“So how’s it coming, Rarity?” Applejack asked her friend, who’d been working feverishly for the past day on a sudden “IDDDEEEEAAAA!” she’d had, a way to contact Twilight and Phoenix more directly than the dragonfire messages they were dependent on for news. Since then, she’d been experimenting in Twilight’s lab, given access by Spike, who had brought her every old mirror he could find after she’d broken the dozen or so she already had. “You been able to make that spell work yet?”
“I believe I’ve almost got it…” she said, her sewing glasses sitting on her head and her mane unusually messy, one of Vinyl Scratch’s new crystal batteries around her neck, replacing the three she’d already used up and discarded over the course of her work. “For all my work with mirrors, I’m surprised this never occurred to me before! I bet even Twilight will be impressed!”
“Ooo! And just in time! I think they’re doing it again!” Pinkie Pie jumped up and down, her nose and tail twitching. “If you hurry, we might even be able to watch!”
“Watch them do it?” Spike made a face. “No thanks!”
“Ditto!” Rainbow Dash added, sticking her tongue out. “No fur-less monkey bods for me!” she crossed her forelegs.
“Well, I for one hope they are!” Vinyl Scratch replied, lending her own expertise to the occasion, teaching Rarity to work with the new crystal batteries she was already starting to mass-produce. “You girls weren’t there to see what happened with those two last time. Let me tell you, human foreplay is fun!” she said, still looking forward to the chance of trying it herself. I wonder if Maya’d be interested…?
“I believe I already have some idea, darling!” Rarity grinned as she remembered Miles Edgeworth and the night of the party. She then cast one spell on a mirror, and a second on a small crystal, passing it to Spike. “Now for the final test… please position yourself, Ms. Scratch.”
“Copy that!” Vinyl said, teleporting out in a flash of light.
“Now then… you’re up, Spikey-Wikey!” she turned to the eager-to-please scribe and passed him the crystal in her aura.
“Roger, Rarity!” he saluted eagerly, and then wrapped the crystal in a letter scroll and breathed fire on it. None of them could see as it disappeared and subsequently rematerialized in Vinyl Scratch’s home, where the pony DJ had gone to wait for it. There was a pause as they gathered in front of another mirror, this one the large dresser mirror borrowed from Twilight’s room. At first, it only showed them their own reflection, but then the mirror surface shimmered and…
A huge cheer went up from the group, all present hugging and congratulating Rarity in turn.
Having already completed one round of lovemaking, Phoenix and Twilight wasted little time doing another.
Her magical refractory period very short after several days of not being with him, Twilight’s mating aura reactivated quickly, bathing him in her power and need once more. “You’re insatiable…” Phoenix told her between renewed kisses.
“Because you’re incredible…” she rejoined, then was startled as he pulled back from her. “Wh-what?” she called out in disappointment.
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to do…” Phoenix explained. “I guess you could call it… a little payback for last night…”
“And… wh-what’s that?” she asked somewhat shakily, turned on even more as she thought she might know what he meant.
“Let’s just say... turnabout is fair play...” he told her between kisses. “And as Maya says... I’m the Turnabout terror!”
At the Angel City Rhythm Club barely six miles away, Maya and Celestia felt a strong magical disturbance, like a tremor in the ether itself.
The power of the Twilight’s latest climax startled both, making the former nearly lose her balance as she got a surprisingly strong and vivid sense of what Nick and Sparkle were doing, feeling an echo in her own body of it. Celestia, too, had to stop dancing for a moment, stunned that Twilight’s human form could also broadcast so strongly. I told her mating in human form was safe, but apparently NOT…? she looked around to realize that they weren’t the only ones affected, either—a lot of patrons had suddenly started kissing or outright making out… and some were even doing more than that!
Reluctantly, she reached out with her magic to disperse the attenuated wave of Twilight’s aura before it could have any further effect on the bar patrons, and in particular the young human mystic before her. The damage was already done, however: Maya’s cheeks were flushed, her arousal quite evident… and her own was as well, Celestia realized, her thoughts now very sexual, startled to suddenly find herself entertaining thoughts of doing what Twilight and Phoenix had been with the young girl before her!
NO! she told herself forcefully, helping Maya to a chair and magically snagging a bottled water, her aura unnoticed in the flashing lights of the dance hall. I am NOT that pony any more…
“Whoa…” Maya was still shaky, gulping down the water and then pressing the chilled plastic surface of the battle against her forehead, trying to cool down her suddenly overheated thoughts. “So… th-that’s what it’s like for them?” She was surprised to feel a moment of envy.
“Apparently so,” Celestia acknowledged, a bit ruefully. A little more powerful than I thought, particularly at close range… I had best alert her… she thought, concentrating and sending a telepathic message to her student to apply their recent magic lesson to her human form as well, receiving a weak acknowledgment and apology in return. “Are you alright, Miss Maya?” she asked, trying not to entertain any more thoughts of the young girl before her.
“I will be…” she said. “But… m-maybe we shouldn’t stay,” she said tentatively, her eyes darting around the nightclub where several couples were now in a state of partial undress, swept up by the music and given an extra push by Twilight’s magic. It was a push that was far more strongly affecting Maya given her attunement to magic and mystical energy… and, Celestia quickly realized, her inexperience in blocking them when they needed to be. As a consequence, she was pawing at herself almost involuntarily, her eyes locking on two women making out passionately. She started to pull the bow knot on her belt sash with one hand and open her robe with the other, balling her hands into fists when she realized what she was doing, clutching herself and shivering. “This isn’t really what I…” she trailed off as her eyes fell on Celestia, then widened at whatever thoughts were going through her head, looking away in fear.
Celestia recognized what was happening to her, and a need to take immediate action for the young girl’s sake. “Come, Miss Maya. Let’s get you out of here,” she said, taking her by the hand and waiting for the strobe to wash over them so she could camouflage her teleport, winking out with the young girl in a flash of gold light.
Phoenix and Twilight awoke in the middle of the following morning, exhausted after several more rounds of lovemaking.
After lingering long under the covers in the morning light kissing and talking, they had finally gotten up to eat, pulling on a pair of robes the villa provided in the bedroom closet. She had a ‘western’ omelet breakfast cooked for her by Phoenix, who introduced her—at her request when she smelled it cooking!—to the joys of bacon for the first time. Deliciously salty, crunchy and fatty, it tasted heavenly to her human taste buds, doubly so for replacing the energy they’d both lost. Pigs she had less trouble wrapping her head around as a food animal than bovines, since they weren’t intelligent, even in Equestria. Applejack kept them around on her farm only for garbage disposal and manure… though Twilight couldn’t help but notice that a couple had disappeared during the course of the Equestrian 500 when griffins were in town; she’d hadn’t been able to work up the nerve to ask Applejack if she’d sold them for meat.
“So what do you want to do today?” he asked her. Her grin answered for her as she got up and pressed close to kiss him, only to turn a little wan when she sensed how weak his response was.
“Well, maybe we should break for a bit…” she admitted, to which Phoenix grinned a bit more ruefully, amazed he had anything left in the tank at all after the previous night. Viagra’s got nothing on TWILIGHT! he couldn’t help but think as she went on. “Would like to check out the town, and I’m pretty sure Pinkie would never forgive me if I didn’t visit that big pier fairgrounds next door.”
Phoenix had to laugh at that. “Let’s save that for later, when Pearls can come for the weekend and everyone can enjoy it,” he suggested. “We can hit the city, and if the crowds get to be too much, we’ll head up one of the hill trails and get away for a bit, like we did the day after you arrived. That work?”
“Perfectly,” she agreed, fingering her amulet. To her surprise, the longer she stayed in human form, the easier it got to maintain it; she was drawing less and less energy from the crystal pendant over time. Huh. I wonder if that’s normal? Should probably ask the princess about it…
The thought was cut short as the dragonfire candle flared, disgorging a scroll that fell surprisingly heavily to the surface below. They’d put the candle on the kitchen table, both for ambiance and so they wouldn’t miss it if anything came through.
Grinning, Twilight swept up the scroll in her aura but was surprised when a small ruby fell free, clattering over to Phoenix, who picked it up and studied it curiously as Twilight read the note, a look of confusion on her face as she showed it to Phoenix:
Twilight—when you get this message, please let us know immediately. A second message will follow when you do. I promise you’ll understand shortly! ~Rarity and Spike
“What do you think it is?” Phoenix asked her, examining the delivered crystal in his hand. It was a palm-sized ruby very similar to the one Twilight used for her magic battery.
“I’m not sure…” she answered, her brow furrowing and ethereal horn glowing as she gently probed the crystal with her aura. She could sense Rarity’s magic and some form of mirror spell on it—there was an entire class of incantations dealing with mirrors, mostly having to do with recording events and later replaying scenes that were in view of them. She knew Rarity was familiar with such spells, using them for everything from advertising and fashion shows to recording business transactions, but this wasn’t one she’d sensed before. “It’s not dangerous, whatever it is… so I guess we just do what it says,” she shrugged, writing out a quick reply and sending it back through the flame.
A minute later, a second message came through, with some odd instructions that made them trade odd looks. Shrugging, Phoenix took the scroll in one hand and the crystal in the other, going over to the big floor-to-ceiling mirror by the closet overlooking the living room with the balcony door and ocean in the background.
“Okay, then…it says to touch the crystal to the nearest large mirror…” he noted, and did so, gently tapping the crystal to the mirror surface. Abruptly, the gem began to glow, and then the mirror itself with the same light. When the glow had transferred entirely from the gem to the mirror, the surface shimmered and distorted to reveal…
All of Twilight’s friends standing in her library, eyes locking with them as if they could see them… a thought then confirmed as the group suddenly began leaping and cheering, Rainbow Dash and Applejack even exchanging high hooves.
“Girls?” Twilight was so surprised he forgot she was undressed for a moment.
Rainbow quickly reminded her. “Ew! So that’s what they look like without clothes?!” she made a face.
“My eyes!” Spike covered them and ran away.
“Oh, um… is this a bad time?” Fluttershy blushed hard she beheld the naked pair, staring with some interest at Phoenix.
“Perfectly good time if you ask me!” Vinyl grinned, flipping up her shades to take in the pair.
“See? I told you they were doing it again!” Pinkie jumped up and down.
“So they were. Well now… lookin’ fine there, Phoenix Wright!” Applejack twinkled and tipped her stetson to him, giving the gaping human lawyer a slightly salacious grin.
Belatedly realizing he was completely undressed, Phoenix went red and immediately grabbed for his robe, hurriedly pulling it back on to the evident disappointment of Twilight’s friends.
“But what…? How…?” Twilight herself was still staring at her friends with her jaw agape, placing her palm against the surface, half expecting it would allow her to pass. It didn’t, however, though the image shimmered again in a manner like what a still-stunned Phoenix could only describe as a magnet placed close against a television screen. “How did you do this? I don’t know of any spell that does this! And certainly not over this distance!”
“I used a binary mirror spell, darling!” Rarity beamed, looking very proud as well as very tired. “One powered by those same crystal batteries you’re now wearing! The two halves of the spell link mirrors no matter where they are for as long as the magic lasts!”
“Those batteries we made are already starting to revolutionize things, Sparks!” Vinyl confirmed, letting her red eyes appreciatively over her friend’s naked form, having already taken a mental snapshot of Phoenix for later. “They’re not just for storing mana or music now—with my help, Rares was able to figure out how to contain both the spell and some mana to maintain it within the crystal, and then have it released by touching it to a target surface!”
“So the crystal contains both the incantation and the magical energy to power it? That’s brilliant!” Twilight gushed, but then her brow furrowed. “But… binary spells are only for remote viewing of mirror-recorded memories! How did you make it… live?” she motioned at the mirror.
“Oh, it’s almost the same spell, darling! I just tweaked to allow for instant playback! In essence, it still is just a playback spell, but replaying memories as it makes them! It took me a while—and a few broken mirrors—to get right,” she motioned at the glass shards around them. “But once I did? We couldn’t wait to use it!” Rarity beamed again, her fatigue forgotten as she beheld her friend in human form, marveling at it and suddenly wondering what she would look like as a human. I wonder what my darling Edgeworth would think of me THEN?
“You… you did this for me?” Twilight put her hand to her chest, tears in her eyes.
“Well, we wanted to see you, egghead!” Rainbow Dash stated from her hover, then moved closer to the mirror on her end. “Kind of wanted to see this weird world you’re in, too!” she looked around behind them, and the pair immediately stepped to the side to show the plush living area.
“Such exquisite decor!” Rarity admired the room behind them. “And an ocean view! How romantic!” she gushed.
“Eh. Ocean never did it for me,” Applejack shrugged. “Saw it in Manehattan. Wasn’t impressed. The scenery here, on the other hoof…” she looked Phoenix over from head to toe again, making the human lawyer flush further, wishing he could tie his slightly undersized robe a bit more tightly.
“Oh! Um… I went once, when I was a model. Had a photoshoot on a beach once. It was the only thing I ever liked about it,” Fluttershy offered tentatively, seemingly unable to tear her eyes away from Phoenix for more than a moment, glancing up and blushing a little deeper each time, wings twitching.
Her reaction went unnoticed by all except Phoenix, who saw the furtive looks she was giving him, Twilight’s earlier warning about her friends being potentially interested in him taking on a whole new meaning and immediacy. “What’s all that weird stuff on the wall?” Rainbow pointed with a hoof at the TV and entertainment center.
“That’s a… movie player,” Phoenix explained somewhat sheepishly, knowing the explanation was true but still woefully incomplete, resisting the temptation to wrap a robe back around Twilight, forcibly reminding himself that ponies didn’t care about nudity. But I DO!
“A movie player?” Rainbow was skeptical. “Doesn’t look like a projector to me!”
“Told ya they had some cool stuff!” Vinyl grinned. “Hey Phoenix? Is Maya around?” she asked hopefully.
“No, she’s… with the princess right now,” Phoenix still felt a bit flustered, blushing under their continued scrutiny and worse, finding himself reacting to it. He wasn’t unhappy to see them all again, but wished they’d given them some warning. And being sized up by several of Twilight’s friends was both flattering and disconcerting; feeling Rarity’s, Vinyl’s, Fluttershy’s and even Applejack’s eyes on him in turn. “We’re going to meet them for dinner later,” he said in an effort to master his nerves and body.
“Okay. So answer a little bet we’re having. Just what’s the princess doing over there?” Rainbow asked.
Phoenix and Twilight looked at each other. “Well, uh…” the latter answered a bit nervously. “You have to Pinkie Promise not to tell anyone the answer,” she warned them, waiting until they’d taken the ritual oath. “If you could believe it, she’s… seeing someone.” She rubbed her hand behind her head.
“Ha! Ah knew it! Y’all owe me some bits!” Applejack held her hoof out as the others groaned and paid her off.
“So who’s the lucky stallion?” Rarity asked eagerly.
“A spa worker…” was all Phoenix would say. “Tall, dark and dashing.”
“Not unlike you?” Rarity batted her blue eyes at him, causing Phoenix to flush further.
“So, you been treatin’ Twi right, Phoenix Wright?” Applejack grinned at her new favorite turn of phrase.
“Has he ever!” Twilight confirmed before Phoenix could answer, pulling the startled human lawyer close and kissing him as the others cheered.
“Ooo! Did you guys enjoy doing the swirl?” Pinkie asked eagerly, causing them both to gape and the others to give them shocked looks, then grin, Phoenix not immediately getting the term until he mentally matched it to an act they’d performed the previous night and realized that humans had a completely different expression for it.
All except one, that was. “You did the swirl with a guy???” Rainbow made a face again.
“You kinky little filly!” Applejack grinned and made a swatting motion with her stetson at the mirror.
“That sounds… nice…” Fluttershy offered through her renewed blush.
“You’re now one up on me, darling!” a delighted Rarity admitted.
“Speak for yourselves! That’s one more image I can’t get out of my head!” Rainbow stuck out her tongue again.
“Wow, you really have gone native, Sparks!” Vinyl grinned. “I’m proud of you, filly!” she added, then abruptly the mirror image started to shrink from the edges in.
“Oh dear! The stored magic in the crystal is running out already!” Rarity panicked. “We only had one crystal ready and it will take us some time to ready another! We will send it tonight or tomorrow! Have fun in the meantime!” she called out frantically, the others waving at her through the narrowing portal until it disappeared in a poof of magical wisps, leaving only the mirror surface behind. It shimmered for a moment, then settled down completely, only showing their own reflection.
“Wow…” Twilight said, going up to the mirror again and probing it with her hand and magic, feeling the aural residue Rarity’s improvised spell had left behind. “Sometimes I don’t give her enough credit. She’s really clever when she wants to be…” she shook her head in amazement again.
“She really is…” Phoenix granted, impressed but still perturbed. “I think she just invented a Skype spell.”
“Skype?” Twilight blinked.
“It’s…” he realized he really didn’t know what it was, except he’d done one with Maya a couple times—following her instructions, which he’d had to be walked through step by step. “It’s a means we have to talk over long distances, not just with voice but with pictures. Maya can explain it better than me,” he rubbed his hand behind his head, suddenly wondering what she and the princess were doing at that moment.
Wherever they are, hope Celestia’s keeping Maya out of trouble… or should that be the other way around? he allowed a small smile as he went to clean up their meal.
After leaving Maya a text—and somewhat surprised when he didn’t get an immediate answer—he and Twilight went out to explore the city of Santa Monica proper.
They began by walking the Third Street Promenade, taking in the shops and sampling some snack foods, Twilight making a list of some gifts she might like to pick up later—she was even at ease enough that she decided to leave her hair its normal hues, seeing some odd dye jobs on the heads of women around her. Then, curious over the planes she could see taking off from the nearby airfield, Phoenix remembered there was an air museum there so they took a tour bus over and went inside.
It was a good call. Twilight was fascinated by the exhibits and the old planes, paying particular note to the replica of the Wright Brothers flyer they had there. Phoenix told her the story as best he knew it—that the two bicycle-making Wright brothers Orville and Wilbur (“no relation,” he told her before she could ask) brought mankind the gift of flight not much more than a century prior, figuring it out by trial-and-error over many years, and all planes humans now flew were descended from this original flyer and its first, twelve-second flight over a windswept seashore called Kitty Hawk.
She shook her head in amazement. “We’ve had dirigibles forever, and back in Firefly’s time there were ones for military use, but they were nothing like this!” she said, turning her attention to the sleeker and occasionally predatory-looking old military planes. “Have you ever flown, Phoenix?” she asked as she put her hand against one, feeling the cold metal beneath it, giving it a quick, experimental tug with her magic, her aura almost invisible in the bright light of the hanger.
He hesitated. “Not happily,” he shook his head. “A couple times, but I’ve never enjoyed it. Flying’s… well, scary to me.” He looked embarrassed.
“Is it not safe?” she asked him in some concern.
He shook his head. “No, it’s very safe nowadays. Accidents are extremely rare, but when they do happen…” he shuddered. “Rainbow may laugh, but I’d rather just keep my feet on the ground.”
“If you can keep a secret, me too,” she said, somewhat ruefully. “I’ve flown hot air balloons, but that’s different. Those I have full magical control over and I feel safe for it. But I can’t imagine flying like a pegasus, let alone in one of these,” she chuckled, patting the side of an old jet. “Then again, maybe I’ve got something for wings because I’ve sometimes imagined you as a pegasus, Phoenix,” she grinned.
“Me? A pegasus?” Phoenix had to laugh, putting his hand behind his head. “I think I’d be the only one afraid to fly!”
“Fluttershy doesn’t much care for flying either, but she’ll do it,” Twilight reminded him, stuffing a museum flyer into a purse Phoenix had purchased for her, replacing the re-purposed saddlebag she’d been using. “Especially if somepony she cares about is in danger.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Phoenix answered, suddenly remembering her swooping in to rescue him from the Timberwolves. “So you think Rainbow would be interested in stuff like this?” he asked her, motioning around them.
She thought about it, only to sigh and shake her head. “If it doesn’t go fast, she doesn’t care. Hay, I don’t even know if she ever cracked open that book on human flying machines I got her.”
Phoenix couldn’t help but smirk. “Well, if she wants fast, we do have aircraft that break the sound barrier. Would she be interested in those?”
“You do?” Twilight was visibly startled. “Well, if she considers them a threat or challenge to her being the fastest thing in the sky, she might!”
“Well, if you ever bring her here, guess we’ll have to take her to an air show!” he mused, then suddenly wondered… “actually, though… would you bring your friends here?”
She hesitated, but only briefly. “I think I’d have to discuss that with them and the princess, but… I’d want to, yes!” she said, nodding sharply. “I mean, I already brought Vinyl here, so there’s no reason the others can’t come!”
“Sure, just not all at once…” he rubbed his head again. “That’d be a lot to deal with.”
She grimaced at the thought. “You’re right. One at a time should do…” she put her arm around his waist as they exited the museum gift shop. Of course knowing them, they’re probably going to fight over who gets to go first worse than they did over that Grand Galloping Gala ticket…
* * * * *
Late afternoon had fallen when Twilight decided she’d had enough of crowds and noise again. So just as they did the morning after she’d arrived, they made for the nearby hills and hiking trails, hopping a bus to trade the seaside town for the nearby natural scenery of a state park.
Phoenix did finally receive a return text from Maya on the way up, though it was uncharacteristically terse, saying only that she was ‘having a private lesson with the princess’ and they wouldn’t be available for dinner.
Concerned, he asked her if anything was wrong while Twilight telepathically queried the princess herself, but the only answer she received was that “Miss Maya needs my help” and that she was trying to teach her how to block ‘unwanted influences’, for which they needed privacy, telling her to enjoy her evening with Phoenix but admonishing her again to remember their earlier lesson and not broadcast.
Unwanted influences? Twilight blinked, thinking the princess was being even more cryptic than usual. She must be talking about teaching Maya to block magical influences. So why does she need that…? she immediately wondered, but also recognized a note in her mentor’s mental voice that asked her not to press further at that time.
Phoenix likewise heard a note in Maya’s texts that said she didn’t want to be bothered, so he dropped the matter, wondering what kind of ‘lesson’ the princess was giving her. Though concerned, their thoughts were lost as they wandered the park, which Phoenix had chosen for its easier trails and ready-access scenery, including one of the waterfalls that Twilight had so enjoyed on her first full day in his world.
Well, we BOTH enjoyed it, he thought with a grin. And maybe we will again…? he felt his libido starting to kick back in, catching a few of the more lascivious looks Twilight was starting to throw him again as the crowds thinned out towards evening. Technically, they weren’t supposed to be out past sunset, of course, but that had rarely stopped him before on the biking or hiking trails he frequented around L.A.
It also didn’t help that they passed at least one kissing couple along the way and heard telltale giggles from another direction. Welcome to California… Phoenix chuckled as Twilight blushed and then bumped him with her hip—she’d clearly learned her human body language quite well by then and was using it to increasingly good effect.
And yet, to his surprise… he quickly found she was ready to go again, but not as a human. Pulling him into a secluded grotto which she encased in an illusion spell, she surprised him by transforming back to a pony in his arms as they kissed, her cheeks warm and glow of her horn remaining but turning pink, casting a soft glow over the clearing.
“This is a little public, isn’t it?” He said slightly breathlessly as they parted, his hands running through her fur and mane freely, enjoying her changed attributes anew. Her clothes were removed and stored back at their hotel room with a flash of her horn—they were close enough and she had enough magical power as a unicorn that she could do the reserve item summon to accomplish her goal—and she then stood before him as the violet unicorn she was, her equine body his for the taking.
“No more than last time,” she all but purred, kissing him again as then stepped in front of him and flagged her tail, propping herself on a boulder and displaying herself fully in the light of her horn, pausing only briefly to cast another spell that put some form of bubble around them. “I’ve put up a privacy screen. It’ll block sound and most sight from outside the bubble. And besides, if you’ll recall you invited me to turn pony back then. So how about it Phoenix? Want to ride a pony?” she asked, her eyes going hooded and magic teasing him with all her considerable skill, which had only grown over the past few days.
His heart all but leapt into his throat. “I could be persuaded...” he answered with a grin, going to her.
Not even ten minutes later, the two were beside themselves, their earlier elation having given away quite abruptly to shock and outright fear. “Phoenix! I’m sorry!” Twilight said in a panic. “I d-didn’t mean...”
“Twilight? What... what did you do to me...?” Phoenix was beside himself as he pulled back from her, anything but happy as he beheld himself and the aftermath of their latest encounter. The reason for his consternation was instantly apparent to anyone who might have been there to see--not only had her magic compelled him to perform an act he had categorically not meant or wanted to, it seemingly had other consequences that were even worse in his mind, representing not just a broken promise but his worst fears made real. For it was only in the aftermath when he was able to pull back from her that he realized...
His equipment was now considerably larger and had taken on a vaguely equine shape!
