Ever since her ascension to alicornhood, Twilight was used to seeing stars a little more literally than usual. Dazed as she was from her impact with Fluttershy’s cottage, however, she had to admit that the trio of small, yellow birds circling around her head was a new one. She followed them with her eyes for longer than she’d have liked to admit before properly recognizing them for what they were.
Twilight shook her head clear. “I’m fine, Fluttershy,” she said, waving them off. The small starling-sized birds bobbed in acknowledgement and obliged with the dismissal, darting back in the direction of the dragons. Soon, what had been forty-six squirrels but had at some point become an entire menagerie of different small animals all converged as a flock to become a single familiar yellow pegasus.
Twilight had so many questions, but it wasn’t the time for that. Fluttershy had the two bears checking on the second downed dragon while she checked on the third personally. With her pony body, anyway.
Twilight was flying over to see if there was anything she could do to help when Fluttershy’s voice rang out, half urging and half reprimand, “Rainbow Dash!”
“It wasn’t me!” Rainbow Dash immediately answered. Half a second later, the mare made of rainbows and lightning was at Fluttershy’s side, looking over the third dragon saying, “Okay, yeah, technically this one was me.”
As Twilight came in for a landing, she could see that unlike the first two dragons, the third had been struck straight through the chest. That was… bad. True, the dragon had tried to kill Fluttershy and he would have succeeded if her demigoddesshood hadn’t proved to be more effective than any of them had expected, but it had all been over a misunderstanding and it was always best to de-escalate a conflict whenever possible. Worse, though they hadn’t known it at the time, the fact of the matter was that none of them had at any point been in any actual danger.
Probably. Twilight wasn’t sure what would have happened if the animals that Fluttershy had split into had all been killed, but she suspected that she’d still have existed spread out over the rest of the animals in her expansive range. How exactly her remanifestation would work in that situation, though…
So many questions.
“You want me to what?!” Rainbow Dash shouted, pulling Twilight’s attention away from the still body of the dragon.
“Get up there,” Fluttershy said, pointing at the dragon’s chest with a sternness that was no less than the situation deserved, “And start jumping. We can still restart his heart.”
“Yeah, but…” Rainbow Dash’s attention shifted back and forth between Fluttershy and the dragon. “That’s what got us into this in the first place!”
“You’ll just have to use less power,” Fluttershy reasoned.
“How much less?” Rainbow Dash asked, halfway from pleading to incredulous.
“Start as low as you can and work your way up!” Fluttershy insisted, growing flustered. “If it doesn’t happen soon, it won’t matter anyway!”
“I—well fine!” Rainbow Dash said, giving in. In the blink of an eye, she was on top of the dragon. Taking a deep breath, she bent her knees, jumped and came down with a crack of thunder and a lingering smell of ozone.
The body of the dragon twitched, but remained still.
Rainbow Dash jumped again.
And again.
And again.
Slowly, the smell of ozone was being taken over by the sulfuric odor of burnt scales. Fluttershy had her ear pressed to the dragon’s barrel, but before too long, she removed it and shook her head.
“That’s enough,” she said, joining Rainbow Dash on top of the dragon. “I don’t think you’re getting through the scales, and any more power is just going to do more damage.”
“So, what?” Rainbow Dash asked. “That’s it? You’re saying I killed him? Twilight!” she shouted as Twilight landed next to them. “You can do something, right? With your… you know?”
Twilight briefly balked at the idea, but steeled herself. “I don’t know how it’ll work on a living creature—especially a dragon—but if there’s no other choice…” Twilight looked to Fluttershy for confirmation.
All of the certainty that Fluttershy had had in the heat of the moment was gone now. She looked away, trying to work up the courage to make the call. Slowly, she took a deep breath and said, “I have something I can try first,” before quickly ducking out of sight off the other side of the dragon.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash shared an uncertain look before following at a slower pace. By the time they caught sight of her again, Fluttershy was next to the dragon’s head, prying it’s eyes open.
“Uh…” Rainbow Dash interjected. “Is she going to… stare it back to life? I didn’t think that was even magic.”
Twilight shrugged, not quite sure herself. Sure enough, though, Fluttershy took a deep breath and locked eyes with the dying dragon.
All at once, Fluttershy’s presence filled the area like the world’s gentlest tidal wave. The dragon remained still as Fluttershy pushed harder, the pressure growing heavier and heavier.
Idly, Twilight thought that teaching her to impress her will on the world with dream magic might not be terribly difficult.
Finally, something happened. Twilight wasn’t sure what exactly she had expected, but it wasn’t for the dragon to twitch and…
…Turn…
…Yellow.
Twilight fell back on her rump and stared.
Well… it was breathing now, at least.
Luna and Spike flew in from the direction of the city while everyone present was still recovering from the excitement. Even the two bears that Fluttershy had been using as medics had gone docile while she sat and collected herself.
Once it had become clear that the third dragon was no longer in danger of dying, Fluttershy had released whatever hold it was she’d had on him, and the yellow had receded… slowly and incompletely. What had previously been a strictly monochrome purple dragon now bore a jagged yellow starburst on its chest where Fluttershy’s power had filled in the wound.
“It seems as though matters have escalated since Spike was sent for medical aid,” Luna observed as she alit near Twilight with Spike coming in more heavily behind her.
“Not my fault!” Rainbow Dash shouted from where she was sort of but not quite next to Fluttershy in a vague show of support.
“No one is blaming you, Dash!” Twilight shouted back, then turned back to Luna. “There really wasn’t much we could do,” she explained. “Two of them did it to themselves, and the last one actually got violent. You have no idea how relieved I am that Fluttershy turned out to be more immortal than expected… or that she was able to save him afterwards. I don’t blame Rainbow for what she did.”
“Nor would I.” Luna tapped her hoof on her chin and hmmed. “In fact, I believe the standing response for such a situation is to knight the pony in question.”
Twilight winced. “That might be a little politically awkward at the moment, don’t you think?”
Luna raised an eyebrow at Twilight. “Not really, no. You grew up at my sister’s side. Did you ever encounter a dragon ambassador?” Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but Luna interrupted to clarify, “And Discord does not count.”
Twilight paused to think about it. “…Good point,” she admitted, then frowned. “Actually, come to think of it, we just suddenly have all these dragons running around, coming in from places we don’t even have diplomatic ties with? That seems…”
“Believe me, Twilight, the subject has come up,” Luna said, rolling her eyes. “I’ve now had to dismiss several proposals that we build a wall.”
Twilight blinked. “A wall,” she stated.
Luna nodded.
“But…” Twilight had to struggle to articulate herself. “They’re dragons.”
“I did mention that,” Luna confirmed.
“We don’t even share a border with the dragonlands!”
“Technically,” Luna mentioned, “They do migrate here on occasion.”
“To a caldera surrounded by mountains!” Twilight exclaimed. “If fifty thousand hooves isn’t tall enough, what makes them think another twenty is going to do anything?”
“Well, obviously the wall would have to have guards on it at all times,” Luna said, dryly citing the arguments she’d encountered.
“Oh, of course,” Twilight said clopping her hoof on the side of her head. “The guards who are capable of turning back a tide of dragons. Those guards. We have plenty of those.”
“Actually,” Luna said, considering something. “My sisters’ last letter did mention that they were considering hiring some of the dragons cluttering up Canterlot Mountain. It seems that they are having difficulty retaining staff. Sending them off to guard the borders seems like as good a job to put them to as any.”
Twilight groaned, massaging her temples. “I think we’ve officially gone around the bend from the absurd, through complete nonsense to the point that we’ve actually wrapped around to the plausible again. Okay, enough of that.”
“Enough of the plausible?” Luna asked with a teasing tone.
“Well, it would be what we’re used to,” Twilight reasoned. “Where were we?”
“The suggestion that we might knight Rainbow Dash?” Luna said, thinking back.
“That wasn’t part of the nonsense?” Twilight asked, dubious.
“It would be at most ridiculous, as you yourself said that that is where we started,” Luna countered. “Personally, I would argue it to be merely brazen.”
Twilight frowned. “You don’t think it would be a little disrespectful?”
“It would only be disrespectful if somedragon had died,” Luna said. “Well, the kind of disrespectful that actually matters. The kind of disrespectful that Rainbow Dash is, on the other hoof, we would be communicating in spades.”
“Irreverence?” Twilight suggested.
Luna nodded. “That and a hint of flippancy.”
Twilight glanced over in Rainbow Dash’s direction with a frown. “Well, you’re not wrong, and if worse comes to worst, I suppose we could do worse than to give them an immortal demigoddess of rainbows and lightning for a target. In fact, I was even just thinking of giving her a title that would provide some public visibility. A knighthood wasn’t my first choice, but it would work as a first step.”
“Ideally, the spreading of such information would be to prevent situations such as this from occurring in the future,” Luna corrected, adorning a certain level of officiousness as she did so. “Not to give them a target.”
Twilight gave her an incredulous look. “It’s Rainbow Dash,” she said as explanation.
“Yes, but it’s generally inadvisable to form policy around the presumption that the other party will suffer from poor judgement,” Luna explained, and then added, “…Officially, anyway.”
Twilight facehoofed. “Right.”
“In any case,” Luna said. “It is all moot if she objects. She did not seem happy about the situation.”
Twilight waved off Luna’s concerns with a hoof. “Pff. She just doesn’t want to get in trouble,” Twilight said. Quickly, she cupped her hooves around her mouth and shouted, “Rainbow! You okay with us knighting you for this in order to piss off the dragons?”
“I guess?” she responded. “You’re sure we’re all immortal, right?”
“You’re made of rainbows and lightning, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight responded. “What do you think?!”
“Alright, I get it! Geeze!” Rainbow exclaimed, grumbling. “But are you sure it shouldn’t be somepony a little less likely to be lethal? I don’t wanna know what happens if the next one tries to eat me!”
“Are you a demigoddess or not?!” Twilight asked. “You’re gonna have to learn not to arc through everything that breaks your manifestation!”
There was a moment of silence before Rainbow Dash responded. “I don’t think that really makes getting swallowed sound any better, Twilight!”
Twilight was rolling her eyes and getting ready to make another comment when Rainbow Dash shouted again, sotto voce this time. “Uhh, Twilight? I think all your shouting might have woken up old yellowheart here.”
Surely enough, moments later, the massive purple dragon began to move and groan, raking its claws across the yellow on its chest. “What? What have you done to me?” he bellowed, bending his neck to look down his front.
Luna was quick to cut him off, a few strong flaps of her wings lifting her up so she could land on his discolored chest. “Done?” she asked, using the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice. “What we have done is save your life. What we have done is extend you mercy as you lay dying from an attempt to murder one of our kindest and gentlest ponies. Also Rainbow Dash.”
“I was there too!” Twilight shouted from the ground.
“You hardly count!” Luna shouted back in her normal voice. “I have thrown you off of buildings myself! ’Twould be folly itself to enter a nation ruled by immortal goddesses such as us and not be able to spot one by sight!”
“Ask him!” Twilight insisted.
Luna rolled her eyes and turned back to the dragon. “Well? Know you whose land you have entered and whose ponies you have attempted the unprovoked murder of?”
“Unprovoked!” the dragon shouted in outrage. He swept his arm at Luna forcing her into the air to dodge as he rolled up onto his feet. “Unprovoked, you say, when you have my brothers lying there covered in burns!”
“He didn’t answer!” Luna shouted down to Twilight from the air at dragon’s-eye-level. “He says he was provoked!”
“Okay, first off,” Twilight said, shouting back up at her. “If claiming I was provoked didn’t work in magic kindergarten when all the other foals were making fun of my manecut, then it doesn’t excuse attempted murder!”
Nodding, Luna glanced back to the dragon and said, “She has a point, you know.”
“And second!” Twilight continued, still yelling, still not putting any magic into her voice and still talking only to Luna as if the dragon wasn’t even there. “I informed him calmly and politely exactly how his idiot of a brother had nearly killed himself on Rainbow Dash and his idioter of a brother didn’t believe me and decided to try it out himself!”
Luna blinked down at Twilight. “Idioter?”’
“I know, right?” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Earlier, she used goddess as a verb! I think she really needs her library back!”
There was an earthshaking thump as the dragon slammed his fist into the ground, sending grass and sod flying. “Do you think this is a game?!”
Luna flew closer and snarled in the dragon’s face. “No, this is a trial and I am your judge, giving you all the respect that you deserve—none! For three counts of attempted murder, I would imprison you in Tartarus, but we learned long ago the folly of attempting to do so with dragons. Instead I shall give you a choice: do you wish to be made lame by land, by air or in sight?”
“You dare?!” the dragon roared.
Luna’s eyes began to glow with milky light. “There is no daring in a ruler passing sentence,” she spoke. “You have already been bested through the most incidental effort of the least of us—”
“Hey!” Rainbow Dash shouted, indignant.
“Now choose,” Luna’s voice boomed. “Two legs, a wing or an eye. You will lose one of these.”
“I defy you!” he roared. “You are not the ruler of this land! You are not the one whose power shines… from… the… sky?”
Suddenly, the dragon looked very confused and uncertain, though why, none of them could say for certain. Perhaps he had just realized who it was that he was talking to?
“If you wish to defy me, then you defy Luna, alicorn of the moon, goddess and ruler of this land!” she informed him. “By rights, I could claim one penalty for each of your transgressions if I so wished. If you would rather be judged by one of my sisters, however… We do not normally entertain such pleas, but if her presence is required to convince you of the gravity of the situation you find yourself in, then I shall make an exception.
“Mind, though, that if you think to get a lesser sentence from her, I would direct you to the lake over yonder where the everfree once stood. That, too, was a case in which a dragon attempted to kill that which it could not. It was quite similar to this, actually.” Thoughtful, Luna turned to Twilight, but was interrupted before she could say anything.
“Hey!” Twilight shouted. “Don’t look at me like that! Just because I was involved both times doesn’t mean I attract rampaging dragons! Also! The last one was probably possessed! Which is an entirely different thing!”
“That just means that the dragon was less deserving of righteous vaporization, does it not?” Luna pointed out. “The threat stands! Rainbow Dash, if you would fetch one of my sisters?”
Rainbow Dash made a fairly sloppy salute, considering she’d been intending to go into the armed forces, and disappeared in a blinding flash that left Twilight’s hooves feeling tingly.
Twilight shook her head and blinked the spots out of her eyes. She had never seen a rainbow ripple through the ground like that.
The dragon, who Twilight realized they still didn’t have a name for, seemed to have lost his steam, so while they were waiting for Rainbow Dash to find and arrange for the help of one of the Celestias, Twilight took flight and maneuvered herself next to Luna.
“Are you really okay bringing the Celestias into this?” she asked in not quite a whisper. “As angry as she can get when her little ponies are threatened, there’s a real possibility that she’ll go easier on him than maiming.”
Luna shook her head. “Believe me, Twilight. It does not take very many days of going through laws with a set of hedge trimmers to rid a pony of any jealousy they might have had for my sister.”
Twilight paused. “Wouldn’t pruning shears be the better metaphor?”
“A better metaphor, yes,” Luna conceded. “But too short in practice. A single snip sends a stronger message. Anyway, even if I had been feeling territorial of my judiciary decisions, I should very much like to see how this dragon acts in the presence of one of my sisters.”
Twilight’s eyes widened in realization and she glanced over at the dragon in question who was looking around as if he had just arrived. “That’s a good point. It would be nice if we could get the dragons all to behave just by parading one of them about once in a while.”
“Well, yes, but not enough to want to requisition one from Canterlot on any permanent basis,” Luna reasoned. “Where would it live? Who would feed it? What is the collective noun for a group of Celestias?”
Twilight whapped Luna on the side with her wing, which was an advance maneuver to accomplish while flying. She didn’t accomplish it. It took her a few moments to regain her lost altitude. “Enough of that. They’re still your sister…s.”
“Fair,” Luna allowed. “But on the other hoof, it is not as if I even know their names. It makes letter-writing a fair bit awkward when you don’t even know which one you’re conversing with.”
“Does it matter?” Twilight asked. “I mean, for normal twins, saying so would be rude, but they’re basically the same pony—or they were two weeks ago, anyway. It’ll probably take a while for them to really become different ponies.”
“Hence the need for a collective noun,” Luna pointed out.
“…Okay, you have a point,” Twilight begrudgingly admitted. “But collective nouns don’t even come into play until you have three of something anyway.”
“Is ‘pair’ not one?” Luna countered. “Besides, is it really worse than referring to them as The Celestias?”
“Isn’t it bad enough that they’re saying a group of alicorns is called an oligarchy?” Twilight asked.
“I hadn’t heard that,” Luna said, considering for a moment before declaring, “I like it.”
“Of course you do,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes with great exaggeration and getting distracted looking up into the sky. “Come to think of it, they sure are taking a while. We know Rainbow was there in the blink of an eye, and there’s always at least one of them that isn’t doing anything so why—”
Suddenly, the sky pulsed and two figures appeared, one in a flash of light, the other a flash of fire. Twilight squinted, but fortunately for her and her poor, abused eyes, the Celestias’ manifestations weren’t nearly so problematic as Rainbow Dash’s lightning.
She was just appreciating this fact when Rainbow Dash herself arrived.
“Gah!” Twilight grunted as she was left blinking spots out of her eyes again. “That is the fourth time today,” she grumbled to herself, though if she were being honest, this was a mild one.
“Interesting,” Luna mumbled.
“I’m glad my pain amuses you,” Twilight groused in response.
“Your efforts to entertain are appreciated, but that is not what is interesting,” Luna said. “Look. Our dragon seems not to have even noticed my sisters’ arrival.”
Twilight mumbled something about being told to look, but sure enough the dragon had wandered off to his brothers’ side, looking very lost and clueless. The Celestias had noticed this as well, and flew over to talk before jumping into things.
“This is the so-called murdering beast you wish to maim?” The fiery-maned Celestia asked, chiding and a little dubious.
“He certainly doesn’t look very scary,” the one with the long, flowing rainbow mane pointed out.
Luna puffed out her cheeks in annoyance. With a petulant huff, she declared, “He was not like this five minutes ago. He got very strange after you were mentioned—and not in the way you would expect, either. Twilight! Recite your tale so that I might be vindicated!”
Twilight blinked. “Err, what?”
“Stop staring at my sisters and tell them what happened,” Luna repeated.
“Sorry,” Twilight mumbled. “It’s still just so surreal seeing them… not quite my size, but not much bigger than you are.”
Luna rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes, they are still fat even when split by half. The lizard bits are disconcerting, too. Can we get on with the corroborating?”
“We didn’t say that we didn’t believe you,” the fire-maned Celestia tempered. “Rainbow Dash was quite vocal about what happened. Very well, shall we go see what he has to say for himself?”
“…That really isn’t the same thing at all,” Twilight observed as the Celestias flew off.
“Rather the opposite, in fact,” Luna agreed.
“Though, to be fair,” Twilight added. “Your word doesn’t actually mean anything since you weren’t here for any of it.”
“That is not the point,” Luna insisted. “Ah, look. They have his attention.”
Twilight pressed her lips together in slight consternation. “I can’t hear anything, can you?”
Luna shook her head. “I rather expected her to use the Royal Canterlot Voice. The additional power helps greatly in adding definition to the lower tones that larger creatures rely on.”
“What?” the dragon roared, whipping his head around and putting his back to the bodies of his unconscious brothers.
“See?” Luna said, gesturing with her hoof.
“You just like yelling at people,” Twilight countered.
“That too,” Luna agreed with a wry smile.
“You lie!” the dragon snarled, digging its claws into the ground and taking an aggressive posture. “You cannot be them! I feel nothing!”
“Interesting…” Twilight commented.
Luna simply cursed, “Damn!”
“What?” Twilight said, cocking her head slightly in Luna’s direction. “I thought you’d be shouting about vindication about now? It’s not as if anypony here is in any actual danger.”
“No, it’s not that,” Luna said. “I was just hoping she would get his name first.”
Twilight turned further to give Luna a flat look. “You mean you wanted to see if he could get their names.”
Luna blinked. “No, I actually did not even think of that. Double curses, then! It sounded like they did so, if we could only have heard it.”
“Speaking of which, is the rainbow one still talking?” Twilight said, turning back to the ongoing conversation.
“That, at least, hasn’t changed,” Luna commented. “When she gets into her lecturing mood, it can be difficult to get a word in edgewise—oh, look. It seems as if he is going to add another two counts of attempted regicide to his list of crimes.”
Indeed, the longer the Celestia talked, the angrier and angrier the dragon seemed to get until he stomped and raked the ground. “You are a liar and a fraud, and I shall prove it!” he cried out before lunging teeth first at the pair of alicorns.
The Celestias, already in the air, easily moved out of the way and the dragon came crashing towards Twilight and Luna, who, too, rose higher into the air to avoid the dragon’s tail as he whipped around to track his targets.
Locating the pair of shining white alicorns was not a difficult thing to do and the dragon raked the ground again, spreading his wings and preparing for another lunge.
Then he stopped, gave a low growl and turned his head as if he were listening for something. To everyone’s surprise, he seemed to find it, snapping his head in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage.
Or, more specifically, Fluttershy, who had retreated there with Rainbow Dash when things had gotten violent again.
“You!” the dragon shouted and burst forth, surprising everyone with the direction of his charge. “It’s you!”
“Oh, you did not just say that,” Rainbow Dash said, raising her hackles and preparing to meet the dragon head on.
It turned out to be unnecessary as the dragon just… stopped. Or, well, his legs did. The rest of him came crashing down, peeling the grass up as he slid to a stop in front of the two pegasi.
Baffled, Twilight, Luna and the two Celestias all flew over to see what had happened. As they crested the dragon’s bulk, what they saw was Fluttershy pressed up against her cottage, one foreleg held up in front of herself.
As they all watched, Fluttershy let her hoof relax… and the dragon who they all realized had been clutching his chest took in a great, gasping breath.
“Oh my,” came Fluttershy’s timid voice, louder than expected over the sounds of the wheezing dragon.
The two alicorns, two lizard-alicorns and two demigoddesses had all arranged themselves around a large fold-out table in Fluttershy’s cottage while one exceptionally compact adult dragon served them tea so the rest could talk about the significantly less compact dragon they had chained up outside.
“Let me see if I have this straight,” the rainbow-maned Celestia began, setting her teacup down on her saucer with the faint tap of porcelain. “Fluttershy was able to save this dragon’s life by… possessing him, essentially. This is something she is capable of in normal situations with her willing animal friends, though in this case it required a great act of will. Upon taking control of the dragon, she was not only able to restart its heart, which was the intention, but as a side effect, also healed his burns, restoring damaged and destroyed flesh with a magically created substitute.
“When she removed herself from the dragon, however, she found that that which her magic had provided, remained a part of her, including large parts of his lungs and the entirety of his heart. This, she chose to keep to herself, not desiring to escalate the situation any further, or, indeed, exercise her leverage over him at all.
“Interestingly, some part of these events seem to have broken him free of the effect drawing dragons to Equestria. It is possible that this happened when Fluttershy mentally dominated him—”
Fluttershy shrank inwards at that.
“—But I believe it was the destruction of his heart. Shortly before Discord died, he showed me… or, I suppose, he showed Celestia his heart, burning with dragonfire. The way he talked about it, it seemed to have some special significance, and I believe it is that part of him that he passed on to us which frightens ponies and attracts dragons.”
“Wait,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “Attracts dragons? Like, attracts attracts?”
The fiery-maned Celestia frowned. “I am not entirely certain what—”
“No, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight interrupted, annoyed at the tangent. “The dragons have not come to Equestria in an attempt to score with twins.”
“Probably,” Luna added.
Twilight mentally stumbled on Luna’s addition. “Probably?”
“It seemed like the sort of qualification you would add for accuracy’s sake,” she explained. “After all, we cannot know the mind of every dragon. Simply comprehending the hoofful we’ve had to deal with this afternoon has been a practice in futility.”
“I can’t believe we’re talking about this,” Twilight whined. “No, I am not going to entertain the idea that the dragons have come to get laid.”
Luna turned Twilight to face her and placed her hooves on her shoulders. “Twilight. Believe me, I realize how repulsive my sisters are and how disturbing it must be to think of your old mentor in that way…”
For some reason, the Celestias both winced, seeming torn between indignance and something else that Twilight couldn’t identify.
“…But if there is anything that I have learned about courting in my many years of life, it is that twins conquer all. Think about it, Twilight. Not too hard, of course, but still. Twins.”
Twilight couldn’t help it. She felt a blush creeping up her cheeks. “That’s mean,” she declared, turning away from the closeness of Luna’s face and back to the table. Seeing all the faces looking back at her, only made her blush further. “You know why that’s mean,” she grumbled, shrinking in on herself.
The rainbow-haired Celestia cleared her throat. “If that is all…?”
Luna opened her mouth to say something, but Twilight preempted her. “Yes, let’s please get back to the matter at hoof,” she said, glancing coolly at Luna. “It’s fun to joke around, but just think about how you must have made poor Fluttershy feel with your lewd suggestions.”
Suddenly everyone was looking at Fluttershy, but all Fluttershy was doing was sharing her confused look with Rainbow Dash. “Uh, care to explain that one, Sparkles?”
“What?” Twilight said, looking around the table. “Am I the only one here who heard the dragon denying that any of us were ‘the one whose power shines from the sky’ until he got to Fluttershy? Ipso facto, if replacing his heart has supplanted that connection, then implying that dragons want to get it on with the Celestias implies the same of this dragon and Fluttershy.”
It took everyone a moment to follow Twilight’s logic to the inevitable conclusion, but when they finally did, she was met with several facehoofs and one very deep blush.
Luna, on the other hoof, was just nodding along. “You do have a point,” she conceded.
“Waitwaitwaitwait,” Rainbow Dash interjected. “Back up a second. That’s not the important thing here.”
Now, Rainbow Dash had everyone’s attention. In an almost identical manner as Luna had earlier, Rainbow Dash placed her hooves on Fluttershy’s shoulders and looked her in the eyes.
“Fluttershy… after everything that’s happened today, the way I thought you were dead… but you came back. I can’t believe I only now realized it.
“Fluttershy… are you twins now?”
Twilight, who had been leaning forward, slipped and banged her head on the table.
“I’m just saying. You control dozens and dozens of animals at once, right? Why not be two ponies at once? That would be so—uhh…” Rainbow Dash suddenly seemed to remember that the rest of the table was present. “…Cool,” she finished lamely. “Um. Yeah. It’d be… cool.”
There was a thump as Fluttershy fell out of her chair, having fainted.