"Okay, so you can see them now?" Twilight shifted in place, it was hard to focus on his spell-casting like this, but he had to push through, it wasn't like it would get any better.

"I can, wow, bigger than I thought." Gel stepped closer to the creature, lifting a hoof up to rub its cheek. "They don't seem to be aggressive."

"Oh darn it, I just can't get this to work!" Twilight had messed up a mind-link spell he had been trying to create and it was only because his thoughts turned to the feminine-shaped Gel.

"Who… uh, Twilight, whatever you just did, do it again." Gel was training his senses on the hind. He knew that spike of delight on the deer, it was something he had felt in other creatures before.

"Huh?" Twilight stepped over, distracted from his work. "What do you mean?"

"They just turned their head to you and I got a big hit of satisfaction and delight. It was like a changeling just had the biggest meal of happiness ever." Gel was still rubbing and giving the doe some gentle attention, but all her attention seemed focused on Twilight.

Twilight walked over closer. "Well at least one of us is working this out, I just can't focus on this spell and it is driving me cr-"

"There, again! What was it doing… what were you doing? Oh, here, okay." Gel split his focus between both the hind and Twilight. "Now, what were you saying about that simple little spell you were working on?"

Twilight's confusion at the 'game' Gel was playing flared and just as he was opening his mouth to reply the changeling crowed in delight. "Confusion!" Gel did a happy little dance. "They feed on confusion, oh boy do they feed on it and I just bet with all the things they are doing to ponies that there is a feast going on."

"So… what do we do about them? Can they talk?" Twilight was still the focus of the deer and it nuzzled at his cheek. "Oh, we should round up any that we can find, Applejack could help with that."

"And we need to make sure they have food, much as they are a menace, I don't want to hurt them." Gel sighed, the doe was nothing if not friendly. "And of course we need to try and convince them to turn ponies back… maybe some would be happy to be changed and get confused about it all, sort of community service?"

"Getting ahead of ourselves. Let's get her down to the Apple's farm… uh, can you lead her, Gel?" Twilight was feeding the deer still and the thing was more than happy to let the nice ponies put a leash around its neck. "Okay, let me clear the door…" Twilight levitated the things from the door and opened it, revealing a second of the deer that rushed forward and nuzzled against the first.

Gel was quick to lasso the second one even as it turned to stare at Twilight. The changeling broke into giggles, that only seemed to make the hind more interested in the alicorn. "Feeding them is not going to be a problem."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Twilight was a step behind and this seemed to make Gel giggle more. He felt as the deer fed on his lover's confusion more and more.

"So I can go now?" Mayor Mare looked around nervously. "I mean, if you have things under control… when might I be able to be a mare again?"

"Yeah, quarantine is lifted, we will be working to sort getting everypony back to normal over the next day or so." Twilight spared a smile for the leader of their little town.

The words of an alicorn always carried weight and these seemed to relax Mayor enough that he could smile. "Thank you, princess… prince… Twilight Sparkle." He made his way from the room, walking a little strange.

"Now," Twilight turned on his mate and their two charges, "let's get these somewhere they can be kept track of, so we come back here and do some very special science." His voice dropped for the last of the sentence, making sure Gel knew exactly what he meant by it.

"There they are!" The voice came just as Gel had coaxed the deer to the bottom of the stairs and Twilight could see four ponies, two obviously changed to stallions, advance on them. "Twilight, do you… wait, you're a stallion!" Sweetie Drops couldn't hold back a giggle at the way the prince walked. "It all gets in the way, doesn't it?"

Twilight dreaded meeting with any friends but this wasn't so bad, at least they weren't angry. "It does, I… Octavia… Vinyl, you aren't affected?"

Vinyl grinned and tilted her glasses a touch but Octavia was the first of the pair to speak. "Apparently not, well, by whatever is doing this to ponies. Not complaining, if everypony turned into a stallion it would be no fun at all… well, maybe a little fun." Twilight watched as Lyra blushed hotly. It wasn't a large connection to make that the four ponies had made 'connections'.

"We are just starting to sort this all out, you girls are welcome… all of you that is, are welcome to wait here for us to get back." Twilight wasn't sure why, but something about both Octavia and Vinyl had grabbed his attention.

"Nex-" Vinyl was halfway through saying when she got a kick in the flank from Octavia. "What?"

"You do not get to call next on Princess Twilight Sparkle!" Octavia clopped her hoof down firmly.

Twilight was a little slow off the mark and took a little to work out what the two were talking about. A hot blush rushed his cheeks when he did figure it out and something more. Without interrupting them, he walked up and stood between the two, settling his wings down on each of them. "Next." He said, grinning and then trotting off. The sound of Octavia, Sweetie, and Lyra all laughing hysterically was behind him.

"You know you just propositioned them, right Twilight?" Gel was having no trouble leading the deer after Twilight, after all, the alicorn was still suffering from confusion over what he had just done. The fact that Gel spelled it out helped not one bit.

The two were silent as they marched up to Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight marched up to the Apple's front door and knocked. Applejack herself came to the door. "Well howdy there Twi, mighty late hour fer you to be visiting?"

"Applejack, the town needs your help." The words from the alicorn's mouth galvanized the earth pony. "I just need to cast a spell on you to start with…" Applejack nodded to Twilight. With his body appeased by the promise of having two mares in the not too distant future, Twilight found casting much easier and a startled Applejack jerked back as Gel and the two deer came into her view.

"Well howdy Gel, didn't see you… what are those?" Applejack squinted at the two creatures and walked up to them. Both, however, seemed very interested right back and one started to turn its plot toward the mare.

"Hold on!" Gel jerked the leash he had made with his own body, tugging the deer from Applejack. "They… uh, well they are a little too friendly, you see. Not sure where they came fro-"

"That's easy Gel, Everfree has deer like that, skittish things normally." Applejack nonetheless stayed back. "Whatter you mean 'too friendly'?"

Twilight tried to smile and it faltered. "There is no simple way to describe it. They drug ponies and gather them up inside themselves, change their gender and spit them out again. They then feed off the confusion this all causes."

"Seemed mighty simple. Okay, how many of these varmints you got? Just these?" Applejack stepped closer again, reaching a hoof up to rub one of the deer on the nose, the animal seeming less concerned by the friendly approach.

"Might be more, that is why we need the best pony with a lasso in all Equestria to help us." Gel really didn't need to lay it on thick, but he had a feeling that it wouldn't hurt.

"Now then, none of that, I'd help just because it's the right thing ta do, no need to butter me up." Applejack protested a little but it was clear the words did have an affect on her. Gel smiled at 'still having it'. "Wait a second, Twilight… one of them got ta ya?" The alicorn's demeanor shrunk and he nodded. "Aww, well, let's just get this all cleared up then."

Gel and Twilight both noticed something in the mare change and Gel snapped a look at Twilight. He grinned. So that is why the mare was always alone and didn't seem to have much interest in others. She had set her sights on a pony she couldn't have. "Got somewhere we can put them to keep them safe?" Gel tugged at the other that kept wanting to turn about to Applejack.

"Yeah, let's put them in the old barn. Got some stalls in there that are safe and sound." With Applejack leading, both hind seemed quite content to follow along and be set into stalls with some soft hay on the ground. "Now, let's see about finding more of your varmints and we can all get to bed."

The moment the mare said it she blushed and, if not for the spell on the three helping them 'see' it might have been missed.

"Okay, crisis is partly under control for now. You two have something to talk about." Gel watched as Twilight too began to blush. "You are renowned for your honesty, Applejack. Tell Twilight."

It was as easy as that to defeat Applejack's nerves and worries. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Ever since I saw you for the first time, Twi, I wanted to tell you…" The earth pony mare looked up at the alicorn stallion. "But it never seemed right, you were so special, you were Princess Celestia's star student, you were the Element of Magic, you became the Princess of Friendship…"

"Applejack?" Twilight stepped up, one lavender wing lifting up to brush the mare's cheek.

"I have been in love with you for so long…" The strongest, most stubborn mare broke down and pushed forward against Twilight, sobbing into the wing.

Twilight didn't move away, didn't even flinch from the mare baring her soul. "You should have told me… uh, no, I would have been an idiot about it." Twilight bopped himself on the forehead.

"You aren't being an idiot now." Gel smiled and stepped a bit closer, not touching either. "Okay, let's deal with the deer, then, after, you two need to talk more."

Applejack looked at the changeling with a shocked expression. "But yer her mate! Are you sayin' you want a herd?"

Twilight gave the strongest pony he knew a little squeeze with a wing. "No, I think he is actually suggesting we deal with the problem at hoof and then just talk. He can be a strange stallion but… I think I have learned to like strange."

"Strange? What are you talkin' about?" Applejack seemed to have recovered and she took a deep breath. Of course all that did was remind her that Twilight was a stallion and, having spent so long fighting her orientation, what she thought was her orientation, Applejack couldn't help but lean in against the bigger pony.

"Gel doesn't think the way most ponies do. He comes at problems from whole new angles, ways I wouldn't think of thinking of." Twilight's words nearly confused himself. His wing curled around Applejack's back and hugged her.

Applejack was struggling in a pit she had dug for herself. Her emotions were so tangled right then that she didn't know if she should proposition Twilight, run away as fast as possible or just keep snuggling against her best friend. She decided the latter was the least problematic, but it didn't stop her brain from thinking the others might be good too. Then her heart, her big dumb, honest heart, swelled at the thought that not only was Twilight, her best friend Twilight, not running away after she admitted all this, but Twilight was actually snuggling back.

"There's one!" Gel's call snapped both Twilight and Applejack from their introspection and they lifted their heads to see where the changeling was pointing. A deer was pushing its plot against a pony who looked mesmerized by it.

"Not on muh watch!" Applejack produced a lasso and charged, getting it around the neck of the deer just as the pony's head disappeared into their vulva. "Stop that right this minute!" She jerked hard, yanking the hind out of position and shocking it enough that it let go its magic grip on the poor pony.

"Nice work!" Twilight trotted up and examined the fallen stallion, checking them over. "He is almost senseless, but I think we got them in time."

Applejack was already reeling her catch in and on a short length of lead-rope, started trotting back to her farm with the deer. "Ah'll be right back!"

Gel turned to Twilight. "So, tell me you are going to let her have some fun. She looked so desperate just to say those words. I don't think she would have survived if you had acted any different."

Twilight smiled and thought of his friend. "I would be lying if I said I don't like her. She is one of my best friends though and… it would be wrong to just ride her and then leave her be. I want to be Applejack's friend first, then her lover if she would have me."

"If… yeah, right." Gel nuzzled his lover as they stood guard over the confused stallion. Gel didn't like to think the word 'bait' but it was there, and they were keeping him from being assaulted.

Author's Note

Well, doesn't look like Gel is going to get Applejack, but somepony is

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