//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: A stable environment // Story: Itinerant Kingdom // by Istaran //------------------------------// At the day's end, we hauled in our last load and enjoyed dinner with the Pear family. We made plans amongst ourselves to retire for a few hours to the stables that served as guest worker housing before slipping out into the night for more training. We didn't need to sleep, but we didn't want to tip our hooves too quickly in that regard. It was best, for now, to keep up appearances. Ideally, by the time we left our hosts would still be blissfully unaware of our abilities. It was nice and refreshing chatting with the Pears around the kitchen table. Good, simple folk with nothing but simple good cheer. It felt.. in some ways more alien than anything else I had encountered in Equestria. On the other hand, it felt like if you just listened with your eyes closed.. like this was a conversation that could take place back home, in some idealized family home. Did real family farms back on Earth feel like this? I didn't know, I had never lived on one, but it felt right. Matched my assumptions if nothing else. It was just as alien to the mares in my kingdom, and twice as refreshing. After living with first the shame and struggles of a single mother, and then the painful abuse of a cruel and violent stallion, the pure simple joys of this farm family's dinner table was almost unbelievable. Like a desert nomad seeing a lake for the first time. They drank deeply from it, while struggling to hide their own culture shock. Wind Chaser was less impressed, but no less refreshed. She hadn't been in this particular family home before, but she had been in plenty like it. The itinerant seasonal worker was an old staple of changeling patrolling, and she had assumed many such personas over the years, a handful of them frequently enough to have 'friends' that would recognize them and welcome them by name. But the love flowed freely at this table, more than she currently had the appetite for, and so she savored it, basking in the warmth, careful not to draw too much. She had another meal in mind, and far too soon to be filling up on Pears. Fog Dancer was the first to head back to the stable, as Midnight volunteered to help with the dishes, and Wind Chaser stayed behind to keep her company. Midnight brushed aside my offer to help, her deft horn making short work of the mess as it was, so I headed over to the stable myself before long. The stable was cleaner and more welcoming than I expected. They had an outhouse nearby, and unlike the equines of Earth, the civility to make use of it. So there was no waste within. Flower petals, which I later learned to be pear blossoms, had been spread about lightly to create a more pleasant scentscape. There was hay spread about to make soft pleasant beds, but they were covered in light blankets which kept it out of the fur. The stalls latched from the inside, for the occupants' privacy rather than to keep a work animal contained. Altogether a welcome departure from my preconceptions, while close enough to justify the translation. To them it was more akin to a hostel or a barracks in function than how humans would use a stable. Fog Dancer was within, lying on her side on one of the larger beds in an open stall, in what I slowly realized was meant to be a sultry pose. "Hey there, big boy, why don't you come on over this way?" she asked, with a bit of a giggle. I trotted over, amused. "Are you here to seduce me? And here I thought you didn't think of me that way.." "Oh, I wouldn't mind, really, but you should probably save your energy. I'm really just here to distract you for a bit," she said, stroking my muzzle lightly with a wing. "Here, lie down on your back, close your eyes, and just relax." I followed her suggestion and was rewarded with a relaxing shoulder massage. I wondered whether Wind Chaser had been setting this up in all of their private messages during the day, or if perhaps they were planning to pair me with Midnight so the elder mare could enjoy the changeling's impression of a stallion. I still felt the filly should be waiting on sex, both to mature a bit more, and also to give her heart more time to heal from the abuse she had suffered, but there was no denying her lust for me, and Fog Dancer seemed uninterested in preventing such a thing. I breathed in her scent, quite strong from my current position, and could tell she was aroused. I didn't think it was really meant for me, though but she obviously had sex on the mind. It all but confirmed my suspicions as to the night's activities, when I started to feel some familiar pressure of unicorn magic touching me in sensitive places. I resigned myself to accepting the daughter's advances, and let my body finally start to respond. A quick flutter of feathers and air announced Fog Dancer's departure, and I finally opened my eyes. Two Midnight Oils grinned back at me, both in her original coloration, and both with horns aglow, playing their magic over me. I tried using their subnets to identify which was the real Midnight and which was my changeling consort, but both registered as Midnight's 'Fossil', rather than Wind Chaser's 'Turbine', and refused to clarify for me. [Why?] I asked as they continued to work me up. I shifted my form to that of a unicorn, the white furred 'Blank Slate', and unsteadily began to repay their affectionate touches with my own horn's magic. [We both find this to be incredibly kinky,] the Midnight on my left answered, [and we knew you wouldn't be able to resist us this way.] [We both want you to show us all the love you have for both of us,] the Midnight on the right continued. [And we'll show you just how good it is to be the King.] As the intimate touching began to include hooves and mouths, I glanced up and spotted Fog Dancer. She had found a spot in the loft with a view of the festivities, and seemed to be enjoying herself a bit as well. For some reason, that was the last straw for me, and my resistance collapsed entirely. As I lay, exhausted, with a forehoof wrapped around each of my identical unicorn mares, basking in the afterglow and the joy of our connection, I noticed the one on my left had a brightly glowing horn, which she seemed unusually intent on. "Hmm," she said, unhelpfully. "Hmm?" I questioned. "Change back," she told the other. I was a bit uncomfortable when Wind Chaser responded by turning back into a big strong stallion, still cuddled against my side. I would have preferred her typical pegasus disguise, or even her natural form, but at least now I knew which was which. Midnight's horn suddenly dulled its glow dramatically. "Hmm.." "Hmm?" "You were, umm.. pushing magic into me somehow. It stopped as soon as you knew which of us was which. Any ideas?" Midnight asked. "Hmm..." I thought about it, and slowly started to realize. Wind Chaser needed my love to survive, even more so to thrive. I didn't make her draw it out of me, I pushed it into her. It was normally unconscious, or at most subconscious. When I couldn't tell them apart, my heart didn't know which to push my love into, so I simply loved them both. Focusing on the feeling, I was able to do that again, and Midnight's horn brightened once more. Then I shifted the flow entirely to Midnight, leaving Wind Chaser out of it, and her horn sparked brighter still. Catching on to what I was doing, Wind Chaser was able to push some of her own stored loved back into me, and the horn grew brighter still. It sputtered and sparked for a moment as Midnight lost control of the flow before stabilizing it at the higher level. At this point we could all feel the heat from the bright light, and there was a risk it would be noticed through the cracks of the building's loose wood walls. "Okay, enough!" she said, and I let the flow stop. [A changeling queen absorbs the love of her subjects to fuel her egg laying. A changeling king instead distributes his love to strengthen his subjects,] Wind Chaser declared. When we slipped out into the night to train ourselves, we had one more trick to master, together.