"Cutie Mark Crusaders report!" Scootaloo banged the little wooden gavel on the lectern in their tree-house.

Sweetie Belle stood tall and saluted. "Vinyl tried to catch me but I managed to give her the slip." She grinned happily, being with her two best friends was fun, doing crusader stuff together was even better.

"Starry tried to chase me, but I lost her in the apple trees at the edge of the farm." Apple Bloom saluted too and together the two fillies saluted.

"Mission accomplished!" The pair reported together.

"Perfect!" Scootaloo saluted back. "Then on to important business. Why did we do this again?" She suddenly felt a little confused, she wasn't really focused either way on having the seed… tree… plant thing inside her.

"I like the singing…" Sweetie Belle rubbed a hoof on the wooden floor and all three fillies went quiet a moment. The song in their heads came not from the ponies in town, but from the tree itself. It was a happy song, with a few little pangs of sadness for the ponies who didn't want its gifts. Sweetie almost cried at that bit and opened her mouth, singing along to the tune, but turning it happier. She barely got a verse out when her two best friends joined her for the chorus.

Scootaloo didn't know why, but it was definitely her turn. She sang of how being with her best friends and fellow crusaders made her happy, that she would do anything to keep them happy and that having a new mother really wasn't so bad.

After another chorus Apple Bloom sang her own song, of how much she loved her farm, of the plants and things growing there, and how this made her feel a little closer to that. The chorus rolled them all together again and when they sang the last verse it was alternating lines until they finished off the chorus. Their song of how great it felt to be with friends and have something new to bind them finished on a high note and, to their delight, they felt the tree's song in their heads now much brighter and happier.

"Ah think she likes it!" Apple Bloom lifted a hoof and two others met it with a firm clop.

As the three talked together about what they could do to hide from interfering adults, Scootaloo felt more twitching of the vines… or roots, or whatever the things were inside her. They worked down into her wings, twitching and doing something all the way. She didn't say anything, the tree had been nice to them so far, so she resolved to be nice back.

"But why do this?" Twilight was pacing backwards and forward. She had contained all the questions she wanted to ask until they were out of the public eye but she couldn't help but clop a hoof on the floor. "I just don't get it Big Bro… Big Sister." She did get a little smirk at that.

"Honestly?" Shining looked at her sister and took a deep breath. Twilight nodded. "Okay, well, Cady really wanted to try something new and, while she was pregnant we had a little fun with me as a mare." Twilight was blushing even before her sister got to any sort of description. "But after you all left yesterday, well, she really wanted to go further. I could smell my estrus but being a mare it didn't really have the same effect on me as normal." Shining could see her little sister was waving her hooves, silently begging her to stop. Well, she had asked for it and as their mom said, when Twi's 'what stage' had started, explain everything. Of course, Twilight Sparkle's 'what stage' had never ended and likely never would. "It wasn't until she… we, were done that my brain could focus enough to work out what the scent was or why it being different after made sense."

"Please… I… err… don't need to get it, apparently." Twilight flopped to a nearby chair only for Shining to follow her and reach up with a leg to hug the alicorn.

"You thought you could slip this by me, huh?" A unicorn mare burst in the door and glared at the two siblings. "Shining Armor, come and give your mother a hug."

Both the sisters trotted over and took a side each, hugging their mother tightly.

"A little different with you at this height Shining, but not in a bad way. So, Twilight, when are you going to give me a grandfoal?" Twilight Velvet looked from Shining to her youngest.

Twilight Sparkle wasn't sure if she could blush more but was proving quite well that she could. "Well mom, that is part of why I wanted to slip away from Gel for a little while. I am thinking of asking him to be my stallion."

Shining felt herself suddenly hugging air, how had their mother moved so fast?

"That is wonderful news!" Twilight Velvet was actually crying a little as she hugged her alicorn daughter. "There is more, isn't there?"

The Princess of Friendship wasn't sure how her mother could piece that together from just a few moments but, reluctantly, Twilight Sparkle nodded. "Applejack revealed how much she feels for me, recently." This got a surprised look from Shining. "And I really like her too. But I don't think the two of us are ready for that same step and… marrying Gel and keeping AJ like that feels like… well, it feels like I am being a bad mare."

"Nonsense." Twilight Velvet would have none of her daughter's thoughts on the matter. "There is nothing bad in your love. Marry your stallion, but make time for Applejack, find out if she is worth marrying too."

Twilight Sparkle's wings flared up rigid. "Marry… both of them?" Her mother had cut through tradition, through propriety, and right through to how her daughter felt. "I… that seems-"

"No, don't worry about other ponies. You are a princess, you love two ponies?" Twilight Velvet looked her daughter in the eyes, knowing 'her filly' couldn't lie to her face. Twilight Sparkle nodded. "Then follow that love, surely one of the perks of being a princess is that you can do what you want?"

Shining leaned in and hugged her sister. "Besides, Twili, look at Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Twisty Turn they are proving that three ponies can find more than friendship together."

Twilight Sparkle's mind went into a sudden spin, it lost several gears and springs on the way. "Celestia… and Luna… but they…"

"Are old enough to know what they want by now." Twilight Velvet nodded her head. "Besides, by the old laws, herds are still allowed, and herds containing siblings, so long as they are mares, are fine."

"You researched this?" Twilight Sparkle looked shocked, her eyes wide.

Shining looked to her mother and they shared a nod. "Tea." She reached out and knocked at the door to the royal apartment they were in. A guard poked their head in. "Tea please, something soothing."

The changeling, looking as big and strong as any other of the royal guard, saluted and closed the door again.

Starry sat on the throne in the map room. She had her eyes closed and there was the sweet scent of sandalwood burning in the air.

"And now just relax, think of the music inside and reach for it." Tree Hugger's voice was so very soothing and calming, the unicorn did just as bid and reached for the song. But she wasn't alone. Twinkle, too, followed the meditation instructions. "Now wrap the song around you, let it block out the world, let it block out everything but my voice. Can you feel the music?"

"I can." The reply came back sounding odd, as though two ponies were talking at exactly the same time. Tree Hugger smiled a little wider, her eyes almost closed. She drew down the song, herself, and joined the pair in the simple pleasure of becoming part of the forest.

The touch on Starry's shoulder slowly drew the mare, and her friend, back from the rapt meditation. "What… what's going on?" Her voice was more relaxed and serene than she had ever heard it, and felt, in her life.

"Nothing, it is, like, getting dark." Tree Hugger was standing beside the throne, beckoning her friends back from the wonderful meditation.

Twinkle surfaced first, stretching their limbs slowly and using her magic to light the room a little better. "Thank you, Tree." The parasite leaned their body out and hugged the mare.

"Paying the karma forward, Sister of Stars." Tree returned the hug. "Your chakra are all well balanced now, man."

Starry grinned, feeling Twinkle settle back down. She squeezed the earth pony again and heard the main doors open.

"Yo, anypony in? Bringing my gear in to set up for the party tomorrow." Vinyl levitated her speakers in and set them just inside the door.

"Oh, Vinyl! Sure you can leave them there, although I might move them somewhere else out of the way." Starry had trotted out, Tree at her side, to meet the DJ.

"Like, no hard feelings about today, Song Sister, my chakra were a little bent at mother not picking me to help everypony, but she was right." The time meditating had helped Tree sort out her own problems and everything had slid back into shape, even more so now that she had apologized.

"Hay, no problems. You were the first pony to sing her song, that is pretty amazing." Vinyl reached out and felt the music, blending in her own mix of happiness and what she thought of when she thought of Tree. "You going to come to the party tomorrow?"

Tree thought on it, then realized she should bring a friend. "Like, I wouldn't miss it for the world. Okay if I bring somepony?"

"Pfft, as if it would be a problem." Vinyl lifted a hoof and they clopped together. "Just tell Zecora she has to bring something wickedly good to drink."

Tree's mouth hung open as the white unicorn turned and left. "Like, whoa…"

The four ponies sat around the sitting room of what had once been an up-market hotel. "We have some decisions to make." Sleek used her magic to lift up a cup to sip the warm tea from it. The drink did nothing for her physically, but the act of it was ingrained from her time spent infiltrating.

"We do." Prince Blueblood sipped his own drink, the small mare at his side holding more than a little of his attention. A small voice, the voice of a colt who only knew the delightful fun of youth, danced around in his head chanting, 'she said yes' over and over. "Sliver, was this… fun, before or after the little ceremony."

Sliver pondered trying to punish Blue. She didn't think long on it, of course she wouldn't. They would need a new game to play now that this intriguing little pony ritual was done. "It was before, I wouldn't have, without asking you first, now." Sliver looked up at the stallion's eyes, seeing equal parts relief and desire there.

"Not to be a dampener on any future adventure but… stallions aren't my thing." Cherry blushed as she said the words, looking up at the prince. "No offense, Your High-"

"Just Blueblood, or Blue." Blueblood figured the mare knew more about him than those he had counted close friends. A new feeling filled him. "When I was a colt, my friends called me Blue."

Cherry smiled. "No offense then, Blue." A leg wrapped around the pegasus and she leaned into Sleek's side.

"None taken, of course. Your preferences are you own and… I think I would like it if we kept any personal fun just personal for now." Prince Blueblood felt a hoof rub his side and looked down to his special somepony. "That is, of course, personal. I wouldn't ask you to stop working…"

Sliver could see that it cost the stallion to offer that. "No, no I don't think I will need to work. Not with a single stallion who can fulfill all my… tastes." The little changeling felt two strong forelegs wrap around her and hug her tightly. She oofed a little but hugged back. She would need to teach him to be a little more… careful. Or not.

"You don't have to." Blueblood wasn't sure how to keep hugging the changeling and keep her comfortable and gave up, flopping down to his back on the couch, letting her sit over his barrel.

"I want to." Sliver realized she meant the words. "Princess Cadance has granted us something unique. I am the daughter of a noble family." Her smile widened and she leaned down to kiss Blueblood.

"Me too!" Sleek looked to Cherry. "So that means you have to treat me better!" The words were in jest, of course, but that didn't stop the pegasus from rising to the bait and bopping the changeling mare on the head.

"You will do as you are told, wife of mine!" Cherry followed up the bop with a cuddle, however, and the four spent most of the afternoon, discussing plans and hopes, confiding in each other their aspirations and dreams in the wake of the shake-ups to their lives.

Author's Note

Most chapter-arc things are wrapping up, but overarching plots are continuing nicely. Cherry and Sleek make me happy every time I write about them, they are just so adorable.

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