Zecora shifted in her sleep. She felt strange, like something urgent was about to happen. Lifting her snout from the oddly soft bed that definitely wasn't her own, she bumped her lips to Tree's. "Sister of Plants I know not what, but something seems urgently wrong with my plot."

"Huh? What's up?" Tree seemed to lazily get her senses about her, leaning in for a deeper kiss. When the zebra spurned her advance, she opened her eyes. "Oh, you want a kiss on your plot? Righteous."

It was hard not to grin at how relaxed the earth pony was even when rudely awoken. Zecora slid from the bed and turned, arcing her tail up.

"Whoa, you have something crowning…" Tree was instantly more awake than even usual. "Just, like, relax and… your friend is at the door."

Zecora felt a trembling clench of muscles down her vagina and felt her body grip down on the shape she could now clearly feel, pushing at it. The cockatrice managed at last to knock the door open and slithered in give a few clucks at the zebra. "Is this your doing, my pet? Or upon the wrong target, am I beset?"

"An egg. Like, a stone egg. I bet I know who laid it in there." Tree carefully set the ovoid down on a blanket and gave Zecora's croup a rub with a hoof. "More in there, Stripy Sister?"

Zecora folded her legs down, settling on the floor of Tree's home. "More there are sure to be, thank you Tree for not deigning to flee." She looked back over her shoulder, smiling at the earth pony. Another contraction claimed her focus, at least there was none of the pain normally associated with having a foal. The feel of another egg traveling down her birth canal had Zecora so distracted she barely noticed her little friend curl up just in front of her.

With Tree urging her on, with advice and reassurance, Zecora eventually laid all six of the stone-like cockatrice eggs. When she had one out, and didn't feel any more tension inside, she carefully got up and turned to see what all the fuss had been about.

Tree Hugger watched her friend get to shaky legs and turn, saw her face light up at the sight of the bundle of eggs. "Can't say I, like, know anything about these little dudes, but we know a little more now."

Zecora settled down, watching as the cockatrice curled up around the eggs on the now messy blanket. "No pain I felt, it is true, but some warning next time, please do." The zebra knew her rhyme was shaky, but she didn't care for once. She was exhausted and found herself curled up around the impromptu nest, her snout resting just beside the odd creature's tail.

Tucking a second blanket around Zecora, Tree retreated onto her bed and curled up for a little more sleep.

Tree Hugger strode into town almost an hour after the sun had come up. She walked, slowly, into the town center and found the shade of a tree a most auspicious place to settle down. There were a few ponies wandering around, some approached her and the relaxing song that filled their heads as they neared encouraged them to find some shade under the big tree too.

"Yo, Tree." Vinyl's voice was the first to sound in the morning air, but it was a welcome breaking of the silence. "We need to talk about things."

Tree's eyes were half closed in relaxation, but she nodded. "Like, what's up my thumping friend?" Heads turned as the influence of a changed tune came to them, Vinyl disrupting the complete relaxation with notes that made each pony invest back into their individuality.

"First, foals all need to have their seeds banished. Mother can accept them later if they will have her, but only an adult should make this choice. Also, evening and morning songs, pumped right into their heads, are not appropriate." Vinyl settled in the sun, tipping her shades up to reveal her striking green eyes.

Lyra, Sweetie, and Octavia approached next, the unicorn carrying dozens of bags of fresh bread and nut-butter. Even Vinyl's song evened when her mate fed her bits of deliciously seed-filled bread.

"Most excellent." Tree finally spoke, agreeing with both Vinyl and complimenting the food. "And like, anypony who wants to keep this, is welcome to, but nopony is to look down on those who don't. This isn't everypony's road to perfect karma."

Vinyl smiled more, levitating some bread up to feed Octavia. "So, has mother uprooted herself and come here, or are we to borrow some of her power?" Vinyl rubbed a hoof at the ground, dislodging some grass and pushing her frog down into the soft earth. No roots sprouted, but she felt a bond to her 'mother', as each shared of the earth. "O… kay…"

Tree sat up on her plot, crossing her back legs and lowering her forehooves down to rest on her lower limbs. Closing her eyes she focused her energies and began to hum softly. She felt the flame of life that boiled in Vinyl today, understanding fully that her mother had chosen the unicorn for this and that, in all likelihood, it was the right choice.

"Anypony who wishes their seed-bond gone, please come to me. There is no rush." Vinyl felt a very old song sing through her, the tree, her mother, having nudged into the mare's own head. Ponies didn't rush, some started at first, looking a little worried. "You sure you want it gone?"

"I… I don't know how you can handle this, it is in my head… in all of me…" Roseluck, despite her affinity with plants, clearly wasn't sold on letting plants have an affinity with her too. "I just-"

Vinyl cut in. "It's okay, just relax and I will end this. You were welcome with the forest, but we don't hold grudges. We are still ponies." The unicorn lifted a hoof and booped Roseluck on the nose. The earth pony began to tremble and shake but after a few moments she regained her composure and smiled to Vinyl.

"Thanks! And thank your tree for me, I really don't know what came over me yesterday…" Roseluck turned and trotted off.

Giving a sad sigh, one voice gone from her 'forest', Vinyl looked up to begin with the next pony. The last three to arrive were the terrible trio of Ponyville.

"Okay girls, give me a second and I will have this gone." Vinyl began calling the tree mother's power one last time, gathering it up inside.

"Wait!" Sweetie Belle backed away. "I like the music…" Her two friends looked at her with shock, their eyes wide.

"Well if she is keeping it so am I!" Apple Bloom backed away as well, stepping up beside her fellow crusader.

"Me too!" Scootaloo moved out of reach of Vinyl who was now just a touch annoyed.

"It isn't that I don't want you to have it, when you are a little older you are welcome to-" Vinyl was more than a little tired, she hadn't moved from her spot all morning.

"Is this because we are little?" Apple Bloom cut in on the unicorn. "Ah grew up on a farm, course I know what those naughty songs last night were about."

Vinyl blushed hotly, she was sure she had kept her own tune locked down.

"Yeah, we got our cutie marks now, anyhow, we are adults!" Scootaloo put in her, admittedly weak, argument.

"I… I know what they mean too. Rarity's comics are…" Sweetie blushed too hotly to be able to continue, but she stood back from Vinyl.

"Doesn't matter, and you aren't adults. This is something you can choose later, and I promise you I will welcome you to our forest, but now-" Vinyl was suddenly speaking to empty air, Scootaloo having grabbed out her namesake and started to race off on it! "Mother, I think I am going to be having a long day thanks to this…" The unicorn got up to her hooves, plucking herself free from the oddly warm grip of the soil, and looking around for support.

"Maybe we could leave them for a day. Their guardians will be back tomorrow, hopefully." Octavia was playing a game of cards with Lyra and Sweetie Drops.

"Mares and Gentlestallions." Cadance used her own magic to amplify her voice out over the crowd. "I was summoned to Canterlot today with dire portents, talks of a coup and worse!" Gasps met her words, she could see smugness on the faces of quite a few well-dressed ponies. "You have watched as the changelings have integrated themselves into the city, twice now, and they seem to have fit in well, but they have powers that seem terrible."

"What are you doing? This will cause a riot." Twilight spoke as softly as she could, trying to avoid the amplification spell catching her words.

"But as you saw yesterday, those same powers can serve good, if used with the respect they deserve. I have found not only is the rulership of Canterlot biased toward them, however, I see them integrating a changeling into the ruling caste. I ask now, what percentage of ponies in Canterlot are changelings?" Cadance's words met silence. "Anypony?"

A bright red maned mare stepped ahead of most of the crowd. "Two point three percent." Cherry Stripe smiled up at the shocked but apparently grateful look on the alicorn.

"Two percent, there are how many noble families?" Cadance was leading this little dance well and she found the pegasus to be the perfect, totally-not-a-plant pony.

"There are thirty seven, Your Highness." Cherry replied, the spell catching her voice and amplifying it.

"That works out just perfect then. In the absence of impartial behavior by anypony else," Cadance's gaze swept not just Celestia and Luna, but also the nobles, "I hereby strip Queen Twisty Turn of her title of Queen. She, and her changelings, are all to be considered members of a noble house and are to be accorded all the honor and respect, as well as duties, of such."

A lot of the nobles had smug looks on their snouts, seeing the demotion as quite a clear negative to Twisty, but a few recognized it for what it was. If all changelings were afforded noble status, that meant that they simply couldn't look quite as far down their noses at them.

"Of course, the matter of Twisty's personal association with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna is another matter entirely and one nopony but those three can interfere with. As the Princess of Love I see much in their union." Cadance lifted her hoof and clopped it down, an ancient show that no further arguments would be raised.

Twisty, standing beside Celestia, had to fight not to let her mouth hang open and ruin the whole effect the pink alicorn had gone for. "Did she… how… she just…"

"My niece plays big games well." Celestia lifted a long cool glass of water up and sipped at it. "I can only imagine how wonderful our sparring will be in another thousand years, when she has matured a little."

Luna snorted at this.

"Now, onto gladder tidings!" Cadance's voice cut off all the talk as everypony went quiet. "As everypony knows, the Crystal Empire has a new heir and alicorn both. Flurry Heart?" As the mother paused her foal fluttered out toward her on unsteady wings. "With my filly I forged a future for the Crystal Empire, but my stallion found this was not enough for him." Cadance's magic reached back and parted the curtain behind her. "Shining Armor, Prince and Consort, has promised herself to the cementing of that future and has paid the price, temporarily of course, that nopony could deny as a show of great sacrifice."

"Big… brother?" Twilight's eyes were wide with shock as she gazed at the mare trotting out, the mare that looked so much like a female version of her brother it was impossible to deny the truth.

"Hey Twili." Shining felt a little embarrassment as she gave a lop-sided grin to her little sister. "I've missed you, kid."

Twilight couldn't stop herself, she dashed forward and wrapped a wing around her big… sister. The mare's voice wasn't quite as deep as Shining's usually was, but her mannerisms and repeating those words she heard from him… her, before. "What did you do?"

"Would you believe we were a bit too distracted after recent events and got carried away?" Shining put one leg around Twilight's shoulders, hugging the withers of her little sister close.

"I present, Shining Armor, Consort and Princess of the Crystal Empire, mother of the second heir to the Crystal Empire." Cadance took up her place at Shining's other shoulder, kissing her husband with gusto and getting a huge cheer from the crowd.

"Wait, wasn't she… he… oh, Princess Cadance is the most awesome mare ever!" Twisty giggled and gave up any hope of keeping decorum.

Author's Note

Sorry for the pun, it really cracked me up!

First real part the CMC have played and I hope it didn't come over creepy or bad in a clopfic. Do not fear, their inclusion will not be leading anywhere distasteful.

On the plus side, at least I didn't make any plant puns, I had to leave them alone...

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