Eros was a stallion possessed. He was still going strong, jerking and humping and cumming like a geyser. Gleaming was getting warmer with each offering he gave, but that just him made her fuck her all the faster. Adrenaline and endorphins swam through him like a coital cocktail, his eyes uneven as he pushed on. He began sucking her horn in long pulls, his tongue swirling around and tracing her spiralling grooves.
“EROS!” Gleaming let out a girly squeal. “ERRRRROOOOOS~”
It went on like that for some time. Gleaming goaded him on the whole time, and he felt revitalized every time he threatened to come down, his nuts seemingly bottomless. He pushed himself to limits he didn’t even knew he had, and Gleaming never once stopped him, cradling and rubbing her huge belly alongside him, feeling the faint flutters and twitches within.
Neither of them knew how long it lasted, but it was long enough that the beginnings of dawn were starting to light the room when they came down.
Eros nuzzled and kissed Gleaming’s neck with a more tender touch. “Holy shit, babe…”
Gleaming shivered. Even after all that, the desire, the urge… “K-Keep, keep going…” She clutched the nape of his neck. “Don’t stop...”
Eros chuckled. “Yeah, yeah. I will. Gimme a sec.”
Gleaming bit her lip so hard it almost bled. Eros was still lodged inside her, hard as a diamond and shifting his hips the way she liked. “Th-This has to be hormones...”
“Noooooooo, y’think?” Eros just coasted for a bit, gliding smoothly in and out of her. “Ngggh… did Luna visit you?”
Gleaming gave a jerky nod. “A-Apogee’s bringing a friend…”
Eros squinted at the clock. They had about an hour and a half before they were scheduled to meet. An hour and a half to finish, get cleaned up, eat breakfast, and be downstairs ready to—
Gleaming’s long moan cut his thoughts short. “A-After… after I’m finished... milking you…” She rippled he inner muscles around him. “We’ll go into the b-bathroom, and you can milk me, okay?”
...Well, at least that took care of breakfast.
“Would’ve been nice if Princess Luna had given us forewarning.” Rex warily eyed the snoozing ‘puppy’ as they walked down the castle halls. The schnauzer was on a leash of some sort, but that was about as effective as a bridge made of dental floss. “I hope she’s at least notified Princess Cadance and Princess Gleaming.”
Apogee winced. “I hope so too, ma’am.”
Rex was used to dealing with stress. She’d worked with Gleaming and Cadance long enough to have her fair share of adventures, and she operated well under pressure. It wasn’t her place to question the choices of the princesses, only to carry out and enforce them within the scope of the law.
But cripes, man...
Rex signalled to a passing guard patrol. “You two! Stop!”
The pair of guards saluted. “Ma’am!”
“Send a message to Their Majesties.” Rex tilted her head at Apogee. “Tell them Princess Luna’s envoy has arrived early.”
“Right away!” The two ran off towards a flight of stairs.
Apogee had a thought upon watching the soldiers go. “Uh… permission to speak freely, Major?”
Rex glanced at her. “Go ahead.”
Apogee looked around. “This leads to the throne room, doesn’t it? Is that where we’re having this meeting?”
Rex nodded. “Why?”
Apogee ran her tongue along her fangs. “I’d advise against that, ma’am.”
Rex frowned. “Elaborate.”
Apogee indicated the puppy. “He’s, um... afraid of throne rooms.”
Rex just stared at her.
Apogee fidgeted in place. “The Noctis—Lieutenant-Colonel Maria, that is, has been monitoring his dreams. She told me he’s been suffering a recurring nightmare that takes place in a throne room. He’s had a nasty panic attacks in Canterlot because of it.”
Rex chewed on her lip. Pity or lack thereof aside, trying to have a discussion with a panicked anything didn’t make for a fun morning. “Did the Lieutenant-Colonel suggest an alternative?”
Apogee tapped the floor. “She’s said he’s most comfortable underground.”
Rex thought for a moment before getting an idea. “Then I think I know just the place.”
Whirrrrrr…
Gleaming was in the bathroom, front legs bent, her huge, heavy belly brushing the tile floor. Her head was resting on a floor pillow as a heavy-duty suction cup pumped the bounty of her left breast into a bucket-like container.
“Errrroooooooos…” She hiked her tail up higher as a pair of soft lips tended to her right breast. “Mmmmmrrrrhhhh…”
Eros slurped Gleaming’s milk like he was dying of thirst. Creamy and sweet, her taste was as addictive as the rest of her and then some. He took a break from her breast to instead bury his snout in her flower and drink her nectar.
Gleaming crooned low. The rush was indescribable, her eyes rolling into the back of her head as Eros’ slithering tongue explored every nook and cranny.
They both knew they needed to start getting ready soon. They had a busy day ahead of them like always, and much as they wished it, they couldn’t spent the whole morning having sex. They were important ponies with important jobs after all, and they were expected they keep to a strict schedule—
*kssshht* “Excuse me, your majesties? *kssshht*
The voice echoed around them like a legion. Eros sprang away from Gleaming in a clumsy backpedal before falling into the shower with a whinny.
Gleaming whipped around. “Honey!”
SH-PPP! The movement pulled the suction cup off.
“Shit!” Gleaming had to stopper the flow of milk pouring all over the floor. Once handled, she went over to see to Eros.
*kssshht* “This is Corporal Diamond Dust...” The voice was coming from a glowing crystal mounted on the wall. “Major Rex has asked me to inform you Princess Luna’s envoy has arrived ahead of schedule.” *kssshht*
Eros was dazed, but unhurt. Gleaming helped him up as they exchanged a dark look.
“Horseapples,” Gleaming whispered. “She doesn’t know about the changeling.”
“Bet she does now,” Eros muttered back. “Ugh, I forgot she was even meeting Apogee this morning. Damn! I hope she’s not freaking out.”
“She’s a soldier. She’ll handle it.” Gleaming stole a quick final kiss. “But we should make this up to her somehow, though.”
Eros nodded. “Agreed. We owe her for this.”
*kssshht* “Are you there, Your Majesties?” *kssshht*
Eros scowled at the crystal. “Duty calls.”
“I got it.” There was a few awkward seconds as Gleaming waddled over, but upon getting to the counter, she enshrouded the crystal in her magic and cleared her throat.
“Could you repeat that, Corporal?”
*kssshht* “Apologies for the interruption, ma’am... Major Rex ordered me to tell you Princess Luna’s envoy—”
There was a sound of another pony approaching.
“...What?” A brief pause. “Oh, um… Sergeant Beryl has an updated message, General. She’s asked to deliver it herself...”
There was a series of shuffles and crackles.
“Sergeant Beryl, ma’am,” a voice said. “Major Rex has taken the envoy down to the Silver Sanctum. She’s asked you and Princess Cadance to meet her there ASAP...” *kssshht*
Gleaming raised her eyebrows. She looked back at Eros, who mouthed, “The Silver Sanctum?”
Gleaming shrugged. Likely it had something to do with the changeling, but who knew?
Eros rolled his eyes. He nodded and switched on the shower sprays.
“Tell her we’ll be down in a half hour,” Gleaming said into the crystal. “Also, inform the Major that Princess Luna contacted us last night through the Dreamrealm. That’s all.”
*kssshht* “Understood...” *kssshht*
Gleaming sighed. Even with teleporting, they’d have to multitask to get ready in that short of time. Wouldn’t be the first time they’d had to scramble, though. They’d make it work.
Gleaming picked up the milker and brought it with her into the shower. Upon checking it, she saw it already contained three-quarters of a liter from one breast alone. And that one wasn’t even done! Her tits gotten so big that they now brushed against her thighs, and her output had jumped up a lot ever since getting pregnant with foal number six. Something told Gleaming that her output was just gonna keep climbing, too...
“Quite the interruption,” Gleaming turned on a few more of the nozzles to let hot water soon spray both of them from all sides.
Eros snorted. “We’re about to be parents, hun. Our lives are going to be nothing but interruptions.”
Gleaming chuckled. “What wonderful things we have on the horizon.”
The Silver Sanctum was both a mystery and an oddity. Located in the underground levels beneath the castle’s open arches, it was an unassuming room with a low ceiling, reflective floors, and silvery etchings on the walls like spiderwebs. Nopony could remember the room’s original purpose, nopony knew when exactly it’d been made, and since few ponies spent much time in the lower levels to begin with, not many even knew about it. It’d mostly just been used for storage, but nopony felt right having such a nice room go to waste, so it’d been refitted into an auxiliary meeting room of sorts.
Except it hadn’t been used since.
Rex’s eyes were glued to the still-sleeping schnauzer as she stood by the Sanctum’s exit. There’d been some refreshments brought, but she the only thing she was in the mood for was a stiff drink.
“I wish he’d chosen to be a kitten,” she said. “I like kittens.”
Apogee ate her sliced mangos in silence. She liked to gum them with her lips, sucking the juice out of each bite before taking another.
“When did he eat last?” Rex asked.
Apogee put down her fork. “I’m afraid he’s had nothing but ambient love ever since we found him. I’m keeping him asleep right now so he can save his energy.”
Rex furrowed her brow. “You’re keeping him asleep?”
Apogee shrugged. “All thestrals can keep willing creatures in the Dreamrealm for a few hours at a time. It comes naturally to us.”
Rex’s eyes strayed back to the puppy. “And how willing is he?”
Apogee followed her gaze. “He—”
FLASH!
“I got here as soon as I could!” said Twilight. “Where’s the changeling?!”
Apogee let out a high-pitched skree!
Spike toppled off Twilight’s back. “Gah! Twilight, I was still riding you!”
Rex’s hackles rose. “Princess Twilight?! What—”
“A soldier came and told me about the envoy! He said you’d brought them down here!” Twilight saw the puppy. “Oooh, Is that him?! Can I examine him? I brought my instruments!”
A series of metallic devices floated out of an arcane portal. She went about setting them up as Spike picked himself up off the floor.
“Treating me like luggage…” Spike brushed himself off with a scowl. “Oh, hey! Breakfast!”
It took Rex a second to realize. She’d told the guards to go get the princesses. She’d never specified which ones.
Rex ran a hoof down her face. “After a fashion...”
Gleaming did a double-take. “Good, you sent for Twilight. She should be here for this.”
“Hi, Gleaming!” Twilight said. “Hey, can you draw an Aldryshri array around the table for me?”
Gleaming cocked her head. “An Aldryshri array? What magic are you trying to detect?”
“His.” Twilight pointed at the puppy. “I wanna see if his transformation registers.”
Gleaming tensed upon seeing the little ball of fur. “Oh, jeez...”
“Erm…” Apogee dropped into a bow. “Your Highnesses—”
“None of that.” Cadance bade Apogee to rise. “Save it for when we’re in public.”
“These’re good!” Spike devoured another cheese danish in a few bites. “Gleam-Gleam, you should try ‘em!”
Gleaming waved him off. “I’ll wind up eating that whole spread if I get started, Bud. I’ll eat after this.”
Spike laughed. “I thought you needed to eat like, a whole city’s worth of food every few minutes.”
“Brat.” Gleaming accepted a piece of chalk from Twilight and began drawing. “Might wanna watch out, else I might eat you.”
Rex waved Cadance over. “I can take Spike back up to Princess Twilight’s quarters if he’s bothering you. He was brought along on accident.”
Cadance hadn’t even realized Spike was in the room. “Hmm, he does more for Twilight than you think, so it’d be better if he stayed. YOU, however, can go if you want. We’ll make this up to you later.”
Rex’s eyes flicked back and forth a moment. “I want a paid week of vacation starting Hearts and Hooves Day. No questions asked.”
Cadance considered that a moment. “Done.”
Rex immediately opened the door and zipped out in a flash.
Apogee clicked her teeth as she watched Twilight and Gleaming set up the instruments. She wasn’t sure what was a greater shock: having three of her nation’s rulers spontaneously appear out of nowhere, or the changes in Gleaming from just three weeks prior. She was taller, she looked stronger, the colors of her coat and mane were brighter, and her belly was much,MUCH bigger! Her maternity brace snugly enveloped her bulbous bump, and the bra she had on was the biggest she’d ever seen!
“I-If I may...” Apogee swallowed hard. “The Dark Lady has asked that we address the primary reason for my visit before moving on to other matters. There’s much we need to discuss regarding the B.R.E.A.S.T.S. campaign.”
Spike chortled into his juice.
Gleaming didn’t even look up. “Cady, did you grab the file?”
“Yep!” Cadance produced a thick navy folder with illustrations of bat wings.
Apogee quirked an eyebrow. “What’s that?”
“Latest progress report delivered to us by our project leads,” Cadance floated it over to Apogee. “Everything we’ve done so far is in there: names and info of those on our end, details of the hospital construction, plans for future expansions, office locations for new staff, all that stuff.”
Apogee skimmed the folder’s contents. The information was surprisingly detailed, containing all Cadance had just said and more. It seemed communications between Canterlot and the Empire were moving forward on several fronts already.
“This... makes my job a LOT easier.” Apogee handled the folder with considerably more care. “Although, I’m not seeing the plans for volunteers to travel down to Canterlot to be artificially inseminated. Are you aware the mistress has already arranged transportation and accommodations for the volunteers?”
Cadance resisted the urge to facehoof. She knew they’d been forgetting something.
“Once the process is complete and pregnancy’s been confirmed, the mares will return to continue their care here in the Empire.” Apogee paused as she re-read a page. “I... didn’t realize how much work the Empire’s already put into this.”
Cadance smiled. “We said we were going to help with the campaign. Did you think we were kidding?”
Apogee’s nose remained buried in the folder for another moment or two. “To be honest, if we’re already this far along in the plans and processes, we could get things started in a few weeks! Does it say anywhere in here what supplies and staff you’re needing?”
“Towards the back!” Gleaming called. “If Canterlot can supply the medical staff, we can cover the supplies... Erm, Twily, is it clockwise or counterclockwise for the concentric circles?”
“Counterclockwise.”
“Right...”
Apogee flipped to the last few documents. “That shouldn’t be an issue. The Dark Lady introduced incentives to medical schools to expand the market for specialists when the campaign first began. One such incentive was the authorization of time spells so they could be trained quicker.”
Cadance frowned. “Time spells? I hadn’t heard anything any about that.”
“I had!” said Twilight. “They consulted me on which ones to use!”
Spike smirked. “Good thing you didn’t give them the one that creates a time loop warning yourself about nothing.”
“That was only one time, Spike...”
“I’m not surprised you haven’t heard,” Apogee said to Cadance. “The announcement didn’t get much attention when it was first made, and it’s mostly flown under the radar since then. The press just didn’t seem all that interested.”
Something about that didn’t sit right with Cadance. The use of time spells in academia was quite a controversial topic, so a royal decree regarding it should’ve made a fair bit of waves. Why hadn’t it?
“Maybe I’m not as in touch with current events as I thought,” she muttered. “Has there at least been a fair number of ponies interested?”
Apogee set the folder to the side. “Oh, yes! Enrollment rates have skyrocketed. It’s just getting veteran doctors and administration that may prove a challenge. There shouldn’t be any issue in meeting immediate demand, though.”
Cadance recalled hearing something similar at the Revel. She swore, this process just kept getting more and more complicated. “It’s not definite, but we’re working on a long term solution for that.”
Gleaming had now finished drawing the array and was watching Twilight run some kind of scanner over the puppy. There was a faint buzzing noise emanating from the device that never rose or fell in pitch.
“Nothing. Darn.” Twilight put the device away. “I wonder if a Shal’vi ritual would do anything?”
“Twilight,” said Spike. “Remember what happened the last time you tried that? With the crystal reagent?”
Twilight blinked. “Right… Good catch, Spike.”
Spike went back to his mini-donuts. “S’what I do.”
Gleaming covered her mouth. “Snrrrk… you discovered how sensitive the natural crystals are up here, didn’t you?”
Twilight gave Gleaming a dull look. “Thanks for the warning. That explosion stung like the dickens.”
Gleaming held up her hooves. “I didn’t think you’d use crystals from anywhere but the apothecary! What, did you go traipsing out in the fields gathering specimens?”
“She totally did!” Spike said, laughing. “Gathered a whole bag of ‘em!”
Twilight gave him a dirty look. “Shall I say what happened when you bit into one of them?”
“...Shutting up now.”
“Here.” Cadance stamped her hoof, causing the floor to ripple. A sphere-like blob rose up at her command to coalesce into a crystalline shape, pulsing a moment before hardening. “How many do you need?”
Twilight stared. “You—You can just do that?”
Cadance winked. “Crystal Princess, remember?”
Spike stood up in his chair. “Ooh! Can I try one?”
Cadance tossed one into his open mouth, which he caught and loudly crunched away.
“Mmmm…” Spike gave her a thumbs up. “Sh’good!”
“Even average spellcasters risk overloading the wild crystals here,” Gleaming said to Twilight. “We’d be spending a fortune on imports if Cady couldn’t make scores of reagent-safe ones on command.”
Twilight chewed on her lip. “...In that case, I’ll just take two for now. And I’ll be sure to only take ones from the apothecary from now on.”
As Cadance was conjuring the crystals, Apogee came up beside them, silent as a ghost. She raised an eyebrow upon seeing the arcane drawing on the floor.
“What all else do we need to talk about?” Gleaming asked her. “We might have to hold off talking about more until you’ve had a chance to go through the report.”
Apogee started. “Huh? Oh, yes… It’s going to take me some time to go through all this, so if you’d all like, I believe it’d be fine to address the matter of the changeling now. Would you like me to wake him?”
Cadance shifted back and forth on her hooves. “I’d like to take a look at his soul, first. I can see similarities between you two by just the surface emotions, but it’s been a long time since I examined a changeling. I want to see how similar this ‘condition’ really is.”
“Look at his soul? What do you—” Gleaming perked up. “OH! Okay!”
“Want me to look, too?” Twilight said.
Cadance smiled. “Let’s all of us do it.”
Gleaming moved the puppy to the floor with magic. Cadance came over by Gleaming’s right, Twilight standing at her left.
Gleaming then gave Apogee a very serious look. “What you’re about to see does NOT leave this room. Are we clear, First Lieutenant?”
Apogee saluted. “Ma’am! Yes, ma’am!”
Twilight patted Gleaming’s shoulder. “Think you can handle it?”
Gleaming smirked. “I’m feeling good today.”
Twilight laughed. “Just like we showed you, then. Give the magic the intent, and it’ll do the rest.”
Gleaming nodded. She searched within for the grape-sized spark, and it responded to her call, flaring bright and suffusing her with hot, lively power. Twilight and Cadance did much the same, their eyes shutting in unison…
Zing!
The room grew abuzz with static. Gleaming, Cadance, and Twilight’s eyes all snapped open, but they were now filled with pure white light. Their combined gazes drilled into the puppy all at once.
Apogee took a step back. “Th-That’s… what?! General, YOU—b-but that means—”
Spike threw a mini-donut at her. “Shhh!”
Apogee meeped and clamped her hooves over her mouth.
The puppy’s soul was a twisted mess. Neon green and sickly, it was riddled with tiny holes like swiss cheese. Just the sight of it made Twilight and Gleaming shudder.
“What the...” Twilight felt her stomach flip. “How is even he alive?!”
Cadance looked like she was attending a wake. “You should’ve seen Chrysalis.”
Gleaming’s Soul Sight was blurrier, but she could see well enough to know the changeling’s soul wasn’t healthy. She looked to compare it to Apogee’s soul for similarities...
“Hrm.” Gleaming glanced back and forth. “So, uh… Apogee’s soul...”
“That’s normal,” Cadance said right away. “For a thestral, at least.”
Unlike the pastel-colored soul of most ponies, Apogee’s was a deep, inky indigo, like someone had taken a piece of the night sky and rolled it up into a ball.
...Or at least it would look like that, if it didn’t have a collection of grey gashes crisscrossing all over.
“Those pale marks...” Twilight squinted. “They’re scars?”
Apogee’s silhouette flinched.
Cadance was grim-faced. “You’re quite the survivor, Miss Apogee.”
Gleaming sucked on her teeth. So this was the remnants of the affliction she’d heard so much about. She had to admit, upon seeing the two races side by side...
“What do we even call an affliction like this?” Twilight wondered. “Soul sickness? Spirit poisoning? Some kind of metaphysical atrophy?”
Cadance shrugged. “I’m more concerned with fixing it. Judging by this, if this really is the same ailment, then it’s much, much more advanced for the changelings.”
Gleaming had to agree. “Looks like this is gonna be a heavy lift, hun.”
“Mmm.”
They compared a little longer before letting their power fade. Gleaming let out a heavy breath as her vision went normal, a faint pressure building behind her eyes.
“Ech... ” Gleaming rubbed her temples. “That’s still a little rough.”
Cadance rubbed her back. “You did great.”
“You really did!” said Twilight. “That was… what, almost a full minute there? That’s almost twice as long your first time.”
Gleaming smiled at both of them. “How about you, Cady? You alright?”
Cadance beamed. “Yep! Don’t even notice the strain anymore!”
Apogee looked between the three mares, her mouth half-open. “Erm…”
Gleaming regarded her. “We’ll be making the announcement ourselves in a few months. Understood?”
Apogee abruptly realized why the changes in Gleaming had been so drastic. “U-Understood, ma’am.”
“Good.” Gleaming gave her belly an idle rub. “Now, about that chat with our guest.”
“Can I have him shapeshift a few times to see if the Aldryshri array can detect it?” Twilight asked. “Pretty please?”
Gleaming brushed her mane out of her face. “Don’t go totally mad scientist on him, Twily. He’s just a kid.”
Spike sat up in his chair. “A kid? How old is he?”
Gleaming turned to him. “About your age, I think. Luna said they just get adult bodies quicker.”
Spike looked at the puppy with new interest. “That so…”
Cadance tilted her head. “Go ahead, Apogee.”
Apogee nodded. She gestured for them all to move back, then swivelled the puppy so he was facing the other way. She crouched down beside him and made an odd chirp in his ear.
…
…
...
The puppy stirred. He wiggled and twitched before letting out a huge yawn, his beady little eyes fluttering open.
“Mnnnhhh…” He shook himself. He got up into a sitting position, his eyes not yet focused. “A-Apogee? Are—yawn—are we there yet?”
Gleaming’s heart skipped a beat. The voice was young, but it still had that alien quality that lingered in her nightmares.
“Yes,” Apogee said. “Don’t be alarmed, but there are some ponies behind you who’d like to speak with you.”
The puppy hesitated. He raised his head to sniff the air, his forked tongue flicking out an instant.
“The love princess,” said the puppy. “And three others.”
Apogee took off the puppy’s leash. “Can you show them your true form? Will that be alright?”
The puppy’s tail twitched. Slowly, he nodded, and Apogee moved back to give him some space.
FWISH!
Green flames engulfed the puppy. His form stretched and contorted, growing until he became a pony-like creature with a jet-black carapace and hole-riddled legs. He had a sharply curved horn and thin, translucent wings, and his mane was grey and rough-looking.
Gleaming felt Cadance tense. She looped their tails together and squeezed.
The changeling turned to face them. The sclera of his eyes were pale blue, his milky irises were barely visible, and when he blinked, they saw his eyelids were sideways. He offered them a wan smile, but that just showed off his long fangs.
“H-Hello!” he said. “My name’s… uh, Thorax! Thorax, yeah… Nice to meet you.”
The three royals were stone-faced. They merely stared, their jaws clenched tight.
Thorax’s ears drooped. ”Erm…”
“Whooaaaa!” Spike scampered up to Thorax. “Your fangs are way longer than mine! That’s awesome!”
A pause.
Thorax stared at the strange purple creature who’d just approached. “...Thanks? I always thought they were—wait. Are... you a dragon?”
“Sure am!” Spike held out his claw. “Name’s Spike! Good to meetcha, Thorax!”
The adults were at a loss. They watched as Thorax and Spike shook without even a speck of hesitation.
Thorax gasped and danced in place. “I’ve always wanted to meet a dragon! Can you breathe fire? Are you able to swim in lava? Do you really eat gemstones? Can you actually sense magic?! Wow, your scales are really shiny! Are all dragons so clean?”
Spike laughed. “Whoa there, dude! Yes, I can breathe fire and swim in lava, but I can only sorta sense magic. I have to be specially linked to someone to do it, and that’s kind of a family-only thing. And as for the shiny scales...”
Spike pointed over his shoulder at Twilight. “She gives me an acid bath once a week to get out the icky stuff in my scales. Feels good, but I gotta rinse off really well or I start burning things.”
Okay, THAT snapped Cadance out of it. She looked to Twilight with wide eyes. “An acid bath?!”
Twilight gave her an odd look. “What? Three-to-one mixture of concentrated acetic and nitric acid. Cleans off the grime and polishes his scales.”
Gleaming snickered. “I’ve seen Mom do it for him a few times, Cady. Don’t worry, he loves it.”
Cadance’s mouth fell open. She knew dragons were tough, but she didn’t think they were that tough!
Thorax’s gaze flickered to Twilight, then Gleaming and Cadance in turn. His tongue flitted out again like he was tasting the air. “Your family?”
Spike rolled his eyes. “Don’t mind them. My sisters can be weird sometimes.”
Gleaming blanched. “Hey! I’m not weird!”
“Ha! You’re the weirdest of everyone here!” Spike said without looking back. “Have I told you your magic’s been feeling warmer and warmer ever since Hearth’s Warming? If that’s not super-weird, I don’t know what is!”
Well, Gleaming couldn’t really help that. “...Lemme know if it starts to bother you, okay? We might have to cut my link until all this is over.”
Spike turned to face her. “Are you kidding?! I love lots of heat! That’s why Celestia’s magic is the best!”
Twilight chuckled. “He says Celestia’s magic feels like soaking in a lava pool.”
“It really does!”
Cadance decided that was enough of being a wallflower. “Ahem… Welcome to the Crystal Empire, Thorax. I’m Cadance, the ‘Love Princess’, as you put it. This is my wife, Gleaming Shield, and Twilight Sparkle, my sister-in-law.”
Thorax waved to each of them.
“Psst!” Apogee caught Thorax’s eye.
“OH!” Thorax bent into a clumsy bow. “S-Sorry…”
Fear. Fear and anxiety, worry, and dread. These emotions spiralled in Thorax’s mind endlessly in a spiral, all tinged with a gnawing, clawing hunger. Cadance had expected to feel as much, but strangely, his feelings didn’t have the harsh, burning sensation she’d been anticipating... nor the ‘echo’ she’d come to associate with the changeling hive mind.
Cadance’s voice was filled with awe. “You really are cut off from them, aren’t you?”
Thorax stood back up, his face all smiles. “I KNEW you’d be able to tell. Don’t worry, I could never hear them very well, anyways.”
Cadance spoke almost as fast as Thorax had to Spike. “How’d you cut the link? Did you do it yourself? I didn’t even think that was possible! Chrysalis must have noticed you do it! Why didn’t she stop you?”
Thorax stared at her for a moment, then slowly shrugged. “Cutting it wasn’t hard. Any changeling can do it they really want to, we just… don’t.”
“Why not?” Twilight asked.
Thorax jerked his head like he’d swallowed a bitter pill. “It feels like biting off your own tongue.”
Spike made a face. “Ouch.”
Cadance took a step forward. “Do you know if there are there any others like you? How did you managed to escape? Did you have to fight your way out?”
Thorax shuffled his hooves. “I got out because I was near the hive’s outer shell when they realized I’m a defect. Most like me get discovered when we’re younger, so noling was used to dealing with a defect that knew what was going to happen to them.”
Cadance probed a little deeper. She focused her mind on his, feeling out the depths of his emotions. “So there are others, but...”
Thorax’s face fell. “They don’t last long. My brothers and sisters chased me, but most stopped once I cut myself off. Then all of them stopped once I got past the safe zone. Noling goes beyond that.”
Cadance stopped her prodding. “The safe zone?”
“The anti-magic field surrounding the hive,” Apogee cut in. “He’s told us it’s caused by an ancient artifact deep within the changeling hive, which Chrysalis apparently uses as a throne.”
“Mother calls it the Seat of Hydia,” said Thorax. “She’s said she carved it from a dark stone long ago.”
Cadance sucked on her teeth. That was good info, but what they were actually supposed to do about it...
Gleaming spoke up. “Chrysalis is your mother, then? Is she the only one who lays eggs in the hive, or are there others?”
Thorax turned to Gleaming, his tongue flitting out again. “Erm, the hive mind doesn’t tell nymphs about stuff like that until after our first molt. I know my clutch was one of the queen’s, but she has clutches all the time, so...”
Gleaming held back a laugh. In most cultures, being the son of a queen granted you some pretty high status. Guess changelings were different.
Thorax kept looking at Gleaming with those same curious eyes. His tongue darted in and out like a fleshy whip, almost faster than she could see.
“...Six?” Thorax blinked several times. “Wow, I didn’t know ponies could have so many eggs at once! Will you be laying them soon?”
Spike snorted so hard a jet of flame shot out.
Gleaming couldn’t help but laugh as well. “Ponies don’t lay eggs, Thorax. I think Twilight might have to teach you a thing or two about mammals.”
Twilight’s eyes lit up like a kid on Hearth’s Warming morning.
Spike whispered out the side of his mouth. “Run, bro.”
But all of it went over Thorax’s head. “Mam… mals?”
Cadance looked between Thorax and Gleaming. “I didn’t know changelings could sense things like that. Is that why you keep sticking out your tongue?”
Thorax put a hoof behind his head. “Ah... yeah, heh-heh. I know it looks kinda silly. The hive normally senses love as a whole, but it turns out I can just taste it in the air, too! There are six different love sources in your mate, so… six mam-mals! Erm… you DID know there were six, right?”
Gleaming snickered. “I can’t even pretend that’s a fat joke.”
Spike’s suppressed laughter was starting to make him cough. “Don’t worry—snrrrk—Thorax… Might wanna keep an eye on her, though… pfft… She only had five foals a few weeks ago! Who knows how many she’ll wind up having!”
“Spike!” Twilight said.
Spike burst out laughing proper.
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “Pretty sure it’s gonna stay at six, kiddo. Just because I can still get pregnant doesn’t mean I should.”
Apogee stared at Gleaming like she’d just grown a second head.
Meanwhile, Thorax couldn’t have been more lost. “You’re right, Spike. Your sisters are weird.”
Cadance couldn’t help but be impressed. Not only by the adaptation, but in how good of a front he was putting up. He was scared out of his mind and yet he was acting more level-headed than she was!
“Do you know why my Aunt Luna sent you here, Thorax?” she asked. “What she wants me to try with you?”
Thorax cocked his head. “She said you might be able to ‘fix’ me. Can you?”
Cadance suddenly felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff. She recalled the conversation she’d had in the Dreamrealm with Luna, comparing capabilities and assuaging fears.
“Maybe,” Cadance said. “But I can’t promise anything. I’ve never done this before. ”
Thorax wilted. “Can you at least get me something to eat?”
Cadance could tell how hungry he was. He was thin and pale, his barrel shrunken and shrivelled. There was a bleary look in his eyes as he spoke, almost as if he was dizzy.
“Yes,” she said. “If nothing else, I’ll make sure that you’re fed.”
Thorax breathed out a sigh. “Thank Mother.”
Cadance widened her stance. She looked within herself, calling—truly calling the divine power she embodied. She was usually content to skim its surface, but this was different. This’d be the first time she tapped into her full power since Sombra’s death.
Her magic was more sluggish than chilled molasses. It felt about as good as exercising a weak muscle, and harder to break through than a writer’s block. “I’m SO gonna be feeling this later…”
A shivery feeling built in the air. A dense aura enshrouded Cadance’s horn, not blue, but pink. She grit her teeth as she delved deeper, sharp pains lanced through her head as sparks jetted off her horn.
Gleaming watched her. “You alright?”
Cadance stamped her hoof again. “Just… a little... rusty!”
“Stop pulling,” Twilight said. “Push and stir. Once it’s loosened and starts flowing, it’ll manipulate a lot easier.”
Cadance heeded the advice. It took some doing, but sure enough, she was able to call her magic forth proper upon tapping it from every angle. The walls and floor shimmered all around them as Cadance’s power crept forth, the divine energy spreading from her horn to encompass her in a soft corona.
Thorax felt something within him stir. It was an eerie tingle in his chest, electric and growing stronger by the second. His wings buzzed on their own, and he didn’t even notice himself inching closer little by little...
“NO!” Cadance delved as deep as she could. “Just… a little… MORE!”
Upon the word ‘more’, Cadance’s aura swelled, energy erupting from her in a mighty pulse. Gleaming watched as all the expelled energy shot out, then bentin an arc to siphon straight into Thorax like it was being sucked in.
Thorax’s eyes dilated. He fell back on his haunches, his muscles going slack, his jaw falling open.
It was like watching air rush in from an airlock. Cadance’s power was nothing more than shimmering pink haze, but Thorax was a magnet for it, the look on his face like he was being drugged.
“Fascinating...” Twilight said from behind a quill and parchment.
Spike had a huge smile. “Feels all airy and bubbly.”
Cadance could only keep it up for a moment or two before dialing back her power. She made sure to still exude an aura, just not as visible or palpable.
“Phew…” Cadance’s posture sagged. “Wanted a big burst to start there so he didn’t go into a feeding frenzy. How do you feel, Thorax?”
Thorax had a dreamy look on his face. “Ah-hehehe…”
Twilight looked up from her note taking. “Apogee, do you remember how it felt when Luna first started treating you? What was it like?”
Apogee looked down at the floor. “Like being pulled out of a deep swamp. It felt like I’d been slowly slipping away, but the Dark Lady brought me back. She brought us all back.”
Twilight studied Apogee closer. “It felt like that right away? Or later on?”
Apogee snapped out of her thoughts. “At first, it was just soothing... magnetic, almost. I knew I wanted to be around the mistress, but I didn’t really know why. I just felt better when I was with her.”
Cadance rubbed her temples. “This is gonna be hard...”
Gleaming nuzzled her. “You don’t have start doing it twenty-four seven. Maybe start with an hour or two a day, hmm? We’ll can start tacking more on once you’re stronger.”
That actually didn’t sound like a bad idea to Cadance. “But that means I need to be with Thorax during that hour. Even if our schedules weren’t packed, how would I explain mysteriously disappearing off somewhere that long every day?”
Oddly, it was Spike who had the answer. “He can disguise himself, can’t he? Just take him with you.”
There was a long pause.
“Can you?” Gleaming asked Thorax.
“Hehe.” Thorax was swaying back and forth. “So nice…”
“Yo!” Spike elbowed him. “Equestria to bug-boy!”
Thorax jumped. “Huh?! Wh-What?”
“How long,” Gleaming said slowly. “Can you keep up a disguise?”
Thorax blinked like his eyes were dry. “If I keep getting love like this, I bet I could go a whole week! Maybe longer!”
Gleaming turned to Cadance. “Sounds like we might have a plan.”
Cadance ran her tongue along her teeth. “We might.”
Twilight rolled up her parchment. “What’s the least conspicuous persona he could adopt? I don’t think he should try to copy anypony else; that’d just create a whole slew of problems. It needs to be a new identity that’s completely his.”
Cadance wracked her brain. The immediate thought was to pass him off as some sort of assistant like Spike was to Twilight. There hadn’t been any aggressive dragons in the Crystal Empire for ages, which combined with Spike’s status as a local hero, meant the city’s opinion of dragons was actually pretty high. Not to mention it was pretty well-known Spike came along with Twilight to important meetings, so most didn’t even bat an eyelash at it anymore.
Cadance looked at Thorax... then at Spike right next to him.
The two of them stared back.
...
“Thorax,” Cadance said slowly. “How good are you at taking notes?”
“The children are very excited to see you, Princess,” said the mare sitting across from Gleaming. “They’ve been talking about it ever since we won the contest!”
Heartsong Kindercare, a preschool in the East Residential District. Average class size twenty-five, current number of children split between those classes, seventy-eight. A solid and reputable establishment with connections to almost all the schools in the Empire...
...and most recently, winner of the ‘Storytime With A Princess’ promotion.
Gleaming’s gaze wandered around the room. The ceiling was lower than most buildings—a quality she’d had to take notice of late. Oodles of colorful toys greeted her that ranged from dolls and board games to simple puzzles and playsets. The majority of the floor was a spongy mat that was easy to move and clean, and outside of that were two areas. The first area had a vinyl tile floor with various chairs and tables, complete with a chalkboard and a few stations where the adults could keep a watchful eye. The second was carpeted with lots of cushions stacked in a corner, and four cedar bookshelves were against the wall that were filled to the brim with children’s books.
“I’m just happy we could make this work, Miss Tourmaline.” Gleaming adjusted herself on the cushy pillows. “I hope the kids won’t be too disappointed that I had to take Cadance’s place.”
Tourmaline, a chubby crystal pony with a kind face, shook her head. “The contest never specified which princess would come. Some of the kids have been guessing Princess Twilight!”
Gleaming smirked. “Oh, she would’ve loved to come. Believe me, if she wasn’t helping Cadance manage the tight timeline we’re on, she’d be here for sure.”
It was a strange thing. This atmosphere, this setting... it was so utterly opposite from what Gleaming was used to. The stale scent of chalk, the lemony odor of disinfectant, the colorful borders showing off the alphabet. She felt a little odd wearing her full regalia and makeup while surrounded by cartoon mascots emphasizing the importance of eating vegetables..
“I suppose it’s good for you to get exposure being around kids.” Tourmaline gestured to Gleaming’s belly. Gleaming had gotten so big that she couldn’t sit on her haunches anymore, so she was instead laying on her side with her front half sitting up. “You look amazing, by the way! Remind me how far along you are?”
A pitter-patter of wiggles made Gleaming smile, the heavy, growing weight inside lazy and warm. “Thirty-six weeks. My doctor wants to shoot for the full fifty-two, so I’ve got a ways to go yet.”
Tourmaline’s eyes went wide. “You’re not too uncomfortable, I hope! There’ve been rumors that your pregnancy’s been easy for you—please tell me that that’s the case!”
Gleaming patted her impressive middle. She could spend hours just watching and feeling them move inside. “The rumors are true. Been getting a little unwieldy now, and doorways are starting to be an obstacle, but that’s the worst of things. There’s a lot of good ponies looking out for me.”
Tourmaline might not have believed it if Gleaming wasn’t right in front of her. Bright, clear eyes, a plush, thick coat, a soft mane and tail with a lustrous glow. The ease in which Gleaming took deep breaths was almost envious, her face and womb a healthy color as a result. Tourmaline privately noted how fortunate it was Gleaming was such a large pony overall, else she might’ve had trouble carrying all those babies. Her barrel was the size of a prize-winning pumpkin!
“It sounds like you and Princess Cadance have already had your share of surprises with all this,” said Tourmaline. “You wouldn’t want to make things any more complicated.”
Now Gleaming really laughed. “Oh, my little pony, if you only knew.”
Tourmaline had to admit she’d felt some dread when had answered the door and found herself face-to-face with a gold peytral etched with a magenta-starred shield. She’d looked up expecting the face of a soldier, but when she’d seen the warmth in those eyes, so calm and inviting...
Tourmaline checked the clock mounted on the wall. “Recess should be just about winding down. Is there anything you need before the aides bring the foals inside?”
Gleaming ran through her mental checklist. Chosen story? Check. Used the restroom and expressed over two liters of milk? Check. Wearing her conservative regalia and maternity articles? Check. Had an early third meal? Check. Any crumbs or food stains anywhere that she missed? Erm... not that she was aware…
Grumbling, Gleaming summoned a mirror to give herself a once over. “Do you know what the downside of having a white coat is, Tourmaline?”
Tourmaline snickered. “No hiding when you spill something, is there?”
“Nope.” Gleaming wiped a stray crumb of carrot cake from her mouth. “You either look perfect, or you look like a slob. There’s no in between.”
Tourmaline watched Gleaming check her muzzle and neck for any more stray offenders. “I wasn’t kidding about what I said before—you really do look amazing! Honestly, I wish I’d handled my pregnancies this well.”
Gleaming smiled. “You know, I’ve been thinking we need to see if my sister’s spells can be made baseline across Equestria. There’s a lot of potential in what she discovered... Oh! Random question, but what do you think of my mane? I’ve been having to cut it once a week lately, but this last week I just said screw it and let it grow out more. I want an unbiased opinion.”
Tourmaline opened her mouth—
“As unbiased as I can get, anyway. Try to forget who I am for ten seconds.”
Annnnnnd she closed it again. Tourmaline looked, really looked at Gleaming, pushing aside the voice of tact.
“There’s pros and cons,” she said at last. “Obviously your body is somewhat… disproportionate right now, so if you’re looking to draw attention away from the middle, a longer manestyle will help that.”
Gleaming shrugged. “Everyone knows I’ve got six in there. No sense in trying to hide it.”
Tourmaline moved her head from side to side. “Then about all else I can say then is that it’d be a shame to cover up such a beautiful neck.. Your muzzle and face have a nice shape, so you could pretty much have your mane any length and get away with it. I’d say it’s your call.”
Gleaming chewed on her lip. That was what her stylist had said, too. It didn’t help her decision any.
“Or go with what Princess Cadance likes,” Tourmaline added. “Happy spouse is a happy house, as they say.”
Gleaming blinked several times. “Not a bad idea at all. That might just be what I do.”
A chorus of clip-clop-clip-clops approached from the doorway.
“Would you be alright fielding a few questions before the story?” Tourmaline motioned for Gleaming to follow her to the carpeted area. “The children are curious about so much.”
Gleaming chuckled. She got up with surprising fluidness, her powerful leg muscles sliding and flexing with ease. “So long as none of them want to be a paparazzi.”
“We have a very special guest today!” said Tourmaline. “Somepony that—Ruby, put that down right now—I know you’ve all been looking forward to meeting! Do you remember the contest we won a while back?”
Gleaming couldn’t have stopped grinning if she tried. A colorful throng of foals stared intently at her, many of their mouths hung open. None of them could’ve been older than five.
“Princess Gleaming Shield is here because of that! She’s going to read a story to you all!” Tourmaline gestured to her. “Princess Gleaming lives in the big castle in the center of the city, along with another princess. Can anypony tell me that princess’ name?”
“Princess Cadance!” came a smatter of replies. Or, as one tiny little colt said, “Pwincess Raisin!”
“Very good!” Tourmaline said. “And did you also know that Princess Gleaming has a sister visiting the Empire right now? She’s ALSO a princess! Can you anypony tell me what her name is?”
“Twilight Sparkle!” said the same foals as before.
“...Twisting Spaghetti!” said the little colt.
Oh my sweet goddess. Gleaming was gonna have to inform Cady and Twily of their new official titles. All hail Princess Raisin and Princess Twisting Spaghetti, the mistresses of dried fruit and pasta. May their reigns be long and delicious.
Touramaline stepped aside so Gleaming to be front and center. “Before Princess Gleaming starts the story, do you any of you have a question you’d like to ask her?”
Six or seven hooves shot up.
Gleaming went with the one she saw first. “What’s your name, sweetie?”
A gold filly with maroon pigtails piped up. “Beryl! Do you like daisy sandwiches?”
Gleaming nodded. “I do like daisy sandwiches! They’re really good with apple juice!”
Beryl gasped. “I like apple juice, too!”
Gleaming was going to have a permanent smile on her face at this rate. “How about you? What’s your name?”
A black colt with with a scruffy mane jumped. “U-Um... I’m Mica! My favorite color’s blue, what’s your favorite?”
Gleaming gestured to her three-toned mane. “I like blue, too.”
Mica’s eyes lit up. He whispered feverishly to the colt next to him.
Gleaming decided to go with somepony on the outer fringe of the group next, a filly that was solid pink from nose to tail. “Yes?”
The filly gulped. She played with her hooves, mumbling something before ducking down.
Gleamin resisted the urge to d’awww. “What’s your name?”
Slowly, the filly looked up. Lordy, even her eyes were pink. “I-I’m…”
Tourmaline caught Gleaming’s eye and mouthed, “Rose Agate.”
“Rose Agate?” Gleaming said. “Is that your name?”
The filly made a face. “Ewww! It’s just Rosie...”
Gleaming was going to need to get tested again for diabetes at this rate. “Rosie. What did you want to ask me?”
Rose Agate blushed. “M-My mommy says you’re having babies. Is that why your tummy’s so big?”
Gleaming nodded. “It is why my tummy’s so big! Do you know how many babies I’m having?”
Rose Agate’s ears drooped. “I can only count to ten…”
Gleaming burst out laughing. “Do you know how many six is?”
Rose Agate scrunched up her face, her mouth moving silently.
Gleaming shifted to show her profile. Her horn glowed, and a pinprick of light shone inside her.
“Count with me now,” she said. “Onnnnnne…”
Rose Agate leaned forward “Whoaaaa!”
Another dot lit up. “Twooooooooo…”
All the foals’ eyes went huge. The lights were appearing right before their eyes!
“Threeeeeeee…”
Even Tourmaline was shocked. She watched dumbstruck as the tiny heartbeats materialized.
“OH!” A foal pointed at the newest dot. “Four!”
“Oooh, Oooh! Five!” said another.
“Six!” said Beryl. “Right there!”
“SEVEN!” shouted Mica. “I see SEVEN! WOW!”
Gleaming snickered. “That’s my heart, Mica. There’s only six in there.”
The foals chattered and murmured. They all gradually inched closer and closer to Gleaming, clamoring for a closer look.
Gleaming watched as Tourmaline and her aides corralled the throng in a semicircle around her. She floated over some pillows from the stack and lay on her side like before, summoning a book titled, 'Mister Mouse and the Messy Mare’.
“Pwincess Gweemy?” the tiny little colt said. “Why are you like a heater?”
Gleaming hesitated. It wasn’t the first time someone had said that. “That’s... just the way I am, erm...” She tried to get Tourmaline's attention. “Name?”
“Rhodi.”
Gleaming smiled. “That’s just the way I am, Rhodi. It doesn’t bother you, does it?”
“Nope!” And before anyone could stop him, he gone and cuddled up beside her, resting his head against her fluffy chest.
The world stood still a moment...
“Mmm…” Rhodi yawned and scooched even closer. “You’re soft and you smell good.”
...
“Ohmygoshyouaretoocute.” Gleaming nuzzled the little colt. A even warmer glow filled her chest as Rhodi leaned against her proper.
Now that the floodgates were open, several others came up to cuddle with Gleaming, resting against her soft chest, smooth back, and wide belly. It wasn’t long before she was essentially being used like an oversized pillow.
Tourmaline bit her lip. “Erm... Princess?”
“Hello to you, too!” Gleaming gave Beryl an eskimo kiss while still answering questions from the foals. “...Yes, I really do like apple juice! If your parents ever bring you to the castle, I'll let you have alllll the juice you want! ...Hmm? Hehe, I don't just like blue. I like purple and white and silver, too! ...What's that? Is that your favorite dolly? It is?! You better take extra special care of her, then! Here, let me see if I can fix that tear... There we go! Yes, I know I'm really big and strong! If you eat your vegetables and exercise, you can be big and strong, too!”
Tourmaline sighed. “Annnnd we've lost her.”
The aides looked on with hedged looks. “Should we… y’know, do something?”
Tourmaline wasn’t sure what to think. This certainly wasn’t what she’d expected a general of the army to be like!
“It’d be one thing if they were rowdy,” she said. “But it looks like they just want to... snuggle?”
The second aide raised an eyebrow. “Snuggle. Even Jasper, Cobalt, and Onyx, the Cootie Yuck Evaders.”
Sure enough, the three hyperactive colts were nestled right up against Gleaming with the others, docile and calm as they hung on her every word.
The first aide chuckled. “Seems like our Princess has got the magic touch.”
The second aide rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure whether to be impressed or jealous.”
The first shrugged. “She’ll need it with six on the way, weird as it is."
Tourmaline looked on with pursed lips. It still seemed a bit wrong to let the kids invade Gleaming’s personal space so brazenly. If it weren’t for how well she was taking it, Tourmaline would’ve stepped in already.
Well, that and one other reason.
“This has gotta be one of the worst cases of foal fever I've ever seen.”
“Mmhmm,” said both aides.
It was funny, seeing that look on Gleaming’s face. Tourmaline had seen it on her sisters after they’d babysat her oldest the first time, and it wasn’t long after that her nieces and nephews had come along.
“Maybe being around this many kids will get it out of her system,” said Tourmaline. “She might not realize yet how stressful it can be just being around so many foals—”
“Why don’t you tell me how old you all are?” Gleaming was helping Mica climb up onto her shoulders while she booped another foal’s snoot. “You’re three? Wow, three whole years already! And you’re four?! Oh my gosh, that’s amazing! Is anyone here older than four? How about you, Rosie? FIVE?! Holy moly, you’re five years old! Did you know when my kids are born, they’re all going to be the same age? It’s true! And when Princess Cadance and I have more kids, they'll only be a year or so behind! It'll be like our own personal daycare just like this, only with more and more and more! Yep-yep-yep!”
Tourmaline gulped. “Orrrrrrrrr maybe it’ll make her worse.”
“And Mister Mouse ran alllllllll the way down, calling at the top of his mousey lungs.” Gleaming adopted a high-pitched tone. “‘Messy Mare, Messy Mare! Come back if you please! You haven’t washed your mane!’”
The eyes of the children remained glued as she read, their ears swiveled right on her. It'd been a good fifteen minutes before she'd remembered she was supposed to be reading a story, but she'd eventually gotten around to it.
“Messy Mare spun around in a huff, glaring down mad at Mister Mouse.” Gleaming looked around at all the foals. “'Enough! Enough! Enough, if you will! I've done all the things that you've asked, and STILL! You hound me and nag me and tell me I'm sloppy! But I don't want to be just another dull copy!”
The most fun part of this for Gleaming was remembering how her own parents had read the story. Gleaming couldn't quite do the gruff voices like her father, but the rest of them sounded pretty good.
“'A copy?' asked Mister Mouse. ‘What’s this that you say? I haven’t the foggiest, I’m lost in dismay!’” Gleaming cleared her throat and turned the page. “And Messy Mare marched up to Mister Mouse with a glare. ‘A copy! A copy! The same, don’t you see? No hats and work saddles, I want to be ME! No washed mane or brushes, no trimmed fetlocks either! And if you say you don’t like it, then go catch a fever!”
Oh, how Gleaming couldn't wait to do this with her own kids. Some of the preschoolers had already started to drift off, their breaths slow and measured, snuggling closer and leaning their whole weight into her. She felt them all in addition to the flutters in her womb.
“‘Messy Mare, don’t be silly! You have to be clean! You can’t greet ponies filthy, they might all turn green!’” Gleaming made a funny face, eliciting giggles from those still awake. “‘A bath with fresh soap will prevent them from snubbing, so go hop in the tub and have a good scrubbing!’”
It was a fantasy Gleaming had had for months. Surrounded by her sleeping sons and daughters, cuddled up all safe and warm. She’d have more on the way of course, her belly swelling day after day with Cady's foals, their ever-growing family a testament their love. As much as she was enjoying all the things that’d come (and still coming) with this pregnancy, she couldn’t help but be excited about getting pregnant all over again… and again… and again...
Even years later, she wasn’t really sure what did it. Maybe it was from what she was thinking about right then, maybe from being surrounded by young foals, or maybe it was just the next trigger in the process. Regardless, while feeling so calm and content and cozy in that moment, a spark awakened within her. It leapt to life from the warm glow she’d been feeling in her chest, swiftly seeping into her magic and mind with a delicious sensation. It flared and intensified in the span of a heartbeat while radiating even more eddies of heat...
“E-Erm…” Gleaming blinked several times. “Messy Mare was, uh... a-angry, as angry could be! How could Mister Mouse talk so silly-ly? She, a-ah… stormed past him, hooves clopping, down the road in a huff...”
Information began filtering into Gleaming’s brain. Details about the children around her, details about Tourmaline and her aides. Mica was missing three of his baby teeth and had a cavity in a molar. Rose Agate had just gotten over the flu. One of the aides had a knee replacement. Beryl had a peanut allergy. On and on it went, information about everypony gradually fading in.
Tourmaline noticed Gleaming was starting to space out. She waved to try and catch her eye, but she may as well been waving at a wall.
Jasper had an astigmatism and needed glasses. Onyx had the strongest immune system of all the kids. Tourmaline had fractured her back left leg once—no, twice in her life. Cobalt was missing some enzymes in his large intestine. The other aide’s pancreas was starting not to produce insulin. More and more info bombarded Gleaming in an unrelenting assault, and she found that the longer she focused on any one pony, the more detailed the info became. It didn’t even stop when she shut her eyes!
“What’s wrong, Pwincess Gweamy?”
Gleaming jolted. Rhodie’s voice twinged in her ears, as off as a wrong note in a solo.
She looked down to focus on him...
...
…
...
“Princess?” Tourmaline took a few steps forward. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Gleaming had gone pale as a sheet. “...Rhodie needs to go to the hospital.”
It was a pretty normal day at Purity Children’s Hospital. Doctor Endo was in his office writing notes on the patients he’d seen so far today, and he’d been at it for about a half hour so far with good progress. Filling out paperwork was by far his least favorite part of the gig, but hey, it had to be done.
Endo sighed. His life had slowed down considerably since he’d turned over the Princess’ care to Talia. Part of him wished he’d stuck it out, but Celestia on a bike, that case was beyond him. Magical sterility and multiple pregnancies he could handle, but alicorn genetics and experimental spells were where he drew the line. Thank the stars Talia was still alive and hale…
His eyes flicked to the heavily-secured drawer containing his old mentor’s weekly updates. “Hmph. Alicorn ascendancy, experimental magic permutation, supernatural ability development… no, thank you—”
FLASH!
“Doctor Endo!” Gleaming said. “I—ERGH!”
Information slammed into Gleaming like a charging bull. Pulls and tugs clamored for her attention on all sides, each one a unique health history.
Endo nearly fell off his chair. “Princess Gleaming?!”
Gleaming grit her teeth. “Endo, this is an order. I need you to—ugh, so much—I need you to find a specialist. NOW.”
Endo gaped at how much Gleaming had changed. Reading about it was one thing, but this?! How had all this happened in only four months?!
“We moved again!” Rhodie laughed from atop her back. “That old lady was funny.”
Endo did a double-take. Was... that a colt? Why did the Princess have a young colt with her?
“Endo!” Gleaming barked.
Endo jumped. “O-Of course, Your Highness! What kind of specialist?”
Gleaming’s eyes flicked to Rhodie. In a flash she’d grabbed Endo’s parchment and quill, wrote something out, then held it out in front of his face.
His front right femur is making too many underdeveloped white blood cells. They’re flooding his bloodstream. It’s early, but it’s getting worse FAST. He needs to start treatment TODAY.
Endo read and re-read the note a few times. Slowly, he looked up and tilted his head towards Rhodie.
Gleaming nodded.
Endo tongued the inside of his cheek. “And there’s no doubt in your mind about this.”
Gleaming squinted at him a moment. “...You’re missing the topmost rib on your left side. You’ve got old scar tissue around your left shoulder beneath your armpit, and the nerves beneath are more sensitive due to previously being compressed. I imagine it took quite a while for that pain to go away… oh, you’re also starting to develop an ulcer. I’d see someone about that if I were you.”
The chill Endo felt was like dunked in the northern sea.
“Dr. Swiftmend.” He grabbed his doctor’s coat and made for the door. “Follow me.”
It was unavoidable that they caused a scene. Doctors, nurses, and patients alike all stopped to gawk at the unannounced princess (with a bubbly three year-old on her back no less), but Gleaming barely paid attention. A river of data was constantly flowing into her mind, an unceasing update about injuries, conditions, and illnesses of every pony within range.
“The boy’s parents?” Endo asked over his shoulder.
Gleaming pursed her lips. “I came straight to you after seeing Talia. I’d hoped she’d know somepony to cut the wait.”
Endo grunted. “And the only doctor she knowsup here is me. It’s fortunate that I’m familiar with this hospital’s roster, as well as your own… erm, developments...”
“Is this a hospital?” Rhodie asked.
Gleaming winced. She quickly masked it with a smile. “Rhodie, this is Doctor Endo! He’s taking us to see a friend of his, and then I’m gonna go get your parents, okay?”
Rhodie looked past Gleaming to Endo, who made a silly face at him.
Rhodie giggled. “He’s funny.”
Gleaming’s long legs allowed her to keep up with Endo’s hurried pace. The flow of information hadn’t stopped coming, and while most of it was mundane, it was the critical conditions, life-threatening injuries, and advanced illnesses that blared at her. It was pretty clear where the ICU was.
“And this is only one hospital,” she muttered.
They crossed the street by a skyway to arrive in the building next door. A few quiet talks with nurses later, an older pegasus mare with a graying mane appeared from around a corner, her steely eyes calm and sure.. Gleaming immediately had a good feeling about her—she was the first pony so far that didn’t immediately go starry-eyed upon seeing her.
“Your Majesty.” Swiftmend dipped into a curtsey. “How may I help you?”
Endo stepped in to exchange a few quiet words. Gleaming didn’t hear much between them, but she did catch the word ‘lymphoblastic’ a few times.
Swiftmend looked at Rhodie. “No outward symptoms?”
Gleaming covered Rhodie’s ears with magic. “Not yet, but it’ll have already spread by the time they show up. Either he starts therapy today, or we lose him.”
Swiftmend raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment. She merely gestured for Rhodie to be placed on the ground and crouched down to his level.
“Hey, there!” she said once the magic left his ears. “What’s your name?”
Rhodie looked up at her. “I’m Wodie! Don’t wowwy, Pwincess Gweamy’s my fwiend!”
Gleaming’s grin was bittersweet. “He’s, uh... still working on his r’s.”
Swiftmend smiled as well. “Do you think you can be a big boy and come with me, Rhodie?”
Rhodie wilted slightly. “I wanna stay with the Pwincess...”
Gleaming ran a hoof through Rhodie’s mane. “I know, buddy. I’ll come visit soon, okay? I need to go get your parents now.”
Rhodie craned up his head with puppy dog eyes. “Pwomise?”
Stars alive, if that look could be weaponized, this kid could conquer nations. Gleaming only just managed to keep her voice calm while holding out her hoof. “I’ll even do the special princess hoofshake for you! It’s the most powerful promise in the land.”
Rhodie brightened. “Alwight!” He bumped his hoof to hers with a clack!
It took every ounce of Gleaming’s will not to scream. In addition to Rhodie, she was now sensing seven other sick foals nearby, all of them as critical as the last.
Swiftmend took Rhodie and placed him on her back. He waved to Gleaming as they trotted off, a few nurses following right behind. His huge, innocent eyes burned into hers as they rounded a corner.
Gleaming cursed. She rubbed her temples and scraped a hoof along the ground.
“Endo,” she said “Send a message to Heartsong Kindercare in the East Residential District. A mare named Tourmaline has Rhodie’s info. I’ve gotta go get this under control.”
Gleaming’s body language wasn’t lost on Endo, but he barely even understood what was going on, let alone what he could do for her. “You should know that this kind of care is expensive, Highness. There’s a good chance his parents—”
SLAM!
The crystal floor cracked under Gleaming’s stomp. Endo quailed, his ears pinned back as Gleaming loomed over him, an eerie glitter was in her eyes.
“I swear to everything holy, Endo,” she spat. “If Rhodie, or ANY OTHER of the kids in this ward die because of a stupid thing like money, I’ll give up my crown! They have a hard enough road ahead without piling on more shit!”
Endo lowered his head. “A-As you say, Princess.”
Gleaming sliced the air with her hoof. “I’m hereby funding the care of these kids. All their bills will be paid by me.Their families should be focusing on enjoying what time they have left together, not panicking about finances!”
Endo bit his lip. That was certainly generous, but his thoughts couldn’t help but turn to all the other struggling families in this hospital. Many were just as deserving and in need—
Gleaming squeezed her eyes shut. The tugs, the nigglings, the incessant, endless calls for help… They were all around her, pulling her in all directions! They just wouldn’t stop!
“I want to help…” Gleaming gulped and wet her lips. “I want to help them all! Everypony in this hospital, everypony in the Empire! B-But there’s so many... oh God, there’s so many! I’m not strong enough to help them all... what do I do, Endo?! WHAT DO I DO?!”
Endo tried to think of something, but never in all his life had he felt so tongue-tied. “U-Um…”
“Get OUT!” Gleaming’s horn flared bright as a star. Somewhere, anywhere, so long as there wasn’t anyone else around! “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”
The air crackled, small objects lifting into the air...
FLASH!
And then Gleaming was gone. Scrolls and ink bottles and clipboards fell, the cracked the floor the only evidence of her presence.
The first thing Gleaming saw was water. Icy blue and crashing against a snowy shore, the waves stretched out into a yawning bay that met the wintery horizon. Countless smooth pebbles and oval stones comprised a long, snowy beach that stretched out for hundreds of yards, and Gleaming was at its center, the pale cloudless sky shimmering with near-invisible aurora. A blast of frigid wind assailed her, but it broke against her like she was a living bulwark of flame.
Gleaming slumped onto her side. She just lay there a while, a ghost amidst the wintery landscape. She listened to the waves crashing in time with her pounding head, her nostrils flaring, the flutters and tickles in her womb a comforting presence.
She could still sense them, of course. How could she not? Fortunately, about all the new information she got about them was they were getting hungry. Leave it to your kids to keep things in perspective.
“Sorry, little ones,” Gleaming said. “Gonna have to sit tight for a while.”
Her best guess was this was the Luna Bay. The yaks were known to have a settlement somewhere here on the northern edge, but that was about it far as she knew. This really was the untamed north.
But even with that being the case, all wasn’t quiet in Gleaming’s head. She could sense whispers of something in the stillness, tugs different from anything she’d felt before. Said tugs were coming from behind her...
Gleaming lifted her head. She saw that about thirty yards behind was a snow-covered pine forest in the shadows of tall mountains. The whispers began right at the forest’s edge, but there weren’t any ponies or other creatures to be seen. Yet still the faint whispers continued… many, many faint whispers! It was almost as if—
Gleaming’s eyes shrank. The trees.
“FOCUS!” She tore her eyes away. “What was it Dad always told Twily? Find your center, right? That’s how they always kept control. Find my center... I can do that, yeah...”
It was like clinging to a life raft in a storm. Swirling currents flared within her that tossed and jostled her concentration, always threatening to pull her under. She could feel it proper now—the stream of energy from her divine spark, more expansive and powerful than anything she’d ever known!
But turned inward as she was, she made to realize something else. This new magic wasn’t just filtering into her reserves, it was replacing them. The very unicorn magic she’d been born with was fading, just as Talia had guessed!
“I’m losing it…” Gleaming swiped her hoof in the snow. “I’m actually losing it! It’s going away!”
Her magic was shifting, changing from what she’d known for so long. She couldn’t help but be addicted to the deep, saturated warmth of her golf ball-sized spark, but the realization of being confronted with something new and unknown...
“I really am becoming an alicorn,” Gleaming said aloud. “I really am, aren’t I? This is real.”
The words sent chill down her spine. For all that others had said it over the last few months, had she?
The ocean waves splashed on, and the wind continued to blow. The whispers of the trees continued heedless of her declaration. The crest of her belly distended as one of her little ones shifted.
“Don’t panic,” Gleaming said. “Concentrate on the good, alright? This is a good thing! I can’t let myself forget that—no, stop it! I can’t let myself forget that! J-Just stay positive, damn it! C’mon, you can do this...”
She felt jerky and twitchy. Her skin felt hot and itchy and tight. Even though she was trying so hard to keep her breathing steady, that quick bit of talking had left her short of breath.
“You’ve known about this,” Gleaming muttered. “You’ve had it explained so many times! You’ve been dealing with it for months! Why are you freaking out now?! What’s made it allhit home?!”
Her mind was running through a gamut. The joy of not leaving Cadance behind. The excitement of seeing the future. The responsibility of having so much power. The fear of falling to corruption. The dread of outliving so many. The pride of being able to protect her home. The intrigue of discovering her limits. The wonder of flying. The curiosity of who she’d become. A flurry of implications was burying her, and it was all she could do to claw her way up for air.
“STOP IT!” With herculean effort, Gleaming forced herself to lay still. “Just breathe! Find your center. Dad would tell you as much if he were here. Just. Bloody. Breathe…”
The reality of a situation isn’t always the easiest thing to grasp. It sometimes takes a catalyst for it all to resonate, which can mean in a potential delay of days, weeks, or even longer before everything clicks. Being super busy doesn’t exactly speed the process along, and when your back’s against the wall, it’s easy to set a problem aside to deal with more pressing things.
Gleaming’s tongue felt like a wadded hunk of sandpaper. A wave of nausea bubbled up, only to vanish in the blink of an eye. Her stomach cramped and twisted as it fought against the Irongut spell, futilely gurgling and protesting up a storm. She ate some snow to try and calm it down.
“It’s happening,” Gleaming whimpered. “No more dreams, no more what-if’s. It’s all really happening…”
We all have a list of roles and titles they consider themselves to be and have. Some of us relate to family, others relate to the things we’re good at, where we are in life, or even what we’ve built our lives and careers around. These can be our occupations, accomplishments, levels of expertise, and so forth. The way in which we prioritize these roles and titles varies, but what’s important is that we all make these lists, for they’re how we see ourselves to be.
But what about the roles and titles we consider others to have? It can be difficult to see yourself as equal to one of your heroes, so much so that many don’t feel comfortable unless they have someone to put up on a pedestal. For the reality to sink in that you’ll soon be on par with the ones you’ve looked up to for years, even surpass them...
It took a good half hour for Gleaming to get a handle on things. Her lack of experience with magic flares made getting a grip on the Lifesense (she’d think of a better name later) difficult, and every time she thought she had it controlled, it’d pop out again. Not to mention the panic kept trying to claw its way out of her chest, and her attempts to contain it were about as easy as trying to force a jack in the box down with toothpicks.
But Gleaming was nothing if not stubborn. It took a while, but after a hard, grueling battle, she bent the rogue power to her will, at last able to turn the information on and off again with little trouble.
“Ergh…” The exertion left Gleaming a frazzled mess. The snow around her had melted, and she heaved herself up with a grunt to find that her coat and maternity brace was soaked and stained. A quick cleaning spell thankfully fixed most of the damage.
“Too bad there’s no equivalent for mental stamina.” Gleaming ran a hoof through her mane. “I’m alright. I’ve got this. I’m turning into an alicorn, and that’s fine. This is alllllll a good thing. Nothing to panic about.”
Not for the first time in the last nine months, she wished she could have a damn drink.
Gleaming rubbed her head and looked around. The teleport had to have knocked out a good fourth of her reserves. Going back would safe in smaller jumps, but there was no rush for that just yet. This place was kinda nice, now that she thought about it...
“Okay, so I CLEARLY haven’t been using my new magic enough.” Gleaming snorted and rolled her eyes. “So much for thinking twice a week sessions would cut it, eh Twily? Thank goodness I said no more infusions...”
She thought back to what’d been said at Hearth’s Warming. Far as she’d understood, regular experimentation with her abilities was supposed to prevent this. That meant that either her ascension was happening even faster than any of them had anticipated, or someone had goofed up, hard.
Gleaming glanced at the rock beach, then over at the sleepy forest. The beach didn’t look very even for a walk, but the forest looked level enough. She brushed off the remaining snow and made her way up the gentle hill, taking care to check her footing as she went.
The spindly pines greeted her on the fringe. She eyed them warily as she walked beneath their boughs, the brightness of noon giving way to shadow.
Gleaming patted a particularly old tree. “Sorry, friend. It sucks that you’re dying, but I don’t think I can help you.”
She left the withered pine and disappeared into the forest, leaving only a trail of hoofprints behind.
“How many more positions are we interviewing for today, Twilight?” Cadance asked.
Twilight took a deep swig of her coffee. “Spike?”
Spike double-checked his parchment. “Three. There’s only one or two candidates for each, so it should be easy-peasy.”
Cadance wore a wan smile. “Hopefully.”
They were conducting interviews for positions that’d be reporting directly to Cadance and Gleaming, and they’d been at it for the majority of the day. They’d been doing said interviews in one of Cadance’s favorite meeting places, a long boardroom with pale crystal floors and big sunny windows.
Twilight hummed and traced the rim of her mug. “What’d you think of that mare for the meteorology division head? Flurry Gale, I think her name was?”
Cadance blew her bangs out of her face. “I sensed a lot of disgust when we asked about administrative tasks. She’ll be good here, but not as head of the whole division.”
Twilight noted that on the mare’s resume before giving it to Spike. “Yeah, gotta not mind filling out paperwork...”
Spike put the resume with a stack of others. “Man, she’d hate this job if she doesn’t like paperwork. Some days that’s the only thing Twilight does!”
Twilight chuckled. “Good thing I have my number one assistant, eh? Otherwise it might also be some nights.”
“Yep-yep!”
Cadance looked right to check on her own newfound assistant. A blue dragon wyrmling with gold spines sat poring over a parchment, his mouth pursed as he carefully wrote out the alphabet.
“Doing alright, Thorax?” She inspected his work so far. “How’s the clawwriting coming?”
Thorax blinked like an owl with his draconic eyes. “I… think it’s getting better?”
It was, actually. His u’s still looked like v’s, and he occasionally mixed up ‘b’ and ‘d’, but it was still impressive how fast he’d improved. He’d gone from illiterate to reading and writing short sentences in only two weeks!
Cadance smiled. “I think I might have you start taking notes pretty soon.”
Thorax brightened. “Yeah?”
Cadance nodded. “What did you think of Flurry Gale? I noticed you flicking your tongue out a few times there.”
Thorax put a claw behind his head. “She wasn’t very sincere when she was talking. Erm, I did like her name, though! It sounded pretty.”
Cadance looked past him to the windows. “It did, didn’t it?”
“Are you feeling alright?” Twilight asked him. “You don’t have to stay up here if you’re tired. You can go back to your quarters.”
Thorax laughed. “I’ve never this good in my whole life! Being around Cadance is amazing!”
Cadance laughed. Not the first time she’d heard that, but the context was refreshing.
Twilight inspected Thorax more closely. Changeling disguises couldn’t mask wellness, so his health (or lack thereof) showed through regardless of the form he took. He was still very thin, but the color had returned to his face and skin… er, scales, rather. His energy levels had also been improving, and he could even fly for a while so long as he didn’t overdo it.
Twilight chuckled. “We might have to start being careful for another reason. We don’t want you getting fat.”
Thorax’s eyes were blank. “Fat?”
“She means this stuff.” Spike gestured to his own pudgy middle. “It’s what most creatures have when they’re real young like me, or when they eat too much. Heh, Gleam-Gleam should have a lot considering—”
“Spike,” Twilight and Cadance said together.
“...Sorry.”
Thorax had learned pretty quickly that there were things about ponies he was never going to understand. He just tended to smile and nod in those cases.
Twilight turned her attention to Cadance. Her aura was a light, bubbly feeling that made one’s emotions—all positive emotions—swell up inside and ready to burst forth at a moment’s notice. The lion’s share of the energy was being drawn to Thorax, but residual eddies still floated out from to time to time like a gentle wind.
“What about you?” Twilight asked. “Are you sure you don’t need to take a break?”
Cadance gave Twilight a flat look. “For the last time, I’m fine. This week hasn’t been near as bad as last, really! I’ll bet I can keep this up all the time pretty soon.”
Twilight pursed her lips. Going from barely being able to maintain her magic an hour to constantly sustaining it in only two weeks wasn’t something she’d ever heard of, but then again...
“Just make sure you don’t push yourself too hard, Twilight said at last. “I know you don’t like magic exams, but I WILL give you one if I think you’re overdoing it.”
Cadance blew a raspberry at her. “Yes, Doctor Sparkle. So then, what position’s next?”
Twilight took the next job description from Spike. “The Royal Archivist. An advanced research position reporting directly to the Crown, serves as purveyor of the Crystal Empire’s vast collection of knowledge, gatekeeper of sensitive information, and cataloguer of both new and undocumented content. Must be certified in latest dark magic purging techniques in accordance with the Equestrian Mage’s Guild, as the Royal Archivist is charged with disposing of rank B forbidden eldritch items and/or higher... Wow, this sounds like a fun job!”
Cadance had a hard time keeping a straight face. “I—snrrrk—suppose for some.”
Spike grinned. “Maybe you should apply, Twilight.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Maybe in an alternate universe somewhere.”
Knock, knock... knock-knock-knock-KNOCK
Rainbow popped her head in from the hall, her armored helm glinting in the sunshine. “Ready for the next one?”
Cadance and Twilight turned to each other.
“Pretty sure there’s only one applicant for this one.” Twilight leafed through her stack of resumes. “Medical... Aeronautics… Astronomy… Transportation… Records and Cataloguing! Sunburst is his name—he’s young, but he’s got some impressive accolades.”
Cadance took the resume. She’d been reading over these things for hours, but as she read down the list of Sunburst’s qualifications, she did remember seeing this one in passing.
“Summa Cum Laude of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, top marks in all eight schools of magic, certified Purifier of hazardous arcane material, master’s thesis on disjunction theory and its practical applications… definitely a pony who knows how to hit the books.”
“Look at the bullet points at the bottom,” Twilight said. “The second one’s what sold me.”
Cadance’s gaze drifted down…
“A photographic memory?!”
Spike laughed. “It’s great, isn’t it? He’s like a boy version of Twilight!”
Twilight ignored that. “I’d say he’s a good fit, so long as he’s not a jerk.”
“I’ll say!” Cadance said. “Bring him in!”
Rainbow saluted and retreated back into the hall. A few short seconds of waiting later...
An orange unicorn nosed his way inside. His two-toned mane was the color of the sunset, and there were cream colored markings on his muzzle and legs. He adjusted his glasses and bowed low, his bushy goatee grazing the ground.
Cadance focused her senses on the stallion. Giddy nervousness, a boatload of anxiety, all topped with a heaping helping dose of doubt. All pretty typical… but interestingly, he had a will like iron keeping it all in check.
“Rise, please,” she said. “You’re Sunburst?”
Sunburst raised his head. “I am, Princess.”
Cadance gestured to across the table from them. “I know it’s hard, but try not to be intimidated, okay? We’re not wearing crowns, there’s nothing fancy about this room, we’re just ponies that want to get to know you a bit.”
Sunburst nodded. Without comment, he came over and sat where she’d gestured, sitting straight as a poker while twiddling his hooves.
Curious, Thorax flicked out his tongue. He grinned.
Cadance noticed. “What?”
Thorax giggled. “Kindhearted.”
Cadance raised an eyebrow. She concentrated a little harder, her eyes glinting. Sure enough, there was a pure soul buried under that melancholy.
“We understand you’re interested in the archivist position,” Twilight said. “Why don’t you start by telling us why you think you’d do well in it?”
Sunburst fidgeted in his chair. “W-Well, I’ve always loved research and studying. I like organizing and learning all the little facts on things, and I can focus and retain information really well. That’s pretty important for this kind of work, right?”
Twilight nodded. “Considerably.”
Sunburst’s voice gained strength. “I can remember things almost perfectly. It’s best if it’s relating to magic, but I can recite back pretty much anything I see or read. Stories, facts, textbooks, calculations, equations, maps... my uh, parents used to call me their little parrot, heh…”
“Hey! So did mine!” said Twilight. “I’d drive them nuts by quoting back whole scenes from my favorite stories word for word. They started giving me textbooks because they thought that would stymie it, but then I just started spouting random facts at them.”
“Not just them,” muttered Spike.
Twilight elbowed him.
Sunburst blinked several times. “You... have an eidetic memory, too?”
Twilight winked. “We’re a pretty rare breed.”
Sunburst’s jaw practically hit the table. “I’ll say! I’ve never met anypony else with one! It’s been so hard to find anyone who puts up with me—they always think I’m a know-it-all!”
“I know!” Twilight threw up her hooves. “And stars forbid anypony remembers something wrong and I correct them. What do I know?! I’m just a show-off jerk that likes rubbing it in! I get it, everyone else doesn’t recall details as well! That doesn’t mean I’m trying to be mean! But noooooo, everypony takes it personal. I don’t even know why I bother sometimes...”
Cadance could only shake her head. Even with Twilight’s domain being Friendship, the speed at which she got ponies to open up...
Twilight suddenly got an idea. A thick book popped into existence beside her, sealed with a newer-looking lock shaped like her cutie mark. She flipped through the tome until she got to a specific set of pages. The left page had a diagram of a very complex arcane array, and the right had a lengthy explanation of the array’s purpose.
“I know you already had a technical interview, but…” Twilight whipped the book around in front of Sunburst. “Thirty seconds! GO!”
Sunburst meeped. Three of his seconds were spent getting his bearings, but he then squinted and leaned forward, his lips parted and mumbling to himself.
“Time’s up!” Twilight flipped the book back around. “Now, what was the array for?”
Sunburst thought for a moment, his lips still moving. He then raised his head and cleared his throat.
“I wasn’t familiar with the terminology, but I believe it was an experimental fusion of several advanced restoration spells. The page didn’t say which spells were being fused, but it did quote the Starswirl’s Fourth Law of Arcane Melding, stating that the array’s intent is to allow the recipient's body to adjust to ongoing internal duress. I noticed the word ‘gestation’ a few times, so I’m assuming this is to somehow help with a mare’s pregnancy? Specifically difficult and/or cases of multiples?”
Cadance felt a chill. “Oho…”
Twilight beamed. “Ding-ding-ding! Now, for the bonus round...” She produced a sheaf of parchment and writing utensils, then after a muffled poof, an enchanted protractor. She floated everything over before Sunburst. “Draw the array for me.”
Sunburst didn’t even hesitate. His tongue poked out his mouth as he sketched out the complex design, his scruffy mane falling over his eyes as he went. Everyone in the room looked on, the four of them occasionally looking to the picture in the book.
A short while later, Sunburst held up the page.
Now Cadance’s jaw was on the table. Aside from a few wiggly lines where he’d eyeballed it, he’d produced a perfect copy of the array. Not a single rune or pattern was missed.
“Jeez!” Spike’s eyes went wide. “That’s AWESOME!”
“I wish I could do that,” said Thorax.
Sunburst stared. “You... do?”
“Sunburst,” Cadance said slowly. “How do you feel about checking items and/or areas for dark magic?”
Sunburst’s face was stoic. “I wouldn’t call it enjoyable, but I can do it, if that’s what you’re asking. I’ve passed all the procedures for proper retention and disposal.”
Quite the logical answer, if Cadance ever heard one. But more important to her, it was honest. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to go purifying dark and evil magic all that much, though.
“Why do you want to work in the Crystal Empire?” Twilight asked. “I’d think a pony with your credentials could get a job almost anywhere. Why here?”
Sunburst blushed. “I-I’m, uh… most interested in working with the Empire’s libraries and archives. A whole trove of knowledge lost for a thousand years and all that, and I figured there’s likely some work in getting it all organized.”
Cadance leaned back in her chair. “It’ll be challenging at first getting your head around everything the Empire has. I know you said you like reading, but the archives up here are almost as extensive as Canterlot’s. I’ve personally done four sweeps of the lower levels, but there might still be some books with forbidden magic tucked away.”
Twilight grunted. “Sombra was quite clever at hiding things.”
“You should also know you’ll be working almost exclusively in the castle’s lower levels by yourself,” Cadance said. “No co-workers you can go to for advice, no employee handbook telling you what to do. You’ll receive periodic assignments from myself and Princess Gleaming, but you’ll otherwise be on your own.”
A genuine smile was on Sunburst’s face now, his blue eyes bright. “I’m very careful about managing my time. It won’t be a problem.”
Too bad it was hard for Cadance to confirm that through emotions alone. He was eager about what they were telling him, but whether that was because he was looking forward to the job...
“What say we give you a little assignment?”she said. “A test run to get you warmed up to things. We’ll get you clearance and all that, and then we’ll give you, oh… let’s say two weeks to look up something in the archives. Sound good?”
Sunburst’s whole face lit up. “Absolutely!”
Spike laughed. “Easy there, dude. Hearth’s Warming was last month.”
Sunburst was almost vibrating. He looked like a colt who’d just been told he’d won a free trip to Whinny World.
Twilight turned to Cadance. “What’d you have in mind?”
Cadance hesitated. It wouldn’t do to have him search for something too hard, or too easy, for that matter. A nice middle ground was what she wanted.
“Here’s what I want,” she said. “I want you to go through the imported history sections in sub-level C and piece together everything you can about my predecessor, Princess Amore. Cross-reference the various history books brought in from other cities and see if you can put together a report on her.”
Sunburst furrowed his brow. “Princess… Amore?”
Cadance waved her hoof, and the image of a tall unicorn mare appeared. Her coat was a shade of pink paler than Cadance’s, and her curly mane was scarlet with blueish tips. Her frame was thin and willowy, her cutie mark was that of a picturesque snowflake, and her golden eyes were the kindest any of them had ever seen.
Thorax flicked out his tongue. “Ooooh…”
Twilight gasped. “How do you—what?! How do you know what she looks like?!”
Cadance watched the image rotate above the table. “Sombra went through and scoured her name from our books, but he couldn’t very well do anything about things outside the Empire. Aunt Celestia had a picture in her vault.”
Sunburst stared. Even from just an image, he could tell there was something about this pony, something a little bit… more.
“Princess Amore created the Crystal Heart over a thousand years ago,” Cadance went on. “Closer to two thousand, actually. I’m having you look her up because I want you to try and find out what happened to her. There isn’t anything about her beyond a certain point in the books I’ve found, which is something I’ve always found fishy.”
Sunburst’s ears twitched. “Two thousand?I thought you said she was your predecessor.”
“She was,” said Cadance.
Sunburst frowned. “But then how…”
“I imagine you’ll find that answer in the archives.” Cadance tapped the side of the table, her gaze lingering out towards the protective dome around the city. “The annals say the Heart used to be able to do far more than what it can do now—it could predict the future, repel and destroy evil, even dispel powerful curses. We did see a glimpse of its capabilities when we used it to defeat Sombra, But I’ve a feeling even that was a mere echo of what it once was.”
“This kingdom’s very existence is dependent on a relic that nopony fully understands, Sunburst,” said Twilight. “We need to figure out how to tap into its full power.”
Sunburst flipped over the parchment Twilight had given him to take notes. “And I’m guessing you’ve already tried researching the Heart itself?”
Cadance nodded. “You’ll find things like songs and poems and fantasies if you try to look up the Heart. The info on Princess Amore shouldn’t be as cluttered, so see what you can find out, then report back to me.”
Sunburst rolled up the parchment. “Of course, Princess.”
Cadance held out her hoof. “Welcome aboard, Sunburst. Glad to have you on.”
There was about fifteen more minutes of details after that, getting the proper clearance, salary, things like that. It was all settled quickly enough, and then Sunburst was sent on his way with a spring in his step.
“He seemed genuine,” said Twilight. “I think he’ll do well here.”
Spike jotted that down. “That’s one vote. Did you like him, Cadance?”
Cadance was still staring at the door. His melancholy was still gnawing at her, but she wasn’t sure why. “Yes. He should do nicely.”
Twilight noticed the catch. “Something wrong?”
Cadance steepled her hooves. “I assume you saw him hesitate when you asked why he wanted to move up here.”
Twilight creased her eyebrows. “I just figured he was nervous about admitting wanting to work with the archives.”
“He was,” Thorax piped up. “But he was also leaving something out. Something he didn’t want to tell us.”
Cadance had sensed it, too. The emotion had been swiftly buried, but it’d been so intense it’d been like a punch to the brain.
“He’s running from something,” she said. “Or maybe someone. Hard to say exactly, but it’s definitely something personal.”
Twilight cringed. “You... don’t think it’s something bad, do you? Something illegal, I mean?”
Cadance shook her head. “Emotion combos have different tells. His combo would’ve been different if it’d been something illegal.”
Twilight looked down, her thoughts whirring. “There’s no reason to pry so long as it’s nothing that interferes with his job. I’d rather not muddy things up with drama.”
“Hate to be the one to point this out, but in case you forgot...” Spike gestured to the stack of resumes. “He was the only one who applied! It’s back to the drawing board if he doesn’t work out.”
Cadance cleared her throat. “That’s true, but let’s not focus on that right now. He seemed very promising, so we’ll leave it that—”
The door opened without a knock. Doctor Talia limped in with a tight look on her face, Rainbow following after just behind.
Cadance tilted her head. “...Talia?”
“Hi.” Talia gestured for Rainbow to close the door. “We need to talk.”
Cadance felt a pit form in her stomach. “About…?”
Talia eased herself into a seat. “Gleaming teleported to my lab just now…”
It wasn’t long before Gleaming realized the forest was a pine barren. Little to no underbrush poked out of the snowdrifts, and the rare specimens that did were always misshapen or stunted. Didn’t make for the most exciting scenery, but at least the ground stayed relatively flat as she walked amongst the dusky trees. The only sounds she heard were the crunch of her own hoofsteps, the dull roar of the ocean waves receding behind her, and eventually the wind died down to create an oppressive wintery silence.
Gleaming chuckled. The snow got knee deep enough in some places that her maternity brace left behind an imprint. Combine that with her long tail also brushing along behind her, she was leaving behind quite the interesting trail.
“Thank Celestia I’ve been getting some height back through all this,” Gleaming muttered. “I swear, the kids would be dragging on the ground by now if I wasn’t...”
She was almost as tall as she’d been as a stallion. But Talia had guessed that she’d likely surpass her original height in under a month at her current rate of growth, so they’d just have to see. It’d be interesting to see if the extra inches carried over when—if she went back to being a guy.
“Cady told me to pay attention to my gut,” Gleaming muttered. “Follow the strong impulses, don’t sit on them. Well, THAT impulse was the strongest my special talent has ever given me. But then how do I follow it? Even if I can sense what’s wrong with ponies, I’m a soldier, not a doctor! I wasn’t even in touch with all this nurture-y stuff until Cady and I started talking about foals!”
Ah yes, foals. The catalyst of all this, the idea both she and Cadance had been talking about since dating. Gleaming couldn’t even remember which of them had been the first to bring it up.
“We were in the park by Donut Joe’s,” she recalled. “We were sitting beneath a weeping willow when we started talking about it… Heh, we were both so nervous we didn’t even eat our snacks.”
Gleaming walked a bit longer until she came to a ledge leading down into a gulch. Ice and rocks and pine needles littered the jagged ravine, a frozen stream likely hidden at the bottom beneath the snow. She teleported across and moved on.
“Cady had always been lonely—sensing the love of others but not being loved back.” Gleaming nodded. “And I’d always felt that pull to be a parent, so we were always on the same wavelength there. Something in me had always said, ‘I know I want this. This will someday happen.’ Then once I became an officer and started being responsible for others, it just confirmed it all the more. I wanted to be a father. I wanted that rewarding feeling I’d heard other parents talk about. I didn’t know how many I wanted, but when I heard the longing in Cady’s voice back then, so sad and wanting…”
A lightbulb went off in Gleaming’s head.
“A gift,” Gleaming said. “THAT’S what it was. I decided a big family would be my gift to her, and so long as we didn’t have more than we could manage, I was with her all the way.”
She snorted as she felt her bulbous middle. “Hopefully we haven’t gone overboard… Okay, daydreams and dirty talk aside, these six are probably gonna be it for a few years. More down the line? Definitely. But for a while here...”
It felt like she was onto something, so Gleaming searched her memories of the last few months for any other strong impulses. It’d been a roller coaster for sure, but nothing glaring stuck out. It’d just been the same things over and over, feeding into her special talent and confusing her all the more.
“I have kinda had foals on the brain,” she admitted. “Although c’mon, how could I not?! I’m freaking pregnant! Of course I’m going to be thinking a lot about kids when I feel them when I wake up, I feel them when I eat, when I’m taking a piss, when I’m moving, when I’m resting, when I’m working, when I’m having sex, all the goddamn time!Not an hour goes by that I don’t think about them at least once!”
And that wasn’t even touching whether or not any of that was caused by being a newly minted mare. Her body had been drenched in hormones and magic infusions, and the confusion was still running rampant. True, the experiences had broadened Gleaming’s horizons, but even a glimpse of life across the gender divide had been enough to blur her perceptions.
Gleaming sighed. “Dad was right. I need to see what it’s like being just a mare, and not a pregnant mare before deciding anything. Maybe I’ll go back and forth between genders every other year so I can compare and contrast. Then maybe just to mess with everypony, I’ll declare that I’m inventing my own gender that consists of just me. Oooh, I could give myself both sets of genitals so I can have the best of both worlds! Just think of the threesomes! Being balls deep in Cady while Celsius is hilted in me—oh, YES… It might be hard with him so short, but we’ll make it work, damn it!”
She let her imagination run wild as she continued to walk. She was now trying to figure out how her dick would behave while pregnant, as it wouldn’t have room to get hard with a bump in the way. Ha! She’d essentially be giving herself a titjob every time she got a boner with her breasts right there! Especially with her tits, holy hay… Mounting would be impossible once the pregnancy had reached a certain point, but there were other positions to explore, and Cadance was nothing if not adventurous...
“Ponies would be so confused,” Gleaming said, snickering. “They’d see my balls and sheath and think I’m a fat stallion, but then also catch sight of my marehood and teats, along with my wide hips, then a kick from one of the foals. And I bet my libido would be through the fucking roof from all the hormones. I’d be hard all the time! Oh my gosh, Cady would be so flustered… I’d tease her with stuff like asking her whether she thought my balls or breasts were bigger, and she’d have to get close to tell seeing as they’d be next to each other, and with my sheath right there in front of her…”
Gleaming herself was getting flustered herself just thinking about it. Maybe it was the easy way out to consider such an option, but damn if it wasn’t fun. Picking and choosing which masculine and feminine traits to have, wearing whatever clothes she wanted, doing whatever thing she liked. Wear makeup and a dress one day, cologne with a suit and tie the next. Who the hell was gonna argue with royalty? Alicorn royalty, no less! Heck, depending on whatever her domain was, she could just chalk it up to that!
Gleaming finally shook her head clear. “Okay, enough getting sidetracked. I’m out here to get get clarity on things, not muck them up even further. Focus on the issue at hoof, you silly pony.”
But that issue wasn’t something easily solved. The sudden awakening of a new power raised a whole slew of implications, implications that she really didn’t want to think about.
“My domain…” Gleaming craned her head back to see her flank. Behind her giant belly, the shield and four stars remained on her foalbearing hips. “It’s gotta be connected to my special talent. Too much of what I’ve been experiencing these last few months has been setting it off, so think! What abilities have I found so far?”
It wasn’t a very long list. Pacification, Soul Sight, a bunch of fertility-related stuff, and now the ability to sense… healthiness? Health history? Something like that, anyways. She gingerly turned that ability back on a moment, and she immediately heard the murmurs of the trees again, as well as a few small creatures in the area. She played with the strength it a while before turning it back off again.
“So it’s all feeding into my special talent, which is to defend and protect.” She looked up at the sky. “I can see the common thread, I’m just… not sure of the scope. Twily was right that ‘fertility’ is too narrow, but then how broad are we talking? What if the things I’ve experienced are just the tip of the iceberg? We thought practicing and exploring my powers would help me control them, and—well, I suppose that helped me get a lid on this, but I thought it’d get rid of the flares!”
Yet apparently not. Flares were common in unicorns until they reached adulthood, and while Gleaming hadn’t had many, she knew well enough what they felt like. She could feel her spark fighting inside her—swelling... growing, ready to break out again at a moment’s notice. Finding her center had helped, but she knew all it’d take is a good poke...
Gleaming’s voice fell to a whisper. “Just how powerful am I going to get?”
She kept walking until she got to the edge of a clearing. Probably a grove of some sort, it was hard to tell with the snow. There wasn’t a river or a pit of any kind that she could tell, so she walked out without a thought.
“All the other alicorn domains are broad,” Gleaming said. “The day. The night. Love. Friendship. Big and sweeping ideas that encompass a crapload of stuff. Celestia and Luna can control everything in the sky. Twily can make friends with about anyone she meets. And Cady… well, she’s never explored her domain much, but with something as powerful and necessary as love…”
She was well aware that what was going on with Cadance had parallels. Gleaming wasn’t sure which one situation she’d prefer, but there was comfort in knowing they were both walking down similar roads.
“Guess I need to think bigger,” Gleaming said. “I’ve been so caught up in the details I haven’t been able to see the greater picture! C’mon, what’s the broadest ideal you can think of that fits in with everything? Protection? Nurturing? Medicine? Healing? ...No, close, but not quite… Agh! It’s something more, something greater! Something that encompasses all those things!”
Gleaming felt a storm of flutters as the kids wiggled and squirmed. She knew they were hungry, and the pressure in her breasts was starting to build up, too. Just another thing that’d have to wait for now... She summoned her enchanted water bottle and downed the whole thing in one go. She waited for it to refill before draining it a second time…. then a third…. and after some consideration, a fourth. Almost an entire gallon of water and a gurgly sloshing stomach later, she wiped her mouth and spat on the ground.
“This is staring me right in the face. I know I’m thinking about it too hard, and something stupid is going to lead me to figure it out.” Gleaming snarled and bared her teeth. “Grrrhhhhh! Stop being so rattled and THINK! Everything deal in defense and development, right? They all have a connection to your special talent, and your talent is all about preserving—”
crunch
Gleaming stopped. That sound had come from behind her, just on the borders of her hearing.
Crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch...
Steps. Heavy ones, definitely not belonging to a pony. It was a long ways away whatever it was, which must’ve been why she hadn’t sensed it before. Granted, she hadn’t really been paying much attention... Maintaining her grip on her magic, she carefully reactivated her Lifesense and focused.
“Oh.” Gleaming raised her eyebrows. “I’ve never seen one of those before...”
She waited in the center of the clearing as the footsteps grew louder, watching and waiting for her follower. The ground started to shake.
CRUNCH… CRUNCH… CRUNCH… CRUNCH…
A shadow fell over Gleaming that blotted out what little light leaked into the grove. She could hear It sniffing and snuffling now, it’s hot breaths forming a wispy fog. She squinted in time to see a pair of violet eyes melt out of the shadows.
Fur. Fur and teeth and claws. Pale and snowy white, it’s semi-transparent body was covered in glittering stars. It was roughly the size of a house, maybe a little bigger, and it watched her with ashrewdness rarely seen in the wilds.
“Heya!” Gleaming smiled at the creature. “What’re you doing down here, little canis minor? Does your mama know you left the sky?”
Little was certainly subjective. The canis minor could’ve taken up a city street by itself! It tilted its head at Gleaming’s words, then stuck out its nose out past the trees to sniff.
Gleaming almost laughed—heavenly star beast or not, a dog was a still a dog. “I know, I know, you probably haven’t smelled something like me. Why don’t you come out here, hmm? Let me see how pretty you are.”
It wasn’t long before the canis minor did indeed walked out towards her, its tongue lolled while and wagging its whole butt. The ground shook even more now that it wasn’t trying to be quiet.
“Whoa...” Gleaming steadied herself. “Easy, boy…”
She used her power to pacify the canis minor. Immediately its movements became more gentle, the shaking ceasing as it waddled to her. It lowered his great head to her level, his giant wet nose wiggling.
“Yes, hello!” Gleaming could see her reflection in one of his mammoth eyes. “My name’s Gleaming! What’s your name?”
The canis minor was definitely a pup. A boy pup, by the looks of it. His eyes were each the size of Gleaming’s whole body, he had oversized puppy paws and stubby legs, and he had a shaggy, wiry coat that made her warmer just looking at it. His fur was filled with twinkling star patterns and nebulae, snowy white and hypnotic as it shifted and swirled, and he smelled like a mixture of ozone and young puppy.
“Guess this is a first for both of us.” Gleaming ran her hoof along his muzzle. “So soft... you really are just a baby, aren’t you? What’re you doing awake in the middle of the day, silly goose?”
The canis minor made a chuffing noise. Repeated, rapid puffs of air blew past Gleaming as he sniffed her all over.
“That’s right, I’m a pony!” Gleaming said. “Po-nee. You don’t see a lot of us out here, do you?”
Gleaming had always she could have a dog growing up. But Mom was allergic, and they didn’t really allow pets at the Academy. She supposed she could have one now, but the desire wasn’t as strong.
“Not like you’d fit in my home anyways,” Gleaming told him. “Plus you’re probably not housetrained...”
The canis minor wagged its tail some more. It licked its chops, his huge tongue nearly sideswiping her.
Gleaming laughed. “Now THAT’S a slobberknocker!” His puppy breath washed over her, making her wonder for the second time where this guy’s parents were. “Sorry, but I don’t have any stardust for you. If you can even eat stardust yet—what am I doing, you probably can’t even feel me petting you. Lemme just...”
Gleaming formed her telekinesis into a massive dragon claw with rounded tips. She guided the construct down and began scratching him behind the ears, eliciting a pleased grumble like a train engine.
“There we go. Yeah, you like that, don’t you? Good boy...”
Then the canis minor rolled away from her, snow falling from the surrounding trees as he tucked in front paws and exposed his belly.
Gleaming smiled. “Oh, really? You think I’m gonna give you a tummy rub just like that? What if I don’t wanna? What if I only wanted to give you a quick ear scratch, hmm? I’m a very busy pony, you know...”
She was already rubbing his tummy as she said this. The pup’s tongue lolled out onto the snow like a fleshy carpet, him panting with an odd murring sound. Gleaming took special care to scratch under his ribs, snickering as one of his hind legs started going, kicking the air with enough force to smash a castle portcullis.
“Can you can tell me what my domain is?” Gleaming said. “Maybe give me some fresh insight that I’ve missed? C’mon, you seem like a smart sort. What loosely associated collection of ideas am I the immortal steward of? Got a hint for me? I could use a hint right about now…”
The canis minor was silent. He was putty in her hooves, his tail sweeping back and forth to make huge snowpiles.
“I said ‘preservation’ before,” Gleaming said. “That’s a certainly factor… Peace? Not quite, but that might be an aspect… Nurturing! Ergh, no! That’s not it either! It’s gotta be something that all fits together in some way! Fertility, protection, and now health. Three definites along with some outliers like Soul Sight, so if you put all together, you get—”
Suddenly, the canis minor went stock still. He sniffed the air again, his eyes darting to the far side of the grove. He rolled back onto his paws with a great shaking of the earth.
“Hey!” Gleaming stepped back. The pup hadn’t rolled in her direction, but the tremors were still no joke. “What’s wrong, buddy?”
The canis minor stood stiff as a board. He stared at the far end of the grove at something only he could see.
Gleaming reactivated her Lifesense, wincing as it fought to break free. She watched and waited for a few moments as she scanned the shadows and snow.
And then she felt it.
“Uh-oh…”
A sleek giant a little smaller than the canis minor melted out of the far side of the grove. Fuzzy and orange like the sunset, it too had a coat swirling and dancing with starstuff. It had glowing yellow eyes and a shorter muzzle, whiskers the length of spears, and stubby legs with big paws.
“Well,” Gleaming said dryly. “Can’t say I’ve ever seen a leo minor before, either.”
The leo minor must’ve just come down from the sky. Threads of errant magic still clung to it that made its star markings sparkle and glimmer. It mostly had eyes for Gleaming, but it also took note of her companion, which likely was why it chose to remain by the treeline.
The canis minor growled.
“U-Uh...” Gleaming could feel him breaking free of her Pacify. “C’mon, be nice! The kitty’s not—”
Hisssssssss! The leo minor raised a paw in warning, its scythe-like claws bared. Even as a kitten, a single one of those things was taller than a doorframe.
Gleaming was thinking more and more this was a bad idea. Interacting with the canis minor had been risky enough—she wasn’t about to try and stop a fight between two huge animals in her state! Teleporting was probably the best idea—
“WOOFWOOFWOOF!” The canis minor sprinted forward. The ground heaved as he kicked up flurries of snow.
“RAWROWRRRR!” The trees were nearly uprooted as the leo minor charged.
The forest trembled. The clash of two star beasts would likely destroy the grove and the surrounding area, if not a good chunk of the forest. Creatures in hibernation would be helpless to protect themselves from the struggle, and even after the land had healed, there’d still be scars from the conflict—
ZINGGGGG!
The grove was engulfed in magenta. The light was so bright both the canis and leo minor were blinded, skidding to a halt while yipping and yowling.
“I thought I told you to be nice,” said a booming voice. “Do you both need a time out?”
When the star beast’s eyes finally cleared, they both were cowed at what they saw. A TITANIC construct in the shape of a pony loomed over even them, taking up the entirety of the grove and then some!
“You can’t fight here on the surface.” The construct glared at them with narrowed eyes. “You’re already too big for that, and you’re only going to get bigger. Haven’t your parents taught you to be careful?”
The canis and leo minor whimpered. They looked down to the ground, heads lowered and ears drooped.
“You wouldn’t like it someone bigger than you messed up your home, would you?” The construct shook its head. “You need to think about these things when you come down to the surface, or you could really hurt somepony.”
The canis and leo minor nuzzled the legs of the construct, mewling and whining. They still shot dirty looks at each other, but didn’t dare make any moves.
“I think it’s time for bed,” it said. “You don’t want your parents to wake up and find you’ve snuck off, do you? Then you’ll really be in trouble.”
The canis and leo minor didn’t tarry much longer. A moment later, their bodies vanished to starstuff before trailing back up to the heavens. Gleaming and the construct were left alone in the grove, the only evidence left behind being the disturbed ground and snow.
Gleaming gasped as her spark surged. Her construct exploded in a massive glittering shower, and she was left to clutch her head as the whispers and murmurs returned.
“I… am… insane,” she growled. “Celestia almighty, what the everloving assblasting hell is WRONG with me?! Why the cockspewing shit-eating FUCK didn’t I run?! Did you forget that you’re pregnant?! Now’s not the time to play white knight!”
Her brain had told her to leave, but her gut had told her to intervene. Logic should’ve won the argument, but the impulse had been so strong...
“And now I’m flared again! DAMN IT ALL!” Screaming, she fired a spiralling energy ray towards the mountains. It collided seconds later with a distant blast that knocked out a huge chunk of the cliffside. “Really accomplished a lot there, didn’t you?! Some parent you’re going to be—here you are out here in the middle of nowhere, you can’t even tend to your unborn kids when they’re hungry, and now you’re even putting them in danger! And guess what—it’s going to take even LONGER before you can head back now because you need to get this stupid flare back under control!”
Her vicious shouts rang out in the cold silence. Her breath formed misty clouds as she spat on the ground, muscles tensed and lips curled.
“Okay, calm down, calm down. You muscled it down once, you can do it again. Just focus, Shining. You’ve got this…”
But any focus eluded her even more now. She couldn’t get over her confusion at what she’d just done. She’d used magic to break the star beasts up, but either one of them could’ve easily crushed her...
Yet be that as it may. Even if canis and leo minor were just playfighting, their tussle would’ve smashed the forest and possibly even killed animals. Gleaming just couldn’t have that. She couldn’t stand idly by allow such a huge loss of life, touchy magic be damned.
“I… had to stop them,” she realized. “Even though it was a risk, I couldn’t just walk away! I wanted to protect everything: The trees, the sleeping animals, the star beasts, the kids… all of them! I wanted to preserve as many lives as I could.”
Protect and preserve, maintain and provide. It was what she’d always done, what she believed in above all else. A core aspect of who she was.
“It really has always been that way.” She didn’t even notice her magic wasn’t running wild anymore. “It’s everything to me! Not the protection or preservation or nurturing, those are just tools in the toolbox. No… the result has been what I’m after. That’s the important part.”
It was like feeling the last puzzle piece click. All the hints, all the clues, all the possibilities and what-ifs. The confusion and frustration was gone, and her spark swelled eagerly as it stabilized into a new form.
“Life,” she said at last. “My domain is Life! I’m the Alicorn of Life! That’s it! HA! I got it! Cady is Love, and I’m Life! We even go together! ...Okay, not really, but who cares?! I figured it out! I finally know—whoa, wait the?”
The wind had picked up around Gleaming. It swirled around her in a tight circle, the powdery snow swept up all around her. Her spark was still changing shape, morphing and shifting in feel, yet only now did she notice it. The subtle warmth she’d been giving off grew stronger, travelling out from her and now into the frozen ground, and the snow and ice melted, the ground thawing as shoots of silvery grass and white flowers sprouted up all around her.
Gleaming took a step back. “Oh...”
A pulse erupted from Gleaming. Immediately, more grass and flowers grew from the barren soil, all of them colored in shades of blue and white. The circle of life continued until the entire field had been affected—an oasis amidst the pine barren.
Vrrrrm...
Gleaming felt a tingle on her flanks. She looked just in time to see something happening to her cutie mark—an outline of some sort becoming visible around the shield! She had a hard time telling what it was at first, but as it became more and more visible, it became clear what it was.
“A white snake.” Gleaming’s lips parted. “Well, what do you know.”
The only thing that distinguished the snake from her coat was its outline. It could’ve always been there, it might’ve just now appeared, she didn’t know. Gleaming had never heard of a cutie mark changing, but then again, there were a lot of things she didn’t understand anymore.
“Even the fertility stuff fits, doesn’t it?” She smiled as she felt her womb, the miracle of life happening within her. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. It really was staring me right in the face.”
Her spark wasn’t volatile anymore. Instead of it straining to break out, it’s gentle glow suffused her like a lantern. The power of life—for that’s what it was—was stronger now, more robust, but it wasn’t railing against her. She could feel a greater depth to it overall, and as she got a feel for it, she could tell it had a ways yet to grow.
Gleaming laughed. She laughed for a long, long time. It’s the kind of laughter that bubbles up inside you when you realize it took you far too long to realize something, and it all just makes you feel silly. She laughed in her newly sanctified grove amidst the enchanted flora, wielding her power with newfound grace.
“I can do so much good with this,” she said. “I can learn how to better protect the troops! I might be able to actually heal! All those sick patients back at the hospital, I can help make them better! I could even help heal Rhodi! I could get rid of sickness all throughout the Empire—no! Throughout Equestria! Heck, I might even be able to help with ponies with infertility—”
The realization hit her like a haymaker.
The crown jewel of personal challenges.
The greatest gift she could give.
The problem that’d caused all of this to happen in the first place.
“Cady…”
That Evening-
Knock-knock-knock!
“—Luna to search the Dreamrealm—” Twilight stopped. “Come in!”
The door opened, and in trotted a teenage colt wearing a food-stained apron. He bowed low in between pants for breath.
“Princess... Twilight!” said the colt. “Princess Gleaming has invited... you and Sir Spike to... join her for dinner.”
Twilight raised her eyebrows. After a brief pause, she looked back to Spike and his parchment. “Scratch that.”
Spike did just that. “Scratched!”
Twilight examined the teenager. “You’re from the kitchens?”
The colt nodded. “The Princess teleported in and told us she’d missed two meals! We had all these leftovers we didn’t know what we were gonna do with! She’s already going at it, but she sent me to ask if either of you had eaten yet.”
So Gleaming had gone straight for food. Part of Twilight rankled, but she supposed she could forgive it. “Has someone told Cadance?”
The boy smiled. “Of course! Another dishwasher was sent up her quarters. She should be hearing about it right now.”
Spike shifted on Twilight’s back. “There miiiiiiiiight be a problem with that.”
The boy tilted his head. “Eh?”
“I’m afraid Princess Cadance isn’t in the castle right now,” said Twilight. “She’s not even in the city.”
“Not in the city?” the boy repeated. “Where is she?”
Cadance flew high in the skies above the Empire with steady flaps. She kept her path level as she rode the warm winds, circling lazily in a warm pocket of air she’d found out in the plains.
“You fly pretty well for a bureaucrat!” called Rainbow beside her. “You wereborn a pegasus, weren’t you?”
Cadance laughed. “Sure was!”
Granted, there were days it was easy to forget that. Cadance hadn’t had much chance to fly throughout her life, as the orphanage she’d grown up in hadn’t taken too kindly to her going off willy-nilly. The matron had tried impressing that Cadance should stay on the ground with the others, but some instincts could never be fully supressed.
Cadance looked down at the dotted landscape. She could see the whole city, her entire kingdom laid out before her. It was hard to believe that hundreds of thousands of ponies lived in what looked like a foal’s playset.
“I doubt she stayed nearby,” she muttered. “Endo said she was really overwhelmed, and she has enough power that she could teleport a couple hundred miles if she really wanted…”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Rainbow flew closer. “You told me you wanted to go flying to get your mind off of Gleaming! Don’t tell me you just wanted to come up here so you could look for her!”
Cadance blanched. “No! That’s not what I… ergh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get back on it like that. Let’s be honest, I wouldn’t even know where search for her. It’s not easy finding somepony that can teleport.”
Rainbow grunted. “Oh, I hear that. If Twi wants to be alone, she’s gonna be alone. One time she got super frustrated after dealing with some stuffy princess stuff, and she and Spike up and vanished for a few days. It turned out they’d gone all the way to Neighpon! They even had souvenirs to prove it!”
Cadance suddenly had a thought of Twilight and Spike showing up out of the blue in Neighponese clothes carrying bags filled with knick-knacks. She almost would’ve paid to see that.
“I doubt Gleamy’s gone that far.” Cadance adjusted her angle to stay by Rainbow. “She probably just went up to the mountains or something.”
Rainbow shrugged. “Eh, she can take care of herself. She’s a smart pony.”
Cadance certainly hoped so. For all their sakes.
The two of them eventually landed on a cloud to rest. They sat across from each other while enjoying the sun, preening their own wings and catching their breath. The only sound between them was the ceaseless wind blowing, their manes and tails flying behind them like flags.
“We haven’t talked all that much, have we?” Cadance said at last.
Rainbow looked up. “Why? Something on your mind?”
There wasn’t, actually. They didn’t have a lot in common save that their romantic partners were siblings. She’d mostly brought it up as a distraction.
“I just don’t know much about you,” Cadance said. “You’ve been up here for four months now, and yet I’m always so busy I don’t get any chance to chat.”
A slow smile formed on Rainbow’s face. “I suppose I could enlighten you to the awesomeness that is Rainbow Dash. Anything in particular you’re curious about?”
Confidence. Confidence and intensity, passion and excitement. Rainbow’s mind was saturated in the emotions like a soaked sponge. It was actually kind of addicting. “You said at Hearth’s Warming you’re from Cloudsdale. Did you live there most of your life, or…?”
Rainbow cracked her neck with a muffled pop! “I moved down to Ponyville after I got a job on the weather team. Fluttershy—you remember Fluttershy, right? She told me they had an opening, and I got in lickety-split!”
Cadance remembered hearing at some point that Rainbow had had training a weather pony. It certainly showed in her figure. “But you quit that job, right? Because of the adventuring and service to Twilight.”
Rainbow played with a tuft of cloud. “And the Wonderbolts, yeah. S’alright though, the job’s in good hooves. Mare named Cloud Kicker runs things now.”
Cadance found it odd that she wasn’t picking up a whole lot of emotions about giving up the job, positive or negative. “That’s right, you’re in the Wonderbolts! That has to be exciting.”
Rainbow puffed out her chest. “Heck, yeah! I’m just a reserve right now, but I’ll be on the main roster before you know it. Captain Spitfire’s dying to put the sonic rainboom into the performance routine, and as soon as there’s an open spot, BAM! I’m a full fledged Bolt!”
Cadance giggled. “Wonderbolt Rainbow Dash, master of the sonic rainboom! I can see the posters already.”
Rainbow grinned. “Spitfire’s been fighting tooth and hoof to bring me on early. but Pony Resources won’t budge. It’s tradition for the team to only be comprised of a certain amount of members—no more, no less. No worries though, it’s just a matter of time. All I’ve gotta do is make sure I stay in shape… and can do the rainboom at will, of course.”
Cadance raised an eyebrow. “Can you?”
Rainbow got an odd gleam in her eye. She made to rise—
“Not here!” Cadance blurted out. “If you really can, then just say so. I can detect lies, remember?”
Rainbow blinked several times. “Uh, yeah. I can still do it. I practice twice a week out over the ocean. Twi ports us out there.”
It was funny thing, hearing something absurd like that and knowing it was true. If almost anypony else had said it…
“Do you mind if I ask something personal?” Cadance asked.
“Shoot.”
Cadance rubbed one of her forehooves. “What exactly attracted you to Twilight? You and her are so different, but the ties of love between you are some of the strongest I’ve ever seen! I feel like there’s a common ground between you that I’m missing.”
Rainbow pondered the question for a time. She traced idle shapes in the cloud, molding up little balls before smoothing them back out.
“You did say you don’t know much about me,” she said at last. “I suppose I should give you some background. When I did the rainboom for the first time as a filly, it was like a switch got flipped inside me. Nopony could catch me—not in speed, not in skill, not in style, nothing. I was in a league of my own without anypony to compete with, and it’s been that way ever since. Best in every race, first in every competition. Sprint, marathon, acrobatics, obstacle course, power flying, weather control, showboating, doesn’t matter. I win ‘em all.”
Cadance nodded. “I believe it.”
Rainbow’s eyes grew distant. “But I’m the kind of mare that always wants to get better, y’know? I always want to train, I always want to push my limits. But I found that when I did that, I just got even further away from everypony else, y’know? I couldn’t help but work my plot off because that’s who I am, but it was almost like I was being punished for it.”
Cadance gestured to the open air around them. “It’s lonely at the top.”
Rainbow gulped and wet her dry lips. “Twi’s... always been the best at magic, and she never really had any competition from anyone. She loved being Princess Celestia’s student, but wound up alone because of it. I know she had you and Spike and her family, but that was about it, wasn’t it? She wound up being such a shut-in that the princess had to order her down to Ponyville.”
Cadance sighed. Even to this day, there was a part of her that blamed herself for that. She doubted it was coincidence that Twilight became a recluse about the same time Cadance started travelling as an ambassador, and Gleaming had gone to Baltimare for officer training.
“I once heard something from an old guy,” said Rainbow. “Was the dude who made my armor, actually. He said, ‘one master can recognize another.’ I don’t need to be a unicorn to know that Twilight the best at what she does, I can see it a mile away. She works hard, she doesn’t half-ass things she commits to, she knows what it’s like to be a big fish in a small pond, and most of all... she knows what it’s like to be alone.”
Of all the explanations Cadance had expected why they had clicked, that certainly wasn’t one of them. That kind of attraction was… well, not unheard of, but not something you encountered every day.
“You relate to each other in a way no one else can,” Cadance murmured. “You felt a connection to her because of that, and eventually, that connection turned into something more.”
Rainbow blushed. “S-Something like that.”
Cadance only had one lingering concern. “Be gentle with her, won’t you? I can tell this isn’t your first relationship, but it is for Twilight. Don’t just dump her and move on if you find out it’s not working out. Find a way to let her down easy.”
Rainbow frowned. “What makes you think we’re going to break up?”
Cadance shook her head. “I can tell you love each other. All I’m saying is that there are many steps to a relationship, and you two have just begun. A lot can happen between then and now.”
Rainbow stared at Cadance with that shiveringly intense look. “I just told you Twi and I know the value of hard work.”
“Life has a way of throwing curve balls, Rainbow,” said Cadance. “Has your life gone totally as expected?”
Rainbow kept her gaze a bit longer before looking away. “I’m the Element of Loyalty, Cadance. I don’t give up on things easily. If I say I’m committed to Twilight, then I’m committedto Twilight.”
Cadance smiled. “Then I’d say she’s lucky to have somepony like you.”
Bzzzt… bzzzt… bzzzt...
A strange vibrating sound came from Rainbow. It almost sounded like an insect buzzing.
“Speaking of Twi...” Rainbow held up her front-right leg, which Cadance now saw was glowing magenta.
“What’s that?” Cadance asked.
It was a sigil of Twilight’s cutie mark etched on Rainbow’s forearm, pulsing slowly while making the vibrating sound.
“I told you we had ways of contacting each other.” Rainbow admired the mark. “Too bad it doesn’t have a super-long range... One sec, I gotta take this.”
She touched the mark for two seconds before raising it to her mouth. “Y’ello?”
Twilight’s ghostly voice floated out from the mark. “Hey. Are you still with Cadance?”
“Sure am,” said Rainbow. “We’re on a cloud over the western plains.”
There was the sound of dishes clinking before Twilight spoke again. “Can you put her on? Gleaming’s back, and she wants to talk to her.”
Rainbow perked up. “Oh, cool!” She held out her arm again to Cadance. “The white one returneth.”
Tentatively, Cadance scooched closer to Rainbow so she could talk into the sigil. “...Uh, hello? Gleamy?”
A pause…
“...talk into my leg… yes, I can teach you the spell later… the pumper can wait, just talk to her… ergh, would you just—SHINING! Stop stuffing your face, stop complaining, and take two seconds to talk to your wife! She’s been worried sick about you!”
Cadance snickered. “I forget sometimes which of them is older.”
Rainbow snorted. “Right?”
There was a little more background noise before a familiar voice came on. “...Hey, hun.”
Cadance breathed out a sigh of relief. “You alright?”
“Better,” said Gleaming. “Had a pretty interesting day. I’m in the dining room with Spike and Twily right now.”
Cadance had already guessed as much. “Want us to join you?”
Another pause, only broken up by the telltale munching of Spike eating gems. “Tell you what, meet me in the gardens when you’re done flying. I’ve got something to show you.”
“Mmkay. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Rainbow pulled her arm back. “That all you need?”
More scuffling sounds before Twilight came back on. “That should be, yes. I’ll see you when you get back.”
“‘See you when you get back?!’” Rainbow repeated. “Where’s my ‘I love you?’”
You could almost feel Twilight’s turning pink. The wind blew loud around them before finally, in a very small voice...
“I love you.”
“Love you too, babe.” The sigil faded, and Cadance and Rainbow were alone. “Pretty nifty, eh?”
Cadance had to admit she was impressed. “I’ve only ever seen that enchantment bound to crystals. I didn’t know it could be tied to living things.”
Rainbow waggled her eyebrows. “That’s my Twi. Always pushing the envelope.”
Cadance felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. “Well then, I think we’re pretty well warmed up. Wanna show me how to do some of those fancy tricks of yours?”
Rainbow did a double-take. “...Really?”
Cadance spread her wings wide. “I know these things look klutzy, but I can maneuver with the best of ‘em! I’ll bet I’ll get two or three tricks down by the time we have to go back.”
At first Rainbow doubted her, but then she caught sight of a familiar look in her eyes. She smiling liking a young foal who’d just been given free rein to go play in a water park.
“Y’know,” Rainbow said. “There’s more to you than I first thought.”
Cadance winked. “Race you to the weather barrier.”
“Oh, you’re on!”
That Night-
The Castle Gardens were a newer addition to the grounds. Created just north of the castle and stretching on for some blocks, it was essentially a public park maintained by the Crown with some private areas. Cadance hadn’t been sure how well the crystal ponies would react to the new attraction, but it turned out ponies regularly strolled and held events in the Gardens, so much so that there was a waitlist stretching several months out.
A picturesque little area surrounded by hedges and trees was Cadance and Gleaming’s favorite spot. Cadance found Gleaming there relaxing under a weeping willow, her regalia and maternity articles set to the side. She circled a few times before gliding in and landing, flaring her wings and fluttering before landing like a shadow.
Gleaming clapped. “Did you have fun flying?”
Cadance’s eyes were bright. “I’ll have even more fun when you can come with me.” She came over to give Gleaming a kiss. “I heard you had a bit of an adventure today.”
Gleaming giggled as Cadance nuzzled her baby belly. “Don’t worry, we’re all fine. Better than fine, actually.”
Cadance barely heard. She was too busy checking Gleaming over with a critical eye. “I know you can take care of yourself, but I couldn’t help but worry. I couldn’t help but think about—what happened to your cutie mark?!”
Gleaming laughed. “That didn’t take long.”
Cadance looked closer. The white serpent encircling the shield was stylized, but she recognized it well enough.
“That snake...” Cadance’s eyes went wide. “It’s the same as on the Aesclepius Journals!”
Gleaming nodded. “Life, Cady. My domain is Life. I figured it out while I was off clearing my head. My spark surged big time when I realized, and from what Twily was saying, I think I hit another milestone.”
Cadance was speechless. She looked between Gleaming’s cutie mark, her face, and the growing womb in between. She had a clean, pleasing scent about her, a subtle aroma that was almost magnetic. The warmth flowing off her was stronger now, so soothing and refreshing...
Gleaming took Cadance’s hoof in hers. “I can sense Sombra’s curse inside you now. I don’t know how to get it out of you yet, but if get strong enough, I might be able to. I know we’ve already kind of found a way around the curse, but it’s not what either of us wanted, is it? You don’t want to wait a whole century until you can finally take a turn at this, and I certainly don’t want to see you suffer for that long. You want to be a mother. A proper mother, the whole thing from start to finish.”
Cadance’s mouth was dry. Faint hope stirred in her chest like a phoenix from the ashes.
“I’m going to give this my all,” said Gleaming. “If it’s within my power to get that filthy magic out of you, I’ll do whatever it takes. We’ll have finally won against him, Cady. No more surprises, parting gifts, or tricks. Sombra’s stain will be wiped clean.”
Cadance wasn’t sure if the emotions she was feeling were hers or Gleaming’s. Either way, she darted forward to kiss Gleaming with tears glinting in her eyes.
“I love you,” Cadance whispered. “So much…”
They kissed for a long time there , the soft smeks of their lips playing alongside the rustle of wind. Cadance laid down beside Gleaming on the freshly-cut grass, their foals tucked snug and safe between them. Cadance covered them with a downy wing and nudged closer, feeling like she was still flying among the clouds as Gleaming’s warmth washed over her.
“You smell good,” said Cadance after they broke. “Are you wearing perfume?”
Gleaming shook her head. “Nope. You’re not the first to say that today, though.”
“Mmm…” Cadance hummed again as she buried her muzzle in Gleaming’s fur. “I can’t put my hoof on it. It’s just—snifffff—good. You smell, I dunno… healthy. Not like you’re in heat or anything, just… ugh, I don’t know how else to describe it! You smell really good, okay? I wanna bottle up this scent and spray it on myself!”
Curious, Gleaming smelled herself. She didn’t notice anything different, but then again, she’d probably grown accustomed to it. “I... suppose it’d make sense with my domain? Might be why I’ve responded so well to Twilight’s spells.”
“Maybe,” Cadance admitted. “I can’t say it enough, sweetie. Your pregnancy’s going better than any of us could’ve dreamed! The foals are big and strong, you’re big and strong, and I swear, you just get more and more beautiful every time I see you...”
Gleaming chuckled. “Flatterer.”
“It’s true!” Cadance ran the frog of her hoof along Gleaming’s firm belly. “Your mane and tail are sleek and smooth. Your coat is so thick and soft, I wanna snuggle with you all day. Your legs are as long as mine, but you’ve got so much muscle, I feel like I’m walking on twigs! I feel like I want to do weight training when I’m next to you.”
Gleaming smirked. The babies were stirring in response to Cadance’s touch and voice, a few of them wiggling and shifting. “Oh, come on. You’re still the far better-looking one between us.”
“I don’t know,” said Cadance. “There’s not much I have anymore that you don’t have better. Your colors are fuller, your face is prettier, your eyes are brighter, your curves are sexier, not to mention you’ve got all the pregnancy perks…”
Gleaming couldn’t help but preen at the praise. She stretched out like a cat now, relaxing as Cadance coaxed the soreness from her supple skin. “Then just imagine what you’ll look like pregnant, eh? All the perks combined with your hotness? You’ll be dialed up to eleven.”
Cadance rolled her eyes. “Assuming my body reacts like yours. Even with magic, I could wind up looking and feeling like a bloated monster from the Black Lagoon.”
Gleaming burst out laughing. “The pink pregnant terror ceases worshipping the porcelain goddess to wreak havoc upon the Crystal Empire! None shall escape her bitchy wrath!”
Quick as lightning, Cadance darted down and blew a raspberry on Gleaming’s belly.
“AH!” Gleaming shrieked and laughed, the foals suddenly kicking like mad. “Y-You scared them! Ah geez, they’re all awake now. It’s like a circus in there!”
Cadance could see the twitches and bulges of tiny hooves stretching the walls of Gleaming’s taut womb, the fertile mass shaking and rippling. “Aww, sorry babies. You were probably falling asleep after dinner, weren’t you? Mommy didn’t mean to frighten you.”
Gleaming couldn’t believe how much it tickled. She wiggled and squirmed with a helpless smile, the fuzzy glow in her chest build. “Th-They were starting to get really active while I was out in the woods, heh. Don’t think they’ve gone without food for that long before...”
Cadance could imagine. “You got enough to eat, though?”
“Yeah.” Gleaming calmed as Cadance resumed her massage. “But it didn’t seem smart to have three enormous meals in one sitting. I had Twily temporarily tweak her spells so I could make up the rest with those smoothies Talia’s been having me drink. Think I had about eight, heh...”
Cadance had noticed that Gleaming’s belly was pretty enormous right now. Not surprising, considering those high-cal smoothies were thirty-two ounces each...
“And man, my tits were HUGE!” Gleaming gestured to the mounds between her legs. “They were literally leaking by the time I got back! That’s never happened before! I could barely walk they were so big and sore!”
Okay, that made sense. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that started happening more, especially considering you’ve been pumping pretty regularly already. Your body’s probably gotten into a routine.”
Gleaming grumbled something about ‘mammal mechanics’.
They lay there together for a time, enjoying each other’s closeness among the peaceful silence. Gleaming relaxed and rested her head on the grass, her breaths calm and steady as Cadance rubbed her with both hooves.
“I talked to Endo and Talia,” Cadance eventually said. “They told me what happened with the colt… Rhodi, I think his name was?”
Gleaming swished her tail. “Nopony that young should have to deal with a sickness like that... Nopony at ALL should, period.”
Cadance gave her a gentle squeeze. “You gave him the best chance he has. It’s out of our hooves now.”
Gleaming clucked her tongue. “If I get strong enough, I might be able to do more. Granted, I didn’t find much when I was experimenting earlier..”
“Where did you go?” Cadance asked. “Endo said that you teleported with more energy than he’d ever seen. Did you go past the mountains?”
Reluctantly, Gleaming told Cadance everything that’d happened. Some of it was like pulling teeth, but she soldiered on nonetheless.
“And I was all ready to leave them to fight, but something in me just screamed to stay.” Gleaming met Cadance’s eyes. “I figured they’d listen to something bigger than them, so I conjured up the biggest construct I could and lectured them. They listened and went back up to the sky... and that’s when I had the epiphany.”
Cadance’s face was a mask. She didn’t betray a single emotion, her eyes stoic and calm. She’d stopped rubbing Gleaming to listen, her hooves resting on the ground.
“I know I told you to follow your instincts, but I really wish you hadn’t done something so reckless,” she said. “Leaving to clear your head? Sure. Taking a walk in snowy uneven terrain by yourself? Dicey, but you’re sturdy enough. But that’s where you should’ve drawn the line. For a pony that doesn’t like taking risks, you sure took a lot of them today.”
Gleaming’s ears drooped. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“What would you have done if you’d gotten hurt?” Cadance said. “You’d have been all alone out in the wilderness with no one knowing where you are, possibly without any way to get help! All it would’ve taken is for one of those creatures to make one wrong move! I don’t care what kind of changes you’re going through, you’re not invincible!”
Gleaming looked away. “...I don’t know what to say.”
Cadance didn’t say as much, but this might the first real time Gleaming displayed anything that might be described as ‘pregnancy brain’. She made a note to be more careful what kind of advice she gave from now on.
“There’s enough risk with all of this as it is,” she said in a soft voice. “Your actions right now don’t just affect you, they also affect our children. Maybe this was fate or whatever, but please, promise me you won’t do anything else like that again.”
Gleaming bowed her head. “I promise.”
Cadance made a second mental note to talk more about this later with Twilight and Talia. For now, though, she supposed she could focus on the positive.
“I suppose at least you answered an important question thanks to all of it. So, Life, huh?”
Gleaming smiled weakly. “I’m thinking I should probably be spending time in hospitals from now on. Seems like a good place to get some practice.”
“You said you got overwhelmed in the hospital,” Cadance pointed out.
“Well, yeah but—”
“Gleamy,” Cadance said. “Milestone or not, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be diving headlong into the worst problems. I don’t know why I need to keep reminding you of this, but stress isn’t good for you right now.”
Gleaming granted that, but still. “It’s not like I’m going to go try healing ponies in the ICU. I was thinking like going to a clinic or something! Start small and work my way up.”
“Hospitals and clinics are two different things.”
“Okay, a separate clinic that’s not in a hospital!” Gleaming snapped. “Sheesh, split hairs more, why don’t you.”
They spent a while longer discussing ideas for how Gleaming could better explore her domain. They each had different ideas, but a few things they agreed upon were that Gleaming shouldn’t be taking on too much. She was supposed to be taking it easy, after all.
“But developing my powers will make my spark stronger,” Gleaming pointed out. “Which’ll likely be better overall because I’ll better be able to carry the kids!”
Cadance rolled her eyes. “I don’t think you should push things any harder or faster. You’re already progressing at a good rate.”
“Then why’d I have a flare in the first place?”
“...”
Gleaming nuzzled the crook of Cadance’s neck. “I know you don’t like it, but I think it’s pretty clear we need to step things up. My magic may go wild again if I don’t devote more time to learning how to control it.”
Cadance pursed her lips. “But how? Twilight and I have our hooves full with getting the new infrastructure up and running, so we can’t really help. Unless you delegate some of your duties to somepony else for awhile, you don’t have the time.”
Gleaming thought about that. It was true there wasn’t really anypony else to shoulder the royal duties, but her responsibilities to the military were also part of the equation.
“Rex,” Gleaming said. “She knows what’s going on. I’m sure she’ll be willing to take on some of my military duties for a while.”
Cadance glanced to the side. “She’s not gonna like it…”
“We’re all doing things we don’t like to get through this,” Gleaming said. “She hasn’t let us down yet.”
Cadance couldn’t deny that. “Alright, but keep in mind she has that week off starting Hearts and Hooves Day. I wouldn’t renege on that if I were you.”
Gleaming tensed up. “Ah, that’s right… Well, Hearts and Hooves Day isn’t for two weeks, so maybe she and I can figure some things out over the next fortnight. It should be fine.”
Cadance’s expression was prim, but she kept her reservations to herself. “I suppose we’ve come up with worse plans.”
They took a while longer discussing various things while spending the evening out under the stars. Their conversation drifted to the usual things: State, family, getting things ready for the kids, things in their personal lives. Neither of them could remember the last time they’d spent a whole evening outdoors, but neither of them felt much impulse to relocate. They wound up laing beneath the weeping willow together for hours, the brilliant nighttime canvas on full display.
“I never realized how much I missed seeing the stars,” Cadance said after a time. “Dad certainly was quick in getting the lux field up and going, wasn’t he?.”
She and Gleaming were now laying on their backs on the grass, stargazing. They knew they needed to get to bed soon, but the night sky was just so damn amazing. Neither of them could tear their eyes from it.
“Heh, yeah.” Gleaming stifled a yawn. “I’m glad he didn’t have any trouble with the Aeronautics—”
Suddenly, the sky flickered. Where once there’d been stars amidst the black, a fuzziness overtook everything, causing it all to fade out and shift. The sky gained an overlay of an illusory image that stretched across the horizon, fading in and out with static before their eyes.
Cadance and Gleaming gasped. They stared wide-eyed at the spectacle.
“Honey…?”
The overlay grew clearer and sharper. They soon that the image wasn’t an image at all, it was some kind of live feed of another place! Said feed displayed an alien wasteland with blue earth, a green sky, and a overly large red sun, complete with the ruins of destroyed city.
Gleaming’s skin prickled. “Uh…”
But that wasn’t the most interesting thing. No, the most interesting thing were the two gigantic creatures going hoof to hoof, locked in a fierce grapple as the landscape heaved all around them. One was a like a living pillar of black rock with a three short, powerful legs like a tripod, its trio of long arms like whips that ended in cruel scythes.
The other was a familiar stallion, red in color, with a mane like straw and glinting emerald eyes.
“Big Mac?!” Cadance’s lips parted. “That’s Luna’s coltfriend! What in the world is that thing he’s fighting?!”
Gleaming really only had one response. “...Nothing good.”
“Let this day be a celebration our restored hopes and dreams!” a robed pony shouted to the crowd. “A day we commemorate the power that guards our city!”
Hearts and Hooves Day. Recognized across Equestria for its importance, observed as a government holiday. A fun little vacation for most, but to the citizens of the Crystal Empire...
“A day we remember we are FREE!” The pony stamped his hoof. “Free from the evil that tainted us! Free from the cruelty that enslaved us! Equestria is truly blessed, my ponies—the sun and moon watch over us, harmony’s will guides us, but it was LOVE that delivered us! Love that destroyed the vile Sombra; love that protects and sustains us all, even to this very day!”
The Crystal Stadium was packed. The crowds were clad in the city-state’s colors of purple and white, ponies waving flags in a sea of rippling cloth. Gigantic banners with snowflakes and blue hearts hung from the stands that could’ve wrapped around a small house.
“We honor our beloved highness this day!” The pony gestured to Cadance. “Through her heroism and bravery, we were rescued! Through her guidance and leadership, we flourish! Not only do we celebrate what she has done, we celebrate what she will do for centuries to come!”
Cadance stood tall and proud before the sea of eyes. She was in her finest regalia—crystal regalia. Her crown, her peytral, her shoes, all was translucent and shining brighter than diamonds. Her mane was immaculate, her horn was filed, her coat was exquisite, and her gold wedding ring was snug around her horn.
“We look now to the future!” the robed pony said. “Our chains are unshackled, our prosperity secured! The Crystal Empire is ours thanks to the power of love! Blessed be this day, my friends, for today we remember that love has given us the greatest gift of all: life!”
Gleaming smiled. She was only partially listening to the speech, for she was concentrating on the Crystal Heart floating lazily before her. Spike and the Heartguard were there as well, the latter’s eyes all sharp and alert.
The robed pony bowed to Cadance before stepping back. Cadance took center stage to an even greater upwell of cheers and hollers, all of which she soaked in in like a sponge. Shivering, she closed her eyes and let her empathy stretch out to touch the minds of all in the crowd.
“Thank you, Father Evangel,” she said after a quick voice spell. “And thank you, my little ponies! It’s not just thanks to me, but to all of us that we’ve succeeded! We let love and light shine through us brighter than ever on that day, and THAT is what we celebrate today!”
The roaring rumble was punctuated by the vibrations of stamping hooves. It was so loud you could barely hear yourself think.
“We are Equestria’s northern star!” she shouted. “Let love and light shine through us on our independence day! Feel the joy and hope of tomorrow! We are the Crystal Empire of Equestria, and today, we celebrate our freedom!”
At this, Gleaming gave the Crystal Heart over to Spike. He scampered over and climbed atop Cadance back, and together they took to the air.
Cadance raised the Crystal Heart high above her head. Already she could feel its energy pulsing, the crowd’s emotions flowing into it like a vortex. She sensed Spike open himself to the heart as well, then Gleaming, then all the others in the stadium. Like a rising tide, the pure aura shone brighter... brighter… then brighter still, until at last she opened herself as well and let it flow through her.
While everypony else only felt vague impressions of being connected, Cadance felt every pony, every emotion, everything being shared in that instant. The Crystal Heart amplified the energy and turning into magic, swirling around her like a warm wind that called to her empathetic senses...
For but a mere second, Cadance immersed herself in the vast wellspring—
FLASH!
Mount Everhoof, tall and foreboding. A cliffside cave like a ravenous maw. It’s depths were the very heart of darkness… but a faint light glimmered within—
FLASH!
Cadance jerked away. She severed the link, the magic floating free to spin around her like a silk sheet.
Spike noticed the recoil. “Whoa! You okay?”
Cadance’s head was swimming. She didn’t even react as the Crystal Heart gave off a burst that gave everypony’s manes a crystalline sheen. It was powerful enough resonate out through the whole city, and once the energy had dissipated, she took the Heart and descended back down to the platform.
The crowd was cheering. The Crystal Empire Anthem was playing with many singing along. Cadance managed to play it cool as she landed and returned the Heart to the guards.
Gleaming came up and hugged her. “Great job!” She smiled at Spike. “Both of you!”
Cadance didn’t reply. She was still staring off at nothing, a strange bubbly feeling in her mind.
“Way to go, guys!” said Twilight, trotting up with Rainbow. “That was a great way to start things off!”
Spike beamed.“Thanks! Heh... I am pretty awesome.”
“Heck yeah, you are!” Rainbow gave him a hoof bump. “Couldn’t have done it better myself.”
Cadance pushed the strange thoughts and sensations aside. “Y-Yes. That was… good! Definitely good. A great start to today!”
The hesitation wasn’t lost on Gleaming. “Honey?”
Cadance grinned huge. “Who’s ready to have some fun, huh?! I can’t wait to get this party started!”
Gleaming studied her a bit longer before shrugging. “Hey, it’s your day. If you say it’s time to party, then it’s time to—”
“PARTYYYYYYY!” Cadance thrust a hoof in the air. “Let’s go to the Crystal Faire! I wanna see jousting and the plays and have crystal corn on the cob and go to the petting zoo and play the games and see the vendors and...”
Twilight and Rainbow stared. Cadance’s purple eyes were glinting, her smile giddy and wide. She was talking a mile a minute while bouncing on her hooves… almost like a certain other pink pony…
“Uh-oh,” said Twilight.
The morning commemoration was the beginning of a three-day festival called the Crystal Faire. Love was literally in the air today, the swell of such a powerful emotion filling those sensitive to it with vigor. Children played all about, couples were more common than ever walking down the streets, and many single ponies were on the hunt for special someponies.
“I got funnel cake!” Cadance said, flying up to Gleaming. Trailing behind in her magic was a grease-spotted bag filled to the brim with deep-fried goodness. “Eat up, sweetie! Gotta feed those babies!”
Gleaming looked up from her seat. “When I said I was hungry, I didn’t mean YOU should go get me something. Let the guards do it next time.”
Cadance giggled. “It's fine! I wanted to scout out the Faire!”
Held in the largest park in the Commercial District, vendors from all over town set up stands all week to sell holiday-themed wares for the renowned event. Games of all kinds were all over, various shows were held on small stages, and even a few rides were set up here and there. It was on the edge of this midway that Cadance and Gleaming now were, the flow of ponies a murmuring mass that promised to stay solid until sunset.
“Did Twilight and Rainbow leave already?” Cadance looked around. “Aww, I wanted to play high striker with them!”
Gleaming tried not to roll her eyes. Cadance still hadn’t landed on the ground, always zipping and fluttering about. “They said they’d meet us at the castle for lunch.”
Cadance flew in a circle around Gleaming. “Oh, well. I guess it's just you and me then! Let's go play; I wanna see the look on your face when I whoop you.”
Gleaming sighed. “Can I at least eat these cakes first?”
“Oh, like that’ll take long.” Cadance tugged at Gleaming with her magic. “I know you—you’ll take one bite of those things and inhale the rest!”
Gleaming meeped. “Whoa, easy! Take it easy on your pregnant wife.”
Cadance immediately eased up. “Sorry. You’re feeling okay, right? Not tired or sore? How are the babies doing?”
Gleaming waved her off. “I’m fine—we’re fine. I'm just a little worried about my balance right now. Remember a few months ago when you said alicorns had stilts for legs? I’m starting to understand what you meant.”
It was true. Gleaming wasn’t as leggy as Cadance yet, but she was catching up by the day. The main difference right now was that Gleaming’s legs were much thicker and stronger, a trait further accentuated by her plush coat.
Cadance’s eyes softened. “I'll ease up in that case. Your stamina's still okay, right?”
Gleaming grunted. “I don’t even wanna know what it’d be like if I hadn’t been working out.”
Cadance studied Gleaming. She’d had a front row seat to this entire process, yet she still couldn’t believe what she saw. She could describe Gleaming’s features for hours and not get bored... but her favorite by far was Gleaming’s eyes. The vigor in them, their bright, saturated color… they caught Cadance’s gaze and held it prisoner every time.
“You know what’s weird?” she heard Gleaming say. “I’ve been having these odd phantom feelings lately.”
Cadance snapped out of her reverie. “Phantom feelings?”
Gleaming nodded. “It feels like my ankles are getting swollen, but they’re fine when I actually check. Sensation goes away really quick, too.”
That didn’t sound like anything Cadance had ever heard of. “Have you told Talia and Twilight?”
Another nod. “It actually happened during my appointment with them. They think it's my Lifesense picking up the discomfort in my own body before Twily’s spell compensates.”
Cadance scrunched up her face. “Odd.”
Gleaming scratched her chest. “Distracting, too. I have enough sensations with the foals kicking and moving around. I swear, at least one of them’s awake no matter what. Right now it’s Nightingale.”
Cadance gasped. “CanIfeelcanIfeelcanIfeel?! She hardly ever moves around!”
Gleaming popped the first funnel cake into her mouth. “Only if you land first, Miss Hyper-pants.”
Cadance landed faster than you could say ‘gravity’. She prowled towards Gleaming like a cat. “Oh, baby dauughterrrr, I wanna feeeeel youuuuuu~”
They’d only decided on the name Nightingale a week ago. They'd been paging through a book of baby names when the name 'Nightingale' just popped into Cadance's head at random. Gleaming was fine with it, but the filly's nickname would have to be 'Gale' since there was already a 'Night' in the family.
Cadance took a moment to appreciate Gleaming’s grand, warm, taut womb. Every week she was showing more and more, her belly fuller, firmer, healthier. At Gleaming's direction, she felt around to the left of Gleaming’s cutie mark and waited. She felt nothing at first, but then there was the faint flutter of a tiny hoof.
“There you are.” Cadance kissed the spot. "You're my little sweet pea miracle baby, yes you are...”
Gleaming chuckled. “They’re all miracle babies, hun.”
"Yes-yes-yes-yes-yes...” Cadance planted five more kisses along Gleaming's belly. “I can’t wait to meet yoooouuuuuuu~”
Gleaming was quiet as Cadance continued to murmur soft nothings. She chowed down on the rest of the funnel cakes, the delicious taste of powdered sugar and fried bread assailing her in a welcome rush. The bag was soon polished off in short order.
“Wouldn’t mind more of those later...” Gleaming wiped the sugar from her mouth. “Alright, you said high striker?”
Cadance looked up. “Hmm? Oh, right!” She fluffed up her wings. “Get ready to lose, because you’re going DOWN!”
Gleaming rose to her full height, noting the sliiiiight angle Cadance had to tilt her neck so they could meet eyes. “Nah, I think I’ll keep going up.”
They walked behind their guard detail at an easy pace with their tails looped together. They waved and smiled at the curious crowd as they passed, their tall frames and powerful auras sticking out no matter where they went. It was hard to say which royal was garnering more attention, but it was clear the crystal ponies took pride in their rulers.
“We love you, Your Majesties!”
“Long live the Alicorn of Love!”
“Happy Hearts and Hooves Day, Princesses!”
“Best wishes for you two!”
Most of the odd looks and mutterings were simply curious. Ponies bowed and waved as they passed… but there were also quite a few stifled gasps and mutterings in their wake.
“...cutie mark really IS different…”
“...white snake? Isn’t that the symbol of…”
“...never heard of one changing…”
“...telling you! Look at her, she's even grown taller than Princess Cadance…”
Gleaming spoke to Cadance out the side of her mouth. “I think the jig might be up, hun.”
Cadance pursed her lips. “Notttttttt just yet. I think we can go a while yet without an announcement.”
Gleaming nudged her. “Will I be getting my own holiday, too?”
Cadance laughed. “After we decide on Twilight's.”
Honestly, it was just nice for Gleaming to hear about something different for a change. For once there were no comments about how her pregnancy, no gossip about her choices, or any of the other usual murmurings.
Gleaming nodded, stretching her neck to look over the crowd for the high striker game. “It started itching like mad a few days ago. Channeling magic’s felt weird ever since.”
Cadance frowned. “Weird in what way?”
Gleaming blew her mane out of her face. “Like it’s harder to grip things. On the flipside, using the you-know-what magic’s gotten easier.”
Cadance squee’d. She fluttered into the air again and clapped her hooves. “Ohhhh, soon I’m gonna have you forever and ever and EVER! Yes, I am!”
“Cady!” Gleaming glanced around. “Eep-kay it own-day!”
“TOO HAPPY!” Cadance giggled and did a loop-de-loop. “Happy-happy-happy-HAPPY HAPPYYYYYYYYY~”
Gleaming saw that nearby ponies were getting weird looks. “What in the world’s gotten into you?!”
“YOU!” Cadance booped her nose. “You’ve gotten into me so much that I’ve got Gleamy-Gleam-Gleam on the brain! I love you so very much, yes I do! Love you-love you-love you-love you-loooooove you!”
The lewder side of Gleaming noted Cady had been in her far more than anything else. “I… love you too?”
“I KNOW!” Cadance zoomed around so fast she left a pink trail. “You’ve been head over hooves for me since the day we met! Nopony’s ever loved me as much as you!”
That—okay, true as that was, it was beside the point. “Did using the Crystal Heart tweak you out or something? I know it’s Hearts and Hooves Day, but—”
Quick as a cobra, Cadance caught her in a kiss. Not a brief peck or a light smooch, but a full-on, sensual liplock. Cadance’s mouth was hungry, yearning for Gleaming’s, and her embrace welcomed Gleaming like an old friend. Before Gleaming knew it she was kissing back just as hard, their tongues dancing, the need spreading like wildfire.
The crowd whooped as Cadance wrapped Gleaming in her wings. Wolf whistles and cheers broke out as well, the two royals uncaring and continuing to make out in broad daylight. The nearest couples even started making out themselves, a light, bubbly feeling welling up inside them.
Cadance and Gleaming broke. A deep blush was in their cheeks, a tendril of saliva between their lips.
“Naughty,” Gleaming whispered.
“I’ll be naughtier later.” Cadance buried her muzzle in Gleaming’s mane. “Errrrgh, you smell so GOOD...”
Gleaming nickered and did the same. “Right back at you.”
“I’M wearing perfume. You’re not wearing a damn thing.” Cadance pressed her nose deeper and inhaled deep. “Nnnngh, I can’t get enough of you...”
Neither of them noticed the bubbly feeling growing stronger. They only had eyes for each other, ponies around them becoming more and more affectionate. A warm wind had picked up, an odd buzz now creeping into the air.
Gleaming shivered. They’d already had quite the morning session, yet a tiny voice whispered it’d be all too easy to hold off on the Faire for now. The day was theirs to do as they pleased, after all, so if they wanted to spend it in the bedroom—
“Princess Cadance?”
The voice had been quiet, but it’d cut through the crowd like a knife. The bubbly feeling faded quick as it’d come, Cadance and Gleaming separating to behold the speaker—a crystal pony stallion with a green coat. Beside him was a silver, mousey-looking pegasus mare.
“I know this is improper, but can we ask something of you?” The stallion put his foreleg around the mare. “My fian— wife and I were just married. Could you possibly give us your blessing to start a family?”
A pause. Cadance looked between the two newcomers, thoughts gradually re-emerging from the fog. “My... blessing?”
The mare beside him giggled. “He means wish us luck.”
The stallion’s face went pink. “Erm, yeah. Heh-heh…”
It took Cadance a second to remember. It was an older Empire tradition, but if the parents of a newly-married couple were unavailable for whatever reason, it was customary to seek approval from an authority figure before trying for foals. Fortunately, Cadance didn’t even need to use Soul Sight to tell that strong and sturdy ties connected them. Not only were their emotions on the same wavelength, their moods seemed sympathetic, as well.
“It’ll be my pleasure,” said Cadance. “Let’s see—may your children be born healthy and happy to a joyful family. I wish nothing but the best for you, your foals, and all your descendants to come! How’s that?”
Gleaming studied the couple as well, but for a different reason. The instant the they’d said they were going to start a family, a colorful outline had appeared around them. The stallion’s was butter yellow, and the mare’s was a vibrant green. Both colors gave Gleaming a good feeling.
“Thank you so much!” said the stallion. He then bowed to Gleaming as well. “And of course you, Your Majesty. Best of luck with your own family-to-be!”
Gleaming blinked several times. Outlines were now appearing around every pony around her, the colors ranging from pale blue to saturated orange. Foals and many elderly ponies remained colorless, but that didn't bother her. No, what bothered her far more were the pale colors—
Cadance nudged her.
“Huh?” Gleaming snapped to. “Oh, uh... yes! That’s very kind of you. You two shouldn’t have trouble starting a family. I think you might have the opposite problem, matter of fact...”
The newlyweds stared at her.
“...What?”
“Outlines?” Cadance said. “Around almost everyone?”
The midway was a buffet for the senses. Carnival games, the murmur of fairgoers and workers, a cavalcade of yummy smells. Heart-shaped banners tipped with snowflakes crisscrossed the streets, and come nighttime, they’d light up to cover everything in a gentle glow. Ponies of all ages were everywhere, from parents to elderly couples to teenagers to foals.
“I’m not sure, but…” Gleaming looked around again. “I think it has something to do with how easy or hard it’ll be for a pony to have kids.”
Cadance wasn’t sensing any strange energy coming from Gleaming, but then again, she couldn’t pick up on Gleaming’s Lifesense, either. “Can you control it at all?”
Gleaming concentrated. She could feel the trickle of power coming from her spark, deliciously warm and lively. “Yeah. It’s not out of control or anything.”
Cadance thought for a moment. “What do I have?”
Gleaming winced. “I... don't know.”
Cadance shrugged. “It's not like it'll be a shocker.”
"No, I mean I literally can't see it." Gleaming exhaled out her nose. “There’s some kind of black veil around you covering it up.”
Ah. Well, Cadance couldn’t say she was surprised. “What about your own? Can you see yours?”
Gleaming glanced at one of her legs. “I... think I can have any color I want.”
Cadance clicked her tongue. Speculation was all well and good, but she preferred to have more info before calling anything out. “Want to head back until you're used to this?”
Gleaming shook her head. “I've already figured out how to turn it off. We can keep going."
They could hear nostalgic sounds all around them as they walked. The thunk of darts on corkboard, the fwshh of spraying water and popping balloons. Ponies in groups walked down the well-trodden paths while looking around, many carrying various prizes. Vendors sold toy bows and arrows to children, the arrows having little suction cups on the ends. The smell of hay and fried oil emanated from a nearby lunch stand. Cadance spotted her old mainstays of skee-ball and the crane game nearby, making a mental note to stop there tomorrow.
“There’s Spike and Thorax.” Cadance. She pointed over to the jousting field, where the pair in question were lounging in the VIP box. Velvet and Night were also with them, a guard escort of their own standing watch.
Gleaming squinted. She didn’t see much in the way of features, but she could tell Spike was upright in his chair while swinging his legs. It took her a second longer to spot Thorax beside him, his blue form slumped over, his head resting against Velvet’s side...
“Are you sure he should be out today?” Gleaming gestured to Thorax. “Look at him, he’s—”
She was cut off by Cadance laughing.
Gleaming cocked her head. “—out of it?”
Cadance giggled some more. “Let’s just say I doubt he’ll be hungry when he wakes up.”
It didn’t click for Gleaming at first, but she eventually got there. “I didn’t even know his kind could get food comas.”
Cadance smiled. “Learn something new every day.”
Gleaming’s eyes drifted to her mother, who didn’t seem to mind a changeling was using her as a pillow. “I, uh… heard Mom and Dad have been giving you the silent treatment since you told them what he is. Do you want me to—”
Cadance shook her head. “They’ll come around. If this is the price to make them accept him, I’ll pay it.”
The words ‘I did warn you’ nearly flew from Gleaming’s mouth before she bit them back.
“Yes, yes, you were right,” Cadance said without looking at her. “Overthinking things just made a big mess, as usual. I’ll figure things out.”
Gleaming sighed. Being married to an empath could be difficult sometimes.
The high striker game was located between a pair of tall maples that stretched high into the sky. There were two striker towers set up: one for ponies to buck, and one where you could use a hammer. Magic users preferred the hammer version (though a few strong-jawed types also liked it), so that’s where Cadance and Gleaming went.
“I hope you’re ready to lose,” Cadance said to Gleaming. “There’s no way you’re beating me this year!”
Gleaming held back her snort. “Are you forgetting I’ve been practicing control with Dad the last two weeks?”
“Doesn’t matter!” Cadance waved to a grizzled Faire worker. “Hello again! I'm back!"
The Faire worker, who was managing the striker towers with a muscular assistant, perked up. “Was starting to wonder if you’d gotten lost!” He whispered something to his helper, who trotted off to a wagon behind one of the trees. “Ready to play?”
Cadance smirked. “You know it!”
For most, high striker was a test of strength. It was a great bragging right to have the power necessary to hit the bell, but Cadance and Gleaming, it was a test of something else. They snickered and whispered to each other while waiting their turn in line.
“You’re in for a treat now, friends!” the grizzled pony said to the crowd. “Our Royal Majesties are about to have themselves a special contest of CONTROL! Place your bets now—which one of them do you think can ring the bell the softest?”
The crowd murmured as the grizzled pony set aside the bulky hammer. Instead, his helper returned dragging a huge maul of reinforced steel. The words Big Bertha were stamped on the grip.
“We never decided what the winner gets,” Gleaming said to Cadance.
Cadance leaned in and whispered, “Anything they want. And I do mean anything.”
Gleaming stood up straighter. “Oho…”
Cadance accepted the giant hammer in her magic. She took a moment to get familiar with its weight, taking a few test swings as the grizzled pony and his helper stepped clear.
Gleaming glanced sidelong at them. “We’ll, uh… try not to wreck anything this year.”
The grizzled pony chuckled. “I'd been meaning to invest in new framework and struts anyway.”
“With reinforcement enchantments!" the helper added.
Cadance stepped up to the tower. She eyed the twenty-five foot distance, the crowd going quiet as all looked to the shiny bell above. Cadance widened her stance and took aim.
“Don’t mess up!” Gleaming called.
Cadance wiggled her rear at Gleaming. She lifted Big Bertha high, took a deep breath...
WHAM!
DING!
The noise was like a clock tower. A great many covered their ears, Gleaming even feeling the babies jump inside her.
Cadance blushed. “Whoops!”
Gleaming rubbed her ears. “Are you trying to lose?”
Cadance stuck her tongue out at her. She took a few seconds before raising the hammer again, this time bringing it down with decidedly less oomph.
DING!
Still a loud sound, but not deafening. Cadance scrunched up her face and twirled the hammer, judging the distance with a more measured eye.
Gleaming noticed more ponies joining the crowd. Their colorful outlines were all over the spectrum, but nothing crazy or out of the ordinary. Curious, she tried using this new ability alongside her Lifesense, and that’s when she realized two things: First, the two powers allowed her to tell whether any select female was pregnant, as she could catch the faint glints of life echoing within them. And second, the pale-outlined ponies... often weren’t very healthy in general. There were exceptions, but more often times than not, a pony with a pale outline was, or had been, sickly in a number of ways.
WHAM!
Gleaming looked back in time to see the puck zoom up the tower. It slowed as it neared the top...
DING!
“Whoa! Nice one!” said Gleaming. Even the crowd applauded.
Cadance set the hammer down by the tower. “Let’s see you beat that.”
Gleaming strode over without comment. She picked up the mighty maul and examined it, idly noting it was like a warhammer from O&O. The murmurs of the crowd resumed as she sized up the tower’s base.
“Ooooh, Princess Gleaming Shield…”
“...told you it was a complete change. How could she be pregnant otherwise?”
“...be doing something like this in her state?”
“...not gay to say she’s hot! And you’re one to talk; I see you trying to keep your wings down...”
Gleaming snorted at that last one. She took aim at the spring-loaded lever, hoisted the maul, and...
WHAM!
DING!
Gleaming flinched at the mighty sound. “Geeze…”
Cadance got a smug look. “Not too late to forfeit.”
Gleaming blew a raspberry at her. “Maybe I just didn’t want you to feel bad!”
“Suuuuurrrrrre.”
“...not sure which of them’s more beautiful, to be honest…”
“...didn’t know they MADE bras that big...”
“...first they said four, then five, now SIX? I hope they’re well-stocked on baby diapers...”
“...husband and I have been talking, we feel really bad about the thestrals…”
“...announcement that the Duke and Duchess are moving here...”
It was only when Gleaming tried (and failed) to lift the hammer with her mouth that she realized how beefy the thing was. She got goosebumps as she took it back up in her magic, light as a feather. She was pretty sure she could bend the thing into a pretzel if she wanted to.
“Control.” Gleaming breathed the word like a mantra. She turned back to the tower, recalling the recent lessons with her father.
“Breathe in,” said Night. “No distractions or stray thoughts.”
Gleaming closed her eyes. The silence of the tertiary training grounds pressed in on her, the only sound a nighttime breeze caressing her coat. She reached out to the glowing spark within her.
“Your center is the only thing that matters.” Night walked around her in circles, the glow of his horn lighting his face. “Put your emotions away for now...”
The air was crisp this close the barrier. It tickled one's nose hairs, carrying the hints of the tundra’s chill. The breeze blew Gleaming’s bangs over her face as she felt her power respond.
“Don't strangle your magic.” Night stopped in front of her, and slowly, he let his own magic build. “Ride it like a wave… get a feel for how it rises and falls.”
Her alicorn magic had a current, she realized. Not like electricity, but a river of warm light. Volatile emotions influenced it, and the more passionate she was, the more wild it became. She felt stupid for not going to her father sooner.
“It's like muscle memory.” Night’s power encompassed hers like a coating, not stifling or oppressive, but an extension of the wind that nulled the frosty edge. “Do it enough times, and you'll hardly need to think about it...”
It was an odd contradiction. The 'riding a wave' analogy was accurate, but finding her limits was like diving into that wave. Gleaming’s magic joined her father’s as she explored her boundaries, fresh grass now rising from the dirt around her hooves.
“Good.” Night’s relaxing tone stirred memories of childhood; the ‘Dad Voice’, as she and her siblings called it. “Don’t rush it, don’t force it. Let it flow at its own pace so you can learn.”
Her spark was a treasure trove of untapped potential. Not yet fully woken, but still greater than anything she’d ever known. Yet for as powerful as it was, her father's magic guided hers like she was on training wheels. She could only imagine what his flares were like.
“Explore your capabilities.” Night’s horn was as bright as it’d been in Gleaming’s dream. His magic was a shroud that lit the entire field blue, yet its glow was so gentle. “It's just like when you were first learning to cast. Picture the objective in your mind, then let the magic flow.”
Half the field was now enveloped in grass. If her father’s magic was in the air, Gleaming’s was in the earth. Energy spread out all around them like a cramped pony stretching its limbs, steadily creeping outward to encompass more and more.
zrrrrrrmmm...
A simple forcefield formed in front of Gleaming. The magic was magenta, but its hue was so much fuller, brighter.
“Just like that,” Night said. “Now, see if you can pull it all back.”
Gleaming pursed her lips. She did try, but her magic didn’t want to be confined. Instead it stretched out a good ways further across the field.
“You’re still trying too hard.” Night’s magic encased hers, pressing gently. “You only need to give the command once.”
Gleaming’s magic rebelled at first, struggling and fighting against Night’s hold. She had a moment of panic thinking it’d surely break free, but her father wasn't even straining. He held her fast without comment until she calmed herself.
“Eye of the storm,” she whispered. “Eye of the storm…”
"Yes," said Night. “Stillness is key. The more you disturb the water, the more waves you make.”
Gleaming tugged once on her magic rather than constantly pull. Sure enough, her magic did indeed recede... albeit with the speed of a rebellious teenager. Trying to make it go faster resulted in it just dragging its heels more.
“Remember, trying to micromanage will overwhelm you.” Night’s magic shrank alongside hers. “Things will be faster once you’re more familiar with the flow. You'll need to use broad strokes until then.”
Gleaming’s magic went dormant. She opened her eyes, squinting slightly at the light of her father’s horn. “Can I ask you something?”
"Sure.”
Gleaming fidgeted in place. “How much trouble did Twily have learning to contain her flares?”
Night raised an eyebrow. “When she was a filly?”
Gleaming nodded.
Night looked up at the sky a moment. "It's not really fair to compare you two. Control’s always been a struggle for our famil—your grandma Starlight struggled with it, her father struggled, and maybe even farther back. It’s been a family effort to learn how to keep our strength in check, and as a result we've developed our share of tricks. Those tricks got passed to me when I started showing the same problems, and now I'm passing them to you.”
Gleaming frowned. “I'd still like to know.”
Night chuckled. “Fine, fine. Twily’s flares were pretty standard—for us, anyway. I only had brute force her magic into submission a few times, but even those weren't much worse than you now.”
Gleaming had had a feeling that was the case. “So what do we do if YOU have a flare?”
A smirk tugged at Night's lips. "Call for your mother, obviously."
Ugh, Gleaming hated it when he got like this. “Luna talked to you, didn’t she?”
Night shrugged.
“Did she ask you how strong you are?”
Night laughed. “Yes, but would you believe me if I said I didn’t know?”
Gleaming swished her tail. “You were just coaching me on learning how strong I am so I wouldn’t be afraid of myself.”
“Yes, but I never had that problem,” said Night. “I was identified early and had control drilled into me every day. Trying to find one's limits was seen as contradictory.”
Gleaming looked at her father for a long, long time. “...And you never once got curious enough to go off somewhere and cut loose.”
Night’s eyes twinkled. “There's a point where it becomes overkill. I may not be able to help you with those new powers of yours, but I CAN help you with this. You just have to let me know what you need."
Gleaming smiled. "Thanks, Dad."
Night patted her shoulder. “Anytime.”
WHAM!
DING!
The peal was a pleasant chime. Louder than Cadance’s third hit, but definitely an improvement.
Cadance stomped her hooves alongside the crowd. “That was really good! Not good enough, thooooouuuugh~”
“I have one morrrrrrrrre,” Gleaming sang back.
Alright, so that was still a working progress. Gleaming had been strictly using her alicorn magic as of late (doctor’s orders) but the delicate touch for this meant she needed a more familiar tool.
It felt like flipping a switch in her head. Gleaming’s magic grew dimmer, the warm and lively feel becoming the electric buzz she’d known since foalhood. She had a moment’s surprise as the hammer became heavier in her grasp.
“Geez...” Gleaming rolled the hammer back and forth. “I really am stronger…”
She raised the hammer high. She did a few false starts to measure, then...
WHAM!
The puck went up, up, up...
DING!
The crowd went wild. Gleaming set the hammer down and ambled back over to a dumbstruck Cadance, stealing a chaste peck on the lips.
“Looks like I win,” she said in a silky voice. “And for my prize... I get to be on top tonight.”
Cadance bit her lip as Gleaming’s belly brushed her. “I-I saw that… you cheated…”
Gleaming nuzzled Cadance’s withers. “We never said anything about what type of magic to use. If you wanted to play it like that, you should’ve said something beforehoof.. Eros.”
Cadance wasn't even mad.
They played a few more games before briefly teleporting back to the castle for lunch. They couldn’t do as much as they liked considering how much attention they gathered, but they managed enough that neither of them felt jilted. They were now sitting together in their usual dining area waiting for Twilight and Rainbow.
“And the Heart showed me a cliffside cave,” Cadance said. “The same one we sent the survey team up to.”
Gleaming stared at her spinach and artichoke dip. “The one Rainbow and that scientist are going to.”
Cadance dipped a chip in her own helping. “I don’t think this is a coincidence.”
The idea of the Crystal Heart giving visions again was conflicting. Gleaming wasn’t sure what emotion she was leaning towards, but 'relief' that Cadance wasn't hurt was near the top.
“Maybe we should call it off,” Gleaming said between ravenous bites. “Neither of us were crazy about them going up there in the first place.”
Cadance looked out towards the window. “I’m about ready to. Whatever Miss Pie’s looking for isn't worth her life.”
Gleaming rubbed the side of her growing barrel. The babies were really starting to put on weight now, to the point it felt like one long continuous growth spurt. “You said you saw a glimmer of light?”
Cadance chewed on her lip. “I… think? If so, it was super brief.”
Gleaming pursed her lips. None of Sombra's research or notes ever mentioned those caves, nor had anyone ever seen him around Mount Everhoof. They would've assumed the corruption build-up was natural if they hadn't detected traces of his magic signature.
“Why would the Heart start showing visions again now?” Cadance wondered. “We’ve done the commemoration ceremony in the stadium every year since Sombra’s defeat. What’s changed?”
Now Gleaming shrugged. “Maybe it’s just finally strong enough? Or, ooh… maybe you’re finally strong enough! Maybe the Heart’s abilities are less about ITS power, and more about the power of the user! It wasn’t working before because you weren’t in tune with your abilities.”
Cadance considered that. “The history books say the Heart showed visions to anypony who touched it, not just the one in charge. It shouldn’t matter how powerful I am.”
Knock, knock, knock.
“And that’ll be Twilight and Rainbow.” Cadance opened the far door with her magic. “Maybe they’ll have thoughts—”
But it wasn’t Twilight or Rainbow. It was a mystery stallion dressed head to tail in a bright yellow safety suit with glowing runes. Said suit was covered in scorch marks and flecks of dried foam, and the wearer's face and horn concealed by some kind of breathing mask and protective sheath.
“Your Majesties!” came a muffled voice. “I gathered the information you requested!”
It took a second for Cadance to realize who this was. “Sun...burst?”
Gleaming frowned at Sunburst getup. “Purifier protection gear? Why—ugh!”
A foul stench like ammonia and formaldehyde hit them like a punch to the nose. They recognized it as anti-magic cleanser, but it was so strong it made them gag.
“The Mad King didn’t erase the records of Princess Amore!” Sunburst said. “He merely placed them under a powerful Notice-Me-Not spell! I managed to remove the booby traps and compile the data!”
Cadance stared at Sunburst like he’d just sprouted a second horn. “You WHAT?!”
Sunburst laughed. “The spells were layered to be as subtle as possible. If you didn’t get rid of them all at once, you got a faceful of explosive runes! I wound up having to detonate the last layer in a contained blast.”
Cadance’s eyes were watering. “Sunburst—”
“It’s a good thing you warned me about the possibility of traps, else I wouldn’t have thought to have my suit!” Sunburst gestured to himself. “I suspected something strange when there were thirty-five identical bookshelves on three of the Restricted Section’s outer walls, but only thirty-four on—”
“SUNBURST!” Cadance snapped.
Sunburst paused. “Yes?”
“You REEK.” She flapped her wings to repel the stench. “Get out of here! Come back when you've cleaned off!”
FLASH!
“We’re here!” said Twilight. Beside her was Rainbow with an ursa minor teddy bear under her wing. “Guess what? We won the—”
The acrid stench cut her off right quick.
“Pee-yew!” Rainbow waved a wing in front of her face. “Smells like your lab’s clean room!”
Sunburst fidgeted. “I-I was just telling the Princesses—”
“OUT!”
He ran amidst a hail of appetizers.
“I really am sorry,” said Sunburst. “I was so excited that I went straight to you.”
They’d reconvened on one of the lower balconies after lunch. Sunburst’s arrival had made Cadance lose her appetite, but Gleaming’s wasn’t so easily denied. She was now sauntering back and forth while fighting a drowsy spell, her stomach such a size her navel was grazing the ground.
“I’m the one who should be sorry,” Cadance said with a sigh. “I’d really thought we’d gotten the last of Sombra’s traps.”
“Layering the spell matrices to form a camouflage…” Twilight flipped through Sunburst's findings. “Not even I would’ve thought of that.”
Twilight looked away, her ears twitching at the dull murmur of the Faire below. “To be fair, I'm sure purifier training gives you a whole slew of tips and tricks for these kinds of things.”
Sunburst put a hoof behind his head. “My favorite instructor always said, 'Numbers don't lie. If an equation’s not adding up, you’ve either miscalculated, or something’s making you miscalculate.'”
Twilight nodded. “I'll have to remember that one.”
Cadance leafed through the binder on Princess Amore. The information was surprisingly detailed, ranging from her foalhood to her coronation to her favorite foods. “What are the main takeaways, Sunburst? Did you find out what happened to her?”
A shadow fell over Sunburst’s face. “...It's not good.”
Cadance felt his emotions turn grim. “I figured as much. Tell me, please.”
Sunburst’s ears drooped. “Sombra and Princess Amore had an encounter before the Crystal Heart. It led to an argument that escalated quickly; something about her turning a blind eye to something. Then, he lashed out and turned her to black crystal... before blasting her crystallized body to pieces.”
Cadance and Twilight winced.
“Oof,” Rainbow muttered. “What a way to go.”
The only one unfazed was Gleaming. “The text specifically says that? A sudden and violent attack in a very public place? Why did nopony intervene?”
Sunburst put a hoof behind his head. “The text didn't say. The guards did try to arrest him, but he escaped with Amore's shards and fled the city. He returned a short time later with an army of shadows, attacking with the decree that Amore had been ‘scattered to the winds’.”
Cadance’s heart sank. “And the rest is history..."
“What about the Crystal Heart?” Gleaming asked. “Did you find anything on how it works? How to recharge it? What about bringing it to full power?”
Sunburst shook his head. “Amore was very secretive. How anyone could create something so intricate without a single note or reference is beyond me, but... apparently she was known for such things.”
Cadance kicked at the floor. “Shoot... I was really hoping this wouldn't be a dead end.”
A heavy silence followed. Cadance’s face was sour, her jaw clenched tight and fast. Rainbow and Twilight exchanged a look, but otherwise said nothing. Gleaming’s face was a mask, her sharp mind studying the situation from every angle.
"Did the books say anything about Amore’s lifespan?" Gleaming asked. "How she was able to live for so long?”
Sunburst shook his head. “Amore was very secretive. The most popular theory was that she was an alicorn in disguise, but there was never any proof of that.”
Sunburst’s half-hearted inflection wasn’t lost on Gleaming. “And you don’t buy that, either.”
Sunburst sucked on his teeth. “I… have my own theory.” He gestured to the Faire below. “I assume you’re familiar with the history of this holiday?”
Gleaming was. Long ago, the Crystal Heart had been stolen by a cruel dragon and left the Empire unprotected from the ice and snow. The entire city would’ve been doomed had the Heart not been recovered by Celestia and Luna, who confronted the dragon and brought peace to its terrorized lands. Upon the relic’s return, the crystal ponies had a festival that bolstered the love and unity of the whole city, which was found to bolster the Crystal Heart itself. And so the festival became a yearly occurrence; a multi-purpose celebration cherished by the crystal ponies so much, it later saved them from Sombra’s malaise.
“The Canterlot records say Princess Amore charged Princess Celestia and Princess Luna with the Heart’s recovery so she could ‘keep up the spirit of the crystal ponies with her love’.” Sunburst shuffled back and forth at this. “However, the records here state Amore was comatose during the Heart’s absence. only recovering once it’d been returned to the city. I’ve no way of knowing which is correct but if the latter account is true...”
Cadance felt a chill. “I’m not sure I like what that’s suggesting.”
“Me neither,” said Twilight. “If Amore’s relationship to the Heart went beyond creator and creation, then the implications of that, for Amore alone...”
But Sunburst merely shrugged. “I'm not insinuating anything; merely stating facts. You'd have to ask somepony that was there."
Gleaming rubbed her itchy horn. Part of her wanted to call this a lead, but another part agreed it was a long shot. Investigating seemed like the next logical step then, but looking into something that happened over a dozen centuries ago? Where would they even—
“Good idea!” said Rainbow. “Spike can send a letter to the princesses in a jiffy! Do we wanna ask Celestia, Luna, or both of them?”
…
…
...
“...We saw Spike watching the jousting,” Cadance said at last. “He’s probably still there.”
One Found Dragon and Inquiring Letter Later-
“—and it was definitely a close call, but Big Mac managed to take care of it,” said Twilight. “He’s staying at the castle with Luna while they figure out this new power of his.”
Gleaming, Cadance, Twilight, and Rainbow had decided to visit to check out the arts and crafts exhibits next. The crowd had gotten even denser since morning, so their progress was slow as they walked side by side. They’d been walking from building to building for about an hour now.
“Already moved in together?” Cadance tittered. “Aren’t they moving fast.”
Gleaming’s attitude was more subdued. “He has this ability under control, right? He’s not at risk of sneezing and going giant or anything?”
Twilight shook her head. “We did tests to see if he’d alter his size on accident. He only did it when he wanted to.”
Gleaming thought for a moment. “Did you try compulsion magic?”
Twilight nodded. “No effect.”
“Mind control?” Cadance asked.
“Broke it in an instant.”
“Changeling venom?” said Gleaming.
“Gave him enough to break a full grown dragon. Still nothing.”
“What about kicking him in the junk?” Rainbow chimed in. “You try that?”
Twilight giggled. “The term 'balls of steel' comes to mind. I’m not sure anything CAN hurt him at this point—about the only thing that’s had an effect on him at all—most notably his junk—is Luna.”
That one got a round of laughs.
“Seriously,” Twilight grumbled. “You have NO idea how hard it was to get them apart. I don’t know if it’s her pregnancy hormones, whatever happened to him, or something else altogether, but they could not keep their hooves off each other. For Pete’s sake, they mounted right in front of us once! I finally made Big Mac provide seminal, sweat, and saliva samples because I was worried he was producing some kind of aphrodisiac!”
Gleaming glanced at her. “Is he?”
Twilight snorted. “No, but not only is his sperm count through the roof, his cells retain their resilient qualities after ejaculation. That means they stay alive MUCH longer than normal, and have an incredibly high chance at reaching an egg to boot. Combine that with still-active Luna’s fertility spell, which she apparently cast with a ten year duration...”
It took a few seconds for that to sink in.
“So in other words...” Rainbow said slowly. “AJ’s gonna be an aunt soon.”
Twilight grunted. “Either that or Luna’s intending to keep being the poster mare for her campaign. She can’t get pregnant if she already is, after all.”
Cadance whispered to Gleaming, “Unlike OTHER mares.”
Gleaming gave their tails a squeeze.
The sounds of walking and chatting ponies was a dull roar as they entered a glass building with all kinds of fauna. It almost felt like a jungle with so many plants, and the exhibits were as varied as they were numerous. Simple saplings, hedge sculptures, beautiful exotic plants, and so much more caught Gleaming's eye.
Cadance stopped to examine a kind of rainbow-colored grass. “What about dark magic? Do you think that could that affect him?”
Twilight’s exhaled out her nose. “He survived enough necrotic energy to wipe out a planet. Anything less would do nothing to him, so any hex or curse we know is off the table.”
Cadance looked away. “What I’d give for that.”
“Hey, considering what Sombra’s curse has led to, I’d say we’re getting out ahead.” Gleaming nuzzled Cadance's withers. "You'll feel better once the kids are born."
Cadance smiled. “I suppose just about everypony’s a winner this way. Even the batponies are benefiting.”
Twilight sauntered over to a nearby hedge sculpture. “By the way, the first volunteer mares from the Crystal Empire arrived while I was there. Luna made sure they were well cared for—it was the only thing she left Mac for.”
Rainbow leaned in to whisper to Twilight. “I'm starting to understand why you jumped me last night when you got back. You were all wound up from being around those two horndogs, weren't you?”
Ever-so-subtly, a tendril of Twilight’s magic slipped beneath Rainbow’s tail to trace her labia. “I’m ready to jump you again just from the recap.”
Rainbow yelped. She went rigid as stone, a fiery blush on her face.
Gleaming looked over. “You alright?”
“Y-YEAH!” Rainbow all but shouted. “Just a bug bite, heh...”
Gleaming studied her a bit longer before turning back to the grass entries. “I remember Luna talking about this whole idea when I was her bodyguard. Believe me, if she feels it’s best to volunteer another round, another two rounds, or however many it takes, she will.”
Rainbow got in Twilight’s face, their mouths mere inches part. “I’ll get you for that later...”
Twilight pressed a wing to Rainbow’s cutie mark. “I'd rather you get me right now.”
Rainbow’s pupils shrank. “Wh-What?! But, your family’s right there!”
“And one of them can literally sense how antsy I am.”
Rainbow froze. Her eyes slid to Cadance, who indeed was watching them with a saucy grin. She tilted her head towards the exit.
Rainbow chewed on her lip. “You really wanna slip away somewhere?”
“Slip away, teleport away, I don't care how or where we go.” Twilight full-on buzzed Rainbow's clit with magic. “I. Just. Want. You.”
Rainbow shuddered. She had a moment’s more indecision before kissing Twilight hard.
“Hoofolulu,” she whispered in Twilight’s mouth. “That hotel we stayed at over New Year’s. Penthouse suite.”
“Oooh, good choice.”
“I don’t see Luna as the type to go foal crazy anyways,” Gleaming went on. “She gets really stressed when she doesn’t have some alone time, not to mention there’s no guarantee she’ll stay with—”
VRRRRRRRMMMMMM—FLASH!
The fast buildup of energy made ponies shout alarm. Gleaming’s skin prickled, feeling the influx of energy coming from Twilight and Rainbow.
“—Mac?”
The two mares weren't there. Just glittering pink sparkles, the smell of discharged mana, and a gaggle of surprised onlookers.
“Twily?” Gleaming looked all around. “Rainbow…?”
Cadance put her hoof on Gleaming’s shoulder. “Ah, sorry Gleamy. I think Twilight's recap turned into a booty call.”
Gleaming's mouth fell open. “B-But... we were gonna hang out awhile!”
Cadance nuzzled her. “They’re in that phase of their relationship where the mood strikes them without any warning. You remember what that’s like, don’t you?”
Gleaming gave her a calm look. “I'm not sure why you're talking in past tense.”
Cadance laughed. “You said yourself earlier it’s not surprising they’d rather be by themselves today. Do you really blame them?”
Well, so much for their double date. “Should we duck out ourselves, then? Or did you want to hang around the Faire a bit longer?”
Cadance thought for a moment. “There’s one more thing I need to do. How's our little squadron doing?”
Gleaming patted along the side of wide barrel, murmuring to herself. “Four... five... six! All troops present and accounted for, ma'am.”
Cadance looped her tail around Gleaming's. "Good. By the way, I know you usually pump one or two more times before bed, but can you hold off doing it tonight?"
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “You really like it when they’re huge, don’t you?”
“Ohhhhhhh, yes.”
While not strictly a necessity, it was customary for the Crystal Princess to create the centerpiece for the Crystal Carving contest. Crystal carving was a popular pastime among the crystal ponies, so much so that masters could make a comfortable living from it. Cadance herself didn't partake seeing as she'd ruin the artisan economy, but being able to actually show her stuff once in a while was important to her.
“We'ren't you going to do this yesterday?” said Gleaming as they approached the building.
“Didn’t have time,” Cadance said. “I got bogged down with Apogee figuring out the surrogate transportation budget.”
It wasn’t surprising that the crowd around the building was a solid wall. Ponies oohed and aahed at what they could see of the pristine carvings; some small and detailed, others huge and simple. Even out here, the entire area glittered and shone with all the colors of the rainbow.
“Hmmm.” Gleaming eyed the throng of ponies. The stage where Cadance created her work every year was in the center of the building. “We miiiiiiiight wanna teleport.”
Cadance was thinking the same thing. “Right.” She signalled to their guards, each one of them putting a hoof on her or Gleaming. The air whummed with gathering magic...
FLASH!
An instant later, they were inside on the stage.
“Phew.” Gleaming smiled at their guards. “Easier than causing a stir, right?”
The stage was roped off with signs. The platform was plain save for Hearts and Hooves decorations on the edges, a stark contrast to the tables laden with beautiful crystalline works around them. A twenty foot tall block unchiseled crystal stood in the center.
“OH! OH! It's Princess Cadance!” a mare said.
“She must be getting ready to make the centerpiece!” said another.
“We love you, Princess Cadance!”
Cadance waved. She slipped off her decorative shoes and set them aside. “What should I make? Any ideas, hun?”
Gleaming hadn't heard the question, as she was still watching the crowd. “I’ll never understand why ponies like watching you do this. No offense, but the carvings that took hours upon hours to make are more impressive in my book.”
Cadance understood what she meant. “I think it’s just the novelty of seeing something whipped up in a flash. Though I do agree the hard work and labor aspect is more impressive in the long run.”
Gleaming’s gaze lingered on some of the more ornate sculptures nearby, some so detailed they almost looked alive. “We've got some real talented ponies around here.”
Cadance thought for moment on what she wanted to make. “Oh! Oh! I know!” She muttered a quick spell, a fancy photo album appearing beside her. “Twilight gave me a picture… ah, here! Yes! Ohhhhh, this is gonna be goooood!”
Gleaming regarded her. “What’re you plotting?”
“Mwahahaha.” She kissed Gleaming’s cheek. “Give me a few minutes. You’ll see.”
Cadance trotted over to the giant crystal block. She began examining it on all sides, occasionally fluttering up to look from above.
It wasn’t long before Gleaming lost interest. To kill time, she turned her new power back on and started taking note of the crowd’s colored outlines. She was starting to categorize them in her mind when a ray of sun glinted off the sheathed wingblades of one of her extra guards.
Gleaming ducked out of the light's path and turned to the guard. “Ahem... I appreciate you adjusting your schedule, Lieutenant. Captain Deadeye told me you usually work the night shifts.”
Steelwing saluted. “It’s an honor, Ma’am.”
Gleaming nodded. “I suppose being an escort’s not much different from guarding the Heart, is it? You can speak freely, by the way.”
Steelwing relaxed. “It’s different enough to be a nice change. Wouldn’t mind stretching my wings a bit, but that's a minor gripe.”
Gleaming’s eyes fell to his sides. She wasn't an expert on wings, but his were like coiled springs ready to be unleashed. His back, chest, and shoulders were all solidly built, and his armor and blades made him look like a living, well-oiled machine.
“What made you you decide to become a wingblade specialist?” she asked. “Don’t see a lot of ‘em these days.”
Steelwing rolled his shoulders. “I was a hyper colt. Parents kept me involved in a lot of sports, but wingfencing was the one that really stuck. When I joined the military and learned there was training for the real thing, well… you can imagine I picked it up quick.”
Gleaming recalled how fast he'd swung those things on the training field. She hadn’t seen him spar in hoof-to-hoof, but Deadeye had described him as 'a damn reaper'. “Would you say it’s hard to learn?”
Steelwing opened his mouth, then checked himself. “It depends. Some disciplines are geared towards beginners, others are more advanced. There's also a pony's preference for melee styles or ranged to consider.”
Well, it was pretty obvious which ones he gravitated towards. “I've heard the ranged styles are better overall. What made you focus on melee?”
Steelwing put a hoof behind his head. “I... just GET melee styles better. I've tried most of the ranged forms, but the only one that's stuck is Windshear. I think my problem is that I keep trying to aim with a melee mindset rather than from afar.”
Yet another thing Gleaming was aware of. She'd have to ask for melee demonstration sometime. "So if a beginner were interested in learning some rudimentary melee techniques, what style would you recommend?”
Steelwing hesitated again. “Is the beginner a pegasus?”
No, but Gleaming doubted her horn would get in the way. “Are you familiar with Ser Rainbow Dash?”
Steelwing’s jaw dropped. “Wingblades on that speed demon?! Jeez, I-I was going to suggest Guardfeather, or Sol-Guardfeather for non-pegasi, but her?! I'd have her learn the defensive forms of Guardfeather first, but then have her go Machwing, no question! She'd be the best ranged wingblade fighter in the world!"
Alrighty, Guardfeather it was. It’d likely wouldn’t be for a few years, but Gleaming wouldn’t mind learning wingblades once she—
STOMP!
Steelwing and Gleaming jumped. Cadance had smashed her hooves into the stage, embedding them a good half-inch deep. Ripples were now spreading out to the crystal slab to sculpt it like potter's clay.
The slab thrummed and glowed as it was transformed from the bottom up. Some parts lengthened, others shortened, and still others thickened.Strong roots snaked out from the base of the slab as branches grew tall, followed by countless leaves popping in. It all lasted less than ten seconds, but in those seconds something magical was made.
Cadance pulled her hooves free and dusted them off. “Ta-da!”
It was a tree. Tall and ancient, its five main branches spread out to form a gnarled star. Odd, twinkling lights hung from its branches like ivy, and at the tips of those branches were five shining jewels. The sculpture towered over all of them like a holy guardian, its branches stretching over them like protective arms that scattered the sun’s rays into colorful glimmers.
“Whoa...” Steelwing stared wide-eyed. “Is that what I think it is?”
Gleaming needed a second to find her voice. “The Tree of Harmony...”
“My little ponies!” Cadance shouted. “Hearts and Hooves Day is a celebration of love, but we must always remember harmony's place in our hearts! Look around you at the works of your artists now, for even though this is a contest, we can learn and help each other improve! Best of luck to you all, and may the best carver win!”
The crowd whooped. Ponies all over stomped and applauded, many of them starry-eyed at Cadance’s creation. The cheering was so loud it almost made your ears hurt.
Gleaming admired the for a while before raising her voice above the crowd. “By the way, Steelwing, why’d you ask whether the beginner’s a pegasus?”
“Because Guardfeather forms aren’t safe for non-pegasi!” Steelwing shouted back. “It's called Sol-Guardfeather because Princess Celestia developed the alterations after nearly chopping off her horn!”
Gleaming’s horn suddenly felt very itchy. "S-Sol-Guardfeather, you called it?”
That Evening-
It’d been a fun day. Gleaming and Cadance had retired after spending a little more time seeing the Crystal Carving entries, and after a romantic meal (two meals for Gleaming) they’d watched the sunset together from their bedroom balcony.
“Mmm…” Cadance lay prone on a preening mat with one of wings spread wide. A warm glow was in her chest from Gleaming's lips gently tugging at her feathers. “I wonder what your wings will look like...”
Gleaming straightened the last few stray feathers into place. “Aside from white... no idea.”
Cadance giggled. "I hope you have big ones. Big ones that I can wrap myself up in and be warm allllll night.”
Gleaming kissed Cadance between her shoulder blades. “Kinda like you do with me now?”
Cadance looked back at her. “More like did, Miss Supermom. You're too gigantic to wrap up anymore.”
Gleaming patted her gravid width. “Guess I have outgrown you in a couple ways. Well, maybe Cadance can’t wrap me up, but Eros sure can.”
Cadance’s eyes lit up. “That's right, you wanted me to switch tonight, didn’t you? What, didn’t get enough of me this morning?”
Gleaming moved to her ear and whispered, “I'll NEVER have enough of you.”
Cadance’s heart fluttered. She made no move to stop Gleaming from moving in to kiss her, her soft muzzle brushing through Cadance’s mane. She smooched Cadance’s nape once, twice, thrice, inhaling the sweet scent of shampoo and berry perfume. She tugged on Cadance’s scruff while sidling closer, her huge, pregnant swell pressing into Cadance’s flank.
“Gleamy…” Cadance arched her neck. “C-Can I… nnngh, can I put lotion on you, first?”
Gleaming nickered. She eased up on her kisses, but still nuzzled and petted Cadance all the while. Cadance rose at a snail’s pace, shivering from the sweet nothings Gleaming whispered in a husky purr. They went inside with their tails entwined.
It was a ritual they did every night. They didn’t even need to think as they made their way to the bed, Gleaming laying on her back and switching on a lamp. Cadance sat between Gleaming’s rear legs and summoned the last bottle of eucalyptus spearmint lotion from the nightstand. She squirted out a healthy glob to fill the room with its soothing scent.
“Ahhhh…” The syrupy maternal weight pressed on Gleaming’s insides. She cradled her belly until the pressure subsided, and it was then she realized she couldn’t even encompass it all anymore. She hummed at the flutters and tickles of their children, most simply shifting in sleep, but one or two prodding at the walls that kept them safe. The feeling never failed to make Gleaming smile.
Cadance marvelled the great white hill before her. ‘Flawless’ was the word that came to mind, but that didn’t do it justice in her eyes. Gleaming’s supple skin was like newfallen snow—smooth and bright with the healthiest sheen imaginable. Its size was something that never failed to astound Cadance, and every time she thought Gleaming couldn’t possibly get any bigger, she was proven gloriously wrong.
“Warm…” Cadance always felt this heat from Gleaming. It calmed her nerves, bolstered her stamina, fueled the giddy flames within her. She lotioned up her hooves and rested them on Gleaming’s belly a moment, still shocked even now that all of this was real.
“We’re parents.” Cadance began massaging around Gleaming’s navel. “We have children…”
Gleaming squeezed Cadance with her thighs. “And when we're ready... we'll have even more.”
Cadance slid her slick hooves along Gleaming’s skin. Her beloved’s mammoth paunch was so firm, so tight and packed full. Her size was so great that an adult mare could’ve fit inside her, but instead it was six foals, their foals. Cadance’s eyes unfocused as she watched Gleaming breathe, thoughts drifting to how they’d be soon holding them in their arms and rocking them to sleep.
Gleaming sighed as the cool lotion soaked into her skin. Cadance had gotten almost as good at this as Amber, her beloved's loving touch now quite familiar with the usual trouble spots. The itchiest area was around Reidy, his powerful kicks testing her more than the others. The next itchiest was up near the alicorn fillies, their above average size ballooning Gleaming’s belly more than any of the others. Her bellybutton was also a usual culprit due to bulging larger with the rest of her, now the size of half an egg.
“The Alicorn of Life.” Cadance admired Gleaming’s completed cutie mark. The white serpent was so bright that it almost glowed. “Has a nice ring to it.”
“You know what they say,” Gleaming said. “The best life is one filled with love.”
Cadance pumped out more lotion and lathered Gleaming’s great paunch. “And I filled you up good.”
Gleaming rested her hoof atop Cadance’s. “I’m happy I could do this for us, honey. Really.”
Cadance smiled. They lingered there like that a moment, hooves touched in silence, the only sound the muted ticks of the clock on the wall. The giddy high Cadance had had most of the day was now it was mixed with a smoldering flame, one that made her feel warm in an all-too-familiar way.
Cadance planted a gentle kiss atop Gleaming’s growing belly. She kissed again and again, slow and lazy, trailing down to the side in an arc, still lotioning all the while. She hummed low and deep, eyes now drifting closed, her touch almost reverent.
“I love you,” said Cadance, hugging Gleaming’s womb. "You and them."
Gleaming ran her hoof through Cadance’s mane. “I didn’t pump like you asked, y’know.”
Cadance whimpered. She slid backwards at once to turn to the huge swollen mounds between Gleaming’s legs. Each perky breast was the size of Cadance’s head, so large they smooshed heavily against each other. Her pink nipples were like leaky caps atop warm hills, and her cleavage was a deep valley of soft flesh that led to Mount Belly.
Cadance nursed from Gleaming’s right breast. The sweet taste of milk filled her mouth immediately, full and frothy and creamy. She took long pulls and hearty gulps, her lips wrapped around Gleaming’s nipple in a perfect seal, drinking deep yet thirsty for more. She pressed a hoof to Gleaming’s marehood and teased her, her feather-light touch promising to go deeper yet never slipping inside.
“Cady…”Gleaming arched her back. “C-Can… can Eros come out to play?”
Cadance hummed. She cast the familiar spell without even concentrating, still nursing like her life depended on it. She switched to the left breast even as her body began to change, the sensations so commonplace they didn’t even phase her.
Gleaming felt Cadance’s mouth widen. Her pulls became stronger, more greedy, her fevered tongue licking Gleaming’s areola. Seconds later, a dry, heady smell cut through the lotion, one that made Gleaming’s heart race and tail twitch. The amazing scent grew stronger as time passed, overshadowing everything until it was all Gleaming could smell—all she wanted to smell.
Gleaming’s nostrils flared. Eros always smelled amazing, but for some reason that aroma was dialed up to eleven. “Yessssss…”
Gleaming could feel Cadance’s hooves sinking into the bed. Her wings got longer, her muscles inflated further, her legs lengthening and filling out. Cadance clutched Gleaming’s ass in time with her suckling, squeezing harder and harder as she changed. She felt like she was too small for her own skin, and something was awakening inside her, bulging, incredible, and raw. It was like a mighty firestorm that filled her with lightning and made her feel light as a feather.
Cadance—no, Eros, blinked. This strange power, it’d been inside of him all day. There was a breeze picking up around them, and a buzz was now creeping into the air. It felt a lot like his magic, could it be… ahhhhh, it was! The power of love was at its strongest today, and wherein years past he’d only be able to sense it, now he could actually wield it!
But the sheer amount caught him off guard. There was so much, all around him, everywhere! The entire city, hundreds of thousands, all feeling love for themselves and one another in a giant network! Eros reeled upon plugging into it, yet he couldn’t pull himself away because it felt so GOOD!
Pop! Eros released Gleaming’s nipple. He straightened up tall and proud, body not quite finished changing. He smiled and inhaled deep the scent of the mother of his foals. His stallionhood was awakening like a great beast, his nuts forming and plumping up with hot seed, but all he saw was her. All he wanted was her! They were going to take each other in every sense, to show this world what it meant to be lovers!
“Heh…” The laugh escaped before he could stop it. “Ha-ha-ha!”
That laugh triggered a strange feeling within Gleaming. Her eyes dilated, locked onto the scene unfolding before her. Her beloved Eros was looking at her in a way that made her shiver—eyes fierce, teeth bared in a hungry smile, breathing audibly while tensed up, wings fanned out and twitching.
Gleaming winked hard. “O-Oh...”
Eros laughed again. He merely held Gleaming’s gaze, barely moving, growing bigger and stronger before her eyes. He didn’t move, didn’t betray any weakness. He just stood there looking at her like she was a feast. His eager cock was unsheathed, always lengthening, always thickening… yet never quite at full mast.
Gleaming’s heart was a jackhammer. Even now, his pride was like a building column waiting to spread her wide, wide, wide. Everything about him was a turn on—the way he breathed, the way he licked his lips, the way he wouldn't stop staring at her. She bit back a moan when she saw his nuts, like two basketballs between his legs and even STILL filling up with seed.
A gnawing emptiness filled her. His legs were so long that he loomed over her, even with her humongous paunch. His gaze never left hers as his wings trapped her—a greed in his eyes that quickly spread to her.
Gleaming swallowed hard. She waited for Eros to move, but he just stood there, staring. It was like he was trying to burn this image and moment into his mind. The seconds dragged on like minutes, and she was about to snark at him to get on with it when suddenly—
“AHHHHHH~”
He swooped down and licked her neck. That yell was music to Eros' ears, pressing his teeth to her throat until it rose to the perfect pitch. Before long she was panting and shaking, Gleaming’s silvery soprano creeping into her breaths, her skin salty with sweat. Her long mane was like a blue curtain he wanted to pull again and again, and her scent was like a perfume that urged him forward...
The gnawing, clawing emptiness was becoming unbearable for Gleaming. Seconds ago she was getting revved up, but now a haze was in her mind, desperate and yearning, single-minded and irresistible. All she could feel was HEAT, and it made her empty and horny and willing and so very ready and oh sweet goddess Eros was staring at her again and he was just so BIG why wasn’t he getting on with it what was he waiting for come ON she didn’t know how much longer she could—
He kissed her. He was frenzied and fast, his tongue forcing its way into her mouth, moaning and enveloping her lips in his. Gleaming squealed and pulled him into the tightest embrace she could, but it was like hugging a wall of muscle. She matched his fervor and kissed back with equal strength, but try as she might, wiggle as she might, she found she couldn’t move an inch. He had her pinned.
Gleaming could feel Eros dripping onto her coat. She could already imagine him brushing against her entrance, leaking and teasing her outer lips. Their warm bodies played on each other more and more as seconds passed, thoughts and loins whirling with rising need that knew no limit. Eros was relentless and forceful, but she was equally as much, the tempo of their make-out growing faster—
Eros broke their kiss.
“That’s right,” he growled. “You won our game, didn’t you?”
Gleaming whimpered.
Eros ground his cock on her belly. “Too bad you didn’t let me win. I’d have used this power to put another half-dozen foals in you.”
And just when Gleaming thought she couldn’t get any wetter. "Don't tempt me..."
Eros gave her one last lusty kiss. “Get up.”
Gleaming teleported off the bed in a flash! She had a split second to appreciate how TALL he was before he’d teleported to where she’d been, now his back with his legs spread. His gave his mammoth cockhead a kiss before pushing it up like a virile spire.
“Go on.” Eros jerked his hips. “Claim your prize.”
Gleaming about leapt at him. She had all the grace of a lame duck while clambering over to straddle Eros, and she nearly lost it when his tip left a splotch on her breasts. The sheer girth of his package made her legs quiver, her wide, pregnant belly swaying like a fuzzy zeppelin, her cushiony breasts teasing his size. Eros chuckled while she worked to align their hips, but when it became apparent her maternity made it hard for her to judge, he ‘helped’ by groping her thick flanks and guiding her into place.
At last, Gleaming had him at her entrance. She was just barely holding on now, moaning as Eros squeezed her foalbearing hips, his bedroom eyes drilling into her. She resisted the urge to let gravity do the work and instead ease herself onto him, trying and failing to accept his spongy head once… twice… thrice—
And then there were no words. There were no yells, no grunts, no sounds of any kind. Sensitive nerves and synapses were amped to the max and centered all in one place, and Gleaming was all instinct as she took Eros’ shaft, feeling it fill her… fill her. She wanted to clamp down on him so hard that not a drop escaped her, giving her everything she wanted and MORE, stuffing her with a pulsing thickness she couldn’t get enough of!
The only sound Eros registered was the schlick of Gleaming’s silky depths. She was so very wet and warm, a deep, snug marehood hungry for his size. He knew she could take all of him, so he let her slide at her own pace, claiming more and more of his him while her heavy belly rested on his chest. Soon all he could see was the gentle curve of white fur, but that just made him more eager, the thought of creating new life with her.
Gleaming finally impaled herself on him. She wiggled her hips and savored the warm fullness a moment, then ever-so-gently, she lifted up and bounced, a stream of slippery fluid lubing her path.
NOW they found their voices. Gleaming’s throaty moan rose in a crescendo, high and loud and needy beyond all measure. Every movement made her tunnel clench, floating in that feeling of fulfillment, like a high they wanted to ride forever. Up and down, up and down, Gleaming moved with a slowness that drove them both wild, their hooves grasped tight together.
Gleaming’s belly was so big it covered Eros’ chest. He could lick and kiss it while she rode him, the pressure in his loins further fueled by her deliciously heavy weight on his hips. She clenched him hard each time, literally sucking his dick back inside, and the hunger within them rose to new heights beyond anything they’d ever known.
The wet SCHLICKS of their lovemaking only spurred them on. Eros' grunts and groans joined Gleaming’s in a lewd duet, their thoughts consumed by each other as they fucked, kissed, thrusted, bounced… loved. The bedroom echoed with their sexy sounds as they eased their way to their finish, and as that finish drew near, their efforts became harder and harder to control.
Gleaming could feel it. She knew it was coming, and her only thought was she that it wasn’t here sooner. She egged Eros on with each squeeze, relishing how his stallionhood twitched, his bloated balls about to boil over. Eros snorted like a mustang and started thrusting harder, his movements uneven and jittery, each one somehow deeper…DEEPER. He’d never felt such a great , and he sprinted past the point of no return as Gleaming buried herself one final time…
It was like an explosion inside her. Gleaming’s eyes rolled back, each gush of Eros’ gift a fresh burst that sent her soaring, saturating and jolting her core anew. She was beyond telling when one spurt ended and another began, all she knew was he was pumping her full… full… FULL!
Eros was erupting like a geyser. Each spurt was a hot surge that painted Gleaming’s insides white, only for it to seep into her thirsty walls. He moaned low while nuzzling her womb, his muscles tensed and thrusting, always pumping her full of thick seed.
Gleaming was lost amidst a sea. A boundless sea funnelling into her equally boundless depths, all of which she welcomed with a single thought of MORE. Her world began and ended where they were joined, and she greedily took all he gave her. And even when Eros' first peak died down they kept going, his eventual second peak sounded by a loud moan of her name.
Then they were right back to lovemaking. They didn’t stop, didn’t slow down, didn’t do anything but ride the high. It became a cycle of build-up and climax that felt better on each lap.
“EROS!” Gleaming screamed to the ceiling. How many peaks that now made for her, she didn’t know. All she knew was they were still coming, tingling and building, the next one never far off. It was bizarre how she felt both empty and full, but this didn’t stop her from chasing her need. She wanted more… HAD to have more!
And Eros certainly didn’t disappoint. He never stopped rutting her, his balls fuller and more needy than ever, filling Gleaming with wave after wave, each release greater than the last! It was seemingly unending, yet he never stopped once, Gleaming’s warmth rejuvenating them while the power of love kept their lust high. And the power wasn’t fading, it was building, so much so that it wouldn’t be long before their orgasms were rolling into each other…
Eros came again. His thrusts were fevered and frenzied, but when the orgasm died down, he thrust a total of once before going off again. He never stopped for a second as he remained firmly lodged inside, fulfilling his sacred duty again and again in the throes of continuous bliss. And Gleaming was right there with him, no longer even needing to bounce, now just sitting atop him while he pumped her full of cum. Her whole body tingled and fluttered, her eyes bright with swirling color, feeling more alive in that moment then she ever had in her life.
They wouldn’t stop going until midnight. Once Hearts and Hooves Day had passed and the power of love had lessened, they’d fall asleep in each other’s arms smelling of sweat and sex.
They’d wake the next day questioning whether the whole thing had been a dream…
“And there’s been a ninety-eight percent success rate thanks to the compatibility spells,” said Apogee. “We’ve also seen a large uptick of new volunteers the last month, putting the total number of Crystal Empire surrogates at just over seven thousand.”
“That’s wonderful!” Luna said. “The Council will be delighted!”
The dream realm had manifested once more as a lake within a mountainous valley. Apogee, Luna, and Shining were all gathered by the calm water’s edge, the latter once more a stallion due to the dream he’d been pulled from. Luna was emanating a deep violet aura that was flowing into Apogee, who lay securely beneath the Princess' large navy wing.
“It gets better, Mistress.” Apogee looked up into Luna’s face. “The General’s publicness with her own pregnancy has caused several stallions to ask about volunteering. We’d need approval from the Mage’s Guild, but feasibly—”
She was cut off by Luna laughing.
“Truely?” she said. “Even stallions are volunteering?!”
Shining laughed as well. “It wouldn’t lead to many more volunteers, but if we start promoting it as an option...”
Luna shook her head, still smiling. “To think such spells were invented in my absence. That our society has such possibilities, let alone become commonplace?”
Shining shifted atop his glowing mushroom. “I wouldn’t say genderswapping is common. You might meet a pony here and there that can switch back and forth, but it’s too advanced for most.”
Apogee scooted a little closer to Luna. “There have also been families interested in adopting the foals. The Council was hesitant without a lux field over the city, but they very much approve now that one's in place. There’s even been talk of establishing a northern thestral settlement.”
Luna gasped. “Really?”
Shining nodded. “The weather barrier’s large enough. Though it doesn’t have to be separate from the city—it could easily be integrated into one of the districts. Would be easier than putting in new utilities like well and sewer.”
Luna rubbed her chin. “I’ll admit a thestral-founded town is tempting. Perhaps when their kind isn’t facing extinction, we can address it more seriously.”
Apogee leaned into Luna’s side. “A good goal to work towards.”
Luna gave her a gentle squeeze. “You’ve done well, Apogee. I must speak with the General alone now. That means you must wake up.”
Apogee’s ears drooped. “...Just a little longer?”
Luna kissed Apogee’s brow. “I’ll visit your dreams this afternoon. Open your eyes, dearheart.”
Apogee made a soft chirp. She nuzzled Luna one last time, her body flickering before dissolving like dust in the wind.
Shining watched Apogee go with pursed lips. “When you said they were drawn to you in this place like magnets, I didn’t think you meant literally.”
Luna’s eyes lingered where Apogee had been. “I must ask you not publicize this. Most thestrals don’t realize they act like children in the Dreamrealm, let alone that they seek such intimate contact with me. I allow it because it simplifies the rejuvenation process.”
Shining had to wonder what those first days of ‘treatment’ were like years back. The words ‘batpony-pile’ came to mind. “They all act like that?”
Luna stretched out like a cat. “All but Maria. Though even she falters far sooner than she should. When this next generation is born, even the weakest of them will be stronger than her.”
Shining winced. “Yeesh.”
“But we should not dwell on such things.” Luna rose to her hooves. “We did not call for you to sit in on Apogee’s report, after all. We wish to speak on two things—the situation with your father, and your letter on Princess Amore.”
Something told Shining that Luna wasn't using the royal 'we'. "Are you expecting some—"
Suddenly, there was a glimmer of golden light. It was the size of a firefly at first, but it crept out larger, growing wider as if it were burning a hole in space. It spread until it was the rough shape of an archway... whereupon a familiar white alicorn stepped through.
“Finally.” Celestia smoothed out her mane. “I hate astral projection...”
Luna winced at the charred rift. “I’d… have included Mi Amore and Twilight Sparkle, but hosting multiple strong souls over long distances proves taxing. It's hard enough communicating with one of you.”
Celestia paused. She looked more closely at Shining, a smile soon playing on her face. “Well hello, Shining Armor. Haven’t seen you in a while.”
Shining blinked several times. He looked down at himself, then felt his muzzle and barrel. “Oh, right. This again.”
Luna chuckled. “Few resemble their physical selves in the Dreamrealm. Fewer still realize when such changes occur. Perhaps I’ll teach you the art of lucid dreaming in the coming years, hmm? A nicely balanced soul like yours should pick it up easily.”
Celestia snorted at her. "Your definition of 'easy' baffles me, even to this day."
Shining looked between the two sisters. Speaking of changes, he noticed that Luna had made herself taller. She was the same height as Celestia, and with them side by side, it was easy to spot little things indicating they were kin. Their eye shape and jawlines were similar. Their wings were the same shape. Their coats grew in the same direction. 6.0Their body types were quite similar—
Wait.
Celestia seemed to pick up on what Shining had realized. “Why don’t you show Shining your progress, Lulu? I’m sure he’s curious to see how he compares.”
“Luna rolled her eyes. “I was trying to gloss over that.”
“Oh, as if you weren’t going to show him anyway.” Celestia tickled her with a wing. “You’ve enjoy showing off and you know it! I haven’t seen you in such good spirits since we lived in the old castle.”
Luna couldn’t help but giggle. “Fine, fine. I suppose I can take my true form now, if you actually are curious, Nephew. We are family, after all.”
Shining snorted. “I’m curious now.”
Luna closed her eyes, and her body rippled like water in a pond. The violet aura she’d been emanating swelled threefold, the air wavering like a wispy veil. For Shining, it didn’t look like anything about her had changed, but rather that she’d always been this way.
Celestia came over to sit by Shining. “Makes it look easy, doesn’t she? Always was the graceful one.”
The magic faded, and where a Celestia-sized Luna had stood, there was now a giant Luna. She was twice and some the size of her sister, the very definition of hierarchical scale. Her legs alone were longer than Celestia was tall, thicker than cider barrels and bulging with limber muscle. And said muscles were needed to support the weight of her incredible pregnancy—twice as wide as her frame and the size of a massive boulder. Her thick womb was so great her navel brushed the ground despite her dizzying height, yet her flawless skin and plush coat held a soft sheen that bloomed with healthy color.
“I believe I’d just moved to my new quarters when you came for the Revel?” Luna gestured to herself. “As you can see, the relocation was quite justified.”
Shining was at a loss for words. Luna’s flowing mane glittered and glowed, her eyes shone bright, and the soft smile she wore was positively serene. Combine that with the soothing aura she still exuded, and he was starting to why the thestrals were drawn to her.
“She’s been growing like mad since a week a half ago,” Celestia said. “First it was an inch taller a day, now she’s up to several inches a day. Hopefully things’ll slow down soon, or even her new room will be too small.”
Luna gave her pregnant belly a fond pat. “I’ve not seen signs of slowing, Tia. If anything, there’s been evidence to the contrary. Mac and I have started looking at caverns on the mountain’s north side.”
Shining was suddenly very glad he hadn’t actually made that bet on Nightmare Night. “What fertility spell did you use again? Because I’m pretttttttttty sure it’s not what Cady and I used.”
Luna laughed. “We’ve learned this particular spell is only so reactive in alicorn mares. Seeing as Mi Amore is the sire of your children, and you have yet to ascend...”
Celestia gave Shining a pointed look. “Twilight tells me you’re planning on more foals. I don’t know why you’d use fertility magic considering your domain, but unless you want to head the alicorn repopulation campaign...”
Shining smirked. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
“I think we should begin with the lighter of the two topics.” Luna eased back down, laying on her side with her front half sitting up. She still loomed over the both of them. “When I spoke with your father, he echoed your same concerns in revealing himself. We spoke of the lengths he’d gone to suppress his power, as well as the precautions he took every day to stay hidden. He was confident nopony outside of the family knew of his secret, but when he mentioned his troubles at Canterlot University, I suspected that was not the case.”
Celestia shifted in place. “Shining, I mentioned to you at the Revel that I wasn’t surprised the chancellor of the Scholar’s Guild has been giving you issues. We’ve reason to believe he knows of Night Light’s abilities.”
Shining did a double-take. “What?!”
Luna’s face was grim. “Ever since his appointment, Chancellor Neighsay has voiced more and more radical views on intercultural and interracial matters. We’ve heard mutterings he even refers to the sub-tribes as ‘freaks’. There’s evidence to suggest he considers your father to be part of a unicorn sub-tribe.”
“He’s been nothing but trouble since day one,” grumbled Celestia. “Shutting down study abroad programs, cutting scholarships, bogging down your university’s accreditation... I’m convinced he was the one preventing Lulu’s campaign from gaining traction.”
Shining made a mental note to become more involved in Guild Chancellor elections. “Why, though? What’s his deal?”
“He’s a…” Luna trailed off. “What did you call him, Tia?”
“A power-hungry xenophobic isolationist.”
“Yes, that.” Luna gestured with a hoof. “We’re not sure how he learned of your father, but my sources have managed to confirm two things: the orders to inconvenience Night came piecemeal, and they all came from the same place—an anonymous higher-up in the Scholar’s Guild.”
Shining crossed his hooves. “Interesting as that is, that’s not quite enough to pin this on Neighsay.”
“No, it’s not,” said Celestia. “But we’ve also learned Neighsay started looking into your family’s ancestry after Twilight ascended. Combine that with the Crystal Empire being annexed, Twilight advancing intercultural relations, and now you and Mi Amore supporting the thestral repopulation effort, Neighsay has plenty of grounds for motive.”
Shining made a second mental note to get more involved in Guild elections. “So the head of the Scholar’s Guild is some kind of closet racist, and it’s possible he’s been meting out petty revenge through Dad because he doesn’t like the way we’re running things. Fabulous. Sounds to me like the Vice Chancellor’s in line for a promotion.”
Luna got a prim look. “I agree. Tia, however…”
“You said it yourself, Shining,” Celestia said. “These are correlations, not causations. I want concrete evidence before we make a move, otherwise we risk something slipping through the cracks. Even worse, there might be someone else pulling the strings here, and whoever it is might be looking to spring a trap.”
Luna fidgeted from a few of her foals kicking. “If you’d just let me search his subconscious—”
“I already lost you to a monster that preyed on your mind once,” Celestia snapped. “I’ll burn before I lose you again.”
Luna fell silent. A heavy pause followed, neither sister meeting each other’s eyes. Shining twiddled his hooves between them while trying not to stare.
“Soooooo,” he finally said, “More to follow?”
Celestia grunted. “What’s important is we’re aware something’s going on. Your—our family is out of harm’s way, so we’re free to get to the bottom of this without snags. Don’t worry.”
Luna cleared her throat and sat up straight. “Now, on to our second topic. We regret not immediately answering your letter about Amore, but we’ve been debating on the best way to respond. We finally decided there’s only one place the late princess would’ve wanted this information shared—where time holds no sway.”
Celestia nodded. “The Dreamrealm exists outside of time. No scrying spell can invade it, and only Luna and her chosen can navigate it. We couldn’t risk putting this in writing.”
Shining cocked his head. “What does time have to do with anything?”
Celestia and Luna looked at each other.
“Amore was… many things,” Celestia said at last. “A scholar, a protector, a teacher, a ruler, a mentor, a confidant… and a dear friend. But additionally, she was something both a curse and a blessing—a seer. Her gifts of foresight allowed her to see many possible futures, but not always how to bring them about.”
“She was the wisest pony we’ve ever known.” Luna waved her hoof, and the Dreamrealm changed. They were now on the side of a street of a Crystal Empire, watching as tall Princess Amore walked at a gentle pace. Trailing just behind her were Celestia and Luna, both bright-eyed teenagers. “Our teacher, Starswirl the Bearded, was apprenticed under her for many years learning the secrets of time and space. Her power was one of the few things Discord feared, so much that he only dared make a move after she was gone.”
A familiar calm fell over Shining. His eyes and ears sharpened, his gaze never wandering once. “So you knew her pretty well. Was she an alicorn?”
Celestia hesitated. “No, but…”
There was another heavy pause.
Luna ran a hoof down her face. “Any day now, Tia.”
Celestia threw her a sour look. “I haven’t talked about this since she swore us to secrecy. Excuse me if I have trouble spilling a millenia year-old secret.”
“Then allow me.” Luna met Shining’s eyes. “Are you familiar with temporal theory?”
Shining shrugged. “Familiar enough to cast Twily’s Time Snap spell. Why?”
Luna rolled her own shoulders. “Explain what a ‘fixed point’ is.”
Shining thought for a moment. “Fixed points are... events that have to happen. They’re focal areas where many, many futures depend on a certain thing coming to pass. It’s easy to scry them because time gets really dense around them, but you can’t actually see what’s going on because of that.”
Luna nodded. “Nor could you change much about them even if you could. Even if you were to try with a spell, your actions will have already been accounted for, and the event will happen anyway. The past is immutable, the present is immutable and infinite, and the future is immutable, infinite, and indefinite. This is the foundation of time magic.”
Shining watched the image of Amore and the young sisters fade away. “Starswirlian relativity in a nutshell. I remember reading he was the first to develop spells with the theory.”
“For non-seers, yes.” Luna looked towards Crystal Empire Castle in the distance. “He applied Amore’s teachings in ways she’d never thought of because her gifts came naturally to her, but she didn’t always have such control.”
“When Amore was young, she had a vision that she’d live far into the future due to the event of something she couldn’t see,” said Celestia. “She had little knowledge of her gifts in those days, so she didn’t know the unknown event was a fixed point. The only clue she could glean was a single image—herself, alone and starving out on the tundra in a blizzard, frantically carving a heart out from a chunk of crystal.”
The dream changed again. They were now in a whiteout winter storm, the snow so deep it came up to Shining’s chest. There were no signs of civilization anywhere, and on the edge of his hearing beneath the howling wind, there was a bloodchilling screech the likes of which Shining had never known.
“She became so obsessed with the vision that when the three pony tribes travelled south for warmer lands, she volunteered to stay behind to as a diversion for the windigoes,” Luna shook her head. “She wandered for weeks with the beasts hot on her tail, but at last she found a place where they wouldn’t follow… though she knew not why.”
Celestia looked out into the relentless storm. “She’d soon learn it was because of the wild and extreme weather of the area.”
Shining could now see outlines of strange outcroppings in the snow. Said outlines glowed eerily even through the white, stretching off into the horizon like stars in a second sky. He didn’t see Amore, but then remembered they weren’t actually in her memory.
“Amore lost her way fighting for her life before finally starting to freeze.” Luna’s voice grew somber. “That would’ve likely been her end, but just then, she stumbled across a particularly large vein of blue crystal, jutting out of the snow like an obelisk. Remembering her vision, she ran to it, hacked off a large chunk, chiseled it into the shape of a heart, then waited for something to happen… but nothing did.”
Celestia looked down at Shining. “Tell me—what unique properties do the Crystal Empire’s natural crystals have, even to this very day?”
Shining felt a chill. “They’re... overly sensitive. Most ponies can’t use them as foci because they overload and explode. It’s something to do with how they absorb magic—like they’re sucking it out of you.”
Celestia nodded. “So what do you think would happen if a dying pony found the only known crystal of the region that wouldn’t overload, and in desperation, they used it to boost an innate power they didn’t realize stemmed from their very soul?”
Shining took a step back. “O-Oh…” He put a hoof over his chest, a phantom pain lancing through him. “Oh, sweet mercy…”
The snow stopped falling. The wind halted, the clouds parted, and the snow melted to leave them on an empty plain. All that was left was the crystals poking out of the ground like a giant’s fingernails, and Shining could now see the Himaneighya Mountain Range dominating the northern landscape, Mount Everhoof itself stretching far, far up into the sky.
“To speak of Amore, one must also speak of the Crystal Heart, for they are one in the same.” Luna waved her hoof again, and the relic in question appeared between them. “It was an accident, but in Amore’s numb and dying state, she never even felt her soul be torn in two. The incident didn’t kill her... somehow, but nor was she the same after that, either.”
“The crystal she’d used began to take on her soul’s natural traits,” Celestia said. “Her love and kindness... her warmth. It refined all these things and amplified them a millionfold, even gaining some of her time affinity. It’s not a proper phylactery, not in the traditional sense, but even Amore admitted there were similarities.”
Shining’s world was spinning. He wouldn’t have believed it had he not heard it from these two. The Crystal Heart, believed by all to be a holy relic, actually a…
The scene around them faded. They were now back in Luna’s lakeside grove, the stars and moon watching over them. Luna had fashioned herself an oversized bed of clouds to lay upon, her belly somehow now looking even bigger.
“Your letter said you found conflicting reports on how Amore fared during the theft of the Crystal Heart.” Luna conjured up the letter in question. “One report said she worked to keep up the spirits of the Empire, the other said she fell unconscious. Both these accounts are true. While Tia and I travelled to reclaim the Heart from Ashmaw the Cruel, Amore used the rest of her soul to support the weather barrier and prevent her citizens from panicking. Doing this required her to temporarily abandon her body.”
“You can see why she kept this a secret,” said Celestia. “Not only was there potential for misunderstanding, even worse was the risk of another trying to copy her. The Crystal Heart is a beacon of love and hope because Amore was a beacon of love and hope. What do you think it’d be if she was something else?”
Of all reactions, Shining started to laugh. “Y’know, it’s funny. I was going to ask the obvious how a seer gets anything stolen from them, but you said Amore’s visions could be vague, didn’t you? I’m guessing she either wasn’t a hundred percent sure it was gonna happen, or that it needed to happen in order for something else to come to pass. Another fixed point, essentially.”
Luna and Celestia grunted at the same time.
“Her actions were quite baffling at times,” Luna said. “Her mind was hidden from my sight because she didn’t actually dream, but I was just as hard for her to divine.” Luna chuckled. “Many prank wars were had.”
“But she was always trying to bring about the best future for the most creatures,” Celestia said. “She rarely spoke of things yet to happen, but if you got her in the right mood, she’d tell you about the things she’d prevented. Some of the things she spoke of...”
Shining could see where this was going. He didn’t like it, but he had to voice it anyways. “And if the best future required her to die...”
The valley fell silent. A gentle wind blew in from the south, ruffling their manes and making waves on the lake. The only sound was the splashing of waves against the shore.
“A part of Amore will always live on through the Crystal Heart,” Luna said at last. “She truly was a beautiful soul, and her touch lingers in the hearts and minds of those who call the Empire home, even now. But the part that contained her consciousness, that was well and truly her… I fear that is long gone.”
Celestia put her hoof on Shining’s shoulder. “This information is dangerous. If it becomes public, there’ll be a stampede of those seeking to prolong their lives. Your land will be stripped of every crystal in the search for one able to house a soul, and countless spirits will be ripped to shreds in the process. Amore warned it could even lead to war.”
Shining gulped. “O-Okay, but… please, please tell me Sombra didn’t know about any of this. Tell me the reason he was obsessed with the Heart really was because he didn’t want it used against him. He was enduring pretty well there without a body—”
“His shadow form was his own doing,” said Luna. “In our battle with him, he employed the use of clones to confound us while he sought an opening. We turned these clones against him, but realized too late he’d enchanted them with some form of vile magic. The result was the apparition you saw.”
“We believe he had… suspicions,” Celestia admitted. “Though we were able to stop him before he learned the truth. I shudder to think what he might’ve done with a dark Crystal Heart.”
Shining pursed his lips. “So we’re one hundred percent sure he’s gone.”
Luna wiggled her wings. “Unlike Amore, Sombra’s soul had no connections to time, and thus was able to be scryed through the Dreamrealm. I watched myself as his very essence was obliterated... with great pleasure, I might add.”
Shining exhaled out his nose. “Alright, then.”
“You’ll need to be careful how you tell this to Twilight and Mi Amore,” said Celestia. “It’d be all too easy for the information to be scryed by someone in the past or future, and then the secret would be out. There’s a room in your castle where Amore placed several powerful divining wards—the Silver Sanctum. Do you know where it is?”
Shining’s eyes lit up. “THAT’S what that room is for.”
“Indeed.” Luna rubbed the side of her belly, her fetlock lovingly stroking her coat. “We trust that you’ll keep this to yourselves otherwise. Your father’s secret for this secret—a trade, as it were.”
Shining laughed. “I’d say we getting the better deal here, but if you want to look at it that way.”
Celestia opened her hooves for a hug. “Take care of our old friend, won’t you? And apologize to Mi Amore for us. We were always going to tell her about this; we were just waiting until things had settled down.”
Shining hugged her with a laugh. “That’s Cady for you. Always trying to do as much as she can, fast as she can.”
Luna laughed as Shining came over as hugged her as well. “I suppose there are worse flaws.”
That Afternoon-
“And over here’s where the sofa will go,” said Night. He pointed to the empty eastern wall. “We’ll have the two easy chairs alongside, and the piano will be in the corner.”
Gleaming looked around the empty room. The walls were a soft cream color, the floor was carpeted, and the ceiling had faint wavy patterns. A large bay window took up most of the west wall to provide a view of Crystal Empire Castle a mile away. “Where are you thinking of putting the fine china cabinet, Mom?”
Velvet gestured behind them. “In the hallway to the kitchen. No sense having it too far from where it’ll be used.”
The house Velvet and Night had settled on was much, much bigger than they’d been planning. They’d been hoping for something modest, preferably one, maybe two floors, but when word had gotten out the parents of the Princesses were looking at houses, they’d gotten an offer they couldn’t refuse.
“We’re going to have as much on the first floor as possible.” Night’s eyes flickered to the door to the entrance hall, where a set of wide-mouthed stairs led to the upper levels. “No sense scattering stuff everywhere.”
Gleaming shrugged. “It’s your place.”
Neverwinter Manor was the largest and finest estate aside from the castle. It was traditionally occupied by those most favored by the Crown, and the stories went that the four-story mansion had originally been shaped of crystal by Princess Amore herself. It had twenty-eight bedrooms, thirty bathrooms, ten balconies, five studies, six dining rooms, four kitchens, two galleries, a sparring room, an apothecary, a winery, a full basement, a finished attic, three elevators, six dumbwaiters, an enormous deck and courtyard, a walled-off grounds with tall oaks and white pines, six gardens, a waterfall, two swimming ponds, a greenhouse, and a slew of other things that bordered on the ridiculous.
Velvet sighed and turned to Gleaming. “I still think we should’ve turned this down. It’s too much for only two of us! For pony’s sake, this place is so big it could house our entire family! On both sides!”
Gleaming wiggled her eyebrows. “Our entire family now, maybe.”
Velvet opened her mouth, then closed it again. Her gaze fell on her daughter’s foal-filled belly, a tightly packed pear shape bigger and heavier than Velvet herself. She wasn’t sure what was more impressive these days—the growing baby bump, or the growing mare sporting it.
Night snickered. “I wonder if there’s any secret passages we can find? I always did like exploring places.”
It was certainly possible given the size of the place. Night and Velvet’s home in Canterlot was twenty-three hundred square feet. Neverwinter Manor was two hundred fifty-five thousand, eight hundred and twenty-five. They’d need an entire staff just to help with the upkeep.
They walked down a cavernous hallway to another room. This was one of the studies, the ceiling stretching up all the way to the second floor. Tall dusty windows with old curtain rods took up the western wall, a fireplace and sitting area was in the corner, and a door leading out to one of the balconies was on the upper walkway. The walls were lined with empty bookcases, a few bits of old furniture were covered with white sheets, and four spiral staircases of crystal led to the upper level.
“Not sure if we’re going to use this room yet.” Velvet gestured around to them. “It’s pretty, but we don’t have enough books to fill even a quarter of these shelves! Let alone the furniture!”
“Ehhhh, we can fill a quarter of the shelves,” said Night, looking around. “I don’t think you realize how many books I had at work. Combine that with our personal collection, we can fill half of this, easy.”
Velvet rolled her eyes. “Half of one study. Great! What are we going to do with the others, Nighty? Or the other stars-knows-how-many rooms? We couldn’t fill them all if we owned ten times as many things!”
“Sounds like we need to go shopping then,” Night said. “Gleaming will pay for that too, won’t you?”
Gleaming smirked. “I’ll give you another blank check.”
Velvet narrowed her eyes at them.
But Night just laughed and nuzzled her. “We’ll make it work, don’t worry.”
Velvet pouted at first, but eventually relented and leaned into him with a sigh. “Maybe you don’t worry enough.”
Gleaming sucked on her teeth. “I really am sorry about all this. I didn’t think announcing your decision to move north would create an outcry for you to take this place. I didn’t even bother telling you about Neverwinter because I know it isn’t your style.”
Velvet suddenly looked very tired. “We know, Sweetheart. We’re not annoyed because you didn’t offer us this place, we’re annoyed because of ponies’ assumptions. As if all this excess weren’t enough, it all feels so… so...”
Gleaming raised an eyebrow. “So what?”
It was Night who answered. “This house may be huge, but you can still tell it’s supposed to be lived in. Every room has character, every hall has a story. It needs more than two ponies and a maintenance staff.”
Velvet nodded with hollow eyes. “It’ll be like living in a museum. What’s the point of cleaning rooms that’ll never be used? Decorating areas that’ll never be seen? This is a house for a family, and a BIG family at that. Nighty and I aren’t the type to host parties, and we spend most evenings relaxing and enjoying each other’s company.We’re just a boring old couple in their fifties— it’s not the same as when you kids were around.”
Gleaming said nothing. She could sense her parent’s health, of course—in her mother, two past broken bones, one concussion, three moles removed, a tree pollen allergy, a sluggish digestive tract, farsightedness, hemorrhoids, and a benign heart arrhythmia. Her father had had one torn leg muscle, a nasty bout of mono, a tonsillectomy, two passed kidney stones, and several ear infections. The roots of her parents manes were gray, their color of their coats was starting to fade, and as she’d spent time with them the last few months, she’d noted they didn’t move as fast as she remembered.
“We’ll likely just pick one corner of the house and just stay there.” Velvet’s eyes flickered to the window, where the expansive grounds stretched out despite being in the middle of the city. “The crystal ponies want us live here? Fine, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to use all of it. Your father and I just aren’t up for that.”
Gleaming shifted. “Look, I don’t want you guys to be unhappy. If you guys really don’t like this place, then the public can go soak their heads! I’m sure we can find something you like better—”
“If a year goes by and we still feel the same, we’ll definitely hunt for something smaller,” said Velvet. “But we said we’d give this a try, so we have to keep our word.”
Gleaming pawed at the carpet. “Just saying, the offer’s out there…”
Night patted her shoulder. “We’ll keep it in mind.”
They spent the next few minutes walking around the study. There wasn’t much to see but dust and things covered in sheets, but Night and Velvet were chatting on what they could potentially do with the room. Gleaming was only half listening—the room smelled like old books and stale air, a scent ingrained into her memory from when she’d visited her father’s old workplace. His office at Canterlot U was between the observatory and one of the science libraries, and his shelves were always lined with whatever books he was using for his research. He always kept the shades pulled and the window shut so the wind wouldn’t blow his papers around, as well as the sun’s glare that’d get into his eyes. Gleaming could still remember the slightly-confusing pathway to the top floor where the room was located, and she had many fond memories walking with her mother up there to pry him away.
“Did you get everything mailed to you from work, Dad?” Gleaming asked suddenly. “Or are you still waiting on some things?”
Night halted mid sentence. “Eh?”
Gleaming tilted her head at a bookcase. “You mentioned your books from work. I take it you got them all? What about everything else?”
There was a long pause. The three of them stopped, the only movement the bits of dust dancing in the sun’s rays.
Velvet’s face twisted. She didn’t answer Gleaming’s question, but she did lean in to whisper something in Night’s ear. Gleaming watched as she sidled even closer to him.
“Guys?”
“...I got everything, yes,” Night said at last. “But I didn’t get to pick who packed it all up for me, and… erm, let’s just say whoever did it wasn’t my biggest fan.”
Gleaming noticed that her mom was scowling. Gleaming knew that scowl well, and she pitied whoever it was meant for. “What happened?”
Night’s ears drooped. “We got a message from the shipping company bringing my work things to the Empire. They sent a picture of what the school gave them—boxes were smashed, stained, tossed around, filthy, soaked… and not soaked with water, either. The company was kind and repaired most of the damage for cheap, but some things were too complex for mending spells.”
Gleaming’s heart sank. “You’re kidding.”
“Rotten little scumbags,” Velvet spat. “It wasn’t enough they ran him out of there, they had to kick him one last time on the way out! They broke his work telescopes, flat-out stole of them, tore up his books, ruined his pictures, poured ink on his papers—”
“Vel,” Night said.
Velvet fell silent with a growl. Her horn sparked and popped, but said nothing more.
“Are you sure it wasn’t the shipping company that damaged them?” Gleaming asked. “I know it’s unlikely, but—”
Night shook his head. “We’ve been using that company for years. This was far more than wear and tear from transport.”
Gleaming grit her teeth. She hadn’t mentioned anything about Celestia and Luna’s suspicions for fear of misinformation, but now... “How much did you lose?”
Night looked away. “The pictures and paper things were mendable, but the telescopes were totally smashed. Looked like someone had taken a hammer to them.”
Now Gleaming’s wrath was kindling. “Dad...”
“It’s not worth it,” Night said.“Whoever wanted me gone has got their way. It gave us incentive to move up here, and I think that’s best in the long run. Let’s just focus on the future.”
Gleaming wanted to protest, but Night’s look brooked no quarter. She would’ve turned to her mother if it weren’t obvious which side she’d take. So Gleaming grunted and pinned her ears back, tail swishing like she was trying to swat a fly.
Night ended the topic by going over to examine the fireplace. Gleaming worked her jaw a few times as she hung back, the waves of warmth rolling off her now turning to waves of heat. She was so preoccupied with her own thoughts that she didn’t even notice her mother sidling over to her.
“Please tell me you’ve been looking into who’s caused this,” Velvet murmured.
Gleaming about jumped out of her skin. “Jeez… didn’t even hear you.”
Velvet rubbed Gleaming’s back. “Your father worked at that university for over two decades. They never had a problem with him until a few years ago, and I refuse to believe it’s just because someone there didn’t like him. Something deeper’s going on.”
Maybe Gleaming hadn’t known which side her mom would take, after all. “I’ve heard others come to similar conclusion. What’re you planning?”
Velvet’s eyes flickered like candles. “Not sure, but you can guess what it’ll involve.”
“Mother.”
Velvet’s mouth twitched. “The justice system, of course.”
Yeah, justice with a trial by fire. “I’ve heard mutterings this is only a symptom of a bigger problem,” Gleaming admitted. “Celestia and Luna have gotten involved now.”
Velvet curled her lip. “The Negligence Sisters. Manipulative Celestia, master of not taking responsibility for her actions, and Airhead Luna, the useless psychic who couldn’t detect that a changeling had replaced her niece, mind controlled my son, AND raped the both of them.”
Gleaming knew better than to open that can of worms. “Look, I know you don’t like them—”
“The only thing I like less is the parasite that violated the both of you. What I would give for a piece of her...”
“But they have connections in Canterlot we don’t,” Gleaming said. “If we want to figure out who blacklisted Dad, we have to rely on them. There’s not much Cady and I can do from here.”
Velvet muttered something Gleaming couldn’t hear. “...Fine, fine. So long as I don’t have to interact with either of them, I don’t care. Let them snoop around to their heart’s content; just let me know if they DO find something, because I want to know whose house to burn down.”
Gleaming gave her a flat look.
“You’re welcome to help, of course,” Velvet went on. “The only one without any fire immunity’s your father, so even Spike and Twily could—”
“We’re not turning arson into a family outing.”
Velvet got a dark grin. “What are those things that hide your magic signature? Scramblers? They’d never even know it was us! It’s perfect!”
Gleaming ran a hoof down her face. “And you wonder why strangers are nervous around you.”
“Is your mother talking about burning things again?” Night called.
“Yes!” Gleaming shouted back.
“No felonies, Vel!”
“Are misdemeanors okay?” she yelled back.
“Only if you don’t get caught!”
Gleaming groaned. “Please… please don’t say things like that when you’re foalsitting the kids. I don’t even want to think how they’d take it.”
Velvet giggled. “Oh, don’t be a stick in the mud. I can’t help it if some ponies can’t take a joke! Besides, I’m a little old to be starting a life of crime. Don’t quite have the spring in my step I used to.”
Gleaming didn’t comment on that. She took a long, deep breath, then let it out smooth and slow. “I wish Dad would stand up for himself more. No matter what happens, he’s so calm and calculated. It’s so hard to get him riled up about anything.”
Velvet watched her husband trot over to one of the covered pieces of furniture. “He has his moments, just like the rest of us. He may not stand up for himself, but he’ll move mountains to defend his family. You know that.”
Gleaming’s thoughts became filled with flying pine bark. She recalled the WHUM of impossible power, the smell of sulfur and smoke, the quiet fury in her father’s voice that’d chilled her to the bone. “Yeah, I do.”
“Hey, come over here!” Night called to them. “Let’s see what this is!”
Gleaming and Velvet sauntered over. The thing he was by was a narrow, pony-sized object that almost resembled a column. Upon getting closer, Gleaming realized it was a dais of some sort, although what was on the dais was unclear. All she could see was a pointed crystal tip poking out the highest point.
Curious, Gleaming enshrouded the sheet in magic and carefully lifted it off.
It was an ancient crystal carving of a unicorn bust. It’s luster and sheen was long gone, but the detail could still be seen in the sunlight. It was a mare, haughty and proud, her windswept mane blowing back behind her, her thin face hard and strong. Her expressionless eyes stared through them as her fluted horn jutted out like a spear.
Night scrunched up his brow. “Oho…”
Velvet circled around the carving. “My, this is fancy. Almost as nice as the carvings we saw at the Faire! I wonder who made it?”
Gleaming squinted at the dais. The sculptor typically left their signature somewhere near the base of a carving, but she didn’t see anything. She moved a bit closer to examine. “Not sure. Considering how old this place is, it could’ve been any—ow!”
She’d tried wiping at some grime, and an errant edge of crystal had bit deep into her pastern. She yanked her leg away in a flash.
A deep red was already spreading from the cut like a blooming flower. Gleaming’s white coat made it look worse than it actually was, but it still was pretty deep.
“That’ll need bandaging,” Night said upon looking. “I can port us—”
“Wait,” said Gleaming. “It’s fine. Don’t bother.”
Night frowned. “You really don’t want to risk infection—”
“I’m not.” Gleaming held out her leg. “Watch.”
It took about a moment, but as the seconds dragged on, Night and Velvet realized the bleeding wasn’t spreading anymore. Gleaming’s coat matted as the red caked and dried, and they watched as the cut knit together, the skin reforming and sealing without so much as a mark.
“Oh! So you can do that, too?” Velvet smiled. “No worries, then.”
Gleaming hesitated. “‘I can do that, too’? What?”
“Your sister,” Night explained. “She mentioned it was an alicorn thing, so I guess you’re that much closer to joining the club.”
“We about hit the ceiling when she showed us.” Velvet shuddered. “Granted, if she’d warned us instead of just demonstrating…”
Gleaming paled. “Demonstrating?”
Her parents’ only reply was a grim look.
Gleaming facehooved. “Twily, Twily, Twily...”
They gave the unicorn bust a wide berth and moved on. They were starting to be curious about the upstairs balcony, so Night and Velvet squeezed up one of the spiral staircases. And they did indeed have to squeeze, as not only were the stairs narrow and steep, Velvet and Night were taller-than-average ponies. They wound up having to duck low to avoid hitting their foreheads (and their horns) and it wasn’t long into the ascent before they were both muttering about renovations.
Gleaming, meanwhile, opted for the easier route.
FLASH!
“I guess it’s true what they taught us in history,” she said as she met them at the top. “Ponies really were smaller before Equestria was founded.”
Night nodded. “Countrywide famine, Bud. In the words of one of my former colleagues—malnutrition’s a bitch.”
Velvet came up just behind Night. She straightened her mane out and turned to Gleaming… only to immediately frown. “I’m not sure it’s a great idea for you to be up here.”
Gleaming cocked her head. “Why?”
Velvet pointed at Gleaming’s rounded barrel. Her left side was nearly grazing the bookcase on the wall, while her right was only a hair’s breadth from the railing. She was going to wind up grazing the sides with every step.
Gleaming laughed upon realizing. “Oh! Heh, didn’t think it was that narrow. Definitely won’t be fitting up here in a week or two, that’s for sure!”
Velvet wasn’t quite as amused. “I imagine getting around has become more and more of an issue for you.”
Gleaming replied by flexing one of her legs. “Around? No. Through? Yes. But that’s what happens when you’re carrying six big, healthy babies, right? I like to think of it as progress.”
“Go and port over to the balcony,” Night said to her. “Spare the kids some jostling.”
Gleaming relented. She disappeared in another flash, reappearing out on the awning with a wave. Night and Velvet made their way over to her.
“I guess it’s good we decided to give you the tour before you got much bigger, eh?” Night said as they opened the door. “Oooh, not a bad view…”
The sprawling backyard opened up before them. The grass was tall and patchy with wildflowers blooming here and there, particularly around one of the overgrown gardens on the west side. The areas around the white pines were completely bare save for needles and a few fallen branches, and the bases of the oak trees were surrounded by acorns. An old fountain, half-filled with stagnant rainwater was in the courtyard just beneath them, and planted around it were three weeping willows, their lowest branches dangling down to touch the water.
Gleaming took a deep breath of the cool spring air. “Meh, either or. If all else fails, I teleport around like just now.”
But Velvet wasn’t so laid back about it. “I know you’re used to being tall, but you still have to be careful, especially with how fast you’ve been growing. I’m half surprised I haven’t heard about you knocking more things over.”
Velvet rested her hoof against Gleaming’s warm belly. She could feel the fabric of the blended in maternity brace, supportive yet stretchy enough for Gleaming to grow. “Have you and her decided on how many you want yet? Or are you still thinking you want to wing it?”
Gleaming almost replied it was hard to put a number on how many kids a pair of immortals would have. “All we know is we don’t want the kids to be more than a few years apart. We’re gonna hold off until we get experienced with the sextuplets, but once we feel confident, we wanna keep going. We could stop after one more time, we could have a few more then hold off for a century… or maybe one of us will always be pregnant for untold years to come. Who knows?”
Night snorted. “An eternity of foalrearing… most ponies would consider that to be Tartarus, you know.”
Gleaming ignored him. “As soon as Sombra’s curse is gone, the only thing up in the air will be whether Cady or I carry the kids. I know I can get that stupid magic out of her—I just need to be stronger. There’ll be nothing holding us back then… especially with us being able to control how many we have per time, heh...”
Velvet stroked her daughter’s stomach. “I... know we’ve talked about this, but I’m still worried you and Cadance aren’t realizing the reality. You’re caught up in the excitement now, but how excited will you be when you’re up at four a.m. feeding fussy babies while also trying not to wake Cadance? Or when your garbage is overflowing with dirty diapers, you just ran out of clean ones, and now three of them need a change? How about when you lose track of time and suddenly you have to work while smelling like vomit and foal pee? Think you’ll strike many trade deals with neighboring countries then?”
Gleaming made to speak, “Mom—”
“Let’s talk about quirks,” Night said. “Let’s say it’s been long enough that you’re starting to really notice the differences between them, and none are easy to deal with. One of them cries if they’re not held at all times. Another has to be bathed a special way or they’ll get sick. One screams bloody murder if they so much as see a quesadilla. One has random magic surges. Another has Vel’s fire affinity. And the last one is the most mellow… but you can NOT get them to sleep at a normal hour no matter what you try. How are you going to deal with all that?”
Something seemed to click for Gleaming. “All those things… everything you guys just said... that’s what you had to deal with raising the three of us, aren’t they?”
Night and Velvet nodded.
“Having a foal is two things,” said Night. “The most rewarding thing you’ll ever do… and the most difficult. Regardless of yours and Cadance’s powers, you’re still going to face challenge after challenge. Your patience will be tested, your nerves will be tested, your marriage will be tested… everything. You’ll do things you’d never do, say things you’d never say, things you never thought would be an issue in a million years will suddenly become the norm.”
“We wouldn’t give you three up for the world,” Velvet added quickly. “But Honey, hearing you talk about this without knowing what having foals is really like… for crying out loud, you’re having SIX at once! Nighty and I could barely handle one of you at a time!”
“Alright, alright, alright.” Gleaming held up a hoof. “Every time we have this discussion, you seem to forget what Cady and I have available to us. We have a round the clock team to help us so we can sleep, work, or just need a break. We’ve had Twily teach us her Time Snap spell so we can be in multiple places at once. We have an entire castle’s worth of space even bigger than this manor. We have all the money we could ever need and more. We have so many resources available to us it’s nuts!”
Velvet shook her head. “We’re not talking about physical resources—”
Gleaming shushed her. “I’m getting there. What you’re talking about here, and what you’re concerned about most, is the headstuff. Burnout. Getting overwhelmed. Misconceptions. You’re worried Cady and I will get a few months into it and realize we don’t like being parents, everything we’ll have planned will be for nothing, and we’ll get frustrated because we’ll have to admit we were wrong.”
Gleaming’s parents didn’t reply, but their silence spoke volumes.
“I get having kids can be insane,” Gleaming said. “There’s a lot of gross stuff, crazy stuff, stressful stuff, and it’s never the same experience twice. I wish there was something I could say that’d make you guys not worry, but this still keeps coming up. I don’t know what else to tell you besides that despite everything Cady and I have heard, seen, felt, read, gone through, tried, practiced, watched, you name it… we still want kids. We still want a LOT of kids. We don’t care about the diapers, the crying, the time investment, the stress, the lack of sleep, the preparation, the cost, the complexity… We want it all. We want it to go through it together, her and I, and we want to go through it again and again and again and again. ”
Velvet searched Gleaming’s face. Memories of past discussions filled her mind, all of them going this same exact way. Even the grossest and most harrowing tales she’d regaled hadn’t dissuaded her daughter. “So you two want to fill that giant castle with your sons and daughters, using magic and money and your domains to keep up with it all.”
Gleaming noded. “Yes.”
“And then what?” Night asked. “Are you going to fill it right back up again once the kids get old enough to move out? Are you two going to have so many foals over the centuries that all of northern Equestria will be able to trace their ancestry to you?”
A tiny shiver ran through Gleaming. “Take off the ‘northern’ part, and you’re pretty close.”
Velvet didn’t know whether to laugh or groan. “I’m starting to think you might be part rabbit.”
The three of them laughed.
Velvet cast a quick spell to check the time. “It’s almost two. Your doctor’s appointment is soon, isn’t it? Are we still coming along?”
Gleaming had forgotten all about that. “Right! Uh, yeah. Talia wanted to run a few tests on you two, so we should probably head over there.”
Night stretched with a small yawn. “Should we be worried about what these tests entail?”
Gleaming chuckled. “She might want blood, but a needle’s probably the only thing she’ll stick in you.”
“So, this superdoctor of yours,” Night said. “What’d she say about your cutie mark changing?”
It was quiet in the hall leading to Talia’s lab. Oddly so, in fact. Crystal Empire Central Hospital was many things, but slow sure wasn’t one of them. Although the activity was centered in the patient and clinic wings, and those labs were a-bustle with activity. Back here in the research wing, the place was still, sterile, and cold.
“She… didn’t really know what to say,” Gleaming said. “It’s not her area of expertise, so...”
Night glanced at Gleaming’s flank. The white serpent coiled around the shield was plain as day. He still did the occasional double-take at it. “That white snake can mean more than just life, you know. It’s associated with other things, too.”
Gleaming paused to take a long pull from her trusty water bottle. “Ahhh, renewal, healing, fertility, transformation... all things that are pretty relevant. Transformation’s the only outlier, and even that has tie-ins.”
They were waiting for Velvet to come out of the fillies’ room. She would’ve gone back in the Manor, but the water wouldn’t be turned on there until they moved in next month. Thankfully the research wing was empty enough that the Princess-Consort and Duke could loiter in a hallway.
“But will they always be relevant?” Night asked. “Cutie marks aren’t just indicative of your past, they’re indicative of your potential. Will all those things be a crucial part of who you are forever? In what way?”
Gleaming raised an eyebrow. “Remember that whole thing we talked about back on the balcony?”
Night’s eyes drifted further up to the precious swell of Gleaming barrel. She looked like she was full term with quintuplets. “You really think it’s that obvious, eh? Just gonna keep on taking turns with Cadance, you genderswapping every other year to take your turn. A healing, shapeshifting protector, continually bringing life into the world for untold years to come.”
Gleaming shrugged. “What’s so bad about that?”
Night shook his head. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just making sure that’s what you want.”
“Yes, Dad.” Gleaming said with a sigh. “I know you’re still worried I’m hopped up on hormones and magic—”
Night held up a hoof. “About that. I was worried at first, yes, but with this ascension and domain business... If you really do represent Life, then I imagine you represent all its aspects, not just male or female. It makes sense you’d want to spend equal amounts of time as one or the other.”
Gleaming smirked. “What if I find a way to be both?”
Night made to say something back, but the reply died in his throat. “E-Erm...”
“I mean, am I wrong?” Gleaming said. “There’s no telling what the rest of my abilities are at this point. I might have complete control over it, beyond even what we can do with spells.”
Night clicked his teeth. The idea was… well. Let’s just say Gleaming’s doctor wasn’t the only one out of their depth here.
“But that’s just me spitballing,” said Gleaming. “All I know is that one way or the other, you’ll be getting LOTS of grandfoals. It’ll be interesting to see how Cady’s body takes to pregnancy, but if it’s hard on her, I’ll just go multiple times in a row. We’ll see.”
Night could only shake his head. “I knew you always wanted kids, but I didn’t realize you wanted them so bad you’d be willing to carry them yourself... let alone enjoy doing it.”
Gleaming laughed as well. “The enjoyment snuck up on me, to be honest. With each problem we fixed, I liked it more and more. Pretty soon, there was nothing left but the stuff I liked.”
And Night was aware what those things were. “So long as you’re happy… but let’s not forget something that already proving to be a minor stumbling block, eh? You still need a Crystaller for each foal, and last you told me, Vel and I are your only two. You’ll have trouble if you start having foals like crazy.”
Now Gleaming laughed even harder. “Dad, out of everything, I don’t think THAT will hold us back. We’ll figure it out.”
“Does that mean you’ve found candidates?” Night pressed. “You said before you wanted them to be ponies you and Cadance both knew. How’s the search gone?”
Gleaming shifted in place. “We’ve... asked one who’s still considering—our adviser Rex. There’s also a few military friends we’ve sent letters to, but they’d have to move up here to do it, so no guarantees there. We really want to ask Talia, but considering how old she is… yeah. I’ve run a few other ponies I know past Cady, but she hasn’t met them, so she’d need to spend time with them before we even ask.”
Night leaned against the wall. “So that was a maybe, a few standing offers, and the rest aren’t even cleared yet. You have twelve weeks to figure this out, Bud. At best.”
Gleaming looked away. “I know, I know…”
Night patted Gleaming’s belly. “If those six decide they’re coming out tomorrow, then they’re coming out tomorrow. If this is as big a priority as you’ve said, you need to get on it.”
Gleaming hung her head. “O-Okay, okay… Ugh, I just really, really wish we could ask Talia! She’d be so great as a Crystaller, I know it! I’m positive you guys are gonna like her.”
Night nodded. “How much does she know about us?”
Gleaming paused. “Medically? Or personally?”
Night’s eyes lingered on decorative picture on the wall. “We already sent her our medical files. I’m curious what made her want to meet us.”
Gleaming thought for a moment. “It... was kinda random, really. I’d mentioned you’d settled on a house, she asked a few things like what you both do, then if you could come with me on an appointment.”
Night rubbed his chin. “So she doesn’t know about my… quirk?”
Gleaming gave him a flat look. “I never told anypony until Luna. Didn’t even tell Cady until you okayed it.”
Night winced at that. “Yeeeeaaaah… I, uh… kinda forgot I hadn’t told her until she made that comment at the Leaves Feast? Bit of a slip-up on my end there.”
Gleaming narrowed her eyes.
“Okay, a major slip-up,” Night admitted. “But to be fair! It’s not like Vel and I have had many interactions with her before coming up here. The past few months are the most time we’ve ever spent with her.”
A slew of responses teetered on the tip of Gleaming tongue, but she said nothing. She merely watched her father with the same piercing look he often gave.
Night’s face twisted like he was wrestling with himself. “I-I never meant to… this isn’t something you can just… ugh.” He sighed and ran a hoof through his mane. “Alright. Maybe this isn’t the best time to say this, but I’ve been meaning to say it for a while now, and putting things off is what caused this in the first place. I’m sorry I made you choose between me and your wife. I should’ve told Cadance myself a long time ago, and not telling her forced you into a lie of omission. I didn’t mean to do that.”
Gleaming exhaled out her nose. “Thank you. Although, I will give you what you said about not spending much time with her. You haven’t had many chances to tell her.”
“Your mom and I didn’t even know you were dating when she was foalsitting Twily,” Night said in a rush. “And we barely saw either of you after that because you were off starting your careers! All we knew was suddenly, you come home saying you and Cadance are engaged, you’re being crowned Prince-Consort, and we’re swept up in a whirlwind of planning for a royal wedding!”
Now it was Gleaming’s turn to wince. “Yeah, see—”
“Then we find that a changeling has been posing as Cadance for stars-knows-how-long?!” Night threw up his hooves. “We weren’t even sure you’d actually met the real Cadance at that point, Shining! For star’s sake, there was a while there I couldn’t even look at her without thinking about… about what happened to you two! And you have NO idea what I nearly did when she started gloating about it in the throne room—if there wouldn’t have been so much collateral...”
Gleaming could hear it creeping into father’s voice—that cold fury honed to a cruel edge. “I think it’s best we leave it at that.”
A shadow fell over Night’s face. “...It hasn’t been easy, you know. Sitting back on the sidelines, hearing how you kids keep running into danger… Terrible things could be happen to any one of you at any time, and your mom and I just have to accept it. Do you know how many times I’ve been on the verge of stepping in?”
Gleaming didn’t, nor did she want to. “I know it has to be hard. But you guys gave us what we needed to succeed, and we’ve used it to get by. Aren’t you proud of that?”
“Being proud has nothing to do with it.” Night stepped around to face her. “We could be reading in the living room while Twily and Spike are inches from death. We could be eating dinner while you and Cadance are shielding this city from certain doom. Not a day goes by we don’t wonder whether one of you is in danger right that very second, but we have to keep on, just the same. And it’s even worse because your Mom and I have the power to help, yet you’ve asked us not to. How do you think that feels?”
Gleaming rubbed the back of her neck. “I... don’t know what to tell you, Dad. You have to trust that you and Mom gave us everything we need to succeed. You believe in us, don’t you?”
“Son.” Night put his hooves on Gleaming’s shoulders. “Listen to me, loud and clear. There’s nopony, NOPONY, not in this world or any other, that believes in you more than me and your mom, got that? Don’t you dare doubt that for a second. You and your sister and brother are heroes, but the thought of one of you in trouble, hurt and alone, calling for help but no one’s coming… words can’t describe how much that scares us.”
Gleaming said nothing. They were so close she could see the hairs of her father’s mane, smell the salad dressing on his breath from lunch. He had to stretch to put his hooves on her shoulders, but even so, she couldn’t help but feel small.
“What I’m talking about now, what Vel and I have been trying to get through your head for months, is no matter how confident you are, what steps you take, or even what you’re the damn alicorn of, you’ll never, EVER be prepared for what being a parent is like.” Night put his hoof on her cheek. “Your whole world will be turned upside down the second you see them, understand? They’ll challenge you, they’ll push you out of your comfort zone, they’ll test you in ways you can’t even imagine... yet you’ll move heaven and earth for them. Yes, you’re clever. Yes, you’re patient. Yes, you’re powerful and rich. It doesn’t mean a damn thing. From the moment they’re born to forevermore, you’re going to be making sacrifices for your children, and it never, ever ends. THAT’S what’s in store for you.”
It was almost surreal. Even as an adult, the effect of her father’s presence, of his voice and touch and smell… it was like a bizarre earworm was burrowing deep into Gleaming’s mind.
Gleaming swallowed hard. “Dad...”
Night shook his head. “I know you’ve already made sacrifices to make this happen, but I want you to understand this is just the beginning. Have as many foals as you want, but be aware that for every new son or daughter, you’ll be tested all the more. You’ll have to be that much more selfless.”
They were interrupted by a distant toilet flush.
Night pulled Gleaming’s head down so they could touch horns. “Your mom and I aren’t going to be around forever. One day you’re going to blink, and you’ll find the only place we exist will be in your memories. Father your foals, mother your foals, have both mare and stallion parts, I don’t give a damn. Whatever you decide, promise me you’ll use that noggin of yours. You’re the Alicorn of Life, not the Alicorn of Irresponsibility.”
They heard a sink running before it was turned off. The bathroom door opened, and Night stepped away just Velvet walked out and stretched her legs. She smiled as she made her way over.
“There we are!” Velvet said. “Ready to go?”
Night nodded. “Yep.”
Gleaming forced herself to smile. “U-Uh, yeah! Talia’s lab is just around the corner, so lemme just, um... lead the way there…”
Talia looked up from her desk. “There ya are. Was starting to wonder if you’d gotten lost.”
Talia’s lab was an L-shaped space of bulky equipment and high tables. The tables had sinks with extra nozzles for distributing gases, and cabinets all over were lined with all manner of chemicals. There were a few refrigerators and coolers in the corner labeled with their contents, a tidy assortment of vials and petri dishes were stacked atop them, and there was an exam bed and scale in a corner. The east wall was dedicated entirely to windows providing a view of the city, but the north and south walls had doors leading to what were presumably storage closets.
The sides of Gleaming’s barrel brushed the door frame as she shimmied through after her parents. She also made sure to duck down so she didn’t clip her horntip on the top. “Hi, Talia. These are my parents—”
“—Twilight Velvet and Night Light.” Talia got up from her chair and limped over. “I’d apologize for ignoring titles, but something tells me you’re not much for ‘em.”
Night and Velvet took turns shaking Talia’s hoof. “Call me Velvet. Gleaming tells us you’ve been taking good care of her.”
Talia chuckled. “Helps that she does what I tell her. I’ve had wealthy types that think they know everything when it comes to their bodies—didn’t listen to a damn thing I said. Nice to have one that can take orders.”
Gleaming saluted. “Thank you, ma’am.”
Talia didn’t miss a beat. “At ease.”
Night looked around the lab. He noticed microscopes, incubators, two ultrasound machines, and one bulky device with needles and pads connected to electrical wires.
“Is that an electromyographer?” he asked.
Talia looked where he was pointing. “Uh… yes, actually. You worked with one before?”
Night shook his head. “My mom had issues with numbness in her final years. They used one to diagnose her.”
Talia’s look softened. “Mmm. Yeah, that’s common in us older gals. Heh, was gonna say, Gleaming mentioned you had a doctorate, but I didn’t think you were that kind of doctor.”
Night laughed. “Not quite.”
Velvet looked over at the machine as well. “That thing’s covered in dust… I’m guessing you don’t use it very much.”
Talia snorted. “Observant as your kids... You’re right, it’s not one of the machines I use—wouldn’t even know how if I wanted. That doohickey was here when I got here. I just walk around it.”
Gleaming wasn’t as curious about things, as she’d been in here before. She did, however, see that a privacy curtain and exam bed had been added since the last time. There were also various instruments she recognized from the patient room.
“Got the whole setup moved in here, I see,” she said.
Talia floated over a clipboard from her desk. “We don’t wanna be squeezing four ponies into that rinky-dink room, especially at your size. Figured it’s better to be in a place we all fit.”
Gleaming glanced up at the ceiling. The ceiling was lower here, almost to the point of feeling claustrophobic. “Width-wise, maybe, I’m not so sure height-wise.”
Talia followed her upward gaze. “Hmph. You just keep on shootin’ up, don’t ya? Horn’s grown more too, I see. You keep sprouting at this rate, and you’ll be able to look Celestia in the eye.”
Gleaming privately noted that even if that turned out to be the case, she still wouldn’t have anything on Luna. “Let’s hope I don’t grow that much.”
Talia ushered them over to the curtained area. “We can shoot the breeze later. I wanna check your magic ratio again—I’m thinking that’ll give us a clue to how many changes you got left. I’ll check your folks out afterwards.”
Night and Velvet took seats off to the side by the wall, still looking around and muttering to each other. Gleaming waited by the scale as Talia retrieved several items, including a cone-shaped magic reader and a cloth measuring tape.
“We’ll start with the ol’ poker.” Talia floated the cloth strip to Gleaming’s horn in her icy blue aura. She wrote down a number, then wrapped the tape once around the horn’s base. “Hoo-wee, another half-inch in length, another half-inch in circumference! That’s double the growth from last week. You’ve got a regular ol’ railroad spike coming in!”
Gleaming ran her tongue across her teeth. “An itchy railroad spike. I need more of that balm, by the way.”
Talia noticed that Gleaming’s horn had a greasy sheen, her coat matted and wet where it met the horn. “Is it helping?”
“Yes, but I’m using it like ruddy chapstick,” Gleaming said.
“I’ll up the prescription then.” Talia jotted that down on her clipboard. “That stuff’s as safe to use as… well, chapstick, heh. Silly you need a prescription for it, if you ask me...”
Next, Talia slipped the magic reader onto Gleaming’s horn. She made adjustments here and there before switching it on, a silence falling as it took the reading.
“That’s a good look for you!” Night said.
“Add it to your regalia!” Velvet called.
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “Oh look, Talia. We have a peanut gallery.”
Talia sniggered. Upon hearing a small beep, she had Gleaming lean down so she could read the numbers on the instrument. “Looks like you're still in the ‘Gain Two Percent a Week’ phase. Thirty-six percent alicorn magic, sixty-four percent unicorn. Overall capacity’s grown again too, but I imagine you’ve noticed that.”
Gleaming had. “I swear, it’s like my reserves are deeper every time I tap into them. But I haven’t had any episodes like that one a month ago, thankfully. About the worst that’s happened is snapping a few dishes here and there.”
“Better that than teleporting away in a blind panic,” Talia grumbled. She removed the cone and floated over a blood pressure cuff. “The rate’s been consistent for a few weeks now, so if things keep on, I’d say we’re looking at a done deal by mid-Fall. I’d like to see you try to deplete your unicorn reserves once you’re at fifty-fifty—see if that kickstarts your aether gland into flipping over any faster.”
Gleaming nodded. Velvet and Night however, were left with blank faces.
“Does... that mean she’s only grown a third of the amount she’s going to?” Velvet asked.
Talia gave them a sidelong glance. “My gut says no, but who’s to say? She could be a third of the way through, she could stop tomorrow, she could be somewhere in the middle, or maybe she’s only a fraction of the way done. This is only the third documented case of alicorn ascension, after all... unless you two wanna have another foal.”
Velvet and Night gave her a dull look.
“What? Don’t tell me you think you’re too old just cause you’re silvermanes.” Talia put the velcro cuff on Gleaming’s leg and pumped it up. “I had my daughter when I was around your age. You two could still go for it.”
It took a few seconds for that to sink in.
“You had a foal...” Velvet said slowly.
“...while in your fifties,” Night finished.
Talia cackled. “Lemme tell you something, kiddies—I’ve been in the prenatal field longer than either of you have been alive. If you asked me what’s riskier, a couple in their fifties having a foal today, or a twenty-something couple having a foal when I started, I wouldn’t even need to think about it.”
It was against Gleaming’s better judgment that she decided to check something. Putting aside her reservations, she tapped into her inner spark and squinted at her parents, watching as their colored outlines came into view. Hopefully none of them would remember she could do this...
“Maybe risks of the pregnancy, but what about other risks?” Velvet asked. “Isn’t there a greater chance of the child having mental problems?”
“Not to mention the risk to us,” Night added. “We’re getting older, and caring for foals is stressful. Stress makes it easy to get sick.”
Talia scoffed. “Listen to you two, not even over the hill yet and you’re acting like you’ve got two hooves in the grave. Look, I’ve read your records, and I’m telling you right now that if you really wanted to do it, you could. You’re still going into estrus, right Velvet?”
Velvet blushed. “...Y-Yes, I suppose I am. In about a month or so, actually.”
“And you.” Talia pointed at Night. “I didn’t read nothing about a vasectomy. You still firing live ammo?”
Night coughed. “A-As far as I know, yes.”
Her mom’s outline was a plain, neutral red. Neither overly vibrant nor overly pale, but right smack-dab in the middle. Her dad’s was a pleasant shade of orange, and while he was a little less vibrant than Velvet, he was still plenty capable. Gleaming’s working theory was that the closer two outlines were in color to each other, the more compatible they were. And if that was the case here...
Talia raised an eyebrow. “Your sex life still fresh? How often ya do the horizontal tango?”
“OKAAAAAAAAY!” Gleaming said. “So, how many kids do you have, Talia? I don’t think I ever asked you before!”
…
…
...
At last, Talia regarded Gleaming with pinned back ears. “...Just my darlin’ Panacea. Woulda had more if I’d married earlier—quite a few more. S’alright though, she met a nice boy and gave me lotsa grandfoals, and now, I’ve even got great-grandfoals.”
Gleaming thought of the efforts she and Cadance had put forth to get various medical groups established in the Empire. “How’s Rosetta?”
Talia put on a stethoscope. “She and her parents will be makin’ Canterlot trips until the ESHA gets settled here, but at least they won’t have to do it for years on end. They asked me to thank you, by the way.”
Gleaming looked away as Talia started to check her breathing. “I’m sorry I can’t do more.”
Talia spared another glance at Velvet and Night before shrugging and looking away. She focused on checking Gleaming’s heart and lungs, then she put the stethoscope away and flipped to the next page on her clipboard. “Vitals are stellar as ever. Feel anything funny around your shoulder blades yet?”
Gleaming shook her head. “Nope. No wings.”
Talia made a note of that. “You’ve been developing earth pony traits of late, so anything pegasus related will likely be after. Still, nice to keep an eye out for things… go and hop on the scale, would ya?”
Gleaming obeyed. She noticed this scale was not the one in the patient room, as it was in a good deal better condition. It didn’t creak like it was about to collapse, for one.
“Feeling alright this week?” Talia asked as she flipped out the height bar.
Gleaming smiled. “Better every day.”
Talia looked her over. A thick, snow white coat, a full, vibrant mane, blue eyes so bright they almost glowed, powerfully built muscles, curvaceous hips and flanks, and a foal-filled belly the size of an exercise ball. The syrupy warmth flowing off her was ever-present; a warmth that soothed even Talia’s ancient joints. “I believe it. Still getting around alright?”
“I’ve gotten too big for some places, but teleporting gets me by,” Gleaming said.
“Convenient.” Talia slid the bar down until it was flat against Gleaming’s head. “Bring your neck up for me, high as you can. Nice and straiiiiight, and… yep another half-inch. Congratulations, you’re now officially taller than you were as a stallion.”
Gleaming pumped her hoof. “Yessss!”
She heard a slow golf clap behind her.
“We knew you could do it,” Night said behind her.
“We’re so proud,” Velvet deadpanned.
Gleaming turned and made funny faces at them.
Talia fiddled with the scale weights. “Your balance still keeping?”
Gleaming froze with her tongue still out. “Uh, yeah. My trainer’s been running me through more balance exercises, plus building my leg muscles more to boot. It’s helped a ton.”
Talia could see. While Gleaming’s legs had always been impressive, they’d been looking thin proportionally as they’d grown longer. Now they were bulking back up proper. “How about that brace you’ve always got on? Needing to wear it more, less, or the same?”
“The same.” Gleaming traced along the garment’s neckline. “Mostly because the foals have gotten used to it. They don’t like being bounced around very much, so I try to give them a smooth ride.”
“Good, because they’re not tryin’ to play rugby in there,” Talia said. She looked the brace over for signs of wear and tear, but didn’t see any. “Looks like it’s holding up, so whatever works for ya, I suppose. “ She finished moving weights on the scale. “Sixteen pounds… you’re gaining more than two pounds a day, girl. Granted it’s cause you’re growin’ near as much as the foals, but yeesh. Eating habits still on the rise?”
Gleaming licked her lips. “It feels like I’m eating more and more at every meal.”
Talia snorted. “I wonder why. Alicorn shenanigans aside, you’re at the stage of pregnancy where the foals are building up their baby fat. Nutrients are still important, but what you need most is calories, and lots of ‘em. You still having those shakes each meal?”
Gleaming nodded. “I could only manage two at first, but then it was three, and now I’m up to four. Probably five soon at the rate I’m going.”
Talia wrote that down. “Keeping hydrated otherwise? I know you got that handy-dandy water bottle.”
Gleaming summoned the item in question. “I’m thirstiest after I express milk, so I’ve taken to chugging like mad while pumping.”
Talia had seen the bottle before, but she looked it over again anyway. “How much are you expressing each time?”
Gleaming winced. “Almost three liters, now.”
Velvet, who’d been drinking water herself, nearly choked.
But Talia didn’t bat an eyelash. “I know that seems excessive, but I still stand by what I said at the beginning. You’ll be going through six liters of milk every day for the first half a year, potentially more with those two alicorns, and even more until you wean ‘em. I’ve a feeling you’ll be burning up the backlog faster than you think.”
Gleaming fidgeted. “If you say so…”
“Damn right I do,” Talia said. “Now, take your bra off.”
Gleaming feigned surprise. “But we haven’t had our first date!”
Talia bapped her with the clipboard.
Gleaming laughed. She undid the clasp and floated the item over to let Talia see.
“I don’t even wanna know what size this is,” Talia muttered. She examined the pads before giving each one a sniff. “Damp... you leaking a lot?”
Gleaming shook her head. “I fell off my regular schedule this morning. I start leaking if I miss a pumping.”
Talia grunted. “Lemme have a look at the taps.”
Gleaming ambled over to the exam bed. This one was considerably larger and wider than the one in the other room, something Gleaming was quite grateful for (that other one was starting to feel like a kid’s bed). She eased onto her back and spread her hind legs, smiling at the unique feel of her huge, milky breasts wobbling. She watched with pride as her pregnant belly rose up with Twilight’s spell.
Talia slipped on a white breathing mask and limped over to Gleaming’s lower half. “Let’s see… any changes in how it feels to express?”
Gleaming stared blithely at the ceiling. “Nope.”
“Any burning or painful itching?”
“Negative.”
Talia used magic to gently poke and prod at Gleaming’s breasts. “Can see you’re pretty full right now. You uncomfortable?”
Gleaming yawned. “I remembered the big spell Twily cast on me helps with internal pressure. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t bother me?”
Talia worked her jaw a few times. “...Maybe. She’s explained that spell to me three times, and I still don’t understand all of it. Your sister weaved a humdinger of a cantrip.”
Gleaming rested her hooves behind her head. “What’s funny is she never even pays attention to how amazing her spells are. She just keeps right on moving forward, not even patting herself on the back half the time.”
Talia had been gathering samples of Gleaming’s breastmilk as of late, so Gleaming wasn’t surprised when she felt a squeeze on each of her nipples. A generous amount of milk flowed out at Talia’s urging into a pair of waiting vials.
“Flow is steady.” She held up the vials and swirled them in the light. “Color and viscosity seems good… likely same constituent ratio… wouldn’t mind another dry matter test though...”
Night looked on. “What’s the reason her breasts have gotten so large?”
Talia corked the vials and set them aside. “Lemme put it this way. There ain’t normally a correlation between breast size and lactation, but this is something of a unique case. Probably another reason why being so full don’t bother her—I’m thinkin’ she can hold a whole lot more.”
Gleaming smiled at her parents. “Long as I can still walk.”
Talia resumed examining Gleaming’s underside. “Has walking started to become an issue?”
Gleaming shifted in place. Her breasts were bigger than soccer balls when full, so large that they hung below her knees while pressed together by her legs. “I’m fine if I take it slow. If anything, it’s encouragement not to go whipping around.”
Talia went on to examine Gleaming’s skin, her coat, look for excess sweat around the creases, as well as the Gleaming’s marehood and plothole. She was particularly interested in Gleaming’s legs today, explaining when asked that she was looking swelling or reduced circulation.
“Still can’t believe you don’t got varicose veins,” Talia muttered as she checked Gleaming reflexes. “No neuropathy, no preeclampsia, no striae, no gestational diabetes, no cramps, no GI dysfunction... you’re a damn lucky duck, y’know that?”
Gleaming ‘flapped’ her forelegs. “Quack, quack.”
Talia smiled as she flipped through her notes again. “I suppose I’ll start by stating the obvious here. Gleaming, you’re well and truly beyond any relatable cases at this point, so we’re essentially flyin’ blind again. All other cases of high multiples have gone into labor between weeks twenty-five to thirty-five, but we’ve talked about that in the past. You’ve had the record for a good month now, and things look steadier than ever.”
Gleaming cheered. “You hear that, guys?” She patted her belly. “Keep it up!”
Talia tossed her mask in the trash and turned to Night and Velvet. “Part of what makes multiples so risky is the issues that rise with the mother. It’s typically why we induce early—the mare just can’t support the pregnancy past a certain point. But Gleaming’s actually gotten healthierand stronger as the pregnancy’s progressed, so I see no reason to induce her unless something drastic changes.”
Gleaming swished her tail back and forth. “I’m hoping you won’t need to induce me at all.”
Talia grunted. “Gleaming, as far as future orders go, the previous ones still stand. Eat when hungry, drink when thirsty, to hay with whatever proportions. I don’t care if you need to drink a swimming pool and eat twice your bodyweight; you need a LOT of fuel to support all the things going on with you, especially with your routine. I assume things haven’t changed?”
With some effort, Gleaming sat up so she could lean against the wall. “Regular workouts with my trainer, heavy magic usage at work, and frequent, um... ‘recreational activities’, with Cady.”
“For goodness sake, you don’t need to dance around that you and Cadance are having sex,” Velvet said to her. “It’s kind of expected at this point.”
Now normally, Gleaming wasn’t much for karma, but... “Oh, I can? Good! Because in that case, I have daily, incredibly long sessions of sex with Cady, who spends much of the time as an insatiable stallion with no refractory period. We try to keep it to only twice a day, but on off-days we can’t keep our hooves off each other, y’know? Today, for example—we woke up and rutted for two hours straight before breaking for a nice breakfast, then went for another hour until I had to get ready to go. He helped wash me in the shower like usual, but that led to him mounting me and we went, mmm… I think it was three more times or so. After that he ‘helped’ me pump, and I got cleaned up was about to port, but then I had a familiar craving hit me. Usually we make a game of it, but I was short on time so I just had him lay on his back, spread his hind legs wide, and—”
“ALL I SAID.”Velvet had her eyes shut tight, her face twisted fierce. “Was that you don’t have to dance around it. We don’t need to know the details!”
Meanwhile, Night was staring with wide eyes. “No refractory period?”
Talia ignored them. “Frequency or length I don’t care about. All that matters is that you follow those instructions I gave ya. Still got ‘em?”
In reply, Gleaming summoned forth a parchment written in Talia’s thin, angular hornwriting. The title read, ‘Acceptable Bedroom Activities and Sex Positions During Pregnancy.’
Talia seemed satisfied at this. “Do all the hanky-panky ya want, so long as it’s the mellow hanky-panky, y’hear me? Just because you’ve got safety spells in place doesn’t mean you should stress test ‘em.”
Gleaming laughed. “Loud and clear. We make sure the kids are the ones that set the pace, and they let us know if we’re going overboard.”
Talia paused. “...Meaning?”
Gleaming lifted her bump so it rested on her lap. “If they’re not happy about something, they start the ‘we-don’t-like-this-stop-it-now’ kicks. You know, the fast, really hard ones? They’re different from the ‘hungry’ thumps, or the ‘sleepy’ flutters, the ‘changing-position’ wiggles, the ‘curious’ prods, the ‘just-woke-up’ tickles, the ‘found-a-sibling’ twitches, or the ‘need-more-room’ fidgets. Heh, those I get before Twily’s spell—”
Gleaming realized everypony was staring at her.
“Oh, don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” Gleaming looked to Velvet and Talia. “You’re telling me you never figured out what the kicks meant?”
Velvet cocked her head. “I... learned some things. I found Twily would always kick up a storm after meals, but you’d fall asleep, so...”
“I knew when Panny was awake, when she was asleep, and when she did a somersault,” Talia said. “Anything beyond that was just a baby bein’ a baby.”
Gleaming scrunched up her face. “Really?”
Night squinted. “Do you seriously know what they mean? Or are you just guessing?”
Gleaming blushed. “I-I guess this wasn’t as obvious as Cady and I thought... We thought we were cheating by figuring it out how we did, but with her being an empath, it wasn’t hard to figure things out. I’d tell her whenever I’d feel something, she’d ‘listen’ in, and within a week we’d cracked the code. ”
Talia whistled. “Might need to sit down and tell me everything you’ve found. Could lead to some interesting research… questions for later, though. I don’t wanna waste too much of your folks’ time, so let’s move on to your folks.”
Velvet and Night exchanged a look.
“What do you need from us?” Velvet asked.
Talia set aside her notes on Gleaming, then floated over two folders with Velvet and Night’s cutie marks. “Some family history, a few basic readings, then DNA samples. Blood, preferably.”
Velvet and Night whispered between themselves some more. Gleaming didn’t catch what was said, but by the way her father kept glancing at Talia’s instruments, she could guess what about.
“Sounds innocent enough,” Velvet said. She got up and made her way over to the exam bed, giving Gleaming a telekinetic nudge. “Gonna need you to move, honey.”
Gleaming’s raised an eyebrow. “What if I just got comfy?”
In reply, Velvet lifted Gleaming in her aura with ease, gently setting her on the floor light as a feather.
Gleaming crossed her hooves. “Hmph, cheater.”
Velvet chuckled. “Didn’t think I’d do it, did you?”
Talia laughed as well. “Y’know, if I didn’t already know you’re a powerhouse, you’da scared the dickens outta me there.”
Velvet hopped on the bed and laid out like a cat. “I assume you also know I’m the originator of the kids’ element affinity? I’m an S-Class manifester, like them.”
Talia nodded. “Had to double check to make sure it wasn’t a mistake. We’ve only just started to understand element affinities, but we do know it’s bloomin’ rare for them to show up two generations in a row. Do you know type of S-Class you all are?”
“Yep! We’re S1.” Velvet held out her hoof, a tiny gout of flame appearing in her frog. “It came from my father’s side, and his bachelor house has records of it going back. His bachelor house was House Phoenix, by the way.”
Talia adjusted her spectacles to watch the little flame. “What other houses are in your bloodline?”
Velvet thought for a moment. “My parent’s houses are Sparkle and Phoenix. My maternal grandfather’s bachelor house was Pendragon, and my paternal grandfather’s bachelor house was Stonemason.”
Talia scribbled that down. “Got any siblings?”
Velvet shook her head. “Just me.”
“Figured.” Talia opened a drawer, floating over a high-end magic reader in her icy blue aura. “Parents are barely able to afford one foal with maintaining those expensive spell wards in the house, not to mention trying to prevent just one kid from having an episode outside. Leads to a lot of family problems.”
Velvet chuckled. “We were fortunate I was able to cast the wards myself. And it’s not hard to calm a flaming foal—or dragon for that matter, when you’re immune to fire yourself. Didn’t matter if we were in public or not.”
Night leaned back in his chair. “Didn’t matter for her.”
Talia shook her head as she measured Velvet’s magic. “Three family members with S1 fire affinities, and a spellfire dragon… you’re a brave, brave stallion, Night Light.”
Night’s eyes lingered on Talia’s magic reader. “I... like to think I’m more determined than brave.”
Velvet blew a raspberry at him. “If by ‘determined’ you mean ‘stubborn’.”
He blew her a kiss. “A rose by any other name, dear.”
Talia wasn’t able to tell much about Velvet’s magic to start, as the reader went in the red as soon as it was pointed at her. Talia grumbled something and recalibrated the device before trying again a second time, but it just went in the red again. It was only after recalibrating again she was able to get a reading.
“Dunno why I bothered with the regular setting.” Talia showed the number to Velvet. “Pretty impressive, hun.”
Velvet read the amount. “I’ve been surprised it’s stayed so consistent as I’ve gotten older.”
“It typically does.” Talia set the device aside. “Our magic systems are one of the few parts of us that doesn’t diminish with age. There’ve been studies to try and figure out why that is, but all we’ve been able to tell so far is that even dead and separated from the body, there are parts of us that can hold a magic charge for an absurdlylong time.”
Night perked up at this. “That’s the Whippoorwill Principle, right? That study came out of Canterlot University.”
Talia glanced at him. “I thought that’d get your attention. Were you around when they published it?”
Night crossed his legs. “I’d just started, actually. There was a lot of hoopla around it at first—even the media got involved.”
Talia got a sour look. “Which would’ve been good had those idiots actually listened to Whippoorwill. Blew her research outta proportion, started saying it was the key to anti-aging. I never liked Ol’ Snippy Whippy, but even she didn’t deserve to be nagged into an early grave like that. Stars rest her soul, the cranky broad.”
Gleaming was quiet. It’d been subtle, but something about Talia had just said rang through her mind like a bell, the vibrations causing a bizarre tingle at the tip of her horn. A sudden clarity struck her, stark and pure as new-fallen snow, like a sleeping part of her had just woke up.
“Y’mind giving me a drop of blood?” Talia asked Velvet. “Or just prefer a cheek swab?”
Velvet was indifferent. “You can do either. I don’t mind.”
“That’s the spirit.” Talia produced a tiny little needle, barely enough to prick the skin. “Only need enough to smear on a microscope slide. Hold out your leg for me—yep, just like that, annnnnnnnnd… perfect!”
Gleaming gave her head a shake. Her head felt tingly—not numb-tingly, not painful-tingly, just… tingly. She rubbed her forehead and blinked a bunch to see if that helped, but all that did was put spots in her eyes. She zoned out while Talia ran more simple tests and asked more questions, the tingly feeling swirling behind her horn all the while like a lively spiral.
“That’ll do,” Talia said a few minutes later. She set aside Velvet’s folder and reached for Night’s. “Your turn, Doctor.”
Night didn’t move from his chair. He was still staring at the magic reader on the counter while bouncing one of his legs. “...Can I ask something, first? As one scientist to another?”
Talia made to reply, but hesitated. She stared through him a second before she looked away with a sigh. “I’d expect nothing less from someone outta Canterlot U. May as well clear the air, then.”
Gleaming’s mind was abuzz with lively tingles. She was no stranger to odd sensations cropping up, but this one was different. It was powerful—oh, yes—and she could tell it was coming from her spark, but it wasn’t bursting out and trying to spew everywhere. It simmered warm and placid beneath her consciousness like a bath, patiently waiting for her command...
Night rubbed his forearms. He looked over to Velvet, something unspoken passing between them. There was a long silence before he finally gathered himself. “I’ve... heard about your genetics research. The controversy surrounding it, I mean. You had something of a reputation back at the U, but for what it’s worth, I never gave it much weight.”
Talia rolled her shoulders. “I burned bridges, yes. I was afraid certain ponies were doin’ some shady things so they could be first to publish findings on the alicorn gene. I was wrong, thank Celestia, but that just made the Scholar’s Guild investigation all the worse. Lost a lotta friends because of that.”
Night watched her like a hawk. “You’re not the first to want to run tests on me and Vel. We’re well aware if our biological children both carry the gene, then one of us, possibly both of us have the non-expressed genotype. You’re the first we’ve let anywhere near us because Twily and Gleaming trust you, but I still want to know something. Why are you so interested in the alicorn gene? What was it that brought you out of retirement, at your age, just so you could come all the way up here to study our family?”
You could almost hear the gears turning in Talia’s head. She was quiet for a long, long time, alternating between glancing at Night’s file and around the room. Neither Gleaming nor her parents said anything in the meantime, but that was because the former was still focused inward.
“I suppose I’m a lot like your youngest daughter,” Talia said at last. “There’s a level of focus I get with genetics and reproduction, and… well, like I’ve warned her, it’s a double-edged sword. I wish I understood it better myself, but something about figuring out how the world works, realizing how such little things can have such big impacts, how it all ties into how we grow and evolve as a species… heh, I would say it fascinates me, but considering I’m an old coot and STILL chomping at the bit...”
Gleaming ‘poked’ at the warm energy. It came forth quite easy, immersing her in wonderful feelings of heat and fullness. Now that it was tapped into, the power wanted to ‘flow’ somewhere… no, multiple somewheres. She could sense strange cold things that that felt almost magnetic, and before she’d realized it, the power had flowed forth with an extremely pleasant feeling.
Night sucked on his teeth. His gaze was still intense, but his voice was gentle when he spoke. “Be that as it may, you of all ponies must realize what could be happen if the wrong ponies unravel the secrets of the alicorn gene.”
Talia groaned. “Honey, we’re so far away from ‘unraveling’, it’s not even funny. Even if we figure out how to isolate it, which we haven’t, we still need to figure out its interactions with our genetic code. Just ‘turning it on’ ain’t enough to kickstart what’s happened in your kids; there’s an entire textbook worth of variables we’re still trying to suss out. There’ll be so many laws to prevent idiot yahoos from playing God by the time we get close, we’ll have professors teaching courses on bioethics while protesters picket outside of labs.”
But Night wasn’t so convinced. “It’s not that simple. I understand what you’re saying, but not all ponies care about laws. The foundation you’re building could one day give rise to the next Sombra—”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years,” Talia said. “It’s for every darkness that rises, a light appears to keep it at bay. Your children are living proof of that, if ya haven’t noticed… We can’t stop progress any more than we can stop the heat death of the universe, but what we can do is keep up with it—it’s the only way we’ll build a better tomorrow.”
From behind Talia, Velvet met Night’s eyes and mouthed, “Listen.”
But Gleaming certainly wasn’t. She was too entranced by this new power flowing out to warm up the cold vessels, like sluggish machines being oiled up. She wasn’t sure what these vessels were—she’d never sensed anything like them—but she could tell the power was slowing something in the vessels… something that soon halted… until it was moving in reverse.
“We can get into it more later,” Talia said to Night. “I’m all for a debate, but—” She cut herself off with a mighty sneeze. “‘Scuse me… your family’s a busy lot. I imagine you’d rather be spending time together.”
Night grimaced. It looked like he was trying to sneer, but then was interrupted by a loud sneeze of his own. He rubbed his muzzle before glancing over at Gleaming. “Then I’m afraid your exam of me will have to wait. I’m not comfortable moving forward without—”
“Y’mind if I ask YOU a question now?” Talia held up Night’s file, opening it and pulling out the packet of stapled papers. “These ‘records’ of yours here… how much of ‘em are fake?”
Silence. Long, heavy, awkward silence, interrupted only by Velvet having a sneeze of her own.
“...E-Excuse me?” Night said.
Talia grinned like a wolf. “There ain’t no way in a normal pony raises two S1 element manifesters and a bloody spellfiredragon without a medical history to show for it. I’ve seen B-Class kids overcome elemental wards and injure their parents, yet you ain’t ever been treated for so much as smoke inhalation. And I KNOW Velvet wasn’t always the bad cop when one of ‘em got uppity—I’ve heard Twilight and Gleaming refer to you with the same respect as her. I’ve seen a lotta families in my time, and when only one of the parents is a hardass, it shows in how the kids speak of ‘em.”
Night and Velvet exchanged another hurried glance. They tried not to look guilty, but that was like trying not to breathe. “Doctor Talia,” Velvet said. “Please understand that—”
“So lemme just go ahead and confirm what I already know, Mister Fellow Scientist.” Talia tossed Night’s records in the trash with a flick of magic. “You’re the one with the alicorn genotype, aren’tcha?”
Night went white as a sheet. “I-I—”
“Which side did it come from?” Talia asked. “Your dad? Your mom? I got your real family history the Equestrian Census Bureau. Your bachelor house is House Glow. Your father’s bachelor house was Raven, and your maternal grandfather’s was Stalwart. They didn’t have your paternal grandfather’s bachelor house, but I’m guessing because it was merged. Am I right?”
Night swallowed hard. “D-Doctor Talia—”
“I knew you were a Raven the minute I saw you, by the way,” Talia went on. “Only they have those pretty gold eyes. One of my best friends growing up was a Raven—Nevermore was her name. They all seemed pretty normal, though... your mom, then?”
And that was when Gleaming tuned back in.
“U-Um… whoa, sorry…” She looked around at everyone. “What are we talking about now? I zoned out for a bit there.”
Talia ignored her. “Starlight Glow... Quite an interesting gal, according to her obituary. I imagine she manifested the genotype too, but what I’m more interested in is how it manifests in YOU. I’ve noticed you keep looking at my magic reader—you a powerhouse, too?”
“STOP.” Night growled through grit teeth. “Hay and oats, she really is like Twily… I get that you’re excited, but you’re backing me into a corner here. You need to ease up, now, or I’m going to leave.”
There was a brief staredown. Both ponies twisted their faces as they fought to get different emotions under control. Talia looked like she had a million questions, Night looked like he was about to bolt. Countless thoughts and actions tempted them both, but neither of them made the first move.
Velvet got down from the exam table. She walked over to sit beside Night and put her arm around him. “Honey... I think it’s time to talk.”
Night closed his eyes and leaned into her. “...I was afraid of something like this.”
Velvet nuzzled him. “We’ve known it was going to get out eventually. It’s not easy to keep big secrets these days.”
It didn’t take long for Gleaming to put two-and-two together. “Oh, jeez… U-Uh, Dad, I swear! I didn’t—”
“I know, Bud.” Night motioned for her to come sit by his other side. “Could you… could you come over here, please? I, uh… may need the support.”
Gleaming nodded. She came and sat by his other side, putting her arm around him just like Velvet. She turned to give Talia a stony glare.
“Oh, don’t get your panties in a twist,” Talia said to her. “I didn’t make them come here, and I sure ain’t making them do anything now. Why else did you think I asked to see ‘em?”
Gleaming said nothing. She merely scooched a little closer to her father, her pregnant belly pressed against his side.
Talia rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine… how about this—whatever gets said in here, I won’t so much as write down a word. No data recording whatsoever. Fair?”
Night cleared his throat. “N-No, ah... that’s not necessary. You can run tests and the like, just… keep them to yourself for now, alright? Maybe… maybe you’re right about progress being inevitable, but that doesn’t mean we have to make it in huge strides.”
Velvet rubbed Night’s back. “Baby steps, first.”
Talia nodded. “So, how you wanna do this?”
Night glanced at the magic reader again. “Uh… how about I show you a cool trick to start?”
Talia frowned. “A trick?”
Night gestured to the device. “I promise, you’ve never seen anything like it.”
Talia scrunched her eyebrows, but didn’t comment. She telekinetically retrieved her reader, then, at his urging, she pointed it at Night and turned it on at the highest setting.
vrrrrrrrmmmMMMMMMMMM—FWWSSSH!
The device shook and started smoking before bursting into flames.
“Ha-HA!” Talia cackled like a madmare. “Hot damn, I LOVE it when I’m right!”
“Listen up, Heartguard!” Captain Deadeye barked. “What General Gleaming is about to tell you concerns Operation: Lovebug! This information is NOT to be shared unless by royal decree! Are we clear?!”
“YES, MA’AM!” the Heartguard shouted as one.
Spike snickered atop Gleaming’s back. “Operation: Lovebug… ah, that still gets me.”
Gleaming didn’t interact much with the Heartguard. They were training constantly to keep themselves honed to a razor’s edge, and a squad was on duty at all times to keep the Crystal Heart safe. The only time all of them were brought together was either when the Heart was brought with them, or one of the princesses was keeping watch over it.
Deadeye turned to Gleaming. “Shall I go get our guest?”
Gleaming nodded. “Then report to Princess Twilight and Ser Rainbow. They’re shoring up the spells inside the Crystal Vault.”
“Understood.” Deadeye gave her soldiers one final look, then turned and trotted out the door.
They were currently in the Silver Sanctum. The flowing silvery patterns on the walls glittered among the glowing crystal lights, their purpose unknown to all present save Gleaming. The doors were guarded with several of her wards, and all eyes were currently on her, watching as she paced back and forth with slow, gentle grace.
Gleaming adjusted her House insignia and cleared her throat. “Soldiers of the Heartguard. As Deadeye said, this information concerns Thorax, our resident refugee. I’m here to tell you that the two months he’s been here, not only has his physical health improved, his soul has healed even more. Already we’ve started to see several positive changes in his body, and if things continue, we’ll be stepping up efforts to ‘acquire’ more of his kin.”
The soldiers shifted in place. It was hard to listen when Gleaming was nearing twice the height of an average mare (without counting her horn), towering over every one of them by a long shot and dominating their vision. But she needed that height to support her wide, gargantuan baby bump, bulging out far past her frame even while grazing her shins. She’d opted for princess regalia over military garb today, as her powerful chest, broodmother hips, muscular flanks and legs, colossal breasts, and her thick, tremendous rump didn’t translate well to uniform.
Yet while all that was the paragon of pregnancy, what was most captivating was Gleaming’s face. Her deep blue eyes, her long eyelashes, her rosy cheeks and high cheekbones, her full lips, her narrow muzzle, her strong jaw and slender neck. Her full and silky mane was like a three-toned waterfall cascading past her shoulders, and even though she wasn’t wearing perfume, the smell of mint and cocoa butter still followed in her wake. The only one unfazed by her beauty was Steelwing, who’d continued to serve on call for Gleaming and Cadance’s escort.
“I know many of you have mixed feelings about this.” Gleaming didn’t look at any of them, instead honing in on the quiet skritch-skritch-skritch of Spike taking notes. “Rest assured, Thorax has been examined with the most powerful techniques and spells we have. He has no connection to the other changelings, not through mind, magic, emotion, or soul. He’s been sharing intelligence with us to help figure out how best to heal his race, and while we’re still brainstorming ideas, he did tell us something we’ve wanted to know for a long, long time.”
Knock, knock.
Gleaming opened the door with magic. Deadeye trotted back in escorting a familiar face—a blue baby dragon. His tongue flicked out to taste the air.
Most of the Heartguard recognized Cadance’s new assistant. There hadn’t been much explanation for where he’d come from, but nopony had thought much of it…
“We’ve struggled to figure out how to see through a changeling’s disguise,” Gleaming said as Deadeye left. “Our detection spells are too complex to be done on a large scale, and while we know changelings can’t conceal other things like serious wounds, sickness, and malnourishment, we can’t test civilians with those. However, as a show of good faith, Thorax has shown us another way.”
The click-click-click of Thorax’s claws hitting the floor echoed through the long room. He winced upon tasting the soldiers’ first eddies of suspicion, but then he saw Spike smiling and waving at him. He waved back and scampered over.
“Thorax,” Gleaming said as he approached. “Would you take your true form, please?”
There was a collective murmuring. Many tensed as green flames enveloped the blue dragon with a sound like rushing wind, and where he’d been, a fearsome changeling stood, his glossy black chitin and sparkling wings—
Wait, sparkling wings?
Now there was even more murmuring. Not only were Thorax’s wings strangely bright and blue, his health was a far cry from the reports. His barrel wasn’t sunken in, his ribs weren’t showing anymore, his mane and tail weren’t wispy, his legs weren’t shaking, and his eyes weren’t foggy at all. He didn’t look like a starving monster on the verge of collapse—he looked like, uh… a calm, healthy bughorse thing.
“You can see I wasn’t exaggerating about his progress.” Gleaming put a hoof on Thorax’s shoulder. “Like Princess Luna with the thestrals, Princess Cadance’s constant use of power to heal him has strengthened her considerably. She’s now confident she can help more of his kind, and if her power continues to grow, there’s no telling what she might be able to do.”
It’s quite odd to build up assumptions about something, only to be suddenly faced with a direct contradiction. Most of the Heartguard had cocked their heads and were leaning forward with open mouths, while the rest looked like they were trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Steelwing was somewhere in the middle, his eyes never leaving Thorax, locked on like a puppy who’d just encountered a kitten.
“You’ve all been educated on the typical traits of changelings.” Gleaming faced them as she said this. “Their ability to shapeshift is as natural to them as our magic, which means any one of them has the potential to hide among us. Combine this with their knack for mind magic, it’s easy to see how vulnerable we are.”
She now summoned a box to her from the nearby table. From it floated out a collection of tiny needles and tissues, one for each member of the Heartguard. Gleaming also floated out a strange, bulky flashlight with various switches on it.
“Hold out your forelegs, all of you.”
While they did this, Gleaming nodded to Thorax, who shapeshifted again with a burst of green flame. Captain Deadeye now stood before them, glaring at all of them before smirking with a wink.
The Heartguard just stared.
Poke! Gleaming pricked the soldiers with the needles.
“GAH!” It was the surprise more than anything else. Those that recoiled found their leg held fast by Gleaming, tugging fruitlessly as their bloodspots were soaked up by the tissues.
“Changelings are also quite skilled at making distractions,” Gleaming said without any change in tone. “We’ve known for some time that changeling blood is silver. It turns red like ours when shifted, but it seems there’s a way to make it show up regardless.” She held up the flashlight. “This produces a special kind of light that’s invisible to our eyes. When shone on most creature blood, it does nothing, but on changeling blood, it glows bright regardless if it’s fresh or not. A changeling’s chitin normally filters this light out—hence their black coloring—but their chitin isn’t much tougher than your skin.”
Gleaming switched on the bulky flashlight. A strange shade of violet flooded the room that made the soldiers squint, but otherwise was unremarkable—
“Ooooooh…” Thorax’s eyes grew big. “The pretty colors again…”
Spike scoffed behind Gleaming. “Still can’t believe that only looks like one color to you. Pony eyes are so weird.”
Well, unremarkable to most, anyway.
Gleaming held the bloodied tissues under the light to show there was no change. “We’ve tested the blood of other races as well—only changeling blood behaves differently. Even a single drop will glow, so all you need is scratch or a poke—something we can do to even the young, the sick, and the elderly.”
For fairness, Gleaming then took a fresh needle and poked her own leg. She shone the flashlight on the bloodied spot to show that, like the other tissues, it didn’t light up at all.
“Nopony is above testing,” she said.
Now she had Thorax hold out his leg. She poked his fetlock and soaked up his blood, so quickly that Thorax barely even felt it.
“Now, watch.” Gleaming shone the light on the bloody tissue…
It lit up like a Hearth’s Warming Tree.
“Holy…” Steelwing murmured.
“This is something they can’t hide,” Gleaming said as she tossed the tissues in the trash. “Thorax has given us this intel because he understands we’re trying to help his kind, not conquer them. Princess Twilight and the Elements of Harmony have turned some of our greatest foes into our allies, thereby proving Friendship to be the strongest, most effective weapon we have. I say we use it on the changelings, my little ponies.”
A mare raised her hoof.
“Second Lieutenant Bulwark?”
“How do we perform this blood check on races with natural armor?” she asked. “Scales, thick hides, and the like? A simple needle won’t be enough to pierce their skin.”
Gleaming nodded. “Good question. Some creatures we can just use a dagger, whereas others, dragons for instance, are incredibly tough. Their bodies are nigh invulnerable, so we’ll have to keep using things like passwords—”
“Pfft, we’re not invulnerable,” said Spike. And before Gleaming could stop him, he held out his arm, bared his gem-crunching fangs…
CHOMP!
Gleaming felt something wet drip onto her back.
Her eyes shrank to pinpricks. She snatched Spike and floated him around into view… only to nearly scream as she found he’d bitten deep, DEEP into his arm. His little face was twisted in both pain and surprise, his red, steaming-hot blood spilling everywhere.
“TOo HaRd,” he whimpered. “OwwW...”
Gleaming had once heard memories can be tied to smell. She’d always thought that was silly, but when looking back on this moment, she found it was indeed the smell she recalled most. Dragon blood didn’t smell like pony blood—it smelled like the red-hot coils of a range stove. Except it was so acidic it made your eyes and nostrils burn, and so saturated in magic it made your head buzz. Even more jarring, Spike’s magical bond to her was suddenly going haywire, to the point she could actually feel an echo of herself.
Gleaming’s world slowed. Dozens of thoughts formed, but none accepted what she saw. The Heartguard’s medics were already summoning first aid kits, but Spike would need far more than that. Gleaming’s Lifesense was already whispering to her—his nerves and tendons...
It happened with a mighty burst of light. Gleaming’s inner spark blazed in an incredible surge, so bright that it blinded all but a few. Pure, soothing POWER filled Gleaming in an entirely new way, cozy and heavy like a thick woolen blanket. Her eyes shone as magenta threads swirled out from her horn in spiralling strands, enveloping Spike and his self-inflicted wound.
Steelwing gasped. “By the sun…”
Gleaming pried Spike’s jaws free while the threads focused on his arm. In seconds she’d stopped the bleeding, and then, concentrating harder, she guided the threads like a conductor guides a song. Tendons were healed, nerves were mended, and his muscles and flesh knit back together before her eyes. Punctured scales were restored without so much as a blemish, and within seconds not a single trace of damage could be found on Spike’s arm, the only evidence the blood that’d dripped on the floor.
Gleaming let the magic fade. She ignored her own questions and examined Spike’s arm while still cradling him in her aura. “Bud?”
Spike was shivering. “Y-Yeah…?”
“Is anything numb?”
Spike swallowed hard. Tears were in his eyes as gingerly flexed his claws. “N-No…”
The medics surrounded them. There was a few frenzied seconds of examining and checking before they realized the wound was no more. They all turned to gape at Gleaming.
“General…?” one of them said.
Have you ever felt like you’re at a crossroads? A situation where your choice or response could lead to a good path, a bad path, a tricky path, or a million other ones? That’s how Gleaming felt right then. Over two dozen sets of eyes were all gawking at her, and even though she didn’t have to explain...
“Well, then.” Gleaming coughed and returned Spike to her back. “I suppose I should explain my own, ah... improvements.”
Spike hugged her neck and hid in her mane, still shaking. Thorax fluttered his wings and looked away, his tongue flicking out now and again. The Heartguard was silent and still as the grave… save one, who now shakily raised his hoof.
“Lieutenant Steelwing?” Gleaming said.
Steelwing swallowed hard. He tried to speak once, but only the second time did he get anything out. “I-I saw.”
Something in Steelwing’s voice made Gleaming pause. “Saw what, exactly?”
He pointed behind Gleaming. “When that f-flash of light went off! I-I saw them, for a split second!”
Gleaming frowned. She looked behind her, but all she saw was the wall. “I’ve an omega-level dimension lock on this room, Steelwing. There’s no way somepony could’ve—”
Steelwing rapidly shook his head. “N-Not like that! Th-Them, they… y-you, ugh.” He grit his teeth and tried again. “It was only for an instant, but when you did…that thing, I saw them on your back! Like ghosts...”
It wasn’t often Gleaming got goosebumps, but she sure as heck got them now. “What did you see?”
And like a prayer, Steelwing uttered a single word. “Wings.”
Later-
“I don’t know whether to yell at you, fuss over you, or put a muzzle on you!” Gleaming growled at Spike. “Why in heaven’s name would you ever…”
“I’m sorry!” Spike said. “I saw other dragons doing that all the time during the migration! I just wasn’t sure how hard to do it!”
They were at Gleaming’s next appointment—her workout and massage session with Amber. Getting the Heartguard up to speed hadn’t taken very long (thankfully), to the point they’d even had time to bring Thorax to Cadance beforehoof. Amber had yet to arrive.
Gleaming glanced at Spike. “You saw other dragons biting themselves so hard they drew blood?”
Spike shifted atop her back. “Well... not themselves. They were nipping other dragons! A boy and a girl dragon, usually. They’d act all weird around each other, then one of them would nip the other, and they’d fly off together! I tried asking the older dragons why, but they just laughed at me.”
It didn’t take Gleaming long to figure that one out. “Bud… has anyone talked to you about sex yet?”
Something seemed to click for Spike. “Wait, THAT’S sex?! You just nip each other?!”
It was a good thing they were alone in the fitness center, else Gleaming’s laughter might’ve garnered some looks.
“Oh, kiddo…” Gleaming chuckled a little more. “I’m guessing that’s how dragons show they want to have sex. They were flying off to be alone—sex is a pretty private thing.”
Spike sat up straighter. “Ohhhhh, so that’s why I was getting laughed at. Yeesh, I didn’t think it was anything like that! So they were nipping each other because they wanted to have babies? Ugh, that doesn’t sound very fun.”
Gleaming raised an eyebrow. “So you DO know what sex is.”
Spike shrugged. “I know it’s how you make babies. Mom and Dad won’t tell me more than that, and Twilight gets all embarrassed when I ask her.”
Gleaming was silent a few a seconds. “...Well, I’m not sure I agree with that, but if that’s all they’ve told you, I’ll stand by it. Personally I think you should know more, but maybe once your wings come in…”
Spike grunted. “Glad to see someone on my side. But uh, anyways… not to change topic or anything, but do we, a-ah… wanna talk about what happened back there? You healing me and all? Because that was pretty crazy.”
Gleaming narrowed her eyes. “Not as crazy as you nearly crippling yourself. There’s a whole lot of difference between a nip and nearly biting your arm off! Do you even realize how lucky—”
“I said I’m sorry!” Spike scooched up to hug her neck again. “R-Really! I didn’t mean to do it! Nothing’s ever broke through my scales before!”
“You eat super-hard rocks and gems on the regular, Spike!” Gleaming snapped. “Diamonds! Granite! Enchanted steel! You can crush near anything with those jaws and teeth! What did you think was going to happen?!”
Spike hung his head. That terrible, stinging, white-hot pain… his whole arm had felt like it’d been stabbed by electric needles before everything past the elbow had gone numb. His forearm, his wrist, his claws, all limp and lifeless as a wet noodle.
“You were reckless,” Gleaming snapped. “You were reckless, and it almost cost you big time! Twilight would’ve had to teleport you to Canterlot for Celestia or Luna to treat you, and even they wouldn’t have been able to fix everything! Your arm would’ve been useless, Spike! FOREVER!”
Spike said nothing. It felt like his stomach had been replaced by a ball of lead, one that was only getting heavier by the moment.
“Promise me right now that you’ll NEVER do something like that again.” Gleaming stopped by the foam workout mats to look at him. "Not as a joke, not to show off, not for anything whatsoever! Ponies are afraid of reckless creatures, Spike... especially big reckless creatures. Do you want ponies to be afraid of you?”
Spike’s only reply was a whimper.
Gleaming floated him around so they could be face to face. “Promise me!”
Spike shivered. He wet his lips and rubbed his arms, but found he couldn’t look away from his sister’s hard face. “I really am sorry...”
Gleaming kept glaring at him.
Spike’s lower lip quivered. “O-Okay, I p-promise! I won’t ever bite myself like that ever again! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye! J-Just please don’t send me away… p-please...”
Gleaming blinked. “...Send you away? What?”
But Spike couldn’t say anything more. His breathing had grown too hitched.
Gleaming’s look softened. Gently, she pulled him into a hug while he hiccuped into her chest. She laid down on the mats to hold him, and before long he was crying, clutching her as his muffled sobs echoed in the open space.
Gleaming’s mind was a blur. What’d happened, what Spike had just said, the possible responses she could give... there was so much that needed to be addressed right then, so many ponies that needed to be told of the last half hour. Amber had just come in and was making her way over, yet Gleaming stayed right there with Spike, holding him tight while rocking him back and forth.
“Why would you think we’d ever send you away?” she finally asked.
Spike pressed his face harder into her coat. “B-Because I’m a… *hic* d-dragon! I’m gonna g-get BIG and m-mean and… *sniff* s-scary! N-No one will wanna be around me soon…”
“Hey, hey, hey.” Gleaming nuzzled his head. “Listen to me. Nopony’s gonna send you away, alright? No matter what happens, no matter how mad anyone gets, or how big you get, that’ll never, ever happen. We’re all family: You, Me, Twily, Cady, Celestia, Luna, Mom, and Dad. Actions and size won’t change that.”
Spike’s tail curled tight around Gleaming’s leg. “But I’m not a… *sob* p-pony…”
Gleaming frowned. “Kiddo, what’s your mom’s name?”
Spike replied without thinking. “Twilight Velvet.”
Amber was now halfway to them, so Gleaming held up a hoof to stop her. “Twilight Velvet, eh?” Funny, that’s what my mom’s name is! It’s almost like we’re siblings or something.”
Spike glared at her. “Th-That’s not fair! Look, I… I know what a foster family is, alright?! Mom’s told me, Twilight’s told me, Celestia’s told me, everypony’s told me—”
“And yet apparently, nopony’s told you the difference between being related, and being family,” Gleaming said. “Think about it this way: Twilight Velvet may not be your mother, but she IS your mom. She fed you, bathed you, changed you, rocked you to sleep, raised you until you moved to Ponyville with Twily, and even then I’ve heard how often she ports down to get you. If you somehow think that she doesn’t love you, her baby boy, with all her heart and soul… that might be the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Spike grit his teeth. “I-I… but—”
“And it’s not just her,” Gleaming said. “When I look at you, I don’t see a dragon, I see my little bro. I’d move heaven and earth for you if I had to, and so would Twily. So would Dad. So would Cady, Celestia, and Luna. Yes, some of your challenges will be different, but you’re still learning to control incredible power, and our family’s no stranger to that.”
Spike’s face tinged pink. “I-I, uh... never thought about it that way, heh...”
Gleaming booped his nose. “You’re kinda the favorite, y’know. The favorite of alicorns, magical powerhouses, and element manifesters. You’re loved, Buddy, now and always, and nothing will ever, EVER change that.”
Spike smiled and wiped his eyes. “Thanks, Gleam-Gleam.”
“Anytime.” Gleaming beckoned Amber over. “I’ve gotta do my workout now, but while I’m doing that, I want YOU to work on something as well. Prep for the future, you could say.”
Spike cocked his head. “What?”
Gleaming gave him a toothy smile. “Learn the difference between a bite and a nip.”
Amber stopped over by the leg press.“Is everything alright? I can come back if it’s a bad time—”
“It’s fine,” Gleaming said as she got to her hooves. “Just a close call that left us a little spooked. Needed a minute to shake it off, that’s all.”
Amber couldn’t help but notice Spike’s tear-streaked face. “You’re sure?”
Gleaming chuckled. “Hey, don’t give me an excuse to skimp out! I can’t start slacking off at this stage.”
Amber snorted. “Honey, you’re well past where I’d hoped to get you—well past and then some. I’d say you can afford a day off if need be.”
Gleaming grinned. “Didn’t think I’d become a big, awesome superpony? I didn’t think so either, but I gotta admit, I’ve kinda fallen in love with it.”
Amber looked her up and down. Not only was she twice her size, Gleaming’s massive womb just kept filling out more and more. A normal mare would be immobile with a belly that big. “Big height-wise? Or pregnant-wise?”
Gleaming winked. “Yes.”
Amber rolled her eyes. “Well, if you really are gonna keep with the babymaking, then I suppose that’s a good thing. Let’s hope we don’t have to resize all the doorways in the castle to fit you, though. Can’t imagine that’d be cheap.”
But Gleaming just chuckled. “The castle’s made of crystal, Amber. Aren’t you forgetting what Cady can do with just a thought?”
Amber blinked. “Oh, yeah.”
Gleaming patted the top of her head. “It’s cardio day, isn’t it?”
Amber blushed. “A-Ah, yeah. Keeping on with the habits, then... I was thinking we’d have a go at the elliptical—”
“Hate to cut ya off there,” said a voice behind them. “But I need a minute with Gleaming.”
They all turned. Cantering towards them from the opposite entrance was Talia, clad in a lab coat and a pair of old saddlebags. And yes, she was cantering, moving faster than any of had ever seen her...
Gleaming squinted. Normally, Talia’s telltale limp made her favor her right side. “Need a minute with me, eh?”
KR-CCKKK!
Talia was suddenly caught in a magenta forcecage. A second forcecage was also erected around Amber, and Gleaming snatched Spike to teleport them across the room. She put up a third forcecage around them for good measure.
“What the—” Amber squawked from backing into the bars. “HEY!”
Talia’s eyes widened, but only for a split second. “Oh, bollocks... Talia, you idiot...”
Spike just stared. “Uhh…”
Gleaming didn’t say a word. In the blink of an eye, she had two needle-like slivers break off of Talia and Amber’s cages to poke them in the rump. She ignored their yelps and instead brought the bloodstained slivers to her, summoning the bulky flashlight again...
“Gleaming!” Amber yelled. “What the hay?!”
She examined the blood under the light…
Nothing.
Gleaming let out the breath she’d been holding. “Sorry!” She dismissed the cages and ported them back. “Sorry, sorry, sorry. Had to be sure.”
Talia sighed. “Can’t really blame ya with your past. Shoulda realized you’d pick up I was different.” She nodded at the flashlight. “That some kinda changeling detector?”
Gleaming dismissed it with a pop. “More or less.”
The word ‘changeling’ made Amber perk up. “Change—oh. Ohhhhhhhh.”
Gleaming now saw that while Talia’s mane and tail were still white, her roots were now gray, and some of them even had a blonde tint. Her face was fuller and less wrinkled, and her blue coat wasn’t nearly as pale.
“Observant as ever, I see,” Talia said with a crack of her neck. “Y’know, on second thought, considering Amber here’s been helpin’ to manage your fitness, I imagine you’ve clued her in to certain ‘developments’?”
Gleaming’s furrowed her brow. “Develop—oh. Yes, she knows. Was one of the first ponies I told.”
Amber snorted. “As if it’s much of a secret at this point. The whole Empire’s talking about it.”
Spike walked up to Talia. “Hey, aren’t you the doctor lady Twilight’s always talking magic stuff with?”
Talia nodded. “That I am. And you are the youngest of the Sparkle siblings, the one and only Spike. Heard a lot about you, little comet.”
Spike perked up. “Hey! That’s what Luna calls me!”
“Talia,” Gleaming cut in. “What’s going on? Why do you look different?”
Talia regarded her. “Oh, no major reason. My waning cell counts just started replenishing themselves, that’s all. Perfectly normal at my age.”
Gleaming blinked several times. “...It is?”
“NO!” Talia whipped out a series of scrolls and arcane pictures from her bags. “Look at this! My body’s rate of cell production is higher than the rate of cell death! The buildup of free radicals from oxidation is being purged! The structural integrity of my femoral head has repaired, and the rheumatoid inflammation is completely GONE!”
Talia may as well have been speaking in tongues.
“I’m not aging anymore!” she all but yelled. “And it’s because of something YOU did! I knew somethin’ was weird about how you zoned out at your forty week appointment! I don’t know what you did or how you did it, but it had to have been you!”
Gleaming scrunched up her face. She recalled back to two weeks ago, the foggy memories resurfacing one at a time. “That warm feeling... didn’t I say something about that? I could’ve swore...”
“You sure as hay didn’t!” Talia pulled off her lab coat, revealing that her legs actually looked like legs rather than gnarled twigs. The veins across her body had faded back into her coat, nor was she skin and bones anymore. “What in the world did you do?!”
For the second time that day, all gawking eyes were on Gleaming.
“I—”
FLASH!
“SHINING ARMOR!”
Before she’d even realized, Gleaming had thrown her shoulders back with her head raised her high. Spike had a similar reaction, and the two of them looked just in time to see Night Light storming over like the herald of doom.
Amber squinted. “Who is—wait, isn’t that your father, the Duke?What’s heeeeee—oooohhhhhhh, myyyyy…”
Spike fidgeted. “Uh... hi, Dad! How are—eh? What’s that smell?”
The first thing Gleaming noticed was the sticky trail Night was leaving behind him. A steady stream of pre was falling from his long erect stallionhood, bouncing up against his barrel and staining his coat with every stride. She averted her eyes then, but that was when the smell hit her. It was both familiar and foreign, dry and thick, and it reminded her of Eros when he was most arou—NOPE-NOPE-NOPE-NOPE-NOPE-NOPE-NOPE
Talia gaped at Night. “Fascinating…” She went for the spare parchment and quill in her bags, but that’s when she noticed Amber eyeing Night like a piece of meat. She was taking deep breaths through her nose, already inching towards him little by little...
“Cripes sake,” Talia muttered. “Gleaming, put the cage back on Amber.”
KR-CCKKK!
“HEY!”
Night stomped up to Gleaming, his nose flaring and snorting like a mustang. “What did you do?!”
Gleaming mustered her will to look down. He was slim and incredibly sleek, his golden eyes bright and toned muscles bristling. His mane and tail free of gray hairs, the wrinkles and shadows around his eyes were gone, and his movements were fluid like a cat’s. But that agility was slightly hampered by an odd waddle in his gait, his hindlegs splayed due to—don’tthinkaboutitdon’tthinkaboutit
“Uhhhhh…” Gleaming managed.
“Don’t ‘uhhhh’ me!” Night sliced his hoof in front of her snout. “Vel and I thought we were bonkers, but we really have been getting younger! And NOW we’re both so chock-full of hormones we can barely think straight! What. Did. You. DO?!”
Gleaming winced from his flecks of spittle hitting her. Night’s neck was corded, his teeth livid and bared, waves of magic pouring off him alongside his masculine scent. He was exuding a TREMENDOUS magical pressure that pushed almost painfully on her mind, his reserves brimming with impossible magic! There wasn’t just an edge in his voice, there was a full-on blade, and no armor was going to protect her from that cutting tone—
Ping!
“YOW!” Gleaming recoiled from the blue ray hitting her horn. “DAD!”
“FOCUS!” Night said with a stomp of his hoof. “You need to fix this, NOW! It’s not stopping, Shining! Do you want us to be infants?!”
That got Gleaming’s attention. “Oh, jeez…” Without another word, she closed her eyes and reached for her spark. It responded easily, the warmth suffusing her and waiting for guidance.
It might’ve been harder without Amber and Spike there. Having an unaffected pony and non-pony present allowed Gleaming to figure out what she’d done, and soon she felt four vessels around her—one cool and getting colder, one warm and getting hotter, one cold but getting warmer, and one REALLY hot, but cooling off super-slowly. At first she couldn’t tell which was which, but after a while—
The cool vessel bucked the forcecage.
“GAH!” Gleaming about jumped out of her skin. “Holy… was that a kick or a bomb?!”
Amber whinnied. She made to kick the cage again—
“Amber, what’s your husband’s name again?” Talia asked. “Zircon, right? Those were some mighty cute pictures of your kids ya showed me. How’d Ocean Spray’s dance recital go?”
Amber paled faster than you could say ‘monogamy’. Slowly, very slowly, her eyes refocused as the tension left her legs. She chanced one last look at Night before gritting her teeth and looking away. “...This isn’t how I thought this day would go.”
Gleaming made a note to make this up to Amber somehow. She closed her eyes again and re-focused on the vessels, concentrating now on the warm one that was getting hotter. She recalled she’d thought of them like sluggish machines, only now instead of it being sluggish, her father’s vessel was supercharged! It was still moving in reverse, so first she tried to change it by ‘pulling out’ some of the energy she’d put in two weeks ago.
“Stubborn little…” Gleaming tried putting more oomph into it, but no dice. She tried Talia’s as well, but got the same result. “Okay, that’s not the way...” Gleaming studied the vessels a bit more before getting an idea. A repulsive idea, mind, but if there was anything she could learn from a certain embarrassing incident...
“I’m gonna try something,” she said without opening her eyes. “It might not feel good. Brace yourself, Dad.”
Gleaming heard the sound of fabric tearing. A second later, she heard Night speak through something in his mouth. “Foo it.”
Gleaming braced herself, as well. She guided her power with new intent, her spark swelling and crackling… but doing nothing else. She waited a few seconds, but she didn’t feel any magic leaving her. She was about to try again when she suddenly felt her magic getting thicker… denser! She realized it was compressing like a spring, or more aptly, like a rattlesnake preparing to strike. There was no outward sign of what was happening, but then again, there’d been no outward sign before—
ZRRRM!
It was as loud as a cymbal crash. Night yelped as he was struck all over with a feeling similar to when your leg falls asleep. He buckled like a house of cards and thrashed wildly on the floor. Gleaming could tell she’d fired some kind of… well, she didn’t know what it was, but it’d hit her father dead-on. Already it was leeching the heat away and slowing his vessel down, the reclaimed power returning... through her mouth.
“Sweet mercy...” Gleaming could HEAR the wince in Talia’s voice. “See, this is why I used to keep tranquilizers with me back in the day. Damn Healer’s Guild regulations...”
Gleaming kept it up until Night’s vessel wasn’t moving backwards. She then started to match it to Amber’s, but that’s when she looked over the other vessel, burning hot yet moving forward like a snail...
“Got it!” Gleaming said a moment later. “Erm, sorry about that, Dad. You alright?”
Night was left heaving for breath and staring at the ceiling in a cold sweat. The pins and needles faded, but he still felt restless. “Cripes, that was intense…”
“Painful?” Talia asked.
Night’s legs twitched with aftershocks. “No, just… overpowering. Like being plugged into an outlet, I suppose.”
Gleaming helped him up. “I managed to stop the doohickey from going backwards. You should be fine now.”
Night started to reply, but was interrupted by a sneeze. “S’cuse me… you stopped the what, now?”
Gleaming put a hoof behind her head. “I’m not really sure what it is. All I know is it’s the thing that I changed before.”
Night looked down at himself. His scent was still wafting from his every pore of his body, he was more aroused than ever, and his burgeoning nuts were churning to produce even more seed. “But I don’t feel any different. If I didn’t know better, I’d say I was in freaking rut!”
Gleaming cringed. “I think that’s because I initially put too much energy in you. It won’t get any worse, but if it took two weeks to get this bad, it might be another two before—”
“A FORTNIGHT?!” Night said with wide eyes. “Shining, do you have any idea what this feels like?! How hard it is to fight? I can smell fertile mares! If that crystal pony over there wasn’t in a cage, I’d have pounded her six ways to Sunday by now!”
Amber shivered. Her mind was fogging up again, her eyes locked on Night’s delicious package. ”Mmmm, you’re a frisky boy, aren’t you? I like frisky boys—ERGH! GLEAMING! You need to t-teleport me home, right now! I swear to Luna I’m going into heat, and if my husband gets me pregnant because of this, I’m charging you eighteen years of overtime!”
Gleaming bit her lip. She expanded the forcecage so she could teleport inside, blinked in, then teleported them away with a FLASH!
“Doctor Night,” Talia said after they’d gone. “Where’s Twilight Velvet?”
The mere mention of his wife made Night lick his lips. He nickered softly, his stallionhood throbbing with fresh pre. “S-Still… still in our apartment. Yeah… yeah, sh-she’s there… waiting for me… nnnngh, s-smelled so good... Strongest heat she’s had, barely managed to pull ourselves apart… a-ah, oh stars… th-that huge mansion, so many bedrooms—”
Night slapped himself.
“HEY!” Spike grabbed Night’s arm. “Knock it off!”
Night’s eyes sharpened. “What—S-Spike…? Ah, h-heya Sport. How’s your day going? Forgot you were with Gleaming today... enjoying your time—wait... have you been crying?”
But Spike just tugged on his arm. “You’re acting all weird! What’s the deal?”
Night made to reply, but then stopped. He looked at Spike for a long, long while, his thoughts turning to memories of a little baby dragon sleeping soundly in a crib. The memories shifted to the coos and laughs of a purple infant filly discovering the world, then the snuffles of a white newborn colt with bright blue eyes. He recalled the feeling upon seeing them for the first time, that smile on Velvet’s face as they realized what they’d done. The decision on what to name each of them, the hopes and dreams they’d had for their future, then seeing those hopes and dreams come true a hundredfold...
Night rested his other foreleg on Spike’s shoulder. “I’m fine, Buddy. I was just—”
FLASH!
“Okay!” Gleaming said. “Now that that’s taken care of, let’s—”
“Gleaming,” Night said.
Gleaming hesitated. “What?”
Night got to his hooves. “I… I have to know. Whatever this is, whatever you’ve done… i-it has to be some kind of magic, but your mom and I couldn’t detect any spells. Does that mean…?”
It was Talia who answered. “This ain’t an Age spell, if that’s what you’re asking. Gleaming got me with it too, and I’ve found my cell production counts are returning to normal numbers. Completely natural age reversion.”
Gleaming may not have understood that, but she did understand something else. “I wish I could explain this better. Basically, making somepony’s… I don’t know what to call it, but making it move backwards turns a pony younger. Moving it forwards makes them older, and I can control how fast or slow it goes. Yours was moving backwards really quickly there, so I made it move forward again like normal, but uh… Spike’s is moving a lot slower—dragon lifespan and all—and I imagine you’re in no rush for gray hairs again...”
Night gaped at her. “Did you just say what I think you said?!”
Gleaming shuffled in place. “I can’t make you immortal, but it should be easy to make you young again whenever. Granted, you likely won’t need more ‘treatment’ for quite a while—”
Night sprinted to her. He touched his hoof to her chest...
FLASH!
“Well, hel-lo,” Velvet purred. “Welcome back.”
Gleaming only had a second to re-orient before a new smell bowled her over like a linebacker. It was heavy and cloying, sweet and dizzying, and so strong she was drowning in it. She’d been to her parent’s castle apartment before, but never had she seen it while dimmed with shafts of light streaming between the shades… nor with trails of sticky fluid all over the floor…
A young and gorgeous Velvet was in a sploot on the cool crystal floor between two coolers of ice. Her mane was long and shiny, the deep purple streaks almost glowing in the soft light. Her neck was thin and shapely, a compliment to her cute muzzle, and there wasn’t a wrinkle or gray hair anywhere on her to be found. Her silvery coat was thick and full, complete with a soft, fuzzy tuft on her chest that complimented her curvy frame and motherly hips. She was using the ice in bags in order to cool her heated loins, the scent of which was being fanned by her swishing tail.
“So,” she said with a smoldering look, wisps of steam literally rising from her eyes. “I see you brought the culprit.”
Night was struck dumb. All he could do was stare, drool falling from his open mouth, his eager stallionhood twitching and dripping even more.
“Gleaming, Sweetheart,” Velvet said without looking at her. “Can you fix this?”
Gleaming coughed. “A-Ah… I can stop you from getting younger, but not with the… erm, you know. Not yet, at least. It should go away on its own in a few weeks.”
Velvet examined her foreleg in one of the shafts of light. “...I see. But if you stop it, does that mean we’ll become middle-aged again?”
Gleaming smiled. “Nope! Turns out I can also slow down your aging to near-nothing. You and Dad are gonna be around for a long, long—
She was interrupted by the thud of her father pawing the carpet. He lowered his chin and nickered again, a sound that made Velvet shiver and nicker back.
“RIGHTY-O!” Gleaming said. “Let’s not waste time, then! Yesirree! Do NOT wanna be here!”
It was the fastest summoning of her alicorn magic to date. Gleaming called for her spark, felt out her mother’s vessel, then guided the magic to gather itself up and fire. She saw what it was this time—a barely visible tendril, translucent and hollow, about as thick as a straw.
Velvet meeped. She tried to jump up, but tripped and knocked over the coolers. Ice scattered everywhere as she thrashed on the floor, mane and tail flickering with hints of flame, the air around her growing wavy with heat. The walls suddenly glowed with runes—fire wards, Gleaming realized—and the temperature returned to normal.
“There,” Gleaming said. “All fixed, Mom—oh, horseapples... I forgot to warn you—”
FLASH!
“—my arm, good as new! Wonder what else she can—oh, they’re back!” Spike waved from a weight bench. “Where’d you guys—”
But Night had already teleported again with another FLASH! The three of them were left staring at each other in silence, taking turns looking at where he’d just been.
Gleaming ran a hoof down her face. “I don’t know how to feel about this…”
Talia snickered. “Reap what you sow, honey. Maybe you shoulda spoke up two weeks ago, hmm? Not very smart to zap ponies with something strange and not say anything.”
“I barely even remember it happened!” Gleaming said to her. “You think I didn’t tell you guys on purpose? Come on, Talia!”
“That just makes me even more concerned,” she replied. “If you’ve had one ability-induced memory lapse, you might have another. If I were you, I’d keep time by yourself to a minimum until this whole alicorn business is said and done.”
Gleaming snorted. “I’m rarely alone as it is. What, you want somepony to come into the bathroom with me while I take a shit?”
Talia rubbed her chin—
“NO.”
Talia laughed. “I’m just saying be cognizant of your company, is all. No telling what kinda ability may show itself next, right? Remember we’re trying to document these things.”
Gleaming forced herself to put it aside. Her attention drifted to Spike, who had something in his mouth—a sucker, it looked like. “Where’d you get that?”
Spike grinned and pointed at Talia. “She had my favorite flavor!”
Talia chuckled. She floated out a few more suckers from her bag. “Want one?”
Gleaming stared at the candies for a few seconds. “...You’re such a doctor.” She picked the blue raspberry and put it under her tongue. Everyone liked blue raspberry.
Talia watched the remaining suckers hover in her aura. “Always did have a bit of a sweet tooth. Stopped keeping treats on me when I found I was prediabetic. Did I mention that’s gone, too?”
Gleaming pursed her lips. “Talia… you’re still getting younger right now. I won’t pretend to know what you want, but I think the future would be brighter if you stuck around. You’ve more than earned it in my eyes.”
Talia’s smile faltered. Her eyes fell as if pulled by gravity, her fuller mane dangling over her face. She put a hoof to her cheek to feel the fading wrinkles, the warmth in her legs returning, that blasted chill in her bones being chased away.
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” she said at last. “But you realize how slippery of a slope this is, don’cha? You make one pony young again, but what about their loved ones? Will I have to watch my daughter and grandchildren grow old and die?”
Gleaming hesitated. “I—uh, well...”
“What about your sister’s marefriend?” Talia went on. “Sure, you might make an exception there, but what about her parents? Or how about Twilight’s other knights, the Element Bearers? It might make sense to keep them around, but how happy do you think they’ll be about outliving their families? Not to mention how said families might react. You gonna give them all the zap, too?”
Something about this was familiar to Gleaming. She couldn’t put her hoof on it at first, but then she recalled Celestia and Luna’s tale of Amore...
“You’ve just found one of the most valued things in the entire world.” Talia pointed over at the windows. “If word gets out about what you can do, every single mortal is gonna be flocking to you with their suzie sob story. You gonna make Equestria’s enemies forever young, too? Cuz I guarantee that if you hold this back from other countries, we’ll be looking at full-on—”
“Okay,” Gleaming said. “I get it. You’ve made your point.”
Talia folded her hooves. “Not so easy, is it?”
Gleaming ran a hoof down her face. To say this was all happening quickly was like saying the sun was hot. “You’re focusing a little too much on the doom and gloom, but I do understand this is delicate. I get the feeling this is gonna cause problems no matter what, though. We’ve kinda opened Pandora’s Box here.”
Talia didn’t argue that one. “Look, you’re the one with the power. I’m not trying to stop you from anything, I’m just saying use your head. Just because things look obvious don’t mean they are.”
Spike laughed. “You’re starting to sound like Dad.”
Talia shrugged. “You gotta understand playing favorites is a recipe for disaster. Hate to admit it, but if I couldn’t share this power with everypony, I wouldn’t share it at all. Not even me. Heck, I wouldn’t even tell anyone until...”
If Talia said more, Gleaming didn’t hear it. A memory had just struck her like lightning—the haunted words of one who’d watched countless others wither and fade.
“...became like statues. Unchanging, always the same as everyone else flowed down a river. Friends, students, rivals, lovers, enemies, acquaintances, assistants, helpers, servants… all of them gone, like dust in the wind. Lulu and I had taken solace in each other for so long, but then suddenly I was alone. Alone for so very long…”
Gleaming’s mouth felt dry. For the first time in months, that warm, happy glow inside her was overshadowed by a terrible chill. Six lives within her, two of them so much stronger than the other four...
“Further thoughts can wait, General. Right now, I’m just glad I’m not alone anymore.”
Gleaming held up a hoof to stop Talia. “I think I remember snippets of you saying something when you and my dad started talking about Canterlot University two weeks ago. Something along the lines of not being able to stop progress, I think? Isn’t this the same thing?”
Talia gave her a flat look. “Gleaming, you barely even know what you’re doing. ‘Doohickey’ this, ‘thing’ that? For cryin’ out loud! It’d be different if you could explain it proper—”
“So help me,” said Gleaming. “You and me, together. We research this to crack it wide open, then once we have, we share it with the world. You’re right, playing favorites will be chaos, but if I’m going to give this gift to everycreature, I’m going to need some help. Your help.”
Talia fell silent. Her eyes flicked this way and that, lips curled as she started nibbling on one of her fetlocks. She sat on her haunches and looked to the far end of the room, her ears flicking now and again.
“There’ll be rules,” Gleaming added as she went to stand by Spike. “How we announce this, plans for preventing overpopulation, things like that. But if we can figure all of that out while researching, we’ll stop a lot of problems from ever starting. I’m not saying I want a world without death, but I am saying I’d like us to have more control over it. Too many die before they should.”
Talia scoffed. “So I’ll either be remembered as the mare who helped with one the greatest breakthroughs in history, or as patient zero. Pretty risky gamble, Princess.”
Gleaming smirked. “I thought you were a betting mare.”
Talia couldn’t help it—she burst out laughing. “Oh, that is stone cold! You see an opening and you go in, just like that?! Man... leave it to a general to go for the weak points.”
Gleaming laughed as well, but her mind was still filled with Sunbeam’s stretched, painted-on smile, like a flimsy mask that did nothing to hide her hollowed-out eyes. Purple eyes, but the memory shifted, and suddenly they were blue...
“Well, this is definitely the biggest wager I’ve made,” Talia said. “But if there’s anypony I’d want overseeing this, it’d have to be me. But if you want my help, you gotta promise me something. If either one of us has a problem with anything, we don’t move forward until it’s addressed, got it? Oh, and if you’re gonna keep gettin pregnant over and over, you better listen if I say you’re not thinking straight! Gestational hormones and research don’t mix.”
Gleaming nodded. “Fair.”
Talia gave her formerly bad leg a test kick. Upon not feeling any stabbing agony, she smiled with glistening eyes. “Guess this means I won’t be seeing my wife again just yet.”
Gleaming bowed her head. “Guess not.”
Talia looked past them at something only she could see. She mouthed something—they couldn’t tell what—before giving her head a shake. “A-Ahem... if it’s all the same, I’d prefer to be a good deal younger than this yet. I’m guessing I’ve lost around thirty years in two weeks, so at this rate, I’d like to wait another month or so.”
Gleaming did a double-take. “A mon—how old ARE you?!”
Talia laughed. “It starts with a one, I’ll tell ya that much.”
Gleaming made an effort not to stare. Her effort failed. A small voice in the back of her mind was saying they should now probably talk about Gleaming’s healing abilities, but before she could, a delightful epiphany struck her.
“Talia,” she said with a huge grin. “Do you know what a Crystaller is?”
“Mmmhhhh...” The smoldering coals of need greeted her like an old friend among the morning dark. She was cozy and warm under her snuggly blankets, but her usual wife jetpack was nowhere to be found—
Lick… lick-lick… lick...
“Cady…” Gleaming couldn’t see, but she could just imagine her beloved between Gleaming’s legs. Oral wasn’t easy while heavily pregnant with six foals, but if Gleaming was on her side, and Cadance perpendicular—
Liiiiiiiiiiiick
Gleaming moaned long and low. Cadance pleasured her like she was savoring a dessert, tracing along Gleaming’s folds with teasing licks and soft kisses. She wasn't sure how long Cadance had been teasing her like this, but upon hearing Gleaming awake, she groped those luscious tits and buried her tongue in Gleaming’s flower.
It was like being struck by lightning. Her voice rose two octaves as Cadance ravished her silky depths, fierce and relentless—no, ravenous. Cadance’s feathery lips became fastened to Gleaming’s swiftly-engorging clit, and those swift suckles made Gleaming see white, the smoldering coals erupting in a mighty burst of inner flame.
It was as if Gleaming’s mound was a desert oasis. Cadance wiggled, pumped, and thrust her thirsty tongue, punctuating every few movements with a squeeze of Gleaming’s muscled rear. That rear was so incredibly huge, yet so very tight and STRONG, like the biggest, ripest apple the world had ever known! It only jiggled because of the layer of baby fat, but the muscles beneath were so strong Cadance could still feel them flex and bulge. She shivered at the thought of such powerful pelvic floor muscles, prepped for bearing their six children, and all the ones following! Cadance couldn’t help but grab that butt… fondle that butt... squeeze that butt… SLAP that butt!
SMACK!
“AHHH~” The sting only added fuel to the fire. Gleaming’s legs were jelly, her cunny was a faucet, her womb was a storm of butterflies, and her core was a ticking time bomb. Cadance was licking even deeper now, going for the spots that made Gleaming into a banshee, and it wouldn’t be long before—
Cadance slipped off the bed.
Gleaming’s eyes shot open. There was a yelp and a THUMP right as the blankets were yanked off her. “Cady?!”
There was a silence… shortly followed by muffled chuckling. There was rustle of cloth and fluttering wings before a familiar weight clambered back onto the mattress. “We need a bigger bed, babe.”
Gleaming partially sat up. She could see Cadance’s silhouette crawling back up like a pink spectre in the warm dark. “You alright?”
Cadance hugged her as she pulled the covers back up. “Mmmm, such a healthy mare… you’re taking up so much room there’s almost none for me! Are you really right on the edge on the edge?”
Gleaming clucked her tongue. The crest of her exercise ball-sized womb was jutting a few inches out into the open air, her head right up against the headboard while her rump grazed the foot. “Sure am. Legs are tucked in, too.”
Cadance giggled into Gleaming’s mane. “This bed fit us when you were a stallion, but now…” She smiled and hugged Gleaming even tighter. “And you’re not even done growing yet...”
Gleaming hummed and pulled Cadance’s hoof over her. “I guess this bed wasn’t made to hold eight. What say we get one that can hold... oh, say… twenty?”
Cadance’s heart skipped a beat—or maybe that was her uterus. “I-I… Oh, sweet stars… what would you even call that many…”
"Octodecaplets." Gleaming caught her in a hungry kiss. “I wonder how long after these six are born that we start trying again? Months? Weeks? Days? Hours? Maybe I’ll knock you up this time, hmm? Would you like that? Want Shining Armor to BREED you until you’re more pregnant than Luna? We’ll use her size spell and build a bed the size of a city block—”
She was cut off by Cadance’s tongue. Moaning and whining, Cadance ground on her until Gleaming’s back was soaked. Gleaming kissed back with equal fervor, her larger mouth and tongue enveloping Cadance’s to both their secret delight. Cadance’s hooves wandered south to rub Gleaming’s heavy, fertile paunch, so round and full and taut and taking up most of the bed all by itself. Every inch of Gleaming’s body was ike a living heater Cadance got to snuggle up against each night, and even the lightest contact made her want more… More cuddling, more sex, more peaks and precious little foals...
It wasn’t long before Cadance slipped back under the covers. But she didn’t go straight for the prize, instead she lingered to hug and kiss and nuzzle that beautiful orb of life. Gleaming’s belly was like a fuzzy mountain that loomed high over Cadance, and every day their children developed a little more, gained a little more weight, grew a little bigger… along with Gleaming alongside them. Her supple skin felt so good against Cadance’s cheek—so smooth and soft, yet that powerful womb beneath... More moans and whimpers escaped Cadance upon feeling the flutters within, and each time she felt one, she’d linger to plant light, darting pecks.
“That’s right, it’s Mommy,” Cadance whispered. “It’s almost time, isn’t it? Mama Gleamy’s taken such good care of you, yes she has. No nasty problems for our babies, absolutely not… but you still need to grow some more before you’re born. Ohhhhh, I can’t wait to hold all of you...”
Gleaming cooed. She leaned into Cadance while the blankets shifted and swayed. It was obvious the foals recognized Cadance’s voice—they wiggled and kicked more when she was around.
“My sweet, special six...” Cadance couldn’t get her arms around Gleaming’s belly, but she tried just the same. “There’s a whole family waiting for you—Auntie Twilight, Auntie Celestia, Auntie Luna, Uncle Spike, Grandma Velvet, Grandpa Night… but nopony’s more excited than me and your Mama. And that’s not the whole family, either, because soon, you’ll be getting lots…”
Cadance’s kisses started trailing south. “... and lots…”
She coaxed Gleaming onto her back. “...and lots…”
Gleaming’s head-sized breasts brushed Cadance’s face, the engorged nipples streaking milk on her muzzle. “...and LOTS…”
She took a long, deep whiff of Gleaming’s soaked and waiting marehood, her head sinking lower and lower. “...andLOTS of siblings…”
The first touch almost made Gleaming peak then and there. Cadance was a single-minded machine that licked deeper each time, her increasingly loud smacks and slurps the icing on the cake. Gleaming swore that slithery tongue had a mind of its own, filling her up while still sliding around, even as she squealed and squeezed. Then Cadance hit one of those special spots, and Gleaming’s squeal became a full-on shout, Cadance assaulting it until Gleaming hit her first peak.
All in all, not a bad start to her birthday.
“More, please!” Gleaming called while grabbing the last half dozen pancakes. “And another pan of hash browns, too!”
Gleaming was glad that her birthday fell on a weekend this year. There’d been years she’d had to work it with little to no fanfare, but this time she could sit back and enjoy all the laziness owed to a forty-four weeks pregnant mare. She and Cadance had been pretty tame after their initial bout of passion: the typical weighing and measurements and milking, a nice bath together in the jacuzzi, then a shared grooming session of preening, oiling and lotioning. They were now snuggled side by side having breakfast in their private dining room, Cadance’s downy wing draped around them while Gleaming slathered butter and syrup on her pancakes.
“I’m not sure how much bigger, if I’m honest,” Cadance said to the facilities pony they’d sent for. “The way things are going, we should probably be generous.”
The pony’s eyes flicked to Gleaming, a towering amazon of a mare with the largest foal bump he’d ever seen. “I’ll have to go up and measure the room, but I’m pretty sure we can add a good ten square feet at least. But we’ll have to order a custom mattress, plus new blankets and bedsheets...”
If that bothered Cadance, she didn’t show it. “Send a courier to the Trade District. We’ll pay triple if everything can be made ready and delivered by tonight.”
The facility pony bowed. “I’ll go get the dimensions.”
Gleaming was too busy rolling up the six gooey pancakes nice and tight to listen. She admired the delicious sight before devouring it in a few humongous bites, sweet syrup and buttery goodness assailed her tongue in a fluffy mass. She did try to savor it (really, she did) but the emptiness in her gut wouldn’t be denied. She scarfed down the jumbo-sized bowl of scrambled eggs next, following it up by compressing a huge helping of hay bacon into a ball and wolfing it down. Then she turning next to a small bowl of delicious-smelling gray things by Cadance, gulping them down with a happy hum and chasing them with a tall glass of calorie smoothie. The platter of assorted fruits was next to catch her eye—
She realized Cadance was staring at her.
Gleaming hesitated. “What’s up?”
“You…” Cadance stared at the empty bowl. “You ate my anchovies.”
Gleaming blinked. “Those fish things for pegasi you like?”
Cadance nodded without a word.
Gleaming smacked her lips a few times. Now that she was looking for it, she did indeed catch a strange salty aftertaste. “...Huh. So that’s what fish tastes like. I can get used to that.”
“I-I…” Cadance put a hoof to her head. “I can’t believe you just did that! Wow, I-I… I mean it’s to be expected and all, but… wow!”
Gleaming smirked. “Guess the chefs are cooking for two fish eaters now, eh? Maybe now I won’t have to plug my nose when we have linguine.”
Cadance burst out laughing. “I guess you won’t! Oh, you’re going to love fish! There’s so many things to try—smoked salmon, grilled walleye, tuna—”
She was interrupted by Cuisine bringing in more pancakes and hash browns for them. The helpers also wheeled in heaping helpings of french toast, oatmeal, a tray of omelettes, salted tomatoes, a huge plate of toast, and more pitchers of calorie smoothie.
“Ooooooh…” Gleaming summoned the butter and syrup. “That’s what I’m talking about!”
“A buffet for ze birthday mare,” Cuisine said with a flourish. “Bon appetit!”
“Love you, Cuisine!” Gleaming called.
Cadance suddenly got an idea. “Oh-oh-oh! Wait, Cuisine! Is Baguio on this morning?”
Cuisine wrinkled her nose. “Ah… yes. I, uh… will have him apply ze odor wards...”
Meanwhile, Gleaming had tucked into her smorgasbord with gusto. Whether it was a large helping or small, filling or non-filling, not a single crumb of it was spared. Much of it wound up being compressed into smaller portions so she could eat more at a time, although soon as it was in her stomach, it expanded to bloat her belly even further.
Cadance gave Gleaming’s tail a squeeze before suddenly hearing her own stomach growl. She’d already had two sunny side-up eggs, a bowl of assorted fruit, a few pieces of toast, a bowl of yogurt and granola, a half-dozen strips of hay bacon, and a tall glass of orange juice, yet still... “I’m starting to understand how you feel with eating so much, Gleamy. Healing a changeling is hungry work.”
Gleaming snickered. She pushed a few pieces of toast Cadance’s way and kept on eating.
Cadance munched on the toast while summoning a status report on the mass employment effort. She’d heard mutterings of drama in Canterlot, but nothing beyond the Scholar’s Guild claiming that proper protocol hadn’t been observed—
“Are you SERIOUS?!” Cadance stared wide-eyed at the paragraphs. “Chancellor Neighsay tried to escalate his protest against our employment effort yesterday! He wanted to schedule a vote for declaring an abuse of executive powers!”
Gleaming paused. “Wat.”
Cadance tossed the scroll away. “Of all the petty, low-down... the whole effort would’ve been frozen! There’d have been an investigation committee, an audit, the findings would need reviewing in hearings… it would’ve taken months! Possibly years!”
Gleaming studied her. “‘If they’d gone along with it? I take it the vice-chancellors saw what he was trying to do?”
Cadance grunted. “They threatened him with obstruction if he tried to overrule them. All that came of it was questions on why Aunt Celestia made the effort a royal order in the first place.”
Gleaming leaned back in her chair. “But that just raises even more questions. They wouldn’t be asking those questions if they’d known about the Empire’s problems beforehoof.”
Cadance rubbed her temples. “Our university’s caught in red tape, your parents have been run out of Canterlot, and now our latest major effort was nearly stonewalled. I’m starting to wonder if the vice-chancellors knew about Luna’s batpony campaign at all before we stepped in!”
Gleaming rubbed her churning stomach. “Considering the landslide of support it got afterwards, I’m guessing not many.”
Cadance let her head fall to the table with a thunk. “This isn’t like the Scholar’s Guild at all. Does Neighsay not know who Aunt Celestia and Twilight are?! Why would he think—”
“We’ve seen this pattern before,” Gleaming said, rotating her glass in her aura. “Indirect attacks, subterfuge and sabotage, intentional confusion and paranoia, odd behavior, baiting into hubris… remind you of anything?”
At first Cadance didn’t follow, but then, all the color drained from her face. “You don’t think…”
“It’s either that or petty revenge,” Gleaming said between bites. “Over what I’m not sure, but that’s why Aunt Celestia’s treading carefully. Assuming this all IS Neighsay, he’s either an idiot for thinking everything won’t get traced back to him, or... ”
Cadance glowered at a spot on the wall. “Oh, it better be a trap, for Neighsay’s sake. If he really is the one causing all this trouble, I’ll throw the book at him so hard he gets a concussion! This has been hurting so many ponies: the Empire, your parents, Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna, the thestrals… it doesn’t make any sense!”
Gleaming didn’t answer right away. She kissed Cadance on the cheek, then leaned back farther and whispered in her ear. “Either way, let’s follow Celestia’s lead on this one. Spike’s already sent her and Luna word about Thorax’s intel, and if I know my old bosses, they’re already ‘poking around’. Don’t worry, babe. We’ll have our answers soon.”
Cadance closed her eyes. She nuzzled Gleaming with a sigh, tightening her winghug and resting a hoof on Gleaming’s middle.
They remained like that for several minutes while Gleaming kept eating. Helping after helping, plate after plate, cart after cart, she plowed through it all and still called out for more. Her stomach was a furnace that consumed everything given to it, the newfound energy chasing off her drowsiness and making her ready for the day. The foals’ reaction was the opposite, becoming lazier and more sluggish soon as the meal reached them, their soft flutters and wiggles slowing to twitches as they fell back asleep. Gleaming could also feel the slight pressure of her breasts refilling, and the sensation prompted her to slug an entire pitcher of water, then a pitcher of apple juice, then another pitcher of water, and finally a pitcher of calorie smoothie.
“So, birthday girl,” Cadance said. “We’re taking the family to Azzy’s spa in a bit, then we’re back here for brunch afterwards. We’re also having your party here this evening, but aside from that, the day is pretty much open. Anything you wanted to do today?”
Gleaming chuckled. “Aside from you?”
Cadance giggled. “I’ll be tonight. Don’t you worry about that.”
“Mmmm…” Gleaming took a deep whiff of Cadance’s mane, relishing the spicy cinnamon and sweet vanilla. “Gonna break in our new bed in style, eh?”
Cadance could smell Gleaming as well, her fresh, fertile scent like ambrosia to her nose. “Y-You’ll… nnngh, you’ll just have to wait and s-see… B-But keep eating, okay? I know you’re not full yet, and I want you and our babies big and strong...”
Gleaming kissed the top of Cadance’s horn. “Speaking of big and strong, there’s something I could do. I’ve outgrown my regalia again, so I could have it refitted in between the spa and the party. Then I can come back and show you so you can take it off me...”
Cadance had to bite back her moan, as Cuisine had chosen that time to re-emerge from the kitchens. She had a clothespin over her nose, and was wheeling along a cart with fried rice, omelettes, and some kind of cooked fish.
Gleaming caught the smell immediately. “Whoa, what is that? That smells amazing!”
Cadance inhaled deeply as well. “That, honey, is what you’ve been missing out on. And if it smells good to you, I’d say the sky’s calling your name. We might need to schedule you some flying lessons.”
Gleaming laughed. “Good thing I already know how to preen.”
Later-
“Are you sure Mom and Dad are up to coming?” Twilight asked as they approached their parents’ apartment. “I haven’t seen them since, well… you know.”
“Nopony has!” said Spike from Cadance’s back. “All they left was a note on their door saying they’d be back today! They could’ve teleported anywhere!”
Gleaming pursed her lips. “I honestly don’t know, guys. I haven’t seen them, either.”
“Okay, I gotta ask something,” Rainbow said. “Why do you any of you bother with taking trains?”
“Because the Mage’s Guild assigns every registered teleporter an annual ‘teleport budget’,” Twilight said without pause. “We’re each allowed a certain number of short, mid, and long range jumps per year, and they decide it by—well, I suppose that’s not important. All you need to know is that the budget varies from pony to pony, and bad things would happen if everypony started going over.”
Rainbow raised a hoof to her chin. “Either you’re getting better at explaining things, or I’m having a stroke of brilliance, because that actually made sense.”
Twilight giggled. “I think you might be getting smarter.”
“But on the note of teleporting,” Cadance said as they approached the door. “What Spike said is true. Velvet and Night are teleporting masters, so as long as they had two long range jumps between them—”
The apartment door opened before any of them could knock.
“Hey, gang!” Night aid with a wave. “Good timing! We just got back a little bit ago.”
The five of them stared. Not only was Night still young and fit, he had on the welcome gift Gleaming had given him upon arriving at the Empire! The silver regalia was a suave compliment to Velvet’s, albeit with some unique aspects marking it as his.
“Vel!” Night called. “The kids are here!”
“In… *hurrrfff*... in a minute!” came the distant reply.
Night laughed softly to himself. “To be expected...” He came up and gave Gleaming a hug. “Happy birthday, Bud! We figured we’d break out the fancy doodads you got us—it’s a special occasion, after all.”
The most noticeable aspect of Night’s regalia were the glittering astronomy symbols. They were enchanted to reflect both starlight and moonlight, and the simple stallion shoes were set with gold plates like crescent moons. Like Velvet’s, his neckpiece displayed the symbol of House Sparkle, but unknown to most, his mother’s cutie mark was etched in emerald on the inside. His circlet kept the theme of the kids’ birthstones, but as his only had one point, the gems were set in a horizontal line beneath.
“Holy moley, Dad!” said Spike. “You look super snazzy!”
“I’ll say,” Gleaming said. “I think it’s the first time I’ve seen you wear it. Does it still fit okay?”
Night adjusted the neckpiece. “Eh, more or less. I’ve been pretty good about—hmm?”
Twilight had approached him. She was staring, mouth falling open more and more at every single change she saw. Every sign of the finite time they had together, every blemish and indicator of her father’s aging body, nowhere to be found.
Night smiled. “Heya, firefly. What’cha think of the new look?”
A lump rose in Twilight’s throat. Her breath hitched, eyes wavering as she raised a shaking hoof to his face.
Night let her feel without comment. Silence reigned as she felt his navy mane, ran a hoof along where a scar had been, fully beholding his youthful build in its prime. Every gray hair, every wrinkle, every indicator she’d one day have to bury him, all gone...
And then she was hugging him. She hugged him so hard they nearly fell, burying her face in his shoulder and sobbing loud. Night caught her with a smile and held her fast, stroking her mane and whispering words only she could hear.
Gleaming coughed and looked away. She felt Cadance patting her shoulder, and Spike gave her a thumbs up. Rainbow looked between hanging back and going to Twilight, but she ultimately decided on the former—
“I’m here!” said Velvet, emerging from the master bedroom. She, too was young and lovely, her sparkling silver regalia spotless and freshly polished. “Sorry about that, I had a feeling that was going to—eh?” She saw Twilight crying, and suddenly she was over there faster than you could say ‘mama bear’. “Twily! Twily baby, what’s wrong? Why are you—”
Before she knew it, Twilight was hugging her too, now crying harder than ever.
There was a moment’s pause while Velvet connected the dots. “...Oh, sweetheart.” She kissed Twilight’s brow and patted her back. “It’s alright, honey—we’re not going anywhere…”
Night beckoned the rest of them over. They surrounded Twilight for a family hug, even Rainbow joining in on the fringe.
It was the first family hug of many.
Later-
Ding-a-ling-a-ling!
“Welcome to Azure Mist Day Spa!” Azzy looked up from her paperwork to greet the newcomers. “How can—AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Said papers went flying as Azzy leapt over the front desk to hug Cadance. “It’s-you-it’s-you-it’s-you-you-youuuuuuu! Welcome back to—YOU BROUGHT YOUR FAMILY! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~”
Gleaming wondered how rude it would be to cover her ears. “E-Erm... hi, Azzy. Been a while.”
Azzy did a double take. The voice had come from a massive white and blue wall of muscle, wide as all get out and radiating a gentle heat. wide She craned her head up… up… up...
“My stars,” she breathed. “P-Princess Gleaming! Just—j-just LOOK at you! And here I thought Amber was exaggerating like always! You look absolutely splendiferous!”
Gleaming put a hoof her to her chin. “Splendiferous... I like that.”
“Did you not know we were coming?” Cadance asked. “We booked the reservation over a month ago.”
Azzy needed a moment to collect herself. “A-Ah, you did, you did! Silly me, heh… here I am always getting the days mixed up! I thought it was strange our best staffers were all reserved in the same time block!”
Meanwhile, Twilight, Rainbow, and Spike were muttering amongst themselves. They were looking at the list of services listed on the wall, murmuring the words, ‘deep tissue’, ‘steam bath’, and ‘pectoral’.
“Azzy, these are Gleaming’s parents, Night Light and Twilight Velvet,” Cadance said. “Over there Gleaming’s siblings, Twilight Sparkle and Spike, and the last one is Twilight’s marefriend, Rainbow Dash. Everypony, this is Azzy! She’s the one running the show.”
Azzy grinned huge. “Ahhhh, such a fun looking familyyyyy~ I can already tell you’re going to be a hoot to host! You should know the way by now, Cadance, so go on ahead and head down to the Royal Suite! I’ll go tell Amber that the ponies of the hour are heeeeerrrrre! She’ll be super excited!”
Gleaming laughed. “As excited as she ever gets, anyway.”
The group made their way to the elevator, which was just large enough to allow for all of them. Gleaming stood in the middle while everyone funneled around her, most if not all of them pressing against her in some way.
“Mind your horn, hun,” Cadance said.
Gleaming was aware. She was pretty sure she could poke a hole in the ceiling if she wanted to.
The doors slid shut with a soft ding! It was a snug fit inside the car, but fortunately everypony had showered that morning. The first few seconds of the trip down to the caverns were in silence, but about halfway, said silence was broken by Night having a laughing fit.
“What’s funny?” Velvet asked.
Night laughed a bit more. “Oh, nothing. Just one of our grandfoals tickling me.”
Gleaming had felt it as well. “That’d be Vanguard . He likes to say hello when outside things press against him.”
Night didn’t have much room to maneuver, but he was able to see where the lower part of Gleaming’s wide barrel against his ribs. He grinned as he saw her thick skin bulge, a tiny hoof prodding him again. “Well, hello to you too, munchkin.”
Velvet saw it as well. “On that note, NIghty... this, uh… may be a good time while we have a moment here...”
Night glanced at her. “Time? Time for—oh. Not really sure it needs announcing, but... eh, may as well. Ahem! Everypony, Velvet and I have an announcement to make! We’re—”
“Pregnant,” Gleaming said. “Or Mom is, rather. Good on you guys.”
Velvet blinked several times. “Gleaming!”
Night laughed. “Told you.”
“At least let them say it, Gleaming!” said Twilight. “C’mon, let them have the moment.”
Velvet stammered and spluttered while looking around. Not a single one in the car looked surprised. “R-Really?! You all just assumed…?”
“I did see the state you and Dad were in,” Gleaming reminded her. “And Spike heard what Dad said while I was bringing Amber home.”
“Which he told all of us,” said Cadance. “We figured it was inevitable. Congratulations!”
“I’m gonna be a big brother!” Spike said with a cheer. “Woo-hoo!”
“It’s not like you had a reason to abstain,” Twilight pointed out. “You have the time, the energy, the environment, the teamwork, the space, the finances, the stability, and certainly the desire. A recipe for procreation if I’ve ever heard one.”
Rainbow snickered. “You also went off for two weeks together while de-aged and super-mega-horny for each other. Honestly, I’d be surprised if you did anything OTHER than—”
Twilight put a hoof over Rainbow’s mouth.
Something in Velvet still wanted to protest, but slowly, inexorably, the desire melted like ice on a hot day. “A-And… and you’re okay with it? You’re not mad or anything?”
She may as well have asked if they were all secretly space aliens.
“...You ask weird questions sometimes, Mom,” said Spike.
Gleaming snorted. “What he said.”
Cadance and Twilight nodded agreeance.
Night got Velvet’s attention with a nudge. He put a hoof on her withers, then pulled her in for a soft kiss. She leaned into him with the tiniest of moans, her eyes falling closed as their horns touched.
“We have a good family, Vel,” he said after they broke.
Velvet nuzzled him. “Guess we do...”
DING!
The elevator stopped, the doors stuttering before opening to reveal the misty underground cavern beyond. The group had a moment to ooh and aah before their attention was drawn to Amber and a duo of smartly-dressed employees waiting to escort them.
“I guess we’re celebrating more than one thing today!” said Cadance. She stepped out of the elevator to lead the way. “That just means we get to enjoy things all the more. Now, who’s ready for some relaxation?”
“Me!” Gleaming fell into step behind her. “Amber’s gonna treat me right today, aren’t you, Amber?”
Amber pretended to think. “What’s in it for me?”
“I’m in!” Twilight said. “This’ll be fun!”
“Count me in, too!” said Rainbow. “I’ve been needing a good deep tissue massage!”
Amber regarded her. “Deep tissue, eh? I can help with that… though it won’t be very relaxing. D’you mind, Gleaming?”
Gleaming pretended to pout. “Aww, I have to share you? That’s no fun.”
Rainbow sized Amber up. At first she was dubious... until she saw Amber’s iron-sculpted legs. “O-ho, you’re Gleaming’s trainer! I’ve heard about you.”
Amber looked Rainbow over in turn. “Heard about you as well, Ser Rainbow Dash. I can’t promise miracles, but I should have the oomph to loosen up those rainbooming muscles of yours.”
Rainbow’s eyes lit up. “Sold!”
Velvet and Night followed after the rest of them while taking in the cavern’s beauty. They walked at an easy pace with their tails entwined, always touching each other in some way.
“...DID we do anything but have sex the last two weeks?” Night whispered.
Velvet thought for a moment. “Does bodily upkeep count?”
Night smirked. No one was looking, so nopony noticed when he started nibbling the thinnest part of her tufted ear. “Guess that’s a no.”
Velvet felt herself wink. She made sure the Illusion spell she’d cast earlier on Night’s undercarriage was in place, then with a bit more magic, she fondled his unsheathed cock and deliciously full balls. “Nnngh, hard again... Still can’t keep it down for more than a few minutes, eh?”
“N-Not… not around you.” He sniffed deep her mane, catching the last dregs of estrus clinging to her. “Ergh, Vel, I’m hanging by a thread here…”
Velvet shivered. “Mmmph, my big, strong Nighty… you filled me up so many times, I’ll bet we’re at least having twins...”
Night had to fight the urge to mount her. They knew there wasn’t much point hiding their lust with Cadance around, although actually giving in was another story. He and Velvet could hold out a bit longer, but if they got a chance…
“Snnnkkkt!” Rainbow tensed up as Amber worked her left wing. “Th-There! Right THERE!”
Amber could feel the spot. She ground her hoof into the tight muscle back and forth while ignoring Rainbow’s whimpers. It took quite a bit of effort until it started sliding back and forth. “Sheesh, you get those real stubborn, nasty knots, don’cha?”
“YES!” Rainbow said. “And I feathering HATE it! FFFAAAAH! SONNUVA—cripes, you are good!”
Twilight, who was watching from the swirling waters of the jacuzzi, winced in time with Rainbow’s yelps. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was being tortured.”
“She’ll feel like a million bits later,” Cadance said from her hooficure bed. “Trust me, I get deep tissue treatments from time to time—hmm? Yes please, some polish sealant would be marvelous…”
Over on Cadance’s other side, Gleaming was in a mud bath with her face in a seaweed wrap. The bath had been infused with ingredients for soothing itchy skin, so Gleaming had made a point to submerge the entirety of her colossal belly in the thick muck. “I’m in heaveeennnnn…”
Cadance looked over. She noted that the bathtub wasn’t long enough for Gleaming to stretch out, but at least it was nice and deep. “Having fun in there?”
Gleaming hummed. The mixture of ash and minerals was delightfully cool along her rounded barrel like a soothing blanket of aloe. “Can I have one of these in our bathroom sometime?”
“No.”
“Aww…”
Meanwhile, Spike was in the far corner enjoying a unique treatment. He’d requested ahead of time for a lava soak and acid bath, so Twilight had brought the necessary equipment and materials in her pocket dimension. He was now lounging in an enchanted kiddie pool filled with red-hot bubbling lava, the incredible heat and noxious fumes diluted by runes drawn on the floor. The lava was so bright that they’d actually had to dim the lights, and now the room was filled with a soft reddish-orange glow.
Amber grunted. “Heat’s on the downcline. Typically lasts another week or so, though—roll on your back for me, Rainbow. I’mma look at that spot you mentioned...”
Gleaming glanced over at the dry sauna, where Night and Velvet had locked themselves away soon as they’d walked in. “Are you running low on anything from the package Cady and I sent? I know you don’t want another foal.”
Amber didn’t reply right away, as she was too busy gawking at Rainbow’s pectorals. “Sonic Rainboom, indeed… Huh? Oh, the package. Hubby and I already had a lot of that stuff because... well, it’s that time of the year, but it’s always nice to have more.”
Gleaming snickered. It wasn’t every day she put together a package of contraceptives and sent it off with an apology card. “Glad to hear it.”
Amber set to work on Rainbow’s flight muscles. “Did I hear you say you get deep tissue massages, Cadance? What for?”
Cadance rolled her shoulders. “Oh, no major reason. I just like the rush it gives you—”
“GAH!” Amber had found the painful knot just below Rainbow’s collarbone, the one that’d been bugging her since last Rainboom practice. “Right there! That’s the feathering spot!”
Cadance chewed on her lip. “Though I tend not to buck the air like that.”
“Yeah well, I doubt you push your body as hard as our friend here.” It was a good thing Amber was to the side, else she would’ve gotten hoofed in the face. She studied Rainbow a moment while gently poking and prodding at the trouble spot. “Hey, Gleaming? Can you—nah, you’re fine there. Ummmm, Cadance! Mind helping me with something?”
Cadance looked up. “What is it?”
Amber gestured to Rainbow’s wings. “Think your magic is strong enough to keep these bad boys under control? I doubt I could if I tried.”
Cadance nodded. She focused on Rainbow’s wings and encased them in tight glowing bonds. “Go ahead.”
Rainbow suddenly realized what Amber was about to do. “Oh, nelly…”
Amber cracked her neck. She set to work feeling around for a particular spot around Rainbow’s shoulder, careful not to press too hard. “If I remember, it should be riiiiiiggght aroouuuuund—”
Amber abruptly felt Rainbow flinch.
She smirked. She widened her stance out, then leaned leaned all her weight atop Rainbow’s pressure point.
“!!!” Rainbow bit her own hoof and screamed. Her wings strained so hard Cadance nearly lost her grip, but she doubled her hold and held Rainbow fast.
“Everything okay?” Twilight called.
“Just fine!” Cadance said.
Amber continued to press while working out the stubborn knot. It wasn’t immediate, but slowly but surely, she got the tight muscle moving. Rainbow still wanted to scream through, but she managed to stare at the ceiling with watering eyes as Amber gave the rest of her underside a once over.
Gleaming wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cringe. “The joys of being an athlete.”
Just then, the sauna door opened with a mighty hiss. A sweltering wave of heat and steam washed over them as Night and Velvet stepped out—Velvet wreathed in flames, Night encased in some kind of aura. They were nuzzling and cuddling together with dreamy looks on their faces.
“Mother,” Gleaming said immediately. “Ire-fay.”
Velvet snapped to. “Whoops!” She put herself out in a flash. “Sorry! Wanted the sauna a little hotter, heh-heh… L-Lemme cast a cooling spell inside—probably like an oven in there…”
There weren’t many others in the room, but those that were wondered if their eyes were playing tricks on them. Even with the royal family’s fire affinity being common knowledge… Cadance only just bit back a laugh, meeting Night’s eyes and exchanging a quick wink and a smirk.
“How’s everyone doing?” Velvet asked. “Gotten settled, I see… wait, where’s Spike? I thought—oh, there you are. My, don’t you look cozy!”
Spike beckoned her over. “C’mon in! The lava’s great!”
Velvet hesitated. “I would, sweetie, but I’m not sure I can right now. I know element affinities extend to foals in utero, but that much heat…”
“I’ll come in, Spike.” Twilight climbed out of the jacuzzi and trotted over. “Whirlpool’s not really doing it for me.”
“Sweet!” Spike scooched over. The lava was only knee deep for Twilight, but that was enough to stretch out and have a good—
“LAVA FIIIIIIIIIIGHT!” Spike pelted her with boiling goop.
“Ack!” Twilight found herself splattered. “You little stinker!” She slung lava back with a swipe of magic, and before long it was on, the two of them giggling and splattering each other within the forcefield.
Amber furrowed her brow. “Lava fight… there’s two words you don’t hear every day.”
“Welcome to House Sparkle,” Cadance said, lifting her leg to admire her hooficurist’s work. “Where weird is normal, normal is weird… and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Mwahahahaha,” Gleaming cackled. “That’s right! The Love Princess is ours! Soon we’ll finally be able to take vengeance in the name of the Nibble Lords! The unworthy shall be sent to work in the nut mines as we reveal that we’re all just squirrels piloting pony robots! The Great Hibernation is nigh! Acorns for the Acorn Lord! Seeds for the Seed Throne!”
Cadance facehooved. “...Okay, maybe I’d change a few things.”
“Just remember that the kids will probably have my weirdness!” Gleaming said. “At least one of them!”
Amber ignored that. She focused instead on finishing up with Rainbow, working out some last trouble spots before letting her free. “How’s that feel?”
“Oof…” Rainbow eased herself up and gently, gently, made her way over to the jacuzzi, lowering herself into the water and sagging against the wall. “Good stuff, good stuff… I’ll probably hit you up another time before I head north in a few weeks.”
Amber paused in wiping off her hooves. “Where you going?”
“Everhoof,” said Rainbow. “Taking a friend halfway up, so I wanna be ready for anything.”
“Which reminds me,” Gleaming said. “You should stop at the armorer and get some gear for the trip. I’m getting my regalia adjusted after brunch, so you can just come with me!”
Rainbow shrugged. “I’m down.”
Amber made a face. “Everhoof… yuck city. I hope you’re used to thin air, you can get altitude sickness even a third of the way up that monster.”
But Rainbow just laughed. “Nah, I’m used to super-high places. Although… my friend’s an earth pony from the lowlands, so I’m sure how she’s gonna do high up.”
Fortunately, Night heard this. “Sounds like she could use a Breathe-Easy spell.”
Rainbow frowned. “A what now?”
“A Breathe-Easy spell,” Night repeated. “Pretty explanatory what it does. It’s a spell I’ve had to cast regularly since I met Velvet.”
Velvet got a saucy grin. “Along with a few others.”
Gleaming was tempted to bury her head in the mud. “Breathe-Easy… I can’t believe I didn’t think of that...”
“How long does it last?” Cadance asked. “If I’m remembering right, Rainbow and Maud are going to be on the mountain for several days.”
Night thought for a moment. “There might be a way.” He looked to the corner. “Hey, firefly?”
Twilight, who was now so covered in lava she resembled a sludge monster, paused mid-throw. “Yeah?”
“Remember when you asked me to help you research something a few months back? Something we looked for it while you waited to hear back from Luna?”
Twilight wiped off her face. “Yeah, the summoning gems. We found they can only be made within the Dreamrealm during a solar eclipse.”
Night gestured to his still-glowing aura. “Rainbow’s friend—Maud, was it? She needs a Breathe-Easy spell to get up Mount Everhoof. Probably an Element Endure, too... We can store some charges in a spellstone for her, but we’ll need a chunk of uberlead as a reagent. You still got your Hearth’s Warming gift I got you?”
Twilight stared. She looked at her parents, then to Rainbow, Gleaming, and Cadance… then closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that…”
Amber chuckled. “Better than after they’ve already headed off, right?”
Twilight kicked at the bubbling stone. “I suppose—”
“RAWR!” Spike emerged from behind to breathe fire on Twilight’s rump.
“EEP!” She tried to dart away, but Spike tackled her with a battle cry. Twilight’s shrieks of laughter filled the room as he attacked her ticklish tummy.
Velvet sighed. She turned to Night, but he merely smiled. Velvet relented and sat by Gleaming as a spa pony offered them drinks. “Ah... sorry, dear. You probably wanted a peaceful time today.”
Gleaming smiled and leaned into her pillow. “This is peaceful, Mom.”
Later-
“So you think it might be showtime soon, eh?” said Rainbow. “Starting to feel that itch whenever you look at the clouds?”
The armory was a part of the castle kept under heavy guard at all times. While not as robust as the armory of the city’s main base, it still housed enough supplies to withstand a major siege. It was located underground via a winding ramp, and it was this ramp Gleaming and Rainbow, freshly pampered and looking like a million bits, were descending now, the bright afternoon light giving way to the white glow of crystal.
“Not just yet,” said Gleaming. Her gait was steady and fluid as she walked, but her barrel was so wide Rainbow had to (gingerly) fly above her. “Not sure how it’s going to happen, but I doubt it’ll be the same as Twily.”
Rainbow snorted. “She scared the horseapples out of us with that, you know. We were afraid we'd zapped her to smithereens.”
Gleaming cringed. “Yeah, I don't think I'm in any condition for any zapping."
“O-ho, but what if it made them all alicorns?” Rainbow said. “How crazy would that be?”
Gleaming laughed. “I'm not sure I want to think about it.”
They exited the ramp and turned a corner to find a surprisingly busy hall. Even on a weekend the military worked like a well-oiled machine, soldiers and officers conducting inspections, handling logistics, reading reports, doing paperwork, running drills, patrolling borders, meeting with allies, on and on and on. Every single pony stopped and saluted as Gleaming passed.
Gleaming made a note to double check that her Privacy spell was in place. “Speaking of Elements and zappings, Twily tells me your friends are coming up when Maud does to try and remove Cady’s curse. Nice of you to attempt that for us.”
Rainbow’s face wilted a little. “Did Twi also tell you the other thing they wanted to do? The thing she and I had to talk ‘em out of?”
No, but Gleaming could guess. “Climb Everhoof with you?”
Rainbow ran a hoof through her mane. “I don’t wanna get into it, but let’s just say they’re worried. It wasn’t easy to stop ‘em, believe me.”
Gleaming believed, alright. “One of your group is Maud’s sister, right? That must’ve made it doubly hard.”
Rainbow got a strange look at this. “Y’know? It’s funny. Pinkie was actually the one who got the rest of ‘em to back off.”
Gleaming had to make sure she heard that right. “Say what?”
But Rainbow had looked away. “There’s a lot more to Pinkie than you might think. She’s really, really good at helping ponies… even when they insist they don’t need help.”
Gleaming cocked her head. "I don't follow."
Rainbow worked her jaw a few times. “You remember those gems Maud showed us? The ones she’s gonna wear so she doesn’t go nutso?”
Gleaming did. “The ones she got from the Tree of Harmony.”
Rainbow dodged a light fixture before continuing. “Pinkie probably knew this was going down before any of us. Twi and I are thinking Maud was being stubborn and insisting this be her thing. I doubt she knew what the Tree would do, but she wouldn’t have taken Maud there without reason. ”
Gleaming mulled that over. “I’m... not sure how Pinkie would know, either. I suppose it’s possible, but if not, then talk about serendipity."
Rainbow bit back a laugh.
“What?”
“You’re soooooooooooo Twilight’s sister." Rainbow punched Gleaming's shoulder. "I can’t tell you how many new words I’ve learned since she and I started dating! Serendipitous! Ephemeral! Monolithic! Facetious! Elucidate! Repugnant! Your whole family has been teaching me things and corrupting me with your egghead ways!”
The hall echoed with Gleaming’s laugh. “If you wanna return the favor, get Twily into fitness or something. Superpowered magic alicorn or not, I’d feel better knowing she can throw a punch.”
Rainbow chuckled. “I think seeing you has gotten the ol’ gears turning. She might start hitting the gym on her own at this rate.”
Gleaming laughed as well. “No rivalry like sibling rivalry.”
They walked down a few more halls and through some security checks before reaching the armory. It resembled a low-ceilinged warehouse with metal shelves set up in rows stretching all the way to the other side of the room, said shelves containing things like weapons, armor, survival gear, and even dark magic purification equipment. The aisles were as wide across as a grocery store’s, and on the room’s sides were the work areas of those that kept the place running. There were also thick crystal dividers split the room into sections according to clearance, but only a select few armory custodians went back and forth between these.
Rainbow wrinkled her nose. “Smells like metal polish and plastic.”
“Better than it was before.” Gleaming led the way towards one of the aisles. “This used to be part of the dungeon.”
Rainbow made a face. “Yeesh…”
Gleaming double-checked the aisle signs. “I’ve been up Everhoof before. We'll get you some basics, and then I'll flag down—”
The hairs on Rainbow’s neck stood on end. Her Element whispered to her in a voice like holy fire, directing her attention to an orange stallion talking with an armory custodian.
“Gleaming,” Rainbow said.
Gleaming paused. “Eh?”
It was Sunburst. He was gesturing to something beside him that was encased in a brightly-glowing forcefield. Whatever the thing was, it was like a barbed sliver of hate yearning to dig into Rainbow’s mind.
“Looks like your boy found another one," she said, pointing.
Gleaming noticed Sunburst, then the buzz of the containment field... then the vile aura of the thing within. It was like the stench of death concealed by sweet perfume. “Punt me like a hooball…”
Rainbow was already walking over. Her Element’s aura crept up around her, her mane and tail sparkling with inner light. She approached just as the armory custodian rushed off towards one of the restricted sections.
“What’d you find, Sunburst?" she asked.
Sunburst did a double-take. “Rainbow Dash?! My goodness—”
He faltered upon seeing who was coming up behind her. “A-And, Princess Gleaming…”
Gleaming only had eyes for the forcefield. "Report, Sunburst.”
Sunburst fiddled with his cloak. “I was just debating whether to contact you and Princess Cadance about this. I wasn’tsure if blah blah blah blah...”
The forcefield contained a suit of dark battle armor. The spiked helmet had horizontal slits for eyeholes, there were small red horns like a beetle’s pincers jutting out from the brow, and the muzzle resembled a breathing mask. A razor-sharp mane of black quills poked out from the top, and the rest of the pieces were equally nasty—shin guards of jagged crystal, a spike-covered neckguard and flanchard, and worst of all, the oily magic that felt like a stain on reality.
“Sunburst,” Gleaming said again.
Sunburst ceased his rambling. “S-Sorry. This armor is called a ‘subjugator’, and I found it an hour ago in a hidden alcove in what was formerly a torture chamber. It was rigged with a Come-To-Life spell, but I was able to catch it in this forcefield.”
The Element of Loyalty was still whispering to Rainbow. She wasn’t liking what she was hearing. “That saved your fuzzy orange butt, dude.”
“She’s right.” Gleaming noticed the armor pieces were actually on a sheet of metal atop the table. That must’ve been how he’d transported it. “Those enchantments…”
Sunburst decided not to comment. “I’ve been tracking it ever since going through Sombra’s journals. He referenced it a few times in his later entries. It, ah... seems he’d been testing earlier prototypes on prisoners...”
Rainbow’s skin crawled. Her power was still building without her input, the air shimmering and reinforcing the barrier. “He really hid things all over, didn’t he?”
Sunburst dragged a hoof on the floor. “It took three weeks of detective work and a lot of reagents to track this down. What worries me is that there might be other things hidden away.”
Gleaming’s stomach plummeted. She did recall the research team before mentioning something about a final project as well, but they’d assumed it’d been scrapped. “Potential concealed threats are one thing, but obvious immediate ones are another. We should destroy this armor, right now.”
As if on cue, the armory custodian returned with two steel boxes that looked like they could withstand an explosion. The custodian unlocked and opened them, revealing two foam-encased vials within: one black, one white.
“Say no more.” Sunburst took and re-closed the boxes with care. “There’d be dangerous byproducts destroying it with conventional methods, but I can do it quick and easy with these. I’ll have to do it outside the city, though.”
Gleaming identified the vials as weapons-grade antimagic. “Sunburst, I know we gave you clearance for those chemicals—”
“I won’t be combining them directly,” Sunburst said. “I’ll be polymerizing them into this forcefield to create a disjunction zone! It'll shred the dark magic like tissue without any fallout!”
Yeah, but Gleaming wasn’t enthusiastic about such dangerous material being used like that, Purifier or no Purifier. “Do you think you could destroy it instead, Rainbow?”
Rainbow stared at the armor like it was a Daring Do villain, her body now totally enveloped in holy light. A powerful pulse of energy emanated from her to probe the armor...
“If Sunburst can do it without turning it loose, I’d say let him take the reigns," she said at last. "Less chance of crud hitting the fan.”
Gleaming clucked her tongue. “Alright. One minute.”
She gave the armory custodians some orders. A few minutes later, a mish-mash of plastic-wrapped winter gear was plopped down in front of Sunburst.
“Suit up,” Gleaming told him. “Soon as you’re ready, I’m teleporting us outside the weather barrier.”
Sunburst paled. “You? B-But, Your Majesty! I’d never forgive myself if something were to…”
Gleaming didn't bat an eyelash. “Ser Rainbow will come as well. If you can’t destroy the armor, she’ll do it in your stead.”
Sunburst gave Rainbow a quick glance, who was still giving the armor a death glare. “I-I, uh… n-not that I’m worried about failing or anything… It’s certainly not likely, but I suppose if I did… S-Suiting up, then...”
He got the gear on as quick as a civilian could. Gleaming helped him here and there with the unfamiliar pieces, and once he was bundled up and ready, she gathered the required power...
FLASH!
The shrieking tundra wind greeted them like a banshee. The first frigid breath for Sunburst was like a knife in the lungs, making him cough and hack something fierce—
“Easy.” Rainbow caught him with glowing hooves. “In through your nose, out through your mouth.”
Gleaming blasted the snow away with a swipe of magic, then set about forming her most powerful barrier. A few minutes later, a house-sized forcefield materialized that made everypony’s hair stand on end.
Gleaming gestured to the shield. “Will this do?”
Sunburst gaped. “Y-Yes, that will suffice...”
Gleaming motioned Rainbow over. “We’ll be watching from outside. Signal us once you’ve finished.”
Another teleport later, Rainbow and Gleaming’s hooves were sinking into the deep snow. The Empire’s weather barrier glittered behind them as they watched Sunburst get to work.
“It just never ends,” Gleaming muttered. “Some greenhorn fresh out of the academy finds two more blasted things in just six weeks?@ For Pete’s sake, not even Twily thought there was anything left!”
Rainbow patted Gleaming’s leg. “Twi’s not a specialist like this dude. He said he's been busting his rump trying to find it.”
Gleaming sighed. “I'm starting to think we should've made him the Royal Purifier over the Archivist. 'Purifier’ is a rank of certification for handling hazardous arcane material—the second highest you can get.”
Rainbow nodded. “He’ll be top dog in no time if he keeps this up.”
Gleaming barked out a short laugh. “He has the balls for it.”
Rainbow flexed her wings one at a time. “Speaking of balls, he wasn’t wrong for saying you shouldn’t be out here. No offense.”
Gleaming ran a hoof along the curve of her barrel. She was still getting taller, but the foals had been outpacing her these last few weeks, her kiwi-sized outie grazing the floor without the maternity brace. “Sometimes, you just have to act. You can tell how bad that armor is, can’t you?”
Rainbow bit her lip. She glanced back at Sunburst, who’d just uncorked the vials. “Yeah.”
Gleaming looked to the north, where Mount Everhoof stood over them like a titanic sentinel. “Don’t let your guard down up in that cave, alright? If the corruption was up there a thousand years ago, then I’d bet my right hoof Sombra went up there to check it out at some point.”
Rainbow followed her gaze. “D’you think he used it for anything?”
Gleaming’s eyes darkened. “He had to get the power to banish the Crystal Empire from somewhere.”
The howling blasts of wind filled the quiet, each gust kicking up a spray of snow that got in Gleaming’s eyes. The sun reflecting off the white just made things worse, to the point she could hardly open her eyes at all. Rainbow, meanwhile, could see just fine—as like all pegasi, her inner eyelid protected her eyes from the wind and snow. She could even stare into the sun if she wanted.
“Everything’s cool between us, right?” Rainbow glanced up at Gleaming. “No problems or anything?”
Gleaming’s reply was cut off by her mane being blown in her face. “Why—ptoo—would there be problems?”
Rainbow snickered. “I'm going out with your sister."
Gleaming paused as she made a new forcefield to negate the gusts. “You’ve been here for five months. Why ask me now?”
Rainbow shrugged with her wings. “You’re a busy pony. Don’t think I haven’t noticed those silly smiles you and Cadance have when you show up for things. I’m pretty sure you guys bang, like… ten times a day.”
Gleaming didn’t even bat an eyelash. “We stop to handle things all the time. Just come up and knock.”
Rainbow stared for a moment before bursting out laughing. “I knew it! You give each other more bedroom eyes than regular eyes! What, do you both just like, have the hots for each other all the time? ”
Gleaming patted her baby bump. “Cady’s domain is Love, and my domain is Life. Need I say more?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it. It's just that Twi made me promise I wouldn’t bug you guys.”
That sounded like Twilight, alright. “I can’t speak for the rest of the family, but so long as you treat Twily right, you’re cool in my book. I wasn’t sure what to think at first, but the more I think on it, the more I think you’re a good match. ”
Rainbow grinned. “Treat her right, eh? What if I wanna treat her better than right?”
Gleaming met her eyes. “What do you—”
She was cut off by an eruption of color. They looked just as Sunburst’s shield started to spin like a merry-go-round gone haywire, and within seconds it’d become a kaleidoscope of twisting light. Then, Gleaming and Rainbow heard a loud, cutting buzz mixed with the shriek of twisting metal.
“Ha!” Rainbow pumped her hoof. “Take that, armor-thing!”
Gleaming’s lips parted. “So that’s a disjunction zone…”
It was over in less than a minute. The colors blurred to pure white before slowing back down, Sunburst’s horn glowing all the while. At last he released the magic and let his shield fall away like glass to reveal... metal powder.
“He made that look easy!” Rainbow said with a laugh. “You really might wanna make him the Royal Purifier!”
Gleaming dismissed her own forcefield as Sunbeam waved. “If I’d said I wasn’t okay with you dating Twily, what would you have done?”
“Keep dating her anyway,” Rainbow said without pause. "It's our choice, not yours."
Gleaming kept her expression even. “But then why—ah, because Twily cares what I think...”
Rainbow suddenly became very serious. “Look, Twilight told me about the whole alicorn weakness thing. Nopony wants Twi to go all nightmarified, but I don’t want you or Cadance to, either. We all want to be happy, so let’s do everything we can to make that happen.”
Gleaming smiled. She held out a snow-flecked hoof, which Rainbow bumped with a clack. “Deal.”
That Evening-
“Happy birthday, dear Gleamiiiiiiing!” the group sang. “Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuu!”
Gleaming blew out the candles, pleased when she managed to get them all in one go. Of course, she did have quite the set of lungs on her. “Thank you, everypony!”
The party wasn’t what you’d call extravagant. Some wealthy types made an event out of their birthdays, but Gleaming wasn’t one of them. Just under twenty had been invited to dinner in the private dining area, the partygoers now mingling and wandering between extra tables while others ate or watched Gleaming open presents. Gleaming was a tad discouraged at the turnout considering she’d invited almost thirty, but at least those present looked to be enjoying—
“Are you sure Princess Gleaming just wasn’t being polite?” Sunburst asked Rainbow for the sixth time. “I barely even know her!”
Well, most of them were.
Rainbow looked like she wanted to tear out her mane. “For the last time time, dude: YES! You said you’d been working your plot off to track down that armor, so this is her way of saying thank you! Just relax and enjoy yourself!”
Sunburst muttered something about that if Gleaming was really thankful, she’d give him a raise.
Rainbow fluttered up a few feet to look for Twilight, who’d said something about wanting to talk with that old doctor lady. “Hmm, wonder where they went? I wonder if—”
“Excuse me,” a voice behind her said. “Are you Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow turned. The speaker was a sleek-looking stallion with a friendly smile. His tail was the looped around the mare’s beside him, a toffee-colored pegasus with a platinum blonde mane.
“That’s me!” Rainbow said as she landed. “Ser Rainbow Dash, in fact! In the flesh and feather!”
The stallion chuckled. “Nice to meet you. My name’s Steelwing, and I’m a friend of the gen—Gleaming. She mentioned a while back you might be interested in learning how to use wingblades.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Did she, now? I suppose I’ve always been curious, but—hey, wait!
Aren’t you one of the guards that has to follow her around? The one she’s always shooting the breeze with?”
Steelwing put a hoof behind his head. “I… suppose we do tend to talk a lot… B-But, ah... where are my manners? This lovely mare is Frappe, my special somepony. She’s one of the cooks here—”
“I heard you got into Wonderbolt Reserves, Rainbow Dash!” Frappe said with a squee. “Oh, Captain Spitfire’s gotta be DYING to put the Sonic Rainboom in the show proper; do you know who you’ll be replacing yet? Is it Rapidfire? Aileron? Tailwind? OH! There’s been rumors Sleet Storm might not come back from paternity leave! I’ll bet you’ll get his spot!”
Steelwing dragged a hoof on the ground. “...She also follows the Wonderbolts.”
Fortunately, Rainbow took the gushing in stride. “Nah, Sleet Storm’s already back. He loves the gig too much to call it quits just yet, even with three kids. But I’ve heard he and wifey want to keep going until they get a colt, so maybe if they keep getting ‘bad’ luck...”
Frappe danced in place. “Ohhhh, I hope, I hope, I hope! You just HAVE to tell me about your maneuvers! It’s so rare a rookie maintain such high averages! How do you do it?”
You could almost hear Rainbow’s ego preening. “Wellllllllll, I suppose I could give you the rundown on a few techniques…”
Meanwhile, Sunburst, who was feeling more and more like a fifth wheel, raised a shaky hoof to Steelwing. “A-Ah, I assume you’re a wingblade user yourself, Steelwing? What’s that like?”
Steelwing cocked his head. “Uhhh… hard, I guess? I’m not really sure how to answer what it’s like. Not sure anyone’s asked me that before.”
…
…
…
…
...
“My, what a stupid question I just asked!” Sunburst forced himself to smile while backpedaling towards the exit. “SostupidthatI’mprettyembarrassednowsoIthinkI’lljust—”
“Ohhhhhhh, no!” Rainbow zipped behind Sunburst in a colorful blur. “You’re gonna mingle and make some friends, buster! Element of Loyalty’s orders!”
Sunburst about jumped out of his skin. “H-How in the world did you—nevermind… But what does loyalty have to do with anything?”
“Considering loyalty’s part of being a good friend, I’d say a whole darn lot!”
“That doesn’t make any sense!” Sunburst looked to Steelwing and Frappe, but all he got back were helpless smiles. “L-Look, these are all very important ponies, and you’re all important ponies yourself! What in Equestria could I possibly have in common with—”
“Let’s find out!” Rainbow started pushing Sunburst forward. “Be back a sec, you two!”
Sunburst fought, but he was no match for Rainbow strength. “Hey! Stop! Are you trying to make a scene?! Where are you even—no, you wouldn’t! Are you INSANE?! Do you even realize who that—”
“OY, TWI’S DAD!” Rainbow bellowed. “C’MERE AND MEET THIS RESEARCHER GUY!”
Night, who’d been helping Spike get appetizers, perked up. “Oh? What kind of research?”
Sunburst meeped at Night’s regalia. “Help…”
It took just one look at Sunburst for Spike’s BOREDOM CITY alert to go off. He snatched his plate and gestured for the blue dragon beside him to follow. “C’mon.”
Thorax looked between him and the approaching ponies. “But I thought you said you were—”
“Later.” Spike headed towards the tables. “Let’s see what—URRP!” Only to then stop as he belched out a parchment stamped with the royal seal. “Or we could see what this is, I suppose...”
The little drakes huddled over the scroll as the rest of the party flowed around them. Few paid heed to them amidst the festivities, and they were a common sight, after all, so most figured there was somepony keeping an eye on them.
And indeed there was. Two someponies in fact, mothers-to-be and watching from afar, sitting at a lone table while sipping at bunch. Velvet and Cadance remained silent as they looked on in silence, barely moving, the air between them growing ever more tense.
“Can we please talk about this?” Cadance said at last. “You’ve been giving me the silent treatment for weeks now.”
Velvet tightened her grip on her glass. “Fine. You can start with an apology.”
Cadance grit her teeth. “I’m not going to apologize for what I thought was right. Yes, those photos were disturbing, but I only showed them to both of you because—”
“Because why?!” Velvet snapped. “You showed us the bodies of toddlers who’d starved in a wasteland, Cadance! They couldn’t have even half Thorax’s age... not even half! I woke up in cold sweats for a week!”
Cadance winced. “Okay, that I didn’t mean—”
“As if we didn’t have enough reason to hate Chrysalis without adding filicide to the list!” The punch in Velvet’s cup started to steam. “Her own children… all because they were different… I swear by everything holy, she will BURN! There won’t even be ashes left when we’re done with her!”
Cadance looked around to make sure no one was staring. “L-Look, I shouldn’t have made Gleamy promise not to tell you about Thorax; that was a really stupid move.”
“VERY stupid,” Velvet growled.
“But you have to understand why I was worried!” Cadance burst out. “I wasn’t sure how you’d react to Spike being his friend! Thorax is a crucial part of so much, and you’re always saying how much you hate changelings—”
Velvet turned her fiery glare on Cadance.
Cadance shied away. “I-I mean how much you hate Chrysalis! It was just too much of a risk, don’t you see? Hatred and rage are so volatile, I was afraid if you found it you might take your aggression out on… o-out on… I’m just digging deeper, aren’t I.”
“Mi Amore Cadenza,” Velvet said with deadly calm. “I’ve held my tongue on MANY of your decisions over the years because I wasn’t sure it was my place.”
“I know...”
“Fooling around with Gleaming while babysitting Twily and Spike.” Velvet’s stare stabbed into Cadance. “You didn’t think we knew? We did, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Not retaliating against Chrysalis after everything she’s done, playing into Sombra’s hooves and nearly losing a war of attrition, convincing my firstborn to change genders and bear your foals... All of it and more I’ve stayed silent on, but so help me, if you want me to be the mother you never had, then you’re my daughter first and foremost, got it?! I don’t care if you’re a princess or a bloody god-empress—don’t you EVER imply I’d hurt a child on purpose!”
It was a strange thing. Cadance had negotiated with countless diplomats and rulers over her professional career, her speechcraft and diction honed to a razor’s edge. But before her irate mother-in-law, Cadance’s found herself scrambling, voice stuttering, her lips moving with no noise.
“Here’s what you DIDN’T consider,” Velvet said, jabbing a hoof at Spike. “That little boy over there was abandoned by his birth parents. He’s different in every way from ponies, his race feared and reviled. And even once long ago on a camping trip, one of his kind tried to kill the whole family. I’ve every reason to loathe dragons, yet the instant Spike was hatched, I wanted him as my son. Do you have ANY idea how hard it was to claim the right to raise him?!”
Cadance was starting to sweat. She watched as Spike exchanged some words with Thorax, their emotions shifting, hovering somewhere between worry and confusion. She normally could get a deeper read then that, but Velvet’s fury was like an obscuring fog.
“Argument after argument, legality after legality, compromise after compromise, all of them I fought tooth and hoof for,” Velvet spat. “I won those battles because I wasn’t about to that that little boy grow up without a family, regardless if he was a dragon, a pony, a griffin, a changeling, or anything else under the sun. Why would I do all that if I thought all members of Spike’s race were the same, Cadance? Nighty and I had the worst fight of our entire marriage over taking him in, and right after that, I almost had a shouting match with Princess-blasted-Celestia! And I STILL didn’t back down!”
A yawning pit opened in Cadance’s stomach. “I-It’s not that I don’t think—”
“Yes, Night and I want justice for what happened at your wedding,” Velvet went on. “We probably always will, and you and Gleaming should, too! But the one deserving of that justice is NOT Thorax, and anypony who thinks so is worse than dirt! For stars’ sake, Cadance, he’s just a boy! He can hardly even do basic math yet!”
Cadance gulped. “I-I...”
Velvet crossed her forelegs. “You’re still so afraid. Afraid of hate, afraid of using force, afraid of being seen as a tyrant. Princess of Love or not, you need to understand ALL emotions, or you’re going to keep lumping things together… or do you think Night and I are such loose cannons, we’re just one step away from becoming the next Sombra?”
“No!” Cadance said. “And I DO understand all emotions! I’ve gone through Sombra’s journals more times than I can count! I know near as much on Hate and Entropy as he did Love and Harmony!”
“Yet you thought your in-laws are so vengeful over your wedding, we’d attack the first changeling we see.”
Cadance’s cheeks flushed. “That’s not—”
“It is,” said Velvet. “You smelled smoke and thought there was a fire. You sensed something without getting the whole story, and it made you assume the worst. You know better, honey. Much better.”
Cadance hung her head. A part of her was still rankling, but the protests were nothing to the lead-filled pit in her stomach. “I’m… sorry.”
Velvet stared at her for a long, long time. “Do you really mean that? Or are you just trying to get off easy?”
“No, no… you’re right.” Cadance tried to swallow the lump in her throat with some punch, but that just made it feel sticky. “I-I didn’t see the similarities between Spike and Thorax. Yes, I tried to shock you when I should’ve just talked to you like Gleamy wanted, and that was wrong of me. You’re right to call me out on my mess-ups… any good parent does that.”
Velvet relaxed her grip on her glass. “Among other things. I may be fiery, but I’m no firebrand, dear.Trust me and Nighty to be smart from now on. That’s all we ask.”
Cadance rested her free hoof on Velvet’s. “I will, but... please, talk to me about these kinds of problems from now on. You scared me avoiding me for so long…”
Velvet narrowed her eyes. “Perhaps you deserved it for scaring us, eh? You certainly did with those pictures. Heavens above, Mi Amore...”
Cadance’s ears drooped. “We’re trying to stop her, Mom. We think we might have a plan, and if it works out, I promise that things will be made right. No one else will be made to suffer because of her. You have my word.”
Velvet nodded. She pulled Cadance into a gentle hug, and they remained that way for some time, the party going on around them.
“...How long did you know Gleamy and I were fooling around while I was babysitting?” Cadance asked.
Velvet chuckled. “Pretty much right away. Shining was changing his bedsheets every few days before you came along, then suddenly, he stopped. Combine that with a little mother’s intuition, and it wasn’t hard to find traces of all those spells in the bathroom.”
Cadance facehooved.
***
Meanwhile, at the main table…
“I’m sorry, Gleaming,” Rex said as she gave over a present. “I’m not a good fit to be a Crystaller. That’s a ton of responsibility I’m just not ready for.”
Gleaming would’ve cursed had her mouth not been full. She withheld a sigh and kept eating her green beans in tremendous bites, accepting Rex’s gift and opening it to find… a personal wingcare kit.
Gleaming brightened. “Mmmmm! Fank-oo!”
Rex nodded. “I’m sure you’ve had plenty of offers, but if you ever need a sky partner, I know where some good thermals are.”
Gleaming smiled. “Mmm-hmm!”
Rex’s eyes flicked to the clock. “I need to get that paperwork done tonight if you want those Purifiers here by next week.”
Gleaming held up a hoof. “Arr’errany… ugh.” She cleared out her mouth and tried again. “Are there any Master Purifiers available?”
Rex’s ears drooped. “The Mage’s Guild only has three on roster. Two are on assignment, and the other’s in the hospital. The best we can get are the dozen or so rank two part-timers.”
Gleaming had figured as much. “So a dozen Sunbursts. Well, between him, Twily, Rainbow, I suppose we don’t need a Master to neutralize anything. We pretty much just need the ponypower for another sweep of the place.”
Rex bowed. “Then I’ll send the word. I’ll let the Mage’s Guild know before the night’s over.” She then trotted off towards the exit, threading her way through the guests without a second glance.
Gleaming stared at her half-finished plate. She’d guessed Rex would say no, but… bluh. A stomach gurgle and a series of wiggles prevented her from brooding further, and within seconds she was chowing down again, plowing through that plate, a second, then a third, a fourth, and from there she lost count as her metabolism spurred her on.
She considered who else among her guests might make a good Crystaller. Steelwing and his marefriend were chatting with Rainbow, Rainbow talking loudly while making grandiose gestures. Amber and her husband were walking over to the far corner, where Cadance and Velvet—ah, they’d finally talked things out. Good. It looked like Amber was about to introduce her hubby… yep, sure was. Night and Sunburst were over at a guest table talking (Rainbow had right on the money on that one) and Spike and Thorax were approaching her, Spike holding up a singed parchment...
“Gleam-Gleam!” He ducked under the table, dodging her paunch and climbing over her sprawled-out rear legs. “Letter for you!”
Gleaming eyed the letter as Spike crawled atop her wide flank, his sharp little claws like a brush through her thick coat. “I really wish you wouldn’t read letters with the royal seal, kiddo. They might have sensitive info.”
Spike gave her a dull look. “Celestia and Luna told me to open every letter they send. What am I supposed to do?”
Gleaming muttered something wordless under her breath. “Fine, fine. Give it here.”
Spike gave her the letter, then immediately started eyeballing one her fruit trays. She got him a plate before starting to read.
General-
This is Lieutenant-Colonel Maria. I’m to inform you I’m penning this on behalf of Princess Luna due to her advanced size and stature. She’s been finding it hard to hold quills without snapping them, and until her growth slows, her magic expenditures are in flux.
We forwarded your intel to our scouts to acquire stale samples for testing. We recently received word that all tests returned positive, even in examples several months postmortem. We’re now transporting trace amounts of the samples to our labs for analysis, but until then, we assume the cause is some sort of chemical. There might be more we can do with this info if we can isolate it.
We also managed to perform the other test you recommended. The sample we took returned negative. I repeat, the sample we took returned negative. Investigations in other possible causes are ongoing, but as of now, there have been no positive tests found within Canterlot.
We’ll contact you when we know more.
Lieutenant-Colonel Maria
Gleaming chewed on her lip. So it seemed Chancellor Neighsay was a pony, after all. Whether that was good news or bad was hard to say, but regardless… “Hey, Thorax?”
Thorax, who’d chosen to remain under the table, looked up with his golden eyes. “Yes?”
“Tell me again about the venom.” She poured out three glasses of water as she spoke. “I know the queen has it, but you mentioned some scouts do, too.”
Thorax accepted one of the glasses and stared at it. “I don’t really know much more. A scout’s job is to go into a town and replace important ponies we’ve picked out, but if that’s too risky, another thing some of them can do is, ah… well, you know. If they have the glands, that is.”
Gleaming did indeed know. “Can scouts manipulate their venom like Chrysalis can? Possibly make it so it comes out through their horn like pony magic?”
Thorax twiddled his claws. “I didn’t even know Mother could do that until you told me. If anyling else can, they’re one of the best shapeshifters.”
And from what Gleaming remembered, the venom only lasted about a day. Not exactly great for the long-term. “But if a scout could do it, they could affect a unicorn by forcing the venom through their horn. No bite marks whatsoever.”
“And you’d pretty much have to be connected to the hive mind to tell they were under our control,” Thorax said between sips. “You or one of the other princesses might be able to tell... but that’d be really dangerous.”
Spike frowned. “Dangerous how?”
“Because Chrysalis isn’t stupid,” Gleaming said with lowered eyes. “Is she, Thorax?”
Thorax hung his head. “I’m sorry.”
There was a pause as a few guests came up to give Gleaming their gifts. One gift turned out to be a set of earrings shaped like her now-altered cutie mark, another was a bag of pewter tabletop dice, and the last was a collection of rare spell reagents. Gleaming wasn’t sure which of the three she liked more, but she was grateful for all of them. She was half-worried all she was going to get was baby stuff, but it seemed most were aware how many storerooms in the castle were now dedicated to that.
“There is one other thing I’ve been meaning to tell you about,” Thorax said after the ponies had gone. “It’s not about venom, but it still might be useful… maybe.”
Gleaming regarded him. “Which is?”
Thorax ran his tongue along his teeth. “A while ago, Mother gave us worker drones an order: ‘Start digging a hole in the hive’s lowest level. I’ll tell you when to stop.’ We dug and dug and dug straight down for weeks through the rock, until finally she came down to see it for herself. She flew down to the bottom alone while we all waited, then a few minutes later, she came back up and said it’d do.”
Gleaming blinked several times. “She told you all… to dig a really deep hole.”
Thorax nodded. “Really deep.”
“Right beneath the hive, without any explanation or context.”
Another nod. “Even the older changelings were confused.”
Gleaming clicked her tongue. “...Odd.”
“Maybe she was looking for gems?” Spike offered. “That’s what I like to dig for.”
A smile tugged at Gleaming’s lips. “Maybe.”
“I’m not sure if it matters,” said Thorax. “I just remember that was something weird she had us do. She went down there a lot afterwards, too.”
Gleaming watched her glass rotate in her aura. There weren’t a lot of uses she could think of for a super-deep hole that didn’t lead anywhere, but perhaps time and investigations would reveal more. “I’ll keep it in mind, Thorax. Thanks for telling me.”
Just then, there was a small bell chime from the direction of the kitchens, signalling that dessert was about to be served.
“Heh, I’ve been talking so much I’ve fallen behind here.” Gleaming looked at the remaining food in front of her, which was several pans’ worth of main courses. “I might need to go full vacuum mode.”
Spike snickered. “And here I thought you were already.”
Gleaming booped his snoot. “Dork. Full vacuum mode is when I’m eating without trying to savor anything. Y’know how I squish food down so I can eat more at once? I can do that with a whole meal if I really want to. I just don’t because I barely taste anything.”
Spike cocked his head with a strange look. “...Show me.”
Gleaming smirked. She cast the magic spell, and within seconds every piece of food on the table was crumpling up like it was in a trash compactor. Pastas, cooked vegetables, hot dishes, breads, sandwiches, fruits, cheeses, salads, all of it was crushed down into itty-bitty spheres smaller than marbles. This wasn’t her usual spell that was just a temporary squishing, either—this was straight-up pressure exerted to a ridiculous degree.
“Normally you wouldn’t be able to digest something so dense,” Gleaming said, gesturing to one of the tiny balls. “But thanks to all the spells on me, I can do it just fine.” And with that she started popping the morsels into her mouth a few at a time, swallowing them like pills with a few swigs of water. An entire feast that could’ve fed everypony there, gone in seconds.
Spike stared. “Whoa.”
Gleaming rubbed her gurgling belly. “Now, where’s that dessert? I wanna have a few carts’ worth before Cady and I go work out.”
Spike withheld a snort. “You’re going to pig out on dessert… then go work out? On your birthday?”
Gleaming laughed. “Hey, I like working out! And I’m not trying to lose weight, I’m trying to gain muscle and stamina! These foals aren’t exactly light, you know.”
Spike could only shake his head. “You’re so weird.”
That Night-
It’d been a full day. Relaxation had been had, celebrations and socializing had been enjoyed, and while the duties of being princess would always be in the background, the majority of the day had been hassle-free. The party had lasted a while longer before everypony went their separate ways, and Gleaming and Cadance had decided to finish their night with a solid cardio session. After an hour and some change of exertion, they’d retired to their apartment sweaty, spent, and heads pleasantly buzzing.
Their new bed was setup when they got there. It was easily the largest either of them had seen, a good two-thirds larger than their previous one. In a typical-sized bedroom, it would’ve taken up all the floorspace!
“Plain white sheets,” Cadance noted upon entering the bedroom. “Plain blankets, plain bedspread, no dust cover… eh, it’ll do for now. We can gussy it up in the weeks to come.”
Gleaming nodded as she stepped out of the bathroom with her milker. “So long as it’s big enough.”
Cadance climbed onto the bed and circled in place. “Certainly seems to be. Nice and comfy, too. Though I wonder… hey, let me try something.”
She murmured a few soft words, and her outline started to glow. Her features altered at a swift pace—her legs thickened, her wings and frame grew, her muzzle squared out, her hips narrowed, her hooves sank into the mattress, and her groin transformed. Less than ten seconds later, where Cadance had been, Eros now stood in her place.
“Well, well.” He appraised the bed with a nod. “I think this’ll fit us just fine! We should’ve upgraded months ago!”
Gleaming giggled. “But then we might not have cuddled as much.”
Eros flopped down with a considerable WUMPH. “Au contraire! Now that we have the room to be comfortable, we can cuddle even more!”
Gleaming rolled her eyes. “We still need to rinse off, you know. C’mon, you’re getting the bed all dirty.”
“Ha! Dirty my pink butt!” Eros started rolling around on his side of the bed. “I’m claiming my territory, thank you very much.”
Gleaming swished her tail. “Some spouses would make you sleep on the couch for that, you know. You’re lucky you don’t reek like some ponies.”
Eros gave her a cheeky grin. “Pffft, ‘some ponies’. Are you referring to anyone in particular?”
Gleaming wrinkled her nose. “Word of advice—never share a bathroom with Cloud Runner.”
Eros laughed. “What was the name of the one pony you went on assignment with? The one that had the stomach trouble?”
Now Gleaming just looked sad. “I… forget what his actual name was. We called him Iron Kiss because he was a hammer specialist, but… yeah, can’t remember. Poor guy, I was half afraid he was going to die from that curry. Sure smelled like he was going to.”
“Well, I suppose I should count myself lucky then that I didn’t wind up with a stinky pony.” Eros made a pouty face. “You don’t really think I’m stinky, do you?”
Gleaming relented. “No, you smell fine. Was just an hour of exercise, after all. It’s not like we did eight hours of labor in the summer heat.”
Eros chuckled. “I’d certainly hope you haven’t been doing any hard labor! But even if you did, I bet you’d smell great, my sexy alicorn-to-be.”
Gleaming fell silent. She’d been able to smell Eros the second he’d switched over, and sweet stars, did her body approve. It wasn’t the pungent stink of body odor, not the nauseating stench of several days unwashed… just the heady, spicy smell of stallion. Gleaming inhaled deep as her tail swished again, but this time, for an entirely different reason.
The action didn’t go unnoticed. Eros was starting to get that look about him as well, his eyes roving over her, his nostrils flaring over and over. That taut, white belly so big and wide and full with their foals. That silky soft mane, those clear blue eyes, that sexy neck, those powerful long legs. And her scent, ye gods…
Gleaming sauntered over to the bed. Their eyes never left each other, each of them appreciating something about the other. It was Eros’ wings for Gleaming: the types of feathers, the creases at the joints, their transition in color, the sliding, bulging muscles. Those beautiful wings had been one of the first things Gleaming had complimented years ago, ignoring Eros’ protests of them being ‘weird’ and ‘unwieldy’.
Neither of them was in a rush. Gleaming was slow to take off her maternity articles, slower still to step onto the bed, and slowest of all to close the final distance. Eros sat up with wings stiff as planks, but even then she made no move to go faster, even when his bulging sheath relinquished its giant prize. She could feel the heat radiating off him, still warm from the exercise, and strands of his mane still clung to his neck, the stray yellow and purple hairs standing out among his pink coat. Their moist breaths washed over each other as they touched horns, and now that they were close, they could also smell each other’s excitement, cloying and growing ever stronger.
Eros nuzzled her. He nuzzled Gleaming’s face, then her neck, then her shoulders and withers. He buried himself in her thick blue mane and smelled the dregs of mint shampoo. His snout travelled up and down her smooth coat with small snuffles that made Gleaming hum, yet he never went any faster. Her pregnant belly was so big they couldn’t hug each other proper, but Eros still could wrap his wings around her, caressing her back with long, loving strokes, his twitching stallionhood pressed against her firm womb and enlarged navel.
Gleaming wet her lips. She ran her hooves along his sides, then his ribs, then his lower back, resisting the temptation to pull his head up for a kiss. She explored him like she had so many times before, yet even now there was always something new to find. Eros’ muscles were like toned and thick, the latent strength like a spring waiting to burst forth. She stroked the back of his head as he continued to caress her in turn, steady and sure, each touch more arousing than the last.
And then Eros was at her belly. He was gentle, empathically sensing the foals were deep asleep. He rested his cheek against Gleaming’s womb and just sat there, eyes closed and smiling wide, his hooves moving in small circles along the sides. The jar of cocoa butter was on the nightstand like always, so he floated it over and began tending to her still-growing size.
The lotion was cool and thick, like actual butter. The first touch of it made Gleaming coo, and all the touches after made her want to lay back and let Eros tend to her proper. But instead she let him rub her down sitting up, their foals nestled safe and sound between them. Eros’ eyes were locked to her ivory paunch the whole time, biting his lip and massaging every inch of her, his cock leaking pre on her belly. He could feel its warm, swirling weight, so heavy and firm and healthy and big, yet even now not near its max size. If there even was such a thing...
They weren’t sure when they started kissing. It wasn’t sudden or needy—their lips merely met and stayed there. Some days they kissed like they were fighting for air, but tonight they were calm, smooth, a light kiss that never quite seemed to end. Their lips moved in time with one another with ease, their tongues occasionally tasting each other before darting back. Their hooves still roved over each other’s bodies, yet tonight their touch remained soft and sensual, the immense bed barely moving as they laid down together.
No words were needed as Gleaming nestled into Eros’ embrace like a puzzle piece. Eros’ wing crept back over to pull her close, his stallionhood guided by magic to sink between her milky tits. Such a pillowy-soft sensation never failed to make him groan, and Gleaming purred as his sexy dick throbbed in her cleavage. They kept kissing as Eros began rocking his hips, marking her with pre while growing harder than ever, his incredible size as thick as a soda can.
Minutes dragged by like that, never faster, never slower, just a steady pace like a marathon. Again and again Eros’ spongy head would come within millimeters of Gleaming’s waiting entrance, only to then pull away and tease her more. That slow-burning need was alight within Gleaming’s belly now, and each lazy thrust made it just a little bit stronger, a little bit hotter. At last Eros ceased teasing and pressed against her entrance proper, his magic keeping him steady as he applied pressure little by little. Gleaming was putty in his hooves now, her pliable marehood spreading, slowwwwwwly spreading to swallow him, but she kept still even as the sensations built.
At last, he was in. Eros’ massive cock claimed Gleaming’s slick tunnel, sliding ever deeper and coating her walls, filling Gleaming just as it had so many times before. Even now the spells on her kept her tight, tight, tight, but all Gleaming felt from the spreading was a deliciously hot burn that faded as quickly as it’d come. She was free to squeeze down to her heart’s delight, but tonight she was gentle, tugging Eros deeper only when he stopped.
Eros was sorely tempted to start sucking on Gleaming’s neck. Stars above, her moans when he did that... but that’d ignite the powder keg, so instead he made snuffling sounds in her ears. Turned out even that was almost too much, Gleaming shivering and whispering his name, her breaths quickening into pants. He eased up and rubbed her womb with more cocoa butter, and that got the response he wanted—a low, muted groan sounding in the back of her throat.
Gleaming felt Eros’ medial ring bulge into her velvety depths. Inch after inch of cock followed to disappear inside her, yet still she hungered for more. It’d once been a feat to take his entire length right away, but with her so much larger, she could do it with ease. She rested her head on his broad shoulder, their tails tightly entwined, her head swimming like she was floating in a sea of clouds. She cradled his head with one hoof while stroking her belly with the other, and when his entire length was hilted, she pulled him in for a kiss just as sensual as the last.
They could feel the beats of each other’s heart alongside their children’s. The only sound was the barest smek of their lightly moving lips in the quiet, and if the coiled springs inside them weren’t tightening, they might’ve fallen asleep like that. But tightening they were, and so Eros began a smooth rhythm, their combined fluids allowing him to glide in and out with ease. He held Gleaming tight while making love to her, her light murs and soft sighs his guide, her squeezing him in time as they chased their first peaks.
It wasn’t a very long chase. Even so slow and gentle, the kissing, the belly rubbing, the closeness, the sweet nothings they whispered, it was like the perfect storm. They only picked up speed upon reaching the point of no return, and upon sensing the other was close, they gave just enough intensity to push the other over the edge. Gleaming clenched down just as stars glittered in her vision, and Eros moaned in her mouth as a bottle rocket exploded in his mind. Shot after shot of cum flooded Gleaming’s tunnel to be soaked up, yet still he kept filling her, again and again, his fat nuts bloating further even as he came.
Yet all Gleaming wanted was more. More of Eros’ seed, more of his affection, more of his beautiful foals. The thought of him getting her pregnant again spurred her to break the gentle lovemaking and go faster, harder… deeper, her mind alive with the thought of more life in her nourishing womb. Eros sensed the shift and immediately obliged, rutting her proper as soon as his first climax died. NOW he started sucking on her neck, and the squeal she gave made him twitch, his thrusting speed doubling to match Gleaming’s desire.
And so it went on well into the night. At times they slowed down again, other times they went so fast one peak crashed into another. Positions were changed, a few toys were used, dirty talk was had, and pillow talk soon followed. When all was said and done Gleaming and Cadance fell asleep smelling of sweat and sex, two lovers cuddled in the same position they’d woke in, their dreams filled with the laughter of foals.
“This nursery is where the baby thestrals will stay the first few days.” The hospital attendant gestured to a large window showing off the room beyond. “It may look well-lit in there, but it’s pitch-black inside. The nurses will be wearing darkvision goggles so as not to disturb the infants.”
Apogee nodded. “What about the actual delivery rooms?”
“Also dark,” the attendant said.
Apogee chirruped. “Excellent…”
The window was too low for Gleaming’s liking, but she was able to duck down for a look. Far as she could tell, everything inside was either clear plastic or painted dark blue. “Three days, right? That’s the ideal time to let them adjust?”
“Preferably,” said Apogee. “Light won’t hurt the babies, but they’ll be calmer if left in the dark for a few days. Let them adjust to a few things at a time, as it were.”
“She’s right,” the hospital attendant said. “Newborn thestrals are either cranky nightmares, or adorable sweethearts. We’ll have more sweethearts if we let them acclimate.”
The new maternity wing in Crystal Empire Central Hospital was all ready to go. It looked like your typical hospital area, although where the colors in most hospitals were bright and glaring, here they were dark and subdued. It was comprised of several floors dedicated to various aspects of the B.R.E.A.S.T.S program, including genetic testing, ultrasounds, laboratories, delivery, research, and check-ups. The smell of new plastic and fresh paint permeated everything as the attendant showed Gleaming and Apogee around.
“Very impressive,” said Gleaming as she straightened back up. “This is even more than—GAH!”
Her horn sank into the ceiling with a CRUNCH!
“Sonnuva…” Gleaming wrenched her horn free in a shower of plaster. “Okay, the ceilings could be higher, but it’s good otherwise!”
Apogee hid her smile with a hoof. “How many times is that now?”
“Four,” said the attendant with a grin. “Along with having to teleport through every doorway.”
Gleaming repaired the damage with a quick spell. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. The big, pregnant princess is starting to get too large to comfortably move around. I’m starting to see why Celestia and Luna prefer outdoor events.”
Apogee couldn’t help but stare. A small part of her always looked forward to her meetings with Gleaming, to see just how much she’d changed and/or grown. She swore Gleaming was at least an inch taller since their last weekly meeting, maybe more! She was having to hunch down and waddle everywhere in these low hallways, causing her pregnant belly to skid along within its maternity brace. “You’re certainly approaching their realm of size.”
“Would you like to see the gardens instead?” the attendant offered. “I know we only just started, but...”
Gleaming sighed. “I think that’s probably best. As long as you two don’t mind, though. It’s pretty foggy out.”
Fog was one of the few weather variations the Empire got. It only happened every so often, but when it did, there were plenty of advisories alerting the local pegasi. After all, fog was nothing more than a ground-level cloud.
The attendant, who was a pegasus, looked to Apogee. “I noticed you teleported with the Princess. Do you have a pegasus poncho with you?”
Apogee patted her right saddlebag. “Right here.”
The attendant smiled. “Then right this way.”
They navigated a few twists and turns to one of the hospital’s side entrances. The attendant disappeared into one of the employee rooms, and Apogee pulled out her poncho—a military-green garment of enchanted plastic. It crinkled as she slipped it on with practiced ease, soon covered from nose to tail (save her leathery wings).
“Good ol’ standard issue,” Gleaming said.
Apogee made a face. “Ugh, everything they give us is always this ugly shade of green.”
Gleaming laughed. “At least it—” She suddenly fidgeted in place. “Ergh, darn it all—looks good on you!”
Apogee blinked. “Erm, thanks...” She looked on as Gleaming squirmed, fidgeting like a great fecund wall of white and blue muscle. “Are… you okay?”
“It’s this—gah—stupid itching!” She swayed back and forth, her boulder of a belly shifting in the brace. “It’s been all over since I woke up, first in my legs, then in my chest, then my head and neck, and now it’s in my back and rear! It’s driving me nuts!”
It was a good thing Apogee was standing in front of Gleaming and not to her side. She would’ve been checked into the wall. “Have you seen someone about it?”
Gleaming forced herself to stay still. “My doctor’s… rggggh... waiting up in the Research Wing. Apparently this is NORMAL because my powers aren’t making a peep, but damn if it isn’t annoying!”
Just then, the attendant returned wearing red poncho of her own. “Oh, Second Lieutenant! That green goes well with your colors!”
Apogee’s muzzle scrunched up. “Thanks.”
The attendant opened the double doors to reveal a wall of soupy fog. You could see a few dozen feet or so in front of you, but beyond that was nothing but grey. It almost looked like they were in someone’s memory.
The attendant and Apogee trotted outside. Gleaming ducked down to avoid banging her head, thankful that she could squeeze through here without the aid of magic. She’d had start regularly teleporting through many doorways now, to the great amusement of many—
Gleaming suddenly felt like she was wading through molasses.
“Whoa…” Gleaming tried to take a step forward, only to almost trip over her own hooves. “Uh… Apogee?!”
Apogee looked back. “Hmm?”
“I think I—nnngh!” Gleaming forced herself through the fog at a normal trot, but she had to put in four times the effort. “Have a problem.”
Apogee did a double take. “You... don’t have a cloudwalking spell on, do you?”
Gleaming shook her head, surprised to find even that took effort. “Yeesh, talk about a workout! I might not even need to go to the gym today!”
Apogee felt a thrill race through her. She could see Gleaming was managing to muscle through the fog, but... “Can you try something for me?”
Gleaming raised an eyebrow. “What?”
Apogee rolled back the sleeve of her poncho. She threw a few jabs to her right, a few holes appearing in the fog like they’d been sculpted out of snow. “Try that.”
Gleaming clucked her tongue. Without a word she mimicked Apogee…
Her hoof sank into something soft.
“Holy…” Gleaming poked at the fog. It was spongy and resistant, but also malleable. She punched a few holes to create a smiley face. “No wonder I felt heavy in the shower this morning...”
“Is something wrong?” the attendant said, approaching them.
Apogee gave the attendant a quick glance. “Ah, with all due respect, General, I don’t think you’re equipped to be outside right now.”
Gleaming sucked on her teeth. “No, I don’t believe I am. I’m sorry, Miss Skystone, but I’m afraid Second Lieutenant Apogee will have to oversee the rest of the tour. If you’ll excuse me...”
FLASH!
The attendant looked at the spot where Gleaming had just been. “Did I miss something?”
Apogee made a soft chirp. “Let’s just hope the General’s colors go with green, as well.”
A young mare in a doctor’s coat looked over the collection of readings she’d just taken. “Well, Gleaming, I’ve got good news, and I’ve got meh news.”
Gleaming dismissed the anti-scanning forcefield around her barrel. “Meh news, huh? Is that Talia-speak for ‘stuff you already knew’?”
Talia swatted her with the papers. “Smart-ass. There’s nothing to be alarmed about, but there are a few things worth noting.”
Carefully, Gleaming eased up off the extra-large exam bed while keeping her head down. The ceiling here in Talia’s lab was also low, so much so it felt like being in a burrow. “Such as?”
Talia didn’t reply, as she’d gone back to flipping through the pages. “...ambrosiac saturation forty-eight percent… immune system metamorphosing… record-setting circulatory readings… digestive system fully omnivorous, bmi optimal...”
Gleaming said nothing as she watched Talia for a few moments, the doctor checking and triple-checking while jotting things down. She soon realized she’d zoned out and looked up into Gleaming’s warm eyes.
“Same old Talia,” Gleaming said with a smile. “Or should I say, same young?”
Talia was quiet. She turned to her reflection in the window, still not quite recognizing the pony that’d leapt out of her memories. A straight blonde mane the color of goldenrods. Sharp blue eyes and a fuzzy cerulean coat. A fair face with rosy cheeks. A strong frame with motherly hips, and a full, silky voice that held your attention captive. She’d been aware most ponies shrunk with age, but she hadn’t been prepared for the four and a half inches she’d got back.
“I used to be a relic on my way out,” Talia muttered. “Now I look barely old enough to drink! Grandkids didn’t even recognize me at first, y’know. Only one that did was Rosetta. Smiled and laughed soon as she saw me, she did…”
Gleaming patted her shoulder. “Baby Eventide’s gonna love you. You’re gonna be a great Crystaller, I know it.”
Talia rolled her eyes. “Oh, don’t get all sappy on me. Why’d you get up, anyways? You’re stressing your vertebrae hunched over like that! Lay back down before you slip a disc, ya twit.”
Gleaming snickered. “Yes, Doctor.” She clambered back on the bed, laying on her in her usual side-sploot. Her gargantuan belly loomed over Talia like a white fertile hill, so warm she could feel the heat radiating off it.
Talia cleared her throat and turned back to the papers before her. “The meh news is that I’m not seeing any bone or muscle structure that indicates wings. I didn’t really expect to, but it never hurts to check. In both previous cases of ascended alicorns, the extra appendages happened by some kind of extraplanar translocative metaphysical reaction, so that’s likely what’ll happen with you.”
Some of those words almost sounded like another language. “Extraplanar—wait, you mean the floaty-starry place Twily and Cady got sent to?”
Talia nodded. “I interviewed Princess Celestia about it once before. She hasn’t been able to glean much, but from what she has, it’s a place only alicorns can go. Also seems whatever triggers the ascendant’s translocation is related to their domain somehow.”
Gleaming needed a moment to translate that. “So whatever ports me to Wingsville will have something to do with Life... and whatever it is, it’ll likely be big.”
“Which I’m not sure how to feel about,” Talia rested a hoof on Gleaming’s belly. “You’ve already demonstrated abilities far beyond our capabilities, yet all of that’s chump change for you? Just where do your limits lie?”
Gleaming glanced at her taut, titanic barrel. Four of the babies were asleep at the moment, but the other two wiggling and exploring with curious hooves. “I’m... not sure that’s the right way to look at it. Cady’s or Twily’s powers weren’t what made them ascend, it was theirideals.”
Talia frowned. “What do you mean?”
Gleaming thought on how best to put this. “Cady believes everyone deserves a chance to be loved, which made her risk everything for a hateful, lonely, wrathful stranger, and that wound up being the trigger. Twily believes we can do anything if we all work together, and because of that, she and her friends have done the impossible. It took her longer than it did for Cady, but I’d argue that’s because her ascension didn’t just change her, it also affected her friends.”
That last part made Talia pause. “Speaking of your sister and company’s accomplishments… you do realize those six might be the most powerful beings alive, right? Not ‘cause they wield the Elements of Harmony, but because they can peacefully—damn near effortlessly—turn anyone over to their side! Have you ever stopped to think about dangerous an ability that is?”
Gleaming’s face grew stoic. “I’m aware of the potential threat that is Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends, yes. The scenario you’re suggesting, along with any other of fellow royals being corrupted, is one of many contingencies anticipated by our countermeasure strategists—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Talia said. “Ease off the public relations, Skippy. I just wanted to make sure you’re not turning a blind eye, that’s all.”
Gleaming relented. “Sorry. We—the other royals and Twily’s friends—are aware of how powerful we all are. But also, we know what things can cause madness in ponies like us, and we work together to prevent them. Twily and her friends are actually the least at risk because they’ve seen so many different ways it can happen.”
Talia snorted. “The old, ‘knowing is half the battle’, adage. The rule of engagement so fundamental, we even teach it to children.”
Gleaming couldn’t argue with that one. “The point is Twily and her friends have a bond deeper than even Cady can sense. Even if one of them were to go evil, the others would snap them out of it quicker than you can say ‘Rainbow Power’. Combine that with their families and tons of other friends, they’re the least of our worries.”
Talia bounced her hoof on the floor, her eyes drifting from side to side. “Fair enough, I suppose… but going back to ‘Wingsville’, as you put it, if ideals really are the last puzzle piece, what does that mean for you? How far are you gonna have to go to prove your beliefs?”
Gleaming’s ears drooped. “I hate to say it, but something tells me we won’t know until after the fact.”
“Oof…” Talia ran a hoof through her mane. “That’s the way things like this tend to go, doesn’t it? Hindsight is twenty-twenty, and all that… well, I suppose it’s better than nothing, so I guess we’ll just have to see. Let’s get back to why you’re here, shall we? You wanna know what’s causin’ your itching, I assume?”
Gleaming sat up straighter. “Do you know?”
Talia showed the report she was looking at to Gleaming. “This gobbledegook won’t make much sense, but take a look anyways. The left column is the averages for a unicorn mare in your age range, the middle readings are yours, and the ones on the right are the averages of the other princesses.”
Gleaming wasn’t sure if she was reading Equuish or Chineighse. “Uhhh...”
“The itching is your musculoskeletal system switching over to an alicorn’s,” Talia translated. “Your bones are becoming many times tougher and stronger than an earth pony’s, exponentially more magically conductive, and have gained the lightness and hollowness of a pegasus. And that’s not even touching on what’s happening to your muscles—”
“Hold up,” Gleaming said. “Did you just say my bones are hollow?!”
Talia chuckled. She went over to her desk a moment, retrieving a magical x-ray she’d just taken. She pinned it up on a panel backlit by glowing crystal. “Notice how your almost all your bones are see-through, but the ones around your lower back and rear aren’t? The see-through ones are hollow.”
Gleaming’s tailbone suddenly felt VERY itchy. “Holy…”
“I had to take this at the strongest intensity, by the way. Just like with your sister.” Talia trotted back over and now started examining Gleaming’s belly. “Once all your bones and muscles have metamorphosed, the itching should die down. Another hour or two, I’m guessing… cripes, you’re gettin’ big. You really do have six healthy babies in there, yessir...”
Gleaming couldn’t help but laugh. “Is it weird that I keep going through all these crazy changes, yet I’m most concerned about them?”
“It’d be weirder if you weren’t, honey.” Talia summoned a cloth tape to measure Gleaming’s waistline. “But if I can ease some of your worries, I’ll certainly try. You’ve set several pregnancy records with this little adventure, including, but not limited to, largest recorded uterus in a unicorn, longest gestation of sextuplets, most consistent vitals in multiples, most breast tissue gained, and most milk expressed in a session. As for the foals themselves, each one of ‘em is near the ideal size and weight from the looks of the scans. Save your two special fillies, of course.”
Gleaming felt a warm glow in her chest. “Oh, I can feel I’ve got two big, healthy girls in there. Am I still on track for fifty-two weeks, then?”
“Long as your vitals stay good,” Talia said while poking and prodding. “Remember, the determining factor isn’t the kiddos, it’s you. So long as your body keeps thriving, they’ll come out when they’re ready to come out. Just don’t get complacent now, you hear me?”
Gleaming looked very thoughtful at this. “One of my former superiors used to say something. ‘Never act like victory is assured, even when it probably is.”
“Smart pony,” Talia said. “Now, back to your bones and muscles. You see all those zeroes at the bottom of the readings? Those are measurements of magical reactions in the other tribes. Cavus tempulari in particular determines… well, a lot of things, but it only returns positive when there’s weather-influencing magic in your bones. That’s why you got held up by the fog.”
Gleaming blinked several times. “But… haven’t I had alicorn magic for months? I should’ve been getting bogged down before this, shouldn’t I?”
“Your bones weren’t hollow before this, silly filly. Unicorn—” Talia was cut off by a STRONG kick smacking her hoof away. “Erm... I may have woken up Reidy.”
Gleaming grunted. “A light sleeper, that one.”
“Sorry, baby.” Talia rubbed the spot with a bit of aloe. “I’m sure you learned this in school, but the arcana systems of the three tribes are different. Unicorn arcana systems have almost no connection to our muscles and bones, where earth pony and pegasi arcana systems do. That’s actually an argument why certain parts of unicorn anatomy hold a charge even when excised, now that I think of it...”
Gleaming did recall Talia saying something about that. “So now that my muscles and bones have alicorn-ed, more of my earth pony and pegasi traits can manifest?”
“I’m thinking so,” said Talia. “You’re still technically a unicorn, but not for much longer. Once you hit fifty point-one percent alicorn saturation, I’ve a feeling these changes are gonna start happening faster. Another week or so, methinks.”
Gleaming looked back at the x-ray. “How much faster?”
Talia shrugged. “We may as well take bets on it. I’ve been taking DNA samples to try and learn more, but science and magic don’t always play nice. I’ve even been comparing your genetic code to your sister’s and father’s to see if I can connect point A to point B. Wound up with bupkis.”
Gleaming grit her teeth. “Okay, well, so I’m hearing the itching is just something I’m gonna have to deal with for a little longer, so I guess that’s that. Anything else we should go over while I’m here?”
Talia flipped through her readings one more time. “How’s your healing practice coming?”
“I could always use more,” Gleaming said right away. “The only thing the infirmary on the base gets is minor stuff. Cuts, bruises, exhaustion, concussions, maybe a few fractures, but that’s it. Why?”
Talia folded her hooves. “I’m thinking it’s time to cut your teeth on more serious cases. Problem is, I’m not sure how to go about it without causing an uproar. I could have a word with the chief physician here and have you look at some patients they’re struggling with, but I wanted your input first.”
Gleaming winced. “How serious are we talking?”
Talia shook her head. “Remember, the whole reason we’re skulking around is so you can develop your powers safely. I’m not a fan of it either, but you’ll help more ponies in the long run if we take this slow. Don’t wanna go diving into the deep end when you’re still figuring out how to swim, you feel me?”
Gleaming did. Unknown boundaries of stamina aside, the fear of losing a loved one made ponies do crazy things. She didn’t want to put anyone in that situation. “The worst thing I’ve healed so far was with Spike. I was fine afterwards, but… yeah, if we’re gradually ramping things up, hospitals might be a little too much.”
Talia looked past Gleaming to a spot on the wall. “There’s… one other idea I had, in that case. A patient I know of, nothing life threatening, but serious enough that… w-well, they’ve got a long road ahead of ‘em without help. We can even examine ‘em without causing a ruckus, so, u-um… I-I think it’d be a good benchmark for your abilities.”
The tremor in Talia’s voice wasn’t lost on Gleaming. “Do I know them?”
Talia gulped. She looked down at the floor a moment, her blonde mane falling over her face like a veil. “U-Um…”
Gleaming furrowed her brow, but remained silent. She watched and waited while stroking her tight womb with more aloe, paying special attention to her plum-sized navel.
Talia cursed. “Damn hormones and emotions on a hair trigger. Was more mellow when I was old… now I’m shaking like a damn leaf!”
Gleaming pursed her lips. “Talia—”
“Gleaming.” Talia looked up, eyes glinting. “The first year of life is crucial for a foal’s development. My granddaughter and grandson-in-law have done all they can, but there are some things we don’t have substitutes for. I know it’s selfish to ask—”
“Oh, for pony’s sake,” Gleaming said. “I already told you I was sorry I couldn’t do more, remember? If you think I’m ready to try and heal Rosetta, let’s teleport right now. Where do they live?”
You could’ve pushed Talia over with a breeze. “O-Oh…”
Meanwhile, at the train station-
“TWILIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!” Pinkie Pie zoomed from the train car to catch Twilight in the mother of all glomps. “I missed you soooooooo much! How are you? Do you want a cupcake? Did you like your Hearth’s Warming presents? I brought your favorite shampoo! Do you know where I can—”
“NOW!” yelled Twilight.
“COUNTER-GLOMP!” A poncho-wearing pegasus emerged from the fog, snatching Pinkie in a blur of color as Twilight teleported to safety.
“DASHIIIIIEEEEEEEE-HEE-HEE-HEE!" Pinkie squealed as they disappeared into the fog. The duo was soon nothing than a pair of laughing voices doing loop-de-loops high above.
Twilight smoothed the wrinkles out of her own poncho. “Phew…”
“I suppose that’s one way to curb her enthusiasm,” said Rarity, trotting out and stretching her limbs. “Though I wonder, if Rainbow’s dealing with Pinkie… how are you going to deal with us?”
Twilight hesitated. “What—”
“DARLING!” Rarity glomped her in a fabulous leap, followed immediately by Applejack and Fluttershy.
Twilight burst out laughing. “Girls!” She hugged them back from beneath the pony pile. “I missed you, too!”
Meanwhile, Spike, who’d been watching from the safety of a nearby bench, wiped his brow with a sigh. For once, he’d managed to avoid getting smothered—
“SPIKEYYYYYYYYY!"
Spike paled. He looked up...
GLOMP!
The last to get off was Maud. She took a deep breath of the crisp northern air, wincing slightly as the wind hit her newly-pierced ears. She took a moment to feel her saddlebags for the little box containing the Tears of Laughter. “I wasn’t aware tacklehugs were the traditional Crystal Empire greeting.”
Twilight giggled. “Welcome back, Maud! Wow, those are nice earrings!”
Maud swivelled her ears forward. The earrings were pink and shaped like little balloons. “They’re not gneiss. They’re rose agate.”
“Is that the poncho I made you?” Rarity said, looking Twilight over. “It looks small on you.”
Twilight blushed. “I, uh… might be having a bit of a growth spurt…”
Rarity took a moment to note the height difference between them. They’d all known Twilight had been getting steadily taller since ascending, but it seemed her growth had sped up since leaving. “So you are. It seems some adjustments are in order!”
“Is it just you greeting us?” Fluttershy looked around. “I’d hoped Cadance and your sister would come!”
Twilight shook her head. “They had to work. Don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of time tonight.”
“For the zappin’, you mean?” Applejack said. “Maud wants to head out tomorrow morning.”
Twilight nodded. “As soon as Cadance is free.”
“How’s everything going?” Fluttershy asked. “Your letters only said Gleaming’s been doing well. I hope that’s still true.”
Twilight smiled as the attendants brought out everyone’s luggage. “Trust me, Fluttershy, it’ll be better if I show you.”
Talia’s granddaughter was a pale yellow unicorn named Summer Song. She and her husband Malachite lived in a suburb of the North Residential District called Lasthaven, named for it being the northernmost township in the city. The outside of their home was decorated with crystal sculptures in the yard, the house itself was a light purple, and the front door was painted with a green laurel wreath.
It seemed like a quaint, peaceful home to Gleaming, perfect for starting a family... but more importantly, the ceilings inside were nice and high.
“Ahh…” Gleaming stood to her full height in the living room, her fluffy zepplin of a belly moving with her. Her bulging muscles supported the great weight with ease—which was good, as even with her growing taller, her paunch was so wide and low-hanging it remained inches from the floor. “Man, if I’d had to sit all hunched down and cramped while you explained everything to your family, I’d have gone nuts!”
Talia’s eyes lingered on Rosetta’s parents going off to fetch their baby daughter. “I’d think you’d be used to it. I know you’ve been growing faster lately, but still, you were a big stallion.”
Gleaming laughed. “How much longer has my horn gotten?”
“...Touche.”
The living room was a modest affair. There were no ceiling lights, but several crystal lamps were in the corners, lit to compensate for the dreary fog outside. A mint-green rug covered the floor, the walls were a light brown, and family pictures were everywhere. Most of them showed a family of four, but the ones with Rosetta made them five. Pictures of extended family were also about, Gleaming spying one of Talia and Rosetta in a heart-shaped frame.
But what also caught Gleaming’s eye was the emblem above the hearth. It was the same laurel wreath as on the front door, down to the last detail.
“House Apollo,” Gleaming noted. “One of the older Canterlot families.”
Talia looked over her shoulder. “I’m surprised you’ve even heard of us. We don’t got the wealth or fame of some houses, and we’ve never been very big. About all we can claim is that we’ve been around a while.”
Gleaming shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that. You’re the matriarch, I assume?”
“Hay, no!” Talia said, turning to her. “My daughter Panny’s been in charge for years. She’s even thinking about passing the reins to one of her kids, last I heard.”
Gleaming frowned. “You sound like you were never—ahhh, you said you don’t like being in charge, riiiiight...”
Talia cracked her neck. “That, and I can’t stand family drama. There was a brief stint where I handled things after my mom died, but once Panny was ready, I stepped down in a heartbeat. She’s a better leader than I’ll ever be.”
There was the sound of hoofsteps as Summer Song and Malachite came back with a prancing, laughing thirteen month-old filly. Rosetta had grown quite a bit since the last time Gleaming had saw her, her little blonde mane bobbing back and forth as she giggled and burbled.
“Hey, cutie-patootie!” She waved to get Rosetta’s attention. “It’s Great-Gran!”
Rosetta gasped. “Way-Am!” She leapt into Talia’s lap. “Way-Am! Way-Am!”
Talia hugged her with a chuckle. “Close enough.”
Gleaming did a double-take. “She can talk?”
Malachite nodded. “She started not long after we began working with that Canterlot group. I don’t want to think how far behind she’d be if we hadn’t tested her hearing at birth...”
Talia gave Rosetta an eskimo kiss. “You’ve got smarty-smart parents, don’t you? Yes, you do! You’ve got smarty-smart parents that knew to screen you! Yes, yes, yes!”
Gleaming squinted at Rosetta. Already her Lifesense was whispering about the child’s ailment—the nerves responsible for carrying sound just… didn’t work. They were supposed to have a thin coating on them, one that allowed signals to travel back and forth, but said coating had never formed. The nerves may as well have been made of rubber.
Talia sat Rosetta on her lap. “I swear, Summy, she gets cuter every time I see her. How can she be so cute and still be related to me? Cripes, how can YOU be so cute and be related to me? Where’d all these good looks come from?!”
Summer Song rolled her eyes. “You might want to look in a mirror, Gran. What I don’t get is how you stayed single long as you did looking like that. How were you not beating stallions off with a stick?”
Talia gave her a tired look. “Be happy you never met your great-grandparents.”
Rosetta noticed Gleaming was staring. It was doubtful she remembered their last meeting, but either way, she laughed and stared right back at the pretty stranger.
Gleaming cleared her throat. “I’m picking up the problem, Talia. It’s just like you described.”
Talia nodded. “Demyelination, right? It’s a small miracle she ain’t had any vertigo.”
Summer Song craned her neck up at Gleaming. “Do… you think you can heal her, Princess?”
Gleaming didn’t answer right away. She stared at Rosetta a little longer, her inner spark beating like a second heart. The rhythm was like the measure of a song, one that Gleaming didn’t play, but guide, monitoring the tempo and keep in time. Said rhythm was strangely different right now for some reason, but that was adjusted easily enough.
“I’ll do everything I can,” Gleaming said to her and Malachite. “I can’t promise anything, but I’ll certainly try.”
“This isn’t Gleaming’s first time restoring nerves,” Talia added. “Granted, we’re not sure how much hearing Rosy will have, but we can’t make things any worse.”
Malachite chewed on his lip. “It’s painless, right?”
Gleaming opened her mouth, but then something occurred to her. “The healing is, yes. But considering she’s never heard anything before, when she suddenly starts experiencing this strange new thing...”
Talia nodded. “Yeah, she’s gonna lose it. Ain’t no way around it, I’m afraid.”
Malachite gestured for them all to wait. He disappeared a moment down the hall a moment, then returned with a bag full of bulky earplugs.
“Summy snores,” he explained as he passed them out.
Summer Song elbowed him. “Mally!”
Talia bit back a laugh. “Panny’s daughter, you are.”
There was a minute of preparing while they all got ready. Gleaming put her back to the hearth so she wasn’t in the way, but her height and width still made her the center of attention. It was a challenge not to knock anything over with her wrecking ball of a womb, although not that she’d likely do that much damage—her snow-white coat was soft and fluffy like heather, and even though it was stretched thin around her belly, her thick, supple skin beneath was nearly as soft.
Rosetta rocked back and forth in Talia’s lap while watching them all, alternating between saying “Muh-ma”, “Da-da”, and “Way-Am”. Gleaming’s world was muffled as she put in her earplugs, then with one last glance between the adults, she willed her spark forth.
It wasn’t as flashy as with Spike. The power of life suffused her with a familiar warmth, and the magenta strands crept up and around her horn in a lazy spiral. They snaked towards Rosetta with the speed of a snail, who cooed at the bright lights, reaching out to touch one as they enveloped her.
Malachite and Summer Song held their breath.They whimpered slightly as little Rosetta became enshrouded in Gleaming’s magic, the glittering strands swirled around her head like a veil. Talia betrayed nothing as she watched the power seep into Rosetta’s ears, her eyes glued to Gleaming’s every move.
Gleaming guided her magic to Rosetta’s inert nerves. She kept her spark pulsing in the usual rhythm, ignoring its strange insistence to switch to another beat. Her power infused Rosetta’s hearing in seconds, yet while something usually happened immediately… everything stayed the same. Gleaming made sure she was doing everything the same as usual, but even with the nerves completely saturated, nothing happened.
Gleaming clenched her jaw. Was it because Rosetta’s cell tissue was missing? From what Gleaming understood of her power, growing new cell tissue should be doable, but how? Did it required her power to be wielded differently, like perhaps pulsing in a different—
Gleaming wanted to facehoof. “I’m an idiot.”
It was a good thing everypony was wearing earplugs, as that’s not a great thing to say while performing an operation. Fortunately, even if any of them could read lips, they were all strangely preoccupied with something behind Gleaming.
Gleaming concentrated again and looked inward, coaxing her magic to pulse in the way it wanted. It reverted to a fast, punchy beat, and as Gleaming watched and guided...
Rosetta squeaked. Something in her head was itching, tickling inside her skull! She squirmed in Talia’s arms, but her great-grandmother held her still. The itching grew greater, more insistent, morphing into a flickering, fuzzy feeling Rosetta had never known. She tried making those weird throat vibrations that everyone liked, but when she did that, the fuzziness grew even stronger! She yelped as the fuzziness then turned into a terrifying crackling, building and building more and more between her ears, and she clutched her head and thrashed until—
The earplugs didn’t help much. Rosetta screamed, screamed, screamed… and then just for the heck of it, she screamed some more. Her wails rent the air like screeching metal, and the shrieks just kept on coming, terrified of this foreign thing called sound.
Gleaming opened her eyes to find Summer Song, Malachite, and Talia watching with bated breath.
Gleaming smiled.
Summer Song and Malachite gasped. They fought back tears as they rushed to Rosetta, putting earplugs in her ears and trying to still her thrashing. She kept bawling regardless, but then again, how could she not?
“Phew…” Gleaming wiped her brow. She felt out her magic reserves to see how much had been drained. “Not bad, not bad. Could probably do a couple hours of stuff like that…”
It wasn’t long until Rosetta passed out from screaming so much. A quick check by Talia assured them she was fine, though, so Gleaming took the lull to excuse herself. Malachite took Rosetta upstairs while Summer Song and Talia saw Gleaming off, exchanging thank-you’s and promises to visit soon.
“E-Erm, Princess?” said Summer Song.
Gleaming paused. “Yes?”
Summer Song started to say something, but then wet her lips and turned to Talia. “Was that normal what happened? While she was healing Rosy?”
Talia pretended to pout. “Aww, Summy! I was gonna wait til our next appointment to tell her. You’re no fun.”
Gleaming’s heart skipped a beat. “What? Did something weird happen again?”
Summer Song dragged a hoof on the floor. “Your mane and tail got flowy for a bit there. Sparkly, too.”
Talia ruffled Gleaming’s mane with magic. “Not sure how much of a rush it is, but it wouldn’t hurt to write Princess Celestia and Princess Luna for ethereal hair tips.”
Gleaming did a little dance in place. “Eee-hee-hee~!”
CRASH!
…
…
…
“...That was the coat rack, wasn’t it.”
Talia sniggered. “Careful with that thing, Your Gravidness.”
“Oh, shut up.”
Meanwhile, at the castle-
“Are these the papers you wanted?” Thorax asked.
Cadance looked up from her bowl of fruit. “Mmm? Ah! Yesh, ‘ank-oo.”
Thorax let go of the papers as it hovered out of his scaly claws. “Anything else I can do?”
Cadance gave him a knowing look. “Nope. You’ve stalled long enough, mister. Time to get back to your math.”
Thorax wilted. “Aww…”
Steelwing snickered from beside the Crystal Throne. “Even changelings hate long division. Who knew?”
Of all the things Cadance liked about being a princess, holding court was one of her favorites. Sure, she still had to maintain a certain air of professionalism but this was her arena. It was here she could do the most good, and best of all, the Crystal Empire didn’t have the tangled web of alliances and skullduggery that plagued Canterlot.
Cadance patted the spot beside her on the throne. “Here, come sit by me. It’ll help you concentrate.”
Thorax perked up. He clambered up the carpeted steps as fast as his little dragon legs could go, hopping onto the throne and settling down next to Cadance. As soon as he leaned into her warm side, the ambient love flowing into him increased dramatically.
“Ahhhhh…” Thorax flicked his tongue out, his mind clearing. “Thank you, Cadance.”
“You’re welcome, sweetie.” Cadance summoned Thorax’s arithmetic homework while looking over the report he’d brought her—an update on the Crystal Empire’s employment effort. “Wow, eighty-four percent of all posted jobs filled? An effort like this should take years, yet we’re doing it in months!”
“But how many of those will stay, I wonder?” Steelwing asked. “Not to be a downer, but you gotta expect some turnover.”
Cadance sipped at her tea. “Celestia’s been helping us pick ponies for the management jobs—”
CRUNCH!
Thorax yelped and poked a hole in his parchment.
“For pony’s sake...” Cadance curled her lip at the remains of her crushed teacup, her tea spattered on the floor. “I liked that one, too.”
Steelwing, who’d nearly jumped in front of her at the noise, looked between the spill and Cadance. “So that’s what those noises inside your apartment have been! I’ve been wondering ever since I started doing shifts.”
Cadance rubbed her temples. “My magic keeps growing stronger and stronger. It was only rising a little with Gleamy’s magic infusions, but then there was the thing on Hearth’s Warming, and now with sustaining Thorax… I’m not used to having this much power.”
Steelwing whistled. “And I thought you were plenty powerful already.”
Cadance barked out a laugh. “My aunts have to conceal their fonts so they can interact with others. So does Twilight, although not as much, it seems. I’ve never had to do anything like that.”
Steelwing watched as the mess was magicked away. “It looks like you might have to start.”
A clock chime signalled the end of recess.
Cadance set the papers aside and sat up straight. “I’ll have to look into it tonight. Now, who’s our next—”
ZRRRRRM!
A swirling circular portal opened a dozen feet before the throne. Cadance’s papers were blown away as sizzling bolts of mana sparking on the opening’s fringe, shadows dancing as the rift’s eerie light cast everything in a sickly glow.
Cadance felt a chill. “Steelwing...”
There was a sound of metal sliding out of its sheath.
The silhouette of a pony became visible, and a bone-thin unicorn stepped through the tear. His beady grey eyes bored into Cadance, every pore of his body dripping with disdain. His greasy black hair was swept back in a widow’s peak, he wore a blood-red vest with a shoulder sash, and a glowing gold medallion emblazoned with the Scholar’s Guild emblem sat at his breast.
“Hello, Princess Cadance,” he said, his curt voice like a blade. “I’m—”
He was cut off by the feel of an actual blade against his throat, and a second blade against his horn.
“—dead if you move,” Steelwing whispered in his ear.
“Stop!” Cadance said quickly. “Stand down, Lieutenant.”
After what seemed like an eternity, Steelwing’s blades eased away. He sheathed his weapons, saluted Cadance, then returned to his post like nothing had happened.
Cadance took a moment to collect herself. “Chancellor Neighsay. What an unexpected surprise! I’d heard rumors you had talents in telemancy, but I’d never seen it myself.”
Neighsay, who appeared no more perturbed than if a fly had landed on him, took a moment to make sure he still had his goatee. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. At least your experiences have taught you the importance of proper security.”
Cadance narrowed her eyes. “I’d recommend not dropping in like that again. Not if you want to keep your head.”
Steelwing’s blades shifted ever-so-slightly.
“A miscalculation.” Neighsay looked around the throne room a moment before his eyes fell on Thorax. “Although, on the topic of rumors, I see the ones of you taking a familiar are true. Have you learned nothing from your sister-in-law’s folly? Her savage creaturehas already gone on rampage once in a populated area. Yours will—”
“Sir Spike is a hero of the Crystal Empire and a member of the royal family," Cadance said in a cool voice. “I’ll not tolerate any disrespect of him. Are we clear?”
Neighsay sneered. “The threat ANY dragon poses is very real. Not all of us share the resiliency of alicorns, and it’s only a matter of time before a dragon-related atrocity takes place on Equestrian soil. What will you do when you speak to the survivors, hmm? Will you tolerate words of disrespect then?”
Cadance wasn’t sure if she wanted to hit him or throw up on him. Neighsay’s surface emotions were like a pond of raw sewage… yet said pond was calm... detached. You’d never know he’d just had a brush with near-death from the way he was acting. Her aunts were treading lightly, but Cadance was still tempted delve into Neighsay’s psyche, see where this derision and vileness—
Thorax yawned.
“A-HEM!” Cadance settled back in her seat. “Your reputation for treading the line is well-deserved, Chancellor. Perhaps one day we can have a debate on the ethics of interspecies rights, but I’ve no interest in listening to diatribe on dragons right now. What brings you to the Crystal Empire?”
Neighsay squinted. A shadow of... something flitted past his face, but it was gone as quick as it’d come. “Straight to it, then. I came to follow up with you now that the Purifiers you requested have finished sweeping your castle for cursed artifacts. I’m concerned there weren’t any Master Purifiers available to help with the search.”
Cadance stared. “How do you—”
“Article 7B of The Dark Magic Nullification Act,” he drawled. “For the purposes of understanding, educating, and assisting in the development of defense against hostile magic, the discovery, documentation, and/or destruction of Class-A cursed artifacts or higher will be reported to both the Mage’s Guild, AND the Scholar’s Guild. Your new Purifier was required by law to report the Class-S he destroyed. Did he not tell you?”
Cadance stomach roiled, but she kept it in check. “I... must’ve missed the memo. If that really is what the law states, then no, we didn’t have a Master Purifier. However, I don’t see why that matters, let alone why it’d merit a visit from the head of the Scholar’s Guild.”
“Forgive me for finding it hard to believe a team of seasoned Purifiers swept this castle nose to tail, yet a greenhorn fresh out of university discovered an S-Class in a few short weeks.” Neighsay spat the word ‘greenhorn’ like it had a foul taste. “If relics of that caliber are still being found, then this building isn’t safe to inhabit until a proper search is done. One that is headed by a Master Purifier, and closes down the castle entirely rather than one wing at a time.”
Cadance noted Neighsay’s odd inflection of ‘greenhorn’, but let it go for now. “Even if the Scholar’s Guild is privy to information about the search, the Mage’s Guild remains the office of record. Our results were validated by Chancellor Frostfire herself, so if you have a problem with how the search was handled, take it up with her.”
“Frostfire,” Neighsay growled through his teeth. “Doesn’t understand the gravitas of the situation. I thought given this is where you live, you might be more invested.”
Cadance rested her chin on her hoof. “I’m not going to shut down a national monument that’s home to over half of the region’s government offices—as well as where I live—for stars knows how long so a Master Purifier and whoever else conducts… the thirty-third search of this place? No, thirty-fourth. It was surprising our new hire found something, yes, but he explained his process to the search team—”
“Perhaps I should put this another way,” Neighsay said, examining his perfectly trimmed fetlocks. “An inexperienced Purifier accidentally stumbling across a dangerous artifact is proof that this place still hides secrets despite our best efforts.”
“He didn’t stumble—”
“And therefore,” Neighsay said in a louder voice. “Continuing operations here is both negligent and foolish! You’re putting lives at risk by continuing to keep this castle open, Princess! What you should do is condemn this place, tear it down, then rebuild it from the ground up!”
Cadance really wished she had one of those squeezable stress balls right now. She’d draw Neighsay’s face on it. “You seriously believed that because I live here, I’d be more receptive to the idea of demolishing this place and rebuilding it? How’d you even come to that conclusion?”
“Oh, please.” Neighsay pointed out the window to the fog beyond. “This place was once home to one of the most vile creatures who ever lived. Even now years after Sombra’s death, we’re still stumbling upon his traps, struggling to understand his spells, underestimating the lengths of his plans to invade Equestria. I’ve read the reports—these crystal ponies—if they’re even ponies at all—were once his slaves! He could have some kind of spell lying in wait that turns them all into monsters… a spell that could be right under your muzzle! All it might take is some poor sap to say the wrong word, press the wrong tile, pull the wrong lever, and Equestria will have an army marching on our northern border!”
Cadance could almost hear the puzzle pieces click into place. “Which is why you’ve been impeding our attempts to modernize the Crystal Empire.”
“How do you know he didn’t alter them?” Neighsay said, whirling on her. “The finest pony minds alive have studied everything in your archives, and not one of them—not even you—dare recreate what Sombra was doing! You can’t even get rid of a curse he placed on you, for pony’s sake! You expect me to take your word the crystal ponies are free of his influence?! If you had a shred of logic in you, you'd realize everything you’ve been doing could be used against us!”
…
…
...
“That ‘logic’ sounds a lot like fear mongering, Chancellor,” Cadance said quietly.
Neighsay raised his chin. “My concerns aren’t unwarranted. You’ve a history of being reckless, and if I’m right, not only have you been arming the enemy, you’ve been putting Equestrians at risk. Your ‘modernization’ is dangerous.”
Another silence fell. The air grew tense as Cadance and Neighsay stared each other down, the only sound the scratching of Thorax’s quill. A bird from outside tweeted as it flew near one of the windows before flapping back off into the mist.
“Are you responsible for chasing Duke Night Light and Duchess Twilight Velvet out of Canterlot?” Cadance asked.
Neighsay got a smirk too large for his face. “What, are the in-laws getting on your nerves already?”
“Careful, my little pony.”
Neighsay sneered. “I can’t speak for why they left, but regardless of the reason, what’s done is done. I for one will sleep better knowing they don’t reside in the capital anymore… you know, the flammable metropolis built on a sheer cliff face?”
Cadance was about ready to test how flammable Neighsay’s robe was. “Is that more 'logic’ at work?”
Neighsay swished his tail. “Goad me all you want. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I never said you did,” Cadance said. “But barging in here, attempting to undermine the chain of command, hurling accusations with no proof, drawing conclusions borne out of fear, and generally showing contempt towards everything I care about isn’t the way to get on my good side. You’re many things, Chancellor, but I don’t think stupid is one of them. You had to know there’s no way in Tartarus I’m going to shut down this castle, so I’ll ask again—what brings you to the Crystal Empire?”
Thorax scooched closer to Cadance.
“Hmph.” Neighsay scowled and adjusted his sash. “I suppose you were taught to play by a master. I thought if I showed you the danger of this path, you might see reason. We need to study Sombra’s magic further before continuing to bring this city into the modern era, and doing so before that is just asking for problems. Whether you admit it or not, this entire place could be a ticking time bomb.”
Cadance closed her eyes a moment. “And I even might’ve been willing to concede that, had you not opened with antagonizing me. But your motives aren’t benevolent, Neighsay. If you really wanted to give the crystal ponies a chance, you’d have raised these concerns back when the Crystal Empire was annexed, not do what you’ve been doing. I’m not sure you’ll ever see the crystal ponies as equals—you’d likely sooner see this entire city vanish again... just as you’d see the batponies go extinct rather risk them help Luna attempt a coup.”
Neighsay’s eyes flashed. “Those creatures’ very essence is bound to their 'Dark Lady'! Should she fall again, we’ll be fighting both Nightmare Moon and an entire army of darkness! I’m just ensuring the safety of Equestria’s citizens!”
“The safety of the three tribes, you mean,” Cadance said, folding her arms. “If you had your way, the sub-races would be banished or culled. Does that include alicorns, too?”
Neighsay didn’t say a word.
Cadance withheld her sigh. “Sombra had neither the time nor the resources to do anything like you’re suggesting. Even if he did, we’d have found evidence similar to the traces of magic we found in me. I’ve confirmed he didn’t do anything to the crystal ponies’ souls myself, and the magic he infected the city with was long since cleansed by the Crystal Heart. Yes, this castle might still hold secrets, but if you think those secrets can be found simply by saying a word or pulling a lever, you've little faith in our Purifiers.”
Neighsay scoffed. “The same Purifiers that couldn’t even uncover something a stammering fool found in just over a month. Explain that one to me, Princess.”
Cadance narrowed her eyes. “How about you explain something to me, instead? What’s the relationship between you and my archivist?”
Neighsay grit his teeth.
“Answer me, Chancellor.”
Neighsay cringed like he’d downed a shot of whiskey. “We have… history.”
Cadance tilted her head. “What kind of history?”
Neighsay looked like he was going to be sick. He was silent a few seconds longer, then before anyone could react, the medallion on his sash glowed, a swirling portal opened in front of him, and he leapt through it.
“WAIT!” Cadance leapt to her hooves, but the portal had already closed. “DAMN IT! I spent too long grilling him!”
“Can you track him?” Steelwing said, running to her side.
“He shouldn’t have been able to open a portal in here at all!” Cadance’s horn glowed with a scrying spell. “The only useable telemancy in the castle is teleporting, and that’s limited to—what in the… REALLY?! He blocked his magic signature with a scrambler!”
Thorax tugged on Cadance’s tail. “Cadance…”
“Stupid,” Cadance muttered, the air crackling around her. “Stupid, stupid STUPID! We basically had him in custody, and I had to try and get a confession out of him! STUPID!”
Steelwing took a step back. “U-Uh, Your Highness…”
“RGGGGGGGGGGGGH!” Cadance’s eyes glowed. The crystal all around them shook as it reacted to her, the fog outside rumbling with sudden thunder.
Steelwing cursed. He bolted forward, grabbed Thorax, then leapt for cover behind the throne.
Cadance screamed. She fired a house-sized blast of magic towards the wall like a beam cannon, blasting it to pieces and tearing straight through the wall. The sound of cracking crystal and humming mana was deafening as the sizzling power sailed out over the city like a shooting star, rising higher and higher into the sky with no sign of stopping, the beam trail so long it could measure the city’s diameter. Cadance’s rage pierced the weather barrier with dull wumph andkept ascending into the atmosphere, shrinking more and more until it finally disappeared from sight.
“Greh… zeh…” Cadance was panting and snorting like a mustang. Her eyes were pure white now, her voice carrying a faint echo. “That blasted venom… it has to be...”
Steelwing and Thorax poked their heads out. The beam had created an enormous hole in the wall, and a long divot in the floor had been scooped out, as well. Cadance was standing there like a locus of power, a mist swirling around her, pieces of crystal hovering in mid-air, and most startling of all, her mane and tail flowing like Celestia’s and Luna’s, the colors bright and scintillating.
Steelwing’s lips parted. “Princess…”
THOOM! The throne room doors burst open. Rex and several other soldiers poured in and galloped towards Cadance, many of them drawing their weapons and sounding the alert. However, their voices died when they beheld Cadance’s appearance, their steps slowing until they stopped entirely. Some of the soldiers even kneeled.
Cadance fixed her glowing eyes on her troops. “Major Rex.”
Rex flinched at Cadance’s voice. “Y-Your Majesty?”
“Inform Princess Gleaming and Captain Deadeye to go on high alert.” Cadance glared at the spot where Neighsay had been. “Send word to Princess Twilight and Sir Spike that I need to see them immediately. Have the palace guard secure the Duke and Duchess, and send a squad to locate Second Lieutenant Apogee. She may be in danger.”
Rex saluted. “Right away!” She whirled and began meting out the orders.
Steelwing stepped out from the throne with Thorax. “U-Uh, Cadance? Are you okay?”
Cadance didn’t look at them. “Thorax.”
Thorax swayed atop Steelwing’s back. “Hi!”
“You gave the signal something was wrong.” Cadance steadied him with magic. “What did you sense?”
Steelwing did a double-take. “Wait, what?!”
Now Cadance turned to them. “I’m sorry. You’re a terrific soldier, but there are some threats only a fellow empath would recognize. Gleamy and I decided the less ponies that knew, the better.”
Steelwing’s ears drooped, but only for an instant. “...Understood.”
Thorax giggled. “I sensed Mother’s magic! It was really well hidden, but it was waiting for you, just beneath his thoughts! You’d have set it off if I hadn’t stopped you, hehe. Wouldn’t have been good thennnnnnnnn~”
Cadance raised an eyebrow. “I… see. So, it seems Auntie Tia was right, after all. Thank you, Thorax.”
Thorax got a goofy grin. “So… much… love...”
“Princess,” Steelwing cut in. “What’s happened to you? You said you’ve been getting stronger, but this—”
“I don’t lose my temper, often, Steelwing.” Cadance stomped her hoof, and a ripple travelled out that resculpted the floor and wall like new. “Hopefully now, you’ve a better understanding why. You aren’t hurt, are you?”
Steelwing pursed his lips. The air was returning to normal, as were Cadance’s eyes and voice. Her mane and tail, however... “I’m more worried about you.”
Cadance smiled. “And that’s what makes you a good friend. Now, flag down one of the guards and tell them to bring Archivist Sunburst to the throne room. He has some explaining to do.”
Neighsay emerged from his portal with a sizzle of eldritch energy. It shut behind him with a fizzle and a pop, leaving him in a blanket of silence and darkness. He stood in the pitch black while collecting himself, until at last, he lit his horn to turn on the ornate chandelier above.
“Damn it all,” Neighsay muttered. “DAMN it all! Why can’t I keep my mouth shut when it comes to the boy?! Now she’s going to ask him, and of course he’ll tell her…”
The room was a luxurious study. Plush rugs emblazoned with the Canterlot coat of arms covered most of the floor, and the walls were taken up by overflowing bookcases and ancient tapestries dating back to the time of Princess Platinum. Marble pillars painted in the likeness of old maps were spaced out along the room’s edges, there were heavy oak tables with comfy chairs scattered about, and a long-forgotten fireplace was in one corner.
Neighsay was quiet. His gaze fell to the floor, his eyes moving like he was analyzing pieces on a board. The silence and stillness pressed in on his eardrums more and more, his thoughts whirring… never aware of how the ceiling seemed to flicker like a mirage, nor of the odorless gas filling his lungs.
He wasn’t even aware of when his eyes unfocused. Like a zombie, he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a single gold coin, which upon being exposed to the air, began to give off a sickly green glow. It hovered above him and began to spin, first slowly, then faster and faster until it was generating a breeze. There was a crackling like electricity, and then, a bolt of alien magic lanced out from the coin to strike Neighsay.
ZAP!
He froze still as a statue. He didn’t blink, he didn’t breathe, he didn’t do anything. nothing. The glowing coin revolved slowly above him as time passed without his knowledge, first a moment…
...then longer…
...and longer…
...and longer still...
Until at last, there was a faint whistling from above.
The whistling grew greater, and greater until the ceiling of the study began to ripple. A winged shadow phased through like a cannonball, the wind whistling through the holes in its legs. It landed on its hooves with a mighty WHAM, chunks of rock and gravel flying, the entire room flickering a moment like an out-of-focus television.
“My dear sleeper,” Queen Chrysalis purred in her trilling voice. “Welcome back.”
Chrysalis looked much the same as during the attack on Canterlot—frightfully big, glossy black chitin, cruel sunken eyes and a wicked black horn, a stringy mane and tail, and an aura of malice that sent chills down a pony's spine. The only change was the black shard she wore around her neck, jagged and sucking in the light around it.
Neighsay gave no reaction to Chrysalis’ entrance. He just kept on staring at nothing, still as a statue.
Chrysalis empathically reached out to his subconscious. The trap she’d set was still intact… but the special ward she’d put on it was not. “Of course. So, my wayward defect has fled north to suckle straight from the love cow’s teat. Trading information in exchange for a feast, no doubt…”
She glowered at the faded, two-week-old cut on Neighsay’s leg. She paced back and forth while thinking, her tail flicking like she was trying to swat at flies. “This gamble may have cost me. Mastering Hydia’s power took too long as it is—I need to capitalize on this if I’m going to...”
Her horn glowed green, and a thick glob of viscous fluid oozed out from her horn. She admired it a moment before turning it into a fine vapor and jamming it straight into Neighsay’s horn.
After waiting a few seconds, Chrysalis released the magic holding him in stasis. “Awaken.”
Neighsay breathed again. He blinked a few times while shuddering, a sickly green tint in his eyes. It looked like he was going to fall over, but then, he caught himself and kneeled instead.
“My Queen.”
Chrysalis gently tilted up his chin. “Rise, and report.”
Neighsay’s normally-haughty voice was now flatter than cardboard. “I’m afraid my mission was only half-successful. I was able to infiltrate the Crystal Empire, but the castle is enshrouded with the same harmonic magic that permeates Ponyville, and much of Canterlot.”
Chrysalis grit her fangs. “Rggggh... the fool Elements of Harmony don’t even realize their putrid rainbow magic is blocking me, yet they go spreading it around like a disease!”
Neighsay’s blank eyes fell on the shard around Chrysalis’ neck. “I believe there’s one place in the castle that’ll remain accessible regardless. The harmonic energy is weaker in the throne room, weak enough to open a small portal.”
Chrysalis’ lips parted. “Ah, so that’s where you ran into my escapee… and Cadenza, most likely.”
Neighsay nodded. “He’s serving as her alert dog. He gave signal just as she was about to trigger your trap, and she remained on guard after that. I continued to goad her until she began asking questions I couldn’t answer, which is when I made my escape.”
Chrysalis shrugged. “As amusing as it would’ve been to see the love cow stumble upon my surprise, their pesky spellfire dragon is close enough to notice. There wasn’t much hope of ensorcelling Cadenza if we couldn’t even get that bloated tick of a moon princess.”
“Indeed,” said Neighsay. “And it seems you were also correct about them investigating me. I’ll likely be arrested if I try to return to Canterlot."
Chrysalis patted his head. “Your time in the public eye was ending regardless. The shadows will be your home now… free to use that lovely medallion of yours.”
Neighsay didn’t so much as bat an eyelash. “Continuing with my report, then. I was able to verify access points throughout the rest of the city, including the main military base.”
He produced several pieces of parchment from his cloak, all still warm from his copying spell. Chrysalis snatched the military documents and began going through them one by one. “Yes, these will do nicely…”
Neighsay watched her root through the folders for a few minutes before speaking again. “On a sidenote, you told me to alert you if I encountered any wingblade masters among Cadenza’s guard. She keeps at least one—a rather skilled melee specialist.”
Chrysalis glowered. “Blasted little reapers. One, however, we can handle. What of the Crystal Heart? It’s heavily guarded, I take it?”
“Very,” said Neighsay. “Trying to steal it directly will next to impossible without alerting the entire castle. We’ll need more than Hydia’s magic if we wish to overpower the Elements of Harmony.”
Chrysalis thought for a moment. “What about whatever let you open a portal in the throne room?”
Neighsay nodded. “The disturbance seemed to come from the level just below, but according to the blueprints, that’s supposed to be solid crystal. It won’t be easy to investigate.”
Chrysalis floated up the black shard around her neck. “It may well be our only choice. Your Purifiers from your Mage’s Guild turned up nothing.”
“Correct.”
Chrysalis paced back and forth in the room, the illusory study wavering in response to her dark magic. The colors kept fading out like ghosts before filling back in, each time revealing bizarre neon green runes glowing on the walls. “Did Cadenza say anything about more Sombran artifacts possibly being in the castle?”
Neighsay cleared his throat. “Her response was… nebulous. From the way she was talking, it seemed like she wouldn’t be surprised if one or two more turned up.”
“Hmph.” Chrysalis ran her tongue along her fangs. “Then perhaps my plans can move forward in another way. Combining the late king’s magic with Hydia’s power might just give us the edge we need to overcome the Elements of Harmony. It’s another gamble, but it’ll pay off when we get our hooves on it.”
“But how?” Neighsay asked. “Even if there is a Sombran artifact beneath the throne room—”
“Here is what you’ll do,” Chrysalis said. “You’ll return to the Crystal Empire and have a talk with… erm, Cadenza’s Purifier, yes. He seems to have the clues everyone else has missed, so you—oh, for hive’s sake.”
The green glow in Neighsay’s eyes suddenly flickered. His mouth twisted, the faintest of growls sounding in his throat. “I-I… wWwwANt… N-NotHinG… tO...”
Chrysalis sighed. She summoned forth more magically-altered venom, converting it to vapor and driving it into Neighsay’s system. The injection made him gurgle and snarl, biting down on his cheek so hard he drew blood.
“I know I should be annoyed this keeps happening.” Chrysalis watched Neighsay spasm and seethe, fighting a dose of venom more suited for an elephant. “Such powerful, conflicting emotions all melted together...”
Neighsay cursed. The bright light in his eyes dimmed even more, replaced by a dark, wrathful glare. “IIiiIIii… RrreeeFfFfuUUsSeEeE!”
Chrysalis brushed her hoof through Neighsay’s goatee. “I’m running out of time, my sleeper. The sun hag’s paranoia is legendary, her halfwit sister’s shoring up the country’s psychic defenses, the love cow’s learning all my secrets, her fool mate grows more powerful by the day, and I don’t yet understand this new power the Elements of Harmony wield. I need every advantage I can get if I’m going to have my revenge, and I have to do it while as many little flies are gathered in my web as possible. I don’t care how much you loathe your bastard son—you WILL obey me.”
But Neighsay hadn’t given up. His face was turning red, every line on his face tight and strained. “IiiIIi… WOoONnnnNN’ttTTt...”
Chrysalis chuckled. She admired the arteries and veins in Neighsay’s neck a moment before whispering in his ear. “I can sense it, you know. That dark, cold mire in your mind, covered with such flimsy lies. Years spent convincing yourself you did the right thing; but deep inside, in your heart of hearts... Can you handle the guilt of what you’ve done? The pain you’ve caused?”
Neighsay choked. He went stock still, his heart pounding, the green glow in his eyes flaring.
“Obey me, or I’ll rip out every last emotion you’ve buried,” Chrysalis murmured. “I’ll make you feel every ounce of anguish and grief as you mourn for the family you could’ve had. Maybe I’ll even do it in front of the boy, hmm? You’ll feel a father’s love for him at last… as I’m tearing it out of you.”
Neighsay’s will caved. He slumped down to his knees, and after a few more twitches and spasms, he stood back up, regaining his robotic expression and posture.
“Forgive my rudeness,” he said in a monotone. “I will go to the pony called Sunburst, and I will convince him to find what you need by any means necessary. The power of King Sombra will be yours, my Queen—you will have your revenge.”
“Yes.” Neighsay wiped the blood from his mouth. “Together...”
Meanwhile-
“I want blood checks on everyone in the castle,” Gleaming said to Rex. “Also, have someone contact the railway stationmaster and get a list of everyone that’s arrived in the last seventy-two hours, then assemble a squad to track down the ones still in the city. I don’t care how much they protest, checking them is for national security.”
The castle was a hornet’s nest. Soldiers dashed to and fro securing rooms and running tests on everyone they could, marking areas and creatures who’d been cleared with special enchanted markers. Castle employees were in the process of being checked as well, the notice of mandatory checks had gone out to the rest of the city, and the battlemages were studying the spells on the castle to figure out just how the hay they’d been bypassed.
Gleaming turned to the next pony awaiting her orders. “Captain Deadeye, rally the Heartguard. Until further notice, the only ponies allowed in the Crystal Vault are those with alpha-level clearance. Test anyone that requests entrance regardless, and if the worst should happen, protect the Crystal Heart with your life.”
Deadeye saluted. “What of Steelwing?”
Ah, right. Gleaming had forgotten she and Cadance had pretty much absorbed him into their personal guard. “I... wouldn’t be surprised if Cadance hasn’t already given him orders. Disregard him for now.”
“Understood.” Deadeye galloped out the same door Rex had just left.
Last, Gleaming regarded the final pony. “You know what’d be great right about now? A battalion of thestral Sentinels guarding the Dreamscape.”
Apogee snorted. “And while we’re wishing for things...”
Gleaming ran a hoof down her face. “Sorry that you basically got foalnapped from the hospital. I don’t think Cady intended her orders to be followed so enthusiastically.”
Apogee shook her head. “Ever since these ponies learned of my race’s plight, they’ve gone above and beyond to help us. I know they meant well.”
Well, Gleaming couldn’t really argue with that. “I’m tempted to say you should stick with my sister and her friends once they get back from talking to Cadance, but I think it’s safer for you to lay low. Send word to the engineers monitoring the city’s crystal grid to watch for any kind of anomaly, then report to logistics and help coordinate emergency evacuation measures. Worst comes to worst, I want to be ready to head south.”
“Yes, ma’am!” said Apogee before rushing off.
Gleaming took a deep breath. She studied the maps laid out before her in the war room, as well as those mounted on the nearby wall. Places most likely to be attacked had red pins. Locations a northbound invasion force might stop to rest were marked with black pins. Likely city breach points had orange pins, evacuation routes were marked with blue pins, and the best places to establish supply lines had green pins.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Gleaming said to the empty room. “Chrysalis has a mind-slave that can slip past our defenses unnoticed, but does nothing with him but harass Cady. There’s no way she’d show her hand like this for nothing...”
Gleaming had been at the base finishing her second meal when the alert sounded. She knew she was making things difficult by issuing orders here and not there, but it was easier to put a forcefield around the whole city from here. Yep, that’s totally the reason, ignore that there were four other ponies around who could do that just as easily, that was Gleaming’s story, and she was sticking to it.
“Why make a move now?” Gleaming watched a black pin rotate in her aura. “She had to know waltzing into a high-security area would make us shore up our defenses. Not to mention the risk of us capturing such a valuable pawn! Why take all that risk?”
Granted, they still weren’t sure how Neighsay had managed said waltzing. But Gleaming knew Chrysalis would be sending him on increasingly dangerous missions to further along her plans regardless… and who knew where they might strike.
“She must’ve found out we were investigating him.” Gleaming squinted at the pin on the Badlands changeling hive. “But that still doesn’t make sense! Talking to Cady had to be a cover, but unless Chrysalis is off her rocker, she wouldn’t—”
Knock, knock, knock.
Gleaming’s ears twitched. Her wards in the hallway informed her of three identified magic signatures, and four unidentified. There was an immense magical anomaly linking six of them together, staggeringly powerful and echoed in the seventh through two—
“Wait… two?” Gleaming double-checked the ward’s readings. “Ah, so Rainbow did volunteer to be a bond, after all. Heh, wonder what her magic feels like to him...”
Gleaming undid the lock, and Twilight and Spike poked their heads in.
“Reporting for duty!” said Spike.
“We just finished talking to Cadance,” Twilight said. “Can we come in?”
Gleaming paused. Her wards were still yammering about the anomaly, particularly how it’s power scaled in proximity to each other. “I assume those are your fellow multi-time saviors of the nation out there?”
Twilight gave him a dull look. “You know we don’t see ourselves like that.”
“Doesn’t make it any less true,” Gleaming said. “Yes, you can all come in.”
The door opened. Gleaming had to search her memory a moment to recall everything Twilight had told her about the four newcomers that trailed in behind Twilight, Rainbow, and Spike, but she remembered the details soon enough. Pinkie Pie, the happy-go-lucky baker that spread joy wherever she went, Fluttershy, the considerate animal caretaker with a heart of a lion, Rarity, the driven self-starter who always put others before herself, and Applejack, the straight-talking farmer who could pick out any kind of lie, even ones you told to yourself.
“Celestia and Luna are spreading word about Neighsay,” Twilight said as she trotted in. “They’re also increasing the military presence in the Badlands, and strengthening the defenses in the closest towns. Cadance put out a notice about everything, too.”
Gleaming had figured as much. “Did Cady say anything about that huge beam that shot over the city?”
Rainbow swooped around her. “Ha! Get this—that was actually her! She was mad she let Neighsay get away, and—”
“That was CADY?!” Gleaming spun around, her heavy womb swaying like a wrecking ball. “How?!”
Rainbow snickered. “Easy, big gal. I’m pretty sure you’ll be into it, but let’s just say you’re in for a surprise next time you see her.”
“I couldn’t help but point out we’d have seen this coming if she’d just let me do magic examinations like I wanted.” Twilight looked away, her cheeks tinged pink. “She... didn’t appreciate that.”
“Gee, who’d have thought,” said Spike from Rainbow’s back. “It’s almost like ponies don’t like it when you say ‘I told you so’.”
It took all of Gleaming’s willpower not to teleport to Cadance right then and there. “I… see. Well, as tempting as it is to see what you’re talking about, we have more pressing things… to... talk… about… uh, Twily, you did tell your friends I’m a mare and everything, right?”
It was getting to be the norm everywhere Gleaming went. Those who saw her regularly didn’t note the changes anymore, but to newcomers like Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie… They’d gotten goosebumps the moment they’d heard Gleaming’s warm, silvery soprano from outside, and upon laying eyes on her...
Yet they weren’t all staring at the same part of Gleaming. Fluttershy was most stunned by her towering height. Applejack was most taken aback by her muscular physique. Rarity was struck dumb by her feminine features and gorgeous mane, and Pinkie was gawking at her colossal belly. They took turns registering each one of Gleaming’s changes, their eyes growing wider and wider—
Rainbow’s whistle pierced the air.
They jumped. They shared a collective moment before turning varying shades of red.
Twilight put a hoof behind her head. “Maybe this wasn’t as fun a surprise as I thought.”
Gleaming resisted the urge to facehoof. “I know this is me calling the kettle black, but please, stop omitting key details about our family to your friends.”
“A-HEM!” Rarity gathered her wits and bowed before Gleaming. “A-Apologizes for the rudeness, Princess! We didn’t mean—”
Gleaming held up a hoof. “Save the apologies for later. You’re my sister’s knights first and foremost, so let’s set aside the trivial junk, be the heroes we all are, and do everything we can to keep this city safe. Sound good?”
The seven of them stood up straighter. They exchanged a quick look, but then all nodded, faces hard and stern.
“Good.” Gleaming paused to brush her long mane out of her face. “Ser Applejack, right? You’re the Element of Honesty, I believe.”
Applejack winced. “Ser Applejack… that’s gonna take gettin’ used to.”
Gleaming noted Applejack’s eyes were the same color as her brother’s. “I assume you can activate your Element like Twilight and Rainbow? Do you have any abilities that allow you to see through illusions? Possibly sniff out disguised changelings?”
Applejack’s ears drooped. “Afraid not. Our Elements all more or less do the same thing, near as we can tell. They’re just fueled by different things.”
The others murmured agreement.
“Can you imagine if our Elements had different powers?” said Pinkie. “I wonder what kind of stuff I’d get? It’d have to be really unique and different so we could go on adventures, meet all kinds of new ponies, and do all kinds of exciting stuff!”
Rarity scoffed. “Ugh, just thinking about that makes me tired.”
“What about your Rainbow Power?” Gleaming cut in. “What all can that do?”
The girls all looked to Twilight.
“Don’t put me on the spot or anything…” Twilight brushed back her mane much like Gleaming had. “Based off my various tests, as well as our collective experience, I’ve found we can cleanse dark magic, anti-magic, purify varying forms of corruption, nullify or destroy chaos magic, as well as repel all of those things. Additionally, we seemed to have developed a sixth sense to detect what we’re able to affect, our Elements faintly reacting if they’re close by—”
“Emphasis on faint,” Rainbow cut in. “A side effect, pretty much.”
Twilight nodded. “But regardless, the most notable thing is that our innate magic’s been boosted significantly. Our special talents are more powerful, our ability to resolve conflicts and restore harmony has increased, and we’re immune to dark magic altogether. The effect doesn’t seem to be temporary, either… if anything, it seems to be getting stronger.”
“I’ll say!” Applejack tapped her back hoof on the floor. “D’you have any idea how careful I gotta be while applebucking these days? I gotta practice in the Everfree every day so I won’t turn my orchard to splinters!”
“I can’t tell you how many ensembles I’ve ruined!” Rarity added with a hoof to her forehead. “The gems I’ve crushed! The tailoring equipment I’ve destroyed! Sewing machines, mannequines, armoires and more, torn apart like paper!”
Gleaming’s eyes widened. “Armoires?”
“I’ve actually liked the changes,” said Fluttershy in a soft voice. “There’s a hydra in Froggy Bottom Bog that’s never wanted to be friends with me, but now we’ve really hit it off! He’s been taking me to the deepest parts of the swamp to meet all his friends—the goliath leeches, the dire black widows, the emperor anaconda that just moved in… He just introduced me to the family of venomous landsharks, you know. They just had a baby, and he’s soooooo cute~”
The silence that followed was like death itself.
“Oooooookay,” Gleaming said. “What about you, Ser Pinkie?”
Pinkie giggled. “You wanted super-serious time, didn’t you? Don’t worry, I’ll tell you about the super-spectacular parties and blowouts I’ve been planning later.”
...I know you don’t know her very well, but trust me, there’s a lot more to Pinkie than you might think…
Gleaming clicked her teeth. Her eyes flicked to Rainbow a second before continuing. “So, if I’m hearing all that right, you’re all magical powerhouses wielding a mythical holy power that’s anathema to evil, and it’s made you both immune to and able to cleanse the most dangerous magics known to ponykind. I see now why Twilight chose ‘paladin’ as your order’s rank of knight.”
Twilight beamed. “I knew somepony would appreciate the significance.”
Spike yawned.
Gleaming ignored him. “Twilight, you’ve had interactions with the Scholar’s Guild higher-ups in the past, right? What do you know about Chancellor Neighsay?”
Twilight’s expression sobered. “Only that he shouldn’t be able to fuel a telemancy jump across Equestria. I’m assuming he used an arcane focus to boost himself, then suppressed the power so we wouldn’t detect it.”
Gleaming gave her belly an idle rub. “I’m done sitting around while Chrysalis slithers through our defenses—I want to figure out what she’s doing, stop it, then put an end to her threat once and for all. There’s so many ways she could utilize a pony with Neighsay’s abilities—theft, assassination, abduction, sabotage, recon, infiltration…”
“Gleaming—er, Princess Gleaming,” said Rainbow, folding her arms. “You and Cadance know that jerk Chrysalis better than anypony else. Obviously she’s out for revenge, plus love for her hive and all that, but what else is she after? Conquest, maybe?”
Gleaming got a dark look. “That, and power. And if she steals the Crystal Heart, she’ll get all five.”
There was a long, heavy pause.
“So why didn’t she nab it?,” Rainbow asked. “If she was smart, she’d be like Doctor Caballeron in Daring Do and the Sapphire Spider: Wait until night, have the Chancellor guy open a portal in the Crystal Vault, stick of pair of antimagic tongs through, grab the Heart, and pull it through. Wouldn’t leave so much as a trace!”
By this point, the other four were staring at the trio, but none of them paid attention.
Twilight looked up at the ceiling. “Rainbow’s right. Chrysalis could’ve pulled off the heist of the century, or any of the things Gleaming mentioned for that matter, but she has him confront Cadance broad daylight? She had to know doing that would reveal she’s controlling him, regardless of the outcome!”
Gleaming beckoned them over to the table. “I’ve a feeling we’ve been putting pressure on her. Looking into Neighsay was a factor, but she wouldn’t take a risk like this unless we were doing something else. Something big.”
“Maybe she knows about Thorax?” Spike asked.
Twilight hummed. “Mmmmaybe? How’d she find out, though?”
Gleaming didn’t even need to think about that one. “The blood thing is one of their most closely-guarded secrets. Testing Neighsay probably tipped the scales.”
Rainbow fiddled with one of the unused pins. “In that case, the little dude’s got a giant red bullseye on his head. Neighsay’s trap-thingy might’ve even been meant for him.”
Gleaming clucked her tongue. “We have to protect him. Now more than ever.”
Meanwhile, Pinkie whispered to the other girls, “Is it just me, or is Dashie acting a little more… Twilight-ish?”
Applejack bowed her head. “Six months alone with a family of super-geniuses… they’ve gone and absorbed her.”
Pinkie’s face grew grave. “They’ve turned her… she’s becoming one of them! She’s gonna lose interest in sports and the Wonderbolts altogether! All she’ll want to do is make checklists in triplicate and do differential equations! We have to save her!”
“Oh, har-har,” said Rarity. “I was half-afraid Twilight’s family would disapprove of their courtship! This warms my heart to see.”
Fluttershy giggled. “Look at Spike on Dashie’s back! He’s as relaxed as when he’s riding Twilight.”
In fact, they were starting to realize Spike’s yawn might not have been fake. His eyelids were fluttering, his posture slack, a contented smile on his face. He yawned again, leaning forward little by little until he snuggled into Rainbow’s mane and rested his head on her withers.
“Fiery…”
Mentioning Thorax gave Gleaming a sudden thought. “Twilight, remember a few weeks back when I pulled the Heartguard for Thorax’s demonstration? When you and Rainbow reinforced the wards on the Crystal Vault?”
Twilight nodded. “Why?”
Gleaming looked up at the ceiling. “Because your power repels certain magics. If whatever Neighsay used to empower his portals was evil in nature, that might be why he didn’t try accessing the Vault. The throne room might’ve been the only place he could get in.”
“But why would the throne room—” Twilight’s eyes shrank. “The secret passage…”
Gleaming’s face was grim. “We’ve checked that place a million times. If Sombra hid something there, he did it super-well.”
“Wait, hold that thought,” said Rainbow. “Twilight, weren’t you just telling me something about how your magic works now, or whatever? How alicorn power is kinda messy and leaves behind junk? What if our power is like that?”
Twilight chewed on her lip. “As far as I know, that’s only supposed to be a characteristic of alicorn magic.”
“Except it’s not.” Rainbow pointed to the north end of the room. “The whole reason I’m taking Maud up Everhoof is because of the nasty crud in that cave. If that gunk can hang around like the world’s smelliest fart...”
Pinkie burst out laughing.
Twilight facehooved. “My tests haven’t suggested anything like... that, but I suppose it’s not impossible. I might just not have been testing for the right thing.”
“But even so,” said Rarity, approaching from the side. “What do we do about it?”
Gleaming snorted. “That depends. Can you coat the whole Empire?”
The girls looked between each other.
“I... don’t see why we couldn’t,” Twilight said in a halting voice. “If our power really does behave like alicorn magic, that is.”
“I was just kidding, Twilight, don’t—” Gleaming stopped dead. “Wait, what?”
“Could do it right now, even,” said Applejack. “Not like the fog’s gonna be a match for us.”
Pinkie snickered. “We flew all over Equestria super-duper-fast after we beat Tirek! You could almost say we channeled our inner Rainbow.”
Rainbow gave her a dull look. “How long have you been waiting to use that one?”
Pinkie just laughed again and hugged her.
Now Gleaming was the one getting goosebumps. “Will doing it wear you out at all? I don’t want you exhausting your powers over a long shot.”
Twilight shook her head. “Don’t worry, we’ll still be able to help out Cadance.”
“And the blast from that’ll likely hit the whole castle!” Applejack added. “So it’ll be double-safe!”
Gleaming blinked several times. “Is it bad that I completely forgot that’s the reason why you’re all here in the first place?”
“Not just that,” Fluttershy said. “We also came to see off Maud and Rainbow.”
At this, Rarity dragged her hoof on the floor. “I hate to be the one to voice this, but given this whole nastiness with Queen Chrysalis and the Chancellor, perhaps Maud and Rainbow’s expedition—”
Suddenly, Gleaming’s wards chirped. Two registered magic signatures approached the war room—one pegasus, and one... dragon? Gleaming listened to the info a bit longer, but when she didn’t detect any issues, she opened the door before there was even a knock.
Steelwing trotted in carrying Thorax. They were unharmed, but Thorax was as pale as when he’d arrived. He was holding a bucket of some kind—wait, no... a hallway vase?
“General!” Steelwing saluted, standing up even straighter upon realizing just who all was present. “Princess Cadance ordered me to bring Thorax to you.”
Thorax made a sound between a gag and a gurgle. “S-So bad… what even was—HRK!” He shoved his face in the vase and heaved.
Gleaming sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. “What happened?”
Steelwing was about to reply, but before he could, his vision was filled with pink and yellow.
“E-Excuse me, but…” Fluttershy’s eyes flicked to Steelwing’s unsheathed blades, then the still-vomiting Thorax. “May I please see him?”
Steelwing couldn’t move an inch. He didn’t know why, but those blue eyes felt like they were barging into his mind and flattening his will like a steamroller. He bit his tongue as a ‘y’ sound formed in his throat.
“Go ahead, Lieutenant,” Gleaming called. “She’s in the know.”
Steelwing tore his gaze free. “O-Of course, Ser Fluttershy.” He allowed her to take Thorax, then silently vowed to never look that mare in the eye again. “T-To answer your question, General, I’d just brought Purifier Sunburst to see Princess—”
BWEEEEET! BWEEEEET! BWEEEEET! BWEEEEET!
The room’s crystal lights turned bright red. Gleaming’s hallway wards immediately began chattering at her, but what drew her attention more was the ominous rumble that shook the whole room. The pit that formed in Gleaming’s gut was mirrored by the dawning horror on Steelwing’s face.
“Cadance…”
PKKKTTTT! Gleaming threw up her strongest forcefield. She made to teleport to the throne room...
“A dimension lock?!” Gleaming cursed. “The secret passage! TWILY!”
“I got it!” Twilight put her hoof on Gleaming’s shoulder. “But I can only port you and me!”
“Go!” said Rainbow. “We’re right behind you!”
Twilight’s Rainbow Power awoke with a musical hum, the sound on key with the low whum of Gleaming maintaining her shield. The sound was matched by the other girls all summoning forth their power, combining together into a harmonious chord. Twilight began mustering the power for a certain technique her father had taught her, her horn glowing bright, then brighter still, her empowered magic building… Building… BUILDING…
FLASH!
An instant later, Gleaming and Twilight were hovering mid-air surrounded by a haze of crystal dust. Twilight cleared the air with a great sweep of magic, and that’s when they saw…
“No…”
The throne room was in ruins. The floor around the Crystal Throne had been shattered to pieces, the throne itself blown to bite-sized bits. The set of stairs that led down to Sombra’s secret passage were exposed, the broken ground around it littered with crystal shards and tatters of burning carpet. The smell of vomit, burnt feathers, burnt flesh, and dust was thick in the air, but not as thick as the pungent odor of...
“Not a dimension lock.” Twilight sniffed the air and gagged. “Anti-magic!”
There was a hacking cough beneath the rubble.
“There!” Gleaming focused hard as she could. Chunks of debris began floating away in hers and Twilight’s aura until a charred shape became visible crumpled against the wall. Cadance was in a sorry state, her face mangled and mane blasted off, the whole front half of her body severely burned. She was regenerating, but the anti-magic was slowing down the process greatly, the white light around her flickering and sputtering.
Just then, the other girls flew in together from a window.
“What the—ACK!” Applejack covered her nose. “The hay?!”
“Cadance!” Rarity pointed. “She’s hurt!”
“Twi!” Rainbow shouted. “We can zorch this stuff!”
Gleaming’s voice became deadly calm. “Do it.”
Twilight signalled to the others. They surrounded her and Gleaming, and concentrating as one, their prismatic light formed a tingling in the air. There was a fizzing sound like opening a can of soda as their ardent power purified the room, growing louder and louder before reaching a peak and then fading away into nothing.
FLASH! Gleaming teleported to Cadance’s side. She called upon her inner spark, willing forth her healing power to help the regeneration. Tendrils of magic flowed off Gleaming like vines—
“N-NoT… mE!” Cadance croaked, raising a shattered hoof. “S-Sunburst! SUNBURST!”
Gleaming gasped. She turned around and cast the spell that detected heartbeats…
Down in the secret passage, a weak one beat its last.
Gleaming’s divine spark flared brighter than ever. “I got him.”
A Few Minutes Earlier-
The sharp smell of discharged mana hit Sunburst’s nostrils upon entering the throne room. It was a welcome change from the stale, papery air of the sunless archives, but it also sent a chill up his spine for a reason he couldn’t place.
Sunburst looked around the long room. A bit of the carpet had been burned, the pattern on the floor had been disturbed, and one of the windows was a slightly different shape.
“Did something happen?” he asked Steelwing.
Steelwing’s only reply was to tilt his head at the throne, where Cadance and her dragon familiar waited. An unfelt breeze flowed through Cadance’s mane and tail, although Sunburst didn’t see a fan anywhere...
“Oooookay.” Sunburst put a hoof behind his head. “Totally not ominous, or anything...”
They walked down the carpet with Sunburst leading the way. He tried not to get butterflies on the approach, but the jittery feeling crept into his limbs anyway. He tried to focus on something else, such as how Cadance's mane and tail were still gently flowing just like her aunts’, the colors mixing and melding in an endless shifting weave—
Sunburst stopped. He gaped at Cadance’s newfound ethereal mane, the butterflies now making his heart beat faster. “Princess?”
Cadance was silent. A few seconds passed… during which, Thorax flicked out his tongue, then scratched his nose.
“Hello, Sunburst,” Cadance said, relaxing into her throne. “I’m going to have to ask you to ignore my new manestyle for the moment—I just had an unexpected, and very unwelcome visitor I’d like to talk to you about.”
Sunburst cocked his head. “Is everything alright?”
Cadance shook her head. “They gave me some unpleasant news, but that news also confirmed some things. Unfortunately, though, that just left me with more questions than ever before. I’m hoping you can help put the pieces together.”
Sunburst clicked his teeth. “I… can… try? I-I mean, I’ll certainly do all I can… e-erm, real quick, though—that suppression spell you’re using isn’t doing much to mask your magic. I can show you a much better one, if you’d like.”
“Y—” Cadance stopped. She stared at Sunburst a moment, then chuckled and put a hoof to her head. “Should’ve listened to Twilight…”
Sunburst put a hoof behind his head. “Sorry. Detecting concealed magic’s what I do, after all.”
“My own fault,” said Cadance, sitting up in her chair. “I used the intermediate version of the spell instead of the greater one. But never mind that—right now, I need you to tell me everything you know about Chancellor Neighsay. He mentioned you… during… his… what the—”
Upon hearing Neighsay’s name, the side of Sunburst’s mouth spasmed like he was having a stroke. His emotions begin to sink like lead, plummeting into an inky, pitch-black trench that’d opened in his mind.
“Is it too late to say no?” he asked.
Cadance wanted to gag. Sunburst’s surface feelings were fine, but within the trench was a conglomerate of contradicting emotions. Happiness and sadness, hope and despair, rage and joy, grief and solace, neglect and devotion, love and hate, anxiety and confidence… all hopelessly melded together like some unholy abomination. She couldn't even begin to tell where one feeling ended and another began, the only thing she could tell—
“UGH!” Thorax made a chittering hiss. He recoiled like he’d been slapped, then sprang up and scrambled OVER Cadance to get away from Sunburst. Thorax moved so fast he tripped, tumbling head-first over the throne’s edge...
“Whoa!” Cadance used her magic just in time. She set Thorax down on the floor, and he immediately bolted like the hounds of Tartarus were after him, coughing and gagging all the while.
“Thorax!” Steelwing did a double-take. “Come back!”
“Get him,” Cadance said, silently wishing she could, as well. “Take him to Gleaming.”
Steelwing saluted and flew after Thorax in a flurry of feathers.
“Uhhh…” Sunburst blinked several times. “What just—”
“Sunburst.” Cadance willed the bile in her throat to stay put. “I need you to be quiet a moment.”
Sunburst’s look soured. First she asked him to talk, now she wanted him to shut up. An even snarkier response formed on his tongue, but he bit it back.
Moments passed. Sunburst said nothing, Cadance said nothing, neither of them moved an inch. Cadance had closed her eyes and was doing… something, although what, Sunburst couldn’t tell. The silence wasn’t doing him any favors, though—with his mind unoccupied, he was free to fall spiralling into the emotional pit he’d worked so hard to conceal.
Did you know I grew up in an orphanage?
Sunburst jumped. He looked up at Cadance, but her lips hadn’t moved. “What—”
There were two kinds of foals living there. Cadance’s voice tickled his mind like a whisper in his skull. Foals who’d lost their families, and foals who weren’t wanted. Most didn’t talk about which they were, but when I became an alicorn and developed my empathy, it became clear who was who. The foals who’d lost their families were in mourning, but they still had love in their hearts. That love overshadowed all the other feelings so much, it was almost all I could feel in them. But the foals who’d been abandoned—or even worse, rejected...
Sunburst grit his teeth until his jaw hurt. “Get out... get out get out get out gET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”
Cadance opened her eyes, now shining bright with white light. Her horn flared with a simple noise-cancelling spell, an eerie green light spreading out from her to form a hollow dome around them. Their feelings were jumbled in gigantic knots, everything muddled beyond saving.The confusion and stress were eating them from the inside like a poison, and for many of them, it was like a physical gag. They literally couldn’t talk about it, and every time they tried, they’d go so worked up they’d pass out. I didn’t really understand it at the time, but I never forgot what their emotions felt like, even when I got older.
Sunburst reared and hit his front hooves together. His horseshoes flared with ornate, spidery runes, and a twelve-sided array formed around him, the WHUM of prepared magic crackling—
Cadance waved her hoof.
The array faded away. There was a slurping sound as Sunburst sank barrel-deep into the floor, the crystal re-hardening and trapping him tight.
“CADANCE!” Spittle flew from Sunburst’s mouth. “LET! ME! GO!”
I’m afraid I already let someone go today.The suppression spell Cadance had been using crumpled like paper. She rose from her throne and approached to loom over him like a goddess, the air around her hazy and mind-bogglingly heavy. I’ve known you were hiding something since we met, but I didn’t press it because you have a good heart. Yet good hearts are what Queen Chrysalis preys on, and if you’re under her control like Chancellor Neighsay—
It was like awakening a volcano. Upon hearing those words, the putrid emotions in Sunburst’s mind frothed and churned, vying for dominance but never winning. The mass bubbled and fought fiercer than ever within the abyss, surging upward and threatening to spill out into the rest of Sunburst’s mind—
A great pulse erupted from Cadance.
Sunburst screamed. He went rigid, flickers of light dancing behind his eyes. The vile emotions were shoved back through psychic power alone, muscled into submission even as Sunburst fought against her.
“NO!” Rage flashed in his eyes. His horn flashed with a spell—
Cadance waved her hoof again.
“GAH!” Sunburst’s horn became encased in crystal. “STOP IT!”
I’m sorry. Cadance’s voice was an island amidst a chaotic sea. But I need answers, and I can’t afford to respect your privacy. I’d let you tell me yourself, but I know you can’t. Your pain is too deep, and your will is too strong. There’s only one way I’m going to get the truth out of you.
And with that, while holding the volatile emotions still, she dove into the muck and followed each strand to the respective memories. Sunburst shrieked like the damned, his boiling wrath and seething fury hammering Cadance the entire time, but it felt like feathers to her.
Sunburst was seeing red. It felt like Cadance was pouring iodine on an open wound, only said wound was inside his head. He was sweating, his heart pounding fast, and every muscle in his body was tensed. He tried to bite her, but she was too far away for him to reach. Each memory Cadance looked at made him fight her anew, but no matter how hard he tried, it was like a flea trying to stop an elephant.
Until at last, Cadance found the truth.
“What?!” She took a step back. “Chancellor Neighsay’s your—”
“SHUT UP!”Sunburst spat. “DON’T YOU DARE SAY IT!”
Cadance’s eyes fell on Sunburst’s goatee. The glob of emotions she’d just checked was trying particularly hard to surface—scarred with repeated marks of being pushed down many times. “He didn’t send you here… you’ve never even met him… you only ever tried meeting him once, and he—oh, gods... I’m sorry, Sunburst.”
Sunburst’s reply was a very colorful insult about Cadance’s mother.
Cadance watched the viscous emotions roil and churn. “You didn’t even know he was under Chrysalis control... You’re just a victim, you’ve nothing to do with—”
The world screeched to a halt.
“Oh, my god.” Cadance dropped all her spells. Her alicorn magic broke free of Sunburst’s mind to swirl around her like a warm wind before rejoining the vast wellspring she was still immersed in. “What have I… no... no-no-no-no-no! You… You have to be involved somehow! There’s no way I just invaded the wrong—NO! NO-NO-NO-NO-NO! This… th-this is another of Chrysalis’ tricks! She planted you here knowing I’d interrogate you!”
Yet those words rang hollow in Cadance’s heart. Her eyes grew wild, her breath coming in shallow pants, her incredible power flaring out of her control. It’d been so easy to barge into Sunburst’s mind, to brush aside his resistance and take what she wanted...
“I-I…” Cadance jerked her head so fast she nearly got whiplash. “I swore I’d never… Cadance, you MONSTER! You know the laws of war! You KNOW THEM!”
Sire’s Hollow, hollow sire...
Suddenly, a strange, bubbly feeling washed over Cadance. Her eyes glowed even brighter, and the room spun around her with a sudden lurch. She lost balance and fell over with a cry, and the violent tumble made the nausea catch up with her at last. She only just managed to avoid vomiting on herself, her jaw going tingly and numb.
“Wh-What…” Cadance shuddered and coughed, the acrid smell of bile filling her nose. “The Heart? But—”
“You have no heart.”
The color drained from Cadance’s world. She looked up ever-so-slowly, and saw that Sunburst was back on his hooves with his glowing horn free. He was heaving for breath in great gasps, teeth bared in a tear-stained snarl, the darkness in his mind drowning his psyche. He reached into his cloak and produced two half-empty vials—one black, one white.
Sire’s Hollow, hollow sire, son of both shall save Empire…
Cadance could only shut her eyes as the vials smashed into her face.
The fog had cleared at last. The sky was still dreary and overcast, but pegasi and the other cloudwalkers could at least walk about. The streets were still barren, however, as between the city alert sounding, soldiers scrambling about like mad, an explosion in the castle, and a sudden rainbow spiral bathing the entire Empire in holy light, not many were keen on running errands.
But the city outskirts weren’t barren in the slightest. The military had mobilized in full force now, the true might of the north ready to march or hold their ground. Everything was being done to maximize the city’s defense: Wards were being refreshed, patrols were being made on land and in air, arcane crystal sensors were scanning the ground, weapons and armor of all types were being passed out, and more.
“Rgggggh… I see Shining Armor’s reputation is well deserved.” A few miles out in the tundra, Neighsay re-adjusted the telescope he’d stolen from Night months before. “That idiot Chrysalis… her impulsiveness put the whole Empire on lockdown, and now I can’t open a portal in! She of all creatures should’ve known better than to underestimate this lot…”
It was thankfully a calm day out today, the only nuisance a light breeze that compounded the ever-present cold. Neighsay was dressed for the weather, of course, clad in all white and hidden beneath a tarp, his portal medallion in his pocket.
Neighsay calibrated the telescope so he could make out the specialists. “Geomancers pretty much everywhere… most of the battlemages on patrol—wait, where are the stormweavers? The dossier said—”
Just then, an entire company of pegasi swooped down to the grassy field. They were shepherding a group of enormous flashing storm clouds, whose treacherous depths were alive with deadly lightning.
Neighsay snorted. “Of course.” He swivelled the telescope to examine the barrier perimeter. “Let’s have a look at those patrols…”
The patrols weren’t heavy in terms of ponypower, but considering they were all following a set path (as well as giving the barrier a wide berth) Neighsay could put two-and-two together. He doubted he could get within a mile of the forcefield.
Neighsay pushed the telescope away. He’d have to keep his distance if he wanted to get another view. It was possible another side wasn’t as guarded, so he made ready to open a portal west—
His world turned neon green.
“ERGH!” Neighsay eyes glowed bright, the sickly sweet ‘voice’ of Chrysalis’ venom worming its way back into his mind. “DaMN it… YOoOUuU dOOnN’tTTtt… sSEerRrVvEe heR! DoNnNnN’T… liSTeN!”
Don’t listen? Why in the world would he not listen to his beloved queen? Why was he out here in the first place, anyways? His orders were to go back into the city, weren’t they? Hurry, there was much to do if he was to keep to the plan—
“ShE’S a bUg!” Neighsay snarled, his voice gaining strength. “She’s no better—greh—than the rest of the freaks—
No, no, he didn’t mean that. He loved his queen more than anything in the world! Besides, wasn’t it easier to do what he was told? Wasn’t it easier not to think or worry? The Queen knew everything, after all, so why not just follow her orders? It’d make her happy if he did…
Neighsay laughed, his mad, lilted voice like a random notes on a piano. “Stupid lovesucker... You’ve been giving me the same slime every day for too long, and now it’s going to COST YOU! I’M IMMUNE TO YOU!”
What on earth was he going on about? He had his orders, so he should open a portal to the castle throne room right away. He needed to verify if whatever’s weakening the Elements’ magic really was a Sombran artifact. If so, a skilled creature will be needed to remove the defenses. There’s only one creature who’d demonstrated those skills—
“I’M NOT GOING NEAR THAT STUPID BOY!” Neighsay halted the portal he’d almost opened. “Focus Remember what’s important! The country’s filled with monsters, and the royals are the biggest monsters of all! Equestria belongs to the three tribes!”
Three tribes? There was only one tribe, and that was the hive! His every action was done for the good of the changelings, and whatever the Queen told him to do was his very reason for living! He should be ecstatic to help her reclaim what’s rightfully hers, even if it meant laying down his life—
Neighsay screamed. He bared his teeth and lifted a front leg, biting his hock so hard he drew blood. White-hot agony struck his brain like lightning, and with a muffled, adrenaline-fueled roar, he crushed the venomous whispers into nothing.
“You’re… next,” Neighsay spat, the green light fading away. “After the crystal filth, you lovesuckers are next to go! Crystal ponies… changelings… thestrals… alicorns... NO MORE!”
A long silence fell. Neighsay’s leg was bleeding freely, but he made no effort to stem the flow. His only companion was the wind while he stared at nothing, his ragged, foggy exhales rising. Miles away to the west, the Empire’s barrier glowed and shimmered. The tremendous Mount Everhoof was ever-present to the north, and the east and south were nothing but endless snow.
“‘You’d have voiced these concerns years ago when the Empire was annexed, not do what you’ve been doing!’” Neighsay spat in a girly voice. “It’s bad enough I’ve had to waste any breath talking to any of these ‘royals’ in the first place! Monsters, the lot of them...”
A spike of pain made Neighsay’s head throb. He ignored it and dismantled the telescope while he pondered his next move. “The love cow was right. What controls the slaves must hold immense power.” He gave the barrer a perfunctory glance. “It wouldn’t be in the city. But if not there...”
His thoughts were interrupted by a violent shiver. The wind swept past him in a constant gust, the chill starting to turn his extremities numb.
“I’ll find it.” Neighsay opened a portal somewhere warm to regroup. “I won’t stop…”
Meanwhile-
The castle infirmary was a simple affair. Bare crystal walls, square windows with solid color curtains, a polished floor, a collection of beds in a wide open room. The assortment of medical equipment wasn’t as impressive as a proper hospital, but there were private care rooms in the event of an emergency.
“What’s the verdict?” Gleaming asked Apogee, who’d just sat up from a bed in the main room. “Can Luna help Sunburst?”
Apogee shuddered. “She summoned the Tantabus to gather up and contain that… sludgy, nasty… stuff infecting the Archivist’s mind. She can’t get rid of it—not without wiping out most of his memories—but she believes she can still help him. The recovery time, however...”
It’d been a hectic two hours. Sunburst was alive and whole, but he’d fallen unconscious and wouldn’t wake up. A quick dragonfire message to Luna had sent her delving into the Dreamrealm to investigate, but what she’d found wasn’t pretty.
Gleaming’s eyes flicked to the private care room on her right, under heavy guard both inside and out. “I can’t shake the feeling that this was more a suicide attempt than anything else. What did she say?”
A shadow fell over Apogee’s face. “In the Archivist’s final seconds, the Mistress found he was focused on one thing: the worst possible way to hurt someone who couldn’t die… no matter the cost.”
The silence and stillness turned the world into a photo.
“E-Erm…” Apogee put a hoof behind her head. “May I ask something, General?”
Gleaming, who was laying on her side on a pillow, looked over at her. “Regarding?”
Apogee couldn’t help but note that Gleaming was still the taller of them even while laying down. “I-I’m not proud to admit this, but I’m not well-versed in psionics. The Dark Lady was too busy to explain, so I was wondering if...”
Gleaming frowned. “Why ask me? I’m not a psychic or an empath.”
Apogee pawed at the ground. “W-With all due respect, you were the Mistress’ bodyguard and confidant for a great while. And your wife is the most powerful empath alive, so...”
Gleaming stared at Apogee for a long, long time. “You’re shrewder than I thought, First Lieutenant.”
Apogee blushed. “I know it’s none of my business—”
“It’s alright.” Gleaming adjusted her maternity brace, the faint flutter of the foals a comfort in the silence. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s your birthright to understand such things. I’m definitely no expert, though.”
Apogee perked up. “Does that mean you mean you’ll tell me?! Oh, thank you! I’ve always—e-er... I mean, it’s an honor, Ma’am. Thank you very much, Ma’am.”
Gleaming might’ve chuckled if she was in a better mood. “Did Luna give Sunburst’s condition a name? She likes naming things.”
Apogee nodded. “A ‘psionic rupture’. I could see why—the stuff in his mind was gushing out from—w-well, what looked like an old scar that’d healed wrong. It was devouring everything it touched...”
Gleaming looked to their left, where a now-recovered Cadance was getting her magic tested. “Inserting and withdrawing a mental probe into suppressed memories is dangerous, my friend. If you’re not careful, the inner turmoil within can spill out and engulf the host’s entire mind. There’s no telling what can happen then.”
Apogee cocked her head. “Inner turmoil?”
“Emotional baggage, personal issues, traumatic experiences, all of the above...” Gleaming tapped the side of her head. “What you saw was the metaphysical manifestation of Sunburst’s… ah, inner demons, let’s call them. Luna knows what it’s like to be overtaken by such things, so if there’s anyone that can help him, it’s her.”
Apogee scrunched up her face. “I… suppose that’s true. But General, even if the Archivist was compromised… the damage to the throne room… A-And Princess Cadance! You realize this could be seen as—”
“Context, First Lieutenant,” Gleaming said without pause. “Regardless of what it looks like, that doesn’t change what it is. If there’s anything to be learned here, it’s don’t attempt something delicate without knowing your own strength. You wouldn’t attempt surgery with a broadsword, after all.”
Apogee followed her gaze. “She’s so powerful… I-I’d been feeling ripples around her these last weeks, but now... Where did it all come from?”
Gleaming watched Cadance’s ethereal mane swirl with bright color. “Love conquers all, as they say.”
Apogee cocked her head. “Ma’am?’
Gleaming noted the doctor was readying to leave. “Thank you for the update on Sunburst’s condition. If we don’t hear from Princess Luna in a few hours, we’ll send for you again. Dismissed.”
Apogee’s lips parted, but whatever she was going to say died in her throat. She stood up straight and saluted, then walked away without looking back.
Cadance exited the exam room with the weight of the world on her shoulders. She started to make for Gleaming, but then hesitated upon seeing Apogee leave—
“He’s out of the woods,” Gleaming called out. “It’s too early to say much else.”
Cadance sighed. Her eyes were haggard and shadowed, but otherwise she looked same as ever. “I’ll never understand how you keep a cool head during things like this.”
Gleaming shrugged. “I think it’s part of my special talent. Besides, why would I be worried about you when we’ve already met your future self?”
Cadance blinked. Her eyes drifted to Gleaming’s warm womb, their six little miracles sound asleep. “That’s… actually a good point. But still, not only did you stay cool when you saw me, you didn’t even bat an eyelash at Sunburst—”
“Honey.” Gleaming got to her hooves with a grunt. “I had someone pull up Sunburst’s employee file while you were getting your magic checked. He’s from Sire’s Hollow.”
Cadance’s ears drooped. “I knew it. I pretty much just doomed us all, didn’t I? There’s no way he’s going to want anything to do with us after this—”
“Slow down, slow down.” Gleaming put a hoof on her withers. “Let’s take this one thing at a time, alright? It sounds like you’ve developed some kind of link to the Crystal Heart—which is great—but I’m thinking you’re gonna need time to figure out how it works.”
Cadance wet her dry lips. She could still feel the Crystal Heart’s presence in the back of her mind, it’s musical hum rising and falling like a set of chimes. “It’s been sending me flashes of the same thing ever since you cleared out the anti-magic.”
Gleaming furrowed her brow. “What of?”
Cadance looked, where outside and beyond the weather barrier, Mount Everhoof’s presence was felt by all in its shadow. “The Everhoof mountain cave.”
Gleaming ran her tongue along her teeth. “Damn gem just won’t let up on that, eh?”
“But that’s the least of our worries,” Cadance went on. “None of that matters when I violated and tormented an innocent victim to the brink of madness and death—”
“You made a difficult, time-sensitive choice regarding the lives of countless creatures,” Gleaming said in a firm voice. “Never forget that if Chrysalis steals the Crystal Heart, our city will be buried in ice, Equestria will be at war, and the world will be terrorized by superpowered shapeshifters.”
But Cadance may as well not heard. “I should’ve known he wasn’t involved. I should’ve helped him try and explain, or at the very least, had someone else do the probe! There’s so many other things I could’ve done!”
“Listen to me.” Gleaming put a hoof on Cadance’s shoulder. “Should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ are dangerous words. You want to talk about the brink of madness? Should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ will take you there in a jiffy. I shouldn’t have done this, I should do that, I should have known better, I should be the best, I shouldn’t have these problems, I should have all the answers… Those thoughts will eat you alive.”
Cadance hung her head. “Aunt Tia warned me about rationalizing hard decisions in times of war. We can’t ever start to ignore our moral compasses, Gleamy. Neither of us can! It was the lesser of two evils, but what I did was still wrong!”
Gleaming looped her hoof around Cadance. “That’s not what I’m saying at all. Acknowledge your choice, understand why you made it, and offer to make amends if need be, but don’t fixate on what you can’t change. Beating yourself up will only make you feel like crap.”
Cadance’s frown deepened. “Given what I’ve done, I’d say I deserve to feel—”
“NO.” Gleaming looked her dead in the eyes. “Never let yourself finish that sentence. Not out loud, not in your head, not in any way ever, understand? Never, ever, ever. EVER!”
The moodswing nearly made Cadance sick again. She was suddenly reminded of how big Gleaming was, the tip of Cadance’s horn only coming up to her nose. Gleaming’s body length was at least a foot more than Cadance’s, and the difference was only growing with each passing day.
“S-Sorry, Sweetie,” Cadance said with a gulp. “You’re right. That’s going too far.”
Gleaming’s eyes softened. She pulled Cadance close again, now nuzzling and peppering her with feathery kisses. The second moodswing didn’t exactly help Cadance’s stomach, but she soon leaned into Gleaming’s touch and buried her face in Gleaming’s luscious blue mane.
The smell of mint and rosemary was a soothing balm as the minutes dragged on. Gleaming hummed as Cadance rubbed her firm belly in slow circles, her hooves sinking into her plush coat and marvelling at the healthy flesh beneath. Their joined warmth worked to soothe each other’s nerves for a time, their embrace shielding each other from the world.
“Your mane...” Gleaming ran her muzzle through it. “It’s beautiful.”
Cadance looked over at the heavily guarded room, the soldiers watching for threats within and without. “I’m not sure what I want to do when Sunburst wakes up.”
Gleaming’s expression sobered. “Get him the help he needs. Beyond that, it’s up to him.”
Cadance squeezed her tighter. “...And if he never wakes up?”
“Then I’ll help you carry that burden,” Gleaming said without pause. “Now, and always.”
Later-
The next hour and a half was business as usual. Gleaming and Cadance saw about securing the city, had a quick meal, then resumed their duties straightaway. The biggest thing they addressed was setting up supply stations to distribute winter gear to all households. It was mandatory for everyone to keep supplies in their homes just in case, but Gleaming and Cadance weren’t about to take chances.
Twilight and her friends sealed the city with their divine magic, and soon after, the entire Empire settled into a eerie calm. Citizens resumed their lives while soldiers patrolled the streets. Squads ran to and fro checking creatures at a mad rate. The city’s municipalities stopped a few minutes to test for contaminants. Hospitals and stores geared up for the worst. Citizens stepped lightly and spoke to each other in whispers, the silence only broken by the faint BOOMS of the military firing test rounds.
The city became like a well-oiled machine. Cadance and Gleaming oversaw everything according to protocol, but once the most pressing matters were settled, they decided it was time to tie up a few loose ends. They relocated to the Silver Sanctum with Twilight and friends, as well as Spike, Thorax… and Maud at Cadance’s request.
Applejack wiped her brow as she helped move the conference table. “So lemme get this straight. Ya’ll have been shelterin’ Thorax here to see if Princess Cadance can heal him like Princess Luna healed the thestrals?”
Thorax, now in his natural form, showed off his sparkling blue wings. “Cool, huh?”
Gleaming, who was laying on a conjured couch with Spike, nodded. “And just like Luna, becoming a living battery gave Cady a huge magic boost. But Cady’s was happening in a trickle until today, and she didn’t realize how much oomph she had until...”
“I had a tantrum,” Cadance called from across the room. “No need to sugarcoat it.”
Gleaming wisely took a pull from her water bottle. “Regardless, the surge was enough to awaken her power proper. She’s trying to get a handle on it, but strange things have been happening ever since.”
“Like the Crystal Heart talking to her!” Pinkie bounced past with a stack of chairs on her back. “It’s like her heart-shaped crystal ball! We should get her a costume and call her Madam Cadance so she can do readings!”
Thorax blinked. “Readings?”
“Fortune telling,”said Spike, snuggled in between Gleaming’s front legs. “Y’know, reading the future.”
Gleaming watched Pinkie hop away without somehow dropping the chairs. “...Anyway, the Heart keeps showing Cady images of the Everhoof mountain cave, and given Rainbow and Maud had already planned—”
“I gotcha.” Rainbow spun mid-air to face Maud, who was watching from the corner. “What’cha think, Maud? Worth the gamble?”
Maud didn’t bat an eyelash. “Actually—”
“No,” said Rarity, trotting between them. “I’m sorry, but I was barely alright with you two trekking up there by yourselves in the first place. If this venture really is moving forth, we get it done as fast as possible so we can return to matters here.”
Rainbow facehooved. “Again with the ‘we’… Why are you so dead set on coming along?”
Applejack walked up as well. “We’re strongest when we’re together, featherbrain. You know full well goin’ up that giant mountain right now is asking for trouble. A few days into it, something bad’s gonna happen down here, and we’ll be up horseapple creek without a paddle.”
Rainbow put her hooves on her hips. “Has anything bad happened in Ponyville while Twi and I have been gone?”
Twilight cringed and tried to wave—
“What do you call my brother’s wrasslin’ match up in the sky?!” Applejack snapped. “Didn’t you hear where that rock thing showed up? If he hadn’t kicked it back where it came from, there wouldn’t BE a Ponyville!”
Rainbow opened her mouth… then closed it again. “Whoops.”
“Yeah, whoops.”
Maud raised her hoof. “I don’t want to be the cause of issues. Maybe it’d be better if I went up by myself—”
“No,” said Cadance right away. “Either you go up with an escort, or you don’t go up at all. Princess’ orders.”
“Double princess’ orders,” said Gleaming. “You’ve three options, Maud: get flown up with an escort, get teleported up with an escort, or you don’t go up at all.”
Spike whistled. “Gleam-Gleam and Cadance laying down the law.”
Gleaming gave Spike a gentle squeeze. “I’ve been up that mountain twice. Both times were a nightmare and a half, and every fiber of my body was screaming to get away the whole time. Whatever’s inside that mountain has been there since anyone can remember.”
“There’s a long-standing legend among the crystal ponies,” Cadance said. “It’s never been proven, but many say that Everhoof is the birthplace of the windigoes. I doubt there’s much truth to that, but it’d explain the presence of evil magic, as well as why the weather’s so hostile.”
“All I’m hearing are more reasons we need to go with you,” Rarity said to Rainbow. “There’s no sense in you and Maud risking your hides when there’s a safer way. Whether we teleport or fly together, either way gets this done in a fraction of the time.”
Rainbow sighed. “I never thought it’d be you of all ponies making the biggest stink about this, Rares. Why are you insisting on this when you know full well you’re gonna be miserable the whole time?”
Rarity narrowed her eyes. “Better miserable than in mourning, dear.”
…
…
...
“It’s ultimately your choice, Maud,” Twilight said, pausing to look at everyone else in the room. “We all want you to succeed, but this isn’t the time for a full-blown expedition. I’m sorry, but either the six of us take you to speed things along, or you come up with a different topic for your dissertation.”
A long silence fell. Everyone stood still and calm, watching Maud’s every move. Her face was unreadable as always, but she did look over at Pinkie a few times, something unspoken passing between them.
“Teleporting isn’t an option,” Maud said at last. “Telemancy wreaks havoc on terranometers and thaumic mineral scanners. I may as well not go up at all.”
Twilight nodded. “So we fly, then?”
Maud glanced at Pinkie one last time. “...Alright.”
“EEEEEEEE!” Pinkie glomped her in a flash. “FINALLYFINALLYFINALLYFINALLYFINALLY! AHHHHHHHH!”
Maud shut her eyes and hugged Pinkie back. “Mom and Dad are gonna kill me...”
Rarity clapped her hooves. “I knew you’d see reason! We’ll set out within the hour, then. I even took the liberty of packing equipment for everyone!”
Twilight facehooved. “Of course you did.”
Spike glanced up at Gleaming. “What about me? Am I coming along?”
Gleaming’s knee-jerk response was ‘hell no’, but caught herself just in time. “E-Erm, well… I’d rather you didn’t, but Twily has the final say on the matter—”
“Not even dragons are immune to this kind of magic, Spike,” Twilight said. “Sorry, but you’ll have to sit this one out.”
Spike shrugged. “Eh, at least the rest of the family’s here.”
“Then we’ve got a light show to pull off!” Applejack nudged Cadance towards the open area. “Don’t worry, we’ll get that curse outta ya faster’n you can say ‘apples on a tin roof’!”
Cadance pursed her lips. “Okay, but… just don’t get discouraged if this doesn’t work, okay? We’ve tried almost everything.”
“Not to worry, dear.” Rarity trotted to Cadance’s other side to form a circle. “We’re just ruling it out as an option, is all.”
“Who’s gonna carry your next foal if this works?” Rainbow asked.
Cadance exchanged a look with Gleaming. “We’ve, e-erm… thrown around ideas. None very serious, though.”
Gleaming got a saucy grin.
“I know I’d like a go at it, and of course Gleamy would given her alicorn domain, but the order…” Cadance tried to fiddle with a lock of her mane, but then remembered said mane was pure energy now. “Let’s just say there’s a lot of things to consider.”
Now Gleaming had to bite back a laugh. Yes, things to consider… including her own ongoing physical changes. She’d been growing more and more hopeful she’d gain complete and fully functional sets of both male and female genitalia, and while she hadn’t seen any signs, the notion wouldn’t leave her mind. She could just picture it—growing more virile and fertile with every passing day, pregnant as she was now and still able to knock up Cadance at will. It’d be fun to figure out new ways to fuck each other silly, her cock buried deep in Cadance while their foals kicked in both their wombs—
“...gonna be a gauntlet to push all them kiddos out,” Gleaming heard Applejack say.
Gleaming snapped to. “Eh?”
Rainbow and Pinkie burst out laughing.
Rarity couldn’t hide her hind legs tensing up. “She has a point. Not to be rude, Princess, but you are more... ‘expectant’... than the norm…”
“You don’t need to dance around it,” Rainbow said, still laughing. “She’s proud of how huge she is! You should see her right after a meal!”
Now Gleaming laughed as well. Even with growing taller, her ever-greater binges swelled her belly until she could lay on it like a bed. At first it’d only grounded her for a few minutes, but with the foals now entering their last (and biggest) growth spurt, her increasing appetite had turned a few minutes into five, then ten… then fifteen…
Thorax turned to Spike. “Er...”
Spike waved him off. “The grown-ups are being weird again.”
Thorax buzzed his wings. “They do that a lot.”
“You don’t need to worry about labor and birth.” Twilight gestured to herself and Cadance. “We’ve already come up with something to help with that, and our plan is to cast it once the contractions start. It’ll be alright, don’t worry.”
Cadance smirked at Gleaming. “Although given those muscles and hips of yours, you may not even need it.”
Gleaming paled. “I don’t care what kind of shape I’m in. You’re giving me magic and drugs for that! ALL the magic and drugs!”
Now everyone laughed.
“Well, given you’ve got such good ponies lookin’ out for ya, I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Applejack searched Gleaming’s face. “I won’t lie, even with all this alicorn business, I was a mite worried when I heard you’re carryin’ six. But you’ve gone through worse and nad still come out on top, so this’ll probably be a stroll in the orchard for you.”
And once again, Gleaming’s was drawn to Applejack’s green eyes. Calm and vibrant, they studied her in a way that few others had.
“Enough with the chatting, it’s time for the zapping!” Pinkie motioned Maud clear, then hopped into her spot. “Daylight’s burning, girls!”
Twilight cleared her throat. “Right. Here we go, everypony.”
There wasn’t any ornate array, no special reagents or time requirement. All that was needed was the six of them together. Gleaming and Cadance shared one last look, a novel’s worth of words passing between them.
Thorax looked at Cadance as well, his tongue flicking out. “Should I really be here for this?”
“Eh, you’ll be fine,” Spike said to him. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
Cadance cleared her throat. “Okay. I’m ready.”
It started out small. The pressure in the room rose, building up into a soft breeze that ruffled everyone’s manes. The air rippled around the Elements of Harmony, their magic awakening and rising as one, the six of them shifting into their Rainbow Power forms. Tiny motes of light appeared that flew forward to swirl around Cadance like multicolored fireflies, and while she noted the motes felt familiar somehow, she didn’t think much past that.
Maud’s eyes widened a fraction of an inch. “Interesting.”
Holy light filled the room. Cadance stayed still and focused on her breathing, the soothing energy caressing her limbs and tickling her face. It didn’t feel like much at first, but the power kept rising and rising, surpassing her strength with ease and only just getting started. The room faded to white as the light grew brighter still, yet Cadance could always see the six mares around her, their colorful eyes fixed on her. She could feel Elements’ power suffusing her, searching for the curse that remained despite—
At last, you’ve grown strong enough to See Heart of my heart, please hear my plea
Cadance gasped. The bubbly feeling washed over her again, the same voice from the throne room returning full force. Her eyes turned pure white as her magic combined with the Elements like she was one of them.
I… o-okay. I’m listening.
Futures twisted and futures turned One succeeded, the others burned A foul fixed point, the path is set But all hope isn’t lost... not yet.
Cadance was frozen in place. The foreign power of the Elements was running through her, honing in on the curse’s magic, but it may as well have been happening a million miles away. Questions raced through her mind faster than light, but her connection with the Heart was terrifyingly tenuous, so she kept silent.
A last resort discovered by luck A balance could indeed be struck Until the Seeds of Evil’s Bane Could turn the tide and let peace reign...
At the cost of heavenly pain.
The Elements attacked Sombra’s curse. It was purged with little resistance, but then came right back like a cancer. Again the Elements tried to burn it away, and again they destroyed it without issue, but it just came right back strong as ever.
“Harder!” Twilight called.
Cadance staggered. The light was now twice as bright, and it made her magic greater than ever. The power of Love coursed through her the same as it has back on Hearts and Hooves Day, only now, it was all hers… and she was still getting stronger. Her aura intensified more and more as seconds passed, filling the room with her ambient power...
Past and present, mother and daughter Split apart to stop a slaughter A final gift, the gift of time To let the daughter reach her prime.
And all of ambient power was pouring into Thorax. The sparkling glint in his wings spread to his entire body, giving him the crystalline shine others got when the Crystal Heart emitted a pulse of love.
“Ergh!” Thorax got a wild look in his eyes. He could feel something building, something hungry and fierce. He absorbed all the love in the room in an instant, but even when he took in so much the holes in his soul were healed, he was like a black hole. He was just about to lose control and go into a frenzy, but just then, Spike noticed and rushed over to him.
The mother waits, her sacrifice Can be undone, but at a price A Hate-Filled Dragon, born of ice An error made, not once, but twice.
The Elements suffused Cadance with more and more power, but no matter what they did, the curse always came back. It was like they were running over a weed with a lawn mower, never getting at the roots. Twilight soon realized this wasn’t going to work, but there was one more thing they could try, something that might shed some light on this mystery…
Sire’s Hollow, hollow sire Son of both shall save Empire When two fronts loom and all seems dire The answer lies within a mire.
Twilight mentally reached out to her friends. They felt her call and redirected their power to her, heightening her abilities and senses beyond measure. She studied the dark magic within Cadance for several seconds, watching it come back each time it was zapped. She then zoomed in her focus until she could see the individual particles of magic, and when she burned them away again… she caught the faintest hint of a signature invading Cadance’s body. It was near-imperceptible, mimicking Cadance’s magic to a T, but once Twilight noticed it, it was easy to lock-on and—
A white light shone out from Thorax. He rose into the air with a shrill cry, every bit of energy he’d consumed flowing out of him and enveloping him in opaque sheets. The blast sent Spike flying into Maud, but fortunately, she caught him without moving an inch.
Everypony spun to look. Gleaming cast a forcefield around Thorax capable of withstanding the implosion of several hundred fireballs, but as she did so, the magic covering him solidified into a… cocoon?
“Thorax!” Cadance made to move, but the Elements still had her frozen. She was about to call to Twilight, but before she could, the Crystal Heart spoke one last time.
Heart of my heart, I’ve watched you long At last you’re now grown up and strong A curse endured, but know this truth It’s foul source lurks in Everhoof.
A king shall rise, a queen shall fall Freed at last from cruelty’s thrall The past is passed, you must stand tall The Hate-Filled Dragon devours all.
Forget this not, whatever you do Life will keep you tethered and true But still be wary, for an abyss viewed... Can stare right back at both of you.
The cocoon split apart with a great CRACK! Everyone averted their eyes just in time to avoid being blinded by a mighty flash of light. Gleaming sensed her shield was still intact, but she still made ready to call for backup—
“What the…”
Lime green. Lime green legs, lime green head, neck, ears, and a lime green chest that transitioned to orange. He had three horns, one like a unicorn’s and the others a cross between moose antlers and beetle pincers.The chitin on his back was a reddish purple, as were his eyes, and his tail was translucent like a butterfly’s wing.
But most noticeable of all, he’d gotten BIG. Bigger than Gleaming, bigger than Big Mac, possibly even bigger than Celestia! He was crammed into the forcecage Gleaming had put around him, and from the immense aura of his alien magic that hit them like a blow to the face—
“Uh…” Thorax stared at the forcefield around him. “What just happened? Why—”
And then he looked at himself.
Cue girly screaming.
Later-
“You’re sure he’ll be alright?” Fluttershy asked.
It was now early afternoon. Affairs had been sorted, goodbyes had been said, and now after getting packed and ready, Twilight and her friends were set to fly Maud up Mount Everhoof. They’d all gathered on one of the northern balconies with Spike, Cadance, and Gleaming present to see them off.
“I can sense problems like diseases and injuries.” Gleaming was in the midst of helping Twilight put the last of everyone’s things in a pocket dimension, and was trying not to comment on how much some of them were bringing. “Physically, he’s fine, I think he’s mostly just freaked about not constantly being hungry anymore.”
Spike watched them from Rainbow’s armored back. “He said it’s like suddenly not needing to breathe.”
It wasn’t any surprise that Rainbow was bringing her enchanted armor for the trip. No, the surprise came when Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy arrived wearing their own sets of enchanted armor. The designs were the exact same as Rainbow’s: periwinkle blue metal, long trails of runes like tree branches, a cutie mark crest on their chests, sabatons with ivy-like guards creeping up their legs like vines, elegant chamfrons that curled around their eyes and muzzles, and sturdy helms topped with three-pronged spikes resembling Twilight’s crown. Their protective enchantments had been cast by Princess Celestia herself, and when all five of them had gathered behind Twilight and stood at attention, they really did look like national heroes.
Rarity patted Fluttershy’s shoulder with a dull clank. “Don’t worry, darling. I can’t imagine a shapeshifter will have much trouble adjusting to a new body! He’ll be alright.”
“What about you?” Twilight asked Cadance, who was over by the balcony railing. “Are you still okay with this? We can put it off if you want help deciphering the Crystal Heart’s message.”
Cadance didn’t look at her. She was staring at the railing with her gaze a million miles away, her voice equally far off and faint. “It’s like I’ve been walking around all my life with a blindfold, and the Elements gave me the strength to rip it off…”
Twilight furrowed her brow. “Uh… Cadance?”
Cadance looked up to stare at nothing. “Can you see the paths? The past ones are static, but the future ones keep splitting… splitting...”
Gleaming swept past Twilight before she could say anything. Cadance didn’t even notice her wife’s approach, but she did react when Gleaming swooped in to kiss her lips.
Cadance hummed. Her eyes finally focused to smile… Only to remember they weren’t alone. “I, er… did it again, didn’t I.”
Gleaming snickered. She made sure to run her long, mint-smelling tail beneath Cadance’s nose before returning to her spot. “Life will keep you tethered and true.”
Cadance inhaled deep. She watched Gleaming’s wide hips and powerful butt sway back and forth, her healthy, swollen womb more than twice the width of the rest of her. “Oh, you keep me tethered, alright…”
“Okaaaaaaay!” Twilight all but shouted. “So, Cadance! Can you tell if we should go to the mountain or not?”
Cadance made a face. “That’s what I was just trying to check, actually. I can tell this choice is pivotal, but it’s all blurry and murky, almost like it’s a… like a—”
“Fixed point,” Maud said.
“Exactly,” Cadance said. “But I—”
And just like that, all eyes were on Maud.
“I noticed you used past, present, and future tense while reciting the poem back to us,” Maud said, fiddling with a geomancy device like a miniature metal detector. “The tense remained consistent within each stanza, but the first four lines switched between past and present. It seemed odd to me those would be the only deviations from the established structure.”
Gleaming was the first to see. “Unless there was more than one fixed point.”
Now Maud looked up. “The first couplet was the past, the second couplet is the present. Two linchpins in our timeline, so dense they’re unable to scry.”
“Wow, good catch, Maud!” Pinkie said. “All that poetry writing’s made you a master, huh?”
The smallest of smiles graced Maud’s face. “Perhaps this trip will inspire my muse.”
Cadance’s heart skipped a beat. A notion like a lightning bolt had just struck her brain, a simple question that she doubted she’d have thought of by herself until later. Something told her she had but a few seconds to ask it before the moment passed—
"What else did you notice about the poem?!” Cadance blurted out.
Everyone jumped.
Maud gave her instrument to Twilight. “Not much, I’m afraid. I did figure out the most obvious stanza, but I’m sure you’ve already deciphered that.”
It’s a good thing Cadance was an empath, else she might’ve taken that the wrong way. “Maud, over the last five hours, I’ve confirmed a major political figure is a spy, undergone the two largest magical growth spurts of my life, seen to the defense of a major city, taken an anti-magic bomb to the face, developed the power of a seer, and verified I have the power to cure changelings. I’m afraid even the obvious is escaping me at the moment.”
Maud’s expression didn’t change, but her face did go pale. “I-I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay.” Cadance tapped the side of her head. “You weren’t being condescending, you just needed some context.”
“Will you tell us what you figured out, please?” Gleaming asked. “It sounds like you’ve got the jump on this.”
Only Pinkie and Cadance could tell how shaken Maud now was. “O-Of course… ahem, the stanza I figured out is the one about the Seeds of Evil’s Bane. The Elements of Harmony are the bane of all evil, and the original vessels came from a magic tree, so the original vessels could technically be considered its fruit. Fruits are known to have seeds, of course, but seeds are also synonymous with the essence of something that’s been reproduced or reincarnated.”
Twilight’s eyes went wide. “Of course! The Seeds of Evil’s Bane would be the essence of the Fruit of Evil’s Bane—the power of the Elements themselves! The power’s even been transferred and transformed multiple times, it’s latest… iteration... being… oh, dear.”
Pinkie burst out laughing. “Does that mean the Tree of Harmony got us pregnant?”
Applejack and Rarity swatted her.
Maud continued on without missing a beat. “The stanza’s remaining lines indicate whoever created the Tree knew they’d be ensuring peace for Equestria, but at the cost of making Princess Celestia and Princess Luna suffer. The creator tried to find a better way than this ‘last resort’, but ultimately, they had no choice.”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,” Rainbow said. “Are you saying this crazy poem is talking about how the Tree of Harmony was made?!”
Maud regarded Rainbow like she was a bump on a log. “I’m not sure. The other portions didn’t make much sense to me.”
“I doubt they made sense to anyone,” Gleaming said. “Things here and there were straightforward, like the part about the source of Sombra’s curse being in Everhoof, but I can’t even guess who or what the ‘Hate-Filled Dragon’ is.”
Fluttershy meeped.
“Not me!” said Spike. “I’m definitely not filled with hate!”
Twilight swooped in to give him a quick hug before transferring him to Gleaming. “Nor were you born from ice.”
Cadance closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. “I’m never going to be completely okay with this, but if there’s any group of ponies suited for discovering what lurks within Mount Everhoof, it’s all of you. I wish I could give more insight, but the farther into the future I look, the more the paths split up.”
Applejack rolled her shoulders. “Eh, I think we can sort it out. We’ll turn that place inside out if need be.”
“Unless we’re still staying at the entrance.” Rainbow glanced at Twilight. “Are we going full snoop mode, Boss? Or just poking around?”
Twilight blinked like an owl. “Why are you asking—oh, carrots, that’s right. I’m calling the shots since I’m coming along, aren’t I?”
Gleaming nodded. “You may as well consider this official Elements of Harmony business at this point. Besides, when it comes to your knights, your orders take precedent.”
Rainbow snickered and kneeled before Twilight. “M’lady.”
Twilight groaned. “Stupid outdated bylaws. I swear, if there’d been another way—wait, Pinkie, why are you kneeling, too? And Fluttershy! Rarity! Oh, come on!”
Now all five were kneeling before Twilight, most trying not to laugh.
“Yeah!” Spike raised his fist. “Go, Twilight!”
Twilight ran a hoof down her face. “Would you like to have my wings, Spike? I’m sure there’s a spell to make them dragon-ish.”
“You should go,” said Cadance. “If you start out now, you’ll be able to get a few hours of exploring in the caverns.”
“Right.” Twilight came over to give Gleaming a hug. “We have enough supplies for two weeks, but it shouldn’t take that long considering I have a lock on Sombra’s magic signature. And don’t you dare have those babies before I get back, missy! I want to be here for it!”
Gleaming smiled. “I’ll do my best.”
Cadance hugged Twilight as well. “We’ll find a way to get you out if you’re not back in time. Don’t worry.”
Twilight bit her lip. “Actually… there’s one other pony completely immune to dark magic you can send for. It’ll be messy, but considering our options, they might be the only choice.”
Gleaming tilted her head. She wracked her brain for who that might be, but the dark magic levels within the cave were off the charts. About the only other pony she could think of that—
Applejack’s quiet laugh broke the silence. Her green eyes sparkled within her visor, staring straight at Gleaming. “I heard tell y’all have met my brother?”
Meanwhile-
“Blast it,” Neighsay growled as he trudged out of a snowy chasm. “I thought for sure that one would have something...”
It’d been a stressful couple of hours. He was ten miles north of Empire’s weather barrier amidst the lowermost crags of the Himaneighyas, nothing more than a speck of white amidst a frigid sea of snow, ice, and rock. But the treacherous footing and reduced oxygen levels were just extra annoyances to deal with, on top of having occasionally having to fight off the influence of Chrysalis’ venom.
“And here I always thought the stories about these mountains were nonsense.” Neighsay looked up at Manechenjunga and shuddered. “It’s here, alright. Not sure where, but...”
Evil lurked in this place. He’d felt it as soon as he’d ventured a few dozen feet underground—an acidic burning that gnawed at his magical senses. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of reliable maps of the Himaneighyas that Neighsay could reference, and even if there were the Dark King wouldn’t have hidden anything in somewhere charted. Neighsay had managed to track down a few concealed caves among the lowest reaches with a few clever spells, but every place he’d searched so far had been a bust.
“One or two more.” Neighsay took a swig of water from a canteen. Retreating to a warmer climate every so often while under a pressure-normalizing spell was a simple matter, but the weather and altitude were still obstacles. Visibility was an ever-present issue, oxygen spells were taxing to cast, and if the wind and cold were this bad during the calm season, he didn’t even want to think what it was like the rest of the year.
Neighsay shook his head clear. Such issues could be dealt with later, there was still a good bit of daylight left, and he had to make the most of it. He reached in his saddlebags and quickly assembled his telescope to triangulate—
Suddenly, there was a glimmer of light in the southern sky.
“Eh?” Neighsay squinted. He couldn’t make out what the light was, but it was flying his way, and fast. It almost looked like a multicolored comet, but... during the daytime? He concealed himself among the rocks and angled his telescope towards the anomaly, the magical lens calibrating itself as he did...
It was a group of seven mares. Neighsay recognized six of them immediately, their gaudy glowing forms a dead giveaway. But they also looked to be wearing—ah, that’s right, they were paladins now. Hmph, more like freaks, far as he was concerned. The seventh mare, however, looked to be a regular earth pony. It seemed she couldn’t fly like the others (she was riding on the pink one’s back) but even so, she seemed unperturbed travelling at a ludicrous speed.
“Wait.” Neighsay zoomed in on Maud’s face. “I’ve seen her before…”
It took a few moments, but eventually it came to him. Some months ago in Canterlot, he’d been walking past a subordinate’s desk when he’d seen this mare’s photo on a request for a letter of recommendation. Normally he wouldn’t have thought anything of it—they got those requests every day—but not only did this request have the rare colored stamp of being for a dissertation, the mare’s family name…
“What was it Nimblefeather said?” Neighsay’s eyes flicked back and forth. “Letter’s wording was vague, but we’re short on geologists... mentioned gathering energy readings in the northern—”
The realization hit him like punch to the face.
“No...” Neighsay watched with bated breath as the seven mares flew high in the sky in a straight line towards the largest, most dangerous mountain in Equestria, never once changing their course. “There’s no way they’d be looking for—but then why else would Twilight Sparkle leave her sister?! That’s the whole reason she came up to the blasted Empire! There’s no way she’d leave so close to…”
Neighsay realized the seven mares were getting away. He needed to make a decision now, or it was going to be made for him. Cursing, he re-oriented his triangulation spell to lock on to Maud, his sense of dread growing as he watched the mares ascend Everhoof’s foul reaches.
