The weeks after Luna talked with Celestia were... a bit weird, to say the least. Tia danced on eggshells around me, profusely apologizing to me time after time for what she had done to me in the dream realm because she was too impatient (and admittedly quite enraged) to listen for me to end the recount of what I had learned from Hope and her siblings.
She showered me with gifts here and there, be it breakfast in bed or other things like flowers, chocolate, plushies, and whatnot. Luna had her sleep on the couch for a few weeks after our 'time of the year' was finally over, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Tia had gone into heat herself, practically leaving our nation unattended were it not for Starswirl, Clover, and his friends acting as a stand-in.
Suffice it to say, Starswirl wasn’t entirely happy with us but understood that we couldn’t simply fulfill our tasks regularly in the state that we were in (which also emphasized the importance for us to find trustworthy aides and temporary stand-ins we could delegate some of our tasks to in case it ever happened to overlap like this again). And I felt really bad that we had left Tia out of our fun time that turned into a frenzied sex fest the longer time went on, so it was sort of easy to forgive her after leaving her hanging like that.
That didn’t mean that I was going to be in the mood to have sex with her any time soon, though. Not after how Daybreaker had been too rough with me and basically tortured me in a sad display of 'pain play'. This was her punishment for that. What did a perverted Celestia fear most? Not having somepony to molest.
It was the worst punishment I could think of aside from keeping my distance from her for some time, and it showed in her mood. Tia was extremely downtrodden and Luna had to convince me to not go easy on her to really hammer the lesson into her thick skull. It felt a bit mean to her, but my sweet Moon was also right. I can't just always instantly forgive and forget everything she does, I have to be more assertive. Tia was too used to having her way with me in whatever way she wanted, neither of us was able to recognize when it got too abusive and toxic until she crossed the line.
I guess I never really minded it too much. I was far too used to her perverted shenanigans, I simply thought it was 'normal' like this. But that's more or less alright. I was fine with it, to be honest. As long as she was able to recognize what I liked and didn't like, we could make it work out with a bit more communication along the way. No big deal.
Haah... who would have guessed Luna was the most mature one in our bunch? I do miss those easy days when we could just have fun and be ignorant of 'grown-up stuff'. Sadly, even with reincarnation, you couldn't stop yourself from growing up. I would never really get rid of that little bit of immaturity in me (nor did I want to), but I also couldn't simply pretend I wasn't an adult that got a second chance at life.
It was funny, really. Until puberty hit me, that never really hammered itself into me. I was how old now? Over seventy if I added both of my lifetimes together, but it didn't really feel like that to me. Heck, even before I was reincarnated, I never really felt like I was four decades old. If anything, my kind of life experience stagnated when I was twenty or so and I just bumbled around life until now. I certainly still feel like a horny teenager from time to time (especially around my sisters during estrus).
But that's enough of that. Aside from Tia being essentially in the dog house for as long as Luna saw fit, we returned to our usual routine of holding court and talking with dignitaries and the like (which didn't really help make me feel any less small in the grander scheme of things, trying not to screw up too badly). It wasn't by any means easy, but I was starting to get a feel for who was genuine with us and who wasn't.
I can't say I missed paperwork, but some ponies made me wish I didn't have to deal with their hidden barbs and the thinly-veiled smug superiority when they tried to outsmart us. Which happened more often than I cared to count, really. It was nerve-wracking and sometimes I would just cry in my bed, feeling exhausted beyond belief.
Such was the burden of the crown...
Not all of them were bad, though. It was mainly Platinum's posse that got on my nerves. Most of the foreign emissaries were pleasant enough to deal with. The hippogriffs were one such example. They were very honorable and Queen Novo kind of took pity on us? I mean, she helped us out wherever she could in the name of 'friendship', but I could tell it was more because she took a liking to us in particular. She had been a friend of Amore and genuinely thought we were good ponies that were in over our heads.
It was a bit demeaning of her to treat us like children, but I guess she meant well. Not unlike the deer, though. The deer were just haughty and had a thing against stone, for whatever reason. Oh, and we, uh... might have built our castle in their territory by accident. Yeah...
To be honest, though, King Aspen considered all forests to be 'their' territory because of some ancient wood spirit blessing their race with nature magic. Which they took as some kind of task or mission to protect all forests from harm, go figure. As I said, they are haughty and arrogant, but also well-meaning in their own right. Humanity could have really used a bit of that attitude, in my opinion. If only to prevent the erosion of the rainforests and poisoning the ocean with toxic waste.
One particular emissary stood out to me, though. Mainly because the leader of that envoy had a suspiciously human-looking upper body with red skin. Nothing says demon lord more than red skin and a pitch-black sclera with yellow irises. Well, the centaur did look rather grandfatherly, all things considered.
“Greetings, Princesses of Equestria,” he spoke up once he came to a halt a respectful distance away from us, giving us a bow. “I am here to correct the wrongdoing of one of my... 'subjects'. My name is King Vorak.”
“Well met, King Vorak,” Celestia spoke up and we watched as their group brought forth a weakened unicorn stallion with a purple mane and blue eyes. That instantly managed to make Tia wary of him. “What is one of our ponies doing with you, and why does he look so frail?”
King Vorak gave the pony a sad glance before looking back over to us, an ashamed quality in his eyes. “My apologies, we did our best to get him back to full strength,” he told us. “Rest assured that the one who took your subject from you against his will is being punished accordingly. The hermit known as Sendak has acted without any knowledge on our nation's part. I ask that you do not think too lowly of my kingdom. I would understand if you wanted to have nothing to do with me or my wife, Queen Haydon. But please, I humbly ask of you to not think all of us to be like him...”
“Was he also the one to leave him in this state?” I asked, motioning for the unicorn that was currently being looked at by our own healers. Poor thing...
“He... "—King Vorak hesitated before steeling himself—"No, Princess Summer,” Vorak muttered with a deep scowl. “That fault lies with my foolish son, Tirek.”
“I see...” I sighed. “And what has been done for disciplinary actions to make sure he won’t be repeating what he did to our subject? For that matter, what did he do?”
“I... I’m sorry to say, he drained the unicorn of almost all magic,” King Vorak admitted. After what happened back before we took up our mantle, it left a bitter taste in my mouth. Ponies losing their magic was a big deal, after all. Not to mention, the deaths it had caused... “For now, my son is under watch and not to leave the castle, or even his chamber, altogether.”
“How old is your son?” Luna asked, her voice hard as she glared at the centaur king before us. “Is he truly lusting for the power of others? A prince? The one to inherit the throne?”
“I will make sure to drive this behavior out of him, make no mistakes,” Vorak shot back. “But this is a matter of family, I will not let an outsider belittle me for how I raise my son.”
My sister merely gave him a raised brow in response to him taking offense to that. “See that you do, King Vorak. Such desires lead even the most steadfast of ponies down a very dark path,” Luna told him and I agreed with her. The same was true for Sombra after he got corrupted by this ‘Mother’ of his. A path I had gotten quite close to in my own madness, although magic and souls were two entirely different things. Even now I was tempted by these dark whispers, every once in a while.
I know Hope had told me that it was a part of who we are, but it still left me feeling queasy. Eating a soul... I don’t think I could ever do that. It felt like a violation of everything I valued most. I’d rather find other ways to cleanse a soul than by consuming it.
“And what will you do for reparations between our nations?” my wife asked, staring at him with narrowed eyes and furrowed brows while otherwise looking calm. I could see the shimmer of heat around her, though. It was subtle, but she was angry with him. One of our ponies was hurt by his son's actions and she took exception to that. “We would at least expect a public apology.”
“That and I’m more than willing to sign a non-aggression pact with you for as long as I live,” he sighed in resignation. Clearly, he wasn’t looking out for himself and was quite humble it seemed (as humble as one could be, given the situation). It was a shame that his son didn’t share the same traits he held close to his heart. I’m not sure this type of incident warranted a non-aggression pact to make up for it, but I wouldn’t say no to that. “Believe me, I would rather avoid a war with Equestria if at all possible.”
“Very well,” Celestia nodded, seemingly appeased by his offer. As we left the throne room to begin more detailed negotiations with King Vorak, I made sure to see if the poor unicorn would be alright. The healers assured me that he would make a full recovery and he himself told me that he was glad to be back home and that he looked forward to returning to his family, alive and well.
The stallion had a very interesting Cutie Mark, I had to admit. It looked eerily similar to Saturn, the planet depicted in his mark being pink instead with a few stars around it. He proudly explained to me that he was an astronomer and had gotten his Cutie Mark for discovering the planet in his youth.
I said my goodbye to the stallion, learning his name just as I was about to leave. I gave Dusk Comet the reassurance that he was always welcome to ask for funding in his studies of the universe if he needed it, catching up with my sisters in the conference room afterward.
A celestial Cutie Mark, how curious... I wonder what he will accomplish. Or one of his descendants, considering the same thing runs in our family, too.
Anyway, the discussion with King Vorak went on for quite some time, actually lasting multiple days as we hashed out further agreements between our two nations. We also came up with some rather advantageous trade deals to further cement our new friendship. They were sorely lacking in timber and had an abundance of various stones, among that being one of the highest quality marble this world had to offer. Canterlot was actually built from that very same marble and with that trade deal, we could get at that stone a lot easier and cheaper.
King Vorak was a very strict man (or are centaur males called stallions?) and well-versed in politics, he even gave us tips about ruling a nation from his own experiences. It was nice to get an outsider’s perspective from him, it taught us quite a lot. Especially for how we could deal with the less trustworthy members of the nobility. Or shady ponies in general.
His tips on how to deal with brown nosers and nobles plotting against the crown were invaluable and I made sure to talk with Luna and Tia in private about establishing a spy network for the sake of being informed of what happens behind closed doors within our own nation.
I might be mainly pushing for that to keep tabs on Platinum, although I had my doubts even the best-trained agents could fool that prissy former princess. She was already suspicious enough of us and I feared her resentment would put any agent we send her way in danger.
Luna was a bit queasy about using subterfuge to spy on ponies, especially on our own subjects, but she also saw the need for that. Celestia pretty much agreed instantly with me, no questions asked. However, I think she just wanted to further her own vendetta against ‘Princess Bitchface’ as Luna had dubbed her quite eloquently since we first met her.
The visit of King Vorak was over all too soon and together with his entourage, we sent him off with optimistic farewells. All in all, this incident had unexpectedly good results for all involved. Well, maybe not for Dusk that much, he was at least grateful that so much support was going his way.
Besides the odd few experiments and a ton of assignments from Starswirl to further our political and magical education, something we complained about quite vocally (he always gave us way too much to go through), nothing too interesting happened as months turned into several years. Well, there was still the mystery of the mysterious crimes happening around Equestria.
And as we found out, it was of a magical nature, after all. Starswirl was gone for quite some time while we were busy ruling the nation and trying our best to keep up with our lessons. I was immensely glad for the helping hooves of Clover the Clever. Seriously, without him, we would have been thoroughly lost (he was a way better teacher than Starswirl, not that our mentor was bad, per se).
Our friend couldn’t tell us that much about what Starswirl was doing, the only thing we learned was that our mutual mentor was with a group of his trusted ‘friends’ (Starswirl didn’t “do” friends, which was kinda sad in my opinion) investigating the cause of the strange magic causing ponies to fight.
Apparently one of those friends of Starswirl was a pegasus from the Cloudsdale Royal Legion. I didn’t know he had friends in the military. Perhaps one day we will get to meet these so-called 'not-friends' of his that he had never mentioned to us before, but getting answers out of that old coot was like pulling teeth. The cryptic stallion couldn’t give us a straight answer, ever.
Just like he never told us where he actually went, most of the time. It was rather easy to tell when he was going to be in dangerous situations, though. Every time he went away for any length of time and told us to stay where we were, we knew that there was a chance for him to not return.
I just wish he would trust us more. We weren’t little fillies anymore (even if we might behave like that from time to time). We were supposed to be Equestria’s guardians, right? Shouldn’t we help him out if we could? Our power surely could have been of great help, so I was unable to understand why he was so reluctant to let us help him with the more serious threats he encountered. But after the incident with Sombra, I suppose he didn’t want to risk us getting hurt.
Besides that, things were more or less back to normal between Celestia and me. The only thing that remained awkward was the way she acted around me when she was in the form of Daybreaker. Daybreaker suddenly turned a lot more, uh... how do I say this... submissive while I was around her. Like... extremely so. It was beginning to weird me out, to be honest.
One thing that kept bugging me about the incident with Dusk and this hermit that had held him captive was the question of how exactly he got ahold of our subject. A centaur would have stood out like a flying penguin dancing around a street corner in a pink tutu. Dusk didn’t remember much of how he got captured in the first place, but he surely would have been aware of a friggin’ centaur in the middle of Canterlot.
It would remain an unsolved mystery, I fear. More importantly, Celestia and I turned forty. It was quite a memorable birthday, because, at that point, we had been ponies for as long as we had been humans in our previous life.
Oh, Starswirl was also back from his little trip that took entirely too long in my opinion. He didn’t even bring us any souvenirs back, sadly. Well, there was something that he had for us. It wasn’t what I expected, though.
Let’s just say that the sight we were invited to at the mansion in Canterlot was... something else. The mansion, if one could call it that (it was a friggin’ palace bigger than our own castle in the Everfree), was absolutely packed full. Not with ponies, though, or even with ordinary furniture or chests and the like for storage.
No. This was something else, entirely...
“...Starswirl?” I asked, looking around me at all the differently shaped mirrors as I tried not to hide behind my mane in discomfort. “What is this?”
“Summer, dear,” Starswirl looked at me, stroking his beard sagely. “I would think you would know what a mirror is.”
I glared at him, not one bit amused. Definitely not amused. This right here bordered on obsession. The old coot had obviously continued experimenting with different dimensions on his own.
“Starswirl, this”—I pointed at the seemingly endless amount of mirrors all around us with a twitching eyelid—” is not normal,” I stated, exasperated beyond belief. Ponies were bringing in even more as we stood in a veritable hallway of portals leading to other worlds.
“You know, my sister is right about this,” Celestia said, looking around her with an equally queasy expression on her muzzle as mine. Then again, I was feeling even worse than her. These mirrors weren’t even reflecting anything back at us. It's downright creepy. “This is ridiculous, you crazy old geezer. And also seriously disturbing.”
Starswirl scoffed, frowning in displeasure. “Hmph, don’t be like that, Princess,” he said with cold eyes directed back at her. “We have used a prototype mirror like this in the past, have we not? This is in no way different from that, only on a slightly larger scale. Just think about the possibilities for Equestria. We could learn so much!”
“Oh, sure... slightly larger scale my flank,” I rolled my eyes. He's gone mad, I could tell. “Ripping holes into the universe is already risky, this makes it only worse. Sometimes I wonder which one of us is the ‘moody teenager’ here, Starswirl.”
Our mentor chuckled. “Now, now, don’t you say those words with such a snide tone, Princess,” he chided me and I pouted back at him. “I call you that one time and I never get to hear the end of it (even though it is true).”
“Just because we are a bit immature from time to time doesn’t mean we’re still teenagers...” I grumbled, kicking a hoof in frustration, and Starswirl rolled his eyes. “We might age to maturity slower (if it happens at all), but that doesn’t mean our age doesn’t matter...”
Tia made a face. “I agree with my sister, it gets annoying being treated like a little filly half of the time you give us ‘lessons’ (if they can be called that...), and sometimes it feels like you are coddling us. We can take care of ourselves, we aren’t completely useless. And with how often you go on those dangerous missions with those ‘not-friends’ of yours, I would have thought you would be a lot more cautious with this after our experiments with the first mirror, Starswirl,” Celestia argued. “Who knows what might come out of them if something were to stumble across the portal on the other end of these mirrors.”
Our mentor came to a halt at that, turning to her with that 'disappointed teacher' look in his eyes as his frown deepened. “I ‘coddle’ you so much because quite obviously you aren’t yet experienced enough to handle major threats to Equestria by yourselves. Sombra is enough evidence of that,“ he said and I winced, shrinking in on myself. That was a low blow. “And if you are so worried about something finding the portal on the other side, I can assure you that won’t be a problem.”
Starswirl went over to one of the mirrors, motioning for us to come and see for ourselves as he casually stuck his head through one of the mirrors. I looked at Tia hesitatingly and she let out a sigh. She grumbled as she joined Starswirl at his side, sticking her own head in.
I fidgeted slightly as Starswirl tried to convince us that there was practically no danger involved with this. He was of the firm belief that learning and studying other dimensions made them less dangerous.
I can’t say I really agreed with that sentiment, to be honest. Just thinking of all the possible eldritch horrors that could abuse a bridge between universes like that was enough to make a shiver run down my spine.
It was a little bit funny to hear them continue to talk while they were standing there with their heads in the mirror, though...
“I don’t know, Starswirl,” I said, rubbing my foreleg with a hoof. “This many gateways can’t possibly be safe, even if they are disguised on the other side as you say they are.”
Our mentor let out a groan at that. “Princess Summer, my dear. You can’t live your life in fear of an infinitely small possibility like that and ignore all of the knowledge right in front of your eyes!” he shot back, coming back out of the mirror with his head. “Besides, I am here to safeguard these. Nothing will get past me, rest assured.”
“If you say so...” I mumbled. “I hope you’re right about this.”
“Knowledge is power, as a wise mage has once said,” Starswirl chuckled. “And he should know, he himself was somewhat of an expert in traveling between dimensions.”
“Do we know him?” Celestia giggled, lightly nudging his shoulder.
“Oh, no, no. I’m not referring to myself for once,” Starswirl smiled cryptically. “Perhaps one day I will introduce you to him, Princess.”
“He must be a powerful wizard if he travels through the Void in Between,” I noted and he merely nodded. Sadly, he didn’t even give us a name, I’m sure Tia would have been able to find a book about him somewhere.
“Summer? Celestia? Starswirl?” Luna’s voice called out and I turned around, looking back down the hall as our sister came into view. “Here you all are. For a moment I thought I lost my way around here. Why are there so many mirrors here?”
“Blame this old coot,” I mentioned, pointing to Starswirl. “He thinks it a wise idea to go through with the portal project on a larger scale than before.”
“How did you even find so many other universes?” Luna asked, also looking queasily at the mirrors without reflections in them.
“He is a crazy scientist, what do you think?” Celestia mentioned, rolling her eyes. Starswirl gave a small huff, sending a small glare her way.
“I seem to remember your own enthusiasm as we worked together on the prototype before you abandoned me to do the work all on my own,” he reprimanded her. “Besides, after the first refined version was finished, it was quite easy to access other realities.”
“She kinda has a duty to fulfill, you know,” I muttered, thinking back to how bad they had actually gotten in their mad scientist schemes.
“Be that as it may,” Starswirl started before every single mirror suddenly turned black around us. I looked around us, startled. A strange glow began to emit from all of them and then a sinister (but strangely squeaky) voice began to fill the room.
“There they are! The Destroyers!” it called out, making me jump towards my sisters in fright.
“Get them, you fool!” another said, and then grinning shadows sprang forth from the mirrors, staring down at us with glee.
“Take all three of them,” the first voice commanded the rest of the shadowy creatures. “Kill that wizard, he is of no importance to us.”
“Girls,” Starswirl said, his voice stern. “Get behind me.”
I stuck close to my sisters as Starswirl started to sling one powerful spell after another against these monsters, binding them as best as he could. For a moment I thought he would be able to handle this situation without much effort as he sent the ones in his grasp back into the mirror. Only for dozens more to appear, surrounding us on all sides.
My sister was quick to shoot superheated lances of solar energy at the encroaching shadows. “Don’t come any closer,” she roared, furious. Not that that seemed to deter any of them.
Despite my fear, I swallowed my existential dread and breathed in deeply as Mother's training kicked in and I focused on doing something instead of being a burden to my sisters and Starswirl. Since my surge as a young foal, I've come a long way and my mana reacted accordingly. Unlike the raging font of power it was back then, I had it (more or less) under full control now, and calling forth my magic was like a brilliant flare as I didn't hold back. And while I couldn't unleash my full power with Starswirl by our side, the beam was more than enough to push them back.
Meanwhile, Luna used her connection to the tides to call forth water, freezing some of the shadows solid. Despite our best efforts, though, it didn't feel like we were making any progress. Luna's ice magic appeared to be the most effective, but our opponents quickly wizened up to our strategy and didn't give her any chance to pick out easy targets.
“Starswirl!” I called out, crying for help as more and more replaced the ones we fought against. We were trying our best, but for some unfathomable reason, Tia's and my magic were unable to do much against these foes.
“Foolish wizard, we aren’t here to seek victory,” the shadow that had spoken first chuckled sinisterly. “We seek only destruction!”
“In that case,” Starswirl shouted back. “This ends now!”
His magic aura flared up brightly as a vortex of magic was unleashed within the room, sucking in the dark creatures. We stared in amazement as our mentor just single-hoofedly took care of the beings invading our land.
But our luck ran out, sadly. My heart plummeted as Starswirl was tackled by a crafty shadow creature that had avoided the initial pull of his spell. And then everything started to go out of control as some of the mirrors began to get drawn in by the vortex.
I watched in horror as one mirror fell on Starswirl, sending him off to a different world. To make matters worse, the mirror shattered on the ground after our mentor had been forced through it and I cried out in denial as the only gateway back for him was destroyed right in front of my eyes.
“NO!” I screeched out, a massive circular wave of solar magic erupted from me, singing everything around us as it pushed against these monsters with such incredible force that they were momentarily thrown away from us. Only a few mirrors still looked to be intact, by the looks of it.
The integrity of the remaining mirrors was the last thing on my mind, though. I was in disbelief over the fact that our dear mentor was gone, just like that. In the end, I lost another pony I held dear to my heart and I was unable to prevent it. Even with him right there, I couldn't do anything. It was all over before I even truly registered what was happening.
Would I forever be cursed to lose the ones I loved most, even before their time had come? Starswirl... I... I'm so sorry. With the mirror in shambles, there was no way we could ever repair it to bring you back. I’m truly sorry. I'm such a failure...
It... it should have been me that the mirror... I couldn’t even finish that thought in my suffocating grief. The universe was a cruel mistress and all I felt was despair.
Despair at losing all of those close to me. It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? Would I... would I also lose my sisters? My sweet Moon and my beloved Twin Sun?
I couldn’t let that happen... not again. Not with them...
A scream dragged me out of my shock and I looked over to see them grasping at my wife. “Let go of me, you cretin!” Celestia shouted, struggling as more and more of the shadowy creatures took hold of her, dragging her toward one of the remaining mirrors. I gasped, narrowing my eyes at the ones that dared try to take away my love from me. Luna and I ran after her, trying everything to keep her with us, but... our magic just slipped off of her everywhere the monster’s claws held tightly onto her. “I am Celestia, Princess of Equestria! I command the heavenly sun! I will not let...”
“Tia..!” I called after her, jumping towards her in a last desperate attempt to keep her away from the mirror as I reached out a hoof to her. But it was of no use. More of the fiends grabbed Luna and me, dragging us with our sister into the mirror.
A few moments later I lost consciousness as these monsters subdued us while we were moving through the bridge connecting our world to theirs. I was immensely glad as Luna brought us into a shared dream.
“Can you wake us up, Lulu?” Celestia asked, hugging me tightly to her chest as I sniffled in her embrace, hopeless. We were completely powerless against these things, whatever they truly are. Light and flames did nothing against them, something I would have thought should have been effective against creatures made out of shadows. It almost seemed like they were specifically made to capture us, as crazy as the idea sounded to me.
Luna gave her a grimace. “I could...” she answered although her gaze drifted downward, sullen. “But if that would accomplish anything is an entirely different matter. They would simply render us unconscious again.”
“True...” Celestia sighed, non too happy about it. “What do you think we should do then?”
“I... I don’t think we can do anything,” I muttered, causing both of them to look at me. “They mentioned us as the Destroyers, right? There is only one thing they could mean by that.”
“You don’t think they will force us to do that, do you?” Celestia glowered and I let out a shaky sigh as I nodded reluctantly. And here I thought I had more time until that would become relevant to us. A lot more time. Maybe Daybreaker was right to be so mad about it.
“I don’t know how they intend to accomplish this...” I admitted, my ears pressed firmly to the back of my head in despair. “However, there is no doubt in my mind that that is their goal. I'm sorry, sister.”
“But aren’t we at peace with our darker halves?” Luna inquired with a raised brow. “They can’t convince us to go through with that even while in the form of our alter-egos. They can't force us if we're not willing to do... that.”
“That might be true,” Celestia winced slightly. “We aren’t immune to corruption, though. Even if they torture us for months or years, at one point or another, we are going to break.”
“We can’t just sit idly by...” I muttered.
“Summer, I don't know if you haven't noticed it yet, but we are trapped here,” Luna growled, stomping a hoof on the chamber floor. “I can’t force us to wake up each and every time we get knocked out as soon as we even begin to show signs of waking up from slumber. It's useless, we lost.”
“I know... this just feels so...” I shot back irritatedly, searching for the right word.
“Soul-crushing?” Celestia offered sadly and I shrugged. It’s a pretty good way to describe how I felt, although still not enough to emphasize just how soul-crushing it truly was.
I sighed dejectedly. “Do you think Starswirl is okay?” I asked. “What if he can’t find his way back to our Equestria?”
“I’m sure he will find his way back somehow,” Luna reassured me, if only slightly. “He is still an archmage of the highest class. Starswirl has to have some kind of contingency plan if he ever got lost in another reality. He's not that stupid and senile.”
“Still, even if he does get back, what good will it do if we are forced to fight against him? Or if there's nothing to go back to, in the first place?” Tia argued. “Let’s face it, we’re all that we have and we should accept that our end approaches. I’m sorry it has to end this way... I am so sorry. I wish I had some kind of forewarning for this, maybe then we could have avoided this. I failed you.”
“Don’t blame yourself, Tia,” I said, giving her a small, reassuring peck on her lips. “You can’t control your ability like we can, it’s not your fault.”
“And we aren’t corrupted yet, sister,” Luna smiled shakily. “Perhaps somepony will come to our rescue?”
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” my twin muttered. Tia got a bit nervous as she looked at Luna. “So... do you want to marry us here? While we still can?”
“Oh?” Luna asked, her smile getting a bit brighter. “Do I not get a ring?”
“If we should get back home in the unlikely event that we somehow do get through this crisis, this is something I had made a long time ago,” Celestia answered, conjuring up a golden ring representing the one that was in our castle hidden in a drawer. I had seen it before, Tia couldn’t hide something like that from me. Especially when she put it beside my belongings, thinking she was clever (which she admittedly was, but still).
The ring was very similar to our own wedding rings, this one having a sapphire to show that it was meant for Luna instead. As was the case with our rings, this one also had the same engraving on it.
We hadn’t found the right time to actually go through with this, and I really wished we had done this as soon as I brought the idea up to my little sister. This might be the only, and quite possibly last, chance to do this. Luna smiled shakily as she saw Celestia and I bow down before her.
“Would you marry us?” we asked in unison, and I liked to think it was because we were twins and had a special connection. Luna gave us a teary-eyed ‘Yes!’ while throwing her forelegs around me and Celestia. My heart gave a happy beat at that and I’m glad that we would be facing our end as a married trio, at least.
My sister let out a small hum as she refused to let go of us. “How are we going to do this?” she whispered, curious. That was a good question, I have to admit. We didn’t have anypony to officiate for us, let alone a good location. Well, this was a dream, so... a location wouldn’t be too much of a problem, really.
“We could just give each other a vow without somepony to do a ceremony,” Celestia mentioned and Luna let go of her hug before it could start to get awkward. “What do you think of doing this at a beach?”
“Yes, a beach at sunset!” I giggled, hopping up and down gleefully. “Or better yet, at a solar eclipse! Eee!”
My sisters smiled at my enthusiasm. “A solar eclipse sounds perfect,” Luna said, the symbolism appealing to her the most. “But why a beach? Wouldn’t you like to do a repeat of your wedding on Earth?”
“Well...” Celestia shrugged. “A traditional wedding doesn’t feel quite as close as giving each other a vow at a beach. And I feel like we don’t need to do the same thing that Summer and I had done on Earth to cement our special relationship with you. Not when we can do something even better to include you.”
“Yes,” I nodded, throwing a wing around Luna with a smile. “Besides we are ponies now, let’s do something different. A beach is romantic, the view is a lot nicer, and we can enjoy the feeling of freedom it gives us. I always wanted to marry underneath the open sky, you know.”
“Alright,” Luna agreed. “Then let me give us a change of scenery. One cozy Caribbean beach coming right up.”
And with that, my sister closed her eyes in concentration as her horn lit up with a brilliant white light. The ground underneath us lit up, little wisps floating up around us as the walls and ceiling faded away like smoke or dust blown away in a breeze. The stone that had made up the ground was replaced with soft (almost white) sand that went from one end of the horizon to the other.
The suns in the sky peeked the slightest bit over the edge of the enlarged form of the moon, tinting the world in the soft hues of their light. The sound of waves reached our ears next, mixed together with the noise of a gentle breeze rustling the plants further inland. To our side a path of bamboo torches appeared, leading to a small pier with a palm tree next to it, hanging a bit over the water.
I smiled at the serene picture, proud of the artistic talent of my little sister and soon-to-be wife. I stepped out of my regalia, discarding the tiara and the chest ornament with the shoes in a small neat little pile. Both Celestia and Luna did the same with eager smiles on their muzzles, mirroring my own.
Lulu surprised me for a moment by giving each of us a lovely dress, fitted to the form of a pony. The fabric of the gown was almost so thin you could look through it, having an intricate pattern of lace on it that made my heart flutter warmly in my chest. I always loved the design of wedding dresses like these. They were so carefree and youthful. Additionally, she changed our hairstyles by weaving in a few white leaves as a replacement for the veil. It made us look like we had just escaped from a fairytale and I absolutely loved it.
“This is perfect, Lulu,” Celestia whispered, lost for words as a few tears came to her eyes. I wasn’t better off emotionally, desperately hoping I wouldn’t start bawling my eyes out at the sheer beauty displayed by each of us. This, I thought in awe, was the most perfect wedding I could have ever dreamed of (ironic, I know).
Today was the best, and sadly also the worst, day of my life. I hoped with all of my heart that what was happening in the waking world wouldn’t prove to be the end for us, I didn’t want this to be cruelly taken away from us in the end. I wanted to spend the rest of eternity with my sisters. I really do. I don’t care about the immortality anymore, it would only give us more time with each other to enjoy. But only if we made it out without being corrupted by these dastardly shadow beings.
“Shall we?” Luna asked, her voice as teary as our eyes. I nodded, letting out a shaky breath. Celestia was on Luna’s other side in a flash, a wing extended to meet the one Lulu reached out to her. My own wing met her other one and together we strolled over to the beginning of the pier at a sedate pace.
We faced each other as we sat down, not trusting our legs to support us as we were about to give each other a vow of eternal love. Tia held the ring for Luna aloft in her magical aura as she took the first turn.
“Luna, Summer,” she said, almost choking up. It was rare to see her so emotional since she was usually so composed (even serene most of the time) aside from the occasional angry outburst or perverted glee when molesting me. When Tia of all ponies was close to crying, I knew it meant the world to her. It touched my heart deeply. “We have known each other since we were little back on Earth. You gave me the support that I needed when our "—she gulped anxiously, heaving a heavy breath—"f-first... oh, fuck, ugh... when our first parents died, Lulu, and you continued to stick with us even as you felt jealous that I got to have Red Nose here all for myself.
“While I might not have been the best sister you deserved then, and I might have struggled with a lot of other things concerning you, mostly my inability to make my feelings clear to you, you are still one of the two souls I love most. Even through death, we couldn’t be separated from each other and... I am so sorry you had to live with the thought of us having been dead for such a long time.
“I know I put you through a lot of difficult situations, none more so than my confession that I love you, my own sister. But I hope you will stay by my side even when I do stupid things from time to time, even if we might find ourselves corrupted by those that wish us harm. I will always put you and Summer above everypony else, this I swear right now.
“To thee, I swear with all of my heart, I will bring hope and laughter, stay generous and kind, be honest and loyal, and cherish our love forevermore, I give my vow to never stop loving you in good times, as well as bad, while in life, and in death. Do you want to accept this foolish mare of a sister as your wife?”
Celestia bowed, almost prostrated herself, before Luna, offering her the ring with a hopeful smile and sparkling, wet eyes. Luna nodded enthusiastically, throwing herself at Tia in an embrace while kissing her deeply.
“Yes!” Luna cried happily, continuing to pepper her with little kisses. Celestia smiled gratefully, sliding the ring in her telekinetic grasp down Luna’s horn. Then my twin turned to me as she took her position in front of me.
“Summer, I know we had given each other a promise to love one another for the rest of time already, but I feel like I need to say this to you again,” she began, smiling brightly as my lips trembled with joy. “I’m proud to say that our marriage has gotten us through death once already, never once losing one another to the cruel grasp of fate.
“Earth has taught us many valuable lessons, none more so than the trials parenthood has put on our shoulders. And while times might have been rough at some points, much of its fault resting sorely with me and my hotheadedness both as Catherine and now as Celestia, we always stayed strong in our love for each other. Even as we might have been a bit coo-coo from time to time, me as Daybreaker and you during your own experience of madness, we didn’t hate each other for what we did.
“So, as I once gave my vow to you, let me give you this one now. To thee, I swear with all of my heart, I will bring hope and laughter, stay generous and kind, be honest and loyal, and cherish our love forevermore, I give my vow to never stop loving you in good times, as well as bad, while in life, and in death. Do you want to marry me here and now once more?”
“Yes, you silly filly,” I answered, giggling happily as I placed my own kiss on her lips. Celestia slid my wedding ring over my own horn, the familiar piece of jewelry settling with a comforting feeling around the base of my horn. It was obviously modified to fit, but the thought was still there.
As we parted from each other, I faced Luna with a bit of nervousness (or a whole bunch, considering how much I trembled). Her smile calmed my racing heart down in no time and I felt courage and determination for what I wanted to say to her.
“Luna,” I whispered, looking lovingly at her. My sweet Moon. “Even though things didn’t work out exactly as you wanted them to on Earth, you and I still shared a strong bond with each other then and it only managed to grow in our new life. I know I might not have been the best... uhm... 'brother'-in-law in our previous lives and I might have given you a headache every once in a while as your sister.
“I dearly hope that whatever might happen in our future, we face it together no matter what. I will always do my best to stay by your side with Tia as we establish this herd for real and never purposefully hurt you. From this point onward, I don’t ever want to be apart from you. I love you as much as I love that idiot there"—I pointed conspiratorially at my twin and Luna giggled while my wife-from-another-life pouted good-naturedly—" and I want you to know that. So, let me give you this promise that I will keep for the rest of eternity, whether in this life or the next.
"To thee, I swear this for the rest of time, I will bring hope and laughter, stay generous and kind, be honest and loyal, and stay true to our love for all of time, I give my vow to never stop loving you in good times, as well as bad, while in life, and in death. Do you accept my faith and heart as your wife?”
“Of course,” she answered, bringing me into a kiss with a teary laugh. I plucked one of my feathers with a small wince, floating it behind her ear and putting it snuggly into her hair. Luna certainly enjoyed having a part of me so close to her and I promised myself that I would give her one in the waking world should we get the opportunity to do so. I really hope I can do so.
Then, my gaze turned to my twin and she gave me a loving smile that I returned quite readily. It was my turn to give her my own vow now and I knew just the words that I wanted to say.
“Celestia,” I said. “I have a few words for you before I give you my vow... So, here they are... You’re an idiot and I’m breaking up with you to elope with Luna.”
She snorted and let out a giggle, shaking her head as I grinned at her. Luna was giggling herself.
“Okay, jokes aside, you know how much I love you,” I stated and started in earnest this time. “There is nothing that could drive you away from me and I certainly won’t ever leave you. Despite one or two hiccups here and there, I can’t imagine what life would be like without you. To me, you are perfect in every way, even your less-than-desirable qualities. You and Luna give me the light in my life to make me continue living on and give me the strength to endure a nigh-immortal life.
“Celestia, you won’t ever have to fear me thinking ill of you even when you might do some very questionable things, whether they have already happened in the past or will happen in the future. If you decide to make incest legal for selfish reasons, I will follow through with that threat of eloping with Luna, though.” I stuck my tongue out at her cheekily and giggled as she rolled her eyes. Heh. What can I say? She totally brought this upon herself. ”I love every part of you, perhaps your pervertedness most of all. Without you, we wouldn’t be renewing our vows right now and inviting Luna to join us forever in marriage.
“I’m glad that things turned out the way they have, even if we get corrupted on this day. Let me give you this swear in addition to our promises from our past life. To thee, I swear this for the rest of time, I will bring hope and laughter, stay generous and kind, be honest and loyal, and stay true to our love for all of time, I give my vow to never stop loving you in good times, as well as bad, while in life, and in death. Do you accept, my beloved?”
“I do, my sweet Sunshine,” Celestia whispered back. “Just as I promised to you.”
Tia gave me a long, passionate kiss, happily accepting the feather I offered to her. Just like Luna, I put my feather behind her ear in her mane and would be giving her one in the waking world, too. Shadow creatures be damned.
Then it was time for Luna to say her own words to us. She collected her thoughts for a moment and stepped up in front of my twin with a nervous but determined smile. Tia smiled warmly, telling her with no words spoken that whatever she would say, it would mean the world to her. I was thinking along the same lines, as well.
“Celestia,” Luna said, ruffling her wings a bit. “There is so much we had gone through together back on Earth and now with our life in Equestria... it's a lot to take in. While at times we were pretty close to hating each other’s guts, we still found our way back to each other. I... I can’t really say I was all that surprised by your confession of love, a part of me always had the suspicion that if given the chance, you would be the type to actually develop those feelings for me.
“After Mom and Dad died back on Earth, life was... interesting. And not the good kind, either. I didn’t know how to deal with loss at the time, barely knowing what was even going on, and I didn't even know much about them to be affected by it. Your own reaction to that, though, was... less than exemplary. For quite some time I feared you would actually take refuge in your pervertedness so much to offer yourself as a... as a prostitute. The loss hit you harder than me, but luckily... there was a certain awkward nerdy person that was there to prevent you from taking this path.
“I was so very jealous you got to be together with Summer back then and it caused so many fights between us, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you never wanted to hear from me again. I know I felt like hating your guts for it, but... thankfully, both of you stayed with me despite my misgivings and I’m even more grateful for the fact that I’m still here with you. The six years on Earth after your death were... they were not my proudest moments."
Luna grimaced before continuing on. “I wish I could say I was less stupid to do what I did the way I did. Even here in Equestria, I wish I could tell my past self to get over it and just say yes to being in a herd with you and Summer. In the end, things still worked out, thankfully. I have the two most wonderful mares as sisters and I would be proud to call myself your wife.
“The start might have been a bit rocky, these feelings might have given me a lot of trouble and I might have been a bit dumb from time to time, but I learned that hiding from them was perhaps the biggest mistake I could have made. So, what I want to say with this, I suppose, is thanks for being there for me when I finally realized that I couldn’t hide from my feelings any longer.
“I want to give you my own promise to always be with you because that is what my heart truly wants. What it always truly wanted, I guess. And I hope those feelings won’t ever change, even with what we may very well face in the next few hours. Maybe even only minutes from now...
“Let me swear this to you while I still can, Tia. To thee, I eternally vow with my very being, I will bring hope and laughter, stay generous and kind, be honest and loyal, and cherish my love to you from the depth of my heart, I give to you my vow to never stop loving you in good times, as well as bad, while in life, and in death. Will you accept me for all that I am just like I accepted everything that you are?”
“Oh, Luna,” Celestia whispered, wiping a tear away from the corner of her eye. “Why wouldn’t I say yes to that? I’ll gladly accept your vow like you accepted mine.”
I smiled fondly, watching as they exchanged a deep kiss. Luna gave her a feather of her own, her midnight blue one joining mine in Tia’s hair behind the ear. Celestia having both mine and Luna’s feathers was pretty much symbolic of her being the headmare in the herd.
Then my sweet Moon was in front of me, a happy little grin on her muzzle. Just this one last vow and we could call ourselves a proper herd (I decidedly ignored the fact that a herd usually consisted of a stallion and multiple mares, but who cares about archaic archetypes when you have polyamory instead).
“Summer,” Luna spoke, a little twinkle in her eyes as she blushed a little bit. “I have to admit that I might have fantasized quite a bit about how things would have been had I been the one that caught your attention back on Earth. I know you both knew I was jealous of what my sister had with you and I’m sure that, had it been legal, my sister would have asked me into joining a harem with you before we got reincarnated.
“Perhaps the reincarnation as ponies was the best thing that could have ever happened to all of us. I know it is hard for each one of us that we left your kids back on Earth, but hopefully, we will see them at some point once more. But the fact remains, without our reincarnation and you and Tia being twins, you might have never asked me out. It was perhaps that little push that made Tia simply not care about 'social norms', even though she might have had such feelings in our previous lives.
“I am not ashamed to say that it might have been sorely up to you that I even entertained these feelings, although I tried my best to make them go away by staying away from both of you as much as possible. You were the one that managed to win my heart over and Celestia is a nice bonus, I have to admit. I love both of you, but perhaps I love you a tiny smidgen more that it makes me feel a little bit guilty to Tia.
“Still, I couldn’t think of anything better than to spend the rest of my however long life with both of you. So, just like you promised me, I will promise to stay with you for the rest of time itself. To thee, I eternally vow with my very being, I will bring hope and laughter, stay generous and kind, be honest and loyal, and cherish my love to you from the depth of my heart, I give to you my vow to never stop loving you in good times, as well as bad, while in life, and in death. Do you want to be my wife like I want to be yours, accept my promise like I accepted yours?”
“Yes!” I answered, throwing my hooves around her neck and giving her lots of little kisses with a hum. “You didn’t have to ask, silly.”
I smiled as I saw her pluck one of her feathers and levitate it behind my own ear. The ring from Celestia and the feather from Luna declared me once and for all as their wife and I couldn’t be happier about it.
“Seeing that we have all given each other our vows,” Celestia began, enveloping me and Luna in her wings with a little grin on her muzzle. “I declare us as wives by the power vested in me as the Crown Princess of Equestria! It’s official, I say so.”
“Who decided you were the Crown Princess?” Luna snorted with a giggle. I had to suppress my own laughter, shaking my head.
“What?” Celestia asked with a shrug. “I am the eldest, so of course, I shall be the Crown Princess.”
“Your ego is shining brightly through the cracking walls of what you call 'humility', sister,” Luna shot back teasingly. “Does this make you the queen then?”
“Well, I just married two very beautiful princesses,” Celestia said matter-of-factly. “Technically I have the right to call myself Queen now. Queen Celestia, it does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it?”
“Careful, or you will float away with that big head of yours,” Luna smirked. “I’d hate to see you become a snob. It would be a shame to see you act like the nobles we have to entertain on a daily basis.”
“Pfft,” Celestia laughed, waving her hoof in a disarming manner. “As if. I would sooner give up the crown than become like those idiots.”
“You could do with a bit more humility and compassion,” I added my own opinion in between their arguments. "Besides, 'Queen' Celestia sounds more pompous than anything, to be honest. Now, Queen-Regent Luna and Mistress Summer, on the other hoof..."
“Summer, not you too!” Celestia whined, pouting at me playfully. “My own twin, betraying me!”
“Sure...” I said and rolled my eyes. “Jokes aside, Luna is right, though. You do have a massive ego.”
“Fine, I’ll admit I might be a bit self-absorbed from time to time,” Celestia began and Luna gave her a skeptical look at the ‘from time to time’ part which made Tia roll her eyes. “But I’m nowhere near those hoof-lickers.”
“Hah! Daybreaker would disagree with you there,” Luna giggled and I blushed heavily. That was one very odd thing that my sister's dark side had developed in her weird personality change around me. She had this strange desire to lick my hooves and I had to admit... I kinda maybe sorta liked it? It was difficult to say how I felt about this submissive side of my sister. She was the total opposite of... well, herself.
“Har har, sister,” Celestia mumbled. “While we are on the topic of hoof licking, what about our honeymoon~?”
“It has been a long time since we had a vacation...” I said. “I’d say we have it here, but I’d rather have it in the waking world without having to worry about those shadow creatures. What do you think is happening outside?”
“I don’t know,” she answered, rubbing a thoughtful hoof on her chin. “I would have thought something would have happened by now. It is kind of suspicious that nothing has interrupted us yet.”
“Perhaps they need some kind of ritual to make us go evil?” Luna shrugged. Celestia and I hummed. I mean, it was as good of an explanation as any. “Then again, a ritual wouldn’t take so long to complete, either.”
“They could be missing a rare ingredient for their spell,” Celestia shot back, as much at a loss as we were. “A lot of rituals demand something like that. That or a particular set of circumstances, like the celestial alignment of the suns with the planet or a full moon. Who knows.”
“Should we take a look?” I asked, fidgeting slightly. “I mean... even if we get knocked out again, we would at least know what is going on.”
“I will take a look and wake you if there is an opportunity for that,” Luna said while lighting up her horn. Celestia interrupted her spellcasting by placing a hoof on her horn, though.
Celestia let out a light growl, giving her a scowl. “You won’t leave us here alone, Luna,” she said, her wings extended in an authoritative way. “I won’t let you put yourself in danger, wake me up instead.”
“But it is okay for you to put yourself in danger?! Hmph. How very Celestia of you,” Luna snorted, angry at her. My sister crossed her forelegs in front of herself and I couldn't help but agree with her. It was very 'Celestia' of her (as strange as it was to sum it up like that, it fit her to a tee). "Why can’t you simply trust me for once to get things done by myself?”
“Sister, I don’t doubt your ability to succeed with this mission,” Tia whispered gently. “I just... I can’t live with myself if something were to happen to you, okay? Besides, I’m better at magic, I might be able to do something to help our escape.”
I fidgeted slightly as I raised a hesitant hoof, drawing their attention to me. “Why can’t we just all wake up?” I argued, thinking this was the perfect middle ground to their argument. “We aren’t entirely useless with our own magic, sister.”
“Summer,” Celestia groaned, dragging a hoof down her muzzle. “It is safer this way. If all of us...”
I snorted. “No, Tia,” I shot back, stopping her before she could get further in her argument. She looked mildly surprised for a moment that I was arguing back against her, but her expression changed slowly to that of a reluctant acceptance. “In a group, we are stronger. What if they decide to kill you instead, huh? They would still have two other alicorns to corrupt, after all. I won't sit idly by while you risk your life like that. Together we are able to accomplish things we wouldn’t be able to do alone. Please.”
“I think Summer is right,” Luna said and I gave her a grateful if hesitant smile. I was only so brave, I still felt like I was afraid something might happen to one of us, but I would soldier on if it meant helping us escape from wherever they took us. “Besides, three ponies are better in a fight than only one.”
“Fine...” Celestia sighed. “Wake us up, Luna. If anything happens, I’ll blame you, Summer.”
My sister nodded before she lit up her horn again (this time without any interruptions) and soon, we saw our surroundings fade away as my consciousness slipped away from the dream realm and we began to wake up.
With a nervously hammering heart, I blinked my eyes open, only to find my vision tinted in a light blue. And I was floating above the ground, something I definitely didn’t expect to see. Turning my head, I saw Starswirl and my chest leaped in joy at seeing him again, alive and well.
“Starswirl!” I exclaimed with relief. “You’re okay!”
“Princess Summer? I didn’t expect to see you wake so soon,” he said, looking up at me and he turned his head towards where my sisters were floating next to me as we all looked at him with relief and a bit of confusion. “Ah, I see your sisters are also awake. I was about to leave you in your rooms here in Canterlot.”
“Yes, well...” I mumbled. “We decided to risk taking a look at what was going on in the waking world, thinking we could escape somehow...”
Starswirl chuckled at that. “As you can see, you’re perfectly safe. No need to worry,” he reassured us, setting us down on the ground. “The only thing that matters is that you three are safe.”
I gave my regalia a confused glance as he set me down, seeing that it resembled the one I wore as Fallen Star instead. Celestia and Luna were also wearing a similar version of their own regalia. Although, just like mine, they looked less imposing and more like what we could have worn were our craftsponies going with a different, and slightly more imposing, look. Celestia didn’t have the wing guards, though.
“How did you get back, Starswirl? The mirror shattered right in front of our eyes!” Tia asked, deciding to ignore the weirdness of the change with our regalia. I hope we can turn them back into our regular versions, I rather got used to the soft look mine had. That, and I like my tiara a lot more.
“My dear Princess, I’m a dimensional traveler, I don’t need a fancy mirror to go to another universe I am well familiar with,” he explained, stroking his beard. “I’m sorry I failed you three, I should have been there to protect you.”
“You don’t have to be sorry, Starswirl,” I said gently. “We should be the ones apologizing, we were unable to keep ourselves safe and because of us, you were sent through that mirror in the first place. I guess we do need to be coddled if we can’t take care of ourselves...”
“Nonsense,” Starswirl shot back. “You have nothing to be sorry for, the fault lies with me. Perhaps I have been too hard on you three, after all. My experiments with dimensional travel attracted that fiend to you in the first place, causing this mess through my own folly. You were right to berate me for going through with the portal experiment on a larger scale.”
“Fiend?” Luna asked in confusion. “But there was more than one of those shadow creatures.”
“Those were only servants of the one behind your foalnapping, Princess,” Starswirl said, sighing heavily. “The one behind this was... a truly vile being. He knew the versions of me and my colleagues from his own world, though I have to wonder why he didn’t recognize Stygian...”
My sister perked up at the unfamiliar name. “Is Stygian the one that brought you and your friends together?” Celestia inquired, interested to learn more about who those other ponies were that our mentor was ‘not-friends’ with. He wasn’t kidding anypony by pretending they were merely his colleagues. Sometimes, he was way too professional for his own good.
“Yes,” he simply said, much to the displeasure of my sisters and myself. I pouted, disappointed that he wasn’t at all forthcoming with details about our saviors. The cryptic stallion never outright gave us all the answers we wanted and it was extremely frustrating.
Well, at least we were safe and could go back to our (now happily married) lives, even if it might get boring from time to time dealing with all of the grievances our ponies brought to our attention.
Starswirl told us that only a few of the mirror portals survived and that he had them moved to a more secure location. He was rethinking his approach to creating gateways between realities, wanting to put a lot more wards on them in order to ensure nothing with malicious intentions could cross over. At least, not without major difficulties. Stuff like severely limiting their access to power if they wanted to use it for ill reasons. Even an eldritch horror from the Beyond would have to abide by those rules (not that they were on the list of creatures permitted entry for very good reasons).
Tia, Lulu, and I had our first real vacation since getting reborn, enjoying the beach for a few weeks partly to relax after our little crisis was over and to have our honeymoon.
There was sex. A lot of sex. And I mean a lot of sex. Like... really wild sex, gentle sex, angry sex, slow sex, kinky sex, painful sex, weird sex, and so on and so forth. The list goes on for quite a while, trust me. Suffice it to say, we didn’t actually see a lot of the little town we were at, either staying in our bedroom or at the beach. Sometimes we didn’t even care to return to our inn in favor of snuggling on a low-hanging cloud. Or have sex at the beach. Or on a cloud. Or in the clear, warm water. Or any other place we could think of. Like pretty much everywhere except other ponies' homes. That would be rude.
Ahem! Anyway, there was a ton of sex involved and I'd rather not get into the details (that's something private between Tia, Lulu, and me, thank you very much). All I will say about it is that I was quite sore afterward, struggling with walking straight for weeks after my sisters had their way with my very needy and very, very wet pussy.
Luna and I also made three necklaces with our feathers, Celestia having both mine and Lulu’s. She enchanted them so thoroughly that I’m sure we could drop them into a volcano and not worry about them getting destroyed. Sadly, we couldn’t actually wear them out in public because that would basically give away that we had formed a herd with each other. Just like we couldn’t also wear our rings, but it was still nice to have something representing our bond.
It was a very nice honeymoon and I’m sure I won’t ever forget the things we got up to. But, all nice things sadly have to go back to boring, eventually. Okay, sure, the things we usually have to deal with weren’t 'that' boring. I actually enjoy helping our ponies out, so there's that. There was a certain monotony to it, though. And a lot of stress, having to keep up that smile constantly.
Always that damn smile, day in and day out. Sometimes I fear I will have that smile permanently etched on my muzzle. It was better to smile away the entire day, though, some of our ponies were just searching for an excuse to make Luna and I secondary princesses to our big sister.
Apparently, Celestia was seen as the wisest and most beautiful among us because she was marginally older than me and had such a colorful mane. I have no idea why it was like this, but the more colorful the mane, the more beautiful a pony was and those snobs were suckers for that.
I mean... they were kinda right with how beautiful my twin is, but the rest they kept going on about? It’s like we’re constantly dealing with little foals.
There was a reason behind that line of thinking and I was hating Princess Bitchface for it. The manipulative former princess was trying her best to cause a rift between me and my sisters by trying to make Tia the most loved one among us. It was a weird revenge scheme on her part and our spies were noticing her getting more agitated by the fact that it wasn’t working (honestly, what did she expect?).
The only thing that that prissy bitch was doing was feeding the ego of my twin, something that was only a mild annoyance to Luna and me. As always, though, our agents couldn’t learn more than the current mood of Platinum. That pony was way too cautious for my tastes and I definitely knew she was concocting another plan to destroy our bond.
It was just a feeling I had, to be honest. There wasn’t any concrete evidence that she was plotting an evil plan to take over Equestria or anything, so I couldn’t simply throw her into the dungeons for conspiring against the crown. I really wanted to, though, despite me usually offering everypony a second chance.
Well, third-to-nth chance with Platinum, actually. I’m sure she had done a lot of screwed-up things before and since the founding of Equestria that would have landed her the death sentence back on Earth (multiple times over, I'm sure). The least I would offer her with my kindness was a nice prison cell, at most. I might still resent her for taking our mother away. It might have been unknowingly so, but still.
At least the monotony was broken by the occasional visit of Private Pansy, Smart Cookie, Clover the Clever, and Puddinghead. While the wacky stallion has done quite a lot of good over the past few years, I certainly didn’t enjoy all of the pranks he committed with Luna. Well... I guess some of them did manage to make me smile genuinely.
Fortunately, they didn’t ruin my tea time with Pansy. Or cause trouble for my animal friends in my private garden. Celestia was the prime target of my sister and Puddinghead, making me the mediator between them when they managed to piss her off a bit too much.
At least they didn’t overdo it. Tia forgave them pretty fast each time they targeted her with their ridiculous pranks. Well, not before I actually managed to calm her down. I swear the mortar of our castle won’t last for long if she kept up that volume while berating our little sister. I know the servants were tired of it, already. And the ponies that have to bring in new windows for our castle every few weeks, I suppose.
I have no idea how many of those we already went through after they shattered due to their little shouting matches. I have no doubt the glazier in Canterlot is rich by now. Or suffocating in despair at the sheer workload, I guess. Poor stallion.
It still baffles me that ponies have such commodities as glass but are just starting to discover proper plumbing and heating. What’s up with that, anyway? I mean, my sisters and I are trying our best to introduce modern commodities like that to our ponies with our limited knowledge from Earth (that we could recall), but it was just... mind-blowing what sort of things our ponies prioritized sometimes.
Windows were nice, don’t get me wrong, but so was sanitization. If we didn’t literally have a hoof in the creation of our castle, we would be no better off than the rest of our nation, I swear. Living without having at least a private bath to yourself... I shudder to think of such a reality. Though I do miss a good showerhead with some decent water pressure...
Besides the pranks, there were a lot more things that had my sisters get closer together (I have absolutely no idea how they could call their shouting matches ‘bonding time’). Luna made a whole room for us filled with memory balls and she painted a few portraits of Celestia, herself, and myself. Then she also made some of Pansy, Smart Cookie, Clover, and Starswirl. I think it was more for her peace of mind, wanting something to remember them by once they... died.
I’m not looking forward to the day I’m sitting at the deathbed of my dear friends when they give their last breath. Starswirl wouldn’t actually need to die, he could choose his own time of death with that cheat spell of his, but I’m not sure he would stay with us for thousands of years. Nor would I be so selfish to ask that of him.
Of course, Luna also made a portrait of Puddinghead because that pony insisted on it so much that he begged Tia and me so that we would, in turn, convince Luna to make him a portrait. He was happy with the result, thankfully stopping the annoyance that was his behavior when he wanted something.
I swear, how anypony ever elected him to lead the earthponies is a mystery to me...
Anyway, as the twentieth anniversary day of us taking up the duty of ushering the suns and moon across the heavens arrived, Starswirl wanted to take us on another adventure through dimensions.
“Let’s hope nothing bad happens this time around,” I sighed, trudging after the eccentric stallion with no enthusiasm at all. Luna snorted, trying to suppress her giggles and Tia was grinning so wide at the prospect of an adventure without monsters snatching us away, that she was starting to skip gleefully next to us.
Fat chance of that happening...
“Oh, where I’m taking you still has the odd few monsters, but we won’t be seeing any of those, my dear Princess,” Starswirl chuckled. “Perhaps you remember me talking about him before, he is the other wizard with a penchant for dimensional travel. He was the one that helped me learn more about the intricacies of moving through the Space that Separates.”
“Seriously?!” Celestia asked, bouncing slightly in her steps, giddy. I gave her a look and shook my head with a subdued smile. Of course, she was all for meeting a powerful wizard from another world. “What’s he like? Is he as old as you? How powerful is he? What’s his name? Or his title? He is an archmage, right? He must be, you rarely talk with such reverence about anypony else. Is he hot~? I see how it is.”
Starswirl rolled his eyes at her comment implying he had a thing with this other wizard. “Nonsense, Princess Celestia,” Starswirl admonished her with a scoff, though I could see a slight wobble in his step. He didn't let that deter him as he led us through a door further into his secret lair within Mount Canterhorn.
Who knows, maybe he does have a thing for other mages (he does flirt with Miss Lulamoon from time to time in his own awkward way). Ah, well... I guess it will remain a mystery to us. All thoughts along that line were put on hold as he walked towards the last door that I knew led to a previously (relatively) empty storage room, so that must be where he put the mirror we would go through today.
As we entered the room, we saw an old stallion sitting beside a rather large mirror, staring at his hooves with an odd amount of happiness. Starswirl smiled brightly as he beheld the stallion. “Ah, you are already here! Great!”
“Starswirl, old friend!” the mysterious pony said, standing up on wobbly legs. “I have to say, your world is quite fascinating! Sentient ponies, I’d never have guessed that! My word!"
I raised a confused brow at that statement. The pony in front of us had a light blue coat of fur, his mane was as white as it could possibly get. He was wearing some weird dress robe thingy and had a rather long staff with a carving of a bird on top leaning behind him next to the mirror. The odd thing about him, though, was the fact that he was an earthpony. Also, there was an otherworldly golden glow in his eyes. It was subtle and already gone a moment later. If I had blinked, I would have missed it.
“Thank you for the compliment, but I have to say that your homeworld is by far more interesting,” Starswirl commented. “Such a large variety in species, it is simply astounding, my friend.”
“So, I take it that these three are the ones you told me about?” the (probably not) pony asked and our mentor gave a nod. “My, my! They truly are a marvelous sight. You were not joking about the raw power they exude, I can practically feel it down to my very bones! How does their hair do that, though?”
“Are they going to continue this conversation without us?” Luna whispered to Celestia and me. I shrugged, smiling in confusion as I sat there without a clue as to what the flying pancake was going on. Well, obviously they were comparing things between our worlds, but this wasn’t really how I expected an archmage from another world to behave. Or look, for that matter. Such strange, ill-fitting clothing.
“The most I can tell you about that is that their manes are overflowing with mana,” Starswirl shrugged and I began to wonder about that myself. I never really put much thought into how our manes were doing that, either. It was just another part of ourselves, I guess. Well, technically our manes started flowing in the ethereal breeze after we started raising and lowering the suns and the moon, but if it was because of that or an overflow of mana, I couldn’t tell. If we actually wanted to, we could make it stop flowing in the ethereal breeze, but I rather liked it that way. “Well, my friend, let me introduce you to my wonderful students. This one here with the twinkling lights in her mane is Princess Luna, the youngest of the three. Next to her with the red mane is Princess Summer and her twin is Princess Celestia.”
“You didn’t tell me they were royalty, old friend!” Starswirl’s friend exclaimed and gave each of us a respectful nod. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Your Highnesses. My name is Khadgar, Archmage of the Kirin Tor of Dalaran.”
“Kirin Tor?” I asked, rolling the words over my tongue intrigued. “Is that like the Mage Order raising and lowering the suns and moon in your world?”
“Raising the sun?” Khadgar asked flabbergasted and I felt a little awkward for forgetting that it wasn’t the norm, but rather the exception. How silly of me. “Your universe is even more interesting than I was led to believe, Starswirl! You left quite a bit out of your explanation of your homeworld, my friend.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Celestia grumbled. “He likes to be the wise and cryptic wizard, driving me and my sisters insane in the process.”
“Ah, I know the type,” Khadgar chuckled and I got the impression he was talking about somepony he knew a long time ago, possibly even his own mentor. “Now then, we have a few hours and while I would love to explore this world, I’m sure you’d rather experience Azeroth instead.”
“Azeroth?” I mumbled, the word sounding a bit weird on my tongue. It does sound very fantasy-esque. “That is an... interesting name for a planet.”
“It is better than Outland, I have to say,” Khadgar said and I had to wonder how that world got such a name. “Shall we then?”
Taking a deep breath, my sisters and I nodded. I ignored the mischievous smile on Starswirl’s muzzle as he followed Khadgar through the portal in the mirror. With a shrug back to my sisters, I took a step forward and instantly regretted the decision to not screw my eyes as tightly shut as I could before doing so. I tried my best not to throw up into my mouth because of the weird pulling and stretching sensation as I traveled through the Void in Between. Or rather, the sparkly-rainbow-vomit stretchy place from hell.
I moaned pathetically as I slumped to the floor on the other side, whining as my whole body disagreed with me. By the twin suns, everything felt weird and wrong. That mirror was definitely worse than the previous ones before it. Whatever Starswirl had enchanted it with, I didn’t like it. The breath was knocked out of me as my sisters stumbled out of the portal after me, landing rather painfully on top of me. My only saving grace was that I seemed to have rolled onto my back.
As my brain caught up with me, though, I felt a distinct difference from how I previously felt. Or to be more specific, the lack of something. My heart stopped as I couldn’t feel my wings and panic started to set in. Also, my hooves felt incredibly strange and when I blinked my eyes open, I had to immediately shut them again as everything spun around me. With a cautious breathing technique (read: everything but hyperventilating) I slowly tried to clear my vision enough of the nausea plaguing me.
The next time I opened my eyes, I let out a startled yelp as I noticed what had become of me and my dazed sisters. I blew a red strand of hair out of my face, mildly disturbed that it wasn’t automatically flowing in the ethereal breeze. Luna and Celestia were similarly affected, it seems. I stared dumbly at the appendages that had previously been my front hooves and I wiggled the little digits I didn’t have for the last half of my life.
Wow. Did they always look so weird? No matter how I turned them, all I could think of was my twin making pervy, grabbing motions at me with them. Of all the times to get flashbacks...
“Sister..?” the voice of my twin reached my decidedly less large ears that felt like they were in the wrong position on my head. “Is that you?”
“Y-yeah,” I breathed out, trying to not lose my composure. I blushed as she poked the large teats on my chest, fondling me in her stupor. I felt a little weirded out by their sheer size that I thought for a moment I must be pregnant. Well, actually, they weren’t that large according to my rather limited recollection of human females, but to my panicking mind, they sure felt like they were humongous. And Tia was grabbing them a bit too forcefully, too. So much for flashbacks...
My teats felt kind of stiff and squishy at the same time and I didn’t like it. Not one bit. Everypony is going to think I was with foal and the questions that would follow would surely expose my relationship with my sisters. I would forever be labeled a sis-con princess and...
My sister sat up on top of me and I noticed her teats were just as large as mine and there was no huge, bloated belly announcing either of us was pregnant with Luna's child. I blinked, momentarily confused. Right, they were like this by default on human females even without them being pregnant.
For some reason, that disappointed me as much as it relieved me.
What was I thinking? Bad Summer! Stop thinking about foals and big, pregnant bellies! That's incest! I mean... even worse incest. Think about the child that would have to grow up with that stigma! You don't want that!
"Hey," Tia poked my boob again and I rubbed the spot, giving her a pouty glare. "What are you thinking so intensely about? Is it how gorgeous I look in a mermaid dress? The feathers are a nice touch, though Luna is totally rocking that goth princess look. Mhhn, those legs~..."
After my twin made her obligatory pervy statement, I looked over at my little sister. Sure enough, I saw her currently sitting on the ground like she would have as a pony, wiggling her fingers around with a giggle. She was wearing a rather interesting dress that would look way too indecent on a real Victorian princess. I had no idea how she could even breathe with that corset on, but that wasn't even the only 'comfortable' looking thing on her, either. Her shoes had what looked like five-inch heels and looked rather short on her no doubt cramped toes. The choker around her neck looked kinda really cute, though.
Both of their dresses had a Carmen neckline, and Luna's had, unlike Tia's feather-like straps, transparent black puff sleeves. The gown itself was a lighter blue than her coat (probably the exact same color before her appearance changed to her more mature one) and barely reached her thighs. The corset was the same color as her coat and seemed to have a slight push-up effect for her... ahem, 'chest'. At her waist was a large brooch(?) of a crescent moon and the fabric transitioned over to a short, wavy train behind her, turning into a plum-purple color at the end.
More interesting was her hair, though. It was just as wild as her black mop of hair had been like when she was Rebecca, though it was more wavy than chaotic and unkempt. But that wasn't really what caught my eye. No, my sister had light purple strands of hair between some of her locks of sparkling night sky. It framed her face nicely and the slight makeup she wore gave her eyes and lips that bit of accentuation to make them pop.
Tia's skin (and thus my own) was a very pale porcelain one in contrast to Luna's tan one. The pure white dress she wore was very form-fitting from what I could see and on her waist was a golden chain with a sun pendant hanging from it. Around her neck was a familiar necklace with a large purple gemstone and a smaller one to each side of it, pointing directly down into the valley of her actually modest breasts (looks like Luna won in that department). Her hair was just as voluminous as her mane, and while still wavy, nowhere near the wild hair of our sister. The mermaid part of her dress subtly mirrored the colors of her mane, creating the effect as if she still had her tail.
I was thrown out of my musings as Khadgar helped my sister off of me and onto her feet (at least I assumed it was Khadgar since he wore those funny-looking clothes) and I noticed the golden slippers surrounded by the colorful mermaid end of her dress. I'm unsure how tall they were, but it seemed the heels might be on par with Luna's shoes. I had no idea how she could even stand on those.
A hand entered my vision next and I looked up at an old man with a long white beard and a pointy hat with bells. “Need help?”
I stared at what Starswirl looked like as a human and had to admit he looked every bit the fantasy wizard with the kind eyes and all-knowing, grandfatherly smile. Hesitantly, I looked down at myself and where my shoes were, finding similar ones to my sisters with blocky heels on them. Unlike theirs, though, mine were also plateau shoes (the universe clearly hates me). Thankfully, they were nowhere near high enough that I felt like I would be walking around on stilts like a circus clown.
That doesn't mean I wanted to walk on them, though.
Sighing, I let Starswirl help me up as I took his hand in mine (after trying a few times to refamiliarize myself with moving my fingers correctly). He helped me keep standing in an upright position on my shaking legs and I was glad I didn't tilt immediately over and fell on him. That would have been awkward...
And oh, boy... this was so weird, standing on two legs again. I almost lost my balance a few times as I watched Khadgar help my twin take a few steps while Celestia struggled with equally wonky legs but she at least got the hang of it relatively fast while I had to cling on to Starswirl.
Sighing, I looked down at myself again and felt ridiculous. My dress was the complete opposite of me and resembled witches’ clothing more than anything. Very indecent witches’ clothing, at that.
The chest bit was the only remotely 'normal' looking part, having a burgundy corset underpart with a black 'wrap' around the sides. On my waist was a loose-hanging golden strip of scarf-like cloth on each side of my thigh, connected at the front and back so that it would move alluringly each time I would take a step. Past that, I was wearing a half skirt that did nothing to leave anything to the imagination. It was predominantly black, but halfway down, it changed to orange-golden feathers. The worst part about it, though? I, uhm... I was, uh...
I was wearing hot pants and patterned tights, okay?! The stupid things were totally transparent, too. I blushed deeply as Tia ogled my exposed legs and I tried to tug my tights up as best as I could to hide the exposed flesh from sight, only to yelp as I almost lost my balance. I would have tried my half skirt next (or suns forbid, my hot pants), but... it wouldn't have helped me any, seeing that the stupid thing had little to no wiggle room on that front.
Much like my sisters' dresses, mine also had a Carmen neckline but also not? It had additional straps that held it in place around my neck while two bangles with golden red feathers created that typical Carmen neckline. At my waist was also a pin in the form of my Cutie Mark that held the golden strip of cloth in place (though only one side of these had my Cutie Mark on them, the other went without). To be honest, if the hot pants and tights didn't expose so much of my thigh, it might have looked very sorceress-like (I was missing my pointy hat, sadly).
Ugh, anyway. My hair was similar to Tia's in that it was quite voluminous. Unlike her, though, it covered more of my face, just like I liked it (totally not so I could hide more easily in it... ah hah hah, nope). I also wore a necklace, although it was more like a pendant with my deep red gem hanging down from it, right over my chest. The only thing my sisters didn't have were the gloves going halfway up my lower arms. They seemed nice enough, so I didn't think much of them.
By the twin suns, I look like a slutty sorceress slash witch. It did have that 'phoenix princess' vibe going for it, but that's about it. Even Luna looked more decent than I, and her legs were completely exposed as it is! No wonder Tia was already salivating at the mere sight of me.
It felt weird to be covered by so much fabric, and yet, so little. I honestly preferred my regalia over this, it didn’t feel as... restricting? No, that's not the right word for it. Hmm. It was more like my regalia covered less than my stupid get-up. I wasn't even sure I could describe this as a dress. And for some reason, I was the one that had to wear this thing instead of Tia? Why?! It was right up her alley, not mine!
Haah. Clothes were such a hassle. The first opportunity I get, I'll get rid of them. Besides, why was I even wearing anything, in the first place? I swear, clothes were next to useless aside from in the winter months, and even then, ponies had fur covering them all over their bodies, so it wasn’t like we needed them that much. Not like humans would, anyway. Which I now was... yay. Stupid mirror. As a pony, all our private parts weren’t really on display all the time, so there wasn’t even any reason to cover our genitals with clothing. It honestly was just... inconvenient. That's the word I was looking for.
Ugh. It's of no use. Might as well get used to it while I am here. Besides, complaining won't change anything, anyway. And it isn’t so bad, right? It had the added effect of making my twin go gaga over me, so there was that. I'll take all the blessings I can get.
Once I got used to walking on these stupid plateau shoes (they were surprisingly more steady than I gave them credit for, the only problem being the uncomfortable way I had to support most of my weight on my upper foot and toes while making sure not to step on my heels at a wrong angle), I looked over to Luna. I had to suppress a groan as she was holding the fabric of her dress in a way that allowed her to look at her chest. She had larger teats now than she had as Rebecca and I could tell that she felt somewhat prideful as she stared at them with a little satisfied grin. I never understood how anypony could take pride in their ‘size’ before and I still felt confused about it.
Meanwhile, my twin was looking around at the quite large room we were standing in and I followed her gaze, too ashamed of my sister to pay her more attention than she clearly desired. And here I thought she blamed us for being perverts, the hypocrite...
Thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of thick tomes and books, as well as a sizable amount of scrolls, artifacts, tools, and the like, littered the ground and numerous bookshelves around us. “Where are we?” I asked, astonished at the sight before me. A broom wandered past my vision and I was thrown back to that old Disney movie, a memory almost forgotten resurfacing. I let out a ‘D’aww!’ at the sight as it continued on with cleaning the floor of any dirt or grime it could find. A futile task if there ever was one.
I want one of my own.
“This is the grand library of Karazhan,” Khadgar answered. “More knowledge has been lost in here than it has been written down in books since the tower had been built.”
“Is this your home?” I asked, feeling a little bit jealous that he had such a mystical place all to his own. I mean, it was kinda creepy and dark, but still. A few flowers here and there and it would look positively gorgeous.
“No, I’m not living here. Too many... bad memories,” Khadgar said, scratching his jaw a little bit and I felt bad for asking. I should've guessed since it was so chaotic and unruly. I wouldn't want to live here, either. “And it isn’t the most hospitable place to reside in, I must tell you. The tower has a little problem with... realities bending inside and out. Many bad things have happened here and the ghosts of the past continue to haunt this place.”
“I understand,” I mumbled. I certainly wouldn’t want to live in a place that could, at any time, be host to an eldritch horror because the place wasn’t entirely stable in the dimensional senses. Or that was haunted, for that matter.
I watched, a bit startled, as a gaseous creature popped into existence from a sparkling blue cloud and offered the archmage an envelope with a fancy seal on it. Khadgar took the letter from the interesting creature (I had to wonder if it even was a living being, to begin with) and opened it with a practiced motion.
“Hmm...” Khadgar hummed. “This seems... bad... Very much so, even... might have to...”
“Is something the matter, my friend?” Starswirl asked, walking over to him with the assistance of his own staff. Khadgar looked up from his letter with a frown, starting to pace back and forth a little.
“A dear friend of mine, Katy Stampwhistle, has just informed me that there seems to be a problem developing in the Blasted Lands,” Khadgar informed us, his concern heavy in his tone. “The Dark Portal has changed in color once more...”
“The Dark Portal?” I whispered, grimacing slightly in worry. “Sounds ominous.”
“Very much so,” Khadgar nodded grimly. He folded the letter he received and stowed it away in a large pocket of his mantle(?). I'm still not sure what to classify his garb as, it looked kind of like... gambeson? But also like a wizard's robe. A wizard's robe that was made with swords in mind. It even had tiny, metallic plates that looked like dragon scales. The leather was probably also from some kind of beast. “Previously, the portal was green, leading to Outland on the other side, a twisted landscape of a ruined world. If what she says is true, then whatever lies behind that red portal is grave news indeed.”
“Why?” Luna asked, slightly wobbling her way over to me. At least she had the same problems with those stupid shoes as I did. “What could possibly be on the other side that causes so much concern?”
“Draenor,” Khadgar answered darkly. His look turned slightly haunted as he stared into the distance. “Before the Burning Legion destroyed it, Outland was a primal land only the strongest and fittest survived in. That land of danger and beauty holds many mysteries and was called Draenor by the natives, consisting of different orc clans.”
“Orc clans?” Celestia inquired, very much reminded of what fantasy stories made those out to be. “So, does that mean you won’t be able to show us around, then? In that case, let us help you!”
I blinked and Khadgar wasn't that far off from my own reaction, either. “Help?” he asked, taken off-guard. “I couldn’t possibly drag you into problems you have no part in. It would be safer if you stay in one of the major cities or go back to yours. I can’t ask you to fight when you are unfamiliar with your own bodies, Your Highnesses.”
Celestia shot him a displeased frown at that. “I’m not going to stand idly by while a friend is in need of assistance,” my twin argued back fiercely. “Besides, I’m sure with our power, we will be a force to be reckoned with.”
Khadgar sighed. “Of that, I have no doubt,” he said, looking over to Starswirl for help before continuing his side of the argument as our mentor merely gave him a cryptic smile. I suppose Khadgar wasn't exempt from our teacher's antics. “You can’t abandon your own realm, Your Highness. From what I understand, you are responsible for the daylight cycle in your world? I can’t have you be gone from a duty like that by allowing you to fight in a war. Many heroes have fallen against the brutality of the orcs and their warchiefs.”
“I can reassure you on that part, my friend,” Starswirl said, stroking his beard. “The first time I visited Azeroth, I noticed a rather peculiar difference between how much time passed here and back in Equestria. And if you fear they won’t be able to hold their weight in a fight... I’d like to give them the chance to prove themselves. A test, if you will.”
“See, no need to worry! We'll show those orcs not to mess with ponies!” Celestia smiled. Then she looked a bit confused. “How much time are we talking about here, Starswirl?”
“About a day for an hour,” he told us and I gave him a disbelieving stare. A whole day? “That is, a day here equates to about an hour back home. The most we can stay here is about nine or ten days. Don’t make me regret this decision, Princesses.”
Khadgar massaged his temple with a sigh, his grip tightening around the staff in his right hand. “I would still rest easier knowing you won’t be putting yourselves in unnecessary danger,” he pleaded with us and I tucked at my twin's dress. Celestia gave me a look to which I shrugged helplessly. We held a silent conversation about what we should do.
“Fine, let us compromise,” Celestia grunted, a sour look on her face. “We will look at the situation and listen to everything you say, even if you give us the order to retreat.”
The mage chuckled at that. “You are one stubborn woman,” he said, shaking his head with equal amounts of amusement and reluctant acceptance. “Although, I think I can agree to that. But I have one condition for you all, one that is as much for you as it is for them, Starswirl. Under no circumstance will you go through the Dark Portal, even if I am going through it.”
“But...” Luna muttered, only for him to silence her by holding up a hand.
“No,” he said, frowning sternly at us. “There is a good chance that I will have to close the portal on the other side. I can’t guarantee that I can open a way back to your home from there, so please, listen to my words for they are only for your own wellbeing.”
My sisters agreed reluctantly to his demand and I was thankful that Starswirl was pretty much thinking along the lines of Khadgar, wanting to keep us safe under all circumstances.
Then, Khadgar literally ripped open space with his powerful magic, making the hair on my body tingle in a fascinating way, creating a shimmering portal right in front of us. He tapped his staff on the ground and much to our surprise, he transformed into a raven as he flew through the portal.
As we stepped out on the other side, we found ourselves standing in a desolate land, dark and gloomy clouds rumbling up above. I looked around in horror as the very life of the land seemed completely gone from the cracked reddish dirt we stood on, various scavenging animals keeping their distance from us.
What caused us more concern, though, was the massive portal that stood in a gigantic crater in the distance. It wasn’t the sinister red color that gave me shivers, though. No... It was the enormous army pouring out from it, clad in dark grey (almost black) metal armor, bringing forth all manners of war machinery with them that I had never seen before. Half of the things they were bringing through the portal I couldn’t even guess at what their purpose might be.
And in between their army and us were the defenders of Azeroth as they fought them back as best as they could. My stomach did a few queasy flips as I beheld the carnage in front of my eyes. It was so... visceral and ruthless. They didn't care as their comrades died right by their side, fighting next to corpses of the fallen as if it were nothing. This... this wasn’t right. How could they care so little about their brothers and sisters in arms? How could they so callously throw away their own lives? Both sides struggled furiously against each other, killing life after life without pause.
Among the ones defending against the invading force, I saw various different races all working together. What looked like werewolves stood beside what looked to me like bulky minotaurs. Then there also were honest-to-goodness elves, one was a darker variant than the other. Those could only be high elves as they had a more golden color to them while the others had to be dark elves (or something similar along those lines, I suppose).
While the invading orcs had a dark brownish skin color, sometimes grayish even, among the defenders were also orcs fighting against their kin invading Azeroth. Those had either vibrant or sickly green-colored skin, though. It broke my heart to see them kill each other with such blatant hatred and ferocity.
Celestia and Luna looked just as horrified as I felt. I wish we had taken the out Khadgar offered us by rather going to one of their cities for sightseeing purposes and whatnot, but I also couldn’t ignore so much suffering, either. I had no idea what their motives were for invading this world with such an excessive force of soldiers and war machinery, but what I did know was that we had to put a stop to this madness, no matter what.
Even if that meant... taking their lives.
Was I... was I ready for such a task, though? I wanted to try and appeal to their senses, naïve as that was, ask them to stop... but would they heed those words? They were obviously here for war and I knew what that meant. War was never something to seek out and all I wanted was to go back. Pray this was a mere nightmare and wake up. But this sadly was no dream.
I had to make a choice here. Help or flee. Bravery or cowardice.
It would be so easy to choose the option I was most comfortable with, but then so many innocent lives would be lost if they broke through the line of defense here. I would never forgive myself if I were to let that happen. I had to be stronger than that. Judging by how my twin steeled herself for what was to come, she thought similarly to me. Her loyalty had been extended to Khadgar and all those he called friends and there was no way she would sit idly by.
Power flooded the area around my sisters as their eyes lit up with a brilliant white light and I let loose on my own suppression of my magical might, glad that Starswirl wasn’t anywhere near us anymore so that our fiery aura couldn’t hurt him. Around Luna, a misty fog appeared while the air around Tia and me began to shimmer with heat.
I called out to my sword, bringing it forth across dimensions in a fiery flash of flames and I glared out at the invaders. They were bringing with them war and carnage for what could only be selfish reasons and I’m not going to allow them to continue like that.
War means the willingness to fight and die for what you believe in, to give no ground to the enemy. Those orcs were clearly prepared for that, and from the looks of it, they were only here for conquest and bloodshed. A despicable goal. They were soldiers willing to die for their world and their leader, and I treated them like the invaders that they were.
There was a time for kindness and generosity, and then there was a time to take up action to ensure the loss of life was kept at a minimum. I wanted to show them mercy despite their foolish actions, although I doubted they would lay down their weapons and accept a peaceful solution. I would try my best to offer mercy, I swore that to myself, but it was the only thing I could do. One offer. A single offer of mercy and that's it. They will either accept it or face the consequences.
I silently gave my apologies to those that would find their deaths at the end of my sister's blades. For they would do no such thing. They were here to fight for one side and one side only. It was harsh, but so were our enemies.
In the end, I wasn’t so naïve to think that trying to only subdue them would lead to an end of their invasion, even if I wanted it to be so. No, those orcs here were on behalf of their leaders' orders. They were willingly following the commands of some megalomaniac hell-bent on conquering this world and I bet he or she wasn’t even on this side of the portal to lead their army. The only hope I had for them, a dwindling hope that I desperately clung on to, was that they would have a change of heart.
Something that would probably never happen, sadly.
Most of them didn’t seem to want to surrender, and I feared they had some notion of superiority that didn’t allow them to seek out a peaceful solution. As I moved around the battlefield (in a slutty dress, no less), I saw some of the orcs had deliberately crippled their arms. That could only be a deliberate act because I saw way too many of those orcs with missing forearms, having replaced them with blades that looked cruelly jagged and hooked, sharpened to rend, not cut.
What could cause a being like these orcs to go to such lengths? They couldn’t have just done that to gain an advantage in battle, right? No creature would purposefully cripple themselves like that. It almost seemed like a religious ritual they had to go through to earn their spot in the clan. And there was no doubt in me that they must have been from the same clan, somehow believing cutting off one’s arm was a strength that gave them an advantage.
Those orcs were one of my primary targets because I could at least reason with myself that such a commitment on their part meant that they had no qualms about hurting the innocent, even torturing them. After all, no being in existence would replace their arm with a weapon if they didn’t intend to use them for cruel reasons.
For every soul that died to my sword, I despaired. My sword found little resistance to their armor, cleanly cutting through even the thickest parts as if it were made out of butter. Had I not already emptied out my stomach during the first few minutes of the battle, I would have been throwing up all over the place as I found the blood splattering against me evaporating moments later.
That day, that damnable day... my weapon earned its name. It was my Remorse given form and for the first time? I hated the fact that I chose to give Starswirl that chance. To become a princess. This was a duty I never thought I would have to actually face.
"A fitting name..." A hint of a whisper spoke up from what I thought was behind me and I whirled around, startled and confused. For a moment, I thought an orc had snuck up on me despite my fiery aura burning everything around me, only for nothing to be there. I shook my head, my grief and despair getting to me. That must be it.
Leading the charge against Sombra had been different. We didn’t have to fight a war against him. It almost seemed like such a long time ago that he took away so much from us. From the world, really. The fight against Sombra seemed almost 'tame' in comparison to this. Even though he was one of the worst monsters ponykind had ever faced.
I tried begging with each one of them to lay down their weapons and preserve their lives by surrendering, but none of them did so. It was like they lived for the whole purpose of dying on a battlefield and I couldn’t fathom why anycreature would be like that. It was a massive culture shock to me, those orcs valuing bloodshed more than a peaceful co-existence.
It was like the antithesis of what ponies believed in and I hated it with a passion. I hated them with a passion and Remorse seemed to cut through their armor even easier than before as I admitted that to myself. And I hated that even more.
Celestia had fewer qualms about cutting down their numbers and using solar fire to eradicate entire groups at a time. She might have even relished in the fact that she was bringing their deaths in an act of divine punishment. Perhaps she was just cutting loose to vent out her frustrations that Khadgar had forbidden us from following him through the portal should he enter it.
Luna, on the other hand (it has been a very long time since I could say it like that), tried as hard as I was trying to get them to stop their senseless fighting. Not that she cared particularly much if they ended up dying from her attempts to subdue them. Frozen orcs were strewn about the battlefield here and there as she teleported to and fro, doing her best to not slip with her footing, a blizzard of ice and frost surrounding her.
Celestia was the only one that had adapted back to a humanoid form seemingly without problems. Although, I suspect she was using magic for that purpose. I was fortunate enough to only fall flat on my face a few times, getting back on my legs moments later, none the worse for wear. At least none of the orcs could take advantage of my bumbling around because the air around me was simply too hot for regular mortals to get close to me without burning themselves to death.
It put things into perspective for me, the inability of my foes to get anywhere near me, not when they had to fight the immense heat of my fiery aura. Hope had told me that only a being of equal or higher power could slay us for good. This was one such example that it was very much true for us now.
Normal mortals simply couldn’t do anything against us and I had no idea how to feel about it. It didn’t feel great to know that we were on a wholly different level than our enemies. But we couldn’t simply cut loose willy-nilly, we had to be mindful of our allies, lest they get in the crossfire. We had to be careful of our positioning to make sure we didn’t hurt the wrong side in this conflict.
Aside from my sisters and me, Starswirl was hard at work himself. He was near Khadgar with one of those green orcs and what looked like a weird bipedal... space... goat... thingy (it was hard to better describe them, they just looked so... alien). Both of those were swinging around large hammers, one with a larger shaft to make it a two-handed weapon, while Starswirl used his vast arsenal of spells to fight against the invading orcs. One of those spells was a bigger version of the vortex he used to fight against the shadowy creatures a while back.
I noticed a shimmering flare within the portal and watched as Khadgar proclaimed it as their chance to flip the war in their favor. The orc and the whatever-it-was made a push forward as Khadgar led a small elite force through the portal.[1]
Celestia was about to abandon her fight against the remaining orcs to break her promise to Khadgar, but I was there to stop her from doing anything foolish. She might have struggled for a moment or two in my grasp and I reminded her that we couldn’t risk it.
I’m sure that Khadgar would do his utmost to close the portal from the other side and we shouldn’t be caught there when he does. While I’m sure he could eventually make a portal back to Azeroth, the fact remained that the other side was most likely not only in a different dimension but also in a different timeline. There was no telling whether we could go back home anytime soon if we went with him, not to mention that we had absolutely no idea how many orcs would await us on the other side of the portal.
He had said that this Draenor place was a vastly different place before something that called itself the Burning Legion invaded it, turning it into Outland as they razed it of most (if not all) life. Well, there must have still been some life left, otherwise, it wouldn’t have become known as Outland later on.
Thankfully, Starswirl and Luna were still on this side, not having followed Khadgar through the portal, either. There weren’t many enemy orcs left here, so the rest of the defenders could take care of them easily enough, I'm sure. I just wish I didn’t have to do what I had to do today.
Maybe Starswirl was right and we weren’t ready for this part of our responsibility, yet. But leaving our soldiers (or those of our allies) to themselves felt even worse. If we could help, then shouldn’t we?
Taking a life was despicable, there was no doubt about that, and I certainly felt dirty for it. The memory of this day would forever haunt me, I know it. I mourned for the deceased, be they ally or enemy, as I put a leash back on my magic. Neither side of them should have had to lose a loved one on this day. Not by my hands.
I didn’t notice that after the majority of the fighting had stopped, Starswirl led my numb and haunted self over to a few mages holding a portal open. My sisters were no better off as he led us away from the Dark Portal and the... Blasted Lands they were called, right? Anyway, I looked around confused as I suddenly found myself in a different location. A much more civilized location.
Following Starswirl, he led us through a large street and I could see various shops left and right, tall white towers with purple spires, and even a few exotic creatures being used as mounts by the races of Azeroth as they went about their day (and what looked like griffons, funnily enough).
“You three have had a long day, I’m sure the council will be more than accommodating enough to spare us a few rooms,” Starswirl whispered, ushering us along and up a long flight of stairs that led to the biggest tower of this city. After our mentor mentioned the council, I assumed that we were in the city Khadgar spoke of, Dalaran.
“Do you still think it was a wise idea to have left him there?” Celestia muttered, hugging her arms close to herself. “What if he gets captured or something? We can’t abandon him to such a fate!”
Starswirl chuckled heartily at that. “My dear Princess, Khadgar doesn’t get captured,” he reassured us, though it left much to be desired. “He has quite a few tricks up his sleeves, I assure you.”
“Still, aren’t you concerned?” my sister asked him, looking downtrodden and I reached out a hand to Lulu. Huh, I never knew how much I missed doing that...
“Oh, don't get me wrong. Of course, I am worried something might happen to him, but that won’t change the fact that he can take care of himself. Don’t you worry, Princess, what you three did today was the right thing to do. Khadgar would say the same were he here with us now and I’m sure he is doing his best to return at this very moment,” Starswirl answered. “He isn’t a member of the Council of Six for nothing, quite an accomplishment if I have to admit.”
Luna let out a small giggle as she detected a hint of envy in his voice, pouncing at the opportunity to tease him. “Wow, are you jealous?” she asked, mischief in her eyes. A little smile found its way onto my face, as well. My past misgivings about taking the lives of the orcs started to weigh less upon my shoulders and I watched on as Starswirl let out a scoff in return, mumbling about how his students couldn’t keep their muzzles out of business where they didn’t belong in. It was kind of funny. He only ever got like that when we found something he lied about or neglected to mention. And, you know, when we discovered a secret of his. “You totally are jealous!”
“Nonsense,” Starswirl said with a roll of his eyes. “Now hush and let me do the talking. I can’t have you three immature fillies make a wrong impression now...”
Luna and I pouted while Celestia grumbled about being treated like a little foal again, but Starswirl ignored our misgivings as he led us through the entrance into a grand chamber with a staircase leading up further into the tower. There were a few doors leading to different hallways to the side of the lower floor and up above us was also an indoor balcony, from which a woman was currently looking down on us with curiosity.
“If it isn’t Starswirl the Bearded,” she commented, a slight smile coming to her face. “I didn’t ever expect to see your return here. Come to learn more about portals?”
“No, I’m afraid my visit this time is of a different nature,” he explained, also smiling warmly. “It is good to see you, Modera.”
“And I’m sure it is good to see you, too, as long as you don’t turn the library into your bedroom again, Starswirl,” she replied, laughing lightly before she gave my sisters and me a questioning gaze. “And who might you three be? I assume they are your apprentices, Starswirl? They hold a staggering amount of power within them.”
Starswirl gave her a nod in confirmation. “Yes, those are my students,” he said, pointing to each of us with his staff. “These are Princess Celestia, Summer, and Luna. Girls, this is Archmage Modera. She is also a member of the Council of Six, so treat her like you would treat me.”
“Princesses?” Archmage Modera asked in surprise. “My, how ambitious of you. Perhaps even more so than Antonidas was with young Jaina.”
Our mentor chuckled with humor, stroking his beard. “Sometimes, I wonder if it is ambition or foolishness on my part,” he commented, promptly earning himself a light slap from my twin as she gave the old coot a glare for that. Modera gave a laugh herself, watching bemusedly as Starswirl smacked her behind the head with his staff. Luna and I giggled as our sister grumbled to herself with a pout. “Now then, I’m not sure if you are aware of it yet, but Khadgar went through the Dark Portal to Draenor to close it from the other side and my wards are weary from fighting all day long against an army of invading orcs. Might we perhaps find a room or two to rest in?”
Archmage Modera sighed after hearing our mentor explain the reason for our appearance. Not that I was very aware of the state I was currently in, too tired to care. “Of course, Khadgar would do something like that,” the mage muttered, not sounding surprised by his actions in the least. “We have plenty of rooms for you and the young Princesses to stay in. I hope you still know your way around. I should probably look into what Khadgar has gotten himself into this time.”
“Many thanks, my dear,” Starwirl bowed his head and I did the same with my sisters following suit. “Come along then, Your Highnesses.”
Too tired to care about him addressing us in a way we've told him time and time again he didn't need to do, I merely followed after him as he led us up a few flights of stairs towards where the guest rooms were located in the Violet Citadel (the name of this place, Starswirl explained to us excitedly). This building apparently served as the seat of power for the Kirin Tor and pretty much anything else a mage, or archmage, needed. Or a crazy old coot, as the case may be.
I let out a happy groan as I slumped on top of the covers of my bed, grateful that I could finally rest my legs, and more importantly, my feet. I was thankful I could finally wind down from the taxing day we just had, kicking the stupid shoes off with a sigh of relief. Whoever decided heels were a great thing for women to wear was a misogynist. That, and a genius. They really do look nice, but holy flying penguins, they are such a pain to wear for extended lengths of time. Or on a battlefield.
I suppose it was my fault for not stopping to think that removing them might have been a good idea while fighting against the orcs. I only had myself to blame, and sadly, Starswirl insisted that we get our own rooms, for whatever reason, so I was currently alone in my room. It was a little bit unnerving to not have my wives here with me, I'm not gonna lie.
Grumbling, I rolled over so that I was on my back instead of on my side, and I extended an arm above me. Half of my life I have spent as a pony now and seeing myself as a human again, I had to say that I honestly preferred hooves over squishy feet and hands. I had completely forgotten how tiresome it could be to stand, walk, or even run like that. Ponies were just superior in every way, a human couldn’t hold a candle to the capabilities a pony body had over them.
Stupid mirror turning me into a naked ape. I would have been fine without the clothes, but no... it just had to turn my regalia into something appropriate for my new form. Not to mention, slutty. Ugh.
I'm not a fan of these dumb human limitations. I mean sure, I had a great deal more agility like this, I’ll concede on that, but by the twin suns, this body couldn’t even compare to my stamina, strength, and speed as a pony. And I don't even exercise that much! Besides that, a good third of the pony population had the capabilities of flight, a major advantage in favor of my natural body (even though I wasn’t the best flier myself).
Although, as I stared up at my fingers, one thing did come to mind that could prove that humans had one advantage over ponies that could very well put things on an equal footing between both species.
I stripped out of my clothes as fast as I could and threw them haphazardly to the ground. I discarded my undergarments not a moment later, biting my lip in giddy anticipation while my heartbeat picked up speed. I smiled to myself as I felt my netherregion becoming wet with arousal. After what I went through today? I sorely needed some relief from the stress that managed to accumulate in me.
Humans, I had to give it to them, could masturbate way better than ponies ever could (without magic, that is). So, that is what I did until it was well and truly dark outside. It took me all of my willpower to not automatically reach out to Azeroth’s sun to make it go over the horizon, the celestial duty of upkeeping the day cycle had managed to ingrain itself into me after over twenty years of doing it twice per day.
Admittedly, I actually enjoyed fingering myself quite a lot, the sensation very different from when Tia or Lulu eat me out with their tongues or stuff my snatch full of cock.
I wanted to sneak out of my room and make my way over to one of my sisters, but Starswirl had his room directly opposite of mine and most likely hadn’t closed his door. The old stallion had to know about me and my sisters, otherwise, he wouldn’t have had the foresight to separate us while we were guests here.
He most likely knew more than he let on, he always did. Just his damn time-traveling spell made certain of that and who knows what he could have seen in the future between me and my sisters. Or maybe he was a lot more observant than I gave him credit for...
Before retiring to bed, I had the absolute pleasure of finding an almost modern bathroom connecting to my bedroom. Azeroth was truly a marvel to behold, I thought happily standing under a (somewhat medieval-ish looking) showerhead.
They had things here that I had never seen before and things I would have expected to see on Earth. One of the tiny creatures I could only compare to a tinier dwarf (might be a gnome, now that I think about it) had been riding a rickety chopper in the streets earlier. While it wasn’t up to snuff with modern Earth standards, looking a bit like it might fall apart at any moment, it was a genuine motorcycle.
As I dried myself off with a moderately fluffy towel, I watched the bustling city below me through the open window, a fascinated stare in my eyes. This city was perhaps even more remarkable than I had first given it credit for because, as I stared out towards the horizon, I noticed that it... wasn’t exactly on the ground.
Dalaran, the city of scholars and adventurers, home to the mages of the Kirin Tor and ruled over by the Council of Six, was a floating city within the clouds. Unlike the pegasus cities back home, Dalaran wasn’t made out of clouds or even supported by cloud magic.
It was easily missable from the ‘ground’ level of the city, but some kind of magic was keeping this city aloft. I wasn’t concerned, though, surely everycreature here wouldn’t be staying on a massive floating rock if it wasn’t safe.
The lights below from the shops and lanterns were easily overshadowed by the lights coming from the crystals atop the buildings, glowing in nice soft blues and reds. If I had to guess, they were some kind of ward to keep the city safe from outside threats or enchanted to help keep the city aloft.
True to the nature of scholars and students, as well as adventurers and the like, Dalaran was a city that didn't sleep. Even in the middle of the night, there were still more than a handful of people going about their day. And the term 'people' really did stretch to all kinds of races, even though the Kirin Tor seemed to be predominantly made up of humans. In typical fantasy fashion, the elves I've seen fighting in the Blasted Lands were the second most represented race, followed by the tiny gnomes and then the goat-like race I later learned were called draenei. But there were also the numerous other races I had seen and then others I had not yet encountered.
One such race were the goblins and they seemed to be in a bit of a rivalry with the gnomes. The explosive, engineering kind of rivalry. The things you see when you stay up long enough at night...
Alas, sleep eluded me for hours as I decided to retire to bed, tossing and turning on the large mattress. It wasn’t as soft and fluffy as I was used to back in our castle. I wasn't one to brag, but... nothing could compare to a cloud mattress. The inherent pegasus nature in me couldn't content itself with whatever they used for bedding here. It wasn't stuffed full of straw, at least.
It wasn’t just the different bed that kept me up at night, though. I had gotten so used to sleeping next to my wives over the years, falling asleep required at least one other body next to mine nowadays. Whether it was Luna’s pleasant freezing aura that could negate my fiery aura or Celestia constantly nibbling on my ears, I missed having something to hug in my sleep. The pillow wasn’t doing it any justice, sadly.
Then, there also were the memories of the Dark Portal. The rushing orcs with their bloodlust-fueled fighting spirit, Khadgar going through the portal while we had to stay behind, and the sheer mass of dead bodies the longer the fight continued on. Whatever I tried, I just couldn’t get these images out of my head and when I thought I had managed to do that for a measly minute, another picture flashed by in front of my mind’s eye.
Every time I watched myself end another life after begging them to lay down their blades, I winced and whimpered. Yes, sure, I felt some small modicum of indignant rage at the ones that replaced their limbs with weapons, they seriously had it coming for them with what I had witnessed them do to the other defenders, there were those that seemed to only be following orders, no matter what. Those I wept for because I could have sworn I saw a few of them didn’t want to have a part in this fight but still went along with it.
One might argue that they should have known better, that they shouldn’t simply let others dictate how they act, and I would agree that they had a chance to change their hearts as I pleaded with them, but then again, I didn’t know what led to their invasion in the first place and who was the one making them fight for them.
Was it a tyrant of the worst kind that cruelly threw their soldiers at a problem until it ceased to be a problem? Or was it perhaps their homeworld that offered them no choice but to seek out a new home? The little bit of what I knew about Outland, the world Draenor would become, made me think it was the latter case, although I could be wrong.
I had too little information about what was going on and I didn’t even know if I was on the right side in this conflict, to begin with. I mean, I’m pretty sure those invaders didn’t have the best mindset as they simply invaded this world without any formal declaration of war, so I was reasonably sure I wasn’t on the side that was in the wrong here.
But every side in a conflict had their arguments for doing the things that they did, so there had to be something that could explain the reasoning of the orcs from this past version of Draenor.
I told myself that it shouldn’t really be my concern what these foreigners were doing with each other as I barely even knew one side, hoping that it would grant me some small amount of sleep. My heart on the other hoof (or hand currently, it was still weird to see myself like this), felt like I needed to resolve this conflict between these two worlds because I couldn’t live with myself if I ignored their plight, otherwise.
The problem with that, though, was that I couldn’t just go around traveling between worlds and solving all of their disputes while ignoring my own home and the problems we were facing there.
Ruling a nation came with its fair share of conflict and such, too. And while it is nice and all to lend a helping hoof to a neighbor wherever I could, meddling in their affairs would only manage to alienate me from them, and that wouldn't make me many friends. The leaders of this world surely had their own ideas about how to solve this predicament and if I were to tell them how to handle their own problems, they wouldn’t look too kindly upon me and my sisters.
Judging by how experienced the soldiers were that fought on the battlefield against the invading orcs, this world, with all its wonders like floating cities, technology, and racial diversity, was very familiar in the art of warcraft. Something I definitely didn’t want to have even more of a part in than I already had.
It didn’t change the fact that I yearned for a peaceful solution, though. The best I could probably do to reach that goal would be to have a talk between the leaders of this world and my sisters and me, suggesting to them to at least consider extending a hand in friendship in the hopes that it would lead to a brighter future for all that were involved in this.
But first, a solution to the conflict would have to be found and a truce or ceasefire before talks could even begin. That, and possible reparations to alleviate any grudges. One can't build a lasting friendship if one side hates the other's guts.
Even I am not that naïve to think I can talk them into having a change of heart. Look how that one turned out, already...
Well, enough of these ramblings, Summer, I told myself with a sad sigh as I moved back and forth over the bed to find a comfortable position to sleep on. Not that I was all that successful in getting my desired sleep. It didn’t help that my body was screaming at me that it was all wrong, the shape not agreeing with me at all. It was like my soul was protesting against me that I was a pony and that these limbs didn't reflect that, at all. In a way, it was almost like a mask that didn't fit.
Haah. Tomorrow would hopefully be a better day, I thought glumly. Maybe a bit of sightseeing would be able to lift my mood. Besides, constantly worrying over things I had little influence over would only serve to drive me insane. This trip was just that, a trip to see and experience new things, even if some of those things might end up being unpleasant.
Such as the conflict with the orcs and the absolute pain that was women's clothing. I swear, only Tia had 'princess-appropriate' clothing and the universe was trying to make Luna and me out to be some kind of degenerates. The irony.
I'm glad my fiery aura regarded my regalia as a part of myself. I don't even want to know how many orcs might have tried to do something with me had I not had the additional layer of my dress covering me. Truly, the thought of anyone but my wives lusting after my body disgusted me. I felt dirty enough, already.
Ugh. I won't ever forget the feeling of blood evaporating from my body, will I? Being lusted after by big, strong muscular orcs was the least of my problems (even the women were Amazonian, seriously). Without my fiery aura, this stupid frail body wouldn't have lasted a second against them. All of my movements felt awkward, to say the least. It would have been a simple matter to break me in so many different ways had they not literally burned themselves by trying to get close to me.
I can still see the agony in their eyes as their blood boiled while their armor sizzled on their skin. Putting them out of their misery with Remorse was a mercy. And still, even more came after me to avenge their fallen comrades or to seek glory against a powerful foe. I would never forget their faces as they realized they stood no chance. Their screams would forever haunt my waking moments and terrorize my sleep.
All because I failed to get them to lay down their arms. I failed to make them surrender like a good princess should have. I made the mistake of thinking this world was like my own, where even the griffons valued their lives more than a pointless death.
Damnit, why can’t I just ignore my feelings for once and stop worrying over it so much so I could finally go to sleep without having to see myself ending lives left and right?! I’m certain my lovely wives would say something about my ‘damn bleeding heart’ right about now and I couldn’t help myself from chuckling mirthlessly. They were probably right, my compassion would one day lead to me ruining myself utterly in a hopeless effort to make the world a brighter place to live in. Any world, for that matter.
“Such a pity I can’t simply snap these fingers and make a wonder happen,” I mumbled as I stared at the slightly bent appendages with a forlorn gaze. Experimentally, I did just that and snapped my fingers, waiting for a few moments with bated breath. I think at some point in the life of anycreature, they had the hopes that they could simply change how life was with a simple wish, and I wasn’t exempt from that wishful thinking. I was only, well... not so mortal anymore, but mortal enough to count.
Too bad that wishful thinking never got anyone anywhere. Faced with the harsh truth of reality, the only way to change the world was by doing something to make that wish come true, if only in the slightest way. I’m sure I'm going to face many such thoughts over the next few years alone and the thing about that? I literally had an unlimited amount of years that I could make those wishes. I had the time to work towards fulfilling them, though. Something only a few beings had.
Was that the purpose of immortality? Work tirelessly for a vision of what one thinks should be the future at some point? Here I was again, getting all philosophical about life.
Sleep never came to me that night, sadly. I simply stared up at the ceiling of my room, wondering about this and that. As was the case with all things in philosophy, there was no one true answer to the questions I asked myself. That, coupled with the happenings of the day before and the night without rest, had me in a seriously cranky mood.
I made my way through the tall halls of the Violet Citadel, searching for anything that resembled either a kitchen or a dining hall (or a mage that could point me in the right direction). At least this building wasn’t as full of nooks and crannies as our castle, sometimes I still found myself lost in my own home. Perhaps I shouldn’t have let Luna have her way with all the traps, twisted hallways, and secret passages she had put in our castle.
Seeing one of those weird gaseous creatures that had given Khadgar that letter yesterday, I asked it for directions in the hopes that it could at least understand what I wanted from it. The... mana... elemental thingy (it kinda looked cute in a weird sense) led me down one staircase and brought me to a room that had a table filled with all kinds of confections and fruits, as well as drinks.
I was apparently the first one here, only my little helper at my side as he stared at me with those unblinking glowing eyes. I got the impression that these 'creatures' were basically the servants of this place and that they must also be the ones that make the meals around here. Or they just deliver them to the right place, I couldn’t tell with their semi-intelligence. Much like automatons, they seemed to be preprogrammed with the things they could do. Anything beyond that and they just stared at you. Like asking them what was what (someone apparently neglected to think such questions could come up with foreigners).
Shrugging, I took a plate and loaded it with a little bit of everything. I debated whether to take that blue glowing liquid or the drink resembling wine and juice at the same time. I gave the juice a cautious sniff, not smelling any hint of alcohol coming from it. So, with one last wary glance towards the blue concoction, I decided to take my chances with the juice instead.
Once I placed my little feast on the long table, I dragged the high-back chair out a little to take my seat. Sitting as a human felt also slightly unnerving to me now, my legs bending in an unfamiliar way. Or rather, a forgotten way. I sighed with irritation, trying to get a bit more comfortable on the cushion.
This was starting to grate on my nerves, seriously. I wasn’t supposed to feel so alienated by a human body after having lived half of my life as both a human and a pony, damnit. Maybe I had just adapted to being in a pony body way more than I thought I had. It didn’t help that it had also been quite a long time since I had last been in a human body. The fact that I associated my old body with the cause of my gender crisis wasn’t helping, either.
As I drank from my cup, I was pleasantly surprised to note that it tasted like a mix of cherries, strawberries, and most importantly (and the surprising part), crystal berries. It was a much-needed pick-me-up, lifting my mood considerably.
Hearing voices coming nearer, I looked up and was greeted by my sisters and Starswirl, accompanied by Archmage Modera. The woman stared at me with bewilderment as I was about to bite into one of those swirly buns I had picked up from the buffet table. My sisters were also blushing heavily as they stared just as much, while Starswirl was hiding his eyes behind a hand.
I gave them a confused stare, trying to figure out what the matter was. Had I spilled some of the juice on myself? I looked down at my body, not finding anything dripping down from me that indicated as such.
“What?” I asked, still not getting it. “Do I have something on my face?”
Perhaps the juice had discolored my lips or something? I took a napkin and tried to clean my face of something that was apparently not there.
“Okay, what’s going on?” I grumbled, not in the mood to stay in the dark about what was up with them while I had not slept at all.
“Summer...” Celestia began gently, still blushing brightly. “Where are your clothes?”
“Clothes?” I asked back, confused. “Back in my room, why?”
I think I might be forgetting something here, something very important. I gave each of them a glance, seeing them with their dresses and robes on. Then, I looked down at myself, giving one of my 'huge' teats a poke as they were completely bare and on display for the whole world. Huh, right. Humans have that nudity thing, don’t they?
Ponies were the complete opposite, I swear. We only ever wore clothes to entice or when it got too cold even for us (not that my sisters and I had much of a problem in that regard, so only to seduce, really). The entire point of clothes for ponies was to show off a hint of what lay beneath and make it more exciting to reveal our bodies in a playful and risque way. Hence part of my reluctance to wear anything of the sort.
The only exception was formal wear, and even then, most of that still made us look more daring than fancy and serious. The only type of 'clothing' that didn't have that effect was armor and our regalia (when it wasn't transformed to 'fit in' with the social expectations of this world, that is).
I gave them a pout and crossed my arms underneath my 'assets', which only furthered their reaction. “I don’t see a problem with this,” I muttered grumpily, feeling more comfortable the way I was right now. “What’s up with clothes, anyway? We don’t wear them twenty-four-seven back home. The only one that does that is Starswirl and he is crazy, so he doesn’t count.”
“I beg your pardon?” Modera said, staring at us with wide eyes. “You don’t wear clothes?!”
“Ah, well...” Starswirl chuckled awkwardly. “I should probably explain that to you while her sisters get her decent...”
“Stupid clothes,” I grumbled as Tia and Lulu dragged me away from my breakfast. “Why do we have to wear them? They are so uncomfortable. And they make me look even more 'indecent'.”
“Summer, I get that you haven’t had a female human body before, but you can’t just go out in the nude like that!” Celestia shot back and I continued to pout. “What do you think would have happened had somepony else found you before us? Somepony that wasn’t female?”
If I still had a tail, I would have flicked it angrily. “Tia, not every male is a rapist,” I told her, glaring at her. My sister snorted and glared back at me.
“True, but what if somepony like that came across you?” Celestia shot back. “I’d rather not take the chances of you being molested by anypony but me or Luna.”
Our sister rolled her eyes at that comment. “Way to be a pervert about it,” Luna muttered but we ignored her.
“I’d think they would be more decent like that,” I argued back. “Why do you always look for the bad in anycreature? And for your information, females can rape others, too. It's not about penetration.”
“I don’t see the bad in everypony!" Tia argued back, mad at the accusation. "But I’m not so naïve to think it isn’t there. Male or female.”
“Naïve? I’m not naïve!” I grumbled in denial. “What is it that is so reprehensible to hope for the best in another being? Is it because they aren’t ponies?”
“What?! No!” she growled, slapping my shoulder. “How could you think so little of me?!”
“Then how could you have so little faith in me?!” I shouted back, poking her back on her shoulder. “I’m not a little foal, who do you take me for? I can take care of myself if I were in the situation of another creature trying to molest me!”
My wife looked like I just slapped her. “I... Summer, I’m sorry, okay?” Celestia sighed, looking to the ground. “I’m just... concerned. I don’t want you to be seen as some slut, or worse yet, have some... creature being successful in overpowering you and having their dirty hands all over you!”
“Tia, I... I’m sorry for shouting at you, I didn't mean to,” I said, rubbing my arm awkwardly. “And I’m sorry for being so... 'naïve', I guess. I really am an idiot, aren’t I? You must think that I’m stupid...”
“Summy, you aren’t... well, a little bit, but not 'that' much. At least, not to the degree that you need to be constantly held by the hoof for you to get anything done,” Celestia told me and I pouted again at the sheer confidence boost that gave me. “You know I’m just teasing, right?”
“Could have worded that a bit kinder, though,” I answered with a little grumble. “I’m glad you at least don’t think I’m a complete failure...”
“Why are you so negative and depressed right now?” Celestia asked and I gave a half-hearted shrug. Not like I can just tell her I hated my skin right now. “Summer... did you even sleep tonight? Don’t even try to deny it, please.”
“I... might have not slept, like... at all?” I said, wincing slightly as she gave me that disapproving look that always made me feel bad.
“You do know that you could have asked Luna for help, right?” she told me and I felt... sort of stupid for not even considering that possibility. I haven't needed that kind of aid in a long time, after all.
“Sorry...” I mumbled, only for Luna to give me a hug in reassurance.
“Great, now you two kiss and make up,” Luna commented with a smile and I rolled my eyes at her. Tia giggled, taking me in her arms and dipping me towards the ground. I shrieked out in surprise at her sudden boldness, humming happily as she captured my lips with hers.
“Please, just understand that I’m looking out for you, okay?” Celestia whispered as she held me there in her arms. I blushed heavily, giving her a nod. She had a point there, even though I desperately searched for reasons to dispute her claims. It felt wrong to assume anycreature would do what she implied, but this wasn’t Equestria and I should realize that probably a bit more. The inhabitants of this world clearly don’t have the same morals as ponies (even if those might be sometimes a bit... weird to get used to).
My twin helped me back up and together we made our way toward my room, luckily avoiding any other being in the process. Back in the safe confines of the bedroom, Celestia and Luna took note of the discarded pile of clothes and gave me a raised brow. I shrugged, crossing my arms underneath my teats, not realizing that that only put more attention on them for my sisters.
“It’s like she doesn’t even know how much she flaunts her body around...” Luna commented quietly to Celestia and I glared at both of them as my twin bit her lip, nodding in agreement. Stupid horny sisters. I let out a huff as I lifted a leg so Tia could slide over the undergarment while Lulu sat down beside me with those dastardly teat-holders.
“Must I wear those?” I grumbled, staring distrustingly at the garment in the hands of my Moon. “They bite into my shoulders with those thin straps and they feel way too restricting, overall. Why do humans have to wear such things, anyway?”
“Sister, I doubt you want to show just about anybody your nipples,” Luna argued and held them up for me to slide my arms through. “Now, stop with your squeamishness, and let me put these on you.”
“I’m not a little foal, I can dress myself...” I said, not actually doing what I said in my reluctance to put these stupid things on. Human clothing is dumb, I stand by my point.
“And I don’t see you doing that, so it falls to Tia and me to do that for you,” Luna snorted, taking my arm without much trouble as I didn’t resist her. I pouted, putting my other arm through the strap as she wiggled the damn thing in front of me to get me to comply with her demands.
I let out a surprised squeak once she had closed it, her arms trapping me in a hug and her hands groping my chest. I could feel her hot breath on my neck (something that was completely unlike her with the perpetual coldness that was around her usually), her lips coming closer and closer to my ears and I shivered with arousal. Celestia smirked at us, obviously enjoying the show as she still waited for me to lift my other leg so she could put my undergarments on for me.
“What do you say to us sneaking out tonight?” Luna whispered seductively while placing a soft kiss behind my ear. My heart skipped a beat and my breasts started feeling funny in addition to my clit. “How about we explore the city on our own with Starswirl none-the-wiser? Spend the night together doing naughty things...”
“W-won’t he find out?” I asked, my breath hitching as I felt her nibble at the edge of my ear with her pointy canines. My body shuddered and I let out a moan. I wanted her, right now, so badly. Celestia, too, for that matter. I was desperate for relief. “What if he... ahn~... notices? Oh, fuck, this feels so much better with human teeth!”
“Do you actually care?” Luna shot back, squeezing one of my teats a bit tighter. Her tongue licked the back of my neck and a shiver ran down my spine in pleasant tingles. I was already falling into a lustful haze and sex was the only thing on my mind. “Who are we fooling with him, huh? He probably knows already, doesn’t he?”
By the twin suns, I never felt happier being molested by my sisters. I didn't want her to stop, but the thought of Starswirl finding out... “What if he... mhn... doesn’t? Haah... why does this feel so good..? Squeeze them more..!”
My sweet Moon did just that as she chuckled. “We can play the ‘what if’ game the whole day and get nowhere. I’m sick of hiding this from the ones we hold dear most,” she growled. Then, her other hand wandered over my stomach in a slow, sensual way. Butterflies didn't even describe the feeling I felt accurately enough. “Day in and day out we sit on our thrones, hiding our love out of fear for what might happen. I understand that it is necessary, but why keep it from the ones we call friends? We can trust them.”
“But what if they slip up and reveal us to the whole nation?! What then?!” I asked her, turning my head a bit to look at her from the side. She looked pretty uncaring of the consequences right now... “I'll tell you what will happen! They will hate us and ridicule us! Platinum will regain the throne and undo everything we worked so hard for! We will be stripped of our duty and sent into exile! I can't let that happen! We had this conversation before and you were on my side then, so what changed? Has Tia gotten to you?”
Luna stayed silent at that, involuntarily giving me the answer to the question I asked and I shot my twin a disapproving look. Celestia rolled her eyes, poking my leg with a finger impatiently. And here I was starting to feel good, too. This was such a turn-off.
“What?” she scoffed. “Don’t look at me like I’m suddenly going to make our relationship public. Why can’t we just open up a bit to Starswirl or even Clover? What about Pansy? You’re pretty thick with her. Don’t you think she would at least understand? Heck, I’m certain we aren’t even the only herd with sisters in it. We can just rope Clover into this and make him pretend he's our husband.”
I looked a bit ill at the thought of asking Clover to pretend he was part of our herd. I mean, he's like a brother to us! "I'd rather not we do this. And he has his own love life, you know? We can't just make him decide between helping us and his own happiness," I said as I lifted my leg with a huff, letting her dress me while I leaned back against Lulu tiredly. It was just too much to ask of anypony, really. “Maybe Pansy would understand, but... how can you be so certain? Besides, I’m pretty sure I would have heard of such herds before, sister.”
“Amore didn’t care, so why would they?” Celestia said, pointing out that there had already been somepony that accepted us for who we were. A pang went through my heart, missing my best friend and a little bit of hatred flared up in me for what Sombra did to her. “If you would open a history book for once in your life, you would know that those types of herds existed for survival reasons. It isn’t even like they were in a herd with their brothers, so why are you so stubborn about this? I assure you, the genetic defects you associate with incest happen over generations and it's not like we're going to put a foal in you.”
“Tia, making those things legal only leads to bad things. How long would it take for ponies to think it would be okay to be in a sister-brother relationship? Or suns forbid, a parent-child relationship?! I don’t want to be responsible for such depravity to be accepted in society, sister,” I shot back and she let out a sigh in despair, something that rewarded her a glare from me. “Incest has massive risks that we can’t allow, Celestia. Besides birth defects. So please, can we stop arguing about this?”
“As you wish, sister,” she muttered, clearly not convinced that a sister-sister relationship would lead to the very thing I feared so much. I won't be responsible for siblings gaslighting each other into relationships. More so than we did with Luna (though that was more or less how she already felt for me in our past life, we still did plant the idea into her head). “Anyway, you have yet to answer our question. What do you say to us sneaking out tonight? We might... get a little bit of action while in human form~. What do you say?”
Her proposition made a flutter run through me and I felt my nethers get excited again in anticipation. I gave her a nod, my face blazing brightly as my throat couldn’t get out a single word. I would have preferred to have her and Luna do it right this instant and I could see it in their eyes that they would love to do just that, but Starswirl and Modera would probably question why we were gone for so long. It's not like we had wasted enough time already, but still. No need to give them any ideas.
“Great~.”
My lovely sister made short work with the rest of my clothes (I didn’t mind the wandering hands, at all) and we were on our way back to breakfast. My stomach and my nethers kept arguing over what we should have done while we were alone for a few minutes, and honestly, I was taking the side of my needy womanhood more right now. Breakfast could have waited...
Alas, I had to acquiesce to my stomach’s opinion of food being better than sex in the morning, the small feast managing to satisfy me perhaps just as much. There were just so many flavors I had never experienced before and I felt like I was going to go into a happy food coma the more I sampled from the variety available here.
Archmage Modera was a little bit perturbed by what she had learned from Starswirl, although I could see a certain childlike glee in her eyes from knowing we were ponies in our reality.
Once breakfast was over and the hungry god in my tummy was satisfied, Archmage Modera excused herself to us, stating that she had to prepare for her own journey to the Draenor that somehow got misplaced in time. It was clear to her (and probably Khadgar) that it was an alternative version of the one the original orcs came through.
So, yeah... those green orcs were apparently also aliens. I was getting the impression that Azeroth had a lot more experience with the unknown from out of space than Equestria or even Earth had. That is to say, I didn’t think we would have ever made contact with extra-terrestrial life on Earth and the odd few encounters with life outside of my home dimension in Equestria didn’t even come close to what Azeroth had to deal with.
The draenei, the weird space goats with blue skin, were also refugees running away from the Burning Legion I had heard of a few times now. Those had crash-landed on Azeroth a while back, having traveled through the cosmos in an attempt at finding a safe place to settle down and live their lives peacefully. Apparently, they had also encountered Draenor along the way, but the orcs weren’t too kind to them.
The library I learned this from also had a bit more about the odd few lifeforms that got summoned here by warlocks and such in a misguided attempt at subjugating them to their will. Demons were a thing here, it seemed.
And most of those demons served the Burning Legion, go figure.
I wished, I really wished with all of my heart that I had never opened the damn history book (I’m definitely not reading it because of the argument I had with Tia... nuh-uh). There was a lot of tragedy here that was even worse than everything that happened back on Earth. For example, there was a young prince that, in his mad pursuit to eradicate the undead, turned to less pleasant methods to get the job done, only to fall to corruption and use the same powers of his enemies on his once allies (another example of just how screwed up this world was, although there had been rumors of undead in Equestria in the past, though only wendigos were confirmed to be real). Arthas even murdered his own father, going on a rampage right after and almost destroying the entire population of the world to bring it to its knees.
A mad king with his undead army wasn’t the only thing that had me cry as I read along further, not able to stop myself from learning the tragic history of this world. There were some mentions about an ancient high elf queen that first invited this Burning Legion to Azeroth, but most of the accounts were a bit hazy and that happened almost ten thousand years ago, so I was tempted to take it with a grain of salt. The interesting part about her, though, was that she was still very much alive and had been turned into what is called a naga. A type of sea-serpent high elf hybrid and I had no idea how that happened, in the first place. She had her slimy tentacles in a lot of things, trying to achieve whatever it was she was working towards, causing a lot of trouble even for the ones living on the mainland of the continents of this world.[2]
There had been some trouble in this Outland Khadgar had mentioned, something about an elf that had taken on the powers of the demons he had hunted, becoming one himself in the process. I’m not sure what it is that he did that was so bad, but I’m not going to argue with the ones that felt it necessary to put him out of commission.
Besides this Illidan the Betrayer (I found no clues as to whom he betrayed, but the title didn’t make me give him much sympathy), there was a mention of a Sunwell and how a commander of the Legion was almost summoned through it. Another reference to an alien ‘lifeform’ was mentioned in passing and I had to look up what a ‘naaru’ was. Let’s just say, I wanted to stay the hell away from those things, as they were beings of pure light.
I knew what those types of beings led to and I definitely didn’t want a part in their twisted crusade, even if it might seem benevolent at first. To them, mortals were merely pawns in the grander scheme of things and nothing more. Learning about the naaru also led to me learning about the beings of the void, their opposites. The light and the void, three guesses as to how they thought about each other and the first two don’t count. It seems like I stumbled upon a world that had a cliché fight between ‘good’ and ‘bad’.
Fat chance of either of them being good. Both wanted the same thing in their own way and that was total superiority and control over the universe.
Anyway, after my little excursion into the two cosmic forces vying for control of the universe (because for what else could they be fighting over), I went back to learning about the history of Azeroth. There were several mentions of the odd few wars with various tribes of trolls, some bigger than the others. Something about a blood god that had to be put down and a plague they spread, weakening everyone afflicted and killing the unprepared. There was also something about some wild gods that another tribe of trolls channeled into their bodies or whatever. I’m not so sure that is what actually happened, it sounded a bit preposterous.
I flipped through the pages of the history book until I found something interesting that had nothing to do with friggin’ trolls extorting their gods or something and came back to the topic of that foolish young prince... I had no idea how to feel about the things he did, they all sounded so atrociously wrong that I wanted to slap the damn book shut and forget I ever read the damn thing in the first place. But sadly, the young prince was one of those topics you couldn’t get around while learning about the history of this world...
The resurgence of the Lich King was one of those recent events that still affected the people of Azeroth to this day. The name Prince Arthas had taken on as he went down the spiral to crazy says a lot about what exactly happened, you didn’t just go around calling yourself the Lich King for nothing. A lot of the races on Azeroth had an issue with him and banded subsequently together to defeat him once and for all. Arthas, or the Lich King (or however he preferred to call himself, who cares), had done a lot of despicable things during his mad reign of terror. One of the most horrid things he made use of was a floating necropolis called Naxxramas that was under the command of one of his most loyal underlings, housing horrors beyond imagination.
I’m glad that such a monster was put down for good. Sombra seemed like a little child in comparison to him, but I could have seen him becoming just as bad as Arthas had been given enough time. Perhaps our decision to merely banish him was too kind for him...
I shook my head and continued on. Something a little bit more recent was the event labeled as the 'Cataclysm'. I had no idea what to think about the dragon that was, at some point, called the Aspect of the Earth or the Earth-warder. Something told me that this Deathwing had been used to cause as much destruction as possible, considering the change was not all that subtle. He was slain by what must have been his own family, judging by the titles they all held.
It might be worth investigating these dragons a bit more, they were depicted as guardians of some kind and perhaps a lot older than most of the races in this world. Even if only to get some advice on how to keep ourselves sane.
The last notable thing in recent history that I found out about was the discovery of a hidden landmass to the south. I definitely wanted to visit their land and I’m not ashamed to say it was only because of the name and what it implied. Pandaria.
I swear, if there are cute cuddly little pandas running around there, I’m going to take one back with me despite what they might say to that. I just couldn’t help myself at the overwhelming sense of possessiveness flaring up within me as I thought of what the inhabitants might look like.
Celestia stared at me with a quizzical stare as I giggled to myself like a lunatic, looking up from her book of spellcraft. Luna was also glancing at me with a raised eyebrow, smiling fondly at my antics.
I slapped my tome shut, not caring to read any further if I could simply drag my sisters with me on an adventure to see their land for ourselves. Starswirl grumbled as I asked him to show us where we could possibly get a mage that could open a portal for us there. The grumpy old wizard sighed, shutting his own book as he stood up leaning on his staff.
“Sometimes you really are a pain in my flank. You need to learn more patience,” he groused, scratching his beard slightly. “And here you wonder why I call you little moody teenagers, behaving like that. Very well, then. I suppose we have been in here for some time, might as well go and see the world.”
I nodded happily, pointedly ignoring his remark about our behavior and that he still would have liked to finish studying this world's magic. Lulu was just as happy as I was, if only for a different reason. She was mainly glad to be out of the library after lazily flipping through books in the hopes that something caught her attention. I took her and Celestia’s hands in mine and followed after Starswirl.
We left the Violet Citadel and went into a different building where a hub of permanent portals was kept in a neat row. There were some interesting ones I wanted to take a look at, but Starswirl wasn’t one to let us wander off on our own while we were in a different dimension.
The portal to Pandaria brought us to what was called the Shrine of Seven Stars, one of the two capitals that saw a lot of travel from the rest of the races of Azeroth. And, more importantly, the natives.
I was giggling like a little foal as I saw humanoid pandas going about their day and my sisters tried their best to keep me away from them. Well, ‘tried’ being the keyword here.
“Uncle Chen, h-help...” the little panda girl I was squeezing the life out of croaked out as I nuzzled her cheek affectionately. The little girl tried futilely to get me away from her as I showered her with my love. “Lady, what is the problem with you?”
“Haha, Li Li,” an older pandaren said, smiling mirthfully. “What have I told you about wandering off?”
“Yeah, yeah, now get this crazy woman away from me!” Li Li complained, pouting at him and Luna giggled as she came to her aid, instead.
“I apologize for my sister, she can get... enthusiastic quite easily when cute things are involved,” she apologized on my behalf. I gave her a pout as I rubbed my arm awkwardly, sad to have my little cuddle bear taken away from me. “My name is Princess Luna, this is Princess Celestia and Princess Summer. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Princesses?” Li Li asked with fascination as her uncle gave us a baffled stare. “Wow, Uncle Chen, have you ever met princesses before?”
“I have,” Chen replied, giving his niece a lazy smile. He was a rather easy-going guy, wasn't he? “Though, I can’t say I have ever heard of you three before. From which kingdom do you hail from? You dress in a very peculiar fashion.”
I fidgeted at that particular comment, feeling self-conscious about wearing these clothes. He didn't seem to be meaning it in 'that' way, though. I suppose he wasn't into that kind of thing. “It’s...” I started, but my sister covered my mouth before I could say too much. She gave me a stare that said that I shouldn’t go around telling everycreature we come across from where we are, as long as we don’t know if we could trust them. I gave her hand a lick.
“Eww,” she said, wiping her hand on my shoulder. “Summer, behave yourself. Didn’t you say you weren’t a little foal anymore?! Ugh. 'Tis disgusting.”
“Foal?” Li Li asked, confused and my sister breathed in sharply.
“A child, my dear,” Starswirl explained, getting a ‘Duh’ kinda look from the little girl as she rolled her eyes, muttering something about knowing what a foal was.
“I must say, you and your daughters are quite interesting,” Chen chuckled. “This here is my niece Li Li and I’m called Chen Stormstout. We travel the world a lot.”
Starswirl smiled brightly. “A Stormstout you say?” he asked, intrigued. “I have only heard good things about your family.”
“Yes, I can imagine,” Chen answered, smiling slightly again. “I don’t believe I have caught your name yet?”
“Oh, where are my manners?” Starswirl laughed a bit awkwardly. “I’m Starswirl the Bearded and I feel like I must correct you on something, my dear friend.”
“And what would that be?” Chen asked, confused.
“These are my students, not my daughters. Although, at times I wonder if I shouldn’t be a bit stricter with them. Sort of in the way like a grandfather would be that I’m sure they see me as,” he chuckled, stroking his beard. “They are very close to me and I would give everything to know them safe.”
“Hah! Just as I would for my niece,” Chen agreed, looking down at Li Li with a bright smile, showing off a canine in the process. “She could do with a little more patience.”
“What..?” Li Li asked back, looking innocently up at him with a little mischievous glint in her eyes. “So you can drink your alcohol in peace? Pfft. Where is the fun in that?”
“Li Li...” Chen warned her. I giggled as his niece stuck out her tongue and dragged her eyelid down in a mocking way. Chen chuckled himself, mussing up her hair affectionately.
“So, what did you guys mean by foal?” Li Li inquired curiously, looking up at us with those big cute eyes that just begged me to hug her some more.
“It’s... complicated,” Celestia said, rubbing her temple at the slip-up while Lulu and I tried not to look too sheepish. “Can we trust them, Starswirl?”
“Dear, you shouldn’t be asking me that,” Starswirl answered. “Aren’t you the princess here?”
“Yeah, because you made me one...” she muttered. “What do you think, Luna?”
“They seem nice and judging by what Starswirl said about their family, I think they are at least somewhat trustworthy. I say we give them the benefit of the doubt, Khadgar and Modera know about us already, so why not Chen and Li Li, too?”
“And you, Summer?”
“Do you even have to ask?” I giggled, snatching Li Li up in my arms again. Chen grinned back at Li Li as she gave him a pleading look. “You’re just too cute, I wish I could take you back home with me.”
“Haha. Believe me, you don’t want to have her running around without supervision, causing all kinds of trouble,” Chen told me. “She is one curious little cub.”
I shook my head, squeezing his niece a little bit tighter to my chest with a wide smile. “Aww, I’m sure she wouldn’t be that bad.”
Chen gave me a look, telling me he was completely serious that his niece would be just that bad. I looked down at Li Li and saw her smiling innocently up at me. Looking back up at Chen, he gave me a raised brow from beneath his well-worn Asian-style hat. I sighed reluctantly, feeling that he probably had a point there. She was a mischievous little panda, what would she get up to if she were set loose in my world?
“If Summer and Luna think you can be trusted and Starswirl has only heard good things about you and your family, I guess we can tell you where we come from,” Celestia said, giving them a wary smile. “Besides, Summer seems quite enamored with your niece and I think I’m speaking for all of us when I say that we would like to consider you as friends.”
“I’m honored, Your Highness,” Chen said with a bow, holding his paws together respectfully. “Making friends on our travels is one of my favorite past-times.”
“Yeah, especially if it leads to him drinking his friends under the table afterward,” Li Li giggled, making her uncle roll his eyes good-naturedly. “You should have seen him when he visited the Stormstout Brewery. He had these really awesome moves fighting brew elementals that were totally cool! He was like: pow, take that, hiyaah!”
“I don’t make those sounds, Li Li,” Chen chided, shaking his head at her antics while I smiled at her enthusiasm. If I hadn’t seen those mana elementals in Dalaran already, I would have doubted the existence of elementals made out of alcohol a bit more. “Perhaps I need to have a word with your parents, you mischievous little cub.”
“Then I’ll tell them that you took me to a brewery!” she retorted, sticking out her tongue. “Now, you were about to tell us where you came from. Oh, oh! Chen, can we go visit them? I’m sure you can find some new ingredients for your brews there!”
“If they will have us?” Chen asked and I turned to Celestia with a pleading look, holding Li Li a little bit closer to her as she made the most adorable puppy dog eyes at her. My sister sighed, smiling at the combined assault of me and my partner in crime.
“Yes, I suppose we can host you for a little while,” Celestia answered (she never stood a chance). “Although I must warn you, our homeland is a little different from what you are used to.”
“As if,” Li Li laughed, waving her off. “Lady, we come from a wandering island on the back of a giant sea turtle. Nothing beats that!”
“Aww, a giant sea turtle?” I smiled, sighing dreamily while my sisters groaned. “Can we go there next, Tia? Please?”
“Summer...” Celestia muttered, rubbing her eyes in frustration. “I swear, if we aren’t back home in the next few days because you dragged us off to the middle of nowhere, I’m going to put you on a leash.”
“Don’t be a meanie,” I pouted. Although, it did sound kinky...
“Your sister is right, dear,” Starswirl said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “We can’t be gone for too long, after all.”
“Fine...”
“Will you guys tell us where you are from or are you going to get distracted the whole day?” Li Li interjected and I looked away in embarrassment. What can I say, this world just had so much to see and experience, I wanted to see everything. Absolutely. Everything.
“Well, my adorable little companion,” I stated, smiling down at her after I got over my brief bit of embarrassment. “We come from a very magical land. So magical in fact, that it isn’t even on Azeroth!”
Li Li looked up at me in wonder, excitement building up as her expression glowed even brighter with fascination. Chen was also looking at me with an intrigued look. “Woah... Chen, we definitely have to go there now! Please, take me with you? I won’t tell Mom and Dad about the thing with the brewery, promise!”
“I suppose I could take you with me... if you behave,” Chen answered and Li Li cheered in my arms. The little panda cub looked up at me with a bright smile and I mirrored it back at her in happiness. Oh, I couldn’t wait to show her my garden! I’m sure they will love it.
“I must warn you, though, our homeworld is a bit different,” Celestia mentioned and we moved through the Shrine to find a spot that was not quite so open to talk. Once we were sure we had our privacy and there would be no eavesdroppers anywhere near us, she turned back to our new friends. “For you see, we aren’t actually what you see before you. We are ponies in our world.”
“Ponies?” Li Li gasped, stars in her eyes as she wiggled around in my grasp to better look at me. “That foal comment makes a lot more sense now.”
“I’m not a foal anymore,” I pouted, but Li Li only smiled wider. “And no, I’m not going to give you a ride...”
“Aww...” Li Li sighed dejectedly, turning on me with her puppy dog eyes. Chen chuckled as my resolve faltered and I grumbled as I relented to her, not able to stand her assault of cuteness overload for more than a few seconds.
When did I lose my title as Mistress of Cute..? Haah...
“Now, I’m sure we can talk some more while we explore this world a bit longer,” Luna said, drawing the attention to her. “But where should we meet you when it becomes time to leave?”
“Hmm,” Chen mused, stroking his chin with his claws. “I’m sure we could serve as your guides while you are here. That would solve the problem, don’t you think?”
“An excellent idea, my friend!” Starswirl exclaimed. “You would know the best spots around here, don’t you? Where should we go first?”
“Ah, a good question!” Chen answered, looking back over to his niece. “What do you think, Li Li?”
“Well, we were planning to go to the Jade Temple again, right? Why not show them that?” Li Li offered and my sisters and I nodded in acceptance. A temple like that would surely be a serene sight and give us an insight into their culture. “We can take the kites and be there in no time!”
“Kite?” Luna asked, interested in what Chen’s niece meant by that.
Chen chuckled and gave my sister a smile. I must say, he sure was a happy panda most of the time. “It is the primary travel method here in Pandaria. They are perfectly safe, I assure you.”
Chen and Li Li led us out to the massive terrace of the Shrine of Seven Stars and I looked out in horror. The landscape beyond the Shrine was... blighted, I suppose would be the best word to describe it. Blackened earth and dried up riverbed greeted my eyes while Chen looked at it with a sadness I hadn’t seen in him before. The black and dead ground was definitely of magical origin, though. At the edges of the destroyed landscape were white edges that gave me shivers just looking at them and further in I could see more patches of the stuff.
My wife held a hand before her mouth, shocked. “What... what happened here?” Celestia asked, her horrified eyes glued to the sight. Our companions sighed, staring at the ruined part of this land as they led us to one of these kite flight masters.
“The sha happened,” Chen answered grimly. “With the protective mists surrounding this continent gone, the Alliance and the Horde fought over the resources here in their endless fight against each other. What they didn’t know, though, was that this land is different from theirs.”
“How so?” Luna inquired, lost for words. Chen seemed to hesitate for a moment but dredged up enough willpower to continue on. Meanwhile, Li Li and I paid the flight master for a trip to the Jade Forest, in which the Jade Temple was located.
“The sha are remnants of a malignant old god, a being hell-bent on the subjugation and subsequent corruption of the races of this world while it lived,” Chen explained. “The sha are the manifestations of negative emotions, lingering here on this content long after the old god was slain for good. Strong negative emotions attract the sha to mortals like moths to a bright light. They cause... a lot of problems once they infect your mind.”
“Sounds like dark magic,” I muttered, thinking back to Sombra. “It has the same effect.“
“As does all that promises easy power, dear,” Starswirl said. “Dark magic is not the only thing that might corrupt a pony's mind in Equestria. It is best you never learn what the darkness truly hides in a ponies heart.”
“I know what my heart holds,” I shot back, feeling defensive for my other half. Fallen Star wasn’t a monster.
“Not that kind of darkness, dear,” Starswirl reassured me. He placed a comforting hand on my shoulder while Li Li gave me a confused stare. Instead of pushing for an answer, she squeezed my arm reassuringly with one of her paws. “Great strength lies in the bond between us all, but the bond of ponies can be taken advantage of as well.”
I sighed at his crypticness, puzzling over what he meant. I think I had an idea, though, and I felt a bit queasy about it. The herd mentality of our subjects could certainly be influenced in the wrong way, causing a lot of strife. And should somepony influence them in a way that doesn’t have their best interest at heart? I shudder to think of what might happen.
Platinum was a prime example of that, whispering false words to the nobility in an effort to make our lives miserable. If somepony were to spark another war between the three tribes, the eternal winter we had experienced in our foalhood was sure to resurface.
Starswirl and Clover had told us in the beginning years of our education about the true cause of the eternal winter and it left a bitter taste in my mouth. Wendigos were malignant spirits of ponies that couldn't let go of their hatred. They feed on the conflict between magical beings like ponies and so on, slowly freezing the world in the process. I have no doubt that another winter like that might prove fatal to our ponies.
Thankfully, Platinum wasn’t that stupid to incite another rift between the tribes, she was quite aware of what the danger of that would entail. She had almost lost her life to the wendigos once already, she wouldn’t risk having that happen again.
“I can assure you, though, that the pandaren of this land are slowly cleansing this land of their taint,” Chen assured us. “So there is no need to be concerned about this. As long as you don’t fall under the influence of the sha, yourself, you will be fine. Now, while the chance of that happening is greatly reduced, I would still advise you to not let your emotions control you. The prime sha were defeated, but lesser sha still roam this land. Being possessed can be rather... startling.”
“You said they were 'defeated'... not killed?” Celestia asked and Chen shook his head.
“As much as I wish that that were the case, you can’t eradicate negative emotions, Your Highness,” he explained. “Now then, are we ready to depart?”
“Yes, the trip is paid for and the flight master has enough kites ready,” Li Li answered and I set her down on the ground. Then she turned to us with a nervous smile. “Now, don’t be alarmed, they fly a little bit fast.”
“You don’t need to worry about us, little one,” Luna smiled. My sister leaned down to whisper conspiratorially over to her. “We have wings back home and dare I say, Celestia and I are quite adept at flying. Summer... not so much, though.”
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” I grumbled, tired of them rubbing it constantly under my muzzle. “I feel safer at a slower pace, sue me.”
“Wow, what kinda ponies are you?” Li Li gasped in fascination. “I have never seen ones with wings before!”
“Starswirl is a unicorn, a very powerful one at that,” Luna explained, proud of our mentor. “While my sisters and I are alicorns, a combination of all three tribes of ponies. Those are earthponies, unicorns, and pegasi.”
“Whoa!” Li Li exclaimed. “What are earthponies? I've never heard of those before. Oh! Are they like earth elementals?”
My sister giggled. “No, they aren’t elementals. They are ponies that simply lack wings and a horn,” Luna told her. “Although, what they lack in extra appendages, they make up for in strength and the ability to cultivate plants in ways you have never witnessed before. I'm not very good at it, but Summer has a very beautiful garden. I'm sure she will show it to you if you ask nicely.”
“So, you three have all pony characteristics? That is so cool!” Li Li said, hopping up and down a little bit in excitement. “Are you special like that, or are there more of... what did you call them again?”
“Alicorns,” I answered for Luna. I stared at the hovering kite with a little queasiness, the thing looked a bit... fragile? I don't know. It certainly did not look sturdy, but if it could hold Chen comfortably, then it must be enchanted to be more durable. “And yes, I guess you could call us special. We are, as far as we know, the only three living alicorns back in Equestria.”
Li Li hummed with interest and hopped onto the kite in front of me, motioning for me to just get on it. I put my hand on the paper-like surface, testing it unsurely, before I crawled on top of it with an uneasy feeling in my gut. Li Li snickered at the way I sat down behind her, holding her afterward as if my life depended on it.
“You definitely sit like a pony would,” she commented and I rolled my eyes with a huff. I let out a squeak as the damn thing shot off at a pace that blasted the wind into my face in a way that gave me the impression we were dive-bombing toward the ground.
“How can you stand these things?” I shouted over the wind and my young pandaren companion just gave me a shrug. So, I quietly suffered through the journey as the kite flew on a set route to the Jade Temple. At least the sight of the land was nice to behold. The kite flew over the mountain separating the valley from the rest of the continent, passing by a sparkling waterfall and over lush green fields before we entered a completely different part of Pandaria. I smiled in wonder as we flew over an entire forest of bamboo, in between mountainous pillars, and a homey village full of pagoda-style buildings with big, round doors.
As we neared the temple, I frowned sadly at the ruined jade statue of a serpent. Around the destroyed statue, the small island was blackened with the influence of the sha. The few pandaren that were there to clean the mess up that had been left by the conflict between the Horde and Alliance had to work with the protection of their warriors that fended off horrific creatures. Creatures that seemed... wrong. Only glancing at them was enough to make my limbs shiver with an existential fear I had never felt before on such a scale.
I was thankful that I didn’t have to fight these things, I don’t know how long I could have withstood their presence. The sha truly were as monstrous as Chen made them out to be and those were just lesser ones. By the twin suns, I didn’t want to know what a prime sha looked like, or the old god that spawned them. Negative emotions incarnate, indeed.
I’m glad that Equestria was without their influence, tyrant kings and wendigos were already enough as it was. I have no doubt that we would face more of the darkness left behind by the Devourer of Life and Death in our universe (no matter how often I say or think it, that name is still utterly ridiculous). Old gods and their corruption could stay where they are in my opinion.
Our kites flew through the round gate that led to the temple grounds and came to a stop soon afterward, much to my relief. I didn’t look forward to another ride with those things, that’s for sure. Perhaps we could find a kind mage here that knew how to make a portal back to the Shrine or even Dalaran so that I could avoid the rollercoaster that were pandaren kites.
Chen and Li Li were already looking around with smiles as I was doing my best to not hug the ground reverently. Luna rolled her eyes at my antics, letting me hold her arm as I calmed down from the experience of flying on something that had no right to do so in the first place. Seriously, I was tempted to burn the damn thing to ash, it looked nowhere near safe enough.
Of course, Celestia just had to ask the flight master if she could buy one to take home with her and I gave her the stink eye before my eyes caught something very interesting, indeed.
I have to say, these pandaren sure knew how to build with artistry in mind. The temple had a certain theme to it with the depiction of what I could only equate to Chinese dragons. And, you know, and the literal Chinese dragons flying around as if it was completely normal. Seeing that the natives weren’t panicking like headless chickens, I assumed that these dragons were at least docile enough to live peacefully together with the pandaren.
I really wanted to pet one of them...
We followed after Chen as Li Li played the tour guide with gusto, even though she barely knew much of the temple herself. It wasn’t her fault, she didn’t grow up here, after all. It was still cute, though.
“There is someone here that I want to introduce you to,” Chen said, spotting a pandaren in yellow garb going over a few scrolls. Chen called out to his friend, causing him to twitch in a startled panic, fumbling around with the bundle of scrolls in his paws in the hope of catching them before they were damaged.
“Chen, what have I told you about sneaking up on me?!” the pandaren grunted, putting the scrolls safely away and smiling brightly in greeting.
“Ha! I don’t sneak up on you, Cho,” Chen chuckled. “You are just always too deep in thought, my friend!”
“That might be true,” Cho answered, embracing Chen and turning to Li Li with a smile. “And what has this little cub been up to, hmm?”
“We have made some new friends, Lorewalker Cho!” Li Li giggled, pointing over to us. I gave a little wave, one he returned as he eyed us curiously. “They are from a whole different world!”
“Li Li, you don’t go around telling secrets like that,” Chen chided her. His niece looked a bit abashed, muttering an apology before running over to us with a little mischievous grin.
“But the best thing about them is, they are ponies! Can you believe that?” Li Li said, giggling as I put her on my shoulders. “And they are princesses, too!”
“Truly?” Cho asked, coming over to us and shaking our hands enthusiastically. “The knowledge your people must possess! You appear human, though I must say that there is a certain difference there. I have never seen such unique clothing!”
“That is due to a spell on the mirror I made to cross over to your world,” Starswirl explained, catching the attention of Cho. “It transforms us to better fit the world we are in.”
“An interesting use of spell-craft,” Cho said, nodding to himself as he stroked the little beard on his chin. “Perhaps even one-of-a-kind spell-craft. You must truly be a wizard of greatness. I wonder how much of that is part of your ancestry. Knowing one’s ancestors can tell much about the person and where you come from.”
“Well, I’m sure you could bring them to those stones of yours once we are done exploring here,” Chen commented, smiling lazily. “You certainly seem to love using them whenever a stranger crosses your path.”
Lorewalker Cho smiled, seemingly taking no offense to his teasing comment. “You know me too well,” he said and I was left wondering what they meant. I’m sure we will find out soon enough. “Now then, you must be curious to know about this Temple, yes?”
My sisters and I nodded, certainly interested in their obsession with jade and the dragons (who wouldn't be? They're such cuties!). Cho led us up the stairs to the temple courtyard before he started his explanation.
Apparently, the late Emperor Shaohao had long ago trapped the Prime Sha of Doubt in these halls and nowadays it serves as a place of great wisdom with the (I’m not sure if he was serious with this) living library and the scrying pools that the fish-like beings known as ‘jinyu’ use to watch over this continent.
The Order of the Cloud Serpent keeps the peace here in the temple and serves directly under the heavenly being called Yu’lon, one of the four celestials that keep Pandaria safe from harm. Cho also told us that the ruined statue was originally going to be used by her in a way that reminded me of reincarnation. She would pour her essence into it to renew her life cycle, not unlike a phoenix. Just without the ‘bursting-into-flames’ part. With the statue destroyed, though... I'm not sure how she will do so if they can't repair it in a timely fashion.
“Yu’lon is known for her great wisdom and like the other August Celestials, she gave council to Emperor Shaohao, freeing him of his doubt. Perhaps you might be able to find her here,” Cho told us, smiling happily as he lectured us about the history of the Temple of the Jade Serpent and a little bit of the history of Pandaria itself. “To keep his subjects safe from the Burning Legion, the Emperor enveloped the continent in a dense mist that would hide it for ten-thousand years. All so that they would have time to learn what he had learned on his journey to rid himself of his burdens.”[3]
“Oh, oh!” Li Li exclaimed, tapping my head and making me look up at her. “I know the part after that. There was this really old pandaren that had this turtle as a companion and he would always leave from the shores with it. Sometime later, the turtle became the Wandering Isle! Isn’t that neat?”
“Very,” I giggled. Cho chuckled at the exuberant cub on my shoulders as we entered the temple interior. Our group marveled at the sight of the old architecture, and if Lorewalker Cho was to be believed, it was thousands of years old. Pandaren definitely knew how to keep their work from crumbling to dust. The artistry reminded me very much of Chinese temples back on Earth.
“Liu Lang was one of the braver pandaren,” a little cub spoke up as she noticed our conversation. “He was undeterred by the opinion of his peers, having faith in his companion to bring him always to the place he needed to be.”
“You know about the Wandering Isle, too?” Li Li asked, catching the attention of the other cub before us with a wave. I let Li Li carefully down from my shoulders and the enthusiastic cub ran over to her newest friend, clasping their paws together. “Let’s be friends, okay? Chen and I always make friends wherever we go. My name is Li Li.”
The other cub gave her a gentle and kind smile. “I have heard great tales of your exploits, Chen and Li Li Stormstout,” she said and I got the impression that she wasn’t exactly the age she appeared to be. No little child spoke in such a manner. Nor do they act so mature at that age. “I would be pleased to count you among my friends, I am Fei.”
“A nice name,” I commented with a smile, crouching down next to her so she didn’t have to look up so high. “I am here with my sisters and mentor, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Fei. You strike me as a mature cub, but I have to ask, where are your parents? Surely you wouldn’t have run away from them?”
“My parents?” Fei asked and I could swear she was as amused as she was confused about my concerned question. “I don’t believe I have gotten your name yet? I assure you, I am quite capable of looking after myself.”
“I suppose a temple is at least safe enough for a cub as mature as you, Fei,” I smiled, petting her head affectionately. “My name is Summer, these are my sisters Celestia and Luna, and that old man over there is my mentor, Starswirl.”
“They are princesses!” Li Li commented in a stage whisper and Fei looked at us with a raised brow, eyeing my clothes in particular. Haah... I would be skeptical, too. Stupid slutty, phoenix outfit. “They come from...”
“Li Li, what have I told you about secrets?” Chen grumbled, reaching down to take her into his arms. She giggled nervously, apologizing to us for almost giving away our origin again. I smiled fondly, not perturbed in the slightest. She was just excited about it, after all.
“Princesses,” Fei whispered, blushing slightly as I continued to stroke her hair. It was really soft and pretty. I wonder if she would let me scratch her behind the ear? “It has been quite some time since I have been in the presence of royalty. The young prince that had been here recently was a delight to talk to.”
“Young?” Luna muttered, confused. Meanwhile, I was more interested in the prince that she mentioned. That, and making her melt underneath my expert touch.
“Prince?” I asked and Fei nodded, smiling fondly at the memory.
“Yes, Prince Anduin Wrynn of the proud Kingdom of Stormwind,” she told us. “He is a human and perhaps just as enamored with our home as you are. Unlike him, though, I can’t say you share the same presence as his race. What are you?”
“What do you mean?” Celestia asked, getting defensive. “We are humans.”
“No, you most certainly are not,” Fei simply stated and I felt a bit awkward as Luna dragged me away from the little cub as she gave her a suspicious stare.
“Who are you?” Luna asked, holding a hand out in front of me to keep me away from her. “You aren’t what you appear as, either. Or am I wrong? That comment about a ‘young’ prince... a cub wouldn't word it like that.”
Fei smiled as she found herself under the scrutiny of my sisters, Starswirl, and our new friends. By his unconcerned behavior, I think Cho might have known something that we didn’t.
“I see that you are more perceptive than your siblings,” Fei said, regarding Luna with kind eyes that belied her physical age. They looked almost... ancient. “Great wisdom lies in those that don’t hide from the things their eyes might not see.”
As she said that, something on a fundamental level changed about her. A presence unlike anything I have ever felt surrounded the little pandaren cub. It wasn’t suffocating to be in, though. No. It was rather like a warm blanket, comforting me in a sense that couldn’t entirely be put into words.
Whereas the aura of my sisters and I was more like a heavy pressure if we weren’t careful in how we contained it, Fei's aura was like a soft caress of a mother looking out for their child. And the power that I felt in that presence was infinitely more powerful than that of ours combined.
A cloud of smoke enveloped the being before us and both of my sisters summoned their weapons warily. I was about to say something when the smoke cleared away as if it had never been there in the first place. And what it revealed was something much bigger than we could ever hope to be.
I stared up, speechless as I beheld the heavenly being before my eyes. She stared down at us with the serenity that I could only hope to achieve someday on my own. Her jade body gave off a mystical glow not unlike what our hair in our own dimension gave off, white light illuminating the little bit of fur she had on some parts of her body. And an ethereal waving mist could be seen leaving from the side of her head while the tips of her horns faded from jade to pure white color.
“I apologize for the deception,” Yu’lon the Jade Serpent, August Celestial of Wisdom, said with an incredibly gentle voice as she floated before us. She was absolutely massive in her true form and just being in her presence put my soul at ease. “I can see that you have kind souls, though there is something that must be addressed.”
The next moment, I felt like I was choking on the air itself as an uneasy feeling welled up in my gut. I fell to the ground, barely noticing that the same happened to Celestia and Luna. Yu’lon stared at us sadly as we writhed on the ground, Starswirl screaming at her to stop whatever it was she was doing to us.
And then, a tar-like substance seeped out of me, reforming moments later in a facsimile of my body, looking gray and sinister. The clone resembling me opened her sinister glowing red eyes before admiring its twisted body it just received.
“Such darkness,” Yu’lon mourned. “What has brought it about, I wonder?”
The clone of myself stretched her hand out and in a fiery flash, it held my weapon in its hands. I stared in horror as I heaved more air into my lungs, seeing it twirl my sword around casually. I noticed that the clones of my sisters appeared similar to my own, having taken control of our weapons. I tried to will Remorse into my hands, but my weapon refused my call.
Yu'lon almost seemed to sneer as she floated around them. “Let us see their true forms,” the August Celestial said and after a flare of power squeezing them harshly, the clones bubbled like tar before they reformed into our natural bodies (if they were entirely white and gray, that is). “So much self-doubt. All of this pride. The fear and despair... and the anger, the hatred. A truly saddening sight...”
“How dare you...” Celestia grunted, eyes blazing with power as she heaved herself up onto her wobbly feet. “I will show you pride and anger..!”
My twin raised her hand, not even caring how much raw power she put into the flames of her magefire as she mixed solar magic into the cocktail of volatile arcane power. A beam cut through the distance in milliseconds, blasting a hole through her clone and the wall behind it, continuing on well into the atmosphere of this planet.
“Such aggression,” Yu’lon said as she let out a mournful hum while staring at the path of destruction my twin wrought. She turned back to Celestia and my sister grimaced at the sympathetic look she gave her. “What has made you like that? There are scars of the emotional kind on your soul. Tell me about them, child. Don’t let this hatred fester.”
“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Celestia snarled. “The great and wise Yu’lon, perfect in every way.”
Yu'lon shook her head. “I am not perfect,” she answered, a heavy weight in her voice. “Nothing is, child. That is a lesson we all have to learn at some point.”
“From where I stand, you certainly seem that way,” Celestia growled and raised a hand with another spell ready to do whatever her enraged mind was ready to do. I leaped into action, throwing myself at her in a desperate attempt to save Yu’lon from her wrath.
Turns out, it wasn’t a spell that was meant to attack, but one to muffle the sounds of the words spoken between her and Yu’lon, now myself included. Yu’lon watched on in curiosity as Tia and I fell back to the ground. I looked at my wife in concern as she started to weep right in front of an audience.
“I try to be the perfect princess, day in and day out. Try to be strong and put on a façade that nothing is wrong!” Tia cried out and together with Luna, I comforted her even though my little sister couldn’t hear a word from her mouth. I think Tia was under the assumption that I couldn’t, either. “The damn world, on the other hoof, just keeps on taking away and away what I hold dear. You know... I killed my parents while I was a child...”
“You killed them?” Yu’lon asked, unsure if she heard correctly and I wasn’t so sure if I had misheard her, either. I... I never knew. “Why did you do so?”
“They were monsters,” Tia muttered, a hollow look on her face that I had seen a few times on her face before. I... I never could have imagined that this might have been the reason for her pain. “My father, my original one, not my pony father... he had his way with me so often, I can’t remember when it started. Every day he would come to me and... do these things. He gave me no choice, threatening to b-beat me i-if I... if I didn't let him. And then he would pummel me regardless because I wasn't fucking wet enough for him to... to..."—she grimaced as if in pain and my hurt sunk even further at that—" it wasn't until I started bleeding that he would stop and leave me in the cold basement as a punishment.
"He took advantage of me every day, telling me to stop crying like a weakling. The ass valued strength above everything and he took anything he wanted because he could. No one even attempted to stop him because he had a whole syndicate backing him up and... and my original 'mother' was totally indifferent to what he did while he molested me until I started to crave his depraved touch. What sort of person likes that?!”
“Oh, child...” Yu’lon sighed mournfully. “To go through such a terrifying thing, I weep for what he has done to you.”
“I... I don’t need your fucking pity,” Celestia snarled, struggling against Luna as she got angry at Yu’lon again. “I fucking killed them so my sister was safe from them, so she didn’t have to become like me. I killed them and their whole fucking clan so they couldn't terrorize more people. I killed them so my only light in the world wouldn't fall into the same dark pit as I did. I am nothing more than a perverted lunatic that can’t stop but crave sex even after what my own 'father' has done to me. He conditioned me into a horny, sex-obsessed slut.”
“Even if that is so, a lover’s touch is quite different from one that holds malicious intent, little one,” Yu’lon told her gently. “I imagine that your love for your siblings is genuinely that and not the remnant of the actions your 'guardian' had taken against you.”
“How do you know about me and my siblings?” Celestia asked, her tone changing to a fearful whisper.
“Child, I am old,” Yu’lon laughed, her voice almost angelic in quality. “I know how a lover acts around the ones they treasure most and how they look at them. Yes, you do love them from the bottom of your heart. As crass as your actions might have been, they spoke of a certain "—her eyes twinkled with mirth—"protectiveness. There is little to nothing you wouldn't do to know them safe. Hold onto that, little one, for life can be fleeting even to those that may not expect it.”
“Right, just the thing for a ten-thousand-year-old immortal to say...” Tia muttered tiredly. Yu’lon shook her head, her smile becoming rueful.
“I am not immortal, child,” Yu’lon said. “Lei Shen has proven that to be the case... I continue to grow weaker and my time will come one day, should I not have another vessel be made in time.”
"Oh..." Celestia whispered. “I... I’m sorry for assuming...”
Yu’lon floated down a little bit closer to my twin while Luna gave me a quizzical look as I was unable to stop the tears from flowing. The August Celestial nudged my sister slightly, giving her a reassuring nuzzle.
“Don’t be sorry for something like that, little one,” she told her with a gentle tone. “It has been eons since my natural body died. I dearly hope you won’t ever have to resort to such a life like mine, child. Treasure that which you have, promise me that.”
“I... I will,” Celestia nodded, her gaze turning to me before she went pale. “Sister?”
“I’m sorry for not saying anything,” I mumbled, my lips trembling heavily as I tried my hardest to not start sobbing right then and there. “I... Tia, I...”
“Summer...” she sighed and I sobbed into her chest as she embraced me tightly, her own tears falling down on my head. “It’s okay, I... I have dealt with this for all my life... well, lives... I didn’t want to burden you and Lulu with my screwed-up head.”
“How can you think that?!” I shrieked, hitting her as I started sobbing harder. “H-how can you think that w-we wouldn’t want t-to... to... to h-help you carry s-such a burden?!”
“Summer, calm down,” Celestia said, rubbing my back while Luna gave Tia a glare because she still couldn’t hear what was going on. Starswirl was by the side with Chen, Li Li, and Cho, staring at us with concern. I felt a little nudge at my side and I looked to see what appeared to be a mini-Yu’lon. Confused, I looked back up to where Yu’lon continued to float and turned my gaze back down as the little version of her gave a small chirp.
“It seems there is another one that wants you to smile again, little one,” Yu’lon stated, smiling as the, I assume, child of her nuzzled my leg while looking at me sadly. “She seems quite enamored with you.”
“What?” I asked in confusion as the little serpent flitted around me in a stunning display of dexterity, managing to make the tiniest smile appear on my face in amusement of her antics.
Celestia smiled slightly next to me as the little one did her best to cheer us up. Then, her expression turned hesitant and mournful before she let out a rueful sigh. “Summer, I don’t want this to get between us, do you understand?” she told me, her eyes pleading with me. “Please, trust me when I say that I don’t think about him when I am with you, okay? I never did.”
“But you said...” I mumbled, my emotions all over the place as they tried to fight for control. “You said that you only crave sex so much because of what he did..:”
My wife gave an unladylike grunt and glared at nothing in particular. “He might have made me into a perverted nymphomaniac, but that does not mean that what we have with each other is based on a lie. No, you gave me something that swine never could. You gave me love, Sunshine. Pure, unconditional, and unadulterated love.
"Sure, I might have been selfish at first, especially when I got the idea to ask you out before my sister, but... I never viewed you as an outlet to deal with my 'condition'. I never once treated you as a replacement to have sex with. I genuinely felt attracted to you because you were so kind and generous. Honestly, who wouldn't fall for a nerdy, bleeding heart like you?
"Our rebirth has done a great deal to mend these wounds and I'm glad I have you by my side. Both you and Luna,” she explained. “And while you can’t stand being in a remotely male body for even a second, my body doesn’t remember his touch like my old human body did. Besides, the only time I really go sex-crazy anymore is when we are in heat and you know just as much as I do that that is very different from when we have fun while not influenced by our heat.”
“I... but...” I sighed in defeat. “You just can’t help it, can you?”
“What do you mean?” Celestia asked, giving me a puzzled look. I rested my head against her chest while slowly stroking the little serpent with a hand.
“Making me fall in love with you all over again,” I mumbled. “You just have a way to make me agree to anything you say, despite me wanting to keep arguing. That’s also why you were so insistent on me wearing clothes this morning, right? As slutty as they look, they are decent 'enough' to not get me raped by the first person that I come across.”
“Duh,” she giggled, poking my nose. I went cross-eyed, smiling contentedly. “But I also meant what I said. Only Lulu and I are allowed to molest you. And you really aren't making it easy on me to not grope you right now.”
“At least now I know why you are so perverted,” I said while looking into those sparkling pale magenta eyes of hers. I could lose myself in them for eternity. “I can't say I approve of the reason why, though...”
“Summer, my love, I’m a broken mare,” she whispered, her expression starting to show a little shame despite her best efforts to hide it. “But I am healing. I even thought I might have fully healed, thanks to you and Luna helping me, but it seems I’m not quite done yet.”
“One might never fully heal from such scars, little one,” Yu’lon spoke up, her tone a lamenting one. “I know that quite well, myself. After I was first slain, it took me all of my willpower to help the pandaren under my care to not fall prey to Lei Shen and his army. I gave them the wisdom and hope they needed to free themselves of his cruel grasp and keep their freedom, eventually giving them the chance to liberate the rest of their kin from the Thunder King.”
“It must have been so hopeless,” Celestia said and Yu’lon gave a small laugh as she smiled watching her daughter wrap herself around me and over my shoulder, licking my cheek with a draconic purr (it sounded somewhat like a growl but more pleasant and happy?). The small cloud serpent was really intent on making me giggle as much as she could.
“On the surface, it might have appeared like all hope was lost,” she agreed with a nod. “But that is the thing about hope, little one. It is the very last thing that leaves us and can be easily sparked again. Hope never truly dies, only our belief in it. And even then, that is never permanently gone. All intelligent life strives to live because they have hope.”
I thought of the Elements of Harmony and had to smile. In a way, Yu’lon was right. Hope and her siblings had never truly left the world after they sacrificed themselves, always being there in the time of need in one form or another. While they couldn’t interact with the world, they continued to hold vigil over it. They continued to live because they had hope.
“Now, I grow weary and your sisters have yet to face their own inner conflict plaguing them,” Yu’lon said, changing back into the cub we had seen before. She looked so very tired as she sat down on the ground and the little serpent that had draped herself over me floated over to her, nuzzling her mother softly. “I’m alright, Yu’la. I'm alright. Nothing a little bit of sleep won’t fix.”
“Are you sure?” I asked as I knelt down beside her. Yu’lon gave me a nod and her daughter gave her a lick on the cheek, too. I couldn't help but giggle at their interaction, it warmed my heart. They were so cute together!
“Yu’la sometimes can’t stop fussing over the ones she likes,” she told me, nudging the little one over to me. “Ever since I breathed life into the jade statue that would become her, she has only ever bonded with myself. I fear I can’t keep taking care of her for long, though.”
“Why?” I asked, saddened by what she was telling me while Celestia’s spell was still active. I assume she wanted to make full use of the privacy while she could, but I couldn’t understand why she would be telling me this.
“Child, this might very well be the last life I will be granted,” Yu’lon explained. “With the statue for my rebirth destroyed and my death drawing nearer, I might not be able to breathe life into my successor.”
“But, aren’t you still you?” I asked, confused. “You do remember your past, right?”
“It is more like looking upon a story in a book, little one,” she told me, her ancient eyes betraying that statement. “While I might still be me, it is another that continues on, never being quite the same.”
“That sounds so sad. I wish I could help you...”
“I have lived this life for eons, with each regeneration continuing to guide the pandaren of this land,” she said before reaching out a paw to tenderly wipe away my tears. “Now, stop crying over something that you cannot change. Life has so much to offer to only concentrate on the bad things, don’t you think?”
“You truly are the Spirit of Wisdom,” I smiled. Yu’lon smiled in return, although it was a very humble one.
“I can feel the connection you have to life, so don’t squander such a gift, little one,” Yu’lon told me and I got the impression she meant my gift that let me talk to animals. “Each one deserves to be nurtured and loved. I can think of no better guardian for Yu’la. Please, take care of her for me.”
I stared at her in bewilderment and watched as Yu’la let out a little yawn. “I... but won’t you miss her?”
Yu'lon smiled in a sad but happy way. “As would any mother, child,” she told me. “But I would rest easier if I knew her to be with someone that will keep her safe. She will be a companion that will stay with you through eternity.”
“And how do you know that I won’t die of age?”
“You will get a sense for that as you get older, little one,” she explained while her eyes twinkled cryptically. “A higher being knows when they are in the presence of another. Even without the aura to prove it.”
“I still don’t feel like I should be granted such an honor to look after your own child...” I sighed, although my heart begged me to simply accept it and be the best possible surrogate mother I could be. Perhaps it was empty nest syndrome or I was just that much of a bleeding heart. Possibly a combination of both, if I was honest with myself. I really do miss my children.
Yu’lon laughed a bit, unconcerned with my bout of self-doubt. “No one ever feels entirely worthy of such a thing. We can only strive to do our best, in the end.”
“I guess...” I muttered. I looked over to where the grayish version of my pony body stood, not having moved an inch as the doppelganger stared directly into my soul. Even tired as she was, Yu'lon's presence kept it rooted in place. “I think it is time to face my own fears, then.”
“Indeed it is, child,” Yu’lon agreed. “Don’t let your doubts cloud your judgment. Be true to yourself and I have the utmost trust in you that you will become a fine princess in time. I know they will hold you in high regard.”
“But, what if I fail them?” I asked, uncertainty making me fidget uneasily. That was exactly what I feared, them looking up at me like I was on a pedestal and then screwing everything up in a spectacular way.
“Then pick yourself up and try again,” she stated simply. I sighed, not feeling any better about it, but I guess you can’t simply shake your own doubts away at a moment’s notice.
It was the same with my misgivings about Tia's past. I would have to learn how to look at her in the same way I always did with the added knowledge of the atrocities committed against her. One step at a time, Summer. One step at a time. You can do this.
As I readied myself against what could only be the sha representation of myself, I looked deep within myself and thought about it more thoroughly. I knew that I couldn’t just put away all my doubts about the future, but what I could do, on the other hoof, was to accept them for what they are.
I might make mistakes every once in a while like I did with Sombra for example. I needed to accept that I could only try my best to avoid them moving forward, and if not, correct them afterward. As Yu’lon had told Celestia, nocreature was perfect and I didn’t need to be. While Tia might be a bit prideful from time to time, she had learned her lesson about not having to be perfect for the sake of Luna and me.
So, I learned my lesson about my fear of making mistakes and my habit of doubting myself, gaining a little bit of confidence. Not so much that I thought I could do anything and do no wrong, but just enough to learn to live with my doubts not weighing me constantly down. To not live in endless fear and cowardice. And I learned another lesson that I probably should have learned a long time ago.
It was okay to not want to use the transformation spell on myself and be a little bit selfish. What mattered was that I could live with myself without hating what my body felt like, be it human or pony. I didn’t have to be selfless for the sake of pleasing my sisters all the time. It was okay to say no when I felt like it was the right thing to say.
And it was okay to accept guardianship over little Yu’la if that was what her mother wanted of me.
As I reached out to the font of my magical energies, drawing forth the faint connection to my sun through the dimensional gate, I told my sword in no uncertain terms to get over to me and obey. The black and white Summer struggled against my command, trying to keep the sword to herself, but ultimately lost against me as I demanded Remorse to stay loyal to its mistress.
The sword answered my call and Negative-Summer was powerless as I cleaved her in half. The clone dissolved into smoke and for the first time in all of my two lives, I felt completely at peace with myself. I have overcome my hatred of my old gender (somewhat at least) and accepted that I might have fears and doubts here and there about things that might very well be out of my control at times.
Li Li cheered for me and I smiled gracefully, making a little curtsey as I felt the spell Celestia had cast dissipate fully from my body. Luna looked at her clone unsurely and I went over to her to give her a hug. “There is nothing to be afraid of, Lulu.”
My sister frowned with uncertainty. “That is so easy to say, isn’t it?” she shot back, narrowing her eyes at me. “What was it that you and Tia talked about?”
“That is something for Celestia to tell,” I said, resting my head on top of hers. “Now, tell me what it is you fear so much? What has gotten you in despair?”
“You should know that better than anypony else, Summer,” Luna sighed. “The future.”
“Hm. You do have a point there, Lulu,” I nodded, swaying a bit from side to side as I let out a hum. “I can’t give you an answer as to how it will look and I’m sure Tia would say the same thing to you, but then she might have the odd few visions here and there, so I'm not sure. What I can say, though, is that you shouldn't let it overwhelm you.”
“Wow. That’s not something I ever expected to hear from you of all ponies, sister,” Luna muttered. “I fear so many things about the future, but at the same time, I look forward to it. Is that weird?”
“No...” I reassured her, feeling quite similarly about it. “I know what that feels like and it is downright terrifying at times. But as I learned, living in uncertainty and doubting yourself all the time won’t do you any good. We will have to take on the future on a day-to-day basis and plan accordingly to the best of our ability as a long-term solution. Live in the here and now, but don’t lose sight of what has yet to come.”
My beautiful Moon let out a snort and nudged me playfully. “Who are you and what have you done with the real Summer?” Luna joked and I giggled. She squeezed me a bit tighter before she let go of me in order to face her own clone. I went over to my twin, Chen, Li Li, Starswirl, and Lorewalker Cho as Lulu made short work of the representation of her own negative emotions that still lingered in her to this day.
It seems it was a good idea to come here to Pandaria (or Azeroth in general). While the invasion from the alternate Draenor was still something that weighed quite heavily on my mind, it was nice to feel this burden of self-doubt, fear, and anxiety be gone at last. Mostly, I suppose. Something like that isn’t gone forever, sadly. But I could aspire to never let it weigh me down as much from this point onward.
Tia stretched out her arms, only to inconspicuously drag me into a hug and grope me. “I think we should make our way back home tomorrow morning,” she said while I tried to hide my blush. She did the same thing with Luna as she came over to rejoin the group, grinning impishly. “This little journey has been... 'tiring', to say the least.”
Or what she really meant: I wanna go home so I can molest my wives to my heart's content. She did have a point, though. I could sleep for a week straight, I swear.
Starswirl gave her an unreadable look before he nodded. “As you wish, Princess,” he said. “Now, Chen, Li Li, do you have any unfinished business here?”
“No, we don’t,” Chen answered with his perpetual lazy smile, but then he pointed over to his friend, Lorewalker Cho. The history enthusiast looked very eager to have just a little bit more of our time. “There is someone that might want to show you something, though.”
“Yes,” Cho smiled. “I assure you, it’s not too far from here.”
“Then let me allow you to bring you there,” Yu’lon said and I frowned in concern as she transformed back into her serpentine form. “One little journey won’t hurt me, little one.”
I sighed, accepting her offer to fly us to where Cho wanted to go with us. At least flying on her back was a bit more pleasant than the damn pandaren kites. The flight over to the little circle with the stones that had the native’s writing on them was indeed a short one. It would have taken us some time had we walked, though.
I said my goodbye to the August Celestial, giving her a tearful hug in gratitude and promising her that I would take care of Yu’la as best as I could. She gave me her own thanks before she gave Yu’la a final nuzzle and departed afterward. I could tell she didn't want to make this any more difficult than it had to be and I wasn’t sure how to feel about that while Yu'la curled herself around my neck with a big, tired yawn, so I concentrated more on what Cho was doing.
The pandaren in the yellow and orange garb was lighting some incense, telling the story of the pandaren as a magical fog appeared, showing some of the pandaren of old and how they regained their freedom from their mogu masters. I couldn’t even begin to describe what those bipedal beings resembled. If anything, they had a strange resemblance to dogs, I guess. Big, grumpy, muscular dogs without snouts. Among those was also the Thunder King Lei Shen, perhaps the most despicable mogu of them all.
He built an entire empire upon slavery... I’m glad that that monster had been dealt with and that he was unsuccessful in killing Yu’lon (even though the end of her time was sadly approaching her). I hope she will find a way to avoid her death, it would be a great loss to this world and to Yu’la, in particular. And to me, as well. While I don't know her too well, she had this kind, grandmotherly feel to her that I was just drawn towards. I wish I could spend more time with her, there's so much I could learn from her...
Anyway, Cho told my twin to light her side next. Celestia shrugged, going along with it as she went over to the little shrine made of gray stone. I was wondering what would appear for us...
A bit of fog started to appear again, but this time we watched featureless ponies appear instead of pandaren. What was interesting, though, was the fact that they were alicorns. I suppose each tribe had its own vast history and it only showed ours. Lorewalker Cho hummed thoughtfully as he began to study them.
“A noble race you hail from,” he said, sounding impressed. “Holding within them the expertise to influence entire ideals to their whims. But they do not abuse their power. No, they take great care of what they burden themselves with, just as I can tell that you do so as well. I see why they call you alicorns, it is a terrible burden to uphold.
“But that is not all there is to it, as it seems. No. Far from it. There has been a frightening price paid to keep your people safe. Great darkness threatened the very life of your reality. Oh, dear. And an equally great sacrifice had to be made to get rid of it. A truly noble thing to do.”
I stared at the image that had replaced the first, shuddering as I looked at the representation of what could only be the Devourer of Life and Death. The thing had maws with sharp needle-like teeth all over its body, eyes protruding from in between or even from within the maws as tentacle-like appendages grasped at planets like they were toys, shoving them down its ‘throat’ to sate a hunger that could never be sated.
Facing the abomination a ways off from the planet they had sworn themselves to protect were the seven featureless alicorns I knew must have been Hope and her siblings. Bands of ribbon-like lights connected them to each other as they channeled their very beings into the spell that would destroy the threat to the universe itself.
It was a saddening sight, seeing them float there as they stared their end in its face and did the only thing to save everything they held dear. I hope I won’t ever have to face something so terrifying. The eldritch horror bore quite some resemblance to what our new friends had told us of the 'Old Gods' of this world, only way more threatening and sinister with its sheer size in comparison to the planets it casually devoured.
“It was truly inspiring to meet you,” Cho said, throwing me out of my musings as the fog started to dissipate, and with it, the horrific scene of their last stand. “Maybe we will meet one day again? Learn from the wisdom of your ancestors, Your Highnesses.”
Celestia bowed her head gracefully in respect. “Thank you, Lorewalker Cho,” she said. I don't know how she did it, but she made smiling serenely look so effortless and easy. “Perhaps one day we will come back to Azeroth.”
“Safe travels,” Cho bowed and waved before walking back along the path.
“Well, that was interesting!” Li Li exclaimed with a grin. “So... when do we get to go to Ponyland?”
“Li Li...” Chen sighed, chuckling lightly to himself as he grabbed her and set her on his shoulder, holding onto her so she didn’t fall off. “Patience.”
“Yeah, yeah, Uncle Chen,” she pouted and I giggled.
“It might take me a few tries, but the spell for the portal to Dalaran shouldn’t be that much different from what I’m used to,” Starswirl said, drawing Li Li’s attention.
“What are you waiting for then? Go on, do your thing, wizard!” she snickered. “I always wanted to say that.”
“Behave yourself, Li Li,” Chen chided her. “What have I told you?”
Li Li rolled her eyes. “I am only allowed to come with you to Ponyland if I behave myself,” she repeated his earlier words, making a hidden gesture in a mocking way that mimicked the words she spoke. Luna and I had to do our best to not start laughing while Tia smiled good-naturedly. Li Li certainly grew on one’s heart after a while and I began to understand why Chen traveled with her so much.
The little panda cub was just too irresistible to not take her with you while traveling around the world.
Before long, Starswirl had a wobbly portal open and we moved through it warily. For his first attempt at creating it at will and actually managing to bring us to the right place, it was pretty good. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do that myself. I even doubted Tia would have been successful on the first try, either.
Archmage Modera was there to greet us and so was Khadgar, much to our surprise. He couldn’t stay for long, though, as he had a busy schedule of establishing a foothold in the alternate Draenor together with the Alliance and the Horde. Khadgar was (as I understood it) a neutral party between both factions and considering the threat presented by the orcs on Draenor and what might possibly be on the way there, it was a good thing that the two factions were at least working together for now.
I have no doubt they would be at each other’s throats once this was over with, though. The things I have heard so far about the Alliance and Horde don’t paint the brightest pictures.
We had a nice little dinner with Khadgar and Modera, Chen actually had met both of them before and was having a blast drinking Khadgar under the table. I was suspecting Khadgar of foul play, though, as he didn’t seem to get intoxicated at all from what he was drinking. And I definitely had no idea where Chen was putting all of that liquid, it seemingly disappeared in his stomach like a black hole.
Before we retired, Celestia dragged me and Luna out to Dalaran’s streets to explore the shops and maybe get a souvenir or two. I left Yu’la with Li Li, the little dragon having nodded off during dinner. While we were out in the city, my sisters were almost stuck in the little workshop belonging to the gnomes and goblins full of weird contraptions (and explosives that were totally safe... insert sarcastic eye roll here), not wanting to leave until they knew all of their darkest secrets. I let out a suffering sigh as I wondered why I couldn’t have wives that were more into fancy things instead of icky grease and stuff.
I told Celestia in no uncertain words that she couldn’t have a chopper of her own, dragging her away by her ear. The kite was enough already. By everything holy, I was done with this workshop and I would get to see that Magical Menagerie before it closed for the day. That, I swear. Nothing could keep me away from it, not even my idiotic sisters.
And oh my gosh, it was the bestestest place I have ever laid eyes upon. The lady standing in front of the shop promoting their business had a friggin’ mammoth standing right next to her as if it was a normal thing. I just wish I could take it home with me. Alas, I had to contend myself with petting the hell out of it, much to the amusement of Mei Francis, the lady wearing a purple shirt and hat that was the owner of this little cutie (she was apparently an expert on everything that could wear a saddle).
I giggled as the mammoth had the time of its life as I gave it belly rubs, much to the confusion of Mei as it had never let her do that before. By how vocal the mammoth was about what I was doing to it, it didn’t want me to go away, either. I simply couldn’t stop running my hands through its thick, wooly fur. It just felt so fluffy and soft and fluffy. So fluffy...
My fun came to an end not long after I caused a scene by making the mammoth melt into a puddle of bliss, the citizens living here giving me a disbelieving stare as my sisters dragged me away from Manny the Mammoth.
It was getting darker, so I wasn’t entirely disappointed that my fun was disrupted. And, much more importantly, Starswirl didn’t notice us sneaking into the same bedroom. Luna and Tia had to keep their hands over my mouth as I was prone to giggle while doing something that our mentor obviously didn’t want us to do. Like sneaking past his open doorway as he read totally engrossed from what appeared to be a thick tome about the magic of Azeroth.
He was also muttering things to himself as he wrote down notes like a crazy wizard. I don’t think he would have heard me giggle, but my sisters kept me silenced as we crept past his room nonetheless.
“Tia, shouldn’t you tell Lulu about... that... first?” I whispered once we were safe from curious ears, watching her suspiciously as she went over to the bed with a little spring in her steps. She turned to me and frowned, biting her lip as she eyed Luna hesitantly.
“This is about the thing that you talked about with Yu’lon, isn’t it?” Luna asked and I nodded. Luna gave my twin an expectant stare, practically telling her she wouldn’t be having any sex with her until she spilled the beans.
Celestia muttered something under her breath as she took a pillow and hugged it close to her chest. It was clear that she was reluctant in sharing this with our little sister, but she forced herself to speak about it in the end. I felt a little bad about making her share such a dark part of her past, talking about it in more detail than she had with Yu’lon that I didn’t even want to remember most of the things she had to endure.
It was gruesome, to say the least. Her father was a true monster that, should I ever find him (whether his reincarnated self or by finding Earth before Tia killed him), I promised to myself that I wouldn’t show him the least amount of mercy and devour his soul on sight. And that would still be a mercy, I suppose.
Luna was understandably horrified by what she learned that night, cuddling up to Tia mournfully as she was left speechless by the end of the explanation. I cuddled up against Celestia on her other side like Lulu during her recount, resting my head on her shoulder.
Celestia did her best to keep her emotions out of her voice as she stoically made the thing sound like it happened to somepony else, trying to distance herself from the idea that her perverted nature was only a byproduct of what happened so long ago.
Just like myself, Luna was hesitant to accept that Celestia still insisted on our fun time despite what we felt about it. It was hard to understand why Tia still wanted sex after what her ‘father’, her original one, had done to her (scum like him doesn't deserve that title). But, as Tia explained it more and more, Luna and I slowly understood her reasoning behind that decision.
We made her forget what happened and gave her new, and more importantly, better memories to focus on. As Yu’lon had said, a lover’s touch is quite different in that regard. Tia associated sex with pleasure not because of what that monster changed her into, but because of what we did together as part of our love for each other. She told me as much, but... it was all a bit much to take in at the time. A part of me still felt unable to get over the idea of her being entirely genuine, in that regard. As if she was lying to herself in order to live with herself.
Another part, a much larger one, felt touched that she trusted Luna and me so implicitly to lay her heart bare to us. Even with the nagging thought that I wasn't entirely comfortable with her nymphomania because of this atrocious background, I took comfort in the fact that she was the one who happily takes charge of the dominant role in our relationship.
I guess I really was a sub at heart. Anything to take away the reminders of being the abused one was a plus in my book.
“So... now that you know all of this, please don’t stop having sex with me,” Celestia whispered, sounding afraid. “I... I can’t live without it. Not because of what he did... but because I love you so much that I can’t imagine myself not having two wonderful sisters to molest...”
Luna snorted as Tia just ruined the moment with her last sentence by making it sound perverted. I giggled, blushing brightly as I felt a hand grope one of my huge teats that were probably not that huge at all judging by the standards of this world. Well, in comparison to what my teats normally looked like, they certainly came across as huge to me now.
“I can’t say that I won’t feel awkward about it for a while,” Luna said, staring up at her while Celestia continued to let her hands wander across our bodies. “But I will do my best to think past this... I... I have to thank you for sparing me from what you had to go through, Tia. I prefer having grown up in an orphanage over such a despicable thing. I never knew our family... no, those cretins were the leaders of the infamous 'Blessed' Raven Crime Syndicate. It certainly explains a few things... It's no wonder you were so eager to get your name changed with the wedding.”
“Lulu, I would tear the world apart for you. For both of you,” Celestia told her, an odd gleam in her eyes. “I’m the big sister, aren’t I? I’m supposed to keep you safe, so stop thinking about it so much, and let me have some fun molesting you while we look like this, hmm?”
“You know, as inappropriate as the sentiment is, I suppose you’re right,” Luna sighed. “It’s in the past so we should put this behind us. We can’t change what happened, so let’s not focus on what happened and focus on what has yet to come." Then, she gave her a glare. "You are still going to sleep on the couch for having kept this a secret for so long, though.”
“Oh, come on, Lulu...” Celestia groaned and I giggled while Luna let out a snicker. “I’m so going to tease you until you beg me to fuck your brain out, you know that right~?”
“Is that a challenge?” Luna smirked and Celestia smiled back mischievously. With one swift motion, Celestia had her pinned underneath herself, trapping her body by grabbing Lulu's arms as she looked down at her with a seductive glint in her eyes.
“It’s a promise,” she whispered back and I contented myself with watching them as they fought for dominance over each other. I felt my nethers moisten simply from watching them both practically rip their clothing from their bodies in a mad dash to get the other naked first. “And you know I keep those~...”
Tia was victorious as she had Luna at her mercy, placing teasing kisses on her chin and nipping at her lips while trailing her fingers softly over her chest. She grinned as Luna whimpered cutely and I bit my lip, secretly starting to finger my sopping wet pussy, my clothes long since discarded in the corner of the room where they belonged.
My twin called forth her magic as she bound Luna with arcane bindings to the bed frame, putting them on so tight that she couldn’t move at all. My eyes almost popped out of my skull as she used her panties as a blindfold for Luna and I let out a moan at the kinky sight. Damn, sometimes Tia really was shameless.
And I friggin’ loved it as Lulu was mewling out her pleasure to the heavens on top of that. Celestia gave me a look, asking for one particular spell and I cast it in no time at all, making the transformation last for a few hours at the most. I have to say, even as a human, she looked friggin’ sexy as hell with both parts.
My nose started bleeding as the pony-shaped dick twitched. Fuck, why does it have to look so cute and sexy on her..? She was already hard mere seconds after I cast the spell.
“Come over here, Sunny Bunny~,” Celestia commanded huskily and I shuffled over obediently, heart beating frantically in nervous excitement as she called me that. She positioned me so that I was almost squishing Luna’s head into the mattress, my nethers smearing my arousal all over her face and I let out a squeaky moan as she started to lick my needy sex with a happy enthusiasm. “Now then, Sunshine~... cast the spell on Lulu, too.”
I didn't even have to do anything as Luna already cast the spell on herself before I could even think about doing so. She flicked my clit with her tongue in mischievous glee and I moaned. Celestia gave me a perverted smile, coming in for a kiss and fondling my chest with a lusty gleam in her eyes. I moaned a little bit louder than before as the sensation of her kneading my teats was entirely different from when she did this in my natural body.
I know I complained about it earlier, but... with me being so aroused... it actually felt nice. The nipples, especially. They were so perky and sent pleasant shivers through my body as she pinched them.
“Isn’t that nice?” she asked me in a whisper and I nodded, panting slightly. “You know, we can try out so many different positions like this that we can’t really as ponies. I can fondle you in so many different ways...”
“S-sister...” I mewled, grinding my wet sex against Luna as Tia smirked, twisting them slightly next. My breath caught itself in my throat and I bit my lip as I felt weak. Tia didn't give me enough time to so much as gasp for air, sealing her lips against mine as she cradled me in her arms.
Then, she let me breathe for just a second. “What do you say about playing with Luna a little bit?” she asked me and I nodded stupidly, unable to think of a reason why that wouldn't be a good idea. “How about... you come over here and ignore her for a while? Let her hear what we are doing while she has to wait for us until we finish?”
“Isn’t that a bit cruel?” I whispered back, crawling over to her anyway. Her scent was driving me crazy. Or it was my own, considering how aroused I was.
“She likes to be powerless, doesn’t she?” she answered, grabbing me and lining her rod up with my snatch. It looked just big enough that I felt comfortable to be fucked silly. I was more of a 'size doesn't matter' kind of girl and my wives were thankfully understanding enough. They were more than skilled enough in getting me to cum that they didn't need the ego boost (and let's be real here, it really is just an ego boost). “Now, we will have sex right on top of her while she can’t do anything about it, my precious Sunshine...”
“Y-yes, sister...” I moaned, throwing my arms around her shoulders as the tip of her member prodded lightly at my entrance, locking her lips with mine at the same time. I giggled as I heard Luna whine pathetically underneath us, enjoying this moment thoroughly as I wasn’t the one being teased endlessly for once.
I hummed happily as I felt her girth fill me up nicely, finding no resistance as I lowered myself until she was fully in. All the while, Tia was groping my ass and we continued to make out noisily on top of Luna. I could tell that the lewd sounds coming from us were driving her crazy and it only managed to make Celestia smile wider as we kissed.
Slowly, she lifted me up, withdrawing her member from my folds as I assisted her in her endeavor. Her shaft was positively soaked in my juices as she stopped just short of leaving my insides entirely. Tia ignored the colorful words from Luna as she complained that she couldn’t even watch us do it, bringing me back down in a somewhat swift motion and I cried out a muffled sound of approval as she wrestled my tongue with hers.
Moving back up, we started a rhythm of slow movements against each other, our chests touching every once in a while in a pleasant way. I had almost forgotten what sex was like in an upright position and with me on the receiving end of her throbbing member, I had to say that it was mind-boggling good. While I still preferred a nice rutting from my wives as a pony, this was a lovely change of pace.
“I-increase the pace, T-Tia,” I whispered pantingly, gazing at her with a lusty, half-lidded stare. She gave me a small nod, starting to actively thrust into my eager pussy with cute little grunts, ramming her cock into me a little bit harder as I continued to bounce up and down on it.
I mewled out each time she slid into me and back out, her movements hitting just the right spots. A thrust in, a moan leaving my throat, a thrust out, a whiny sound begging her to stuff it back in, the cycle continued on like that as I did my best to wear down her stamina and get her to cum.
“F-fuck, Summer,” Celestia panted, growling slightly as her movements started to get a little bit more jerky and awkward. “C-continue ramming yourself u-upo-ahn me and I’m gonna... ah! Fuck! I'm gonna c-cum before you! Mhhn!”
“I-I don’t care, Tia,” I shot back, giggling happily as I felt her twitch more and more in me. “T-tell me when you cum...”
“W-Why?” she asked, half out of breath and half confused. She gave me an inquisitive stare and I giggled mischievously. My happy smile got a lot more pervy and I whispered into her ear what I wanted her to do. Her eyebrow rose higher and she started to giggle in glee herself, giving Luna a look in anticipation. “V-very well, sister...”
“G-good,” I grinned before helping my twin move her pony dick into my snatch at a far faster pace than before. That seemed to be enough to push her over the edge as she stopped trying to hold her orgasm back. With a cute grunt, she started twitching in me as she couldn’t keep her load contained. My gorgeous wife began to spray my walls with her spunk and I kept her purposefully at my entrance with just the broad, flat tip still in me (almost like a plug, I have to say).
With one single motion, she deposited me right back on top of Luna’s face and we managed to startle her so much in surprise, that she had to process for a moment that my pussy was directly over her mouth, leaking the mixed fluids of Tia and me on her.
I moaned with heavy approval as she began to drink from me with lewd slurping noises. I smiled as Tia grabbed the shaft of our little sister and shoved it into her own sopping wet snatch, spearing her pussy on the stiff rod. I leaned forward to restart our make-out session again, taking Tia’s own member into my hand before lightly beginning to stroke it with gentle, careful movements as we played with our tongues. It was still sensitive and raw, but in typical Celestia fashion, her dick began to harden again.
Luna, in the meantime, moaned against me, licking every part of my needy sex before she started to lightly nibble on my clit. The vibration of her voice and the attention to my aching nub had me almost over the edge, but she wasn’t quite there yet. She was good with her ministrations, don't get me wrong, but... she would have to work a bit harder to make me orgasm.
Celestia certainly loved the extra attention, drawing pleasure from both her natural sex and the artificial one as I stroked her sensually. Luna had enough freedom in her restraints to somewhat move her hips, thrusting into my twin as she flicked her tongue in my snatch back and forth, scraping her teeth against my entrance gently.
Sex as a human was... interesting, to say the least. I mean, sure, I’ve had sex as a human before back when I still had a, you know. But right now, I had little recollection of those times and the only thing I could compare this to was sex as a pony. If I had to choose between both, I still would go with having sex as a pony over having it as a human. That didn’t change the fact that both versions were great, though. Perhaps when I had enough free time I might try to create a spell that would temporarily change the form of the one it was cast on, allowing us to... 'mix things up' even more.
Now that I was thinking about it... Starswirl might have a spell for that, considering the mirror changed us to fit this world better. Then again, he might not give us access to such an advanced spell until he felt like we were ready for it (insert exasperated eye roll here...). While we had the raw power to spare, we still need to learn how to cast it like any other pony. We couldn't just cast a spell without practicing it first. Any spell, for that matter. We could still somehow screw them up in the process if we were unlucky. Rushing through spellcasting was a tremendously stupid idea and only ever worked when you were in dire need of it. As in a life-or-death situation. Screwing up a spell ranged from 'nothing happens' to 'unforeseen side-effects' all the way over to 'you better hope you survive this or you'll be dead anyway'.
Not that such accidents have happened before. Nuh-uh, never. If you ask anypony, it didn't happen and they are lying!
...okay, maybe it did happen a few times. Maybe. Besides, it's not like Starswirl had no failures with his experiments, either. Heck, he was the most likely cause of a magical mishap if one were to happen.
Anyway, Celestia, Luna, and I continued to have sexy time well into the night until we were too exhausted to continue on. Besides, we couldn’t just have sex all night long without getting any sleep at all, we had to be up bright and early for our return home so we could show Chen and Li Li around a little bit.
It has been an exciting... if weird... ‘vacation’ from our usual daily routine. I was looking forward to some boring normalcy for once, tired of the emotional rollercoaster that Azeroth had sent us on.
Let’s hope Li Li won’t destroy our castle, trying to trigger every secret passage and trap. Chen would kill us if something happened to her, I’m sure.
But for now? I really need some sleep.