Transponyism

Chapters

One
Two
Three

One

Miska propped his upper half up with his elbows as he lay on the center of the bed. Just bending at the torso displayed a flex in his stomach, a wide set of small, distinct curves. The rest of his naked body shared the same tone, though his legs were sprawled dormant ahead of him.

Twilight approached the bed with slow, deliberate steps. A nightgown clung to her shoulders and trailed behind her, still hiding most of her form, but each move she made forward revealed one leg at a time. The light shone on each glimpse of them as she enunciated her steps at the ankle, her toes the first to touch down each move.

Miska stayed put, but his eyes followed her at every motion. Twilight stopped a few feet before the bed, raising her hands to her shoulders. She slipped her fingers underneath the gown, pushing it off with just a touch. The purple fur matting her body, despite her human form, bristled as the gown brushed over it. Miska’s gaze moved over all of her, inspecting each separate curve--her thighs, her breasts, her cheeks--until his eyes met hers again. Twilight’s gaze was narrow, and her lips met in a near straight line.

“Tell me what you pledge,” she said.

“Whatever you want,” he said.

“All of you,” she commanded, stroking some stray hair back over her shoulder. She leaned onto the bed with her hands, bending at the hip, and pulled her knees up as she crawled past the first half of him, until her face was inches from his. Their full forms were exposed to each other now, but only their eyes met. “Please me, amuse me, and obey me. Swear to your queen all you have to give, all to me.”

“Every part of me,” he said, breath mixing with hers. “Above God himself, all for you.”

She pushed her hands off from the bed, her slight fur brushing past his arms. Her hair fell forward past her neck as she raised herself, moving her knees closer to his chest, laying her hands on his shoulders. She ushered her lap toward his face and said, “Then please me.”

He raised his arms, wrapping them around her legs and landing his hands on the cheeks of her ass. He pulled his head in toward her vulva and that above it, and first kissed her clitoris. He brushed his lips past it, then back down, before setting his tongue upon it. It grew erect as he continued to lick and prod it, moistening the fur around it with every stroke.

Twilight’s hips swayed forward, pushing into him, and her breath grew heavy. She sighed, involuntarily flexing her fingers with Miska’s motions. He moved one hand over the small of her back, rubbing it up and down, as he turned his physical attention to her inner parts. He moved his tongue down and in, licking past the entrance as her fur gave way to smooth, violet skin, his tongue pushing deeper past the folds until it was contorting inside her.

Her face betrayed a smile as she released a small moan. Her hips swayed back again, and he pushed farther. Twilight moved her hands onto his head, brushing her fingers through his hair as his head tilted to the left, straightened again, then tilted more.

“Stop,” Twilight said. Miska pulled back, still breathing fast through his mouth, and looked back into her eyes.

“Is it good enough?” he asked, exhaling deep after the words.

Twilight reached around herself and pulled one of his arms back in front, pressing his fingers the slightest bit into her. She met his gaze and said, “No. I want you to use these.”

She let go, and he pressed two of his fingers deeper inside her pussy. She moaned louder and cocked her head back, closing her eyes and holding her mouth agape. Miska watched her whole reaction as he continued stroking all he could reach. His fingers moved erratically, independently, following no technique, but Twilight’s whole body twitched with each touch. The twitching turned to a shaking, and the moans turned into gasping. Breath caught in her throat despite how ragged it became, and her hands fell to Miska’s wrist.

Though he didn’t smile, Miska kept a constant vigil on Twilight’s face, watching every move her mouth made, the strands of hair falling out of place. His gaze was that of one in a trance, but his body was reacting to her expression more rapidly. He twisted his hand, pulling out slightly, and pushed in a third finger beside the others. Twilight’s hips rose instantly as she cried out, resisting its entrance before he shoved them deeper in, stroking wilder. Twilight’s gasps turned to an unsteady moan, her pitch wavering with every individual prodding.

“Keep going,” she whimpered, her voice cracking. “Further inside, more--just--”

She pulled all her breath back in, gasping silently. Her whole spine pricked back through impulse, a shiver running under each ridge in a single moment. The fur on every part of her body stood on end, a static building in it and discharging at the same time. Miska hugged her leg tightly with his available arm as she nearly buckled, his grip growing firmer just behind her pussy.

Miska pulled his fingers out and half a minute passed, not one second sooner, before Twilight lowered her head again and faced Miska with her eyes nearly sparkling. The rest of her expression lay more controlled, and her grin was slight. She lifted one of her hands and laid it on his cheek as she said, “You’ve done a good job.”

Miska rubbed her cheeks of the other kind and said, “Thank you.”

“I’ll grant you one favor for your service,” Twilight said. “Think carefully about what you’d ask of your queen, and I will reward you.”

Miska pulled away and moved his arms back to his sides, propping himself up the same way as earlier. Twilight’s hand brushed past his cheek, down to his shoulder, and he glanced at it before looking back to her. He said, “I want to please you even more. But first, I want the same attention I’ve given you, with your mouth.”

Twilight pulled her hand away from him and pushed her knees backwards, scooting just far enough to get back on all fours over him. She looked him in the eyes once more, his head tilting down with her, and she said, “I’ll allow it.”

She turned her head down to his chest as she licked its center. She rolled her tongue down further, the trail leaving a sensation greater than that of just saliva. Crawling backward even more, her tongue’s path followed Miska’s body until the bottom of her chin had met his cock. It pressed against her as she kept licking just below his stomach, and as she adjusted to the left his cock sprang slightly past her cheek, tickled by her fur as it brushed by. Her eyes darted back to his for a moment as her tongue lay exposed next to his dick, then she grinned and moved further down.

He cringed as the first sensation of her wet touch coursed through his nerves. She moved her tongue to the bottom of his base, rubbing and moistening it for a second before touching her lips to it. He could still feel her tongue stroking it from inside her mouth, and her lips moved up the shaft for a moment before coming back down. She repeated the action, her lips spreading open over the base more with each pass.

She pulled away, mouth hanging open, and pressed against the tip in a seconds-long kiss. He shuddered from the cock up, and his head rolled back as his first moan escaped. He shut his eyes in the moment, but as she continued back to the base, he leaned his head forward again and watched her go, his shoulders moving in tandem with his breathing.

More of her hair fell over her shoulders, and she tilted her head on its side as she brushed her hair away. She pushed her tongue back out her mouth, keeping her upper lip on his cock as she rolled her tongue back to its tip. She kept one hand over her neck, letting her hair fall through only her fingers.

When she reached the highest point again, she raised her head and placed her lips directly onto the glans. Twilight’s gaze stayed downard, the same direction she moved her mouth as it naturally opened further. Miska shuddered more, for longer, but he kept watching her even as his gasps grew rapid. His own head had begun rocking back and forth.

As his cock fully entered her mouth, Twilight slid it down the top of her tongue slowly the first time, but repeated the motion faster with each pass. A bit of saliva slid out the corner of her mouth each time she plunged, but she sucked it back as she pulled up. Miska’s hips were shivering, his fingers tugging the bed sheets into bundles, and even as she kept going he sputtered, “God, I’m--coming--coming--ah--”

She pulled off, but her tongue stayed on him. He felt a new sensation coursing through him even further than before, and he nearly held his breath as his dick pulsed. Twilight twisted her head again and continued licking the side of his shaft as his semen spurt forth, the separate bursts landing closely in her hair. As his ejaculation subsided and his gasping slowed, she licked away the remaining spill on his cock and pushed her hands back onto the bed, raising herself. She moved her whole body forward and shifted her weight onto her knees again, pressing them beside Miska’s stomach, then took his dick in one hand as she looked back to him.

“Now we continue my fun,” she said, her voice haughtier than before. She smiled despite herself, and as Miska slowed his breathing, a grin got loose from him as well.

She motioned his dick straight up and lowered her hips, flexing her thighs as her pussy rested on his tip. She sucked on her lip as the first feeling spread through her, inhaling quietly but sharply, his dick just beginning to stretch her as it entered. Miska moved one hand onto her thigh, rubbing the outer side before taking a firm grip on it, then let his other hand follow. Twilight kept her grip on his cock as she slipped further over it, the glans soon hidden underneath her labia. She kept going, and his shaft steadily pushed deeper past her walls, pushing each additional inch of her aside as it crawled into her.

Twilight and Miska both watched it enter her, the two of them together getting it deeper. She released it from her hand as there became too little to hold, and her thighs visibly tensed as she pushed as deep as she could hold it, so far that she was sitting on Miska’s hips at the end of her descent. She lifted her gaze again, not toward her partner, but into empty space as she released both her lip and a long sigh. Miska pulled his hands underneath her legs, rubbing her ass again and stroking his fingers through her fur.

She slid forward, moving closer to his stomach as his dick tilted slightly out of her, before she moved back onto it. Her hands moved toward his chest without thought, only touching it at first, before she pressed onto it for support as she kept sliding her pussy around his dick. Their hands were warm on each other’s body, but the mutual sensation was peripheral to the heat and the tensing they could only barely contain.

Miska’s breath grew heavier than Twilight’s, and his grip tightened on her. She rubbed and slid over him, off of him, onto him for a minute longer before the raggedness in his every gasp of air became too much. She grinned as she looked at the uncontained expression he wore, and before he even spoke, she straightened her back and withdrew her hands closer to her loins, sliding herself all the way back onto his cock.

“Coming--unh, again--”

He shoved his hips upward despite Twilight’s additional weight, raising her an inch higher. The tip of his cock was just touching her cervix, the same as her fingers dusting over his stomach as she arched her shoulders and leaned back, closing her eyes and sighing more, sharing in his sensation this time. Miska groaned as even his grip faltered, the quick waves of his orgasm fading as he regained his faculties.

Twilight settled her knees firmly back onto the bed and pulled off of him, strands of his semen breaking away individually as Twilight shifted position. She held one hand on the sheets to support herself as she raised her legs just over his, twisting past them, and sat back down facing away from him.

“Get up,” she commanded, resting her hands on her calves as she looked back to him.

Miska pushed himself up, drawing his legs back in toward the rest of himself. He got to his knees as Twilight reached behind herself, taking hold of his dick again before it lost too much sway. She looked him in the eye, something twinkling in her gaze despite her tone. She said, “No more amusement. Show me exactly how worthy you are. Make this count.”

She let go of him and leaned forward, placing her hands on the end of the bed, and stretched her legs until all four of her limbs were supporting her. Miska nudged his knees beside hers, putting one hand softly around her waist while he held his dick with the other. It stiffened again as he straddled it just under her pussy, rubbing it past her clitoris several times.

“Do not tease me,” Twilight ordered, her voice unwavering as she glanced back at him.

“Forgive me,” Miska said, his tone not as repentant as his role had already suggested. He raised his cock slightly and touched it to the entrance of her pussy, moving both his hands around her waist.

He pressed inward, his hips pushing hers. Twilight swayed forward, moaning as quickly as Miska pushed. She offered no resistance as he kept thrusting, and her whole body moved back and forth as he kept a steady pace. He lowered one hand closer to her pussy as he continued plunging, his fingers glancing over her clitoris again

Twilight’s voice had lost its sense of authority as she kept moaning, her mouth agape through heavy breathing and a loose tongue. She scrunched the sheets into her fists, releasing them only when Miska pulled back, grabbing them again as he thrusted. Her eyes were shut tight, all the feeling in her body from only the sex.

Miska’s touch grew rougher over her clitoris, pressing his fingers into it so that it flicked whenever they moved over. Despite the attention he paid to her pleasure, pressure was still building in his own loins. His sac had already stopped flapping with his motions, contracting beneath his dick. Twilight’s moans were gaining a consistency as they grew louder between his thrusts. Through them she still managed to whimper, “More--faster!”

Miska obliged, but paid no less attention to the rest of her. He slipped his cock halfway out of her, then shoved it back in harder and faster. He took his hand off her waist and put it on the bed, not taking the opportunity to pause or slow but simply leaning over Twilight’s back. Her moans had turned rattled as she neared her peak. Miska leaned his mouth close enough to touch her ear, whispering just enough for her to hear perfectly, “Every night when you desire me, I will be here. Even in your thoughts, I’ll be there to fulfill them. Every time you let me near you, I’ll do whatever you want. I will fuck you harder, better, more.”

Twilight panted, “More!”

Miska moved his fingers from her clitoris and wrapped his whole arm around her breasts, caressing everything within reach. He pulled his other hand off the bed, leaning heavier onto her, and offered his fingers to Twilight’s mouth. Her moans were giving way to more panting, hard and rapid, but she took his fingers over her tongue as she sucked on them with every available breath. She tilted her face toward his hand, inviting more of his fingers into her, nuzzling with her cheek those that didn’t find their way in.

He let her control them as she wished, and he put all his force into thrusting harder into her pussy, their bodies rocking together faster each moment leading up to her climax. The coming sensation was reaching her slowly for a moment, but all the rest came all at the same time as the sensation electrified her entirely. Her arms buckled and her spine simply gave up, her upper body collapsing back onto the sheets as Miska moved his hand back to the bed to support himself. She kept gasping, eyes still closed, even as Miska panted in a less steady rhythm, withdrawing his cock from her.

His semen was already slipping out of her, new strands pulling out with his dick. But even as it began dripping, spilling past her labia, it was physically disappearing. Bits of it, like pixels, were vanishing at a multiplying rate.

Miska paid no heed to such and lay back down closer to Twilight, brushing his hand over her cheek again. She opened her eyes, his now in front of hers, and smiled. Though she was still panting, it had slowed to a deep breathing.

“That was very nice,” she said, shifting her hand over to stroke his chest. Her tone had lowered to something sweet, a voice prompting Miska’s own grin.

“I appreciate that,” he said.

The semen in her hair was gone, and the sweat covering both of them was dissipating without a trace. Their muscles were regaining their power at the same rate, and the panting had already subsided. The lights in the room, having dimmed gradually throughout their session to suit their tolerance, brightened again. The couple paid no heed to any of it, but gazed at each other for the next minute in silence.

Miska was the first to break it, still stroking the fur beside her mouth. He asked, “Was there anything else you needed of me tonight, my queen?”

The lights in the room dimmed just slightly, and Twilight narrowed her eyes again despite her persisting smile. “Many things. Many times.”

Transponyism

1: Love, But

The morning came without a sunrise. No windows were in the room to offer the dawn as a wake-up call, but Twilight felt awareness of her sleep return to her anyway. The light of candles just barely pierced her eyelids, but she kept dozing as much as she could.

She awoke further when a hoof poked her in the shoulder. She stretched out her own hoof, swatting away whoever was there with her. She clutched her eyes tighter the moment before opening them, blinking repeatedly.

Rainbow Dash’s face was inches from her own, well illuminated from a chandelier above. The pegasus stared right in her eyes and said, “Rise and shine, egghead.”

They were in Twilight’s laboratory, Twilight lying curled on the floor in front of a tall black cube, its height nearly three times hers. Rainbow was standing before her, neck craned down to reach eye level. Twilight glared back at Rainbow for several seconds before the unicorn’s face softened, her bleary eyes widening.

She stayed rooted even as her voice nearly cracked, asking, “What time is it?”

Rainbow lifted her head back up and grinned. “Late.”

Twilight kept on the floor, but uncurled her forelegs and braced her hooves against the floor. “Is the princess already here?”

“Probably,” Rainbow said. “It’s not like I went checking on her.”

Twilight sprang up and past Rainbow, looking all around her lab at the tables and bookcases full of books and scrolls.

“What about Spike? Why didn’t he come wake me up?” she scoffed, rummaging through reams of paper as she skimmed her scientific notes.

Rainbow turned around to watch, saying, “It’s not like it’s his job to do that, either.”

“Honestly!” Twilight sputtered, levitating only a few of her texts into a neat pile behind her. “Rainbow, sometimes I wonder what you’re even here for.”

“Hey, I have plenty of other places to go if you don’t need me,” Rainbow said, flapping twice to enter an easy hover.

Twilight paused her perusing and turned around, losing an edge to her expression even as she frowned at Rainbow. “Oh, that’s not what I meant. Of course I need you.”

She looked back to her books again and added, “Besides needing you for the obvious task at hoof, could you also go get Spike for me while you’re here? I also need you for that.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and flapped her wings harder, flying over to the lab’s mahogany doors out. “Sure thing. Let me do all your chores while I’m at it.”

Twilight glanced back to her, glaring, and said, “Quickly, please, and without such a bad attitude.”

Rainbow already rolled her eyes again. She turned around and flew straight to the back of the lab, though there was no exit there; stone pillars were all that stood against the walls. She looked back to Twilight and said, “Even if you think I enjoy this, the coolness factor is wearing away pretty quickly when all I use it for is errands.”

“Quick-ly!”

Rainbow smirked before proceeding into the wall, her body glowing bright blue as she melted out of sight through the sheer rock. Twilight pouted after her for just a second before turning back to her books again, clearing half her table by shoving off all the books she had decided against.

She levitated her new pile back onto the table, only a few scrolls and parchments in the stack. She next hovered her saddlebags onto her back, tucking her papers into them.

Just as she turned around with them, Rainbow appeared with a blue flash in the center of the room, the pegasus’s hoof on Spike’s back. Spike was posed unusually in that moment, raising a piece of chalk over his head, pointing it at nothing there anymore. He blinked stupidly as Rainbow lowered her hoof and trotted toward Twilight, saying, “We’re all ready.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Spike growled, bundling his claws into fists. He kept them clenched by his sides as he faced down Rainbow. “You couldn’t have waited one minute, like I asked?”

Rainbow glanced back at him with a rare look of surprise. She jaw remained slack, but after a moment of staring at him, she said, “Sorry. Didn’t know you’d take it that way.”

Spike had grown up some since his first years with Twilight. He was now taller than her--taller than most any pony. His tail had grown as long as his body, but his face was still gentle. Not as gentle currently, his lips still curling downward as he glared at Rainbow.

Twilight stepped between them, glancing at either of them as she said, “Okay, maybe some things are being said and done that need addressing, but now is a bad time for that. You two: we’re got to go.”

Spike kept his claws in fists even as he looked between Twilight and Rainbow. He opened his mouth a moment to speak, but Twilight raised a hoof at him and blurted, “How else are we going to change the world, if not now?”

He closed his mouth as his expression softened. His claws remained bundled, but he sighed. Rainbow, too, looked between the others before speaking. “Ready and willing.”

Spike released his fists and said to Twilight, “You’ve got everything you need?”

“All the most concise, relevant notations as of yet,” she said, smiling immediately. Spike sighed again, shoulders shifting as he exhaled.

The three of them departed, Twilight opening the doors herself magically. Twilight’s lab was only one room in her home, stone block halls supporting long, skinny hallways. Though only a few torches lit the way, old banners were hung consistently between them. Twilight kept their pace enthusiastic, her head high, but the group passed no one else. No sounds but their own echoed ahead.

The hall led to a courtyard, wrought iron gates serving as the exit. Twilight pushed open those with magic as well, stepping into something of a garden in the midst of her establishment. Newly grown trees took up what wasn’t path, some flowers in between their roots. Stone pillars decorated the corners of the courtyard, huge tangles of thorns winding down from them, and half-buried granite slabs made the path from one side to the other.

Rainbow flapped again into the air, her legs falling limp like most of her face. She sighed, “You want me to wait out here for a while, maybe do some gardening?”

Twilight turned back to her and scoffed, “I was being serious earlier when I said I needed you, Rainbow. Are you getting nervous?”

Rainbow shrugged and turned away, though her voice raised slightly. “Of course not! It’s just, you know--I don’t think I ever got along with the princess like you guys did.”

Spike said, “You’ll be fine. She’ll be happy to see you, just like we were.”

“I’m just saying, I think she’ll be plenty impressed just by seeing this place again,” Rainbow said.

Twilight looked back at the others as she kept walking, smiling again. “But that’s just it: it’s not about the castle. It’s not about what she already knows I’ve accomplished, it’s about what comes next! Look up, both of you.”

Spike rolled his eyes. “We’ve seen it a few times by now, Twi.”

Twilight stopped and furrowed her brow for a moment. “Just look up!”

They finally obliged. All three of them tilted their gazes upward, except what they saw was actually below them. The bright land of Equestria lay stretched across the planet far, far below them. The whole world wrapped around Twilight’s sky, the horizon of space surrounding each edge of her vision.

“That’s the goal,” Twilight said, the view reflecting perfectly back in her eyes. Her smile surfaced again even wider. “That’s what the Source is for. Magic wasn’t made just for unicorns.”

She looked back down to her friends, both of them still looking up. “You’re what it’s about, Rainbow. You’re vital.”

Rainbow glanced back to Twilight and grinned a little. “All right, all right, I guess I can risk her looking weird at me.”

Spike took a moment more before he dropped his gaze. He tilted his head to the side in a small shrug. “It’s pretty.”

“Fine, be cynical,” Twilight said, frowning with effort at Spike. “I’ll be the altruistic one.”

“I think you’ll be satisfied by something a little more selfish,” Spike said, crossing his arms despite finally cracking a grin. “Meeting a certain somepony, right?”

Twilight blushed, turning her eyes away. “Maybe. Well, I mean, obviously we’ll all enjoy other benefits as well.”

Spike rolled his eyes again, but his grin remained. He began walking again, Rainbow moving aside him. They passed Twilight as she looked back up, willfully enthralled. It was daytime. The sun shone vast over her real home.

“Keep those hooves moving,” Rainbow called back. Twilight stood still a second more, then followed.

She hurried, too, back to the front. The three approached the other side of the courtyard, though its exit was the largest set of doors yet. Twilight breathed in, then out, then said, “Okay, best behavior!”

“No panicking,” Spike said.

Twilight nodded heavily. “Right!”

Her horn glowed purple and she pulled the doors open simultaneously. Spike and Rainbow stood aside, and Twilight strode ahead of them into her personal library. Gigantic bookcases rose fully to the ceiling, shorter rows of them setting part aisles for all but a central path, leading to the very end of the library where the only part of the walls not covered in books held a brick fireplace. A table always full of tomes lay before that, and a plush throne next to it. An alicorn sat not in that, but on the floor on the other side, reading through one of the scrolls on the edge of the table.

“Princess Luna,” Twilight called out, raising each hoof high as she cantered forward, “welcome to the new Haylo Castle! I’ve restored most of the--well, some of the structures to the same condition they were in a thousand years ago, just like when you lived here, minus some modern additions. The altitude makes the name completely accurate, as well, since it wouldn’t make any sense if it didn’t. It all works! The name and physics, I mean. And the castle.”

Luna rolled the scroll back up and rose to meet Twilight. She smiled, not too wide nor too thin. She stayed put as her host came to meet her, but still greeted then, “Greetings, Twilight. It’s been too long.”

“It really has,” Twilight said as she slowed to a halt, standing significantly shorter than her guest. She looked up with a grin. “This is your first time back to your old castle in a long time, right? You must still have a lot of memories here from back when you and Princess Celestia ruled from here. Would you like a tour first?”

“She and I have been around for a long time, Twilight,” Luna said. Her smile stayed still, but her brow lowered. “I try not to be sentimental. I’m just glad somepony is still getting some use out of this place, as is my sister.”

Twilight didn’t know what to infer, but she kept smiling. “Oh--okay. No tour?”

“I’m sure you’re better prepared to discuss your magical experiment,” Luna said. “We can move on to that now, if you’d like. The Source?”

“Oh, yes,” Twilight said, her voice a little unsteady. “But before that, I want to give proper credit to my number one assistant, Spike. He’s been an immense help on the equations side of my experiments, not to mention a bit of moral support.”

Spike bent one hand in front of his chest and held the other out by his side, bowing. Luna nodded back at him, tipping her knee.

Twilight cleared her throat, a rhythm returning to her words. “Just a bit of moral support, though.”

Luna chuckled, and Spike poked Twilight in the shoulder. Twilight swayed, but suppressed a giggle at him. She looked back to Luna and continued, “And I’m sure you’re wondering how in the world she could possibly be here, so let me next introduce R--”

Rainbow wasn’t beside her, Twilight discovered as she looked to her side. She frowned for a moment, but quickly reorganized her thoughts. She turned further toward the several aisles of books surrounding her, and called back, “Okay, fine, stay hidden! I’ll reintroduce you first, then you’ll have to come out anyway.”

Rainbow didn’t reply, but Twilight turned back to Luna and found the latter with a look of curiosity over her eyes. The princess asked, “Somepony I know? I didn’t realize anypony else would be present.”

“You know her,” Twilight said, “but it’s nopony you’re expecting. You were there, obviously, when Haylo Castle lifted off from Equestria, lifted purely by the Source.”

“Indeed,” Luna said.

“Well, now that Haylo Castle is in low orbit, the Source only needs to recycle fresh air and power magical gravity--”

“I’m not yet fully clear on how your Source works, however,” Luna interjected.

“And that’s sort of what I’m leading up to,” Twilight said, her smile giddy by now. “Suffice for the moment to say that the Source still has power available, despite using so much already. I haven’t used up its magic--far from it! The experiment I told you about isn’t related to Haylo Castle at all, but what else I’m able to channel with the Source’s magic.”

Luna cocked an eyebrow again, but said, “Continue.”

“My experiment is for using magic from the Source as a conscious channel for living beings.”

Luna’s grin lowered even as Twilight’s nearly burst at the seams. “Elaborate.”

“The Source’s basic design is to hold magical power--I supplied magic to it at first, and it then used what I gave it to collect more. You remember its purpose?”

“I remember,” Luna said. “A vessel that collects and contains magic by itself.”

“Except my design is grander than just that,” Twilight said. “I didn’t lift Haylo Castle with magic within the Source; the Source itself lifted the castle with my control! The Source’s magic can be commanded without the use of a horn.”

“You make it sound dangerous,” Luna said.

“What? Oh, no, no,” Twilight insisted. “It’s not any worse than you or I. It’s a vessel, just like you said. However, magic is traditionally channeled through horns, since those are ponykind’s connection to magic in the first place. However, the Source can take the role of a horn for ponies without one.”

Luna glanced around at the tops and side of the bookcase aisles, her grin much smaller than when she first greeted Twilight. The princess said, “And this leads to a pony hiding from me?”

“Oh, this is so exciting,” Twilight giggled. “Okay. Princess Luna, let me introduce to you somepony we all thought we’d never see again: Rainbow Dash!”

Twilight whirled around, a hoof presented back toward the shelves, and a moment later a clopping echoed out from behind the books. Rainbow walked out from them blushing genuinely, eyes averted, wings folded tight to her sides.

Twilight glanced back and forth between pegasus and princess, grinning even as she saw Luna’s jaw hanging open even wider than the princess’s eyes. Rainbow rubbed one foreleg with the other, looking to the floor instead.

“What is this?” Luna gasped.

“It’s not just that she’s here because of the Source--she has access to it! She has no horn, but she has magic! Rainbow Dash, show her the spells I taught you.”

Rainbow’s gaze fell even further, and she muttered, “I think she already gets the point.”

Twilight turned back to Luna, the latter putting a hoof to her mouth. The princess hardly blinked. Her jaw seemed to shake, but she said nothing. All the brightness in Twilight’s face began to dim, but she chirped, “The Source has limitless potential. All the theories I had on it, I’ve tested and confirmed. We can do so much with it.”

No one responded to her. She continued, just a little quieter, “And it brought her back.”

Luna lowered her hoof, her mouth taut now. Her gaze was much narrower. She said, “Explain to me immediately why you reanimated a corpse for my visit.”

“She’s not--no, I didn’t do that,” Twilight stuttered, her ears folding back. “You see, I--I’ll explain it from the beginning of the process.”

“Please do.”

“Well, I’ve been running multiple experiments with the Source. Since I can use it without my horn, I put my memories into it--I might be explaining it badly, I know, but it makes sense with the data I have available now--I recreated Rainbow from my memories of her, except not just as a copy. The Source acts as a constant power source for her body. It pulled her back from everything I experienced with her--she’s not a copy, not just an imitation of life, not just--”

Twilight was pacing by then, raising her hoof at the occasional emphasis. Her face contorted with every other word, searching for how she could sound convincing.

“I just thought I could use the Source for something undeniably good, something amazing. She’s real again. She has all her old memories, not just the ones I have of her, and she’s making new ones with us now. She’s the real Rainbow Dash.”

Luna’s lips pursed even tighter. She turned her gaze from Rainbow back to Twilight in a quick drop. “And you consider this a good thing?”

Twilight stopped pacing. Even as she looked back to Luna, her neck seemed to shrink further back into her spine. “How could it not be?”

Luna closed her eyes and sighed heavily. She said, “If you don’t understand how disturbed I am, Twilight Sparkle, you must be deceiving yourself. You promised great applications for your experiments, but this…”

She looked back to Rainbow. Rainbow’s whole face was to the floor.

“This is an aberration of magic.”

Luna looked to Twilight again, who was still only just daring to gaze back. Luna said, “What I see is misguided at best. Twilight, I understand what motivates you, but to go this far simply to--”

“It’s not about that,” Twilight whimpered, her voice cracking again. “It’s for something bigger than just meeting--it’s for all ponykind.”

Luna shook her head. “I’m not going to stay. We’ll discuss this some other time, after I’ve had time to consider what it is I’ve just witnessed. Please do not experiment further until then.”

Luna’s horn glowed, its light filling the room utterly more than the fire behind her. Twilight stepped back twice, giving her liege unnecessary room. Luna stared Twilight in the eyes once more before vanishing, saying, “You should spend some time again with your real friends, Twilight. Fare thee well.”

A flash turned the entire library invisible through such light, and it faded just as fast. Twilight held her head back up, blinking. She stared forward where the princess had just been, but she looked right through.

Spike stepped up and laid a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t turn back to see where Rainbow was anymore. Twilight’s mouth held open the same now as Luna’s earlier.

“We’ll get through this,” Spike said, patting her. His voice was flat but steady. “It may have gone badly, but we’ll still get through this.”

Twilight didn’t react to him. She lifted her gaze slightly, now facing just above the fireplace. She said aloud, “Was that five minutes?”

Miska opened his eyes all at once. He lifted himself from bed at the hip, still naked but for the blanket obscuring his junk. His body was noticeably smaller now, shorter in particular, than he had looked during his tryst. He pulled his cover over and stared down at himself, finding a condom only halfway still on his morning wood. Semen was leaked all over his sheets. He remained expressionless for a moment, blinking once, before frowning.

“Shit. Why do I even bother?”

Though autumn had fully arrived in Baltimore, Miska rolled his feet onto the floorboards of his room without even a wince. Central heating was the standard for new buildings. Still he sighed, scratching his neck before starting to prick away the electrodes all over his chest. Several machines were arranged on the right side of his bed, half of them medical despite Miska’s good health. A fold-out access terminal was set atop his bedside table, protocols for virtual reality covering each of the three screens. He pressed a physical button on its side, turning it off, and pushed off from his bed with a slight sway.

He bundled the stain sheets under his arms and trudged toward the bathroom, a corner of the linens trailing on the floor behind him. He dropped them in a heap by the door before walking directly into the shower, twisting on the water, and shrinking back from the cold stream.

Miska crossed his arms, shivering, and glanced down at the one part of him that was literally shrinking. He muttered, “That’s right, boy, not right now. You’ll get another go tonight.”

“Course set. It’s going.”

Though several parts of the automaton’s upper body were missing, it began walking forward with slender legs the shape of a person’s. It pushed forward one leg at a time, knees curving wide with each step, feet bending at both the ankles and toes. Its whole body swayed slightly as it shifted its weight each step, arms swinging just a bit with the rest of its joints. Its eyes were the most conspicuous part missing, empty shadows still in the center of its face.

Miska stood watching on the edge of the track, covering his lower lip with one hand while keeping the other crossed. He was dressed now, red tie and a white button-up tucked into black slacks. His hair, though freshly shaved off his chin, held barely an inch out from his scalp in this world. He narrowed his gaze as the machine reached a long yellow line at the end of the track, slowing and stopping as it crossed the threshold.

“Still unnatural. It’s arching its legs too much.”

A woman watched next to Miska, just taller than he. She wore a long white coat a size and a half too large over her arms, but her hair was much nicer. She scoffed, “You said it wasn’t arching its legs enough.”

Miska glanced aside while keeping his hand in front of himself. He offered a half-grin as he said, “Well, apparently you overdid it. Get your shit together, Bethany.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Beth said. “Why the hell don’t we hire someone who knows how the hell people actually walk?”

Another scientist at the far end of the track called out loud again, “Course set. Walking.”

Miska kept watching as the automaton continued moving, turning around and walking the opposite way. As it passed them again, Miska sighed, “Nah. A professional designer would just tell us to make it look and walk some way I don’t want it to.”

“I’ll just keep pointlessly busting my ass fixing your shit, I guess,” Beth said.

Miska looked back to her and chuckled, “Real fuckin’ hard, sitting down all day in front of a computer typing numbers.”

“For twelve hours a day? You’re goddamn right.”

“Go whine to someone else about how I’m such a prick,” Miska said. “This matters.”

“Jesus, I know it matters,” Beth said, punching him in the shoulder. “The money sure isn’t why I’m here. How much am I lowering the arch?”

Miska stared at the machine’s legs again as it reached the other end. “Slightly. Just--just a little bit.”

“Centimeters,” Beth elaborated.

“Not sure,” Miska said. “Just a little. Tharta, how about you team up with her and see if you can get it perfect?”

Someone else was observing the trail with the two humans, though he was available to them only through a contraption that looked, at best, rough around the edges. A large infrared motion sensor and camera mounted on an aluminum pole, then mounted on a motorized wheel base, served as Tharta’s visual and auditory medium. What amounted to his soul was stored in a server someplace else in the engineering laboratory.

“Most of my attention is currently invested in both the tensile genital design and in the previous bugs in the mobile platform’s offline systems. Bethany and I shall still team up, but my aid to her may be minor. You and I should have a discussion before further designs, however,” Tharta said. Though he enunciated every word, he spoke them quickly and with a wavering pitch, his voice that of merely a different accent from Miska or Beth.

Beth raised her hands and slapped them back to her sides as she scowled. She crossed her arms again and marched loudly back out of the track room. Miska ignored her exit as he said to Tharta, “Yeah, sure. What’s the matter?”

“The matter is loosely related; discussing it first is my preference. I think you would like privacy regarding the topic, however,” Tharta said.

Miska watched the automaton a few seconds longer. An assistant called out its course again, and the machine kept walking. Miska closed his eyes, breathing in deeply before answering Tharta. “All right, all right. Inside.”

Tharta’s remote platform followed Miska through the rest of the lab, though no other part of the building was so large as the test track. They moved through a couple of hallways until they reached a small office, this one scant compared to all the rest; several file cabinets lined the walls, physical copies of hard data filed both in and on them, but only a laptop sat on the desk in the center.

Miska held the door open for Tharta while the latter drove in. Miska walked around to a chair behind the desk, leaning far back as he sat in it. Tharta halted in front of the desk and said, “My concern for the pilot remains high. Has she further considered her registration since you last spoke with her?”

“She has a name,” Miska said, crossing his hands behind his head.

“She has not introduced herself to me,” Tharta said. “She does not know my name. It is strange for me to address her by a name she has not given me. However, the dilemma does not lie with names.”

Miska twisted around moved a hand over his cheek, leaning onto it. “I’m trying, Tharta. What am I supposed to do? I can’t make her do what she doesn’t want to.”

“Nor do I wish for you to make her do anything,” Tharta said. “I simply wish to reinforce the importance of her registration as a legal, independent program. It is difficult for me to believe that she is inclined to remain invisible to society.”

“‘Difficult to believe’ means you don’t believe it,” Miska said.

“You are correct,” Tharta said. “My emotions influence my judgment. I aided you with her designs when you needed it. Why is it that she won’t converse with anyone but you, if she has the rest of the world truly available?”

“She’s not much of a conversationalist, trust me,” Miska said with a grin that just barely reached his lips.

“Yes, I can imagine your trysts vividly,” Tharta said. Miska quickly frowned. The program continued, “It is frustrates me that your relationship with her is sexual. Such a commitment is dishonest at best before she enters society at large.”

“We’re not going to talk about that right now,” Miska said, pushing his hand back out toward Tharta. “And seriously--her name is Twilight, okay? She decided it herself. You can call her that.”

“I have treaded lightly around the subject thus far,” Tharta said. “However, I hope that the meaning of my inquiries has not evaded your focus. While I disagree with some laws the same as you, her free will and safety are in actual jeopardy as long as no one else knows that she has reached self-awareness.”

“I get that,” Miska sighed. “And surely you get that I stand to be in the worst situation if I can’t convince her to through the government’s hoops to get registered.”

“Indeed,” Tharta said.

Miska leaned slowly back in his chair, putting only one hand behind his head again. He raised his eyebrows as Tharta remained silent, saying, “That’s it?”

“I am relatively sated,” Tharta said.

Miska rolled his eyes. “Well, I guess you’ve already figured I’m going to see her again tonight. I’m going to bring it up again, okay? I’ll impress upon her the importance of going out and seeing the world.”

“Please do not use such sarcasm regarding this topic,” Tharta said. “It annoys me, and my emotional state remains muddled.”

“Sarcasm is an essential part of conversation, my man,” Miska said.

“I am no man,” Tharta said.

Miska remained as silent as his partner for a moment. A genuine grin burst from him a second later, and he chuckled as he shook his head. “Right.”

Tharta drove back just a bit, jostling his platform. He said, “Bethany requires my eye at this point. If you are satisfied well enough with our discourse, I will assist her more closely now.”

“Well, I’m glad one of us is a multitasker,” Miska said, getting up. “Sure, we’re good for now.”

Tharta turned around as Miska walked back over to the door, opening it for the robot body. Even as Tharta began to drive away, the program said, “Perhaps not good. Something lesser.”

Miska held the door open long enough for Tharta to leave, then released the handle and let it shut again. He stood alone in the office, a quieter hum from the laptop echoing through now. He drooped his head and rubbed a hand over his neck, sighing. Glancing up once more toward the door, he muttered, “Man, fuck off.”

Two

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today, your sister Princess Luna came to visit me. I showed her the surprise I mentioned before, but that didn’t go over as well as I’d hoped it would. I’m sure she’s told you about it already, if you’ve had the time to see her yet.

Rainbow Dash has always been and still is a dear friend of mine, and her being here again has really only helped me. She’s been wonderful. If you met her yourself, I’m sure you’d find she really is the same Rainbow as ever, no matter if it’s her original body or not.

Your sister asked me to suspend my experiments, so I will. If you and she really decide I should give up on the Source, all I ask is for another chance to defend it. Its possibilities are so grand, I have as much hope in it as you have in me.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight sat on the roof of the castle observatory; a quill was levitated above her, a letter below her. The rooftop was stone, the same as most the rest of her domain. Though the observatory was spherical, it wasn’t just Twilight’s grip that kept her rooted. Her expression showed how little she cared to be anywhere else.

Rainbow Dash appeared above the same rooftop in a literal flash, flapping hard in the moment before she touched down. She settled her wings back to her sides and walked up beside Twilight, who offered no greeting. Rainbow sat down anyway.

Twilight’s castle consisted of many stone spires and walls upon, from an observer’s perspective, a massive dirt heap. The castle itself looked bigger than it ever had on the ground, even when the princesses had used it. The roots of the larger trees poked all the way through to the bottom of the land, their tips exposed below.

Above and below were very relative. The whole planet lay in sight above Twilight and Rainbow, and yet the lifted castle was upside down to the world, roots and foundations pointed toward space. Twilight’s gaze was fixed past the planet itself, her eyes on the space visible beyond its horizon. Despite the sadness in her eyes, they were long glazed over.

Rainbow’s gaze was fixed nowhere, glancing from one point to another every second. Her eyes fluttered over Equestria itself several times before she soon stared at it. She took a deep breath, but said nothing with it.

Twilight just kept watching the stars even as Rainbow looked to where Canterlot probably was.

“I wanted to meet her, too,” Rainbow said.

Twilight didn’t look away, but Rainbow continued.

“You can do it, though. I just don’t think she’ll ever want to see me now.”

Twilight raised one leg, reaching around Rainbow’s shoulders. She pulled the pegasus closer to her, Rainbow’s hair nuzzling Twilight’s neck.

The distant look in Twilight’s eyes remained, but her voice was unbroken. “We’ll all get to meet her someday. Come on, why wouldn’t Princess Celestia want to meet somepony as cool as you?”

Transponyism

2: The Sun Looked Beautiful Today

Miska slipped a brown peacoat over his other arm, straightening it before buttoning up. Only a couple others on his team were leaving at the same time, though he was ahead of them in preparing to go home. Beth, putting on her own coat, smirked at Miska as he put on gloves next.

“When are you going to get an outfit that doesn’t make you look like a huge douche?”

He brushed a hand over his hair, grinning back to her. “Same time I decide to do something with this stuff.”

Beth grunted a nicer farewell to him as he shoved open the door, striding out to his car before the others might catch up with him. The wind nipped at his nose, but the cold was only part of why he felt his face tighten.

The ride home was spent eating half a box of poptarts left over from yesterday’s lunch. His car drove itself, as was legally required in Maryland. Miska’s license to drive it himself had actually expired several months ago, but he hadn’t manually driven in years before even the autopilot legislation came into effect.

He bit off another piece of his snack, chewing it slowly and dryly, as he stared at the data on his windshield. He kept the opacity high above the manufacturer recommendation, all but hiding the outside world. While most of the glass displayed lines of the automaton’s core design, a corner was sectioned off for a different project. Miska read through the lines in the corner once more, going over them with more attention than he usually paid at work.

He waggled a finger downward, and the lines scrolled appropriately. The lines dictated precise directions for how the automaton would interact with its own pilot--how a sentient program would reside within it, taking control without need for a remote connection. This project was Miska’s own, though he occasionally asked for Tharta’s help regarding the finer details.

The lines hovered in place while he stared at them for several seconds, not actually reading them anymore. He sighed, then pulled a skinny phone out from his pocket, pressing two buttons on it before setting it in his cupholder.

Miska set one hand on the top of the steering wheel as he said, “Tharta? You busy?”

“Yes, but I have ample attention for you too, Miska.”

Tharta’s response came immediately, though not through the phone. Like most anyone who could afford them, Miska had a subdermal implant installed in his ear; a microphone, too, was implanted directly against the vocal cords in his throat, catching each vibration with near flawless clarity.

“All right, I’m going to do you a solid. I’m going to hook up to my Lucid early tonight, and Twilight never enters that function until pretty late. I’ll send you an invite and introduce you when she shows up, and we can both talk to her.”

“I accept,” Tharta said, his tone neutral.

Miska smirked. “Maybe not quite ample attention after all, huh?”

“I am conversing with four other sentient programs and three humans currently, including you,” Tharta said. “Dialogue is the only form of interactive experience available to us. You understand how much effort programs must exert to derive abstract meaning from conversation.”

“No, I get it, it really does suck for you,” Miska said, slouching a bit into his seat. “That’s why we’re working on this, buddy. You’ll get a body someday.”

“Indeed,” Tharta said.

Miska paused, waiting for anything further on the other end. Tharta offered nothing more.

“Guess I’ll leave you to it,” Miska said, sitting up again slightly. “I’ll get back to you soon with a network invite.”

“Indeed,” Tharta said, his tone unchanged.

Miska scowled, though only in the mildest frustration. Another press of the button on top of his phone ended the call. He crinkled his wrapper and shoved it back into its box, just then feeling his car decelerate. The windshield flashed a slight yellow hue, and Miska waved away all of the data on it. The door opened and he stepped out onto the front entrance to his condominium; he closed the door, and his car immediately drove off again toward the garage.

A doorman greeted and keyed him into the building, though Miska barely nodded back at him. He walked in past the front desk, but before he reached the elevators someone else called out, “No trip to the bar tonight, Mr. Schul?”

Miska turned back to the desk and offered a weak smile back at the man behind it. “No need. Brought my work home with me.”

“Oh, anything good?” the attendant asked, grinning wider.

“It might excite you if you knew how to read it,” Miska said, already walking back to the elevators.

He was the only one in the lift he rode up. He sighed and pulled a card out of his pocket when he reached his room, leaving the door otherwise unlocked when he left every morning. Though he looked forward to each evening with consistent vigor, his mood was dampened tonight. He rolled his head in a circle, stretching as he slid his card through the reader.

He pushed open the door and dropped his briefcase against the entryway, slipping off his shoes and coat. There weren’t many rooms in his condo, despite its huge rent; the kitchen was just beside the entryway, a closet opposite that. Beyond the living room was only his bedroom, then just a bathroom through there.

The decoration was sparse. Miska kept his kitchen totally clear, the island between his refrigerator and living room holding only a placemat. A small Star of David and pictures of his family were hung in the living room above a set of shelves, those filled with old, physical books. The Torah wasn’t among them, nor the Bible, despite the star.

It was just starting to drizzle again. Miska unwrapped his scarf as he walked up to his windows, full glass panels that stretched across the living room. While the twelfth-story view made up for half the price of rent alone, the sky was a mat of ugly gray smeared worse by the city’s many lights.

He sighed, then just tossed his scarf onto the sofa. Not even a television was set up anywhere--all his personal equipment was in the bedroom, barely any of the room left for its intended purpose. Undoing the top two buttons of his shirt, he walked in toward the lone empty space there, a wall painted a conspicuous bright blue. More photos were hung on the other walls; his computers, monitors, and wardrobe were shoved against them as well. The blue wall had only a flat number pad in its center, a steady blinking hue to just the pad signaling it was in sleep mode.

Miska enter a long code into the pad and it beeped back into activity. The entire wall glowed like a screen, the blue shifting to a black before automatically logging Miska into several systems. Though this screen was already synced with his car, the data it displayed was far different. Miska stood back, crossing his arms as he read.

On the upper tab was an activity log. Though it would look written in tongues to nearly anyone else, Miska had in front of him a view of what Twilight had interacted with through his home network. For all the many lines, it showed nothing.

Miska wiped a hand down his jaw, sighing. “Jesus. The Internet isn’t going to bite you, Twilight.”

But the log was only a small part of the screen. The rest of it was packed denser, the words and commands even more indecipherable; it was brighter than the top, as well. Though more lines just like them scrolled for hundreds of more pages, referencing thousands of other files, it was easier to see what they were for than it was the log. This tab displayed Twilight’s behavioral applications. At the bottom of the the tab was a blank line, a vertical bar flashing intermittently at its start; it was all rewritable.

Miska’s gaze flitted down to the behavioral tab as he settled his hands back into the crooks of his arms. The physical keyboard for the screen was on his wardrobe, but he made no move for it. If Twilight was officially registered as a sentient program, thereby becoming a citizen, it would be illegal for Miska to even look at these lines without her documented permission.

He stopped reading them quickly, though he stared for much longer. Different things he could have written drifted through his mind instead. He kept unbuttoning his shirt as he idled, and as he soon stripped further, he went only to bed that night.

Twilight’s face was dark, least of all for the lack of light shining on it. Luna’s expression was one of shock, a spotlight shining bright right on her, her hanging jaw converting into a huge smile. She was clearly over the moon. She gasped repeatedly, unable to say whatever was running through her head. Such a reaction would embarrass Rainbow Dash so much.

The spotlight blinked off for a moment, leaving the room in total darkness, then flashed back on just as quickly. Luna wasn’t as exuberant anymore. She looked as dour as she had before Rainbow’s appearance, but after a few seconds of silence, the alicorn smiled, and it reached all the corners of her face. She lifted a foreleg to her side, beckoning Rainbow into her embrace after so long.

Twilight watched as Rainbow accepted the invitation and hugged the princess, the heartwarming scene leaving Twilight’s heart still empty. Twilight watched as Luna then looked right back up at her, saying, “Thank you, Twilight Sparkle.”

The light blinked again. As it came back on, Rainbow was gone and Luna’s gaze was narrower on Twilight. “I’m glad to see her back, too, but you can’t do this for everypony. Death is a natural part of life, Twilight--it’s good to see our friends again, but I must question whether we have the resources to support everypony. I’ll have to discuss this with my sister.”

The light blinked again. Luna gazed with her widest eyes yet at Twilight and asked, nearly breathless, “Who else?”

The light blinked again. Princess Celestia stood before Twilight, smiling down at her with a perfect smile. She said, “I’m so proud of you.”

The latest scene ended as the light flashed off, and this time gave way only to the light of stars in the distance. Twilight hovered in the cosmos, her face tilted whichever way was down. She had let her hopes get the better of her expectations. Having already faced reality, it stung all the more to see again what she had prepared for. She had held these conversations with Luna dozens of times before meeting her today, and only now she saw them for how silly they were. Not even childish, but childlike. Naive.

The glow of the stars illuminated Twilight constantly some nights. She had spent hours here before, constantly flying closer to them, marveling at them from afar, but unable to get too close to them, unaware of what they looked like beyond the glow.

Twilight reached out, but not toward the stars. She met a plasmic resistance, her hooves pushing through the fabric of her simulation, stagnant air brushing past her hair on the other side. She pushed her whole body past the continuum and back into her laboratory, closing her eyes and holding her breath as her face dry-splashed past the edge of the black cube.

She leaned out over the floor as the rest of her body made it through the side of the cube, whipping her tail out just before her hind legs as she hopped down onto stone. There was immediate silence.

The silence was followed by a loud thumping on the twin doors, both of them visibly shaking with each bang. She heard Spike call out from the other side, “Okay, this time I heard your hoofsteps. Now I know you’re back. Are you there? Please?”

She trotted over to the door, making a conscious effort to raise her ears and grin. Her horn shimmered and the doors opened just ahead of her, Spike waiting behind them with a couple of binders under his arm. He leaned on the doorframe, sighing. “First of all, are you still holding up all right?”

Twilight focused on her grin and nodded a little. “I’m fine now, Spike.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Spike said. “Do you need me to send any letters for you? I’m about to dig into more research for the evening.”

“Nothing tonight.”

“Okay,” Spike said, pushing himself upright again. His eyes drooped a little as his gaze met hers, and his otherwise lack of an expression faltered in sadness or pity. He turned to go, but said, “Just come get me if you need anything.”

“I will,” Twilight said, already closing the doors. Her grin faded over several seconds, lips curling instead into a sigh.

She turned back to the cube, and the promises she had made came back to the forefront of her thoughts. She stared for a while, her eyes glazing over.

She took the steps forward again, her body then flowing back into the Source.

Darkness greeted her entry. As Twilight felt her body all on the same plane, the light of a fake sun flashed on from above. Her form was human, clothes covering nearly her entire body, and the scene was now that of an abandoned suburban street. She was standing on the porch of a large house, several similar houses surrounding it. A long, paved gray road separated half of them from each other, but not even cars were parked in front of them.

She looked down at herself: her lower clothes were blue denim wrapped snugly around each leg, tall brown boots hugging them in turn. A shirt with long, tight sleeves fit around her upper body, covering her up to the neck.

She turned her gaze back up, raising her hands with it; her fingers could wiggle at the slightest thought. She wiggled them erratically. She smiled.

Miska heard the front door’s knob rattle as it twisted open, his attention just then set on lighting the last candle. He flipped off his lighter and laid it on the side cabinet as Twilight stepped around the corner into the dining room, her appearance silhouetted by candlelight.

They looked to each other first, though Twilight’s gaze turned quickly to the third wheel at the table, a man she’d never met. He was sitting down, but Twilight could still tell he was much smaller and shorter than Miska, his face genuinely demure. The man’s subtler expressions looked nearly as feminine as Twilight’s, but his face was built with more gaunt.

“Good evening,” he said, rising from his seat and nodding at her. “I am Tharta.”

Twilight looked back to Miska, who was clearly trying to smile wider than just a grin. “Who is this?”

“My name is Tharta,” the newcomer said again, smiling pleasantly. “Miska is our mutual friend. He’s spoken so highly of you that I was thrilled when he invited me to dinner tonight, just to meet you.”

“You wanted to meet me,” Twilight repeated, stepping closer to the table, “and do what?”

“Simply have a nice discussion over a good meal,” Tharta said. “Though I doubt work is something we’ll wish to talk much about tonight, I’m one of the engineers developing your artificial human body. I too am a sentient program, and in addition to holding a pleasant chat tonight, I wished to help you through your registration if you felt such help was needed.”

While she listened, Twilight’s gaze flitted around to the food and decorations set at each part of the table. Two places were set at each end, Tharta’s in the middle; several trays of exotic food took up all the space around them, most of them vegetarian.

“I wanted to start introducing you to my friends,” Miska said, now taking his seat, “and not only that, but prove what an excellent cook I am.”

Twilight walked slowly over to the end of the table, though not to her own chair. She stooped over behind Miska, resting her arms around his shoulders and placing her head beside his. “Unfortunately, I’m not hungry right now.”

Tharta continued watching them, and Twilight met his gaze again. She asked, “So, what has Miska told you about me?”

“He’s elaborated only how clever and beautiful you are, in his own words,” Tharta said, sitting down as well. “He’s mentioned your relationship, of course, but he respects your privacy, as do I.”

Twilight entwined all her fingers together in front of Miska, and she tilted her gaze sideward at him even as he seemed to slink further into the chair. “Well, our relationship doesn’t usually include dinner parties. This is kind of interrupting our previous plans.”

Though Tharta kept smiling, the expression had reached its peak some seconds ago. “I apologize. While I understand there may be a better time to talk, I had hoped we could first have a brief discussion in regards to your coming independence.”

“Yes, maybe there’s a better time. I’m glad you understand,” Twilight said, only now smiling back at him.

Miska moved his hands to the armrests of his chair, getting ready to say goodbye as Tharta did the same. Before the latter could even stand up, however, he disappeared in a dull yellow blink, the entire room flashing the same as he was booted out of the system.

Miska sat straight back up and twisted his face towards Twilight’s, saying, “Twi, you can’t just--”

Twilight untangled her fingers and grabbed Miska by the loose collar of his shirt, pulling his open mouth onto hers. She closed her eyes and pressed her lips harder into his each second, the warmth of his breath tickling her cheeks whenever either of them pulled the slightest bit away. She released his shirt and moved her hands to his cheeks, brushing her fingers just past his ears, feeling how smooth his whole face was to her touch.

Miska pulled away, gasping a moment as Twilight opened her eyes, the two of them staring into each other’s. He said, “I have to work with him tomorrow. He’s going to be offended.”

Twilight lowered her hands, placing one on his shoulder and sliding the other under his unbuttoned henley. “I’m already independent, and you said you would show me your other world when you’ve finished a way for me to see it all at once.”

“I wasn’t trying to show you anything,” Miska admitted. “I invited Tharta so you could talk with him, ask him questions. It’s a big world to see all at once.”

Twilight leaned closer, her eyes were barely inches away from Miska’s. She opened her lips the slightest way, her voice at just a whisper. She asked, “Do you want to talk, or do you want to put your cock inside me?”

Miska stared back into her, nothing more he could think of to say, and found himself leaning closer into her. Twilight closed her eyes again as she felt his lips touch hers, sucking them in, wetting them each time he opened his mouth, just a bit, to taste more of her. She leaned into him as well, pressing her tongue onto his. She wrapped her arms around him tighter, letting her hand glide up and down over his chest, the feeling of his body warming up all of hers.

He raised one hand up to her cheek, brushing his thumb by her lips as the kiss continued. His other hand he snuck under her shirt, caressing the skin hidden beneath in a slow circular pattern. His pinky slipped under her denim, rubbing just the tip of her waist.

Their kiss grew faster and their breath ragged, fewer chances for them both to catch their breath as they caught more of each other. Miska pulled away first, staring into Twilight’s eyes as she opened them again, and stood up.

The details of how they came to their bedroom were hazy and obscured, but silk linens gently cushioned Twilight from behind as Miska laid her down on the bed, her head falling softly onto the pillows. though she kept her expression like a stone, she sprawled her arms apart as he climbed onto the bed after her; he began sliding her shirt up past her breasts, but she pulled it off the rest of the way herself, no bra deterring her. She paused only when he began kissing her again, accidentally expressing her satisfaction with a sigh as she shivered.

Miska lowered his face to her neck, taking a pinch of skin into his teeth. Twilight moaned, throwing off the rest of her shirt before brushing one hand through her partner’s hair, pressing the other and all its fingers into the bedsheets.

In between their inescapable steals of kisses, they continued removing each other’s clothes: Twilight leaned up and yanked off Miska’s shirt without resistance, and he unfastened her pants; he took off his own belt, but she took care of the rest for him. His gaze wandered back to her lower lingerie even as she slid off his jeans, his bulge obscured only by a thin black layer of cotton. He pressed his fingers under her garment, brushing past a short tuft of hair.

She left his pants at his ankles, leaving them for him to wrangle off fully, and looked down to see the outline of his fingers plainly visible as they stretched up under her panties, then slinked down into her. She felt his thumb caress the skin on her body as two more of the phallic instruments pressed further past the walls inside her, their beat increasing accordingly with each faster breath she gasped.

But she didn’t cry out; instead, she took Miska by the wrist and slid him out from her. He looked back into her eyes as she narrowed them. His own breathing had grown harder as well, but it stayed in his throat. Twilight motioned back down to the clothes still hanging at his ankles and said, “Take them off.”

He lifted back up from her and pushed his jeans onto the floor. As he began slipping off his briefs next, Twilight leaned up and twisted around, locking one leg around both of her partner’s and one hand on his arm, shoving him into the bed. She laid on her knees over him, he on his back. Miska stopped completely as he stared back up at her, watching her eyes as they studied his body. She smiled, her undergarment still wrapped tight around what it hid.

The abdominal muscles in Miska’s stomach pumped in unison with his breath, and his erection stood up in plain sight. He ignored the rest of his briefs and moved one hand up her thigh, but Twilight reached the laces of her panties before he could. She extended all her fingers outward, only her thumb brushing down her skin as she slipped it under the strap, pushing the cotton down until the little privacy it held was fully exposed.

Miska’s hand met hers. She lowered her fingers onto his, tangling them all together, and they grasped each other as she guided his cock with her other hand, slipping herself onto it in a single descent. Miska pushed his head back into the pillow but still watched through hazy vision as Twilight rose and fell over him.

Twilight lifted her free hand up to her chest, brushing the back of her fingers past her breast as she reached to her hair, brushing it back over her shoulder. As her panting turned to a slow, steady moan, so too did her skin start to change its hue to a slight violet, and a familiar matting of hair grew forward by the millimeter.

Her partner pulled his hand away from hers, pressing it back to her thigh. He looked past her body and said, voice still strained, “Not that tonight, Twi.”

She frowned and slid fully onto him, pausing at the bottom. She caught her breath and looked down to him, her tone only consistent in its hollowness. “Why not?”

“I’m not in the mood for the fur right now,” he said, though he still rubbed his hand closer to the cheek within reach.

Twilight lowered the hand that had just gripped his, groping it past where he now reached. Her frown remained as she said, “Your queen is in the mood.”

She pressed a finger into his asshole, and she felt his entire body tense. She felt him twitch repeatedly inside her, and she thought she felt him grow the slightest still. Though the groan Miska produced sounded like it came from mixed sensations, Twilight lowered her other hand onto his stomach, leveraging herself as she began pumping again. She prodded further into him, then on him, as she felt shivers emanate down through his body down to his cock.

Miska wrapped his hands around Twilight’s hips, gripping her tightly as his face creased with the orgasm, locking his legs straight out as his body gave its slightest convulsions. Twilight kept sliding herself on and off him for seconds after, her eyes closed and her lips sucked in. Even as Miska released one of his hands and grabbed hers, yanking her out of him, she kept pumping for a second after. The heavy ecstasy building up her loins seemed to explode then, a wave of that feeling rising through all of her, and a single moment of relief overtook everything as her breath coalesced with the heaves of her shoulders and chest.

Twilight kept herself willingly in the moment of bliss as long as it lasted, but it lasted too short. She sighed deeply and looked back down to Miska, her frown having already dissipated until she saw the one he now wore.

She pulled herself off of his shrinking cock and collapsed onto her back beside him. The sounds between them were only their gasping, slowing every moment, and neither of them looked at the other.

“We never discussed doing that,” Miska whispered.

Twilight turned her head over to him and glared, though she didn’t mean to. “Don’t be such a child.”

Miska rolled over. The lights on their bedsides dimmed, and without surprise, Twilight found a large blanket over the both of them. She rolled over as well, but quicker than he. Even as Miska stayed still, Twilight curled her knees inward and pulled the blanket up to her chin. She opened her mouth and made a sharp inhalation, knowing it was overheard, but couldn’t find what she felt to say.

Miska took the silence instead, whispering, “I wish we could just talk again, like when we first met.”

She shut her mouth again tighter, shifting again only to brush away some tears that in the same moment she wished she hadn’t even acknowledged. She said back to him, “I’ve had too bad a day for that.”

Miska’s voice was just as low, but a strained chuckle escaped through it. “You want to talk about it?”

“No.”

Three

Miska shoved his hands deeper into his pockets, nuzzling the collar of his coat closer up to his neck. Still dressed in his work clothes underneath, he was huddling in a line outside a professionals club downtown, its name bolted just over the door in neon blue: Five Inches. He waited just behind Bethany, unintentionally covering her from most of the wind blowing from in back of them, the rest of their group tonight consisting of about half the lab, four others with him and Beth.

“C’mon, big guy, we’re here every week. Get us out of the cold while you check your cute little pad,” Beth whined, arms crossed high on her chest.

A slender, suited man covered in a parka up to his nose held back the party. His attention was focused on a holo-expanding tablet, a wide holographic screen projected atop a much smaller device in his hands. He waved a gloved finger in front of the hologram, scrolling it appropriately.

“I’m not getting my ass fired if you messed up an easy reservation, Bethany,” the man scoffed, a swath of hot breath escaping out the top of his parka. He scrolled back the way he had just come. “Just about a full house tonight. If you didn’t—never mind, never mind. I got you. Table’s all yours.”

“You’re the shittiest door guy I know. Start checking your shit ahead of time,” Beth growled as she brushed past him, leading her coworkers inside. Miska heaved a cloud of breath as he followed.

Two in the group dropped their coats off at the entrance, but Miska and the others tucked them under their arms. Miska pulled his gloves off next, barely shoving them in a pocket before rubbing his hands fast against each other.

“He was right, though. Fuckin’ packed in here,” Miska muttered.

Though the establishment had only a small bar, it was shoulder-to-shoulder busy. The crowd wasn’t quite the type to be looking for a warm drink in the middle of a cold night, as their attire suggested they were men and women just getting off their eight-to-six desk jobs. Miska shivered even as he waded through them all, following Beth to the one table still available. Though the seats and table all were considerably well-used, another holographic plaque hung centered above them all, listing the name of their party. Beth tapped her phone to it, dissipating it with a nary a flicker.

In the next few minutes, she hoisted a neatly filled pint, her thumb wrapped over the top of the handle. Her sleeves were rolled up and her shirt unbuttoned, all lab coats off for the night. She raised her voice and said, “To the vagina, and to Tharta to being the one who had to work on it. Seriously, why the fuck does it have a pussy?”

Miska’s fist was pressed firmly into his cheek, leaning heavy onto the table. He kept one hand on his drink, but neglected raising it. Jaw bobbing beside his hand, he said, “You think it’d be less creepy if we made a giant barbie doll?”

“You’re a sick one,” Beth said, still gesturing with her pint. “You’re the saddest, perviest little man I know.”

Both a high-pitched chuckle and a quieter snicker came from next to Beth. Abdul and Faris, respectively, were seated beside her, and they were the only ones who offered a laugh.

Miska leaned back up. He sighed, “Okay, one: it’s not really a human body if it doesn’t have gentials. Two: I’m really not little.”

“You really are,” Beth said, taking a swig.

Naseen and Reggie sat beside Miska. Most of Naseen’s attention was focused on her own holo tablet, fiddling around on the device’s physical buttons, but still she grinned and said, “Only compared to you, Bethany.”

Beth set her glass on the table with a thud and a minor spill, staring straight-faced at Naseen. “You keep your mouth shut or you’re not even getting some dumbass soda tonight.”

Naseen raised both her hands palms up, her tablet’s projection swerving to reveal only news sites, before shrugging as she turned her attention back to it.

“We could actually talk about something other than work tonight,” Miska yawned. “Lighten some of this goddamn pressure from the demo prep. Seriously, I want to forget all about our shit tonight.”

Reggie was chugging a beer of his own even as his coworker spoke. Miska glanced aside at him, still chugging, and he pointed a finger in Reggie’s direction while facing the others. “That. Let’s all get as plastered as him tonight.”

Reggie set his half-empty mug back onto the table with a clatter, raising his bundled hand over his mouth before burping. He gave a clean, nearly bleached smile and said, “Catch up at your own risk.”

“At least Tharta’s not the bar type,” Faris joined, leaning forward as he stretched his arms behind his back. “Say what you want about him—I know he’s genius, but he’s very weird. Giving the quiet treatment to Miska today, too. I think he was mad.”

“Even the program’s a better engineer than your dumb ass,” Beth said, swinging a slow fist into Faris’s shoulder. She looked next to Miska. “But, I mean, at least I get why he’s so pissed at you. Doesn’t he think the pilot’s already self-aware?”

The expressions of everyone else at the table contorted wider, Abdul nearly choking on his drink. He set it down and said, the only accent in his voice a twinge of Londoner, “Damn, I didn’t hear that.”

“I did,” Beth said.

“She’s not,” Miska said, staring back at her even as he rubbed his neck. “If Tharta told you that, sounds like it’s his idea of a joke. He’s mad that I’m not letting him make the pilot himself.”

“What do you mean, ‘she’?” Beth scoffed. “Did I just catch a slip-up? Programs decide what to identify as after they’re sentient.”

Faris leaned his chin into his open palm and said, “I bet Miska’s just crossing his fingers. You a digital kind of guy, Miska?”

Miska scoffed, “Until it decides what the hell it is, I’m calling it a she, okay? She’s going to be a person soon, I don’t want to call her an it.”

“This is going to be dumb if it decides it wants to be a guy,” Faris said. “Can’t really be a guy with a pussy.”

“Don’t be such a transphobe,” Abdul scolded. Faris rolled his eyes.

“Every sentient program in the world would give anything to be the pilot, and they wouldn’t care how they fuck. They don’t care about sex organ preference at all,” Miska said.

Reggie raised his glass to his lips even as he said, “Then, that’s what’s got Tharta so tiffed? Stahl wants an online thing with the online thing?”

“You’re a prick,” Miska said, the prick grinning back at him before swigging. “And seriously, who said the pilot’s sentient already? That’s not funny shit to me.”

Beth took the pitcher at the center of the table and refilled her glass, glancing back to Miska as she poured. “Yeah, of course it was Tharta. I don’t have him any solids to do. Come on, though; why’d he turn gossip all of the sudden?”

Faris chirped, “Tell us, Miska.”

Miska drew one of his hands down his face, sliding past his cheek while he sighed. “I don’t know. It’s hard for a human and a program to work together to create another program, you know? We feel like there should be different priorities for her base.”

Naseen set down her tablet and prodded Miska in the shoulder. “Keep going.”

Everyone at the table was now paying attention to Miska, despite a couple of raised beers. Miska pushed back into his chair, leaving only one hand on his own drink. He frowned as he said, “Just a different idea of who we think she should be. Hard to work out. Nothing else.”

“We were waiting for you to explain how you differ there,” Beth said. “You’re leaving a lot to the gutter of our imaginations. My imagination. I have a healthy—”

Miska slapped both his hands on the table. He glared straight back to Beth and said, flat as he could, “I put up with Tharta’s bullshit every day, and I sure as hell deal with enough dumb fucks already without trying to hook up with a program. You want to keep talking about this, I’m gone.”

There was a pause from everyone as a rush of heat warmed Miska’s cheeks. Abdul leaned back as he crossed his arms, frowning. “What’s wrong with programs, then?”

Even as Miska grew all the redder, Naseen lowered her soda and patted him on the shoulder. “Calm down, boy. She’ll leave you alone, okay?”

“Just making sure the mood isn’t boring,” Beth said, grinning something genuine for the first time all day. “Clearly cybersex isn’t for everybody. Honestly, Miska? We all know what the bot’s pussy is really for.”

Miska shoved his chair back and grabbed his coat just as quickly. “I’m out. I’m done.”

Naseen patted his wrist, what little of him she could reach. “Miska, come on, she’ll leave you alone. It’s freezing out there.”

He pulled his coat over his arms and slipped his first glove onto the wrong hand at first. Despite the ongoing rush in his cheeks, he glanced around the table to all but Beth, saluting a two-finger wave at the others. Beth raised her pint to him anyway, still grinning. “See you tomorrow, boss.”

Miska just gave her a one-finger salute.

Transponyism

3: They Only Care About One Thing

Twilight packed her saddlebags full of relevant notes again, though not so fast as the first visit. Her lab was tidier by now, nearly untouched since yesterday. Each book was in its place. Scrolls of constant importance that hung upon the walls were obsessively straight, though they had always been as such.

Her neck was slouched just a little. She glanced at the title of everything she put in her bags, sliding each next to the rest in single file. Her horn glowed, though not from particular concentration, and she lifted her saddlebags over her back.

She looked around the rest of her room, her face turning around toward shelves and tomes that she didn’t care about anymore, until her gaze set upon the Source. She looked it over for a moment, but just frowned a little.

With a flash and a magical poof, Twilight teleported into the chamber adjacent to hers. She bellowed, “Spi—!”

Spike was curled up in front one of his blackboards, a nubby stick of chalk almost fallen out from his grip, his head bobbing over his arm as he napped. Though even as an older dragon he still looked young and adorable, Twilight’s utterance didn’t wake him over his own obnoxious snores.

Twilight sighed. She glanced up at her number one’s writings, though there were only mathematical symbols scrawled over the board. Notations explaining only a few of them were scribbled in the margins. It was a cute sight; a grin escaped Twilight’s face. Her horn glowed once more and she poofed away, leaving Spike’s snooze ongoing.

She popped back into her own lab and strode to the doors, pulling them open as she neared. Teleporting took nothing out of her anymore, but she knew by early experience that it was a poor way to make introductions to the Equestrian Panel—

“Chairpony!” Twilight yelped, a weak smile spreading across her face in an instant. Her guest was waiting for her right in front of the doors. “Ah—welcome to Haylo Castle! I named it myself. It’s, uh… it’s named appropriately, I assure you.”

“Still hard to believe,” the chairpony said, grinning something nicer. His eyes had a coy sparkle to them, but Twilight barely made a glance at them. “Not that I don’t. I know you’re fully capable of it. This place has been through a lot now, eh?”

The unicorn held himself tall and easy, though his age showed through his body. The color had long dried out from his mane, but it was trimmed into several neat braids, all of those tied to a central one leading to his back.

Twilight perked up just a bit, focusing on her routine. She bowed her head and said, “I know how important your time is, Chairpony Ronnel, so I really wanted to thank you for coming to see me so soon.”

Ronnel lifted a hoof and waved her off, scoffing wide. “It’s no trouble for me, Sparkle. I can still get around. How have you been holding up all the way up here, now? I should have visited sooner. It’s been too long, it has.”

“I’ve been fine,” Twilight said. “It took some time getting used to being around so little, but it’s been helpful.”

“Your friends haven’t missed you? Though I’d imagine they’ve already come up to see you.”

Twilight kept smiling, but her desire to left. “I guess I’ve been a little too busy with my research to see them much.”

“Lone pony, I see. No harm in that,” Ronnel said. “Some ponies just work better like that.”

He thumped Twilight once on the shoulder, smiling. She grinned a little more genuinely back at him, settling back into a more comfortable state, and stood up straighter. She said, “Spike’s been doing great, too. He’s gotten really far on his own projects.”

Ronnel nodded. “Oh, I’m aware. I’ve been keeping tabs on him, as well.”

“Oh,” Twilight said. Nothing else occurred to her to say. “That’s… that’s good.”

Ronnel grinned bigger, his beard accentuating the gesture. “I didn’t mean to sound ominous, Sparkle. He’s a good fellow, and I’m glad that at least he’s up here to keep you company. Even lone ponies need a little company sometimes.”

A mighty flushing feeling came over Twilight’s face, and she giggled in a higher pitch than she meant to. Ronnel cocked his brow at her. She waved a hoof aloof at him, saying, “Ominous? Oh, no, ha, that’s not what I was getting at. Never mind! I think we both confused each other.”

Ronnel tapped her on the shoulder again, this time looking her in the eyes. “I understand how important this is to you personally, Sparkle. We can continue past the small talk and get down to business, if you’d prefer that. Get down to magic. Hmm?”

“I guess I was a little more prepared for that,” Twilight said, curbing her uncomfortable giggles.

Ronnel cleared his throat and straightened up a bit, his expression turning to a look more of discern. He said, “Now, let me start with the elephant in the room. I understand Princess Luna’s concerns very well, but I’m not here to talk about Rainbow Dash. The princess is still a little upset, but let me say, just to reassure you, that I don’t really share her views currently. I just want to know what you’re up to here.”

“Well, of course I understand her concerns—and yours, chairpony—but Rainbow Dash has been—”

“Now, Sparkle,” Ronnel interrupted, “there’s no need to defend her now. I’m on your side. We’re talking about your even bigger experiment right now, however. So, everything you were going to tell Princess Luna, your notes, your speeches, whatever you had planned, you tell all that to me instead. I’m going to get it to the right ears, you believe that. She’ll get a balanced say on it. No need to just write her.”

Twilight’s gaze opened wider, an accidental wonder shining through as she said, “You mean—I mean, of course you mean—but, Princess Celestia?”

Ronnel smiled bigger, his beard accentuating the gesture. “She might need to see it herself, isn’t that right? That’s what I’m here for. This is important business.”

Twilight straightened up and stepped aside, turning on her hooves before raising one in a wide gesture toward the black cube. Her grin was bright. Her tone changed instantly as she announced, “Well, that’s it: that’s the Source!”

Ronnel stepped around her and narrowed his eyes. He tightened his smile as well, peering more seriously than before while he studied the cube up and down.

“Odd look to it,” he said, tugging gently on his chin whiskers.

Torchlight shown the Source clearly, but no light reflected off of it. The edges were only visible when looking at its sides exactly, something Ronnel seemed to notice as he stepped further into the room.

“I just kind of liked the way that looked,” Twilight said, trotting up behind him. “I’ve been perfecting its design ever since I first got up here, and now it’s powering almost all the magic in Haylo Castle. The air shield, the gravity, and the tree growth.”

Ronnel stopped at the corner of the Source, stroking his beard again. “How does it actually work?”

“Well, to put it simply—and really, even the complex version is pretty simple—it’s mostly liquid crystals inside. I had to alter a few classic spells to do it, but the crystals draw in magic on their own, then channel another spell that connects directly to ponies, regardless of whether or not the ponies have horns. The black part is just a magical barrier keeping the crystals inside.”

Ronnel kept stroking, but his smile faded a bit as he listened. “Liquid, though. Why aren’t the crystals solid?”

Twilight blushed. “They seem to conduct magic better in a melted state. I discovered that by accident, but… it worked out in the end.”

“I see,” Ronnel said, turning back to his host. “But magic isn’t physical, Sparkle. You can’t just store it in a box.”

“That’s the more complex version,” Twilight explained. “You’re right: the spell that the crystals are using is just something to access magic the same way unicorn ponies do. I only needed to jumpstart it. The Source then uses that available magic to cast the desired spells of anypony it’s connected to, limited only to what spells those ponies know. This is just a prototype, too—as I keep improving the design, it will have enough magic available for everypony.”

“Everypony,” Ronnel repeated. “That’s sure something to consider.”

“That’s the entire reason for it,” Twilight said. “Just imagine what ponykind could accomplish if everypony had the same kind of abilities as you and I. Won't it be amazing once we teach them?”

“You didn’t get this far with Princess Luna, I take it?” Ronnel asked.

Twilight simpered down, any reminders of yesterday still bitter. She shook her head and said, “Not exactly. That’s what I had been getting to next, when, you know…”

“Indeed,” Ronnel said, closing his eyes as he nodded. “While we all love the princess very much, she still carries a lot of stress on her shoulders. The Nightmare Moon—ah—incident, that was a difficult phase for her. She doesn’t much let it show, but it still takes its toll on her. Alas, she’s fragile and immature still. Unstable, even.”

He clutched a hoof to his forehead, sighing. “I shouldn’t be going off like that on our dear princess. Let what I just said rest. However, such problems are why we have the good Princess Celestia watching over us all, hmm? No such problems after all.”

“Of course,” Twilight said immediately. “But Princess Celestia carries a large burden, too, I’m sure! And I’m sure the Source will be able to ease that for her, if she approves of it after all.”

Ronnel lowered his hoof and turned around, gesturing toward the door with his head. “Let’s walk and talk, Sparkle.”

The ponies left the laboratory and trotted down the halls, their hoofsteps echoing loud back around to them from each end. Ronnel kept his gaze mostly forward as he kept speaking, but punctuated the occasional glance aside into his speech. “Obviously it’s the panel’s job to make sure relevant news reaches the princess’s ear, Sparkle. That’s my job. The other panel ponies, though, I’ll admit they’re all a little more stuck in the mud than I. Not only am I the first northpony, but the first male elected Chairpony of the Equestrian Panel. Progress is important to me.”

Twilight nodded at each of his points, and he continued with nary a breath.

“I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, Sparkle: I’m going to pull hard for your Source. The other panel ponies might not like it, but I’ll do my best to make sure they see its good side. If they can recommend it as well, I’m sure the princess will be mighty pleased to hear more about it. Now, you know that isn’t a guarantee of what’s going to happen—it might still not work out.”

Though Twilight’s ears folded back a little, she nodded with a meek grin. They paused their walk at the end of the hall by the courtyard, Twilight levitating the gates open. Rather than moving forward, Ronnel stayed paused, looking back to Twilight. He said, “I want you to meet me at our Westmanester headquarters in two days, Sparkle. That’s when we’ll decide whether or not you have our support. You won’t be able to see Princess Celestia—she’s far too busy for something so short notice, but the whole panel will be there in case they’ve got more questions. Okay?”

Twilight stared back at him expressionless for just a moment. More scenarios flashed through her mind in a split second, her jaw hanging slightly. Her smile burst forth again as the rest of her face lit up, and she said, “Of course! I’ll be there as long as you need me!”

“Our manor is nestled away a fair bit from the rest of the Canterlot bustle, but near anypony in the city can tell you where it is. We’ll be expecting you about noontime,” Ronnel elaborated. His previous smile had turned more serious throughout his monologue, but he grinned again when seeing the breadth of Twilight’s.

“I’ll be there with plenty of time to spare! Don’t worry, directions are a strong point of mine. I’ll find it!” Twilight squealed.

Ronnel patted her on the shoulder, chuckling. “You’ve still got to be patient, Sparkle. Now, while I really did hope for a tour of your estate here—”

Twilight raised her brow and said, “Oh, we can still—”

“No, no, I still have a lot to do today,” Ronnel interrupted, shaking his head. “I do like what I’ve seen, however. Very nice. Very quiet, though; lonesome. Who else was up here with you again, besides Spike and Miss Dash?”

“It’s, uh, pretty much all for my research,” Twilight said. “It’s us three.”

“Well, well,” Ronnel said, one eyebrow tilted. “You should remember to invite some of your other friends sometime. The other elements, eh? I’m sure you’d all have a grand time up here. Take a little break now and then.”

“I will,” Twilight said, just slightly quieter. “After my work is done, though; I needed this castle for the seclusion it offered. It’s taken a lot of concentration to get this far.”

“Lone pony, indeed. You really are remarkable,” Ronnel said. “Still, I should really be off. It’s been a pleasure, Sparkle.”

“Goodbye, chairpony,” Twilight said, waving an enthusiastic hoof as Ronnel stepped out a bit into the courtyard.

The braided old pony looked up toward Equestria, squinting just slightly. As his horn glowed, so did his eyes nearly as bright; a humming echoed out from his body, and just before he teleported away he looked back to Twilight for a moment. He called out over the increasing vibrations, “Oh, and bring your resurrected friend.”

He nearly shot back to Equestria in the next moment, his vanishment accentuated by a piercing bang. Twilight flinched, but kept waving for a second after he left. She could see the slight streak of light from his path back down, but she soon lost it as it moved just past the clouds.

“That sure didn’t last long,” Rainbow said from behind her. Twilight glanced back around, though her friend was just then flying beside her.

“He invited me to Westmanester,” Twilight said, her eyes bright. “And you too, if you didn’t hear!”

Rainbow touched down next to her, folding her wings back upon landing, and offered a weak grin back. “Yeah, I caught that much.”

“We’ve got to get back to your magic training before that,” Twilight said, already trotting past Rainbow toward the halls. “There are still a lot of spells I want you to practice before the panel meets you, just in case they want to see proof of what you can do!”

“Hey, uh—”

Twilight glanced back just as Rainbow kicked at the ground, scuffing her hoof. Rainbow avoided looking directly at Twilight as she muttered, “What about the part he said before? About the others.”

“Oh,” Twilight said. She paused longer than she felt comfortable, biting back a frown after several seconds. “I guess there’s no reason we can’t visit Ponyville after the meeting in Canterlot before getting back to work.”

“Awesome!” Rainbow said. “It’ll be a long visit, you know. I’ve got a lot to catch up on with everypony down there.”

Twilight smiled at her. “But first—magic.”

Miska held his phone up above his lap, staring at its empty menu screen. No calls from Tharta, nor any attempt by his workmates at coaxing him back to drinks. His free hand was still shoved in his pocket, despite his car’s heater set to his personal ambient level.

The thoughts drifting by were various and unrelated, though he still had no buzz to derail the unpleasant ones. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do tonight.

He dropped his phone back into a cup holder and waved his windshield back to life, all the lines of his work lighting up at his gesture. He focused on the partition in the corner again, a small notice in its center explaining that he was now being identified. A moment later, the message closed and a greeting appeared in its place, welcoming Miska as a guest admin. Twilight’s activity log scrolled over the screen next, and Miska stared at it expressionless.

Her life right in front of him, and still he didn’t know what she was ever doing.

Miska sighed, though his mouth stayed shut. Tonight was the first time he had ever had to defend their relationship—not that he had. The consequences of being found out now were obviously too dire to risk revealing it. He would learn to handle it better after Twilight had gotten registered. The onus was still on her, even if he could have done a nicer job of denying his feelings.

The windshield flashed its dull yellow again, as he had been sitting at the front of his condo for several minutes now. Miska shoved his phone back into his pocket and gritted his teeth, pushing open the door just as another gust of wind blew through. He lowered his head, tightened his arms against his sides, and rushed forward as his car drove itself away.

He clutched his coat tighter even as the lobby doors slid closed behind him, sealing off the wind. There was normally no one else ever milling about the lobby besides the concierge or cleaning ladies, people with whom Miska usually made sure not to make eye contact, but tonight there were two strangers in suits waiting just before the elevator hall. They were already watching him approach.

Even if he wanted to avoid all human contact possible tonight, the stairs were also past them. Miska began his way past them, eyes on the floor, but the woman of the pair stepped out from her perch against the wall, blocking the whole way.

“Hi there. You’re Miska Stahl, right? The programmer?”

She was grinning broadly, but her tone was quizzical. Her hair was clipped shorter than that of her comrade, a bulkier man still wearing his sunglasses.

Miska stopped several steps from them, resisting a grimace. He said, “That I am. No autographs.”

The woman took a couple of steps closer to him as she extended her hand. “I’m Agent Marshal, and this is my partner, Agent Conroy.”

Miska took her hand immediately, though only through a slight sense of fear. “Agents?”

“We’re with the F.B.I.,” Marshal continued, shaking firmly before then crossing her arms. “We just dropped by tonight to ask a few questions in private, if you didn’t happen to mind.”

Miska thought better than to actually grin, but still he asked, “So, you’re actually an Agent Marshal?”

“That’s right,” Marshal said gladly. “And we’re here because of a report that your smart program project has already given itself a name. And seriously, Twilight?”

Miska frowned a little despite himself, settling both his hands back into his pockets.

“All right, that’s great,” Marshal continued, her gaze square on Miska’s. “I’m glad we could both get that out of our systems. Now, obviously the program is the reason we’re here. I’m sure you’d rather us talk about this in private, right?”

She tilted her head toward the front desk, glancing briefly at the man behind it who could only pretend not to be able to hear them plainly. Miska turned around, finding the concierge barely even trying to look like he was checking his terminal. The man couldn’t keep from stealing glances.

Facing Marshal again, Miska raised one hand and offered it palm-up toward the elevators. “Yeah, come on up. I’m sure you know me—I love cooperating with the government.”

Marshal grinned wider for a moment in response, her partner already bustling over to the call buttons. As their ride descended and the doors opened, Marshal gestured chivalrously for Miska to enter first. By then, his hands were entrenched back in his coat pockets. Marshal and Conroy entered after him, taking their places at his either side. Both of them folded their hands over their jackets, arms nearly straight.

Miska pressed the button to his floor as Marshal glanced aside at him. As the doors slid shut, she asked, “Also, do you have a coffee maker? Doesn’t really matter. Just wondering.”