New Experiencesby Sai-guyChaptersWhoopsNew ExperiencesFamilyWhoopsAileris and Rising Star sat together outside their lonely cottage, looking out at the nearly empty prairie around them and to the mountains beyond. He laid his head atop hers, closing his eyes, and whispered into her ear, “It’s quiet, ‘Leris, a little bit too quiet. I know there are all sorts of ideas in there. I can feel them running around in your mind.” He nuzzled into her raven mane. “And you know how I love hearing your ideas.” She grinned and lifted her head slowly, prompting him to let hers free. “I do ‘ave a lot of good ideas, but I’ve also got a lot of bad ones too.” Rising heard the smile in her voice and raised his eyebrows. “But those are the most fun, sometimes, aren’t they?” Aileris giggled. “Aye! Let’s see what we can think up.” She flopped onto her side and rested her head on the ground, pondering, while Rising tapped a hoof against his chin, idly musing, “What to do? What to do…? Shall we try our hooves at making frictionless materials?” Aileris lifted her head up, looking at him. “Anti-gravity? Like in Stalliongrad, but without being afraid of getting killed. That’d make it a lot more fun! Ooh! Or breathing underwater. I bet ye could whip up a spell for that.” Rising put a hoof up to a scar on his neck. “I… don’t think I want to do anti-gravity if I don’t have to.” Aileris winced, feeling old memories surface in her husband’s mind. “Sorry, Star. Don’t go back there. Stay with me.” She got up and cupped his chin with her hoof. “Just look at me, and listen to my voice.” She stretched up and kissed his cheek. “Feel how much I love ye.” She opened the mental link between them wider to let her love pour through, commingling their minds more than they usually did and pushing back the dark memories. As she reassured him with the warmth of her love, she felt new thoughts begin to swirl through his mind. Ideas and associations tumbled together, picking up previously disconnected knowledge. Aileris recognized it as one of Rising Star’s brainstorms. The last one had resulted in them getting a two-week vacation for the anniversary of their wedding. To everypony outside the spell, it seemed as though they had only been gone a day. Watching that plan form had taught her that she didn’t like the surprise being spoiled, so with a bit of mental effort and a slight frown, she restricted the flow of thought between them. Waiting for him to speak, she stood before him, smiling. “Maybe… sensory conversion?” She looked up at him and raised an eyebrow, a grin forming. “Sensory conversion?” “Yes… switching around things like hearing and sight, touch and taste…” Her grin grew wider, and she settled to the ground. “I see where yeh’re going.” She rolled to her back and closed her eyes. “But I’m so comfortable right now.” “Maybe you could taste the comfort.” She giggled. “But what would that taste like?” He grinned. “Who knows? Let’s find out!” She opened her eyes and looked up to him, smiling. “Okay!” She rolled back to her hooves. “So, um, how do we do it?” “Let’s see… I usually do this sort of thing first. Why don’t you try to lead this time?” “Okay.” She closed her eyes and focused on the leylines within them, her horn lighting. She found the pulse of those in Rising’s ears and of those in his eyes. She paused, her grip loose on those leylines. “I think this might work. Ye ready?” His magical grip settled around hers, ready to catch her should anything go wrong. Through their bond, though, she felt his confidence in her. Aileris nodded to him and pulled the leylines from their source and switched them, carefully transplanting them in their new locations. Rising’s ears twitched back and forth. “My word!” He blinked hard at the sound of his own voice. “Everything’s fuzzy, and I can see around corners. I can see inside things — even you!” He slowly shook his head. “And things are so quiet… but only behind me. Whoa… That is seriously disorienting. Your field of vision… it becomes your field of hearing…” Aileris circled around behind “So, ye mean, as I walk behind ye, ye don’t ‘ear anything? That’s pretty bizarre. Yet, without yer eyes, ye can see everything around ye, right?” As she passed behind him, he reached back with a hind hoof, stopping it a little before her nose. “I can’t really hear you back there, but I can see you, sort of.” She grinned, amused, then walked in front of him and sat down. “Okay, that’s definitely a yes.” She hummed to herself, realizing something. “Ye know, if we ‘ad known we could switch yer eyes with yer ears, those missions for the Princess would ‘ave been much easier, especially since we would always be in touch. Ye wouldn’t need yer eyes, ears, um, ‘earing-things, anymore.” “This is definitely a spell that could have been useful. But…” He blinked a few times. “But it sure takes some getting used to.” Aileris watched his face as he talked, noticing how often he blinked. “‘Ey, when ye close yer eyes, do ye stop ‘earing?” He nodded. “Almost entirely. You know how you can still see bright light through your eyelids? It’s sort of like that but with sound. Like shoving cotton balls into your ears, I suppose.” Her eyes sparked suddenly. “Yeh’ve nearly mastered chronomancy, right?” “About as nearly as anypony could hope to master the temporal flow… which is to say I have a healthy respect for it. What do you propose? Wait… Let me guess…” He sat, and a familiar look crossed over his face. “Okay… changing time… what does that have to do with this…?” He tapped a hoof on his chin, thinking aloud. “Sound. Sound is slow… If I could slow time enough… I could walk forward and see myself getting there!” He reached forward and hugged his wife. “Oh, you do have the best ideas, Aileris!” She giggled. “No, that’s not what I was thinking at all!” “Oh. Well then.” His ears flopped over, and he cleared his throat. Then, he noticed something. “Hmm. That’s like squinting… Strange.” Aileris burst out with peals of laughter and only managed to control herself after holding her breath for a few moments. “Okay, ‘ow about this? If ye could go back in time and teach me this spell or at least give me the idea t’learn it… imagine how many of Waxy’s rants we could ‘ave ignored.” “Dear, you know I can’t just change the past like that. If I did, it would change the future, now. We might not even survive to now.” Her ears drooped. “Oh. I… I guess yeh’re right.” Rising put a hoof on her withers, rubbing a small circle on her back. “Do you want to try this out, though?” She smiled. “Aye! It sounds fun.” “Let’s make things really interesting, why don’t we — more than just switching sight and hearing? There are more senses than that to change.” His horn shone with power, and he reached for her leylines with his own. “Let’s see what you can do. I can barely wait to see — hear? — what it’s like!” Aileris let herself relax into the glow of his aura, smiling at the light but powerful touch of his magic. Shivers ran down her legs as her husband wrapped his magic around them too. Soon, her whole body was aglow. “Ready, love?” She nodded. “Aye.” Rising reached out with his magic and took his wife’s leylines in his own, cradling her coppery flows with his red ones. Years of living with her and sharing magical experiments together had taught him to expect the unevenness of her magic’s flow, a property contrary to every other’s he had encountered. Those same years had taught Aileris to trust him with affecting her leylines. With ease, Rising rerouted his wife’s leylines, plucking them from one part of her body and placing them in another. Aileris’ world went dark and soundless; the only thing she could readily perceive was the shining beacon of Rising’s magic — even the ground seemed to have disappeared from beneath her hooves. When she thought about it, she couldn't feel them either. Paying more attention to her own leylines, she noticed that he had taken away most of her senses, sight and hearing, touch and taste, as well as heat and balance. She was glad she had locked her legs. Her magic let her know that her leylines were just about to settle into their new locations, guided by the gentle coaxing from her husband. The first thing she noticed was that the soft touch of the grass under her hooves was a mild sort of flavor, quite unlike what grass actually tasted like. That was followed by the sensation of being pushed from all sides as touch became the sole purview of her tongue. She could hear for miles in front of herself; light exploded all around her; up became scorching hot and down freezing cold; everywhere the temperate air touched her was the feeling “upright.” Aileris stiffened, her face screwing up, then fell over, her face hitting the ground hard. “Spicy!” The scream’s reverberations around the walls blinded her, and she curled into the fetal position, twitching as if in an epileptic seizure. Even though Aileris had closed down on their bond, reducing it to a mere trickle of what it usually was, Rising was still staggered by the turmoil that erupted in Aileris’ mind. He shook it off and rushed over to kneel beside his wife. Brushing her coat with only the lightest of touches, he whispered, lest he hurt her further, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it, I swear. Let me undo it.” He surrounded her in his aura, preparing a spell to counteract the one afflicting her. Aileris smiled as the succulent taste of his touch caused her whole body to shiver. As he charged his spell, she struggled to stand up but ended up stumbling over herself again. The taste in her mouth went bitter again. “Please… Star… ‘urry!” “Oh Celestia… Oh Luna… I didn’t mean it. I’m so sorry,” he practically pleaded as he gathered the last of the magic he needed. Under his guidance, the leylines in her body swung back to normal, and Rising Star gathered her in his forelegs, rocking her. A near constant stream of apologies came from him as he clutched her close to his chest. She curled up in his embrace, burying her face in his coat and patting him all over, testing her sense of touch. Her panting gradually subsided as she listened around, hearing only his soothing voice and not light. Never again, I promise. I’ll never do that to you again. Never. Princesses strike me dead, I never meant to hurt you.” He stroked her mane, being as gentle as possible. She pulled her head from his chest and looked up at him, tears still streaming down her cheeks. She kissed him softly. “It’s okay. I know.” She smiled weakly. “Sometimes yeh’re just too powerful for yer own good, and ye can go a little overboard every so often.” She kissed him again. “But it’s okay.” “I would trade all my abilities for never having hurt you.” He let out a shuddering breath. “Nothing else has ever made me feel so worthless, so terrible… I can’t stand to see you hurt… and hurting you myself…” He blinked back tears. “I can barely stand it.” He let out a shaky, humorless laugh and wiped at his eyes. “It’s like hearing under water…” She wrapped her forelegs around his neck and pulled herself close again. Into his chest, she mumbled, “But ye fixed it. It’s okay.” Her heartbeat slowed, and her breathing normalized as she squeezed tighter around him. “I’m fine.” Rising let out a long sigh, hugging her tight to his chest. He held her like that for some time while she kissed his neck all over, clinging to him and consistently telling him she was fine and it was okay. He calmed down, eventually, and let her go. “Maybe… maybe some nice, safe friction reduction.” She grinned. “Aye, I like the sound of that.” “But first, I’d like to actually see right…” His horn flashed, and he blinked a few times. “Wow, that’s disorienting both ways.” She laughed, having forgotten his senses were still switched. “I dunno, hun. Running around frictionless with bat vision sounds like it would be fun.” “Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, now… We just… saw, I guess, how that turned out,” he said, ears drooping. “Ye just went a bit far, which, given ‘ow enthusiastic ye are—” she scooted beside him and slyly whipped his horn with her tongue “—doesn’t surprise me.” He jumped a little, startled. “Aileris?” She feigned innocence. “Yes?” “Now just doesn’t feel right…” He sighed. “I mean, I feel terrible about that.” She sighed. “I was just trying to get yer mind off it for a moment.” “It’s not quite that easy… You… you just looked so helpless and pained and scared… and it was my fault. I can’t just let that go so quickly.” He looked out over the landscape, his back to her. “Every time I hurt you… I think a little of me dies.” He hung his head, staring at the dirt. She pressed against him and softly rubbed his back. “Every time ye hurt me, ye fix it. If anything, ye should feel better about yerself. I forgive ye every time—” she rested against him “—and I always will.” “I know, and it means the worlds to me — all of them — but there are some things I can’t change, and that is one of them.” She sat directly beside him, brushing against his neck, and looked out at the horizon. “If it can’t be changed, we must learn from it. That’s what me mother taught me when I was learning me trade. I almost botched the whole job, but instead of yelling at me, she just turned to me and said, ‘A mistake is simply a chance to learn ‘ow to better approach the situation.’ So please, don’t let it ‘urt you.” She pressed against him desperately. “Because when I see ye get like this, I ‘urt too.” “Golden Shadow sure knew how to raise a good mare.” Rising put a foreleg around her. “I’ll try. For you,” he said and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. She smiled. “But, if you would like to make it up to me…” A brush materialized in front of him and fell to the ground. He glared at her from the corner of his eye and said, “You are evil, you know that?” When he picked the brush up in his teeth anyways, she sat down in front of him, grinning, and said in a singsong voice, “Of course I know that, but ye still love me.” “Mmhmm,” he mumbled around the brush. He leaned forward and ran it through her mane, pulling it through her silken locks. While he worked at her mane, she hummed a happy tune she had learned as a filly. She had always enjoyed a good brushing. Even after the job was clearly over, he continued brushing her — though he was more nosing through her mane and tickling the top of her head with his lips than anything. She shuddered more and more as he kept brushing her, wondering at just how good it felt. Slowly, he worked the brush from her mane and onto her back, pulling in measured strokes with the natural direction of her coat. “Mmmm.” Her body shivered noticeably, but it was to be expected; his massaging brush-strokes soothed her as they always did, and so he continued working down her back, stopping occasionally to pay closer attention to roughed-up patches in her coat. But he steadily worked his way lower. She lowered herself to the ground, curving her back to meet his strokes and making no attempt to hide her enjoyment. Rising smiled around the brush in his teeth and kept working, smoothing the hair on her left flank before making his way back to her haunch. She shuddered, and her tail flipped erratically, brushing against his face as he groomed her haunches. He stiffened, clenching his teeth against the brush. Then, he very carefully made his way to her other side and worked the brush through the hair of her flank on the right. As he approached her other haunch, she shuddered again and rested her chin on her hooves. She watched as he made his way to her cutie mark, a mark as unusual as the rest of her. Despite that, Rising had never pried into its meaning and had responded only with fascination when she had allowed the twisted-up ouroboros to move, something she only did in private. He showed such fascination now, tracing the brush over its winding path, following its motion. Beginning to brush down the back of her leg, his motions became less measured and smooth, to the point of becoming almost erratic. His self-control snapped. The brush fell from his mouth as he panted, taking hold of the end of her tail. He rubbed it against his face, breathing deeply, a shuddering sigh. Aileris giggled and turned her head. “You alright back there?” “Ooh yes…” He tugged gently on her tail. She gasped, still grinning playfully at him, and flipped her tail around. He grinned, almost predatorily, and grabbed a hoofful of hair near the base of her tail. She laughed, attempting to wiggle her tail free, but to no avail. “I knew you’d never be able to help yourself!” He closed his eyes, reveling in the sensation as she wiggled the base of her tail slowly. He hissed in pleasure, tongue flicking out between his lips. He reached out for dock, which she wiggled to avoid capture. Then, thinking better of it, she stopped and let him take a hold of it, amused. He ran a forehoof down her lower back, tracing her spine, and as it ran out into her tail, a shudder passed through him. He plunged a foreleg through the raven tresses and reached upwards to lay his hoof against the naked skin of her dock. Aileris gasped as he stroked the hairless flesh, and her tail whipped upwards. He bent towards her nethers, horn aglow. His horn met her dock as his lips came to her slit. A tingling sensation leaked through his horn into her as he ever-so-lightly licks up her. Her dock stiffened, and she let out a quiet, contented hum. Rising pressed forward, pushing aside her folds with his tongue, and laid his horn fully against the naked underside of her dock. The tingling grew as he teased at her clit, and her hum became a low moan. Her tail began twitching, heat building unbearably. Tongue swirling inside her, he lapped at her fluids, questing deeper. His horn grew hot, and the tingling became true waves of pleasure. Aileris dug at the ground, pressing back against him, her body overwhelmed by the intensity of the waves moving through her, and she shuddered uncontrollably. He pulled back, leaving her empty, and rolled her onto her back. Moving up, he stood over her, looking down at her with his muzzle wet from her juices. He slowly, deliberately licked at it, and the aura around his horn crackled, the power dancing through it sending sympathetic tingles through hers. She stared up at him, panting, his teasing making her grow wetter still, and with a grin, she slowly lifted a rear hoof and ran it up his hind leg toward his crotch. As her hoof brushed against his cock, it sprung even more erect, and he grinned wickedly. In a low voice, he growled, “You should punish me for what I did…” She matched his grin as she lowered her hoof. Her horn flared, and she threw him backwards, where he landed prostrate. Aileris appeared above him at his hips. A loud “Oof” came from him, and he shook his head, gaining his bearings. Between his legs, he spotted her, and a bead of pre-cum appeared on the tip of his cock. She smirked as she toyed with his hardened shaft, running a hoof up and down its length. Her long, forked tongue whipped from her mouth and lapped the pre-cum from the tip. She looked toward him, gauging his reaction, as she slowly ran the tip of her tongue down the underside of his cock. He pawed at the ground, muscles tensing in his hindquarters, strain and need playing across his face. She licked back up his shaft and wound her tongue around the tip, toying with him even more, and the tufts of grass he had been holding ripped from the ground as shudders ran through him. He moaned, loudly, as she played with his dick. She let go with her tongue and, feeling merciful, closed her lips around the tip of his cock, ever mindful of her fang. Her care paid off as his hips began bucking. His breath coming in gasps, he begged, “Aileris… Aileris!” She took in more of his shaft and sucked as she moved her mouth up and down, a little at a time. His hips rose uncontrollably, and he drew in a breath with a hiss. He tried desperately to use some sort of magic to pleasure her, but the waves of pleasure shattered his concentration. Aileris’ movements quickened, taking in more of his shaft with each downward motion, then she suddenly stopped. She pulled back, freeing his cock from her mouth, and let it quiver in solitude, watching him with a grin. He gritted his teeth, trying to hold back. As the muscles in his groin clenched, his horn flared, and something shoved into her from behind. Completely caught off-guard, Aileris screamed out in pleasure. After regaining her composure, she eased his shaft in her mouth and forced her head down, taking its entire length. He gasped and, with the last of his control, pushed the conjured dildo all the way inside her. Then, with a throaty yell, he lost it, spunk shooting from his dick into her maw. His hot, thick semen gushed across Aileris’ tongue and down her throat, coating the inside of her mouth with his salty essence. She groaned into his throbbing shaft, filling up with his load, and sucked harder at his penis. Easing up his length, her mouth filled with his seed as she massaged his balls with a hoof. He let his head fall back as he sighed and worked his magical field to encompass the entire dildo. Pressing its now tingling surface against her clit, he worked it back and forth more and more rapidly. She fell onto his belly, her loins pulsating around the dildo, shuddering and moaning in ecstasy. He gathered her in his forelegs and slowly, gently, massaged her lower back. Her entire body went limp in his grasp as the waves of pleasure continued to overtake her. Spent physically, but gaining ground magically, he let go of her with his hooves in favor of enveloping her in a cradle of his aura. It began to resonate in time with her natural magic, building on it while tickling over her coat. She lay on his chest, still convulsing, the dildo hard at work between her hind legs. Craning his neck down, he wrapped his mouth around her horn, swirling his tongue around it. She cried out as the shivers ran through her body, crashing together from every direction. Finally, unable to contain herself any longer, she climaxed, clenching hard around the dildo, pulsating from hoof to horn, and collapsed on top of him, panting heavily. Her magic fed back through his, and he moaned, reveling in the second climax. They lay together, her atop him, and Rising kissed her nose softly, lips barely touching her. But Aileris felt desire rise up in her, and she pressed forward, pushing his head back with the ferocity of her kiss. She pulled back, panting hard. “I’m not done with ye yet!” “Whoa, ‘Leris…” Rising stared up at her, watching the rise and fall of her chest and feeling the building of power in her. “What are you…?” Then, he realized that what he didn’t see was more important than what he did — her horn was not glowing. At the same time, Aileris realized it wasn’t just unrestrained desire taking hold of her; it was also an uncontrollable energy. “Oh no!” “Not now!” Aileris’ eyes blazed white, and the mental link between them slammed open, turning into a blinding line of power connecting them. A tumultuous flood of ideas and a lurch brought the experience to an end. “Star, tell me I didn’t flip us upside down and get rid of your legs… again.” Aileris blinked, bedazzled vision slowly clearing. “I don’t think that’s quite the case, ‘Leris,” Rising said, reaching a hoof between her hind legs at the change in sensation. Her hoof shook as she drew the dildo from her vagina. Rising gaped at it as her sight returned, unable to decide which was more interesting, the way her fluids glistened on its surface or that they were clearly hers. Aileris looked up at the mare sitting atop him, tilting his head to the side. “Well,” he said, “this is a new one.” Author's Note Thanks to my editors: SaiKimura, Midnight Spark, Feather Scratch, and Cynewulf. New ExperiencesRising slid off of Aileris’ barrel and offered him a hoof to help him up. When she pulled, instead of Aileris rising up, Rising stumbled forward onto him. Aileris giggled, a strange sound to come from his mouth, and helped prop her upright again. “Ye forget I’m tiny?” “No, I forgot I’m tiny!” Aileris rolled to his hooves and stood, Rising following suit. Aileris looked down at her and smiled. “That ye are!” He reached out and pulled Rising back into a hug, wrapping his forelegs all the way around her, and said, “I’ve always wanted to cuddle my little Star like this.” “Hey, only my mom can call me that.” There was no force to what she said, and she nuzzled against Aileris’ neck. Aileris held Rising like that for a while longer, nuzzling the top of her head. Through their bond, he could feel Rising’s contentment and waning consciousness. As much as he would love to hold Rising as she slept, he knew that there was no way to tell how long the change would last. “Star?” She stirred against him. “Yeah?” “Do ye like being me?” She laughed a little. “‘Leris, anything that culminates in hugs like this is good in my book.” She pressed back against him a bit more. “And compared to the other things you’ve turned me into… I mean, a legless freak and a putty pony… there’s no real comparison.” Aileris giggled. “Remember ‘ow we copied that entire newspaper on ye? And then it stayed when ye changed back!” “Aye, I remember the joke! ‘What’s big and red and covered in the newspaper? Rising Star!’” She grinned like a fool then started laughing. “Read like the newspaper and red like me!” A fit of laughter overtook Rising, and they both rocked back and forth, merriment overflowing. Aileris was the first to calm down. Aileris was never the first to calm down. He stared at the mare in his forelegs for a few moments. “Star…?” The only response Aileris got was another riot of laughter. He slowly let her go, and she slumped to the ground, sides shaking, tears streaming down her face. “Star?” Rising flailed around on her back, hooves kicking at the air. Aileris’ eyes opened wide. “It wasn’t that funny.” “Not what Squall thought!” No sooner had Rising said that than another wave of laughter swept over her. By then, she gasped for air between outbursts. Aileris’ mind raced for a way to calm her; Rising looked to be about ready to pass out. With a gasp, he lit his horn and cast a spell over her, wrapping it around her like a warm blanket. The effects were almost immediate. Rising’s eyelids fluttered closed, and her frantic motions slowed to a stop. Aileris released his hold on the spell in favor of rubbing Rising’s back. “I’m sorry, Star. I should’ve warned ye about ‘ow bad it could get.” Rising snuggled against Aileris’ barrel. “Mmm… I knew you got gigglier after an episode, but… how do you keep from getting like that?” “Years of getting used to it. I’ve had ‘em since I was a wee filly back in Scoltland.” “I suppose that would help. Say, was that the spell you use to help Nova get to sleep?” Aileris nodded. “Think yeh’ll be alright now, hun?” “Yeah, I think I just need something to help keep me focused.” A glow sprang up around Aileris’ horn, and Rising said, “That’s exactly what I was thinking — almost like you knew.” Aileris giggled and rolled his eyes. “Almost exactly like. But that spell I just used worked so much faster than normal, and yeh’re a lot bigger than a three-year-old — even though yeh’re being me right now.” Rising perked up her ears. Placing a hoof on the tip of Aileris’ nose, she said, “Yes, but that goes both ways. You’re me, and you’ve got my magic. Why don’t you try something else out, something fun?” Aileris thought for a couple seconds, then his eyes lit up. He and Rising stood, and Aileris settled into a casting stance. “Fire-retardant spell,” Rising said, watching the corona of magic build around his horn. “Of course.” A small measure of the gathering energy spread in a pulse, leaving a glistening sheen over the grass and their cottage. The expenditure barely dented the growth of the charge gathering around Aileris’ horn, and moments later, a second layer of magic built around the first. Rising watched, feeling first her horn tingle then her entire body. Aileris released the spell, and a rush of displaced air tousled their hair as a giant creature flared into existence. As one, their ears twitched towards the roaring flame. They stared up at the towering golem. Its blazing, equine body was featureless save for its soulless, white-hot eyes, which looked directly at Rising like Aileris did. “I did it! I conjured Chenny!” Aileris did a little dance, the fire golem replicating it. “Went a little overboard, too,” Rising said, craning her neck up. “Did not. Check again. Yeh’re tiny now, remember?” Looking closer, Rising noted that, indeed, Aileris’ horn was exactly level with the top of its leg. “So you did. Good job!” She nuzzled under Aileris’ chin then hummed to herself. “Yes, I quite like being able to do that.” Aileris beamed, and the fire golem’s cheeks flamed a little brighter. “So, Aileris, what do you want to do with Chenny?” “Headstand. Oh, and try to make it look like a pooch.” Rising blinked a few times then shrugged. “Go for it.” With a bit of mental effort, Aileris added a layer of separation between himself and his construct. Not long after, it was balanced on its head. “Seems a lot less threatening that way, doesn’t it, Star?” She nodded slowly. “Aye. I would’ve never guessed that my capstone project would do that one day. Then again—” she looked down at her body then out to the mountains “— I never would have guessed a lot of things.” She shook her head as the golem got to its hooves. “In any case, the best way to go about making it look like a dog is to reposition five of its six central spell matrices. If you move the ones for the limbs and head farther inside the torso, you’ll make them narrower right away. From there, you can—” Aileris’ aura clamped around the golem and crushed inward, forcing its body into a new shape. Rising didn’t react for a few seconds, watching the retriever-shaped golem. “Of course,” she said at length, “there’s that option, but you’ve probably done irreparable harm to this casting.” Aileris shrugged. “I wonder if I can get its tail to wag.” Its tail fell off and dissipated into a cloud of smoke. Sighing, he said, “Guess not, then. Too bad.” “I could do it for you sometime if you want.” “Aww, that’s sweet,” Aileris said then bent to kiss her. By the time they came up for air, the rest of the golem was smoke on the wind. As they watched it drift away, Rising said, “Well, that didn’t last too long.” “Nope.” She looked down at her hooves. “This might not either.” A light nip on the ear sent a shock all the way to Rising’s hooves, leaving her jittery. “Feeling adventurous?” Aileris whispered into her ear. Rising bit her lip and nodded, turning to kiss him again. Tongue questing forth, Aileris raised a hoof to cup her cheek, and he pressed forward hungrily. Melting into the kiss, Rising’s eyes widened as she explored her tongue’s ability to wrap all the way around his. They pulled back, and Rising licked her lips, running her gaze down Aileris’ form. “Oh, I shouldn’t have let my tail grow that long…” “Ye still feel it? I thought it stayed with me, because I sure do,” Aileris said, reaching back to fondle Rising’s tail. She let out a yip at his touch, and a look and a flurry of thoughts passed between them. Rising lay on her back on the grass, Aileris taking a position standing above her. She watched as his shaft slid from its sheath and towards her face. Rising’s tail, guided by his magic, slipped between the ground and her head, lifting her to his cock. Biting her lip, she reached up to brush it with a hoof, and she hissed in a breath as the head flared. Aileris settled to his fore-knees and fanned out Rising’s tail with his magic then rubbed his face against it, savoring the feeling of her silken locks. Pre-cum started to ooze from Aileris’ penis, and Rising hesitantly wiped it off with a hoof, sniffed it, then licked it. The salty flavor spread across her tongue and disappeared all too quickly. Rising worked Aileris’ shaft with a hoof and lapped the pre-cum off as soon as more leaked out, relishing the novelty and the knowledge that Aileris was loving every second of it. Laying his tongue on the naked flesh of her dock, Aileris slowly licked down its length, watching the tremors it sent through her ebony tresses. He didn’t stop when he reached the bottom, continuing to part her tail with his tongue. The tastes of tail and slightly smoky grass mixed, and Aileris hummed deep in the back of his throat. The tail-play left Rising squirming, wanting more, and Aileris delivered, trailing kisses up her dock and onto her outer lips. He nosed her folds apart and licked the moist inner walls, caressing them with his tongue. Rising gasped and arched her back, taking Aileris’ dick in her mouth with a muffled sound of appreciation. She settled back into the supporting embrace of his tail and stroked down his shaft to toy with the edge of his sheath. As she began to suck, taking more of his heady fluids into her mouth, she caressed Aileris’ balls, rubbing them and tugging them gently to tease more pre-cum from him. Aileris had to lock his hind legs to keep them from buckling. He retaliated by spreading Rising’s slit open wider with his magic and burying his muzzle in her, lapping at the fluids within. Rising moaned around Aileris’ throbbing cock and tried to take more of it in but gagged as his head pushed against the back of her mouth. She backed off and eyed its glistening, veiny length then licked his balls, fondling them with her tongue and tickling up his sheath with its forked end. Soon, his essence dripped onto her chin, and she swirled her illogically long tongue around to the back of his penis to capture it as it flowed from his head. Aileris grunted, thrusting futilely against Rising’s tongue, begging for release. He sought the nub of flesh that would allow him to reciprocate and, with a wicked grin, kissed her clit before bathing it in a sea of tingling magic. Rising gasped and desperately rocked her hips, needing to be filled. A low moan tore from her throat as she writhed under Aileris’ assault. Pressing upwards, she ground her slit into Aileris’ smiling muzzle. He only kissed her outer lips and expanded the field of magic, bathing her insides with tingles. With a high-pitched scream, Rising climaxed, inner walls rippling, clenching around nothing. Her eyes fluttered closed, and her little chest heaved as she laid her head back into the supporting embrace of Aileris’ tail. He gently lowered her to the ground and turned to look down at her. When Rising opened her eyes, she saw Aileris standing above her, smiling and licking her juices from his muzzle. “You didn’t finish,” she accused. “‘Ey, I—” Rising reached up and put a hoof over Aileris’ mouth. “I always finish what I start. My body, my rules. Now—” she reached up with a hind hoof and placed it on Aileris’ still hard cock “—you are going to fill me up like you’ve never done before.” Aileris giggled. “I ‘aven’t! And I was just getting started. This tail thing…” Rising pulled Aileris down into a kiss, and each tasted the other’s fluids on their lips. After falling back, Rising said, “Show me whatever bad idea you’ve got.” Aileris rolled Rising over and spread-eagled her then parted her tail out into two strands. She looked back over her shoulder at the stallion behind her, biting her lip in anticipation, twitches still running through her hindquarters. Then, Aileris’ horn began to glow, and warmth spread through Rising’s dock. Her eyes widened, and her mouth went dry at the sight of her tail growing, lengthening under Aileris’ coaxing. She recognized the spell at work, and, given how much energy Aileris put into it, she could tell what he planned to do. When he was done, Aileris had turned Rising’s tail into twin rivers of inky black hair, each easily several times the length of her body. They parted around him where he sat, trembling, trying to focus. Slowly, he guided the strands to loop through one another just below the dock. Then Aileris wrapped them around Rising’s back fetlocks, the silken hair cinching tight, before passing them through themselves on her back and looping them over her front hooves. The bit that remained, he tied around her neck, trussing her up completely. She couldn’t rise if she tried; her own tail would start to strangle her if she did. She was completely at his mercy. Rising stared down her back, tracing her tail with her eyes and wiggling inside its hold, feeling it hug tight to her coat. The way it crossed over her spine entranced her; she only noticed Aileris when he stood directly above her. Their eyes met. “Take me,” Rising whispered. Aileris lay down atop her, and her breath came out in a whoosh. “I’m not ‘urting ye, am I?” he asked. Rising shook her head and wiggled her hindquarters, all she could do in her position. Aileris grinned and pressed forward, rubbing his barrel over her back and drawing the binding about her hind legs tighter, spreading them farther apart. He slid his penis into the loop of tail he had made below her dock and shivered at the sensation, her tail rising to lay against his belly and lifting his balls. Taking a mouthful of her mane and pulling her head back, Aileris thrust into Rising, who screamed. He fell into a slow, deliberate rhythm that Rising usually used, plunging deeper into her vagina with each stroke. Rising’s breath matched Aileris’ pace, gasping in as he filled her and letting out whining sighs when he drew out. Rising closed her eyes and focused on how Aileris’ girth spread her apart. It was a feeling she knew, but only secondhoof from their mental bond. To have his length pressed inside her, to know how much Aileris wanted her, made her hum with pleasure. When he pulled back, he left her with a void, an empty, longing need that begged to be filled. She wanted more than anything to be able to press back and take Aileris’ entire penis into her soft depths, but the bindings kept her from moving, and she had to wait — wait for him to pull back with intolerable slowness until only his head remained inside her before he would finally thrust in once more. Rising’s closed eyes only heightened her awareness of what Aileris wanted, so when he let go of her mane, she tilted her head back farther. Aileris took her horn in his mouth and ran his tongue over its rounded tip, the sensitive spirals feeding a spike of ecstasy directly into Rising’s brain. She moaned, loud and long, as Aileris took her from both ends. Aileris’ breaths grew more ragged as he listened to the mare beneath him moan and beg for more. He could feel her capacity for rational thought declining, and he loved it. It drove him harder, wanting her to snap and lose control completely. He buried himself in Rising over and over, rocking his hips faster. With Rising’s silken tail cupping his balls and her velvety depths surrounding his shaft, Aileris felt pressure begin to build in his loins. He groaned and pressed his teeth lightly against Rising’s horn at its base then slowly rasped them up it. Pain and pleasure mixed intoxicatingly in her mind, and she moaned helplessly, squirming beneath Aileris’ weight. As he reached the tip, he thrust completely into her, and she yelled out his name in a high-pitched squeal. Rising’s inner walls clenched around his shaft, milking Aileris’ throbbing cock for his load. His self-control snapped. Aileris grunted, and thick ropes of his sperm flooded Rising’s inner walls, filling her with his essence. He remained hilted inside her, letting everything he had gush out and coat her loins. He let out a long, slow sigh as he finished. Laying his head atop hers, Aileris whispered, “I love ye, Star.” Her ears twitched, and she murmured back something quadra-syllabic. Feeling himself begin to soften, he pulled back out of Rising and rolled off her back, letting her breathe normally. She looked up at him with big eyes, and Aileris smiled then bent to kiss her on the nose. Looking over the trussing tresses, he frowned. “I am not a barber.” Rising sighed. “At least leave a good length intact.” Aileris nodded before lighting her horn. Sheets of power sliced through the binding strands of tail, leaving it shorn off flat at fetlock level. He pulled the severed remainder off Rising and cast it aside; without its connection, all its allure was gone. She rose to kiss Aileris, but her left hind leg gave out, and she stumbled into him. When she looked up to apologize, he silenced her with a kiss and gathered her into a hug. They didn’t need to speak; as they relaxed into one another’s companionship, their mental bond opened wider. Rising nuzzled into his neck, humming, and closed her eyes. In moments, she dozed against Aileris’ chest, her own rising and falling slowly. He smiled down at her and ran a hoof through her mane, smoothing it. After placing a kiss on her forehead, Aileris laid Rising on the grass and snuggled against her, nose to nose. He put a foreleg over her barrel as he watched her rest, stroking the soft hair on her chest with his other hoof. Rising’s lips curled upwards into a smile, revealing her lone fang. Aileris giggled. “Ye know I know yeh’re faking.” Rising nodded. “It’s nice jus’ being ‘eld sometimes, isn’t it?” She nodded again then looked at her forelegs, trapped between them, and back up at him. Aileris kissed her nose then scooched down, freeing them. Rising wrapped her hooves around his head and hugged it to her chest then buried her face in his mane. Aileris giggled before quieting, thinking and listening to the sound of cups beating against a table at irregular intervals, what passed for Rising’s heartbeat at the moment. “Ye know, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m glad me da’ is Discord… almost enough t’make me want t’find ‘im.” Running a hoof up and down Aileris’ neck, Rising said, “Whatever you want, ‘Leris. If it’s finding him, we’ll do it, and I’ll get to thank him for the past few years.” “I wonder what yer parents would do if we did find ‘im and he showed up.” Aileris giggled. Rising raised an eyebrow. “Anypony’s guess, really. It’d be interesting, alright.” She snuggled deeper into Aileris’ mane, yawning. “I really am warm and good for napping on, aren’t I?” “Aye,” he whispered back, “ye really are. Why don’t ye take a quick rest before we head ‘ome?” He felt Rising nod, her thoughts already slowing. Within minutes, her breathing fell into the pattern of sleep, and Aileris kissed her chin. With her asleep, the flow of thoughts between them became mostly one-sided, letting Aileris’ thoughts wander back over their relationship. He could feel them permeate through Rising’s subconscious, and he smiled, knowing they would give her pleasant dreams, possibly very pleasant dreams. Aileris sighed, remembering how, at first, Rising had been so hesitant to even cuddle like this. Looking at her body, feeling how petite it was in his grasp, he could hardly believe how being with somepony like this could have scared him. Unbidden, thoughts of the nameless mare who had put Rising in that position sprang to mind. Seeing her face scrunch up, Aileris pushed the thoughts away to focus on good memories: when they first started practicing magic together before their first real mission, their brief and, more often than not, literally explosive courtship, their wedding and the night after, and the birth of their little colt, Hyper Nova. At the thought of their foal, Aileris realized that she must have nodded off for a while too; the light was fading. She nosed Rising’s neck, rousing her. “Hun, we should probably head back now. Guiding is going t’wonder if we’re gone much longer.” Rising yawned and stretched, cracking her neck. s they stood, she shivered and pressed closer to him, saying, “Maybe we should have headed inside. It’s a little cold out here.” He laid his neck across hers and nuzzled her opposite cheek. “It’s not bothering me that much, but I suppose I get that from you,” she said, giggling. Rising nodded then turned to kiss Aileris’ cheek. Raising a hoof, she said, “To home?” He took her hoof in his. “Aye.” Rising reached out with her magic, extending her leylines up from her horn and over their heads. As they reached the peak of their climb and started to broaden out to form the glyphs that would return them home, her leylines twisted on themselves and broke free from her control, hurtling through the air, spell half-formed. Rising Star and Aileris watched as the coppery light approached their cottage, their magic letting them feel that the spell had enough energy to be complete. They cringed before it made contact with the roof and activated, sinking through and leaving a perfectly circular hole, its edges smoking. It continued through to the other side, pulling the material out of existence, and flickered out when it reached the opposite side. Rising looked up, grimacing. “I’ll… fix that when we get back. But what happened? I’ve never lost control of my magic like that!” “Star,” Aileris said, tapping his forehead, “yer magic is over here. I felt ‘ow much ye were thinking when ye cast that spell. It doesn’t like being controlled that much, remember?” “Aye…” Rising’s ears flopped down. Aileris put a hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Star. Yer not used t’being me, and that school and the Guild drilled ‘precision, control, technique’ into ye. This time, I can guide ye!” She smiled, ears perking back up. “I like the sound of that.” Soft glows formed around both of their horns, and Aileris dipped her neck to touch Rising’s horn tip with his own. Their leylines merged at the touch, the color of their magic blending together into a dark orange as they Linked, their senses merging, their minds flowing around and through one another’s. [You know,] Rising thought to Aileris, [if I had to guess when a mental swap like this was most likely to happen, I would have said during a Link.] [Aye, but that’d make too much sense, and we can’t have that, now can we?] [We can’t, no,] Rising thought back with a mental giggle. Aileris’ mind filled with thoughts of home, and Rising’s mind cleared, settling into a meditative state. [Let the magic flow.] They did, and moments later, the ocher light of their combined magic passed over them, pulling them from the world. The familiar sensation of motion-without-motion, of moving a million miles a minute while also remaining still, filled them as they rushed through the aether between worlds, approaching the one that contained Equestria and their home. As quickly as it had begun, their journey was over, and they pulled back from one another, breaking their Link. Rising looked from the crumbling-to-dust wreckage of their cottage’s roof to Aileris, and her face scrunched up. “I thought Linking might switch us back, and now we have this mess t’clean up.” “I know. Seems not t’be the case, though, so now comes the hard part.” She nodded. “Time t’tell my parents.” Author's Note Thanks to my editors: SaiKimura, Midnight Spark, Feather Scratch, and Cynewulf. FamilyThe burnt orange glyph of Rising Star’s and Aileris’ combined magic deposited them onto their front lawn. Directly in front of them was not their house but a cloud of ephemera that had once been part of their cottage’s roof. “Wow, I thought that would already ‘ave disappeared,” Aileris said. “Guess I forgot how long it usually takes for big solid things.” “Aye, but it looks like it’s going t’crumble any seco—” A burst of telekinesis blew a hole through the remains of the roof, and a unicorn who usually resembled Rising, but shorter and with a blue mane, strode through the cloud. Guiding Star shot the two of them a glare, and his shoulder sagged as he sighed. “You had better have a good explanation for what the hay is going on here. Son?” “Well, Dad, ye see…” She trailed off as Guiding blinked hard, and Aileris picked up where Rising had left off. “Things got complicated.” He looked between them. “Aileris’ magic flare up again?” “Aye.” He nodded. “You ended up looking like one another?” “More like we ended up being one another,” Rising said, cringing. “Guiding, what’s taking so long out there?” asked a mare from inside the house. “We’ll be right in, Squall,” Guiding called back over his shoulder. Then he turned back to face them. “Any idea how long this is going to last?” Aileris shrugged. “Another minute, another day or two, who can tell?” He stood staring at them for a few more moments before sighing. “Your mother’s going to love this.” “You think she will?” Rising asked, tilting her head. Aileris giggled as he started towards the house. “Oh aye! She’s finally getting the daughter she always wanted!” Rising’s jaw dropped and her eyes went wide as Aileris and Guiding walked back towards the house. Shaking her head, she disappeared in a blaze of light before reappearing at Aileris’ side. He looked over to her and smiled. “See? You just had t’want to teleport here, and my magic did the rest, right?” “Aye. But ye think my mother will want t’pretty me up? She never seemed like that type.” Guiding stopped in the doorway as they reached the porch. “Rising, remember how your mother brought Aileris out to get groomed once a week for three months after she mentioned once how she likes to be brushed? She’s not that type because she doesn’t have a daughter. Or, well…” He shrugged and shook his head as he entered their house, Aileris following behind him. As he, too, passed through the doorway, Star felt a stray thought streak through Aileris’ mind. “Rising,” he called back, “brace!” She tilted her head as she walked through the door, then realization dawned as an orange and blue blur hurtled towards her. “Mommy!” Rising stumbled back a step as Hyper Nova wrapped his hooves around her neck in a flying tackle and proceeded to nuzzle her, buzzing his wings to stay latched on. “I love ye too, Hyper” she said as she pried him off herself to give him a hug. “Now, go give yer mothe— yer da’ a hug too.” Rising tossed Nova with an underhoof motion towards Aileris, and the colt used the boost to cross the gap between them, kicking his little legs as if it would help him remain aloft. But he bumped into Aileris’ chest with his nose and bounced back, landing on the tile on his rump. Not a second later, he sprung up and tried to wrap his forelegs around Aileris’ neck, but it was wider than he could reach. Aileris placed a hoof beneath Nova for support and rubbed noses with him as Squall Line walked into the room, Guiding Star beside her. She looked from Rising Star to Aileris and back to her husband, her wings flaring out, and a grin spread across her face. “So they are really switched!” With a single flap, she crossed the room and gathered Rising into her hooves. “Why, you’re just the gift that keeps on giving!” Rising motioned with her head to Aileris, who was still playing with Nova, letting him climb onto his head like a little mountain climber. Squall put a hoof to her mouth. “Oops. This’ll take a bit of getting used to.” She placed Rising back on the ground and went over to Aileris while Guiding moved to stand beside his temporary daughter. They smiled, watching as Nova hopped from Aileris’ head to Squall’s slightly higher one, laughing his little head off. Guiding tilted his head towards Rising and spoke out the side of his mouth. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that the bottom of your tail is gone. Please tell me that you were just… having fun and not in any danger.” She flushed and started stammering. Putting a foreleg over her Guiding bent to nuzzle Rising and whispered, “Son, when that smoking debris landed on the lawn and not you… Well, I sent your mother and Nova into the other room. If anything had happened to you, they would’ve been inconsolable. I would have been… You were already late, and you’re always so punctual that I—” Rising blinked a few times then returned the embrace, nuzzling back. “Sorry, Dad, I didn’t think about how that would look from the other side.” “Just don’t scare me like that again, or I’ll kill ya.” “Love you too, Dad.” “Damn well better.” Nova zipped across the room and squeezed between their legs to poke Star’s barrel with a wingtip, making her giggle. He kept tickling her with a pinion, asking, “Secrets?” “Aye, here’s a secret for you,” she said, picking him up in her hooves. Leaning close to him, she whispered, “I love you lots, but don’t tell anypony, right? Our little secret. Shhh.” He gasped then nodded, eyes sparkling. “Shhh.” “And,” Star added, “I also love doing this!” She bent down to blow a raspberry on Nova’s belly, but stopped before she did, instead tickling him with her other forehoof. He squirmed and burst out laughing, flailing his legs and wings. Across the room, Aileris and Squall also giggled, watching the show, and even Guiding cracked a smile. Nova squirmed from Rising’s loose hold and dropped to the floor, his hooves clacking against the tile, and he lay there, holding his sides as he fought for breath. Barely a few moments later, he stood up and pointed. “Mommy’s tail’s all flat!” With a flap, he scooted under Rising and between her legs and stopped beneath her tail, the shorn-off hair rustling as his ears rubbed through it. Rising had just turned her head to stare back at Nova when he flipped over to his back and put his hooves up on the cut surface. “Like a table!” Guiding looked over to Squall and Aileris, and they shared a shrug as Rising said, “Now, Hyper Nova, you’re not supposed to play with other ponies’ tails; it’s rude.” She flicked her tail, but Nova let out a whoop, and he stayed attached to the end of it as it swished up. Almost as one, Rising and Guiding Star tilted their heads to the left, staring at the colt, who swayed back and forth like Rising’s tail was some sort of pendulum. “Well,” Rising said at length, “that is an interesting application of pegasus magic. Anypony see that before? I would attribute it to Wild Infant Magic Syndrome, but he’s three.” Three sets of eyes turned towards Squall Line. She looked between them. “What? It’s new to me too! Though…” she looked up at the ceiling then down to her husband “… it does seem like it could be fun. I’ll have to see if I can learn that.” She put a hoof to her chin and hummed softly to herself, eyeing the ceiling and rustling her wings, shooting the occasional glance at Guiding, who coughed and looked away. “Well then,” Aileris said, “it must just be his natural chaos affecting his pegasus magic like mine does to me unicorn magic.” Her guess was met with a nod from Guiding, a shrug from Squall, and a “That sounds about right,” from Rising. Nova kept swinging from Star’s tail, causing her hips to shake back and forth, and at the top of each swing, he pointed at his open mouth with a hoof. “Looks like it’s somepony’s snack time,” Guiding said. “Yay!” Nova flipped off Star’s tail and flung himself towards Guiding, who caught the haphazard tangle of limbs in his sea blue magic and then placed Nova on his back. Aileris headed off to the kitchen with them while Star said, “I think I ought to, um, wash up.” “Oh!” Squall’s hoof dropped to the floor, the clack making Star’s ears twitch. “That sounds exactly like what you should do — and what I should help you with!” Star drew in a breath then let it out slowly. “Yes, Mom.” Squall clapped her forehooves together, flaring out her wings for balance. Star sighed quietly to herself as she climbed the stairs with Squall right behind her. The two mares passed through the hall into the master bedroom, and Star entered the bathroom. Standing in the doorway, Squall watched as Star first washed her face then started to brush her teeth. “I see you like to practice good oral hygiene.” She sketched a pair of quotes in the air with her wings for emphasis. Star nearly choked on the toothbrush and blushed almost as red as Aileris’ coat currently was. “Mom!” “I always thought you’d take after me if you were a mare. I never guessed you would that much.” “Mom! I swear to Luna, if you don’t stop that, I’m going to put myself deaf. I’ll do it!” She put up a hoof. “Okay, okay, but you were super obvious about it. It took you a lot longer to get back than usual, and then you didn’t seem to want to touch Nova with your muzzle. And,” she said, drawing it out, “you picked up Aileris’ accent, which you usually do after Linking, and I know you love doing that afte—” Star didn’t hear anything else; a coppery glow sprang up around her ears, leaving her in silence save for the sound of brushing her teeth. As she tried to put everything else out of her mind, her mental bond with Aileris grew, allowing her to just barely feel that somepony — she assumed it was Nova — was tugging on his mane. Downstairs, their foal stood on the table, making him just tall enough to pull at Aileris’ mane, asking for another section of orange. He broke off a wedge with his magic and asked, “What do ye say?” “Please, Daddy! Orange!” “Aye, that’s right,” he said, passing it to Nova, who crammed it into his mouth. Guiding stood off to the side silently, watching parent and foal, when the doorbell rang. Aileris glanced over to him, and he nodded, walking out. A few moments later, he came back and tapped Aileris’ shoulder. “It’s a package. They say they need Rising Star to sign for it.” “Well, just go get… Right. Well then.” He shook his head and changed the aura surrounding the orange, inviting Guiding to take it. “Be a good lil colt, now,” Aileris said before walking out and to the front door. On the way, he called upstairs through their connection. [Star, that gem dust ye ordered is ‘ere. I need t’sign for it.] [Right. Well then, let’s see. I’ll help you like you did for me. Just let yourself feel how I do it.] She started tracing out “Rising Star” on the mirror with the toothbrush. Opening the door, Aileris saw a fidgeting pegasus. “‘Ello, Wind Dance.” “Hello, mister Star! Package from the city, a small one this time.” She dug around in her left saddlebag and pulled out a small pouch. “Feels like sand to me, but what do I know? I’m just a courier; they don’t tell me anything.” Aileris leaned towards her. “It’s gem dust for a little something I’ve got going.” She looked at the pouch on her hoof again. “Oh, wow! That explains why the city needs you to sign this form.” She held dug out a page that read ‘City Enchanter Materials Requisition Form (Personal Use)’ across the top and hoofed it to Aileris. He took it in his magic and conjured a quill and ink, trying to pay more attention to how Rising was still signing it upstairs, trying to put the motion into some sort of shared procedural memory. Aileris nodded and, barely looking at the paper, signed on the dotted line. Inspecting it, he found it looked nothing like his typical hornwriting. [Thanks for the ‘elp, Star. I didn’t want t’talk my way out of signing for this nice filly,] he thought to her while passing back the paper and taking the pouch. [Filly? If it’s Wind Dance, you’d better tip her. Mom would be upset if you didn’t.] “Wind Dance, wait!” Aileris called out as she turned and spread her wings. “Yes?” Dance turned back to see Aileris’ horn glowing and a small pile of bits floating down the hall towards them. Her eyes lit up as he floated them to her. “Oh, thank you!” “Thank Squall Line… me mom. She sees something in ye.” “I— Wow. I don’t know what to say.” Dance shrugged her shoulders a little as she dropped the bits in a bit purse. Aileris smiled. “Just make something of yerself.” “I’ll finally be able to afford renting out that venue I’ve been eying!” She reared and pirouetted then took to the air. “I’m going to be late for my next delivery, but who cares? Bye, and thank you so much!” Grinning as he walked back down the hall, Aileris thought to Star, [Well, she seemed really happy with that tip. I was just hoping that couriers’ tips weren’t that much higher than restaurants’.] There were a few moments of mental silence before Star responded. [‘Leris, did you tip at twenty percent on something that cost two hundred bits?] He paused in the doorway, shuffling a hoof on the floor. [Um, aye…] [My mom is going to love this. I usually only give her three or four.] Rising looked in the mirror and saw Squall standing there, her ears down and her wings tucked limply at her sides. At the sight, Star’s ears flopped back too, and the spell around them dissolved. She turned around, looking down, and half-raised a forehoof. “Look, Mom—” “No,” Squall said, cupping Star’s cheek with a hoof, “I’m sorry. I get overenthusiastic and overcompensate. When you were young—” she laughed “— younger, at any rate, I built sex up to more than I should have, and it hurt you. I tried to swing it back the other way, make it into a lighthearted thing to joke about, and that’s hurting you too. Everything I try ends up hurting you…” At the quaver in Squall’s voice, Star looked up to see her eyes watering. “Mom? Mom, please, relax. It’s not that bad, really,” she said, smiling. “We both know that I didn’t get my melodramatic streak from Dad… Okay, maybe I got my worrying from him, but you’re making this bigger than it is. I would just appreciate if you left what’s between myself and Aileris alone, and I really don’t want to hear about your sex life.” Star’s eyes went wide and her head shot back as if struck, the implications of what had set her off dawning. “Oh Celestia, is that why I’m an only child?” “About half of why…” Squall mumbled, rubbing her forelegs together. Star spluttered for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and holding it. When she let it back out, she said, “Anyway! You’ll be glad to know that Aileris gave Wind Dance about forty bits as a tip.” “Oh?” she asked, wings ruffling. “Oh, that’s fantastic! She’ll finally be able to afford that venue down by the bay that’s she’s been eying! And I’ll have to give Aileris a big hug — you could learn a thing or two from her about generosity… What?” Raising an eyebrow, Star said, “I didn’t think you really knew Dance.” “I don’t, but I know about her.” “Yeah… I’m trying really hard right now to remember that you’re not a stalker. It’s not going well.” Squall laughed and clapped a hoof on Star’s back, nearly knocking her off her hooves. “Oh, you are so cute when you’re conflicted!” She gasped, and her wings flared out. “I just had the best idea!” Grabbing Star, she lifted her off the ground, carried her back out of the bathroom, and placed her on the bed. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” With a flap that rustled Star’s mane, Squall Line took off down the hall. Tilting her head to the side, Star only managed to say, “O-kay…” Shaking her head, she thought to Aileris, [Heads up, Mom is on a mission.] [Thank ye. Oh, there she is n—] Squall skidded to a halt in the kitchen and wrapped Aileris up in a wing-hug in the same instant. “Oh, thank you for helping out Wind Dance. Now,” she said, pulling back, “ribbon!” “Welcome, Squall, but ribbon?” “You know, rolls of cloth that make things pretty. About this wide,” she said, holding her forehooves apart a bit. She smiled when Nova jumped up and latched onto a foreleg. “Up on back!” As Squall placed Nova between her broad withers, Aileris shrugged. “What color ribbon do ye want?” “Blue, the color of Ailer— your… body’s eyes.” She coughed and looked away. “Still getting used to that.” “Eh, don’t worry about it. It’s not going t’last too long anyhow. And ye know,” she said, her horn glowing and a roll of ribbon popping into existence, “Rising could ‘ave done this too.” Squall took it from Aileris’ magical grasp. “Oh yes, it must have slipped my mind since I’m not really… um…” As Nova scampered up to the top of her head, she looked over to Guiding, who sighed and rolled his eyes. “You know it doesn’t bother me, Squall.” He turned. “Aileris, she’s not really used to living with a unicorn who can make things out of nothing. There’s a reason Rising went to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and I didn’t.” “Gramma, Gramma, go fast!” Nova said, tugging at Squall’s ears. “Hyper, be a good lil colt now.” “No, no, it’s okay, dear.” Squall waved a hoof then looked up to Nova, who was leaning so far over her head that he almost fell over. “You want to go fast? Hold on!” She spread her wings and shot out of the room, zipping up the stairs to the shrieks and giggles of Nova. “She spoils him,” Guiding said as they left. “Aye, but then, she spoils everypony.” Guiding nodded and glanced outside. “It’s getting to be about time to head down to the docks and close up. See if anypony has any pressing concerns I need to address. Come with me?” “Um, aye, of course,” Aileris said, tilting his head to the side. [Star, I’m going out with yer dad to the Dancing Leaf.] [Have fun. I know I sure will,] she thought back as Nova leapt from Squall’s head and flew across the room towards her. He almost made it but undershot, his muzzle bumping into the side of the mattress. He flopped back to the floor and shook his head, then Star wrapped him up in her magic and placed him on the bed beside her. “Let’s see what Grandma has planned for us, Hyper.” He nodded then latched onto her right foreleg as Squall showed the ribbon that fit neatly inside her broad hoof. “I’m going to braid it through your tail! Won’t that look pretty?” she asked, wings flapping at her sides. An icy weight settled in Star’s chest, and outside in the street, Aileris stumbled over nothing. [Oh Luna, Aileris, what do I do? She wants to braid my tail! If I say no, she’d just ask why, and you know I can’t answer that!] [Star, calm down, hun. Just tell ‘er that ye want yer mane braided instead. She’s going t’say it’s cute, I promise.] Aileris found Guiding staring at him when she looked up, and he asked, “What was that? Rising need something?” “Aye,” Aileris said, following him again, “he had a problem with Squall’s plan.” Guiding hummed to himself as they walked through the streets of the outskirts of Baltimare. “Ribbon… and suddenly a daughter… and Rising had an issue with it. She wanted to braid it through his… her tail, didn’t she?” Aileris blinked at him then looked away and bit her lip. “Oh, I’ve known about my son’s… fascination since he was about fourteen. Honestly, did you think that Rising could hide something like that from me?” “Well, when ye put it that way, no.” Aileris giggled then put a hoof to his mouth. “So,” Guiding asked as they continued, “what did you end up saying?” “I told Rising to just ‘ave Squall to braid the ribbon into his, er, her mane.” “That ought to work.” He chuckled a few times. “She’ll think it’s cute.” “That’s exactly what I thought!” As they passed a confectionery shop, The Sweet Tooth, Guiding lowered his voice. “Yes, and that thinking between you two is very useful. Not only does it let you just talk to one another from far away, it even lets you forge a signature without starting a changeling hunt. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?” Aileris’ eyes widened. “I ‘adn’t thought of that.” Back in their home, Star’s eyes also widened, and she sat up straighter. Squall pulled back from the braid she was working on and watched Star’s ear twitch as if she had heard something. “Dear, what is it? Nothing bad, I hope.” “Hm? No, no, everything should be fine. Dad just pointed out that if it hadn’t been for our mental bond, we might have started a changeling hunt with that signature for the delivery,” Star said then relaxed back into Squall’s reach; she was really enjoying having her mane played with. “Oh dear, that would be awful.” She frowned as she resumed weaving the ribbon through Star’s mane. Nova hopped up and down, wings flailing at the air. “Play changelings! Play changelings!” “Hush, Hyper. It’s not playtime now.” He settled to the floor, face scrunched up into a scowl. Star sighed and conjured some wooden blocks in front of him. Nova just glared at them until she picked them up with her magic and floated them around his head. He lunged for them as Squall continued to work the ribbon through Star’s mane, both mares smiling as they watched his antics. Only another two pleats were done when Nova stopped paying attention to the whirling blocks. “Want play changelings!” he said, stomping a tiny hind hoof loudly enough to make Star wince. “Now, Hyper Nova, we don’t stomp in the house.” The color of his coat shifted towards red, and smoke began wafting off his wings. “Want! Play! Changelings!” Behind her, Star heard Squall sigh. Two spells immediately came to mind, and she cast one first, hoping not to need the second. A wave rolled down her body, turning her coat a deep purple. “Look! I’m purple! Isn’t that silly?” Nova pouted as his primaries caught fire, and he sat down, crossing his forelegs across his chest. As the fire raced across his body, Star’s second spell covered the room in a glistening sheen, protecting it from the heat. She mentally reset a days-without-incident calendar from four to zero days as Nova burned on the floor. “Well,” Squall said, “at least he’ll probably sleep alright tonight. That usually leaves him pretty burnt out.” Star put a hoof to her mouth to stifle the giggles that sprang up. “Mom, we’re not trying to encourage this.” “True, but just look at him. He looks so adorable like that. I could just cuddle the little guy so much… you know, if it wouldn’t give me third-degree burns.” Watching as Nova burned, pouting, on the floor, the corners of Star’s mouth turned up. At first, she couldn’t quite tell why, but then she realized that below the flames the chaos magic that fueled them roiled — and it reminded her of Aileris. It occurred to Star that the chance of any other unicorn finding chaos magic relaxing, even beautiful, was very likely zero. As he stepped onto the docks, Aileris smiled too, and Guiding raised an eyebrow. “Oh, Rising’s just thinking I’m beautiful again.” “Funny you should mention that,” Guiding said as the Dancing Leaf came into view. “I’m going to have to ask you to make sure that we’re actually, really in private.” Aileris sighed and began to narrow the flow of thoughts between himself and Rising as they continued walking. By the time they reached the ship, it was a trickle, barely more than a sense of direction and mood. They stopped in front of the ship, and Guiding looked up at it silently. Aileris stood beside him, his tail flicking occasionally as he waited for whatever was coming. “You see the figurehead on the prow?” Aileris nodded. It was a pegasus mare — a quite beautiful one, he realized — whose coat and feathers were carved like leaves. “She was made by earth ponies and pegasi to haul heavy freight as quickly as the wind could carry it. And then, it was captained by a unicorn — will be till the day I die.” He turned to Aileris and sighed. “Let’s go to my cabin. We don’t want anypony hearing much of this.” Nodding, Aileris extended a leyline to touch Guiding and another up to the deck of the ship. With a burst of energy, he pulled them both through the arching path, disappearing and reappearing with a flash. “You didn’t have to teleport us, you know. We could have used the gangplank like normal ponies.” Aileris stared at him, raising an eyebrow. “Point taken,” he said, opening the door to his cabin and letting Aileris in. There was no furniture in the room beyond the map table and the bunk at the far end, a bunk that was large enough for two ponies even if one was very large. Aileris noted this with a smile as he remembered how often Squall accompanied her husband out to sea, precisely every time he went. He went to stand beside the table as Guiding closed the door behind them. “Alright,” Aileris said, “what’s so important that ye don’t want Rising t’listen in? We planning a surprise party this time?” Guiding snorted. “No, it’s just, well… This ship, everything I do, I try to stick to my morals. Not just everypony but everyone deserves to be given a fair chance. StarLine Shipping Co. hires more griffons and zebras than the rest of Equestria’s eastern seaboard, you know. I was the first in my family for generations to marry a non-unicorn, and I made damn sure to instill those same morals into Rising from the day he was born. “And then there was you. When he told us what you are, I thought that the stress of working for the Princess had snapped him. But no, you’re honest to Celestia chaos incarnate — though you do a fantastic job of controlling yourself for the most part.” “Guiding…” Aileris shook his head and started again. “Dad, please, ye know I do what I can t’stop this stuff from ‘appening, but there’s only so much I can do.” With a sigh, Guiding put a hoof on Aileris’ shoulder. “For my sake, thank you. But for my son’s… Aileris, I just wanted him to have a happy, normal life. But now, I don’t think he could ever be happy with just normal. Look at yourself, your situation, your friends, your son! That makes him happy; the sort of things that make my brain hurt to even consider are the things he thrives in. “What do I understand? I run a company. I captain a ship. I’m simple, plain, an old seadog who can’t learn any new tricks. But he—” His voice broke. “Rising understands how to mold time itself to his will, travel to a world of his own making, can send the Princesses a letter if he wants and actually get a real response. What am I to that?” Aileris sighed and put a foreleg around the smaller stallion. “Yer his father. Yer the one who made ‘im who he is. Everything he does is because ye put ‘im on that path from the beginning. Who else could’ve raised a colt into a stallion who would love something that could do this?” he asked, gesturing at his body. Guiding laid his head against Aileris’ neck and sighed. “Thanks. You’re too kind, you know. I just… I feel like a hypocrite, sometimes, when things like this happen. I say that I’m okay with it because I need to support him, but it just hurts my head. And despite that… I need you to do it more often.” “More?” Aileris drew back and stared at him. Guiding sighed. “Yes, more. You don’t know what it was like, watching him grow up. He would befriend anyone. He had two griffon friends when he was eight in addition to pretty much his entire class. I don’t know how he kept track of it all in that marvelous head of his. When we sent him off to Canterlot when he was ten, he took to it like a fish to water.” Guiding swallowed, and Aileris put his head down, his ears going flat already. “But then his fifth year rolled around, and… you know. It changed him. He was like a completely different pony, reclusive, lost every friend he had. Before the Princess snatched him up, he was planning a solo trip around the world to study the global thaumologic gradient. Probably only a few hundred ponies even know what that means, and he was going to toss away any chance at companionship for it.” Turning away, he slowly shook his head. “Seeing him like that killed me, Aileris.” Aileris walked to the other side of the table and stood in front of him. “And then I came along, his mare in a tattered cloak, come t’steal his ‘eart away.” That got a single laugh. “Well, that’s one way to put it. But yes, you gave Squall and me back our son… and then swapped bodies with him.” Giggling, Aileris said, “Aye, and if that’s the sort of thing ye want me t’do even though it makes ye uncomfortable, it shows ‘ow good a father ye are.” Guiding reached up and hugged Aileris’ neck with a foreleg. “Thank you, really. Now, I actually do have business to do, so you just head back home. I’ll see you tomorrow, probably.” After returning the hug, Aileris headed for the door but stopped before opening it. He looked back. “You know, Rising is going to hear this whole conversation sooner or later.” “I know.” He shook his head and shrugged. Aileris waved, opened the door, and disappeared in a flash, letting the mental bond open wide once more. [I’m headed home! You’d better have dinner ready, wifey.] A good deal of mental spluttering came from Rising before anything intelligible made it through. [I cook just as often as you! When I’m not in the middle of a project… or putting together a new spell… Okay, fine.] Trotting through the city, Aileris giggled like a fool. [Maybe ye could cook it on Hyper. He still burning?] [He fell asleep, kind of just smoldering now. I could see about grilling some peppers on his back if you want.] [Sounds delicious! I’ll be there soon!] He continued on, humming to himself and listening to the phantom sounds of tiny snores and sizzling. With his now longer stride, Aileris found that he was actually passing some of the other ponies making their way home, and that was just at a walk. He grinned then broke into an easy trot and found himself passing almost everypony. The speed came easily, and soon the wind whipped through his mane as he galloped through the streets for no reason other than he could. [I’m glad you’re having as much fun in me as I usually have in you,] Rising thought to him, remembering some choice times for effect. After a few moments, Aileris responded. [That’s not fair! I’m out in public!] [Never stopped you before,] she thought, swishing her tail deliberately while setting out a couple bowls and filling them with steaming peppers and kale. [And everypony thinks that I’m ye.] Rising stopped and blinked before letting the memories go. [You make a remarkably good point.] Then, Squall walked into the kitchen and passed Rising the oven mitts. “Hyper’s all tucked in and sleeping like a log. You two can probably have a nice dinner date tonight,” she said, tracing quotes in the air with her wings. Rising coughed and blushed. “Uh, thanks, Mom. You have a good night, too. Love you.” Squall stooped down and placed a kiss on her forehead. “You too, my very little Star.” They went to the door together, and Rising waved as Squall took off for home. Then, she walked upstairs to Nova’s room and leaned on the doorframe, looking in. A smile came to her face as she watched the little colt’s barrel rise and fall, his hind legs and wings twitching in his sleep. Star felt a warm rush of emotion overtaking her as she watched him sleep. It burst through in a giggle, and her eyes went wide. “Oh no…” Their mental link thundered open once more, blazing a line of light between them. With a lurch, Rising found himself skidding around a corner at a gallop. Head met wall, and wall won. He rose, groaning, and put a hoof to his head, checking his horn. He sighed. “Well, that could have ended badly. Oww…” At the stares of everypony around him, he shrugged. “Some things you just have to wonder about.” With that said, he teleported away. When he arrived home a few minutes later, Aileris was waiting for him at the door. “Ye sure yer alright? I was running so fast, and—” A final teleport brought their lips together. After a few delicious moments, Rising pulled back and whispered, “I really am okay, see?” “Aye, except for that nasty bruise. It looks like yeh’ve got another horn growing out of yer forehead!” “Yeah, well… it looks like your mane is the prettiest thing in Equestria. So there. Ha.” Aileris giggled and tossed her head, motioning inside. “Ye flatterer. Come on. We’ll get ye some ice and ‘ave ourselves a nice dinner date.” Rising smiled as he followed her inside. That sounded wonderful. Author's Note To those who stuck around, thank you for reading! This song ought to provide a slight hint towards what the next story will be. Radiarc - Preparing for the Night Finally, thanks to my editors: SaiKimura, Cynewulf, Feather Scratch, and especially Midnight Spark.
WhoopsAileris and Rising Star sat together outside their lonely cottage, looking out at the nearly empty prairie around them and to the mountains beyond. He laid his head atop hers, closing his eyes, and whispered into her ear, “It’s quiet, ‘Leris, a little bit too quiet. I know there are all sorts of ideas in there. I can feel them running around in your mind.” He nuzzled into her raven mane. “And you know how I love hearing your ideas.” She grinned and lifted her head slowly, prompting him to let hers free. “I do ‘ave a lot of good ideas, but I’ve also got a lot of bad ones too.” Rising heard the smile in her voice and raised his eyebrows. “But those are the most fun, sometimes, aren’t they?” Aileris giggled. “Aye! Let’s see what we can think up.” She flopped onto her side and rested her head on the ground, pondering, while Rising tapped a hoof against his chin, idly musing, “What to do? What to do…? Shall we try our hooves at making frictionless materials?” Aileris lifted her head up, looking at him. “Anti-gravity? Like in Stalliongrad, but without being afraid of getting killed. That’d make it a lot more fun! Ooh! Or breathing underwater. I bet ye could whip up a spell for that.” Rising put a hoof up to a scar on his neck. “I… don’t think I want to do anti-gravity if I don’t have to.” Aileris winced, feeling old memories surface in her husband’s mind. “Sorry, Star. Don’t go back there. Stay with me.” She got up and cupped his chin with her hoof. “Just look at me, and listen to my voice.” She stretched up and kissed his cheek. “Feel how much I love ye.” She opened the mental link between them wider to let her love pour through, commingling their minds more than they usually did and pushing back the dark memories. As she reassured him with the warmth of her love, she felt new thoughts begin to swirl through his mind. Ideas and associations tumbled together, picking up previously disconnected knowledge. Aileris recognized it as one of Rising Star’s brainstorms. The last one had resulted in them getting a two-week vacation for the anniversary of their wedding. To everypony outside the spell, it seemed as though they had only been gone a day. Watching that plan form had taught her that she didn’t like the surprise being spoiled, so with a bit of mental effort and a slight frown, she restricted the flow of thought between them. Waiting for him to speak, she stood before him, smiling. “Maybe… sensory conversion?” She looked up at him and raised an eyebrow, a grin forming. “Sensory conversion?” “Yes… switching around things like hearing and sight, touch and taste…” Her grin grew wider, and she settled to the ground. “I see where yeh’re going.” She rolled to her back and closed her eyes. “But I’m so comfortable right now.” “Maybe you could taste the comfort.” She giggled. “But what would that taste like?” He grinned. “Who knows? Let’s find out!” She opened her eyes and looked up to him, smiling. “Okay!” She rolled back to her hooves. “So, um, how do we do it?” “Let’s see… I usually do this sort of thing first. Why don’t you try to lead this time?” “Okay.” She closed her eyes and focused on the leylines within them, her horn lighting. She found the pulse of those in Rising’s ears and of those in his eyes. She paused, her grip loose on those leylines. “I think this might work. Ye ready?” His magical grip settled around hers, ready to catch her should anything go wrong. Through their bond, though, she felt his confidence in her. Aileris nodded to him and pulled the leylines from their source and switched them, carefully transplanting them in their new locations. Rising’s ears twitched back and forth. “My word!” He blinked hard at the sound of his own voice. “Everything’s fuzzy, and I can see around corners. I can see inside things — even you!” He slowly shook his head. “And things are so quiet… but only behind me. Whoa… That is seriously disorienting. Your field of vision… it becomes your field of hearing…” Aileris circled around behind “So, ye mean, as I walk behind ye, ye don’t ‘ear anything? That’s pretty bizarre. Yet, without yer eyes, ye can see everything around ye, right?” As she passed behind him, he reached back with a hind hoof, stopping it a little before her nose. “I can’t really hear you back there, but I can see you, sort of.” She grinned, amused, then walked in front of him and sat down. “Okay, that’s definitely a yes.” She hummed to herself, realizing something. “Ye know, if we ‘ad known we could switch yer eyes with yer ears, those missions for the Princess would ‘ave been much easier, especially since we would always be in touch. Ye wouldn’t need yer eyes, ears, um, ‘earing-things, anymore.” “This is definitely a spell that could have been useful. But…” He blinked a few times. “But it sure takes some getting used to.” Aileris watched his face as he talked, noticing how often he blinked. “‘Ey, when ye close yer eyes, do ye stop ‘earing?” He nodded. “Almost entirely. You know how you can still see bright light through your eyelids? It’s sort of like that but with sound. Like shoving cotton balls into your ears, I suppose.” Her eyes sparked suddenly. “Yeh’ve nearly mastered chronomancy, right?” “About as nearly as anypony could hope to master the temporal flow… which is to say I have a healthy respect for it. What do you propose? Wait… Let me guess…” He sat, and a familiar look crossed over his face. “Okay… changing time… what does that have to do with this…?” He tapped a hoof on his chin, thinking aloud. “Sound. Sound is slow… If I could slow time enough… I could walk forward and see myself getting there!” He reached forward and hugged his wife. “Oh, you do have the best ideas, Aileris!” She giggled. “No, that’s not what I was thinking at all!” “Oh. Well then.” His ears flopped over, and he cleared his throat. Then, he noticed something. “Hmm. That’s like squinting… Strange.” Aileris burst out with peals of laughter and only managed to control herself after holding her breath for a few moments. “Okay, ‘ow about this? If ye could go back in time and teach me this spell or at least give me the idea t’learn it… imagine how many of Waxy’s rants we could ‘ave ignored.” “Dear, you know I can’t just change the past like that. If I did, it would change the future, now. We might not even survive to now.” Her ears drooped. “Oh. I… I guess yeh’re right.” Rising put a hoof on her withers, rubbing a small circle on her back. “Do you want to try this out, though?” She smiled. “Aye! It sounds fun.” “Let’s make things really interesting, why don’t we — more than just switching sight and hearing? There are more senses than that to change.” His horn shone with power, and he reached for her leylines with his own. “Let’s see what you can do. I can barely wait to see — hear? — what it’s like!” Aileris let herself relax into the glow of his aura, smiling at the light but powerful touch of his magic. Shivers ran down her legs as her husband wrapped his magic around them too. Soon, her whole body was aglow. “Ready, love?” She nodded. “Aye.” Rising reached out with his magic and took his wife’s leylines in his own, cradling her coppery flows with his red ones. Years of living with her and sharing magical experiments together had taught him to expect the unevenness of her magic’s flow, a property contrary to every other’s he had encountered. Those same years had taught Aileris to trust him with affecting her leylines. With ease, Rising rerouted his wife’s leylines, plucking them from one part of her body and placing them in another. Aileris’ world went dark and soundless; the only thing she could readily perceive was the shining beacon of Rising’s magic — even the ground seemed to have disappeared from beneath her hooves. When she thought about it, she couldn't feel them either. Paying more attention to her own leylines, she noticed that he had taken away most of her senses, sight and hearing, touch and taste, as well as heat and balance. She was glad she had locked her legs. Her magic let her know that her leylines were just about to settle into their new locations, guided by the gentle coaxing from her husband. The first thing she noticed was that the soft touch of the grass under her hooves was a mild sort of flavor, quite unlike what grass actually tasted like. That was followed by the sensation of being pushed from all sides as touch became the sole purview of her tongue. She could hear for miles in front of herself; light exploded all around her; up became scorching hot and down freezing cold; everywhere the temperate air touched her was the feeling “upright.” Aileris stiffened, her face screwing up, then fell over, her face hitting the ground hard. “Spicy!” The scream’s reverberations around the walls blinded her, and she curled into the fetal position, twitching as if in an epileptic seizure. Even though Aileris had closed down on their bond, reducing it to a mere trickle of what it usually was, Rising was still staggered by the turmoil that erupted in Aileris’ mind. He shook it off and rushed over to kneel beside his wife. Brushing her coat with only the lightest of touches, he whispered, lest he hurt her further, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it, I swear. Let me undo it.” He surrounded her in his aura, preparing a spell to counteract the one afflicting her. Aileris smiled as the succulent taste of his touch caused her whole body to shiver. As he charged his spell, she struggled to stand up but ended up stumbling over herself again. The taste in her mouth went bitter again. “Please… Star… ‘urry!” “Oh Celestia… Oh Luna… I didn’t mean it. I’m so sorry,” he practically pleaded as he gathered the last of the magic he needed. Under his guidance, the leylines in her body swung back to normal, and Rising Star gathered her in his forelegs, rocking her. A near constant stream of apologies came from him as he clutched her close to his chest. She curled up in his embrace, burying her face in his coat and patting him all over, testing her sense of touch. Her panting gradually subsided as she listened around, hearing only his soothing voice and not light. Never again, I promise. I’ll never do that to you again. Never. Princesses strike me dead, I never meant to hurt you.” He stroked her mane, being as gentle as possible. She pulled her head from his chest and looked up at him, tears still streaming down her cheeks. She kissed him softly. “It’s okay. I know.” She smiled weakly. “Sometimes yeh’re just too powerful for yer own good, and ye can go a little overboard every so often.” She kissed him again. “But it’s okay.” “I would trade all my abilities for never having hurt you.” He let out a shuddering breath. “Nothing else has ever made me feel so worthless, so terrible… I can’t stand to see you hurt… and hurting you myself…” He blinked back tears. “I can barely stand it.” He let out a shaky, humorless laugh and wiped at his eyes. “It’s like hearing under water…” She wrapped her forelegs around his neck and pulled herself close again. Into his chest, she mumbled, “But ye fixed it. It’s okay.” Her heartbeat slowed, and her breathing normalized as she squeezed tighter around him. “I’m fine.” Rising let out a long sigh, hugging her tight to his chest. He held her like that for some time while she kissed his neck all over, clinging to him and consistently telling him she was fine and it was okay. He calmed down, eventually, and let her go. “Maybe… maybe some nice, safe friction reduction.” She grinned. “Aye, I like the sound of that.” “But first, I’d like to actually see right…” His horn flashed, and he blinked a few times. “Wow, that’s disorienting both ways.” She laughed, having forgotten his senses were still switched. “I dunno, hun. Running around frictionless with bat vision sounds like it would be fun.” “Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, now… We just… saw, I guess, how that turned out,” he said, ears drooping. “Ye just went a bit far, which, given ‘ow enthusiastic ye are—” she scooted beside him and slyly whipped his horn with her tongue “—doesn’t surprise me.” He jumped a little, startled. “Aileris?” She feigned innocence. “Yes?” “Now just doesn’t feel right…” He sighed. “I mean, I feel terrible about that.” She sighed. “I was just trying to get yer mind off it for a moment.” “It’s not quite that easy… You… you just looked so helpless and pained and scared… and it was my fault. I can’t just let that go so quickly.” He looked out over the landscape, his back to her. “Every time I hurt you… I think a little of me dies.” He hung his head, staring at the dirt. She pressed against him and softly rubbed his back. “Every time ye hurt me, ye fix it. If anything, ye should feel better about yerself. I forgive ye every time—” she rested against him “—and I always will.” “I know, and it means the worlds to me — all of them — but there are some things I can’t change, and that is one of them.” She sat directly beside him, brushing against his neck, and looked out at the horizon. “If it can’t be changed, we must learn from it. That’s what me mother taught me when I was learning me trade. I almost botched the whole job, but instead of yelling at me, she just turned to me and said, ‘A mistake is simply a chance to learn ‘ow to better approach the situation.’ So please, don’t let it ‘urt you.” She pressed against him desperately. “Because when I see ye get like this, I ‘urt too.” “Golden Shadow sure knew how to raise a good mare.” Rising put a foreleg around her. “I’ll try. For you,” he said and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. She smiled. “But, if you would like to make it up to me…” A brush materialized in front of him and fell to the ground. He glared at her from the corner of his eye and said, “You are evil, you know that?” When he picked the brush up in his teeth anyways, she sat down in front of him, grinning, and said in a singsong voice, “Of course I know that, but ye still love me.” “Mmhmm,” he mumbled around the brush. He leaned forward and ran it through her mane, pulling it through her silken locks. While he worked at her mane, she hummed a happy tune she had learned as a filly. She had always enjoyed a good brushing. Even after the job was clearly over, he continued brushing her — though he was more nosing through her mane and tickling the top of her head with his lips than anything. She shuddered more and more as he kept brushing her, wondering at just how good it felt. Slowly, he worked the brush from her mane and onto her back, pulling in measured strokes with the natural direction of her coat. “Mmmm.” Her body shivered noticeably, but it was to be expected; his massaging brush-strokes soothed her as they always did, and so he continued working down her back, stopping occasionally to pay closer attention to roughed-up patches in her coat. But he steadily worked his way lower. She lowered herself to the ground, curving her back to meet his strokes and making no attempt to hide her enjoyment. Rising smiled around the brush in his teeth and kept working, smoothing the hair on her left flank before making his way back to her haunch. She shuddered, and her tail flipped erratically, brushing against his face as he groomed her haunches. He stiffened, clenching his teeth against the brush. Then, he very carefully made his way to her other side and worked the brush through the hair of her flank on the right. As he approached her other haunch, she shuddered again and rested her chin on her hooves. She watched as he made his way to her cutie mark, a mark as unusual as the rest of her. Despite that, Rising had never pried into its meaning and had responded only with fascination when she had allowed the twisted-up ouroboros to move, something she only did in private. He showed such fascination now, tracing the brush over its winding path, following its motion. Beginning to brush down the back of her leg, his motions became less measured and smooth, to the point of becoming almost erratic. His self-control snapped. The brush fell from his mouth as he panted, taking hold of the end of her tail. He rubbed it against his face, breathing deeply, a shuddering sigh. Aileris giggled and turned her head. “You alright back there?” “Ooh yes…” He tugged gently on her tail. She gasped, still grinning playfully at him, and flipped her tail around. He grinned, almost predatorily, and grabbed a hoofful of hair near the base of her tail. She laughed, attempting to wiggle her tail free, but to no avail. “I knew you’d never be able to help yourself!” He closed his eyes, reveling in the sensation as she wiggled the base of her tail slowly. He hissed in pleasure, tongue flicking out between his lips. He reached out for dock, which she wiggled to avoid capture. Then, thinking better of it, she stopped and let him take a hold of it, amused. He ran a forehoof down her lower back, tracing her spine, and as it ran out into her tail, a shudder passed through him. He plunged a foreleg through the raven tresses and reached upwards to lay his hoof against the naked skin of her dock. Aileris gasped as he stroked the hairless flesh, and her tail whipped upwards. He bent towards her nethers, horn aglow. His horn met her dock as his lips came to her slit. A tingling sensation leaked through his horn into her as he ever-so-lightly licks up her. Her dock stiffened, and she let out a quiet, contented hum. Rising pressed forward, pushing aside her folds with his tongue, and laid his horn fully against the naked underside of her dock. The tingling grew as he teased at her clit, and her hum became a low moan. Her tail began twitching, heat building unbearably. Tongue swirling inside her, he lapped at her fluids, questing deeper. His horn grew hot, and the tingling became true waves of pleasure. Aileris dug at the ground, pressing back against him, her body overwhelmed by the intensity of the waves moving through her, and she shuddered uncontrollably. He pulled back, leaving her empty, and rolled her onto her back. Moving up, he stood over her, looking down at her with his muzzle wet from her juices. He slowly, deliberately licked at it, and the aura around his horn crackled, the power dancing through it sending sympathetic tingles through hers. She stared up at him, panting, his teasing making her grow wetter still, and with a grin, she slowly lifted a rear hoof and ran it up his hind leg toward his crotch. As her hoof brushed against his cock, it sprung even more erect, and he grinned wickedly. In a low voice, he growled, “You should punish me for what I did…” She matched his grin as she lowered her hoof. Her horn flared, and she threw him backwards, where he landed prostrate. Aileris appeared above him at his hips. A loud “Oof” came from him, and he shook his head, gaining his bearings. Between his legs, he spotted her, and a bead of pre-cum appeared on the tip of his cock. She smirked as she toyed with his hardened shaft, running a hoof up and down its length. Her long, forked tongue whipped from her mouth and lapped the pre-cum from the tip. She looked toward him, gauging his reaction, as she slowly ran the tip of her tongue down the underside of his cock. He pawed at the ground, muscles tensing in his hindquarters, strain and need playing across his face. She licked back up his shaft and wound her tongue around the tip, toying with him even more, and the tufts of grass he had been holding ripped from the ground as shudders ran through him. He moaned, loudly, as she played with his dick. She let go with her tongue and, feeling merciful, closed her lips around the tip of his cock, ever mindful of her fang. Her care paid off as his hips began bucking. His breath coming in gasps, he begged, “Aileris… Aileris!” She took in more of his shaft and sucked as she moved her mouth up and down, a little at a time. His hips rose uncontrollably, and he drew in a breath with a hiss. He tried desperately to use some sort of magic to pleasure her, but the waves of pleasure shattered his concentration. Aileris’ movements quickened, taking in more of his shaft with each downward motion, then she suddenly stopped. She pulled back, freeing his cock from her mouth, and let it quiver in solitude, watching him with a grin. He gritted his teeth, trying to hold back. As the muscles in his groin clenched, his horn flared, and something shoved into her from behind. Completely caught off-guard, Aileris screamed out in pleasure. After regaining her composure, she eased his shaft in her mouth and forced her head down, taking its entire length. He gasped and, with the last of his control, pushed the conjured dildo all the way inside her. Then, with a throaty yell, he lost it, spunk shooting from his dick into her maw. His hot, thick semen gushed across Aileris’ tongue and down her throat, coating the inside of her mouth with his salty essence. She groaned into his throbbing shaft, filling up with his load, and sucked harder at his penis. Easing up his length, her mouth filled with his seed as she massaged his balls with a hoof. He let his head fall back as he sighed and worked his magical field to encompass the entire dildo. Pressing its now tingling surface against her clit, he worked it back and forth more and more rapidly. She fell onto his belly, her loins pulsating around the dildo, shuddering and moaning in ecstasy. He gathered her in his forelegs and slowly, gently, massaged her lower back. Her entire body went limp in his grasp as the waves of pleasure continued to overtake her. Spent physically, but gaining ground magically, he let go of her with his hooves in favor of enveloping her in a cradle of his aura. It began to resonate in time with her natural magic, building on it while tickling over her coat. She lay on his chest, still convulsing, the dildo hard at work between her hind legs. Craning his neck down, he wrapped his mouth around her horn, swirling his tongue around it. She cried out as the shivers ran through her body, crashing together from every direction. Finally, unable to contain herself any longer, she climaxed, clenching hard around the dildo, pulsating from hoof to horn, and collapsed on top of him, panting heavily. Her magic fed back through his, and he moaned, reveling in the second climax. They lay together, her atop him, and Rising kissed her nose softly, lips barely touching her. But Aileris felt desire rise up in her, and she pressed forward, pushing his head back with the ferocity of her kiss. She pulled back, panting hard. “I’m not done with ye yet!” “Whoa, ‘Leris…” Rising stared up at her, watching the rise and fall of her chest and feeling the building of power in her. “What are you…?” Then, he realized that what he didn’t see was more important than what he did — her horn was not glowing. At the same time, Aileris realized it wasn’t just unrestrained desire taking hold of her; it was also an uncontrollable energy. “Oh no!” “Not now!” Aileris’ eyes blazed white, and the mental link between them slammed open, turning into a blinding line of power connecting them. A tumultuous flood of ideas and a lurch brought the experience to an end. “Star, tell me I didn’t flip us upside down and get rid of your legs… again.” Aileris blinked, bedazzled vision slowly clearing. “I don’t think that’s quite the case, ‘Leris,” Rising said, reaching a hoof between her hind legs at the change in sensation. Her hoof shook as she drew the dildo from her vagina. Rising gaped at it as her sight returned, unable to decide which was more interesting, the way her fluids glistened on its surface or that they were clearly hers. Aileris looked up at the mare sitting atop him, tilting his head to the side. “Well,” he said, “this is a new one.” Author's Note Thanks to my editors: SaiKimura, Midnight Spark, Feather Scratch, and Cynewulf.
New ExperiencesRising slid off of Aileris’ barrel and offered him a hoof to help him up. When she pulled, instead of Aileris rising up, Rising stumbled forward onto him. Aileris giggled, a strange sound to come from his mouth, and helped prop her upright again. “Ye forget I’m tiny?” “No, I forgot I’m tiny!” Aileris rolled to his hooves and stood, Rising following suit. Aileris looked down at her and smiled. “That ye are!” He reached out and pulled Rising back into a hug, wrapping his forelegs all the way around her, and said, “I’ve always wanted to cuddle my little Star like this.” “Hey, only my mom can call me that.” There was no force to what she said, and she nuzzled against Aileris’ neck. Aileris held Rising like that for a while longer, nuzzling the top of her head. Through their bond, he could feel Rising’s contentment and waning consciousness. As much as he would love to hold Rising as she slept, he knew that there was no way to tell how long the change would last. “Star?” She stirred against him. “Yeah?” “Do ye like being me?” She laughed a little. “‘Leris, anything that culminates in hugs like this is good in my book.” She pressed back against him a bit more. “And compared to the other things you’ve turned me into… I mean, a legless freak and a putty pony… there’s no real comparison.” Aileris giggled. “Remember ‘ow we copied that entire newspaper on ye? And then it stayed when ye changed back!” “Aye, I remember the joke! ‘What’s big and red and covered in the newspaper? Rising Star!’” She grinned like a fool then started laughing. “Read like the newspaper and red like me!” A fit of laughter overtook Rising, and they both rocked back and forth, merriment overflowing. Aileris was the first to calm down. Aileris was never the first to calm down. He stared at the mare in his forelegs for a few moments. “Star…?” The only response Aileris got was another riot of laughter. He slowly let her go, and she slumped to the ground, sides shaking, tears streaming down her face. “Star?” Rising flailed around on her back, hooves kicking at the air. Aileris’ eyes opened wide. “It wasn’t that funny.” “Not what Squall thought!” No sooner had Rising said that than another wave of laughter swept over her. By then, she gasped for air between outbursts. Aileris’ mind raced for a way to calm her; Rising looked to be about ready to pass out. With a gasp, he lit his horn and cast a spell over her, wrapping it around her like a warm blanket. The effects were almost immediate. Rising’s eyelids fluttered closed, and her frantic motions slowed to a stop. Aileris released his hold on the spell in favor of rubbing Rising’s back. “I’m sorry, Star. I should’ve warned ye about ‘ow bad it could get.” Rising snuggled against Aileris’ barrel. “Mmm… I knew you got gigglier after an episode, but… how do you keep from getting like that?” “Years of getting used to it. I’ve had ‘em since I was a wee filly back in Scoltland.” “I suppose that would help. Say, was that the spell you use to help Nova get to sleep?” Aileris nodded. “Think yeh’ll be alright now, hun?” “Yeah, I think I just need something to help keep me focused.” A glow sprang up around Aileris’ horn, and Rising said, “That’s exactly what I was thinking — almost like you knew.” Aileris giggled and rolled his eyes. “Almost exactly like. But that spell I just used worked so much faster than normal, and yeh’re a lot bigger than a three-year-old — even though yeh’re being me right now.” Rising perked up her ears. Placing a hoof on the tip of Aileris’ nose, she said, “Yes, but that goes both ways. You’re me, and you’ve got my magic. Why don’t you try something else out, something fun?” Aileris thought for a couple seconds, then his eyes lit up. He and Rising stood, and Aileris settled into a casting stance. “Fire-retardant spell,” Rising said, watching the corona of magic build around his horn. “Of course.” A small measure of the gathering energy spread in a pulse, leaving a glistening sheen over the grass and their cottage. The expenditure barely dented the growth of the charge gathering around Aileris’ horn, and moments later, a second layer of magic built around the first. Rising watched, feeling first her horn tingle then her entire body. Aileris released the spell, and a rush of displaced air tousled their hair as a giant creature flared into existence. As one, their ears twitched towards the roaring flame. They stared up at the towering golem. Its blazing, equine body was featureless save for its soulless, white-hot eyes, which looked directly at Rising like Aileris did. “I did it! I conjured Chenny!” Aileris did a little dance, the fire golem replicating it. “Went a little overboard, too,” Rising said, craning her neck up. “Did not. Check again. Yeh’re tiny now, remember?” Looking closer, Rising noted that, indeed, Aileris’ horn was exactly level with the top of its leg. “So you did. Good job!” She nuzzled under Aileris’ chin then hummed to herself. “Yes, I quite like being able to do that.” Aileris beamed, and the fire golem’s cheeks flamed a little brighter. “So, Aileris, what do you want to do with Chenny?” “Headstand. Oh, and try to make it look like a pooch.” Rising blinked a few times then shrugged. “Go for it.” With a bit of mental effort, Aileris added a layer of separation between himself and his construct. Not long after, it was balanced on its head. “Seems a lot less threatening that way, doesn’t it, Star?” She nodded slowly. “Aye. I would’ve never guessed that my capstone project would do that one day. Then again—” she looked down at her body then out to the mountains “— I never would have guessed a lot of things.” She shook her head as the golem got to its hooves. “In any case, the best way to go about making it look like a dog is to reposition five of its six central spell matrices. If you move the ones for the limbs and head farther inside the torso, you’ll make them narrower right away. From there, you can—” Aileris’ aura clamped around the golem and crushed inward, forcing its body into a new shape. Rising didn’t react for a few seconds, watching the retriever-shaped golem. “Of course,” she said at length, “there’s that option, but you’ve probably done irreparable harm to this casting.” Aileris shrugged. “I wonder if I can get its tail to wag.” Its tail fell off and dissipated into a cloud of smoke. Sighing, he said, “Guess not, then. Too bad.” “I could do it for you sometime if you want.” “Aww, that’s sweet,” Aileris said then bent to kiss her. By the time they came up for air, the rest of the golem was smoke on the wind. As they watched it drift away, Rising said, “Well, that didn’t last too long.” “Nope.” She looked down at her hooves. “This might not either.” A light nip on the ear sent a shock all the way to Rising’s hooves, leaving her jittery. “Feeling adventurous?” Aileris whispered into her ear. Rising bit her lip and nodded, turning to kiss him again. Tongue questing forth, Aileris raised a hoof to cup her cheek, and he pressed forward hungrily. Melting into the kiss, Rising’s eyes widened as she explored her tongue’s ability to wrap all the way around his. They pulled back, and Rising licked her lips, running her gaze down Aileris’ form. “Oh, I shouldn’t have let my tail grow that long…” “Ye still feel it? I thought it stayed with me, because I sure do,” Aileris said, reaching back to fondle Rising’s tail. She let out a yip at his touch, and a look and a flurry of thoughts passed between them. Rising lay on her back on the grass, Aileris taking a position standing above her. She watched as his shaft slid from its sheath and towards her face. Rising’s tail, guided by his magic, slipped between the ground and her head, lifting her to his cock. Biting her lip, she reached up to brush it with a hoof, and she hissed in a breath as the head flared. Aileris settled to his fore-knees and fanned out Rising’s tail with his magic then rubbed his face against it, savoring the feeling of her silken locks. Pre-cum started to ooze from Aileris’ penis, and Rising hesitantly wiped it off with a hoof, sniffed it, then licked it. The salty flavor spread across her tongue and disappeared all too quickly. Rising worked Aileris’ shaft with a hoof and lapped the pre-cum off as soon as more leaked out, relishing the novelty and the knowledge that Aileris was loving every second of it. Laying his tongue on the naked flesh of her dock, Aileris slowly licked down its length, watching the tremors it sent through her ebony tresses. He didn’t stop when he reached the bottom, continuing to part her tail with his tongue. The tastes of tail and slightly smoky grass mixed, and Aileris hummed deep in the back of his throat. The tail-play left Rising squirming, wanting more, and Aileris delivered, trailing kisses up her dock and onto her outer lips. He nosed her folds apart and licked the moist inner walls, caressing them with his tongue. Rising gasped and arched her back, taking Aileris’ dick in her mouth with a muffled sound of appreciation. She settled back into the supporting embrace of his tail and stroked down his shaft to toy with the edge of his sheath. As she began to suck, taking more of his heady fluids into her mouth, she caressed Aileris’ balls, rubbing them and tugging them gently to tease more pre-cum from him. Aileris had to lock his hind legs to keep them from buckling. He retaliated by spreading Rising’s slit open wider with his magic and burying his muzzle in her, lapping at the fluids within. Rising moaned around Aileris’ throbbing cock and tried to take more of it in but gagged as his head pushed against the back of her mouth. She backed off and eyed its glistening, veiny length then licked his balls, fondling them with her tongue and tickling up his sheath with its forked end. Soon, his essence dripped onto her chin, and she swirled her illogically long tongue around to the back of his penis to capture it as it flowed from his head. Aileris grunted, thrusting futilely against Rising’s tongue, begging for release. He sought the nub of flesh that would allow him to reciprocate and, with a wicked grin, kissed her clit before bathing it in a sea of tingling magic. Rising gasped and desperately rocked her hips, needing to be filled. A low moan tore from her throat as she writhed under Aileris’ assault. Pressing upwards, she ground her slit into Aileris’ smiling muzzle. He only kissed her outer lips and expanded the field of magic, bathing her insides with tingles. With a high-pitched scream, Rising climaxed, inner walls rippling, clenching around nothing. Her eyes fluttered closed, and her little chest heaved as she laid her head back into the supporting embrace of Aileris’ tail. He gently lowered her to the ground and turned to look down at her. When Rising opened her eyes, she saw Aileris standing above her, smiling and licking her juices from his muzzle. “You didn’t finish,” she accused. “‘Ey, I—” Rising reached up and put a hoof over Aileris’ mouth. “I always finish what I start. My body, my rules. Now—” she reached up with a hind hoof and placed it on Aileris’ still hard cock “—you are going to fill me up like you’ve never done before.” Aileris giggled. “I ‘aven’t! And I was just getting started. This tail thing…” Rising pulled Aileris down into a kiss, and each tasted the other’s fluids on their lips. After falling back, Rising said, “Show me whatever bad idea you’ve got.” Aileris rolled Rising over and spread-eagled her then parted her tail out into two strands. She looked back over her shoulder at the stallion behind her, biting her lip in anticipation, twitches still running through her hindquarters. Then, Aileris’ horn began to glow, and warmth spread through Rising’s dock. Her eyes widened, and her mouth went dry at the sight of her tail growing, lengthening under Aileris’ coaxing. She recognized the spell at work, and, given how much energy Aileris put into it, she could tell what he planned to do. When he was done, Aileris had turned Rising’s tail into twin rivers of inky black hair, each easily several times the length of her body. They parted around him where he sat, trembling, trying to focus. Slowly, he guided the strands to loop through one another just below the dock. Then Aileris wrapped them around Rising’s back fetlocks, the silken hair cinching tight, before passing them through themselves on her back and looping them over her front hooves. The bit that remained, he tied around her neck, trussing her up completely. She couldn’t rise if she tried; her own tail would start to strangle her if she did. She was completely at his mercy. Rising stared down her back, tracing her tail with her eyes and wiggling inside its hold, feeling it hug tight to her coat. The way it crossed over her spine entranced her; she only noticed Aileris when he stood directly above her. Their eyes met. “Take me,” Rising whispered. Aileris lay down atop her, and her breath came out in a whoosh. “I’m not ‘urting ye, am I?” he asked. Rising shook her head and wiggled her hindquarters, all she could do in her position. Aileris grinned and pressed forward, rubbing his barrel over her back and drawing the binding about her hind legs tighter, spreading them farther apart. He slid his penis into the loop of tail he had made below her dock and shivered at the sensation, her tail rising to lay against his belly and lifting his balls. Taking a mouthful of her mane and pulling her head back, Aileris thrust into Rising, who screamed. He fell into a slow, deliberate rhythm that Rising usually used, plunging deeper into her vagina with each stroke. Rising’s breath matched Aileris’ pace, gasping in as he filled her and letting out whining sighs when he drew out. Rising closed her eyes and focused on how Aileris’ girth spread her apart. It was a feeling she knew, but only secondhoof from their mental bond. To have his length pressed inside her, to know how much Aileris wanted her, made her hum with pleasure. When he pulled back, he left her with a void, an empty, longing need that begged to be filled. She wanted more than anything to be able to press back and take Aileris’ entire penis into her soft depths, but the bindings kept her from moving, and she had to wait — wait for him to pull back with intolerable slowness until only his head remained inside her before he would finally thrust in once more. Rising’s closed eyes only heightened her awareness of what Aileris wanted, so when he let go of her mane, she tilted her head back farther. Aileris took her horn in his mouth and ran his tongue over its rounded tip, the sensitive spirals feeding a spike of ecstasy directly into Rising’s brain. She moaned, loud and long, as Aileris took her from both ends. Aileris’ breaths grew more ragged as he listened to the mare beneath him moan and beg for more. He could feel her capacity for rational thought declining, and he loved it. It drove him harder, wanting her to snap and lose control completely. He buried himself in Rising over and over, rocking his hips faster. With Rising’s silken tail cupping his balls and her velvety depths surrounding his shaft, Aileris felt pressure begin to build in his loins. He groaned and pressed his teeth lightly against Rising’s horn at its base then slowly rasped them up it. Pain and pleasure mixed intoxicatingly in her mind, and she moaned helplessly, squirming beneath Aileris’ weight. As he reached the tip, he thrust completely into her, and she yelled out his name in a high-pitched squeal. Rising’s inner walls clenched around his shaft, milking Aileris’ throbbing cock for his load. His self-control snapped. Aileris grunted, and thick ropes of his sperm flooded Rising’s inner walls, filling her with his essence. He remained hilted inside her, letting everything he had gush out and coat her loins. He let out a long, slow sigh as he finished. Laying his head atop hers, Aileris whispered, “I love ye, Star.” Her ears twitched, and she murmured back something quadra-syllabic. Feeling himself begin to soften, he pulled back out of Rising and rolled off her back, letting her breathe normally. She looked up at him with big eyes, and Aileris smiled then bent to kiss her on the nose. Looking over the trussing tresses, he frowned. “I am not a barber.” Rising sighed. “At least leave a good length intact.” Aileris nodded before lighting her horn. Sheets of power sliced through the binding strands of tail, leaving it shorn off flat at fetlock level. He pulled the severed remainder off Rising and cast it aside; without its connection, all its allure was gone. She rose to kiss Aileris, but her left hind leg gave out, and she stumbled into him. When she looked up to apologize, he silenced her with a kiss and gathered her into a hug. They didn’t need to speak; as they relaxed into one another’s companionship, their mental bond opened wider. Rising nuzzled into his neck, humming, and closed her eyes. In moments, she dozed against Aileris’ chest, her own rising and falling slowly. He smiled down at her and ran a hoof through her mane, smoothing it. After placing a kiss on her forehead, Aileris laid Rising on the grass and snuggled against her, nose to nose. He put a foreleg over her barrel as he watched her rest, stroking the soft hair on her chest with his other hoof. Rising’s lips curled upwards into a smile, revealing her lone fang. Aileris giggled. “Ye know I know yeh’re faking.” Rising nodded. “It’s nice jus’ being ‘eld sometimes, isn’t it?” She nodded again then looked at her forelegs, trapped between them, and back up at him. Aileris kissed her nose then scooched down, freeing them. Rising wrapped her hooves around his head and hugged it to her chest then buried her face in his mane. Aileris giggled before quieting, thinking and listening to the sound of cups beating against a table at irregular intervals, what passed for Rising’s heartbeat at the moment. “Ye know, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m glad me da’ is Discord… almost enough t’make me want t’find ‘im.” Running a hoof up and down Aileris’ neck, Rising said, “Whatever you want, ‘Leris. If it’s finding him, we’ll do it, and I’ll get to thank him for the past few years.” “I wonder what yer parents would do if we did find ‘im and he showed up.” Aileris giggled. Rising raised an eyebrow. “Anypony’s guess, really. It’d be interesting, alright.” She snuggled deeper into Aileris’ mane, yawning. “I really am warm and good for napping on, aren’t I?” “Aye,” he whispered back, “ye really are. Why don’t ye take a quick rest before we head ‘ome?” He felt Rising nod, her thoughts already slowing. Within minutes, her breathing fell into the pattern of sleep, and Aileris kissed her chin. With her asleep, the flow of thoughts between them became mostly one-sided, letting Aileris’ thoughts wander back over their relationship. He could feel them permeate through Rising’s subconscious, and he smiled, knowing they would give her pleasant dreams, possibly very pleasant dreams. Aileris sighed, remembering how, at first, Rising had been so hesitant to even cuddle like this. Looking at her body, feeling how petite it was in his grasp, he could hardly believe how being with somepony like this could have scared him. Unbidden, thoughts of the nameless mare who had put Rising in that position sprang to mind. Seeing her face scrunch up, Aileris pushed the thoughts away to focus on good memories: when they first started practicing magic together before their first real mission, their brief and, more often than not, literally explosive courtship, their wedding and the night after, and the birth of their little colt, Hyper Nova. At the thought of their foal, Aileris realized that she must have nodded off for a while too; the light was fading. She nosed Rising’s neck, rousing her. “Hun, we should probably head back now. Guiding is going t’wonder if we’re gone much longer.” Rising yawned and stretched, cracking her neck. s they stood, she shivered and pressed closer to him, saying, “Maybe we should have headed inside. It’s a little cold out here.” He laid his neck across hers and nuzzled her opposite cheek. “It’s not bothering me that much, but I suppose I get that from you,” she said, giggling. Rising nodded then turned to kiss Aileris’ cheek. Raising a hoof, she said, “To home?” He took her hoof in his. “Aye.” Rising reached out with her magic, extending her leylines up from her horn and over their heads. As they reached the peak of their climb and started to broaden out to form the glyphs that would return them home, her leylines twisted on themselves and broke free from her control, hurtling through the air, spell half-formed. Rising Star and Aileris watched as the coppery light approached their cottage, their magic letting them feel that the spell had enough energy to be complete. They cringed before it made contact with the roof and activated, sinking through and leaving a perfectly circular hole, its edges smoking. It continued through to the other side, pulling the material out of existence, and flickered out when it reached the opposite side. Rising looked up, grimacing. “I’ll… fix that when we get back. But what happened? I’ve never lost control of my magic like that!” “Star,” Aileris said, tapping his forehead, “yer magic is over here. I felt ‘ow much ye were thinking when ye cast that spell. It doesn’t like being controlled that much, remember?” “Aye…” Rising’s ears flopped down. Aileris put a hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Star. Yer not used t’being me, and that school and the Guild drilled ‘precision, control, technique’ into ye. This time, I can guide ye!” She smiled, ears perking back up. “I like the sound of that.” Soft glows formed around both of their horns, and Aileris dipped her neck to touch Rising’s horn tip with his own. Their leylines merged at the touch, the color of their magic blending together into a dark orange as they Linked, their senses merging, their minds flowing around and through one another’s. [You know,] Rising thought to Aileris, [if I had to guess when a mental swap like this was most likely to happen, I would have said during a Link.] [Aye, but that’d make too much sense, and we can’t have that, now can we?] [We can’t, no,] Rising thought back with a mental giggle. Aileris’ mind filled with thoughts of home, and Rising’s mind cleared, settling into a meditative state. [Let the magic flow.] They did, and moments later, the ocher light of their combined magic passed over them, pulling them from the world. The familiar sensation of motion-without-motion, of moving a million miles a minute while also remaining still, filled them as they rushed through the aether between worlds, approaching the one that contained Equestria and their home. As quickly as it had begun, their journey was over, and they pulled back from one another, breaking their Link. Rising looked from the crumbling-to-dust wreckage of their cottage’s roof to Aileris, and her face scrunched up. “I thought Linking might switch us back, and now we have this mess t’clean up.” “I know. Seems not t’be the case, though, so now comes the hard part.” She nodded. “Time t’tell my parents.” Author's Note Thanks to my editors: SaiKimura, Midnight Spark, Feather Scratch, and Cynewulf.
FamilyThe burnt orange glyph of Rising Star’s and Aileris’ combined magic deposited them onto their front lawn. Directly in front of them was not their house but a cloud of ephemera that had once been part of their cottage’s roof. “Wow, I thought that would already ‘ave disappeared,” Aileris said. “Guess I forgot how long it usually takes for big solid things.” “Aye, but it looks like it’s going t’crumble any seco—” A burst of telekinesis blew a hole through the remains of the roof, and a unicorn who usually resembled Rising, but shorter and with a blue mane, strode through the cloud. Guiding Star shot the two of them a glare, and his shoulder sagged as he sighed. “You had better have a good explanation for what the hay is going on here. Son?” “Well, Dad, ye see…” She trailed off as Guiding blinked hard, and Aileris picked up where Rising had left off. “Things got complicated.” He looked between them. “Aileris’ magic flare up again?” “Aye.” He nodded. “You ended up looking like one another?” “More like we ended up being one another,” Rising said, cringing. “Guiding, what’s taking so long out there?” asked a mare from inside the house. “We’ll be right in, Squall,” Guiding called back over his shoulder. Then he turned back to face them. “Any idea how long this is going to last?” Aileris shrugged. “Another minute, another day or two, who can tell?” He stood staring at them for a few more moments before sighing. “Your mother’s going to love this.” “You think she will?” Rising asked, tilting her head. Aileris giggled as he started towards the house. “Oh aye! She’s finally getting the daughter she always wanted!” Rising’s jaw dropped and her eyes went wide as Aileris and Guiding walked back towards the house. Shaking her head, she disappeared in a blaze of light before reappearing at Aileris’ side. He looked over to her and smiled. “See? You just had t’want to teleport here, and my magic did the rest, right?” “Aye. But ye think my mother will want t’pretty me up? She never seemed like that type.” Guiding stopped in the doorway as they reached the porch. “Rising, remember how your mother brought Aileris out to get groomed once a week for three months after she mentioned once how she likes to be brushed? She’s not that type because she doesn’t have a daughter. Or, well…” He shrugged and shook his head as he entered their house, Aileris following behind him. As he, too, passed through the doorway, Star felt a stray thought streak through Aileris’ mind. “Rising,” he called back, “brace!” She tilted her head as she walked through the door, then realization dawned as an orange and blue blur hurtled towards her. “Mommy!” Rising stumbled back a step as Hyper Nova wrapped his hooves around her neck in a flying tackle and proceeded to nuzzle her, buzzing his wings to stay latched on. “I love ye too, Hyper” she said as she pried him off herself to give him a hug. “Now, go give yer mothe— yer da’ a hug too.” Rising tossed Nova with an underhoof motion towards Aileris, and the colt used the boost to cross the gap between them, kicking his little legs as if it would help him remain aloft. But he bumped into Aileris’ chest with his nose and bounced back, landing on the tile on his rump. Not a second later, he sprung up and tried to wrap his forelegs around Aileris’ neck, but it was wider than he could reach. Aileris placed a hoof beneath Nova for support and rubbed noses with him as Squall Line walked into the room, Guiding Star beside her. She looked from Rising Star to Aileris and back to her husband, her wings flaring out, and a grin spread across her face. “So they are really switched!” With a single flap, she crossed the room and gathered Rising into her hooves. “Why, you’re just the gift that keeps on giving!” Rising motioned with her head to Aileris, who was still playing with Nova, letting him climb onto his head like a little mountain climber. Squall put a hoof to her mouth. “Oops. This’ll take a bit of getting used to.” She placed Rising back on the ground and went over to Aileris while Guiding moved to stand beside his temporary daughter. They smiled, watching as Nova hopped from Aileris’ head to Squall’s slightly higher one, laughing his little head off. Guiding tilted his head towards Rising and spoke out the side of his mouth. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that the bottom of your tail is gone. Please tell me that you were just… having fun and not in any danger.” She flushed and started stammering. Putting a foreleg over her Guiding bent to nuzzle Rising and whispered, “Son, when that smoking debris landed on the lawn and not you… Well, I sent your mother and Nova into the other room. If anything had happened to you, they would’ve been inconsolable. I would have been… You were already late, and you’re always so punctual that I—” Rising blinked a few times then returned the embrace, nuzzling back. “Sorry, Dad, I didn’t think about how that would look from the other side.” “Just don’t scare me like that again, or I’ll kill ya.” “Love you too, Dad.” “Damn well better.” Nova zipped across the room and squeezed between their legs to poke Star’s barrel with a wingtip, making her giggle. He kept tickling her with a pinion, asking, “Secrets?” “Aye, here’s a secret for you,” she said, picking him up in her hooves. Leaning close to him, she whispered, “I love you lots, but don’t tell anypony, right? Our little secret. Shhh.” He gasped then nodded, eyes sparkling. “Shhh.” “And,” Star added, “I also love doing this!” She bent down to blow a raspberry on Nova’s belly, but stopped before she did, instead tickling him with her other forehoof. He squirmed and burst out laughing, flailing his legs and wings. Across the room, Aileris and Squall also giggled, watching the show, and even Guiding cracked a smile. Nova squirmed from Rising’s loose hold and dropped to the floor, his hooves clacking against the tile, and he lay there, holding his sides as he fought for breath. Barely a few moments later, he stood up and pointed. “Mommy’s tail’s all flat!” With a flap, he scooted under Rising and between her legs and stopped beneath her tail, the shorn-off hair rustling as his ears rubbed through it. Rising had just turned her head to stare back at Nova when he flipped over to his back and put his hooves up on the cut surface. “Like a table!” Guiding looked over to Squall and Aileris, and they shared a shrug as Rising said, “Now, Hyper Nova, you’re not supposed to play with other ponies’ tails; it’s rude.” She flicked her tail, but Nova let out a whoop, and he stayed attached to the end of it as it swished up. Almost as one, Rising and Guiding Star tilted their heads to the left, staring at the colt, who swayed back and forth like Rising’s tail was some sort of pendulum. “Well,” Rising said at length, “that is an interesting application of pegasus magic. Anypony see that before? I would attribute it to Wild Infant Magic Syndrome, but he’s three.” Three sets of eyes turned towards Squall Line. She looked between them. “What? It’s new to me too! Though…” she looked up at the ceiling then down to her husband “… it does seem like it could be fun. I’ll have to see if I can learn that.” She put a hoof to her chin and hummed softly to herself, eyeing the ceiling and rustling her wings, shooting the occasional glance at Guiding, who coughed and looked away. “Well then,” Aileris said, “it must just be his natural chaos affecting his pegasus magic like mine does to me unicorn magic.” Her guess was met with a nod from Guiding, a shrug from Squall, and a “That sounds about right,” from Rising. Nova kept swinging from Star’s tail, causing her hips to shake back and forth, and at the top of each swing, he pointed at his open mouth with a hoof. “Looks like it’s somepony’s snack time,” Guiding said. “Yay!” Nova flipped off Star’s tail and flung himself towards Guiding, who caught the haphazard tangle of limbs in his sea blue magic and then placed Nova on his back. Aileris headed off to the kitchen with them while Star said, “I think I ought to, um, wash up.” “Oh!” Squall’s hoof dropped to the floor, the clack making Star’s ears twitch. “That sounds exactly like what you should do — and what I should help you with!” Star drew in a breath then let it out slowly. “Yes, Mom.” Squall clapped her forehooves together, flaring out her wings for balance. Star sighed quietly to herself as she climbed the stairs with Squall right behind her. The two mares passed through the hall into the master bedroom, and Star entered the bathroom. Standing in the doorway, Squall watched as Star first washed her face then started to brush her teeth. “I see you like to practice good oral hygiene.” She sketched a pair of quotes in the air with her wings for emphasis. Star nearly choked on the toothbrush and blushed almost as red as Aileris’ coat currently was. “Mom!” “I always thought you’d take after me if you were a mare. I never guessed you would that much.” “Mom! I swear to Luna, if you don’t stop that, I’m going to put myself deaf. I’ll do it!” She put up a hoof. “Okay, okay, but you were super obvious about it. It took you a lot longer to get back than usual, and then you didn’t seem to want to touch Nova with your muzzle. And,” she said, drawing it out, “you picked up Aileris’ accent, which you usually do after Linking, and I know you love doing that afte—” Star didn’t hear anything else; a coppery glow sprang up around her ears, leaving her in silence save for the sound of brushing her teeth. As she tried to put everything else out of her mind, her mental bond with Aileris grew, allowing her to just barely feel that somepony — she assumed it was Nova — was tugging on his mane. Downstairs, their foal stood on the table, making him just tall enough to pull at Aileris’ mane, asking for another section of orange. He broke off a wedge with his magic and asked, “What do ye say?” “Please, Daddy! Orange!” “Aye, that’s right,” he said, passing it to Nova, who crammed it into his mouth. Guiding stood off to the side silently, watching parent and foal, when the doorbell rang. Aileris glanced over to him, and he nodded, walking out. A few moments later, he came back and tapped Aileris’ shoulder. “It’s a package. They say they need Rising Star to sign for it.” “Well, just go get… Right. Well then.” He shook his head and changed the aura surrounding the orange, inviting Guiding to take it. “Be a good lil colt, now,” Aileris said before walking out and to the front door. On the way, he called upstairs through their connection. [Star, that gem dust ye ordered is ‘ere. I need t’sign for it.] [Right. Well then, let’s see. I’ll help you like you did for me. Just let yourself feel how I do it.] She started tracing out “Rising Star” on the mirror with the toothbrush. Opening the door, Aileris saw a fidgeting pegasus. “‘Ello, Wind Dance.” “Hello, mister Star! Package from the city, a small one this time.” She dug around in her left saddlebag and pulled out a small pouch. “Feels like sand to me, but what do I know? I’m just a courier; they don’t tell me anything.” Aileris leaned towards her. “It’s gem dust for a little something I’ve got going.” She looked at the pouch on her hoof again. “Oh, wow! That explains why the city needs you to sign this form.” She held dug out a page that read ‘City Enchanter Materials Requisition Form (Personal Use)’ across the top and hoofed it to Aileris. He took it in his magic and conjured a quill and ink, trying to pay more attention to how Rising was still signing it upstairs, trying to put the motion into some sort of shared procedural memory. Aileris nodded and, barely looking at the paper, signed on the dotted line. Inspecting it, he found it looked nothing like his typical hornwriting. [Thanks for the ‘elp, Star. I didn’t want t’talk my way out of signing for this nice filly,] he thought to her while passing back the paper and taking the pouch. [Filly? If it’s Wind Dance, you’d better tip her. Mom would be upset if you didn’t.] “Wind Dance, wait!” Aileris called out as she turned and spread her wings. “Yes?” Dance turned back to see Aileris’ horn glowing and a small pile of bits floating down the hall towards them. Her eyes lit up as he floated them to her. “Oh, thank you!” “Thank Squall Line… me mom. She sees something in ye.” “I— Wow. I don’t know what to say.” Dance shrugged her shoulders a little as she dropped the bits in a bit purse. Aileris smiled. “Just make something of yerself.” “I’ll finally be able to afford renting out that venue I’ve been eying!” She reared and pirouetted then took to the air. “I’m going to be late for my next delivery, but who cares? Bye, and thank you so much!” Grinning as he walked back down the hall, Aileris thought to Star, [Well, she seemed really happy with that tip. I was just hoping that couriers’ tips weren’t that much higher than restaurants’.] There were a few moments of mental silence before Star responded. [‘Leris, did you tip at twenty percent on something that cost two hundred bits?] He paused in the doorway, shuffling a hoof on the floor. [Um, aye…] [My mom is going to love this. I usually only give her three or four.] Rising looked in the mirror and saw Squall standing there, her ears down and her wings tucked limply at her sides. At the sight, Star’s ears flopped back too, and the spell around them dissolved. She turned around, looking down, and half-raised a forehoof. “Look, Mom—” “No,” Squall said, cupping Star’s cheek with a hoof, “I’m sorry. I get overenthusiastic and overcompensate. When you were young—” she laughed “— younger, at any rate, I built sex up to more than I should have, and it hurt you. I tried to swing it back the other way, make it into a lighthearted thing to joke about, and that’s hurting you too. Everything I try ends up hurting you…” At the quaver in Squall’s voice, Star looked up to see her eyes watering. “Mom? Mom, please, relax. It’s not that bad, really,” she said, smiling. “We both know that I didn’t get my melodramatic streak from Dad… Okay, maybe I got my worrying from him, but you’re making this bigger than it is. I would just appreciate if you left what’s between myself and Aileris alone, and I really don’t want to hear about your sex life.” Star’s eyes went wide and her head shot back as if struck, the implications of what had set her off dawning. “Oh Celestia, is that why I’m an only child?” “About half of why…” Squall mumbled, rubbing her forelegs together. Star spluttered for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and holding it. When she let it back out, she said, “Anyway! You’ll be glad to know that Aileris gave Wind Dance about forty bits as a tip.” “Oh?” she asked, wings ruffling. “Oh, that’s fantastic! She’ll finally be able to afford that venue down by the bay that’s she’s been eying! And I’ll have to give Aileris a big hug — you could learn a thing or two from her about generosity… What?” Raising an eyebrow, Star said, “I didn’t think you really knew Dance.” “I don’t, but I know about her.” “Yeah… I’m trying really hard right now to remember that you’re not a stalker. It’s not going well.” Squall laughed and clapped a hoof on Star’s back, nearly knocking her off her hooves. “Oh, you are so cute when you’re conflicted!” She gasped, and her wings flared out. “I just had the best idea!” Grabbing Star, she lifted her off the ground, carried her back out of the bathroom, and placed her on the bed. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” With a flap that rustled Star’s mane, Squall Line took off down the hall. Tilting her head to the side, Star only managed to say, “O-kay…” Shaking her head, she thought to Aileris, [Heads up, Mom is on a mission.] [Thank ye. Oh, there she is n—] Squall skidded to a halt in the kitchen and wrapped Aileris up in a wing-hug in the same instant. “Oh, thank you for helping out Wind Dance. Now,” she said, pulling back, “ribbon!” “Welcome, Squall, but ribbon?” “You know, rolls of cloth that make things pretty. About this wide,” she said, holding her forehooves apart a bit. She smiled when Nova jumped up and latched onto a foreleg. “Up on back!” As Squall placed Nova between her broad withers, Aileris shrugged. “What color ribbon do ye want?” “Blue, the color of Ailer— your… body’s eyes.” She coughed and looked away. “Still getting used to that.” “Eh, don’t worry about it. It’s not going t’last too long anyhow. And ye know,” she said, her horn glowing and a roll of ribbon popping into existence, “Rising could ‘ave done this too.” Squall took it from Aileris’ magical grasp. “Oh yes, it must have slipped my mind since I’m not really… um…” As Nova scampered up to the top of her head, she looked over to Guiding, who sighed and rolled his eyes. “You know it doesn’t bother me, Squall.” He turned. “Aileris, she’s not really used to living with a unicorn who can make things out of nothing. There’s a reason Rising went to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and I didn’t.” “Gramma, Gramma, go fast!” Nova said, tugging at Squall’s ears. “Hyper, be a good lil colt now.” “No, no, it’s okay, dear.” Squall waved a hoof then looked up to Nova, who was leaning so far over her head that he almost fell over. “You want to go fast? Hold on!” She spread her wings and shot out of the room, zipping up the stairs to the shrieks and giggles of Nova. “She spoils him,” Guiding said as they left. “Aye, but then, she spoils everypony.” Guiding nodded and glanced outside. “It’s getting to be about time to head down to the docks and close up. See if anypony has any pressing concerns I need to address. Come with me?” “Um, aye, of course,” Aileris said, tilting his head to the side. [Star, I’m going out with yer dad to the Dancing Leaf.] [Have fun. I know I sure will,] she thought back as Nova leapt from Squall’s head and flew across the room towards her. He almost made it but undershot, his muzzle bumping into the side of the mattress. He flopped back to the floor and shook his head, then Star wrapped him up in her magic and placed him on the bed beside her. “Let’s see what Grandma has planned for us, Hyper.” He nodded then latched onto her right foreleg as Squall showed the ribbon that fit neatly inside her broad hoof. “I’m going to braid it through your tail! Won’t that look pretty?” she asked, wings flapping at her sides. An icy weight settled in Star’s chest, and outside in the street, Aileris stumbled over nothing. [Oh Luna, Aileris, what do I do? She wants to braid my tail! If I say no, she’d just ask why, and you know I can’t answer that!] [Star, calm down, hun. Just tell ‘er that ye want yer mane braided instead. She’s going t’say it’s cute, I promise.] Aileris found Guiding staring at him when she looked up, and he asked, “What was that? Rising need something?” “Aye,” Aileris said, following him again, “he had a problem with Squall’s plan.” Guiding hummed to himself as they walked through the streets of the outskirts of Baltimare. “Ribbon… and suddenly a daughter… and Rising had an issue with it. She wanted to braid it through his… her tail, didn’t she?” Aileris blinked at him then looked away and bit her lip. “Oh, I’ve known about my son’s… fascination since he was about fourteen. Honestly, did you think that Rising could hide something like that from me?” “Well, when ye put it that way, no.” Aileris giggled then put a hoof to his mouth. “So,” Guiding asked as they continued, “what did you end up saying?” “I told Rising to just ‘ave Squall to braid the ribbon into his, er, her mane.” “That ought to work.” He chuckled a few times. “She’ll think it’s cute.” “That’s exactly what I thought!” As they passed a confectionery shop, The Sweet Tooth, Guiding lowered his voice. “Yes, and that thinking between you two is very useful. Not only does it let you just talk to one another from far away, it even lets you forge a signature without starting a changeling hunt. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?” Aileris’ eyes widened. “I ‘adn’t thought of that.” Back in their home, Star’s eyes also widened, and she sat up straighter. Squall pulled back from the braid she was working on and watched Star’s ear twitch as if she had heard something. “Dear, what is it? Nothing bad, I hope.” “Hm? No, no, everything should be fine. Dad just pointed out that if it hadn’t been for our mental bond, we might have started a changeling hunt with that signature for the delivery,” Star said then relaxed back into Squall’s reach; she was really enjoying having her mane played with. “Oh dear, that would be awful.” She frowned as she resumed weaving the ribbon through Star’s mane. Nova hopped up and down, wings flailing at the air. “Play changelings! Play changelings!” “Hush, Hyper. It’s not playtime now.” He settled to the floor, face scrunched up into a scowl. Star sighed and conjured some wooden blocks in front of him. Nova just glared at them until she picked them up with her magic and floated them around his head. He lunged for them as Squall continued to work the ribbon through Star’s mane, both mares smiling as they watched his antics. Only another two pleats were done when Nova stopped paying attention to the whirling blocks. “Want play changelings!” he said, stomping a tiny hind hoof loudly enough to make Star wince. “Now, Hyper Nova, we don’t stomp in the house.” The color of his coat shifted towards red, and smoke began wafting off his wings. “Want! Play! Changelings!” Behind her, Star heard Squall sigh. Two spells immediately came to mind, and she cast one first, hoping not to need the second. A wave rolled down her body, turning her coat a deep purple. “Look! I’m purple! Isn’t that silly?” Nova pouted as his primaries caught fire, and he sat down, crossing his forelegs across his chest. As the fire raced across his body, Star’s second spell covered the room in a glistening sheen, protecting it from the heat. She mentally reset a days-without-incident calendar from four to zero days as Nova burned on the floor. “Well,” Squall said, “at least he’ll probably sleep alright tonight. That usually leaves him pretty burnt out.” Star put a hoof to her mouth to stifle the giggles that sprang up. “Mom, we’re not trying to encourage this.” “True, but just look at him. He looks so adorable like that. I could just cuddle the little guy so much… you know, if it wouldn’t give me third-degree burns.” Watching as Nova burned, pouting, on the floor, the corners of Star’s mouth turned up. At first, she couldn’t quite tell why, but then she realized that below the flames the chaos magic that fueled them roiled — and it reminded her of Aileris. It occurred to Star that the chance of any other unicorn finding chaos magic relaxing, even beautiful, was very likely zero. As he stepped onto the docks, Aileris smiled too, and Guiding raised an eyebrow. “Oh, Rising’s just thinking I’m beautiful again.” “Funny you should mention that,” Guiding said as the Dancing Leaf came into view. “I’m going to have to ask you to make sure that we’re actually, really in private.” Aileris sighed and began to narrow the flow of thoughts between himself and Rising as they continued walking. By the time they reached the ship, it was a trickle, barely more than a sense of direction and mood. They stopped in front of the ship, and Guiding looked up at it silently. Aileris stood beside him, his tail flicking occasionally as he waited for whatever was coming. “You see the figurehead on the prow?” Aileris nodded. It was a pegasus mare — a quite beautiful one, he realized — whose coat and feathers were carved like leaves. “She was made by earth ponies and pegasi to haul heavy freight as quickly as the wind could carry it. And then, it was captained by a unicorn — will be till the day I die.” He turned to Aileris and sighed. “Let’s go to my cabin. We don’t want anypony hearing much of this.” Nodding, Aileris extended a leyline to touch Guiding and another up to the deck of the ship. With a burst of energy, he pulled them both through the arching path, disappearing and reappearing with a flash. “You didn’t have to teleport us, you know. We could have used the gangplank like normal ponies.” Aileris stared at him, raising an eyebrow. “Point taken,” he said, opening the door to his cabin and letting Aileris in. There was no furniture in the room beyond the map table and the bunk at the far end, a bunk that was large enough for two ponies even if one was very large. Aileris noted this with a smile as he remembered how often Squall accompanied her husband out to sea, precisely every time he went. He went to stand beside the table as Guiding closed the door behind them. “Alright,” Aileris said, “what’s so important that ye don’t want Rising t’listen in? We planning a surprise party this time?” Guiding snorted. “No, it’s just, well… This ship, everything I do, I try to stick to my morals. Not just everypony but everyone deserves to be given a fair chance. StarLine Shipping Co. hires more griffons and zebras than the rest of Equestria’s eastern seaboard, you know. I was the first in my family for generations to marry a non-unicorn, and I made damn sure to instill those same morals into Rising from the day he was born. “And then there was you. When he told us what you are, I thought that the stress of working for the Princess had snapped him. But no, you’re honest to Celestia chaos incarnate — though you do a fantastic job of controlling yourself for the most part.” “Guiding…” Aileris shook his head and started again. “Dad, please, ye know I do what I can t’stop this stuff from ‘appening, but there’s only so much I can do.” With a sigh, Guiding put a hoof on Aileris’ shoulder. “For my sake, thank you. But for my son’s… Aileris, I just wanted him to have a happy, normal life. But now, I don’t think he could ever be happy with just normal. Look at yourself, your situation, your friends, your son! That makes him happy; the sort of things that make my brain hurt to even consider are the things he thrives in. “What do I understand? I run a company. I captain a ship. I’m simple, plain, an old seadog who can’t learn any new tricks. But he—” His voice broke. “Rising understands how to mold time itself to his will, travel to a world of his own making, can send the Princesses a letter if he wants and actually get a real response. What am I to that?” Aileris sighed and put a foreleg around the smaller stallion. “Yer his father. Yer the one who made ‘im who he is. Everything he does is because ye put ‘im on that path from the beginning. Who else could’ve raised a colt into a stallion who would love something that could do this?” he asked, gesturing at his body. Guiding laid his head against Aileris’ neck and sighed. “Thanks. You’re too kind, you know. I just… I feel like a hypocrite, sometimes, when things like this happen. I say that I’m okay with it because I need to support him, but it just hurts my head. And despite that… I need you to do it more often.” “More?” Aileris drew back and stared at him. Guiding sighed. “Yes, more. You don’t know what it was like, watching him grow up. He would befriend anyone. He had two griffon friends when he was eight in addition to pretty much his entire class. I don’t know how he kept track of it all in that marvelous head of his. When we sent him off to Canterlot when he was ten, he took to it like a fish to water.” Guiding swallowed, and Aileris put his head down, his ears going flat already. “But then his fifth year rolled around, and… you know. It changed him. He was like a completely different pony, reclusive, lost every friend he had. Before the Princess snatched him up, he was planning a solo trip around the world to study the global thaumologic gradient. Probably only a few hundred ponies even know what that means, and he was going to toss away any chance at companionship for it.” Turning away, he slowly shook his head. “Seeing him like that killed me, Aileris.” Aileris walked to the other side of the table and stood in front of him. “And then I came along, his mare in a tattered cloak, come t’steal his ‘eart away.” That got a single laugh. “Well, that’s one way to put it. But yes, you gave Squall and me back our son… and then swapped bodies with him.” Giggling, Aileris said, “Aye, and if that’s the sort of thing ye want me t’do even though it makes ye uncomfortable, it shows ‘ow good a father ye are.” Guiding reached up and hugged Aileris’ neck with a foreleg. “Thank you, really. Now, I actually do have business to do, so you just head back home. I’ll see you tomorrow, probably.” After returning the hug, Aileris headed for the door but stopped before opening it. He looked back. “You know, Rising is going to hear this whole conversation sooner or later.” “I know.” He shook his head and shrugged. Aileris waved, opened the door, and disappeared in a flash, letting the mental bond open wide once more. [I’m headed home! You’d better have dinner ready, wifey.] A good deal of mental spluttering came from Rising before anything intelligible made it through. [I cook just as often as you! When I’m not in the middle of a project… or putting together a new spell… Okay, fine.] Trotting through the city, Aileris giggled like a fool. [Maybe ye could cook it on Hyper. He still burning?] [He fell asleep, kind of just smoldering now. I could see about grilling some peppers on his back if you want.] [Sounds delicious! I’ll be there soon!] He continued on, humming to himself and listening to the phantom sounds of tiny snores and sizzling. With his now longer stride, Aileris found that he was actually passing some of the other ponies making their way home, and that was just at a walk. He grinned then broke into an easy trot and found himself passing almost everypony. The speed came easily, and soon the wind whipped through his mane as he galloped through the streets for no reason other than he could. [I’m glad you’re having as much fun in me as I usually have in you,] Rising thought to him, remembering some choice times for effect. After a few moments, Aileris responded. [That’s not fair! I’m out in public!] [Never stopped you before,] she thought, swishing her tail deliberately while setting out a couple bowls and filling them with steaming peppers and kale. [And everypony thinks that I’m ye.] Rising stopped and blinked before letting the memories go. [You make a remarkably good point.] Then, Squall walked into the kitchen and passed Rising the oven mitts. “Hyper’s all tucked in and sleeping like a log. You two can probably have a nice dinner date tonight,” she said, tracing quotes in the air with her wings. Rising coughed and blushed. “Uh, thanks, Mom. You have a good night, too. Love you.” Squall stooped down and placed a kiss on her forehead. “You too, my very little Star.” They went to the door together, and Rising waved as Squall took off for home. Then, she walked upstairs to Nova’s room and leaned on the doorframe, looking in. A smile came to her face as she watched the little colt’s barrel rise and fall, his hind legs and wings twitching in his sleep. Star felt a warm rush of emotion overtaking her as she watched him sleep. It burst through in a giggle, and her eyes went wide. “Oh no…” Their mental link thundered open once more, blazing a line of light between them. With a lurch, Rising found himself skidding around a corner at a gallop. Head met wall, and wall won. He rose, groaning, and put a hoof to his head, checking his horn. He sighed. “Well, that could have ended badly. Oww…” At the stares of everypony around him, he shrugged. “Some things you just have to wonder about.” With that said, he teleported away. When he arrived home a few minutes later, Aileris was waiting for him at the door. “Ye sure yer alright? I was running so fast, and—” A final teleport brought their lips together. After a few delicious moments, Rising pulled back and whispered, “I really am okay, see?” “Aye, except for that nasty bruise. It looks like yeh’ve got another horn growing out of yer forehead!” “Yeah, well… it looks like your mane is the prettiest thing in Equestria. So there. Ha.” Aileris giggled and tossed her head, motioning inside. “Ye flatterer. Come on. We’ll get ye some ice and ‘ave ourselves a nice dinner date.” Rising smiled as he followed her inside. That sounded wonderful. Author's Note To those who stuck around, thank you for reading! This song ought to provide a slight hint towards what the next story will be. Radiarc - Preparing for the Night Finally, thanks to my editors: SaiKimura, Cynewulf, Feather Scratch, and especially Midnight Spark.
