Princess Celestia, Diarch of the Sun, was feeling troubled. After listening to my life story, she had been awfully quiet, only answering questions with simple gestures of her head. No word or sound came from her muzzle, because all her brain activity was solely focused on processing the information that had been given to her, not that she would tell anypony of course. Soon after, she had requested that Luna weave together a dream for me and Tammilya to enjoy while she departed from our company.
“This keeps getting easier and easier it seems.” Luna said, while making the environment that of the mountain retreat, a bit of sadness in her tone. “I’m not saying that due to my age and experience, I’m saying that because it is taking less magic and energy.”
“That is because me and Tammilya continue to merge into one body and mind.” I said with a sigh. I noticed my voice was sounding higher in pitch than normal, and a slight accent had formed behind my syllables. Trotting over to the mirror that was against the wall, I took note of other changes.
Just like when I was Sundae Melody, my fur covered my fetlocks. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the bottom few rows of hair had changed from my normal vanilla color to bright yellow. My muzzle looked like a rounded square, sort of a blend between a stallion and mare, and seemed a little smaller. I suddenly squirmed, a rather uncomfortable feeling generating from my nethers gaining all my attention. The pulling made me feel sick, and I noticed Tammilya had turned a slight shade of green that no doubt was caused by our nerves becoming more entwined.
“That really sucked…” I said after the changes stopped, for the time being anyway. A quick glance showed I was still male, but I could tell it was only a matter of time before I crossed the gender line. My head felt like it was swimming, memories and thoughts I had no prior knowledge of were now implanted in my brain along side my own.
“No kidding dear,” Tammilya said, a little winded as she recovered from what just happened. “the fact I felt that shows our central nervous systems are almost completely integrated. It also seems that we now have parts of each other’s memories as well.”
“I can tell, and it seems my gender change is underway…” I said while rubbing my hindlegs together, the rubbing easing a small burning that had developed. “No offense to you, but I don’t think I could handle being a mare. I was born a male and have been my whole life, it would take a long time to get used to it.”
Tammilya solemnly nodded in understanding. “I get where you’re coming from Jim, but at the same time you would become my insides. I can guarantee that when we wake up, you will find it difficult to remotely feel any part of your human body without having to concentrate on it. Trust me, I am not happy about this either, because I would lose you once time runs out. I just want the end result to be the one where we all win.”
I softly moaned as two very sensitive lumps formed on my lower barrel, previous experience made me know that my teats just formed. “You better hurry your Highness, seems that we have less time that we thought. After we wake up we will wait for the portal to open, I just hope that it won’t be too late.”
“Indeed,” Princess Luna said as she finished tinkering with the strength of the dreamscape, reinforcing it so me and Tammilya could have a longer rest. “Now I must depart to take care of my sister, until next time farewell you two and hope to see you soon.”
Me and Tammilya nodded, allowing the Princess of the Night to depart and resume her normal routine. When she left our dreamscape, she found everypony to be at relative peace, which meant that she had a lot of spare time on her hooves. With nothing else to do, she teleported to the Castle of Friendship to check on Twilight’s progress.
“Hello Luna,” Twilight said with a smile, the thick smell of fresh coffee filling the room. “Celestia ran out to get some more coffee grounds. Since I just ran out with the last batch that is in the pot, and she wanted to be a help, I had her go run that errand and get me all the spare paper she could find. So, what brings you here at this hour?”
“Seeing as all my subjects are having peaceful dreams for a change, I have some spare time on my hooves.” Luna replied while fixing herself some coffee, with it ending up milky white from the amount of creamer and sugar she put in it. “So how close are you to making the exact portal location link?”
Twilight gave the older alicorn a forced, tired smile. “Very close, I just need to get Discord to get everything set on this end and we can do a test run.”
Luna blinked, not expecting the former Lord of Chaos to be offering a helping paw. “Discord? Why would he be offering his assistance? This matter doesn’t concern him nor should it interest him.”
Twilight’s forced smile turned into a natural frown, clearly showing that she was far too tired to squabble. “That is where you are wrong Luna, it does in fact concern him considering the chaos involved with a pony being in another dimension. The reason he hasn’t been able to help until now is because he and Fluttershy were on a retreat, and from what I gathered it went quite well… he proposed and she said yes.”
“Wait, really?” Luna asked surprised. She knew that Fluttershy and Discord were fond of each other, but she didn’t think that they were that close. Considering that she had not seen a single dream of them together that didn’t involve tentacles, leather, or bridles; she thought they were nightmares and always changed the dream. However, the more she thought about how upset Fluttershy was each time she interfered, the more she realized just what kind of dreams they were.
“Indeed,” Twilight said taking a solitary sip of her coffee as she continued to do calculations for the uptenth time to make sure her math was right. “why do you ask?”
“No reason…” Luna shakily replied, being careful not to spill Fluttershy’s personal thoughts. “although it seems that I owe Fluttershy a deep apology.”
Any chance for Twilight to ask Luna what that meant was thrown out when Celestia returned with the coffee grounds and a large stack of paper, big enough that the Princess of the Sun had her wings spread to keep it balanced. “Here you go Twilight, I got the coffee and this is all the paper that was on the shelves here in Canterlot, you sure you need it all?”
“Quite certainly Celestia,” Twilight replied as she started to rapidly burn through the stack, each sheet representing a different scenario that could possibly occur. “I need to be 100% certain that this will work. We only have one shot at this and I want to make it count, right down to the last digit of the square root of pi.”
“Um Twilight.” Celestia said with a cough, but she was silently thankful the lavender colored mare had finally got over addressing her as “Princess” and just used her name. “I admire your enthusiasm, but you do realize that is practically impossible to calculate right?”
“Oh I know that Celestia,” Twilight said with a smile, a slightly crazed look in her eyes that no doubt was caused by a combination of no sleep and stress. “which is why I have to take everything into consideration. Besides, a simple flap of a butterfly wing could throw the coordinates off enough to trap them on Earth. I know that is the chaos theory, and that is Discord’s domain, but it also has scientific tie-ins and effects so I will discuss it more when we meet up.”
It seemed like hours until Twilight had finished, and in fact it was, for by the time she was satisfied it was time for Celestia to raise the sun. It had been a long night for all three alicorns, with Twilight nearly having a meltdown when a sleep-deprived Spike spilled tea on several pages of notes, and Celestia had to calm her down while Luna put him to bed. Due to their states of mind, it was decided Discord would fully wake them up when they joined him, but unfortunately for them he was in a rather bad mood.
“Discord, what happened to you?” Twilight asked as she circled the draconeques, noting that his body was rather feminine. “Chaos magic got you screwed up again from buildup?”
“No…” The chaos being said with a female pitch. “Shining Armor played a stunt on me as part of April Foals Day, apparently he found out how to swap one’s gender and laced some peach tea that I drank with the powder. Needless to say, I am in a bad mood, Fluttershy was also ticked at first but then she started using my chest as pillows. I really don’t want to be here, I’d rather be getting even with Shining, so can we please hurry this along?”
Twilight yawned and smacked her lips, only staying awake by sheer willpower. “Make us feel fully refreshed ,and give full cooperation, and I will personally help you get revenge against my brother. Does that sound like a deal?”
Discord’s eyes lit up like stars, and for a brief moment they actually were, and with a quick talon snap the princesses were energized. “Well what are we waiting for, Saint Clover Day? Let’s get this process started!”
Sighing in relief, Twilight gave Discord all of her notes, which impressed the draconeques with exactly how much time and effort had went into making sure everything was exact. It took several attempts for Discord to fully stabilize a portal. and when Twilight put her head in it to see if it had worked, she instantly pulled it back out with her face flushed and wings stiff.
“What did you see to react like that?” Discord asked with a mix of amusement and confusion as she closed down the portal. “I opened it at the right coordinates, that should have opened right beside them.”
“I-I think that it was the wrong dimension…” Twilight said forcing her wings closed, but still clearly flustered based off her cherry-red cheeks. “There were ponies on that side of the portal that looked like us, but almost hybridized with the human form I know from visiting Sunset Shimmer.”
“Oops…” Discord said in an apologetic tone, that the princesses could tell was sincere, as she started calculating on a floating chalkboard. “Seems that in addition to flipping my gender, my ability to get to the right place instantly has been hindered by a higher power of some sort. Best case scenario it gets better in time, but probably at the expense of a highly embarrassed Twilight.”
Twilight stared at Discord for a *long* minute, equal parts confused and annoyed at the reasoning the chaos being had came up with. “Oh come on, that makes absolutely no sense! Why do I have to be the one who gets embarrassed?”
“Well lets see…” Discord said crossing her arms, giving Twilight a slight sneer. “Me, and this Jim fellow we are currently trying to save, are/have been dealing with a gender flip. Then you have Celestia, who has been spending all her free time here helping you instead of being in Canterlot working on political issues; which leaves Luna running Equestria by herself AND watching over everypony’s dreams while remaining in contact with Tammilya. Seeing as you are the only one who has remained unscathed, it is time for you to join in the chaos.”
“That isn’t fair…” Twilight said with a huff, then sighed as she shook her head. “Fine, let’s just get this over with I guess, keep the same coordinates but try a different dimension.”
“Alright,” Discord said snapping her claw, which made the portal reappear. “but I cannot guarantee any attempt will actually work due to my powers being out of flux. This is like playing Russian Roulette, but in reverse, many misses but only one correct one.”
“I prefer the term trial and error, but I guess that would work as well…” Twilight said sticking her head back in the portal. Her body suddenly lurched forward, and it took the combined strength of Celestia and Luna to pull her back. When they did, a very ornate bridle and collar adorned her head and neck, the deep blue coloring being highlighted by jewels.
“Who put that on you?” Luna asked as she tried, and failed, to take Twilight’s new equipment off. “They apparently have made it so only they could remove it. I mean, I could possibly get around the wards, but it would take far longer than the time we have available.”
“Nightmare Moon…” Twilight said with a pleasurable shiver as she had Discord write down the dimension on a sheet of paper. “Brings back some rather fond memories actually, since that is the timeline from my fight with Starlight, so I will go back to that world or bring her here and have her as a guest.”
Celestia’s coat, somehow, paled several shades lighter. “I don’t think that would be a good idea Twilight, but in the event you do, she is only allowed to stay in the castle. Do I make myself clear with that Twilight?”
Twilight gave a nod, but it was clear that her mind was elsewhere due to the slightly gazed look and the fact she was drooling. “I don’t think that would be a problem Celestia, considering I will be having so much fun with her that she wouldn’t have time to go anywhere else. Hay, I’ll invite the girls over to join in as well, I’m sure that Moonie wouldn’t mind.”
Luna gave Twilight a hard smack across the cheek, hard enough to sent her flying for several feet before landing, the bridle just missing getting snagged on a tree branch. “Twilight snap out of it! You can have your fantasies tonight while you are sleeping, just please focus on the task at hoof.”
“Umm.. yeah,” Twilight said regathering her bearings as Discord changed the dimension target again. “I probably should do that, although I don’t know why you have such a problem with the game night I was planning. What did you think I was talking about?”
Luna went as quiet as a church mouse, a slight blush of shame appearing on her cheeks as Twilight trotted past her and once again stuck her head in the portal. As if the bridle was not enough, when Twilight came out this time her head was coated in a thick, creamy substance, which she started licking up. Luna could not believe how Twilight looked, and if the lavender mare knew it was obvious she did not care as she hummed in content.
Several passing ponies, most of whom Luna did not know the names of but she recognized Lyra, stopped and stared at the sight. After a few minutes of talking to themselves, all out of Luna’s hearing range, they went their separate ways and deep down she knew Twilight was going to have a lot of interesting talks in the near future. She almost, ALMOST felt sorry for the Princess of Friendship, but she knew that this would be a good learning experience concerning how a princess should handle and deal with rumors.
“This buttercream is delicious!” Twilight exclaimed as she finished cleaning herself. “Would you believe that whole place is just one big milkery? I need to tell Applejack about this later, would help when apples are not in season. Oh well, that is for future Twilight to deal with, on to the next one!”
Several attempts, and a break for lunch, later and Twilight was incredibly embarrassed. Not only did she have to parade around in the tack that her secret lover had put on her, but she also had to deal with a swarm of questions dealing with the buttercream while ordering her hayburger. Apparently Lyra and the Flower Trio had spread a rumor involving her “selling herself for bits”, and she had a difficult time convincing everypony that those rumors were false. It was late afternoon by the time she, Luna, Celestia, and Discord made it back to the test location; but she was mentally exhausted from repeating herself so much to satisfy the townsponies’ curiosity.
“We only got time for one last try,” Twilight said with a small yawn. “and considering what you said earlier Discord, this time it should work. If it doesn’t then everything I know about science is a lie.”
Discord, now wearing a teaching outfit, shook her head. “A constant universal law, my dear Twilight Sparkle, is that there are two parallel universes at any given point and time. The first one is the one in which the portal works, and in the other the portal fails and everything goes to Tartarus in a hoof basket. Now is the moment of truth, stick your head in the portal and see which universe we reside in.”
A sudden wave of nervousness hit Twilight, making her briefly hesitate. Not only was Tammilya’s health at stake, but also someone who she didn’t even know. Prior experience of dealing with Queen Chrysalis’ scheming came to mind, but that was pushed away by reminding herself of all that she had done to save everypony no matter the cost. Steeling her resolve, and taking a deep breath, she peeked through the portal and saw Tammilya shifting in place.
“Tammilya!” Twilight cried out in pure joy, resisting the urge to gallop over and hug the suit pony. “Come on! It is time for you to come home and get Jim out of you.”
With a quick nod and a flap of her wings, Tammilya bolted us through the portal, eager to start mine and her’s life together and end her nightmare for good.