The Morning After

I groan as some sort of light hits my eyes in exactly the wrong way.

Time to wake up, I guess?

I try to open my eyes but the light causes my head to flare up in pain. I hiss and slam my eyes shut again.

Okay, Blister, deep breaths.

I keep breathing until the pain in my head subsides.

Phew, okay, good start. Alright, let’s try that again.

I try to open my eyes again, more slowly this time. When the light becomes too much for me, I go to move my hoof towards my eyes, but something stops it from moving.

What?

Still squinting, I turn my head enough to the right to where I can make out a yellow and pink blur. Candy?

She’s laying down next to me and holding onto me like a teddy bear, pinning my hoof to my side. I stare at her incredulously as the world slowly comes into focus.

Oh hey, look at that, I can see now. Great!

Looking around the room, I see a pristine white ceiling, purple curtains with a gold trim parted in the most annoying way possible, and ornately carved furniture littering the room.

Yep, I’m in the castle by the looks of it, but the question is, why?

I’m shaken from my thoughts by a slight rustling to my right. I turn my head to be met with a pair of purple eyes that seem to make the room brighter instantly. Uh-oh.

“You’re awake!” Candy gasps as she moves her hooves to wrap around my neck and nuzzles me. I blush at the contact, but that’s not exactly my main concern right now.

“I thought I lost you.” I hear her whisper. Uh-oh. What the fuck did I do?

“Well, I’m here now, Candy,” I say, doing my best to console her. She then raises herself above and stares down at me with a frown.

“I would ask you ‘what’s with the frown’ but I think the more important thing for me to ask is: what exactly am I waking up from?” I see her frown morph into an ‘o’.

“You don’t know?” She asks. I shake my head. “What’s the last thing you remember?” I purse my lips.

I remember...wait Tirek!

“I remember Tirek! And then watching the four of you getting pummeled and then, I…” I trail off.

“Uh-huh, keep going…” she encourages me.

“Then I used Galaxy-Eyes as a last gambit to try and stop him and then...I’m drawing a blank.” Candy then smiles at me knowingly. Oh no, what now?

“Close, do you remember what you said to me before you went to go fight him?”

I remember, being nearly hysterical as I watched Tirek beat the ever-loving shit out of the four princesses-no, my four best friends and when he was done I went down to where they were lying in the dirt. I feel tears well up in my eyes.

“I tried to help, but-”

“It’s okay.”

“Wait, but you were all hurt! Are you-”

“Blissy, it’s okay. We’re fine now. What next?”

I take a deep breath. I went down to them and after I told them my plan, and they tried to stop me, I looked at Candy as she leaned heavily on her left side and a gray tint enveloped her. I remember pouring into those eyes. Those grey eyes. Tears welled up in my eyes as I walked up to her and whispered in her ear:

“I love you.” I can’t make eye contact with her anymore, but it seems I don’t get a choice. A pink hoof lifts my chin up and makes me face her. I’m still frowning, but Candy has that playful look in her eye. Uh-oh.

“You stupid, stupid, pony.” She giggles and I smile. “I thought I lost you.”

I open my mouth to say something, but ultimately it doesn’t matter as what happens next shocks me. Before I can say anything, Candy, Cadance, my best friend for the past two years, and the Princess of Love leans down and captures my lips in hers.

Initially, I’m shocked and my eyes widen. But the softness of her lips allows me to relax. I feel her lower herself down onto my body and wrap her hooves around my torso this time. I reciprocate around her neck and close my eyes.

The one word I would use to describe this is complete and utter bliss. My heart is pounding a mile a minute and I think I might explode any second, but I don’t care. It’s not important right now. What is important is Candy. My Candy. Oh, that feels so good to finally say. Think. Whatever.

Just as I’m running out of breath, she presses harder down onto me before breaking the kiss and leaning her forehead against mine.

“I love you, Blissy” she whispers.

“I love you, too, Candy” I whisper back.

And for the next few moments, we just lay there, eyes closed, wrapped in layers of blankets and our own body heat. With my eyes now closed, I focus on her soft breathing. The beating of her heart. It almost feels in time with mine. Huh, would you look at that? I smile even wider until it all comes crashing down.

I hear a soft clink. The sound was so soft that I doubt I would’ve heard it if we hadn’t been dead silent, but we were. So I did. At the same time, I felt...something on my forehead. I wasn’t sure what, but it sure as Tartarus wasn’t there before and for whatever reason was long enough to where I didn’t feel it at the base of my head.

“Wait, what?” I ask. Candy just giggles. Oh great.

“What?” I ask, staring directly into her eyes now as she is above me. She looks up at my forehead and then back at me.

In response, I look up at my forehead as well, and what I find is just pure shock. Nothing else. Only shock. Nothing else. Only shock. Nothing-

“WHAT!?” I shout at the top of my lungs. Candy takes her hooves off of her ears and just giggles.

“Blissy, it’s alright, calm down.” She says, but I’m still hyperventilating.

“Wha-bu-what?! How!? I didn’t even-but I didn’t-” But my ramblings are cut short by a familiar pair of soft lips. I take a deep breath through my nose and deepen the kiss. Damn, who knew something this simple could be so calming or so pleasant? I wish I had this earlier.

I needed this. I need this.

I wrap my hooves around Candy and pull her closer to me and she responds in kind. I would do some more thinking but I don’t really care right now. Just as I start to lose air, Candy breaks the kiss and smiles down at me.

Alright, now I care. So...I have a horn. I have a horn?!

“I have a horn,” I repeat out loud. Candy giggles and nods.

“Yep!”

“So that means I’m an alicorn now?”

“Yep!”

“So that means I ascended?”

“Yep!”

What the actual fuck is happening.

I start to laugh. Not loudly or psychotically, but just a light chuckle, a few breaths out of my nose. I laugh at everything. At waking up, kissing Candy, having a horn, and those adorable “Yep!”’s.

“Candy, I love you, but can you please tell me how I ended up as an ascended being after going to kill a demon centaur from Tartarus?” She just giggles.

“Well, I’m not 100% on the details, nopony is, but we believe that when you defeated Tirek, you embodied your special talent thoroughly enough that, when combined with the magical explosion-”

“Wait, what? What magical explosion?” I hurridly interrupt her to which she just rolls her eyes.

“The one that released everypony’s magic from Tirek after you took him out.” She says while giving me a peck on the lips. Huh, I guess that makes sense.

“Sorry, continue,” I say. She just giggles.

“When combined with the magical explosion, it allowed you to ascend to an alicorn. Although, there is one other quirk that came along with it and I feel as though it’d be better to not just let you find out on your own. Sit up and look at your wings.”

Following her instructions, I sit up and look back and-ohhhhh my sweet Celestia what the actual fuck?! My wings aren’t the normal pegasus wings anymore. No, now there’s a deep purple spine coming out of my back and along each spine is what looks like a beam of light with an intricate design of straight lines on them. Huh, when I look closer, they’re almost pulsing light. They’re almost like...

“A shining beacon of hope,” I whisper. Cadance smiles.

“We have no idea why you ascended that way but I can only assume it’s because you used Super Polymerization, though I thought things like that were temporary.”

“Yeah, they’re supposed to be,” I say, still looking at my wings. I try to move them, and they move along with it. Yep, those are in fact my wings.

I look back at my forehead and stare at...my... horn. I then look back at my wings. Horn, wings. Horn, wings. Huh, weird.

“So, this is great and all, but what does this mean?” Cadance smiles at me.

“That will be addressed during our meeting with Twilight, Luna, and Celestia.” I raise an eyebrow.

“I assume Celestia somehow knew when I’d be awake?” Cadance laughs.

“No, silly! But we were all put on standby to have such a meeting when you wake up.”

“Wait, all of you?” She seemed to get what I was getting at.

“I switched off with Twilight several hours ago before I went to bed. Speaking of, I should probably tell them you’re awake.” I yawn.

“Yeah, you do that, I’m going back to bed in the meantime.” Cadance frowns.

“Nu-uh you are getting up and ready, honey.” She says, wrapping me in her magic and yanking me out of the bed onto the floor. I yelp.

“Damn, already using new pet names, Candy?” I ask, chuckling as I stand up and rub my eyes.

“Of course! Now that we’re dating I can get away with a lot more.” She says smoothly, almost like her words were chocolate over a fire. I smirk.

“Oh, we’re dating now huh? Funny how I didn’t get the memo.” Cadance frowns.

“Oh come on, I’m just joking.” She holds her frown for a split second longer and then sticks her tongue out at me. She then crawls over to me so we’re at eye level with each other and pecks me on the lips again. I smile.

I love that.

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