Lineage

With luck on our side, the snow storm had died during the early hours of the morning. Luna and I finished our morning rituals and proceeded to bury the body of the soldier from the Albony Legion on top of a large hill overlooking the entire village. As Luna used her magic to pile the last of the dirt, she knelt down and drew a symbol that resembled a falcon with a cross emblazoned on its chest. Before I could ask her what the symbol meant, her hand lit up with a bright blue aura and covered the entire grave. I squinted against the bright blue light, waiting for it to die down for a long moment before looking at what she’d done.

The simple dirt grave had transformed into a pristine marble tomb, a small etching underneath the symbol Luna had drawn, with the symbol itself being much more refined and proper, having been transformed into solid gold ornament that adorned the middle of the tomb.

“What did you do?” I asked in awe.

“Two things,” Luna said in a solemn tone. “The first was promote her from Lance Corporal to Captain, due to outstanding service to her kingdom. Secondly, I awarded her with the Golden Falcon medal, an award only given to those whose service has been recognised and congratulated by the ruling party. If the rest of her unit were here, I’d award them all the same honour.”

“That makes me think,” I said. “Where is the rest of her unit? And as a better question, what is a southern siege force doing this far north?”

“And performing reconnaissance, no less?” Luna nodded. “I’m sure if we find out where the leader of their unit set up their command post, we should find out what orders they were sent here on.”

“Who commands the Legion?” I asked, thinking that may help narrow it down.

“In peacetime?” Luna said, turning to me. “They don’t usually assemble, as they’re not part of the guard. But in wartime, they report directly to Celestia and I. And I know for a fact that I didn’t send them up here.”

“Maybe Celestia did?”

“Maybe,” Luna nodded. “But we’ll have to wait until we get back to ask her.”

“Maybe we won’t,” I said, closing my eyes and extending my mind out to find Grael. “Grael? You awake buddy?” There was silence for a long moment, nothing but the usual hum of our connection before the sound of chops being licked followed by his sleepy whine coming through the connection.

“Mostly,” he said in a drowsy fashion. “What do you need?”

“I need to talk to Celestia,” I answered. “I know you’re tired and all, but I’m sure if I meld with you, you can get a little more sleep?”

“Richter, we both know that isn’t how that works,” Grael said in a bemused answer. “If you meld with me, you’ll be just as tired as I am because it’s my body that’s tired, not my spirit.”

“Alright, smart-ass,” I sighed. “Are you gonna let me do it or not?”

“I suppose,” Grael sighed. “Just give me a moment.” I felt Grael open his mind a little more, allowing me to send my consciousness through our link and directly into his mind. I may not have mentioned this before, but both Grael and I have the ability to transport our soul into the other’s body. Before you ask: Yes, it is a form of possession, but it’s a consensual one and I still leave Grael the ability to kick me out at any point. The technique is actually available to any strong magic user, but it’s insanely risky to do without an open channel, as you’re at risk of your possession being blocked, which would stop your soul from entering the body and you’d lose your own body forever. It essentially works like throwing a ball at someone: if they catch it, you’re completely safe. But if you miss the throw or they hit it away, you can’t un-throw the ball and will it back to your hand.

The way Grael and I do it is through our link, which acts as a focussing tunnel, essentially. I like to use the ball analogy, but instead of throwing it in an open space, it’s more like rolling it down a closed pipe where the only place it can go is the other end, which would be Grael’s body. You following? Good.

I felt myself inhabit his body, feeling my physical make up change into that of a strong wolf, adjusting to needing to take longer breaths to fill my much larger lungs, panting through my mouth to let out the heat, and walking on all fours instead of trying to stand upright.

“There we go,” I said, feeling Grael’s presence next to mine in his body. “Rest up, pal.”

“I’ve already told you-”

“I know, you miserably throw-rug,” I chuckled. “Just give me five minutes and you can go back to napping.” Though now that I was in Grael’s body, I could feel how extremely tired he was, especially his hind legs. The muscles of my new wolf hips ached something fierce from whatever the hell he’d being doing all last night.

“Wanna tell me why I’m aching so much?” I asked.

“Ask mother when you see her,” Grael answered. “She had me up all night working up quite a sweat to produce a litter of pups for her.”

“... What?”

“Ask her when you see her,” Grael chuckled. “Though, expect to see her carrying around a few little wolf cubs when you get back.” I wanted to question him on what he meant, but I felt his consciousness block me from talking to him as my mind went through what he’d explained to me. I shook my large head before walking out of Grael’s room, wondering where Celestia would be at this time of the day. If I knew her like I thought I did, she’d most likely be in the council hall, sorting through claims, requisitions, and requests for tools, resources, and free housing from the villagers outside the main city, especially as they were getting ready for the autumn harvest in the coming weeks.

I padded through the castle at a brisk pace, passing by the chambermaids and servants, each one giving me a bow or a smile as I walked past. The thing with Grael being my “pet” is that he was treated as one of the family and was treated as a member of the royal family, much like Philomena, Celestia’s phoenix, Alister, Luna’s Netherfalcon, and Kitty, Mom’s fox. And speaking of Kitty, I caught a whiff of her around the next corner, her usually hum catching my ears as we drew closer to each other.

As we both rounded the same corner, she greeted me with the same attitude she always gave Grael: a vicious hiss. But, since I was me and not Grael, I retorted with a guttural snarl as I bared my sharp teeth. The fox recoiled in shock momentarily before regaining her composure and doing something I’d never her seen her do: talk.

“Well, well, well…” she said in a surprised manner. “I know for a fact the overgrown throw rug doesn’t have the balls to act that way towards me… hiya, Richter.” Her tone stood out to me in a strange way. She had the same tone that Mom spoke to me in whenever we were alone: seductive. I was being seduced by a foot-tall, ginger fox.

“Kitty,” I said, the magical bond between Grael and I allowing my voice to be used instead of his. “Since when could you talk?”

“Where are you off to this fine morning?” She asked, completely dodging the question. “And in such a hideous figure?”

“I need to see Celestia,” I answered, knowing she wasn’t going to answer my question. “D’you know where she is?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” she nodded, beginning to pace around me, occasionally rubbing herself against my legs. “She’s in the Great Hall with Cadance. I believe the two of them were discussing the new pups that are said to be arriving in a few months time.”

“Are you gonna tell me what that’s about?” I asked.

“Nope,” she winked. “Bye.” And with that, she took off at a brisk pace down the corridor and away from me. I turned my head back towards the direction I was headed, thinking the quickest way to the Great Hall from where I currently was as well as thinking about what they meant with puppies. I set off at a run once I’d figured out where I was meant to be going, deciding I didn’t want to keep Luna waiting longer than I had to or risk her growing impatient. Turning corners, charging down hallways and leaping out of a second story window, onto a tiled roof, and then down into a courtyard as a shortcut I’d discovered when I was first learning how to climb buildings, I charged open the door to the Great Hall. The old doors opened with a colossal bang, causing both Celestia and Cadance, who were sitting a few feet away from it at the great table, to jump violently.

“Grael!” Cadance exclaimed angrily.

“Not Grael,” I said, leaping up onto the table and lying down on my front just ahead of their food. “Richter.”

“Oh,” Celestia said, swallowing her mouthful of bread. “Why have you merged with Grael?”

“I need to ask you something,” I said before turning towards my mother with an angry expression on my face. “And I need to ask you something too.”

“Goody,” she said with a bored expression, looking almost as tired as I felt.

“What did you need to ask?” Celestia asked.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about a unit of the Albony Legion dispatched to the north, would you?” I asked. “Because Luna and I had to sleep overnight in a village littered with bodies from the Legion, and she says that she didn’t order them up here. We found their bodies littering the village we’d stopped in for the night. Killed in a bandit attack, I think.”

“Oh,” Celestia said in an upset tone. “I… I thought they’d already been buried. I didn’t think they’d been left there to rot.”

“What were they looking for?” I asked her.

“A… a relic. Something very close to me that I thought they’d find in the mountains,” Celestia said. “It’s not that important, really. It was just for closure purposes, if anything. But if it wasn’t in the stash you found everything else in, it means that they never found it to begin with.”

“You sent them out as a search party?” I asked. “They’re not suited for the cold weather.”

“I know, it’s just that they were the closest to the area due to them being on leave for Hearth’s Warming,” she sighed, getting up with a solemn expression and shaking her head. “Anyway, I have duties to attend to, goodbye, Richter.” With that she leaned in and gave me a kiss between the ears and a brief lip-lock with Cadance before heading out of the Great Hall. I blinked blankly for a moment, the brief sight of lesbian interaction giving a brief tingle to my undercarriage before I turned towards Cadance.

“I need to make a habit of watching you two kiss more often,” I grinned.

“Drop in on us on a Sunday evening and you can watch me eat her out, if you want.” Cadance shrugged, resting her chin on her hand.

“Think she’d let me titfuck her?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Probably,” she answered. “Ask her to breastfeed you. She enjoys doing that.”

“Could she ride and breastfeed me at the same time?”

“Her tits are more than big enough if either of you leans forward.”

“Nice. Any other tips?”

“If you squeeze her tits as she cums, she’ll squirt milk.”

“... I love my family.”

“I know.”