> Two Sexy
>  by Damaged
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash's wings were wrapped around the steering wheel with one feather holding down the trans-brake button. Her custom seat supported her in an upright position with a rear hoof sitting on the gas pedal. 

She didn't like using her geode-unlocked powers while racing, so focused on keeping her personal time locked in with the world around her. Beside her, with just a few yards separating their cars, Rainbow winked at Derpy. "You ready to get your license?"

Derpy's mic crackled a little, but Rainbow heard her say, "Hell yeah!" just as her car became fully staged.

The first amber light came on, then another and another in a cascade. As the last amber light glowed, Rainbow punched the gas peddle and took her feather off the trans-brake. The engine, now with its air intake unimpeded, began doing what it did best—pumping a lot of air in, burning it rapidly with fuel, and pumping it through a pair of turbochargers, and using that impetus to pump more air in faster.

Like a runaway reaction, the engine roared to full life and—as the green light lit—shoved Rainbow back into her seat and the car forward.

What resulted—for both girls—was an eight-and-a-half-second ride of screaming excitement that ended when each had to pull the parachute levers in their cars.

Driving back to the pits, Rainbow was practically bouncing in her seat. She wanted to fly out the window and dance on her car's hood, but that would probably have lost her her new license as quickly as she'd gotten it. Pulling her car up to a stop, she climbed out and watched as Derpy pulled up beside her.

Climbing out of her car, Derpy spotted Rainbow galloping toward her and crouched down. "That was awesome!" She didn't hesitate to grab Rainbow into a hug and squeeze her. "That is a beast!"

Being told how awesome she was usually made Rainbow's day, today was no exception. "Thanks, I couldn't have done it without your help, though. Oh, here come the guys." Rainbow squirmed to get out of Derpy's grip before prancing toward Spicy Hot. "Hey."

Spicy ruffled his wings and put both his arms around Rainbow as she stood upright. Like her, he had hooves for his back legs and a tail, but unlike her, his wings were large and fleshy like those of a bat. He had fangs as opposed to Rainbow's flat teeth, but they both had cute pony snouts with which to kiss.

Flash Sentry, like Derpy Hooves, had a pair of pegasi wings on his back, and like her had a tail, slightly more rounded eyes than normal, pony ears atop his head, and a new love of hugging to show affection. "C'mere, babe." He wrapped his arms around Derpy and squeezed her against him. "I am so proud of you."

Angling her leg forward, Derpy pressed her thigh against Flash's groin and felt the hard plastic there. "You too, Flashy. How does it feel?"

"You know exactly how it feels. I'm trapped and all yours, and I love it." Pressing his lips forward, Flash found Derpy's with the ease of much practice. 

"So what now? Off to college?" Spicy asked.

"Mmhmm. Orientation day tomorrow, remember." She looked at Derpy and Flash, and though the couple made her smile a bit more, one thing still confused her. "Hey, Flash, why didn't you wind up going to college too? Your grades were good enough."

Getting distracted from Derpy was always hard for Flash, particularly when she kept nuzzling and kissing him. But, despite her attempts to subvert every brain cell in his head, he managed to get a reprieve by turning his head toward Rainbow. "It's not the place I wanna be. I love machines and I love this crazy girl in my arms."

"Crazy?" Derpy asked, mock scorn in her voice.

"Yeah, because you love me back. That's gotta be grounds for being crazy." Flash squeezed Derpy's rear with both hands, though with her racing suit on he couldn't do too much. 

Rainbow still couldn't understand what Flash meant by that—even though she'd heard him say it several times. Machinery was in her blood as surely as the eggs of the parasite living in her head was. That parasite, she knew now, was the reason she couldn't really go more than half a day without sexual relief and was also the reason her memory was now perfect. Since just days after the thing had grown to maturity, she'd been able to remember every waking moment in absolute clarity. Horniness was barely even a price to pay for that, and if it was, she paid it gladly.

"I still think you're crazy. You could do engineering like me."

"Rainbow?" Flash asked.

"Yeah?"

"I value your advice, but back off on this. This is what I want." Sticking his tongue out, Flash turned to Derpy and gave her yet another kiss to celebrate her victory.

"Rainbow, as your hunky batfriend, I must advise you to leave well enough alone." Spicy used his slightly higher mass to steer her back to her own car. "Now show me what I need to do to help you—again."





When she woke up the next morning, Rainbow only had one thing on her mind. There were vestiges of the parasite's instincts that had carried over to herself, and the one that had led to the creature puppeting her around in her sleep to lay eggs had been translated to her always waking up needing to use the bathroom. 

Sitting down on the toilet, Rainbow felt instant relief as her body ejected her offspring into the water. Not that they lasted more than a second or two in the bleach-enriched water. "I swear, if it didn't make me so damn smart, this thing might get annoying."

"Are you coming back?" Spicy asked from where he lay on the bed.

"Yeah. You mind if I prep a little with a vibe?" Drying herself off, Rainbow stood up and flushed the toilet. She got halfway back to bed when she felt a jolt of electricity at the back of her neck. Every submissive bone in Rainbow's body whined and surrendered immediately to the stallion laying in her bed holding the remote to the toy collar.

When Rainbow moved faster to get back in bed, Spicy let out a soft, "Murrr. That's a good boy." He nuzzled and nibbled at her neck. "Tell me how I'm going to fuck you."

Shimming against Spicy, Rainbow nuzzled at his chest. "First you're going to have me suck you off. You're going to grab a good handful of my mane and make me polish your dick until it shines. Then, you'll make me turn around and present myself to you. You'll take some lube and smear it around inside my ass, then you'll plow me like a field."

"See, you were close." Spicy rolled to his back and showed off his belly and crotch. Reaching up to grab a handful of Rainbow's mane, he guided her down onto his hardening length. "But there is one thing this bat does do, and that's manual labor." Sighing as her throat took him, Spicy guided Rainbow up and down his shaft—slowly.

Letting herself be controlled, Rainbow slurped on Spicy's shaft until it was rock hard and filling her mouth. Their size difference meant that he wasn't just physically bigger than her, but his shaft was always just on the upper edge of what she could handle—and it drove her wild.

"There you go. This is how a good colt starts his day. Cock for breakfast, served extra hot." He couldn't help himself, and Spicy wasn't inclined to anyway, and started humping upward each time he brought Rainbow down onto him. With her lips pressing to the base of his shaft each thrust, Spicy was very happy with how the day was going.

Spicy, however, was almost at his limit. Pulling Rainbow up and off him, he used her mane to guide her further up the bed. "Show me that colt-hole you got back there." Reaching to the bedside table, Spicy used the pump there to fill his palm with the slick lube they both favored.

Barely getting time to turn around, Rainbow felt a slick finger poke into her rear. She moaned, knowing Spicy enjoyed hearing how much she liked his touch. When a second and third finger were added, her vocalizations changed into a long, deep groan.

With her rear and his shaft well coated, Spicy brought his hand down on her rump with a sharp smack. "Good boy, now sit on me." To help, Spicy held his shaft and guided the tip as Rainbow stood up above him. She looked down her body at him with so much hunger that he almost shot his load before her anus even kissed his tip.

When Rainbow's rear found Spicy's length, she let out a soft whine and relaxed her legs more. Gravity did most of the work of stuffing his shaft into her rear, though the stretching she'd been doing to accommodate him was worth every second. There was no pain and no friction—just the swelling fullness of a stallion's shaft in her rear. 

Down and down Rainbow sank until her tight, muscled rear pressed to Spicy's groin and she had all of him. Eyes closed, she squeezed down on him until she heard Spicy groan. "Tight enough for you, master?"

"There you are." Spicy reached a hand down to where their bodies met, then up a little to the tight udder that Rainbow had. It was different from breasts—completely not breasts, in fact—and he stroked his fingers over her taut little teats. He could see the pleasure it brought to Rainbow in the way her eyes fluttered. "I think you know how this goes, my horny little colt."

Rainbow Dash didn't need explicit instructions. The only reason she'd paused at all was to hear him talk down to her. She bit her lower lip between the blunt teeth of her muzzle and lifted herself up and almost off him before dropping with the power of gravity to reclaim all his shaft inside her stuffed-full rear.

Straining to keep himself from getting off before Rainbow, Spicy kept playing with her tight belly and sensitive teats. "Not too fast. I know you love getting that asshole stuffed, but if you finish before me, I'll be upset."

Given the warm-up, Rainbow knew she wouldn't finish first, but Spicy could always pull a trick on her and do something to rev her motor. The slow rubbing of her belly and stroking of her teats did have her rapidly ascending the mountain of her orgasm, but she could see Spicy's muscles twitching already. Speeding up, she watching his eyes widen in shock.

With Rainbow gliding her ass up and down his shaft, Spicy was in pure heaven, but his command to not climax first was one he intended her to break. Reaching up with one wing, he cupped Rainbow's back and twisted her to the side and down to the bed. Scrambling over her, his hips took over the work and he started pounding much harder and faster.

Tilting her head back, Rainbow moaned like a banshee at the fucking she was now getting. She'd lost the sensation of Spicy rubbing her belly, but with how much she enjoyed anal sex, it wasn't needed.

Spicy drove himself into her over and over until he felt her rear tighten in a pattern he knew well. "Gotcha." He didn't slow, not intending to deny Rainbow the feeling of being buggered all the way through her climax. 

Not that Spicy had much stamina left. As Rainbow's clutching ass seemed to be milking at him, he lost his own fight and gave her exactly what she wanted. His balls tightened and a trembling pressure built in his prostate before he literally blew load after load of hot seed into her rear.

"Y-You better jump in the shower, Rainbow." Spicy was panting hard, his body still blasting a rope or two of extra batspunk into her butt while he tilted to his side and rolled until Rainbow was again on top of him. "You have your orientation day today."

"Oh shit!"

Spicy's head spun at how quick she was off him and in the shower. She was just as quickly out again, dressed, and running for the garage. Still in bed, Spicy flapped his wings weakly and shook his head. "Fuck, she's amazing. Well, I'd better get ready for work."
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Getting out of bed, Spicy had a shower and got dressed. Leather pants that clung to his hips, a tight white shirt that did nothing to hide his red fur or muscles, and a fishnet shirt over that. Shoes no longer fit thanks to his hooves, so he just walked through the house and made his way to the garage and his not-at-all-compensating VW beetle. Rainbow was the one who liked her vehicles fast and noisy—Spicy just liked something cheap that would get him from A to B.

The drive to his store was uneventful, boring even. Canterlot had settled back down following the big event that had shaken the city. A terrorist attack, it had been called, where several people had been killed and others wounded. It had resulted in a blast of old magic being released. The story had been too neat and tidy—it explained everything.

Pulling up in the alley three doors down from his shop, Spicy climbed out of his car and locked the doors before making his way to Canterlot Crops without any strange looks at his bat wings, tufted ears, hooves, or pony snout.

Climbing the stairs to the second floor, Spicy put his key in the lock and opened the door to Canterlot Crops. The smell of rubber was (as always) prominent first thing in the morning. He turned the lights on and turned on the cooler to circulate fresh air through the store.

While Spicy was getting ready to open, the doorbell rang and Sonata stepped into the shop. "Good morning! Breakfast is served!" She set down a plate with two breakfast burritos on the front counter and grabbed one for herself.

"Twilight already let me know she will be in some time in the afternoon." Spicy Hot had to admire Sonata Dusk for being herself. He knew how monstrous she could be—given he'd helped her deal with her former companions—and that she'd made the choice to be moral was significant to him. The first bite he took into the burrito told him she had even more hidden depths, not the least of which being that she was a sorceress with anything Tex-Mex.

"Does this feel weird?" Sonata asked. "I mean"—she took a bite of her burrito and let out a happy sigh, only continuing when she swallowed—"Rainbow and Rarity are both at school. What is a cute, submissive monster like me meant to do with her day?"

Spicy laughed, taking the "submissive monster" phrase as self-deprecating humor. "Got used to having a nice domme around to take care of all your itches so fast? You really fell hard for her."

"It's been a long time since I had someone be that forceful with me. It's nice, you know, to realize there are still people in this world that can love you in a way that turns every switch you own to sweet ocean waves yes!" Shivering just at the thought, Sonata slumped back against the wall before she remembered she had wings again. "Ouch."

"New collar?" Spicy asked.

Distracted from the soreness of her wings, Sonata exploded into happiness again. "Yes! Rarity gave it to me to remind me that I belong to her—even while she's at college. There's no magic in it, but it's nice and snug and with it on I can almost feel her touching me."

"I'll be out tomorrow morning. I have a meeting with the bank." Running his hand along the dildo aisle's top shelf, Spicy let out a happy sigh at the feel of so much rubber. "I might have investors already backing me, but I need the bank's support to establish point of sales, more purchasing power, and a million other things."

"So this is all going ahead? Onward and upward?" Taking another bite of her burrito, Sonata sighed happily.

"Yeah. Yeah it is. I never thought this would work, but you know what, I want it to work. I want to make a brand that introduces people into having more fun in their bedrooms. I want there to be more housewives who want to tie up their husbands and more husbands who want their wives to strap a toy on and peg them. Then—" As with every retail worker, even ones that owned the store they worked in, Spicy cut his conversation off as the doorbell rang again.

Trixie Lulamoon wouldn't normally visit such a store. She'd purchased toys before, of course, but this was more than just buying a vibrator or two online. This store had lots more rubber things than she could ever be comfortable being around—but it had something more important than her sensibility. "You're Rainbow Dash's boyfriend, the one from the—the event?"

Raising an eyebrow, Spicy nodded. "In the flesh as it were. What can I do for you?" He suspiciously eyed her from head to toe. She was wearing a pair of leggings, running shoes, a shirt, with a hoodie over the top. It could have been running attire, but wasn't quite.

"I-I-I—" Trixie bit down on her voice. She'd practiced this part, she'd envisioned it in her head every time she saw the shaking phone camera footage of Spicy fighting Applejack. The naked woman's body was nothing to her, but she knew well how strong Applejack was now, and all that strength had been useless against this one, mostly normal human. "I want you to teach me how to fight."

Of all the things Spicy could have expected Trixie to say, that wasn't it. "What makes you think I could teach that?"

Pulling her phone out, Trixie started the shaking video playing and held the screen out to Spicy. "I-I know how strong she is. She should have crushed you in seconds, but instead you stood up to her. I-I-I want to learn how to fight s-so I don't—so I don't have to stand in the sidelines again. I'm not as fast as Rainbow and I don't have magic like Rarity—but neither do you."

"It's been a month since then, and I can already see how I could have done much better. I was fighting for my life." Shaking his head, Spicy watched the desperation grow on Trixie's face. "I can't teach you this because I'm not good enough yet. I know who can teach you, though. Come back at six."

Hope, bright and powerful, invaded Trixie's being like a spreading virus. Every cell in her body started humming with just the offer of hope. For the first time in a month a smile crept onto her lips, and she nodded. "I'll be here."

Sonata watched Trixie leave again and raised an eyebrow at Spicy.

"Honestly, I don't blame her for wanting to have a way to protect herself. Her father was killed by something she could never have fought. Akido would be a good way for her to learn to deal with some problems while also understanding why she shouldn't go seeking fights."

Shrugging her shoulders, Sonata couldn't reply because of the big mouthful of burrito she'd taken.





Rarity could hear Rainbow's car before she could see it—everyone could. She turned at the sound of the big engine and almost facepalmed at her friend's need to do everything fast. Of course, fast had its advantages, though Rarity usually kept herself fashionably late.

Though, today at least, Rainbow had beaten Rarity to being actually late. When the low, loud car pulled up beside her little car, she let out a sigh. "You're late, Rainbow."

"I know, I know. I couldn't help it." Climbing out of her car, Rainbow had to perform some gymnastics to get all six limbs free—in the process showing off the tight shorts she was wearing to keep herself modest. Landing on her hooves, she forsook walking upright for the easier style of going on all fours. "I haven't even had breakfast yet."

"Pfft, silly Rainbow, I can help with that!" Pinkie Pie slid across the hood of her Jeep and landed before Rainbow while holding out a pink-frosted cupcake. "It's not a muffin, but it should give you the energy you need to attack the morning."

Reaching up with her wing, Rainbow took the cupcake in the grip of her feathers and nibbled on it. In a brief moment of ravenous hunger, she devoured the cake in four bites only for Pinkie to produce a second. "C-Can I have—" When Pinkie passed her the second cupcake, Rainbow grinned like a fool. "You're the best, Pinkie."

Sunset climbed out of Pinkie's Jeep, along with Twilight, Marble, and Fluttershy. "Anyone seen Applejack?" It felt strange to be with her bigger group of friends again. She'd been settling into the house for a few weeks now, and Marble had become part of their clique easily enough. When Rarity had announced she was moving into a flat with Sonata, it hadn't surprised any of them at all.

A loud bang caused all of them to jump and turn to find the source of danger—only to see it was an old jalopy, that had just backfired, pull into the student car park.

Rainbow Dash, finishing her cupcake and having to jump into the air and flap her wings to see the car, was the first to say, "That'll be Applejack. I swear, her family owns the biggest collection of clapped-out cars."

Pumping the brake peddle over and over, Applejack ended up pulling on the parking brake and, when that failed to stop her, stalled the engine while it was in gear. Her car ground to a halt. Climbing out with wooden chocks, she carefully put two around each of the back wheels and then got her bag from the car.

Watching all this, Applejack's friends almost all universally recoiled in fear for their friend driving the car that apparently had no way of stopping that didn't involve possibly damaging the engine.

"Uh, Applejack?" Rainbow asked. "If you want, we could carpool to school each day."

"What? No way, sugarcube. Ah've seen you drive—all fast and crazy. Far too dangerous." To maintain tradition, Applejack felt the need to defend her old car at least twice from any offers to never have to drive it again. She hoped against hope that her friends were more stubborn than she was.

"Are you sure?" Rainbow asked.

"Look, Ah just—"

"Applejack," Rainbow said, "I like driving. Let me give you a lift each day so I can drive my car around some more."

A great weight lifted from within Applejack. "Well, if it's for you, Rainbow, then okay. I'll really miss ol' Green Rocket here, though." With her bag slung on her back, Applejack patted the top of the car. The back-left door fell off. "I'll just put that on top and text McIntosh to come and pick it up—so long as you're sure it's no imposition?"

"None at all." A literal ton of relief ran through Rainbow knowing her friend wouldn't be driving the car. She pondered if she could pay someone to steal it and take it to a scap-metal dealer, but didn't want to encourage even a thief to drive the thing. "Where's Fluttershy?"

"I'm here." Fluttershy climbed off Bridget's back and left her hand resting on the timber wolf's shoulder. "I-I thought it would be fine to ride her here, plus my van broke down and I didn't want to have to walk, and she—" Biting back further words, Fluttershy ruffled her wings and looked at her friends. "Sorry I'm late."

"It's fine, Fluttershy. Come on, we should be going in to get instructions on what to do." Rainbow Dash, still hovering with her wings flapping repeatedly, shifted her weight and flew closer to Bridget. "You takin' good care of her, Bridget?"

Ruffling her coat of branches, twigs, and leaves, Bridget blew a greenish mist from her nose. She couldn't talk to Rainbow, but she could let Fluttershy know how she felt.

Fluttershy giggled. "Bridget says thank you for offering to take care of me."

"Hey, you're not coming in? I wanted to see everyone freak out at an awesome, huge wolf coming to school," Rainbow Dash said.

"She doesn't like being around this many people."
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Striding up to the strange group of new students, Spitfire reviewed her assignment from Hurricane. "You look lost. Can I help you newbies with anything?"

"Spitfire?" Rainbow Dash recognized the woman as the biker she'd met at the drag races she'd gone to weeks ago. "Sorry I couldn't check out your riding club, things got a little crazy."

The voice reminded Spitfire of someone, and it took her mind several seconds to click to who it was. When that happened, she also put a name to the girl-pony talking to her. "Rainbow Dash, riding a rice-rocket, right?"

"Yeah, though I'm still trying to figure out how to do that again now my legs don't reach the pedals. I had to build my car specifically so I could reach everything." Jerking a wing to gesture back at her T-bucket Ford, she pointed with one feather. "Just got it how I like it."

"Nice wheels, but there's two too many." Smirking at Rainbow's dented pride, Spitfire moved on with the introduction. "Anyway, we need to get all of you to orientation groups. Follow me and we might make it before Hurricane has finished his speech—if we're unlucky."

Sunset reached a hand out to touch Rainbow's arm, dragging the pair of them into a featureless void together. Focusing her mind around the place, Sunset produced a comfortable couch to sit on. "You know her?" she asked.

"Yeah, I know her. This is your head-space thingy, right?" Rainbow looked around a bit before sitting on the couch. "How much time passes in here compared to outside? Are we just standing there?"

"We've got a few minutes before anyone would notice anything."

"Okay. I met her at a drag strip after watching some races. We chatted a bit about bikes. Didn't say anything else. I guess that kinda happened before all this—wait, I'm not a pony!" Waving her hands, Rainbow stared down at herself in surprise. "This place is weird."

"Huh, I guess I just pictured you as you from before. Anyway, I just wanted to check on that. Since the Adagio and Aria thing, I don't want to risk any of us getting mind-whammied again." That sorted, Sunset dropped them both from the mental simulation.

Staggering, Rainbow tried to catch her movement and was only able to thanks to having four legs. Glaring at Sunset, she didn't want to think what would have happened if she'd been flying. Her own strange sense of time and speed let her judge that the rest of their group had barely taken a step in the time it took them to have their chat.

The walk took the group to a huge gathering of new students on the open sports field. At one end a man on a stage was talking, "… with that I'll pass you over to your orientation week guides!" Hurricane turned off his personal mic and stepped off the stage to let the guides start organizing things. Just as he stepped down, he spotted his star pupils. "Perfect."

"Okay everyone, welcome to Canterlot U!" Bouncing up and down, Surprise didn't care that her chest had a lot of bounce or that her skirt showed off her thighs—she was too excited to help a bunch more students find their way at college. "Now, we need to split you all off into groups, and we'll try to bunch you up by your degrees, okay?

"Surprise, that's me, will be taking all you awesome math nerds—you know who you are! Then Soarin, this stud-muffin here, will be getting all the science majors—though we'll have to split you up further since there's so many of you. The hottie waving at you now is Fleetfoot, she'll be taking all the art majors. Finally Spitfire, there will be taking the engineering majors. If everyone else could wait here for the next group to come, that'd be great!" Bouncing her way from the stage, Surprise made her way to an empty spot to await her own crowd.

"Wait," Twilight said to her friends, "that means we have to split up."

Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. "Well, yeah. I mean, it wasn't like we'd be in the same classes for all of college. Heck, this place is huge—we'll have to schedule time to hang out." Her eyes slid to Spitfire where a few students were starting to gather. "Let's go—well, those that have somewhere to go yet. You okay, Fluttershy?"

"I—I will be." Taking a huge breath, Fluttershy let it out slowly. "I'm sure they'll be really nice." Her time spent as front-man for the Rainbooms had boosted her ability to cope with strangers, as had Bridget's efforts to make her live a little more in the moment.

Twilight looked at Applejack and Marble as she walked to the guy who was handling sciences. She still felt a little overwhelmed when around a big group of people, but with Applejack on one side and Marble on the other, she felt safe from the tall strangers.

"Alright, newbies, you're all going to spend the next four years studying harder than you'll ever study again for the rest of your lives, but until school starts next week, you can relax." Unable to stop herself from repeatedly looking at the literal pegasus in the midst of her group, Spitfire nonetheless forged on with purpose. "First, we're going to head over to the admin building. That's where you pay all your dues and stuff, collect any official documents, that kinda stuff. Come on."

Flapping her wings, Rainbow flew up to head-level and kept her beat going while the rest of her group moved so slowly it hurt. They went and saw the admin building, then the lecture halls, then the study rooms, then finally the engineering labs.

There were computer labs as well as industrial manufacture areas, and Rainbow drank in the sights of both. Every detail and every word Spitfire spoke was absorbed and filed away in her mind while she looked around the rooms.

Even as lunchtime rolled around, and her horniness grew, Rainbow was a little too distracted to take care of herself at first. When Spitfire told them to meet up again after lunch, however, Rainbow felt a pang of need.

Walking stiffly out of the school's cafeteria, she spread her wings and felt time slow down just like it had when she'd fought against Aria and Adagio. Somehow, she seemed to be even faster in the air than on the ground, which Rainbow used to get to her car in well under ten seconds.

She'd tossed her handbag into the car and hadn't thought to bring it with her when she got out initially, but now she pondered her choices. "I could grab one of my friends in here and find somewhere private, or drive home and do something…" Her wing was already reaching into the bag and feelt the two vibrators with her feathers. "That'd take way too long. Now, where's the nearest bathroom?"





Thunderbolt, now almost twenty feet from nose to tail, stood at the front door of Canterlot High School and nodded. He'd said his piece, and now he wanted an answer.

"That's an odd request to get." Though the school didn't open for another week, principal Celestia was there preparing for another year. Finding an ancient and mythological beast tapping on the front door had been a surprise, but then her life had been full of surprises lately.

"Is it? This is where Rainbow learned. I wish to learn." As he spoke, a slight hint of smoke trickled from Thunderbolt's nostrils—he wasn't angry, just a little upset that Tree Hugger had been too busy to spend the morning with him, Spicy had been at work, and Twilight had been with Rainbow at their new school.

Celestia almost opened her mouth and told Thunderbolt she couldn't help. Almost, but didn't. The fact was she'd started teaching to help others learn. She'd personally taught many students all the way through from junior high to graduation, and as principal she'd assisted other teachers to pass knowledge on to many more.

Here was someone who wanted to learn, and it cut Celestia's spirit to the bone that she almost told him no. "This will take some contemplating. You seem well-spoken, have you had any learning already?"

"Ma'am, three months ago I was a dog with the desires, mind, and outlook of a dog." Smiling, but managing to not show off his teeth, Thunderbolt lifted a fore-claw and gestured at Celestia. "I know that I know nothing."

That got Celestia's full attention. "That you know those words indicates that you are a prime example of the Socratic paradox. That makes me wonder how much more you don't know. Come inside." Unlocking both front doors, Celestia stepped back to allow Thunderbolt to walk into Canterlot High School's main building.

"I have read about philosophy. Friends suggested it to help me find a comfortable moral level." The doorway was easy to slip through, though Thunderbolt had to duck his head a little to get under the top of the frame. Once inside, however, he had plenty of room. "You know about the incident a month ago?"

"It's been the talk of the town. I've asked everyone I know, but no one will talk."

"Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze returned and were drinking people of all their hate until they died. We stopped them." Thunderbolt remembered his fight with Adagio. His blood still burned hot at the memory, but he no longer entered a rage just thinking about her.

Celestia was glad to have someone willing to confide in her, but something stuck out. "And what of the third siren? Sonata Dusk?"

Though Thunderbolt hadn't had any special time with Sonata, he had seen the power she wielded first-hand. "She fought at our side and defeated the other two sirens. She is a friend." The last words almost came out with a lick of fire, but Thunderbolt managed to keep his fervor down. "She also makes tasty food." He didn't include that, after a day of smoking with Tree, Sonata's food tasted a thousand times better still.

"That explains much of that incident. Come along, and try not to set off the smoke detectors." Celestia led the way down the hallway and toward the teaching offices. The one she was most interested in was her sister's. Behind her, she was barely aware of Thunderbolt's presence, which given his size was strange for her—she expected rumbling footsteps that would set off seismographs, but he was silent as a cat. Only the heat of his breath let her know he was still there.

Luna's door was open, so when her sister leaned into the opening to knock on it, she just raised her head and looked at Celestia. "Yes?"

"Our first student is here. He—" Celestia paused and turned to Thunderbolt. "You are male?"

"Yes." Thunderbolt didn't hold it against her for not knowing.

The deep, bass voice drew Luna's complete attention. She tried to peek around the door jam, but from her desk she couldn't see Thunderbolt.

"He needs an assessment for all subjects, so we can properly work out how to fit him into our school." Keeping herself in the doorway, Celestia was building up the surprise for her sister. "I'm sure you can handle that?"

Luna narrowed her eyes, suspecting her older sister of some kind of game. "Only if you take over these class rosters. I'll need a few hours with our new student to get the basic tests done." Standing up, Luna walked to her cabinet and opened it to get the appropriate paperwork out, then caught sight of what was in the hallway outside in a reflection off one of her framed credentials. She froze, staring at a dragon in the corridor. "Y-Y-You're a dragon?"

Thunderbolt was unmistakable as a dragon. He had four legs, two wings, more scales than anyone knew what to do with, and a tail that had a good pair of spikes on it. "Yes."

Biting back any shock or sarcasm she might otherwise use, Luna nodded. "Very well. You can hold a pen, or will you need accessibility equipment?" When Thunderbolt looked confused, Luna tried to figure a better way of asking. "Would a computer be better for doing the test?"

The confusion Thunderbolt felt at not knowing some words cleared and he nodded slowly. "A computer would be good. I have used Rainbow's computer and she got me one of my own." He thought back on Tree Hugger's words; the last piece of advice she'd given him before sending him off to the school—don't ask the teachers or students to have sex. It was annoying advice, but he could abide by it.

Intrigued, Luna nodded. "Please, come with me and we can see what you know and what you'll need to learn. You have a computer, so you can read and type. Have you been studying on your own?" She stepped out into the hall and gestured to one of the classrooms that she knew had laptops for students to use.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clearing room, Luna set up a laptop and was pleased to see Thunderbolt immediately position himself to be able to type on it with just the tips of his claws. "I'll get things set up. We'll start with the basics. From what I understand, self-taught people typically show great progress in some fields but holes in others. We need to find those holes and try to fill them in with learning before you can be placed in a class. You will know some of this test already, please just answer all that you can."

Watching the screen, Thunderbolt noticed that just after Luna sat down at the front desk and typed on her keyboard, he had a new screen pop up on his laptop. Numbers and sums. It was simple stuff as he'd already experienced mathematics when he studied philosophy and logic at an online school.

From her desk, Luna watched as Thunderbolt tore through the high school entry-level math. English was a high point, though she noticed he missed some more technical words. It was all in line with what she'd assumed.

When his math skills were pitted against arithmetic, however, Luna noticed him leave them blank. English continued to be a strong suit, as did history. "I know you're not able to do the math questions, please keep looking over them in case you recognize any you can understand."

"What difficulty is this? I don't understand these symbols or designs at all. Most of the mathematics I studied was logic-based." Thunderbolt struggled not to lash his tail or blow smoke, but it was annoying he'd left obvious gaps in his learning. "I'd hoped to not need much study here."

"Logic? What had you studying logic?" Queuing up the next set of tests—what would be grade ten—Luna slipped in a logic module that started at final year and included pre-college test questions.

"Philosophy. A friend suggested I look at it after she noticed me wrestling with my conscience. It helped me a lot to realize that though I might wish to be a pacifist, there are some situations that become so dire that I need to fight. My temper is another problem, too."

Pleased by the answer, Luna hit start on the next test. "There are definitely worse subjects to start with, and philosophy has a very noble air to it."

Thunderbolt put his preconceptions away and focused on the next test, purring when he found the logic questions that he recognized. Ancient history he understood reasonably well, but more recent events weren't in his lexicon. English was a ready topic he'd explored, but that brought him back to math.

It was early afternoon by the time Luna had finished working Thunderbolt through all the tests, and she was surprised to see the results. "Math is your weakest point. Apart from logic, you have six years to work through. Your reading comprehension and writing skills are reasonable, though you have a below-average vocabulary. Modern history is a weak point, but ancient history is not. I see now where your studies took you. We can fix this."

The confidence of the last four words built hope in Thunderbolt. He looked at Luna with excitement. "How long will that take?"

"At the absolute worst, six years. I believe we can speed that up to at most two. It all depends on how well you can learn and memorize."

The shock of hearing a duration so long was quickly tempered by the description of the task. A deep purr left his throat and he lashed his tail just once—managing not to hit anything with it. "When can I start?"





Fizzlepop had missed the morning of her first day back at college, not that she needed to attend the first orientation day, but she wanted to make this appear somewhat natural. Parking her car in the student lot, she made her way into her old stomping grounds.

This would be her third time studying. She held a BA in psychology and had done her masters in it, but now she was back to take a post-grad course on criminal psychology—and that was all a cover. She knew in her heart that the seven friends who'd worked together to defeat the sirens were going lead her to something big, she just didn't know what.

Without the backing of The Bureau, she had needed to get creative. Plus she'd actually wanted to get this extra accreditation for her job, so putting the tasks together was an obvious choice. So here she was, walking toward the admin block with her paperwork in hand.

"Hey there! Late for orientation?" Spitfire walked over to Fizzlepop, but the closer she got the less student vibe the woman was giving off. "Uh, you're not a newbie here, are you?" The tight jeans and shirt might be trying to shout young, but she understood it could also mean I like comfortable clothes.

"Not a newbie, no. Came here for a post-grad course—criminal psych." Taking in Spitfire's look, Fizzlepop accepted the blue shirt with orientation week leader printed on it as a kind of uniform, and the almost-matching skirt as probably just something she had laying around. "You're here for the real newbies from high school, right?"

"I was. They're in the hands of their department groups now. I just spotted you and thought you could use a hand. But, you seem to have this under control. Guess I'll see you around?" Spitfire started to turn and then paused. "Oh, and my name's Spitfire."

Catching herself before reaching for her official ID, Fizzlepop clenched her hand into a loose fist and dropped it back to her side. "Fizzlepop Berrytwist, and yeah, I guess we might see each other. What's your major?"

"Aerospace engineering, so, uh, maybe not." There was an itch in Spitfire as she looked at Fizzlepop. A long time ago she'd made the promise to herself that, within the bounds of safety, she'd never let an opportunity pass her by. "Hey, do you want to hang out some time?"

The question hit Fizzlepop like a hammer. She'd been ready for all manner of situations, but meeting new friends hadn't been one of them.

"Look, if you can't, it's fine. I just—"

"No! I mean, yeah, it'd be good to hang out. Uh…" Fizzlepop fumbled for her phone that she'd forgotten she'd handed in—being as it was her work phone. "I need to get a new phone, but…"

"This isn't the first time I've done this, understand, but I'm only doing it so we can share some beers—got it?" Fishing a marker from her satchel bag, Spitfire grabbed Fizzlepop's arm and started writing numbers. "Call me when you get your new phone."

Fizzlepop's smile broke through her normally stony expression as it sank in that for two years she was going to be a civilian. "Will do. Bye." Feeling lighter somehow, she turned and started toward the admin building again.





Rainbow and Rarity had both gone to the communal home of their friends to celebrate their first (most of a) day at college. Sitting in the big living room of the house, there was quite a noise floor as everyone started talking at once. The friends discussed their specific courses in small groups that broke up and reformed as each found someone else to tell about their day.

Rainbow and Twilight, however, found themselves to have formed a mini group of their own again and again. When it happened for the fifth time, Twilight blew a sigh that wound up being far more wicker-like.

"Have you noticed we keep coming together like this?" Twilight asked. "It's like, I don't know, some kind of herd instinct. We are sort of horses."

Having been trying to work out that fact herself, Rainbow nodded quickly. "Yeah. It's like being closer, stronger together. You're working at the shop soon, aren't you?"

"Y-Yeah. Are you still okay with giving me a ride over there?"

Rainbow fluffed her wings and gestured to the door. "Of course I am, Twilight. Hey, we should get you a car and I'll do a refit so you can drive it. You want to go now?"

Twilight nodded. "I'll get my laptop and notepad and pens and… That should be enough. Has Spicy said anything about the online sales?" She used her magic to levitate her things over and carried them at her side while following Rainbow to the front door.

"You're leaving already?" Sunset asked, having spotted Rainbow and Twilight.

Rainbow, twirling her car keys around a feather on her wing, looked back at Sunset. "Yeah, Twilight has to go to work and I have a hunk of a bat to sn—"

"I don't need to know." Sunset got enough insights into people's bedrooms just by casually touching people, she didn't need to hear anything about her best friends' activities. "Do you want to come around early tomorrow before we go to college?"

"That'd be a good idea. We could carpool a little better then, couldn't we?" Rainbow had already promised Applejack a ride, of course, but she didn't mind meeting her friends a little earlier. Then she amended that to have unless I don't get off early enough.

"How're you holding up with the—the thing in your head?" Despite herself, Sunset stepped closer to Rainbow. She'd even put up with sexual fantasies and bedroom games if it meant helping her friend.

"I won't say it's nothing, but so long as I keep—uh—on top of it three times a day, it's fine. Great, actually." Though she was blushing under her fur, Rainbow couldn't stop herself from adding, "Have you ever actually worn a guy out and had to go to your other guy?"

"Can't really say I have. I liked being with Flash, but it was a bit one-sided, and I wasn't really with him for fun reasons. We—" Sunset didn't get a word further as a pink freight train tackled her from behind and, in the moment of physical contact, Pinkie Pie struck her mentally too.

Melting into a hug, Sunset's lips were pressed tight to Pinkie's and their naked bodies were in contact from chest to thigh. Just feeling her body held against her lover's completely pushed aside her worries about her time before joining up with her friends.

Pinkie broke the kiss first, but set her lips against Sunset's chin and nibbled at her jawline.

"Pinkie?" Sunset barely got the name out before she was rolled onto her back and had the literal girl of her dreams straddling her belly and looking down at her. "You really know how to break me out of a funk."

Her face splitting into a huge grin, Pinkie reached down and kneaded Sunset's breasts. "Fuck? Okay!"

Sunset barely had time to open her mouth and try to start shouting no before a pink slit came down over her and, with Pinkie making herself acquainted with her crotch, Sunset started to moan and settle into long and enjoyable lovemaking.

It felt like days passed where she was trapped between Pinkie's generous thighs, experiencing orgasm after orgasm and giving as good as she got. When at last her partner relaxed her grip on Sunset's talent, Sunset instead held on and kept Pinkie there.

Gasping in surprise, Pinkie lifted her head from her fiery lover's groin. "Sunny?"

"I've been practicing." With that said, she let go and let them both tumble out into the real world again—with less than a second having passed.

Not aware of the week or so of sexual expression Sunset and Pinkie had just experienced, Rainbow led Twilight out into the early afternoon. "Is there a type of car you'd like?"

"Huh?" Twilight felt confused by the question until she thought back to Rainbow's offer. "Oh, anything would do. I don't exactly need—well, that." She gestured with a hoof toward Rainbow's car.

"What's wrong with it?" With a big grin on her face, Rainbow opened her driver-side door and swung herself into the T-bucket roadster. "It's just right."

Twilight really wanted to rant and, being Twilight, she never surrendered such an opportunity—even if she was getting a ride from Rainbow. "The wheels are bigger than you are. The engine is bigger than you are. Everything about it is loud, noisy, and—"

"Fast." Snapping out her wing, Rainbow put her key into the ignition and turned it, then pressed the starter button. It then became significantly harder to hear Twilight's attempt at ranting about the car.

Using her magic to fasten the seat belt, Twilight had to admit that the seat Rainbow was using looked to perfectly cradle her body. "It'd probably be even easier for me with magic." When Rainbow didn't seem to hear her, she repeated it while yelling.

"Oh! Yeah! Probably should still have your hooves drive the brake and gas, but steering should be much easier with your magic!" Rainbow pressed her hoof ever so gently against the gas pedal and the engine growled loudly.

"What about all the—?!" Twilight gestured to the shifter and button equipment Rainbow had between the pair of them. "Do I need all that?!"

"What?! Oh, nah!" In defiance of her own words, Rainbow reached for her shifter and punched it forward, turned the wheel, and leaned on the gas a little. The hiss of compressed air from the shifter was quickly drowned out as the car gleefully lunged into motion and forced both occupants back into their custom seats.

The drive to Spicy's shop wasn't supposed to be a short one, but for Rainbow any drive was so enjoyable that it ended too fast. Pressing hard on the brake peddle, she brought the car to a stop just outside the stairs that led up to Canterlot Crops. Reluctantly turning off the engine, Rainbow drew the key out and felt all the hairs go up on the back of her neck.

"What about an electric car?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow just sighed. "I'm not a fan, but I also haven't had much to do with them. Your choice, though. Just bring me a car and I'll get Derpy to help me with the seats like I did for this one." Climbing out of her car, Rainbow rolled her shoulders, grabbed her bag, and stood upright.

"Thanks, Rainbow. I won't lie, I'm just a little envious of you being able to walk like that. Every time I try to stand up like that, I can only manage it for about twenty seconds before I fall forward again." She got out of the car, using her magic to undo the seat belt and then work the door.

"Yeah, but this isn't going to last long, either. I'm just one good song away from being on all fours too. That's why I made my car controls like they are—I can work everything even if I was fully quadrupedal." Walking up the stairs, Rainbow reached the top first and waited for Twilight to pick her way up too.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonata Dusk turned her head slightly as the bell rang. When she spotted Rainbow, her face lit up. "Rainbow! How was your first day of college?" More than just her eyes and ears noticed Rainbow Dash. Sonata could feel the excitement and anticipation sloughing from Rainbow's mind as the woman looked around the store for her boyfriend.

"Pretty good, actually. They showed us around all the places we'll be haunting for the next few years and I got to meet some people I'd been meaning to catch up with. Oops"—Rainbow jumped to the side to let Twilight past—"sorry, Twilight."

"It's alright, Rainbow. Hi, Sonata." Twilight had never known Sonata as the evil 3rd siren, so despite how ancient and strange she was, Twilight felt comfortable talking to her. "Did you happen to look at online sales from the weekend?"

"Hrmm? Oh! Hi Twilight. Sorry, didn't get a chance. We had a lot of customers in throughout the morning. Mostly young people. Students from out of town celebrating their freedom from their parents' tyranny, I guess. They all felt excited." Which, of course, reminded Sonata that Rarity would probably be coming back soon enough too—though Sonata had an all-day shift.

"You're still getting emotional feedback?" Her attention swaying to Sonata, Twilight reared up and braced her forehooves on the counter so she could see over it. "Does it require proximity or line of sight?" She floated her tablet out of her bag and started typing on it.

"Well, I couldn't tell you were approaching the door just now, so it can't ignore line of sight." Sonata tapped her chin with one finger, her nail painted blue with a tiny picture of a taco on it. "Okay, proximity is easy to test. Walk all the way to the back of the store, but make sure I can see you."

This, for Twilight, was the best bonding experience she'd had with Sonata apart from their defeating Adagio and Aria. They were doing science! "Keep trying to feel for me as I get further away. Tell me to stop when you can't feel it anymore."

It was an easy request for Sonata to follow. Since the incident where her fellow sirens were defeated—by her, mostly—she'd been picking up more than just anger from those around her. It was almost impossible to turn off her telempathy some days, but for some reason the seven friends she'd made were like a drug for her—she couldn't get enough of their positivity. "Okay."

Twilight started walking, glancing back over her shoulder to watch for Sonata's signal. When she got none and reached the back wall, she began tapping away.



Sonata seems to have no perceivable limit (tested at 15 meters). External testing required.



"You're buzzing with so much excitement it's hard to focus, but I could definitely still feel you all the way down there. I—" Sonata cut short as Twilight ducked behind a shelf and was just as suddenly gone from her empathy radar. "That's a little freaky. As soon as I couldn't see you, I lost all your emotions too."

"This is amazing. Let me just write that down and—got it. Okay, so I'll go and transfer all the orders to my tablet and start gathering them, I guess." Twilight's mood was bubbling with excitement. Part of her had to wonder where she'd ended up that she worked selling sex toys, but the adventurous 18yr old inside her (which was well in excess of a two-thirds majority) tossed that aside by claiming that she was making people happy.

Meanwhile, Spicy Hot had located Rainbow in the aisle that had collars and cuffs. "Hello, miss. Shopping for something to wear?"

"Well"—Rainbow caught the game quickly and looked at some of the more restrictive items—"I wanted to get something my boyfriend would like, but want it to be special so the other guys in my life don't feel left out."

"Ah! I have just the thing. Came in recently and I think it would look lovely on you. You'll need to get your boyfriend to get the tag engraved, but it should be a nice replacement for the one you have on already." Spicy grinned like a fool at the silly game. They'd both been talking about something special and it had finally come in. "If you'll just wait here?"

The excitement built in Rainbow while Spicy was off getting the new collar. She looked at some of the items on the shelf with a sigh—most were designed for human necks. There was a few smaller collars at the end of the aisle, what Spicy now called his everyone is turning into a pony and will need new collars stash.

"Here we are, ma'am. Would you like me to put it on you so you can check the fit?" Spicy was already moving to do that, reaching up to Rainbow's collar with the key he held and inserting it into the lock.

The click of the lock was a surprise to Rainbow. The ever-present weight of the collar was something she was used to. It was a staple in her life and a lifeline that kept her anchored. When the band was removed, she actually gasped out loud.

Spicy brushed at Rainbow's blue coat, gently petting it down where her collar had made it ruffle up a little. "You're going to need to take your collar off regularly to keep your coat neat under it."

"Lucky I talked my boyfriend into moving in with me. I'm sure he'll take care of it for me." Tilting her head to the side, Rainbow looked back at Spicy's face and drank in the confidence in his expression. "I'm sure, if he was here, he'd slip that around my throat and make me his again."

"Well, why don't you turn and look forward, close your eyes, and pretend I'm your guy?" His tone was low, hungry. Spicy had no clue if he was just going to collar her or if he'd then bend her over and do something ill-advised on his shop-floor.

Carefully working the metal collar around Rainbow's neck, Spicy marveled at the precision and quality in it. When sealed closed with the hidden lock, it would form a perfect anodized black band around her throat with a small ring at the front. The ring held three names on it—two below his. When he clicked the latch closed and pulled away the magnetic key, a shiver ran through him.

Rainbow felt relaxed and comfortable with Spicy behind her. He was larger than her for the moment, thanks to him still having more human in him, but even he'd lost some of his already short height. The feel of the metal around her throat made her shiver in excitement. She walked to the mirror at the end of the aisle (it was there for people to look at their items against their throats before sale—and totally not to encourage people to make impulsive purchases.

The black metal against her neck made Rainbow shiver at the sight of it. It was far more discrete than the leather collar she'd been wearing, but at the same time it was far more there. She saw the names and read them out from top to bottom. "Spicy Hot, Thunderbolt, Braeburn Apple."

Wrapping his arms and wings around Rainbow's shoulders, Spicy held her against him. "I love you. You're so amazing like that."

"Like what?" Rainbow asked.

"Mine."

The word sent a shiver through Rainbow that went all the way down to her rump and settled into a warm glow there. With his arms and wings around her, Rainbow felt so cozy she never wanted to move, but her perfect memory reminded her why she'd come. "Don't we have a meeting with the bank?"

Spicy let out a lengthy sigh. "This is what running a business does to me. Tonight I'm bringing extra rope and I'm going to tie you up so tight you won't be able to do anything but squirm—but until then we have a meeting with the bank. Let me grab my jacket."

When he let go, Rainbow made a soft, sad voice under her breath. "Are they even going to recognize us?"

"They'll recognize you. After the concert you guys gave last week, and the viral video someone took at it, I doubt anyone will be able to forget you. I'm not even going to ask if you want to drive." Spicy walked to the office area and grabbed his coat.

Twilight poked her head around the corner of an aisle—her horn aglow as it levitated a stack of boxes by her side—and looked at Spicy. "Are you going out?"

"We need our business plan updated, and that means doing it by the books so that my silent partners remain silent and partners. There's so much stuff that needs to be done just to own a business these days, let alone one trying to grow." Spicy grabbed his jacket and slung it around his back. Slipping his wings through the two holes in it was tricky, but once he'd managed it the jacket sat flush against his spine and let him fold his wings against it.

Rainbow put a wing around Spicy's midsection and pulled him against her. "Yeah, yeah. Come on."

Sighing at the couple as they left, Sonata had to shake her head to banish the warm feelings of delight her new feeding gave her. "How are your orders going?" She watched Twilight walk past with another trail of sex toys floating along behind her.

"Very good. At this rate he'll have to start ordering stock three times a week." Each of the toys got wrapped, labeled, and stacked ready for delivery. "About your offer…"

The words piqued Sonata's interest. "You mean the offer of some experimentation?" The words poured out in a purr.

"I've had some fun with guys—Thunderbolt is amazing—and some girls, but I've not really had a normal sexual experience with a woman." Twilight still blushed whenever discussing sex and sexuality. It might be the biggest and most ambitious science project of her life, but it was also intimate.

"Woman, am I?" Sonata couldn't resist teasing just a little. "I'm kidding. When did you want to have sex? After work?"

Blinking at that, Twilight pulled her phone out of the saddlebags she wore to read through her calendar. "Uh, I don't think I have anything on tonight. What will we do?"

"Just girls stuff. Vibrators, kissing, lots of groping, maybe even nomming." Shrugging her shoulders, Sonata looked over Twilight with a mind for regular fun. "I bet you can do all kinds of stuff with your magic, and I doubt any of the others have taught you all the things hands can do yet. Plus I know more about pony anatomy than most in this world."

"P-P-Pony a—" Twilight gulped and, still blushing, smiled. "That's sounds perfect, since I know a lot about human bodies."

Stepping out from behind the counter, Sonata walked over to Twilight and crouched down. "I've been here for a thousand years—I think I'll be able to teach you some things. But there's even something new I've learned." Reaching out to Twilight's head, Sonata rubbed one of Twilight's ears and carefully fed her back happy feeling with her siren magic.

Twilight almost melted, body and mind. The rubbing of her ear had been nice, but Sonata's magic coursed through her and made the world just a little brighter and happier. She smiled slowly folded her legs and dropped to her belly.

"Hrmm. Maybe a little much, Sonata. Oh well, she'll come around soon enough." Getting back to her work, Sonata kept an eye on Twilight and waited for her to snap out of her little bliss-blast.

Nearly twenty minutes after Sonata had touched her with magic, Twilight finally groaned and felt her brain start to fire again. "Wha—?" Shaking her head, Twilight got one, two, three, and four legs under her and looked over at Sonata while the siren helped a customer. Part of her was utterly confused by what had happened, part was excited to experience a new type of magic, and the rest of her just wanted Sonata to do it again—preferably somewhere more private.

When Sonata finished with her customer, she noticed Twilight walking wobbly, approaching her. "Sorry, I might have given you a little much. Smaller body, less happy-juice."

"I'm not complaining, but next time can we do some measuring of that?" Twilight reached her hoof up to adjust her thick glasses. Her magic ones had been good for a while, but she got odd looks on the street while wearing them (though she didn't figure that they were just looking at the odd little unicorn), and wanted to start college with some normalcy.

"Pick a day I'm not working, then pick a day Rarity has classes. Get one that overlaps and we can do whatever you want. Just a few more hours until closing time."
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just as the work day was coming to an end, Rarity opened the door and walked into the shop. Her eyes spotted Sonata right away, but she was more intrigued by the ear-rubbing she was giving Twilight. "Having fun?" Her lips were curled into a smile.

Sonata nodded and pointed at Twilight with her free hand. "Rarity! You wouldn't believe the happy sounds she makes when you rub her ears."

"Darling, I make the same noises when I—" Rarity cut herself off when she heard Twilight let out a little repeating-squeak sound. "Gosh but that's adorable." Shaking her head to snap herself back to reality, Rarity let out a sigh. "Remember how I said I might not be able to do anything tonight? I was right. Perhaps you and Twilight could find something to keep you occupied?"

"Way ahead of you." Sonata left Twilight's ears alone and trailed her fingers through the girl's mane. "We were going to have a girls' night in and watch a movie and make out."

Closing her eyes, Rarity could imagine the two having quite a time. Biting her lower lip, she let out a sad little noise from the back of her throat. "If it were anything but my sister's birthday party, I would join you with that. Maybe next time?"

"W-We were just going to—That is I asked if she—I just want to try vanilla lesbian sex again. I tried it once with Tree Hugger, but a single trial is hardly rigorous enough to base my life on." Twilight reached her hoof up to adjust her glasses. "Then Sonata wanted to show me the thing she can do with her magic, which got us onto ear-rubbing."

"Twilight likes ear-rubbing." Sonata didn't go back to rubbing the girl's ears, rather just stroking her hand down her neck.

"Mmhmm." Twilight's ears splayed out to each side at the attention. "There's a lot of new sensations from my new body, and I'm still getting used to all of them. This—this is nice."

"Oh! Right. I saw Spicy and Rainbow in town. They said they were going straight home. I said I'd tell you both to close up." Wrapping her arms around Sonata's waist, Rarity pulled her close and gave her a swarm of little kisses all over her cheek. "I'll be home around eleven. If you're still busy then, leave a sock on the door handle if you don't want me coming in."

Sonata laughed. "We'll see how things go." She followed Rarity to the door and, when her girlfriend and mistress left, she locked it. "There. We're closed. I was worried someone would come in while she was talking."

Moving the boxes up to beside the counter, Twilight's anticipation was growing. When they had everything packed up and the register counted, her hooves felt itchy with excitement. "Y-You said a movie?"

"Rarity hates action movies. She's one-hundred-percent-lesbian, you understand. Seeing a big hunk with muscles blowing up all the bad guys just doesn't do it for her." Opening the door, Sonata stepped out into the stairwell that divided the loft apartment from the shop and unlocked the latter.

"Spike really loves those. He'd sit with me for hours to watch them." As she said it, Twilight felt a pang of worry. She hadn't thought about Spike in weeks. Her mother had hired him a private tutor and was working to teach him how to fit in with modern society—without resorting to barking and peeing on things.

The taste of happiness and anticipation soured and Sonata looked down at Twilight. "What's wrong?"

"I just—" Twilight sighed. "Mom has been helping Spike adjust. It's not easy for him, and he's not handling it well. He doesn't even want me to see him—or so Mom said. He's still a puppy in my mind, but really he's almost an adult dog and he is an adult diamond dog." She'd gotten the name for his species from Sunset.

"Oh! Diamond dogs! I know of them. They get awful stubborn and angry." Sonata closed the door behind Twilight and made her way to the kitchenette. "Hungry?"

"How about pizza?" Twilight asked.

"How about you sit your pony butt down, pick a movie, and tell me what you want on your tacos?" Sonata looked at Twilight and tilted her hips to the side. It was one of her classic I'm in control stances she'd used as part of the Dazzlings.

Rolling her eyes, Twilight stuck out her tongue. "You can have tacos if you want, but I'm getting pizza."

"Some people…" Sonata turned back around and started pulling things out of the fridge. "You still need to pick the movie. Something with guys with big muscles, big guns, and a whole lot of bad one-liners. Bonus points if there's a sex scene."

Turning on the TV, Twilight found NetFlicks and started browsing the action section. "Ohhh! I got just the thing. You'll be groaning in more ways than one by the end of this." Twilight hit play and then pause.

Reaching for her phone with her magic, Twilight brought up their pizza app on her phone and started customizing what she wanted. By the time she was done, she could hear Sonata giggling. "What's so funny?"

Walking over, Sonata showed Twilight the screen of her own phone. On it, a picture of Twilight with single-minded focus on her phone with her tongue stuck out in concentration. "Just this. I'm saving this for blackmail—and for times when I need a good laugh."

Twilight would have loved to be angry, but even her slight grievance with Sonata's tactics dissolved at the sight of the picture. She wouldn't say it out loud, but it was cute. "The pizza will be here in fifteen minutes."

"I'll have my tacos cooked by then. You want a drink of something?"

For a second, Twilight froze. "You mean alcohol?"

"I'm a thousand years old and you're an adult. If you want a drink to relax, I'm not going to begrudge it. Besides, prohibition was stupid, and the laws are just a carryover of that."

It would have been easy for Twilight to just say yes. She could have had something that would shut up her brain from its attempts to sabotage and over-analyze everything. "I'm okay. I have a bottle of Dr. Pepper coming."

"You're so responsible, Twilight. I won't push you, though. So, what are we watching?" The pan Sonata put on started to sizzle with the onions she was browning.

"This is the first in a great series of compelling sci-fi, all built for ill-conceived reasons for a big hunk to show off his muscles and speak with a growl that will make your back curl." Twilight had to fight her desire to ask about what Sonata was making—it smelled good.

Sonata's head basically swiveled around and she focused on the screen. "Pitch Black?"

"Just listen to this." Twilight hit play and quickly skipped to the first Riddick line. As the big guy growled out his words, she shivered.

"Oh my fuck that voice!" Almost forgetting to turn her onions, Sonata closed her eyes and imagined more of the big hunk. "Imagine him in bed, narrating sex."

Twilight snorted. "Imagine him in bed having sex." She paused the video and turned to look at Sonata—both of them wore the same hungry expression.

They talked back and forth about all the things they'd do to him while Sonata cooked the tacos. When the doorbell rang, Sonata walked out and opened it. "Oh, Twilight's pizza. Twilight, is this paid for?"

"Yeah it is." Thinking he was knocking on the door of a sex shop, Fast Lane's expectations had been high, but the woman standing in the doorway looked more than a little ditzy. "Yeah, it's all paid for. Uh, this doesn't look like a shop…"

"The shop's over there," Sonata said, pointing. "You wouldn't believe the weirdos who run it."

"Anyway, here's your pizza, your drink, and… uh…"

Twilight used her magic to float the tip over, but let Sonata give it to the guy. "Thanks for the pizza!"

"Hey, no problems. Pizza is what we do." Turning and walking back down the stairs, Fast realized that it had been a tiny horse that had replied to him. A tiny unicorn. His brain skipped a gear and he remembered the news reports about magic. "Far out…"

Levitating the pizza over to the couch, Twilight lifted the first slice out and took a big bite out of it. "Mmm. Did you see that guy's face when he saw me? I get that a lot now. People at least know I'm not an animal now, and my magic's strong enough that I can deal with any that get pushy, but it's that awe in their eyes that still freaks me out a little."

"I mean, we could order another pizza and see if he comes back. Give the pizza guy a bit of a party." Sonata served up her tacos onto a plate and walked over to the couch to sit beside Twilight.

"What?! We can't do that! What if he—And we'd be—" Twilight froze as Sonata's hand found the top of her head and started playing with her ears. "Imagine getting your ears rubbed by two people at once."

Sonata snorted and picked up the remote. "Or you could have him and me both eating you out at the same time."

Feeling her cheeks blush, Twilight stifled any reply she might have given with pizza.

"You're so cute when you're flustered. So, where is this guy again?" Picking up a taco, Sonata bit into it with glee.

As they watched the movie, Sonata's string of comments about inappropriate things she'd like to do to both the protagonists drew more and more giggles of agreement from Twilight. When the food had run out, Twilight wound up laying her head on Sonata's lap while relaxing and letting her friend do what she wanted.

When one of Sonata's hands reached to Twilight's belly, she was so relaxed that she didn't realize where it was going until a sigh escaped her throat as Sonata massaged her almost-flat udder.

Sonata could have gotten heavy-handed, but she was happy to keep Twilight distracted by the movie while teaching the mare all the fun places ponies had. She tickled and played with the sensitive flesh around Twilight's teats and listened for the soft, happy noises that came from the mare.

"Can I use more magic on you?" Sonata asked.

"Huh?" Twilight had been so relaxed and engrossed in the movie (that she'd seen dozens of times already) that Sonata's question hadn't registered at first. Tilting her head up to look Sonata in the eyes, Twilight let magic fill her horn as she reached under Sonata's clothing and felt for her breasts.

Biting back a moan, Sonata gave the slightest pinch to one of Twilight's teats, and got a return pinch on her own nipple. "Playful already? Maybe we should pause the movie?"

"I've seen it before. We can always put it on repeat." Twilight bit her lower lip as Sonata's touch became more insistent. "Oh, magic. If you want, but remember what it did to me last t—"

What hit Twilight wasn't like earlier in the day, and it wasn't quite an orgasm, but Sonata definitely made her feel very good very suddenly. Moaning out loud, she poured power into her horn and teleported away all of Sonata's clothes.

Pausing, Sonata was surprised at the use of magic Twilight exhibited, but had to concede that it was convenient. "You've unwrapped your burrito, now what are you going to do?"

Twilight tried to come to terms with what she saw. Sonata's body was a lot like Tree's had been, but it wasn't a purely physical thing that had turned her off with Tree, she realized. She didn't know Tree. They were friends, kinda, but Twilight had shared a lot more with Sonata. Lowering her snout between the siren's legs, Twilight nuzzled at the small strip of blue hair there.
> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was Sonata's turn to make a soft sigh. She looked down at Twilight, past her own breasts, and watched her tongue slip out to lap along the blue folds. Not wanting to leave Twilight to do all the adventuring, she slipped her hand a bit further back and pressed her palm to the soft flesh between udder and vulva, while her fingers slid up and formed a V on each side of Twilight's thick, rear lips. "You want to know what it feels like for me to put my magic in here?"

Twilight used her magic to grasp Sonata's shoulders, turn her, and ease her back onto the couch. It gave Twilight a better angle, and let Sonata have all the access she could want.

"I'll take that as a 'Stop talking and just fuck me, Sonata'." Now, with Twilight lying beside her on the couch, Sonata could see what she was doing. "But you know what, screw it. I like talking while having fun." Gently squeezing with her fingers, she listened for more soft sounds from Twilight—only to have an intense scene in the movie happen as the male hero stood his ground against a horrible monster.

Her eyes squeezed closed, Twilight was frozen in bliss at the intimate touch. She managed, only when Sonata released her folds, to get back to lapping and nuzzling the wetness at the end of her snout. It was entirely different to Tree. Sonata had fought beside Twilight against evil—an evil they'd beaten together—and that made it right to be intimate. "Non-exonymous."

"Huh?" Sonata paused and looked along Twilight's belly.

"A stupid word I read in a book when I was younger. It's taken way out of context, but roughly it was used to mean someone who only forms intimate relationships with people they already know." Creating a penis with her magic, Twilight was amused that she found a use for the word that had bugged her when she first read it.

Sonata squealed when the magical dong pushed into her. She'd been plenty wet enough, it just surprised her that Twilight had found something to use—and when she saw it was pure magic, that made it all the more awesome to her. "So that—ugh—that's how we're playing?"

Controlling the magic with her mind, Twilight almost lost the spell completely when Sonata sent pulses of her own magic into the sensitive flesh around her vulva. She barely got her mind back on track when Sonata worked two fingers into her and gave her another few pulses of magic.

Having been with her fair share of nerds in her life, Sonata knew little things would get noticed if she did things right. The jolts of magic started off into a pattern—one, one, two, three…

When Sonata delivered five quick jolts of magic right into the flesh around Twilight's clitoris, she realized what the siren was up to and lost all sense of control. She climaxed as the next set—eight pulses—started, and each little jolt shoved her deeper into her orgasm.

Despite her own loss of physical control, Twilight bent what willpower she had left into pushing the shaft deep into Sonata and making it swell and bulge. The sound of Sonata's cries were music to Twilight's ears.

Not yet climaxing, but close, Sonata fought down her normal passions for submissive play and just kept toying with Twilight. The noises the mare made weren't quite musical, but Sonata liked to think they were close—besides, she was just tuning up. They had the whole night ahead of them.

By the time Sonata was finally pushed to her limit—and over it—Twilight was back in control of herself and was nuzzling and lapping around the base of the magic she was stuffing the siren with. The feel of Sonata trembling and shaking perked Twilight up even more, so much so that she kept up her licking throughout Sonata's climax.

Panting and puffing, her body wracked by aftershocks of the orgasm, Sonata could still feel the big shape inside her that Twilight had been using. She opened her mouth to say something, but the shift of her diaphragm caused her lower muscles to clench around the thick shape—her words devolved into whines and mewls that made her own ears burn.

"That was fun." Twilight lifted her head to look over her shoulder at Sonata's face. Her blue body looked amazing to Twilight—and she felt truly aroused and attracted to her physically. "I-I guess I just wasn't that into Tree?"

"Twilight, it takes more than a sexy body to get someone's motor going—well, for some anyway."

"Fibonacci! You used a Fibonacci sequence before!" The memory of it rushed back to Twilight and she felt the muscles of her pelvic floor flex in sympathy.

"Ha! I knew you'd guess that one. Nerd girls love the sexy little math sequences. You know, I helped a girl get away from my sisters in the fifteen-hundreds…"

The timescale reminded Twilight in no uncertain terms that Sonata wasn't just old, she was old in terms of civilizations. "I think the movie finished. There's a sequel."

"A sequel sounds good." Sonata's attention wasn't on the television, however, it was on Twilight's vulva. She bent forward a little and tilted her head, and just as Twilight was trying to operate the remote with her magic, Sonata struck.

Dropping the remote and squeaking out loud at the attack on her body, Twilight flicked her tail in excitement at Sonata's efforts that seemed entirely centered around shoving her tongue as deep into Twilight as she possibly could. But, Twilight had a job to do. With a shaky horn, she levitated the remote back up and moved the pointer to the sequel and hit okay.

For a moment Sonata wondered what her magic would feel like channeled through her lips—then a second later she discovered it felt pretty good for her and, from Twilight's loud and deep moan, it was pretty good for Twilight too. Though she did need to grab Twilight's dock and hold it still while making a mental note to rib her about wagging her tail later.

With how Sonata had shifted, Twilight couldn't reach her mouth to the her lover's vulva anymore. Figuring her magic would still work, Twilight struggled to recover her wits enough to manifest the dildo again—but this time, rather than just one, she made two.

When the dildo returned, Sonata wasn't overly surprised. When a second dildo nudged at her anus, she froze. "Wait! Hold on!"

Pausing, Twilight looked up at Sonata. "What's wrong?"

"Twilight," Sonata said, "I haven't done any prep for that. If you put something in there, it'll just hurt me and make a mess."

"Oh." It was, plain and simple, an reminder that she was new to this. Twilight made the second toy vanish. "Sorry."

"This is how you learn. Besides, no harm—no foul." To show how little it bothered her, Sonata dove back under Twilight's tail and caught the mare's clit between her lips.

The shock and speed of the attack left Twilight gasping for air. The dildo she'd had left evaporated in a puff of expired magic that had no will left to shape it. She let loose a whinny and started shaking in the peak of climax once again.

Sonata knew from experience that some women—like some mares—enjoyed direct clitoral stimulation. She'd been teasing Twilight's nub until now, but finding the girl responding well to the attention, she focused on the organ and slurped the mare to a second and then third quick orgasm.

Each climax scattered the thinking parts of Twilight's mind to the four winds and left her only able to experience the physical pleasure of a body very happy to have a talented sexual partner. She squirmed and shook, over and over, but Sonata had wrapped both arms around Twilight's rump and was holding on tight to more than just her clit.

Counting out the most extreme trembles as orgasms, Sonata only relented when she'd driven Twilight through ten of them. At last releasing her lips from around the most sensitive of Twilight's organs, Sonata leaned back a little bit and observed Twilight's soaked rump. Not that her face was much better—she was coated from brow to chin in Twilight's juices. "I found someone's orgasm button."

Unable to form words yet, Twilight barely managed a, "Wuh?"

"We both need a drink before more snuggles," Sonata said. "And maybe we need to clean up a little too."

"D-Drink?" Twilight's mind started slowly getting past the fact she'd just been driven through orgasm after orgasm and she'd come out the other side feeling both empty and full. "Right. Drink. Dehydration and all that."Rolling off the couch, all four of Twilight's legs wobbled and shook.

"Exactly. If we stopped there and didn't top up our fluids, we'd both wake up with horrible headaches in the morning." Getting to her own (more stable) feet, Sonata stretched and noticed Twilight pause to look at her. Closing her eyes—pretending she hadn't noticed—she did a few stretches that involved her twisting, bending and flexing in ways that showed off her body.

Twilight shivered as she watched Sonata. Memories of being a human female abounded, but she was sure she'd never moved like that before, let alone done so naked. Then it clicked. "Is this all for my benefit?"

Opening one eye to look at Twilight, Sonata grinned. "Yup."

Twilight snorted, but didn't stop looking at Sonata. It wasn't exactly taboo, she saw Tree Hugger naked every other day, but Sonata was someone she found attractive. It helped that the sheen on Sonata's face was Twilight's own proof of how much she liked the siren. That's when her thoughts turned a little darker. "Sonata, do you ever worry you'll just—just slide back?"

Wary, Sonata sobered and let out a sigh. She started walking toward the fridge. "Yeah. All the time. Rarity helps a lot. She tells me she'd be able to figure out when I do, but—but I don't know. That's the hardest part."

"I don't have Rarity, though. I don't—Well, I do have friends, and a few really good ones at that," Twilight smiled at Sonata, "but I don't have someone to give me the one-on-one attention Rarity has for you."

"That's a tough one, yeah. You know, there's someone who helped you out the first time. The way Sunset described it, if it weren't for your old schoolmates, he'd have stopped the whole thing." Filling two glasses with filtered water, Sonata dropped some ice cubes in for good measure.

"What? Who?" Taking her own glass from Sonata with her magic, Twilight started drinking and then froze. "Spike!"

"Mmhmm. I'm not saying you need to have a relationship with him, but he seems to mean a lot to you—why are you sitting back and not showing him?" Guzzling down her drink, Sonata felt the liquid permeate her body and revitalize her. She quickly topped up her glass and started drinking more.

Twilight offered her own glass for a top-up, and kept thinking about Spike. He'd been her first responsibility and the first real friend she had (her brother didn't count, since he left for military college). "I want you to teach me how to eat a girl out."

"You're on fire with those topic changes. It's not about me teaching you, anyway, it's about you teaching what my body has to tell you. When I started on your clit before, I could instantly tell it was something that really worked for you. You have to explore and try things until you find mine." Putting her glass in the sink, Sonata gestured toward the couch. "More movie time, or should we head to somewhere more intimate?"

"Well, you can watch some more, there's more movies in that series, but I want to see if I can distract you from watching Mr. Muscles." Twilight levitated her empty glass up and into the sink too, then found herself prancing after Sonata. It was definitely strange to her, to be doing all this without a formal plan in mind, but that was the nature of this particular experiment.

"On my back or do you want me on all fours?" Sonata asked, watching as Twilight used the remote to start the next movie.

"On your back. I want you comfortable and relaxed." Climbing onto the couch and stowing the remote, Twilight looked up along Sonata's legs, over her crotch, her belly, even past Sonata's breasts to her face. Sonata looked eager and excited, and seeing both of those invoked the same feelings in Twilight.
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crawling up and along the couch, Twilight ignored Sonata's engorged vulva and headed further north. Twilight lay her fuzzy self down over Sonata's belly and pressed her chin down between the girl's breasts.

"Now you're covering up all the naughty bits." Sonata completely ignored the movie and focused on Twilight. "What can you do the—"

Striking like a trained attack kitten, Twilight lunged forward and kissed Sonata. As her lips made contact, she felt Sonata's arms come down on her shoulders and squeeze her in a hug. Breaking apart, Twilight felt even more excited than ever. "What can I do here? Not much, except smooch and snuggle. After what you put me through, I wanted to show how much I appreciate you."

"Well, I can confirm you know your way around a kiss, but it's the other stuff we're experimenting with." Sonata used the word like a guide, pushing Twilight back to the task at hand. "You know, you could try—Mff!" A gentle magic finger pressed itself to Sonata's lips, and with it there she couldn't open them at all.

"No spoilers. You're the first woman I've enjoyed being with—let me explore and play before you give me a grade." Twilight shimmied backward on the couch, soon finding her snout at Sonata's breasts again.

Magical gagging wasn't something Sonata knew for sure she was into, but now she knew she was. Being a siren—a creature that lives and dies by its own voice—and being silenced so effectively made her squirm at Twilight's touches far more than she would have normally.

Nuzzling and squeezing Sonata's breasts with her magic, Twilight gave the best massage she could think of. She remembered all the times she'd played with herself, and what had felt good then, and did that. When she didn't hear anything from Sonata, she looked up to see the magic finger still resting against her lips. "Do you, uh, want me to remove that?"

Sonata blushed and nodded. When the magic sealing her lips was gone, she let out a moan. "Firstly, I love that spell. Second, ask me before gagging me like that. We need to work out ways for me to tell you things if you're going to use it."

"I—Huh. Okay, so another time for that?"

The question made Sonata's lips curl up. "We'll have to talk to Rarity about that. Up until now, she's been the only one to dominate me in any meaningful way."

"So you'd be okay with—?"

The look (and feel) of Twilight's tail swishing side to side made Sonata cut in on her. "I'd be very okay with it, but we'll need ground rules, Rarity's permission, and a little time to work out what we both want."

Part of Twilight's mind raced at the possibilities but most was focused on Sonata's body. She started nuzzling and licking the woman all over, exploring arms, fingers, breasts, and belly before even reaching Sonata's waist. Her ears were perked, listening for gasps and sighs of happiness as she built a map of Sonata's body.

To say Sonata was in the mood would be an understatement. Except for a few little touches Twilight made she had received a very good work-up. Or, as the case may be, work-down. She looked down her body at the mare as she settled between Sonata's legs, then turned to look at the TV. "Who is that?"

Turning her head from the feast before her, Twilight noticed that they'd skipped through a movie during her thorough exploration. "Hotness."

"You got that right. Look at those muscles? I could curl up on him like a cat and sleep forever on those abs." Sonata was torn away from the vision of manliness on the television as Twilight started to nuzzle around her folds. Pulling a cushion close, she propped her back up so she could look down and see what Twilight was doing.

When she realized Sonata was watching, Twilight felt compelled to make dialogue. "You look a little different to how I do—err, did. My bits here were smaller, and you have, uh…" Twilight bit her lip for a fraction of a second before showing Sonata what bit she meant.

The warm-up was plenty that even direct stimulation to her clitoris left Sonata feeling good rather than squicky. She moaned out loud as Twilight's lips caught her partly around her hood and partly a direct contact, and the movie was forgotten as Sonata was gripped both by Twilight's lips and a shocking arc of pleasure that locked up all her muscles.

It was a no-brainer for Twilight. She knew her own clit did the same thing to her, but she still wanted to be sure. Besides, she told herself, this was experimentation—she was just peer-reviewing.

Only when Twilight let go was Sonata able to think again. She panted and arched her spine so far she was sitting upright, grabbed the sides of Twilight's head and pulled her up into a kiss.

Twilight didn't fight the kiss. She braced her legs under herself and smooched back for all she was worth. The casual nature of their fun was a relief after all the anxiety over performance with other females. When Sonata finally let go, Twilight knew her own face was pulled into a silly-happy grin. "So, uh, more of that?"

"That was pretty good, maybe even finish with it, but try some other things. Warm me up some more before stampeding to the clitoris." When Twilight didn't immediately show recognition of the gag, Sonata sighed. "We need to work on your education."

"Was that a reference to something I should get?" Twilight asked.

"Yes it—" Sonata's words cut off as Twilight licked along her slit. The motion of the unicorn's tongue completely destroyed any hope she had of getting words out. When the lick was over, and she started over, Twilight repeated the motion and again stopped Sonata short.

The game was a fun one. Twilight could see Sonata wanted to say something, but she kept keeping her from doing it with the casual licks. After the sixth time, and hearing Sonata whine, she finally let up and just rested her chin over Sonata's groin. "What did you want to say?"

Sonata paused for a moment. "Are you going to lick me again?"

"Maybe."

Grinning at the fun little game, Sonata closed her eyes and relaxed. "It was a Monty Python quote."

"Oh. Well, we could watch that next if you want?" Twilight was already lifting her head back up and looking down at Sonata's well-trimmed hedge. Before Sonata could say anything, she nuzzled and licked along her slit again.

Sonata melted into relaxation a little further, her body sparking sensations in her mind that put her completely at ease. She looked down at Twilight, watching as she explored with her tongue, and then turned her head to look back at the TV.

When Twilight started investigating with her magic and her tongue, however, Sonata was compelled to look back at her. She watched as Twilight gently stroked here and there, or pressed on the same bits. It was as fascinating for Sonata as it was enjoyable. She didn't hold back on her reactions, either, letting the noises tumble from her throat in response to everything Twilight did.

There were a ton of variables Twilight had to take into account. The fact that Sonata was getting more and more aroused was the biggest, and one she couldn't ignore. Twilight knew from her own experience that the hornier she got, the more everything became sexy.

When Sonata's body started twitching and clenching around her tongue, Twilight realized what she'd just pushed the siren into. Not wanting to overstimulate her, nor leave her completely alone, she instead returned to just slowly lapping along her outer folds.

The reduced licking was perfect to keep Sonata coasting on her orgasm for almost a minute—with a few aftershocks thrown in. Looking past her heaving chest, she reached a hand down to rub at Twilight's ear.

Giving a happy little giggle at the ear-rub, Twilight drew her lips back from Sonata and sighed. "How was it?"

Reaching down with her other hand, Sonata took care of Twilight's other ear too. "You are a gifted student, Twilight Sparkle, and enthusiastic too. How is the experiment going?"

"Well…" Twilight dipped her snout and nuzzled against Sonata's crotch before lifting her eyes back up to meet Sonata's. "I'd say this experiment was a success, but more are required."





It had taken most of the day for Limestone Pie to get through certification to be within the prison. It was a black-site, something she hadn't visited before, but a slip of paper from General Raven Inkwell had gotten her the express treatment.

At last, with no weapons but those she was born with, Limestone stepped into the cell with Aria Blaze. "Hey." Her tone was sharp—she was looking for the siren's attention, not to make friends. "I have a few questions, and I've been given leave to ask them."

The psych evaluations hadn't helped Limestone much, though she'd gotten enough from them to discover that Adagio was a god complex, and Aria was a pure megalomaniac. She liked her chances with the latter first.

"You were the soldier from the fight." Aria Blaze was curious why they'd let a human in with her after nearly a month of being alone. "You play dirty."

"First quest—"

Aria rolled her eyes. "Not until you talk to me a bit. I'm a bit mercurial, you see, and unless you make me happy, I don't make you happy. What were you thinking when you held your gun on us?"

"Answer for answer?" Limestone asked.

"Yeah."

"What I was thinking was all tactical. If you moved left, could I train my gun on you to shoot you and still shoot your friend if she rolled right. I focused down to the mechanics of the situation—like I always do. Like I was trained to do." The words came out with no emotion at all. Limestone moved on. "What is your connection to Sonata Dusk?"

"A cold-hearted killer? Sounds more like a trained attack dog." Aria leaned back on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, her mind twisting around the idea of finding out how far Limestone would get with a push in the right direction. "Sonata was just another siren. Not smart, but that's why Adagio chose her—she was gifted with her voice and didn't ask nearly as many questions as the others. My connection to Sonata? She was our henchman."

Limestone knew this game, and knew that Aria was playing it with different rules than normal. "That was a lot of answer."

"Well, yours was interesting. Keep giving me interesting answers, little pet, and I'll keep giving you verbose ones." Stretching her arms upward in a stretch, Aria eventually brought them back down and started to unbutton the shirt she'd been given. "You wanna make out?"

"Is that a question?"

"Always."

"I'm straight, for a start, but secondly they have so many cameras in here that I'd get kicked out of the Corps before I got anywhere near you."

"Cameras? Good to know. I suspected as much, but it's nice to have confirmation." Aria didn't stop, stripping her shirt off completely and just laying topless on the bed. "Ask away."
> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Limestone hadn't moved a muscle and didn't plan to. "How would someone tell when a siren is using their magic on them?"

"Well, now we're getting interesting. Is Sonata not playing nice? No, forget that, I'll have more fun questions once I've given you your answer." Aria sat up with her back against the wall. "If the siren is capable—and all three of us were—the beloved pet wouldn't feel a thing. The siren's magic would wrap around the free-thinking parts of their mind and force them to rationalize everything that happened—right up until they were licking their owner's feet.

"How do you know you're not into girls? Have you ever fucked one?"

"I tried. Got drunk enough that I didn't look too close and found myself in bed with a girl. Apparently I'm too much like a guy for lesbians." The label—when Limestone had it shouted at her—had stung a little at the time, but she had learned to live with her muscles.

"So she wasn't bi?"

"Nope. She was a lesbian—and that's two answers, but I'll cut you some slack." It didn't hurt Limestone to spill. She was well adjusted enough that she doubted anything Aria could say would get under her skin. "How can a human put up a defense against a siren getting in their head? Are there other creatures from Equestria that'll do the same?"

"Isn't this just so friendly? Look at us, sharing answers back and forth. We might as well just hug and get it over with. Friendship rules, you know, and I'm totally rehabilitated." When Limestone didn't even budge, Aria rolled her eyes. "And here I thought you were going to appreciate my kind of humor. Okay. There is no defense a normal human with no magic can put up against us. There are some you call witches, ones with their own magic of this world, who have made things difficult for us in the past. We killed all we ever found. As for your second question—since I got two answers, it's only fair I return the favor. Every second creature in Equestria seems to have some kind of mental control of others. Changelings, sirens, lamia… to name just a few."

"Look, I don't have anymore questions." Aria shrugged her shoulders. "But you've been a good sport, miss attack dog, so why don't you—" She'd been slowly sipping at the anger of the guards who'd been set to guard her. Aria didn't have much magic, but she had enough for a single target. "… fight your way out and kill as many guards as you can?"

Searing pain hit Limestone's chest like a hammer. She'd tensed up behind the strike the moment she'd felt it, and her own physical stature had saved her from getting knocked over. She didn't have kevlar on, and the hit didn't feel like a bullet, but the look on Aria's face told her something else should have happened.

Aria stared as Limestone reached into her jacket's inner pocket and pulled out a slip of paper that looked singed and blackened around the edges. "A talisman?! Who the fuck gave you a talisman?!"

The typed words on the paperwork had faded to reveal flowing script that Limestone couldn't understand. Only one thing on the document remained—the signature. General Raven Inkwell. "Well I'll be…" She slipped the paper back into her jacket pocket and turned her attention to Aria. "Looks like we both get a surprise to—hey!"

Lunging at Limestone, Aria tried to grab the woman's head with her hand, only to find a fist connecting with her cheek. Stars swirled in her vision, but she was a siren—she was tougher than a normal human. "Let me in, little puppy, let me play!"

Limestone was surprised at how easily Aria had shrugged off the punch. She kept silent, focusing on defense while whoever was watching the cameras called an alert—at least she hoped someone was watching the cameras.

Aria knew she didn't have long, and with only a shred of her power left, she lunged toward Limestone—heedless of fists—only to be grabbed at the wrist and shoulder and thrown onto her back. When a punch landed in her gut, all the fight went out of her and she slumped and curled into a ball of agony.

The door behind Limestone opened and two big men with shock-batons rushed in, pushed her off Aria, and started shocking Aria until the siren rushed to the back wall.

"Don't let her touch your head! She was trying to grab me and used some of her magic!" She didn't hear any acknowledgment from the two guards, but they shoved Aria to the back of the cell with the batons and held their ground.

"Please leave the cell, ma'am."

Limestone nodded and backed out and into the hall. As she watched the two guards back out, she realized something odd about how the one who'd spoken—in particular how he'd spoken. The words had been mostly right, but there were odd edges to them that reminded her of someone who was deaf. It made sense to her, since from what they knew the sirens couldn't do anything without speaking.

When the door closed, Limestone smirked and gave the two big guys a thumbs-up. "I don't need Adagio until I've spoken to the general and Sonata." She could still feel a slight heat coming from the paperwork in her pocket.

The drive back to their offices had been a time for Limestone to think over what had happened and the importance of everything said and done. She started putting together a report for the black-site administrators as well as a series of questions for her own command chain. After all, orders flowed down, but complaints flowed up. Parking, she made her way into the office she shared with the general and knocked once on Inkwell's office door.

"Yeah, come in, sergeant." Raven Inkwell had felt when her magic had flared in the talisman and she'd had nearly an hour to prepare for this conversation. When Limestone walked into the office—practically using up all the oxygen due to her physical size—Raven leaned back a bit in her seat. "Sit down and ask."

"Did you make this?" Pulling out the paper, Limestone set it down on the desk. The edges still showed signs of burns, but was otherwise intact.

Reaching for the paper with both her hand and her magic, Raven could feel the burning magic that'd been triggered to protect Limestone. "We don't exactly have a staff here, sergeant. I wrote that paperwork for you—tell me what happened."

Like any good, trained soldier, Limestone debriefed to Raven. She left out no detail—not even that she suspected that the guards at the black-site were deaf. When she got to the attack by Aria, Raven's passive face turned down a little into a frown. Undaunted, she finished her report.

"The siren was right, that is a talisman." Raven weighed her options, wondering how far she should trust Limestone. "I think you're right. We should interview Sonata Dusk—if only because she probably expects a visit from us. What do you think of the talisman?"

"You made it, and if the siren wasn't lying, that makes you a witch, sir." Limestone suspected as much. You don't get to stay in active armed forces if you suddenly have an attack of the supernatural kind. Limestone's twitchy, pony ears would be enough to have seen her discharged. If the general was a witch, that would be plenty enough to see her discharged after a lengthy questioning. "Which leads me to ask, how did you make it to general?"

Raven smirked. "Too damn smart to be a grunt. Did anyone else tell you that?"

"No, sir."

"I didn't know I was a witch until I had a Type C grab me and try to drain my magic. I didn't even know I had magic." Raven turned her hand palm up and created a soft, blue flame in the middle of her palm. "I was relieved of my command immediately, of course, but the joint-chiefs believed me when I told them I didn't know about it before—but then they turned it back on me. I was given a budget and told to find out about it and if there might be any military uses.

"I investigated for eight years, and though I found a lot of useful little tricks, our magic never came close to being useful as a battlefield tool." Nodding to Limestone, Raven reached a hand out as her cat jumped up on her desk. "Now, that magic from Equestria? That's some useful stuff. Dangerous as nuclear waste, though."

"So, you and me? Different kinds of magic. Shame you didn't get a bit higher up in rank before yours outed." Spotting her familiar, Raven sighed. "Time to introduce the last member of our little team. Sergeant Limestone Pie, this is Captain Penny. She likes scratches behind her left ear, but if you do that you'll never get rid of her."

Watching as the cat jumped up on the desk, Limestone reached a hand out toward it. When the feline finished sniffing her fingers and rubbed her cheek against them, Limestone smirked and rubbed the aforementioned ear. "I get on pretty good with cats, sir."

"And I get on pretty good with humans who pet me." Penny tilted her head just right to get the most out of Limestone's petting. "If you stop, I'll bite you."

The threat was enough to break the shock Limestone had at hearing the cat talk. She set her fingers back in motion.

Purring, Penny turned to look at Raven. "What did I tell you?"

"Nothing I didn't already suspect." Lifting her eyes from her familiar, Raven once more addressed Limestone. "I'll make you another ward for your visit to Sonata Dusk—the friendly Type D."

"Wait. Can you do something different?" Finding herself relaxing as she rubbed at Penny's ear, Limestone had a better idea. "We want to foster trust, which means that kind of overt defense is overkill."

"What do you suggest?"

Limestone felt herself being completely disarmed by the purring mound of fluff. "Something more like a dosimeter. No active defense, just be able to check it after the fact to see if anything was used on me. She's a civilian who hasn't broken the law, we shouldn't have to wear body-armor to a meeting with her. Knowing when I've been shot, however, would be nice. Aria knew exactly what your ward was and what you are.

"So, let's treat this Sonata Dusk as just another citizen with a gun who chooses not to use it on me. If she does, then we retaliate."

Leaning back in her chair, Raven contemplated sending her field agent out without that body-armor. "I'll have something for you tomorrow. Please, be careful, sergeant."

"Yes, sir."
> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spike woke up in bed—a human bed. It felt all kinds of wrong having the covers on top of him. He grunted and started to reach for them when he heard the knocking at the door. "Uh, come in?"

Using her magic, Twilight opened the door and stepped into her old bedroom. It was completely remade with comic posters and comics everywhere, and a very odd (to their world) creature sitting up in the bed. "Hey, Spike. I—"

"You shouldn't be here, Twilight. I don't know what I'll do or how I'll act. I'm a mess right now and—Why are you coming closer?!" Spike attempted to scrabble back and away from Twilight, but it turns out trying to rapidly extract yourself from unfamiliar covers only leads to you getting tangled. "Ack!"

Twilight had the upper hoof and caught up to her friend. Wrapping both forelegs around his larger body, she squeezed him. "I had a very special person once tell me that friendship is all about feelings. She should know, being the princess of friendship and all."

"But—But I might hurt you!" Spike's arms and legs strained with the desire to hug Twilight back—a desire he held in check.

"Try me. I might be small, but I'm literally like a little bulldozer, Spike. You might be able to hurt me, but I'll forgive you. Like the time you bit me when you hurt your leg." When Twilight felt one of Spike's big arms curl around her back, she knew she was getting to him.

"You mean when I got run-over by a girl on a scooter? Yeah, I was a bit bitey then." Giving in was Spike's undoing. With one arm around Twilight, the other traitorous upper limb came at her from the other side and he hugged her tight to his chest. "I just—I just don't know if I'm doing something wrong or not."

"I've got some news for you, Spike," Twilight said. "No one knows if they're doing everything right or not. It's not something you can know."

"Huh? But how do people just do things, then?"

"Because the world would be a bunch worse without them doing those things. Like this. I don't know if coming here and hugging you will help, but I know we'll both feel worse for not facing things together. You came with me on my first day at high school and remember what happened?" Spike was so much bigger than Twilight that it almost felt like their roles were reversed. He was human-sized and she was—not quite as small as Spike had been, but certainly smaller in stature.

"N-Not really. I remember a bunch more about some things and not others, but I think that was all the magic that happened at the Friendship Games. Everything before that is a big blur." He was surprised when Twilight started hugging him tighter. "What's up?"

Twilight felt her new idea made perfect sense. "That cinches it, then. We need to make new memories together."

"I-I mean I still remember some vague stuff before then, but it's more—It's kinda embarrassing. You felt like my mommy."

"I feel the same, Spike. I just—It took a friend to tell me that I need to be here for you. I guess that's another part of friendship—learning when to listen to your friends and when to ignore their shoving you away."

Finally easing up his death grip, Spike was surprised at Twilight's insistence to have one more squeeze. "We both made some mistakes then, right?"

"Yeah. But that's part of learning."

"And science. Nothing is a mistake unless you learned nothing from it. That's what you kept saying." He set about trying to disentangle himself from the covers.

Surprised at the sentiment, Twilight nodded. "It's certainly right about this—and last night."

"I thought you smelled a little different today. Was he cute?" Spike wasn't sure if asking was right, but he'd been studying teenager behavior on television and that seemed the important question everyone asked.

"She, and she was. I was so fixated on Tree Hugger being my big experiment into lesbianism, that I forgot to widen my sample size." The nerd-speak explanation for her wanting to have more sex made Twilight blush and grin at the same time. "The test disproves my earlier hypothesis."

With a sigh, Spike finally got his legs untangled and crawled off the side of the bed and stood upright. "I don't want to have anything to do with that kinda stuff. I need to focus on being me before I can focus on someone else making me an us."

Staring at Spike, Twilight blinked a few times to try to clear her thoughts up. "That sounds really mature, Spike. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, Twilight, it means a lot to hear that. You—uh—wanna do something?" Spike felt a blush enter his cheeks, which was something he hadn't experienced before, though it felt nice. "Maybe read a book together?"

"I'd really like that. What do you want to read?"

Spike pulled a book out from under his covers and passed it to Twilight.





The second day of orientation had been less chaotic. Twilight had gotten a ride from Rainbow in the car of doom (as Twilight called it) and had been excited to be shown around their physics department by a member of the faculty.

Professor Falcon Inkwell was nobody's fool. She had spent nearly ten years as head of the physics department and held a doctorate as well as many research papers. She was getting a strange vibe from Twilight, however, one that she could see as being either very good or utterly terrible. Though she hoped for the former, she had to protect herself if the latter was the case.

"And I understand," Professor Inkwell said, "that Hurricane wants you to teach a class on this magic?"

"First of all, it's not magic how most people would describe it—Well, it is magic, but it obeys laws and has its own properties. Second"—Twilight let out a sigh—"he does. I tried to tell him I wasn't ready to do such a thing, but just in case he was serious, I put together a series of lessons that should give anyone a good introduction to the new laws."

Biting her tongue, Falcon Inkwell had to remind herself that she was talking to an actual unicorn. Magic was real, but she'd never had any experience with it—and had certainly never brought it into a lab. "Well, let's look over the syllabus then?"

Secluding themselves in Falcon's office, Twilight brought out her folder of notes for the class she was going to teach. "I wasn't sure how many lectures I'd be giving, or even if they'd be lectures." She used her telekinesis to float the folder onto the desk.

Trying her best to ignore the show of magic before her, Falcon opened the folder—then froze at what she saw. "You weren't sure what style of class it would be, so you structured your content for lecture, conversation, and online?!" Reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose, Falcon wasn't sure if the student before her was the brightest she'd ever met or just overly enthusiastic. She decided that Twilight Sparkle was possibly both.

As she read through each of the formats, Falcon put Twilight firmly in the eccentric genius category. The level of calculus shown was sufficient for a late second-year student, and the logic diagrams had her itching to see what she'd do with a full degree and doctorate under her belt. "I believe a series of lectures might be the best path. You will want to demonstrate some of these experiments—trust me, nothing gets someone's attention faster than experiencing new science being done before their eyes."

Levitating a pen, Twilight started taking notes without needing to be told. She could almost feel herself starting to soak up the professor's knowledge like a sponge. By the time they were done, she was impressed by Falcon's teaching methods and had taken many suggestions on-board. "And we're done?"

"Absolutely not. This is only the start of your career, and I plan to keep an eye on you." Falcon kept the pure excitement from her voice only by an inch. Just reading through the notes Twilight had made filled her with a new sense of wonder—like learning about the fundamental forces or relativity all over again. "It's getting late in the afternoon, and I believe the student body has organized a barbecue for all the freshmen."

"Well, here's hoping they have salad." Rolling her eyes expressively, Twilight jumped from the chair and immediately felt how cramped she'd been sitting there—nearly motionless—for hours. "Though I think a bit of a run might do me good."

"Don't say that where my sister can hear you. She's like a dog with a bone when it comes to exercise. Make sure to attend class sign-ups tomorrow and might I suggest you stock up on morning study sessions—most of the less-enthusiastic students tend to avoid them, and it would mean less interruptions should you happen to sign up for my morning workshop sessions." She couldn't help it. Falcon wanted to teach this girl everything she knew just to see what Twilight would do with the knowledge.





Rainbow and Rarity met up at the dorm-house with their friends and joined them in the living room to talk about their day. What surprised everyone was how much more animated Marble was than normal—sitting beside Twilight and chatting away about their more focused day.

"People-watching?" Rarity asked Rainbow.

Nodding, Rainbow reached out with a wing to pick up her soda. "You're doing it too. Why do I feel a little detached from them? It's like we're all splitting apart just a little. High school was so much smaller than this. There's like two hundred of us starting engineering, and my guide told me that only half of them make it to the start of second year."

"The art side of things, what fashion comes under, is not much different. There's—apparently—a lot of major shuffling happens. Apparently Twilight had fun with Sonata last night." Rarity said the last a little softer, not wanting to broadcast the juicy details.

Raising an eyebrow, Rainbow looked up at Rarity before turning to look back across at Twilight. "She did? I guess Tree just wasn't her type. Can't blame her, though, Sonata almost had me agreeing to stuff just to see how it'd go. What'd they get up to? Anything you can share?"

"Sonata wouldn't say, and I had to respect that. I said they could, and I can't exactly go back on that."

"It's so much different as a pony." The words started tumbling from Rainbow. "Even the bondage is different. Spicy had to come up with new ways to bind my legs, and then had to invent his own wing binders. Can't say I'm complaining, now I can fly all the time."

"I must admit, and I say this without any intention to force myself upon you, but the challenges of an equine body do make me curious as to how to bind one." Bringing up the awkward topic of her first lesbian encounter with a reluctant Rainbow, Rarity found herself playing with her hair nervously. "I hope this topic isn't—?"

"No. You're fine, Rarity. You stopped when I asked, you apologized, and we're still friends. Spicy helped talk me through it, and the time I've spent with him showed me how nervous I was and that my reluctance might have been sending mixed messages. Nothing happened but a virgin got a bit shook up." Taking a sip from her soda, Rainbow felt the urge to share more. "The bridle really does it for me, you know. Just knowing that someone can direct me and control where I look—"

Her heart beating a little faster, Rarity could picture Rainbow done up in tack—a bridle and saddle sized perfectly for her—prancing around. "Darling, if you wanted to tease me, you picked a good topic. I don't suppose you would be willing to share a picture next time you—"
> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pulling her phone out of the little backpack she wore, Rainbow started tapping away at it with her feathers. "You're joking, right? I have pictures on here. Let me find a good one for you." The images had been taken by Braeburn while Rainbow was wearing the bridle. She flicked through them, noting one where her tail was raised up high—mostly because she had a huge butt plug stuffed in her rear at the time. "Here."

Rarity's phone beeped, and when she checked the message she almost dropped it. "R-Rainbow! That's—" Realizing everyone in the room was looking at her, Rarity froze and blushed up a story. "I mean, err…"

With one arm around Pinkie's shoulders, Sunset looked between Rarity and Rainbow, noting their phones out. The first thing that came to mind was a joke. "Are you two sexting?" When both blushed (and Rainbow was really blushing to be visible past her coat), Sunset's eyes widened. "Can't take you two anywhere, can we?"

"Hey! I can't help it if I'm hot. It's the wings." Rainbow was unrepentant.

Rarity hit save on her phone and stored the image before slipping the phone back in her handbag. "If I try to claim it wasn't, you wouldn't buy it." She shrugged her shoulders.

Rainbow's phone beeped, and she saw there was a message from Twilight.







Rainbow sent off the pic to Twilight, and grinned when she saw Twilight's reaction.

















Standing up, Twilight never felt so unstable on four legs. "Excuse me." She slipped out of the room and down the hall to her bedroom. Her heart beat faster as she flicked her phone's camera app on and floated it around so it was aimed at her from behind. Cocking her tail, she looked back over her shoulder in what she hoped was a sexy pose.

The snap-sound the phone made when it took the shot sounded loud to Twilight. She looked at the pic and, before second-guessing herself, hit send.

Rainbow noticed when Twilight sent the message because she still had the conversation up. As the picture rendered, she grinned.



Tilting her phone just enough, Rainbow gave Rarity a quick flash of crystalline purple flank before scrolling away from the picture. "Anyway, I gotta go. You know how it is with this thing in my head…" Darkening the screen to her phone, Rainbow slipped it into her backpack and stood up just as Twilight returned to the room. "Same time tomorrow, Twilight?"

Twilight was still focused—mentally—on the pic she'd just sent. She heard the words and mentally put them into that context and figured Rainbow was asking for more pictures. Nodding, she blushed even more than she already was. "O-Okay."

Not picking up on Twilight's surprise/excitement/interest, Rainbow waved to everyone with one wing as she made her way out to her baby. Though she would be the first to admit it steered like a dog, she loved how it reacted when she so much as breathed on the gas.

In no time Rainbow was home and parking the T-bucket in her garage. She climbed out to the sound of moaning inside her house. Following her ears, Rainbow found Thunderbolt and Spicy in the spare room with Spicy on the bottom of what looked like a good rutting by Thunderbolt. "I'd ask to get a piece of that, but something tells me you boys are going to be stuck a while."

Thunderbolt turned his head and looked at Rainbow. His draconic instincts told him that she belonged to him—but he'd stepped beyond those primitive thoughts. "Just finished in him. We're tied."

Walking in, Rainbow got close enough that she and Thunderbolt could nuzzle one another. She'd learned to adore nuzzling since growing her own snout. The exchange of casual scents and contact made her tingle all over. "I call dibs on whoever recovers first."

Pulling back from Rainbow's fur, Thunderbolt angled his head down and under him. "He'll recover first, but I think he's a bit distracted now." He managed to curl his neck enough to catch Spicy with an upside-down kiss.

Spicy felt like he was split in half and on fire. The shaft inside him had swollen beyond what he would have said he could handle—until he tried—combined with the hot load of dragon seed made him feel almost drunk with pleasure. Returning the kiss from his favorite dragon, Spicy surrendered to the hefty pressure on his prostate and unloaded underneath himself.

"How you doin' down there? A little full?" Rainbow asked.

Tilting his head to the side, Spicy broke the kiss and looked at his girlfriend. "You know how it is. Did I hear you call next?"

"Yeah you did, and Thunderbolt said you'll be up." Reaching out with a hoof, Rainbow booped Spicy on the nose. "I'll whip up something for dinner, first, while you two recover."

Rainbow left the room with a sigh—she loved the pair of them, and seeing them both having fun made her happy. Dinner took her the better part of half an hour to cook. It was a vegetarian stir-fry with a mango on the side for Spicy. Thunderbolt, Rainbow had learned, found his own food.

When Thunderbolt pulled out of Spicy, he looked down and saw his lover's belly still swollen. "Carrying my pups." He curled one forelimb under Spicy and rubbed the swollen belly.

Groaning as his mind raced over the fresh fetish fodder Thunderbolt was murmuring to him, Spicy rolled to his side as the dragon's shaft drew all the way from him. "Sometimes I wish I was a girl. You're the only lover who's ever made me feel that. I want both of your shafts in me, but I'm pretty sure you'd break me open like a chocolate bunny if we tried stuffing them both in my butt."

"Wouldn't it be fun trying, though?" Thunderbolt licked Spicy's neck as he let the bat get up and stand on wobbly legs. "You riding my shafts, an ornament—a cock-cozy."

Shivering as his mind delivered that exact mental image, Spicy looked back at Thunderbolt. "Where did you learn language like that?"

"Where do I learn half the things I know? The internet." Watching Spicy's bare butt, Thunderbolt loved that not a hint of his seed leaked out—though Spicy wore some dragon spunk down his fuzzy back. "You've got a little something…"

"… on my back. Yeah, I can feel it. I better have a shower before I have dinner." Strutting across the hallway, Spicy headed into the bathroom and had the shower he'd needed. The plug keeping all the cum in his rear, however, stayed put.

Leaving the shower, he dried up as best he could and headed to the bedroom he shared with Rainbow and grabbed a leather kilt—since he knew he'd probably need to take off whatever he was wearing when it came time to get the plug out. Forsaking a shirt, he made his way down the hallway to find Rainbow sitting on the couch in the living room with a bowl of stir-fry, another bowl waiting beside her, and a plate with a prepared mango on it.

"You pamper me." Sitting down on the couch, Spicy picked up the stir-fry first and started in on it. "That's really good. Where'd you learn to cook like that?"

"You ask that every time I make something." Balancing her fork in her bowl, Rainbow reached out to poke Spicy's chest with one pointed feather. "And I keep telling you, being into sports means being into everything that makes you better at them. Eating right is part of that."

Lunging to snap at her feathers, but intentionally missing them, Spicy grinned at Rainbow. "Well, I'm still glad you learned. I can make sandwiches and stuff, but it's not the same as something really nice like—" He took another mouthful and let out a happy, soft screeching sound.

Used to the sound Spicy makes when he's happy beyond words (since his transformation began, at least), Rainbow just sat in companionable silence while they both ate.

"Oh," Spicy said, "where did Thunderbolt go? I wanted to give him a kiss and a snuggle for the fun times."

Rainbow smirked at the fact her food had so distracted Spicy he'd forgotten about Thunderbolt for a few minutes. "He said he needed somewhere quiet to study. I think he probably went to visit Tree."

"Every time I talk to him, he's leaping ahead mentally. Everything soaks into his head, and he does a lot of soaking. You saw he's gone to your old high school to get help learning?" Spicy reached out with a wing and curled it around Rainbow.

Getting the message, Rainbow leaned across and let Spicy pull her close for a snuggle. She shoveled the last two bites of her food into her mouth and stretched her wing out to put the bowl on the table. Turning her head, Rainbow nuzzled against Spicy's neck.

"How was school?" It was a little weird for Spicy to ask that, though her being in college made it less-so. When he paused and reexamined the situation, asking his girlfriend how her day at college was should have been the least weird thing on his mind.

"We're still doing orientation. It's driving me crazy. I want to start studying, but they're making me memorize the school's layout and stuff. I can do that in seconds, dammit!" Rainbow was about to go on into more of a tirade when Spicy's wing pulled her more firmly against him. She let out a little sigh and welcomed the interruption. "Did you get off today?"

"Since your starter? Only a analgasm that Thunderbolt gave me. Wh—?" He cut short his question as Rainbow shifted and squirmed, working her body so her mouth was at his lower belly. Still eating his dinner, Spicy let her do what she wanted.

What Rainbow wanted was to taste her boyfriend. She used a hoof to guide the hem of his kilt up so she could get under it, and found him still in his sheath. Not for long, Rainbow thought. Nuzzling and licking along his fuzzy balls and sheath, Rainbow coaxed his shaft to peek out.

Done with his stir-fry, Spicy reached his wing out to scoop up the plate with two mango cheeks on it. There wasn't much better for a bat pony (or someone turning into a bat pony) than to have his dick sucked while he ate mango.

Exploring his growing shaft, Rainbow closed her eyes to reduce her focus down to taste, smell, and touch. The flared head pushed into her mouth, a sweet-salt flavor dancing over her tongue that made her groan around him. When his hand stroked along the back of her head, she let out even more happy, hungry noises.

Pausing his enjoyment of the mango, Spicy looked down and stroked Rainbow's mane a few more times before finally working his fingers into the hair and against her scalp. He barely managed to bite back his own moan, and instead redirected his hungers toward the mango cheek in his other hand.

Opening her eyes at the sound of slurping, Rainbow looked past the hem of the kilt to see Spicy eating his fruit while his hand gripped at her head. He wasn't guiding her motions—not yet—but she liked that he felt in control. Closing her eyes once more, she started bobbing her head, letting her lips stroke up and down him while her tongue curled this way and that along his shaft.
> Chapter 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Though Rainbow had lost some size, her muzzle meant she had extra capacity in her mouth to take all of Spicy's shaft—when it finally hardened to full length—until her nose pressed against her groin.

That feeling had never gotten old to Spicy. A lover that could take all of him in their mouth wasn't common—most needed to be able to do the deep-throat thing—but it was more than just her capacity that had his lust rising fast.

Bringing a wing into play, Rainbow cupped Spicy's balls with two feathers and juggled them gently, ensuring further stimulation and getting him—somehow—even harder.

She'd been a complete beginner when she'd met Spicy, but through training both by him and by her own standards—she'd become good enough at blowjobs to have her lover trembling on the cusp of release in no time at all.

When Rainbow held still with her mouth, Spicy knew exactly what her next move would be. It came a moment later as she started to rub his balls a little more, brushing her feathers over them while he was at the precipice of orgasm.

It was almost a challenge to his dominance of her, and if she'd done this to Spicy during a scene, he would have punished her. Instead, edged and guided very slowly toward his peak, he was in pure bliss at how expertly she seemed to manage him. Then…

The moment Spicy's hand gripped tight in her mane and pinned her mouth down on his shaft, Rainbow knew he'd hit his peak. She went back to work with her tongue, driving extra stimulation through her efforts and making him grab tighter still.

Hunching forward, Spicy clutched Rainbow to him as tight as he could while she guzzled down everything—still stimulating him for more. Spreading his wings out, Spicy used one to grab Rainbow and hold her body close while the other flapped weakly in the air as he shot rope after rope of seed into her mouth.

Gulping down what she could, Rainbow knew better than to try to stop any mess from leaking out—she'd experience cum up her nose twice now, and didn't want a third event. So, when Spicy unloaded a little more than her capacity, she let it leak past her lips instead.

Panting hard, Spicy had been quiet throughout his climax, but now his mouth was open he let loose with little grunting chirp-sounds. Eventually he was capable of more than that and managed to ask, "Shit, Rainbow, and you're still not coming up for air?"

At his words, Rainbow drew herself back from his slowly deflating shaft and licked it clean as she went. When she got to the tip, she gave it a nuzzle and watched as it slowly withdrew into his sheath. "I can breathe through my nose, remember?"

"Doesn't that get in the way of—?" Rather than continue what seemed to be a moot point, Spicy used his wings to pull Rainbow up to a sitting position so he could kiss her.

Fluttering her eyes closed, Rainbow smiled against Spicy's lips as they kissed—and even betrayed herself with a few snorts.

When they finally parted, Spicy couldn't help his curiosity. "What had you laughing when we kissed?"

"Me. If you'd told me a few months back that I'd flutter my eyes closed for a kiss, I'd have probably punched you. Don't tell Rarity I do that." Rainbow nuzzled at Spicy's cheek. "How long on the plug?"

"The plug? Oh!" Spicy looked down his body at where his belly was still a little bloated. "I kinda forgot about it. It's been in about an hour now. He's really something."

"Don't have to tell me that. I'm like only two-thirds the size I used to be, and he still gets both his dicks inside. I feel like I'm going to explode, but it—it's amazing. Maybe there's something magical about it." Using a wing, Rainbow rubbed Spicy's belly. "You don't stretch as much as I do."

"And all my stretching is behind other organs, yeah." Spicy reached a hand along Rainbow's torso, sliding it down to her belly and rubbing there slowly. She was lean even for a pony and had muscles in places that told him she was still doing lots of exercise.

"Do you have any idea how much that turns me on?" Shuddering, Rainbow kept her head tilted up to look at Spicy while he explored her body with his hand. "You feel my muscles and I can see it does it for you."

"Well, yeah." Spicy used his free hand to bring the last of the mango up so he could bite it free of the cheek. Chewing thoughtfully, he brought his clean hand to her shoulder and felt the muscles there. "Most girls aren't like this."

"Most girl's aren't a pony, either." Rainbow rolled her shoulder for Spicy to feel the movement of the joint and its muscles. "And not all guys are into that."

"Their loss. You're toned, sleek, and not carrying an ounce of body fat." Spicy had to talk around his last mouthful of mango. "But you need to get off, don't you?"

"Yeah. It's cool if you don't want to help. You've got me all worked up now, so it shouldn't take me long." Nuzzling at Spicy's chest, Rainbow could feel her need more sharply now she'd been reminded of it. She started to climb off him, but had to fight against his possessiveness just a little—and that only served to rev her motor.

"What's it like?" The question had come out of nowhere. Spicy was standing up as he asked it, already in motion toward the kitchen.

"Having this thing in my head that I need to feed with sex?"

"No. Masturbating as a girl. I was talking to Thunderbolt earlier—pillow talk—and I said he was the only person I'd ever want to be a girl for, just so I could take both his dicks at once. So," Spicy asked, "what's it like?"

"Being so full of cock that you can feel your organs being pushed around by the size of it all, having parts of you squeezed between the two of them for all the time he's inside, and the swelling bits…"

As Rainbow spoke, Spicy closed his eyes and let his imagination run wild. Of course, in his imagination he still had a dick, and the second hole wasn't a vagina, but he still shuddered in place. When he opened his eyes again, it was to see a very cocky-looking Rainbow strutting up the hallway to their bedroom. "Wait up."

Raising an eyebrow at Spicy's request, Rainbow looked back at him as she stepped into the doorway. "You know I'm going to be plugging my pussy, right?"

"Yeah, I just— I like being in touch with you and your body. I know it's not something I'm super into, but I'm super into you. Let me watch and I'll let you blow me again." The smirk Spicy wore—and Rainbow's answering laugh—spoke of how adventurous each had gotten around the other.





Looking at the woman at her door, Sonata tilted her head to the side. "You were the soldier—Marble's sister." She tapped her chin as she worked through her memories. "Come inside, please. Can I get you a drink?"

Limestone relaxed a little. It wasn't that she expected to be attacked at the door, but a welcome is better than a refusal. "A drink would be good. Any coffee?"

Sonata paused. "I can make you a cup." Walking to her fridge, she pulled out a large bottle of cold-brew she'd made. "I take it you're here on business?"

"Yeah." Walking in, Limestone looked around the loft apartment. "I was talking to Aria."

Raising an eyebrow as she put her kettle on the stove, Sonata let out a sigh. "How'd that work out for you? Got any new fetishes you can't explain? Maybe a desire to worship her?"

"I had protection. She tried to use the usual bargaining chips first—she offered sex—but I wasn't born yesterday. She blindsided me with an attack that my protection repelled." Reaching into her coat pocket, Limestone drew out the new talisman that Raven had made for her. "My commander wanted me to bring the same kind of offensive defense here, but this was the most I'd take. Cards on the table and all that."

Twirling in place, Sonata spotted the talisman for what it was right away. "Sneaky. You have a good friend to make those for you." Reaching up, she put a finger on her own nose and wiggled it side to side.

"Yeah. A good friend." Picking the talisman, that looked like a scribble on a sheet of otherwise blank paper, Limestone stuffed it back into an inner pocket. "I've got a bunch of questions I'd like answers to, and I'd rather not have to go and see Aria again, or worse, Adagio." As she mentioned the last of the sirens, Limestone noticed Sonata tense up.

Closing her eyes, Sonata could remember the blank, adoring faces of the humans Adagio had mind-raped. "If you think whatever Aria tried was bad, I wouldn't talk to Adagio. She might just have a way around those totems you're talking about. If it keeps you from having to face them, I'll answer everything I can."

"I didn't mean that to be a threat."

"No. It's not just that. I want to help. I've lived a long life regretting everything Aria and Adagio do. Now I have a way to help stop them. So, ask." Sonata poured the boiling water in with the concentrated cold-bew and brought it up to temperature.

Limestone gave Sonata time to bring the coffee over and get settled. She sipped at her own mug and let out a surprised—and delighted—sound at the flavor. "This is nothing like we had in the mess halls. What is this?"

"A thousand years of nights is a long time, but I like to think that finding the best coffee in the world—and the best way to prepare coffee—is a side-benefit of it." Sipping at her own, Sonata let out a sigh as she felt the hot drink suffuse her body. "Ask your questions and I'll do my best to answer them."

"What do you know of creatures that can use mind-control?" It was the first and biggest that Limestone had. It was also so open-ended she could have driven an APC down it.

"Whew. There's a lot, so I might as well start with the one I have the most familiarity with—me." Wrapping both hands around her mug for comfort, Sonata started talking about her own powers and what she could do. When she got to the nature of her gem, she noticed Limestone seemed to focus even more on her. "I have my gem back. Aria and Adagio had theirs too."

"Aria didn't have hers when I saw her in prison."

Sonata winced in sympathy for Aria. "Then the magic she threw at you was desperation. Our gems not only work as a storage of emotional magic but also a focus. I wonder how pissed off she was when her last ditch effort was blocked like that."

"Took a few big guys to pin her down."

"I wonder why she didn't just use her magic on them?"

Limestone had to admit that the idea of using deaf guards was both a surprise and showed someone overseeing the black-site was a smart cookie. "Someone had their head on right. All the guards there were deaf."

"That's…" It struck Sonata that such a situation would stop a siren in her tracks completely. "Well, she'll still be strong, but that will work, yeah. I don't know if you got the details about it, but there was a student in CHS that was immune to our magic because she always wore headphones."

Pulling out a notebook, Limestone started writing down what Sonata was saying and what thoughts she herself had on it. Noise-canceling earbuds was circled and underlined. "Do most of the nasties from Equestria need to make you hear something to control you?"

Tapping her chin and twisting her mouth to one side, Sonata tried to think back on her competitors. "There's some that would, but a lot that wouldn't. You have changelings, for example. A single changeling can't do squat, but a queen or even a whole bunch could put the whammy on a pony. Their magic would make the pony suggestible, but then they'd have to give commands. Some unicorns could do wild stuff with their magic—stuff that didn't require speaking."
> Chapter 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Her hand working overtime, Limestone's lips squeezed into a hard line as Sonata described more and more threats in Equestria. "This is all useful, but I think a better way to deal with this would be for you to write a book on all these. My boss hasn't told me to ask this, but you'd probably sell thousands of copies just to law enforcement—particularly if you put in notes on how to neutralize them."

While Sonata wasn't a genius like Twilight was, she had been around long enough to pick up what Limestone was putting down. What appealed to her, though, was that she'd be able to do that while working for Spicy. "Given how fast things here are progressing, I take it you'll want any drafts as I come up with them. Okay, I'll try that, but you have more questions for me?"

Limestone worked through her list. Unlike with Aria, she didn't have to deal with a hostile interview, so she let Sonata talk as much as she wanted and kept pulling her back to the questions when she got really off-topic. "Finally I have one last question for you."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sonata slumped back a little more firmly into the couch's embrace. "What is it?"

"Would you be willing to be called on again in future? You have so much intimate knowledge of all this. I don't think I could ask all the right questions if we had a month to just talk—let alone one night." Looking at her notebook, Limestone shook her head at the amount of things Sonata had gone over. Not just things that can control minds, but some of the more serious dangers too.

Sonata wasn't overly keen on the open-ended nature of the request, but she figured some riders might help. "I mean, I kinda like my job here, but if you need me for something that's life or death, I can come running."

"I hate to make it sound like your citizenship hangs on this, but I'll make sure to put in a good word for you with the General." Looking down at her hands, Limestone carefully folded up her notebook and slipped it into her jacket pocket. "And now I sound like an ass."

"How long have you been doing this?" Sonata asked.

"Been in the army for seven years, been at this new job since the night you helped shut your sisters up."

"I meant talking to people who were questionably a monster, or a friend, or just neutral—and trying not to threaten, cajole, or freak them out." Lifting her hand up, Sonata moved with more speed than Limestone could track and booped the soldier on the nose.

Freezing at how fast Sonata had moved, Limestone realized what'd happened and tried to calm herself. "You remind me of my little sister."

Mentally crunching the facts she knew, Sonata realized who Limestone meant. "I don't think I could ever live up to Pinkie's energy, but I have tried to model my morals after her and her friends.

It was a fight not to smile, but Limestone was good at not smiling. "You could do a lot worse than them if you want a moral code." Standing up, she turned for the door. "After all, you could have used me."

"Pfft. You're not so bad. You didn't get in too big a huff when I booped you, and I haven't been arrested." Sonata shrugged. "Don't try to lie, you just hide your niceness better."

"Don't tell anyone that, ever." Limestone, with her back to Sonata, actually allowed herself a moment to smile. "I'll catch you around, Sonata Dusk—Oh, take my card." Turning, Limestone held out one of the cards Raven had given her.

Taking the card, Sonata quirked an eyebrow at it just having a number on it. "Want me to call and leave my details?"

Facepalming and folding her ears back at the mistake, Limestone reached into her pocket, pulled out her notebook, and took down the details Sonata gave her. "Kinda new to this. In the army, you can always get in contact with anyone you need to."

"You'll get used to it." Sonata picked up the dishes and started carrying them over to the kitchen to wash. "Hey, you ever want to go out and have some drinks?"

Limestone froze. She'd talked to Pinkie about Sonata and the others. "I—uh—I'm straight."

Sonata snorted. "I get enough tail. I meant someone to have drinks with. It's a little tough being friends with a bunch of people who can't drink."

"Yeah, I hear that. I'll give you a call next night I'm not stuck transcribing notes." Patting at her jacket, above where her notebook was, Limestone let herself out. "Thanks, Sonata."

"Hey, you're just making the world safe for all of us. Goodbye, Limestone."





"Well, that couldn't have gone any better if you'd tried. A slew of information, a promise of assistance, and if she delivers on that guide we'll have what's essentially a field manual." Raven Inkwell's hands kept racing on her keyboard. All through the debrief she'd been typing, and now she had a lot more to type.

"It was hard to get a read on her at first. She seems to hide behind a veil of airheadedness, but when she starts talking about things that happened over a century ago—" Limestone shook her head. "She comes off as just a normal person with ten times the age. I don't know why, though, but I think I made a friend."

"I won't order you to cultivate that—you're not cut out for spy work. What you do with your time outside work, with members of the public, is your own business. Just don't let it get in the way of my business." When one of Raven's hands was disabled by her familiar laying on it, she exerted a little willpower and made a phantom limb to keep typing for her.

"Thanks. She actually sounded lonely for a friend. I guess I'm a bit the same way." It cost Limestone to admit that, but she wanted to be square with the general and not be accused of something later on because she wasn't completely honest.

"Dismissed, Sergeant." When Limestone left her office, Raven looked down at the intact and unmolested totem of detection on her desk. "And for what it's worth, I want to believe that we have another ally in all this."





The rest of orientation week passed in a rush. Sunset couldn't get over how exciting it was to finally attend college for real. She rushed to her first lecture on Monday morning, waiting at the door at half-past-seven in the morning.

Not caring that she was half an hour early, she pulled out her textbook and started reading over the first chapter—again.

With a bottle of juice in one hand and her lecture notes in the other, Chris Alias walked right past Sunset and pushed the door open to the lecture hall—shoving it until it locked open. She was wearing a smart-looking white suit, complete with trousers, and had her cerulean hair swept back and trailing halfway down her rump. "You can come in if you'd like. I won't bite until second semester."

Sunset jumped a little, then walked into the lecture hall as if in a dream. She could swear the sound of some coming-of-age anime intro was playing in her head. "Sorry. Still a bit excited about all—all of this!"

Genuinely smiling at the raw enthusiasm, Chris nodded toward Sunset's textbook. "You actually unwrapped it before your first class?"

Blinking in shock at being pulled back to reality, Sunset looked down at her textbook (that already had little sticky-note tags of interesting sections she'd marked. "Some of the students in Intro Psych won't want to be here. They'll be getting a shove from their parents or course-advisors. Why don't we make a wager?"

It felt like a game before the terms had even been explained. Sunset raised an eyebrow. "What kind of wager?"

"If over half the class unwrap their textbook from its wrapping at the start of my lecture, I'll want a paper from you explaining what reasoning is behind their choices." It was a stupid bet, Chris knew, since normally three-quarters of her freshman year students did it.

Sunset could feel the game already forming. She'd gladly write the paper, but she'd rather find out what the boon of the game was. "And if it's under half?"

"Then you can get into my psych study group. It's mostly sophomores and up, but I feel comfortable that you'll hit the track running." Lifting her bottle of Bug Juice, Chris took a sip of the sugary drink.

Thinking for a few seconds, Sunset's face lit up. She grinned at Chris with devious intent and nodded. "That sounds like a deal. When's the study group meet?"

Chris wasn't a fool and nor was she blind. She'd spotted the wings and tail Sunset sported and knew her to be one of the girls from the concert. "I'll tell you in… fourteen minutes—and twelve months."

Sunset tilted her head, a plan already forming in her head. "Sooner than that. Excuse me." She walked out the door of the lecture hall and pulled out some paper to make a sign. Pinkie Pie, she knew, was right about one thing—Sunset had grown quite the chest. Now it was time to put it to work.



1 textbook wrapper = 1 hug



She tacked the sign on the wall beside her with some tacky paste, and slipped her jacket off. The last part of her plan involved pulling the hem of her shirt up a bit and tying it under her bust so it tightened and showed off her assets. "Come on, girls, time to work."

Chris waited at the desk to one side of the stage, watching as students filed into the hall. When eight o'clock rolled around, she watched as Sunset entered the room wearing the biggest grin Chris had ever seen on a first year.

Clearing her throat, Chris waited for Sunset to take a seat before beginning. "Welcome to Introductory Psychology. I'm Chris Alias, your lecturer for this class, and we'll be meeting here at this hour of the morning every Monday and Wednesday until you pass or pass-out. Please, everyone open your textbooks to the first chapter."

There was some plastic crinkling, but Chris was stunned to see only a handful of the girls of the class and two of the guys who looked extremely embarrassed as they made noise. Her eyes riveted to Sunset as her thoughts raced.

It made the lecture go by at a murderous drag—for Chris. She hated not knowing what Sunset had done, but it wasn't until the two-hour session was over that she was finally free to approach her. "What did you do?"

"I get to join your study group no matter what, right?" Sunset asked as the other students seemed only too happy to leave the lecture theater as soon as possible.

Reaching her fingers up to pinch the bridge of her nose, Chris felt like grinding her teeth (though she had managed to kick that habit). "Yes."

"Turn around and count to ten." Sunset waited for Chris to stop glaring at her and actually turn before pulling the hem of her shirt up and tying it under her chest, then she got out the sign she'd made and sat it on the table.

When Chris first turned around, she was confused. All Sunset had done, that she initially noticed, was she'd drawn attention to her belly and chest by tying up her shirt—then she saw the sign. "I should have stipulated a two-thirds majority, shouldn't I?"

"All but two of the guys went for it, plus four of the girls. A few good hugs were well worth it." Sunset released the knot on her shirt and let it fall back to her waist. "So when's the study group?"
> Chapter 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Utterly brilliant."

"Mind like a steel cage."

"Sharp enough she'd cut herself."

The three department heads all smirked and then broke into laughter.

"Sunset made a bargain with me to get into my second-year focused study group. Some might say she cheated, but I have to give credit where it's due." Chris leaned back on the lounge chair and picked up the bottle of water she'd been drinking from. "So I gave her the day and time. Let's see how sharp she really is."

"For a joke I asked Rainbow to memorize the log tables in the back of the book. She did. All of them." Hackney shook her head. "I still don't know how she did it, but she flicked through the pages in a few seconds and told me she'd done it."

Sitting up, Chris looked at her. "Did you test her?"

"Of course I did. She knew every single one as if she was looking it up in the table. Hell, she was faster than if I'd looked it up." Adjusting her glasses, Hackney looked over to Falcon. "What about you? Brilliant you say?"

Already slumped back on her own couch, Falcon Inkwell let out a sigh of defeat. "Twilight should have been pushed ahead to college years ago. She is building rules for a completely different style of magic as fast as she can. In four more years I might be out of a job unless I can keep up with her. Hurricane wants her teaching a class on this new type of magic."

All three paused and then started laughing again.

"What about the rest of them?" Chris asked.

"There's more?!" Sitting up straight, Falcon's eyes were wide. "More of these—these savants?"

Reaching for her folder, Chris pulled out a small notebook. "Rarity, studying bachelor of arts in fashion; Fluttershy, studying veterinary science; Pinkamena Diane Pie, another in arts—culinary—but also is taking business; Applejack, more science and business. Oh, I didn't notice Sunset is also studying visual arts."

"That just means you get more time with them, not less." Hackney sighed. "Maybe I could talk Rainbow into postgrad studies?"

"She hasn't even graduated yet," Chris said. "Aren't you getting ahead of yourself?"

"Engineering has two main components, math and creativity. Having her so capable with math means she has plenty of time to explore her creativity. I don't doubt she'll graduate."

"We're getting ahead of ourselves, I think. We need to remember that we're not just teaching one or two students." Trying to be the voice of reason, Falcon struggled to curb her own enthusiasm.

"You're only saying that because Rainbow took a physics class as an elective." Hackney was not above sticking her tongue out at Falcon.

They were all quiet for a moment before laughing together.





Spicy Hot scooped up another spoon of his fruit salad and looked across the table at Rainbow Dash. "How was your first week?" He hadn't mentioned school since she got home, but figured now was a good enough time to bring it up.

"I think my memory trick freaked out my prof. She growled at me and told me to memorize the log tables if I was so smart." Rainbow's dinner was only partly the fruit salad Spicy had made—she also had an omelet on the side for a kick of protein. "So I did. She got upset at me saying that I was done in a few seconds that she grabbed my book and started quizzing me on the table."

"You got it all correct, right?"

"Well, yeah. Whatever the thing did in my head, it makes me able to remember every little detail of everything I see or hear." Finished with the omelet, Rainbow gulped down some water and started on her own fruit.

Biting his lip, Spicy paused before his next piece of mango. "Only what you see and hear? What about smell and taste and feel?"

"Mmm," Rainbow said, finishing her mouthful. "I get where you're coming from, and yes. Ever since it took up residence in my head, I've remembered every second of our times together." Having gotten better at saucy-looks, Rainbow shot one at Spicy.

"If I didn't know any better I'd think you're recalling some right now." Spicy waggled his eyebrows at Rainbow suggestively. "But before we get up to any fun, you have to take care of your homework."

"Pfft, did that already. It was mostly just copying my notes—I don't get why I have to even take them, but still—and reading the next chapter of the book." Using her wings to hold her knife and fork, Rainbow cut off some of the omelet and scooped it up. "Like that'll take more than ten seconds."

"You want to see something sexy?" Spicy asked. When all he got in reply was Rainbow rolling her eyes, he reached to the document case beside him and lifted out the contract he'd arranged with the bank's investment team. "They think I have what it takes to expand."

Taking a slow breath and setting her cutlery down, Rainbow slowed time to a crawl and pounced over the table at Spicy.

Able to counter strength with martial arts, Spicy was in no way prepared for the kind of movement and reaction speed Rainbow was capable of. Before he realized what'd happened his chair was laying back on the floor and he had a pony standing over him, her mouth lowered to his own.

Wrapping his arms and wings around Rainbow, Spicy accepted and embraced the kiss she'd delivered. Thoughts of business, however, were hard to banish when his business revolved around pleasure. "I'll be pushing to expand the online sales especially. The market analysis showed that I am catching about twenty-percent of Canterlot's interest right now—by suburb—and with a little shove I could easily double that, but I need a central location that can house all the products."

"You should totally talk to Twilight about that. She's really into the shipping role you gave her." Grinding her body down against Spicy's, Rainbow flexed her muscles against him and felt her libido surge at the hungry little groan he made.

The firm feeling of Rainbow's belly and chest pressed against his own was making Spicy rock hard. "Actually, I wanted your help too. You're handy at building things."

"Yeah. We'll see. The classes are all pretty intense, but it's like—like most of the work is memorizing stuff." Rainbow shrugged her shoulder and leaned down to nuzzle Spicy's neck.

"Well, do you have time for something else, then?" Returning the nuzzling and adding some nips for good measure, Spicy could feel Rainbow's back legs tighten around his sides. "That's a yes. Alright, my little colt, let me see if I can make you neigh."

Flapping her wings to get into the air, Rainbow turned and glided over the table—only to be caught in Spicy's wings before she even got to her own side. "Wait, what—?"

Unbuckling his pants and lowering them, Spicy swapped from just holding Rainbow with his wings to getting a grip on her with a hand too. "Back that up here."

"Spicy, on the table? I almost landed in my—yipe!" Rainbow's hooves scrabbled on the table as Spicy pulled her back toward him. "Spic—" A shudder ran through Rainbow as Spicy pushed himself into her. Protest as she might, she knew he was doing this particular bit just for her.

It wasn't exactly how he preferred, but Spicy wanted to surprise Rainbow and going into her rear without any lube wasn't a nice surprise. What he'd found, however, was her slit dripping wet already. Her vulva and insides were nothing like a human woman's. For one, her vagina was like a steel vice around him. "No complaining now. I'll fuck you wherever I want. I can't say I ever expected to be dating a college girl, but it has its perks."

The breath was being shoved out of Rainbow each time Spicy thrust into her. She rolled her muscles in time with his thrusting, not too tight, but making sure to massage him as he claimed her. He was bigger now—or rather she was smaller—and the extra tightness and the shape of his equine member inside her hit so many buttons she let her eyes drift closed and started panting.

There was no way Rainbow could get any traction on the table with her hooves, but thankfully Spicy had a good grip on her hips and shoulders, with his hands and wings respectively. Sex wasn't just great fun for Rainbow, however, it also fed a part of her that always hungered.

It always tickled Spicy just right with how into rough sex Rainbow was. She might complain bitterly, but she never uttered her safe word, and by the time things were done she was always grinning. "Maybe we could—could go for a run after this?"

Shaken from her focus on being reamed, Rainbow snorted. "Or we—we could—go to our room—and you fuck my—my ass!"

The idea of more sex to follow excited Spicy enough that he sped up, pounding Rainbow's vulva hard enough that his groin thudded against her rump with each thrust. What he'd noticed, with the few times he'd tried vaginal sex with Rainbow in the past, was she always finished first. This time wasn't an exception.

Rainbow's muscles clamped around Spicy, making him work to push back into her. The effort of shoving down her passage again, however, earned him a howl of orgasm from Rainbow's throat and the excitement drove him closer to his own end.

Thinking that she had a good grip on his cock, Rainbow was shocked when Spicy managed to pull back again and ram back into her. It was like a cross between an earthquake and a lightning strike in one motion, and it had her wanting more.

So close now he could feel his body preparing to unload, Spicy let out a long, low screech as he thrust three times in rapid succession. The friction and pressure of the fast motion were enough to get him to his end. He pulled harder on Rainbow and held his groin tight against her rump as a shock of electric pleasure jolted up from his balls, through his prostate, and then down his shaft and into Rainbow.

The focused attention coming on the heels of her own orgasm pushed Rainbow into a second. She squealed out to match Spicy's voice as his heat poured into her body. When he'd still been fully human, he'd often let out a rush but it was nothing compared to how much seed he sprayed now. By the time the last shot of batpony cum hit her insides, she felt a little bloated.

Grunting a little still, Spicy felt more excitement stir inside him. "What did you—say about going—to the bedroom?"

Arching her back and stretching out her wings to each side, Rainbow looked backwards over her spine at Spicy—displaying flexibility she didn't have when she was still just human. "You know how I am when I'm horny—I'll say anything."

"So a run, then?" Spicy asked, straightening up and using one hand to rub the base of her spine, roughing up her croup.

"A run would be good after that. I need to get rid of a load of bat cum first, though." Rippling the muscles down and then up her vagina, Rainbow watched Spicy's face melt into a dull-eyed, shuddering grin. "Gotcha."

Spicy didn't climax, but the grip she held on his shaft was enough to rock his switch between dominant and submissive several times in a way that didn't leave him feeling distressed or out of sorts. Stroking her rump a little more, he slowly pulled himself free of her velvet vice and let out a relieved sigh. "How are you so tight?"

"Well"—Rainbow got up on shaky legs and slowly turned to look at Spicy—"I have a boyfriend who prefers anal sex."

"Ha. Well, you also have a boyfriend with a pair of cocks rounder than my arm who sinks both your holes on a regular basis." Reaching out and wrapping his arms around Rainbow, Spicy picked her up cross-ways and walked toward the bathroom. That he lacked pants didn't bother him in the least.
> Chapter 15
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nuzzling and rubbing her cheeks against Spicy's upper arm, Rainbow was thankful for the lift to the bathroom. She sat down on the toilet while Spicy went to the sink to clean up. "Why did you change your mind about my vulva?"

"Because I realized two things, Rainbow." Employing a washcloth and some warm water, Spicy bit his lower lip as he cleaned himself. "The first is I'm so sick of my hang ups about girls applying to you. You're special and different and amazing. The second is that what you have back there is nothing like what human girls have. I mean, there's a little softness around the outside, but you're like a vice. You're like all the tight muscles of a butt."

"Glad to know my kegel exercises are paying off." A shiver ran through Rainbow as Spicy's seed started to leave her. "Fuck, you really pump it out now, ya know?" The parasite-modified parts of Rainbow's brain were sparking and fizzing, giving her extended, happy feelings of reward as she unloaded.

"There's not much I can do about that. Maybe if I pulled out and painted you with it—but that would have made a mess of the kitchen." Trying not to get too carried away cleaning himself, Spicy got the last of his own mess from his shaft and fur and turned around to see Rainbow looking like she was in the middle of an orgasm. "Uh, you okay?"

"I may have a thing for this." Rainbow twitched and shivered as more and more of Spicy's cum leaked free. "And you were right, it's easier—and more fun—to clean ourselves up than the kitchen."

Crouching down in front of the toilet, Spicy held out his hand and let Rainbow watch as he pressed it down against her lower belly. A gentle push there let Spicy feel the slight bulge she still had, and from Rainbow's moan he guessed she felt it too. "Sometimes I envy Thunderbolt and those plugs. Maybe we'll have to double-team you one night, and I'll let him fuck me but finish the last of his load in you after I've fucked you. That way he can seal my jizz up in there."

Shivering at the mental image and Spicy's touch, Rainbow leaned forward until her forehead rested against Spicy's. "Fuck you. Now I'm horny all over again."

"Well duh. You're always horny." Spicy pressed against the lump he felt and heard more of his seed drip from her. "Same as me."

Bearing down with her abdominal muscles, Rainbow got rid of more. "I'd make a joke like you don't need to be horny to live, but I sometimes wonder about that."

Tilting his head just a little, Spicy brought his muzzle up and against Rainbow's lips. The kiss, when he finally committed to it, included him rubbing his short fangs along her lips. The power-play had both moaning and embracing tighter, Spicy eventually picking Rainbow up from the commode. "I can't wait longer, you succubus. Let's clean you up and put you back in the ring."

Squirming and trying to get free, Rainbow definitely didn't voice any desire to stop being manhandled by Spicy. He used paper to wipe her clean, he flushed the toilet, and he carried her over to the sink to wash her hooves. All the while Rainbow kept up struggling just enough to make it feel like she was fighting him—but not enough to actually get free.

"Anyone would think you don't want me to toss you on the bed and fuck you until you can't think straight." Finally drying off Rainbow's hooves and his own hands too, Spicy picked her back up again and held her—on her back—tight against his chest.

"Let me check to see if there's room in my schedule for a good fucking. Hrmm…" Rainbow tapped at her chin with her forehoof, making a show of thinking about it. "Oh, wow, look at this. I have a whole block of time here already dedicated to masturbating myself raw. I can swap that to a good dicking and I think we're all good."

As soon as Spicy stepped foot in the bedroom, he heard the doorbell ring. "If I put you down, I know I'll come back to find you rubbing one out. If I have to answer the door wearing just a kilt, you have to answer it nude."

Squealing in mock panic, Rainbow kept up squirming all the way back down the hallway and to the front door. When Spicy opened the door, Rainbow had to squirm to see who it was. "Oh, hey Fluttershy."

Fluttershy's eyes drifted down below Rainbow just once before she quickly jerked them back up. "Hello, penis!" As soon as she said it, she started blushing. "I-I-I mean Rainbow. Rainbow and Spicy. Hello."

"Wait!" Rainbow squirmed more to face her friend, speaking up when Fluttershy looked like she was about to run. "What's up?"

"Is it urgent?" Spicy asked.

"N-No."

"Then come inside and we'll chat." Stepping back from the door, Spicy left Fluttershy without an option—hospitality wise—than to follow. He continued as he set Rainbow down on her belly on the couch, "You two wait here, I'll go make a cup of tea."

That surprised Fluttershy. She knew Rainbow would have some tea for relaxing, but she didn't expect Spicy to. "I'm not imposing, am I?"

Immensely grateful Spicy had seen fit to help her clean up, Rainbow fluffed out her wings a little to get comfortable, and when Fluttershy sat down on the couch, she walked over and lay on top of her friend's lap. "You? You're never imposing." It was a trap Rainbow had learned from Rarity's cat, and when Fluttershy's hand found her neck, she knew she'd won. "So, what's up?"

"Bridget… she planted herself. I think it's normal for timberwolves, but…" Fluttershy barely even registered she was petting Rainbow's mane. "I'm just a little lonely."

It was hard to ignore how good Fluttershy was at petting, and Rainbow found herself stretching out a bit and letting her wings flop out to each side. "What about everyone at the house?"

"They—" Fluttershy realized what she was doing. Looking down at Rainbow, she had a this is fine feeling—after all, she always petted her woodland friends. "They just aren't the same, I guess. Too many and too noisy."

"And just the two of us is less stress?" Rainbow asked, despite knowing the answer was both in the affirmative and also awkward for Fluttershy to admit.

"W-Well, I mean—How did you get your mane so soft?" Fluttershy didn't deliberately change the topic, or so she told herself. She ran her hand through Rainbow's mane a few more times to ensure her first summation was correct.

Turning her head and looking up at Fluttershy, Rainbow smiled at her friend. "We've known each other how long now? You think I can't tell when you don't want to talk about something?" She watched the realization, surprise, and then a little shame color her friend's face. "It's okay, Fluttershy. Let's think of something to do that doesn't need you to talk."

Spicy was carrying three cups of tea (and had his boxer shorts back on) as he walked into the living room. "Something that doesn't need thinking? I mean, I could tie you up if you like?" It was a joke, just a gag, but when Fluttershy turned to look at him with the most intense longing he'd ever seen, he realized she'd taken him literally.

Her petting stopped, Fluttershy tried to ignore the rapid pounding in her chest and a rush of heat to her lower belly. "Y-You'd do that for me?"

"Hold up, Fluttershy." Rainbow pulled herself into a less boneless feline pose and stood up to turn so she could look at Spicy. "Was that a joke or were you being serious?"

Setting the tea down, Spicy sipped his own cup before answering. "I had thought it a joke, but that kind of reaction wasn't something I'd anticipated." He held up a hand toward Fluttershy. "But it's my own fault for saying it, so I'll stand by the offer."

It wasn't easy for Spicy to do, but the look she'd given him was too much for him to bear. Staring into his cup, he sipped more from his tea before he felt a hoof bump his leg.

Rainbow looked up at Spicy with unadulterated awe. "You're really cool with this?"

Clenching her hands together in her lap, Fluttershy closed her eyes. "If you don't want to go through with it, I'll understand." It was the hardest thing to say, but she felt better for putting it out there.

"Rainbow, do you still have that rope we were playing with last week? The soft one I used to make a bridle for you?" Spicy asked.

"Sure do. Let me get it!" Before Spicy could get out another word, Rainbow was off at a run down the hall and to their spare room, grabbed the small case with the ropes they'd been testing, and was trotting back to the living room with it held under her wing. "Got them!"

"Normally I work with cuffs, leathers, and rubber restraints, but I've been researching rope bondage lately, and if you'd consent to it, I'd like to practice on you." Spicy took the case from Rainbow and sat it up on the couch beside him so Fluttershy could see. Opening it up, he started to lift out coils of soft hemp rope. "I hope you don't mind, but I won't be able to do more than tie you up."

"That'sokay!"

"Fluttershy, relax," Rainbow said as she picked up her tea and took a sip. "Now we have to get past negotiation, right?" She looked back at Spicy and got a nod. "Right. So what do you want, what are you okay with, and what is a no-go?"

"Okay, slow down. This isn't going to be more than tying you up, but I might be able to do something extra if you really want it." Trying to feel around the situation himself, Spicy was reminded of the first time he'd played with Rainbow. This got him looking—really looking—at Fluttershy. She was far more feminine than Rainbow. Fluttershy had breasts that would be large handfuls for him, and she had that kind of tall and thin figure that would be setting a straight guy's blood pumping.

"I-I—" Fluttershy had to close her eyes and imagine she was the only person in the room. Forget picturing people in their underwear, that was far too stressful, she just pretended they weren't there and she was talking to herself. "I want to be tied up and helpless. F-Forced to watch—watch you have sex."

"I wasn't expecting that." Turning to look at Rainbow, Spicy raised an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

"I mean, she's watched me have sex before. Filmed it, too. I'm cool with that." When she saw the look of surprise on Spicy's face, Rainbow grinned a little wider. "Thunderbolt and me. No need to get jealous."

"Huh. Well, if you want to make a film again, you can, but not tonight." Spicy tested the rope by wrapping it around his wrist and tugging one end so it glided over his fuzzy flesh. It didn't burn or leave a mark. "Tonight I'm going to have you on your knees while I tie you up and leave you beside our bed."

Fluttershy remembered a time when Pinkie had told her a made-up word. At the moment it'd been shared, she'd written it off as just another Pinkie Thing, but right now she was the very picture of nervouscited. She was almost trembling. "J-Just no—no sex with me, please."

Reaching out a hand, Spicy carefully took Fluttershy's in his own and brought it to his snout for a gentle, fuzzy kiss. "I wouldn't dream of it. You will remain pure, though if you want a vibrator, you can set that up yourself before I start."

Standing up and stretching her wings, Rainbow stood up on her back legs and tested her balance. She was still able to walk just fine upright, but she felt less stable when taking off from a standing position. "Come on. If you've both got it sorted, we can start, right?"

"One last thing." Looking at Fluttershy, Spicy tried to maintain his focus on her body so he could plan the knots to use. "When you shout no at me, I'm going to stop and come and untie you, do you understand?"

"B-But, don't people normally use a s-safe word?"

"Not tonight. Like I said, I'm just tying you up. No dominance, just bondage." Standing, Spicy used his grip on Fluttershy's hand to guide her to her hooves. "If you're still okay with this, let's go have some fun."

"F-Fun?"

Rainbow grabbed the case and started to saunter down the hallway—walking upright—with it under her foreleg. "Fun, Fluttershy. Come on and let's have fun."
> Chapter 16
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a way Fluttershy was reminded of when she filmed Rainbow and Thunderbolt. There was a sense that she was with two people who knew each other very well, while she was an outsider—an observer. This, of course, made her walk with her thighs pressed together in case she was going to leave a mess.

Jumping up on the bed, Rainbow set the case down beside her and opened it up again. If it were anyone else, she would have had to at least spend some time thinking about it, but Fluttershy was too good a friend, and besides, seeing her horny, excited, and happy was just about the best feeling ever.

Spotting Rainbow so eager already, Spicy turned his attention to Fluttershy. "Undress when you're ready." With that said, he pulled his shirt off over his head and slid the boxer shorts down. He was happy to see Fluttershy distracted as she started taking her clothes off. "You need any help?"

"N-No. It's just a skirt, shirt, bra, and—" As she spoke, Fluttershy pulled her shirt over her head and self-consciously lowered her skirt to reveal the wet mess her panties were. "Oh my goodness…"

"Toss them in the laundry basket and we'll wash them for you. You can grab a pair of briefs later if you want—Rainbow doesn't need the normal size ones anymore." Spicy was both intrigued and not interested in Fluttershy's breasts. His only experiences with naked girls had involved Rainbow and a few times in high school. Now, however, he had to deal with them because he had to tie them up. "What size cup are you?"

Biting her lip, Fluttershy closed her eyes and pretended Spicy wasn't there. "D cup."

Running the numbers he'd remembered from the info he'd gotten, Spicy started tying some knots in the rope to get him started. "Relax. Close your eyes and think of the best time you've ever had in your life."

Being told to relax did the opposite, but when Spicy started to guide her thoughts she actually started to. She remembered when she'd first found Bridget. A smile creased her lips as she felt the first touch of rope to her skin.

Fluttershy had thought it would be itchy or harsh, but the soft, woven cord was actually nice. She listened to Spicy's words as he guided her to think of how the first warm breeze of spring felt on her skin, the feel of her hair in the wind as it carried it around, and even other simple experiences. Of course, while she was focused on those things she could also feel the ropes get tighter around her chest, two loops squeezed at her breasts, and even the tension spreading down to her belly.

When a pair of soft touches hooked in on each side of her panties, she was too calm to panic. She knew there was only Spicy and Rainbow in the room, and it felt nice to have Rainbow (who seen her naked even before their transformations) carefully undressing her. For a moment she tried to remember where her bra had gone.

The soft sounds of garments tossed into a laundry basket made Fluttershy's pony ears twitch and turn. She giggled when Spicy criss-crossed her waist with rope. The touch left her torso now and the loose ends of rope at her shoulders were gathered up. He moved her arms, positioned them comfortably behind her back before she felt loops of rope around them. Tighter and tighter, she was about to say something when she heard him ask something. "S-Sorry?"

"I asked if that was too tight? Try to move your arms. Is it tingly, burning, numb? Or cold?" Spicy was slightly amused at how relaxed Fluttershy had become. He had to admit, she was an excellent model to work on.

"It—It's fine. I don't feel any of those." Fluttershy, her eyes still closed, tried to roll her shoulders and pull her arms out. They didn't budge at all. She couldn't move them an inch. "I can't move my arms."

Spicy ran his fingers through Fluttershy's mane of hair. He was surprised when she bumped her head up into the contact, but ran with it. "Do you want me to restrain your wings?"

In all the relaxation and cozy seduction, Fluttershy had forgotten about her wings. Carefully, she gave each a little twitch and a gentle flap. "I think I prefer them loose." When Spicy's free hand stroked down one of her wings while the other kept petting her, Fluttershy let out a little whimper. It was a nice whimper, a happy and unfettered whimper. It made her smile and give the wing another little flap. When his hand stopped moving on her head, she butted against it again.

"You're like a big—" Spicy bit his lip and decided to take things a different way. "You like being pet, don't you, little kitty?"

Fluttershy almost opened her eyes. Her mouth dropped open a little before she closed it into a big smile and leaned forward, pressing her head—and her whole balance—against Spicy's hand.

It calmed Spicy. He hadn't realized there was so much tension until Fluttershy just started acting completely like a cat in a woman's body. He'd had some fun with pet play before, but it had mostly been treating Rainbow as an actual pony, plus there was no sex involved here. She was just a big kitty. "There we go. Want me to pet the other wing too?"

Thrusting the other wing forward, Fluttershy felt like she was floating now. She hadn't really thought about being a pet for someone, but Spicy was pushing only the right buttons—she was giddy at how good it felt.

But it had to end. His hands gently moved away from her wing and he gave one last ear-rub before slowly drawing that hand away too. More rope, more tightness. He spoke to her in soft tones, helped her relax even further and then guided her to kneel on the floor—sitting on her own ankles.

"Legs apart a bit. Do you want something in there? Don't answer, just nod." Spicy used his hands to nudge at Fluttershy's thighs until she was better balanced. When she nodded, he looked up at Rainbow and winked.

When Spicy's hands rotated over the top of her thighs, Fluttershy felt that as a sign she was spread enough for him. Her breath had sped up at that close-to-her-groin touch, but she focused on her calm and managed to keep from a panic attack.

But then the rope started around her legs, and to her surprise that completely relaxed Fluttershy. First Spicy put a loop around each knee and drew it tight. It locked her legs in place—bent—and was a firm reminder that she wouldn't be able to move much during this bit of fun.

He then brought rope down over her hips and looped it around her ankles. This forced her knees to bend a little more and made her ankles to her knees connect with her knee to her butt. She shivered as he repeated the ankle-tying on the other side. Testing the tension, she found herself completely unable to straighten her legs even a little. The oddest part of it all was how the rope wasn't digging into her. Wide, multi-wound lengths were more like being tied up with wide strips of cloth than rope.

"Are you okay now?" Spicy asked, bringing his hand up to pet Fluttershy's head again.

That touch was all Fluttershy needed to melt in bliss and lean against Spicy's touch. She nodded gently against the petting.

"And you still want to have something inside you for this?" Spicy got another nod against his hand. He looked up at Rainbow and smiled at her. "Rainbow's going to do it for you. Is that okay?" Another nod. "I'll keep petting you, don't worry, kitten."

Rainbow looked at her friend. She'd never seen Fluttershy into this kind of thing before, but she kinda liked the idea of seeing Spicy use some of this on her, too. That's when she realized that she was going to have to get up close and personal with Fluttershy's vulva. The vibe she'd grabbed from the "to test" basket in the other room was just a normal toy. She turned it on and felt the gentle, slow buzzing through her fingers.

The sound of a vibrator was distinct to Fluttershy. She snapped her eyes open, but all she could see in front of her was Spicy. She relaxed and closed her eyes again.

"It's okay, kitten. Just tell us if you want anything changed or different." As he spoke, Spicy watched Rainbow gather a pillow from the bed, strip the cover off it and bring it over. "Relax. Things are about to get tingly." Spicy brought up another hand and started rubbing Fluttershy's cheek.

The first touch of the buzzing toy made Fluttershy gasp, not because it was particularly powerful, but just because it was the first touch of the night. She quickly calmed back down from the petting, and when the toy stroked along her slit again she instead let out a soft sigh. The toy was slow, gentle, and not at all the harsh vibrations she'd expected.

Her chest was nonetheless heaving as Rainbow straightened the toy and started to push it into her. Her arousal was more than enough for it, or Rainbow had coated it with something, because the toy practically glided through her vagina with no friction. The gentle trembling of it was worked deeper into her until she felt Rainbow's feathers against her vulva.

Wondering if she'd have to clench down or if Spicy was going to use more rope to hold it in, Fluttershy was surprised by the soft thing worked between her thighs. A pillow. She almost purred at how well prepared Rainbow and Spicy had been, and how gentle they'd both been with her. She loosed a moan when Rainbow plumped up the pillow and worked it into place to hold the vibe in her.

With her eyes closed and just Spicy touching her, Fluttershy let the sensation of that vibrator pour excitement into her body. It wasn't the first time she'd played with toys, of course, but it was the first time she'd had someone else use one on her. Daringly, she poked out her tongue and licked Spicy's hand as it came in for another pet.

"Keep your eyes closed. I don't want you sneaking a peek until everything's ready, kitten." Spicy grinned at Rainbow when she mouthed kitten at him with a questioning look. He carefully tucked Fluttershy's hair back and behind her ear and then moved back from her. Stripping off, he turned to Rainbow who he could see had a remote control in the grip of her wing.

When Spicy nodded toward the bed, Rainbow almost bounced in excitement and climbed up onto it. She rolled around on her back a little to rough her coat up, then back onto her belly.

Spicy's shaft was in control, and when he saw Rainbow's rump slowly rise from the bed and her tail cock to the side, it signaled its excitement as cocks are always wont to. He reached one hand under the pump bottle by the bed and squeezed out a thick load of lube into his hand. "Kitten, if you want to open your eyes now, you'll get to see me fuck this little pony."

Slowly opening her eyes, Fluttershy froze in a sweat at seeing Spicy rubbing lube along his cock while advancing on the bed. Her friend, Rainbow, looked like an animal in heat with the way she'd arched her back and spread her wings out to the sides. She'd seen plenty of birds take up similar stances for their partners. Her heart sped up as Spicy climbed on the bed and huddled over Rainbow.

When Spicy spread his wings and reached between them to line himself up, Fluttershy's breathing froze. She paused, watching as Spicy got himself to the entrance of Rainbow's rear, and then actually moaned when he shoved forward.

The shock of moaning was nothing compared to the realization that she couldn't stuff her hand into her mouth or even cover her face to stop it. The weak vibrations from the toy were not enough for her taste now, but she remembered that Spicy had told her that if she showed distress, the fun was over.

Rainbow's wings beat slowly on the bed—in time with Spicy's thrusts. Fluttershy could see the hefty equine shaft plunging in and out of Rainbow's anus and, for just a moment, she imagined herself like that with a big, strong stallion driving into her. The fantasy took over, and though she watched as Spicy sped up his buggering of Rainbow, it was herself on that bed taking every thrust.
> Chapter 17
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Spicy sped up, Fluttershy's mouth ran dry as his pace seemed like it should be hurting Rainbow. She'd never seen an animal go that fast or shove their partner around that much, but all she could hear from Rainbow were grunts and occasional moans.

Fluttershy had never had anal sex herself, but her rear clutched and gripped at nothing in an attempt to simulate the rutting Rainbow was getting. When Spicy slammed his hips forward and grabbed Rainbow's shoulders with his wings, only to pull her back hard. Fluttershy wanted to reach between her legs and rub herself to orgasm, but restrained so well she had no chance of taking control of her own pleasure.

That's when something gripped in between two of Rainbow's feathers caught Fluttershy's eye. It was a little black plastic case, smaller than a mobile phone but with obvious buttons on it. When Rainbow turned her head to look at Fluttershy, Fluttershy watched as her best friend passed the device to Spicy.

Huffing, Spicy took the remote in one hand and lunged down to bite the back of Rainbow's neck. With his fangs firmly gripping her—her tough skin stopping any real damage—he touched the up arrow button on the toy.

"Oh!" Fluttershy's every vocalization was going to be impossible to hold back, she realized. The moment Spicy had touched the button, the vibrator inside her had increased its speed and the strength of its vibrations.

Now Fluttershy could feel the vibrations far more readily. They trembled her passage and entrance, and all this had distracted her from what the couple on the bed were doing. She focused on Spicy, watched the way he moved and positioned Rainbow on her back and then pushed a pillow under her croup.

For a moment Fluttershy thought he was going to fuck Rainbow again like that, but he instead kneeled over her and pulled her upward from the bed by her back legs and then angled himself back down and into her ass.

The angle Spicy had, Fluttershy could see, was driving Rainbow into the bed again and again. He had both arms grabbing her legs and pulling her up to meet him while his wings reached forward and down to brace himself.

This was nothing like she'd ever seen animals do. Animals didn't do things the hard way, they did them as easily and quickly as possible and moved on, but that's when Fluttershy noticed Rainbow's expression.

"Ohmygoodness!" Fluttershy said, then again tried to cover her mouth and couldn't. It was maddening to be tied up just for that, but now that she could see how aroused Rainbow was, the vibrator was starting to really get to her.

Gone was the pretense of her being in any way removed from their lovemaking. Fluttershy panted and groaned with each thrust of Spicy's hips, her body fighting the ropes each time to rock and move, but fighting the ropes that kept her legs folded just tired her out—she hadn't even realized those same ropes trailed all the way up her back and passed over her shoulders, leaving her no chance of working them loose.

That's when she spotted Rainbow's face. It was like a blossoming flower—or the sky opening up to sunshine on a cloudy day. In Rainbow's trembling and rocking features, Fluttershy could see her best friend's orgasm begin.

Without anyone touching her and without her even being able to service her own needs, Fluttershy felt her own pleasure spike—spurned on by the toy buzzing away—and tumbled into her own orgasm.

Squealing and moaning, her eyes somehow still locked on Rainbow's expression of bliss, Fluttershy was surprised to find how stable she was as her muscles and tendons all sang the song of her release—but she didn't fall over.

As her climax ended, Fluttershy wanted to squirm and get away from the vibrations still buzzing through her passage. She felt far too sensitive for the toy to continue, but she'd signed up for this and she was determined to see it through until she couldn't take it anymore.

Despite the overstimulation, being forced to keep watching was doing the trick and getting Fluttershy's motor running all over again. She watched as Spicy finished again in Rainbow's ass, and was just wondering what they'd do next when Rainbow shoved him off her.

"You prepped earlier, right?" Rainbow asked.

For a moment Spicy had seemed like he'd fight back and reestablish his dominance, but then realization hit him. Living with a girl her loved anal so much had left him cleaning himself every time he used the bathroom. Smirking, he nodded. "Sure did. You hungry for ass?"

Fluttershy had seen videos and heard people did it, but as she watched her best friend advance on Spicy's back-end and press her snout between his cheeks, she gasped aloud. Unable (almost literally) to look away, Fluttershy watched as each barely-seen glimpse of Rainbow's tongue was proof that she was pushing it as deep into Spicy's ass as she could.

For his part, Fluttershy realized, Spicy seemed to be enjoying it too. His short length of tail above Rainbow's head swished side to side, and he kept making repeated and happy sighs in appreciation of Rainbow's dedication.

She sat there spellbound. This was real. It was actually happening just there in front of her. She squirmed again, not sure if she wanted to get up and join them on the bed, rub herself through another orgasm where she sat, or leave in an embarrassed knot of uncertainty.

What Fluttershy could tie herself up in knots about, of course, was moot thanks to the actual knots binding her in place. She watched on as Rainbow dug her snout in tighter against Spicy's ass and reached a wing around and under him to grab his shaft.

Arching his back, Spicy flapped both his wings while Rainbow continued her double-assault on him. With eyes closed, he let loose a slow, deep moan that felt to him like it started all the way in his prostate.

As her wings sped up, so too did Rainbow's licking. She loved the feel of Spicy like this, pent up and trapped—putty in her proverbial hands. She also loved knowing how much he loved it, mostly because it was a way to show him how much he meant to her. Jacking him faster, she felt his anus clench around her tongue as he started to hit his peak.

Fluttershy, as she watched Spicy shoot his load into Rainbow's waiting feathers, shuddered as her own peak hit her—only this time she started to teeter and fall. "Oh dear!"

A strange sense of slowing down hit Spicy. He was caught at the moment of orgasm in Rainbow's time control, and though he could experience the slowdown, his body seemed intent on moving at the slower time.

Rainbow had to let go of Spicy and pull her tongue from his clenched anus to turn toward Fluttershy. It was all going in such slow motion that she knew she had time to save the day. "Sorry, Spicy, gotta leave you to your—"

With a sixth-sense of timing, Rainbow took a moment to lean under Spicy and catch one slow-moving shot of his seed in her mouth before turning back to Fluttershy. "Alright, let's get you safely laying down so you don't get hurt."

To Fluttershy, her fall happened in a blur that ended with her tumbled sideways and caught in Rainbow's wing. It was soft, gentle, and wet. "O-Oh…"

Of course, Rainbow knew what had happened when she felt that squelch too. "Ah dang. Sorry, Fluttershy. I was kinda in a rush to get over here and forgot which wing I'd been using."

Trying to get his head under control, Spicy had flopped sideways bonelessly on the bed and was using his wings to pull him across to the side where Rainbow and Fluttershy were. It took a few seconds for him to understand that Fluttershy was laying on her side and needed to be untied. "H-Hold up, just learning how to use my legs again."

Realizing she was completely safe, Fluttershy let herself relax—only for the toy between her legs to pull her from that state with its continued buzzing. "C-Can you take the—the vibrator out?"

"Not with you on my wing." Rainbow tried anyway, but her position made it impossible to reach between Fluttershy's legs. "Spicy, can you get the control and turn the vibe off?"

"Control? Oh, right." Stepping off the bed, Spicy turned back to it and looked around until he found the controller.

As the buzzing between her legs slowed and then stopped, Fluttershy let out a sigh of contentment. "Is he always so ditzy after he—he cums?"

"Huh? Not usually. What's up?" Rainbow looked up at Spicy and noticed he did still look a little unfocused.

"Your fault. You messed with time and I—I was sped up but my lower half wasn't." Shaking his head more to attempt to clear the massive cloud of cotton wool in it, Spicy knelt down beside Fluttershy and started at the simple knot behind her shoulder blades.

The moment that knot was loose, Fluttershy felt her own breathing loosen and free her. It was a cascade of loops and bindings that just relaxed and freed her arms, legs, and even her breasts. Not immediately moving, she only realized what her position put just above her when she looked up at Spicy and had his semi-flacid horsecock in the middle-distance. "O-Oh my…"

Spicy couldn't help but smile at the mesmerized look on Fluttershy's face. He was perfectly comfortable with her looking, after all, but there was only one girl he wanted touching him. "So, yeah, I just climaxed for what felt like a minute and a half. How are you two doing?"

Rainbow blinked a few times. "I—uh—I kinda want to try that myself now."

"Well, we can give it a try once we make sure Fluttershy's okay." Spicy held out his hand to Fluttershy, onto to have her put a wet one in it. "Oh. Uh…" Helping her up regardless of the mess down Fluttershy's arm, Spicy pointed to the en suite bathroom. "There's a shower in there. We'll use the main bathroom."

Biting her lip, Fluttershy rushed into the bathroom and had to fan her face. Unfortunately, she used her messy hand by mistake. Now with a face that had a few runnels of Spicy's seed dribbling down it and one arm in a considerably more Spicy-tainted condition, she stepped into the shower and turned the water on.

Fluttershy didn't want to take any chances, so she carefully washed her arm before reaching to the toy between her legs. It wasn't turned on, but just touching it made her sensitive lips send a few pulses of arousal through her body.

Poking her tongue out the corner of her mouth, Fluttershy closed her eyes and kept working the silent vibrator in and out, only to have a salty-sweet flavor explode onto the tip of her tongue. Eyes springing back open at the taste, Fluttershy realized what she'd done and that no one would know about it.

A certain amount of forbidden fruit thoughts rushed through Fluttershy's head. She kept one hand still working the toy in and out while she explored her face with a finger to find each runnel of semen—and brought them to her mouth one by one.

It was naughty, and Fluttershy loved how it made her feel. She squirmed her hips together while shoving the toy in faster and harder. At last, and with no regrets at all, she came around the toy and felt her legs wobble.

Lowering herself to the floor of the shower, Fluttershy slowly drew the toy out and squirmed. "Yay."

Just sitting there in the big shower, waiting for her heart to slow, Fluttershy wondered if she should tell her friends what she'd done. The sexiness of doing it had mostly been spur of the moment, but she smiled a little more and leaned forward into the flow of water to clean her face.

When she finally got over the afterglow, cleaned herself off, and made her way nervously back into the bedroom, she could still hear the shower running elsewhere in the house. It wasn't easy to force her nervousness down, but so long as she thought they were still showering, she didn't have to feel embarrassed.

Stepping into the walk-in, she started looking for the items Rainbow said she could wear. The shorts were easy to spot, so she reached in and grabbed them.
> Chapter 18
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You need a hand finding anything?" Rainbow asked.

Fluttershy jumped and almost hit her head on the ceiling. "Iwasn'ttastingSpicy'scum!"

For a moment Rainbow tried to figure out what her friend was saying, then she let out a sigh. "Flutters, just chill, okay? You need to get dressed, right? Do you want to spend the night in the spare bed?"

"I-I didn't mean to, but it just—" Fluttershy finally got a grip on her traitorous voice. She looked at Rainbow and only saw a smile on her friend's face. "Sorry."

"Fluttershy, we already share our bed with others. Look, I have nothing against you having enjoyed yourself, and I doubt Spicy would either. Just calm down and—"

Seeing Spicy walk into the room with a towel wrapped around his waist, Fluttershy felt her mouth opening again and reached up quickly to cover it. Barely making it in time, she felt her lips work and her mouth move as she tried to tell him she ate some of his cum.

"Hey, Spicy, you remember the mess I left on Fluttershy?" Rainbow asked, only to be grabbed up by Fluttershy and pinned to the woman's chest with one hand over her mouth.

Focusing his attention on the bed, Spicy spared a single glance to Rainbow and Fluttershy before getting back to removing the covers he'd made a mess of. "Yeah?"

"I didn't lick it up!" Fluttershy had been doomed. She couldn't keep her own and Rainbow's mouths closed.

Pausing, Spicy looked back at Fluttershy and smirked. "Was it good?"

Now trying to hold Rainbow with just the hand over her muzzle, Fluttershy used the other hand to cover her own mouth. The only problem was Rainbow was slipping lower and lower. Oh, and Fluttershy couldn't stop from nodding.

"Huh." Grabbing up and tossing aside the sheets and covers of the bed, Spicy went on talking while he worked. "I didn't peg you for being all that kinky when Rainbow first introduced us. Hearing about all these things you're into—it reminds me that I shouldn't take anyone at face value."

"You're not mad?" Fluttershy had to transfer her hand to supporting Rainbow, who was now basically pressed against Fluttershy's groin.

"Mad? Not at all. You got to have some extra fun. I'll tell you a secret—we had some fun in the shower too. Also, I enjoyed having someone watching us. If you want to do it again sometime, I still need more practice with ropes. I can't promise it'll be the same pose each time, but I'll definitely make sure you can't do anything but watch." As Spicy spoke, he walked to the trunk at the base of the bed, opened it, and lifted out fresh linen.

"Th-That would be nice." Fluttershy took a firmer hold on Rainbow and lifted her back up. In her mind she knew it was her friend, but she was so used to handling quadrupeds at the shelter that her hands had a muscle memory for holding what amounted to a large dog.

Going about making the bed, Spicy kept his wings tucked at his side rather than have them mess up his attempts to cast various coverings over the bed. "You might want to ask Thunderbolt if he would be okay with that too. He's pretty easy-going, though don't be surprised if he asks if you'd like to join in."

Rainbow tried to squirm from Fluttershy's arms, but she was surprisingly good at keeping her from getting away. In the end she cleared her throat. "Uh, Fluttershy?"

Looking down, Fluttershy gasped when she realized she was cradling Rainbow like a dog. "Oh my goodness. Let me just—let me put you down."

"Thanks. So, uh, do you want to sleep in the spare bed tonight?" Rainbow asked when she was back on the floor.

For a fraction of a moment Fluttershy became self-conscious of the fact she was naked. It was like a tightness gripped her chest—but then she let it go. Spicy wasn't interested in her except to investigate bondage, and Rainbow had no interest in her except as a friend. Besides, Rainbow was naked too. "I-I'd like that, I think."





It had been pure luck that Fizzlepop Berrytwist had found herself in a study session with Sunset Shimmer. The group was meant to be second year students and up, but when Sunset had walked in and taken a seat she had been a little surprised.

"Well, our newest adherent to all things the brain takes in and spits out is here at last." Chrysalis (Chris) leaned back in her chair and waited for Sunset to find somewhere to sit down. "Now, let's take a look forward. I've grilled you all about what you are doing now, but I want to know your hopes and dreams."

"So you can crush them?" Fizzlepop asked.

Chris barked a laugh. This group was far more relaxed than her lectures were, and helped her wind down after a day cramming knowledge into heads too full of other things to fit it in. "No, of course not. The real world is what crushes hopes and dreams—I'm here to get you ready for it. Since you spoke up, what do you want out of this, Fizz?"

Fizzlepop wondered how much to tell them, then figured she might as well open up about it. What would it matter, after all? "Well, as I told you all, I work for a federal agency. So far I've just been an investigator, but I'd like to break into criminal profiling."

"Positive and focused goal. Good to hear. Why don't we move from there to our least experienced member of this little clique. Sunset?" It was an easy shift to make for Chris, she liked the self-assured nature of both women, and was curious to see what they would make of each other.

"You want the truth, right?" Looking at Chris, Sunset felt the slightest bit nervous about having Fizzlepop there. When Chris nodded to her, Sunset shrugged her shoulders. "I want to save people. I guess I have a special friend to thank for showing me that's what I want to do."

"Going clinical psych?" Fizzlepop asked.

Snorting, Sunset shook her head. "The truth is I feel like all this"—she gestured to her wings—"happened for a reason. I know people don't tend to talk about it, because magic is kinda out of fashion, but this isn't that weak stuff you're used to. So, yeah, I want to save people. I want to be the shield that stands between them and danger."

That was a little more than Chris had expected. She knew about the girls and magic—though the concert where that magic had affected her personally still felt like a dream—but it was sometimes hard to reconcile the smart young woman who just happened to have wings with stopping what the media had called hate demons.

Though the silence raged on, Fizzlepop was struck hard by the honesty. The rawness of it reminded her of her own reasons for entering law enforcement. Her certainty that the Rainbooms were up to something wavered a little at the openness of Sunset's declaration.

"Well." Chris looked around the others, feeling like she needed a life preserver after the conviction Sunset had shown. "Who's next?"





Stepping out of the small room with her bag over her shoulder, Sunset pondered her options. It was well past whenever her friends would be at school, and with the clouds just starting to weep, she was likely going to get wet on a walk home.

"Want a lift?" Fizzlepop asked.

Turning, Sunset blinked in surprise. "I'm supposed to be the one who can read people's minds. Sure, I guess." She looked back at Fizzlepop and watched as she walked up to her. "So long as it's not too much trouble."

"No. It's fine. I wanted to talk to you, anyway." The moment she said it, Fizzlepop facepalmed. "I meant to say, I want to apologize to you and your friends."

"The rest of us you'll probably be able to, but you burned a bridge with Rainbow pretty hard. What'd you even say to her?" Keeping pace with Fizzlepop wasn't easy. Sunset had lost a little height and Fizzlepop was way taller than her.

"She kinda caught me off guard with the—uh—multiple relationships thing." Reaching into her pocket, Fizzlepop pulled out the keys to her car. "I had a bit of trouble getting my head around it."

"And now?"

They reached the doors and stepped out under the awning. "My car's over there." Fizzlepop pointed through the light rain.

The two ran through the rain. Sunset let Fizzlepop reach the car first to unlock it so she wouldn't have to stand still. Once they were both inside and if not dry, at least no longer getting rained on, Sunset asked, "You didn't answer that."

"The answer is I don't know. I thought—I thought she was a working girl, and that was some kind of excuse she was using. I guessed real wrong on that." Turning on the ignition and starting the car, Fizzlepop pulled out of the school carpark.

"Yeah, you probably couldn't have been any more wrong." Sunset started to gesture in the direction of the share house, but Fizzlepop was already turning that way.

"Tell me about it. She didn't do anything, you know, but my boss had three phone calls about my conduct there and his boss's boss got one from someone that told everyone under him to assign me somewhere else. I got asked if I'd like to take a break or do some training."

It was a lot to take in. Sunset thought back to how furious Rainbow had been about it, and she realized that the ones who called in to complain could have been just about anyone. "So you took this while things cooled off. Do you play an instrument?"

"Music? Nope. Why?" Fizzlepop knew the location of the home the group were living in. She also knew Rainbow wasn't living there.

Sunset chuckled. "Well, let's just say that music is the way to her heart. Come to think of it, though, I don't think her boyfriends play either, so maybe not."

Wanting to change the topic, Fizzlepop moved to what Sunset had said in the study group. "So you're going to join the force?"

"Huh?"

"You said you wanted to be the shield that protects people."

"As long as I don't admit to an actual crime, you can't arrest me, right?" Sunset had to remind herself that she'd only really just met Fizzlepop.

It wasn't hard for Fizzlepop to put that question together with what she'd read about Sunset and her friends' work and come up with the answer, "Vigilante justice isn't justice. You wouldn't be protecting anyone."

"Well, how many law enforcement agencies would hire someone with wings?"

It was something Fizzlepop wouldn't have thought twice about before she'd been to Canterlot on this case, but now—with the conviction and drive to help that Sunset had shown—it seemed more than a little problematic. After running over it in her mind, she sighed. "Can we go an hour without your or your friends making me reexamine my sense of right?"

"Hey, that's your problem. So yeah, I just do what I think is right and keep talking with my friends so I don't lose my grounding. It's—it's kinda the reason I'm studying psych. If I'm going to make mistakes, it could see people get hurt."

Biting her lower lip to keep from wishing Sunset luck, Fizzlepop pulled the car up at the sharehouse. "Ugh, I hate this. I'm going to have to go think about how I feel or this won't ever resolve."

"I could help if you'd like?" Holding up her hand, Sunset reached out to Fizzlepop but kept from touching her. "You know what I can do with touch, right?"

Fizzlepop froze. The dossier on Sunset Shimmer had included that she had some kind of contact mental ability. She was a type BC—magical and psychic threat. "Not really."

"If I do it right, you get to look over your history of a particular topic and see all the things that formed your current thoughts on it. I'll get to see it too." Leaving her hand out, she kept it there as an invitation.

"And if you do it wrong?"

"Then either nothing happens or you're in my head in a world of my own construction—which I normally just go with a lounge."

Not knowing why, Fizzlepop reached her hand out and took Sunset's. It could have been the raw honesty Sunset had shown, or even the way she and her friends had stood against the monstrous sirens. The feel of Sunset's palm was lost, however, as her mind was dragged into Sunset's world.
> Chapter 19
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fizzlepop was a young girl playing ball with her friends. It was a fun time, with the innocence of her youth filling her up until she couldn't help but giggle. Then an older boy had arrived and took their ball.

"Give us our ball back!" the young Fizzlepop had demanded.

"What're you gonna do about it?" the bully had replied, and when Fizzlepop tried to rush him to get the ball, he'd sidestepped and let her trip.

Screaming in anger and pain, Fizzlepop had jumped to her feet and rounded on the bully—her fists swinging wildly.

Even in her dream she could remember when one flailing hand made solid contact—and at her height it was just right to fold the bully over. She grabbed the ball, but the bully had gotten up again and grabbed her.

Sunset winced at the violence and nudged Fizzlepop forward.

High school. Fizzlepop as a sophomore, more focused on good grades and making friends than anything else, spots two students approach each other. One passes the other a bag of something and then cash is exchanged.

"What are you doing?" a teen Fizzlepop demands as she marches over to the boy who took the money.

"Buzz off, twerp."

Planting her knuckles on her hips, Fizzlepop glared up at the senior. "Or what? You sold him drugs, didn't you?"

"Want some advice?" When Fizzlepop didn't respond to his question, the older male stepped closer so he could tower over her. "Why don't you go and get fu—"

Fizzlepop had learned that punching for the groin was less than honorable, but the gut was a fine target. As the taller boy folded over, she punched his hand that was reaching for something. When his knife fell to the ground, anger overcame sense. "You were going to stab me?!"

The ruckus had drawn attention. Students and a teacher walked over in time to see Fizzlepop kick the older boy in the leg and then start beating on him.

It was one of Fizzlepop's happier memories of high school—it had confirmed in her mind who she wanted to be.

"Next? I think next." Sunset pushed the memories on.

The scenes fell into a montage. Fizzlepop studying hard through high school, graduating in the top ten of the school, attending a police college and being picked up by the FBI's recruiting arm.

It had felt like destiny. She'd used her smarts and sometimes brawn to defeat the bad guys while making the country a safer place for all the good guys.

There were flashes of times she'd seen people with extraordinary powers helping to keep the peace. Fizzlepop had passed them off as vigilantes—problems for the FBI to deal with.

Then there was her arriving and seeing the bloodbath Adagio Dazzle had caused. Finding an off-duty soldier having apprehended them had made her feel pride that the good guys had done good, but then she'd found out about the Rainbooms and about Sonata Dusk.

The siren had shaken her world. A type D threat, Fizzlepop had hated to hear her superior demand she leave the case alone. She couldn't, though. This was an itch that Fizzlepop had to scratch. When the complaints about her treatment of Rainbow Dash had eventuated, she'd taken the initiative to attend the same college as the Rainbooms to get to know them and—"

Sunset let go of Fizzlepop's hand. "You didn't mean to show me that, did you?"

Fizzlepop slumped into her seat. "No. I didn't think it'd go that far. The point is I—I don't know anymore. Sonata has messed up my tight little worldview. She's not a bad guy."

"The sirens have—" Fizzlepop had to bite down on her words, mostly because the history of the Dazzlings was incomplete. "We were ordered to drop the case. Someone from an agency higher up the pecking order than the FBI told us to back off. No, I can't prove who, I only know that someone is paying a lot of attention here and—"

Sunset reached for her door handle. "And it's like a scratch on the roof of your mouth. You can't stop but itching at it. Look, tomorrow, after class, meet up with me again and I'll introduce you to Sonata—if she wants to, of course. She's walked a dark path, Fizzlepop, but she's grown stronger for it."

Biting her lip again, Fizzlepop shook her head—not at the offer, but at the fact she was willing to go ahead with it. "Yeah. Okay. I'm not an idiot—I can see there's a hole in my knowledge here. My boss, my coworkers, and even you are saying she's not a monster. So, show me."

Pulling the handle and opening the door, Sunset liked Fizzlepop's ability to handle such a weird situation but still be open. "Will do." The rain was welcome to Sunset. It washed away the emotions of the odd life experiences she'd picked up from Fizzlepop and let her retain the scenes themselves free of the strong emotions of an angry little child, a furious teen, and a spicy adult.

The rain wasn't even a problem for her. She walked slowly inside, fully intent on a warm shower to wash away the chill. Opening the front door, she saw Pinkie Pie standing there with a grin on her face. "Hey, Pinks."

Pinkie wasn't looking for an ambush tonight, she just wanted a hug. Reaching out, she wrapped her arms around Sunset and pulled her close. Even Sunset's breasts—pressed tight against her—failed to be as comforting as just a good hug. When Sunset returned the hug and pulled her closer, Pinkie finally let out her breath and sighed. "I needed this."

"You know what I need?" Sunset asked.

Her eyes locked on Sunset's, Pinkie just raised an eyebrow.

"A warm shower."

Pinkie's ears couldn't have perked forward if she pinned them there. "A snuggle-shower?"

"Of course, but just us two this time." Laying a kiss on the tip of Pinkie's nose, Sunset tried to resist kissing her more and only barely held back her urge by reminding herself that if she got carried away it would only delay the shower.

Slumping, Pinkie let out a little whine. "But Gummy loves it in there."

"This isn't getting me my shower…" Sunset pondered her options and then she turned a little in Pinkie's grip, moved one arm behind Pinkie's butt, and picked her up. "This should work."

Pinkie let out the most girlishly happy squeal of her life and kicked her legs in excitement.

Sitting in the living room, Marble lifted her head and watched Sunset carry Pinkie past. She still didn't like actively beginning conversations, but she didn't feel the constant need to flee to the basement anymore.

Marble wished she could ignore the excited giggles and moans that came from the pair before they closed the bathroom door. It was late enough in the day that she would need relief shortly, but not so late that she felt compelled—at least, she hadn't before hearing Sunset and Pinkie.

The front door opening again urged Marble to raise her eyes from her tablet again. She watched as a surprisingly dry Twilight walked in and paused. Then Thunderbolt leaned in and kissed her.

It was a moment Marble hated. She'd spotted the pair having sex more than once, and despite her aversion to actual sex—it had looked like a lot of fun. Now, with her mind focused on it, she felt her body grow aroused at the idea.

"Hey?" Thunderbolt asked when he saw Marble. He cleared his throat—something that would have bathed Twilight in fire if he hadn't kept his mouth closed. "Hey!"

The louder shout broke Marble from the funk she'd been in and made her look at Thunderbolt. She also realized her hand had been massaging one of her breasts. Shaking a little and blushing, she felt like running from the room.

"You wanna have some fun?" Thunderbolt had started to learn how to better get his intentions across, and that revolved around letting the other person put their own interpretations on it. When she looked more like a deer in headlights, he took a slow breath. "Would you like to fuck?"

"Thunderbolt!" Twilight rolled her eyes and looked over at Marble. "Sorry about him, he gets—"

"Y-Yes." The word fell from Marble's mouth before she could stop it, and once it was out she had no idea what to do about it. She watched as Thunderbolt stuck his tongue (his split tongue) out at Twilight.

"Sometimes people think too much. She didn't want to admit it when I gave her the interpretive way, which meant I needed to clarify." Thunderbolt stepped further into the house, keeping on all fours as he'd learned was best indoors.

Marble shook her head and tossed her tablet to the couch beside her. "Wait. Hold up. I didn't—"

"You don't want to try?" Thunderbolt asked.

Snapping her mouth closed, Marble found herself conflicted. On one hand she had heard Twilight howl like a banshee while Thunderbolt screwed her, on the other she hadn't planned on having sex—ever. "M-Maybe we could—I just don't know if I want to—Could I just try some things first?"

Smiling, Thunderbolt nodded. "Sure. Anything in particular?"

Marble's eyes drifted to Twilight and, despite having spent a few intimate times together with her, was still reluctant to talk about those kinds of things with someone else around. "C-Can we talk alone about it?"

Letting loose with a rumbling purr, Thunderbolt pointed toward the back of the house and the covered patio with a wing-claw. "Shall we?" It was normally one of his favorite spots when it wasn't raining so much, though covered as it was, it was at least dry.

Standing, Marble left her cozy corner spot on the couch and followed Thunderbolt outside. The rain, she realized, would muffle their voices perfectly. "So…"

"You don't want to fuck, do you? It's the thing in your head making you want to do something." As he said it, Thunderbolt watched Marble seem to deflate a little. "It's okay. I'm not exactly a good fit for a novice, either."

"What do you mean?" Marble asked.

Rolling to his side, Thunderbolt showed Marble his belly and his extended hemipenes. "Rainbow says it's like getting fucked by two lamp posts."

Eyes widening at the sight of him, Marble realized why Rainbow would say something like that. "You're huge."

Rumbling like the biggest cat ever purring, Thunderbolt couldn't help but smile. He looked at Marble, mentally undressing her and imagining the curves of her body. "You're gorgeous."

Not much else could have made Marble blush quite as much. She felt like running and hiding, but there was something utterly safe about being with the dragon. When she didn't reply immediately, it felt like the silence was deepening and she had no idea how to stop it.

"At least, I think you are. You're wearing a lot of heavy clothes." Flicking his tail, Thunderbolt reached out with a wing—slowly—and ran the leading claw down Marble's sleeve (taking care not to harm the clothing).

Of all the places Marble had expected him to touch her, just stroking her arm hadn't been it. She'd gotten an image of Thunderbolt as a sex-hungry monster, but he seemed so gentle. "I don't like showing off."

"Would you like to just cuddle?"

The question surprised Marble, as all of Thunderbolt's words had. She thought about it for a few moments, about how her body seemed at odds with what her mind wanted. Without replying she crawled closer and pressed herself against his chest.

Wrapping a wing around Marble, Thunderbolt brought his tail up on the other side of her, careful to keep her away from his vent.

The horniness was annoying, but being able to touch someone without any expectations of sex appealed to Marble almost as much as hiding in her room with a vibrator. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. I also wanted to ask if you'd be able to help me with biology."

That made Marble jerk in surprise. She squirmed a little until her head was free of his wing and look Thunderbolt in the eyes. "You're studying biology?"

"Yeah. I want to get my high school diploma, and vice-principal Luna has built a study plan that will shore me up on the topics I have trouble with." Using the claw on his wing, Thunderbolt gently stroked Marble's long mane of hair. "Twilight said you know biology better than she does."

Marble blushed a little at that. She knew how sharp Twilight's mind was and it seemed crazy to have her say such a thing. But, at the same time, she felt confident about it. "What grade are you in?"

"Vice-principal Luna said my grade level was 'all over the place'."

"Well, what does she have you studying in biology?" The rain and Thunderbolt's warmth combined with her favorite topic to relax Marble. The ache to get some relief faded and she could just talk without worrying what he'd think.
> Chapter 20
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was another day. It wasn't easy being her, but then, it had never been easy to be no one. Sitting up on her bed, Wallflower stretched and yawned. Her pajama shirt was soft and slid about on her torso as she worked the kinks of sleeping out of her head.

Turning her head, she looked at her right palm and the stone clutched in it. Her own memory fought against itself as she remembered finding the Memory Stone. It had allowed her to fulfill her greatest desire—to be able to hide.

Everything had been just fine until she'd stood outside the music room at Canterlot high school and listened to Sunset and all her friends playing their instruments. That's how the magic of the stone started to get into her.

Before then she'd been able to use the Memory Stone without any problem. She'd scrubbed and polished herself out of everyone's lives until she could just be her—but then that music and magic had infected her.

Walking out of her bedroom, she slipped into the upstairs shower and set about her morning rituals—stone still clutched in her hand. For all that using it kept changing her in little ways, she needed to keep it safe.

Washed and dry, she stepped out of the bathroom with the stone clutched to her chest—almost running into her mother. "Goodmorning." The words ran together and were so soft even Wallflower didn't hear them clearly.

"Huh? Oh. Hello dear, I didn't see you there. Are you almost ready for school?"

Wallflower hated this part just a little. Her parents remembered her, but they seemed to keep forgetting what grade she was in. That she'd graduated hadn't sunk in yet. "Yes, Mom."

"I'll make your favorite breakfast. It'll be——"

As her mother walked downstairs, Wallflower mouthed, "cinnamon toast crunch," which was the same thing her mother made for her every day. Back in her room she got dressed in her usual things—baggy pants, concealing shirt, and huge and amorphous pullover that almost completely hid her body shape.

It even hid her tail.

The last thing she grabbed before heading downstairs was her hat. It was an old beanie that matched her pullover for size and coloring. It was perfect for hiding her pony ears. She just needed to get Sunset and her friends back and she could start undoing it all.

So she ate the breakfast she'd loved all those years ago and now only barely found edible. She gulped down a glass of juice and took her lunch money from her mother and left the house—into a downpour. A quick detour back inside to get her raincoat solved that problem.

She had to get three blocks as quickly as she could without being seen, which meant her bike was going to get some workout. Her too, for that matter.

Making good time, Wallflower reached the big house just as Sunset stepped out the front door. For a split-second she thought it was her time to shine. Pressing down on the peddle to propel the bike forward, she got halfway to Sunset when she noticed the car waiting on the street. "Crap!"

Turning her head at the shout, Sunset dove and pressed herself against the side of the car as the cyclist flew past her. "Hey!"

"Get in the car before you soak all the way through." Fizzlepop was looking over her shoulder as Wallflower rode out of sight around a corner. She pulled out her notepad and was just about to write Wallflower's description in it when the whole incident completely left her mind. Looking at her notebook, she flipped it closed and slipped it back in her jacket pocket.

Climbing into the car, Sunset let out a sigh. "Thanks for offering. Pinkie started her first class an hour ago, and I didn't want to hang out on campus for an hour doing nothing."

Panting, Wallflower sat around the corner, the stone clutched in her hand and her mental focus on Sunset and Fizzlepop. It was easy to remove such a small encounter, but she had plans for a lot more than that.

"I'm doing this all wrong. I need to—I need to get all of them together." As she said it, Wallflower grinned and sat up straighter on the bike. "Of course. Why didn't I think of that earlier?" Turning her bike around, she started peddling for home again.





Limestone hated homework. Sure, she'd done it while studying weapons systems in the Army, but that was different. She had the information Sonata had put together on her tablet—it was only a few pages, but all of it was gold. She took notes as she read. There were five pages of densely-spaced writing on sirens, and a further two pages each on Adagio and Aria.

Just reading about the things they'd done made Limestone sick at times. They'd caused ruin just about wherever they'd gone over the past thousand years. Almost all the locations Sonata had written down could be cross-referenced to what had formerly been thought to either be natural disasters or cult mass suicides.

As with weapons systems—even the weapons systems that enemies of the USA might use—Limestone memorized the facts and jotted down concepts she needed more clarification on.

By the time she was done with the note-taking and information absorption, she realized it was getting late. Closing the book and her notes, Limestone took a shower and went to bed.

In her dreams, Limestone Pie ran through that day again. The conflicting effects on her mind as Adagio and Aria tried to control everyone, then the smashing of that by her sister's band. Her subconscious couldn't puzzle out the intrigues of the day, but it could and did focus on one thing—the magic had affected her, giving her pony ears, and that meant she had her own magic.

Waking up just before dawn—as was her norm—Limestone reached one of her big hands up and felt the ears on top of her head. They were sensitive, had led her far better through the one weapons training course she had access to, and they were a sign she had magic. "So what's my magic? Punching things? I hope it's punching things."

When no answer appeared out of thin air, she grunted and walked to her chest of draws. Socks, shoes, boxers, black pants, a sports bra, and a muscle shirt was all she cared about wearing. Well, and her sunglasses. Setting out for her dawn run, however, revealed the rain that had been blanketing Canterlot of several days. Ignoring the weather, as the Army had taught her to, she let the song of her muscles sooth out the worries in her head.

She got a good mile from home when she heard a voice say, "No, don't notice me."

Limestone's ears perked and she took a moment to look around—feeling for the direction her ears were pointing. The young woman had green hair and a translucent raincoat covering her and hiding her features. What surprised Limestone the most was the voice had been soft and completely unmuffled by the rain.

Disregarding them, Limestone turned a corner and was running away now when she head the girl's voice again. "Forget me." The words, like the first, were clear and proud in her ears despite the rain. Limestone put it down to just another freaky thing in Canterlot.

When she got home again, she made her way straight for the shower and tossed her wet clothes in a hamper on the way. Just a quick wash to get the sweat off and she was getting dressed for a proper day at work.

The suit she'd gotten made was light enough that she could run in it, but the jacket was heavy enough that it covered any gun she cared to holster. Grabbing her notebook, she quickly scribbled the description of the woman she'd seen on her morning run and the two phrases she'd heard, along with the time it'd happened.

Finally, she grabbed her keys and walked out into the rain and to her car. The drive to the department's offices wasn't long, but she did curse more than once at the bad weather. Guarding her notes with her jacket, she rushed from her car to the front door and tapped in her security code on the keypad, then swiped her access card.

She made her way inside—ensuring the door closed behind her—and reached General Inkwell's office. A knock on the door, followed by the general's voice welcoming her, and she opened it and stepped inside. It was hard not to salute, not to stand to stiff attention. Enough years had drilled such reactions into her that she had to fight just to say, "Hey, boss."

"You can sit down, Limestone." Raven set her eyes on the notebook Limestone had carried in. "These are your notes?" She held out a hand.

Passing the notebook over, Limestone hovered over the chair before finally surrendering and sitting down on it. She hated sitting mostly because it left her feeling too relaxed. "Mostly questions that the information raised but didn't cover. I thought I could take it to Sonata and ask her to clarify things."

"She smells like magic." Captain Penny lifted her head from her dozing position at one end of the table and looked at Limestone. "That strong, horse magic. It's more than usual."

"Huh?" Blinking, Limestone looked at the cat. "What do you mean?"

Raven watched as Penny closed her eyes and lifted her snout. Linked to her familiar, she focused on enhancing and aligning their senses. The flood of horse magic stink was strongest around Limestone's head. Squeezing her eyes closed and sneezing, she tried to shake the smell out of her nose. "Your head. There's something tried messing with your head. Who have you seen since you clocked out yesterday?"

Limestone didn't have to think far. "Only Sonata. I picked up the information from her last night—but your wards didn't go off."

"Then either we have the smartest and most canny mind-controller in the world, or it wasn't her." While she spoke, Raven looked through the several pages of Limestone's notes and then paused. "'No, don't notice me'? 'Forget me'?"

"It's not mind-control magic," Penny said. "This is mental shielding." Standing up, she stretched and arched her spine and walked over to Limestone. "Hold still."

Freezing, Limestone didn't move while Captain Penny jumped neatly to her big shoulders. She'd not grown up with pets, so she didn't know how athletic the feline could be. She knew the name was more a joke, but she couldn't help but think that the cat somehow outranked her.

"Protective magic. You've got some kind of hard shielding going on here, and it's all you." Penny rubbed a cheek against Limestone's short-cut hair and purred a little. "But these are a bit more."

When a cat paw reached up and batted at her ear, Limestone couldn't stand it anymore. "Please get off me."

"No. There's more here."

"Penny, get off her head. We've solved what was going on, but not what triggered this. I think this woman you met was using magic on you." Raven tapped her finger on the description of Wallflower Blush.

Rubbing her cheek against Limestone's neck one last time, Penny jumped back to the table and curled up. "It's easy to work out if it's just mind-control magic it blocks. You have a friendly asset who can do that—ask her to poke at your head."

"Thanks, I hate this plan." Limestone didn't even attempt to keep the annoyance out of her tone. "But that doesn't mean I won't do it."

"Don't let her order you around—" Raven rolled her eyes. "… but she's right. We have an asset, we should use it. Take the wards with you so you can verify what's happening." The moment she turned her attention to her computer, she watched as Penny walked over and lay on one of her hands. "I'll try to fight off this monster and narrow down a possible on your rogue here."

For a moment Limestone was going to ask if that was legal, but she remembered who she worked for and mentally shrugged. "Okay, I'll arrange a meeting with her. I don't know if she'll go for it."

"Try. If this is the case, I'd like to know if you can resist and detect this kind of magic." Raven nodded toward the door. "This is the part I'd normally tell you dismissed."

"Did I miss a cue? Ugh, it's the rank thing. I mean, I know you're just my boss, but every time I think of your name in my head, I pin general in front of it. Then my thinking goes back into comfortable grooves." Standing up, Limestone reached a hand out to Penny and rubbed one of her ears. "Thanks for putting up with me."
> Chapter 21
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Turning from a laughing general and a purring cat, Limestone picked up her notebook and made her way outside. Back in her car, she pulled out her mobile and she tapped on Sonata's contact.

"Sonata Dusk's taco emporium. Oh, it's you again. How were those notes?"

"Good, though I have questions. Any chance I can come and talk?" Bracing her phone against her ear with one shoulder, Limestone pulled out her smaller notebook and a pen she kept handy.

"Yeah. I'm at work. If you want to chat I—My boss is here and he's nodding that he can cover for me."

"Alright. I'm coming over." Hanging up the moment she finished talking, Limestone slipped the phone back in her jacket pocket and her notebook with it.

The drive wasn't far, again, but it was all just city driving. One part of Limestone longed for a helicopter so she could ignore the traffic while the other longed for an armored personnel carrier so she could drive over the traffic. She pulled up out front of the location, not caring either way about the implications of the business.

Sonata opened the door at the top of the stairs and poked her head out. "It was you. Don't worry, Spicy said I can have some time to chat, and we can do that in my flat."

Limestone just followed Sonata into the flat opposite Canterlot Crops and, when she closed the door behind herself, let out a sigh. "Thanks for agreeing to see me again."

"We're seeing each other so much now my girlfriend might get jealous. Just kidding. Have you had breakfast?" It wasn't any kind of mothering instinct, but Sonata just disliked seeing people skipping meals—she had a sixth sense for it.

The question, a complete derailment of whatever topic Limestone had wanted to pursue, was perfectly in character for what she knew of Sonata. "Err, no. You're going to cook food for me again, aren't you?"

"Nope! I have leftovers." Letting out a laugh, Sonata opened her fridge and lifted out a plate with tin foil covering it. "This'll only take a minute. So what's up?"

"Well, I have a bunch of questions about your manuscript, but there's something else my boss wants me to ask you—and I'm pretty sure you're not going to like it." Limestone's nose twitched at the smell of the burrito that Sonata put in the microwave.

"Spit it out already."

Limestone wished she didn't have to ask. "She wants you to try to get in my head. Nothing more. Just try to make me—I don't know, hop on one leg a few times."

"You know you're the third person to ask me to get in their head in the last year? For a thousand years Adagio, Aria, and me got into people's heads when they didn't want us to, and now I've decided to be a good siren and not do all that, I keep getting—No, hear me out." Sonata had to hold up a finger toward Limestone to keep her from interrupting. "One guy wanted me to completely blow away his sense of self—there was no way I'd do that. Someone else just wanted sexy-times where she could do something she normally wouldn't—guess what, she managed it without me poking her free will aside. So what is it you want out of this?"

"Honestly?"

"Yes. Honesty is important." At that, the microwave beeped, and she reached in to pull the plate out. Holding it out to Limestone, Sonata couldn't help the little thrill that came with giving someone some food she made herself.

"Thanks. The truth is, I don't want you to. I don't want anyone to get this done to them." Picking up the burrito, Limestone took a bite and had to struggle not to groan at how good it was. She hadn't been a fan of spicy food before she'd joined the Army, but most of the ration packs had used chili to hide the fact you were eating months-old-food. "But I have to. I need to put myself forward and test something—even if it's something I don't like and don't want done—because I need to know how to fight it."

Sitting on the couch, Sonata reached up to her throat. She could remember everyone they tormented together as The Dazzlings. "You think you can actually fight this?"

Taking a chance to eat more of the burrito, Limestone thought over what she should say. She knew that revealing what Penny had said might bias the results. "I'd like to try. We have—we have tools we can use. If I can master a way to reduce the effect or even nullify it, we would have a better one."

"Then I want to set down some rules. First, I'm not going to try pushing too far. Second, you take off any wards or protections you might have that could blast me. Third, you pick what I'm going to do." Tapping at her chin with one finger, Sonata tried to think if she'd covered her bases.

Pulling out the wards she was wearing, mostly just folded pieces of paper Raven had given her, Limestone set them aside. "You're making this way easier, you know? I came into this expecting you to either be absolutely not or sure, let me mess with your brain-meats. Being reasonable and cautious is… I don't even know how to say it."

Sonata shrugged. "How's the burrito?"

For a moment Limestone forgot she'd even been eating. She looked down at the last few bites of burrito in her hand and snorted. "Better than almost everything I've eaten in the last ten years. Okay, you can make me do, say, or think just about anything, right?"

"Forget the just about."

"Yeah… Let's leave off making me think things for now. Just give me a twitchy ear?" Limestone barely noticed that Sonata was humming. The sound seemed calming and gave her time to finish the burrito. A moment came, however, that made her ears focus and her head feel funny.

"You're so cute, but your left ear twitches uncontrollably when you frown." The words barely fit the tune she'd been humming, but the moment she let them out Sonata put force behind them. She pressed the words toward Limestone and aimed them for the woman's head—only to miss.

Jumping to her feet, Limestone's hand was halfway to her gun before she managed to stop herself. "I felt that!"

"I don't get it. It just slipped off you." Sonata started humming again to build the tune she needed.

Recognizing a second attempt, Limestone sat back down and deliberately put her hands on her knees to stop her reactions from taking over. She closed her eyes to focus on what she could hear and feel, and just as the humming reached its peak, she heard two voices overlaid.

"Twitch your left ear," one voice said, but Limestone heard another, "Twitch your right ear."

Neither of them affected her, but it was the second voice that reminded her of the woman earlier in the day. "You wanted me to twitch my right ear?"

Sonata laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "Okay, I was wrong. It looks like you can become immune to siren magic. You even picked up my mental voice as being different from my physical one. My sisters were never good at doing that."

"Wait. You're better at this stuff than they are?"

"Yes and no. They had more power and could do more with less music, but I'm the only one who can hide commands. If you want, now that we know you have protection, I could try ramping things up. That's still not going to tell you if my sisters could batter you down, but it will give a better baseline."

Limestone felt more trust in Sonata now. The consistency and utter sanity of her suggestions reassured the voice in Limestone's head that this was on the up-and-up. The only weapon that paranoid voice had left was to suggest that Sonata had completely and utterly brain-fucked her on the first try, and that everything since was just there to reassure Limestone. "These wards are just alarm bells. Can I try having one on me when you try?"

"They're not like whatever you used on Aria, right?"

Anger hit Limestone like a hammer, but it wasn't anger at Sonata. "No. I refuse to wear those kinds of things—weapons—in your house or even in public."

"Careful. With consideration like that you might just find some of the monsters will be allies." Sonata wore the biggest grin she could manage. "Now, grab one of your wards and let's try this."

After the next test, in which Limestone found that her ward didn't trigger, they started to build a baseline. From there Sonata ramped up her power until she was practically screaming commands into Limestone's head—only for the power to bend, wobble, and flow around Limestone.

"I give up. It's like trying to thread a needle with an anchor rope." Slumping back on her chair, Sonata threw her arms up in the air. "It's impossible!"

"You managed to trigger one of the wards that time. Well, it's not flashy magic like my sister, and I'm not going to take over the world with it, but you know what? I'm pretty cool with this." Turning the scorched ward over in her fingers, Limestone held it out to Sonata to look at.

Looking at the paper, Sonata could remember times gone where their little trio had been stymied by a witch. Together as a group, they would always overwhelm the magic user. Now, with her change of heart, those felt like terrible days.

"Hey, what's up?" Limestone asked.

"Remembering the bad old days. If there's anything else I can do, just tell me, okay?"

"No." Limestone had pinned Sonata in the friend category now, and there was not much that would change that. "You think I haven't done some harsh shit? I won't tell you to do anything, thought I might ask."

Thanks to pouring her power out, Sonata was feeling a little drained and also distracted. She looked over at Limestone with a new respect. "Well, anything you want to ask? I'll warn you right now, I'm a little pooped after trying to get you to twitch your damn ears."

"You know what, how about I get us some beers and we just chill later on? I kinda don't have anyone I can have a drink with here, and if I go to a bar I just draw attention from the wrong sorts." Limestone stood up from the couch and stretched.

"Yeah. That'd be good, actually. I'll go make sure Spicy doesn't need me to work, first, then I could make us something for dinner." Conscious of how much bigger and more physical Limestone was, Sonata tried to make her own rise from the couch a little more graceful.

"You're really tight with your boss, huh?" Limestone asked.

Sonata nodded. "He didn't know exactly what I was when he hired me, but he knew I was desperate for somewhere to work and live. He's a little too nice for his own good, I think, and I want to make sure I'm not taking advantage of that."

"I'll head back to the office and write up a report on this, then I'll give you a call later, okay?" It was almost startling to Limestone how much heavier her boots sounded than Sonata's shoes. A stark reminder that she was still a little too Army to fully fit in.

"We'll probably have my girlfriend over. I doubt she'll want to drink, but I'll cover for her if she does." Sonata held the door open for Limestone. "Thank you for being there when we needed you."

"Hey, you've got my number. If there's something you need official help with, or just something you need a friend to help with, gimme a call." Limestone gave the door opposite a quick glance before turning to the stairs.
> Chapter 22
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Locking the flat door behind her, Sonata slipped back into the shop to find Spicy reading a catalog at the counter. "Okay, all sorted."

"You seem to be pretty friendly. Any gossip?" Spicy despised slow days, and with things slowly going ahead with his warehouse, he was a little bored.

Sonata slipped in behind the counter too and looked at the page Spicy had been lost in. "We don't have enough dildos?"

"Nope. Never enough dildos." Spicy flicked the page over and looked at rubber wear next. "Do you think Rainbow would like some rubber shorts?"

Snorting, Sonata shook her head. "Spicy, she worships the ground you walk on in the bedroom. If you got her a frilly dress, a corset, and a fancy hat she'd wear them for you."

"What's she going to do with a corset now? Though, the dress might be cute. Maybe I could get Rarity to design something for me at last if I offer to get Rainbow wearing a dress?"

"I think getting Rarity to help with that would be particularly easy. What do you think of Limestone?" Sonata picked up another catalog and started flicking through it.

Spicy set down his own reading material and rolled his hand side to side a little. "On one hand she seems rough around the edges and a bit of a ball-breaker, but she is working for some mysterious government agency that appears to be helping. At least, they got Adagio and Aria locked up somewhere they don't seem capable of getting out of."

"I can appreciate that. She seems—I guess it just feels like she's a bit lonely. I bet in the Army she was with people her own social class all the time. Now she can't go back there, she's stuck trying to make friends. I don't know what it says about either of us that we seem to get along."

Turning his head away from the equine-modeled toys in the catalog, Spicy raised an eyebrow at Sonata. "I thought this was all business?"

"That ship has sailed. She's genuinely nice, Spicy. I mean, she's rough around the edges, but she's really trying to understand this stuff. When we first talked, I was just a vicious dog that hadn't bitten her yet. Now… I just wish I could trust that everyone would think the same thing if they knew what I was." Looking at the catalog Spicy held, Sonata actually blushed. "Those look familiar."

"There are companies that make more exotic toys. I figure with all the people turning into part ponies, some special tastes of home might help them adjust." Tapping the horse dildos, Spicy wiggled his hips a little. "Maybe we should arrange a meeting with her boss?"

"Hrmm." Sonata tapped her chin and nodded. "That would be a good idea, I think. Sort of a getting to know what friendly assets you might want to know about thing. Limestone's going to grab some beers and come around later. Would you like to join us?"

Giving Sonata a droll look, Spicy pulled out a highlighter and went to town marking things in the catalog. "Come on, she just wants a night to relax with her best bud."

Sticking out her tongue, Sonata pulled out her mobile and sent a text to Limestone.



She had to wait a little for a reply.





"There. Settled. Pick up something to drink and come over after closing. Hey, get a few of that one." Sonata pointed at a "sea monster" toy.

"Remind you of home?" Spicy asked.

"No, just looks fun." Try as she might, Sonata couldn't keep a straight face. "Okay, yes. It's almost the same shape as a siren male's dick."





Limestone had dumped her boots in favor of some running shoes. She'd also left the suit and her gun at home in favor of some surplus camouflage pants and another muscle top. With a box of beer under one arm, she walked up the steps again and reached out to knock on Sonata's door.

Instead of Sonata, Limestone was face-to-face with one of her sister's friends. "Hey. Uh, Rarity, isn't it?"

"My reputation precedes me. I am, indeed, Rarity. You must be Limestone. I believe we met briefly at that awful business a few months back. Do come in." Stepping back from the door and feeling a little intimidated by Limestone's size and muscles (though the muscles made Rarity's legs wobble just a little), she welcomed their visitor.

Closest to the door in the open loft apartment, Sonata was in the process of cooking the meat for her taco platter. "Hey there. I got an ice-box to put those in. Spicy brought some too. Take a seat."

Smelling Sonata's cooking, Limestone was briefly distracted from the only male present and the pony sitting at his side. When she did spot them, it didn't take too much to put together that this was Sonata's friend. "He's your boss, isn't he?"

"He's my friend when we're not at work, and he's still a friendly boss when I am." Sonata shrugged her shoulders and worked the meat around in the pan.

The description sounded absolutely alien to Limestone. In the Army he bosses had been sergeants and officers, who were all impossibly to be friends with because of their rank. Even her new boss, Raven, was not exactly her friend. "Thanks for this."

"Huh?" Turning her attention from the stove, Sonata looked up at Limestone with unrestrained curiosity.

"This. All of this. Explaining stuff. Not treating me like I'm a freak."

"Oh no, you are a freak, you're just a freak like all us freaks. It's our differences that make us strong, silly." Scooping up a piece of the cooked, seasoned meat onto a spoon, she held it up to Limestone. "Tell me if this is too spicy."

Taking the spoon and trying the contents, Limestone almost coughed. Her eyes watered a little and she winced at the heat—but underneath that fire the meat was perfectly seasoned and tasted great. Chewing carefully, she swallowed the sample and nodded. "It's really hot, but tastes good."

"Perfect. The salsa will let that down and the guac will too. I appreciate it." Turning back to the bench, Sonata went back to work.

"You can't test that yourself?" Limestone asked.

"I would, but I can never judge heat well. Capsaicin barely affects me at its hottest, let alone just using it at cooking levels. Oh, right, I didn't mention that in the book. Don't bother using teargas on Aria or Adagio."

"Right. Noted. Is that because you're sirens?"

Nodding, Sonata twitched and flicked her wings. "Though here I'm some kind of hybrid, back in Equestria I'd be a full siren, which means not a mammal. These"—she reached out to where her ingredients were and picked up a scotch bonnet, then bit the fruit from the stem and started chewing—"are like candy corn. I could eat them all day. Um, don't try doing this." Her words came out muffled, what with having the hot pepper in her mouth.

"Got it. You don't mind if I have a beer?" Opening the box she'd brought with her, Limestone set one aside as she started to load them in with the ice.

"Only if you get me one too." Sonata cheated, of course, and grabbed up the can Limestone had set aside. "The other two had this raging hate-boner for alcohol. You know what I think?"

Setting another can aside, Limestone looked up at Sonata expectantly.

"I think they're just prissy bitch lightweights."

Limestone took a moment to stare at Sonata as she cracked the can open and took a long swig, before letting out a laugh. "Damn it, I wasted months being a broody bitch when I should have called you up to have a beer."

"Excuse me, I hope you don't mind me stealing a kiss from my girlfriend before she tastes too much of that stuff?" Rarity imposed herself beside Sonata, reaching out and tilted her jaw, and kissed Sonata the moment her lips weren't pressed to the can. As kisses went, Rarity was surprised by Sonata's wide eyes that looked slightly panicked.

It took nearly three seconds for the heat of the chili to reach Rarity's tongue, but in that time it coated her lips well, ensuring she'd have a good dose of it. Her eyes widened a moment before tears started to well in them. She let go of Sonata and reached out for something, anything to drink.

Realizing what had happened mostly by the way Rarity's cool-white face was turning orange, Limestone cracked open her beer and passed it to her.

For all her protest about the taste of beer, Rarity suckled from the open can until it was dry. The burning heat in her mouth had abated, but she felt as if she'd been hit in the face by a truck. "Whatonearthwasthat?!"

Pulling Rarity into a hug, Sonata was a little shocked at how quickly she'd drained the beer. "My fault, I've been munching on chili while talking to Limestone. You moved so quick and I was trying to warn you but—" Drawing herself up and giving Rarity her best puppy eyes, Sonata lifted her hand up and covered her lips with it.

"Drat but you make it hard to stay mad." Leaning forward, Rarity pressed her lips to the back of Sonata's hand and kissed her through the safety barrier. "And I guess now I get to learn what it's like to be intoxicated."

"Yeah. Sorry about that. Figured you'd want to deal with the fire in your mouth first. If you don't drink anything else, that'll probably be out of your system in an hour or two." Limestone crouched down and grabbed a second beer for herself.

"I guess I'll have to be more careful around my little fish when she's cooking." The truth was Rarity had never tasted beer before. She'd been a good girl for her father and hadn't touched a drop of it. Now she'd downed a full can and was starting to get a taste for it past the burning heat it had washed from her mouth. "It's really not as bad as I thought it would be—the beer, I mean. It's earthy, but the bubbles lifted the taste—"

Limestone shook her head with a half smile. "If you want another one, feel free. You helped save my ass back with that little concert you put on, you're adult enough to drink by my standards."

"Maybe drink it a bit slower this time?" Sonata asked.

Biting her lip for just a moment, Rarity curtseyed and picked on another can. It felt, physically at least, just like any other can of soft drink, but there was a sense of weight to the can that Rarity couldn't immediately blame on the fact she'd just drunk a can of beer in only a few seconds. "I believe I will. How will I be able to tell when I'm—ahem—inebriated?"

"Well, the first thing you'll probably notice is"—Limestone cracked open her can and took a swig from it—"you won't be able to say words like inebriated. The second is the face-tingles."

The woman before Rarity bore very little resemblance to when they'd met with Shining Armor. She broke the seal on her can and sipped it. It definitely wasn't as bad as she'd been led to believe. "Well, now you'll have me saying inebriated over and over to test."

"I'll have this food ready soon. If you want to head over and relax, I'll bring it over to you when it's done." Sonata was trying to push Rarity off with Limestone in the fervent hope that a relaxed relationship could grow, while getting Rarity to introduce her to the others. It also meant she could finish cooking without fear of interruption.
> Chapter 23
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You've met Rainbow before, but have you met Spicy?" Rarity got hold of herself as she realized she was technically a host of this party. Gesturing over to the growing ring of couches that'd become a fixture of the apartment, she realized her nose felt a little funny. "Inebriated…"

Limestone nodded and let herself be led by a (compared to her) tiny college girl. "Yeah, I saw Rainbow at the little briefings that Navy wingnut wanted. Also saw both of them at the—uh—"

"Oh, yes, you took over things nicely there. I might not have approved of such things before that day, but after what they did to Applejack, they deserved a little rough treatment." Clearing her throat, Rarity managed to get Spicy and Rainbow to look up at her. "Spicy, this is Sonata's friend and Pinkie's sister, Limestone. Limestone, this is Spicy—Rainbow's very significrant other."

Rainbow looked up at Rarity, noticed the beer in her hand, and smirked. "Hey, Limestone. Have you heard anything about the FBI goon they had investigating all this magic stuff?"

It took Limestone a second before she let out a sharp laugh. Sipping her beer, she shook her head. "I don't know what dipshit they sent here, but we got a memo from on high that we were on eggshells with you guys. We figured it was best to leave the heroes alone and deal with the bad guys to get answers first. When they didn't play nice, I came to Sonata for help."

Rarity now could feel her nose wanting to twitch and wiggle. Thinking it a good idea to settle it with what it wanted, she took another sip from her drink. Each mouthful she'd had so far tasted better and better, though she wasn't having any thoughts toward emptying another can as fast as she had the first. "Sonata's been telling me she had a special job."

Looking at her options on where to sit, Rarity felt in a huggy-mood, though with Sonata still working on the food her choices were limited. She knew Rainbow wouldn't want to, and felt she didn't know Limestone well enough, which meant she had one choice. "I hope you don't mind, darling, but I need to hug someone about now."

With Rarity settling onto the couch beside him, Spicy was a little surprised when her arm circled around his shoulders and pulled her closer to his side. There was a certain amount of unity he felt with her—he was gay, she was a lesbian, so a hug meant nothing. "I get that, but you're not getting the full experience."

Limestone watched as Spicy stretched a leathery wing out and pulled Rarity closer to him with it. "I didn't know you guys were all so close."

"Them?" Rainbow snorted a laugh and brought her can of cider to her mouth. With her snout, she couldn't drink directly from the can—which is why she had a straw. "They're literally too similar to ever get far. Glad to hear you don't have anything to do with them. The other agency, that is."

Sitting down on another couch, Limestone struggled with how normal and yet how strange everything and everyone was. Rarity had a horn sticking out of her head, Rainbow was literally a small pegasus, and Spicy had a big pair of bat wings on his back and looked like he'd just stepped out of an industrial metal band's music video. "We're more focused than the FBI. We just deal with magic stuff happening. My boss has been really worried about more mind-whammy bullshit happening, but it turns out I'm kinda the best guy for that job."

The taste of alcohol in the cider was not really hitting Rainbow all that hard, though she noticed Rarity was giggling more than normal. Figuring Spicy would take care of Rarity, Rainbow kept chatting with Limestone. "Huh?"

"Well, we were doing some training and it turns out whatever your magic did to me to give me ears, also made my head like a rock." Limestone liked the comparison. "Ask Sonata how hard it was trying to get me to think anything new."

Carrying a tray covered with tacos, extra salsa, guacamole, tortillas, and several kinds of cheese, Sonata set it down on the coffee table before looking at Rarity snuggled against Spicy. "That looks comfortable."

"Hey, the more the merrier." Spicy stretched his wing a little wider to make room for Sonata. "Oh, and bring us some tacos."

Passing a taco to Spicy, one to Rainbow, and carrying two more over to sit beside Rarity, Sonata paused before biting into her taco. "Oh, and don't even get me started on how hard it is to mess with her head." Surrendering the conversation to someone else to continue, Sonata bit into her taco and shivered in delight.

Rainbow was about to complain about Sonata not using her mind-control for more fun things, but bit into her own taco and the words were gone from her. It was fiery, but not too much. Everything tasted amazing and made her just want to relax and eat. So she did.

"You know, if you had a truck selling these, I'd drive across town three times a day to buy them from you." Limestone could appreciate the food for how much better it was than rations she'd gotten in the Army.

"You're not the first to say that." The thought was good fuel for Spicy, who had been packing his head full of business ideas lately. "What do you think, Sonata?"

"Huh?" Sonata had her hands full already trying to keep Rarity from getting a little too affectionate with guests around. Feeding her a taco turned out to be her best defense. "You mean actually starting my own truck? I'm not sure if you've noticed, Spicy, but I kinda like working for you."

Waving his hand in the air, Spicy looked Sonata in the eyes. "Right, but let's say someone got you a taco truck and let you run it during lunchtime. Would you like that?"

Gulping down the mouthful of taco she was eating, Rarity looked her girlfriend in the eyes and earnestly said, "I think he wants to buy you a taco truck."

"I was thinking of leasing her a truck," Spicy said.

Sonata was surprised to be hemmed-in by Rarity and Spicy. "Okay, firstly, no more beer for you until you've sobered up a little." She tried to take the can off Rarity, only to find it empty. "Oh no, now I have to keep you distracted." Sonata's deadpan earned her a few laughs from her friends, but she had to think carefully. "So, business partners, then?"

"I might need to find some more people to work in the shop, but I was doing that already with planning the new location and the warehouse." Shrugging his shoulders and using his wing to squeeze Rainbow a little, Spicy took another sip of his cider. "It's a growing business."

"Why don't you just give it a try, Sonata?" Rainbow asked. "What have you got to lose? We'll pick up any losses—not that there'll be any, I know your cooking." Leaning forward, she stretched a wing out to grab her second taco.

Cuddling Rarity to her side, Sonata looked around everyone present. "You really all like them that much?"

"Mmhmm," Rarity mumbled. "I'd like to eat your taco right now."

Everyone froze at hearing Rarity's words, but it was Limestone who laughed first. "I wouldn't put it like that, but you make great food."

"I'll put money on it." It was a surprise—even to Rainbow—that she'd been the one to say that. "I mean, I'll put down the cash." She turned and looked up at Spicy, then stuck her tongue out.

Spicy shrugged and kissed Rainbow on the tip of her nose before she could pull her tongue in. "Thanks for offering to help screen new workers for the shop."

"Eh. I'd probably have done that anyway. It's kinda funny how easily some people just accept me while others can't deal with this." Using one wing to gesture at her chest, Rainbow brought her taco up and took a bite. "So good…" she tried to say, only, when Rainbow said it with a full mouth, it came out more like "foe food."

Sonata had to fight not to cry. Since the first time she'd met Rainbow—after the mess at her school—Rainbow had stood at her side. "You guys are the best."

Limestone wasn't too talkative, which suited her. It was easy enough to relax with the small group and just share the odd story here and there. She was surprised how quickly it got late and, with it raining outside, she had no clue what she was going to do about getting home.

"Need a lift home?" Spicy asked.

The question snapped Limestone out of her fugue and she looked over at Spicy—feeling every single one of the beers she'd drunk. "Yeah."

"No probs, let's get a taxi. I don't really feel up for driving, and Rainbow isn't going to be driving until tomorrow at the earliest." Standing up, Spicy drew his wings back from Sonata and Rarity (who had sobered up a little since her first rush of alcohol) on one side and Rainbow on the other. "Spicy to Rainbow Dash, are you mobile?"

"Huh?" Rainbow jerked up a little. It wasn't just the alcohol that made her sleepy. Since she'd become nearly completely a pony, she'd noticed her metabolism burned in fits and starts. Though, being woken up reminded her that her body was hungry for something other than a taco. "Can we, uh, go home now?"

Reaching into his pocket, Spicy pulled his phone out and used an app to order a ride. "Yeah, just organizing that. We'll help Limestone out too. I don't want to leave her in the lair of a pair of drunk lesbians—who knows what will happen?"

Now knowing Spicy well enough to judge when he was joking, Limestone snorted and stood up too. "Not me. I like dick way too much for that." The one thing she hadn't been getting a good reading on was Spicy. He seemed to her to be into Rainbow plenty enough, but the pair of cute girls under his other wing didn't even seem to register to him—and neither did Limestone.

"Ah! A girl after my own heart." Spicy helped Rainbow to her feet. "You good, babe?"

"Witness the superior advantage of four legs!" Laughing at herself, Rainbow walked carefully toward the door. "Not sure if I can stop, though."

"Don't. We need to go downstairs and wait for our ride." Following Rainbow, Spicy left Sonata and Rarity cuddled together—apparently oblivious to everything around them. "I think we all needed this."

The fact that their wing-blanket was gone actually stirred Sonata and Rarity from their snoozy cuddle. Rarity lifted her head first, thoughts still a little thick thanks to the beer. "You're leaving? But it's only—" Reaching for her pocket, she pulled out her phone. "… only one A.M. Huh…"

Rainbow did manage to stop, right at Limestone's feet. She looked up and up and up to see Limestone's face peering down at her. "You're way cooler than that—that…"

"The FBI agent?"

"Yeah! Her! She was a real bitch. Didn't get me at all, didn't even try, then insulted me. But you? If you ever need help, just ask. I don't know if you know, but I'm like super loyal to my friends and stuff—A princess told me I was. So just ask." Even with four feet on the floor, Rainbow wobbled a little.

Limestone could have kicked her new friend. Princess. Either Rainbow was referring to one of a handful of royalty in the world—or she was talking about another alien from that other world. She looked to Sonata and sighed. "Yeah, and I'm trying to be as loyal as I can too. If you ever feel anyone messing with your head or doing stupid shit, give me a call."

Opening the door, Spicy beckoned Rainbow, which gave Limestone a moment to look back at Rarity and Sonata.

"Sonata, I hate to have to say it, but I'm going to need you to tell me everything you can about this princess, but it can wait until tomorrow." Yawning, Limestone marched for the door, leaving a rapidly sobering Sonata and Rarity watching her back.

"On a scale of one to ten, how bad was it that she knows about Princess Twilight?" Sonata asked.

"Darling, if I could count that high, I'd have studied math more."
> Chapter 24
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had taken four days to organize, but Limestone sat across a table from a pony. Like Rainbow Dash, she had wings, and like Twilight Sparkle (the college student), she had a horn. There was no tape recorder because Raven had told Limestone she wanted no record of any royal alien to exist. That meant all Limestone had was her pen and paper. "Princess Twilight Sparkle."

"Please just call me Twilight. You wouldn't believe how much that grates on you when you hear it day-in and day-out. You're a police officer named Limestone Pie, correct?" Twilight couldn't hold back the little smile she felt bubbling up inside when she found out the police officer was one of Pinkie's sisters. "I know your sisters in my world."

"I've been briefed that there are pony versions of most of us, yes. And yeah, I'm Sergeant Limestone Pie." She noticed Twilight's eyebrows raised at mention of her rank. "I was under the impression you would become human when you came here?"

"It's complicated now. There's so much magic in your world that it's leaking out all over. The portal should have made me into a human, but I think it's so magic-logged that even it can't tell the difference anymore. Sorry about that, by the way, I think it might have been at least a little tiny bit my fault." When Twilight saw curiosity explode onto up-until-now-stoic Limestone's face, she knew she'd need to continue. "It was about a year ago now. Sunset Shimmer came through the portal to Equestria and stole my crown. It's magic—the crown that is. She was fighting for all the wrong reasons, and I consider her debt repaid now, but that resulted in a lot of magic releasing into Sunset and her friends.

"Then, when the sirens first came to Canterlot, I came through and helped everyone defeat them." Twilight paused, a new smile wiping away her serious expression. "It's exciting to see that Sonata has learned how to be friends."

Limestone nodded, her hand moving a million-miles-an-hour as she scribbled notes. "I'd heard most of this from my sister, though she kept quiet about you. Well, she didn't, but I figured you were the Twilight that's here now. So you helped defeat one of the greatest scourges to mankind, and then what happened?"

It was a startling way to put it, in Twilight's estimation, but it fit. "Then my country was invaded, uh, a few times. I had my hooves full for a while. Did I mention time moves different between our worlds? It does. For me it's been about seven years. Anyway, I visited one more time to meet your world's Twilight Sparkle. She's pretty amazing, and we started sharing notes.

"I recently dropped by to help when Sunset said all this weird magic was going on, and the best I've been able to work out is that your world is basically a mirror of our world without magic. Now that magic is promulgating here, you're becoming a true mirror."

"You know, Twilight, I was worried you were going to tell me something worse was coming, not explain why all this craziness was going on. And that"—Limestone gestured to the stack of books at the end of the table—"will hopefully be of use."

Hearing someone happy they got books made Twilight feel bubbly inside. Sharing information was literally part of her life's work—an essential part of being a good librarian. "Please, if you have trouble translating them, let myself, Sunset, or this world's Twilight know. And, if you need more, let Sunset know and we can arrange more."

It was a gold mine for Limestone. She felt months and years of her life fading under the assault of so many books. "I might have to get a few researchers to take care of this for me."

"I can assure you that Equestria will not hesitate to lend support in this—" Twilight stopped when she realized what had been bugging her about Limestone Pie. "You have pony ears."

"Yeah, turns out they're pretty helpful in my line of work." Reaching up to the top of her head, Limestone rubbed at one of her ears. "My unofficial report on meeting you will be that you were not just helpful, but might be instrumental in assisting our understanding of all this. Given what you said, there's no way of stopping it, and in my estimation your—crown—was just a match. This world was a powder keg waiting to go off."

Twilight's mouth slowly dropped open as Limestone detailed her thoughts. It wasn't just correct, it was technically correct to the letter. "That's—that's a very good way to put it. A very good way. Then again, understanding this is your job, right?"

"Lately it has been. Putting facts in order and understanding how they mesh isn't all that different from putting people in order and understanding how they mesh. Facts are less complicated, at least." Limestone shrugged her shoulders. "What did you expect, my boss to send someone who wasn't good at this?" Not sure if it was a bluff or the biggest joke even, Limestone managed to keep a straight face—and that was all that mattered.

Relief flooded Twilight more and more. She would have preferred it if information was more public, but there was nothing in how Limestone had spoken to hint toward any mishandling of the situation. "I'm glad the matter is being managed seriously and cautiously, but I'd like to take some measurements."

Limestone nodded while writing down her thoughts on the pad. She underlined the word measure. "That would tell you how widespread this is and how fast it's spreading, right?"  

"Remind me before I go home to contact your pony double and offer her a job." Twilight climbed down from her chair.

With a laugh, Limestone stood up. "Yeah, I can drive you around. Hope you don't mind the rain, we've been getting a fair bit lately." She walked to the door and held it open. "What's my pony-self do, anyway?"

"She grows rocks." Twilight knew the world she was in had been almost entirely based on science, so she knew how silly that might sound. "It has to do with how rocks are formed."

Limestone only recovered from her confusion after Twilight had left. "What do you mean? What good are rocks?"

"Minerals, mostly. Growing a field of iron-bearing rocks is always a good investment, but there're crystals as well. Your pony family have a tradition of some of the finest mineral-bearing rocks in Equestria." Following Limestone out of the building, Twilight glared up at the sky and used her magic to create an umbrella above the two of them. "We can safely assume that Canterlot High School will be the epicenter, so we just need four good readings around it."

Looking up at the magic, Limestone shrugged her shoulders. "Sounds about right. Are you sure you don't want a reading at CHS?"

This made Twilight blush a little as she climbed into the car. "I—um—already took a reading there. It doesn't take long and I thought I might as well get it done in case it gave me any answers."

"Did it?" Limestone started her car.

"Yes. At that epicenter, magic is approximately twenty-five percent of Equestrian norm. This will affect creatures that pass too close, but I don't think any changes would be permanent yet. Your ears—"

"My ears are the result of helping my little sister and her friends deal with two very nasty sirens. There was a lot of magic that day, and several departments are still trying to get all the answers about what happened. We know, but we want to see if we missed anything." Limestone lay down a bunch of cards she'd been holding in her hand, metaphorically speaking.

"That makes far more sense than I thought it would." Twilight, used to dealing with cars, opted to sit down and lean back against the seat while fastening the belt across her belly. "Your, uh, boss. Would you be able to tell me who it is?"

A moment before pulling out into traffic, Limestone pulled the handbrake back on and pulled out her phone.







"Raven Inkwell." Limestone wasn't sure what she expected from Twilight, but her jaw dropping open in shock wasn't quite it. "I take it she's a"—Limestone gestured to the air—"a cloud farmer?"

The gag was just what Twilight needed to break from her surprise. "What? No. That would be silly."

"At least that's still norm—"

"We use factories to make clouds. No, Raven Inkwell is—" It was Twilight's turn to muse on her answer. "She's a problem-solver for Princess Celestia."

Raising an eyebrow, Limestone pulled out her notepad. "Princess Celestia? As in the Canterlot High School principal?" When Twilight nodded, Limestone started writing that down. "Who's queen?"

"We, uh, don't really have one. It's just we like to have a team govern—and, uh, Princess Celestia doesn't want to be seen as a tyrant. So we call ourselves princesses." It was the best Twilight could manage to explain the situation. "I know it doesn't make much sense, but—"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle?" When she said it, Limestone watched Twilight's head jerk toward her. "I am exceptionally glad this is being kept under wraps. Could you imagine how it would be if it got out a foreign ruler was involved in this?"

"Not actually a ruler."

A lessening of the political mess Limestone was worried about came as a relief. "So why princess?" Pulling into the road, Limestone figured she could handle any other odd things that might come up without needing to take notes.

"Well, because they want me to be a co-ruler. Also, the wings had something to do with it. That's kinda a big deal in Equestria."

Driving to Canterlot High School, Limestone turned east. "Okay, measuring a mile from here. I assume you need it exact?"

"As close to it as you can. I can measure the distances with magic after I've taken the reading—so I don't corrupt the measurement—then add some error bars later."

Limestone managed to hide that she knew what Twilight was talking about. It was egg-head stuff, but she'd found herself having to understand statistics a lot of late. When she pulled up, it wasn't too far from her parents home. "According to my car, this is the spot."

Getting out, Twilight resisted the urge to put up an umbrella spell and instead cast her magic measuring spell, then quickly followed up with another to detect the distance to the portal. "Okay, got that."

The drive to the second location was done in silence. Limestone passed the school again and reset the mile-counter on her dash. She was a little surprised to find that the location was within a block of her own home.

Twilight climbed out of the car into the pouring rain and huffed a little before shaking herself to clear most of the wetness from her coat. She was about to cast her magic-measuring spell when she froze.

"Just get back in your car and leave me alone."

The voice was prominent to Limestone because it stood out even against the rain. Climbing out of the car, she twitched her ears and looked at the only other person in the street. Limestone's first instinct was to rush over and knock the person out, drag them into custody, and go home to relax in a warm room—but she was escorting literal royalty.

When the car didn't drive off immediately Wallflower Blush's mouth formed into a line. She hated it when the rain messed with her stone. As the woman climbed out of the car and looked right at her, Wallflower started to panic. "No. Just leave! I don't want you here." As she said the words, she held the stone up and used it to reach out toward the two people and remove their memories to allow her words to sink in.

Wallflower loved the rain—normally. It had been raining so much lately that she'd almost started to feel happy—until it started messing with her stone. When the woman climbed back in the car and drove off, she let out a happy sigh and pulled the hood off her head. Cold, wet water quickly soaked her hair and started rolling down her body. "Now, to get Mom to book them for my party."

"I—I need to go back to Equestria," Twilight said. "I need to go back now."
> Chapter 25
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Right, but first I need to do one little thing…" Limestone—driving with one hand—reached into her jacket and pulled her phone out. "Call the general."

"Dialing General Raven Inkwell," the phone replied.

"General?" Twilight felt like she wasn't following an important conversation. "What's going on?"

"Sergeant? Something wrong?" Raven's voice sounded terse even to Limestone.

"General, I was escorting the VIP around to take measurements when I encountered our tango. They did a number on the VIP. I'm bringing her to you." Limestone could do terse too, with just a hint of fury and anger.

"Did something happen?" Twilight asked. She reached up to her head and rubbed the side of it, trying to make sense of a five-minute hole in her memories.

"Good move, sergeant. Bring the VIP back here and then—Hanging up now. I see you."

Limestone was past the point of road rules. She checked there was no car coming from in front or behind and just swerved across the road and pulled up with two wheels on the sidewalk. "Please hop out so I can go deal with the threat. The general will explain everything."

"But I—" Twilight took one look at Limestone's serious expression and nodded. "I trust you."

Ignoring the rain, Raven Inkwell opened the car door. "Your Highness, please head inside." She waited for Twilight to trot into the building. "Try to avoid killing them. Call me if you have someone to pick up."

"Sir." Limestone was already shifting the car back into gear as the door closed.

Twilight felt in a panic. She needed to get back to Equestria, but at the same time she now suspected that itself was wrong. When the older woman walked into the building, she quickly asked, "What happened? We were taking measurements when I—"

"Dammit, I hate doing these on the fly." Raven pulled out a notepad and a pencil and quickly scrawled a few symbols on it. It took more magic than she'd have used in a month to make the dispelling runes stick, but nonetheless she tore it free and leaned down to set it on Twilight's forehead.

The moment the paper touched her, Twilight felt strange magic rush from it. But rather than an attack, she felt the human magic tear a yoke from her mind. "Oh. My. Gosh. Who did that?"

"Someone who's about to have a very bad day. Your Highness, my name is Raven Inkwell. Please come this way and I'll make sure nothing else was done to you." Pulling out her phone, Raven tapped an icon and then started dialing through the special app. "Excuse me, I need to make a few calls. Our lounge is just up the stairs and is as well warded as anywhere in the city."

"Wait. My memory? Someone took away some of my memories but—Limestone is in danger!" Turning on her heels, Twilight made a run for the doors.

"Halt!" Raven still had her military-trained voice. "She's not in danger. She's immune to whatever the perpetrator is using. You're a guest here, please let me prote—" Quickly lifting her phone back to her ear, Raven spoke one of her code sequences into it slowly, softly, and very carefully. "I need a team at my location. Expect mental control." She hung up the call.

"How can she be immune?" Twilight asked, struggling not to go to Limestone's aid anyway. "Are you sure?"

"We have an asset who can do this kind of mental magic. She pushed the sergeant as hard as she could to no avail. I have a team on its way to secure the building. Once they are here, you'll be getting a ride home." Catching an angry defiance in Twilight's eyes, Raven realized something she'd been missing—this Twilight Sparkle was a fighter. "You're in our country. This is our mess."

Taking a deep breath, Twilight tried to instill some calm in her mind. In that time she quickly skipped through her memories and still only felt she'd lost a few minutes. She could remember Limestone pulling the car up—then there was a blank—then Limestone was driving away. "Yes. Of course. The memories were only very short-term, but that lasting effect was more of a problem. I couldn't even feel it until you—You used magic!"

"Well, I'm out of the bag." Captain Penny, in all her fluffy greatness, walked down the stairs from Raven's office. "My witch uses too many words sometimes. She's a witch, with magic, and she'll do her best to keep you safe."

"Oh. I'm sorry, we haven't been introduced. Twilight Sparkle." Twilight smiled at Penny.

"Penny, bane of mice. I heard what happened because you're both shouting in the outer lobby of what should be a secure building." Looking up at Raven, Penny tried to deploy her best don't even start, you should know better look.

"Well, I'm pleased to meet you, and glad you did reveal your magic, otherwise that effect would still be in place and I wouldn't have noticed it." Things were moving a bit fast for Twilight, but she'd dealt with such situations before. "I'm more familiar with more physical magic fights. This kind of tactic is not something I'm used to."

Raven was so surprised by the confession that she couldn't help but ask, "Your rulers don't lead from the rear, huh?"

It took Twilight a moment to understand the question, but she laughed at it. "Princess Celestia generally sticks to running things; Princess Luna too. Cadance and myself have been more active in our defense of our kingdom. Though, I owe most of my successes to my friends."

"Knowing the friends you've made here, and how effectively they've dealt with threats so far, I think you make good decisions about your friends." Raven hated foreign diplomacy, but now she knew Twilight was more a general who fought from the front line, it let her ignore those emotions. When she heard a revving engine approaching, she pulled out her phone—to see a new message on it.



"Penny, upstairs and keep an eye on things. Princess, please come with me." Opening the door, Raven spotted the big, black SUV parked outside her building.

Stepping out behind Raven, Twilight realized this was going to be her ride home. Relief flooded her, but at the same time she felt something odd. A moment before she stepped into the rain, she felt all the hairs on top of her body start to tingle.

Combat was something Princess Twilight Sparkle was perfectly used to. She'd been introduced to fighting when she'd watched her big brother (technical term: BBBFF) practicing and training, she'd learned all kinds of combat theory reading books, and then she'd started on her path to learning how to actually fight when she'd faced-off against Nightmare Moon.

All this led Princess Twilight Sparkle to have highly honed reflexes for combat. She knew full well that when you feel the hairs on top of your body stand up, throw up an anti-lightning shield—something she did an infinitesimal fraction of a second before a tracer growing from the ground met up with one coming down from the clouds above.





Limestone drove as fast as she could. Ticket be damned, she thought. The rain was beating down harder than ever as she approached the corner where her target had been. Slowing down, she began to try to find them.

The rain was starting to really get to Wallflower. She grumbled and made all kinds of annoyed sounds as she tried to explain it for the third time. "Mom, I want a big party and I want you to book a band."

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather a clown?" Struggling to follow her daughter's words—like she always did—Rhodolite couldn't quite understand why her little girl wanted a band when a clown was much more suitable for her age. "Maybe I could get someone to bring a pony?"

"No, Mom, I want—" When she heard the squeal of car tires, Wallflower jerked her head to the side in time to see the car from earlier pulling up across the street where her tree was. She clutched her stone tight and said, "Ugh. Just go away and never come back." She watched the car stop and the same strange woman from earlier climb out.

The voice in Limestone's head, for once, made her happy—she knew she was close to her target. Looking around and then up at the tree, she ignored the rain streaming down her face, arms, legs, and back. It wasn't important.

"Don't look at me. Don't look at me. Don't look at me." As she chanted, Wallflower watched the woman's head slowly turn and, through that single pane of glass, they were looking right at each other.

Limestone wouldn't have known where to go if it wasn't for that voice in her head. Her ears twitched and she turned and looked at a young woman whose look of shock matched what Limestone expected. "Gotcha."

Walking toward the house, Limestone heard a litany of curses and demands for her to just go away, to forget the face she'd seen, and to never come back. Every single one slid off her skull like the rain. What surprised her, as she reached the front door, was the garage door opening and two cars starting.

But the voice was still coming from inside the house. Limestone let the cars leave.

Hearing her parents' cars drive off, followed shortly by the front door splintering open, Wallflower felt anger boil up—just as a loud crash of thunder rang outside. "Get out! I don't want you here!"

Drawing her sidearm, Limestone kept it pointed down as she entered the house thought an unlocked door. "It's a little late for that. You've been messing with a lot of people." She glanced into the living room, kitchen, then made her way further down the hall. "You can give up now, and we can work something out."

Wallflower's breath was caught in her throat. She could hear the heavy steps in the hallway getting closer to her bedroom. "What'd you do to Mom and Dad?"

"Are you armed?" Limestone stood by the door of the room she'd heard Wallflower in. "Do you have a weapon apart from your mind-power?"

"Where's my mom?"

The voice made Limestone wince. She'd been hoping against hope that it was an adult behind everything, but hearing the pained voice—so much like her younger sisters'—caused her to holster her gun and hope she wouldn't regret it. "I don't know. There was two cars leaving before I came in. Do you want to come out here and talk about it?"

When there was no reply, Limestone sighed. "Look, you can't keep doing this. Your trick won't work on me, so you can either have me come in there or you can come out here and talk."

Wallflower clutched both hands over the stone and hugged it to her belly. "Why doesn't it work on you?"

"Something a lot nastier than you tried to use a mind whammy on me to make me their slave. A friend used magic to stop them and some of it blew back on me—now I'm like this. Why are you doing it?" It was a far calmer version of question-for-question, like what Limestone had done with Aria.

"I just wanted—want—people to like me. My first day in high school I stood up in class and said hello to everyone, but didn't notice I had a big wet patch on my skirt. I ran away from school for the day and that's when I—" Wallflower's knuckles were white she was clutching the stone so tight. "I found it."
> Chapter 26
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A changing situation. For Limestone, hearing that it was an item helped immensely—items could be disarmed. "It's what lets you do it, right?" A sinking feeling hit her as the dawning realization of what had happened to the girl's parents came to her.

Limestone waited, but when Wallflower didn't continue, she prompted her. "Then what happened?"

"I found the stone. It was like it called to me." Looking down at the carved and glowing rock in her hands, Wallflower bit her lower lip. "I thought it granted wishes. I wished that I could start that day over with no one knowing me.

"It worked. My wish was g-granted. When I went to school the next day, no one knew who I was—even the teachers. They had to call Mom and find out everything from her.

"It doesn't grant wishes, it steals memories. It—it takes away what I want it to." As soon as she said it, Wallflower knew it was a lie. In her hands, the stone flared a little brighter and shivered. "It doesn't grant wishes, it ste—"

Limestone had heard Wallflower the first time. She'd also heard a soft buzzing and saw a flare of light under the door. When Wallflower had started to repeat herself, Limestone was already moving.

"What are you doing?! Stand back!" Wallflower clutched the stone close. "I'll use it to—to…"

Reaching out, Limestone closed her hand around the stone—but like some kind of electric charge she felt it start to burn her fingers. Letting go, she stepped back. "Put it down."

"But—" Looking down at the stone, Wallflower could feel so much potential in her hands. She could do anything with the stone. "But I—" She wanted to say something, she struggled to get the words out, but every time she started to say them the stone would glow a little and she'd forget what she was about to say. "Help m—"

Having dealt with her fair share of pain before, Limestone reached out again—Wallflower's halted plea still in her ears—and grabbed the stone. "Let go."

"But I need it." Wallflower looked down at the stone and saw it flickering to life in Limestone's hand. "I—" Tilting her head up to look at Limestone, she nodded and let go.

The burning became far more intense. Limestone screamed as her hand started to smoke, but inside she felt that wall in her head becoming stronger and stronger. She was a rock, born of rocks, and she wouldn't break. "Ugh, this fucking thing is pissing me off!"

Squeezing down on the stone with her bare hand, Limestone felt magic stirring inside—her own magic. "Just." Tighter her fist squeezed, her gray knuckles not smoking anymore as the stone made a strange whistling sound. "Fucking." Power flooded Limestone. Her hair grew out and tumbled down her back, a snout pushed its way out from between and below her eyes, and she felt her legs change as hooves formed. When her skin started sprouting fur, the power grew to the point where the Memory Stone cracked. "Die!"

Wallflower stared at Limestone. She'd seen Sunset and her friends pony up before, but none of them had been a six-foot-tall angry ex-soldier with the power to crush rocks in her bare hands. When the stone was just so much gravel and sand falling from Limestone's hand, she gasped. "You broke it!"

Turning to look at Wallflower, Limestone grunted. "How could you bear to hold that? It burned me." She looked down at her hand, the dark marks on her fingers seeming to fade. "Whatever. Come on, we need to go back to work out what we'll be doing with you."

"You don't understand, I remember—" Wallflower paused and struggled to remember what she had remembered. When that proved too hard, she instead focused on what she'd lost. "I think a day or two. It was eating away at my memories." Another loud crack of thunder outside made Wallflower jump a little.

"Yeah, I figured that out when you kept stumbling over words. Are you okay?" Assessing the full extent of what Wallflower had done was not Limestone's job. She was simply tasked with stopping the situation. But, given the girl had been a minor when it first started, and the artifact had been affecting her, Limestone was going to be generous in her report.

Wallflower still struggled to remember what had happened in the last four years, but more and more of it was a blur. She couldn't remember a single thing about a class she'd studied let alone the students she'd studied with. "Y-You're with the police, right?"

"Kinda. I'll get some people here to take care of this mess while we go back to write all this up." Turning toward the door, Limestone held out a hand toward Wallflower. "You figured out what happened to your parents, right?"

"It ate everything about me since—since I was about five."

"No. I mean, you shouted to go away and never come back. That's probably why they got in their cars. But, if it's broken, they'll be able to come back." Limestone was surprised when Wallflower rushed against her. Holding back the urge to ask if Wallflower was alright, Limestone just put her arm around the girl as she started to sob.

Looking up at Limestone through tear-streaked eyes, Wallflower couldn't work out why the big and formerly angry soldier was being so nice. "C-Can you take me away now, before they get back?"

"Yeah, if you want. How much do they remember?" Limestone waited for Wallflower to let go, but when she didn't, reached her right arm over the young woman's shoulders and guided her to the front door. "I'll have to call some people to come and deal with things."

"Sooo…" Wallflower felt bad about leaving without talking to her parents, but the insight of several days of clear memories told he that her parents didn't really notice her much anyway. "You were all set to shoot me."

"Yeah." Limestone was blunt, she knew that, she wasn't likely to ever not be blunt. "I thought you were the one doing all—" She froze as she opened the front door, watching as lightning lanced down from the sky again and again back in the direction of her office. "Did you do this?"

Her eyes glued on the repeated lightning lancing into just one spot, Wallflower shook her head. "J-Just the stone. That's all I ever—what's it even doing?"

"My boss keeps telling me to forget everything I know about the natural world and think outside of it. When I see that much power hitting one spot over and over, I don't think that's a pretty big coincidence," Limestone said, "I think someone has a bigger gun than I do."

"I, uh, guess it does look like someone's attacking or fighting. But how are they doing that?" The rain was hammering down just as heavy as before, and while Wallflower was a little reluctant to step out into it, she still had her coat on. Pulling the hood of her raincoat up, she followed Limestone to the car.

"We're not driving into that. You might be an adult, but you're still in my custody." Despite her words, Limestone started the car and headed toward her department's building. "But if not because of you, why is this happening now? Hardly anyone even knows we exist."





Twilight's horn was a veritable fountain of magic. It boiled off and wrapped the car in a hemisphere that channeled the lightning strike safely away. She held her magic, ready in case there was another strike—worried there might be another strike. "Get them indoors where the building can protect them. That lightning wasn't natural."

There wasn't time to respond. Raven could accept advice on magic when the source was not just a powerful magic user, but also a combat magic user. "Exit the vehicle and get under cover!" It was her best parade-ground voice, and it worked.

Standing her ground, Twilight watched as four big men with serious-looking equipment disembarked the car and ran past her and into the building. "Okay, we—" She threw up her lightning shield again, halting a strike that curved under the eaves of the building and tried to lance directly at her.

"You thought you'd gotten away from me?!"

Ice formed in Twilight's veins (figuratively). She knew that voice. Stepping out of the confines of the building's vestibule, she saw a single figure standing in the middle of the street only a few buildings away. "N-No. You—"

"Come on, princess, how could you forget me? Your pegasi kept me from using all my magic last time, but where are your Wonderbolts here?" Gesturing to the sky, the Storm King smiled. "And a whole world of delightfully wild weather for me to play with. I should almost thank you!"

"What?!" Twilight shook her head. "I can't hear you over all this rain!"

"Oh drat. That was a good speech, too."

"What?!"

Bringing his left hand to his side, the Storm King snapped his fingers. Several seconds later the rain just stopped. "There. Can you hear me now? I mean, really, what's the point in monologuing if there's no one able to hear you?"

"What do you want, Storm King?" Twilight stepped out and onto the street. She kept her magic at the ready, but didn't want to make the first move if it came to a rapid flurry of spell-slinging. She was already forming half a dozen different counters and a dozen more of her own attacks.

"I want to ruin you. I want to destroy everything you've ever built. I want all of Equestria in ashes and this—whatever this place is—to be utterly destroyed. There will be nothing you have build, liked, or loved remaining in either world by the time I'm done." As he started talking, the Storm King started to sway a little with the headiness of a good monologue delivered directly to his antagonist. "And, when I'm done destroying everything before your eyes, then I'll kill you."

It was more than a little chilling. In Equestria, most of Twilight's opponents had had nebulous revenge or imprisonment as their objectives. "I won't let you. Not Equestria and not this world. I beat you once, Storm King, and I'll do it—"

The warning streamers caught Twilight's attention and she put up her lightning shield again just in time for a hammering flurry of bolts to start coming down directly on her. "Just stop already!" It was useless to shout—the pressure waves of thunder made it impossible to hear her anyway.

Done with playing defense, Twilight braced her hooves and lowered her horn. It wouldn't be as powerful as the Elements of Harmony, or even the friendship magic that came out when working with her five best friends, but she was an alicorn whose specialty was literally magic. When Twilight Sparkle lanced out with magic, it generally worked well.

Reaching to his back, the Storm King grabbed a shield from his back and brought it around just as the magic beam sought him out. The dark steel shield absorbed the torrent of magic with ease, grounding it out in the same way Twilight's shield had literally grounded the lightning. "Is that all?" he asked.

It was a surprise to the Storm King when Twilight vanished with a pomf of magic. The resulting blast in his back told him exactly where she'd gone. "Hold still!"

Snorting and shaking her head, Twilight teleported again when the Storm King turned to face her—delivering another blast into his back. "I can keep this up all day, you know."

Getting more and more annoyed (and not a little sore) the Storm King had finally had enough of the game. Raising his hand, he called down lightning onto himself and the ground around him.

Twilight had no choice, she had to get away from his lightning this time—the shield was a ground-locked effect. Her teleport took her two buildings away from the Storm King, and her first action was another lightning shield.

Beaming in delight, the Storm King was enjoying himself immensely. When he turned and spotted Twilight, he laughed aloud. "You really think that will save you forever? Your magic is—Can you hear me?!"

Figuring she could annoy him if nothing else, Twilight shook her head.

"Why did she have to teleport so far away? Don't these ponies know they should just give up before I get really serio—" The pain in his shield arm registered before he heard the rapport of the rifle. Dropping the shield, he held up his arm to reveal a sizable hole and a broken bone poking out.
> Chapter 27
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Limestone stopped the car a block away from where the fight was taking place. She squinted into the gloom and saw the strange upright creature attacking Twilight with magic. "Ugh. Okay, I'm gonna trust you not to run off and make me chase you again. I want you to get out and head back to the intersection behind us. Get to a corner and wait for me. Got it?"

In shock at the fight going on in front of her, Wallflower got out of the car like a marionette—all jerky motion. "What are you going to do?"

Popping the trunk of her car, Limestone walked around to it and pulled up the carpet to reveal the wheel-well and a locked black case. "What I can. That's all anyone can do."

Wallflower stayed for several seconds as Limestone opened the case and lifted out her assault rifle. It took her a moment to remember that the guy was throwing around actual lightning—which made her turn tail and run as Limestone had told her.

Watching as Limestone climbed up onto the roof of her car, Wallflower turned her attention on the fight going on down the street. There was a pony with wings and a horn trading blows with some kind of fuzzy guy that had a shield. The pony she recognized as having been in the car with Limestone earlier, but the other guy she didn't.

Then the guy raised a hand and lightning started hammering down through him and around him. She gasped, realizing it didn't seem to hurt him. That's when Limestone's gun let out a loud crack.





Eyes wide, the Storm King looked down at his arm and then lifted his head to where the sound of the gun's rapport came from.

Twilight tilted her head forward with another of her powerful blasts. She sent a hurricane of power spiraling down her horn toward the Storm King. "No you"—two cracks of lightning happened before her blast reached him, one down the road at the car and one on himself—"Ponyfeathers!"

Limestone could feel the streamers of energy trailing up from her body. She tried to line up another shot in the time she knew she had, but even as her finger started to squeeze the trigger she knew she was too late.

It was more than just touching a live wire. Limestone screamed in pain as the lightning ripped down the right side of her body. It slagged the rifle butt against her shoulder, carved black lines over her skin, and finally grounded out through the car underneath her leg.

Wallflower was running before her vision had cleared. She pounded back toward the car and reached the smoldering vehicle just as Limestone started to fall sideways off the roof.

170lbs of muscle and bone would have been hard enough for anyone to carry, but Wallflower watched the mountain that was Limestone Pie falling toward her and realized she would not survive a direct hit. Adjusting her position quickly, she aimed to grab Limestone's head and shoulders—or at least let those parts land on her.

When Limestone cameto—nearly a minute later—she was laying on the ground beside the mess of her car, head on Wallflower's lap, looking up into the girl's face. "What the fuck was that?" She tried to move, but found her right side feeling really wrong.

"You shot a monster in the arm and then he struck you with lightning." Wallflower hadn't been able to move since Limestone landed on her. Even just Limestone's head and shoulders were too much for her to move without the possibility of hurting her. "And then you fell off your car and—"

"And you stopped me from spillin' my head all over the ground. Thanks." When she tried to sit up, Limestone was barely able to work her right side, but her left was fine enough. "I mean it. That was quick thinking. What happened to the bad dude?"

"He disappeared, I think. Hey, is that woman on your side?" Wallflower asked.

Limestone tried to turn her head to look, but that required muscles she didn't trust yet. "Does she have an angry-looking cat with her?"

"Cat looks pissed as hell—the woman looks calm."

"Yeah, that's my boss." Now she had something important to do, Limestone started turning her whole body and caught sight of Raven and Penny approaching. "Any chance of postponing the debrief?"

Raven rushed forward and caught Limestone as she started to fall over. "What—No, you're right. Debrief later." Bracing her shoulder under Limestone's left arm, she hefted her employee into a standing position. "Whoever you are, you better come with us," she said to Wallflower.

Not that Wallflower could do much but follow when Limestone reached a hand up to her for help. She braced as hard as she could and took the hand, still almost falling over when someone twice her body weight hauled on her arm.

"You're not going to run?" Limestone asked, trying not to put too much of her weight on Wallflower's shoulder as they started walking away from the smoldering car.

"I'd run, but I have a mountain leaning on me." The joke was easy to crack because it avoided the heart of the question completely. "What just happened?"

"Still trying to figure that out myself. Here was I playing babysitter to a—to a foreign national, then I find someone who's been getting her mind screwed with for four years, and next thing I know there's some kind of monster trying to blast my boss with lightning." Pausing, Limestone looked back at the roof of her car. Her rifle was mostly slagged with a good portion of the barrel now welded to the car. "At least it's not raining anymore."

As happens, nature decided to take that as its cue. Clouds that had been prepared and stuffed with moisture for weeks opened up and pelted the ground with their rain.





Twilight looked across at the young woman sitting in the room with her. "Four years ago?" she asked.

Wallflower was just done with questions. She sighed, putting all her frustration and contempt into it. Getting it all out helped slightly. "Four years ago. The stone could remove memories and—and with practice I could get it to fudge something in its place."

"Like you made me need to return home? How did you do that?"

"I pushed something into the hole in your memory that would make you want to go home. I'm sorry about that." And she was. From what Wallflower could remember, she'd done some bad things with her power, but nothing like almost getting someone killed. Or, so she hoped. "I can't remember everything."

"It's alright. Really. Limestone explained her side of things and I agree with her assessment. This was a case of a hostile artifact using you for its own ends."

Wallflower didn't want to agree to that. "S-So what now? Are you going to lock me up?"

"Me? No. If they have a shred of pride, Raven won't lock you up either. This wasn't your fault. I'm starting to suspect that things have been messed up here for a while, and with the Storm King getting here, I can't see it getting better." Stiffening the muscles in her forelegs, Twilight clamped her jaw shut tight to fight off the self-doubt. "And now he's revealed himself, I can't go home until he's dealt with."

For a brief, shining moment Wallflower imagined herself asking to be Twilight's assistant. To help her battle storm kings and go back to her pony world. Instead, she just lowered her eyes and squeezed her lips into a thin line.

Twilight opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by the door opening to the office. She looked up at Limestone.

"Boss wants to get all sides of this. We're done with the annoying stuff." Nodding at Wallflower, Limestone tried to at least not frown at the girl.

Raven felt like shit. Her relaxed foreign relations mission couldn't have gone more sideways. The visiting royalty had wound up in a one-on-one fight with a monster on a city street, their local bad-guy had turned out to be a kid who'd been getting mind-fucked by some artifact, and her subordinate had gotten struck by lightning and seemed to have shrugged it off. "Please, have a seat.

"Firstly, let me thank you, princess, for protecting the people of America, and for putting up with some difficult situations while here. None of this was intended, obviously. Secondly, having reviewed the situations of both of you, I think it would be best if Miss Wallflower Blush returns to her parents and Princess Twilight Sparkle returns to her own world."

"No." The word had come from Wallflower and Twilight at the same time. They looked at each other.

"I'll go first," Twilight said. "Magic seeping into this world might have been inevitable, but the Storm King being here wasn't. He followed me here so he could fight me without all of Equestria getting in the way. You saw what he could do out there. If you have anyone try to face him directly they'll—they'll not come out of it well."

When Twilight nodded in her direction, Wallflower felt like the walls were going to close in. Limestone, Raven, Twilight, and even Grace stared at her—she wasn't sure which pair of eyes was worse. "I can't go back to my parents. I can't look at them in the face with what I've done. They don't remember me at all—they remember the little girl I used to be." She looked up at Raven. "I want a job. I want to live my own life and—and stop this happening to others." The oddest thing for Wallflower was the approving looks from everyone present—even the cat.

"I could try to make both my suggestions into orders." Looking between the pair, Raven had the distinct displeasure to realize her subordinate was right. "But right now, with this Storm King still on the loose, I'd take all the help I can get. Officially, princess, you'll be an observer with diplomatic immunity. I'll leave it to my sergeant to explain what that entails. As for you, Miss"—she turned her stern gaze on Wallflower—"I can appreciate you want to help, hell, I admire it, but it won't be out there. I need a pair of eyes to go over all the unclassified reports that are going to start rolling in—that's now your job."

"Err—" Wallflower snapped her mouth closed at having been given a job to do so quickly. This was what she wanted—she nodded.

"Okay, so starting with you leaving here to take the readings, princess, what happened?" Raven relied both on the recording device in her office and her own typing to take things down. She had a fair idea of things based on Limestone's report, but every angle could be important.

Twilight started off describing the first drive, then doubling back to take the second reading. "It was really odd when—when Wallflower's stone affected me. I know now what happened, but at the time I just felt a need to get home and take care of something."

"Your oven was on," Wallflower said with a blush.

"Yes! That was it! Wait, Spike would be using the oven anyway. That doesn't make sense."

"It doesn't need to. You just need something in the gap to anchor your new desire to." Wallflower paused as she realized everyone's eyes were locked on her. "I'm going to have to describe this again, aren't I?"

"Nope. As an employee, you'll have to write a report on it. Then we'll discuss that." Limestone winked at Wallflower.

"So," Twilight said, returning to her description of events, "Limestone got me back in the car before I could run off on my own, and we drove back here."

When Raven looked at Wallflower, she wanted to run and hide. "It was still pouring with rain—harder than ever, actually. After I was happy that Limestone and Pr—Twilight—were gone, I went back inside because the rain started creeping in my poncho. As usual, Mom and Dad couldn't even remember me leaving."
> Chapter 28
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You can skip over anything dealing with your parents," Raven said.

"Th-Thanks. I guess it was a few minutes later that I heard her outside again. I just wanted her to go away and shouted—I shouted at her to leave. As if that would work against someone who crushes rocks in her fist and walks away from being struck by lightning." It actually made Wallflower happy to have this stupid-big juggernaut of a woman around.

Raven barely managed to keep from laughing out loud—but only barely.

"So then she was coming to the house, so I hid in my bedroom. She just knew where I was and then—and then she listened to me. She just—I've never had someone just ignore everything I do and listen before. Next thing I know she's in the room and broke the stone."

"And that's when Limestone got the snout and tail, right?" Raven asked.

"Oh. Yeah."

"And it's when you got those pony ears."

Wallflower's hand shot up to the top of her head and she froze at the feel of a fuzzy little pony ear on top of her head. She couldn't just feel the ear—she could feel her hand with the ear.

"You didn't notice them?" Limestone asked.

Shaking her head, her hand unable to move away, Wallflower let out a little whimper.

Already getting to her feet, Limestone looked at Raven before asking, "Boss, I think you got all you need from her, right?"

Raven nodded and turned to Twilight while Limestone helped Wallflower to her feet and out the door.

Once out of the smaller room, and with a big arm around her shoulders, Wallflower started trying to breathe properly again. "Why?"

"The ears?" Limestone asked, and got a little nod from Wallflower. "I got mine when I kicked a mind-controlling siren. You got yours from winning the fight against that stone. Maybe it's a reward?"

"Not even funny. It makes me a fr—" Wallflower stopped, realizing what she was going to say wouldn't go down well.

Limestone had been fishing for why Wallflower mattered so much to her—but now it finally hit her. Wallflower was just like Marble. When she'd first gotten back on leave, she hadn't realized why Marble couldn't fit in so easily—and here she was seeing someone else who was in a similar situation. "You can say it. It made me a freak, but I'm a freak that can help people. You think you would have been caught if I hadn't gotten this thick head?"

Shuddering, Wallflower was now hyper-aware of her ears tucking back at the thought of that. "That's horrifying. It—It kinda made me forget a lot of stuff I should probably know. School…"

"Then you go back to school. You were at Canterlot High School, right?" When Wallflower nodded, Limestone went on. "Well, sign up for classes there. No one will remember you anyway. I'll sign off on anything you need, and if my signature won't do, we'll get the boss to handle it."

It was like a whirlwind. Wallflower had been pulled out of the hellhole her life had become and been offered a future. It was a future she'd be fighting for, but it was hope nonetheless. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why all this? For me I mean. You're treating me like—"

"Like my little sister who struggles every day with crippling insecurity and is introverted?" When she got no answer, Limestone continued. "I have three little sisters. One's doing post-grad study at college and the two younger ones are twins—almost complete opposites in every way. One's outgoing, extroverted, ready to shout in your face until you smile. The other… You remind me of her I guess."

"Okay, so you have a thing for scared, lost puppies because of your sister." Wallflower mostly said it to fill the silence, because silence was at least twice as annoying as not-silence. "I don't suppose you know of anywhere I could live while I look for a place?"

"I'll ask around. You could sleep on my couch, if I had a couch. My place is so small I barely fit in it as it is."

"I could believe that." Sitting up straighter in her seat when the door opened, Wallflower waited to see who was coming out. Twilight and Raven walked through. She paid close attention to Twilight, watching the way her ears twitched about in particular. "So what now?"

"We discussed matters, and talked with my higher ups, and this department is now working with Princess Twilight to apprehend this Storm King. You're going to be examined for any latent abilities and will have a place on my team after a short trial period." Raven rattled off the deliberation she'd been given and added her own bit to the end. "Sergeant, you're going to continue to be the princess' escort for the time being."

"Yes, sir." Limestone straightened and gave Raven a nod. "With your permission, I'll also arrange rehabilitation for Wallflower. That stone was fucking with her head for long enough that there may be some gaps in her schooling."

"See to it. You'll also need housing. Sort that out and submit an expense report. Thank you, sergeant." Raven headed for the door to the stairs.

Seeing everything had been dumped in her hands, Limestone let out a sigh. "Well, ladies, I have some paperwork to do, but I bet you want to investigate the are where the fight happened?"

With a grin, Twilight nodded. "That would be a good start. I can attempt to pick up his destination from there."





Twilight had learned to love relaxing with Thunderbolt. Her college studies were going well, and his sharp mind was quick to pick up any topic she cared to bring up. "Spike's doing better. Mom's teaching him, and I think he's more confident with his new body."

Sprawled out on the back porch, Thunderbolt clenched his right talon and felt the rubber tips that Twilight had come up with for his claws. He started tapping on his tablet screen, reading through his homework. "You should bring him around more."

"He's intimidated by you."

"I'm twice as long as people are tall—everything alive is intimidated by me." As soon as he said it, Thunderbolt let out a purr from Twilight poking her nose against his neck. "Okay, everything except you, Marble, Tree, and Rainbow."

Twilight nuzzled Thunderbolt again and rolled so that she was laying against his belly. "What about Spicy?"

Chuckling, and scrolling to the next page of his textbook, Thunderbolt turned his head to press his nose to Twilight's belly. "Spicy Hot is intimidated by me, but he enjoys it too much for me to dissuade him."

The warm breath—practically hot given the furnace it was coming from—tickled over Twilight's belly and made her squirm just a little. "Do you know of a way to help him?"

"Spicy?"

"No, Spike."

"Teach him how to fight." Rumbling a purr constantly now, Thunderbolt turned his head back to his homework. "It will help him learn to control his anger, too."

"Huh." Twilight tilted her head back—which left her looking at Thunderbolt's screen upside down. "What're you studying?"

"How to change the topic, by professor Twilight Sparkle." Lifting one rubber-covered claws, Thunderbolt booped Twilight on the nose. "Have him go to the gym with Spicy. If he needs a lift, I can handle it."

"You'd fly him there? Isn't this meant to help him relax and not be intimidated?" Twilight protected her nose from further enboopenings by raising both forehooves over it.

"Riding on a dragon, or so I've heard, is quite exhilarating. I thought it might help." Turning the page, Thunderbolt continued with his reading. "Regardless. Talk to Spicy and get Spike involved in more outside things."

"Wait, is this because he was a dog, like you?"

"He wasn't a dog like me. You were his shield against everything life could throw at him. You revealed a weakness to what the world could do, and maybe he feels that too. Let him learn to be strong." The end of chapter questions in the textbook took some typing to solve, but Thunderbolt was reasonably fine tapping away with one talon while splitting his attention between Twilight and the tablet.

"How'd you get so good at this?" Twilight asked.

"Reading comprehension?"

"No. Feelings. People. All this stuff that goes on in people's heads." Twilight rolled a little further so her belly was against Thunderbolt's shoulder. "How do you do it?"

"I listen a lot. When you're the biggest thing in a room, or even outside, people can feel intimidated if you talk too much. If you keep quiet, they tend to forget you're even there." Turning his attention away from the tablet, Thunderbolt shoved it against Twilight's belly again, then lower. "Wanna fuck?"

"What about your stud—yyyyyyy?" Twilight's attempt at a reply was completely broken up as Thunderbolt's broad tongue stroked a long S that started just below her vulva, snaked forward and across both her sensitive teats (small as they were), and then up to her belly button. Panting for a few moments, looking Thunderbolt in the eyes, Twilight snorted her best nerd-snort. "Well duh. I—"

"Twilight?" Sunset called, opening the back door. She tried looking anywhere but where she knew Thunderbolt normally rested—especially since finding him and Twilight enjoying some special time together just a week earlier. "Have you seen Marble?"

"She's in her bedroom masturbating," Thunderbolt said.

Sunset stared at Thunderbolt for nearly ten whole seconds, turned, and walked back inside.

Having managed to hold back her snort until after Sunset was gone, Twilight said, "You did that on purpose."

"Yes. She barely acknowledges me. Just now, when she finally looked this way, she only looked at you." Thunderbolt found himself a unicorn ear to nibble.

Twilight's neck muscles twitched and gave way. She rolled onto her back but kept her head turned to Thunderbolt so he wouldn't be interrupted. "We kinda had a thing for each other for a while, plus she's just a bit freaked out about me being a pony."

"Wasn't she born a pony?" Shifting his weight, Thunderbolt stretched a leg over Twilight's body and pinned her down with his mass.

Knowing what was coming, Twilight tilted her head back and looked up the line of Thunderbolt's body. She was only half his physical torso in length, but her body was oddly well-built at accommodating him. "She was, but in case you didn't notice, she's spent most of her time here now. I think she's gone native."

Clenching down as he lined himself up with Twilight's body, Thunderbolt asked, "Gone native? What does that mean?" and didn't give her more than a second to contemplate her answer before squeezing a muscle deep in his body—unloading a spray of thin fluid over her whole rump, anus, and vulva.

Twilight knew what Thunderbolt was about. When he lined up the deflated tips of both his shafts, she relaxed her muscles as much as she could. "Gone native is when someone embraces a culture not their own so much as to be indistinguishable from a native."

"Hrmm." Thunderbolt was careful with his mass and positioning, not wanting to crush or harm Twilight in any way. "Good to know."
> Chapter 29
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight had never gotten used to that moment when Thunderbolt pushed into her. Since the first time he'd asked her for sex and she'd agreed, not once had she managed to keep in the loud whinny that both his penises entering had stirred within her. Reaching up with her legs, she wrapped around his lower belly and held on to his bulk. He was huge, but he was gentle.

Every sound that left Twilight's lips was music to Thunderbolt's ears. The deep-seated lust within him boiled to the surface, however, and he couldn't keep from letting his body go. Gentle thrusts turned more and more into solid, hip-crashing pumps. Stroking himself inside her body as she whined, whimpered, and moaned under him.

In Thunderbolt, Twilight had found the first male to sate her in ways she and her body could enjoy. Every movement he made was calculated not to harm her, and the knowledge that he cared so much only made her sexual pleasure grow higher still.

Thunderbolt was starting to swell when he felt Twilight's passages start to clench down. Curling his head under his chest, he looked down to see Twilight staring back at him with the surprised expression of someone who just hit an orgasm they didn't feel coming. Careful to not alter his pace, Thunderbolt tried to keep Twilight in the zone for as long as she could manage before slowing as she ended.

Mentally frazzled at the sudden orgasm, but feeling amazing after the extended release, Twilight looked up and her vision cleared to see Thunderbolt looking back at her. She gave a little nod—her sign to him that she was ready for him to continue at his full pace.

As he built up speed again, Thunderbolt could feel his shafts swelling more and more—restricting the length of his strokes. It wasn't long before he'd swollen too much to move at all, and in that moment his body tensed up and his own pleasure danced through him from his gonads, through his prostate, and from there out to the entirety of his body.

Thunderbolt shook and trembled as his body erupted. It was more than just the relief he'd found as a canine, it was pleasure and more—satiation. He shot load after load deep into Twilight's body, filling her colon and womb with his seed.

The heat of Thunderbolt's body—now inside her—made Twilight feel on fire in more way than one. Her pleasure was racing again, but there was no stimulation apart from the intense fullness she felt with him inside her. She wanted so much to get herself a second orgasm, but it wasn't to be. With a resigned sigh, she instead just sank into a warm arousal that was centered around how good sex with Thunderbolt made her feel.

Purring again, Thunderbolt turned his body slightly so Twilight could nestle in between his back legs and against his belly. He unfurled his wing and brought it down to cover her body and lend her what modesty he could. "Sorry I couldn't las—"

"Don't you dare apologize for that." Twilight looked up at Thunderbolt, her confidence piled high by her body's excitement. "After a tough week of school, I needed this more than you could imagine."

"You're different when you're out here—with me." He reached down to rub at Twilight's jaw, trailing his talon up to her ear to give it a little attention. "It's like all your hangups and worries are left at the back door."

"This is my safe place," Twilight said.

Thunderbolt purred just a little louder. "Under my belly?"

Snorting and giggling, the movement of her diaphragm made her muscles shift and reminded her body that she had two big shapes inside her, as well as two big loads of dragon cum. "Yes, silly, under your belly, under your wing. Mostly, just under and around you."

"Is it your size? You shrank quite a bit."

"Yeah. That's definitely part of it. It's also the looks people give me. Even my friends—except Rainbow and Spicy—tend to look at me and I can feel a vague sense of worry or fear. They know now what happens when the magic in them gets too high." Closing her eyes, Twilight leaned her head against Thunderbolt's talon. "You've never looked at me like that."

"I guess I'm like Rainbow, then. This is as far as I'm likely to go with just magic." Thunderbolt smiled—revealing razor-sharp fangs—as Twilight nuzzled around his talon. "Maybe we should all sit down and talk. Then I cou—"

"We need to talk," Sunset said the moment she had the back door open.

Adjusting his wing to hide Twilight, Thunderbolt looked up at Sunset. "Then let's talk. I was acting out earlier because you seem to never be willing to make eye contact with me. You look at Twilight, a couch behind me, anywhere but at me."

The admission and accusation halted Sunset in her tracks. Without Twilight to look at—and not wanting to use any of the other visual guides Thunderbolt had just mentioned—Sunset looked right at the dragon. She knew he was hiding Twilight, but was sure she knew exactly what they'd been doing. "That's—Okay, yeah, that's fair. The thing is, Thunderbolt, I don't know how to deal with you. Dragons in Equestria aren't exactly known for erudite speech or kindness, but you have both. I just can't wrap my head around you."

A muffled sound under Thunderbolt's wing forestalled his reply. He tilted his wingtip so Twilight could poke her head out.

"Thanks." Twilight sent Thunderbolt a big smile, then turned to look at Sunset. "You're thinking about it all wrong. You can't wrap your head around it because you're trying to wrap your head around it. Thunderbolt's an individual—he's not part of a group from an entirely different world."

Sunset tried to not look at Twilight, but her eyes drifted toward her friend only in time to see her pull a funny face. "I don't know if I can have this conversation like this."

"Lighten up. It's just like Twilight said—don't apply pre-conceived notions of dragon-ness to me." Thunderbolt turned his head and leaned in to Twilight and nuzzled her along her jaw. "You doing okay?"

Twilight giggled at the attention, then snorted a little when she thought of what Sunset would think if she mentioned how full she felt. "I'm okay, Thunder."

"So," Thunderbolt asked, "what was so urgent earlier that you interrupted what you knew was an intimate moment?" When Sunset took a step back and blinked in surprise, Thunderbolt groaned. "Come on, you know I can't do this in their bedrooms. Out here is the only time we get alone together."

Sunset froze at hearing that. She hadn't connected those dots, and now she was a little upset with herself for not having done so. "I—I'm sorry. This is just way outside my experience." That's when she realized he'd asked her a question. "Oh! Right! Why I was looking for Marble. Her sister was involved with some stuff today and, uh, Princess Twilight is in the living room."

Thunderbolt had to use more strength than he expected to keep Twilight from jumping to her hooves. "Excuse us. We'll clean up and come inside as soon as we can."

At last Sunset's eyes drifted to Twilight, noticed the wing pinning her in place, and was thankful that Thunderbolt was quick thinking. Then she realized she was just staring. "Right! Going now. Sorry."

"Sunset," Thunderbolt said just as she reached the door. When she paused, he smiled. "Thank you for trying to understand things."

The moment the door closed, Twilight wiggled out from under Thunderbolt. "Didn't you hear? The princess is in there! I need to talk to her immediately!" She was caught, however, when Thunderbolt picked her up. "What are you doing?"

"You smell like a dragon just fucked you." Holding Twilight over the small pool, Thunderbolt let go. "Also, make it a fast meeting. Those plugs will come out eventually, and you don't want to be talking science with the princess when they do."

Dunking herself underwater, Twilight brought her head up first and then started climbing out of the cold water. "Do you need any help cleaning?"

Stepping into the water, displacing some into the grass, Thunderbolt squirmed his hips around. "No. Do you need help drying?"

"I figured out a spell to do it. With all this fur I—" Twilight froze as she heard the back door of the house open again. When her doppelganger (with wings) stepped out, she went into full panic.

"Good evening, Princess Twilight," Thunderbolt said, "do you want to—" A purple field of magic clamped down so tightly around his snout, Thunderbolt thought his lover was going to break it off.

"You can't ask her that!"

Shaking his head, Thunderbolt freed his mouth. "Sorry, as I was saying, do you want some privacy to talk with Twilight?"

"I think that would be appreciated. She seems a little distracted with you here." Alicorn Twilight had grown up with a dragon around, and then had lived with Spike on their own long enough to know what she smelled in the air. She waited for Thunderbolt to leave the pool, dry off, and head inside before she spoke again. "You and he?"

Unicorn Twilight blushed, but nodded. "Among others. We're kinda, sorta, sharing."

It was a small surprise to Twilight, but she wasn't going to hold her doppelganger's lifestyle against her. "My sister-in-law is the same way. Relax. I need your help with something."

"My help?"

Alicorn Twilight nodded. "I need your help finding the Storm King." There was a hint of defeat in her tone, she knew, but this had to be done. "I thought we'd defeated him in my world, but somehow he reached yours."





When Thunderbolt walked inside, the middle of the living room was like a no-man's-land. On one side Limestone and a strange woman sat. On the other was Sunset. The glaring-contest taking place would have affected him more if he knew why they were upset.

Walking into the middle of the room, Thunderbolt sat between the two groups and spread his wings just enough so they couldn't see each other. All the while he'd done it, neither side had spoke. "There. Now you have a dragon in the room, you can talk about me instead."

Wallflower was a little surprised to see a living, breathing, and talking dragon, though what he said made her giggle. "I feel like I should start. Hello, dragon, my name's Wallflower Blush, and I tried to make everyone forget I existed. When that wasn't enough, I blamed my whole life on Sunset and was making plans to make her forgotten too."

Turning his head, Thunderbolt looked at Sunset and raised one scaled eye-ridge.

Opening her mouth to say something, Sunset closed it and let out a sigh. "I can't even remember how terrible I was to her, and I don't doubt I was. It took a princess of friendship and the most amazing people I know to break me of the bitch I was. I shouldn't be angry at her, but I am."

"Now I'm confused. Why were you all glaring at each other like you were ready to attack?" Thunderbolt asked.

"She's dating my sister." Limestone's gruff voice was as gruff as she could manage. "As a big-sister, I'm allowed to come down hard on her."

Noticing movement from the hallway, Thunderbolt spotted Marble and smiled at her. She was halfway toward him when he saw Limestone's expression darken. Not hesitating to wrap his wing around Marble, Thunderbolt smirked at Limestone. "Now you're out-numbered."

It wasn't until Marble was snuggled against Thunderbolt's side that she spotted her big sister. She also saw the trail of blue/red marks down one of her sister's arms. "What happened?!"

"I was doing my job. Shot a bad guy, missed his head, and he shot back with lightning." Limestone shrugged her shoulders. "So what's going on between you and dragon boy here?"

Looking up at Thunderbolt, Marble sighed and put more weight against him. "He's gentle, and strong, and he doesn't try to be something he's not."
> Chapter 30
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Okay," Wallflower said, "I get the dragon in the room joke, but literally what's going on? Dragons exist?"

"I don't know about others, but I think—therefore I am Thunderbolt. It's nice to meet you." Moving to a large section of couch halfway between Sunset and Wallflower, Thunderbolt half climbed up so that Marble could sit comfortably and he could still have one wing around her.

Rolling her eyes at the display, Limestone looked across at Sunset. "Hey, wings, you do a mind-zapping thing, right?"

"My name's Sunset, and yeah, I guess. Why?"

"Give it a shot on me. See if it does anything." Limestone reached out her hand that had the blue/red lines trailing down it. "You see, we worked out what I'm good at."

Curious, Sunset stood up and walked across. "It's not going to hurt me, is it?"

"Nope."

Shrugging, Sunset reached out and touched Limestone's arm, expecting to pull herself into the soldier's head. Instead, she was just touching Limestone's arm. Pushing again, Sunset tried tapping other places on her arm. "I can't get in your head."

"Bam. So it's worked on everything so far, though Sonata said to be careful around her sisters." Limestone pulled her hand back. "That's why I want to talk to you. Sonata said Adagio would be the toughest to defend against—so much that even my backups might not work. How did you and your friends break out of their control last time?"

"Nope, you don't want to try that. It took all of us last time to break the spell, and that was only because Sonata was working against them." Sitting back down, Sunset barely got her rump on the couch when a squealing sound came from the front door. "Pink—"

Pinkie Pie rushed into the living room and looked around. "Ohhhhh, what happened?" She pointed at Limestone's arm, then got distracted when she noticed Marble. "Wait! Hold on! Where's Maud?!"

Standing up, Sunset walked up behind her manic girlfriend and pulled her into a hug. She felt Pinkie try to shove into her, but she held back the wave of pink—at least long enough to kiss Pinkie on the neck.





Pinkie, wearing a metal bikini and a metal collar complete with chain, hugged and kissed Sunset—dressed in a vest, shirt, but no pants.

"P-Pinkie! Where's my pants?" Sunset tried to look down, but was too distracted by the press of Pinkie's body against her.

"Remember, you're in my head. Wait! You should be wearing the bikini!" Snapping her fingers, Pinkie Pie quickly reversed the roles and was now the brave space-adventurer finding a buxom redhead chained up. "Sunset! You have boobies!"

Grabbing Pinkie, Sunset slumped backward onto a conveniently placed couch (that hadn't been there a moment earlier) and pulled Pinkie's head down and into her cleavage. She heard Pinkie's stream of giggles stop and felt her girlfriend go a little limp.

Nuzzling and cuddling Sunset, Pinkie let out a long sigh of utter peace. "How'd you know I needed this?"

"Because you always need this, Pinkie."

"Yeah, today I was trying to make a bordelaise sauce but the butter kept separating and I was left with a mess." Not questioning how she can half-bury her face in Sunset's cleavage and talk at the same time, Pinkie lifted her hands to frame Sunset's breasts and made the bikini top disappear.

Showing her own control over Pinkie's dreamscape, Sunset made her breasts a little larger. "What's a bordelaise sauce?"

"I keep forgetting you're not just the most gorgeous woman I've ever met. It's a rich sauce made with wine, and marrow, and butter. It's probably the most decadent thing a meat-eating person could put on meat, but it's soooooo worth it." Halting her description, Pinkie nuzzled at each breast, alternating sides. "I keep forgetting I can't stir the butter in."

Cradling Pinkie against her chest, Sunset started rubbing one of her girlfriend's ears. "Pinkie, do you think it's strange how I came here to not be a pony, and now I'm turning into one anyway?"

"The only problem I see is that when you turn into a pony, I'll only have these to play with in your head." Emphasizing what she meant, Pinkie massaged Sunset's chest—then turned her into a pony.

"H-Hey! Pinkie!"

Lifting Sunset up and looking between her back legs, Pinkie lamented the tragic loss. "Look! They're just little nubs. How am I—You're enjoying that, huh? I guess they're still sensitive?"

Going cross-eyed at the teat massage Pinkie was giving her, Sunset tried to reply but could only moan in approval.

Picking Sunset up and cradling her, Pinkie kept nuzzling, licking, nibbling, and sucking on Sunset's teats. It was only in part to hear her girlfriend's cute moans, because Pinkie was actually surprised to find she enjoyed playing with Sunset's teats. They weren't breasts, but they were nice.

With Pinkie distracted, Sunset eased them out of the shared mind and back into the real world.





Catching Pinkie, Sunset finished the kiss and folded a wing around her back. It never ceased to cause a little confusion as she came back to reality and found the conversation she'd forgotten she was participating in was still paused.

Limestone watched the brief version of Pinkie and Sunset's interaction and had to stop herself from smiling. She'd thought that seeing her sister like this with someone would annoy her more, but seeing how well Sunset seemed to go with whatever it was Pinkie had just done (and Limestone knew her sister well enough that she had just done something) made a little spark of happiness for her sister arc. This left her looking at Thunderbolt.

He was huge so far as humans went. Limestone knew her own strength—and knew it was a little crazy right now—but she doubted she could hope to beat him in an arm wrestle. The protectiveness he showed Marble was a two-edged-sword. Limestone still thought Marble needed to get out more, but seeing someone protect her the same way Limestone wished she could took the edge off her anger.

Limestone had to concede that her younger two sisters both had their love lives in a better shape than she did. "Anyway, the reason we came around was that Wallflower needs somewhere to stay for a few days, and I was hoping you guys would have a spare room or something."

Sunset tried her best to fend off Pinkie, but in the end she just let her girlfriend do what she wanted to—which is generally how Pinkie operated. "Well, I mean, the house isn't meant for non-students. It's being leased by the college for us to live in."

"Why don't you try Rainbow? She has a spare room at her house, I think." It took most of Pinkie's willpower not to just shove her face into Sunset's cleavage, but she preferred to do that in her head, anyway. "Or, there's always Mom and Dad's place."

Limestone let out a groan. "Mom gives me that disappointing glare every time I see her, and I can picture it in my head whenever I talk to her on the phone. She's upset because after I visited, all her babies moved out."

Marble hid her giggle behind her arm, then leaned a little more against Thunderbolt. "That sounds like Mom."

"I know, right? So, I guess I'm calling Rainbow now." Reaching to her pocket, Limestone pulled her phone out.

"Just text her," Sunset said. "She can be here in ten seconds anyway."

Limestone paused and just looked at Sunset for a few seconds without saying anything. "Ten seconds?" Now her thumbs were moving, tapping out as friendly a request for a meeting as she could manage.

"Wanna time it?" Pulling out her own phone, Sunset had to reach around Pinkie to set the timer for ten seconds and then hold it up for Limestone. "Ready?"

Rolling her eyes, Limestone made a big deal of pressing the send button on her message—and Sunset tapped the front of her screen on the wrong spot. "You just set your timer to an hour and ten minutes."

"What?" Turning her phone around, Sunset saw that she hadn't hit the right button on the touchscreen. "Hold on, I'll—"

A knock at the door interrupted their conversation. Limestone stared at Sunset, sure it was just a stupid coincidence, while Sunset returned the stare with a smug look of superiority.

"We'll get it." Thunderbolt stood up, supporting Marble with one arm before helping her to stand too. He kept his head low so he wouldn't shove his head-spikes through the ceiling as he made his way to the door.

When the door opened, and Rainbow saw Thunderbolt and Marble, she smirked and dropped back down to all fours. "Your big sis here, I take it? I doubt she would have been able to leave in time."

Looking at Rainbow, Thunderbolt smirked. "She didn't believe you'd be here in ten seconds." He backed up to make room.

"Uh, you're naked." Marble snapped her mouth closed the moment she'd said it, but there was something so inoffensive about a pegasus the size of Rainbow. "I-I mean, don't you normally wear shorts around school?"

"Yeah, well, I was in the middle of something and it sounded urgent. It wasn't?" Walking into the living room, Rainbow fought with her tail to keep it down—then gave up. "Hey, sup?"

"There is no way you can be that fast," Limestone said. "Your profile doesn't say you're that fast."

"Then you need to update that, because I am that fast." Finding out that even the government's initialism agencies didn't know how fast she was fed Rainbow's ego enough that she couldn't keep from strutting on her way in. "So, why'd you text? Need someone to run around the world a few times?"

"Well, I kinda helped one of your old schoolmates get rid of a cursed item, and she needs a place to stay for a few days. Any chance she could crash with you?" Limestone looked hopefully at Rainbow.

"I have Fluttershy staying in my spare room, but I have another. Sorry, Thunderbolt, no sleepovers for a few days." Looking up as he walked past, Rainbow watched him climb onto the couch and Marble follow him. Figuring it was as good a place as any, she walked over and jumped up too.

Thunderbolt purred for a moment at having two of his partners so close. There was something he wanted to know, however, and he figured Limestone would have the answer. "What was up with all the lightning?"

"I can answer that." Walking into the room and leaving her human-world-duplicate outside, Princess Twilight Sparkle walked to the middle of the room while hiding a blush—she knew exactly why her unicorn doppelganger had to stay outside a little longer.
> Chapter 31
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Err." Limestone had been ordered not to talk about the topic herself, but she hadn't been advised on Twilight's own behavior. "I'm not allowed to talk about this."

Twilight snorted and ruffled her wings. "We're trying to open up and air our secrets back home. It started with small things, but Princess Celestia has learned to trust everypony a lot more now that we don't keep anything hidden.

"The Storm King has followed me to this world and has been building his power. He attacked earlier today, attempted to defeat me, kill several of your government's agents, and it was only Limestone's action that stopped things from getting worse. He turned his storm upon her before getting away."

Even Limestone had to admit that Twilight's speech made her look good. In her own mind, though, she could still see herself as the one who'd missed her shot and taken return fire for it. "I won't miss next time."

"Regardless, I have talked to Twilight Sparkle from this world, and tomorrow we're going to attempt to narrow down where the Storm King teleported to, and from there Limestone and myself will track him and bring him to justice."

"I can help fight him." Thunderbolt hated to fight, but after seeing the lightning light up the sky, he had to assume this enemy was a threat to everything he cared about.

"Thunderbolt doesn't go without me. We're kinda a package." Rainbow felt her lover's talon touch her back and she leaned up into it like a cat. "I've never tried to outrun lightning, but I'd like to try."

Marble couldn't stop herself. Reaching a hand out, she touched Rainbow's ear and she immediately started rubbing it. She knew Rainbow didn't like girls that way, but it seemed wrong to have what seemed like a small dog and not pet them. Quickly biting her lip, she fought herself not to bring attention to it.

Being a dragon meant Thunderbolt had many hungers. He'd started hunting in the caves just outside town for rocks that had called to him—and tasted good, he also hungered for knowledge and learning, but when it came to the various females and males he spent time with, his hungers often turned carnal. Right now he was picturing Marble and Rainbow together, with himself, in a far more intimate situation.

"No." Limestone gleefully glared at Thunderbolt. "Sorry. I don't care if you're the most powerful creature in the world—You're both civilians. It's my job to protect civilians." But at the same time she didn't want to turn them down. "I promise, though, if shit gets wild, and I need help, you two will be the third to get a text from me."

"Third?" Rainbow asked.

Limestone nodded. "My commander gets first call, then I call Sonata. You can be in line after the ancient, mind-bending taco-fiend."

"You'd call Sonata before me?!" It offended Rainbow in so many ways she could barely think straight. "What can she do that I can't?"

"You mean besides mind-whammy him into just giving up?" Limestone asked. "The most important bit is she's already a contractor. She might be an expert specifically in training right now, but I think she's seen her fair share of situations."

The most annoying thing, from Rainbow's perspective, was that Limestone was right. "Well, just don't wait until it's too late. Pinkie wouldn't stop complaining about it if you didn't give me ten seconds to save your butt. Oh, what happened to your arm?" Rainbow hadn't failed to notice Marble petting her, it was just that she didn't want to make a big deal out of it and not that she was actually enjoying the attention.

"Yeah. This is what happens sometimes when you're struck by lightning. Hurts like hell. Looks cool, though." Flexing her arm, Limestone felt an odd sense of power in her arm. "I should probably talk to Sonata about this. It feels like I have more—well, some kind of power or strength."

"Ahem?" Princess Twilight said, clearing her throat and cocking her head a little.

"Huh?"

"Foremost expert in magic across two worlds and best read pony in all Equestria. Princess of Friendship and bearer of the Element of Magic." She waited for anyone to make some kind of show of recognizing anything she'd just said.

Rainbow, rolling her eyes, looked at Limestone. "She's probably one of the smartest people I've ever met. Real egg-head."

"Nah, she might be an egg-head, but she's also got guts and fight. You should have seen her duking it out with that guy. Okay, though, take a look at it I guess." Limestone reached up to roll her sleeve up a bit further to reveal the entirety of her arm.

"That's not ordinary bruising. There's magic in there." Twilight barely needed to prod the scar with her magic to find that. "Give me a second to look deeper. I wish I had my equipment."

Sitting still, Limestone felt her arm gripped tight and immovable. She looked at the purple glow that surrounded her limb, and looked at Twilight to see her horn glowing. "Kinda neck-deep in magic stuff now. Wouldn't have thought it a few months back."

"You're a lot more pony than you were when we first met." Twilight felt sure she recognized what had happened, but needed to clarify with some deeper inspections. The real test came when she pushed a little magic into the scars at Limestone's hand and it siphoned up and along the length of her whole arm—channeling it into her core. "Okay, so it works that way."

"What'd you just do?" Limestone asked.

"Your scar is a conduit for magic. I fed it some at your hand and it siphoned it up and pulled it into you. What I want to know now is can it work the other way." Twilight let go of Limestone's arm. "We should probably test this next bit outside."

Shrugging, Limestone stood up and walked to the back door. She worked the handle and walked into the back yard.

Twilight Sparkle (the human) was in the spa trying her best to dissolve the plug, up to and including doing kegel exercises to try to push it out. She gasped when she saw Limestone and sank down into the water up to her neck.

"Oh, right, the other Twilight. Don't freak out, we're just trying to test out something." Limestone looked back to see Princess Twilight looked a little shocked, but then relieved. "Hey, so what am I meant to do?"

Closing her eyes, Princess Twilight focused on her magic. Producing a cloud of potential wasn't exactly a skill every unicorn would learn, but it wasn't exactly hard—it just took concentration. When she had a decent cloud above her head, Twilight turned her focus from creation to maintenance. "Can you see that?"

"See what?"

"Oookay, so you can't see the big cloud of magic I just made. Can you feel it?" Princess Twilight nodded toward Limestone's lightning-affected arm. "With that arm, if anything."

"If this is some kind of game to make me look stupid"—Limestone slowly lifted her arm up, her expression bored and droll right until the moment she opened her fingers—"I've got…" Her fingers tingled, each getting a slightly different feel for the magic she could now feel hovering in the air—enough so that she could aim her palm right at it. "Shit. Okay, I feel that."

Princess Twilight beamed. "Well, do whatever feels right with it."

Remembering what had happened earlier, Limestone tried to visualize that sensation again. "I can't believe all this crap is happening to me. My boss hired me because I was good muscle." The red and blue scars on her arm started to glow softly, and Limestone felt a sensation of hunger. Focusing on that, she tried to think of a way to open a mouth she'd never used before and then those scars flared brighter.

A sort of pulsing caught Limestone's attention. Waves of color flowed from Limestone's hand, up her arm along the scars, and to her shoulder. From there, it was like a furnace inside Limestone was being stoked. She felt hot, boiling hot, and needed to get rid of that heat somewhere. "Shit, shit, shit. Stand back!"

Limestone felt conflicted. The one place she knew she absolutely couldn't unleash what she felt building was horizontally. Aiming up would be reasonably safe, but that too could mean hitting a target she didn't want to hit. Instinct told her to use the ground. Looking to the back corner of the garden, she pointed her arm at it and let go.

That same tingle Princess Twilight got when she'd first noticed the Storm King caused her to react rapidly. Casting her magic out before her, she backed up from Limestone and shielded hard against lightning strikes.

But, the lightning didn't come down from the sky. Limestone watched a flicker of tracers leave her arm and yet more leaping from the point on the ground she'd aimed at—then two connected.

The arc-flash of power that shot out of Limestone's arm made everyone's eyes blink in defense, it also threw Limestone back onto her ass and made her whole arm tingle. When she finished blinking the purple jagged line out of her vision, she realized what she'd just done. "Okay, I'm going to have to call my boss about this."

"Wait!" Twilight Sparkle, from the pool, raised a foreleg to get Limestone's attention. "Maybe don't grab your phone with the arm that just unleashed like a billion joules of electricity?"

Looking down, Limestone realized she had indeed been about to reach into her pocket with that arm. "Y-Yeah. Good call. Uh—" Reaching across her body and into her pocket wasn't easy, but she eventually dug her phone out.

Walking back to the pool to give Limestone some privacy, Princess Twilight gave her doppelganger a smile. "Good thinking there."

"Just kinda made sense, you know? It doesn't take a physicist to figure she might not be grounded yet, and there could be potential between her fingertips and her torso." The plug, Twilight Sparkle had to admit, was stubborn.

The two Twilight's shared an uncomfortable silence until Limestone walked back over.

"Okay, boss says we need to do some more tests and stuff, but it can wait until after we have this Storm King guy secured." Looking down at her phone, Limestone passed it to what she'd started thinking of as her lightning arm. It didn't go haywire.





In all, it had been the exact opposite of the triumphant day that the Storm King had planned. Reconstituting himself in another world hadn't been easy, but he'd done it, and further he'd even started harvesting magic for himself.

The fight with Twilight Sparkle had gone about as well as he'd hoped, right up until Sergeant Limestone Pie had shot him. Getting shot, he could now appreciate, was not something he ever wanted to do again.

Stranger still his teleportation spell had missed its mark. He'd expected to be on the hilltop overlooking the city—as he'd planned. Instead, the Storm King was sitting in a suburban backyard. "Whatever weapon this creature used, I must get one for myself."

"It was a rifle."

Raising his vision, the Storm King looked at the female creature that towered above him while he was still crouched. She was wearing some kind of cloak, but her face was striking and sharp. Light blue flesh, a mole to the right of her lips, and red eyes with green sclera that leaked purple smoke. "My dear, I don't believe I've had the pleasure of your name?"

"That's complicated right now. You can just call me Queen." The power that poured through Abacus Cinch's body took constant control and focus to contain—though she fantasized about a time when she could just release it. "You were playing a terribly dangerous game."

"Queen?" Standing up, the Storm King reached out for Abacus' hand and lifted it to his lips. "I think I like you already."

Jerking her hand back as if it'd been stung, Abacus sneered. "I watched your little fight. You need better information on the capabilities of people in this world."

"No. What I need," Storm said, "is for Twilight Sparkle to be dead at my feet—drained of her magic."

"Dramatics and flaunted ignorance won't get you far here. You have seven others to contend with—not counting that dreadful woman who shot you. They are all armed with various superpowers, now, several of which will halt any ploy you might have." Gesturing at her home, Abacus cleared her throat. "After you."

Going along with another person's plan didn't agree with Storm. He looked at Abacus and shook his head. "I don't think so. Look, I'm not sure if you've heard of me, but I'm not exactly a team player. This"—Storm gestured at Abacus and then back to himself—"this won't work. You see, you're calling yourself queen, but a title isn't what you call yourself, but what others call you."

Abacus narrowed her eyes. "Storm King, they call you." She paused a moment. "Oh, sorry, past tense. They called you. Who here would call you king?"

Storm froze before he could truly lose his temper. It would have been easy to whip the storm back into a frenzy and call lightning down on Abacus, but even he could see that was going to draw a lot of attention. What he wanted was the staff he'd spent so much time hunting down and charging—only to have it stolen by Twilight Sparkle.

"I thought you could be useful. I thought you would have some iota of common sense. Clearly I was mistaken. Go. Leave. Pick a way to die trying to chase that damn purple monstrosity." Turning her back on Storm, Abacus started walking inside her home.

"Queen." The word cost Storm a lot of pride to say. He'd raised an army that had sacked half a world, and here he was with nothing. "Perhaps we could acknowledge each other, then force the beings of this world to recognize us?"

Pausing mid step, Abacus smiled such that Storm couldn't see it. "Then follow me, King, and let us plan together."

She was playing him, Storm knew, but that was something he'd have to endure until he could deal with her. Walking toward the house, he pondered how hard it would be to just destroy her with lightning.
> Chapter 32
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonata stared at Twilight. "You're so different to the Twilight I know. You're—Well, you're the one who defeated the other two the first time, and thanks for that, but you're not like Twilight Twilight." It made perfect sense to her, though she was stacking boxes of food into the back of a food truck, so Sonata was amply distracted.

It was a little different for Twilight to be the one to find a former enemy turned friend, but she'd done it often enough to others that she wasn't completely a fish out of water. "Yeah… Been getting that a bit, actually. The real deal, though. Look, still got wings!"

"Yeah. Glad I didn't try to fight you full-on. So what's up?" Sonata looked from Twilight to Limestone, then back again.

"Well, we still haven't been able to track down the Storm King, and it's been a few days now." Twilight chewed her bottom lip. "And, Limestone said you might be able to help."

"Okay. Gimme a sec to get all this in the truck's cooler and I'll try thinking on it." Sonata was reaching for the next box when there was a loud pomf, and the boxes of product were gone. "Uh…?"

Twilight beamed up at her, the magic of her horn still fading. "It's all put away!"

Checking the cooler, Sonata shook her head. "I forgot how ponies tend to get when they're focused. Okay, so first question, why can't you find him? Have you tried looking for magic discharges?"

"Yup! First thing we tried. His teleport spell should have taken him to the mountain that way, but we checked and there was no hint that his spell resolved to that spot. I set down a group of spells over Canterlot to tell me when someone casts any magic, but I haven't gotten a thing." Twilight walked alongside Sonata to the front of the truck.

"That tells you something." Climbing up into the driver seat, Sonata let out a satisfied sigh. "He has an accomplice who redirected his teleport spell. Oldest trick in the book. One casts, the other deflects, and it leaves no trace of where the real target was."

That had Twilight feeling a little stunned. "That works?!"

"Sure does. We used it a few times. Adagio and Aria would cast the teleport, targeting all of us, but I would interfere and send us to a completely different place. Worked well until a certain wizard got wise to us. I wish I could apologize to him and his friends."

"You, uh, can." Twilight tried not to get distracted, but it wasn't easy given how ancient a being Sonata was. "Turns out they were stuck in Limbo, then I figured out a way to free them, but it released an evil on Equestria that—A friend helped deal with that one. Anyway, the Pillars of Equestria are alive and well."

A chill ran up Sonata's spine. "Y-You know when you say I wish I could go back and thank them about someone you really hope you never have to see again because just the thought of them makes you want to sleep-in for a week? Okay, well, I just said that, and then you said Star Swirl the bearded is still alive. Excuse me."

Watching as Sonata turn and climbed into the back of her truck again, Twilight head the familiar crack-hiss of a can opening. Turning, Twilight looked back at Limestone. "Did I say the wrong thing?"

"I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say your Star Swirl wasn't some science dude?" It was all Limestone really knew about him.

"Uh, just one of our greatest heroes. He's like—the pony who did so much amazing stuff to make Equestria safe that he—Oh." Twilight finally put enough together to realize that Sonata being good now doesn't mean she was good when she met Star Swirl.

"Really, I'm good now. Just needed a kick to my blood-sugar. Okay, so excluding crazy-smart-and-powerful wizards I don't want to even know are still alive, yes, that kind of teleportation jinking works. What about general magic activity?" Sonata asked.

Twilight groaned and hung her head a little. "That's not so helpful. You see, it turns out that spreading magic all over town has resulted in a lot of people discovering and using it. If you think of the magic of the city as a pond, and magic being used as a raindrop—it's raining right now."

Sonata took a long pull from the energy drink and let out a happy sigh. "That means they can easily hide in the noise, so long as they don't try anything big." She climbed out of the van. "Which means you need to be trying to track the type of magic he's using and not just all magic. Oh, and maybe try to work out what his lackey is using, too."

"Will you help me with that?" Twilight asked.

"What makes you think I could help where an alicorn—one I hear is pretty good with magic—can't?"

"Don't try that. You just straight-up schooled me on deceptive magics and how to counter them, admit that your little group used you to cast the most difficult part of a three-part-spell-combo, and gave me a way to catch them regardless." Twilight looked up into Sonata's eyes with a challenging grin. "So, you can help me, but I'm asking if you will?"

Looking at Limestone, Sonata let out a little whine and a sigh. "Okay, okay. Look, while I'm out today I'll look around for darker magic. If I find any, I'll try to triangulate it."

Limestone nodded along, glad to have Sonata thinking on her feet. "That actually works better, since I've had to get a rental car until insurance pays on mine. Do you have room in the back for anyone else?"

"Nope. Just a fish and her taco truck." Sonata smirked at Limestone. "Besides, he's seen you and Twilight—you'd both give the game away."

"Right. Okay. How about drinks tonight after a debrief?" Limestone asked, holding out her fist to Sonata.

Bumping her fist into Limestone's, Sonata nodded. "Sure-sure. I think it's my turn to bring the beers. I'll pick some up on the way home." Climbing back into the truck, she checked over everything again. "Guess I'll catch you then. Give Spicy my best!"

"Spicy?" Twilight asked as the doors of the truck closed before her.

"She means me, beautiful. What can I for you, princess?" Truly, Spicy wished he'd worn something far sexier, but with his job focusing more on the business side, wearing a sexy number to welcome traveling royalty was beyond him.

Twilight was a little surprised. First at being called beautiful, and second at the fact the guy looked about fifty-fifty between bat pony and human. His wings were large, folded at his back, and he had a snout and tail, but he seemed to walk easily despite only having two hooves to balance on. She remembered her first time in this world, and Flash Sentry, and it was like Spicy was Flash with about a thousand times more confidence.

She also liked his tail.

"We were just here asking Sonata to help with finding a guy. Turns out, she could. You up for some more beers tonight?" Limestone liked Spicy, he was easy to talk to and fun to look at. Part of her brain kicked her libido in the crotch for thinking it about someone so far gone as a pony, but her libido put that part in a neck-lock and kept looking at him.

"I'll have to ask Rainbow." Spicy wasn't scared of Limestone's size, he was more just worried that he might let something slip if he had too many drinks without Rainbow to keep him grounded. "Will Her Highness be joining us?"

Twilight froze as Spicy reached down for her hoof—which she had no idea she was lifting for him to take—only for him to kiss it from a crouching kneel. "I, uh, that is, yes!"

The little girl deep inside Limestone wanted to stamp in annoyance that Spicy didn't kiss her hand that way. Thankfully, the rest of Limestone's ego didn't allow her child-self near either guns or control of her vocal cords. "Hey, break it up, you two. I'm kinda on babysitting duty with Princess Twilight, so if she can't go, it's not on."

"I heard, I heard. Please, don't let my sexy ways distract you from your work." Spicy kissed Twilight's hoof again, then stood back up.

Twilight had grown used to having creatures taller than her—after exploring the world beyond Equestria on her quest to free her homeland of the Storm King, she'd discovered ponies to be just about the smallest race in the world. "This beer, it's just like cider? Mild alcoholic drink?"

"Hard cider? Yeah, it is," Limestone said.

"Excellent. Then I would be delighted to have a drink or two." Knowing her limits, Twilight could allow a little time for relaxation—especially if it meant getting to know Spicy a little better. Sonata too.





Sonata knew most kinds of magic. Back in the bad old days, it'd been her job to navigate around the various unicorn-filled lands, while measuring up any evil types for possible usefulness as pawns. Though, as days went, she was almost too excited to sniff it out.

Everywhere she stopped, people seemed drawn toward her. They came with money and left with tacos, nachos, and burritos. The only hard thing to acquire for her truck was the specific cheeses needed to make the dishes as authentic as possible.

It was just past midday, and her sales were slowing, when she drove on to a market and felt dark magic nearby. It wasn't strong, nor active, but there was a trace of it.

She pulled up in a free spot and started selling food. It made her happy to hear people exclaim at how good her food was, though the sense of that dark magic now had her itching. When the customers dried up, she parked her truck in a normal spot and then went for a walk.

Having wings again was both a delight and a pain. Her wings were so pretty, but they reminded Sonata of worse days. Only a block and a half from the market she'd been selling at, the stench of black magic grew more powerful.

And that's when she noticed, through the front window of a house, the Storm King. He looked angry and was arguing about something, but while she watched he turned and made eye contact with her. Then he spoke once more.

Sonata had to think quickly. With just two choices—run or wait—she chose to wait. Pulling out her phone the moment the Storm King looked away, she hit Limestone's number.

"Number. Beep. You know the drill," Limestone's voice said.

When the beep sounded, Sonata talked as quickly as she could. "I found the Storm King and some black magic. They spotted me. Going in. Track my phone." She smacked the end button and slipped the mobile back in her pocket just as the front door of the house opened.

Storm looked outside. Narrowing his eyes, he realized what the creature was. "Siren."

"What? What do you mean, siren?" Abacus asked. She risked calling her power and, through the green glow of her eyes, recognized the power within Sonata. "What do they do?"

"Normally they drive creatures to madness with their song and then feed off the chaos aligned to their particular emotional tastes. Blah blah blah. Evil as they come and a good ally if you can have one on your side." Storm took a step out into the open air and nodded to Sonata across the street. "That's it. We just want to chat. If she attacks us, with that much energy, we might be in trouble."

"What do you mean? There's just one of her."

Storm shook his head. "If she sings, she could wrap us both around her delicate little fingers and have us as her servants."

"Mind-control?"
> Chapter 33
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonata caught the last question from the green-eyed woman that stank of dark magic. "Uh, hi. Why are you in my city?" Bluffing was Sonata's strong suit, though usually she played toward being dumb. She had the idea, however, that showing either of these two weakness would be bad.

Casual and non-threatening—with as much magic as Sonata was carrying—was never to be discounted, or so Storm believed. "Oh! Is this your city? Look, we're not trying to cause any kind of turf war, just here to kill one annoyance, actually."

"Someone from out of town!" Abacus picked up on Storm's angle and ran with it. "So, if it's not too much trouble, we'll leave you to your—city—and we'll just—"

"No," Sonata said.

"No?" Storm asked.

"No." Casually, Sonata lifted her hand up to stroke along the gemstone at her throat. She recognized the panic in Storm's expression—and it almost made her sick. For over a thousand years she'd smoothed out such expressions of terror with her magic. "No, this is interesting. What poor little morsel are you hunting?" The wording came back to Sonata so easily. Describing people as food made her hate this even more.

Storm was left to reflect quickly on his life-choices, and an upcoming one. Could he live with himself if he—personally—wasn't the one to kill Twilight Sparkle? "A pony. A princess, actually. Wings, horn, the whole business. She's all alone in a city that doesn't know what to do with her."

Sonata could remember the old days, and how much she'd preferred pony over all others. Adagio and Aria, too, had preferred harassing the pony tribes. Walking closer, trying to bring that old hunger and desire to the fore, Sonata licked her lips. "Tell me more. I haven't eaten a pony in—one thousand two hundred and fifty-two years." As she spoke each word, her voice became more and more deep.

"Y-Y-Yes! Of course. It would be fine if we helped each other and put an end to this pony." It was one thing to pit her will against a foreign monster and partner with it, but a thousand plus year old creature could, she assumed, think her around in circles. "Isn't that right, your kingship?" She looked at Storm for help.

Just as shocked, Storm nodded. The very idea of denying Sonata access to whatever she wanted was now a lost cause. Storm just hoped he could make something beneficial happen out of this encounter. "Yes! Yes of course!" The choice had been stolen from Storm. "We'll help you find the pony, and in return you'll—"

There was always her ultimate out, Sonata knew, but she hadn't come so far from the bad old days only to resort to mind-control at her first opportunity. That it was an all-or-nothing gambit didn't encourage her either. "I'll let you live in my city. It's been so long—I'll let you feed in my city for the price of an alicorn."





Limestone grunted out a swear word. Her phone was in her pocket because the stupid hire car didn't have her hands-free gear in it. "I need to pull over and check that."

"Okay." Twilight had been focusing on her detecting spell. It should have been picking up only dark magic and electricity-based magic, but it was finding nothing. She considered casting a spell from each of the fields just to test it when she heard Limestone use five curse words she'd never heard before—she could tell they were curse words by the tone. "What's a rhinoceros taint, and why should Sonata smell like one?"

Putting her phone on speaker, Limestone played back the message. "That's why. Ugh, I didn't ask her to do this. She should have just gotten out of there as fast as she could!"

"But if they'd already seen her, running away would have encouraged them to chase her. You can track her phone, right?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, we can track her phone. Gimme a sec to get that set up." Limestone hadn't had to use the tool before, but she'd studied up on it. The most important part was having a reason to use the thing—which she judged she did. The software on her secure phone took some screwing around with to get it to work, but when it was all said and done… "I got nothing. This can't be right. Okay, history… Nope, it can't track before when I put in the request."

"Sooo?"

Her thumb flying over the touchscreen, Limestone started on a new submission. "I can't track her phone like this, but I can submit a request for the last cell tower she was near. That'll take a day or two."

"I could try using magic to find her?" Twilight tapped her chin with a hoof. "Of course, if she's actually with the Storm King like you said, it means he might detect me searching."

"Damn it. This has gotten us nowhere. Now we still don't know where they are, and Sonata's been captured."

Twilight paused, taking in that assumption and teasing at it. "Maybe not."

"What do you mean?" Limestone asked.

"You only look at Sonata and see someone who's mended her ways. Anyone from Equestria who knows of sirens—like a well-travelled despot we both know—would see her as the pinnacle of tyranny. Sirens are apex predators unlike any other."

Barking a laugh, Limestone shook her head. "Are you telling me they'd be scared of her?"

"Scared, wary, possibly even willing to make a deal with her." Twilight fidgeted with her hooves. "If she plays it smart, she could even steer them into giving themselves away. But it worries me, too."

"Huh?"

Twilight hated having to spell it out. It hurt to have to question the motives of someone who seemed to have found the path of friendship, despite their history, but she had to ask, "How sure are you that she won't go back to her old ways?"

"She wouldn't. I'm sure." The problem for Limestone was, once the words were spoken by Twilight, they insinuated themselves in her head the way no magic could. "She's had plenty of chances to do the wrong thing, and every time she's chosen good."

"Okay." Twilight didn't feel okay, but she felt the need to say it regardless. "Then we wait for either the information you requested or for Sonata to contact us."





All day they'd been talking crazy plans, and each time Sonata had reviewed the destruction they'd cause and almost gagged. The Storm King had wanted to go in blasting. Sonata figured he had this idea that sirens were the ultimate badass fighters and—even to herself—she had to admit that they could be, but it wouldn't be the style of one that has owned a single city for so long.

"No, no, NO!" Sonata risked putting some power into her voice to drive the point home—a window exploded somewhere in the house. "If I find out you have caused even more heat in my city, I will rip your head off and feed you to a dragon!"

It was hard to keep her sanity, but adding hidden silliness to her act was helping. Trying to imagine what Thunderbolt would think if she ripped the Storm King's head off and offered it to him was one of the little things that kept her going. "I have one, you know. Great big thing that used to be my pet dog. It's been a little strange what's happening, but when life gives you lemons, you make a tangy salsa."

"You have a pet dragon?!" Storm stared at Sonata in shock before regaining his normal aplomb. "Actually, that doesn't surprise me. What emotion did you say you fed on again?"

"I didn't." She felt constantly under attack as first one, then the other, would try to catch her in a lie or giving up a secret. "How about I call him?" Pulling out her phone while both Storm and Abacus stared at her, Sonata noticed she had no signal. It wasn't easy to keep the panic out of her voice. "What's up with phone reception here?"

Abacus turned to look at Storm and rolled her eyes. "Just stop doing it for a minute, okay?"

"This is a bad—" Storm got no further.

Rushing at Storm, Sonata fought her distaste down and embraced her siren side as she grabbed them by the throat and lifted upward to pin Storm against the wall only an inch from the ceiling. "I'll make this really easy for you."

The raw rage on Sonata's face actually started to worry Storm, and he couldn't stop trembling as her magic seemed thick in the room and pouring off her like some kind of miasma.

"I'll send the text message, then you can drop whatever bullshit it is you're doing, let the text go through, then you can start doing it again." Sonata waited for Storm to nod before pulling her phone back out with her free hand—still holding Storm against the wall.

Trying to channel Adagio was both disgusting and abhorrent, but it worked for Sonata.


—Thunderbolt, please, can you fly by the following address and just set a bunch of shit on fire? I'm in real trouble here, but please don't try to save me. Uh, and can you maybe burn a swear word? I'm working undercover,— Sonata sent.


She followed that up with the address. Putting on her best smile, Sonata looked up at Storm. "Please?" Both messages sent quickly before the mobile network cut out again. "You know, Dark and Stormy, you might just be useful to me after all. Can you do this to police equipment too?"

Let go suddenly, Storm dropped to the floor and into a crouch. "I ca—" He rubbed his neck, still able to feel an echo of how tight Sonata had held him. "I can disrupt any of this radio wave equipment."

Sonata focused more on Aria's style now. She leaned forward at the waist and offered Storm a hand while showing off her cleavage. "See? Was it so bad to make yourself useful to me? I take care of my tools, Storm King."

Staring up at Sonata, Storm felt a shiver down his spine. This was something he'd never dealt with before. Since he'd risen to power, there'd always been an angle for him to take. Sonata Dusk was a bigger force of nature than even the storms he held sway over. All he could do while his mind ran through this was nod.

"Good boy. I promise you'll get everything coming to you." Sonata believed the words wholeheartedly. Helping Storm to stand, she turned to look at Abacus. "I suppose I'm going to have to go through some stupid show of force with you, too?"

With her back to the glass window at the back of the living room, Sonata felt more than saw the wave of heat hit her back. She let the reassured smile she felt inside show on her face. The sound of twelve feet of dragon slamming against the ground worried her, though.

Turning around, Sonata marched to the door and flung it open. "There you are! I don't need a scene here. You can fly back."

Studying Sonata, Thunderbolt squinted at the two behind her. One looked mostly human, if not for some weird magic effects around her eyes, and the other looked like some kind of snow yeti. Marching forward, Thunderbolt bowed his head before Sonata and rumbled a purr. "Are you safe?"

Leaning forward, Sonata ran a hand over Thunderbolt's head and pressed her mouth to the side of his head. "Yes and no. They might be too powerful for you and me to take directly. They think I'm some powerful, evil siren, and I'm doing my best to let them believe that until Limestone and the princess show up. Can you text them to let them know where I am?"

"Of course." Thunderbolt let out another purring rumble and waited for Sonata to let go before he stepped back from her. "Until you need me again," he said, spread his wings, and took to the sky again. Aiming himself toward Rainbow's house, he pulled out his phone and carefully started forwarding the message Sonata had sent that included the address, and a description of what just happened.

Turning back to her two "friends", Sonata shrugged. "Dragon's gonna dragon. Do you have a hose?"

Walking past Sonata, Abacus lamented her garden, her lawn, but most of all she lamented the flames. "Why did you call this beast here?!"

Sonata cursed that she had to channel her former friends again. It was with Adagio's sneer that she looked at Abacus. "Because you didn't fear me. You weren't scared of what I would do. You thought I was controllable." Marching right up to Abacus, Sonata called some power into her voice. "You should fear me, you should be worried you might ever displease me, because if you don't"—pulling out her phone, Sonata raised an eyebrow—"I'll call him back to finish the job on this block."

The chill in Sonata's voice, magical and unnoticed by Abacus, slipped into her and she found herself taking a step back.

"Perfect!" Sonata brightened. "Just what I wanted." She was good at hiding how terrified she felt, after all, it had been all too easy to make these two magical powerhouses fold.
> Chapter 34
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Limestone's phone beeped. It wasn't a text message beep, but rather an application wanting her attention. When she unlocked it, she let out a sigh of relief. "Got a rough location." Her fingers reached for the starter and brought the car to life. "Can you keep an eye on my phone while I drive?"

"Uh, I could just hold it up where you could watch it?" It was easy enough for Twilight to do so, her magic carefully holding the device up at the level of the dashboard of the car.

"Good enough." Stabbing her foot on the gas, the car jumped forward at Limestone's command. "When we get there, you distract the Storm King again and I won't be shooting to wound. This guy's shown his intent and his methods."

Twilight huffed out a slightly annoyed breath. "It just feels wrong, but after what he did in Equestria…"

"What exactly would make a princess of friendship go along with this? What did he do?" She turned a corner at speed, following the directions on the phone's map.

"He put most of our people in chains and cages, twisted the heart of a wonderful pony with empty promises, and he petrified the other princesses then tried to steal their power. Well, he succeeded in stealing their power."

"You took it back?"

"With some help from friends. The one who ultimately broke him was the mare he betrayed. He tried to petrify her, but took his own medicine to the face." Twilight remembered the encounter with fiery emotion—she wanted to focus on the friends she'd made that day, not the enemy they'd defeated. "This is your world. If you think he needs to be dealt with in that manner, that's up to you, Limestone."

"Hey, one warrior to another, sometimes you have to fight the war in front of you rather than the one in your head." No sooner had Limestone spoken than her phone beeped with a message. A regular, unencrypted message, the phone flashed it up for a few moments in the message bar. "Can you check who sent that? If that's what I think it is, we just got a tip-off."

Trying her hoof at first, Twilight grumbled something about touchscreens and then used her magic to poke at the controls. "Unknown number. Texting to ask who it is." With her magic she could type faster than even the fastest human digits.


—Who r u?—


—Thunderbolt. Hurry, she didn't sound happy there. You want me to help?—

"It was Thunderbolt. He asked if we want help." Twilight was already replying that help would be appreciated.

"No. No civilians, please," Limestone said.

"A dragon isn't a civilian. Equestrian dragons are just about immune to all forms of damage, have four sets of claws, and more teeth than the average pony can count. And I'm not even mentioning that he can breathe"—Twilight froze in her reply to look at a plume of smoke drifting into the sky from some home's backyard—"fire."

Identifying the house wasn't hard, Limestone drove until her phone suddenly lost signal. She stopped the car, climbed out, and walked around to the boot.

Twilight got out of her own side and began mentally preparing for the fight she knew was coming. "What do you need me to do?"

Utter relief flooded Limestone at hearing those words. Reassured she was dealing with a professional, she opened the case in the trunk and started assembling her rifle. "Wait until I start shooting. I'll try to take him down without any fight being needed. If things turn out to not be simple, you can go in and I'll support you." With her gun configured how she wanted it, Limestone added a small mirror to the end of the barrel with a little putty.

Nodding, Twilight ran through her spells and started to focus on what she might have to do. That she was going into this with someone she considered a friend helped immensely. "Right."

Circling to the side of the house, Limestone shouldered her rifle and kept her finger primed but safely off the trigger. Each step along the side of the house resulted in her pausing to listen—what she heard was arguing at the back of the house.

"Perfect! Just what I wanted."

Sonata's voice wasn't a surprise, the happy and joyous tone was. She got to the corner of the house and poked just the end of her barrel around the corner, and looked around with the mirror. Sonata stood with the Storm King at her side and Abacus Cinch opposite them. "Sonata's blocking my shot. There's someone else with them, she'd be your second magic user, right?"

"Probably. Anything that would single them out as knowing magic?" Twilight's nerves were sensitive for the slightest sign that they'd been revealed.

"She has some kind of burning purple smoke coming from her eyes and her hair looks like her head was a tire-fire." Watching both targets, Limestone wanted to curse at the fact she hadn't gotten clearance to engage the second magic user as well. "I don't know how long I want to wait. Do you think you could separate them so I could take a shot?"

"I'll try. Fighting two magic users at once isn't something I enjoy. Hopefully Sonata can help too." Charging her magic, Twilight spotted a spot at the far end of the garden to teleport to, and with a flicker of her magic she was there. "Give it up. We have the place surrounded!"

Three heads turned toward Twilight, while Limestone leaned around the corner of the house and sighted on the Storm King. Her finger moved to disengage the safety and put the weapon into three-round burst fire.

Sonata saw Twilight and felt a big, ditsy grin plaster onto her face. It was the cavalry she'd hoped for.

"Not you again! I should have dealt with you the—" Storm had to duck and dive to the side as a bolt of purple magic cut his monologue short. Throwing his all into storm-summoning magic, he started to cackle. "Now I have a siren and a dark mage with me, little princess. You haven't got a hope!"

"Teleport, you idiot! We have to get out of here! There's no telling what else is lurking around!" Abacus began preparing a spell to deflect a teleport. Of the two castings, it was the harder to do.

But the problem for Storm was he couldn't do any magic without his namesake—or a magic item, and his non-corporeal trip from Equestria had left him without his usual toys. Pulling at the gathering clouds with all his magical strength, he felt more than saw the second threat.

Limestone squeezed the trigger on her rifle and it spat three rounds in quick succession. All three crackled in the air inches from Storm's body and the bullets were destroyed. "Fuck."

Opening her mouth, Sonata closed her eyes and started to sing.



Hush, little babies, don't you fight
Sonata's gonna ease you of all your fright



Twilight heard the magical verse and panicked. She could see Storm and Abacus looking a little spaced out, but she too felt the effects of siren magic worming into her head. She fumbled for a spell to cover her ears, but by the time Sonata started the second verse, she just wanted to lie down and rest.

"Stop that, I can't"—Abacus' shout was interrupted by a yawn—"I can barely think straight."



And if the lullaby don't work
Limestone's gonna shoot you and then she'll smirk



It felt like a throbbing in the back of Limestone's head, but Sonata's wink to her made up the bad lyrics. To her sensitive ears, though, all Limestone could hear was a soft chant of: sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep.

One little storm cloud hovered overhead, but it was all Storm needed. Losing his struggle against mimicking Abacus' yawn, he sat down on the grass as he called down lightning on himself and Abacus. Though the siren-song claimed him, he felt the teleport take hold.

Rounding her attention on Abacus, Sonata shoved all her magic toward the woman, just to have her disappear in a blast of lightning. She turned back to Storm, and saw he was gone too. "Damn it. I should have used that inside. The problem is it takes time to snare people."

Staring at Sonata, Limestone had to mentally pull her thoughts away from her. "Check on Twilight, I want to get someone here to go through their house with a fine-toothed comb."

Blinking in surprise, Sonata flicked her tail and swam through the air over to Twilight. It wasn't until she reached the princess that Sonata realized that she had a long tail and a lot more fins than before. Looking down, she spotted her gemstone firmly planted in her chest. "Oh gosh, this is too much."

While Limestone had her phone out and was talking on it, Sonata had herself a good little panic. Swimming through the air in tight circles, she stopped dead when she saw Twilight waking up. "Ohmygosh, I'm sorry! I was trying to just get them with it, but—"

Yawning as she regained her bearings, Twilight looked around, then up at the big predator just above her. "Sonata, just calm down. I know why and what you were trying. Did it work?"

"Kinda. I think it took effect just as they finished the teleport. I watched the Storm King fall asleep just as he did his trigger, and I think Abacus Cinch got her jink spell—that's what I call a redirected teleport—just before it took her down." Looking back at her body, Sonata felt embarrassed.

Close to fifteen feet from her head to the tip of her tail, Sonata looked almost exactly like a mermaid. Almost, except for the fins that decorated her back and sides and the scales that coated her up and over her belly. Twilight took a deep breath. "Can you shape-shift?"

Freezing mid figure-eight of worry, Sonata looked down at Twilight and giggled. "I can try!"

Hanging up her phone, Limestone looked at the huge creature Sonata had become just in time to see her become a normal human. It left her divided. On one hand Sonata needed to be able to pass for human. On the other hand it wasn't fair that she got to pretend she was still perfectly human.

"Backup is on its way. I assume they'll only be out for a minute or two, like Twilight?" Limestone asked as she walked over. It occurred to her that Sonata was standing there naked. "Fuck." Taking her jacket off, Limestone held it out to Sonata.

Wrapping the jacket around her shoulders, Sonata realized how small she was compared to Limestone. "Thanks. The other two should be out for about twelve hours or so, I think. I don't think I've ever had that much energy before. I tried to shield Twilight, that's why it wore off fast."

"Twelve hours—" Thinking out loud, Limestone looked back at the house. "Any idea at all where they might have gone?"

"Not far," Twilight said, clearing the last of the siren magic from her head so she could focus on the magic in the area. "At least a mile, not more than ten."

"Well, it's a start. They have twelve hours of downtime. Shame it's not mid winter or the sleeping spell and the cold would do our work for us. Sonata, I hate to lay this on you, but we're going to need to debrief."

"Yeah, figure. I've been trying to remember everything they said and did while I was here. I take it you got Thunderbolt's message?" Sonata looked up into the sky, but couldn't see where he was. Quickly pulling her phone out, she started tapping in a message thanking him.

"Did Thunderbolt interact with them at all?" Limestone asked.

"Yeah." Sonata couldn't help but smile. "He got all angry and in their face on my behalf. He backed off when I told him to. Remind me to get him something special as a thank-you."
> Chapter 35
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Noticing a bunch of messages popping up on her phone, Limestone started flicking through them. "Okay, looks like we head around to the front. If anyone asks, you're with me. Don't answer any questions and don't touch anything. The FBI have a crew almost here." Slinging the rifle onto its shoulder strap, Limestone let it slide to her side and slightly behind her arm.

Following along, Sonata learned where every sharp branch and thorn was in the bushes she pushed past as she followed Limestone. She also tried not to let the branches she pushed aside smack into Twilight—mostly because she liked her, but also because getting a princess angry was never smart.

When Twilight made it out of the bushes too, she saw a van and three cars pull up at the front of the house. "Are these your friends?"

Pulling her badge from her pocket, Limestone nodded. "Yeah, these are them. Head over to my car and let yourselves in."

Sonata walked, barefoot, over to the car and tried the front door. She held it open for Twilight and then climbed into the back seat herself. "Guess there's even more magic around now, huh?"

"You've got your gem back and everything. You're more powerful than your—than the other two were. Back when we had to fight." Admitting that she hadn't been the one to turn to friendship with Sonata stung a little, but Twilight tried to push her own ego aside. "Why didn't you use this back then?"

"Because I didn't want to beat you. I wanted—I wanted to be free of Adagio and Aria. Sabotaging their efforts at taking over was the best I could do, and honestly, I didn't deserve my gemstone." Slumping on the seat and pulling the jacket around herself a little tighter, Sonata shivered a little. "I don't think I do now, either, but I can't stop the magic from building up in it."

"If it helps, I don't think the power itself is wrong or bad. It's how you use it that matters, also, how you get it. Do you know where you're getting all this power?"

Giggling, shaken out of her dark mood, Sonata nodded. "My friends. It's hard to explain. Before, when we fed on anger, we had to inspire others to feel it, then we would feed and the feeding would only make them feel it stronger. Something changed when my gem grew back, I started feeding on—well, I started feeding on friendship and happiness. I think my feeding on it has the same effect, too."

"Soooo…" Twilight couldn't help it. If Sonata needed some sarcasm to drive home the lesson, Twilight was going to have to be the pony to deliver it. It helped she was princess of friendship. "I need a badge," Twilight said, before getting back on track. "Right, so you feed off the good feelings and friendships of those around you, those friendships make you stronger and, in turn, you make those bonds of friendship stronger too?"

Sonata could only stare at the source of the ironic hammer.

"Seems to me you have things all in hoof here. Or fin, as it were. Do sirens have a special group noun and split of ponish?" Twilight asked.

"We, uh, kinda do. We call each other fish all the time, sometimes even making jokes about it. Do you really think I'm doing the right thing?"

"Sonata, I'm the princess of friendship, and while I don't claim to know everything about it, I know enough to see you fighting to protect your friends using the power their friendship has given you. You're doing the right thing." It felt right for Twilight to say. So right, in fact, that she felt herself smiling a little wider. "I can keep going if you'd like. I spent three days once telling a bunch of diplomats the same thing over and over."

"I get it. I get it. Sheesh, you don't give up, do you?"

"Not when it's a friend I'm trying to help."

It finally just sank in. "Alright, but I still don't like using that kind of mind-control. It completely knocked you out."

"If you think I worked out everything I could do right at the start, you're waaaay out of date on Equestrian current events. We're all trying to do better and be better, Sonata. That's the whole point of being good. If you liked using mind-control to take over people's lives, that's when I'd get worried."

Reaching her hand up to her throat, Sonata felt the gemstone there. "This isn't fair, you know? I'm supposed to be anguished about this for thousands of years, but here I have an alicorn princess just say, It's fine, Sonata, just don't get carried away and assume direct control of the world."

"Actually, my best student tried to do that—I mean, it was just one town. Then she tried it again with my friends. Oh, and she almost destroyed Equestria several times over with time travel." Trailing off as Limestone approached the car, Twilight couldn't hold back a giggle. "She's getting better."

Sonata giggled along with Twilight for the whole ride back to the office Limestone worked out of. It surprised her to have someone else present, but all they did was sit there and listen while Limestone led her through the day from the moment she'd left to sell tacos—all Sonata had to do was fill in the blanks, since Limestone knew the big events.

When they were done, Twilight came in and sat beside Sonata. "Do you really need to question me too? I was with you all the time."

Turning to the FBI agent at her side, Limestone cleared her throat. "This is Her Highness Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. Anything she says doesn't leave this room without General Inkwell's say-so." Getting a nod from the agent, Limestone turned back to Twilight and Sonata. "So, your theories on the magic that took place?"

Looking at Sonata, Twilight shrugged and then looked back at Limestone. "The teleportation, the siren song, and most of the magic they were trying to use was fairly standard stuff. What wasn't was you shrugging off a siren's song and them using that compound teleport."

"The nature of my own abilities are both documented and need updating. Firstly, what is a siren's song and how does it work?" Limestone looked at Sonata. She hated to document everything like this—Sonata definitely didn't deserve to be poked and prodded—but having used her power during a mission meant it needed to be examined and even tested.

"It's a telepsychic emanation that spreads on vocal notes. Most sirens need to sing something in order to use it, but I can do some without actually singing. I do need to be talking to you, though." Sonata reached her hand up to her gemstone. "All a siren's magic flows in or out of their gem. All sirens are tuned to a specific emotion, and creating that emotion drains it from the target.

"All sirens except me. That's how it used to work, but lately I can drink and drink and it doesn't drain anyone. Oh, and I don't feed off anger anymore."

Twilight nodded to that. She watched as Limestone and the FBI agent frantically scribbled notes out. "So, uh, what next? Do we keep hunting them?"

"If we can find where to look." Limestone flicked back through her notes. "I'm inclined to release a bunch of mountain lions and just let this problem solve itself. Our friends at the FBI are not as interested in this plan." She nodded toward the observer.

"Actually, I'm here until your new liaison arrives. We have teams scouring the hills, but there's just so much wooded area around Canterlot that it will be impossible to find them."





"This is turning into a theme. Good to have more room, though." Limestone crouched, not sitting, holding her soda in one hand in Rainbow Dash's back yard. "Glad we have a bit more room for it, too." She looked down at her arm and the angry pattern along it.

"I just want to see you all—all." Rainbow gestured wide with her forelegs at Sonata. "I mean, I saw Adagio do it, why won't you show us?"

"Rainbow, if she doesn't want to, she doesn't have to." Rarity had her arm around Sonata and had pulled her lover firmly against her side. "So we have two enemies in the city? I was really hoping there wouldn't be a replay of the Aria/Adagio thing, but if we must—we must. When do you want us to fight them?"

"I don't want you fighting them at all." It legitimately made Limestone angry that her sisters' friends felt they needed to defend the city. "This world needs more protection against this stuff just so civilians aren't required to help. I already feel bad for getting Sonata and Thunderbolt caught up in everything today."

"I mean, I kinda walked into that one. I should have called you when I picked up the magic gunk they were spilling." Happy to be snuggled—limpet-like—by her lover and domme, Sonata lifted her half-eaten taco up to her lips and took a bite.

Nuzzling at Sonata's cheek, Rarity made a happy little noise in her throat. "Gosh but you look so beautiful."

"Ahem!" It wasn't anything approaching a secure location and they were in the open air, but Raven wasn't planning to spill national secrets—just a few of her own. "Thank you, ma'am, for lending us the use of your back yard."

Rainbow waved down the thanks with her foreleg, her wing on that side being occupied with a drink. "Hey, it's no problem. The whole sky is my backyard now."

"Well, I think we're going to be taking advantage of that. How many of you here can fly?" Raven, standing, looked around the young adults and one ancient abomination. She watched Rainbow jerk a leg in the air, Thunderbolt too, and Sonata rounded out the group. "Sonata, you're grounded. As good as it would be to have you scouting, we need to talk tactics. Thunderbolt, Rainbow, can I rely on the two of you to only report what you find and not engage?"

"Engage?" Rainbow asked.

"She means we aren't allowed to attack them." Thunderbolt was half curled around the fire pit, soaking up heat and radiating far more out. He studied Raven Inkwell closely, trying to judge what the woman was thinking.

It was a relief that at least one of them understood her, though Raven was surprised it was Thunderbolt. "Correct. You will both be issued with night-vision equipment, if you need it. It might not fit so well, though. You wanted to help, this is how you can help. Find those two and let us know, and we'll bring the hammer down, won't we, sergeant?"

"Special Weapons And Tactics have offered me the use of some of their heavier toys." Limestone really wanted to just run in and punch both the targets, but she could content herself with dealing with them a little less directly. "You find 'em, I'll take them out."

"So I guess you want us to do that now?" Rainbow asked.

Raven tried to look apologetic. "Sorry to kick you out of your own back yard, but—"

"Eh, it's fine. Just watch how fast I sue the government if you make a mess in my kitchen." Stretching her wings, Rainbow started trying to get herself in the zone to fly fast. "Oh, and where's this fancy gear we can have?"

"I don't need it. Where do you want me to hunt?" Thunderbolt stood up on all fours, then straightened until he was a little uncomfortably more bipedal.

"How good's your sight?" Limestone asked, straightening up and walking over to her gear to grab her tablet. As she walked to Thunderbolt, she turned it on and authenticated.

"I can see heat. They were both warmer than air temperature back at the house." Thunderbolt watched as Limestone held out the tablet so he could look. "All this?"
> Chapter 36
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Yeah. You cover that, and if you don't find them, get back here. Take your mobile phone," Limestone said, making sure that the tablet showed that both Rainbow and Thunderbolt's phones were being tracked. "And, remember, no brawling with these guys. This Storm King straight up tried to kill a whole bunch of people already, and it was only thanks to the princess that there were no casualties."

"And if they don't give me a choice?" Thunderbolt asked.

"Then be fast and make sure of your work. You're still a civilian here. If you hurt someone, you might have to justify it in court." Limestone was about to add more, but Thunderbolt spread his wings and jumped straight up. She tilted her head back and watched him disappear into the dark sky almost immediately.

"He'll be fine." Sonata could see a little better than Limestone, and had watched Thunderbolt even out and zoom off toward the north. "He went toe-to-toe with a siren and came out of it without a mark on him."

"From what I've seen, Sirens mostly get into your head." After she said it, Limestone turned her head to Sonata. "Right?"

"Beams of magic fire, sustained blasts of sonic energy. Plus he shrugged off their mind control." Sonata took another bite of her taco, and then said with her mouth full, "After all this, I'll give a demo."

"Yeah, I read all that about them, but I figured the blasts were—well, were smaller. What do you think about this Storm King?"

"He seems to have a lot of destructive force, but you spotted his weakness, right?" Sonata asked.

Limestone nodded. "He can't do much unless he has a storm, and it takes him a little time to build something up. Yeah."

"Hey, I'm ready. Where do you want me going?" Rainbow had a night-vision headpiece strapped on her head so that one of her eyes was uncovered but the other was seeing through the eyepiece.

It took a force of will not to laugh at Rainbow, a force of will and the realization that she'd done something very smart. "Got that piece of crap figured out? Okay, I want you flying this section over here." She circled the area of forest that split off to the west of their current location. "Thunderbolt is north and east of you."

Watching Rainbow take off in a fraction of the time Thunderbolt did, Limestone shook her head. "I hope she's as fast as she thinks she is."

Sonata and Rarity giggled at that, but it was Sonata who actually said, "You know she can literally slow time around her, right? Like, comic book style faster than fast stuff."

"Indeed," Rarity said. "She's already fast, but when she starts using that, she literally can't be touched."

"The problem is," Limestone said, feeling the need to be gruff, "lightning might still be faster."





Twilight checked the time almost every thirty seconds, she checked her messages on her phone every minute, and she reread her mother's message every few minutes. "I can't believe he wants to get out more. What do we do if he freaks out?"

"You think he will freak out? Didn't you say you took him to school and everything?" Marble was in the process of transposing her notes onto her computer.

"Well, yeah, but he's kinda big now. Our heights are nearly completely reversed. He's tall like a person and I'm a tiny pony." Twilight checked the time.

"And that matters?"

Checking for a new text message, Twilight exhaled with a grunt and shook her head. "I know it shouldn't, but—You'll see when he gets here."

"I think you're making way more of this than it needs to be, and you can trust me—I'm an expert in making things more than they need to be." Marble had come a long way in her socializing to be able to make that joke. "I'm worried about Thunderbolt."

"Didn't your sister say—"

"My sister says things that can hurt you without her even realizing it. I know what she said, but she's also not an expert in all this." Marble looked at her hands and squeezed them into fists. "But I don't know what to do. I can't help him directly and I don't know how to do what he does."

Checking the time again, Twilight slumped on the couch and let her jaw rest just over the edge. "I could have done that. I had wings and a horn and everything, but then I messed up."

When her phone beeped, Twilight jumped nearly three feet in the air before landing and checking her messages. "They're here! What do I do?"

"Come with me to answer the door." Not that Marble felt like putting herself forward to several new people, but she felt close to Twilight. "Come on," she added, standing up.

Walking to the door, Twilight reached it just as the doorbell sounded. She reached out with her magic and opened the door. "Spike!" It took just one look at him—and his pensive expression—for Twilight to drop all her nerves and jump forward.

Marble bit her bottom lip and retreated to let Spike and Twilight hug it out on the doorstep. Walking across the living room, she turned her thoughts back to Thunderbolt. Sitting at her computer, Marble could only stare at the screen blankly.

"Spike!" Twilight didn't care if she almost knocked him over, she felt Spike's arms close around her and hug her and it all felt okay. "Are you okay?"

"I needed to get out of the house. I asked Mom, and she said I was big enough I could take myself for a walk now." Pressing his snout to the back of Twilight's neck and inhaled. It was an odd mix of animal and something not-animal. Given that he could actually see through part of her body, he couldn't really argue with his senses.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" Twilight asked, squirming a little so she could lean back and look him in the face. She was reminded of the roleplaying games her brother played with her when she was younger. There was a race in the books called a gnoll.

"Y-Yeah." Letting go of Twilight, Spike stood up straight and felt like a giant compared to her. All his life he'd looked up at her—not anymore.

When she heard the door close, Marble expected to see Twilight and Spike walk into the living room, but her pony ears couldn't even hear them. Now alone and still worried about Thunderbolt, Marble let out a sigh, picked her laptop up, and started making her way to her bedroom.

Without the distraction of Twilight's fiddling, her body's need for food was eating away at the back of her mind, and that meant she needed some alone time.





"I've looked everywhere," Rainbow said. "Even Thunderbolt's area. He's checked mine. They're not out there."

Limestone looked at her tablet. They had indeed covered all the wooded area within range and had found no trace of the pair. "So they're inside somewhere. So much for my idea of releasing bears."

Rainbow snorted, having heard Limestone make the gag several times. "Hey, I liked the idea. But, right now, I'm going to go sleep."

"With me." Thunderbolt walked toward the house too, though it was getting harder to navigate around inside without scraping the walls. "Take off the night vision stuff, Dash."

Glad for having four legs, Rainbow walked slowly so she wouldn't fall over. "Yeah, yeah. Hey, Limestone, I'll bring the gear back tomorrow. That okay? Thanks."

As soon as the rear door closed behind him, and still following Rainbow down the hallway toward her bedroom, Thunderbolt leaned forward and nipped at her croup. "Are you hungry?" His tone implied he didn't mean normal food.

"You too, huh? Yeah, I got an itch under my tail, and I think you've got the cure." Walking a little slower, Rainbow swayed her hips a little for Thunderbolt's enjoyment.

Rumbling out a purr, Thunderbolt followed Rainbow, taking careful note of every time she swished her tail. Entering the master bedroom just behind her, he started advancing his desires a bit more before she spun to face him.

"Wanna let me drive?" Rainbow felt far too horny to be passive in their lovemaking. She stared at Thunderbolt with so much hunger she almost pounced on him there and then.

"You don't normally like to." Turning, Thunderbolt tilted himself sideways and flexed the muscles in his back that controlled his crest—folding it against his scales as he rolled onto his spine. Flicking his tail side to side, he watched Rainbow approach and purred just a little more.

There was a lot of dragon before Rainbow, but from experience she knew there was two important parts she wanted most of all. Grabbing a quick squirt of lube from the bottle on her bedside table, she walked back over to ponder her situation.

Giving a flap of her wings she jumped up and onto Thunderbolt, looking up his body at him. He'd angled his head against her chest of drawers so that he could watch—and that only encouraged Rainbow more. "Hey, big guy, you ready?"

Thunderbolt was ready enough. His breath threatened to turn to smoke and both his shafts were pushing free of his genital slit. About to make a suggestion, he silenced himself as she slid her body back and both his lengths kissed a hole each.

"I still have no idea how you fit all that inside me," Rainbow said, "but it's amazing that you can." With that she arched her spine, spread her wings, and flapped—shoving her body backwards.

A shudder ran through Thunderbolt. He'd let partners take control before, but never Rainbow Dash. She'd always been his to take, and that made this a special occasion—despite his almost overwhelming desire to shove her down and fuck her. "You're always so tight."

"That's because I work out," Rainbow said, leaning further back until she felt her rear press to Thunderbolt's body.

"You can work out for that?" Surprised, Thunderbolt reached for Rainbow with one claw, running it over her ear and scritching just behind it. "Perhaps you could teach me this?"

With her head tilted into the scratching claw, Rainbow nuzzled at Thunderbolt's huge talon. "We could try. Maybe Tree could help you with that too?" Leaning forward, Rainbow eased herself off Thunderbolt's shafts and then shoved back with her wings again.

The slow pace ate away at Thunderbolt's focus. Normally he liked to fuck Rainbow rapidly, driving her into a frenzy to match his own, but this was more like what Tree did with him. Slow, sensual, and just making it really hard for him to focus on anything but his lover.

One thing that encouraged Rainbow to keep her pace slow was the adorable whines that Thunderbolt made each time she pulled back. Each time she rocked herself off of him and back down, her body's hunger was sated a little more, but what she really wanted was a feast. "Time to kick things up a gear."

"Want me to—?"

"You know what, go ahead." Rainbow had had her fun, and was more than happy to have Thunderbolt grab her, pull her off his shafts, then press her to the floor with his talons and then his belly.

"Can't resist it, can you?" Thunderbolt drove himself into Rainbow with a firm thrust, sinking his shafts as deep as he could and pushing Rainbow along the floor a little bit. "You just want a big dragon to take control and fuck you senseless."

Eyes screwed closed, Rainbow nodded.

"Good pony." Pace was no longer a problem. Thunderbolt started fucking for all he was worth, earning all sorts of needy and hungry cries from Rainbow.

The wording Thunderbolt used triggered Rainbow's submissive nature, and when he started to swell inside her, she lost herself to her pleasure. Stretching her wings out to each side, she flapped them weakly as her body trembled and shook.

Feeling Rainbow experiencing her climax, Thunderbolt growled and sped his pace up until the swollen tips of his shafts wouldn't move anymore. Still, though, he rocked his body against her and brought himself to the very peak of his pleasure.

The intensity of Thunderbolt's orgasm never ceased to blow Rainbow away. She'd been coming down from her own climax, but the rush of intense heat in her colon and vagina shoved her into a second release that wiped out all sensation beyond their immediate coupling.

Tilting his hips to the side, Thunderbolt reduced the pressure on Rainbow, and he tugged her back against his belly with a foreleg and a wing. Reduced to grunts as his orgasm extended out, Thunderbolt started petting Rainbow to show his affection.

Rainbow Dash turned as best she could so her belly was pressed to Thunderbolt's. The motion had put a little strain on the tie, but she liked that little bit of discomfort. "You know just what I need."

When his rutting body had calmed enough he trusted himself to talk without burning the house down, Thunderbolt purred again. "What are we going to do about these monsters?"

"You thinkin' of that too, huh? I don't think it'd be a good idea to leave them to Limestone and Twilight—uh, the princess one. I mean, I get it, they kick ass, but you know what we've got?"

"Experience." Thunderbolt nodded and leaned down to lick at Rainbow's cheek. "They're not in the hills around the city. Do you think you can find them?"

"Please, after a good sleep, I'll find them in ten seconds flat." At that, Rainbow yawned. "Hey, uh, you're not planning to go anywhere for a few hours?"

"Not when I could wake up and do this all over again." Yawning himself, Thunderbolt curled his tail around Rainbow and tucked the tip of it under his chin. "Good night, Rainbow."
> Chapter 37
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What happened?" the Storm King asked. "How did things go so badly?"

Not quite as hardy as Storm, Abacus squinted around the familiar (but cramped) walls of Crystal Prep's boiler room. With the room dimly lit by the boiler's gas light, she crawled her way over to the wall, stood up, and turned the light on. "How do you think? That siren was working for the police."

"That can't be right. Sirens are masterminds. They ply the seas and take over nations on a whim." Storm held the side of his head as if all his other preconceived notions of how sirens operated would fall out his ear. "Wait! That's it! She's controlling this city! That makes sense—but means she just didn't want to bother taking us out herself."

"Or she wasn't powerful enough to. She called in her minions to destroy us—and they failed." Abacus Cinch carefully teased at her own magic and set about reinforcing her mind against further attacks. "We have some time here. Before I went unconscious I managed to obfuscate our possible target, so they will have to search a good part of the city to find us."

With the light on the small room was fully illuminated, though neither could see outside to judge what time it was.

His memory of the fight fuzzy, Storm tried to make sense of the situation he was in. While Abacus had not betrayed him yet, he couldn't help but consider betraying her—trading up to a siren as a "co-villain" wasn't the worst idea. "What now? Where are we?"

"We're in the basement of the school I was the dean of. This is a utility closet that was the next room over from the lab of a student I'd hoped would make my career. You may know of her—Twilight Sparkle." Abacus smiled as Storm blinked in surprise. "Not your world's one, mine. She had magic, real magic, and I thought she could control it. Never send a lackey to do what needs a more careful hand."

Taking a long, slow breath, Storm advanced on the power conduits on the wall. He could feel his element—trapped. It was like when he was in Abacus' house, only this was stronger. "I can sympathize with that. I left a mare to deal with a situation that I should have carried out myself."

Reaching the door, Abacus opened it carefully and peeked into the hallway—only to jerk back when she saw students everywhere. "How'd that work out for you?" she asked when the door was closed.

"I died. The mare turned on me—to side with Twilight—and she turned me to stone and then shattered the stone. It hurt." Taking a deep breath, Storm drew in the power from the conduits—causing electricity to crackle and fizz over his fur. "I could get used to this."

"Careful. If you draw too much, you'll cause a—" The lights cut off, stalling Abacus' warning. "Okay, I think it's time we did this properly. What abilities do you have apart from teleport?"

"I can control the weather, call lightning, winds, sleet, rain—Anything to do with storms." Storm couldn't feel the electricity anymore. "I also have a knack for magic devices."

"Magic devices." Abacus' mouth curled into a tight smile. "I know where one resides. But first we have to get there, and I have just the right plan."





Walking along the hallway, late for class again, Fleur Dis Lee let out a relieved sigh. She might not be doing the best in math and science, but where it mattered—art—she was shining.

Fleur was just about to her visual arts class when the lights went out. "What now?" With the rain of the past week, and with the whole day so far having been cold and overcast, there wasn't a lot of light coming through the windows. "Who's there?"

A soft green light caught Fleur's attention. She narrowed her eyes and took a step toward it, reaching out physically and mentally—and then it brightened and crowded everything that was Fleur to the back of her mind and wrapped it in green light. Her arms relaxed at her sides, she dropped her books, and just stared as Abacus Cinch stepped from the closer with glowing red pupils surrounded in green glow and multi-colored smoke.

"Find another student, do what you must to bring them here." Abacus' voice sank into Fleur's head and became her reason for being. When the girl turned and walked off, Abacus leaned back into the closet. "There. I may not have your fighting prowess, but I can build a new army for you. One that will listen to every command and never betray you."

Storm's smile in the darkened room was accompanied with the sound of thunder outside.





Looking at the sky, Thunderbolt could taste the magic on the air. "It's not natural."

Yawning, Rainbow walked out to stand beside Thunderbolt. "Yeah, those aren't the right clouds for this time of year." Unlike Thunderbolt, she felt the troubling weather in every feather, hair, and nerve ending. She'd never felt so attuned to the weather before, but this had become part of her now she was fully a pegasus. "Let me try something."

Thunderbolt tried to reach out and stop Rainbow, but she was far too quick for his reflexes. Gazing up, he watched her crash through the clouds with a rainbow of light chasing after her. From as far back as Thunderbolt could remember, which involved the vague memories and instincts of a canine, he'd been awed at Rainbow Dash. It was something he'd never ceased.

A swirl of cloud formed, pulling a bunch of thunderheads into a tight mass, and then Rainbow crashed down through them. A large hole appeared in the sky, and it only served to encourage Rainbow more as she sought more ways to disperse the storm clouds above Canterlot.

Limbering up his shoulders, Thunderbolt locked and closed the door behind him and followed Rainbow into the sky. Though he lacked the affinity with weather and the speed, he felt a need to support her.





Sonata knew the feel of magic that was rising like a hurricane in Canterlot. There were three parts to it.

First and foremost, she felt the Storm King gathering a huge thunderstorm. Secondly, she felt pegasus magic fighting against the storm, and she only knew of one pegasus. Finally, there was something intimately familiar about the third magic—it was tiny in scope, but pin-point like a laser. Mind-control magic. "Twilight?"

Poking her head out of a row of shelves in the adult toy store, Princess Twilight Sparkle wore a blush on her cheeks and had a basket with several items in it. "What's the—" The basket crashed to the floor as she picked up on what Sonata was feeling. "Wow. Okay, that's another big storm. I guess they're awake."

"More than just the storm. Can't you feel that other magic?" Sonata couldn't help but feel it now. She picked out the hurricanes Rainbow was forming easily within the general storm magic, and each lance of mind-control magic as if it was her being the target. "I bet you Limestone will—" Her phone rang.

"Limestone?" Sonata asked when she answered the phone. She waited, listening to the instructions. "Got it, we'll be out the front. Rainbow's already trying to work on the storm. I can feel other magic, though." Another pause. "Mind-control magic. Just little blips in all this chaos, but there're a lot of little blips."

"This is it, isn't it?" Twilight asked. When Sonata nodded, she took a deep breath. "If you need to use your magic on me to win, do it. Don't hesitate."

For a moment this short-circuited Sonata's thinking. "Still, I'll try not to. My lullaby didn't work fast enough last time, but perhaps I could use something a bit faster." Locking the register, she started tapping a text message into her phone for Spicy, to explain why the shop would be closing.

Following Sonata down the stairs, Twilight tried to go over what magic she'd need. Lightning shield was a no-brainer, but now she wanted to be sure she could break mind-control magic. Some offensive teleports would probably be needed too, as well as some of her old faithful blast spells.

When Limestone pulled up at the curb, she reached across and opened the door for Twilight to get in. "Don't worry about trying to find the epicenter of this, it's one of the high schools."

Climbing into the back seat, Sonata caught the end of Limestone's description. "Let me guess, Canterlot High School?"

Tapping the GPS on her dash, Limestone shook her head. "Nope. Crystal Prep. Turns out the second tango, Abacus Cinch, was the dean there a year or so back. Whole bunch of crazy shit with magic happened, she got the blame and got ousted. Guess she wants revenge."

"The Storm King is as much a danger as an ally as an enemy. In my world, his second-in-command had been promised to have her horn repaired. When he thought he had ultimate power, he was prepared to cast her off as unneeded." It had been a harsh reminder for Twilight that the needs of those under her care were always more important than her own. "She didn't do it deliberately, but Fizzlepop's actions resulted in his death."

"Fizzlepop Berrytwist?" Limestone almost facepalmed. She could feel herself being pulled in a specific direction, and she disliked it. She disliked it so much she wanted to punch something very hard.

"That's her!" Twilight said.

Limestone swerved to the side of the road and picked up her phone and started hammering away on the screen—sending the location to the FBI agent in question and telling her to get her ass on site. Leaving her phone unlocked, she tossed it over her shoulder and started driving again. "Tell me if she texts back or calls."

"Right. So, what do you want me to do when we get there?" Sonata juggled the phone a few times before getting it held comfortably.

"Okay. This is the best I've got. They've brought the situation up to Type B and Type C—magic and psychic—and being as they're both proving to be hostile, you can use whatever you want to take them down. But, I want you getting civilians out of the way. Feel free to use your own mind-control." It was a very loose leash, but Limestone didn't want another massacre like with Adagio and Aria. "Princess Twilight Sparkle, I can't give you orders. If you find yourself having to kill one or both targets, very few questions will be asked."

Sonata almost curled up on herself. Here she was, barely coming to terms with the fact that she might have to use her siren powers again, and she was being given permission—even ordered—to use them en mass. The scariest part for her was she had enough energy to do it, too. "And if I get a shot at the BBEG?"

"What's BBEG?" Limestone asked.

"Big Bad Evil Guy," Twilight and Sonata said at the same time.

Limestone didn't want to ask how two such different people knew the same acronym. "Yeah, give 'em whatever you can, but safety is your number one job."

When the car's GPS crackled and flashed an error, Limestone knew they were getting close. "Turn my phone off. It won't work now anyway."

Turning off the phone, Sonata watched as little flares of plasma started to dance off any sharp corners and edges of the car. "T-Twilight?"

"Got it… and there." As soon as she put up the lightning shield, the St. Elmo's Fire sputtered out.

Sonata let out a little sigh of relief. "I'd love to learn that spell off you, when things settle down."

"I'll get you some spellbooks if you want. You can use them to teach some of the locals." The moment the car stopped, Twilight used her telekinesis to open the door and jump out. Ruffling her wings, she felt the pegasus magic waging a war with the storm above.

As Sonata climbed from the car, she slowly released her form and flowed out into a large, sinuous, flying sea monster. Looking around at the school, she noticed a huge bus parked out front. "Okay, what was going on here?"
> Chapter 38
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

They were parked across the road at the nearest crossroad. There were police barricades set up, and both uniformed police and the FBI were in attendance.

Most of the officers were watching the building. Two of the uniformed local police noticed the new arrivals and were worriedly reaching for their belts when Fizzlepop stepped past the two of them. "Relax, these are our specialists." She targeted Limestone and walked over. "Do you have any idea what's going on in there?"

"I do," Sonata said. "Someone's using a lot of mind-control magic. They've created a feedback loop where they partially drain those controlled to build enough magic to control more. Depending on their skill as to how many they can control."

"If that magic is what I think it is," Twilight said, "then the answer is a lot. That's dark magic. I don't know if you know of him, but it's what King Sombra used. From what I know, his mind-control had no upper limit—he commanded an entire empire."

Fizzlepop had never seen a sea monster shiver in fear, but understood the gesture Sonata made to mean that. "Wish we'd known about this situation already."

"You did." Limestone walked around her car with her replacement rifle assembled, sliding a magazine home. "The FBI was notified about this situation the moment we recognized it as Type B-C. Now, with them having an army of civilians under their control, I'm going to make a field call and raise it to Type D., Agent Berrytwist. You and your agents have clearance to shoot to kill on the primary targets. Now, someone give me a sitrep?"

"Half an hour ago there was a power anomaly detected here. Local law enforcement thought someone had electrocuted themselves with grow lights or coin miners, but they had one of those magic-detecting keyrings and it was going nuts. They called us. I was just about to call you when you called me." Fizzlepop was not happy. Because she was the only field-experienced agent left in the city, the Bureau had put her back on the active list until the situation was resolved. "So it's your show now."

"Is there a P.A. system we can hook into." Limestone looked at Sonata. "If we could get you onto that line, we could have this wrapped up in a few minutes, right?"

"Maybe I could get the students away, but any being with magic of their own will resist that. And worse, any with good mind-control will just break my grip—though, it seems like this Sombra-like creature is only working one by one." Sonata flashed Limestone a smile that showed off a whole mess of predatorial teeth—teeth that seemed resigned to eating corn-wrapped meals.

"Right. Princess, you and me are going to breach and engage the targets directly while Sonata frees the students and gets them to safety. Agent Berrytwist, aid Sonata with any assets you can spare from keeping the public out.'' As she talked, Limestone noticed Twilight repeatedly sneaking glances at Fizzlepop. "Princess?"

"Right! Sorry! Just used to a different Fizzlepop in my world." Turning her attention to the school, Twilight could feel the play of magic within—but there was something else that was worrying her and she couldn't figure out what.

Limestone faced the front doors and started walking toward them. "Does anyone know their way around this place?"

"Uh, actually, I do." Twilight walked beside Limestone. "Want me to go first?"

"Sure." Checking her rifle, Limestone let out a slow, calming breath. "Let me open that for you."

"No, I've got it." Twilight aimed her horn, waited for Limestone to step back, and then blasted the locking part of the door apart, catching the pieces in a small sphere that she tossed to the side. Within, there were three odd-looking students who'd set up instruments in the main hallway of Crystal Prep High.

"What the hell is—" Limestone didn't get any further. The three masked and body-suited figures looked her way, and the one at the front held an electric violin up to her chin, aimed the neck at Twilight, and stroked her bow across the strings.

Barely getting her shield up in time, Twilight stared at the three as the walls on each side of her, the doors, and entirety of the door frame ripped free and flew past them as if an explosion had hit it. She was panting, adrenaline kicking in as another of the equine-masked women stepped forward with a bass guitar.

"What the fuck?!" Limestone crouched down, staring past the purple shield. "How are they doing that?"

"Don't shoot!" Twilight couldn't see a green glow in the three women's eyes, but she knew instinctively that they were being controlled. "Let me just—"

Vinyl DJ-Pon3 Scratch, swung her bass around and leaned forward. Her mind was awash with green fire urging her to deal with them—the ones that stood before her. Bracing the heel of her boot a quarter inch into the floor, she brought her fingers to the strings and started plucking them—sending rapid-fire waves of sonic magic lashing toward Twilight and Limestone.

Circling her shield around the pair of them, Twilight barely stopped the sonic attack that reverberated off every surface to seemingly home-in on them—even from behind. "I need to try to grab their instruments away."

"Better do it fast. I don't know if the building can take much more of this." Chunks of concrete were tumbling down only to bounce off the shield.





Sonata, having worked out how to not destroy her clothes or appear back naked, shrank back to her human-like self and approached the side of the building, letting Fizzlepop follow her. "Do you know where the office part of the building is? P.A. systems normally have their mic there."

"Right. Sure. I have no idea where that is. Let's just try getting in through a window and go from there." With that, Fizzlepop shoved her elbow through the glass window nearest them and jumped up to the sill before climbing inside.

Jumping clear through the broken window, Sonata landed beside Fizzlepop. "Okay, so we check the hallway. We're looking for offices or principal's room or something."

Walking to the doorway, Sonata opened it and walked out—just as the ground started to shake. A glance down the hallway—toward the front door—showed her that Twilight was struggling to get past Vinyl and Octavia. Behind them, Lemon Zest was belting on the ground with a pair of drumsticks. "The Shadowcolts?!"

"Whatever they are, can you stop them?" Fizzlepop was bracing herself in the doorway and hoping something heavy wasn't about to break above them.

"Cover your ears," Sonata said. When Fizzlepop didn't, she turned to look at the woman. "Cover your ears or what I'm about to do might cause you to go deaf, kill you, or just melt your mind so you become my slave."

When Fizzlepop did as she asked, Sonata grinned. "Now, let's see how good my aim is." Friendship, she'd learned, was more potent than anger. Lining up, she brought up a suitably high note in her throat and pushed a jet of magic along it.





Struggling to protect Limestone and fight the guitarist and violinist—with the ground shaking from the drummer—Twilight was startled to see vortex rings of sonic-magic blast down on Lemon Zest. It didn't just disrupt her playing, but Twilight could feel the mind-control magic shoved right out of the girl. "Thank Celestia. Okay, time to work."

The moment the shield went down, Limestone had a moment to brace against the twin sonic attacks—that didn't come. The last two musicians were trying to grab their instruments that floated in the air above them, surrounded with purple glow. "Right. I owe Sonata a beer for that flank. Can you tell where the two—ugh—BBEG are?"

Scanning around, Twilight picked up a location. "I visited here, mostly to make sure of a few things, around the time my local twin tried to rip a hole from here into my world. I've been around the building once, though, and I know they're this way."

Following, Limestone kept her gun aimed down and her finger off the trigger. Constantly, though, she scanned the doorways and windows into classrooms. "Where are all the students?"

"If I had to guess, either they're all with the BBEG, or they have them patrolling." Twilight paused in her walk and looked behind her. Sonata had all three of the musicians now gathered to her. "I haven't seen any patrols, though."

"And where can you fit a whole school full of students?" Limestone hated every part of what was going on. They were about to enter a target-rich environment where she couldn't afford to shoot.

"Gym. Also, the one place I didn't go." Though she hadn't been there on her previous totally not spying on her brother and Cadance mission, Twilight could follow the magic signature of all that dark magic, to say nothing of the Storm King's constant flood of magic into the sky above that Rainbow Dash was ruining. Turning a corner, she looked down the hall to a pair of closed double-doors. "In there."

"Yeah, that's not something I want to do. Charging in there will just get us mobbed. We don't want to hurt the students, and they don't care." Sparing a glance back the way they'd come, Limestone hoped Sonata could figure something out.





"No. Stop saying that." Sonata rolled her eyes at Fizzlepop. "We can fix them later, I guess."

"We don't need to be fixed," Vinyl said.

"We're perfect just the way you made us," Lemon said.

"Please, just tell us what we can do to make you happy," Octavia said.

All three now had their heads full of siren magic, and nothing their goddess could say would persuade them otherwise.

"I don't know, they seem about as sharp as most teens." Looking around the entryway, Fizzlepop pointed down the hall Limestone and Twilight didn't take. "There's a sign down there that says Office."

"Then that's where we—" Sonata paused and looked at the three fawning over her. "You three follow us and keep back, okay? I would be so upset if you got hurt." Looking at their blank, horse masked faces, Sonata smacked her forehead. "Take off the masks."

Fizzlepop followed Sonata, now realizing why Limestone had sent the siren into this situation. It surprised her when the three took their masks off and revealed tear-filled eyes. "What's wrong?"

"They're crying because they really don't want me to get angry with them. Siren magic and mind-control is all about emotions. I don't think that other one is. Here we are." Striding into the office, Sonata spotted the mic right away. "Aww yeah! Hey, girls, want to sing backup for me?"

Lemon, Octavia, and Vinyl crowded around Sonata, squirming in their stage outfits to be as close as possible.

The song didn't need background singing, but it meant Sonata could focus on the magic side of things.

"What do we sing?" Vinyl asked.

"Why don't you make up a song. Something soft, strong, but keep it non-sexual." Sonata rolled her eyes. She remembered their concert well.

Reaching for the mic, Vinyl pulled it closer and leaned over it, her eyes closed. "We want you—"

Leaning in, Octavia was so used to Vinyl's songwriting that she easily added, "… to come—"

Lemon shifted so close she was actually kissing the side of the mic. "… to your senses."

Liking the tune, Sonata started to weave her magic over their voices. The lyrics resonated with her because they represented freedom rather than the cold control that she'd found the three Shadowcolts in.
> Chapter 39
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Abacus Cinch's hands flew to the sides of her head to cover her ears. "Shut those speakers up before they ruin everything!"

Looking around the gymnasium, Storm could see several students starting to shake their heads—the green glow leaving their eyes. For a brief moment he thought of just teleporting away as far as he could. With the amount of magic brewing, such a teleport would be hard to trace.

But, it wouldn't take much to use his newfound power to send a pulse along the speaker wires and—a series of loud screeches and pops sounded around the room. "I've got this."

The discordant tune had meant Abacus had to renew her control. One by one she started targeting students to reinforce her control. She was almost halfway through when the doors at the end of the gym opened to reveal Twilight Sparkle. "Get—that—pony!"

Twilight didn't need much help to spot Abacus. The woman was taller than the students, and across the hall she could see the burning red eyes and black smoke pouring from her face. There was a straight line between their faces, and locking eyes with the fledgling dark sorcerer, Twilight unloaded a pin-point accurate blast.

Abacus had been expecting some form of magic to come her way, what she didn't expect from the doppelganger of the mousy teen she'd taught at Crystal Prep was a blast of magic directly at her face. Throwing a shield up, she tried to absorb the whole shot with the shield and, while it held, Abacus got thrown backwards and against the wall of the gym so hard she left a dent in it.

Suddenly rethinking his plan of staying inside until the growing storm was ready, Storm did have the presence of mind enough to look around for Limestone this time. What he didn't expect was a teleportation spell to put her right in front of him. "Sh—"

"You know"—Limestone threw a second punch Storm's way—"I was going to come in with my rifle, try to take up a position and be the princess' fire support, but she said the best way to put people onto the wrong footing was to reverse their expectations." Bringing a quick one-two jab against Storm's forearms as he tried to protect his face from another punch, Limestone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him forward into her rising knee. "And you know what? I think I like her way better."

Climbing out of the wall in a bit of a daze, it took Abacus watching the muscle-bound soldier beat Storm until he folded before she caught up with events. "I'm not sure what your plan was against two magic users, but it stops now. Surrender your will to me!" It was the same will-stealing she'd performed on all the students, but rather than sink deep into Limestone's head, her power just slipped off. "What are—?"

There was an art to punching someone unconscious—Limestone didn't know that art, but she had enthusiasm on her side. When Storm fell to the ground at her hooved feet, she turned to the other problem in the room. Clenching her fist, she wanted to draw her pistol and end this, but with so many young civilians around, she wasn't ready to risk it.

"Just give up. You can't use that mind-control stuff on me." Each step Limestone took, she could hear Abacus' voice trying to drive into her head. "This ends now with you in cuffs or not."

"I'll take not!" Giving up on her target, Abacus instead took control of some more students and ordered them into Limestone's path. "Now what will you do? The longer you wait, the more I will send to stop you."

This was the problem Limestone had foreseen already. The problem specifically was that she and Twilight both lacked the ability to deal with this many people. "Yeah, but—" A tickle at the back of Limestone's neck made her turn around just in time to see Storm rising up from where he lay, jam his claws into the mains conduit that ran along the wall.

Spitting blood (and two teeth) out of his mouth, Storm sucked down the electricity and stopped his efforts of feeding the storm outside. "Now," he said. "Now you die."

The jagged arc of electricity rushed toward Limestone with perfect accuracy. The problem was she had mind-controlled students grabbing at her. All she could think to do was raise her arm at the onrushing electricity and try to think hungry thoughts. "Fuc—"

A blue arc of light lit up the room like a sun. It persisted on and on, so much that everyone dropped to the floor to cover their eyes—everyone except Limestone and the Storm King.

Yelling, Limestone felt agony as the lightning bolt burrowed up her arm and into the void within. It hurt, but that was natural, she realized, given the amount of power involved. One step, then another. She was walking closer to Storm, her own vision somehow protected from the dangerous light of the arc.

"Why won't you die?!" Storm drew on the power circuits. The electricity shouldn't have been able to flow as it did, but with Storm's own wild magic pulling on it, the copper cabling glowed white hot but still delivered current to him.

Until it didn't. Something had finally given-in and—one by one—fuses popped and breakers released.





Sonata, with Fizzlepop in tow, turned the corner just as the power grid for the area lost its ability to cope with the draw. The arc of lightning from the Storm King to Limestone Pie lasted for only a short fraction of a second later before it halted.

The mind-controlled students were starting to stand up and seemed to turn toward Twilight (who was likewise recovering from the flash).

"Twilight, cover your ears." Sonata opened her mouth and started to stretch her body out into its full size. She was cramped in the hallway, but as soon as she saw Twilight's magic shield go up, Sonata began to sing a single note.

Knowing what was to come, Twilight tucked down against the floor and pulled her shield close over her. Even with the shield spell, Twilight could hear an echo of the sonorous note—though the magic effect was held at bay.

For the students caught in the blast, the magic of Sonata's voice didn't entrap them or steal their will—it ensured their freedom. Jerking around to look at her, the mass exodus of former mesmerized students streamed past Twilight and up to Sonata.

"You need to get outside. Head out the front door and wait for assistance!" This was something Fizzlepop felt comfortable doing. She repeated her shouts, directing the students out of the combat area.





When the power had cut off, the arc of lightning had drawn on Storm's internal reserves. He'd cut his attack before burning himself out, only to feel a hand close around his throat. "W-W-Wait!" He trembled at the sight of Limestone's arm, the glowing pattern of lightning down its length seeming to hum in barely-contained threat.

"Give me a reason. Try to pull anything. Please do it." Remembering what her arm's blast had done before, Limestone had little worry now that she had Storm where she wanted him. "Are you done?"

"Yes, yes. Of course. Now let me go and I promise not to do it agai—"

Tightening her grip, Limestone could feel the pulse of his arteries just under her fingers. "Not how it works here."

Across the gym, trying to regather her control over the few students still milling around the room, Abacus Cinch snarled a curse at Sonata as she soared into the high-ceilinged room. "I've had enough of this. You promised me power beyond my imagination, so give it to me! Forget deals and promises, just let me kill them all!"

A ghostly, deep voice echoed in laughter. "Yes."

Rushing into the gym herself, Twilight heard King Sombra's voice and felt real fear strike. "N-No! Sonata! Get them out of here!" Already attempting to do just that, Twilight teleported students outside the school as fast as she could while black magic seethed around Abacus.

Ignoring Sonata's herding and Twilight's teleporting, Fizzlepop rushed toward Limestone and drew her cuffs on the way. "I'll take him into custody! You deal with that!" She pointed toward Abacus.

Caught with a tough decision to make, Limestone growled under her breath. "If you try to run, I'll hunt you to the far ends of this world. Do what she says and stay out of my way." She only let go of Storm when Fizzlepop had his arms cuffed behind him.

"Yes." Abacus Cinch could feel her body breaking apart into shreds of magic and smoke. It hurt, but not enough to outweigh the certainty that she was becoming more powerful than she'd dreamed. Raising her forehoof, she pointed at Twilight. "Mine."

The attack of dark magic hit Twilight just as hard as it had the first time she'd dealt with Sombra. Her mind struggled and strained, but she was plunged into a dark world and wrapped up in the incomprehensible structure of it.

"Take care of Twilight, I've got this!" Limestone shouted to Sonata. Lifting her arm up and sighting down it like a cannon, Limestone let out a soft breath and squeezed the imagined trigger of her odd new power.





Pulling up out the front of the school, Shining Armor instantly forgot about the groceries he'd been collecting for the break room. Jumping out, he stared at the dazed students collecting on the lawn for a moment before he looked around for Cadance. "Where are the teachers?!"

Still following the command that Sonata had given, Vinyl looked up at Shining in confusion. "Wha?"

"They're locked in the break room. Cinch came back with some kind of lightning guy, then she used some weird mind-control." Lemon Zest pulled Vinyl's hood back over her head enough that the goggles lined up with her eyes. By the time she turned back to Shining, he was already running to the front of the school building.

Inside, Shining didn't slow as he turned the first corner and barreled toward the staff break room. When he reached the door, he found it had been welded shut. "Stand back from the door!"

When the door exploded inward from Shining's kick, Cadance rushed forward and put her arms around him. "Cinch came back!"

"Yeah, I heard. Where is she?" Shining squeezed Cadance, an overwhelming urge to protect her surging through his body.

"They were heading to the gymnasium. The students were—They wouldn't listen to me. They had green eyes." Much as Cadance wanted to stay in Shining's big, strong embrace, she felt a duty she couldn't deny. "Let's go."

For a brief second Shining thought to argue with Cadance. Over the months they'd been together, though, he'd found himself trusting her more and more to be at his side. Though this situation was hardly something as mundane as budget reform, he had to support her. "Okay. Come on."

Together, Shining and Cadance reached the corner of the hallway that turned into the gym just in time to see Limestone fire. The beam of blue light was bright, but not quite as much as Storm's lightning had been. It shot out toward Abacus and, at the last moment, passed through her smoke-like form.

Laughing, feeling his true form restored to him, King Sombra reformed his body after the beam ripped through the air and past him. "You really think that would hurt me? Me?! All of you together won't stop me now." Focusing his gaze on Fizzlepop, he brushed aside her will to stop him. "Kill them."

Staring through a haze of green, Fizzlepop Berrytwist drew her pistol and started to bring it up at the nearest target—the Storm King.

"No no no!" Storm tried to free his arms from the cuffs, but when that didn't work, he flopped forward against Fizzlepop. "I hope that gorilla you brought with you doesn't rip my head off for this."

The shock of electricity was enough to stun Fizzlepop into dropping her gun and was the last of Storm's reserves. In a heap, the pair both lapsed into unconsciousness.
> Chapter 40
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Disappointing." Sombra focused his magic on Twilight Sparkle next. "We have met many times, pretend princess. Now, as my pawn, defeat my—"

"No! Not now, not ever!" Sonata swam through the air and grabbed Twilight, holding her tight against the gem buried in her chest. "I won't let you hurt anyon—" Black crystal shot from the floor and encased Sonata's tail.

Limestone watched in shock as Sonata and Twilight were encased in midnight black crystal. Reaching around to her back, she drew her rifle and brought it up into a firing position with the smooth motion of years of practice.

The first echoing rapport of the rifle startled everyone in the room. It was an order of magnitude louder than her pistol had been, which meant that while everyone else's brains were trying to figure out what was making the noise, Limestone got two more shots off.

Each of the bullets pierced through Sombra's body like it didn't exist, and so far as it getting hit by physical objects was concerned, it might as well be literal smoke. "Ugh. This is the bit where you're meant to die." As she spoke, Limestone squeezed the trigger again and again—walking her shots up Sombra's body. By the time she'd emptied her clip it was apparent that he had no solid parts.

"There's something odd about your mind." Sombra's attention was riveted on Limestone. He leaned into his magic and poured power at her. It should have rendered her no more than a puppet to him, but her hands continued to move—reaching for a second magazine for her gun. "I'd almost be enamored with you if you didn't seem so intent on killing me that you might just succeed."

Shining couldn't recognize Sombra's origins, but Cadance did. "Cinch! What are you doing in my school?!"

Abacus surfaced through Sombra's mind for a moment. She felt all the power and promise of Sombra, and for all she was annoyed he'd literally taken over, her fury at Cadance's words was far more. "This—is—my—school!"

Frozen at the sight of green-black magic hurtling toward her, Cadance could feel the malice in the spell. She opened her mouth to scream, but instead a wave of green-yellow light snapped into being and hurled the spell at the roof.

"You sucked as a dean, Cinch!" Lemon Zest's drumsticks still vibrated from where she'd struck them on the floor. The notes hadn't been perfect, but her magic had taken care of whatever inadequacies the gymnasium had when it came to being a musical instrument.

Vinyl and Octavia nodded to each other, Vinyl lifting her bass up and hefting the strap on her shoulder while Octavia settled her violin at her jaw.

Narrowing her eyes, Abacus started flinging magic at the trio. Ranging from destructive spells to plain mind-control, she was shocked to see each getting deflected and the Shadowcolts sending their own spells back.

With a slight reprieve, Limestone got her gun reloaded and sent three more shots downrange at Sombra/Abacus—just to make sure the smoke thing wasn't a short duration skill. "Damn it. Okay, time to try something else."

Cadance was astonished to see the three musicians fighting as they were. Sure, the gymnasium was getting more or less destroyed, but it was still impressive to watch them work as if they were a single being.

"Cady, we have to get out of here." Shining wasn't an idiot. He knew he lacked magic enough to even attempt to have an effect on the fight.

"No, Shiny, we have to do something and I—I think I feel what it has to be." Turning, Cadance reached a hand out to Shining's shoulder and effortlessly drew him closer to her.

Slinging her gun around to her back again, Limestone dug around in her jacket for a small sheaf of papers she carried. As she sorted through them, she broke into a run across the student-strewn ground between her and her quarry.

For a brief moment in her ongoing duel with Vinyl, Lemon, and Octavia, Abacus spotted Limestone approaching her. Sparing one spell for the woman, Abacus sent another crystal-forming blast her way.

Limestone recognized the spell that even now had completely encased Twilight and Sonata. She had nothing in her small arsenal of wards to stop it, so did the only thing she could. Raising her right arm and opened her hand.

Hunger filled Limestone—filled her with emptiness. "This fucking magic makes no sense." The spell met Limestone's open palm and sank inside. Rushing up her arm, she watched the pattern of burns down her arm glow in greens and purples. Finally, reaching her shoulder, she gulped down the magic and then felt the need to get rid of it again. Aiming, she relaxed the part of her that held that magic inside.

It wasn't lightning this time that shot from Limestone's hand. A black crystal shot from her palm toward Abacus and, unlike her bullets, met flesh.

Thrown around in a circle by the force of the impact, Sombra shoved Abacus aside to deal with a threat she had underestimated. "So"—erecting a shield to deflect all of the three musicians' attacks, Sombra turned his full focus on Limestone—"you think you can actually defeat me?" He readied a bevy of spells to hurl at a moment's notice.

"Me? What do you think, dipshit? Like those three, I'm just a distraction." Walking steadily toward the shield, Limestone reached out and grabbed a corner of it. "You really can't feel them, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Sombra turned to look at the Shadowcolts, but a glint of pink light reached the corner of his eye and his attention focused on Shining Armor and Cadance. "What is going on?"

Shining, his whole world spinning and turning upside down, couldn't look away from Cadance. "W-W-W—?"

"It's time, Shiny, we had a bit of a talk. Don't worry, it will be a simple little chat." Shining was the first man Cadance had ever stood eye to eye with—literally and figuratively. They fit together like pieces of a puzzle, but she knew he was a little dense. Lowering to one knee, looking up into Shining's confused expression, Cadance asked, "Will you marry me, Shining Armor?"

"But we—This is—What's all the—Now?" There were more questions in Shining's head, but there was a roaring sound coming at him from all around. Experience made him think of a fighter jet trying to take off, or a ship's engine room—but instead of all those things his brain knew, his heart told him it's destiny. He had questions, sure, but what he needed was an answer.

Cadance trembled. She could feel malevolent magic seeking them out, but she couldn't really, truly fight it without knowing Shining's answer.

"Yes." The word came out too soft by far for Shining's liking, so he cleared his throat and tried to repeat it—only to have soft, pink lips press to his mouth instead.

Trembling against him, Cadance felt something pour through them. From the corner of her eye she saw the dark magic stop its advance and just evaporate under the weight of their magic. It was more than magic, she realized—it was pure love.

The blast of love shattered the crystals binding Twilight and Sonata, rushed outward and smashed aside the last of the shield Limestone was eating with her arm. It poured reviving magic into each student it connected with. Even Fizzlepop woke from being stunned, though Storm showed no sign of having been re-energized. But, when the love met Sombra, it ripped him bodily from Abacus.

Together, Abacus screamed with Sombra as everything that made her him was torn away. His power, his spirit, and even the smoky pony form blew away with the impact of Shining and Cadance's love magic.

Shaking her head, Twilight watched as Sombra was once again destroyed utterly by magic. She felt elated, though she had to wonder if this was the last time.

"We did it?" Sonata looked around and, seeing everyone who she considered on her side was now standing, did a swishing dance mid-air. "We did it!"

Surveying the room, Limestone was startled by the lack of damage. She'd personally put a whole magazine of rifle rounds through the wall behind Sombra, as well as pistol rounds, and there should have been several holes in walls from magical munitions. Even the floor was back to a pristine shine and looked buffed to a mirror finish.

There was cleanup to do, though, and so Limestone marched over to where Abacus Cinch huddled. "You're under arrest…"

Hearing Limestone reading Miranda rights to Abacus, Fizzlepop turned to Storm quickly fit a second pair of cuffs to him. "I'll give you a talking to when you're conscious."

Twirling her drumsticks, Lemon looked over each shoulder at Octavia first, then Vinyl, and said, "I think this was our best show ever." She didn't miss the glowing white horn on Vinyl's forehead, nor the manes that adorned both her bandmates.

It was a struggle for Cadance to look away from Shining, but when she did it was to see a group of students all milling around them. "Okay, listen up please. I need everyone to form an orderly line and please exit the building through the front door."

"R-Right." Shining was still recovering from the proposal and kiss, but the normalcy of Cadance directing students was enough to get him thinking straight. "You heard Dean Cadance, everyone pick a partner and make your way out in pairs. Yes, Ms. Lis, that means you too."





Limestone hated doing paperwork, but she knew from experience it would save her butt so long as she filled it out right. Not that she needed much butt-covering since they had caught the two bad guys with no casualties. There were questions being asked about why she discharged over thirty rounds and hit nothing, but that's all they could manage to ask her about. "General, are we actually going to get some more agents now?"

"Apart from having Sonata Dusk as an external consultant and Wallflower Blush as an intern? Just one." Raven had enough of her own paperwork to fill out. Requisitions was the big one. She didn't have half the budget she needed, but she had learned that if you throw enough forms at an accountant you can bury them in paper. "Fizzlepop Berrytwist. Your commendation cinched it, but she showed great flexibility in handling herself, and you need a partner now Princess Twilight Sparkle is returning to her own world."

Sitting to one side in the office, Twilight was juggling reams of paperwork that she had no obligation to fill out. She should, in fact, have gone back to Equestria. "I'm sure she'll get used to you quickly, Limestone."

Passing another stack of forms to Twilight, Limestone didn't even have to look to know she'd caught the sheaf in her magic and was already examining the questions. "We did work well together. Are you sure you have to go back?"

Twilight let out a sigh. "Don't even joke about it. I left six of my friends in charge of Equestria while I was here. If I thought it would be okay, I would have brought them with me for this."

"I still can't figure out why you'd want to run a country. There's so much… Well, you just don't seem like a politician." Shaking her right hand, Limestone focused her thoughts on working the flow of magic down and then back up her arm to sooth the scar tissue.

"I'm not a politician, that's other ponies' jobs. I just run things." It was the truth, though Twilight wasn't sure how well her human friends would handle it. "Giving me paperwork to fill out, though, is basically like a holiday."

Wallflower opened the door without asking and stepped into the room with a folder that was only half an inch thick. "This is the last lot of—"

"Dibs!" Twilight grabbed the folder with her magic.
> Chapter 41
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow was on her back and half asleep on the horizontal deckchair in her backyard. She wasn't trying to get a tan—that was impossible now she was covered in blue hair—but she did feel empowered by the sun's light. Like it was an energy source for her magic.

Beside Rainbow, Thunderbolt was similarly sprawled out, though he was just laying on the ground. "I like having you all here." His voice was deeper than ever and if he wasn't careful his Rs would turn into a growl.

"You just like having a choice," Twilight Sparkle said. Like the others she was sprawled on her back, but she had a book floating up before her face so she could read.

Biting her lip, Marble cleared her throat. "He just likes having several of us together. There's a thirty-five percent chance that it's his species' normal family grouping."

"Thirty-five?" Twilight asked.

"Mmhmm," Marble said.

"I mean," Rainbow said, "you could ask the princess how dragons in Equestria behave."

"This is like harem anime." Twilight let her book settle down on her neck.

"No, not really." Marble, who was an expert on such things, started warming up to her topic. "In anime, a harem is just a group of love interests who the main character picks one of."

"Not always, there is—" Twilight said.

"I know there are exceptions, but those are exceptions."

Giggling at the vehemence, Twilight wiggled her hooves in the air a little. "Clearly, we need more testing. You want to watch something later?"

Marble strained at dropping the topic, but contented herself with picking it back up later. "Yeah. That'd be nice."

"Don't forget we're all going to that concert tomorrow night. I don't want any of you egg-heads hiding at the back, either." Rainbow turned her head to look at Marble and Twilight. "I wanna see how awesome the Shadowcolts are live—from the audience perspective."

"Are you comfortable like this?" Thunderbolt asked.

"Huh?" Rainbow tilted her head the other way to look at the dragon. "Like what?"

"Do I have to remind you of what we did earlier?" His voice coming out in a deep purr, Thunderbolt fixed one eye on Rainbow as his own memories flashed back the sex all four of them had shared. "You said you didn't want to be with other women, and I respect that, but you invited them."

"It's complicated," Rainbow said.

"It's not—"

"It is to me, okay? It's such a stupid thing, but when I'm with you, I'm able to be with other women. It just—You dominate the situation so much that I can focus on you." Always feeling like there weren't the right words to describe her feelings, Rainbow just let out a sigh.

Twilight cleared her throat. "I get that same feeling."

"M-Me too. When I'm with him, it's like I don't have to be afraid of what I'll say and do, I can just relax and trust him." Marble, the only one of the little group still mostly human, had even managed to wear a bikini for their little relaxing day together.

"Is it just with him?" Twilight asked.

The question surprised Marble, mostly because she hadn't thought about it herself. For almost a minute she thought, then shook her head. "No. When I'm with you, I feel the same confidence. R-Rainbow isn't as intimate, but she's strong, and I think I can feel that."

"You're strong too," Thunderbolt said. "Strength isn't just claws, wings, and sex. Strong can be mental. You are smart, very smart, and that makes you strong."

"But I don't think that really counts."

"I have thought about this for a long time, and it is true." That settled things as far as Thunderbolt was concerned, unless someone could bring up a good point.

"She's right," Rainbow said. "People don't think smarts really counts as being strong. It's always about perceived personality for both sexes, and perceived physicality for men." When five minutes of silence punctuated her words, Rainbow sat up and looked around. "What?"

Twilight bit her lower lip, then used her superpower of situational ignorance to just blurt out what everyone was thinking. "That was just really deep coming from you, Rainbow. Don't get me wrong, you're smart, hot, and one of the most amazing people I know, but you don't normally get that into social interactions."

"She just doesn't talk about them much," Marble said.

"You want the truth of it?" Rainbow asked, but had no intention of stopping even if she didn't get a round of nods. "The truth is even with this thing in my head, I'm not as smart as you guys. I'm not a genius, I'm not some amazing sorceress, and I don't know nearly as much about right and wrong as my best bud. Flying, though, gives me time to think. Time to get my head around a problem and attack it from all sides. So you know what? Yeah, society thinks those things, but I don't. You're all strong."





Adagio Dazzle had shouted herself hoarse for a full day in a desperate attempt to make someone—anyone—hear her. All that had gained her was a sore throat and the realization that all her guards were deaf.

For weeks she had kept silent, biding her time. She'd felt when Aria had let loose with a blast and she'd even felt the backlash. That's when she heard boots approaching. These had a different sound to the prison guards'.

When the door opened and revealed Limestone Pie, Adagio Dazzle felt the utmost contempt. She watched as the soldier stepped into her cell.

Limestone was wearing her new suit—custom made by a close friend, it had all sorts of fancy stitching inside the liner. She didn't carry a weapon apart from her arm. "Hey." When she got no response, she adjusted her mental focus to the one Sonata had suggested. "Can you believe the scum down here?"

The style of interaction told Adagio what was going on. "Sonata told you about me." She almost spat her former friend's name. "You're all worms—her too now."

It was a barb, Limestone knew. Sonata had coached her, and after Sonata a psychiatrist had given her a further briefing. "Can we just skip the bullshit and pretend we went through the psychotic monster and the siren bit?"

Adagio almost laughed. Almost. "On one condition—you get angry for me. I haven't had a proper meal down here, and everyone seems to be on drugs or something."

Feeding leads to control, Sonata had told her. Standing up, Limestone walked to the door and opened it—it wasn't locked. Now she got to put into practice something she'd been working on. "Watch me, I'm going to let her feed a little. It will give her some power, but I can control her," Limestone signed to the guard watching her. When the big guy nodded, she slipped back inside. "Okay, how do you want to do this?"

It caught Adagio off-guard. She looked up at Limestone—who in Adagio's mind was just a muscled freak of a human—and gave the gentlest little push. "You'll have to take off the armor. How you scum can even bear to wear that many wards I have no idea."

Sliding her jacket off, Limestone could feel the ambient magic change through the taste from her arm. "You're using magic. How do you have this much?"

"One of the guards forgot his meds one day." Pushing a little more, Adagio slid off Limestone's mind like it was a greased eel. Taking a slow breath, she tried a different path and, despite the defense, managed to find a little purchase on Limestone. "Now just get angry."

It was incredible to Limestone that she could feel Adagio clinging to the outside of her mind as well as the siren was. "That's your job. If you—" The punch, and the speed Adagio used to achieve it, stunned Limestone—but it did the trick. She rocked back on her feet a little and when she head the door start to open, held up her hand to placate the guard. "Yeah, that did it."

Adagio jumped to her feet and rushed at Limestone. Leaning forward, she pressed herself against the other woman and inhaled all the threat and potential for violence—not that there was much. "If you get angry for me, really angry, I'll make you a god."

Limestone reached for her calm place and shut down her anger. She turned the tap off, but while she did that a feeling like someone else's hand was doing the turning. Her anger started to grow and she saw a soft greenish mist starting to fill the room.

"There you go. Relax, give all your anger to me and let me feast." Adagio saw her chance at freedom and tried to reach deeper into Limestone's mind—only to get punched in the stomach for her trouble. Coughing, ignoring the blood, Adagio looked up at Limestone. "You can't fight me. Every time you try to fight, I just get stronger."

Lifting her arm up, Limestone opened her clenched fist and started to inhale. Magic poured from Adagio. It was her own anger reconstituted into the siren's energy, but Limestone could still taste her own fury in it. "I knew you'd try this."

Staring at Limestone, Adagio tried to cut off her magic and conserve it—only to have Limestone's arm continue to suck at her core. "W-What are you doing? How are you doing that?!"

"This is me taking back what's mine. You don't deserve my anger." It was easy for Limestone to work out where Adagio's magic came from. She grabbed the siren by the neck so that her palm was in contact with the gem. "And now you're going to answer questions so I don't eat every ounce of your magic and break your gem—again."

It was agony. Adagio could still taste the quality of Limestone's anger, but the magic was being drained out of her as quickly as she fed. For a moment she contemplated trying to just blow Limestone's head off with what magic she had left.

"If it makes you feel any better, the worms end up eating everything in the end." Limestone's arm was glittering with red and blue patterns shining through her white shirt sleeve. "Now, we're going to have a good and long conversation and you're going to answer every question I ask without hesitating—I have two others I need to speak to today."





With three transcripts in hand, Limestone Pie left the facility behind her. She hated having to threaten and bully prisoners, but of the three only Adagio needed that much attention. "The shit I do for my country."