Transponyism

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.”