"Now I see why Princess Celestia likes this so much." Shining Armor was sharing a cherished, quiet lunch with her wife, eating cheesecake.

"Just be careful, you will keep that bulge even after having our foal, if you eat too much." Cadance stole a spoon-load of the cake from her mate's plate. "Mmm, it is good!"

"Told you!" Shining giggled and leaned up against Cadance. "I feel heavier, but good. How long does that last?"

"If your loving mate supports you and tells you how wonderful you look?" Cadance nuzzled Shining's cheek. "Until the day our foal arrives."

"I do feel good…" Shining inhaled deeply and closed her eyes. "Really good. I thought I would hate being a mare at some point, that I would be pining for my stronger self, but nopony thinks me any less."

"Of course they don't. Do you think being a guard requires you to be a stallion? Do you think being a loving mate depends on what is between your back legs?" Cadance nipped Shining's ear playfully. "Silly, having another pregnant royal pony around was never going to make anypony upset."

"I just thought… that they might want to coddle me, or not want me to do the things I love." Shining heard a sweet little voice give a tiny grumble and was on her hooves before she knew it. Flurry's wail, upon waking, came just as the unicorn reached her. "There, there little Flurry, how is the most wonderful little filly?" It was like flicking a switch, the foal's crying stopped and she gave a giggle at seeing her parent.

"You have a way with her." Cadance had followed and made her way to the soft pile of pillows to one side, laying down on her side.

Shining levitated the little foal over to the change table and took care of things, cooing and nuzzling the filly every chance she got. "How do pegasi and earth pony parents deal with diapers?" She tossed a dirty one into the hamper with her magic.

"You don't want to know, needless to say, a unicorn filly can make a small fortune as a foalsitter." Cadance sighed and watched her husband, thinking of how amazingly lucky she was.

"Now I bet you want something to drink, don't you, little Flurry?" Shining zoomed the filly through the air, since she had an empty belly and there were no complications of such. Flurry flapped her wings and tugged on her grip.

Cadance giggled as Shining ended up struggling to make the 'flight' look normal, but Flurry wound up right where she wanted to be. "Oooohh." Cadance leaned down and nuzzled the suckling filly, her mind awash with the contented delight of a mother feeding her foal.

Shining stopped and watched Cadance and Flurry for a moment, giving a happy sigh; there was a certain delight in seeing the mare she loved with the foal they both made, sharing such a moment. She bustled, getting a pair of warm towels and putting their plates of lunch back on the tray.

Then it hit her, in not too much longer, she too would be doing this. Shining was so distracted with the thought that Cadance had finished with Flurry and had cleaned up. She smiled, regaining her senses. "Will I change back, I wonder, right after the birth?"

Cadance stopped and was patting at Flurry to help her clear the air from her lungs. "I don't know, I guess we can find out together."

Shining felt herself hoping that she wouldn't, it would be nice to take care of her foal. Just thinking about the life growing inside herself made the former stallion bubble with delight.

Spike felt good, really good. Stormwalker had just been done with him and he had been really, really into her, even as a mare. He strutted through town, looking for another… another mare. It was hard to work out that it really was just mares he was looking for, when stallions looked good, but something was driving him. Something that felt good.

"Oh, Spike!" Fluttershy landed not far away from her friend. "What is going on? Everypony seems to be… Spike?"

Fluttershy was a mare, he was a stallion. Spike's shaft fell free of his sheath, growing hard and ready. There was an ache inside and only sinking himself into a good mare was going to quench it.

"Spike? Spike what's-" Fluttershy had to jump back, her stallion friend had tried to jump on her. "What are you doing?" She flexed her wings and took to the air.

Beyond thought, beyond the reach of his waking mind, Spike was trapped in the need his body was forced to feel. He wanted this mare but she was just out of reach.

Fluttershy heard the pained, animal-like whine that Spike then let out, she almost landed to offer comfort. Almost. "Spike, I am going to go get Twilight, this seems to be really… bad."

Spike was confounded in his attempts to get the mare who now flew off, but then he heard a voice. "Spikey? What is going on?" The stallion gave a sigh of relief, what part of his brain that could still work identified the mare who was calling to him was one that couldn't fly.

Fluttershy's wings beat hard, she had to dodge a few other pegasi who seemed a lot more intent on getting her than Spike had. Reaching the castle, she found a lot of ponies outside, banging on the front doors and whimpering. They were all stallions. Flying in through an upper window, Fluttershy found a crying Starry holding the doors closed.

"Fluttershy!" The unicorn almost melted in relief. "Please tell me you aren't crazy and trying to breed everypony that moves?" Starry was talking to her, but Fluttershy could see that the mare's other presence, Twinkle, was also present and at work.

"I know. Spike seemed really, really… worked up." Fluttershy landed beside the unicorn. "Where is Twilight?"

"She and Gel were going to Sweet Apple Acres, I think they were planning a day with Applejack." When the door banged particularly hard, a second glow started around Starry's horn as both mare and parasite worked together to keep the doors pinned.

"That's on the other side of town!" Fluttershy's squeak of shock was still barely able to be heard over the whimpering and moaning stallions outside. "Oh, Zecora might know what is happening!" Fluttershy took to her wings and, with every part of her loving heart, thanked Rainbow Dash for helping her become a better flier.

Flying over the Everfree Forest was never a sure thing, but the whole place seemed a little lighter of late, since the Tree of Harmony was restored, and since Tree Hugger had moved out here. She landed in the clearing and started trotting for Zecora's hut. "Zecora!"

Knocking firmly on the door, Fluttershy waited, and waited, and waited. Zecora finally pushed it open just a crack and, seeing who it was, opened it further. "Come in Fluttershy soft of soul, what has you out and about for a stroll?"

Zecora's easy manner relaxed Fluttershy a little, until she remembered her friends. "Something is making all the ponies in town act really," she blushed, "naughty!"

Tree Hugger rolled sideways off Zecora's bed and landed on her hooves. It should have been an awkward action, but the mare made Fluttershy's blood run a little warmer with how she did it. "Like, how naughty? Being mean, or the average night in Gel's bed?" When Fluttershy blushed hard at the last bit, Tree had her answer. "There is totally a few things that could cause that. Maybe some kind of mind control?"

"To control all the town, would need much power laid down." Zecora tapped her chin with a hoof.

"How was Spike acting? All cray cray, or gnarly and really into it?" Tree was already bringing a cup of tea to the pegasus.

"Um." Fluttershy sipped the tea and felt almost immediately relaxed. "He was really into it, as you said. Almost like an animal."

"Hormone-based I would think, maybe a gas or something to drink?" Zecora pondered and looked to Tree, who seemed to be working on what it was too.

"Sister of Beasts, how many ponies are, like, affected?" Tree leaned in against the pegasus who was, along with Zecora, her best friend.

Leaning back, Fluttershy thought. "Nearly everypony. It seems like if they weren't with a pony, they were looking for one to be with."

"Not gas or drink, too fast methinks." Zecora disliked the shorter rhyme but in such conversations she had to limit herself a little. "Maybe something that is spread, when one pony takes another to bed?"

"Certainly explains why Flutters here is so radical." Tree gave her friend a little squeeze. "Question is, how do we, like, totally capture somepony and find out what is doing it?"

"Beheld?" Zecora tilted her head only to have a squawk sound from a corner and the cockatrice dart out and snake around her neck, trailing his tail down her back. The zebra nuzzled her pet. "Little friend we have quite a task, I almost fear it too much to ask."

Zecora got a few happy clucks from the creature.

"Are you okay, Cheerilee?" Twilight, Applejack, and the mare in question were sneaking around the edges of town, trying to get to her castle.

"I just… I smell a stallion nearby… he smells so good…" Cheerilee was almost melting into her need. She really wanted to get to that pony and buck him good and proper. Her gasp as Gel flowed over her head and sealed her up was cut short as her snout was covered.

"Relax, please Cheerilee. I won't let you get to that stallion, so you will just have to be good." Gel's voice was in her ears, but the scent was still fresh in her nose, she needed to find that stallion.

Twilight blinked in surprise. "Gel? Is she okay?"

"She is distracted, but I think I can help her get past it. We need to move." Gel began to walk the reluctant Cheerilee along, taking the lead. They had planned to walk clear through town but the first sight of ponies… rutting, had stopped that.

It took work, but they made their way around and to the castle only to stop at the sight before it. There were nearly half a dozen stallions banging on the door, trying to get inside.

"Gather close." Twilight put a wing over Applejack, the earth pony having kept rather quiet, trapped in her own worry for her brother. When the alicorn had her other wing over Gel's back she blinked and they landed inside, just as the front door started to open.

"Ugh! Princess! Help!" Starry was straining against the doors, her magic grabbing on both, but it was too much for her alone.

Twilight gasped and leaned her own magic into it, forcing the intruding ponies out and the doors closed. "This should stop them!" Magic wrapped around the doors and wove the wood together like a big zipper. "Wait, where's Applejack?"

Gel felt sudden panic, he flowed off Cheerilee and rushed at the door. Working hard he flowed down thin and started to pour under it, only to see his special somepony being mounted by a stallion. Fire boiled inside him and the changeling practically sprayed forward like a wave, landing on Applejack and forcing the stallion's shaft from finding his mark. "Get off her!" His roar was tempered by the fact he didn't want to hurt anypony.

"Lemme out…" AJ barely even managed the words, her mind was flooded with need and she ached to get a stallion into her. Then one did. Her world completed as she rocked back into the shaft that shoved deep into her, she moaned happily and bucked back, meeting each thrust.

Not liking this one bit, Gel hoped he was doing the right thing. "Please forgive me, AJ." He pounded on the mare, even as he walked her around to the side of the castle.

There was no question of whether Applejack wanted this or not, to have a stallion in her completed her world in a way that only one more thing would better. She needed his seed. She tried to brace for the male but even as she found herself walking around, he kept up his apparently tireless duty.

"Okay everypony, we have to stay up here!" Apple Bloom looked around. Every filly, every colt, was crammed into her tree-house. "Something has made all the adults go crazy and we need to find out what!"

"Um, Apple Bloom?" Sweetie Belle was tapping at her friend's shoulder.

"We need to work out what has made them go… naughty, and fix it!" Apple Bloom was on a roll and too focused on being the center of attention.

"Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo had to jump up in front of her friend, flapping her new, and totally awesome, wings. "We need to take care of everypony first, I am sure there are some adults that are okay."

The filly stopped her speech and nodded, a little shocked at what she had seen. "I bet Princess Twilight Sparkle is on the case!"

Author's Note

Cutie Mark Crusaders: Protectors of Innocence.

Also, Shining Armor and Cadance... I was getting so warm and fuzzy writing that. And the best bit is I now need to go and write Shining Chitin, so the fuzzies continue!

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