57 - Moving forward
"Train party!" Pinkie's exclamation cut through the noise of the train and all the ponies around them.
"Good luck, if you need anything, you talk to Perfect Poise, or go and see Cadance." Penny was still talking with Moon.
"You aren't staying?" The solar unicorn looked confused.
Stick was at Penny's side. "We are under orders."
Moon looked shocked at this. "You mean I need to organize all this, this school, myself?"
"I know you can do it, I wouldn't have asked you if I thought you were anything but the best mare for the job." Penny wrapped one leg around Stick. "Hay, at least there is no umbrum invasion to worry about!"
"Invasion?" Moon Dancer looked shocked and confused but quickly pushed it all down. "Who are all these little ponies anyway? I haven't-"
Princess Luna strode up, gesturing to the train. "Alight, children of darkness!" She raised her hoof high and it was like a flood as the umbrum boarded the cars. The princess was caught in a moment of levity and clopped her hooves together in glee. "This is so much fun…"
Penny watched with an open mouth as the princess of the night boarded the train. "We gotta go. You will do great!"
Stick urged her partner forward, the conductor of the train was giving them a stern look. "Come on come on!" There was some chitter in her voice but the changeling managed to get the emotional mare to board.
As they entered the train it was clear Pinkie had worked fast, at least in the carriage she was on. There were streamers everywhere and a huge cake rocked dangerously on one table as the train began to move. "Here they are!"
There was a blur of pink, then both Penny and Stick were suddenly wearing party hats. Stick even had a party horn in her mouth and blew into it, the paper unrolling and it making a silly 'fweeep' sound.
Penny barely had a chance to think when a slice of cake was offered on a plate. "Eat up, I baked this myself!" Pinkie was so full of energy it was impossible to resist. Stick didn't get a piece of cake but the pink mare leaned in and whispered something to Penny's partner that Penny didn't overhear.
Stick's cheeks blushed and the party horn sounded again.
A little confused, but not worried, Penny sampled some of the cake and wobbled on her hooves.
"I know, right, it is always that good." Twilight Sparkle had approached the pair while Pinkie had distracted them.
Stick, still blushing, echoed the alicorn's sentiments. "Sweet and good…"
Penny got an inkling of what the whispered words had been and felt good for her marefriend. "Any chance you would be able to help me with some study?" Twilight's words cut through Penny's musing.
"Of course, Twilight." Penny felt a kind of puppy love for the mare, mixed with a generous helping of respect, it added together into something that felt like friendship. Twilight didn't have much to work with, but she was a scientist, and Penny really enjoyed that aspect of life too. "What was it you wanted?"
"You were amazing, feeding all those poor ponies."
"I… think this is something we will need to discuss later. I will be in Canterlot once the umbrum are settled. I am sure there will be plenty of time for science." Penny had spotted Silver advancing and knew he had an outstanding issue with Twilight, one that seemed entirely one sided.
Twilight looked a little confused but happy at the idea. It wasn't often she met ponies that actually thought science was fun in the same way she did. Of course, this had the alicorn remembering her next meeting with Princess Fast Change.
Stick watched as Silver brushed off Twilight a little inexpertly and then sequestered himself with her mare. She smiled, nice as Silver had been, or the thought of being in a little hive, she loved Penny a whole lot more.
"What is up with Silver Lining?" Twilight's words caught in Stick's twitching ear.
"We could have a wacky adventure trying to find out?" Stick stepped up to the mare, the taste of the over-sweet love Pinkie had for everypony still tingling in her.
The alicorn princess laughed. "We could, but I get the feeling it is something he needs to work through himself. A scroll and quill appeared with a pop and Twilight was turning further toward Stick. "But, there are some things I wanted to ask."
It was true, Twilight had spent some time examining Stick already. The changeling didn't mind of course, she found it cute that the mare took such an interest. "Great princess of friendship and magic," Stick put on airs with the words, making them flow in a most courtly way, her voice dropped to normal for what followed, "ask away!"
"First," a little group of cards appeared in Twilight's hooves, obviously with the questions on them, "you are…" Twilight blushed suddenly. "You are… well, you managed to make a foal with Penny?"
Stick giggled at Twilight's adorable manner. She was embarrassed to ask such a thing, but she had to for her curiosity. "Yup. She was in the right time for a mare and I just…" A wave of green flame had Stick as the stallion form she had used. She was now much more pony than changeling, still with most of the features of a mare, except the important ones. What was obvious was the ear tufts and unicorn horn, it almost made the bright green tail and mane harder to be surprised at.
"Oh, you chose something like a lunar unicorn?" Twilight's quill was already working as she examined Stick, a tape measure appearing and starting to work at quantifying the changeling's shape.
"Sure did, even though this was something we did, based on our love, I had no qualm with making a tiny concession to the mare who made our love possible." Stick's answer seemed to confuse Twilight a moment. "Princess Luna."
"Oh!" Twilight seemed to see the reasoning.
"Our name was spoken?" The immortal alicorn in question was right behind Stick then and the changeling jumped a few inches off the floor in surprise. "We see an odd creature before us. She carries the blood of my children but something else…"
Stick blushed but didn't change, not with Twilight still measuring her. "Oh, uh, oh drat I forgot the mark…"
"Wait, don't change!" Princess Twilight ordered and Stick froze.
Luna, however, grinned. "The pieces come together now. The little stallion responsible for my child's swelling belly. I approve, Stick." The princess of the moon had slipped into a much more comfortable speech pattern, the royal plural dropping.
Stick sighed in relief, worried that Luna might be upset. "Sorry, but Princess Twilight-"
"Just Twilight." Twilight replied, measuring the barrel of the 'stallion'.
"Pri-… Twilight wanted to see what uh… how I… she wanted to see this. I didn't think right, I did exactly what she asked and took the exact form." Stick felt bad, she had broken a rule her tribe had agreed to.
One alicorn was too busy taking notes and measurements, the other chuckled. "I think the orders of a princess can countermand a little rule like that. But just this time." Luna examined Stick somewhat herself, trying to hide her giggle when Twilight, blushing furiously, measured something that had Stick eep and lift a back leg in surprise. "She is thorough. I will want a copy of these notes, Princess Twilight."
Twilight's flushed features appeared on the other side of Stick. "Oh, of course Princess Luna!"
Some more measurements were taken and Stick had to stand still and pose for a few images Twilight quickly embossed onto the scroll with magic. "It is still odd, I thought changelings had different biology…"
Luna had the answer, easily enough for any pony who had lived as long as she. "Love is more important than that. If a mare and a stallion lack love, they will never have a foal. There was even talk, many many years ago, that two mares, with enough love, could quicken a foal, each from the other."
This seemed to confuse Twilight a little until something made her smile. "Oh, I think I just worked something out!" Another scroll appeared and the quill she summoned with it was scribbling furiously. "I need to test this but… oh, that might work.
Elsewhere, deep in the heart of Equestria, Princess Fast Change jolted out of the slight doze she had been having, feeling an itch down her spine that just wouldn't quit.
The train pulled slowly into the station at Canterlot. There were some ponies to disembark but none were getting on. This train had been specially planned at Princess Luna's request and would continue on.
Penny and Stick were relaxing together, pressed close. "Why are you still wearing that?" Penny asked, gesturing to Stick who had, at least, added a changeling cutie mark to her form.
"Princess Luna likes it. I think it reminded her of your promise and your fulfillment of it." The changeling rubbed Penny's belly for emphasis. There was no swelling yet of course, but Stick still loved reminding her special somepony.
"I still don't understand all this, but there is one thing I do." Penny leaned over and kissed Stick, pressing her lips against the willing mouth of her lover.
Stick melted, green fire rushing over her and bringing her back to her changeling self as she settled and continued the embrace.
"I almost envy you." Dreams was sitting on the couch opposite the pair, cutting in a little, or so Penny thought. Then she realized the train was moving again. How long had they been kissing?
The two love-ponies drew apart. "What do you mean?" Stick turned to the umbrum.
"Love, it seems so much nicer to drink, fear is delicious, don't get me wrong, but ponies naturally swing toward love." There was melancholy in the umbrum's words.
"I think you would like where I came from better." Penny's words surprised both Stick and Dreams. "Fear was just about the one thing everypony… everyone, felt. The world was practically built on it, nations had not only used it offensively in fighting, but had used it to quell their own citizens." The words made Penny cry a little, thinking of the terrible place, compared to Equestria, that she had left.
Stick was hugging her tightly, squeezing the unicorn. "That doesn't sound wonderful."
"Horrible." Dreams had floated over to make conversing a little more cozy. "Fear is nice, Princess Luna has taught us new ways to have ponies feel it without them even truly being afraid. But to be in fear all the time…" The umbrum shuddered.
"There were moments when you could escape it, I don't think people, humans, would survive otherwise. But apart from anger, fear is what defines the age I lived in." Penny slumped into her mare's legs.
"Past tense?" Stick's question made Penny grin. She had noticed.
"Definitely past tense. I am a pony now, I have a mare who loves me and I am going to have her foal. Life doesn't get much better than this."
The umbrum got no food from either pony, but she smiled regardless, it was hard not to smile around these two.
Twilight presented herself to the hive, a basket levitating beside her. "And you are here to see Queen Fast?"
"Princess Fast Change, yes." Twilight told the guard for the second time.
The second changeling guard nodded and set off into the hive, returning a moment later. "Queen Fast is coming!"
"Princess Fast Change." The changeling queen herself, wearing her former unicorn shape, strode out, correcting her drone. A hoof reached up to rub the errant changeling behind the ears. "Please call me Princess and not Queen."
"Yes Queen Fast!" The reply was quick and the changeling clearly didn't see why their queen was giggling. But hay, if the queen thought something was funny, it must be! They laughed too.
"Is this a date, Princess Sparkle?" Fast spotted the basket and grinned.
Twilight wasn't flustered at all, which surprised Fast. "Yes and no. I have a theory and I am going to test it… we are going to test it!" A list appeared and a quill ticked off 'greet mare', Twilight glanced to the next item. "And you can come as you are, if you like. I am not unused to the form of changelings."
Fast blushed, this was all wrong, how did Twilight have HER off balance? The flames encompassed her, draining away the form she had lived in for much of her life. Before Twilight stood a changeling queen, in the full sense of the word, though her holes numbered very few. She also stood taller than Twilight.
"Much better." The alicorn brightened and double checked the contents of the basket. "Ready?"
Fast reflected briefly on the fact that she may never be ready for Twilight Sparkle, but she nodded.
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Penny's take on our world is somewhat depressing, I have to say.
Not necessarily wrong, mind you. I personally would define the world more in terms of madness than fear, personally. 
So... Twilight is going to try to have Fast get her pregnant? Or vice versa? Is that what's happening here?
Interesting how Twilight's accidentally turning Fast's attempts to influence her into a reverse model...
Keep going! ;)
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6966236
Twilight has a hypothesis that may save her from embarrassing herself at a later date. She also has a list. Her day is shaping up well!
Princess Luna had strode up - Princess Luna
hadstrode uppink, both Penny and Stick suddenly - pink, then both Penny and Stick were suddenly
been, of the thought - been, or the thought
further to Stick - further toward Stick
Stick already, the changeling - Stick already. The changeling
Twilight have spent - Twilight had spent
obvious was the - obvious were the
ear tufts, and unicorn horn, it almost - ear tufts and unicorn horn. It almost
thorough, I - thorough. I
Twilight's flush features - Twilight's flushed features
changeling rubber Penny's - changeling rubbed Penny's
strode out correcting - strode out, correcting
word. Though - word, though
few, she - few. She
fact she - fact that she
Sparkle. But - Sparkle, but
*****
All aboard the Shady Hollow express!
So many character moments in this chapter! It was a lot of fun to read ^_^
I'm really curious about what Pinkie said to Stick, I can guess the thrust of it, but... actually, as I was typing this I think I figured it out.
One wonders what Princess Luna will be doing with those notes that Twilight is taking...
...and my hypothesis is that she's thinking of a template to use if she if gifted with another volunteer to become a lunar unicorn or earth pony.
I think that any sexy speculation about what Princess Twilight may want to do with Princess Fast are the result of a carefully placed red herring by the author, but you have surprised me before so I'm not taking any bets.
6967355 It wasn't express, it stopped in typo town and took on a whole mess of passengers!
And yes, this was a really fun one to write. Your thoughts on Twilight and Fast may be correct, not telling 100% thought. As for why Luna wants to know about Stick, particularly in her special form, that is for princesses to know, only.
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Ah hah! Direct evidence for my hypothesis that the typos are directly proportional to the amount of fun the author had in writing the chapter!
I am watching to see ware this twilight and Fast thing is going to end up at.
love." There
like.
oh, that reminds me of a story, i think it was by Estee, that said, long ago, someone had invented "the most special spell", that would make it possible for two mares to produce a foal. BUT...the foal would always be female...and that's why the population of Equestia is 80% female.
For a second there, i thought she might have said "A'ight, children of darkness!" I was going "Gangsta Luna? Huh? Oh. she sad alight."
8244701 I apologize for my comma abuse in this. I promise I am getting better! Glad you are enjoying it.