The day went exceptionally well until soon after noon. Fast and Night strolled together through the streets, headed towards home to check in on things when Fast suddenly staggered against Night, wings flapping awkwardly.
Night took it in jest, gently nudging Fast onto her side of the road, "I thought you said my body was easy to control." Her words trailed into uncertainty when the nudge never stopped. Fast fell away from Night with the momentum, collapsing to the ground limply. "Fast, that's not funny..." She tried to piece together the clues, feeling there was something to be grasped, but all that came were ideas for forms to become to help the situation.
Fast kicked out a leg with a grunt, "No... No it really isn't... Blast it all." She slowly rolled up, her legs spread awkwardly across the ground as she lay on her belly. Understanding dawned in her expression and she scowled. "I used magic to have working legs, to be... you, and that failed. I don't have the magic without my cutie mark to just do that casually."
Night sprouted hands, as unnatural as they looked at the end of her forelegs, and grabbed Fast with them, pulling her up tight. "We're going home." Night moved swiftly, dashing along on her hind legs as quickly as she could in an awkward ambling with Fast balanced in her arms. "When we see Twilight next, we'll have her undo it. No amount of curiosity is worth you being crippled for a week."
Fast twitched her ears, more coming to her with Night's borrowed insight, "Oh, Night! Stop changing!"
Night tilted her head as she hurried, "Why?"
Fast poked at Night's chest, "You didn't get a heart crystal! When you put me down, I'll lend you mine, but no more changing until then."
Night stiffly nodded and they traveled in silence before arriving at Twilight's tower soon after. Night set Fast down on a soft bed in an unused room and nuzzled what appeared to be her old self, but that fell apart as Fast became Fast. Fast rolled onto her side, "I was stupid... Here." She worked off her heart crystal, "Take it."
Night snorted, "I don't need it! I'll have Twilight switch us back, no more changing."
Fast crossed her forelegs, "The dare is still on and I'm not budging. I can suffer a little..."
Night frowned, "Why? That doesn't make any sense at all." She did take the dangling crystal and slipped it around her own neck. It felt warm, and reminded her somehow of Fast. With the crystal on, she banished the odd-looking hands in favor of hooves and slid up onto the bed with Fast, snuggling the disabled unicorn.
Fast pressed back warmly, "I saw the look in your eyes. You're really enjoying this, old defects aside. Please don't give up on it for me."
Night did not accept the logic, shaking her head, "No! Ridiculous! I'm just fine as a lunar pegasus, and you were as a unicorn. I'll trade in magic to get you on your hooves any day."
Fast smiled warmly, "You always did have your heart set... on your loved ones. You used to only have that tone when you looked at Silver, and I'll admit it, I was so so jealous of it. I wanted that. I would have done anything to be loved so purely, so completely."
Night dropped the changes entirely, becoming her old, bat-like self as she pushed Fast over and mounted her, legs on either side of Fast and squeezing. "Well you got it! I do love you, idiot. You're just like him sometimes. Don't be so... selfless."
Fast flashed her flat teeth, "And you're better? Your cutie mark is whispering to me, you know. I can see how much pleasure you're getting from having magic. You're willing to toss that all aside at the first hint that I'm not comfortable."
Night wriggled her back end as she stared daggers down at Fast, "I guess we're just made for each other, all of us. A bunch of stupid ponies willing to give up everything for the other, until we have nothing left for ourselves."
Fast leaned back and closed her eyes a moment before whispering, "This is getting depressing. I want to have fun, and I know just the thing."
Night perked an ear up, "Will I agree to it?"
Fast considered that a moment, "Sixty percent chance."
"Good odds," agreed Night with a smile, "Alright, what is it?"
Fast reached with her forelegs, working as well as ever, and pulled Night's head down for a quick kiss on the nose. "I'm going to teach you how to love me as a stallion, and you're going to do it... over and over."
Night went as red as she could as she considered the option given her, "But... you're... I... There's so much wrong with that idea!"
Fast rolled a hoof lightly as she began listing, "You think my back legs giving out makes it not right, well that's just wrong. If I want to be loved, then I do, so forget them. You're afraid you'll hurt me, which is exactly why you won't. You care far too much about me to hurt me. You're a little afraid I'll get a foal too, but I swear my season passed a while ago and the next one isn't due yet. The tricky one..."
Night frowned, "Yes? Ugh, please don't just quote all my problems like that. Do I do that?"
Fast shook her head, "Not usually, but your talent doesn't make me stop being me any more than my talent made you stop being you. Alright, the tricky one, you're a little afraid you might like it, and regret it all the more when you're back to your old talent, but I have an answer for that!"
Night sat up, putting more pressure on Fast's belly, "I'm already afraid to hear it, but go on. I know you want to tell me, talent or not."
Fast bobbed her head, "That's because we're in love, silly. We'll get you a crystal of your own, so Silver and I can work our magic on you, whenever you want. But, right now... I want you to think of Silver, of that stud that put that foal inside of you. Think of him when he was all he and he wanted you."
Night nodded slowly, and followed Fast's prompts. Fast got exactly what she wanted, and Night got to experience things from within Silver's old masculine body. When all was done, Fast had faded off to sleep with a pleased expression, but Night found rest refusing to come to her. She slipped from the bed and wandered the castle aimlessly. Twilight returned deep into the night and didn't even hear, let alone acknowledge, any questions fired at her before she staggered off to bed and passed out.
Night eventually wandered up to the observatory and sat beside the telescope without looking through it. There she rested until sleep crept up on her, and she faded into dreams.
She awoke to the sensation of being kissed. She opened her eyes to see Fast had found her, and they shared the good morning exchange for a quiet moment before Night drew back, "How did you get up here?"
Fast chuckled, "Well, I'm a unicorn again." She reached up and poked her horn, "I don't have my talent, but I did learn a fair share of spells the hard way. Now, breakfast. I'm starved!"
Night followed after Fast as she descended the stairs, "Are we still keeping the marks? We're not even switching bodies now."
"So?" asked Fast. "Stop feeling bad for me! I'm perfectly happy."
Night reared up and grabbed Fast at the cutie marks, stopping her. "I'm serious," said Night. "As fun as it may or may not be, that fun is lost when I think about the price you're paying for it."
Fast shrunk a little, "But I'm... having fun watching you have so much fun..."
Night began to rub across the cutie mark that had been hers, but was then emblazoned on Fast's flank, "I'm not a unicorn. I was being stupid wanting to be something I'm not."
Fast rolled her eyes even as she sighed in soft pleasure, "I'll have you know wanting to be something you're not is kind of my thing. You're calling me stupid."
Night blushed and slid to the ground, "I didn't mean it like that..."
Fast bumped against Night lightly, "Stop overthinking this so much and do things! Do all the things you always wanted to do, but couldn't!" She fluttered her lashes at Night, "Do the things you know I won't say no to."
Night darkened and looked away, "You are insatiable..."
Fast nodded, "But I am yours. You and Silver asked that I save all my love for you two, and I did it! You get it all, nopony else." She sat down on her haunches, "Don't think that was an easy thing... I'm a hedonist, through and through. My eyes wander and I see pretty mares, stallions, griffons, or whatever, but I actively decide not to go chasing any other flank, because I love you. Because I love Silver."
Night quirked a smile, "Because you love Twilight?"
Fast waved a hoof dismissively, "We're working on her. She's adorably smart and reclusive, but she hasn't opened up to us yet, and while she's..." Fast squinted, "Ugh, how do you even function with all this information?"
Night smiled timidly, "You get used to it... Your talent's no better. I keep getting ideas for other things to be."
Fast reached out and beeped Night on the nose, "If you want to mount me again, I wouldn't say no, but, about Twilight, she loves the idea of love, but she still sees herself as above it all."
Night tilted her head, "That does make sense, but as you said, we're working on her." She frowned, "Those stupid ponies... She was about to say something, something important..."
Fast smiled brightly, "Silver will draw it out of her. They have a bond. They both love magic as a science. They're both awkward as all get out, and he's known her for a long time, even if she didn't know him. Now, are we going to play?"
Night nipped at Fast's ears one after the other, then moved away, "Let's go for a walk first. We'll get to your 'playing' after we do a survey of the city, for safety's sake."
Fast moved to follow Night, nodding, "That sounds just fine, get the blood pumping before we get to pumping."
"You are impossible," said Night with a bright smile.
They were soon out exploring the city, searching for signs of trouble that would trouble them later. Nothing happened out of place for the rest of the day, and they eventually retired so Fast could educate Night on the intricacies of being a shapeshifter under the sheets. That time, they both slept together.
wow, you put these chapters out so fast. haven't seen a writer do it like this for a while XD
I'm used to weekly releases.
5855118 Weekly, that'd be a lot easier. Did I mention I am working on another fic concurrently?
5855124 oh? which one is that?
5855128 The Apple Falls Far
5855148 nuuu now I have to read the story before that story. hmmm I think I can get through the 255k words in abooooout(*checks kindle paperwhite*) 9hrs and 37mins, give or take 30 min.
5855148 Oh btw awesome earlier stories, guess you saw me fave all of them XD
5855178 Thanks for the favs and any plus ones, do appreciate.
5855181 You should get more recognition for your books/stories(whatever XD). I like em so far.
5855188 I keep on writing. I made Pomyfinder if you like tabletop rpgs.
5855199 I've, never played before. some people only interested in D&D. wish I had some friends near me. Now I need to start writing my own story.
5855204 Get to it!
Let nothing stop you.
fast and night are luring so much about each other and they are going to have a supper strong bond over all this.
I am really liking this experiment with the switching.
but how is Silver and the foal?
Harts Fire
5856161 Likely bored! Twilight's busy spazzing out over things, which leaves her only visits from Zecora.
5856164
ok I can believe that with having to say on bed.
Twilight I wont go there I am just going to sit back and see how this develops, for now.
Harts Fire
PS for now
Night's talent doesn't make Fast stop being Fast "any" more than Fast's talent made Night stop being Night.
She didn't "see" any questions? Shouldn't that be "hear"?
This was another sweet chapter, and it was good to see Fast and Night spend some time reaffirming their love. The best part was hearing Fast talk about how she was jealous of how Night and Silver looked at each other - that was the sort of exposition, the sort of reference to how they feel about their shared history that I want to see more of! As it was though, this was satisfying, particularly since the mild crisis that developed helped to nudge them towards talking about how they want to sacrifice for each other.
It felt appropriate that Fast's bet blew up on both of their faces, simply because of how ill-conceived it was. I was a little surprised about the sheer lack of pathos on Fast's part about being stuck in her native, crippled form, however. When we first met her, she didn't want anyone to see her real body, and was deeply ashamed of how her legs didn't work, to the point that she was well on her way to becoming a changeling. While it's obvious that Night and Silver have given her back a great deal of her self-respect, I was a little surprised that we didn't see even the barest hint of her old insecurities making a return. Is she really that okay with her original, defective body being on display for everypony to see?
It was also insightful to show how Night is jealous of not having her own magic. Part of it is clearly that she didn't value her natural abilities very much (after all, she's always had them, and so takes them for granted), but part of it also speaks to something I've wondered about for a while, which is that unicorns are quite clearly "first among equals" with regards to ponies. Earth ponies have strength and endurance, which doesn't seem to be very notable (just look at the show itself and see how obvious that is), and pegasi can fly and walk on clouds...which Twilight can replicate with her magic. But unicorns have magic itself, which has the versatility to allow for unicorns that dedicate themselves to it to replicate the powers of the other two breeds, and then some. Is it any wonder that Night feels insecure beside that? I'm surprised all earth ponies and pegasi don't feel envy for that.
That aside, the entire group seems to be slowly broadening their sexuality. Between Fast's nymphomania, Silver's gender-bending, Twilight's "experimenting" and now Night making love to Fast as a stallion, it's pretty clear that everypony in the herd is, to put it nicely, rather open-minded about gender roles. A far less charitable way of putting it would be that they're all deviants, and while I doubt that anypony in Ponyville would care that much, I can't help but wonder if any hostile groups would use this to try and smear Twilight's name, if not undercut her nascent role as the Princess of Friendship. Twilight did worry how mad Celestia would be if she joined a herd - imagine how the Canterlot nobles would react if they learned that she used sex magic to father a foal in a male-to-female transsexual. That's the sort of tabloid gossip that would dominate the news here on Earth.
It's a good thing that "Gabby Gums" isn't around anymore. As it stands, one has to wonder how long of a break they'll have before whomever put Starlight up to attacking them makes their next move.
5856924 Fast isn't that different from the rest of her herd, and will bottle up things if the situation seems to obviously demand it, a sensation she's better at noticing while borrowing Night's talent. This is to say that Fast isn't enjoying being a lame horse, but put Night's feelings ahead of that. They are deviants, tampering with magic, and private activities, normal ponies would steer clear of. Will it come to bite them in the flank? Give it time! Silver hasn't proven too lucky with avoiding drama so far.
questions
safety's
6826707 Fixed!
Fast*