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// 76 - Nerves of steel 
// Story: A Penny for your thought 
// by Damaged 
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Hay and Penny were both nervous. Both dressed up in very stylish outfits, they couldn't stop fidgeting.

"Would you two relax?" Stick moved between them, forcing both to make a little room for the dressed up drone. "So we are having dinner with everypony's parents, it's no big deal."

Hay and Penny both glared at Stick, but Hay got control of her voice first. "'No big deal'? NO BIG DEAL?" It wasn't the first time she rushed back to the mirror, straightening her mane. "For one, your mother is a queen changeling, a princess and one of my mentors. Second, why is Princess Cadance coming as Penny's stand in? Couldn't we have… oh I don't know, maybe Princess Celestia!"

Stick moved over to comfort the distraught mare, using her own magic to ward combs and brushes from making it to Hay's mane. "They are just ponies, relax, this is a night for us."

Penny was not quite as badly off as Hay, she had all the same ponies to deal with as her marefriend, but for her at least two of them were good friends. She tried to take a few deep breaths but the dress was a little less forgiving than she would have liked and it almost had her hyperventilate. "Hay, relax. You know the best thing, I have found, with being three ponies in love?" She moved over to the other side of Hay, leaning in to gently kiss the mare on the cheek.

The blonde unicorn looked to Penny, the tender kiss distracting her from her panic. "What?"

"Well, apart from the awesome snuggles, it is that if any one of us is down, there are two ponies to pick her up." Penny, presented with Hay's full face, kissed the mare on the lips.

"Downside is, when the other two are kissing, all you get to do is watch." Stick managed to make the complaint sound plausible enough that the two broke apart with a giggle, each making sure to kiss the drone.

Penny watched as Hay's now soft-green magic set the brushes back in their places. Stick broke from her kiss with Hay. "Okay, but I don't think I will ever be ready for this night." The half-changeling looking between both her marefriends.

"Even with us beside you?" Penny made it sound every bit as sappy as it was. She liked getting into 'cuddly' moods more and more of late.

"Especially with you two beside me!" Hay booped each mare on the nose and turned to the door. Opening it revealed an empty hall, but she was briefly reminded of Sablee, she hadn't seen much of the stallion lately. It wasn't that either were avoiding the other, they just didn't make efforts to meet.

The two other mares moved up to flank Hay and together they left the room and made their way out into the evening.

"Eating tonight?" Penny looked to Hay.

"A little. I think it is good to mix both diets. So if you don't mind I-" Hay was replying but got caught off-guard by a nuzzle.

"Of course I don't mind. I love seeing your face when you feed from me, it… it feels nice too." Penny still managed to blush.

Hay was well distracted, now, from her panic and leaned in to gently nip repeatedly at Penny with that changeling sense. Penny's hooves faltered and she wobbled a little. Hay grinned. "Still got it."

Penny was supported in Stick's magic, her world having just been rocked. She looked to Hay with a dreamy look. "You really should warn a mare before doing that… or don't…" Her smile turned more naughty than dreamy.

"Come on, my little snack, surely you aren't going to let a half-changeling sway you that much?" Stick tried to help Penny stand up and walk properly again, it was a bit of a fight for both of them.

Hay flashed her blunt teeth in a grin. "I can sway, I can shake and, if Penny isn't careful, I can pull the rug right out from under her."

Penny trembled at the tone in her mate's voice. "Maybe we can call tonight off to do… other… things?"

"Temptress!" Stick faked a swoon. "Begone from our sight lest we lose all hope of even reaching our destination." It was quite melodramatic, but ultimately a joke. They had already reached the restaurant.

Stepping inside, the smell of delicious food hit all three and even Stick's mouth was watering. Then they saw their table. Cadance and Shining sat together, with Fast Change seated beside the pink mare and, on the other side of the table from them, sat two ponies. The two ponies were both looking like unicorns, Dray obviously using his pony-shape. 

"Oh Celestia…" Hay lost all the bravado she had worked up during their walk and suddenly had two mares flanking her. It boosted her spirits, to an extent. As Penny and Stick took steps forward, so did Hay, she wouldn't let her friends down.

"Oh hey, they are here." Shining spotted the three first, gesturing with a hoof. Two princesses, a prince and two normal-looking ponies waved to them. All five looked turned out in finery. It was the first time, outside of the show, Penny had seen Cadance in a dress. 

Hay shook a little between the two but had no choice but to step along. A chorus of greetings welcomed them and between Stick and Penny, Hay got seated first. Then Stick turned to Penny and helped her onto a chair before gaining her own perch last. Cadance was the first to speak of more immediate things. "You must be Hay. You look radiant."

Hay was suddenly the center of attention and despite the focus of two princesses on her, she seemed to swell out a little. "Thank you, princess."

"Please, call me Cadance."

"C-Cadance, thank you." Hay blushed a little.

Cadance, of course, slipped her vision across to her own talent and her smile deepened. Three strong bonds claimed and bound the three mares together, further, there was a fourth form almost eclipsed by Penny, with no weaker bonds from them all toward it. She flicked across to glance at Dray and Pretty, both had equally powerful bonds, strengthened with years of closeness. 

Fast looked different, more self contained. But there was a strong bond running from her to Stick, not the same kind of bond as the others, this was a maternal bond. There was another, trailing off into the distance. Cadance had heard of the changeling princess' escapades with Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Love had half-hoped that they would unite.

The last thing Cadance did, in the moments it took her to glance around, was to look to her Shiny. She was almost blinded. The link between her and him was immense and firm. Just looking at it made her heart soar. She blinked away the vision and instead was looking into the eyes of Shining. Her Shining.

"Cadie?" Shining nudged his mare.

"I think the princess of love is a little overwhelmed." Penny giggled and reached over to poke one of Cadance's hooves. "You okay, 'mum'?"

There was a laugh from everypony at the table. Cadance grinned sheepishly. "I believe there is some tradition to this." She gestured at the table.

Stick nodded to this, reaching behind her back and pulling out two little bouquets of flowers. She presented them to both Pretty and Cadance. Penny was a little bemused by it but Hay was outright giggling. 

Fast was the first to react vocally. "Well, now we see whose foal it is swelling in Penny."

Everypony blushed at this, especially the three mares seeking approval. Penny looked across to Stick. She smiled to the other mare and realized she was okay with this. Hay looked between them, then leaned in to Stick and whispered to her. The changeling looked proud as punch.

Pretty leaned across to Penny. "Don't you wish you knew what they said?" It was a joke, or so Penny hoped. 

"With these two mares I dare not, but at the same time, I can just bet whatever it was will come back to haunt me." Penny had lifted a hoof to shield their speech, not that it did any good.

Dray's attention was firmly on Stick. The stallion had dealt with many ponies, but he found himself liking the drone right off the bat. "I hear you are in business?" Stick nodded to him. "Fancy had only good things to say about you, told me I had missed my chance to apprentice you."

"He offered and I couldn't say no. If he could only teach me half of what he knows I will be the third best business-pony in Canterlot." Stick grinned, knowing full well that Dray understood the joke in her words.

The changeling stallion liked the mare his daughter had chosen for a stallion more and more. So he turned his attention to Penny. "And if half the things are to believed about you, Penny, that ponies are saying, then I would be amazed. Helping to capture a rogue band of changelings near Ponyville, establishing a whole new business model… I hear you even assisted in the integration of the umbrum ponies." At mention of the last Cadance gave a little nod and smiled more.

Penny felt the weight of attention on her, but at the same time a pressure from her side. Hay was making sure she returned the help she herself had been given. "Those are… not quite all true." Penny looked among those present. "Most of you know I came to Equestria, as a human. A very sick human. Luna herself remade me as a pony to save my life. I didn't invent capital investment, it just… well, it seemed like the best way to help ponies."

"Well said. I hear tell of the railway expanding, of trade between Canterlot and the Crystal Empire increasing." Dray nodded to Cadance as he mentioned her realm. "And further. Smaller businesses are growing and expanding, you almost single-hoofedly created a growing boom in the economy of not just Equestria, but the whole continent." Dray realized just what he was saying, that he was practically singing the mare's praises. "And you did it to help ponies?" Penny nodded with a little pride.

Their waitress came out then, bringing menus and explaining the specials. The place was a little more upmarket than the three mares normally attended, but they really did have a good variety. "I will have the cheese salad." Penny poked a hoof at the dish on the menu. "Extra greens in it, if you could."

Each of the ponies ordered their meal and soon enough conversation turned to food. Cadance glanced around. "We are almost even on numbers here. Hay is the lynchpin." The words confused most present, but Fast figured out her meaning.

"Four who must eat solid foods. Three who live off love and one who could go either way." Fast looked to Hay.

It was Pretty who replied, though. "My daughter, it seems, wants to have her cake and eat it too. Are you still continuing to eat both ways, dear?"

Hay nodded and got a pat on her hooves from both directions, Penny and Stick supporting her. "I am half changeling, half unicorn. I don't want to be one or the other, I like being both. Besides, food tastes too good to not eat."

Both Fast and Dray chuckled at this, the two looking at each other across the table. One had spent their whole life pretending to be a pony, the other had only recently become a full changeling. Both still enjoyed the taste of real food but got nothing from it.

Stick looked to Penny. "I hope you are hungry." The changeling's eyes danced. Penny realized then that with so many changelings she would probably be eating extra.

Cadance laughed, however, looking right at Stick. "Don't think I don't remember the last time we met. Somepony just couldn't resist having a nibble." Cadance looked to Shining Armor, even Penny could see the palpable love radiating from the pair. 

Sitting right beside Cadance, Fast took the hit first, and well. "If you keep doing that I will feed…"

Cadance looked away from her mate, toward the changeling queen she had come to accept not only as a peer, but as a friend. "You wouldn't dare." It was a mock threat. Fast suddenly looked a little overwhelmed, leaning away from Cadance. "Or maybe you would, oh dear, I think she had a little more than a mouthful."

Fast looked around the table, almost seeing double. It felt like the times she had had 'hard' cider but she fought back at the sensation. She hadn't really even tried to drink, it was like Cadance had radiated love at her in a fine beam. It hit the mare, as she thought of it, that it was likely a weaker version of what was used on Chrysalis. Silly old queen, she thought, doesn't know a good thing when it is pointed at her.

"Fast? Princess?" Penny leaned up and waved a hoof before Fast Change, the queen barely able to track it and, on her fifth try, managing to touch the waving limb. "Yup, done for. Well that is one parent down, four to go." She looked between Cadance and Shining, then to Pretty and Dray.

The mock seriousness of Penny's mummery had everypony giggling.