We got back to Ponyville pretty late in the day, and I was kind of anxious to talk to Twilight about the Rainbow Dash thing. We had beaten the news about the marriage laws back to Ponyville in plenty of time since Tia needed to make legal documents, brief some legal experts, put the law’s information down on several pamphlets, and apparently hire some ye olden criers to announce the whole thing. Apparently that was one of the steps when making a major change to Equestria that messed with its legal foundation, and since the last time Tia did it was four hundred years ago, she never bothered to throw the practice out.
All in all, it gave us some time to figure out what me and Twilight would do to approach Rainbow Dash and…see if she wanted to go for the whole semi-swinger thing. Not that we’d be trading off lovers since it would be the three of us. More like nightly threesomes.
Then we had to get out of bed, meet with the girls, and not talk about something that wouldn’t stop putting images of itself in my head. It was like telling someone not to think about zebras with Zecora in the room. When we finally got back after a whole day of doing nothing in a moving box, I just wanted to go to bed and eat while getting away from the wet dream fuel that was Rainbow Dash.
I sighed as Rainbow zoomed her way out of the car that held our luggage ahead of all of us while me and Twilight were left to help with Sunset’s bags thanks to the fact the pretty purple pony princess no longer had a porter following her around all the time and the girl was still kind of hurt. I didn’t want her exerting herself at all.
If we couldn’t find a quick fix, it would be bed rest and plenty of changeling slaves for Sunset until she felt better.
“Do any of yall need help with that stuff?” Applejack asked as Twilight lifted our five bags of luggage with her magic that were parked next to a giant shipping crate. I took a moment to stare at the thing with Sunset’s one real hope of turning back into a unicorn inside. The large box containing the Crystal Mirror, I had made arrangements for.
“I’ve got it,” the purple goddess assured her friend before she turned to look at Sunset. “Can we stop by the library before we head to the castle? I’d rather just make one trip if we can help it. But if you need to see Zecora right away, we’ll fly over right now. We can leave the bags here and I can carry you.”
The human held up a hand a smiled. “I’m okay Twilight. Still pretty sore, but…I can manage.”
I studied the girl for a few seconds. Since Sunset wasn’t constantly wincing, I had no way to gauge the truth of that. Having to constantly look up at the girl’s face made it hard to read her expression. “You’re positive? Absolutely sure?”
“Yes,” Sunset replied before I felt her hand touch the top of my head as she ran her fingers through my hair. It was apparently something she picked up during her day with the others because Fluttershy didn’t mind the contact, and Rainbow couldn’t resist her stupid ear thing that paralyzed ponies with a scratch. All in all, I was just happy Sunset hadn't also used the ultimate attack that was the belly rub.
Having someone pet me was a new experience but…it was apparently the closest thing Sunset could do to a nuzzle. She had managed to figure out to make up for her inability to have pony body language, so I just let her run her hands through my hair. Not that I nuzzled that much with any of the ponies anymore. But, Sunset needed some kind of semi-familiar contact.
Concerning her adaptation of pony-to-human body language. I didn’t know if was a good thing, or a bad one. I mean, if she was starting to compensate for being human in same way, had Sunset already given up on turning back on some level, or was it just to fit in better?
Twilight gave the girl a restrained smile. “You know we’re just worried about you Sunset. I’m sorry I didn’t visit you in the hospital. I should have-”
“You had plenty on your own plate,” she said before Twilight could finish as she tweaked the alicorn’s nose. Or...booped it. It was kind of hard to tell. “Now can you two stop being all…whatever and let us get going?”
Twilight led our group out the door and onto the train platform. Once we were all gathered, I gave instructions to the twenty identical black coated pegasi with blank flanks that were waiting for us to transport the crate inside the car to the castle. Twilight insisted on holding onto our stuff though. She still had room for carrying some things at her old house. Then we started making our way to the library to grab the rest of her junk.
As the three of walked through the town, the phrase ‘it’s good to be home’ never sounded more true. It was pretty late in the day and the shops were closing. Street traffic had swelled to that 5PM level of super congestion in Ponyville that meant there were more than ten ponies walking around us.
Lyra was meeting up with Bonny outside her shop. Colgate was heading home. Derpy-changeling was out delivering the evening mail while the real one was probably at home with her daughters. Time Turner was not messing with a big blue box out behind his shop that seemed a little too small to be a police call box from jolly old England. Cloud Kicker was checking out her sort-of girlfriend’s butt. Everything was perfectly normal.
With the three of us being the local oddities, everyone took notice of us. I think we had to smile and wave all the way from the train tracks to the treehouse. It was the one skill Sunset had that she could do better than any of the girls…with the possible exception of Pinkie Pie. That pony could hop along on one leg while greeting three others at once.
Even with my emotion detecting senses towards Sunset dulled thanks to me being in alicorn form and her being human, the misty eyes and huge smile that appeared by the time we got to the library told me something was going on. I looked up at what might as well have been a giant woman to me and nervously licked my lips upon seeing her tears. “Sunset, what’s wrong?”
“It’s um…nothing. Just…no angry mobs or frowning guards. Everyone’s just smiling at me,” Sunset paused for a moment, and took in a breath. “I’m home. I mean…it just hit me, you know. Everyone here, they know everything about me and they still...smile and wave. This is my home. Ponyville. When did that happen?”
I walked forward and put my shoulder up against her leg while wrapping my neck around to touch the back of her thigh with my horn. It was the closest thing to a hug I could manage without jumping up to put weight on places that shouldn’t be touched. Sunset apparently got it, because she was back to petting me a few seconds later.
“Probably a day after you met every pony’s foal and they ran home to tell their parents how cool you were,” I replied while I felt her fingers run through my hair. A second later, I stepped away and looked up at the girl. “I mean, you really didn’t think I wouldn’t have put you in the school without some secret, ulterior motive, right?”
Of course it being five in Ponyville, about half the town saw our little moment. Being ponies, no one said anything as they went about their business. Sunset just looked out over the town at the 5PM sun and how it was still in the center of the sky at its daylong noon, and smiled.
“Okay, let’s get my stuff and go home…well, to the castle anyway,” Twilight spoke after we had a good half a minute of…whatever we just had.
A few seconds later, the library door opened, we entered, and Twilight took a look around. The wonderful aroma of depressed pony filled the air, and I looked over to her in concern. “Um…you okay?” I asked my princess before strafing an inch from her side with a wing ready to throw across her back.
Twilight sighed. “Let’s just say Sunset isn’t the only one getting hit by realizations that are heavily laden with emotion.”
Wing around back. Side pressed up against. Lips on cheek. I completed the comforting trifecta, and moved with Twilight as she set her stuff down so we could head to her room in order to grab the rest of it. Upon seeing Spike’s little basket, Twilight froze.
I gulped. “Um…you know…if you really want…we could go to Canterlot tomorrow and drop off his stuff.”
Although considering how the whole household felt about me, it would probably end up being Crystal Empire II, Revenge of the Paranoid Ponies. Now that I put all the anti-changeling hysteria in one household, I knew it was a bomb just waiting to go off. Or maybe a landmine would be better, a landmine in the road that I’d have to step on one day. Either way, it wasn’t going to be pretty.
The suggestion got a shake of her head. “No. We talked about this. We’ll see Spike when we go to Canterlot like normal, and send a letter with his stuff tomorrow. He needs time apart from me.”
Despite her even tone, I could Smell her inner turmoil and went so far as to nuzzle her. “I’m sorry this happened.” The weird thing was that I actually meant it.
“Me too,” Twilight whispered.
Yeah, Spike had messed with me but…it killed me that Twilight was hurting from his loss, and we had plans to visit him in a few days.
Once Twilight had gathered up everything she needed, which wasn’t all that much aside from her clothes and some things from the desk beside her bed, we went back into the main room and found Sunset sitting on the table. For a human, it was actually the normal height of a chair. She looked up at the pair of dresses Twilight had snagged, along with her bedroom writhing supplies and frowned. “That’s it?”
Twilight’s face got a little confused. “What’s it?”
“You’re a princess, and the amount of stuff you take when moving is everything you can fit into a pair of saddle bags, along with a couple of dresses? That’s really all you own?”
The little goddess rolled her eyes. “No, this is just all I need bring to the castle. All my books are still here. For all of those, I’d need a wagon. My Winter clothes can wait. Everything else like my toothbrush, I packed in my bags when we went to the Empire.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Your books? Really? You own enough to barely fill a saddlebag, and some books? And you're a princess?”
All in all, I didn’t see the problem. I owned less than that. The dress Tia had sent me had ‘mysteriously’ vanished and...okay, I’d be holding onto the one Rarity was making. You didn’t throw gifts from friends away.
Which Celestia wasn’t.
At least not when she gave me the dress.
“Oh!” Twilight exclaimed as she looked back to her room. “My crown! I forgot my crown, thanks for reminding me Sunset!”
As the purple pony trotted back into her room with a little smile, Sunset looked down at me. “Okay, I live in in the fucking castle, so I know Twilight doesn’t keep anything there. But…she’s a princess, and only owns two dresses, some winter wear, and forgets her crown?”
“You do realize one of the reasons she got elevated was because Tia knew she wouldn’t let the position got to her head, right?” I asked. If anything, Twilight ran away from it more often than not. Since becoming a princess, the only princessly thing Twilight had done was…well, ruling Equestria for about a week during the time I was freaking out and Tia fucked up so hard in helping me was pretty big. But that had apparently convinced her she didn’t want to do anything beyond fighting world destroying evil, and maybe cut the ribbon on a few grand openings.
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. But a princess could at least have the usual stuff. Gold jewels, all the things ponies expect her to-”
The door to Twilight’s bedroom opening cut Sunset off, and the purple pony walked out with all of her regalia in her magical grip. She had the horseshoes and everything. “Okay, now I’m ready,” she said before looking over to her princess horseshoes for a moment. “Well, let me clean these off real quick. They gather dust like you wouldn’t believe.”
As Twilight blew the dust bunnies of the more expensive parts of her royal attire, Sunset groaned. “That’s even worse!”
I managed not to laugh as we headed back through town on our way home.
The trip through the Everfree was slower than normal and we had to stop to let Sunset rest at one point. By the time we got back to the castle, it was almost dinner time, which meant Zecora was easy to find.
Usually, the zebra wasn’t around at all. She spent most of the day out gathering herbs with the changelings I lent her, and occasionally stopped in for lunch. We had tried just using the drones to pick the things for her, but they were a bit too rough when it came to gathering herbs she only needed pieces of and damaging the plants too much. On top of which, Zecora only used the castle to store her ingredients and potions in bulk and sleep. A small hut outside the castle was where Zecora made everything.
It was perfectly understandable ever since she kind of...blew a hole in the ceiling of her lab while mixing a rather volatile potion by dropping too many eye of newts in…or something I really didn’t really understand zebra hoodoo. I hated chemistry in high school, and rhyming-Snape’s potion making classes were even worse.
Sunset seemed to get along with her well enough. Although that was probably because she could decode stuff better than me. And she actually understood alchemy.
We found Zecora making dinner, since the zebra preferred to cook things herself rather than get things from town like the human, dinners at the castle when we all bothered to show up were a rather…potluck affair. As soon as Twilight opened the door, the zebra looked up from her non-potion pot that I had gotten her. After the CMC needed looking after in the castle and I found she cooked dinner in the same thing she made potions in, my common sense it would probably be a good idea before the day came when Applebloom showed up, took a sip of what was cooking and got turned into a llama.
“Ah hello my friends, so good to see you since making your amends,” Zecora said as we came in.
Twilight nodded in greeting. “Nice to see you too Zecora. Um…well, I would like to visit but right now, Sunset needs some help with something.”
The zebra looked up at the human for a moment. “Much to my regret, I have not found a cure for you Sunset.”
I frowned at the zebra. “Cure for…wait, you’ve been working on a way to turn Sunset back into a pony?”
Zecora’s eyes widened in surprise. “But of course, why would I not seek to return our friend to the form of a horse?”
“Sorry,” I apologized as I held up my hoof. “It’s just, you don’t talk about your work that much.”
She laughed. “Not to be curt, but speaking of potions makes your head hurt.”
I cleared my throat. “Right…but that’s not why we’re here. Sunset…show her.”
Sunset sat down, and then pulled off her shirt with a wince while I had to force myself not to look away. The cuts and scraped up skin on her back made wearing a bra pretty painful even on top of bandages, so she had gone without one ever since. But with the kid being physically seventeen and under my care, it was one sort of pony that I wouldn’t be falling for.
Zecora winced while I added to the damage. “And she’s also got three cracked ribs, and a bruise on her arm.”
“A mystery is what I see, could the princess not heal the injury?” the zebra rhymed.
Ever the explainer, Twilight shook her head and spoke before I could. “No. Healing magic requires a knowledge of what your healing on an instinctual level. For instance, a pony wouldn’t be able to heal a buffalo with magic. We were hoping you had something.”
After hearing the problem, Zecora trotted back over to her potion shelf and looked around. “To heal what was damaged and cut, I do have a remedy, but…” she mumbled as she stopped at a potion and grabbed it in her hooves. “This potion has a price to pay. Time heals all wounds, so they say.”
I looked over to Sunset. “Can you translate that, please?”
Sunset crossed her arms. “It’s an aging potion. I’ll get a little older, but the cuts and bruises will heal.”
I tensed as Sunset explained how the potion worked, I had to restrain myself from saying no deal. She…was an adult after all. As she looked at the thing and explained that it would age her a week per drop, I cleared my throat. “Okay, let’s just get this over with,” I mumbled before taking the potion in my magic and popping it open while fighting down my apprehension.
Even though Zecora obviously thought it was a safe quick fix, and Sunset had years to burn, I couldn’t help but get a little worried. She was human after all, there was a chance that the stuff might not work. Or worse, work too well.
If something did happen, I supposed that Tia could have done something to reverse it. Although, the only spell I knew about pertaining to age would put the girl back in diapers.
We measured out six drops, and put them on her tongue before she sat down on the floor as the magic took effect. What with her being seventeen, Sunset really didn’t change much. Her hair grew a bit. I was a bit more interested in the other visible effects. The marks on her back disappeared inside of three seconds, and six seconds took care of her ribs by the way Sunset kept touching the area around her breasts without wincing.
I studied the girl in the short skirt for a few more seconds with held breath, and sighed in relief when nothing unexpected happened.
“Okay so…let’s eat, and afterwards, um…Sunset, you can go…shave,” I mumbled before looking away from the teen’s legs that just had six weeks of hair growth.
Twilight trotted up and examined the teenager’s legs closely. “So…humans can grow coats too?” she asked before looking up at me. “Why does she get a coat? I didn’t get a coat of hair when I went through the portal. Wait! Does that mean Zecora’s potion did something to change her back? Or start some kind of pony transformation?”
I groaned and Sunset looked over to me. “Oh, you’re explaining this one. I just didn’t have anything to eat for six weeks, and need some food,” before her stomach rumbled and kept me from arguing.
After I finished cleaning off after my meal, I crawled my up from the foot of the bed to lay next to Twilight while I waited for her to come down off the feeding. A few seconds after she turned over and snuggled up next to me, I let out a sigh. “Uh…I know it’s probably a bad idea to talk about another mare when you’re in bed with your special somepony, but…we didn’t exactly have any other time to ourselves on the train, and um…”
“It’s okay,” Twilight said. “We do need to make a plan for asking Rainbow out.”
The way she said it made me hesitate. Some ideas flashed through my head, but…a few too many of them seemed a little too…wrong. “I don’t want to…pressure her into it or anything.”
Not to mention trick her. Talking Twilight into getting rid of Spike without really talking about it was one thing. In the end, it was her choice. I just helped her look at things a certain way.
But with Rainbow, I wanted...needed it to be her decision all the way.
Twilight was silent for a moment, and I could see some of the gears turning in her head. “How do humans do it?”
I did my best bed shrug. “Well…lots of ways. For me…it either involved being straight up with a friend,” I said while not mentioning how those methods usually ended, “or I’d try meeting some one at a…social gathering place we usually go to introduce ourselves to others and…drink, and maybe dance.” Alcohol tended to help with the whole nerves thing when it came to talking to strangers that happened to be hot.
Of course Equestria had kind of upped my abilities in that area. Earth had nothing on Tia in the hotness or strange categories.
As most of my ideas were struck down by the fact that they were either involved too much pressure, trickery…and in one case some mind control that I crammed back into my brain as deep as I could, I started to have seconds thoughts about the whole thing.
Hell, I didn’t even really manage to get Twilight on my own. That had been a combination of chemicals and Twilight’s overzealous dating methods that I couldn’t say no to. She had gotten me. Very little actual dating involved.
Of course I couldn’t forget that it was also thanks to the fact I had looked like pony-Brad at the time. It wasn’t the horsey hotness that helped me though, but the perceived sorta-romantic history between the two of them that I really hoped never happened because she was really a horse and he was a human like I used to be before I became a bug-horse and got mind fucked by Celestia with her freaky what’s hot and what’s not pony edition into thinking Twilight was...well...she had big wings, and those were nice.
I blinked at my own...trainwreck of thoughts.
“So…we just walk up and ask her?”
Twilight’s question made me pause for a minute before I spoke. “That’s um…it? Maybe do it after a dinner at the Garden or something? Or is that too formal for her? That’s too formal.” Dash wasn’t one for fancy restaurants.
At last I didn’t think she was.
But of course taking her to Sugarcube Corner was also out. Pinkie would be there, and she had a penchant for popping up at the most problematic times. “We could take her to the Hayburger...maybe?” It was probably the biggest insult possible to take a potential girlfriend. Trick her into a date...at McDonalds. Or maybe it was more akin to ambushing her into a date proposal at McDonalds. Either way, the fast food monster’s slightly less evil pony twin would be involved to taint the idea of triple us togetherness.
“That was like our first date...in a way,” Twilight said. “Would it be symbolic if we took her there?”
I grit my teeth and moaned. “Yeah…I doubt Rainbow would appreciate the symbolism, and just see the place for what it is.” Cheap and evil.
Twilight looked up at the ceiling. “What about here? Or we could go to her house...maybe?” she asked before looking back at me. “No, here its like we’re cornering her, and there...it’s like we’re chasing her too hard.”
The alicorn shifted around for a bit and she reached out to lock her fetlock with mine in a pony handhold. “There’s a few books on how to ask one pony out, but…multiple partners is…new. Doing it separately wouldn’t really work, but both of us together…you said you didn’t want to pressure her, and I don’t want to either. If we gang up on her...will she see it like that? Ganging up on her? I’m with you about not wanting to seem like we’re forcing her into something.”
That got a smile out of me, coming from the alicorn that zapped me onto her bed.
“...this is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be,” I mumbled before Twilight snuggled up to me.
We couldn’t pressure Rainbow into a whole new kind of relationship that would probably confuse the hell out of all of all of Equestria for the first few days. Sure I was there when Tia laid out the ground rules and all, but all new things legal needed fine-tuning in the end.
Overall, the ida was…actually pretty sensible, thanks to some of the modifications Cadence provided. Sensible in theory for ponies at least.
There was no actual limit to herd size, and completely female or male groups were allowed for. Unaccounted inheritance would be treated as if all the elder ponies were the parents of the half-brothers and sisters even with no genetic relations. Although, ponies could still nitpick using wills and the like. And…well, the full length of all the new marriage law was enough to fill a book, but I had gotten the gist of it as Tia laid things out for us all.
The way things were set up seemed kind of slow. What it boiled down to was the whole group or pair or…whatever, needed to court a pony they wanted, or vice versa and sign off on everything when it came time to take the plunge. One member of the family couldn’t just try and bring new girlfriends in on a whim. That alone meant the family size would probably never grow beyond three or four. On top of which, while current marriages would be allowed inclusion…one of Cadence’s addendums made it so new…triples, quintuples, or whatever they were going to call multiple ponies in a relationship got locked in as what they were at the alter. I had to wonder how much that was going to push back the average age for marriage.
Divorce was tricky to say the least. Although the divorce rates in Equestria were so low Earth would have been overpopulated hundreds of years ago if human relationships had been as stable as ponies, they still happened. But if it were to happen, all the ponies had to agree to kick a mare or stallion out of a herd. Major infighting would mean a split of everything upon agreed upon lines. And ponies didn’t have a word for prenup.
Concentrating on the legal side of things helped me clear my head a bit, and looked back over to Twilight as she entwined her forelegs with my left one. “So how do you think the town will take it?” I asked. Not to mention Rainbow.
While Twilight mulled over that question, I realized one important little fact: I had no fucking clue how Rainbow would take this whole thing!
She could hate it! Be against it one-hundred-percent, a hundred-and-twenty even!
She was the Element of fucking Loyalty! How could you be in a multi-partner relationship, and still be loyal?
It was impossible!
Completely, impossible!
Then I remembered another little fact that had managed to creep up from the dark recesses of my mind while I had been so into the horsey three-way: Soarin.
Last I checked MLP, Rainbow had been kind of crazy for Soarin. At least I thought she was. It had been sometime since I last saw an episode. She danced with him at the royal wedding, I remembered that much. Had they done any more?
But, the slightly less worrisome part of my mind had to wonder about the fact she didn’t even bother visiting him once in the hospital at Rainbow Falls. The pegasus could have scored some major points if she had. But she left him high and dry until getting mad at Spitfire for the whole abandoning a teammate thing. So…what did that mean?
Had she given up on him or something? Giving up really didn’t seem...Rainbow.
What if Soarin had a girlfriend, and the whole family herding thing gave her another shot at him?
What if this whole thing went sideways, and Rainbow went chasing after Soarin and Spitfire in some massive Wonderbolt orgy with Fleetfoot and that other Fire-name pegasus? Sure it would make for a picture you could clop to...if ponies actually clopped, hooves kind of made that painful, but it sure as hell wasn’t what I wanted!
I wanted Rainbow and Twilight in bed, with me and doing all kinds of the freaky stuff.
Maybe the Twilight Sparkle/Cloud Kicker method of just kidnapping her in magic, pinning her down, and then double-teaming the pegasus was a better idea. We could talk to her about going steady the next morning after she got to sample the goods. It worked for Twilight when she was chasing me and lured me into her parlor.
Except...we didn’t want to pressure her.
Then there was the mind control option...not on Dash. But...if she really was into Soarin, I could mind fuck him into breaking her heart, then me and Twilight could come swooping in and pick up the broken pieces. She would...be incredibly pissed off at me and leave with Twilight once that little secret got found out.
Plus, the image of a crying Dashie that put in my head...it didn’t make me feel too good about myself.
“Well, I think any major alterations are going to take time,” Twilight finally said, thankfully drawing me out of my thoughts before they became too Lesson Zero. “Celestia is thousands of years old. She looks at things differently than most ponies. Plans for the future in century-long incriminates. Most of the ponies of today will probably shrug, maybe even try multiple dating with the odd couple of mares going through with marriage, but… I think by the time the Crusaders grow up…well…they might actually share a stallion. But any major changes will be done like that, with the next generation. Then one hundred years down the line, it could easily become common to see two mares for every stallion. Two hundred or more…probably more. On the other hoof, it is Celestia making changes, and ponies do tend to follow her. So it may happen sooner than that.”
“And the girls? How do you think they’ll react?” I asked hesitantly. And by girls, I meant Rainbow Dash.
“…honestly? I have no idea,” Twilight told me. Which...kind of scared the hell out of me.
And by kind of, I meant really.
Twilight and Dash and the others…I was all for free will…sure, but I had lived in Equestria long enough to know there was some kind of Destiny thing a work, with the capital D, and there was no way in hell I wanted to mess with something like that. A meteor would probably end up killing me if I did.
And I knew for damned sure, those six girls were Destined to be together. Even without the Elements, they still had that stupid box thing that Twilight spent a few hours a week puzzling over. They still had Something.
I wasn’t part of the equation.
But here I was, fucking with it, just by talking about this sort of thing with Twilight.
If one of the girls didn’t like the idea, just one, I was screwed. That pony would go ‘eww weird’ and it would mess with their friendship and lay waste to all of Equestria! But not before making me the first casualty.
Or worse, what if Rainbow was open to a relationship with Twilight, but not me?
I’d have to break up with Twilight and leave Ponyville...and probably all of Equestria!
After all, I was a manipulative vampire with delusions of playing with pretty little ponies for the rest of my life, or at least before I crossed some kind of line and got killed by Tia for being evil! Twilight deserved so much better than that!
Twilight grip on me tightened. “Look, I know how you feel about Rainbow, that’s why I brought it up. I knew you never would. I like her a lot too, and if she wants to see if there’s something more for the three of us...if she wants to join in what you and I have, I am all for it.” She smiled and kissed my cheek. “And the more I think about it, the more excited I get! This is...it’s like we’re breaking whole new ground and-and when I image how it’s going to feel wrapping her wings around me from the back while I’m laying here with you and have to put a spell up to keep her from snoring loud in my ear, and all the things the three of us can do together… And...together, together… I just...I just know it’ll be amazing.”
The words...helped. So did the kiss that followed before she yawned and told me goodnight.
I sighed.
“Great.”
And then I was asleep too.
“You want my advice for asking out Rainbow Dash?”
Like what had become the new norm for our dream dates, Tia sat across the chessboard as she looked down at our pieces and moved another. Our seating arrangement had changed from the first time too. Whereas before, I had chairs and a table worthy of a goddess, what we now sat upon where foldouts and your basic card table held the average chess board.
Thinking games, like remembering information on legalizing polygamy was also a good way to get ones mind off of stress. It helped a lot by not even being connected to Rainbow Dash at all. By the end of two spectacular losses, I wasn’t even considering half the insane things that had crossed my mind when I had been awake.
I felt a bit of amusement coming from her, and she looked up at me with a smile. “Going after her as soon as you can? I would have thought you wanted to get your crown first…Princess.”
It helped that Tia liked to poke fun at me too. And this third game meant I had to bet another favor. She apparently wanted to get to movie night, because the usual noble bitch session hadn’t lasted ten minutes while we were playing.
I let out a groan. “Can you at least not call me that when I’m all the way male?”
“Absolutely not,” the naked woman told me. “And…don’t you think you should wait to see if she’s even receptive to the idea?”
I shook my head. “No. Knowing Dash…”
Only, I didn’t know Dash when it came to stuff like this. I didn’t know how any of them would react. It was brand new, uncharted territory that there were only theories about.
But, after some consideration, I did know the reality of the situation. If Rainbow Dash was into the idea…she could very well make the first move towards another pony that was already attached. If not…then I would be putting what we had into the awkward zone for…no idea how long.
That was probably the biggest scary part. I didn’t want things to be awkward between me and Dash and Twilight, or any of the girls. So much so that I might have possibly been considering the minute chance of wiping her memory of the experience if she said no. It was messing with her head, but it was the smallest, teeny tiny bit messing with it.
Just a smidgen.
For her own good.
No knowledge meant no harm, no harm meant no foul feelings, and no foul feelings meant girls wouldn’t break into half a dozen shattered friendships. Everyone would walk away happy.
As long as it didn’t work out.
“Knowing Dash...me and Twilight need to ask her first, and as soon as possible,” I said before moving one of my rooks forward.
Celestia moved another piece into an opening I left. “And that’s checkmate,” she replied before sitting back in her chair. “But...the day of the announcement? Don’t you think that would be a bit too soon? Your coronation would be the better event. All three of you in your best dress, and the Empire is the newest romantic location in Equestria for couples. I take it Rarity is preparing something?”
The fact that my coronation was going to be in the Crystal Empire, and not Canterlot kind of chaffed. Of course Twilight had thought it would be Canterlot, but Celestia had said Empire not an hour ago, and so it was going to be Empire. She was obviously up to something, but...damned if I knew what it was.
“Yes,” I told her with a groan before touching on a topic I wanted to beat her to death about. “And…princess? Seriously? I don’t even have a sex as a changeling, the other thing is just…makeup. Fancy magical, alicorn-clone makeup.”
After she pushed away the game board, Celestia shook her head. “You can lay eggs and have babies in your real form. I know you’re technically asexual and favor a stallion in your appearance and voice and mind, but the reproduction capabilities and your public face means…princess,” she said before giving me a sympathetic look I could tell she meant. “I am sorry if it makes you uncomfortable.”
Then her mouth curved upwards a bit. “Although if you want to go without your makeup on, I would understand, you’d make for quite the ugly princess though.”
I groaned. The last thing I needed was another reason to feel uncomfortable during the whole thing. “Don’t worry, I’ll be like everyone wants me to be,” I said while Tia moved the foldout table we had used aside and I got rid of the matching chairs. It was a lot easier than the rather elaborate crap that I used the first time. That had taken some real effort to move when we were done playing.
Of course since I had figured out how to mess with the rules of the mental construct early on, simply turning down the gravity or resizing everything while my roommate wasn’t around so Tia looked like a normal woman was an option. But...I could always feel that little bit of unease in the back of her head whenever she first came to my house. If being bigger and stronger than was humanly possible put her at ease, I wasn’t about to take that away.
She was literally putting herself in my hands every night and...I wasn’t about to betray that trust, no matter how much she teased me.
We took our usual seats on the couch, and I cleared my throat. “So…advice for Dash?”
Tia leaned back and I caught some more amusement in her mind, along with a touch of…sadness, I think. Although the why to it was beyond me, unless she was remembering old boyfriends.
That made me sad in turn and I couldn’t help but think about how bad that was for her. Considering her feelings towards the girls, I didn’t want to even imagine what it would be like when they died.
Or if she would let them die. Zecora wasn’t the only pony who knew how to play with ages after all. Tia had more than enough power to put the all girls back in cribs and raise them again when they got old.
Considering the fact that changelings kind of didn’t have an old age problem either...I was more than willing to help with all the diapers, feeding, and everything. If it came to that I mean.
Okay getting ahead of yourself again. That’s what got you in this mess, remember? I told and asked me before wiping the dual images of six foals and five foals with nanny Twilight trying to change them all at the same time from my head. I’d solve that problem when we came to it.
Right now, I needed to listen to Tia.
“For starters, go somewhere she feels comfortable…somewhere that’s hers,” the goddess told me before her hand reached out halfway across the sofa. “Don’t just come up to her and ask bluntly. Just…spend time with her.”
I frowned at my sleeping companion. “That’s what I’ve been doing.”
Tia let out a soft giggle and adjusted on her seat. “Right,” she agreed. “Well…if it was me…I’d take her flying. Just out and about. Maybe a little race. Rainbow likes contests, right?”
That little thought made me laugh. “You racing Rainbow Dash?” I asked while the goddess reached up to twirl her hair around one of her fingers for a few seconds. “That I’d like to see. I mean, how fast can you fly?” Most of Celestia’s moving about was done by magic when she really needed to get somewhere fast.
“I’ll admit, I’ve gotten a lot slower over the years,” Tia admitted before she let out a long sigh and dropped her hand from her impossibly multicolored hair. “Of course she’d be nervous around me, everyone is. Being a princess usually puts a gulf between an alicorn and…others. Then there’s the age difference. You’re older than her too, right?”
I nodded. “Well sort of. I mean, she’s just twenty.” Older than Twilight, but nowhere close enough to take Rarity’s title of oldest Mane Six member. But hell, I was…maybe three months old physically, Sunset was seventeen, Twilight was only just coming up on her own twentieth birthday party, and Celestia was…God only knew. “It’s complicated. Sure I’m…kind of mature and all but on the other hand…changeling.”
“I’d fly until she was tired, just enjoying the moment, taking as much time as I could with her before I put it all on the line,” she went on at a whisper and a far off look in her eye as the feelings coming got all wistful. “I’d conjure a cloud for us to land on, and pull her under my wing so she could feel my heartbeat and be as close as possible. And then I would tell her how I feel.”
Tia relaxed a bit and slid down on the couch until she and I were on eye level. “If I were to meet someone with whom I believe I could be with. I would tell her how amazing I think she is, how wonderful, how much I enjoy my time with her and…how much I want to see her happy,” Tia explained. “And if she would let me share in that happiness, share in her life, then it would make me the most happy person in all the world. And I would promise to do everything I could to match what she gave me in kind. To be there for her when she needed me, and for no matter what she needed me for.”
Tia’s smiled faltered a bit. “Of course I’d have to explain just because I have wings and a horn, and…several pounds on her, doesn’t change anything,” she went on before becoming a little hesitant. “But I would understand if she were…intimidated by it. Not to mention I haven’t pursued a relationship in some time so…I’d have to warn her that I was probably rusty at certain things. That I’d make mistakes, probably have to go incognito if we wanted to do anything together. But I think you know plenty about that.
“And then I would tell her that it was okay if she didn’t want to be with me in such a way. That what I truly cared about what her happiness, and if she were to say no, then there was no need to feel guilty. For everything would still be the same way as it was yesterday, and the day before that. I would love her all the same, and be there for her as I have been since we became friends.”
I gulped as I looked at the most beautiful woman in existence and felt a wave of warmth and compassion, caring and even a bit of longing wash over me. All the usual stuff as of late. “So um...yeah...that’s…”
It took me a bit longer than usual to get over the whole goddess thing that I did my best to forget every time I was with Tia. Of course her and her damn loving smile didn’t help, but...I managed it.
Her words though…
What could I say to that?
They were all nice and flowery, and perfect and…
There was no way in Hell I was going to remember it all. Not by the end of the night.
Plus, there was no way I could pull off the Jesus’s Big Sister aura Tia had. I was sexy, she was perfect.
“Oh, and I’m calling in that favor I just won,” the goddess told me before patting the couch cushion right beside her. “Now sit here and start the movie,” she said with a smile.
And just like that, the goddess was gone, and the Infinitely Kind and Loving Celestia was back to being everyone’s perverted older sister.
I grumbled and scooted down to park my covered ass next to her nude one while Tia sat up to her full height. The one that had me on eye level with her boobs.
She reached around with one arm and pulled me into a leaning hug until I had my head pressed up against the side of her chest, and the second one hand came around my legs to block any hope of having an escape. Still, it was nice...just sitting like we were.
And it had helped to talk about Dash with her, and...she had a point with the whole confession thing. If things didn’t work out, things could just go back to being like they had been before. It wasn’t like there would be that big a change if Dash turned Twi and I down.
“Hey Tia...thanks for the talk,” I told her.
Another bit of joy came from the amazon sitting next to me as she bent down to talk softly from above. “I will always be here for you, as I have been since we became friends.”
“Okay, okay I get it,” I mumbled before turning on the television. She didn’t need to repeat something she just said not five seconds ago. The forever friends thing, it was the perfect way not to pressure Dash when we asked her. I got the hint, I was going to use it.
For some reason, a bit of amused sadness crept into Tia’s emotions, and and she moved to touch her hand to mine before sighing. “If only…”