Sunset Reset

by LordBrony2040


Chapter 27: Friday Nights are for Ending Finales

Twilight just didn’t understand some things about adults. Well, semi-adults that had more authority than any other adult she had met because they were the unquestioned rulers of Equestria. Not that she understood Shining Armor any better, or any of his friends.

The latest thing about adults that she didn’t understand was why everypony just stood there looking at each other oddly when the alicorns asked if Shining Armor was ready to take them to the dance. Even Twilight’s mom looked worried.

“Okay,” Cadance finally said with a sigh before she reached up and put a hoof to her forehead. “Really should have seen this one coming.”

Sunset blinked. “Huh?”

The question had Cadance drop her hoof and look over to the bigger alicorn. “Let me guess, you found a letter from Shiny in your locker, right?”

“Letter?” Shining Armor mumbled.

“Yeah,” Sunset replied cautiously.

Cadance sighed. “Look, Sunset. Shiny’s been having to put up with the two of us pushing him back and forth between us for over a week. Yes, we’ve said how much we adore him, but all we’re trying to do is push him onto somepony else, well...can you blame him for having a backup in case you turned him down?”

“Okay, that makes-wait,” Sunset cut herself off before frowning. “Why do you think you’re the backup plan?”

Cadance rolled her eyes. “Because I’m the second pony he dated and you’re the heroic empress with the big bouncy butt,” she explained. “So, you’re the one that’s going to be taking Shiny to the Formal.”

“Um, no,” Sunset replied. “I’m the messed up mare that he tried out before finding something better. Ergo, you’re the one taking Shining Armor to the Formal.”

Shining Armor moaned and slumped on the couch as the two alicorns continued their...debate.

Twilight cocked her head to the side. Unable to come to a conclusion about the confusion growing from the events transpiring herself, and with her parents too busy cowering behind the sofa to answer any questions as Princess Cadance and Empress Sunset began to increase the volume of their argument, Twilight looked over to her brother. “Shiny, I’m confused.”

“About what, Twilight?” Shiny asked in a depressed tone as he watched to the two alicorns go at it.

Twilight looked back to the battle for a moment, then over to her brother. “Well, you look sad. But isn’t it supposed to be a good thing when mares fight over a stallion when you’re the stallion they’re fighting over?”

After watching the two rulers of the country for a few more seconds, Shining Armor looked over to the little purple unicorn. “Well...um…”

“You’re taking Shining Armor to the Formal!” Empress Sunset ordered the pink pony in front of her.

“No! You’re taking Shining Armor to the Formal!” Princess Cadance commanded the amber alicorn.

Shining Armor sighed and hung his head. “I don’t think this is what they had in mind.”

Sunset snorted at the other pony and drew herself up to her full height. “Cadance, I am the Empress of Equestria, and I am ordering you to take Shining Armor to the Formal!”

Unable to match Sunset’s height, Princess Cadance flapped her wings to get into the air so she could look down on Sunset. “And I’m the Princess of Love! And according to the Marena Cartna, paragraph two, subsection D, I’m the one with absolute authority when it comes to my domain! Which means I’m the one that can order you to take Shining Armor to the Fall Formal!”

Then the pink pony landed in a huff. “Which I am. So take him!”

Seeing that this was going to lead to another endless argument loop, Twilight put aside her popcorn and stood up on the couch to better look the bigger ponies in the eye. “Uh, Princesses?”

Both of the ponies stopped for a second and looked at her right as Twilight realized her mistake. “Oh! I mean, um-I’m sorry Empress Sunset! I didn’t mean to call you Princess. I just-”

Sunset held up a hoof. “It’s okay, Twilight,” she assured the little filly.

A response that made Twilight shake her head furiously. “No it’s not!” she exclaimed. “You’re a better supreme ruler than Princess Celestia ever was! You’re stronger, and kinder, and nicer, and innovative, and-”

“Twilight!” Sunset snapped at her before her eyes widened and she drew herself back. “Ahem, what was it you were saying, Twilight?”

After the redirection, Twilight put her mind back on track. “Oh, right! Well, I know that we are a female dominated society and that mares hold the reins in most relationships but it’s stallions that are the ones that begin the courting rituals because in ancient times, before ponies invented potions to ensure the gender of their foals, we had a very female dominated ratio of mares to stallions, so stallions were given the task of looking for mares to avoid conflicts between mares and ensure Harmony-”

Sunset cleared her throat. “Twilight, you had a question in there, somewhere?”

Being cut off made Twilight blink. “Oh, well...since tradition dictates that Shining Armor be the one to ask you out, and you both came here expecting Shiny to take you to the Formal, which one of you did he ask?”

“Me,” both of the alicorns answered in unison.

Then, Sunset let out a hesitant moan. “Well, he didn’t really ask me as such.”

“I got a letter. He left it for me in my locker,” Cadance said.

Sunset nodded. “Yeah same here I got a...wait a second,” the Empress mumbled before she studied the white stallion on the couch for a second, and then looked over at Shiny’s two tall female unicorn friends. “Fleur.”

“Sassy,” Cadance said not a moment later.

Both of the mares tensed and looked at each other. They each asked the other pony something that Twilight couldn’t hear, and then tentatively came forward. The white unicorn with the pink made was the first to speak. “Um...well...Empress you said you wanted help-”

“-and you did too Princess!” Sassy said right on top of her friend. “But, there was no way that Shining Armor was going to ask Empress Sunset out with just one day of encouragement. So-”

“-we might have both came up with the same plan for...each of you,” Fleur finished.

“Without telling the other,” Sassy added.

Sunset groaned and put a hoof to her forehead. “So...Shiny didn’t invite me or Cadance to the Formal,” she said before looking over to the young stallion. “Then what were you doing at the clothing store getting a tux?”

Before Shining Armor could say anything, Cadance let out a nervous laugh. “Um...actually, I don’t think he had any intention of getting a tux there,” she said. “We just saw him on the bench and...assumed he was waiting for the shop to open.”

“Oh…” Sunset responded before wincing a little bit. It was short-lived though. She stood back up to her full height with a questioning frown. “But Stich said he had a tux for you!”

Cadance gave Sunset an even look. “After you said he did.”

“And the corsage?” Sunset asked before looking over to the item that had gone back into its plastic case. “He didn't just stumble into that!”

Twilight Velvet peeked out from behind the couch. “Um, that was me, Your Eminence,” she told the big alicorn hesitantly. “My first date forgot to get me one when I went to my first dance, so I thought better safe than sorry.”

Tension in the room continued to build as Sunset remained silent. Then, after a few seconds, Princess Cadance looked over to Shiny. “So...wait, you didn’t ask either of us out?”

Shining Armor winced. “Well...um...about that...I...um…”

“Shiny, were you actually planning to skip out on the Fall Formal?” the pink princess demanded.

Placed beneath the gaze of the slightly miffed pink alicorn Shining Armor scooted back into the sofa as far as he could go. “Well...um...I...I just…”

When he was unable to form a coherent response, Cadance continued on. “Shiny, I even kissed you and-and what I said to you afterwards...I...and you didn’t say ANYTHING?” she demanded.

Backed up into the couch as far as he could go, it seemed Shiny’s fight or flight response was denied one option, so it switched to another. “Well what am I supposed to say?” he demanded right back, making Cadance blink and step away from him. “You and Sunset...you...the two of you...I...I...first, it’s all about Sunset. Then, the two of you talk me into going on a date with you. And it’s fun and awesome and everything else! Then, you’re both all like, pick the other one, then you’re both kissing me and saying I’m taking you both to the Formal and-and....” Finally spent, Shining Armor didn’t even finish as he fell back into the couch's cushions with a long sigh.

Both the alicorns looked down at the ground sadly, but said nothing.

Twilight just frowned at the silliness of it all. She didn’t see what everypony was getting so worked up and sad about. “So...why don’t you just take both of them?”

“It doesn’t work like that Twilight,” Cadance told her with a sad smile.

Despite the fact that a princess was telling her otherwise, Twilight shook her head. “Yes it does,” she insisted. “I have evidence. You both went to lunch with Shiny that one time. That was a date, right? In fact, if you factor in the importance of the venue, it was even more of a date than what you’re going to now. So why can’t Shiny just be with you both?”

Sunset frowned at the ground in thought for several seconds, then looked up with a little smile on her face. “Okay, that sounds good to me.”

“What?” Cadance said as she looked over to the bigger alicorn. “Sunset, that’s not-”

“Not what?” Sunset asked before the pink princess could finish. “Not what we’re supposed to do? So what? We’re the alicorns, that means we make the rules,” The bigger alicorn turned her whole body to face the smaller one. “Cadance, let’s face it. We screwed up. We put way too much pressure on Shiny, and this is the result. I am not going to mess what is supposed to be a magical night for him up Cadance, and if that means we both be with him, so what? What’s wrong with us both having fun with the stallion we like?”

Cadance gave Sunset a hesitant frown. “And what about what comes after,” she asked before glancing at Twilight for a second.

A sigh escaped from Sunset’s mouth and she gave Cadance a half-lidded look. “Do you have any idea what a mess I would be if I worried about what came next?” she asked before glancing over to Shining Armor. “Let’s just go, hang out, and have fun. No pressuring anypony into kissing or being all lovey-dovey with the other. Just the three of us enjoying eachothers company, together. Afterwards...well...whatever happens, happens.”

Then Empress Sunset looked back over to Shining Armor. “Okay?”

Shining Armor hesitated a moment. “No more fighting?” he asked cautiously.

After sharing another look with the bigger alicorn, Cadance nodded to Shiny. “Only if you want to.”

“Okay so…” Shining Armor looked back to his mother, who was still holding the camera in her magic. “Who am I taking the pictures with, then?”

Nearly ten minutes later, after Fleur and Sassy allowed for photographic evidence that they had gone to the Formal with Shiny’s group to be produced, Cheerilee and her other friend who Twilight couldn’t name got their pictures taken along with Shiny’s friends, all the non-royal fillies got in a photograph, followed by all the colts, on top of Fleur and her fancy date, and everypony took one together, Shiny stood between the Princess and the Empress as they both put their wings around him and smiled for the camera.

As Twilight Velvet loaded in another roll of film, Shining Armor looked back and forth between the two alicorns. “So, are we going to switch off between dances or...what?”

Sunset shrugged. “We switch, call dibs...whatever you want Shiny,” she assured him.

“We’ll figure it out on the way,” Cadance said.

A clicking sound announced that Velvet was ready, and the three ponies leaned their heads in together to help compensate for Sunset’s height. “Say cheese everypony.”


As had become the norm, Shining Armor sat between the two alicorns as the enormous carriage made its way down the street, towards the school. The rest of the girls sat across from him while the guys were on his right. He wasn’t exactly sure why Upper Crust was there, what with her falling out of favor with everypony else in the royal social circle, but he didn’t feel like questioning it.

When everything was said and done, Shining Armor was figuring everything ended up to be the best possible solution. Sunset and Cadance weren’t trying to push him off on the other, or fighting over him, or...anything, really. They were still talking about a few things, but nothing like before. In fact, Shining Armor felt himself looking forward to the Fall Formal for the first time since both of the girls just assumed he would take one of them all those days ago.

“Okay, so...you need to take the first few dances with him, Cadance,” Sunset told the shorter pony.

Cadance raised an eyebrow. “The reason being?”

The question got an embarrassed look from Sunset as she broke eye contact. “Well...um...it’s been awhile since I,” she said before let out a gruff sigh. “Look, I’m really out of practice when it comes to...Equestrian dancing, and I’ve got hooves that shatter stone. Don’t really think I should be dancing with Shiny until I get a few practices in and my muscles remember how they’re supposed to move. So unless we get hit by the Music of Harmony or something and spontaneously break out into a big routine, you get the first couple of dances.”

“...good point,” Cadance admitted. “Okay so...Shiny, you want me to take the first couple of dances, and Sunset gets the last dance?”

Shining Armor thought about it for a second, happy that they were actually consulting him about something for once. “That...sounds good,” he replied. What concerned Shining Armor wasn’t what happened at the Formal, it was what happened after. Both the girls had made it pretty clear what their intentions were.

When it came down to it, the Fall Formal was just another date in the rather short line of dates he had been on with the two young mares. Now that who would be going with whom was settled, the arguing had stopped and they had moved onto the planning stages. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any way for both the alicorns to take part in the post-Formal activities that they both showed interest in.

And Shining Armor knew that ponies couldn’t do that as  group.

So, for the first time since he had met Sunset and Cadance, Shining Armor needed to make a choice between the two.

A hoof nearly big enough to envelop his own took Shining Armor’s, making him look up to Sunset. The amber alicorn was giving the smaller stallion a concerned look. “Something wrong, Shiny?”

Cadance joined in on the concern a moment later, taking Shining’s free hoof in both of hers. As for Shining Armor, he looked down at the floor to hide his nervousness as his mind was filled with him being with Sunset in bed, followed by Princess Cadance. “It’s...nothing.” That he wanted to admit, at any rate.

Not that anything would stop the eventuality from occurring. Namely, whatever alicorn that ended up with Shining would eventually dump him and go with the other one. The idea of which put the image of Cadance and Sunset together while in bed inside of the white stallion’s head. Which in turn...only embarrassed him more when his first thought of the image was, Yeah, really wouldn’t mind seeing that happen.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Shiny?” Cadance asked a few seconds later as she leaned down to get a closer look at him. “You look a little red. You don’t have a fever, do you?”

A second later, the pink princess put her muzzle up against the side of Shining Armor’s forehead. Unfortunately, this also put her mouth up against his coat, and her wonderfully hot breath made it through the hair covering his skin to send a shiver throughout his whole body.

“Are you cold?” Sunset asked a second later as she threw one of her wings across his back. Cadance followed suit a second later, covering his lower half that Sunset's wing couldn’t reach. Then, they both moved closer until they were pressed up against him.

Enclosed by the two alicorns almost completely and not wanting things to go further for fear of what his body might do without his permission, Shining Armor looked over to the one pony that might kill the mood and save him from a great deal of embarrassment. “So, uh, Upper Crust...where’s your date?”

“Oh...well, I sent a letter to Jet Set to meet me at the dance,” she said before her eyes darted around nervously for some reason.

Sassy frowned at the other mare. “Wait a second. You’re telling me that your coltfriend, who we all knew is an arranged relationship, is still going out with you tonight?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “Let me guess, he has no idea that you don’t have a single bit to your name anymore, does he?”

From her seat beside the blue unicorn, Fleur looked over to frown at her friend. “Sassy!”

“Oh please,” she replied. “If the situation was reversed, she’d be jumping out the carriage to run ahead and make sure anypony I was meeting knew about what was going on.”

Sunset cleared her throat. “But you aren’t. So Jet...whatever, isn’t going to know until after the dance, right?” the amber alicorn asked evenly.

“Like I said, I’m not Upper Crust,” Sassy replied before she leaned back and crossed her forelegs.

A short silence followed the exchange, which was quickly broken by Fancy Pants. “Will you be meeting your stallion at the dance as well, Sassy?”

Although the snort from Sassy’s nose would have been enough of an answer for most, she looked over to the rich stallion and frowned. “Unlike some ponies, I can’t buy my dates.”

As Fancy Pants blinked at the open hostility, Cadance let out a gasp. “Ohmygosh! Why didn’t I see this before!” she exclaimed before pointing at the two. “Sassy, you! You and Fleur! You two were a couple once!” Then, a confused frown crossed her face. “Wait...but you’re still friends. What happened?”

Displeasure appeared on Sassy’s face and she looked away from the princess as Fleur took up the conversation. “We were a couple until our Sophomore year, Princess,” she said. “Then I found out how desirable I was to...more influential ponies and my parents had a coming out party. After that, Sassy and I decided...it was best if we...were just friends.”

Then, the white unicorn looked to her irritated friend. “Wait! Sassy, don’t tell me you still….”

Sassy sighed and shook her head. “No, that’s not it,” she said before looking over to Fleur. “I’m not a filly anymore Fleur, I know the way things need to be.”

Once again the conversation in the carriage that was taking its sweet time to get to the dance died down. After a few more minutes of being closed in by the royals, who had only pressed into Shining Armor all the more since the change of topics, he looked over to Cheerilee and her friend. “So, um...did you girls ever find somepony to go with?”

Both of the naked mares shared a quick look and then turned their attention back to Shining. “No, we’re just going to have a little fun,” Cheerilee told him.

Poindexter leaned towards them. “So...by fun you mean, hang out with...us?” he asked with a oddly leering expression on his face.

Before the earth pony member of the nerd herd could get his answer, the carriage came to a stop and the door opened to reveal one of the biggest pegasi that Shining Armor had ever seen. He had nearly twice the bulk of a regular pony from his tribe, although his wings looked a bit stunted. “Area is secure, Empress!” the big stallion announced with a great deal of gusto.

“Who’s he?” Shining Armor asked. “The captain of the guard?”

“No. He’s just a lieutenant” Cadance answered. “Hard Line was give a... special assignment.”

Sunset nodded at the. “Good work, Commander Snowflake,” she replied before looking back to the others. “You girls want to go first, or shall Cadance and I lead?”

“Oh, we’ll be happy to head out first, Empress Sunset,” Cheerilee told her before she and her pink-maned friend stood up and trotted out the door.

Shining Armor saw the flash of lights as she exited and heard a rather loud commotion from outside the door. As he wondered what was going on, Sunset let out a growl of irritation before she got off of the seat and trotted forward, motioning for him and Cadance to follow.

When he got outside of the carriage, Shining Armor had to shield his eyes. The flash of cameras from the small army of ponies that were standing just beyond a veritable wall of guards nearly blinded him. Every single one of them was shouting questions, their words mixing tothe point that Shining couldn’t make out a single one of the requests for information clearly.

Then, he saw Sunset suck in a deep breath, and quickly lowered his ears to protect them.

QUIET!”

The sound of Sunset’s royal voice shattered the wall of sound that the reporters behind her collection of guards were making, leaving them all silent for a time.

Which was long enough for Sunset to speak. “Ugh, I was hoping you all would take the hint from the small army I decided to accompany me with orders to keep you away from tonight’s events so these ponies could enjoy their night together without having every little thing they did put under a microscope,” she said before her frown deepened. “But seeing as how you all don’t have enough common sense to stay away from the building surrounded by soldiers, I’ll just do this.”

Sunset’s horn lit up and a tiny flash was produced from its tip. Then, the flash bulb of every single camera Shining Armor could see exploded in a tiny show of pyrotechnics that didn’t extend beyond an inch as all of the cameras opened up to dump the ashy remains of what had been the film. After that, Sunset looked up to the sky and fired a beam of blue energy that went twice as high as the school's clock tower before it expanded outward to cover the entirety of the school grounds. When it was completed, the dome turned opaque, and Sunset looked over to to the big pegasus. “If any of those glorified paparazzi go past my barrier, I want them arrested. Charge them with...harassment, or something,” she ordered. “Thank Celestia she never actually came up with absolute free press laws.”

From her spot beside Shining Armor, Cadance frowned. “Wait a second, I thought we do have free press laws,” she said. “I’m pretty sure Celestia has a public service that you can get at least one free paper a day if you sign up for it.”

“Human thing,” Sunset replied.

Shining Armor had no idea what Sunset was talking about, but Cadance gave an ‘ah’ of understanding.

“Okay everypony, let’s go,” Sunset called out to the rest of the group. “Don’t worry about the barrier. It’s like a one-way mirror with sound blocking. We can see them, and the sky because you know...romance. But all they can see is a big blue dome.”


The school gymnasium might not have been the most opulent location that Cadance had attended a party at since she had become royalty, but it certainly made up for it with the welcoming atmosphere. All the ponies that had already arrived were chatting amongst themselves in a friendly nature that didn’t involve politics or some type of deal making. For the first time since coming to Canterlot, it looked like she was at a party that ponies were meant to have fun at.

Balloons hung from just about everything they could, some of which were done up in the shape of animals, others in letters that took the place of banners in some places. There were even some without helium that hung upside down from the rafters by strings, showing off various designs.

A buffet of snacks and other treats sat on the far end of the gym. Although after taking a quick look at it, Cadance sent one of the teachers that was acting as a chaperone with a note to have one of the guards outside fetch the things she and Sunset had packed in the carriage. She knew the big alicorn was still being opulent to the point of excess, but there was no reason to waste all those treats.

As she, Sunset and Shiny began to make the rounds to say hello to everypony, Upper Crust broke off to meet with some rich-looking gray stallion that must have been Jet Set.

While the backup band that had been hired was playing a basic song without vocals, the two ponies from the student body were still getting set up, so the rest of the students were making the rounds before casting their votes for Canterlot Academy’s Fall Princess, or going to the ballot box, giving Cadance and Sunset a good look, then moving off to the side where they could see what the alicorns did. When it came time for the two alicorns to head over, everypony came to a stop and watched them stand in front of the box with Shiny.

Cadance took a quill in her magic, proud that it was only slightly shaky thanks to all her practice, then looked pass Shiny and over to Sunset. “We’re voting for Fleur, right?” she asked loud enough for everypony who wanted to listen in to hear.

“What?”

Both of the royals looked behind them to the white unicorn with the pink mane. Sunset was the one to raise her eyebrow. “What do you mean, what?” the amber alicorn asked.

“Fleur,” Cadance went on. “I’ve barely been at your school for more than a month, and Sunset even less so. You’ve been there since the start. Do you really think the two of us would swoop in and snatch this away from you?”

The pony in question blinked. “No, I just...um...well,” she managed before collecting herself to give Cadance a smile. “Thank you, Princess.”

“You’re welcome, Princess,” Cadance replied before putting her little slip of paper into the box and giving her friend a loving nuzzle on the cheek before leading Shiny and Sunset away from the table and over to the buffet to watch their food arrive.

As they did, a small snag in the plan to let Shining Armor consider his options occured to Cadance. “Wait, kissing! I forgot about kissing,” she said before looking over to the other two ponies. “Sunset, what’re we going to do when it comes to kissing Shining Armor?” Nights like tonight were supposed to be a near-constant makeout session, interrupted only by dancing and food.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “We do this,” she said before reaching over to grab Shiny by the bowtie and lift him up before smashing his lips to hers. Cadance watched, fighting the natural reactions of her wings that such a sight provoked as Sunset put her tongue in Shiny’s mouth and let out a low moan of pleasure. A second later, Shining Armor got over his surprise and melted into the action, bringing up his forelegs to support himself as Sunset cleaned his teeth with her tongue.

When it was over, the colt dropped back to the floor and tried to catch his breath. As Shiny was sucking in air, Sunset looked over to Cadance. “Okay, your turn.”

The words knocked Cadance out of her aroused shock. “Wha-What?”

“Now it’s your turn to Shiny,” Sunset said.

Cadance gaped at Sunset. “What? Y-You can’t just do that and expect him and me to-”

“Hey Shiny, you like kissing Cadance, right?”  Sunset asked before the pink princess could finish her confused turned on, outraged, somewhat enthusiastic...whatever she was feeling.

Shining Armor jumped a tiny bit at the question, and he looked back to Sunset. “Well...um...yeah,” he answered, giving Cadance a hesitant look, as if saying such a thing would get him in trouble.

“Good,” Sunset said before one of her wings came around to run up against Shiny’s hindquarters. “Now kiss!”

Cadance barely had time to register the fact that Shining was being pushed towards her, his lips open in an attempt to talk, before their mouths met. At first, the pink princess didn’t know what do, puckered up and lips to lips with the white colt. Then Shining Armor let out a covered yelp and took a step closer, making the former pink pegasus’s instincts take over. She drew Shining Armor’s mouth muscle into her waiting orifice and sucked on it for a bit before launching a counterattack that binded the invader. After a minute of pleasurable mouth wrestling, the two ponies broke contact, although a small trail of saliva still connected them for a few more seconds.

“See, no problem there, right?” Sunset asked before she looked over to Shiny and gave a nervous grin. “Um, sorry for the uh...encouragement there, Shiny. But, um...it all worked out, right?”

Before the white stallion could answer, Sunset looked back over to the stage that had been constructed beneath the home team's hoop. “Gonna go see if they need help setting up. Be right back,” she said before quickly cantering away before either of the ponies with her could say anything.

Left alone with Shining Armor, Cadance suddenly realized that every single pony in the gym, including the chaperones, were looking at her and the young white stallion. “Um…” she said before trying to think of what to do.

Both Cadance and Sunset had kissed the same colt. While it wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened, there had barely been any time between the occurrences, and it had been in front of everypony. Although, the more time that passed, Cadance realized that she didn’t really mind that both of them had kissed Shining. What bothered her was that everypony was looking at her for it.

And with her being a princess, they were waiting to see how they should react. So, Cadance knew that either one of two things was going to happen. Either she would shy away from the act and everypony would think what she did was wrong, or she could...Sunset it.

It was the second option that had her realizing just how much she had changed in such a short time. Three weeks ago, Cadance would have just slinked away to a back corner and counted the seconds until the lights went out and the dancing started. But now…

Cadance took a commanding step forward and threw out her wings, making the tiny hearts that hung from her feathers sparkle in the light just a bit. “Yes! We both just kissed the same colt. Sunset and I both like Shining Armor. We’ve both been on dates with Shining Armor. And we’re both here, with Shining Armor. Anypony got a problem with that?” the pink princess demanded.

Everypony in the room quickly looked back to each other and resumed the conversations they were having before the spectacle occurred. As for Cadance, she lowered her wings and took a step backwards to come face to face with Shining Armor. “So, um...sorry about that,” she apologized. “Not the kissing, you! I mean, the um...fact that Sunset...pushed you into it.”

Although, now that she had gotten it out of the way, Cadance didn’t see why they couldn’t keep it up.

“Cadance...that cider in the carriage,” Shining Armor said uneasily. “That...was the foal friendly, kind. Right?”

The question had the pink princess blinking. “Well...it was supposed to be,” Cadance said. Although, anypony saying no to the bucking Empress of Equestria didn’t seem possible. So… “Well, Sunset is a big girl, literally.” She was taller than most stallions with a physique that outclassed them as well. “So...she can probably handle three bottles without any trouble.”

Just then, Sunset came trotting back to the couple with a smile. “Okay, they’re almost ready,” she said before a concerned frown appeared on her face and she looked back at the stage as the pair of pegasus ponies with the blonde and black manes strummed their instruments. “Although, the fact neither of them knew how to set up an amplifier is a bit troubling.”

As the amber alicorn trotted back to the buffet table to levitate a few grapes into her mouth to eat, Cadance looked back at her. She didn’t seem tipsy. “Sunset, are you okay?”

After gulping down a few more bites, the Empress turned around and trotted to the open space between Shining Armor and Cadance to look over at the pink pony. “I’m at a party with my two favorite ponies and no press. Of course I’m okay.”

She looked away for a moment to kiss Shining Armor on the cheek, which was quickly followed by a nibble on his ear. Cadance opened her mouth to comment on the very open act, but was stopped from saying anything by the sudden blaring sound coming from the speaker system. “HEL-LO CANTERLOT A-CAD-DEM-EY!”

Everypony in the room look up to the stage as the lights dimmed while the two colts with guitars gave a quick wave. The pegasus with the black mane was the one to speak. “I AM BILL BOARD, ESQUIRE!”

“AND I AM TEDDY BEAR, LOW GAIN!” the other pegasus on stage shouted into his microphone, causing another bit of feedback. “AND TOGETHER, WE ARE…”

“WILD STALLIONS!” they both cried out before playing a chord on their guitars.

Then, Bill took the lead again. “Hey everypony, hope you’re having a good time so far. So, we’re going to start thing off fast and hard. One, two, one two three!”

What followed was...Cadance wasn’t sure what it was, but it sure as hey wasn’t music. The screeching that came out of the speakers, both on stage and set up around the gym, blasted her ears to the point she covered them with both her wings and hooves.

“AHHHHH! MAKE IT STOP!” Cheerilee screamed as she covered under the buffet table.

“THE PAIN! THE PAAAAAAAAAAAIN!” Eight-Bit yelled as he flapped his wings to try and escape.

“BUTTONS AND BOBKINS MY EEEEEEEARS!” Sassy Saddles cried.

Sunset recovered and frowned at the ponies on stage. “Okay, enough of that!” she yelled before both of the pegasi were enveloped in a blue light and separated from their instruments. There was a flash of light, and then the amber alicorn just appeared on stage. Sunset took a look at the guitars, then looked back to the colts floating in the air. “Don’t tell me you idiots don’t actually know how to play.”

Both of the pegasi shared a look, then turned their heads back to Sunset. “But, like, we thought it would just, ya know, happen. Ponies just sing about anything all the time,” Bill said.

“Yeah, dude-dude-duh...dude-et!” Ted agreed.

Sunset groaned and put a hoof to her forehead. “Ugh! The Music of Harmony only kicks in when ponies need to be super emotional about a subject, and the music comes from their magical aura interacting with the air around them to create the music without the need for instruments,” she explained. “It doesn’t happen on stage to make a pair of colts look cool!”

As both of the colts winced from Sunset dressing them down, Cadance looked around the gym for the member of the faculty that was in charge of the dance. When she found the earth pony that was the head of the history department, Cadance jumped up and flapped her way over to the stallion in the brown suit that was a bit darker than his coat and red bowtie. “Excuse me, Professor…”

“Doctor, actually,” he said. “Doctor Whooves. How can I help you, Princess Cadance?”

After recovering from being corrected, something that didn’t happen very often, what with her being a princess, she remembered what she was going to say. “Please tell me there was a backup plan for a DJ in case one of them got sick or something,” she said before looking back to the stage. “And that we can get her on short notice.”

Doctor Whooves, tapped his chin. “Yes, there is somepony. She lives a few blocks away from the school and agreed to remain at home with her foal in case we needed her,” he said. “Although, we’d need somepony to watch her little one.”

“Just have her bring the little thing with her,” Cadance told the pony. “We can assign a guard to do it, and I’ll personally check in on her to make sure he or she knows what to do.”

After Cadance gave him a few more instructions, the Doctor galloped off, and Cadance flew up to Sunset to explain the situation to her. When she was done, the amber alicorn frowned. “Okay, but that’s going to take...what?”

“If the DJ is ready to go...maybe...ten minutes?” Cadance replied. “I told him to take a few of the pegasi to help them transport and set up the equipment, so it may happen faster.”

Sunset frowned. “So what’s everypony supposed to do until then? Just stand around?”

After looking back to the crowd for a second, Cadance turned her attention to the instruments floating in Sunset’s magic. “Say, can’t you play the guitar?”

“Well yeah. But what does…” Sunset trailed off and looked around, first to the backup band of blue unicorns with dark manes, then to Cadance. “Well...yeah, but...Cadance...I don’t think anypony knows the music I learned to play.”

Cadance took one of the guitars out of the air and floated it over to Sunset. “Then pick something that’s mostly guitar,” she told Sunset. Before the amber alicorn could object, she quickly took off into the air and landed next to Shiny.

Left alone, Sunset quickly tossed the colts she was holding into the air, then stepped up to the microphone as she put on the guitar's strap and set the extra one in its case. After checking the strings, she cleared her throat. “Okay...so...um...I learned this song while I was away from Canterlot for a time,” she said. “It’s an old song, but...well...it’s probably new to you guys so…”

As Sunset looked back to tell the drummer, base, and sax player behind her what key to play in and that they needed to watch her for the changes as well as keep up, Cadance offered a hoof to Shining Armor. “Ready to dance?”

The colt in question stared at Cadance for a few seconds, then looked up to the other alicorn. “Sunset can...play?”

In response to the question, Sunset began to quickly strum her instrument. It was a fast-paced song that Cadance was unfamiliar with like she had warned. So much so that all the ponies stared at the Empress of Equestria as she extended the warm up.

As Sunset played, Cadance took Shiny’s hoof and pulled him out to the dance floor. She let the pace of the music take over as she swayed, bobbed, weaved and moved her body to the faced paced song. Soon, everypony was joining in, or at least tapping their hooves to the sound of the music while they enjoyed they food.

Then, the Empress of Equestria broke into song…

Way down in Lowseana out in Neigh Orleans
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
In this little log cabin made of earth and wood
There lived a country colt named Johnny Be Good
Although he never ever learned to read or write so well
He could play the guitar like he was ringing a bell

Go! Go!
Gooo Johnny go go go
Johnny Be Good!

Throughout the song, Cadance watched from the corner of her eye as Sunset played. Aside from the bring smile on her face that just screamed to anypony who looked that Sunset was truly enjoying herself in a way that Cadance had hardly ever seen, there was a slight nimbus of light around the alicorn. Sunset even seemed to float off the ground for a few seconds before hitting the final chord of the song.

But it wasn’t just Sunset under the effects of the music. Cadance could feel...something as she danced. It wasn’t the Music of Harmony, but she still felt some kind of magic flooding the room. Powerful magic, but...nothing oppressive. If anything, it made her feel safe and warm, so much so that Cadance wanted to be wrapped in it like a cozy blanket that she never had to leave.

When the music stopped, Cadance blinked as the magic slowly faded away as well. Still, it left her feeling more comfortable than she had all night after deciding to go to the dance with Shiney and Sunset. There was still the worry about what would happen after it ended, but it was...lessened somehow.

“Okay so,” Sunset’s voice came in over the speakers, drawing Cadance away from her introspection. “I’m going to need some help with the next one. Um...Fleur, Sassy? Can you girls come up here? Cheerilee, you and your friend too, if you please.”

As the mares in question headed towards the stage, Shiny got Cadance’s attention and pointed towards one of the back doors, where a guard was standing next to a white unicorn with auburn hair and a large box of equipment set up on a dolly was holding a little unicorn with a neon blue mane.

Cadance trotted over to the group with Shiny trailing behind her. She quickly introduced herself to the mare, and after getting the DJ’s name in return, looked to the little foal. “Awww, what a little cutie!” she said before looking back over to the mother as the little unicorn buried her head in the pegasus guard’s shoulder. “What’s her name?”

“That’s my little Vinyl Scratch,” the mother said with a broad smile. “She is a bit shy though.”

“So girls,” Sunset said over the speakers. “Like I said, I’m going to need some help with this one, buuuuut, since you don’t know the song...do I have your permission to puppet you?” she asked hesitantly. “Don’t worry, it’ll just be your mouths, you can dance or stand, or whatever you want. Okay?”

Thankfully, they all agreed to the magic and new microphones were brought up as Sunset conjured up a quill and grabbed several sheets of paper to begin scribbling on them. “This one is actually an original from...well, I considered her a friend, even if she was...not so devoted to me in the end,” the amber alicorn said, getting a bit sad before she shook her head quickly as if to clear it.

“Did Sunset just write music for four different instruments at the same time?” Shining Armor asked with a dumbfounded expression.

Judging by the expression on the other pony’s face, Cadance guessed that the feat had been impressive. “I...guess?” she sort of replied. “Well, she doesn’t like to brag, but Sunset is pretty good when it comes to music.”

Shining Armor looked back to Sunset as she apparently finished making the song and giving it to the ponies on stage. “Good is an understatement.”

Not wanting to miss the spectacle of her her friends on stage, Cadance looked around for an excuse not to dance. When her eyes fell on the filly, she reached out with her forelegs. “Here. That armor can’t be comfortable for her to be against. I’ll look after her until you change out of it.”

Cadance took the filly in her forelegs without protest from either of the ponies involved before the guard headed outside to undress. Then she turned around to look at the group and sat back on the table.

Then, the performance began again…

Shake your tail
Shake your taaaaail

This time, Cadance knew what to watch for and paid attention to the feelings going through her mind...after getting over the fact that Sunset and the rest of her friends were literally singing a song about shaking their butts at everypony.

As the glow surrounded Sunset and the feeling of her magic hit Cadance, she swayed her body in rhythm with the beat and tried to figure out just what was going on. The magic that Sunset was using didn’t seem to outright affect her emotions, but at the same time, being exposed to it felt...good.

For some reason, Cadance found herself thinking of all the happy moments she had ever spent with her friends, family, and everypony who had ever been important to her. Her mouth turned up to a smile, and she couldn’t help but let out a happy laugh.

A sudden light out of the corner of her eye drew Cadance’s attention, and she looked down to the filly in her forelegs. Two spots, one on each side of Vinyl's flanks became covered in a bright light right as Sunset reached the final line of her song. When the light faded, a pair of musical notes adorned the filly’s flanks.

Cadance’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh my gosh! Vinyl! Did you just get your...cutie...mark?” the pink princess asked as a much brighter light on stage drew her attention. She looked up with wide eyes as Sunset was engulfed completely by a bright light of her own.

The amber alicorn floated up into the air without a single flap of her wings that were spread wide. Then, the bright glow became a blinding flash, and Cadance had to cover her eyes. When she looked back to the stage, Sunset had...changed.

Everypony in the auditorium went deathly silent as the amber alicorn stood on center stage, emitting a soft light. A mane of red and gold blew through the air of its own accord, like Celestia’s did. There was a splash of red on the tips of Sunset’s wings, which looked like they had gotten a big bigger, and tiny suns of red and gold adorned her hooves. But the most startling change was the symbol on her flanks. Her cutie mark was different!

The single sun that had been there before was surrounded six other little silver points of light that had appeared at the end of Sunset’s yellow and solar tips, leaving the top and bottom bare. On top of which, it seemed...brighter, somehow. The mark on Sunset’s flank gleamed as she stood there, her eyes running over the crowd of amazed ponies.

With the crowd still in awe of the transformation, or the sheer amount of power the alicorn in front of them was putting out with absolutely no effort at all. Which was easily more than every single pony in Canterlot combined and multiplied by ten.

Cadance looked over to the white stallion standing next to her, then used one of her wings to close his hanging mouth before she took his hoof and used her wings to keep from falling flat on her face. “Come on Shiny!” the pink princess said before she dragged her colt along as fast as she dared.

“Here’s your newly marked filly, um...muzzle-tov,” Cadance told Vinyl’s mother as she handed the filly over to the stunned unicorn. Then, the pink princess moved onto the stage to speak with the goddess her friend had become. “Sunset, come with me please.”

Right as she took Sunset’s hoof, Cadance levitated a microphone up to her mouth. “Okay, everypony...um...the DJ will be ready in a second. We thank you for your patience. And...have fun! Okay? Bye for now!”

Thankfully, Sunset didn’t resist, as Cadance was pretty sure if the being she was holding onto pulled her foreleg back while the pink princess was leading her out of the gym and into the school’s hallway that she would use enough force to dislocate Cadance’s leg. What with Sunset’s earth pony strength, as insane as had had been, was apparently set at ultra low power!

Even when she had been angry, Sunset hadn’t been anywhere near what she was giving off at the moment. Which...made Cadance a little confused as to why her horn wasn’t being crushed from the pressure of Sunset’s magic. If anything, the power her friend was giving off was...comforting. So much so that despite the fact Sunset could truly claim the title of a goddess, Cadance wasn’t freaking out about it.

Once they got out into the dark hallway, which stopped being dark when the new Alicorn of the Sun came into it, Cadance turned around to look at the stallion of their little group. “On second thought. Shiny, go get some punch.”

Shining Armor looked over to Sunset, who seemed to be just as confused as he was before turning his attention back to Cadance. “Um...why?”

“Because I think Sunset is going to need something to drink in a few seconds,” Cadance told him calmly.

A second later, Shining Armor was quickly heading back into the gym, leaving Cadance alone with the deity in front of her. “Sunset, please don’t freak out, but…” The pink princess took in a deep breath and focused on casting a spell. “When you finished singing that song...um...this happened.”

A mirror made of crystal formed in front of them, showing off Sunset’s form and reflecting the light deeper into the hallway.

Sunset’s eyes went wide as she saw her reflection. “What the-WHAT THE HELL?” she yelled when her eyes drifted to her flank. “What the fuck is up with my cutie mark?”

“It’s not just that,” Cadance told her before point a hoof at Sunset’s mane, which made the amber alicorn gasp. “And um...have you taken stock of your mana output?”

After a second, the amber alicorn blinked, then let out a gasp, and then it became Cadance turn to become confused when she let out a startled yell before dropping to the ground and covering her mouth with her hooves. “Uh...Sunset?”

Sunset looked up at Cadance with a terrified expression that worried Cadance more than the amount of power she was extruding. She didn’t make a sound. Instead, one of the nearby lockers become wrapped in her magic, opened up, and deposited a quill, some ink, and some paper a second later.

Then Sunset jotted something down and floated it for Cadance to read.

The pink princess looked over the words, then moved her head to look past the parchment and frown at the silly goddess cowering on the ground. “What do you mean, you can’t talk.”

Sunset’s eyes widened again, and she quickly scribbled a note before giving Cadance another note for her to read. [If I do, you’ll DIE!]

What?” Cadance exclaimed before she batted the paper out of her way to frown at Sunset. “What the buck are you going on about now?”

Another note quickly followed. [Cadance, I had a dream! In the dream, my magical power kept growing and growing, destroying everything around me! Every time I stook a step, the ground was destroyed by an earthquake. My wings demolished the castle, and when I talked to you, you exploded from the sound of my voice! Now my dream is coming true!]

Cadance...kept herself from frowning at the silly fear. As stupid as it was, she didn’t want to dismiss Sunset’s fears. Instead, she looked for a better solution. Such as showing Sunset her fears were completely unfounded.

“Okay, so what do you suggest we do?” the pink princess asked.

When Sunset looked down to write another response, Cadance moved to strike. She didn’t care if Sunset had become a deity. It didn’t matter that her friend had more magical power in her horn tip than everything on the planet. She still had wings with feathers.

Which Cadance promptly grasped one of and removed while Sunset was distracted.

“OW!” Sunset yelled as Cadance stepped away with the prize in her mouth.

Right after she cried out, Sunset’s eyes went wide and she froze completely.

Cadance spit out the amber feather and smirked. “Oh look at that! You yelled, and I didn’t get blasted into a million pieces,” she told the bigger pony before sighing. “Sunset, I don’t know where these stupid ideas you got in your head are coming from, but you are not going to destroy every single little thing you touch, or talk to, or look at. Wait, you didn’t have laser eyes in your dream, right?”

After rolling her eyes, Sunset actually risked speaking. “No.”

Despite the levity of their words, Cadance suck in a deep breath and hold it for ten seconds to keep calm. “You are a blessing, not a curse,” she said. “Now, do you know what’s going on with...this?”

When Cadance got done gesturing to all of Sunset with her hooves, the amber goddess got a hesitant look on her face. “Well, that’s the strange thing. I think I know what’s going on but…” Sunset lifted a hoof to look at her little cutie marks, and then turned her attention to the big one on her butt. “When we fought the Daz-the monsters Equestria knows as the Sirens, me and the girls were able to access magic that temporarily turned its users into a somewhat-pony form. But this….this is new. Although, I’m thankful I didn’t grow an extra set of ears and wings….although, my mane looks like it needs a trim.”

“You said temporary,” Cadance said as she caught onto the most important detail. “Can you...change back?”

Sunset looked away from her cutie mark that had pulled her attention again, and back to Cadance. “Oh...um...let me try,” she said before closing her eyes.

A second later, Sunset became enclosed in an orb of light. It’s existence lasted only a moment, and when it was gone, the not-so-old Sunset was standing in the much darker hallway. Then she lit of her horn with a light spell, which Cadance quickly duplicated before taking a step towards her. “Well, that’s one way to get your mane under control.”

Sunset gave Cadance a little smile and an embarrassed laugh through her nose. “Um….listen, Cadance, there’s something I need to tell you.”

Taking in Sunset’s body language, Cadance knew she wasn’t going to like what was coming. She was still nervous, but it wasn’t the kind of nervous that a pony had when she was afraid of accidentally wiping out everypony else in Equestria. Sunset looked to be the kind of nervous Cadance was very familiar with seeing. She was the kind of nervous that occurred when a pony who had feelings for another pony without knowing if the other pony had feelings for the first pony was about to talk to that pony about said feelings.

WHICH WAS SOMETHING SHE SHOULD NOT BE DOING RIGHT NOW!

“Since the day I came back to Equestria,” Sunset said as she moved closer to Cadance and looked down at her face. “You’ve been there for me. When I said I had changed, you believed me. When I wanted to help teach you magic, you allowed me to. You trusted me, and that was...I can’t begin to describe how absolutely wonderful you are to do that.”

Cadance gulped and tried to push down the rising joy that was building up inside of her from hearing Sunset’s words as she took a step backwards. “Sunset, that’s just...what...friends...do.”

Sunset quickly closed the gap and then some as she smiled down at Cadance the way that non-platonic friends did. “Not in my experience,” she said before licking her lips.

After bumping her butt up against the wall, Cadance spared a glance behind her and then focused on Sunset. As the Princess of Love, she knew what was coming. Anypony with half a brain, with the apparent exception of Sunset, knew what was coming.

Sunset’s heart must have been racing from having just scared herself to death. And being close to a pony Cadance knew she was sexually attracted to didn’t help matters any.

Trapped, Cadance understood that she had two options, interrupt Sunset and turn her down or let her continue. Part of her wanted to say something, to hold up a hoof and cut her off. It was the right thing to do. Shiny…

“Cadance,” Sunset said before she broke eye contact for a second. “Listen...I...I’ve liked you...for awhile now, as...you know...um...in the...non-friendship kind of...way.”

The pink princess let out a snort of a laugh as the memory of just when Sunset’s physical attraction  to her went from out there to glaringly obvious. “Yes, Sunset. I know you find me attractive. You did hump me for about half-an-hour not too long ago when we were in bed together.”

Sunset’s cheeks went so red that they practically glowed. “Um...yeah,” the amber alicorn said right before she took in a took a step forward, bringing her so close that the breath coming through her nostrils tickled the hairs of Cadance’s muzzle. “About...that…”

Her mouth opened again...and…

I can’t let her do this to Shining Armor, Cadance told herself. The amber alicorn would never forgive herself!

But...she couldn’t say no to Sunset, either.

So, the pink princess took the last step herself, rushing in to meet Sunset’s lips with her own as she reared up a bit. Sunset took the hint and lifted Cadance up on her hind legs before pushing her up against the wall and breaking into Cadance’s mouth with the force of her tongue.

Being kissed by Sunset was everything Cadance had ever dreamed it to be and more. The amber alicorn completely dominated her as Cadance spread her wings and generated a tiny bit of lift before Sunder reached down and sunk her hooves into the pink pony’s perky posterior.

Sunset broke the kiss only long enough for Cadance to take a breath, she she was back inside Cadance’s mouth and pushing her into the wall before her wings encircled the little pony.

When she broke the second kiss, Sunset put her lips up to the rim of Cadance’s ear. For a moment, the pink princess’s world was nothing but Sunset’s heavy panting. Her heart rate sped up from the sound coming out of the bigger pony’s mouth. “I’ve wanted...I’ve wanted to do this for so long.”

“I’ve wanted you to do it too,” Cadance said as Sunset kissed the edge of her right ear.

Cadance heard the door to the gym open as Sunset kissed her way down the pink pony’s neck. “Hey girls, I got...the...punch,”  a voice Cadance knew belonged to Shining Armor.

The support that was holding Cadance up quickly disappeared as Sunset lowered her to the ground and looked back to Shining Armor with a bright smile. “Hey, thanks Shiny,” she said before one of the cups was taken by her magic and flew over to Sunset so she could splash it into her mouth. “Probably gonna need a lot of moisture in my mouth before the night is through.”

Cadance...blinked. Out of all the responses Sunset should have had after getting caught making out with another mare by the colt they both liked, that was certainly NOT one of them.

“Wha...WHAT?” Shining Armor shouted before he frowned at Sunset and stormed up to her. “I trot into you two doing...that! And that’s what you say?”

The smaller stallion shouting in her face finally put a look of shock on Sunset’s face, although no shame followed. Before it could, Cadance quickly stepped forward. “Shiny, it’s my fault. I knew this was coming, and I kissed Sunset, and-”

“Okay, okay Shiny,” Sunset said as she held up a hoof. “I should have waited until you showed up to start making out with Cadance.”

Shining Armor stopped half a ways away from speaking, with his mouth open as Sunset finished talking. The angry frown on his face slowly turned to a confused scowl as he tilted his head to the side. “Huh?”

For her part, Cadance was a bit quicker to recover. All thoughts of defending Sunset and taking the blame vanished for her mind and she frowned at the bigger alicorn. “Excuse me?” she asked. “You wanted Shiny to see this?”

Part of Cadance’s mind, the one that desperately wanted to be with the amber alicorn searched in vain for some explanation for what was going on. Even the old Sunset hadn’t been that evil!

“Well, only if he wanted to just stand by and watch,” Sunset told her before giving the young stallion a lecherous smile. “I wanted him to join in on it.”

Cadance’s mind nearly shut down as her mind tried to process the complete nonsense that Sunset had just said. Making out involved two ponies. It was an act of lustful love that involved enjoying the presence of another pony in the moments before sex.

Three ponies...three ponies...just...didn’t…

“Um...huh?” Shining Armor said, clearly not suffering from as much confusion as Cadance. “But...you...um...how? I mean...I’ve only got one mouth.”

Sunset let out a low giggle before she broke into a smile. “Yeah, but mares have two pairs of lips,” she pointed out before leaning down to whisper into Shining Armor’s ear. “And who says I’d be kissing your mouth, my little pony?”

As Shining Armor’s face turned completely red, Sunset frowned a bit and backed up a step. “Wait a second, guys...I get that me and Cadance getting started without Shiny around  made him feel left out and pissed him off, but Cadance, why’re you all panicky? We agreed to a threesome before we left Shiny’s house.”

Cadance blinked at the unfamiliar word. “What’s a...threesome?”

A look of slowly building horror started to build on Sunset’s face as her eyes darted back and forth between Shining Armor and Cadance. “Oh… .”

Just then, the doors to the gym banged open to admit Upper Crust, who was pulling her date along with some urgency with a plastic cup in her magic. She stopped after getting them into the hallway and looked at the assembled ponies in front of her with wide eyes. “Your...Majesties…”

The interruption made Sunset shake off her funk before she stepped forward to put a wing on the backs of both Shining Armor and Cadance. “Yeah, probably not the best place to have this kind of conversation, so...brace for teleport.”


When the dizziness from Sunset popping them all through space without actually moving faded, Shining Armor cast a spell to light up his horn and looked around at their new surroundings. They were in a Canterlot Academy classroom that had a wall covered by a pair of chalkboards, which meant...it was Professor Word Smith’s room, the pony who taught Equish.

“Okay,” Sunset said in a worried tone as she trotted away from the other two ponies in the room before spinning around, plopping down, and holding up her hooves. “Okay...just...making sure here. Cadance, you’ve really never heard of a threesome?”

As Cadance shook her head, Shining Armor frowned at the unknown term as well.   “No.”

Sunset let out a grunt of annoyance and mumbled something under her breath about some type of mane and...cultural contamination? Then she looked back to the other ponies. “Then what the hay did you both think we were doing, especially when it came time for later tonight?”

“You’re talking about sex, right?” Cadance asked.

A roll of the eyes precluded Sunset’s response. “Yes, Cadance. I’m talking about sex. And just to make sure there is no more confusion, the intercourse kind of sex. The kind where Shining Armor sticks his penis in you while I wrap my mouth around your horn and suck on it until fireworks come out one end and something else comes out the other.”

The mental image Sunset’s words created put a blush back on Shining’s face while Cadance blinked. “Wait, hornjobs are a thing?” she said in surprise. “I thought they were just a rumor, like with the way you can rub a pegasus’s wings and...well...you know.”

“Getting off topic here Cadance!” Sunset exclaimed.

“Oh! Right,” she said before becoming a little hesitant. “I thought we’d go have fun at the dance with Shiny, and then he’d take one of us to his home to ah...sleep with, and then she would return to the castle. Although, now that I think about it-”

Sunset didn’t wait for her to finish. “Shiny? What did you think was going on?”

Put on the spot, Shining Armor looked away from Sunset and over to the door. “Well, I was just...glad the two of you had stopped arguing,” he said. “I don’t like it when you argue about this stuff. And I was glad I didn’t have to-” Shining Armor cut himself off when he heard the angry scratch of chalk on blackboard. “Uh...Cadance? What’re you doing?”

The pink princess was in the air, levitating three pieces of chalk as she quickly filled the board with mathematical equations that made no sense to Shining Armor “Wait,” she said before grabbing an eraser at the base of the board with a hoof, then quickly scribbled a new set of numbers. “Okay, need to be careful to balance that.”

“Cadance,” Sunset deadpanned with half lidded eyes. “What’re you-”

Before Sunset could finish, the pink princess spun around with an angry expression on her face. “QUIET!” she snapped at Sunset, making the amber alicorn stumble back quite a bit. “I am trying to concentrate here!”

The amber alicorn and the white stallion shared a nervous look, but did as they were told as Cadance zipped all around the wall, erasing certain parts of her work before she flew back a bit and squealed. “I’ll have to make sure we make time for each other in the beginning, and there’s the foal problem, but otherwise, it’s perfect!” she exclaimed before flying back down to the floor. “Let’s be a threesome!”

Sunset blinked as Cadance gave them both an excited grin. “That’s...not exactly how that word is supposed to be used.”

“Well it is now!” Cadance told her before focusing all of her attention on Shining Armor. “So, what do you say, Shiny? What to embark on a new and exoric type of close relationship with me and Sunset? It will be a bit bumpy in the beginning as we work out the kinks, but it really does seem to be a good way for the three of us to go as the years pass by and it becomes the norm.”

All of a sudden, Shining Armor knew what it felt like to be cornered. He looked back to Empress Sunset, then realized how foolish it was to expect salvation from her, what with the big pony being the one to come up with the idea. Which left him wondering why he needed saving at all.

“Um…” he said, unable to clearly think with both mares looking at him like...well, they being intense about it or anything, but…with the two of them focused on him specifically… “Can I...um...think about it?”

Both of the royal ponies shared a concerned look, then turned their attention back to Shining Armor. “Oh course,” Sunset said right before Cadance added, “It’s a whole new type of relationship Shiny, hesitation is natural.”

“Great!” Shining Armor told them before quickly turning around and dashing out the door.

It was only when he had galloped a good ten steps away that he realized that running away from the two alicorns might not have been the best idea. What’re you doing you idiot? Shining Armor asked himself.

The Princess of Love had said Sunset’s idea was a good one. That threesome option meant nopony would be left out. He wouldn’t have to disappoint anypony, and the girls weren’t going to just push him to the side in favor of each other because they would already be together. Not to mention that Sunset already had a few ideas as to what the three of them could do after the dance.

But despite all of that, Shiny made his way back towards the gym, passing Upper Crust in the hallway as she levitated a cup of punch in the face of that stallion he had seen her talking with earlier. “Just drink it already!” she demanded as she practically shoved the liquid in the cup down the stallion’s throat.

Shining Armor ignored them as he knocked open the door to the gym. Even then, he didn’t know what he was looking for until he found it standing near the empty punch bowl while the unicorn watched the other ponies dance.

Without wasting another second, Shining Armor galloped over to the other colt. “Gaffer!”

Not even looking at Shining Armor, the unicorn took a drink. “Do you think I have a shot with Sassy?”

Shining Armor blinked. “Um...huh?”

“Sassy Saddles,” Gaffer clarified as he continued to watch the dance floor, where Sassy was out there dancing with Eight-Bit, of all ponies. “She didn’t come with a date, you know. Plus, she’s more than just hot. She’s actually nice. Fleur’s nice too, but you know...rich noble pony like Fancy...guaranteed match-up there.”

The untimely interest Gaffer had developed in the blue pony made Shining Armor look to the sky and groan. “Ugh! Okay, if you like her and you want her and stuff, go after her...later,” he said. “Right now, I need help with something.”

Gaffer sighed and looked over to Shining Armor. “Hey, I got interests too,” he told the other unicorn. “I’m not just some pony whose whole existence revolves around helping you with your lovelife. I’m the DM, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to get the filly sometimes too ya know.”

“Okay, okay!” Shining Armor said as he held his hooves up in defeat. “I get it, need to handle my own problems. Sorry I bothered you.”

As he turned to leave, Gaffer reached out and grabbed the other unicorn’s shoulder with his hoof. “Sorry, just...venting,” he said. “I know I’m the genius common sense leader and you’re apparently the guy with the boyish charm on a level that can attract god-tier hotties. Now-oh, which one did you get peeved at you?”

Shining Armor frowned at the assumption. “It’s not like that!”

“Well, when you do end up having to pick one, go with Sunset,” Gaffer said evenly. “I’m pretty sure she can take Cadance in a fight if it comes to that.”

“It’s not like that either!” Shining Armor exclaimed. “They both want to...be with me.”

After rolling his eyes, Gaffer looked back to Shining Armor with an even expression. “Yes, Shiny, I am well aware that there are a pair of princesses after you.”

Seeing that his friend just wasn’t getting it, Shining Armor did his best to lay things out for him. “Look, I just came from Word Smith’s room, and both of the girls in no uncertain terms said that they were both very enthusiastic about the idea of sleeping with me tonight with each other!”

Gaffer raised an eyebrow. “Wait a second,” he said. “You’re telling me that both the prin-royals are willing to...share you?”

“Yes,” Shining Armor said with a nod of his head.

Graffer frowned. “And that’s why you’re here talking to me, completely in a panic.”

“Yes!” the white unicorn replied.

Then Gaffer reached up to tap his chin. “Okay,” he said before looking around at all of the ponies dancing. “Not the best place for this kind of conversation.”

With that, Gaffer led Shining Armor back out into the hallway, where they passed Upper Crust and that Jet Set pony holed up behind a trophy case while the two unicorn stallions made their way to the bathroom.

“Oh! Oh my Shmoopie Doo, how I love you,” the stallion cooed before he took one of Upper Crusts hooves began kissing his way up her leg.

The yellow mare barely looked interested. “Yeah, yeah...whatever.”

Once they were inside the male-only sanctuary, Gaffer spun around to give Shining Armor a measuring look. “So you’re the one your little sister gets it from.”

Shining Armor blinked. “Huh?”

“That whole worrying about nothing thing,” Gaffer told him. “Which, you being you, I can totally understand, I just wondered where Twilight got it from.”

With the conversation going a completely different way than he expected, Shining Armor frowned. “Gaffer, what’re you talking about?”

The other unicorn gave Shining Armor an even look, then sighed. “Shiny, I think it’s pretty safe to say that your whole life, nothing’s ever come easy for you,” he said. “Hay, a month ago, you couldn’t even trot home from school without getting beaten up half the time. Even when we were all playing O&O, you had to earn your enjoyment of the game by completing the task.

“Then, Princess Sunset, as our great and benevolent Empress, may she shine forever to provide a guiding light to us all, was known at the time, comes along,” Gaffer said, getting an odd look from Shining Armor for his words. “How do you get her attention? You get beaten up. You get your first kiss from her after failing to save her from a dragon. You even get her into your bedroom for the first time because you get knocked into the filly’s bathroom with blood running out of your nose. Everything we know about the way the world works says Empress Sunset should be laughing at you while you’re sitting in the gutter.”

Shining Armor blinked. “Um...what about Cadance?”

“Princess Cadance makes sense,” Gaffer told him as he wavesd the question off with a hoof. “She got attacked by Buck, and you beat him up. She got greatful and one thing led to another. She’s not the problem here. If it was just her, you’d probably be out there on the dance floor right now, wondering if the two of you need to go to her place or yours later tonight.

“No,” the other unicorn went on. “Your problem is Empress Sunset, because even when there is another mare that you have interest in, she is willing to make any kind of compromise to keep you happy. Which makes you wonder what the catch is, what the downside is going to be, what hideous plot is going on behind the scenes to make this pair of mares go so far to be with you when every other experience in your life is telling you that you should have done something amazing just to get the time of day from her.

“And yeah, I’m sure these girls you just met have given you tons of other reasons that are probably contributing factors, but my years of experience with you tell me you’re doing this because it’s all been too easy. So you hesitate. You stutter. You get all indecisive. You do every possible thing you can think of to not commit to anything because you haven’t earned it.”

When Gaffer finished, Shining Armor looked down at the ground and frowned.

Was that it?

Was the reason he wasn’t jumping in with Sunset and Cadance because he didn’t think he had worked hard enough for it?

Shining Armor knew that he was nowhere near either of the girls when it came to the level of accomplishment. Cadance had apparently defeated a witch near her home village even before her alicorn genetics kicked in. As for Sunset, Celestia had picked her out of Celestia only knew how many students when she was just a filly, not to mention the level of skill Sunset showed with her magic that easily trumped any other unicorn in Equestria, nevermind her power.

“So I should...what?” he grumbeled. “Be okay with the girls dating somepony that’s always going to be living in their shadow?”

The question got an eye roll from Gaffer. “Of course they’re looking down from their station for a coltfriend. There’s nopony in the kingdom that’s going to be their equal. Whether it’s okay with you, that’s up to you,” he said. “Just like it’s up to you whether you back there and tell those girls that you’re up for...whatever their idea is, or that you have to turn them down because you don’t think you’re good enough for them.”


“So, Ms Princess of Love, give me your expert opinion. Is our boyfriend coming back, or did we scare him off for good this time by coming on so strong?” Sunset asked as she sat on top of the desk with her forehooves behind her acting as a brace in that strange way she had developed since becoming an alicorn.

Cadance looked up from her latest batch of equations that she had made out on some parchment using a quill Sunset had liberated from the professor’s desk. “Actually, I...hadn’t considered Shiny turning us down,” she said as the words put a bad taste in her mouth. “Do you really think he would?”

A snort came from Sunset’s nostrils before she hopped off the desk. “Well let’s face it,” the amber alicorn grumbeled. “Despite the wings and horn, neither of us is exactly what you would call a prize catch.”

“Hey!” Cadance exclaimed. “What did I say about-”

“Cadance,” Sunset said, cutting the princess off. “I’m about as emotionally damaged that a pony can get, and you...well, no offense...but you can be kind of bossy.”

After giving Sunset a pouty glare for a few seconds, Cadance let out a burst of breath. “Okay, fine. But look at this!” she said before showing the amber alicorn her calculations.

Sunset studied the mathematics for a whole seconds before she looked back to Cadance with a bored expression. “...I have no idea what this means.”

“I wanted a baseline prediction to compare this threesome idea to, so I did my future with Shiny if it was just the two of us. No involvement with you whatsoever,” Cadance explained before pulling the picture back and pointing at the horror with her hoof. “Even if we would have gotten together, it would have taken him ten years just to work up a proposal, and an engagement period of two more years after that! But even after we got married, it’s such a bland mix I almost want to cry. We’re picture perfect happy, living in a crystal castle and ruling over a city state of Equestria. Picture perfect, Sunset!”

The fact that Cadance was complaining about having a perfect marriage got a frown out of the amber alicorn. “Um, isn’t that what everypony is supposed to strive for?”

Cadance threw up her hooves high into the air. “Not since I met you!” she exclaimed before putting her pony-arms back down on her desk. “I don’t want to be the far off princess that just smiles and waves and councils ponies on how to act. Okay, I’ll admit that the changelings make me as nervous as hay, but I do want some excitement in my life! Plus, do you know the kind of sex I was supposed to experience? Basic mounting and insertion, Sunset! Basic! I would have been looking at least another year after we were married before scheduled intercourse would have produced a foal with Shiny!”

Not that the current planned relationship with Sunset and Shiny at the some time would yield offspring any quicker. Although, that was probably best left unknown to her two...partner-hopefuls.

Hesitation entered Sunset’s face and every move that she made spoke in loud volumes of worry. “And uh...if the three of us end up together.”

Although she knew it was a bad idea to seem too excited about the prospect, Cadance couldn’t help herself. She proudly held up another sheet of paper with the list she had been making. “I’m thinking a fetish night every Tuesday, or Thursday. I’ve even got enough suggestions to fill a three month period!”

“Ummm…” Sunset said before she took a look at the list. “Well, I can see the bondage and the...domination?”

Cadance smiled at the question. “Well it’s a bit of roleplay involved with you, ah...taking what you want from me and Shiny with that big, strong and sexy body of yours,” she said before a shiver of excitement passed through Cadance at the idea.

Another second passed as Sunset went back to reading the list. “What’s...wait, seriously Cadance? Humanality? That’s not even a word!”

“It involves ponies having physical relations with humans,” Cadance told her as she crossed her forelegs in a show of finality as she raised her nose in defiance. “I just invented it.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

The sheer obviousness of the answer to Sunset’s question made Cadance give the pony she was in love with a frown. “Are you kidding me? That other you barely has any fur at all. Kissing your whole body would be like kissing another pony’s lips, just about. Plus, those fingers you used to have must have a million uses!” she explained before she got a little more embarrassed by her reasoning. “And...well, all you seem to have is bad memories about your time as a human. I thought I could...give you a few good ones.”

“Cadance, for me to even do something like that, I would need to do a full spectrum scan of a human to get a good baseline for a transformation spell. Which is impossible,” Sunset told her before a light blush appeared on her cheeks as images of just what she could do with Cadance if she had fingers came to mind. “But...um...thanks for the thought.”

With the discussion on intercourse done, Cadance hesitated on what to do next. The last topic had left Sunset open for physical contact. Cadance could easily get up, trot over, and give her a peck on the cheek she could easily turn into something that would end with the two of them ruining their dresses.

But without Shining Armor’s decision on whether she was going to join in or not, that wasn’t an option.

If he came back.

Cadance became more nervous the longer that possibility existed. After a good thirty seconds of considering it, she looked over to Sunset with a worried expression. “What if Shiny doesn’t come back?”

“Wasn’t that what I asked you about five minutes ago?” Sunset deadpanned.

Before Cadance could unload on Sunset for not taking the threat of being abandoned by the stallion they had chosen to embark on a whole new type of relationship with seriously enough, the door creaked open, stopping the pink princess from yelling at the amber alicorn long enough to admit Shining Armor. When the colt walked in the room, Cadance was overcome by a nervous dread. “H-Hi...Shiny.”

Shining Armor gulped and shut the door behind him. “Hey girls.” Nopony spoke for awhile after that, giving rise to a pregnant pause that had Cadance ready to bite her own hooves until she ran into pink coat. But before she could, Shining Armor continued speaking. “Um...sorry about...running out on you like that.”

“It’s fine,” Sunset told him before Cadance could at least feign anger at him. “I’m sorry for making assumptions like I did.” She raised a hoof to rub her temple. “Guess I still got a few holdovers from my human days.”

The young stallion in the room blinked. “Hu-mane? What’s that mean?”

Cadance flinched as Sunset froze. Before the amber alicorn could say anything, Cadance let out a nervous laugh. “Sorry Shiny, but it’s a state sec-”

“I spent about three years in another dimension, where the culture was somewhat similar to ours, but at the same time, drastically different,” Sunset told him. Then she looked over to Cadance. “And don’t you start thinking we’ll be keeping something like that from him if we do this, what with that list of yours.”

A nervous giggle escaped Cadance’s mouth as she looked back to her checklist. “Yeah, I suppose you got a point there,” she admitted before turning back to Shining Armor. “So...I take it by coming back here, you want to…” Cadance stopped there, letting Shining Armor finish for her.

Put on the spot, Shining Armor cleared his throat and broke eye contact. “Well, um...while I was...out, I did some thinking,” he began. “Ever since I met the two of you, my life has been so different from what it was just a month ago. I’ve made new friends, stood up to Buck, and really had to think about my future. All of that was thanks to the two of you.”

Both of the compliments had the mares blushing. “Putting that bully in his place was all you, Shiny,” Cadance told him.

“And throughout this whole thing, I’ll admit, I had doubts,” Shining Armor admitted. “Doubts about how Sunset was so much more powerful than anypony I’ve ever met, and I would constantly feel useless compared to her.”

The amber alicorn winced. “Oooooh, um...Shiny, that’s…”

“And other doubts about how Cadance expected this completely perfect pony that would do everything exactly the way she thought he should,” he went on before Sunset could finish.

Cadance blinked. Well, I suppose I do come off as a demanding perfectionist in my less than stellar moments, she admitted to herself.

“I even thought that no matter what pony I picked, the two of you would eventually get together with each other because...well,” he said with a smile. “The two of you are-”

Sunset cleared her throat. “Shiny, if you call us perfect, I swear that I am going to take that trashcan next to the door, and put it on your head.”

“-a...uh...violent maniac,” Shining Armor said uneasily before looking over to Cadance. “And...unrealistic...um…” He sighed and hung his head. “Sorry Cadance, but coming up with flaws for you on the spot is hard.”

Cadance began to count on her feathers. “I’m weak, have pathetic magic skills, I can’t actually sleep at night without somepony to hold me because I’m afraid Queen Chrysalis is going to foalnap me and replace me with a bug so they can attack Sunset in a moment of vulnerability, not to mention I’m bossy, overbearing, have unrealistic expectations...you two can stop me at any time, you know,” she said with a frown.

“Okay look,” Shining Armor said. “What I’m trying to say is, for the past week and more, all I’ve been doing is focusing on things like how wrong everything felt.”

The white stallion’s words made Cadance wince.

Shining Armor took in a breath. “So even when things were going great, when we were playing O&O together, when you got rid of Cinch, or Sunset did something that Twilight said should have been impossible, all I did was focus on the negative, look for the bad side of things. I thought about how much better the two of you were than me, how much I didn’t even deserve to know either of you, and because of that I...I wasted a whole week that the three of us could have hung out and had fun, together.”

“Shiny, while I’ll admit that what you say is true to a point, and rather distressing if we’re being honest, I don’t want you to stay silent if there’s a problem,” Cadance told him.

“Yeah,” Sunset agreed. “If there’s something you don’t like, tell us.”

Shining Armor gave them a half-lidded expression. “Well I didn’t really like being passed back and forth as you two were fighting over me.”

Both of the mares gave a nervous laugh. “Sorry,” they apologized.

“And if the two of you are done with that, which...I guess you are since we’ll be um...all together...or something,” Shining Armor mumbled. “Then, I guess...I can give this whole...us thing a-”

“Hold it!” Cadance said as she put out a hoof to the young stallions’s lips. A frown crossed her face and her lips puckered in a pensive manner. “Are you about to tell us that you’re going to give our threesome a try?”

Sunset facehooved as she mumbled to herself. “Why did I ever teach her that line?”

Ignoring Sunset, Cadance gave Shining Armor a poke to the chest. “You either do, or you do not. There is no try!” she exclaimed. “Because when you try, it’s like you’re setting yourself up for failure. If you do this, there can be no second thoughts, no hesitation, no going ‘well at least I tried’. You either do, or you do not, Understand?”

From his spot under Cadance’s gaze, Shining Armor nodded. Although unlike when he usually dealt with the pink princess’s intensity, he didn’t back down. “Yeah,” he told her. “And...sorry, I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was taking this whole thing lightly. I understand that what’s going on, nopony has ever really done before, and I get that it’s important. And you’re nervous. I am too, to be honest.”

Cadance nodded. “Good. Now let’s try this again,” she said before clearing her throat and standing up straight, as what they were about to forge would change the nature to relationships for centuries to come! “So, Shiny, do you want to do us?”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sunset let out another groan. “Seriously?” Cadance’s powerful pegasus hearing heard her mumble.

Shining Armor put on a faint smile. “You know something Cadance, you’re right,” he told her. “Since this whole thing started, I really have only been...trying to date you. Both of you. I’ve been hesitant, squeamish, and even afraid. But if the two of you believe that the three of us can be together like this, then it’s time I stop hesitating and believe in it too. So...yeah, I do want to do-”

Whatever Shiny was going to say was cut off as Sunset hurried past and grabbed them both up in her magic. “Yeah, yeah,” she said before she kicked open the door and went out into the hallway. “Now let’s get back to our date before the sheer cheesiness of this whole thing clogs my arteries completely.”


Twilight looked at would could possibly be the most important piece of parchment in the history of ever as it sat rolled up on her desk with a frown. At least, the most important until Empress Sunset Shimmer, the most amazing, intelligent, kindest alicorn ever wrote her something else.

“Read me, Twilight,” it spoke.

Despite the immense temptation pulling her towards the scroll, Twilight looked away and resisted. “No!”

“But why not?” the scroll whined.

Twilight let out a snort and pointed a hoof at the scroll. “Because you’re just a figment of my imagination, giving voice to my desires to read what Empress Sunset left for me ahead of schedule. You can't get ahead of a schedule! That defeats the whole point of having a schedule!”

“But Empress Sunset made me for you. She wants you to read me,” the scroll told her in verbal form. “Right, Smarty-pants?”

Twilight glared at the scroll. “You leave Smarty-pants alone! He’s a good pony. He wouldn’t read you before its time!”

“But Twilight,” Mr Smarty-pants said from his place on her bed, “wouldn’t reading something ahead of time show Empress Sunset how advanced and ambitious you are?”

Although she wanted to make a counter-argument, Twilight had to admit that Mr. Smarty-pants had a point. “But...what if…” she said while trying to think of a reason why Empress Sunset would give her a letter ahead of the time it should be read. “Oh! What if she and Shiny are setting up a scavenger hunt for me, and they need time to lay the rest of the clues?”

The scroll quickly moved to turn that theory against her. “What if the first clue is really hard and takes hours to solve? You don't want the Empress to think you’re stupid, do you?”

Twilight gasped in fear at the possibility. “But if Empress Sunset thinks I'm stupid, then I won't be worth her time. If doesn't think I'm worth her time, she won't tutor me, and if she doesn't tutor me, I won't get into Celestia's school!”

Twilight quickly pulled the scroll down to the floor to rip the seal off with her mouth. She unrolled the paper with her hooves and quickly skimmed over it.

The letter wasn’t a clue for an impossibly hard scavenger hunt that Twilight could never hope to solve that would make Empress Sunset think she was a stupid pony that wasn’t worth the amber alicorn’s time.

It was worse.

Much worse.

So worse that Twilight was running to her mother with the letter in her magic a second after she finished going over it for a third time.

Break

Eight-Bit stood next to the gym’s exit next to Gaffer, holding his cup of punch in his wing as he watched Sunset and Cadance place the crowns on Fleur and Fancy before giving them hugs. Something that had Eight-Bit wincing in sympathy as Sunset picked Fluer up in her forelegs and squeezed the young mare.

“Still a little surprised that Shining and uh...his mare didn’t win,” the pegasus said as he stumbled over the end of his sentence.

The unicorn looked over to him and shrugged. “Well, it's not like there's a multi-pony slow dance they could use yet,” Gaffer told him as the couple began moving to the music.

Eight-Bit raised an eyebrow. “Multi-pony?”

“Uh...well, you know how Shiny’s been unable to make a choice because he didn't want to hurt anypony or…”

“Didn't want Princess Cadance to curse him with some kind of spell that made him only able to unsheathe around really ugly stallions or Empress Sunset to crush his bones to paste?” Eight-Bit added helpfully before an oddity occurred to him. How could Shiny be with two mares?

Back on the dance floor, the royal dance ended and everypony moved in to begin another slow dance. Sassy and Cheerilee came together while the other two earth ponies of their group got matched up before both of the alicorns put their wings forward to lock feathers. As for Shiny, he trotted over to the other guys to be left out in the cold with them.

“So...gave the two of them the last dance, huh?” Gaffer asked before smirking, “nice move.”

Shining Armor looked away from the show that every other pony in the room was actually stopping to stare at. “Well, they haven’t really had a dance together and...you know.”

Gaffer gave him a sympathetic pat to to the shoulder. “Well, there probably is going to be an adjustment period for you to get used to stuff like this. But...it’s not like they’re going to fly off together, ya know,” he told the colt.

“I know,” Shining Armor said before looking back to the dancers as the song ended.

Empress Sunset moved in closer to Princess Cadance and kissed her on the lips. All around them, the crowd began to whisper among themselves about what was going on. When the liplock ended, the amber alicorn stepped back and looked around all the other ponies with a frown. “Yeah! I’m kissing her with Shining Armor, and she’s doing the same with me and when we go back to the palace, we’re gonna spend the night together,” she announced, getting both confused and startled looks from all the ponies present. “So, goodnight everypony!”

As all of the ponies present began to murmur at that particular piece of peculiar information, Sunset led Cadance across the dance floor to meet up with Shining Armor. “I was thinking we could get in the carriage, but I’ll port us back to the palace so they can follow the empty cart all around the city. You want to say goodbye to anypony?”

Shining Armor took one last look at the dance floor, then shook his head. “No. I’m good.”

“Okay then,” Cadance said before looking over to Gaffer and Eight-Bit. “See you guys for the game  this weekend!”

As the...group of three ponies Eight-Bit didn’t know what to call left, Gaffer looked over to the empty space beside him. “Okay Sam, I got them together. Now why haven’t I leaped yet?”

Eight-Bit reached up with his free wing to take the floating drink away from his friend. “Think you may have had a bit too much there man.”


“Hurry Mom! You need to hurry!”

Twilight Velvet let out a long breath to keep herself under control as the little purple unicorn on her back continued to encourage her to go faster physically. “Twily, I am going as fast as I can with you on my back,” she said in an even voice. “I do not need you kicking me in the side.”

“But-”

“And if you do it again, we are turning around and going right back to the house,” she added.

Twily latched onto her mother’s back and lowered her head. “I’ll be good.”

With her daughter successfully cowed, Twilight Velvet resumed her brisk canter towards the royal palace, her mind drifting back to the letter her daughter had received that had caused her such distress.

While she knew it wasn’t her place to pass judgement on the ruler of her nation, something seemed very wrong about this whole mess. Empress Sunset had gone out of her way to help Velvet’s family so many times since coming into contact with them that she had to wonder just what was going on. Although Velvet knew that she wasn’t owed an explanation as to what was going on, it seemed a bit odd that Empress Sunset wasn’t giving them one in pony.

As she continued to travel, the question of just how she was going to get in to see the Empress ran through her mind over and over. They had no real business beyond allaying Twily’s worries. Even though Velvet knew the Empress to come to them in an instant because of that, actually getting the guards to go get her for such a task would be the hard part.

The mother-daughter couple made their way to the palace without any further problems from Twily. But when they got to the main gate, the two guards standing watch moved to block her before half a dozen pegasi floated down from above to cover the gate.

Thanks to her son’s interest in the guard and what she had picked up from him over the years, Velvet could tell that while the earth pony in front didn’t outright level his spear in her direction, he did move it from a resting position to a ready one as he spoke. “Nopony enters the palace after nightfall unless they’re on royal business.”

As Twily let out a worried whine, Velvet considered her options. But without any actual documentation that would allow her entrance, all she could think of to do was to fake her importance.

The gray mare lifted her head up in the same fashion that she had seen the Minister of the Stars do so many times when he came for an inspection of the facilities at the observatory. “Do you know who we are?” she asked in the same hoity toity tone her boss’s boss’s boss used.

The two guard’s shared an uneasy glance. “Um...no. Should we?” the stallion on the right asked.

I am Twilight Velvet, the mother of Shining Armor,” she said before turning so that the stallions in front of her could see the little purple pony on her back that much easier. “And this is Twilight Sparkle! Princess Celestia Herself summoned us to the castle several days ago to discuss several important issues with my son. On top of which, the glorious Empress Sunset, your new supreme ruler, the one with the explosive temper and short fuse, has taken a personal interest in my entire family. She has been teaching my brilliant daughter magic for weeks now, and my son is a very close and personal friend to both her and Princess Cadance!”

As the two guards shared another look, Velvet took a few steps forward and used her magic to take the letter Empress Sunset had written Twilight. She placed the letter in her fetlock and turned her hoof back to grasp it in a way that covered the Princess part of Empress Sunset’s letter. “This is a summons from her Imperial Majesty, ordering us to come to the palace at once to meet with her!” Velvet practically shouted as she waved the paper around. The placement of her hoof kept Sunset’s signature from flailing around, but the rest of it was no doubt illegible to anypony who tried to read it. “Now, do I need to tell Empress Sunset that we were held up on what is obviously very important business, considering the late hour of the summons, by a bunch of stupid ponies that don’t know how to do their jobs, or are you going to let us through?”

The two guards shared a nervous look.

The one on the right spoke first. “What should we do? Let her through?”

“Maybe we should get somepony to go get the Empress and ask,” the one of the left said.

“But that’ll take time and hold them up,” Left Guard replied. “What if that makes her mad? The captain made her mad, and now he’s scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush in his mouth! A toothbrush, in his mouth!”

Right Guard gulped. “Good point,” he said before looking back to the two Twilights and stepping aside. “Go right ahead Lady Twilight!”

Velvet gulped down the unease in the back of her throat that had crept up after hearing the guard talk about the Empress and trotted across the drawbridge. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

She didn’t want to know what would happen if the Empress decided Twilight Velvet was taking advantage of her connections with the alicorn.


Upper Crust downed her fourth glass of sparkling cider as she sat on the edge of her beau-to-be’s bed, finishing off the bottle she had him buy for her on the way home. Aside from helping to wash the taste out of her mouth, it would help her with the task ahead once it kicked in.

But until then, she would need to keep herself entertained. “Now, be a dear, and clean my hoof,” Upper Crust ordered as she raised a hind leg to the stallion’s face. Then, another thought occurred to her as Jet Set put the bottle on the nearby dresser with his magic. “With your tongue.”

“Of course, Shmoopie Doo!” he said before leaping to obey.

While the way the stallion was constantly fawning over her made the yellow mare want to vomit, Upper Crust absolutely loved how Jet Set would do anything she asked short of putting himself in harm’s way. The feeling of such a rich and powerful stallion debasing himself on her command was positively orgasmic!

Which, was a good thing, considering what she was about to do.

Upper Crust could even see herself continuing such a relationship, if she could figure out a way to keep him under her hoof.

That was the problem with love potions. Aside from the fact that such agreements made under them weren’t legally binding, that is. The effects caused by a magically induced love spell or potion were only temporary. Compounded with that flaw was the immunity that a pony developed to the magical effect over time. And that wasn’t even going into the spells and potions that stopped if the pony affected separated from the object of his affections for more than an hour.

So, barring the ability to turn Jet Set into her permanent servant, or have him give her everything she wanted, Upper Crust would settle for half.

Thinking of Sunset’s new laws pertaining to ill-conceived foals made her both smile and feel a sickness in her stomach. With it she was guaranteed half of the stallion’s income. While merely a quarter of what she truly deserved, what with how she had originally been destined for both her parents’ fortunes and the one from Jet Set’s family, it was better than the pathetic future Cadance had predicted for her.

As the room began to spin just a bit, Upper Crust surmised that the cider was starting to do it’s work, so she needed to get started on hers. It would take several session over the following week, but by the time the love potion had worn off, she would have everything she needed to live a life of comfort.

“Stop,” the yellow unicorn ordered before she rolled around and got into position with her tail down. A second later, she had prepared herself both mentally and physically. “Now, mount me and let’s get this over with.”

What followed had Upper Crust wondering just how anypony could stand to go through with the process of making a foal. There was no pleasure in what she experienced. It was just another pony doing something that was necessary.

Ponies that found pleasure in laying with another were pathetic.


Sunset laid on her back and sighed in contentment as she stared up at the dark ceiling, feeling better than she had in a long, long time. The last hour had been the most sexually enjoyable of her life. Every part of her rear end still tingled from the experience, although Sunset thought that was only because Cadance had been so liberal with her tongue when she had prepared Sunset for the anal intercourse with Shiny.

She had no idea where Cadance had learned the spell that allowed Shining Armor to recuperate from unloading so quickly, but thanks to that he had been able to satisfy both the mares multiple times before the spell’s side effects kicked in and the exhaustion hit him all at once. But the end result had her horn and both entrances tingling.

Although she had fucked more than a handful of guys along with a girl as a human, Sunset felt the previous experience had been better than all of them combined. It wasn’t simply because her body was being mounted the way it was supposed to either, or how he had let Shiny do things to her at Cadance’s insistence that Sunset had never let any other creature even attempt.

What the three of them had done together was just more...meaningful.

Shining Armor was snoring contently beside her, covered in a light layer of sweat from the workout. The poor colt hadn’t guessed that an alicorn’s insane appetite extended to beyond just food. Even though she didn’t need to, Sunset rolled over halfway to press up against his side and buried her nose in his messy mop of hair. She took in a deep whiff of the stallion’s mane and rubbed her body up against his to add to the scent already stuck to her coat. She wanted Shining Armor’s smell to stick to her for the rest of her life.

As for Cadance, she had wrapped both of her pony arms around one of Shiny’s forelegs, bracing for a tug of war that would never come. One of Shiny’s ears was in her mouth, being nibbled and sucked on as she made content sounds.

It was a perfect moment that Sunset wanted to last forever.

But, she knew it couldn’t.

So, she took one last look at what would be her last moment of pure happiness, and rolled off the bed. Neither of the ponies reacted to the movement, making Sunset hesitate for a second before she lit up her horn. Even if it took her awhile to find the hidden vault, her sleep spell would keep both of them on the bed out of it until dawn.

Safe from accidentally waking either of them up, Sunset took in a deep breath and looked to Shining Armor. “When we started dating, I was so afraid of being with you, you know,” she told the unconscious colt. “I hadn’t ever been with a pony before, and all the other boyfriends I had ended up with bad ends. And...as things progressed, I started to worry that I was just with you because you were the first stallion I came across that wanted to talk to me, or I only went after you because I was so lonely, or that I was just so fucking horny I would have slept with anything on four legs.

“But...I love you, Shiny,” she confessed as she took a step towards the bed. “You’re kind, and sweet, and funny, and...you...you’re just perfect. You didn’t run away when I freaked out on you. You didn’t just mount me when I was offering it every second that we were together. And...I...I’m so, so sorry you ended up attracting a pony like me.”

Then, she turned her attention to Cadance. Looking at her sleeping form, knowing that this would be the last time she saw the other pony, Sunset eyes began to water. “Thank you,” Sunset told her female lover as tears began to fall from her eyes. “Thank you for everything. I know I didn’t deserve another chance from you, didn’t deserve your friendship, didn’t deserve anything from you. But you still...you still believed that I should get another chance, and you helped me, even after everything that’s happened between us.

“You...you really are my best friend, Cadance,” she confessed. “More than anyone has ever been before. I love you, and I want to spend every night falling asleep with you in my legs, snuggled up so close to me I can’t help but smell that strawberry soap you like so much. But...I can’t. I know you wouldn’t understand why. You’re too good of a pony to understand. I...I’m sorry.”

The words felt hollow in her ears as she turned away from the pair of ponies that had been nearly everything to her since she came back to Equestria. She went to get her saddlebacks from the closet, full of everything she would need to survive on Earth, minus her journal. Although, perhaps it was a good thing that she never found it.

There was a nearly crippling pain in her heart that actually made Sunset stumble when she took a step towards the door. Every fiber of her being screamed at her. All she had to do was turn around and go back to bed, and everything would continue on in this wonderful way. She would be with Cadance and Shiny. Celestia would love her. Twilight would…

Twilight…

Sunset took a deep breath, and galloped out of the bedroom, heedless of everything else around her. If she didn’t get to the mirror soon, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to go through with what was necessary.

Although she did her best to keep her mind clear as she trotted through the hallways, Sunset’s mind kept switching between two different things.

The first was how she had everything she ever wanted. Celestia loved her and called Sunset her daughter. Cadance and Shiny were both best friends and better lovers than anyone she had ever slept with before. Fleur and Sassy were friends that both liked and respected her. Not to mention the amount of power she possessed dwarfed that of any other pony in Equestria with the exception of Celestia. It was all hers, and all she had to do to keep it was turn around, climb back into bed, and snuggle up to the ponies she loved.

The second thing that kept forcing its was into Sunset’s mind was what would happen after she left. Cadance and Shining Armor would feel nothing but abandonment and betrayal. Celestia...Sunset knew how much faith she had shown the amber alicorn by putting her in charge, disappointing her was almost just as bad as what Sunset was doing to the ponies asleep in her bed. The fact she would cause the three of them such pain made Sunset’s eyes water as she got to the stairwell and lit her horn.

But despite the pain and the growing feelings of self-loathing that she was experiencing, Sunset wiped away her tears and headed down the stairs. What she was doing needed to be done for the sake of the future. As for her lovers and mother...well, Sunset would be paying for her actions towards the three of them soon enough.

When she got to the sub-basement, a strange but fearful hope filled Sunset’s mind. The place looked like a rat’s nest, not somewhere you wanted to hide a bunch of dangerous magical items. Although it would have been difficult for Hard Line to resist Sunset’s magic, it wasn’t within the realm of the impossible. He could have given her a fake location.

The hidden vault could be on another floor entirely!

And searching for it would take much to long to find it before the portal to Earth closed!

Sunset noticed that she was smiling at the possibility of being trapped in Equestria.

Of course you’re smiling,she chided herself. Having to get out of it. Avoiding responsibility! That just proves what a pathetic piece of trash you are. You’ve come this far, you made it so Shiny and Cadance will be together, Twilight has a teacher, Star will be able to take care of her foal, everything’s ready for you to leave, SO JUST GET TO WORK ALREADY!

After setting herself strait, Sunset cast a spell to help detect any oddities in the room. Her magic formed into the shape of a circular pattern, and her human experiences made her make an internal joke about a magic magnifying glass before she used it to make a quick sweep of the room. It didn’t take long for the amber alicorn to notice two things. The first was the hidden doorway on the other side of the room, it was easy to find since the blocks comprising the wall didn’t quite match up with the rest of the structure. The second was the amount of hoof traffic a supposedly secret entrance was getting. Numerous imprints had been made in the dusty floor, many on top of each other, and going both ways. Although Sunset couldn’t tell how many ponies had come and gone, she guessed that it had to be at least three.

Sunset walked up to the wall and felt around with her magic. Although it didn’t give any tactile information, she could still get an idea of the an item’s shape based on the resistance her magic encountered. Once she found the triggering mechanism, Sunset was rewarded with a soft click, and moved into the passageway.

When she reached the vault, the same technique told her that there was no special mechanism to open the large door in front of her. At the same time, the amber alicorn found the metal was one-hundred-percent cold iron. While not outright immune to magic, the metal was extremely resistant to it. In fact, it made Sunset doubt that anypony short of an alicorn would be able to open it.

So the trail from earlier must have been when Celestia stored it in here, Sunset surmised before increasing the amount of power to her horn. She felt a bit of pride after taking the door in her magic determining she would have been able to do it even as a unicorn. But that was quickly ended when she realized that pride was exactly the reason she needed to go back to Earth.

Once she slid the door aside, Sunset stepped inside the vault and froze. The dozens and dozens of magical artifacts distracter her for a second, but it was the big white alicorn laying on an oversized circular pillow that was surrounded by stacks of parchment in front of a full-body oval mirror. “M-MOM?”

Celestia looked up from the paper she was writing something on and set the quill aside before adding the parchment to the stack. “So, you did come,” she said before sighing sadly and looking over to a small clock that was sitting next to her. “Forty-five minutes until the gate closes.”

“Are you here to stop me?” Sunset said before she planted her hooves and...froze before she spread her wings. Wait...what am I supposed to do here? She couldn’t fight her mom!

But...she had to leave!

Sunset’s indecision continued to build until Celestia stood up and stepped off the bed, the sound of her hooves on the stone floor brought the amber alicorn out of her thoughts. The white pony shook her head. “Oh Sunset, I would never try to stop you. Well, physically at any rate,” she said before giving her a small smile. “I don’t think I could, honestly.”

The explanation did nothing to ease Sunset’s fears about Celestia’s presence. “Then...why are you here?” She’s supposed to be in Griffonstone!

Nervousness showed on Celestia’s face at the question. She took in a deep breath, then let it out as she pushed a hoof away from her chest. “Sunset, to say that I won’t let you go through that mirror...it would just be me...not trusting your judgement...again,” she said with some difficulty. “So, if you would give me just half an hour to talk, then I will step aside and...let you go.”

Sunset gulped. She couldn’t help but wonder what was going on. Celestia had some kind of plan. The amber alicorn knew it. But, she had no idea as to what that plan was. Still, if her mother only wanted thirty minutes...Sunset didn’t have the right to say no. “Okay,” she agreed uneasily.

“Please don’t leave,” Celestia begged as she took a step forward and gave her daughter a pained look. “I know we’re having trouble, I know I’m a horrible parent-”

Sunset didn’t let her finish. “That’s not true!” she told her mother, her anger rising at the words Celestia spoke. Nobody was allowed to insult her mother, not even Celestia herself. “I’m the one that was the horrible stu-”

“STOP BLAMING YOURSELF FOR EVERYTHING THAT WAS NEVER YOUR FAULT!” Celestia shouted back at her. “I was the teacher! I was the one that told you do things without showing you how! I was the one who set the unreasonable expectations! I was the one who needed to be the parent! But instead of giving you the emotional guidance that you needed, all I did was give you a stupid book to write in!”

To top off the emotional explosion, Celestia kicked a journal onto the floor in front of Sunset. The amber alicorn looked down at the thing, a little surprised to see it. “I’ve been looking for-wait,” she said before looking up at her mother. “You had this the whole time?!”

Celestia shook her head. “No, that journal is my copy,” she said before taking in a breath and tensing. “Yours is still on the other side of the mirror.”

Shock kept Sunset silent for several seconds as she digested what Celestia had told her so suddenly. “...what?” she breathed out. “What’re you...talking about?”

“You left it there, remember?” Celestia went on before she looked back to the enormous stack of papers. “I don’t quite understand everything yet, but I believe the reason that you’re here now is because you weren’t in Equestria when time was rewound.”

Sunset felt her butt hit the ground as her hind legs gave out behind her. “What?”

A tiny laugh that didn’t have any real mirth to it came from Celestia’s mouth. “Come now Sunset, do I really need to waste our precious time explaining things to you, do I?”

“Wait,” Sunset said as her mind worked to process what was happening. “You...believe me now?”

Celestia’s face took on a sad expression. “Believe you?” she asked as she looked down at herself for a second before she turned her attention back to Sunset. “Yes, I do. I hate to say it, but I let my own pride stop me from doing that from the beginning when you returned to me. I couldn’t believe that I would abandon you for any reason, or even send you away.”

“No, that’s-”

“In fact, I needed that thing to tell me otherwise,” she said with a sneer as she looked down at her journal.

Sunset blinked and looked back down at the book. “What does your journal have to do with anything?”

In response to the question, Celestia lit up her horn and surrounded the book with her magic. The pages quickly flipped open to somewhere past the halfway point. “Read it,” she commanded.

Sunset rolled her eyes before glancing down at Celestia’s journal. “Dear Princess...Twilight,” she mumbled to herself before quickly skimming through the entry. It was the one she wrote during the Anon-a-Miss incident. She looked up to her mother, who hung her head.

“The magic of the journal allows things to be written, but not erased,” she said. “I don’t know why it took nearly a week to update after your arrival, it should have happened in seconds, but they’re in there. All the correspondence you shared with Princess Twilight Sparkle, including all the entries you made which never got a reply.”

“A week?” Sunset repeated as she processed the information. “That means, all this time, you knew I wasn’t hallucinating, and you didn’t tell me?”

Celestia frowned at Sunset’s demanding tone. “Do you remember what that first week was like, Sunset?” she asked. “You practiced your magic, we ate together in peace, you taught Cadance how to use her horn, you were happy!” The big pony let out a snort. “Then, you learn the truth, and everything turns miserable!”

Just hearing about how she wanted deny how horrible a pony she was so that Sunset wouldn’t ruin their breakfast into a shouting match made her snort in anger. “So you keep lying to me to try and make me easier to be around?” she demanded.

“YOU SAID YOU DIDN’T DESERVE TO LIVE!” Celestia screeched, killing Sunset’s rebuttal before it could gain steam. “Do you have any idea how frightening that was to me? So, yes! I lied and tried to make you believe that there was no reason to feel guilty about anything! If that makes you angry, fine! I am willing to take that anger, so long as you’re around to give it!”

It didn’t take much work to read between the lines of what Celestia was really saying, which...took the last bit of wind out of Sunset's sails. She hunger her head. “Oh...that’s...um...okay, I...might understand why you did, what you did,” the amber alicorn said before she took in a deep breath. “Sorry for  getting mad at you about it.”

The clock continued to tick in the background as the two mares stood silent for several seconds. Spurred on by the sound, Celestia looked to her daughter. “Sunset, please don’t go,” she asked quietly. “If you stay, I promise, you will be happy here. If you want, you can even remain the ultimate authority in Equestria. I’ll...I’ll even stop being a princess! You can keep being in charge! I’ll just be a maid.”

“Mom.”

Celestia kept going. “Or something else if you don’t want me to be a pony whose job it is to literally tell you what to do.”

“Mom.”

“Your maid!” Celestia went on. “I’ll be your maid. You can dress me up in a little outfit and I’ll wash your sheets and scrub your toilets, Sunset!”

The amber alicorn winced at the last concession before taking in a deep breath. “MOM!” Sunset shouted. When her mother actually stopped Sunset frowned at her. “Please, have some damn dignity.”

Celestia frowned at her daughter. “No!” she snapped. “My stupid pride, and dignity, and ego is what made me unwilling to compromise with you before, so no! I am going to beg, and plead, and kiss your bucking plot if that what it takes to talk you into staying! Because I will not go through this again!

“So if you want rulership over Equestria? It’s yours!” Celestia declared. “I will step down and even give you the sun itself, if you want.”

Sunset looked away from her mother. “No, that’s not what I want.”

“Is it me, then?”Celestia asked as she took another step forward. “I’m sorry if I did. We can make it right, I promise. I love you, I love you so much. I’m sorry you never got a message from me when you were in that world, but I promise that I will spend the rest of my life telling you how much I love you. And I do, Sunset. I love you so much, more than anypony else on the planet. So please, please just turn around and go back to bed. We can go back to the way things were, and I can make you happy, I know that I can.”

It was the most tempting of the offers presented. One that had Sunset looking past her to the mirror and wondering if she could just...not go.

She knew that everything Celestia saying was true. If Sunset stayed, she would be happy. While the examples of polygamous relationship she had heard about on Earth weren’t the norm, or apparently stable or...legal, those idiots couldn’t even hold half of their marriages together. Ponies were different! The percentage of quadrupedal unions that ended never even reached double digits in Equestria.

At least, that was a case according to a study she remembered reading three years ago, Equestria time.

And aside from her colt and filly friend, there was her mother, Celestia. Sunset knew that the rough patch they were going through would smooth itself out now that all the lies were done away with and everything was out in the open. While it wouldn’t be all sunshine and rainbows, Sunset knew that it would be a hell of alot better without a destiny of exile hanging over her head.

All she had to do...was turn aside from the mirror and run into her mother’s forelegs.

“I…” Sunset blinked as tears began to cloud her vision. “I can’t!”

Celestia’s legs buckled at the announcement. “Why not?”

“Because…” Sunset paused as she tried to think of what to say. She couldn’t tell her mother the real reason. She couldn’t mention Twilight Sparkle. All she could say was… “Because, it’s something I have to do. Like you said, sometimes a princess has to do something, even when she doesn’t want to.”

The bigger pony began to breath quicker as Sunset started moving forward. If Celestia started crying, then the amber alicorn didn’t know if she would be able to go through with leaving.

“No!” Celestia said as she reared up to stomp her hooves hard enough to crack the stone beneath her and glare as Sunset. “That’s not good enough, not for this! I can see how much you don’t want to go. How much you’re so afraid! How much you want to stay!” the big pony’s voice rang out. “If you’re going to leave me, then at least give me an explanation! Tell me why you insist on spending all your years in a place of misery and suffering!”

Sunset backed up at Celestia’s ferocity. “M-Mom. That’s it, I swear!”

Unwilling to accept the answer, Celestia took another stomp of a step forward. “Tell me why you’re leaving!” she yelled.

“B-Because...I...I have to!” Sunset answered as she retreated.

“Tell me why you’re abandoning me!” Celestia demanded as she attempted to come closer.

“Because I...because it’s the only thing I can do to make things right,” Sunset said with less enthusiasm ass he looked away from her mother.

It didn’t help. Sunset could still imagine Celestia standing over her. And in her mind’s eye, the amber alicorn looked much worse than anything reality could ever show. “Tell me why you’re giving up everything you ever wanted for a life of depression and misery! TELL ME!”

Without anything else to use, Sunset gave her mother the same reason she had given to ‘herself’ up on the playhouse’s roof. “BECAUSE I DESERVE IT!” Sunset yelled back in a pathetic shout.

“I don’t deserve to be a princess! I don’t deserve to be your daughter! I don’t deserve to be like by anyone. I don’t even deserve to be a pony!” she exclaimed as she shook her head furiously. “I deserve to suffer! I deserve to spend the rest of my life as a cripple! No magic. Friendless and alone. Never feeling loved or anything! That’s what should happen to me!”


The hope that Sunset had simply given up on her plans to return to Earth died when Cadance felt the sleeping spell settle on her. Every muscle in her body went numb as it came in contact with a prior spell put in place by the pink princess, and then...she heard Sunset confess her feelings to the slumbering colt before moving on to Cadance.

When Sunset spoke her name, Cadance tried to move, tried to get up and show her beloved that she was awake. Tried to demand an answer as to why Sunset was leaving her. Tried to get up and remove the absolute despair she heard in the other pony’s voice. She tried, and failed.

Although the magic she had cast on herself, the magic she had learned from the spellbook that came from the Crystal Empire, kept her from falling into unconsciousness, it didn’t stop Sunset’s magic from paralyzing her to the point where even her horn wouldn’t light up.

Oh no, Cadance thought as she struggled to move while her pegasus hearing told her that Sunset was heading out the door. Nononono NO!

The pink princess let out a mental scream as she struggled against her body’s unresponsiveness. Move! Move, move, move, MOVE! Cadance shouted at herself. Sunset’s leaving! The love of my life is LEAVING! So move. Get up and help her. Get up and save her! For once since you got to this stupid city, actually prove that you belong to be here, and MOVE!

Cadance didn’t know if she somehow fought off Sunset’s spell with the power of her desperation, or if it simply wasn’t meant to last more than long enough to let her say her goodbyes, but not a second after she finished shouting at herself, her wings unfurled to the point of sending her careening around to land belly to belly with Shining Armor.

The impact got a grunt from them both, waking the young stallion up, and putting feeling back into Cadance’s body again. Whatever the magic was, it apparently wore off when the subject was touched. Which...would explain why she didn’t kiss us goodbye, the pink princess thought.

Shining Armor let out a little whine as he slowly came out of his slumber. “Cadance...I can’t buck you anymore tonight,” he said before yawning. “The spirit is willing, but the body is sore and tired.”

“Sweetie,” Cadance said as she kept her Shiny from rolling away from her as she licked her lips and clenched her hindquarters. “I’m sorry to wake you, and as much as I would love you to mount me again, there’s something more important we need to do. Now wake up and come with me. We have to hurry or Sunset is going to get away!”

Cadance moved to get herself off the bed. When Shiny didn’t follow, she grabbed his fetlock and pulled him along until he slid off the mattress, the blankets that went with him turned the movement more into more of a slide than a fall. “Shiny!” she exclaimed gently at her colt’s inactivity.

In response, Shining Armor groaned and started to get up. Halfway to his hooves, his legs shook for a second before giving out from under him. “Can’t. Too...tired,” he told her.

Well...I suppose we did put him through the ringer, Cadance told herself in an attempt to keep from losing her temper. Although the three of them had an equal amount of sex, mare on mare action wasn’t as physical as an overly enthusiastic stallion doing his best to please two alicorns. Not to mention...Sunset’s big plot probably needed to be plowed twice as hard as another pony’s to compensate for all of that cushioning, and her size meant he needed to work even harder than that to please her as much as he did with me.

But, the size difference between the three of them was a problem for later. First, Cadance had to make sure Sunset actually stayed in Equestria.

“Okay, Shiny. I’ll give you a hoof,” Cadance told him before reaching out with said appendage to lift him up a bit. A combined effort of her forelegs and wings had the young stallion on her back a moment later, his hooves dangling in the air.

Despite Cadance’s less-than-normal earth pony-ness, she could still carry a nearly-adult stallion with only minor difficulty. Then, after making sure Shiny wasn’t going to fall off, she headed towards the basement as fast as she could.

Which...wasn’t that fast with a semi-unconscious pony on her back.

When she did get down to the hidden vault, Shining Armor still seemed pretty out of it, but fears that she had missed Sunset’s departure were dispelled when she heard Celestia’s voice coming from the big chamber’s open orifice.

“TELL ME!”

“BECAUSE I DESERVE IT!” Sunset yelled back in a pathetic shout.

As Cadance came close enough to the entrance to see the amber alicorn lower her head and shake with tears falling from her face, Sunset continued speaking. “I don’t deserve to be a princess! I don’t deserve to be your daughter! I don’t deserve to be liked by anyone. I don’t even deserve to be a pony!” she exclaimed as she shook her head furiously. “I deserve to suffer! I deserve to spend the rest of my life as a cripple! No magic. Friendless and alone. Never feeling loved or anything! That’s what should happen to me!”


The amber alicorn yelling at the top of her lungs made Shining Armor shoot his head up as Cadance stepped through the door, unbalancing the pink princess and causing her to drop the young stallion before she went to the ground in a crash herself.

“C-Cadance, Shiny? What’re you two doing here?” Sunset stuttered as they both picked himself up.

Shiny’s legs shook  roll off of her back. When he did, the young stallion’s eyes went wide. “Princess Celestia? What’re you doing here?”

“Shining Armor? I’m-wait,” she said before taking a step towards the stallion. “What is that on your cutie-”

Cadance snorted a point a hoof at the biggest alicorn in the room. “Quiet you!” she yelled at Celestia.

“Cadance. I’m-” the white alicorn said in an annoyed tone.

“NO!” Cadance shouted at her. “You had your chance! You tried your stupid bribery! And, you know what? SHE’S STILL LEAVING! Oh! and you know what else? I just remembered you gave up your bucking crown! So shut your yap, or I’ll send you somewhere for a thousand years!”

Shining Armor blinked. “You’re...leaving? Where?”

As Sunset flinched at the question, Cadance frowned and pointed at the mirror. “Through there,” she explained. “That mirror is a portal to another word. One Sunset has been to before, the one she told you about in the classroom. A place that doesn’t have magic or anything else Equestria does. A place that she’s been having nightmares about for days. A place where she’ll be friendless, homeless, and suffer every day of her life! But she still intends to go there despite not having any real reason to!”

Once she had finished speaking, Cadance panted as her anger at Celestia, the mirror, Sunset’s decision to abandon them, and the world in general continued to simmer. She hadn’t meant to yell like she did, but Sunset leaving them all behind just made her so angry.

Shining Armor frowned in confusion. “Sunset, I don’t understand,” he said. “Why are you punishing yourself?”

All of a sudden, something clicked inside of Cadance’s mind.

The reason behind Sunset’s insistence that she didn’t belong had Cadance believing that it all stemmed from her view of self-worth. She thought that if Sunset was surrounded by friends that told her time and time again how amazing she was, that if she had positive experience after positive experience, then she would be able to dig herself out of the pit that Princess Twilight Sparkle had put her in.

But the truth of it all was something much different.

In fact, Cadance now understood that her plan wouldn’t have worked.

If anything, giving Sunset so much love would have only made her work that much harder to leave Equestria.

The real reason that Sunset was leaving Equestria made Cadance’s hackles rise. It made her see red. It made her want to shove that stupid overgrown, fat, amber alicorn’s plot through the mirror herself!

Cadance seethed with anger before taking in a deep breath. “You...selfish, little HORSE!” Cadance shouted.

Sunset actually took a step back from the pink princess’s tone.

As she retreated, Cadance quickly closed the gap between them. “All this time, I thought you had changed. I thought had become selfless, so selfless that it was being a detriment. I thought you couldn’t accept a compliment, because it would overshadow another’s actions. I thought you were just hurting and needed some love to help you heal.

“But no!” Cadance continued with a stomp. “The truth is that you are the same selfish little brat that you’ve ALWAYS BEEN!”

Sunset cowered under the pink princess’s assault as Celestia stepped forward. “Cadance!”

“And you!” the pink princess went on as she whirled on the big white pony, her fury only growing as she approached Celestia. “You know what? You should feel proud about Sunset. You know why? Because, despite all the-the neglect your pathetic excuse for what you call parenting involved, your little filly grew up to be JUST. LIKE. YOU!”

The pink princess sucked in breath after breath that also came out through her nose in a angry snort. She was so consumed by the situation, she didn’t hear the approach of hooves until they were right next to her, close enough for Shiny to place a hoof on her shoulder. “Cadance, you need to calm down.”

“Wha-” Cadance turned to look at Shining Armor, a good deal of her anger leaving her as she did. With it went the rush of adrenaline that had kept her going since Sunset had left their bedroom, and she stumbled forward to grab onto Shining Armor for physical support. “She…”

Seeing Shiny’s confused and concerned face made Cadance realize that Shining Armor had no idea about the depths of what was going on. Either that, or they hadn’t really hit him yet and he was still half-asleep. “Don’t you get it? She’s leaving, Shiny! Sunset’s leaving Equestria! Leaving us!” Cadance stressed. “All just so that she can feel better about herself!”

“What?” Sunset said as she raised her head and moved towards the pair of ponies that she had spent most of the night with. “No. Cadance, this isn’t about me! It’s about Twi-” The amber alicorn suddenly stopped, and glanced over to her mother. “It’s about...um...you know...that purple-”

Cadance frowned and looked past Shining Armor to glare at the amber alicorn. “Twilight Sparkle?” she growled, making Sunset’s eyes go wide before she looked over to Celestia in a near-panic. “Is that what you were going to say? You’re going to tell me that you’re abandoning everypony that loves you. That you’re leaving Equestria because of TWILIGHT SPARKLE?”

“What?” a tiny voice cried out in alarm, making Cadance, Shiny, and Sunset get wide eyes and freeze on the spot.


The third new voice that came from the vault's door made Sunset’s blood run cold. It was the only doubly familiar voice she knew. Doubly familiar for the fact she had heard a much older version and a younger one. At least, the only doubly familiar voice to still be in Canterlot. She knew that Applejack had left with her parents shortly after their royal hearing.

Which left…

Sunset slowly turned her head, and saw Twilight Sparkle stumble through the vault’s door, something she practically had to jump to get through. The little purple unicorn fell onto the floor when one of her hind hooves got caught, but she quickly picked herself up and rushed towards Sunset.

Then she stopped halfway there, looked a Celestia for a moment in apprehension, then finished galloping over to Sunset. Her final move was another half-leap that had Twilight rearing up and wrapping her forelegs around Sunset’s right one. Twilight looked up at Sunset with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry Empress! Please don’t leave! I’ll be good from now on! I promise I will! Just please, please, please don’t leave me,” she said before burying her teary face in Sunset’s coat.

“...oops.”

Sunset looked up to Cadance, the anger she was feeling over Twilight’s tears disappeared when she saw the pink pony’s ears pulled down, as well as the look of misery on her face. She knew the feeling of letting anger guide her actions until it had burnt itself out. The last thing Cadance needed was a pony yelling at her.

She looked down at Twilight as the pony continued to cry into her foreleg, then over to Shining Armor, which his messed up mane and dropping eyes that said he was barely conscious.

“Sunset, it’s almost time,” Celestia reminded her. “If you’re going to go-”

“Nooooo,” Twilight moaned from her place on Sunset’s leg.

Shining Armor stepped forward. “I don’t understand. Twily, what’re you doing here?” he asked before looking up at the amber alicorn. “Sunset, what’s going on? What does Cadance mean, you’re leaving Equestria? Why?”

Twilight squeezed Sunset’s leg even harder.

Completely surrounded, the weight the presence of the other ponies pressed down on Sunset. She knew that the most effective course of action would be to just teleport out of Twilight’s grip, throw up a force field, then run through the portal right before the stroke of midnight.

But...just taking off like that without answering Shiny’s question or dealing with Twilight, that wasn’t an option. So she looked over to Shining Armor. “Shiny, I...don’t belong here.”

She looked down at Twilight. A minor amnesia spell would wipe her memory of the traumatic sight, not to mention any explanation she gave about the future. Something Sunset quickly realized she couldn’t give Shiny because of his close proximity to Twilight.

“Don’t belong, what do you mean?” he asked.

Before she could continue, Cadance jumped into the conversation. “Lair!” she said as she spread her wings. “You’re not doing this for anypony but yourself!”

Sunset looked over to the pink princess. “No I’m not!” she said defensively. “Cadance, what are you talking about?”

“Your real reason for leaving all of us!” the pink princess exclaimed. “You say that it’s because you don’t want to mess anything up, and maybe on some level you actually believe that, but the real reason you are leaving is just so that you can punish yourself!”

A frown appeared on Sunset’s face. “What?”

Cadance glared at her. “Don’t play stupid, you’re too smart for that!” she told Sunset before sitting down. “Ever since you...changed, you’ve taken every opportunity you could to kick yourself. You berate yourself at the littlest opportunity, and any attempt to compliment you makes you go into a panic.”

“Cadance-”

The pink pony sat down and raised her hooves. “Please, wait until I’m done,” Cadance asked. “If we start trying to talk over each other, that’s going to lead to shouting, and I don’t want to do that to you anymore. I’m sorry I did, but this...it makes me so angry at you, Sunset.”

“But why? I don’t understand, I get that you’re upset with me leaving, and I’m sorry, but I have to go Cadance. Please, understand, I don’t belong here!” Sunset replied.

Cadance shivered with her inner rage for a moment before she closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and looked at the other alicorn with a frown. “The day you...became an alicorn, I had a conversation with Celestia. I told her that she needed to take responsibility for the feelings that she nurtured in you. And now you need to take responsibility for what you’ve nurtured in us!”

With Cadance raising her voice again, Sunset tried to step back in retreat, but stopped when she was reminded of Twilight on her leg. Unable to escape the verbal assault, she could only stand there as the pink pony went on. “Shiny, me, Twilight, we’ve all come to depend on you, Sunset. Do you honestly think that Twily or Shiny would be better if you left? And me, how am I supposed to feel safe without you? Did you even think about any of that?”

Sunset winced at Cadance’s words and lowered her ears. “But I...I made sure that Twilight would have a tutor, and you...you and Shiny...the two of you will be fine without me. You told me that yourself,” she said defensively.

“That was just a romance prediction under the condition that I had never met you!” Cadance snapped at Sunset, making the amber alicorn cower a bit.

As Sunset went down, Cadance took another deep breath, and let out a long sigh. “Okay, let’s try this...come here Twilight,” she said before reaching for the purple unicorn.

“Noooo!” Twilight cried out with outstretched forelegs as Cadance pulled her away from Sunset, then handed her to Shining Armor.

While Twilight struggled in her older brother’s grip, Cadance looked back to Sunset with a frown. “As much as I want to, I know I can’t stop you from leaving. You’re far more powerful than me, and Celestia’s already decided on just standing there and waving goodbye! So I want you to take a second and think about this, actually think about what you’re about to do, and the consequences of your actions!” the pink princess told her before she poked Sunset in the chest with a hoof. “I don’t want to hear some junk about how you deserve to live on Earth, that’s just your bucking lack of self-esteem and guilt talking!” Another poke. “I don’t want to hear about how you want to not mess anything up when you have already become an important part in the lives of me, your mother, Shiny, Twilight, Sassy, Fleur, and countless others!” Another poke. “I want you to take a good look around and tell me how Equestria is going to be so much better off when the pony that Shiny and I love is gone. When the pony that Twilight looks up to the most abandons her. When the pony that Celestia has finally accepted as her child rejects her love and runs away to to cripple herself and suffer untold pains in isolation!” Another poke came, followed by Cadance getting right up in her face. “Tell me why you are going to hurt everypony that loves you just so you can feel better about yourself!”

Sunset stumbled back, getting some breathing room before she looked down at the ground. Feel better about myself? That’s not why I’m doing this, she told herself as confused feelings swirled around in her head.

Is it?

She had to go back to Earth so that Twilight wouldn’t have anypony standing in her way to becoming a princess. If Sunset stayed, she would set a bad example for the filly to follow.

Like...how she was about to run away from the purple unicorn.

But that’s just one bad example, Sunset told herself. If I stay, she’ll get dozens more. Going by the numbers, it would be better to cut the cord now. Twilight was young, she would get over it.

It’s not like she’ll...be extremely resentful over the fact that even after she managed to improve herself and turn things around, the big alicorn in control of Equestria decided she didn’t even have time to write a letter to a pony that might as well have been family, Sunset thought, her mind turning to her own experiences with Celestia and the resentment she felt over being abandoned by her.

Sunset quickly turned her mind to something else. Okay, but Shining Armor’s life would be better! Without me around to constantly overshadow him, he...well, he already doubts if joining the guard is the right move. He needs somepony that can show him all his options and help him get to where he wants to be in life. It was something Cadance could do, of course.

If she isn’t dealing with her own problems, Sunset went on. Which she would. The fear the pink princess had when it came to changelings had bordered on obsessive at one point. While Sunset had seen her get that back under control, that didn’t mean it was gone for good.

Especially since the pony that she used as her security blanket would be gone.

And then there was her mother.

Sunset didn’t doubt that while her departure would hurt, Celestia would be able to continue on as always. But, Cadance’s words played back in her mind. Was she really going back to Earth so she could feel better about herself?

Mom, the amber alicorn thought as she looked over to Celestia. The big pony looked back with tired eyes. There was no judgement, no demands or anything else her mother was silently conveying.

But if she didn’t leave...what did that mean?

The Twilight that she had met, the Twilight that had saved Sunset from becoming a monster, she would be condemning that pony to a fate of non-existence. It wasn’t right for Sunset to have a life of happiness at such a cost.

Even if Princess Twilight had abandoned her as well when Sunset had been facing a major crisis.

“Sunset,” Shining Armor spoke up before he sat Twilight down next to a pedestal with a floating red orb above it and trotted over to the alicorn. The young mare was frozen as he reached down and took a hoof. “I still don’t understand what’s going on, but if going through that mirror...portal...thing is making everypony angry and you so afraid, then just come back to bed with me and Cadance. I’m sure we can work something out tomorrow morning after we’ve gotten some sleep. Come up with a solution that will make everypony happy.”

Sunset slammed her eyes shut and furiously shook her head. She didn’t deserve to be happy!

But if getting what she deserved came at the cost of hurting others, then...what was the point of it?

She didn’t deserve to stay, but leaving would make her an even worse pony than she already was!

I don’t...I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, she mentally screamed.

“Sunset,” Celestia spoke up for the first time in awhile. She came forward and put a wing on the smaller alicorn’s back. “Sunset, it’s almost midnight. If you’re going, you need to do it before the portal closes.”

The amber alicorn gulped and looked up to her mother. “I...I don’t…Mom...what should I do?”

Celestia shook her head in response. “I can’t tell you that, Sunset. Only you can decide the path your life will take. All I can do is say that I will always love and support you, no matter what your decision is.”

The comforting words did little to help with the internal conflict she was feeling.

“Just come back to bed with me and Shiny,” Cadance told her desperately. “If you do, we can put all of this behind us. We can be together, the three of us. And I promise  that I will do everything a pony can to make you happy.”

Sunset looked over to the clock sitting next to Celestia’s bed. It read eleven-fifty-nine, and the second hand continued to tick towards the twelve at the top, passing the big ten as it did.

Ten seconds, Sunset told herself as she looked around.

“Come back with me and Shiny,” Cadance begged.

“We can work this out,” Shining Armor added.

Celestia only gave her a reassuring look.

And Twilight…Sunset didn’t even have the courage to look at her.

Because if she left, the filly’s heart would be broken. It would put her through the same kind of pain Sunset went through when she reformed, but Celestia stayed silent.

I have to go, Sunset told herself as her fears swelled and her heart ached at the idea.

But...I...I can’t, she thought. She couldn’t bring herself to even raise her legs as they trembled at the simple possibility of going back to Canterlot High.

She couldn’t leave, not now. The fear that the idea of going back to Earth put into her was part of it, but there was so much more stopping her from moving. Cadance was right. She had tied herself to too many ponies to simply walk away from them because…

Because…

Because she felt guilty over her past actions.

Because she felt that she needed to be punished.

Because she didn’t think she deserved what good fortune had given her.

Because...Cadance was right. If Sunset left, it would be because she wanted to try and feel better about herself by going through some sort of self-imposed atonement. A punishment that would make everyone around her suffer even worse pain than she was experiencing at the moment.

A the clock continued to tick away the second, Sunset looked over to the pink pony standing across from her. “Okay,” she said as nervousness and a sense of self-loathing welled in her chest at the idea of staying in Equestria. “Let’s-” Before she could finish, a grunt of extreme effort came from Twilight, and Sunset blinked as a red blur raced between Cadance and Shining Armor, past Sunset’s head, and through Celestia’s tail, straight towards the mirror. Getting a startled cry from the assembled ponies.

Sunset recovered a moment later. “What in the hell was-” she said before she heard the sound of glass shattering.


Twilight struggled in Shining Armor’s grip as Princess Cadance continued to talk with Empress Sunset. “Shiny, let me go! I need to stop the Empress!”

“Twilight, you need to calm down,” he told her sadly.

“But Empress Sunset is leaving!” Twilight exclaimed.

She didn’t understand the details. She knew that whatever was going on. Even though it had to be important, she didn’t care. Empress Sunset was supposed to teach her magic, she was supposed to get Twilight into Celestia’s school, she was supposed to marry Shining Armor and become Twilight’s big sister!

She couldn’t do any of that if she left!

“Shiny! Please, don’t let her leave! Do something! Tell her I’m sorry. I’m sorry I did something wrong. I’m sorry I made Ms Celestia angry! Tell her I’ll be god from now on, please!” the little purple unicorn begged as the world blurred from the tears in her eyes.

Shining Armor sighed as he looked over to where Princess Cadance had gone back to talking to Sunset in an angry tone. “I’ll try, Twilight,” he said before he looked back to her. “But you need to stay here, okay?”

Twilight trembled with indecision. She wanted to race back and latch onto Empress Sunset’s foreleg. She wanted to make her stay, to make her see how horrible it would be to live without her. But despite all those desires, she knew that it wouldn’t do any good.

Empress Sunset knew Twilight didn’t want her to go, but she was leaving anyway. She had her saddlebags packed and everything! She probably had planned it long ago, judging by the signature on the letter she left.

As Shiny went to talk with Sunset, apparently taking Twilight’s silence as an affirmative that she would stay put, the little unicorn looked around desperately. If she couldn’t keep Empress Sunset around by asking, then she would just have to make her stay somehow!

Although her hammering heart made it hard to hear everything that was going on, Twilight picked up that the mirror on the other side of the cleared space was the only way that Empress Sunset could go to someplace she called Earth. So...if the mirror was destroyed...then the Empress would have to stay in Equestria.

Twilight looked around for something to smash the mirror that would take Empress Sunset from her. Her eyes settled on a hammer on the shelf above her, but before she could use her magic on it, something else caught her attention out of the corner of her eye.

The big red crystal ball floating on the pedestal glowed a bright red that made Twilight’s eyes dart towards it, with her whole head turning in that direction a few seconds later. It might have been fragile as well, but the fact it could float under its own power meant Twilight could probably move it much easier than a big piece of enchanted metal.

She snatched the thing up in her telekinesis, and built up as much power as she could with her immature horn before letting the magical object fly without even looking. Which turned out to be a mistake, as the orb headed right towards a gathering crowd of ponies that was standing between Twilight and the evil mirror.

By some miracle, the crystal ball made it past Princess Cadance, Shiny, Empress Sunset and Celestia to strike the mirror's surface and...shatter.

But, much to Twilight’s horror, the oval mirror that promised to take Empress Sunset away from her remained whole.

Empress Sunset looked over to the mirror as she spoke. “What the hell was-” she said before Celestia let out a startled scream.

“The orb!” she shouted in terror before she looked over to Twilight with an angry frown. All the light in the room seemed to diminish, and Twilight crouched down in fear as the former High Princess gave her an angry glare. “What have you done, you little-”

“Hey!” Empress Sunset shouted before she ran around to stand between Twilight and the big pony. “Don’t yell at her! She-wait.” As the Empress stopped to look past her mother, Twilight quickly ran between the amber alicorn’s legs for protection from the white pony. “Why didn’t it go through?”

“Sunset! Do you have any idea what she’s done? The magic of the Orb of Foolishness has been released! Who knows what might happen because of that!”

Before anypony could properly answer the Empress’s inquiry, a resounding crack filled the room, making all of the ponies present look back towards the mirror. Cracks in the center of the treated crystal spread out from the center of the mirror out to the edges, making Twilight cry out in joy.  “Yes! Now Empress Sunset can’t leave the-” The the cracks continued past the mirror’s frame, going into the air, making it appear as if the world around the mirror was breaking. “-uh...Empress Sunset, are broken magic mirrors supposed to do that?”

“Sunset?” Princess Cadance said in an uneasy tone as she stepped closer to the bigger pony. “What’s going on?”

The mirror, the frame, and the space around it fell apart like broken glass, creating a jagged hole in the world. On the other side of the hole, a bunch of strange creatures on two legs stood in a crowd. Some of them were looking at the hole, others at each other, and a few had their attention on thick little bricks with wires that ran to their heads.

“What-what are those thing?” Shiny asked.

“Humans,” Cadance mumbled.

Those are hugh-manes?” Celestia said.

Twilight stepped out from underneath the Empress to examine the creatures as much as she dared. They looked funny, with the way they didn’t have any coats underneath their clothes and such odd manes. But the weirdest thing about them was something she had to ask the amber alicorn behind her. “Empress Sunset, why aren’t they moving?”

The Empress ignored the question and nearly stepped on Twilight as she moved forward, making the little unicorn dive for cover. “But that’s...Canterlot...High. The games...that can’t be more than a few minutes after I left!” she exclaimed before her horn lit up and a wide beam of light came out to encompass the opening as well as shine through it. A second after Empress Sunset had completed what looked like some type of scanning spell on the breach, she looked back to Celestia. “Mom, what’s going on?”

Celestia’s eyes widened at the question. “Of course!” she said before rushing over to the stacks of paper and pulling out one of them. “That’s why there isn’t another one of you running around! The temporal magic that’s rewound time doesn’t extend to other realities! While our temporal axis has been altered, the other universe is continuing on unaffected. So, you weren’t swept up in the rewind, which means...oh my.” The big pony looked up from her paper and over to the Empress. “Sunset, the fact you came back when you did...if you hadn’t walked through the portal that that exact second...I’m not sure what would have happened.”

“Excuse me?” Sunset asked as she raised an eyebrow.

Celestia sighed and rubbed the space beneath her horn with a hoof. “Sunset, think about it for a moment. The spell that was cast rewound time in Equestria to the point before you left. But since you weren’t here, there was nothing to rewind. What do you think would have happened if you had disappeared before you ran away? Do you have any idea what I would have done if you had just vanished?”

“I...wait, but that’s…” Empress Sunset looked back to the hole in the world with a frown. “How in the hay did somepony cast a time travel spell that took them back ten years? The one I know of barely does seven days.”

When Celestia looked at the tear again, Twilight realized that she didn’t have any cover from the former princess’s gaze, and quickly rushed back to her safe space underneath Empress Sunset before the white alicorn began talking again. “It is quite disturbing. The only thing I know of that would have provided a pony the power to enact such a spell is…” Celestia looked back to Shining Armor with a frown. “Not useable at the moment.”

When it looked like everypony had just forgotten her question, or simply not heard it in the first place, Twilight poked her head out from under Empress Sunset. “But why aren’t they moving?”

Empress Sunset blinked as she looked down at Twilight, then she took a step back and sat on the floor.

With her cover gone, Twilight started to become nervous, until Empress Sunset reached down and picked the purple unicorn up in her forelegs. Twilight dove into the warmth of the Empress’s coat, nuzzling the amber alicorn with her whole body. She was so enveloped by the experience that she almost missed Empress Sunset’s response. “Well, they are moving Twilight. It’s just much, much slower than we are,” she said.

“Hey!” Shining Armor cried out before throwing his hooves out towards the anomaly. “Does nopony seem to care about the big hole in reality over there? Shouldn’t one of you princesses be doing something to seal it up?”

All the assembled ponies blinked.

Celestia sighed again. “And this is why I was mad at Twilight for breaking the Idiot Ball,” she mumbled before looking over to Shining Armor. “And I’m afraid that I don’t have enough-”

“Yeah,” Empress Sunset said as she stepped forward. “I suppose...we should take care of that.”

Cadance frowned at her. “Please don’t tell me you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking.”

“What am I thinking?” Sunset asked evenly.

“There’s a big gaping hole in reality to a work that you can just walk through and skip the next ten years of us feeling heartbroken at your departure,” Cadance said with a frown. “I know you’ve thought about galloping through it.”

Empress Sunset lowered her ears. “Actually, I...that is-”

The pink princess didn’t let the Empress finish. “And if you do, I’ll be following you through it.”

“Cadance…” Empress Sunset said with enough force to keep the lesser official from talking over her again. “I’m...not...leaving.” She looked down at Twilight for a moment before giving her a smile that didn’t look at all happy, then turned her attention back to Princess Cadance. “You’re right. I have to take responsibility for what I’ve done, here. And...part of that means learning how to deal with the things I’ve done in a way that doesn’t hurt the ponies that I love.”

A hopeful look bloomed on Princess Cadance’s face before she slowly half-looked away from Sunset and gave her a frown born of cautious optimism. “So...you’re staying, then?”

The Empress let out a tiny snicker from her nose and smiled. “Yes. I’m not going anywhere,” she said as she pulled Twilight away from her coat and hoofed her to Shining Armor again before looking back to the anomaly. “But first, let me take care of this little mess.”

“Sunset, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy to-”

“Relax Mom, I’ve got this,” she told the bigger alicorn as she stepped forward and took in a deep breath.

Then the Empress threw out her wings, and something magical happened. Just like the time she had broken the laws of magic, her hair became a flowing mass of power. But the display didn’t end there.

Twilight’s view of Empress Sunset became completely obscured for a moment by a bright light, and when it dimmed, the Empress had transformed. Extra little cutie marks adored her body in odd places, and her main one shined a bit brighter, seemed a bit bigger, and had some minor cosmetic changes in the form of six little stars of light at the end of her sun’s pure red and gold flares.

The amount of power Empress Sunset gave off made Twilight’s head swim, but in a good way. It was like being wrapped up in a warm snuggly blanket that told Twilight that everything was going to be okay, that she was loved, and that Empress Sunset would be able to handle any problem presented to her.

“But that-how can she possibly use the magic of Harmony without an Element?” Celestia mumbled.

Not ten seconds later, the rift was gone and Empress Sunset was back to normal, holding the red ball from earlier in a containment field. “While I was at it I also gathered up the stray magic and reformed the Orb,” she said before putting it back on its pedestal. “And containment spell should keep it from messing with any of...us-wait.”

Twilight suddenly got a nervous feeling when the Empress looked down on her. She was frowning, but it wasn’t an angry frown. Still, the little purple unicorn was starting to have seconds thoughts about her decision to run off on her own after hearing from one of the palace janitor’s that Princess Cadance and Shiny had gone down the left wing’s eastern stairwell while her mother was still in the bathroom.

“Twily, what’re you doing here?”


“Oh, thank you! Thank you, Princesses. Or is it Princess and...um...do you have a title...er….Celestia?”

Cadance stifled a giggle as not-Princess Celestia’s mouth twisted in annoyance. It seemed that Sparkle got more than looks from Velvet. “Don’t worry Mrs. Velvet, it’ll be Princess Celestia again soon enough,” she assured the mare that was holding the sleeping filly. “And while I don’t think that something like this needs to be repeated in the future, I’m actually thankful that Twily did show up. Even if Sunset did have to wipe her memory of what happened.”

The gray Twilight cautiously looked over to Celestia, then back to Cadance. “I...see.”

“It was more for her peace of mind than anything else,” Celestia told her. “She’ll wake up tomorrow morning, thinking that she just dozed off in her house before ever reading the letter that my daughter sent for her.  If not for that, we’d offer you a room at the palace. But we do have a carriage take you home waiting in the courtyard.”

Velvet bowed her head. “Thank you, Your Majesty,” she said to Celestia despite the lack of a title before looking over to Cadance. “And...Shiny?”

“Sunset is taking him back to our quarters and explaining a few things to him. He’ll be be spending the night with us,” Cadance told her before hesitating. Telling Velvet about their relationship in the middle of the night when they were all drop dead tired. But...it wasn’t as if there was a good way to tell a pony with Velvet’s background and already been introduced to about what they were doing. So, the pink princess decided to just dive right into it. “In case you’re wondering what that means, I’ll just go out and say it. We’re making love with your son.”

The mare’s reaction was just what Cadance had thought it would be. She saw the fear at the thought of another pony of position doing whatever they wanted to a family of her class, then came the mental reminder that Sunset and Cadance hardly seemed the types that would take advantage of a pony like that, followed by the confusion of three ponies having sex, together. “Both of you?”

“Please understand!” Cadance begged before the confusion could give way to fear again. “It’s not like we’re passing him back and forth! He’s not like some toy. I love Shiny. We both do. That’s...one of the reasons why it ended up like this. The three of us, we...work together. There’s no better way to put it better than that. There’s no jealousy, there’s no hurt feelings, there’s no guilt. I know, it seems new and scary and you’re probably afraid of us taking advantage of Shining Armor and if you’re still against us being with him like this…”

Cadance paused for an instant, unsure if she should make the offer she was about to. But she went through with it anyway. “And if you want us to...we’ll back off,” she said. Sunset would be a little peeved at the idea, but the pink princess knew that she wouldn’t try to come between the young stallion and his family in such a way.

For her part, Twilight Velvet looked over to her daughter for a moment, then sighed and hung her head. “It’s alright, Princess,” she said. “I know you’re just trying to put me at ease. Not that I don’t have fears...I’ve seen the two of you argue about my son as if he were some kind of doll, sometimes.”

“Yeah...sorry about that,” she apologized. “We just...we both thought that the best thing for Shiny was to be with the other mare. Which is...probably why we can have a threesome. Like I said, no jealousy.”

The gray mare nodded. “Thank you for acknowledging my concerns, Highness,” she said before shaking her head. “But, I’m not going to try and stand between Shining Armor and the two of you. Just...please be careful with my son.”

Cadance trotted up to take Twilight Velvet’s hooves in her own. “The last thing we would ever do is hurt Shiny, ma’am.”

Shortly after, the other mare departed with her daughter. The two alicorns watched her go, then turned back to head into the palace hallways. After making their way to a hall where they were alone, Cadance looked up to Celestia. “Mind if I ask you something?”

“If you would be so kind to honor me with a question to you of my own, Your Majesty,” the bigger alicorn asked with a smirk and bow of her head.

With it being too late to put up with her sort of humor, Cadance gave Celestia a look as she cut right to the heart of the matter. “Why is Twilight Sparkle afraid of you?”

It made no sense to her. As far as she knew, the little purple unicorn was just short of a sun worshiper. Upon meeting Celestia, she should have squealed, jumped for joy, asked for an autograph, not cower in fear of her!

Celestian stopped for a moment, cleared her throat, and looked away from Cadance in that way she did whenever she was embarrassed about something. “That was...probably because our first meeting went so poorly.”

“Oh, that makes-wait,” Cadance said, stopping mid-word and nod finished process just what Celestia had said. “You’ve met here before!? When? How? And...you were mean to her?” That was the only thing Cadance could think of to cause such a reaction in the little unicorn.

The accusation made Celestia’s eyes widen. “What? No! I didn’t-it was after I met with Shining Armor when-here,” she said before her horn lit up. “Let me show you.”

Cadance turned to look at the projection the white pony put on the wall. On it, she saw a moving image like she had seen at the re-play theater.

Celestia and Shining Armor walked together down a hallway. They entered a room, where the gray and purple Twilights were sitting on benches across from each other, enjoying some sweets and tea that had been prepared for them by the palace.

“Oh my gosh! It’s Princess Celestia!” the little Twilight got out as she jumped off and ran towards the big pony, she reared up when she got to Celestia and put her hooves up against the Princess’s forelegs. “Hello, Your Majesty! I’m Twilight Sparkle, your daughter is helping me learn magic, and I want to go to your school when I’m old enough.”

The moment Twilight said her name, the amusement in Celestia’s eyes over the filly’s actions disappeared. In its place was a cold stare that put a chill down Cadance’s spine. All of a sudden, the little filly wasn’t standing next to her idol, she was standing in the shadow of a gigantic alicorn that looked down at her with eyes that would have put the griffons on their rumps in ten seconds or less. “You, are Twilight Sparkle?”

Despite her age, Twilight obviously picked up on the change in Celestia’s demeanor, as she got back on all fours and gulped. “Um...y-yes...Princess Celestia,” Twily replied before she crouched down in fear.

A second later, the gray Twilight was standing behind her daughter in a bow. “I’m sorry for my daughter’s lack of respect, Your Highness. Please, forgive her foolishness,” she begged. “She’s just a little filly.”

“Yes, I supposed she is,” Celestia replied evenly before looking back to Shining Armor for a moment. The colt also had become extremely nervous at the ancient mare’s reaction. “As I was saying to your son, earlier. You will tell no one of this meeting, especially not my daughter. Is that understood?”

The visual ended with all of the ponies agreeing to the royal order.

It made Cadance glare at the bigger alicorn. “What the buck was that?” she demanded.

“Cadance, please understand-”the mare said evenly.

“Understand what?” the pink princess demanded. “You frightened that little filly!”

“That little filly crippled my daughter!” Celestia fired back.

“You can’t-” Cadance began before the irony of the situation hit her. It was just like Sunset’s relationship with Celestia. The younger alicorn had a bone to pick with her mother over something Celestia had never really done thanks to the change in the timeline. “Ugh, Sunset’s mad at you for what you didn’t do, and you’re doing the same thing to Twily. The two of you really are just alike, blaming a pony when what they did is no longer something they can be blamed for.”

Celestia stomped her hoof. “Don’t you think I know that?” she demanded before letting out a snort and frowning down at herself. “I regretted it the moment they left, but seeing the pony that, even in an alternate incarnation, hurt Sunset...I just…”

Pushing past the anger she felt towards Celestia over what she had just seen and shaking off her own ire that wanted to be loosed thanks to the reminder of Princess Twilight Sparkle, Cadance frowned at the bigger alicorn. “Don’t you think I feel the same way towards anypony who would do that to Sunset? And if that other pony ever crosses my path, the fate I will bestow upon her will make her envious of what happens to the creatures in Tartarus,” Cadance said, something she had no doubt Celestia would aid her in. “But that little filly, that is not the princess that left your daughter to fend for herself without a single pony around to help. She is an innocent little filly that worships your daughter and-” Cadance stopped as something suddenly dawned on her.

The second week or so Cadance and Sunset had gone to teach Twilight magic, the little filly had stopped mentioning Celestia. There were no inquires about being her personal student, no requests to meet her, not even a mention of the big pony. Twily’s admiration for the High Princess just suddenly disappeared. Even to the point where she said Sunset was a nicer princess than Celestia.

She hadn’t thought much of it at the time. After all, Twily was a young filly, and Sunset was the pony making time for her, not Celestia. It seemed natural that her hero worship should change to the princess that was paying attention to her rather than the one in the castle she had only seen while part of a crowd.

“You need to apologize to her. You owe her an apology on your belly. An apology, and something to show your sincerity, to make this up to her an push it out of her mind,” she stressed. “Because if Sunset finds out about this...you and her are done.” Twilight meant too much to Sunset. If she became a reason to break the mother and daughter apart, Cadance didn’t know if such a rift would ever close.

Celestia hesitated. “You’re not...going to hell her?”

The thought didn’t even tempt her. “No,” Cadance said with a shake of her head. “I know that she actually said she wasn’t going back to Earth, but...I can also see that Sunset’s got a long road until she’s fully recovered from the wounds that she suffered there. Longer still until she can finally relieve herself of the guilt. For that, she’s going to need you to be there for her.”

Celestia nodded. “Thank you for that.”

The two resumed their walk, which Celestia apparently took as sign that she had the reigns of the conversation. “So tell me, how long has Sunset been able to do...what she did back in the vault?”


Shining Armor laid on the edge of the amber alicorn’s bed as Sunset finished explaining everything to him about the mirror, the other world she visited, the fact that she had been over there so long that ten years had passed since she left, and then got sent back in time when she left that world after absorbing magic that had been misappropriated by a bunch of other of the hugh-mane creatures when another pony had apparently cast a spell that reversed time without affecting Sunset, because she was on another planet at time...or in an alternate dimension, the whole thing was really confusing.

It left Shining Armor with several questions, like… “So...you’re really, like...twenty-eight?”

Sunset made a face. “What? No, Shiny that’s, if I was that old, I would have never done anything like I did with you! That’s just, just-ew! No,” she told him before clearing her throat and calming down. “But...I am twenty-one...physically...maybe. I need to take another look at that physical exam. Legally though, I’m still eighteen so...I’m not getting you any hard cider. In fact, I won’t be buying any even after I’m twenty-one. That stuff’s for idiots. And mentally, hell I started the last three years surrounded by fifteen-year-olds. So...it’s complicated.”

He frowned at the discrepancy. “But, you said that ten years had passed.”

“Like I said, it’s complicated,” Sunset told him. “All I can figure on that is, the temporal axises of the two dimensions are out of sync. Sometimes, the Earth one must spin faster than ours. Except now, because Equestria’s temporal rotation has been sped up thanks to somepony casting a time reversal spell.”

Shining Armor frowned again. “Don’t you mean, time travel?”

Sunset shook her head. “No, that’s a common misconception,” she said. “It’s actually impossible to travel through time more than second by second, and never in reverse. What the spell Celestia thinks caused all of this rewinds time after taking the pony who cast the spell out of the affected area. Kind of like when I undid the damage to your plates back in your house.”

The explanation got a nod from Shining Armor, although in the big scheme of things, he guessed that the technical details of things that he would never really grasp weren’t really that important.

Plus, there were more important things he needed to know. “Um, back when we were in the vault, you said...well, what does my sister have to do with all of this?”

Sunset hesitated and broke eye contact for a minute. “Well...that’s...look, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you it’s just…” she stopped talking and tapped her chin in thought for a moment. “Shiny, like I said, the first time I came back to Equestria, more than ten years had passed since I left. Twily was an adult, and I got into big trouble on the other side of the mirror and...she saved me, Shiny. I can’t begin to explain just how much I owe her and...I was afraid that if I stayed...I would ruin the future I saw for her.” She sighed and looked down at the ground. “Truth is, I’m afraid I already have. And if I tell you anymore about her future, it may throw it off even more. The only thing I can do now is minimize the damage and keep her on course. ”

Which was why Shining Armor couldn’t bring himself to be too upset at Sunset for trying to sneak away. It hurt, it put doubts in his mind about how she felt about what the three of them were doing together, but Shining Armor found himself unable to actually be angry at her for it.

Although he could agree with Cadance about how what she did stemmed from a massive amount of guilt, he knew it was also because of her lack of self-worth. Sunset couldn’t see any solution that didn’t involve her removing herself from Twilight’s life because she saw her own presence as a detriment.

“Okay,” Shining Armor said after some thought. “I get Twilight. I get...why you did, what you did. But Sunset...the way you were trying to push me off on Cadance...and with this...three of us...stuff. Was all this because you were leaving?”

Right as she moved to answer him in a reassuring way, the door to the bedroom opened, admitting Cadance. “That’s not true, is it?” she asked in fear. “You got the idea from Twilight, which also came from humans. It’s not some evil plot you had to leave the two us in a way that assured we would get toget-oh, buck.” Cadance slumped at the truth of situation hit her. “That’s exactly what it was, wasn’t it?”

Sunset looked down for a moment at the floor to sigh, then back up to Cadance. “Back at the school, when I told you how I felt about you, I meant every word,” she said. “When it came time to leave, I was ready to run away from Shiny, but leaving you? It was if I was ripping out my own heart, Cadance. And...I’m sorry. I’m sorry I hurt you, I’m sorry I scared you. I...I’m…”

As tears began to fall down Sunset’s face, Cadance stepped in to hug her in a supportive way, and kissed the water trickling down. “It’s okay. I get it,” she said. “In the end, you still came here. You didn’t leave. There’s nothing to be sorry about.”

When the embrace ended, Cadance stepped back and looked at Sunset with a much harder expression. “So I guess the question is, are you ready to really and truly commit to this, then?” he asked. “I already said, the first few months are going to be a bit awkward, and there’s a problem with balancing everything early on, but the three of us can be together if we want to be.”

Sunset broke eye contact with Cadance, and Shining Armor found his own fears beginning to rise. He didn’t want to go back to the way they had been before, with Cadance and Sunset fighting over which mare would get him, even if they would be doing it the proper way a second time around. But...now that he had gotten used to the idea, he didn’t want to just be with Cadance, either. It was selfish and pretty narcissistic, but Shining Armor couldn’t deny that was what he wanted.

Then, when Sunset let out a breath through her nose and looked back at Cadance with a smirk, Shining Armor’s fears were disappointing before she even spoke. “Of course I want the two of you to be with me,” she said. “I’m a greedy narcissist, remember? Why would I want anything less than everything?”

“Well,” Cadance said with a small frown. “At least you’ve made it work for you. Now get in bed, the middle this time. I want the two of us holding you down this time.”

While Sunset did as she was told, Shining Armor found himself wondering what the future held for the three of them. Despite the fact that Sunset was willing to commit herself to them, he couldn’t help but be uncertain about what may come. “So...is this it?” he asked. “No offense girls, but...I’m not really getting a sense of assured closure, here.”

From the other side of the bed, Cadance snorted before she climbed in and latched onto Sunset to snuggle up to her the way a horned pony with plenty of practice could. “We’re just starting our relationship Shiny. Thisn’t an end of anything.”

“Except the arguing and relationship uncertainty,” Sunset said. “We’ve still got plenty to fill our plates like school, planning out future careers, the horrifying thought that I might cause a huge temporal disturbance and completely ruin your sister’s perfect destiny, royal...stuff…”

Since Sunset had hit a wall, Cadance picked up the conversation. “Not to mention you still need to give the crown back to Celestia, unless you want to keep it, that is. But if you don’t , we’ll have to do your coronation next week to officially make you a princess...after you were an empress for a...boy, that’s going to be a little confusing,” she said with a frown. “And it feels like I’m forgetting-Oh! And there’s Upper Crust’s parents! We...really need to do something about them.”

“Yeah, I’ll sign an order to have them released in the morning,” she said.

Shining Armor nodded before scooting closer to Sunset and wrapping his forelegs around one of hers. “I suppose you’ve got a few points there,” he agreed. “And, I was wondering...what with you both being princesses and all, if you could...help me see if joining the guard is really something I want to do.”

“Of course we could,” Sunset said.

“And will,” Cadance added.

“Which,” Sunset continued. “Makes me think cooking up some kind of try-out or apprenticeship program for ponies that are still in highschool and are unsure what path their cutie mark should take them on should have. One second, let me just draw up an outline and-”

Cadance let out a little sigh as Sunset tried to get out of bed. “Sunset, while I’m glad you’ve just proven how well the three of us mesh and work together without even meeting to, we need to get some sleep.”

The word got a yawn out of Shining Armor as his body reminded him of what the mares had put him through all night. “Yeah Sunset. Sleep,” he agreed.

“Okay,” she agreed. Then, Shining Armor was treated to the sound of Sunset and Cadance kissing before his own lips felt the touch of hers. Afterwich he had to complete the process by reaching over to kiss Cadance.

Then, he closed his eyes.

And…

...felt a soft light on them he saw coming from Sunset’s horn when he opened his eyes. A quill and parchment floated in her magic, much to the annoyance of Cadance.

Sunset,” the pink princess warned evenly.

The goddess let out a sign and moved the writing equipment back to the desk on the other side of the room with a sigh. “Okay, okay I’m going to sleep.”

When the light went out again, Shining Armor moved his whole body closer to the amber alicorn’s and smiled as he closed his eyes. It was odd. Since meeting Sunset, his life had been turned on its head. Being with Cadance had made him break out of his normal place of being the dateless nerd and into one he didn’t know he could fulfill. He knew that any future with the two of them in it was bound to be complicated beyond belief.

But he also knew that the three of them would be dealing with it together.

And somehow, that made it seem...not so bad.