Madame Butterfly

Sinisteed

“That's- that's- that's not how the sunshine song goes,” Twilight Sparkle said, sotto voce, magicking open her saddlebag and floating out a book. The pages of 'Fun Rhymes for Fillies and Foals' flickered as she flipped them. “See?” She said, proffering the book to Applejack, who happened to be closest to her. “See?” She continued, pressing the book onward to Rarity. “See?” She turned it towards Cadance and Shining, although there was no hope of them reading it at that distance.

Sinisteed's compound eyes easily made it out.

“Yes,” Twilight continued, flipping it back towards herself. “It's: Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

Indeed it was.

Through it all, her voice had been remarkably calm and even. On the next sentence, it rose from that quiet tone till it was a scream ripped from the heart of her childhood: “Not a great big shake your plot in my brother's face shake!” The childhood, Sinisteed surmised, she'd just seen a shining pillar of corrupted. “What kind of hussy Princess are you, anyway!?”

“Twilie-” Shining said, his tone stunned – although Sinisteed was starting to wonder if that was maybe normal for him?

“The kind using the un-Bowdlerised version on page one-oh-three of 'Mature Melodies and Salacious Strains for Mares and Stallions,'” Princess Cadance suggested, grinning, well, salaciously.

“Oh. I think I have that one,” Twilight muttered, “it was one of Trixie's.” This time, the book was lifted from Fluttershy's saddlebags, and her wings shifted uncomfortably as Twilight's magic removed it. Both books floated gently in a magenta glow. Sinisteed and the guards and watched, reduced to an audience, as the whipcrack sound of page-on-page action bespelled by an expert librarian echoed around the great hall. “One-oh-one, one-oh-two, ah, here it is,” Twilight Sparkle said, and read it. “Oh,” she said, and her expression... changed. “You're right.” she continued softly. “Trixie, you naughty, naughty thing. I had no idea you were that kind of mare,” she whispered, flipped another page, and her eyes widened.

“I suppose I should be glad you didn't use the original version on page hundred and four,” her eyes slid, drawn reluctantly, as if against her will, to the other side of the double-spread, “or the gypsy variant on oh-five,” she whispered, pupils shrinking to pinpricks. “Trixie, you filthy filly...”

“Is that the...” Shining said.

“One from back then? The one I finally got you with?” Cadance said, grinning. “Yes.”

“Eight years...” Shining whispered. “Has it really been that long? You'd think I'd have managed to make an honest mare of you by now.”

“Eight years ago,” Twilight said, “you were a trainee, Shining. I'd just been apprenticed to Princess Celestia... but I still needed a foalsitter... which was you, Cadance...” realization hit her. “You bucked my brother! You bucked my brother while you were my bucking foalsitter!!” Then realization took the backswing. “You didn't buck him whilst foalsitting me... did you?” She asked, knee-deep in denial - and the waters were rising fast.

“Sorry, Twilie,” Shining said, blushing.

Twilight's gaze flashed between them, and Sinisteed read the looks as shocked and betrayed. Most often, looks like that were directed at changelings recently-revealed as changelings.

“You're the worst foalsitter ever!” Twilight snarled, denial bursting its banks and flooding the land, flinging 'Fun Rhymes for Fillies and Foals' at Cadance and Shining, “and you're the worst Big-Brother-Best-Friend-Forever ever!” Twilight snapped, and followed it with 'Mature Melodies and Salacious Strains for Mares and Stallions'.

“I'm sorry I didn't tell you about us back then,” Shining told his little sister. “You once told me you would've loved Cadance to be your big sister for real. I should've told you then. I knew you'd want to know.” At this, Twilight's eyes were welling with tears. “I just... it was a lot of pressure, you know? Cadance is an amazing mare, an actual Princess, and I was just sure I was going to screw it up somehow...”

“I do want to know.” Twilight blurted. “I mean, I did. I deserved to,” she sniffed. “But I'm happy for both of you – thanks, big brother - “ she said, as he floated 'Fun Rhymes' back over too her, and it was returned to her saddlebag. The pause gave her pause for thought, and she tilted her head. “Frankly I'm surprised you didn't screw it up, Shining, with a mare as amazing as Cadance.”

“He did.” Cadance broke in. “Often.” At this, Shining looked stricken. “But you screwed me back down, afterwards,” Cadance continued, nuzzling him affectionately, “so it's okay.”

“I didn't just hear that,” Twilight said, definitively. Applejack looked at her with an expression of concern. Sinisteed hadn't though the orange earthpony brute who'd bucked him in the head had it in her, frankly.

“Thanks anyway, Twilie. For everything.” Cadance said, tucking 'Salacious Strains' beneath her wing. “This brings back some memories. Up for a little re-enactment, Shining?” She asked.

Shining had to shift behind Cadance's wing to prevent flashing the room with just how up for that he was.

Sinisteed felt just a little jealous of the Queen and the Princess, in that moment. All that length of love...

“You can't have that!” Twilight shouted, gazing horrified at Cadance's ruffled feathers as if her gaze could spear straight through them. “That's the Ponyville library's!! You haven't signed it out!!! You haven't even got a card there!!!!”

“On interlibrary loan?” Cadance suggested, fluffing her wing. Shining gasped, whinnied, then his jaw clamped closed. Sinisteed didn't even want to think about what he thought Cadance had just done. Her feathers might feel nice down there, and be resilient enough to touch there, but his own gossamer wings weren't intended for that, and-

“Don't do that!” Shouted Rainbow Dash. “Take care of your pinion-feathers, don't you know what'll happen if you get them sticky-”

Of course, Cadance's wings wouldn't be designed for that either. They were meant for flying. Although it looked like Shining was pretty high right now.

“Easy sugahcube,” Applejack mumbled, the Element of Loyalty's tail between her teeth as she dragged Rainbow back down by her tail.

Shining was blushing like he was auditioning to replace Celestia's sun. Subtly, Cadance continued fluttering her feathers back and forth, as the pair of them shuffled towards the door.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy whispered, her own wings ruffling. “I never even thought- that's so dirty- I could never- but, oh-”

Sinisteed thought the pale gold-and-rose pegasus was adorable. The pale pink wings and cyan bodies of her triple-butterfly cutiemark (any creature with a cocoon was fine with Sinisteed), the slim line of her flanks themselves, the way her rosehip hair curled charmingly about the nape of her neck, the the soft summer-sky blue of her eyes that just drew you into her gaze...

...her gaze, her blue-eyed gaze, a summer-sky of a gaze, pre-dawn glow framing a blooming meadow of buttercups in rose-pink glory. The sun rose, and here it didn't feel like Celestia's sun but hers, as warm and golden as her coat, gently shooing the night's mist away.

Beneath the gleaming aquamarine sky she stood, a cornucopia of treats surrounding her. Around the world lit by her love, birds chattered in the trees and small animals scampered and searched for food.

Any food but that which she offered. No adorable creature came to her adoring yellow hooves.

Sinisteed wanted to go to her, it was so sad. She loved them even as they neglected her. But he was a chitinous monster, and her love was a banquet that was not for him.

Morning, passed. The sun rested overhead.

Still the baby birds not come.

Still the sun blazed down.

How long had he stood here, in this meadow at midday? An hour? Two? More?

Flowers wilted. Grass dried into hay. The pale pegasus did not eat. Berries ripened and fell and rotted.

Still the adorable animals did not come.

A day? A month? A year?

Neither world nor seasons turned. Birds fled, abandoning their flightless offspring. Rivers pooled, grew brackish and dried, their beds cracking apart. Wounds in the world.

From his hooves, a spark. An accident. Probably.

Tinder-dry, the world burned. The cute creatures died screaming. Monstrosity such as his did not save him.

Pain, happened.

The pale pegasus lived. The pale pegasus was unharmed. Dying, Sinisteed dragged his ruined, changeling body towards her, the soul and center of this nightmare world.

She was whispering something, he realised: “You're going to love me,” she breathed, over and over, rocking gently back and forth.

“Help,” he croaked from his burnt throat, blowing blackened dust that'd once been part of him across her, marring her beauty.

At the last, she turned her head to him. Her eyes... were a Queen's eyes: “Love me,” she said simply.

Sinisteed knew he was incapable of love.

In the Great Hall of Canterlot Castle, Fluttershy blushed and glanced away from him. She was... lovely.

It bore thinking on.

“Get back here! You haven't signed for that book!” Twilight shouted as Cadance and Shining bolted for the door. “Big brother!” She yelled - to their tails.

She really was lovely...

One or two seconds might've passed since he'd met Fluttershy's stare.

...Fluttershy, that was.

“Really, Twilight, was it necessary to be so uncouth?” Rarity said. “I mean, it's perfectly natural for a colt and a young mare to, well, you know...”

Fluttershy had...

“Especially if they done gettin' hitched afterwards, Sugahcube,” Applejack broke in. “Ah mean, it's only natural, ain't it?”

He and Fluttershy had...

“I saw Big Mac,” Twilight said, as if from far away. Whoever 'Big Mac' was. “He was in your south barn, AJ. With Miss Cheerilee. Mounting her from behind and bucking her brains out like she was one of your appletrees. Mare's got a filthy mouth for a schoolteacher. Not sure I'd want my little sister getting her education from that tongue. Though it was certainly teaching Big Mac a thing or two.”

Fluttershy's eyes had...

“Wait, wha? You're talkin' about mah brothah?” Applejack said, accent thickening to the point of incomprehensibility.

Their gazes had...

“Oh, be nice, Applejack,” Rarity said. “I'm certain Cheerilee's perfectly professional in the classroom, and the mare deserves a good time. Sweetie Belle's a handful, and I'm sure Applebloom's no better, and I'm very sure she and Big Mac will treat each other well.”

Fluttershy's stare had...

“She was wearing a saddle,” Twilight continued, still hazy. “I've seen the design in your boutique, Rarity. Big Mac was squishing it.”

“No...” breathed Rarity.

…seen right through him...

“I guess they aren't serious enough to be thinking about foals,” Twilight continued, “because when Cheerilee finished – just before Big Mac – he pulled out, and when he finished it spattered all over-”

...and made him...

“-My beautiful design!” Rarity wailed. “How could they do that to my baby? Of all the things that could've happened, this is: The. Worst. Possible. Thing.” She enunciated, lifted her hoof to her brow, and collapsed backwards onto a chaise longue – that hadn't been there a moment ago... had it?

…love her.