//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty Seven: The Games We Play // Story: This Platinum Crown // by Capn_Chryssalid //------------------------------// - - - (27) The Games We Play - - - “The game is simple,” Euporie explained, enjoying the rapt attention of her very important and super special ponies: the guests of her lovely, lively party. “Look here. We have two cutie marks.” She directed their attention up to the projection of the two chosen marks, drawn from their invitation cards. The cutie marks were recognizable to anypony who knew everypony, and Pinkie Pie knew everypony in Ponyville! The gray cloud with the bright lightning bolt belonged to Thunderlane. The three emeralds in profile were those of Amethyst Star. “Thunderlane and… Amethyst Star!” Euporie announced, the glittering images of their cutie marks filling the air. “Come to me. Your night of pleasure has only just begun… my very super special ponies.” “M-me?” Thunderlane, for the first time that night, seemed to embody some of his marefriend’s earlier bashfulness. The black stallion glanced down at Cloudchaser, as if to ask for permission. Pinkie, watching them, tensed to stand up. Cloudchaser wouldn’t-- “You heard her,” she said, nudging him up onto his hooves. “A-alright!” He trotted over, glancing back a second time, then slowed as he approached the waiting Euporie and Amethyst Star. The eyes of the unicorn mare were following him with obvious interest, her face graced by a small smile. Thunderlane was well known in Ponyville, and many mares thought him to be one of the cutest pegasus bachelors in town. Euporie’s story of the Bandit Prince and the captured Princess still ran wild in Pinkie’s all too fertile imagination. Was Thunderlane the handsome, lusty Saddle Marabian Prince? Was Amethyst Star to be his captive Princess? This was a game Pinkie Pie hadn’t played before, and she found herself surprisingly eager to hear the rules. She found herself winding a hoof through Pokey’s mane as she listened, hungry to learn more about how to play this new game. The pale mare didn’t disappoint. “As you may have guessed, friends, right now Thunderlane here is our daring Prince, and Amethyst Star our fair Princess.” She trotted up to the eager but a little overwhelmed stallion, running a hoof among his mane and eliciting a shiver of pleasure. “You get to go first, Thunderlane. Before that, though, I am going to cast a little spell… just like the Prince in our story’s moonlit garden, you can’t see your Princess.” “You will have to find her with your hooves.” Euporie lifted one of his dark forelegs, running his hoof along her own flank. “Your nose…” She turned around and nuzzled close to him, so he could smell her mane. “And then, if you’re sure you’ve found her,” she concluded, leaning in and brushing her lips past his. “Your mouth. Understand?” “Y-yeah!” Thunderlane murmured, and then more loudly repeated, “I got it!” “Good!” Euporie said, quickly turning away from him and leaving him breathing heavily. “Bear in mind, Bandit Prince, there is a price for picking the wrong mare. If you do find Amethyst Star, she is to be yours for the night: to submit to you as your play mate. Pick another mare, though, and the reverse will be true. That mare will have you, and you will obey her.” “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Pokey gave voice to Pinkie’s own concerns, though the question was directed at Cloudchaser. The lilac mare bit her lower lip, but nodded, her attention on Thunderlane. “I know he sees… other ponies, sometimes. Like Blossomforth. I never wanted to… be around that before, but this time, I don’t know. It’s different. And - and I actually think… I might enjoy it.” She turned her eyes on Pinkie and Pokey, especially Pokey. “I guess it’s kind of exciting,” she admitted, and Pinkie involuntarily gave her favorite pillow a tight, protective squeeze. “Isn’t it? I feel… really…” She blushed and turned away. “I think this could be fun!” “Mares and stallions, gather up!” Heady from the story they had been told and excited by the prospect of Euporie’s new game, ponies were quick to congregate into groups: mares by the cushions and stallions by the hookah table. The lights dimmed, as though replicating the sensation of moonlight, in that desert garden. Thunderlane and Amethyst Star were the exceptions, remaining at the center of the room with Euporie. Flim and Flam, too, stood just off the side, helping their mistress work her magic. Pinkie felt a little bounce in her hooves and indulged it, excited in more ways than one; excited in ways she hadn’t imagined she would be. The other mares around her were laughing and primping, knowing full well what was to come. More than a few teased Mayor Mare, knowing full well who would be feeling for her when the time came. Mister Rich was still staring at her with smoky, hungry eyes, even as a few stallions jostled and teased him as well. A pony never knew if they’d be chosen, after all. Then Amethyst Star and Thunderlane were blindfolded, purely for the pleasure of being blindfolded, and then the spells were cast. No peeking was allowed. In the dimly lit room they were guided around, Thunderlane to the other stallions and Amethyst Star to the mares. A cheer started up, one that Euporie encouraged for a few moments and then silenced with a hoof raised to her lips, and a lengthy, “ssssshhh!” The Bandit Prince went first. Pushed forward and egged on by the other stallions, he stumbled towards the mares for a moment, and then quickly tried to recover and assume a more casual, easy disposition. Tentatively at first, he reached for the closest body… Pinkie Pie giggled as Thunderlane found Dizzy Twister, his hoof brushing lightly across her upper foreleg, and then feeling along the side. For the wings, of course. Thunderlane was a clever pony: the easiest way to tell who was who was to find the one with wings. Dizzy and Cloudchaser were the only two pegasus mares in the group. Dizzy’s wings were already fully extended in excitement as Thunderlane ran his hooves through the feathers, probably for longer than he ever needed to. With his other hoof he ran along her chest and then up to her cerise colored mane. She didn’t have the large thick curls that Pinkie had, her ‘cotton candy mane’ but the more common faint rounded curls, thicker but with less overall body. Thunderlane chuckled as he felt his way through her mane, and put together who she was. He quickly moved on, growing more comfortable and ever bolder as he moved from mare to mare, the girls starting to crowd around him, giggling and, in a few cases, touching him back. Pinkie squeaked and jumped when he finally got to her - probably making it obvious who she was, since he laughed - but he took the liberty of investigating her a little anyway. Pinkie Pie could admit that he was a very cute stallion, and as he checked to make sure she was who her sudden hop made it seem she was, she found herself rather liking this game. Not just that: she wondered when it would be her turn. Amethyst Star was the second to last of the mares, and she licked her lips, anxiously, as Thunderlane approached, blind but now almost recklessly and impulsively curious. He was narrowing it down, and he knew it. She shuddered as he felt his way along her flanks, boldly through her mane, and then finally to the horn on top of her head. He smiled beneath his blindfold and, showing the first little hint of hesitation since he had started, found her cheek and tried to move in for a kiss. Pinkie found herself watching with baited breath for it, too, along with all the other mares. She could smell the excitement and the arousal in the air. “Got ya,” Thunderlane finally said, and with a little help on the part of Amethyst Star, claimed his kiss. Just a quick one, but ponies clapped for them excitedly, hooves rapping against the floor. “Very good!” Euporie joined the cheering, and with a whisk of magic removed both blindfolds and shadow magic. Thunderlane and Amethyst Star saw each other, then, and blushed… but didn’t break eye contact. “You found your Princess,” their hostess extolled, moving seductively over to Thunderlane’s side. “And now… she’s yours. Go ahead. Don’t be shy.” Her words were compelling, enthralling, magnetic. Euporie guided the two ponies together, and tentatively at first, Thunderlane leaned over to touch lips again with his new partner. It was almost a chaste kiss at first, but then Amethyst Star raised a hoof to touch the pegasus stallion’s bristly mohawk of a mane. It seemed to stir the both of them and before anypony could even express their surprise, the embrace became passionate. Euporie watched and laughed as they bumped into one of the vases of tobacco leaves meant for the Saudi Marabian hookah, knocking it over and breaking it open. No pony cared, certainly not the pegasus and unicorn as the former pushed the latter backwards and then onto her back, clearing the space around them with a frantic urgency. “Our first Prince proved quite skillful!” Euporie said, trotting over to circle the pair, her wild blue tail swishing excitedly side to side. One of her hooves lingered, just an inch from Thunderlane’s shoulder, trailing down his side, and then past his cutie mark. “Exciting. I’m excited - I am! - and this is only the start!” She skipped forward, waving with her hoof and slicing it through the air. Two more cutie marks descended, spinning around one another, and then erupting into an illusion. Euporie licked her lips, pleased by the random luck of the draw. “The stars shine on Mayor Mare,” she said, beckoning the esteemed pony over to play. “And a lucky stallion… Comet Tail, I believe!” This stallion seemed to need little encouragement. Putting down a salted glass of amber liqueur, the citrine unicorn ran a quick hoof through his short, emerald mane and trotted up to Euporie. Soon he and the Mayor were blindfolded, their sight shadowed for good measure. Rather than approach the rest of the mares, however, Comet Tail singled one out where she stood, a short distance from the rest. Fearlessly, this second Bandit Prince approached Euporie, running a hoof up her front legs and then her neck. She smiled, then sighed as he ran both of his hooves through her wild azure mane, and then dipped her head. Comet Tail kissed her quickly, and a little sloppily, the lust he had for their hostess rather plain to see. His ardor only got him so far, however. Euporie gently touched his chest, and then suddenly pushed, knocking him into his tailbone. “Comet Tail… you’re my little Prince for tonight, then,” she declared, and everypony laughed. The way the game was set up, anypony could just choose their partner, albeit blindly, but there was a price to be paid. Euporie held out her hoof, and Comet Tail paused for a moment, a little surprised by the gesture. He quickly grinned, bowed his head and kissed her hoof. Clearly in charge, dominant even now, Euporie only then cupped his chin and raised him up. She kissed him shamelessly, and even began walking, circling him, forcing him to walk too, their lips still locked and tongues entwined. Another push and he had to back away. “Mmmm! You have a nice taste, but first things first!” there remained the matter of their new Princess. “Mayor Mare? Would you care to find your Prince?” “I know just who I want in my hooves!” she agreed, and even blindfolded, made her way over and through the male ranks. Though she was the first mare to put this part of the game through its paces, Mayor Mare quickly made up for any inexperience with confidence and enthusiasm. It wasn’t long before she claimed her Prince and stole him away. Filthy Rich seemed all too happy to comply with the dominant mare. So it began. Euporie called for another Prince and Princess, and Pinkie wondered what she would do when her name came up. Probably, she wouldn’t end up with Pokey as her Prince if she went by the lottery. Either he would end up with another mare or she would get picked with another stallion. Which was, really, the whole point of the game… but just like Mayor Mare, she could buck the rules a little and pick the one stallion she wanted most. Or he could do the same and pick her. All she had to do was play the part of the captive Princess by picking the ‘wrong’ partner. Or, taking the ever-present and increasingly appealing alternative, Pokey could pick her, and become hers for the night. So could any other stallion, too. Just the thought of it was exciting in strange ways, and as Doctor Stable ran his hooves over her in ways she never would have imagined him doing, she felt that building excitement - that strange excitement - transform and coalesce. It was hard to place at first what it was. The sights, the sounds, the music, the panting, the touching, the feeling, the smell and maybe most of all, the anticipation… Pinkie Pie realized what it was, just then: she felt sexy. Not just beautiful, like Rarity always tried to be, but sexy and an object of desire. She wanted somepony to pick her. She wanted it soon. Like when she used to wait under the Hearth’s Warming tree, forced to leave her present wrapped while her parents slept, all because it was four in the morning and for some lame-o reason that was too early to open her presents. Desire! Pinkie felt it like a physical force, rising up inside her: giggling and tingly and warm in the one place her Pinkie sense didn’t reach. ‘I want… somepony…’ She looked through the darkened room and locked eyes with one pony, the one in control of it all. Euporie grinned, but it wasn’t a happy sort of grin. It looked… it felt… Euporie swirled her hoof in a little circle, and another pair was formed for her approval. “What do you ponies say we wrap things up with a bang?” she asked. And two more cutie marks swept down! “Oh, look at this!” She announced with glee in her eyes. “The first of my good little dogs! Flim, and since I hate to break up my pair, I thought I’d bring down Flam as well. Twins are just so sexy, aren’t they? I hate to part with them, but fair is fair, isn’t that right everypony?” Euporie turned on the two surprised brothers, who stood shock-still. Blindfolds slipped around their eyes. “I can feel your anticipation,” Euporie said, licking her lips. “So I’m going to switch around the rules. Girls go first! Patent Pending. Pinkie Pie. Can you two Princesses take these two away from me?” Pinkie watched, enraptured, as Euporie’s magic conjured up a riding crop and leash around the neck of the first the clean shaven Flim and then the mustachioed Flam. There was a slight resistance on the stallion’s part, but none from Patent Pending. The last thing Pinkie saw before the blindfold took her sight was the older pink mare and mother prowling towards her prey. Cappuccino was left, too, but Euporie had all but challenged the two mares. Behind her, Pinkie heard Cloudchaser’s breathing, and then felt a little push. ‘I should… who should I… maybe I should…?’ (You really want this? Huh?) “I think we have a shy pony!” Euporie announced, and she started tapping her hoof on the floor. “Come on, everypony! Pinkie Pie, come out and play. Pinkie Pie, come out and play. Pinkie Pie! Come out and play!” A part of her really wanted to, Pinkie realized. But, who did she want again? (Don’t you remember?) Flam was a little like Pokey, tall but not too tall, and thin and he had a nice horn, and even the moustache was kind of cute and furry and fluffy and bushy. She’d never kissed a pony with a moustache before and when she heard more voices joining Euporie: “Pinkie Pie, come out and play! Pinkie Pie, come out and play!” She almost bounced, springing to her hooves. As it was, she could hear the beating of their hooves on the floor as loudly as their voices, like the beating of her heart, racing a mile a minute. “Let’s add a little urgency to those choices!” Euporie announced, even as Pinkie began to make her way over to where she knew the stallions to be. “Cappuccino. Cloudchaser. Come and take your partner for the evening! Don’t get left behind, anypony!” The siren song of the pale mare was irresistible. (You won’t get anypony at all if you don’t hurry.) Pinkie heard Cloudchaser start to trot, walking past the pink mare towards her waiting mate and Euporie, the Mistress of Ceremony. Sensing the pegasus mare move ahead of her seemed to stir something in Pinkie; she picked up her pace to match. One spring led to another and soon Pinkie bounded past Cloudchaser, blind as a bat, but playful as a pussycat, energy that could only be released by tackling her new toy to the ground. “You remember me, don’t you?” Pinkie Pie asked, mouth running at high speed as she stood over the slightly stunned Flam. She could tell by the moustache, and after feeling it with her hooves, she moved in to nuzzle it with her nose. “I’m one of your Platinum Club members!” “Miss Pie? I--” Flam’s voice became muffled as Pinkie kissed him, knowing and claiming him. No more touching and feeling. It was a race now, to take what you wanted. (We’re both wound tighter than a spring.) The blindfolds came off. Beneath her, Flam looked… confused. “Miss Pie…” “What’s wrong?” Pinkie asked, leaning in closer. She felt… so in control, with him below her like this. So dominant. So powerful. So free. Euporie had given him to her, hadn’t she? The fierce beating of her heart and the lusty sweet cider smell in the air made it hard to think and harder to hold herself back. She could hear all the other couples kissing and smell them touching. “Don’t you like me, Flimie?” A tingle that was beyond Pinkie sense ran down her spine. “He’s all yours, Pinkie Pie,” Euporie’s whisper caressed her ear, and with a twinkle, she lifted up the little leash around the stallion’s neck. The so called Princess of Pleasure gently lifted one of Pinkie’s hooves, slipping the end of the leash into her grip. “All yours,” Euporie repeated, leaning in so close Pinkie could feel her breath on her lips. If Flam smelt like sweet cider, Euporie tasted like peaches and a hint of sugary tobacco smoke. Their lips almost touched, just brushing. “I know you want this. I want you to want this. Do you hear me, cider-boy? You’ll do anything she says; anything you want, Pinkie Pie, as long as it makes you smile.” “To make me smile,” she said and asked, breathlessly, “anything?” Pinkie felt her lungs fill in heaving sighs. Anything! Anything to make her smile? That sounded super-duper fun - the kind of fun she hadn’t had before! “First,” Pinkie decided, bringing her left front hoof down on Flam’s chest, gently, and then with just a little force. He grunted, and she knew he had to be enjoying the pressure. She could see it in his eyes. He was hungry, and not for a sticky bun. He was hungry for her, but first he had to make her smile. “First!” she declared, as Euporie withdrew. “You’re finally going to tell me what salesponies nonpareil means!” She leaned in before he could answer. “And then we’re going to play a game of pin the tail on the pony with a few super special rules.” “Eminent Domain!” Euporie announced, but Pinkie ignored her. She raised her head, chest swelling as she inhaled. Already, ponies were exploring one another. “Well Spring! Come, my little ponies!” “Miss Pinkie Pie,” Flam said, moustache twitching. “A traveling salespony nonpareil means-- mmffg!” She decided he could explain later. Pinkie heard Euporie laugh as the room spun between the music of the hidden musicians and the steady beat of the party downstairs. It all drifted into the background, a world of sighs and laughs and moans and cries of pleasure. Her pink hooves and mouth were busy, far too busy to care about anypony else. For once, everypony else could see to themselves! This night and this pony were for her. Euporie had said that he was hers - that this pony was here to make her smile and sigh and giggle and laugh and moan and cry out. Flam hissed as she roamed over his body, inspecting her gift. What a super great friend Euporie was! What a super awesome pal! No pony had ever given her a pony of her very own before! Tiny ribbons fell from her mane as her curls fell apart… Grinding against the prone pony beneath her, Pinkamena didn’t even notice her mane fall limp around her shoulders. “Good! Good! It feels so good!” Everything. It all felt so… “So good!” Every fiber of her being! “Miss Pinkie Pie-” “Quiet,” Pinkamena hissed, chest still heaving, straddling the cider maker’s abdomen. A trembling hoof reached up to her chest. “I’m missing… something.” Blue eyes fixed on Flam’s horn. She touched it, running a stray hoof along the length, up to the tip. The dull tip. Her body was streaming for her to hold him down by that horn, to make him… to… “I’m missing something!” Pinkamena realized, knew it, deep down past all the pleasure. Brushing back part of her mane - since when did it get in her eyes like this - she pivoted to look behind her. Pokey. Where was he? Blue eyes searched frantically before finding him by his color: the bluest pony in the room, with that mane she loved to play with, and that silly horn that always popped her balloons. He was sitting, alone. Why was he alone? “Don’t tell me there’s a problem, Pinkie Pie?” It was followed by a soft, distinct giggle. ‘He. He. He!’ “Pierce…” Pinkamena said, still straddling Flam; she reached one hoof for the pony she had brought to the party with her. Pinkie Pie and Guest. That was what the invitation had said. Pinkie Pie and Guest! “Ohh,” Euporie said, her voice tickling Pinkamena’s left ear. She pulled back, speaking loud enough then for everypony to hear, “I knew I forgot somepony! Since I brought two toys to the party, I guess that means we were left with a spare.” More than a few of the ponies, despite their intense occupation at the moment, glanced up at Euporie with rapt attention. The mare had only to stand on her hind legs to draw a dozen eyes, feasting on her presence. A long blindfold snapped around Pokey’s eyes. “Silly pony! Silly pony!” She chided herself, slowly running a hoof down over one eye in mockery of a face-hoof. “Your Princess of Pleasure will have to correct her mistake, but how? How, everypony? How should I make this right?” “Ah!” she exclaimed, clopping her front hooves together. “I know! Ida!” ‘Ida?’ “Coming, Mistress!” Pinkamena turned her head again, pink mane whipping around her upper body, at the sound of the voice. It wasn’t anypony she knew? No: it wasn’t any-pony at all. Euporie giggled, ‘He! He! He!’ as a donkey jenny scrambled into the room from behind the servants’ curtain. There was no mistaking her for a pony: her coat was brown, as all donkeys’ coats were, and bereft of cutie mark. Her ears were twice and again too long, her legs too thin, the knees too prominent, and her tail almost hairless except for a black tuft at the very end. She moved with the ungainly sort of trot donkeys had, bowing deeply to the still standing Euporie. A white apron hung from her neck. “Ida,” Euporie said, imperiously. “I’ve made a terrible mistake and I need your help.” “Of course, Mistress,” Ida agreed, seeming to not care that half the ponies around her were in the middle of some rather intimate festivities. “Good girl.” The pale Mistress dropped down to all fours and pointed at the still seated, blindfolded and rather worried looking, Pokey Pierce. “See to that stallion’s needs.” She turned to the rest of her guests, laughing. “There we go, everypony! Problem solved! Your Princess comes for you, my Prince!” Pinkamena heard everypony laughing, laughing, even as Pokey sensed something was amiss, even without being able to see. He could hear it in their laughter. It wasn’t… it wasn’t the kind of laughter she liked, that anypony liked to hear. Not when it was directed at them. “W-wait,” he said, hooves feeling the air around him, “I--” Whatever he had wanted to say was drowned out by the laughter. Watching him, watching Ida walking towards him, watching the shocked expression on his face, Pinkamena felt her body move, the smile parting her cheeks into a wide grin. Her ears twitched, hearing that sound: the sound she loved more than any other in the world. Laughter. A room full of laughter! Even if it was a mean, mocking laughter. Then it struck her: Like a slap to the face, it struck her: she was… laughing… too. It took a moment to really dawn on her. She was laughing too. As Pierce - at… Pokey and-- Pinkie Pie and Guest. “Stop.” The laugher only seemed to grow louder as Pokey tried to wave Ida off with increasingly frantic but polite excuses, his movements uncoordinated and his voice frightful. Pinkamena knew he was trying not to be too rude, knew he was embarrassed by the fact that a room full of horny ponies had gotten him as aroused as anypony, knew that-- (Stop this right now!) “STOP!” Pinkamena roared, and in that split second, everything became deathly silent. “He. He. He!” Almost, deathly quiet. “This isn’t funny!” Pinkamena snarled, glaring at the rest of the room. “This isn’t… this isn’t funny…! Why are you laughing? I know you ponies! This isn’t… this isn’t like you!” “Isn’t like them?” Euporie bounced from out of nowhere to stare right into Pinkamena’s angry eyes. “Maybe you don’t know these ponies as well as you thought you did.” She pointed at the pink mare. “Tell me: why were you laughing just now, Pinkie Pie?” Pinkamena shook her head. “Don’t…” “You were laughing too!” Euporie reminded her, using a hoof to keep the pink mare from looking away. “You found it funny. Just like when I made a halfwit of that other donkey the other day. You held it in then because you didn’t want to be mean; because you thought you had to be polite and nice! But I can see through the mask you wear. The mask all ponies wear. I mean, my own cutie mark is a mask, too. So laugh, Pinkie Pie. Be the real you… beneath the mask.” Pinkamena locked eyes with the mare, Euporie’s blue mane like a crashing wave of blue behind her. “You shouldn’t have done that,” she finally decided. “That was a mean prank.” “He. He. He! Was it?” Euporie asked, amber eyes meeting Pinkie’s blue. “That fellow got what he wanted. To him, that was one of the tastiest cookies he ever ate. And to everypony else, it was funny watching him eat something gross. Everypony wins, right? Where’s the harm?” “I… I don’t know…” “Laugh at him,” Euporie commanded. “Go ahead and laugh.” ‘Everypony wins, right? Where’s the harm?’ (I still don’t like it) (I don’t like it either!) “No.” “No?” Euporie repeated, eyes wide, as if she couldn’t believe what she had heard. “No?” “It isn’t funny,” Pinkamena said to the noblemare’s face. “I don’t like your jokes… and right now… I don’t like you!” Then, tonight being a night of surprising firsts, Pinkamena Diane Pie did something she never had before in her life: she reached back with her right front hoof and decked Euporie Mosaic, clean across the unicorn mare’s smug face. Euporie yelped in pain and alarm, staggered back, stumbled over another pony’s tail, and fell into the chocolates table with a crash. The glass sculpture hit the ground and cracked, and a weak fountain of chocolate spurted wildly, coating everything in rich, milky brown. Fruits splattered and flew, further ruining the carpet. Comet Tail, who had been partnered with Euporie and remained close by, shied away from the mess. “C-Celestia’s graces!” Flam said, still beneath the heavily breathing Pinkamena. The rest of the guests were still aghast, stunned by the sudden turn from pleasure to violence. It was Ida, of all the beings in the room, that spoke next, crying as she ran towards the pool of spilt chocolate and ruined confections, “Mistress? Mistress! Oh no! Are you--” “Heh. Heh! Heh!” A filthy, chocolate covered leg reached up from the wreckage, and a cracked glass statue of a naked mare flew across the room. Pinkamena barely had time to desperately shield herself with her legs-- Except the glass stopped, caught in a faint blue magic field. “Pierce…?” Pinkamena gasped, seeing the thin unicorn, horn aglow. He had raced to get close enough to help her, having found a way to remove his blindfold and the blinding spell to boot. “You always call me Pokey, Pinkie,” he reminded her, and frowned. “Your mane is…?” “Ha. Ha. HA!” Euporie emerged from the smashed table, lightning crackling around her horn like a thunderstorm in miniature. The chocolate staining her white coat there bubbled and hissed and the lights in the room waned and sputtered. She wiped her lower lip with the back of a hoof, staining it with flecks of crimson. “Nice punch,” Euporie said, licking the blood and chocolate off her hoof. “Pinkie Pie.” She began to walk forward, magic surging around her, flinging everything from her path without discrimination, hesitation or remorse. Ponies scrambled to get out of the way, their night of revelry forgotten as the unicorn mare’s magic bucked and surged through the air. The same magic that had painted haunting images and life-like scenes from the tale of the Bandit Prince now caused the walls to creak and moan, the wallpaper ripping and coiling and smoking as if touched by a match head. Fixtures in the ceiling shook enough to see; enough to feel. Pinkamena and Pokey, now both standing side by side, nonetheless obeyed an animal instinct that screamed: ‘back away!’ “Violence is a form of pleasure, too, isn’t it?” Euporie asked, laughing lightly as she advanced on her prey. “Your body screams for you to fight or fly and endorphins flood your system, producing a sort of euphoria. A pure form of pleasure! I can appreciate that, Pinkie Pie. Can you?” “No. No I can’t!” Pinkamena yelled back, her mane stirring behind her. “I don’t… I don’t want to…” “Ha. Ha. Ha.” Euporie said the words, any attempt as passing it off as genuine laughter long forgotten. “If you won’t play my way, then I’ll eject you from my party.” She lowered her horn, and a prism of light narrowed into a beam. It streaked, hissing like a snake, before slamming into a faint blue wall in mid-air. Pokey winced, falling to his knees. “C-can’t…” Pinkamena tensed to push him away when a green field also emerged, behind and supporting the blue. “Flam?” Euporie yelled, genuinely shocked by the intrusion. “You? That’s impossible. You can’t--” The unicorn twitched his moustache and grinned as he rose up, horn glowing forest green. “You told me to obey Miss Pinkie Pie, didn’t you?” he asked, one corner of his mouth rising in a smirk. “To make her smile? I’m just following orders, Miss Mosaic!” “I gotta hand it to you, brother!” Flim joined in, Patent Pending still clutching frightfully to his side even as he trotted in to join Pinkamena, Pierce and his twin. “You found us a rather convenient loophole! What applies to one--” “--applies to both!” Flam agreed. Euporie’s amber eyes widened. “Then I’ll bury you both!” she snarled. Her horn shimmered, layering and casting a spell even as she maintained the prismatic beam of magic and whatever was shaking the room around them. “I’ll-- AGH! Damnit! DAMNIT!” The pale mare grimaced, painfully, as her magic backfired, tearing open a bloody rent in her horn. “Eunomie,” she hissed, raising a hoof to the burning, sparking wound. “You and your fucking rules! Don’t protect them now of all times!” “Brother! Retroreflector! Mind the angles!” Flim yelled, and Flam nodded. Their magical shields tilted inward, forming a shallow three sided corner. “Eh?” Euporie’s lips curled back as her own beam shot past her shoulder, punching into the wall behind her before sweeping in and hitting her across the chest. The energy from her horn petered off as she fell to the side and against the wall, though what continued to shoot out was still enough to carve a line in the ceiling. Bits of plaster fell like flakes of snow. “Bloody engineers!” the noble mare growled, a black mark that had little to do with chocolate now staining the white coat between her neck and left foreleg. “It seems I can’t discipline you like I planned. Pinkie Pie… you’ve caused me a lot of trouble. Why didn’t you just laugh like everypony else? What’s wrong with you?” “You’re asking the wrong question,” Pinkie replied, her mane and tail starting to puff back up as she helped Pokey back onto his hooves. “Why wasn’t I laughing? Why were you?” “Why was... I?” Euporie said the words, her false laughter discarded, her smile replaced by a frown. “I was laughing because it was funny, you idiot!” “Is that really why?” Pinkie asked, eyes trailing around the room, taking in all the shocked party guests. “You did all this, just to make me laugh at Pokey, didn’t you?” “Don’t flatter yourself!” Euporie shot back. “That was just the icing on the cake. I was going to have some fun anyway, so I thought: I’d help you find your sense of humor. I just want you to laugh, Pinkie Pie. Laugh like I do.” “And I want you to smile,” Pinkie Pie replied, raising a hoof to her cheeks. “Like I do.” Euporie didn’t return the gesture. She sneered but kept some modicum of calm, enough to look around and take in the terrified party guests around them. “Look at this. Not only did I break two of my toys, but I ruined my own party. That’s the real tragedy here. At least the foals downstairs are still having fun.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You’re all very tired,” she said it barely above a whisper, but everypony in the room heard and felt her words, down to the core of their being. “SLEEP.” Pinkie felt her legs wobble, the energy instantly drain out of her. Eyes closed, she still heard the dull thump-thump of bodies falling to the floor. Her tail twitched. But she stood, even though when she opened her eyes, everypony else was sound asleep, some wrapped in other’s legs. Even the servants and Ida had collapsed on the spot. “You and the apple farmer,” Euporie said, even as Pinkie’s vision blurred. “You’re both quite resilient. I told you once, Pinkie Pie, that we are more alike than you know; that my special talent is making ponies smile. Actually, that was a lie.” The clop-clop of Euporie’s hooves coincided with her voice getting closer and closer. “I can make ponies smile, and I enjoy making ponies smile… but I can just as easily take those things away. The exhaustion you feel now is just a fraction of that.” Hooves reaching, Pinkie managed to grab hold of a heart shaped card, fallen to the floor. “The opposite of a smile is a frown and the opposite of a laugh?” Euporie asked. “The opposite of a laugh is a scream. And the opposite of joy and pleasure? Do you want to know what that is, too?” Chin on the floor, Pinkie could just barely see one of the mare’s chocolate-stained hooves. Squeezing the VISSP card with some of the last of her strength, she was rewarded with an audible crack. “Why did I laugh?” Pinkie barely heard the words as she lost consciousness. She never heard Euporie’s answer or even if there was one. There was only a flash of light, the sensation of movement, and then darkness. - - - Queen Chrysalis tittered as she entered the white, stale medical room. “What a surprise, to find you here,” she said, in what passed for a greeting. “Are you growing nostalgic, Alpha Brass?” An aquamarine orb, just the corner of his eye, glanced back over his shoulder at the unexpected visitor. Then it returned to its previous occupation, Alpha Brass’s attention once more on the bed before him. The regal golden stallion was sitting before a large, plush, four poster Princess-sized bed with white satin sheets. It was a sea of beauty in the otherwise stark, unadorned room. Next to the bed, a small suite of medical equipment pumped and clicked, providing a steady beat of similarly sterile music to go with the aseptic mockery of a master bedroom. Brass’s consideration was not on the medical suite, however. It was entirely reserved for the withered, pale looking mare in the bed, her coat and skin crinkled by age and wasting disease, her mane little more than wispy scraps of hair. This was his wife: Olive Branch. Or so the world thought. “Nostalgic?” he asked, as she approached. “I did come here to think, but not to dwell on the past.” The creature that wore the guise of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza clicked her tongue in disapproval. “If it isn’t nostalgia, then I would guess you are thinking: ‘things went well meeting that young mare, Twilight Sparkle. I wonder if now is a good time for Olive Branch to finally die and leave me a widower.’ Is that it?” Alpha Brass didn’t smile, but he did nod his head. “You have the essentials of it, my dear. Twilight Sparkle is everything I could have asked for and more: intelligent, driven, powerful, patriotic, and even pliable. I do believe she is the most likely to follow in Princess Celestia’s hoofsteps, once you remove her. Naturally, she will be upset at the death of her mentor, but I can keep her off your back and focus her attentions on guiding the sun and moon for the new Equestria to come.” “I would be terribly upset if you were to turn her against me,” the false Princess admitted, sitting down to his right. Cadance may have been a young-adult alicorn, but in her guise Chrysalis was taller than most mares and eye to eye with all but the largest stallions. She and Brass sat shoulder to shoulder. “And risk my most important piece?” Brass inquired, giving her a curious look. “I have many others I would use against you first, were I planning some betrayal.” “Of course.” He went back to watching Olive Branch in the bed, an act that began to draw some of his guest’s ire. “The changeling does a fine job, impersonating her. The flesh is a little too shallow, though. She’s playing up the ‘sickly pony’ bit too much.” One of Olive Branch’s eyes opened, green and slit and worried. “My Queen,” she protested. “I---” “Oh hush,” Cadance demanded and the changeling shrank a little into the giant bed. “You must have the easiest job in the entire swarm, lying there all day and all night.” “Come now, it can’t be that easy pretending to be a near corpse for more than a year,” Brass defended the shape-shifter. “Please, show my poor wife a little consideration.” “Coming from you? You? Of all ponies?” Cadance chuckled, and waved a dismissive hoof at the changeling. “Be fortunate he sends you nurses to care for you. You would be a real corpse, waiting for love from your grieving husband.” The changeling nodded and closed her eye again, resuming the masquerade of the comatose Olive Branch. “This pale imitation…” Cadance muttered. “Maybe it is time to retire this character from our little play. We still have the original’s cremated remains, fortunately.” “Nopony will question Olive Branch passing away at this point,” Brass assured her. “The papers and the small ponies have been expecting it for more than the year she has been bed-ridden. I have taken care of everything.” “I know you must have.” For a few seconds, they sat in silence, before a thought crossed the mind of the changeling Queen. “It must be rather galling,” she decided. “Hm?” “For you, I mean,” she said, smirking. “You said ‘I do’ to a mare you never even met. You never once saw through my mother’s disguise. All that time before the marriage, and you were oblivious. It must be galling, looking back. It must make you feel quite the fool.” “Quite the foal, you mean?” “No: I mean quite the fool,” she insisted, avoiding the common pun. “Like a jester or one of those street performers who pretend to be a puppet with strings attached. How does it make you feel, thinking about that?” Brass shrugged. “I do not regret the decisions I make,” he replied. “I merely make the best of them and attempt to grow wiser from every setback.” “Just the sort of empty response you love to prattle on about.” “Every colt should lose some small battles when he is young,” Alpha Brass told her with a small smile of his own. “That way, when he is a stallion, older and wiser, he will win the war.” “That seems like the sort of saying those who lose would tell themselves to assuage their egos and excuse their failures,” Cadance argued. “Think of it what you will,” Brass settled on. “You mother did much to make me who I am today.” “Yes, when she looked like this,” Cadance said, and her body shifted. The wings melted into her torso and her coat rapidly changed colors. Her entire physical shape warped, becoming more stout, her snout receding slightly, her horn shortening. She became a copy of the mare in the bed, but younger, with a light jasmine complexion and flowing purple and blonde mane. Yet, even then, she was older looking than Brass himself was. Old enough to be his mother, as Olive Branch had been, when they married. “Your mimicry of her is still flawless,” Brass complimented the changeling Queen. “Well, I was her for several years,” Chrysalis said in a throaty mare’s voice, not like her own or Cadance’s. “Juggling identities is so tiresome. I much prefer… this form…” She let out a breath, and shifted again. The horn grew, the colors changed back to those of Princess Cadance, except this time, the body was a little smaller and rounder, the mane done up in a ponytail, the tail possessed of only a single swirl at the end. When she was finished, Chrysalis no longer sat shoulder to shoulder with Alpha Brass, but noticeably shorter. “Oh, the voice, too,” Chrysalis added, and when she spoke next, it was with a higher pitch: a teenage mare’s voice. “It has been a few years and… yes, this is it!” Alpha Brass’s eyes narrowed at the teenage alicorn, but he said nothing. “I have fond memories of being like this,” Chrysalis continued, raising a pink hoof to eye level. “I wore this skin when I first began to feed on you like a mature changeling, and not just a little pupa. Do you remember those nights, Brass? Mother would finish with you first, drawing out your love, but she would always leave a little trail of it for me afterwards. Like a string of that pasta you ponies enjoy. And I would pluck at it… and drink in your emotions. I wouldn’t have been able to draw them out from you by myself back then. Mother had to help me. She was a good Queen and you were my favorite food in the entire world, not that I had anything to compare you with.” “I would watch you two, and wait, like a good daughter. Until she finally said, ‘Come and eat, Chrysalis.’ And then I would climb up this very bed.” The young Cadance patted the side of the bed, her hoof trailing over the embroidered sheets. “And take you. I was such a little pupa! I do apologize for some of the bites, Brass. You don’t hold it against me, do you?” “The bites?” he asked, voice not betraying a hint of emotion except some slight condescension. “No. I didn’t mind them.” “But my favorite memory, of both you and mother, had to be that night.” “That night?” he asked, and looked back at the bed. “You mean…?” “You remember!” she exclaimed, giggling in a teenage voice. “How could you forget? I delayed mother that night and came for you first. I looked like this, like the Princess Cadance you’d always dreamed of, and you fed me better than you ever have. Probably because mother always took the best parts for herself or, maybe, was it because you were happy to see me, your Princess? You were a little thinner then, too, I might add.” She poked him in the side, playfully, and he grunted. “But then mother caught on, and she stomped in…” Chrysalis’s eyes were alight with the retelling of the story. “Her disguise dropped and she told me to leave. But I didn’t leave. So she came closer and told me to go to my room. But I didn’t go. And then… she came a little closer. And do you remember what happened?” Brass nodded, eyes shut. “Of course I do. You cut her head off.” “Only mostly off,” Chrysalis reminded him, running her hoof across her throat. “There was still a flap of skin and muscle on the back part, so her head just kind of wobbled left and right. I remember staring at it, and at the blood everywhere… on me, and all over you. It was so wonderful!” After that, some instinct had kicked in. Maybe because of the gore, maybe because of some scent in the air. Chrysalis had pulled the body of her dead mother onto the bed, finished removing the head, and then started digging around in the hole in the neck. It must have been instinct: the instinct of a daughter following her mother, or a Princess becoming a New Queen. “I took the royal jelly gland out,” she continued, and holding her hoof up, waved it in front of Brass’s face. “And I thought: Isn’t that funny? It was so small. Before that, I’d imagined the royal gland to be bigger and more impressive. But I knew what it was and I knew I had to eat it. But then I saw you… covered in mother’s blood… and I crawled over to you and put it in your mouth.” “I remember,” Brass told her, eyes following the hoof in front of his face like a charmer would a snake. “It was pretty… foolish of me, now that I think about it,” Chrysalis admitted. “But all I thought was: I want to eat it out of your mouth. I want to taste mother’s blood and your blood mixed together. The two beings in this world who made me Queen. My father and brother and lover all wrapped into one.” She tapped his chin and laughed. “You’re still missing the tip of your tongue,” she concluded, and he finally, finally scowled. That was, sadly, as much of a response as he was prepared to give. They sat in silence for a while, before he tensed his shoulders and stood. Without a word, he headed for the door. “Why didn’t you bite down on the gland?” Chrysalis asked, and when he turned around, he could see that she was back in the stolen form of the adult Princess Cadance. “Even then, you must have known what it was. You were studying us even then.” “Without the gland passing to me, weeks would have gone by as the swarm realized that mother’s scent was gone. Other would-be Queens would have grown their glands even as I grew mine. You could have plunged us into chaos and set us back a decade or more.” She watched his body language, his face, his eyes… but there was no tell. No language to read. Not anymore. It wasn’t that Alpha Brass had no emotions, just that they were twisted beyond the ability to express. “Why didn’t you bite down?” she asked him again, and it wasn’t a request. “Answer me.” “I don’t have an answer,” he admitted, his own eyes boring into her like unflinching drills. “It may have been relief, that your mother was dead. It may have been desire, to see you become Queen in her place. It may also have been simply because all of it suited my purposes as much as it did yours.” Chrysalis smirked at that last answer, the most likely of them all. “Before I leave this place, to become a happily married mare, I wish to relive some of our fond memories,” she said, and there was to be no dispute. She didn’t need to say what memories she wanted to relive or experiences she wanted to reenact. “Tell your guards to expect a visit from my new bridesmaid. I will come to your quarters as that Lyra mare.” He paused, halfway to the door. “Why bother?” he asked, sounding bored. “There’s nothing you can feed on.” “Worse than that, your emotions make me want to gag,” Chrysalis admitted, but her smirk only grew. Her body changed again, taking on more lavender, until a purple and red stripe parted her now-midnight blue mane. “Fortunately, I neither need nor want your emotions anymore. I have Shining Armor for that. But I will be perfectly content with your body and with the knowledge that you are still mine, to do with as I please.” His frown from before lingered, but didn’t deepen. “I’m compromising!” Chrysalis said, gesturing to Twilight Sparkle’s body. “You clearly like this new mare, so why not? This will be my way of making it seem less of a chore!” Alpha Brass ran his eyes over the body she had mimicked. It probably wasn’t a perfect copy, since she hadn’t met the mare herself, but she had descriptions and even a newspaper picture of the elements of harming together. It was enough for a rough facsimile. Brass’s eyes leveled, but then the stallion did something unexpected: he chuckled, softly. “What?” Chrysalis asked, examining her sides. “A wing isn’t showing, is it? Did I get the tail wrong?” “No,” Brass assured her, shaking his head. “But that isn’t the issue. Twilight Sparkle’s body isn’t of much interest to me. Her value to me is in here,” he said, pointing to his own head with a golden hoof. “In her mind. You can’t copy that, even if you had the opportunity to duplicate her magic. So transforming into her does nothing for me.” “Oh?” the changeling Queen growled. “Then perhaps this will be better?” she mocked and became taller, paler… She assumed a half-lidded stare, so characteristic of Lady Antimony. Alpha Brass’s cheer melted away and he rolled his eyes. Chrysalis laughed again, this time switching to Chalice’s smaller, pink body. “Is this what you want me to look like tonight, big brother?” she asked him in Chalice’s soft, timid voice. “If you must occupy yourself with me tonight,” he replied, turning around again to head for the door. “Come as yourself.” “Myself?” Chrysalis asked, and involuntarily shifted to Cadance. “Yourself,” he repeated, hoof hovering above the door handle. “The you I saw the night you killed your mother. Come to me as her.” “You would be the one pony in this world not terrified of my real form,” Chrysalis admitted, and her smirk returned with a vengeance. “And the only one sick enough to sleep with me, as the real me. It is fun to imagine it! Are you certain you don’t want me to bed you as that purple mare?” “I’m not about to repeat myself,” Alpha Brass concluded, and left. Chrysalis leaned back against the bed after he had gone, still smiling to herself. “Twilight Sparkle,” she muttered, licking her lips. The mare was clearly a threat, and Chrysalis knew why: the so called Elements of Harmony. No doubt Brass expected to have all six of the little ponies in his pocket by seducing their leader. Little did he know! The Elements of Harmony were already being taken care of. - - - “It goes without saying that this news is upsetting.” Euporie sulked in silence as her sister wrapped a bandage around her horn. Eunomie was methodical and effective enough as an impromptu nurse, but rather lacking in bedside manner. Ten minutes of filling her in on what had happened, and the stoic mare had summed it all up with ‘this news is upsetting.’ At least it wasn’t-- “Don’t even think about saying you told me so,” Euporie growled, warningly. “In fact, I did not predict this exact set of events so it would be…” Euporie glared at her sister. “Suffice to say that recrimination serves no purpose,” Eunomie concluded, and lay down on the bare, basement floor below the library. She sighed, primly crossing her front legs on front of her. “We must deal with the consequences.” “We should deal with the consequences by, A, finding those two snake oil salesponies, and B, turning them into snake oil!” Euporie snarled, slamming a hoof down hard onto the hardpacked floor. “Please keep your physical interaction with the environment down to a reasonable level,” Eunomie asked in her usual level tone. “Only our voices are enchanted, not our bodies. Remember that Twilight Sparkle is asleep only two stories above us.” “To Tartarus with--” “We are guests in her home and if father has his way, she will become our step-mother,” Eunomie reminded her. “Please do not wake or antagonize her. I worry enough what she will hear of your activities this morning.” “If father has his way,” Euporie replied, stressing the ‘if.’ “Yes,” was Eunomie’s impassive response, “If.” She shook her head, slowly. “You know I cannot break a contract. Rules are rules. Flim and Flam are technically following the letter of their contract by following Miss Pinkamena. So long as they do not break the contract, they are subject to its protections.” “Your contract nearly ripped my horn open.” “I apologize. It was not my intent to cause you harm, Euporie.” Eunomie blinked, eyes trailing down to her hooves. “Out of curiosity, what were you attempting to do to them to cause such a traumatic backfire?” Euporie snorted, angrily. “There were four of them. You can guess.” Eunomie closed her eyes, slowly breathing in and out. “Well then. It is troubling to have lost some measure of control over them, but I do not think we need to panic. As far as those two know, our intention was always to put financial strain on Sweet Apple Acres. They know little, and they will be able to say even less.” “We don’t need them anymore,” Euporie argued. “We accomplished everything we set out to. I say we get rid of them. All of them.” “And you would rather we do not tell father about tonight.” “’A tiny leak can sink any boat,’ or so he says. But we can handle this, Eunomie,” Euporie reached out to touch her hoof to her sister’s. “I’ll even… write an apology to Pinkie for tomorrow.” “You mean, I will draft the letter, and you will sign it,” Eunomie reasoned and sighed. “Yes, that would be wise. As for father, he does not know of Flim and Flam, so there is no need to tell him about this impropriety. He asked us to see to an objective and we have. Miss Pie will learn or infer some of what we did, but there is no way she will grasp our full intent or our plan. I assume you still wish to go forward with…?” “You bet I do!” Euporie said with a vicious grin. “Daddy never puts all his eggs in one basket! When the time comes, I will be ready. And Canterlot and all those changelings…?” She raised one hoof, an iron horseshoe floating in a glowing basic telekinetic field. With a grin Euporie bent it into a twisted pretzel. “Just tell me this.” Eunomie slowly rose to her hooves. “What is it about Miss Pinkamena Pie that caused you to attempt this recklessness?” “I think you of all ponies would know the answer to that, Eunomie.” Euporie sneered at the crumbled iron horseshoe. “She says her special talent is making ponies happy. Making them smile? But it’s just skin deep. She just prances around, acting like a clown, and they laugh at her and she sucks it up, grinning like a stupid foal. And then she has the audacity to lecture me? ME!” “And I want you to smile,” Pinkie Pie replied, raising a hoof to her cheeks. “Like I do.” “Just what is a smile worth, anyway?” The blue-maned unicorn flung the balled up horseshoe into a corner with a clang, the unnecessary noise prompting Eunomie to frown. “Nothing,” Euporie spat. - - - Apple Bloom yawned as her cup slowly filled with water from the kitchen’s pump faucet. She tried to be quiet as she got her late night drink, just like she’d tried to be quiet sneaking down the stairs. The house wasn’t usually this crowded, not unless there was an Apple Clan gathering. Having tried, and failed, to get a Cutie Mark Crusader Ninjas cutie mark, Apple Bloom knew that stealth wasn’t her strong suit. Also, that her skill with throwing stars was pretty sub-par. It wasn’t an issue most nights, since her brother and sister slept like logs and Granny Smith like an old log. Tonight, though, they had a lot of company, and in Apple Bloom’s limited experience, company made for light sleeping in a house with sturdy wooden walls and floors that seemed to make every hoofstep louder rather than softer. Every step down the stairs produced a creak and whenever Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle slept over, one of them usually ended up waking up when Apple Bloom snuck out to get a drink or go to the bathroom. She didn’t want to do the same to the ponies helping them out in the farm. Mister Rains and Mister Dew, the two earth ponies from far away - Apple Bloom had asked Miss Cheerilee how far away Neighpon was, and it was really far - were both sleeping outside in the barn with Big Macintosh. Poor Big Mac. He’d been real nice, offering his room to Miss Breeze and Miss Dust, though the pegasus mare had refused to share a bed with the unicorn lady. Apple Bloom wasn’t sure why. She slept with Sweetie Belle all the time, and only got poked by her horn a few times. Actually, maybe Miss Breeze had a point about sleeping with unicorns… At least Scootaloo’s wings never jabbed anypony when she rolled around in her sleep! Miss Yumi - she didn’t like being called Miss Bow - was in the guest bedroom upstairs. Taking a quick little sip from her glass of water, Apple Bloom looked straight up. The guest room was right over the kitchen. Miss Yumi was up there right now, sleeping. She was a funny mare. She didn’t act like any of the earth ponies Apple Bloom had met before. She was a little like Rarity. Even when she was outside, using her magic on the apple trees, she didn’t like getting dirty and she still wore her white clothes. Which was really weird, too, since her coat was whiter than Sweetie Belle’s! Why wear white when your coat is white? Apple Bloom didn’t understand it, just like she didn’t get why the foreign mare had ponies constantly cleaning her hooves or carrying her around or putting down carpets for her to stand or lay down on. What was wrong with just laying down on the grass? She was a weird pony, but what she could do was really amazing! Her cutie mark was three leaves cradling an arrowhead, and she could use magic to heal up trees and make their apples super shiny and tasty! Apple Bloom had tried to get her to explain how she did it, but she’d refused, saying it was her family’s secret. That was really a kick in the flank, since it seemed like a totally cool special talent, but the Apple Family had secrets of farming and cooking that Apple Bloom knew she wasn’t supposed to tell anypony, not even her best friends, so she didn’t really hold it against Miss Yumi. It was neat just seeing her make a sickly tree grow straighter and stronger right before her eyes, or watching as dozens of apples on the branch filled out, growing plump and sparkling. Applejack was already excited about how their new cider was selling. To hear her sister tell it, Miss Yumi had really helped save the farm. Plus, she was royalty or some-such thing, back home, so it was right and proper giving her the guest room and even fancying it up. It wasn’t every day a pony like that stopped by, even if she refused to do any other chores and insisted on ponies serving her food and filling her glass of water and all that stuff. The other two mares sleeping over, Apple Bloom was less sure of. Miss Cool Breeze, or Suzukaze as the other foreign ponies called her, was kind of mean and frowny and bossy. Miss Yumi was bossy, too, but Miss Breeze wasn’t polite about it. She ordered around everypony except Mister Late Rains, and during the day she mostly just flew up into the clouds and slept or did weird tricks with lightning. Applejack had said to not bother her, and Apple Bloom had followed her sister’s advice. Applejack had said the same about Zecora, but nopony had even given Zecora a chance. Miss Breeze was just grouchy. She had a nice cutie mark, though: two thin yellow lightning bolts, hitting the same spot. Miss Pixie Dust was a unicorn, white colored like Rarity or Sweetie Belle. She wasn’t from Neighpon, though, a pony could tell just by looking at her eyes and listening to her accent, or lack of an accent. Mister Rains had said that she was a friend of a friend, and that her job was to carry around Lady Yumi’s flag-thing and use teleporting magic to help them get around. Under her clothes, her cutie mark was a pretty generic hourglass with a green outline. She seemed nice, but quiet, and when Big Mac had offered his room to sleep in, she hadn’t put up much of a fight over it, accepting a roll-out bed downstairs. Apple Bloom passed by a window, and hopping up onto her hind legs, saw the barn outside. Big Mac was in there, with Mister Late Rains, Mister White Dew, and Mister Evening Squall. The three stallions all seemed pretty nice, too, especially Mister Rains and Mister Dew. Mister Late Rains was big and strong, like Big Mac, and he had lots of stories and never seemed to mind helping around the farm or taking time to talk. He’d even helped to come up with some plans to crusade with! He was probably even stronger than Miss Ritterkreuz, though Scootaloo disagreed, saying that only Rainbow Dash was that strong. Still looking outside, Apple Bloom wondered if Mister Rains had a family. He was older than all the other ponies who followed Miss Yumi. He was probably a little older than Sweetie’s father, Mister Magnum. He’d never talked about having a son or a daughter, though. Mister Rains didn’t have rain in his cutie mark, not like Apple family members always seemed to have an apple. His cutie mark was a mountain with a white cap, with three chain links behind it. Mister Dew was probably Big Mac’s age, and Apple Bloom kind of thought that he had a thing for Applejack. He was always asking her if he could help around and smiling and showing her some kind of magic in his hooves. He wasn’t as strong as Big Mac or Mister Rains, though. Applejack seemed to kind of like him, too, though Miss Breeze would always try and break them up if they were doing something, even just talking. His cutie mark was a horseshoe with a red plus sign in it, which was kind of neat. Then there was Mister Evening Squall. He was a unicorn, like Miss Dust, but foreign looking. His coat was a bluish-white, and he had red eyes more like a pegasus pony’s than a unicorn’s. He was pretty quiet, and Apple Bloom wasn’t sure what kind of magic he could do. Big Mac got along with him pretty well, and sometimes they played some kind of board game with little white and black stones. It didn’t look very fun, not like Robber Baron or Galloping Squares. He had a bunch of small round bubbles for a cutie mark, kind of like Miss Doo’s cutie mark, but there were only five of them and they were orange. They all seemed like good ponies, except for Miss Breeze, who was kind of a… b-word. Apple Bloom finished her drink, carefully put the empty glass onto the counter, and headed back for the stairs. It was kind of fun, having company around the house, hearing them talk funny, and listening to stories shared in the fields or at the table at breakfast or dinner. They probably wouldn’t be staying too long, but-- “Oh!” Apple Bloom, head lowered, concentrating on making quiet hoofsteps, didn’t notice as she bumped into a much larger body. “S-sorry!” Looking up, she saw a tawny, feminine chest and neck, and a pair of green eyes looking back down. “Applejack?” Applejack smiled down at her, a little drowsily. “Still up, huh?” She reached out and ruffled Apple Bloom’s deep red mane, bereft of its usual ribbon. “Ya’ll better get back ta bed.” “Sure thing, sis!” She tried to keep her voice quiet, and turned to head back up the stairs, but… Looking again, Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes. “Sis… yer cheeks…?” “What?” Applejack asked, quietly. Apple Bloom blinked, and noticed the three little white freckles at the corner of her sister’s smile. “Nothing ah guess. Ah better get back ta bed!” She started quietly climbing the stairs back to her room. Taking one last look back, Apple Bloom smiled at her big sister. “Ah’ll see ya tomorrow.” “Ah’ll see you tomorrow,” Applejack replied. Soon back upstairs and out of sight, Apple Bloom never saw Applejack’s coat shimmer, the mare herself sighing in pleasure. Her smile widened, revealing sharp teeth no pony had a right to have. “We all have a big day, tomorrow,” she said, and melted back into the shadows.