Spike's mind was trapped, held firmly in that perfect moment, stretching it out so that the poor stallion was slowly going crazy. He couldn't see, he couldn't hear, he could only feel.

But then things changed, that horrible, glorious moment broke; he felt cold stone yield to flesh, the first sound he heard was a cluck, then Fluttershy's voice.

"Thank you, now, the mare too." Fluttershy was blushing a little at finding her friends like this, but she was on a mission and she wouldn't let this compromising position distract her.

The stone mare under Spike suddenly gasped and slumped. Without anything to support them, and certainly not their legs, they were both in a heap on the floor. Spike was seeing stars, he could feel himself unloading into the mare, a hot pleasure rushing through him as he was finally given surcease to the terrible pleasure.

"My goodness, are you two okay?" Fluttershy waved the cockatrice away, approaching her friends and pouring each a glass of water. Spike managed to grab one, with his hoof, and gulped it down greedily. "There's more." Fluttershy started pouring another.

"What… why does… who…" Roseluck was confused but, at the same time, finally satisfied. She didn't really care which poor stallion it had been trapped with her, she was only glad that the moment was over.

"Before either of you panic, it was a nasty little thing living inside you, making you want to… and to spread…" Fluttershy was making vague motions with her forehooves, quickly dropping them when she realized she had made one that was naughty.

"I… I'm sorry…" Spike tried to get up but his legs were still done for. The struggle to rise moved him around inside Rose and he felt, and heard, her groan.

Rose was full, full of stallion, full of his issue. "Please, calm down, it's okay… Spike?" She felt the stallion atop her nod. "Well then, we can call this just a little… uh, fun, and be done with it. But please, don't struggle, just wait until you can walk."

Spike's memory was hazy, he couldn't really remember much at all, just that there had been a lot of plots… a lot. "So… you stopped it with a cockatrice?" He couldn't stop himself from giving the mare a gentle nuzzle.

"A lot of them, actually." Fluttershy looked at the list of ponies Twilight had given her. "This one alone accounted for nearly sixty ponies."

Moving his legs a little, Spike took a deep breath and started to rise. He slowly pulled free of Roseluck and, on shaking legs, moved aside. His code of honor demanded something though, and so he stopped and turned back to Rose. "Do you need any help?"

Looking up at the stallion she couldn't even remember presenting to, Rose nodded sheepishly and felt his magic grip her, lifting her up to her hooves. "Thanks." Rose gave the stallion a little nuzzle, not trusting her legs to hug him. "Let's… let's talk about this later, okay? I think I just need a warm bath now… and a few weeks to soak in it."

Spike gently nuzzled back and backed up. "We will, after I find out where my special someponies are." Urgency was taking hold as his strength did and Spike turned to find Fluttershy had already gone, likely to help the next pony freed.

The stallion broke into a trot and passed a few groups of statue-ponies on the way. None resembled the mare and stallion he loved and so he quickly got into the house and looked around. "Cloud? Storm?" The house was empty, repeating their names a few more times didn't help. Giving up, he made his way for the door to almost have it slam into his face as it swung inwards. No words were said, Spike rushed forward to be wrapped in two different soft, feathery wings.

Tears, hugs and lots of nuzzling were the orders of the day and when Spike used his magic to get their stove working and some water boiling, Cloud and Storm got up and started helping. "I'll get the bath going." Stormwalker trotted through to the bathroom and soon the sound of running water could be heard.

Cloud prepared a teapot while Spike saw to getting the water hot enough to drink. The pegasus nuzzled his love when he had everything ready. "When Fluttershy got me back… back to myself, I was terrified for you."

Spike left the water to lean in against Cloud Chaser, the two just shedding tears silently for a few moments together.

"I swear, I leave you two alone for a few minutes and you end up snuggling without me." Stormwalker stepped into the kitchen and nuzzled each of the stallions. "Bath is almost ready, I set some oils and suds in it."

"So, wings?" Blueblood relaxed on the castle wall with Cadance and Shining on one side, Sliver on the other.

"I like them." Shining stretched one out. She could handle doing that now, at first it seemed impossible to just get them moving how she wanted.

Cadance leaned up and nuzzled the wing. "Of course you like them, they are gorgeous." The pink alicorn turned to Blue. "So tell us, Prince of Equestria, what business has you here?"

"So formal, Empress Mi Amore Cadenza, Nest-Sister of an ant colony, Guardian of Princess Twilight Sparkle, Wife of-" Blueblood let the titles roll off his tongue, he had memorized thirty of them and was just getting going when a hoof poked into his mouth.

"Okay, okay I get it Blue. Why did auntie send you?" Cadance pulled the hoof free, to see the stallion smiling sweetly.

Blue leaned over and nuzzled his special somepony. "You were right, dear." His voice was low, but calculated so that Cadance and Shining would hear. Then louder, "I was sent to negotiate integrating changelings into your society. As you might have heard, Auntie and her marefriend, Twisty, are spreading changelings to each and every city in Equestria-"

"This is the Crystal Empire, technically not Equestria." Cadance wasn't sure how to win the game Blueblood was playing, but she knew how to play.

"As you say, of course that is why it is me here and not four dozen changelings with the bits to start buying property for a small hive." Blueblood didn't pull back from Sliver, keeping one shoulder and his neck offered to her.

"Some already live here, I don't see what the problem is?" Shining Armor thought back to the drone she had been saving; she smiled.

Turning a slight scowl on her… on her wife, Cadance glanced back at Blue. "I have some terms I wish. There was a mare I spent some time with in Canterlot, talking with. I simply won't have a hive here without her here to run it."

Blueblood beamed at this. "Progress." His murmur got a glare from Cadance, which he ignored while pulling out a notebook. "And who was this mare?"

"She was the sweetest thing I ever met. Her name is Hope." Cadance saw the shock spring onto Blue's face, his guarded reactions to her completely undone when she asked for the changeling responsible for her wife nearly being brainwashed. "Oh my, I think you might have a touch of the chill. Are you alright, Prince Blueblood?"

Blue felt magic grip his collar and turned slightly to see Sliver's horn was glowing. He relaxed into the grip and nodded to her. The world was a lot easier to take, even Cadance's political knifing, with his Mistress at his side. "I am sure we can arrange that. She will need some advisers, you understand, she hasn't handled a hive on her own before."

"I bet I can name a few." Cadance turned and nuzzled Shining's neck, getting a happy counter from her mate.

"Am I showing yet?" Celestia looked back at herself, the nurse nearby ticking some things off a clipboard reminding her of her former student.

"Your Highness!" Candy Cane shook her head. "You are not yet a week in, of course you won't be showing yet."

Celestia danced from one rear hoof to the other, watching her rump sway as she did it. "Oh, well, I best be going, country to run, you know."

Waving a hoof, filling out the report, Candy waved off her oddest patient so far for the day. With the alicorn princess gone, one of the orderlies came trotting in. "Nurse Candy, little Ginger Bread got the… um… thing… caught again."

Candy revised her list. "Not the oddest now, Princess." She turned and saw the mare waddling oddly into the room.

Celestia pranced around the room, her hooves clicking on the floor. "So, do I still have it?"

Watching avidly, Twisty's eyes caught every move that every curve made. "You never lost it, my lovely mare." Beside her, barely able to move, Luna was quite happy at her state, the eggs had swollen inside her, as they do. A hoof rubbed her side and she saw it had dark holes in it. "Soon, you will lay them soon."

Watching the little scene unfold, Celestia felt a slight pang of guilt for her swollen sister. The moment she felt the negative emotion it spun around and was pride for her dark sibling, and happiness that she would soon swell.

"How much longer, Tia, until the party?" Luna closed her eyes, the gentle stroking of her gravid form doing more than enough to make her almost purr.

"Next week, can you believe that not everypony is going to come?" Celestia turned again, this time her plot was aimed directly at Twisty. She added to the effect by looking back over her shoulder, watching the changeling watch her. "But no matter, Rara has agreed to come and sing for it, that delightful mare in Ponyville, the white unicorn with the odd music, she will be composing something special. And of course Pinkie Pie has agreed to help organize it."

Luna opened her eyes and looked at her sister, her snout mere inches from the white plot. Blushing like her first time, the dark alicorn leaned forward, tongue out, licking up Celestia's cleft.

The shudder of pleasure almost took Celestia's legs out from under her. She hadn't been ready for Luna's first trace of her vulva, but she was for the second. Leaning back a little, she gave a happy moan.

Twisty sat beside Luna, watching as the two sisters had fun. But it was fun without her and Twisty was nothing if not insistent that any and all fun in Canterlot involve a changeling. Nuzzling in beside Luna, the pair of them lapped at Celestia's nether-lips until the alicorn let loose, trembling on her hooves and leaking a little of her musky nectar.

In the two days following the infection of Ponyville, Twilight had started looking for a spell. Her library contained books from all over Equestria, when news had traveled that the Ponyville Library had been destroyed, tomes of lore began arriving. Librarians, it seemed, hated the idea of an empty library.

But she found it. "Gel, Applejack!" Twilight trotted out to Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack was in the kitchen baking while Gel, apparently, was resting after helping the 'Terrible Trio' rebuild the ramp into their clubhouse. "I finally found it!"

Applejack looked up from where she had just set a tray with two pies on it to cool. "That's nice Twi." She put two uncooked pies on a new tray and loaded them into the oven. "Uh, what did you find?"

"A spell to tell me who the father of my foal is." Twilight set the book on the table, before a smiling changeling prince, flipping it to a bookmarked page. She froze and looked at Gel. "What's with the smile?"

"I love it when you get all excited about spells or science." The changeling leaned in and nuzzled the alicorn. "Just as adorable as when Applejack gets in the zone with her work." Gel looked over to the mare who was working at the oven.

"Wha… ah horse-apples, I like you too much to blush at that now." Applejack finished her work for the moment and trotted over.

"Like?" Gel raised an eye at the word. Applejack did blush and leaned in, kissing his cheek.

"Give me a bit, still getting used to this. I do love you both, just gotta get everything following the instructions I give it." Applejack excused her slip.

"Okay, so are you both ready?" Twilight lit her horn and looked to the two ponies who could, either of them, be the father of her foal. "When the spell casts, an image will appear of the father."

"Got it," Gel and Applejack said together, turned so they were nose-to-nose and laughed.

Twilight cast the spell and felt it pull gently on both her magic and her essence. Two white disks appeared in front of her. "Two, what-" She was cut off as Applejack's face appeared in one of the disks. "Applejack!" She rushed over and put a wing around her special somepony, hugging the mare tight.

"Uh, Twi? Look again." Applejack didn't resist the hug, but gestured above Twilight's head with a hoof.

Turning, Twilight saw Gel's face in the second circle. "What… what would that mean? One foal can't have two different stallions."

AJ and Gel looked to each other, their eyes dancing. Both knew the answer and both turned back to their marefriend. "Twilight," Gel began.

"You're having twins." Applejack gestured to each of the disks, grinning like a foal.

Author's Note

And there, at the end of a chapter, is probably the best place to put this on hiatus. Tomorrow, something new will happen!

Also, I almost beat myself in the head. There were 9 incorrect uses of the word 'foot' instead of 'hoof' in this story so far.

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Mary Rowland