Gel sat near Twilight, Applejack flanking the mare with him. He looked around the solarium. Twisty and Luna were whispering together under a sun umbrella to one side, the two dark mares matching quite well. Muffins was talking animatedly with Rainbow Dash, who he noticed had a new aura about her. "What are we doing here?"

"Beats me Gel, Princess Celestia said we needed to all be here and- Oh, there she is now." Twilight got up, leaving Gel and Applejack to share a look and both giggle.

"You are probably all wondering why I asked you all here." Celestia looked around her ponies, from her most direct of family to the mares and colts she thought of as her children. "It has been a year and a day."

There was silence, absolute silence. Nopony had been keeping track, apparently, and all eyes turned to look at the big pod firmly rooted in the ground.

"A year and a day, huh…" Applejack looked at the pod along with everypony else. She wasn't directly part of this event, but she wasn't going to leave Twilight and Gel's side, not again.

Clearing his voice, Gel stood up in the morning light, noticing a blushing Princess Cadance and Prince Shining slink in. Considering how perfectly their activities were covered by the sounds the royal couple made the previous night the changeling couldn't be mad. "Mom." He had found himself in front of the pod, one hoof rubbing on the outer skin.

There was a presence at his side in the form of Twisty Turn. "I can't believe I forgot the date. Do you… do you think she remembers?" The changeling queen put her own hole-filled hoof beside Gel's.

"If she does, she goes back in until she doesn't." Gel looked to his 'sister' and got a nod from her. Taking a deep breath he reached for the pod, feeling the thing struggle briefly against his command to open. It had held its occupant for a long time now and it was used to her, all of her.

More magic joined Gel's, he felt Twisty lean into the pod's resistance with him and their power overwhelmed the simple intelligence it possessed. Behind the two changeling siblings, the most powerful ponies in all Equestria waited.

Scootaloo rolled over in the bed, colliding with one of her friends. "Ugh, sorry Sweetie." She felt the horn on her friend's head and pulled back, eyes bleary.

"It's fine!" Sweetie Belle brought her hooves up and rubbed her eyes; she felt vaguely strange, mostly around her neck and head, almost the same sensation as when the vines had first spread inside her.

"Ugh, get those out of my face!" Apple Bloom was using her hooves to bat at something and, when she opened her eyes she gasped in shock. "Um, Scoots?"

The earth pony wasn't the only one surprised. Scootaloo had really felt her wings brush her friend's face. She looked back over her shoulder and what she saw amazed her. Wings, real, big, wings. She bounced from the bed and started flapping them. They didn't work like her old ones did, nowhere near as fast to flap, but she lifted from the floor easily. "I can fly!" Her voice was enough to make both the other fillies cover their ears.

"They're greenish…" Sweetie climbed from bed to congratulate her friend. "Look, it must have been the tree…"

Apple Bloom felt a warmth surrounding her, a joy and happiness she couldn't shy from. She reached out with the same sense that was giving her the feeling and the ground shook! "What's going on?"

Scootaloo and Sweetie were at the window and looking out. "Wow…" Both trailed their voices off, looking down, and down, and down.

"What… I… the tree…" Apple Bloom felt that happy presence. In a flash she felt its odd memories. Of three fillies doing as little damage as they could to build a house in its branches. Of having them grow along with it, sharing happiness with them every day. "I can feel what it feels, when I tried to touch it…" The 'ground' shook again as the tree trembled a little, growing a bit more under them.

Sweetie Belle couldn't help but be so happy for her friends. She saw them both getting amazing things that they loved. Scootaloo could fly at last, or at least by her early attempts she could crash at last. Apple Bloom seemed more attached to plants than she had ever been before. But Sweetie seemed to have gotten nothing.

The little unicorn's mouth opened and she began to sing, the tree quickly melting away whatever tune had been in the background to accompany the filly. She started to sing of how happy she was for her friends, of how great it was to see them grow in new ways, but she really wanted to grow too.

It wasn't until she was done with her little solo aria that she looked at her fellow crusaders; both were crying. "What's wrong?"

Two tight hugs suddenly wrapped the filly as both clung tightly to her. Apple Bloom, openly weeping, clung tight to Sweetie's left side. "I am sorry for being so happy about it, but I am sure you will get something cool, I don't think the tree wanted any of us to miss out."

"Yeah, I think… I will hang around with you today, I don't want to fly if I don't know you are happy too." Scootaloo had one orange-green wing around her friend, clinging to the only filly not crying.

It clicked then, for Sweetie Belle. Her song had been good, even if she did say so, but she didn't think it was as effective as what her friends were hinting. She felt her way around inside, where the plant had made her tingle. Thinking of what she suspected, she didn't sing a word, just notes. She focused on how it made her feel to think that the tree had done something special for her and her friends.

The change was instant and intense. Both the crying fillies suddenly wore smiles and were hugging not in shared sadness, but in absolute joy. Sweetie Belle giggled and hugged back, she wasn't sure what the name for it was, but when she sang, her emotions flowed out.

Starry had to giggle. She felt so good as she got up, her body fairly hummed with her… activities, the previous night. Twinkle hadn't been left out, they had taken turns at the helm and their partner certainly didn't seem to feel put off by it. She looked back at her bed.

Tree Hugger felt eyes on her, they stirred her awake and she looked up at Starry. She could tell which of the pair it was easily now. The way she stood, the way she held herself, both told her that it was the pony who was driving. "Leaving, like, so soon?"

Twinkle roused too and Starry felt herself stretching under her closest friend's control. It felt good to relax and she did so, leaving her other half at the helm. Twinkle stepped back to the bed and leaned in, sharing a nuzzle with the earth pony. "Not if there is breakfast being served."

Kissing and snuggling back, Tree's eyes were half closed, as ever. "It would be totally radical…" The kiss she got from the other mare had Tree's hooves twitch a little in delight, it was like there was an aching hunger there and the food was closeness.

Watching as Tree rolled to her back, Twinkle shook her head. "No, I have something special planned." She began to climb up on the bed but, rather than press her lips down to the soft folds of the green mare. What are we doing? Starry's voice was just a thought in their shared head.

When Twinkle was in the position she wanted, her own plot was pressed to Tree's, her tail raised and set upon the other mare's flank.

Tree Hugger's eyes went wide as she felt the first touch of… something. It was thin and dainty, but the tiny tendril reached to her body from within Starry and curled carefully around her little pearl. The most gentle of squeezes had Tree moaning loudly, her eyes closing tight as Twinkle, in a rather direct manner for the parasite, began to make love to her.

Twinkle was careful, she had grown a fair bit within her host and while she could reach this far without harm, any further and she would risk damage to their bond. Extending another reaching tendril, she carefully started to rub inside Tree's lips, stroking them slowly and carefully, her senses picking up more and more arousal from the mare.

Starry giggled inside her own head. She knew Twinkle was having a lot of fun playing with the other mare but the truth was the tendrils were stroking them too, it was almost like having a three-some with herself!

Lifting her head up and looking between her front hooves, Tree felt the rush of release as the direct stimulation drove her quickly to orgasm but her lover wasn't done. Working those thin tentacles along her own lips now, Twinkle pushed and pushed herself until she felt a similar release to what Tree was still recovering from.

Tree felt herself released by the tentacles and slowly rolled to her side, panting, as the world kept jolting and sparking as the orgasm's aftershocks just kept happening. Squirming and curling around, she brought her lips up and kissed Starry's wet folds, getting the slightest touch of a tentacle against her as she did so. "Like, thank you Twinkle, that was out of this world."

Starry couldn't talk, she still had her… her lover, her other half, her sister, Twinkle, playing with her. But Twinkle was still in control and the unicorn felt herself moving, turning and getting up. "Want some real breakfast?" Twinkle looked over to the dreadlocks-maned mare still looking shaken on her bed.

"Like, totally." Tree got her wobbly hooves under herself and followed her appreciative friend down to the dining room.

Light filled the mare's eyes when she opened them. Bright light that was so unlike the soft green glow she found on the few occasions when she managed to wake that she lifted a hoof up to block it.

The holes in her limb did not help her efforts to hide from the sun's rays but she did get a look at the ponies gathered around her. Two, a stallion and a mare, that reminded her of herself a little. Beyond them were others, some with horns, some with wings, some with both and one with neither. "Uh, hello?"

Gel was shocked, as was Twisty at his side. Her voice was so close to how it had been, the same timbre, the same pitch. But there was none of the malice.

"Hi!" A gray, yellow, and green mare with both wings and a horn strode over to where the mare was reclining. "My name's Muffins." A hoof reached out to her and the dark mare reached back, getting help to climb from the clingy tendrils and things.

"Hi Muffins. Thank you." The dark mare smiled at the happy-go-lucky alicorn and looked back at the pod she had just left. "What is that thing?"

"It's a pod, something changelings," Twisty had finally gotten herself under control and gestured to herself, Gel and then the new mare, "make to hold ponies in so we can drink their happiness. We don't use them much anymore. My name is Twisty Turn."

Celestia watched the pony formerly named Chrysalis smile brightly and lift a hoof to her daughter. "Introductions all round are needed, I think. My name is Celestia, this is Luna, Twilight Sparkle and Cadance. We are all princesses of this realm." The blank pony looked around at all indicated, smiling and waving. "This mare is Applejack, this is Rainbow Dash, and this one is Shining Armor."

All of them expected some glimmer of memory, particularly at Shining's name. But there was none.

"Well, hi everypony!" The dread-queen of changelings looked tickled pink to be meeting all her new friends. "I'm… that is my name is…" The first hint of worry crossed the mare's face and she looked to Muffins, the mare who seemed most friendly and who had helped her first. The mare's voice was scared as she was suddenly wrapped tight in gray wings. "Who am I?"

Author's Note

Damn it, tears were starting then, just as I got to Chrysalis being sad at not knowing her own name. Why do you taunt me.

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