Cadance excused herself to go settle into a guest room for herself, leaving Twilight and the others behind. Twilight let out a slow breath before nodding at each of her three potential wives. "I'm going to say something, and I know it will sound cruel, but it's the truth as I feel it, and I need you to respect that, alright?"
Hesitant nods were her answer, and Twilight made an odd gesture, breathing in and out once with her hoof guiding the motion. "I don't want to be married."
Silver sank a little, but nodded. Fast looked much more irate, thumping the table lightly. "That's your choice, of course, but why? I thought we agreed?"
Twilight shook her head, "I... thought, a lot of things. Now that the pressure is let out, I know I'm not ready for this." She slipped from her seat and moved around. Without warning or prompting, she hugged Silver from behind. "I still want to be your friend, a very special friend, but no marriage..."
Night pushed her glasses back up with a fidget. "Only a twenty percent chance..."
Silver was a little limp in Twilight's grip. All the words that came to her felt tawdry, bitter, or just inappropriate, so she ended up saying nothing. She started when she felt Twilight nuzzle her. Silver reached out, pulling Twilight close, "I... really want it to work."
Night extended a wing, slipping it between Silver and Twilight. "Stop right there. If she doesn't want it, she doesn't. We learn from our lessons, right?"
Silver shrank away, nodding. Twilight glanced at Night with some confusion before she gave an 'oh' and gently brushed aside the wing. "There's no power involved in this. No centuries of life separating us. I'm just not... ready. I'm immature, and I admit that. I'm not ready to be a wife, or to go through the wringer that would come with being part of such... an amazing herd."
Fast chuckled softly as she rose up to full height. "That was a tactful way of putting it. My offer to be the acting stallion still stands. We don't have to be an all-mare herd."
Twilight shook her head and stepped away from Silver. "I will not ask you to sacrifice who you are for my benefit."
Fast's expression turned into a scowl as she clopped a hoof on the ground. "Buck your benefit! Silver is the one I care about. I'll be a stallion forever if I can get life to stop toying with her heart."
Cadance wandered back in, pausing dead in her tracks. She looked to Silver's quiet tears, Fast's furious expression, Night's stoic look, and Twilight's almost helpless befuddlement. "What did I miss?"
Night pointed at Twilight. "Twilight has decided she is not ready for marriage."
Cadance gave a slow nod. "I see... Well nopony is going to force Twilight to do such an important thing before she's ready. Twilight, do come here." Cadance led Twilight away, shielding her in a large, pink wing.
Fast raised her hoof high as it swelled in size and brought it down like a hammer, only drawing back at the last moment with barely restrained fury. "Celestia take it all! I thought we were settling down. I thought she loved us..."
Silver nodded slowly, eyes closed. "She does. She's afraid. I don't blame her."
Night took a moment to adjust her glasses as she looked over Silver and Fast. "You don't blame many ponies. If you found her in the embrace of another pony, you would likely blame yourself first." She slid to her hooves. "We are still a herd, and have each other, whether or not Princess Twilight Sparkle decides to stoop down to join us or not."
Fast bobbled her head. "Yeah, we don't need her!" Suddenly Fast was quite much like Twilight Sparkle, leaning in towards Silver. "Nothing a little role-play can't fix..."
Silver shivered softly at the sight and sound of a sultry Twilight. Even the smell was right. But she knew it wasn't the real Twilight. But it was Fast Change, and she was a fine mare too. Silver leaned in and kissed the faux-Twilight on the lips, and soon they had fallen over, faux-Twilight holding up Silver as she lay on her back.
A polite cough brought their attention to Cadance standing in the doorway. "As... interesting as it is to watch a doppleganger of dear Twilight enjoying a moment of passion, could I speak to you all?"
Fast guided Silver up to her hooves before becoming her usual unicorn self. "Of course, Cadance. You always have our ear."
Cadance smiled a little wistfully. "I wish I was the bearer of good news, but Twilight is closing up hard. She's seen the way out and she's hit the ground running. Her assessment was quite accurate, she's being immature. She obviously loves you all, and loves being around you... She's just afraid to handle everything that comes with it."
Night nodded lightly before pointing at Cadance. "Do you have a suggested course of action?"
Cadance tapped at her chin, "I can think of several... She told me about your aborted time out together. I do think you should do one of those, without the interruption. I could... cheat a little. She has love for you all, it could be enhanced. She may realize love is more important than her short-term fears, or it may drive the poor dear into fits. I'm wary of pulling out that sledgehammer of a solution."
Fast suddenly smiled. "You are the princess of relationships. We are humble commoners before you. Save us from our folly and we will follow your guidance faithfully."
Cadance looked to Silver pointedly. "What of you? What are your thoughts?"
Silver sagged a little. "I shouldn't have pushed into her life so hard in the first place. She, er... her destiny is already filled. I bet she's supposed to meet a nice stallion that isn't a human at some point, and I'll just be in the way of that."
Fast snorted loudly, "That's a huge load of dung. We're not in your visions anymore, Silver. We make destiny, not live it."
Silver pointed off towards the map room. "Twilight lives destiny. She believes in it, and so do her friends. Who am I to decide it's a bunch of nonsense, especially when it involves her love life? I mean I saw it work! I watched history play out."
Cadance half-lidded her eyes as she approached Silver. "Alright, then let's take this logically. Fate is real, you've witnessed it. Correct?"
Silver nodded at her.
"Nothing can turn fate aside, so far you have seen?"
Silver shook her head.
"Then you can't really mess it up, can you? If you aren't meant to be, then no force will change that, unless you're saying you can change destiny. And if you can change it, it's not really destiny, is it?" Cadance looked smugly satisfied with her reasoning.
Silver flopped onto her haunches. "Well... no, I suppose not. I still don't want to force Twilight. I've been forced enough times to know it sucks balls."
Cadance frowned. "Language. We will not force Twilight. She is my sister-in-law. I wouldn't dream of forcing her, but I do think she's being... rash. This isn't like Luna. Tell me, when you're with her, does she lord her status over you? Do you feel inferior?"
Fast shook her head. "No way. In fact, she's usually overwhelmed by me. She doesn't use titles unless we're in public, and even then she doesn't try to give out orders. I've only seen her do that in emergencies, and that's cool."
Night nodded in agreement as she pointed at Silver. "She's still getting used to being a princess, and prefers being treated like a pony first and any titles after that, which is fine by me. When she's looking at Silver, it's with fondness and confusion, but never superiority. Sometimes she even seems jealous."
Silver hesitantly joined in the agreement, settling on one of the chairs instead of the floor. "Twilight, after our rocky start, has treated me like a friend, and sometimes as a lover, never as a princess."
Cadance watched their lines. Speaking of Twilight thickened the ones that trailed upwards towards her. "It's not too late. I do think we can work past this."
Silver raised a hoof. "What if we just keep it a secret? Then she doe--"
Night shook her head quickly. "Nope, scratch that thought right out. We were doing that before. Secrets get out. If we want to do it, we have to do it right."
Fast rocked back and forth a moment before she clopped her hooves together. "We should treat Twilight like a princess, I mean, romantically. We should give her a day of just being pampered, carefree, and happy."
Cadance smiled gently. "I don't see anything wrong with that idea. I can't promise it will shake her fears, but you could all enjoy it." She let out her breath slowly. "There is another thing you can do, but it's risky."
Silver tilted her head in curiosity as she shuffled her hooves. "What would that be?"
"You can formally announce your courting of Princess Twilight Sparkle."
Fast blinked, but Night seemed to grasp the picture faster. "Oh! I see... Then we'd be in the spotlight either way, and Twilight's decision to proceed has nothing to do with the attention, since it's already here."
Cadance nodded slowly. "It would mean you would all become very famous, very quickly. You will be followed, pestered, and possibly mocked for your... unconventional... herd grouping. Some will blast you for trying to 'corrupt' Twilight. Some may even attack directly, financially, verbally, or even physically. You will take a lot of heat, but that's half the point."
Fast nodded and moved to sit beside Night. "We can handle a few naysayers. Besides, offer's still open."
Silver perked an ear at Fast, then blinked as she leaned forward. "Wait. Fast. Honest time. Do you want to be our stallion?"
Fast wobbled a hoof. "Maaaaybe?"
"You keep offering, and I don't... think you're hesitating."
Night nodded in agreement. "If you want to be our stallion, you should say that, instead of offering it."
Fast huffed, shuffling in place. "Watching you two get all fat is... hot, OK? I want to put a foal in those ovens, but I don't want to get fat myself." She tapped at her chin a moment before continuing, "We should... talk, work out a perfect stallion for you both."
Silver snorted. "None of that. You're a perfectly lovely pony as you are. You can be a male-you, but I won't have a custom-ordered stallion. I love Fast Change."
Fast moved over to Silver and they shared a soft nuzzle as Fast became a stallion version of herself, growing in mass and musculature. Fast bit at Silver's closest ear. "You're lucky there's a princess watching."
Cadance cleared her throat softly. "Yes! Well, are we in agreement then?"
I notice she isn't really saying no to them. Really she hasn't really had times to sit and go Twilight about everything and instead it's all being tossed at her without giving her time to think.
That really sounds like it should be in the past tense ("wanted it to work"), since Twilight's statement has a ring of finality to it.
No centuries of life "separating" them.
An "all-mare" pairing (though with more than two of them, it's not a "pairing" per se).
This isn't really an error per se, but..."arms"?
Using Fast's name twice like that feels a little artless. I'd change that last part to "before becoming her usual unicorn self again."
I suspect that last word should be "fulfilled."
She's "witnessed" it.
5869664 Tweaked, though Silver's present-tense was not a mistake. Silver wants it to work, now, even if Twilight is announcing it as a closed door.
5869698 Ah, drama...so much wonderful, character-driven drama. The pathos of wondering if their love is truly unrequited or not is simply enchanting to read about.
What jumped out at me most here is how everypony is trying so hard to be mature about this, and even despite that they're letting their emotions leak out around their rational responses. That's so realistic where these sorts of relationship difficulties are concerned that it immediately draws me in all the more. There's simply no good way for the characters to respond here, since being in the throes of emotion tends to prohibit clear-thinking, even as clear-thinking has no real answers where matters of the heart are concerned. That juxtaposition is what the entire herd - and Twilight herself, for that matter - are desperately trying to overcome.
Silver, quite notably, is by far the worst at this. Seriously, every single reaction she makes with regards to Twilight is completely wrong, and in some cases Silver contradicts how she reacted mere minutes previously. Her very first reaction to Twilight's perceived rejection is to push harder ("I really want it to work"), despite this having been the beginning of her doomed relationship with Luna. Then, as soon as Twilight leaves, Silver turns around and plunged headfirst into despair ("Her destiny was never to be with us. I see that now."), and then she starts in with ridiculous schemes ("What if we keep this a secret?") that seem likely to alienate Twilight more than entice her.
I know that this is entirely in-character for Silver, but it's somewhat shocking to see her bad relationship skills in action. Literally, every instinct she has is wrong - there's no nuance there at all. For all of her insisting that she wants Twilight to do what makes her happy, as soon as things go south Silver becomes completely and utterly at the mercy of her own emotional whims, letting them control her rather than being in control of them. Yes, she's a pregnant female, which tends to have hormones screwing around with her reactions, but this is how she's always acted; immature where relationships are concerned.
Night, by contrast, was exactly the type of rock she needed to be. She was the one who reined Silver in more than once during this chapter when she saw that Silver was falling into bad habits. But even then, we saw Night's own heartbreak and bitterness overcome her at one point ("If Princess Twilight Sparkle won't stoop to be with us"), which adds a necessary emotional component to her character in situations like these. She was keeping it together, but that didn't negate how hurt she felt, and she couldn't help but express that.
Fast's failing was different, however. She was forthright in her desire to change Silver's mind, which fits with her hedonistic (e.g. take what you want) nature, but she let her real motivation when snapped at Twilight's saying that she thought Fast was offering to be a stallion for her benefit. That one sentence - "Buck your benefit! Silver is the one I care about!" - showed Fast's entire hoof. That called into question, to my mind, any feelings that Fast has ever claimed to have for Twilight.
While we've had several chapters of how much Fast loves Night, to the point where I'm satisfied that she does love her fellow wife (though perhaps not quite as much as she does Silver), that sentence hints strongly that she doesn't feel very much love for Twilight at all. When someone says "X is the one I care about" that comes with the unspoken suffix "not you" attached to the end. Was Fast pursuing Twilight simply because she wanted Silver to have what she wanted (and probably that Fast wanted to do it with a princess)? That line, more than anything else, really showed a deep fault line in the herd, at least where Twilight's acceptance is concerned. Of course, the same could be said for Night also, but Night hasn't done anything to make us doubt her growing feelings for Twilight...even if it was Silver that tugged the entire herd after the Princess of Friendship.
I'm also a little wary of Fast's offer to be the stallion for the group. That's not due to any issue of gender identity on her part; Fast has clearly long since overcome all such hangups, what with her mutable form. No, the issue there is that Fast's desire to be a stallion largely seems redundant on her part. She has shapeshifting magic on part with a changeling queen, not to mention Silver can show her that "stallion equipment" spell (heck, Fast was the inspiration for that spell), so Fast can pretty much be a stallion whenever she wants - even having the princesses change her "real" form to be male doesn't seem like it'd accomplish that much. If Fast wants to be a stallion, why doesn't she just, you know...do it?
The only answer I can come up with here is that she knows the group has gotten used to her in the guise of a female, and she's asking for their permission to assume a male form more often. Even then, that seems a little odd for her, since she can change genders as easily as most ponies would change clothes (if not easier). I think what she's trying to say is that being around pregnant mares (especially ones that she's already intensely attracted to, thanks to the added emotional commitment) has upped her already-astronomical sex drive to the point where she feels male, since the idea of her pregnant wives naturally suggests (at least to her) that she be a stud, even if none of the foals are hers. To put it another way, Fast is gender-fluid, and the current situation is one that's pushing her towards a masculine mindset. Given that, I'd expect that not long after Silver and Night give birth, one or both of them is going to find themselves with another bun in the oven, courtesy of Fast.
As for Twilight herself...this breakdown was not at all unexpected. Even if it's not a cliche in Equestria to say "it's not you, it's me," it was still surprisingly honest of her to admit that...though in another way, it's rather shameful that she basically admitted that she's giving in to her fears, and knows it, and is going to do it anyway. Still, it was very cogent of the herd, and Cadance, to note that Twilight wasn't rejecting them so much as she was rejecting the drama, uncertainty, and anxiety that being with them would bring. Given how much of that she's faced in the last few weeks, this was inevitable.
Insofar as trying to publicly court her goes...that is a rather aggressive action. My natural inclination is to go with the softer option, and date her without any sort of nudging or pushing her along until she feels more comfortable with the herd, to the point where her love for them overcomes her fear of the complications that would come from formally marrying them. That said, Cadance is right in that such a bold plan might be a quicker, more surefire way of winning Twilight back. If they take on the slings and arrows of public reprobation and emerge from it unscathed, that might buoy Twilight's heart. After all, when your worst fear has already come to pass, it's kind of hard to keep being afraid of it.
As it is, it's a good thing that Cadance is there with the group. One can only wonder how much different things would be if she'd been consulted before things had broken down with Luna...or if that's why Luna has been writing to Cadance since.
5869906 I will confess, I was sweating bullets through a lot of this chapter. These emotions are actually pretty alien to me outside of an intellectual level. The fact that I can handle it at all I heap squarely on my strange way of processing writing and imagination. I try not to be 'me' while I'm in there, and just let the characters do their thing, even as I stare dumbly from the sidelines, not entirely grasping all the emotions at play.
I am Silver. This is confusing. Cadance is still best princess.
I'm delighted it brought up so many thoughts! This chapter clearly hit a chord with you that I can hear vibrating in your response to it! How many words are in that reply? You could be writing a story of your own, practically.
hum now I am not really sure how to react about this chapter.
In my hart I agree with night and fast it is time for life to stop bucking with Silver Stars, but dang this is going to be a huge risk.
yes it will throw every thing out in the open but I am not sure how twilight will handle this.
fast as a stallion I agree with that he will be a good father in time.
my big thing is how twi will handle all the attention.
Harts Fire
5869943 This was certainly a chapter that I didn't have to try hard to have a reaction to, though I'm not quite at your level - my reply didn't quite break thirteen hundred words, to your chapter's two thousand-plus, after all.
Fast bobbled her head. "Yeah, we don't need her!" Suddenly Fast was quite much like Twilight Sparkle, leaning in towards silver. "Nothing a little roleplay can't fix..."
Correction: Fast bobbled her head. "Yeah, we don't need her!" Suddenly Fast was quite much like Twilight Sparkle, leaning in towards silver. "Nothing a little role play can't fix..."
A polite cough brought their attention to Cadance standing in the doorway. "As... interesting as it it to watch a doppleganger of dear Twilight enjoying a moment of passion, could I speak to you all?"
Correction: A polite cough brought their attention to Cadance standing in the doorway. "As... interesting as it is to watch a doppelganger of dear Twilight enjoying a moment of passion, could I speak to you all?"
Fast moved over to Silver and they shared a soft nuzzle as Fast became a stallion version of herself, growing in mass and musculature.
I really thought Fast was a stallion when she was first introduced.
6580579 She is what she cares to be.
6580570 Fixes applied!
is not how one spells Twilight
wringer
Silver
doppelgänger
6831067 More fixes!