Luna slowly drew a satisfied finger through the pool of alicorn semen her apprentice had left behind after their… Call it explosive, aye, she thought, Quite the explosive and, were this not my Dream we sported within, expansive rite we practiced tonight. Smugness touched her lips, and she felt no need to let it dance there alone. She trailed a second finger to meet the first, and scooped up the thick, magic-infused spunk to taste yet again.

"Delicious," she said to herself. "As ever, and with the benefit that the lad's too young to have quite the same potent effects on his betters that ours have on the Elements." Still, the tingle over her lips and tongue, and the burn down her throat was to be savored. It had a kick, like the best of sweet Applejack's post-apotheosis cider, and Luna hummed to herself as she encysted the dreamsite of their tutelage within her soul and stasis' grip for later access.

One did not discard fine drinks, nor let them spoil, after all. But now, it was time to patrol the Dream.

Around herself, the lambent armor, last gift of paternal blessing, surrounded her comfortably. Less easy came her weapons; her hands still yearned for Midwife; indeed, her very callouses seemed to ill-fit any other that she could claim. And yet...

Midwife had refused her call when she had fallen into Nightmare. Even now, Luna fretted like a stallion, unable to decide her course. She did not know if she could bear rejection from her beloved weapon-companion yet again. So much lost to shadows and jealousy, she lamented.

This night, like every other since her Renewal to guardianship of the Dream, the grand Warmistress of Equestria... Failed. Took the coward's path. She brought to hand a seemingly simple, short spear-- Unlike sister's gaudy giant!-- and a diamond-shaped shield with a carefully stretched cover over some strange mass on the front that almost seemed to move in the fluid blue of Unformed Dream.

A smile on her lips and heat between her thighs chased away regrets for the moment. Cunning Rhythm-Maker indeed! she thought. Manifold thus, to seek my favor by bringing me a trophy won by his wile, welcoming me with his entreaties, and... She sighed happily, Cunning linguist before and after sport, lingually cunning between her thighs.

Hung, too, she reminded herself, Or at least by my standards no more than a turn of my sweet Moon past!

Cheered and warmed by fond memories, Luna gestured with her spear and called up the latest of her tricks, a gift from a potential father-in-law. The Starlit Roads took advantage of the Void King's omnicoterminous nature and bizarre metaphysics in the first place. Weaving them into the very flow and web of the Dream, she could span the world and back again in an eyeblink. No longer did she need to navigate from thread to thread of interpersonal relationships; purpose drove her, purpose divorced from distances of all kinds.

A tone shifted in her mind and she recited the mysterious spell taught by the King:

Nobody gonna take my head

I got speed inside my brain

Nobody gonna steal my head

Now that I'm on the road again

I'm in heaven again I've got everything

Luna knew that it was some form of musical reference, and that the choice had something to do with the King's… distinctive... sense of humor, but she refused to consider the matter too deeply. The Void King was an infinite existence folded in upon himself-themselves-itself in every mote and moment, and to contemplate the oddities and eccentricities thereof was to court madness by exposure. No matter how benevolent the entity in question.

As to why the portal to the Starlit Roads was a five-point star with a very mauveine shade, like that of the variety of mallow flower Celestia loved dearly, she wanted even less to know. Her massive, potent quads flexed, a thrill in her still-tense rump above it reminding her of the delights of some of the less outre rites she had worked on with her apprentice. Twitches ran through her, from ears, to nose, to wings, to tail, to toes.

She was through.

Stars. Stars, dark twilight, and the shadows of a wandering forest road. The soil beneath her boots was unfamiliar. Harmony was present, but there was a different, omnipresent personality all around her.

Every mote indeed, Luna thought as her nostrils flared and her well-stacked and well-packed chest heaved. I am literally breathing in my future father-in-law. The air was cool and crisp and so heavily magical that Luna never quite knew why the Roads weren't as bright as day. Part of most efficient defenses, too. Uninvited guests soul-merge with the King if they stay too long.

Shadows flickered along Luna's dark hide, teasing at the light reflected off her silver armor. Around her, there was soft rustle of leaves shifting just a bit off from the shadow-movements to make it clear both that the shadows and the forms casting them were moving independently, and a sense of tremendous, almost overwhelming presence. Even for an alicorn Warmistress like herself, there was an unimaginable pressure; the very cosmos around her was aware of her presence.

And liked her. The rustles were welcoming; the pressure, a universal smile. She looked up at the bright moon-- not hers, and hadn't that felt so alien the first time?-- as it played its glow over her frame. Another touch, not distinct from the first but distinguishable nonetheless. Friendly still, and feminine; there, amidst the shine on the strange moon's surface, a bone-white moth shimmered in outline.

Greetings, my mother-in-law to be, Luna said as she began to pad swiftly down the path. Time-- also being an incarnation of the Void King as was literally everything else not his children or invited guests here-- was literally on her side, but she'd been told that if she wished haste, she needed to act like it. Warrior and huntress, guardian and goddess, Luna could not conceive of wasting a precious gift, even if she had no pressing requirement.

She jogged down the path, thinking, praying, to the… slightly… less alien of the facets that she and Celestia had wooed to sponsor a marriage-alliance on top of the fosterage. Hail, healer, and know that your son flourishes, she thought. Know that our Herd accepts your gifts and blessings with gratitude, of the future and of the moment alike. Warmth within the coolness, a ripple in the pressure.

The leaves rustled faster, the thud of her massive feet on beaten earth created a rhythm. Blessings; what manner of entity might bless a goddess? Luna smiled, knowing the answer as Healing's gift filled her mighty limbs with vitality, the run as restful as the sleep of the just. She cast her thoughts to her sister now, thinking, Ah, Celly-dear, what whims and what awful wonders does your gamble throw us among?

There was no other response, amid shadows and starlight; the benevolent regard of the moon maretriarch-- Matriarch, I suppose, blast these odd linguistic cousins-- sped her on her way through it all.

When she left the Starlit Roads, Luna felt giddy, her face beaming like the light of her own cuddlebug moon. She reached out to touch her ward and soulbound, and the great sphere hugged her, no more jealous of the Healing Moon's hugs than of Luna's memory of her mother's embraces. The Dream swirled around her, ribbons of potential and imagination caressing the mountainous mass of bicep and tricep, of forearm and fist, trailing over her weapons and swirling around her gigantic breasts.

The swirl became a tug as it reached the heft and enormity of her chiseled quads, and Luna followed the Morphean eddy. The Dream had something to show her. Here she moved, on roads of her own making and her own dominion, the chiefest of wardens and the mightiest of predators of the mind.

Whatever certain demon lords might boast, Luna had taught them time and time again that here, her will was absolute. Others might waylay her, as they might for a time snare Celestia in the waking world, but in time, she conquered. The Dream was hers, and she protected the sleeping minds and souls of all the races of Epona.

Which was why the golden glow off in the distance annoyed her; it was definitely another divine entity wandering the Dream. Not her sister's gold, either; that carried warmth and light. This was cold and severe, and Luna knew its nature swiftly. Familiar, if less so since her long absence.

She grunted and frowned. "We're nowhere near the Minotaur Range," she whispered to herself. "What's the old smoothmouth doing with a dreamer near the Badlands?" Spear at the ready, shield poised, Luna's perfectly sculpted muscles tensing with readiness, she leaped and loped towards the source of the glow.

The giant source of the glow. Fifteen feet tall from hooves to horns and every inch of it muscle on muscle, Auros the Golden, the Minotaur Patriarch, the Pillar of Duty, Tower of Trade, and Monument of Wealth, was a rippling mass of powerful muscles barely held in check beneath a rich golden tuxedo-- all gold, even the tie. As tasteless as the foalish, excitable male's obsession with phallic titles, Luna thought with a snort.

Oh, he was cute enough by Luna's beefcake standards-- when the glowing gold wasn't trying to blind her. Though her proportional definition, muscle size, and power was the greater-- still, despite her years in exile!-- she had always found him pleasingly formed from an base of strength. Broad shoulders that pressed to the edge of the suit, powerful pecs that almost formed cleavage around said shimmering tie, heavy hands used to hard labor of the physical trades and the scribbled cramp of ledgerwork alike. Fit thighs in well-tailored pants, and a bulge she smugly noted was less than her apprentice's-- even in absolute terms-- though it was otherwise impressive.

Luna didn't bother with stealth as she stomped up across the dreamway. She snorted as she looked him up and down, thinking, The proud foal-- and foal he is, for all he's older than Celly, older than our parents would have been, even-- even has some sort of golden embossment about his hooves! Arrogant cad.

She folded her mighty arms beneath her colossal chest and glared up at Auros. "Not even a hail when I find you skulking about in my Dream and my principality alike," she snapped at him. "Aye, and far from your people, you useless old stodge. Go back to your watchpost and await your betters' call, feeble nigh-steer that you are!"

The huge bull's lovely, but sadly sleeve-clad arms and jacket-obscured pretty pecs bulged beneath golden cloth, his long tail lashing behind him-- just far enough away that Luna could imagine he held it daintily past the suit's tails. Tension raged across his body, and he folded his arms in return.

The massive prominence of his forehead furrowed under the base of his titanic horns and he growled back, "I look to the blessing of one of my own in your heathen, unnatural land, uppity wench! You, at least, should know a god's duty to mortals carrying our mark-- or should that be a goddess' duty. If I had to ask, would you bake her a cake?"

No, I'd ask the Pink One to do so, Luna thought, then waved her spear at him. "Uppity?" she roared back at him. "Insulting, lèse majesté and unthinking, unheeding above your station! To flaunt thus so on my lands and overproud-- I should put a ring to your nose and teach you respect once and for all!"

"Untamed heifer!"

"Ill-bred crowbait!"

The two titans stared at each other with such heat it seemed almost unreal that the empathic dreamstuff did not catch fire. Then, as beaming grins broke out on both deity's faces, Luna slung her spear over her back… and rushed the older god, even as his broad arms opened wide. She slammed her own chiseled limbs around his thighs and hefted him up into the air in a tight embrace.

The hug was tight and cheery, but of course-- as she respected and adored his wives to this day-- she tilted him slightly so she didn't rub her muzzle into his trouser-bound package. I might tease the stubborn old bull, she thought gleefully, but never trespass upon Bladebell or Goldhoof's territory, let alone the others'!

Broad hands reached down to awkwardly return the embrace as best the larger giant could. Auros laughed and said, "You could at least let me pick you up, Lulu. It would be far easier, and my thighs would bruise less."

She smiled, let him drop, and held out her potent arms, fingers flexing in and out rapidly. "Ups, Uncle Auros!" she demanded. "Ups!"

A gentle smile wiped away the fearsome storm of pretended anger, and the bull god leaned down and picked Luna up in a gentle hug. Just like he had when she'd come to him, weeping after their parents' death. For all that minotaurs had a slight bias to males that Luna found utterly unnatural, they no more restrained their warcows than Luna rejected her thestral stallions' service at arms. Indeed, Auros had sheltered Celestia and Luna until the trio had found the last remnants of alicorns to train the young prodigies.

Which didn't mean that they didn't mock each other lovingly when they met, of course. More so in the last ten years, as Luna had found herself the symbol of the old guard maretriarchs to Auros' stodgy patriarchs. Neither tolerated abuse, and both were being pulled along by Celestia's reforms, not to mention the griffon Flyer's snark, into a modern, egalitarian world.

Ah, Luna thought contentedly as she cuddled against her massive adoptive uncle, But how boring it'd be if we lost our favorite greetings! She grinned over at him. "So whom of your blessed has joined our throng, uncle?" she asked cheerfully.

A deep rumble escaped the golden bull's throat. "Quite a special lass, actually," he said with pride. "A warrior and a blacksmith, in fact-- sufficient in both that she and her husband were equals in all their ways. Such heresy!" He winked.

"Of course, uncle," Luna said with a giggle. "Mustn't have the natural hierarchy disturbed even in such modern times," she said, lifting her muzzle dramatically and swishing her tail. The older deity just laughed harder and petted her wings.

The chuckles continued for a few moments, then trailed off into a cough. "Well, anyway," he huffed. "She's quite the doughty fighter, as was her husband. He lost his life facing off against a powerful gorgon sorceress, and she left our lands with their son to grieve."

Luna nodded. One of the benefits of Equestria's open borders (not counting the one protected by a force wall against streams of demonic invasion) and interconnected trade with other Harmonious nations was that cultures flowed back and forth. Thus, if a cultural paragon's husband was lost, she might take absence from that which reminded her thereof.

A cultural paragon, lost to a potent stone-gazing mage… Luna concentrated, and nodded a bit. "Ah!" she exclaimed as memory struck. "Steel Orchid, then-- her husband was Golden Axe; quite the pair of tacticians as well as warriors and masters of the smith trade, if I recall?" When Auros nodded, her brow furrowed further. "I'm afraid, few as the families are of your folk in our lands, I don't know the lad's name."

When her uncle snorted and tilted his horned head at her, she protested, "I've been busy, old hide-and-bones! Even were he a lass proper I might have missed the name."

Auros leaned down and snorted again, nostril to nostril in a gentle familial kiss of the old style. As she fussed at him and her nose, making absurd faces, he laughed and said, "Brave Frog. He hasn't an adult name yet, but they're at Fort Hoofington. He may have a chance yet."

She nodded. "The swarms grow ever bolder and nastier as they slipped Chrysalis' leash," she commented. "The Line holds, for now, but they fly, and Incubation and Maze's nastier sort of demons are working with them, I'm sure of it." She sighed, heavy Z-cups jiggling as she relaxed in her uncle's embrace. "I'm not fond of a siege mentality, but…"

Auros nodded. "But my children have found 'reasons' to avoid their alliance duties," he grumbled. "Sometimes, mortal free will can be vexing." They both shrugged, and he put her down gently. "Speak of the Soul-Eater… Steel Orchid is more than a mere hero, actually."

Luna flicked an ear and tilted her head at him, and the great bull smiled fondly. "She's the reincarnation of Shi Who Cleaves," he said softly. "And though I do not like making a weapon of any of my children… Steel Orchid will know her duty, if the time comes."

Bouncing on her heels, Luna clapped her hands. "Shi Who Cleaves-- I remember hir!" she exclaimed. "What a warrior." Her cheer faded slightly. "And what a sacrifice shi and hir sib made. Uncle, you must let me assist-- what boon had you planned for this scion?"

Auros chuckles. "Her husband's shade has not yet reincarnated," he replied. "And misses her. He dwells in my golden halls, and seeks pools of transcience to look upon her, wherever and whenever he might. So tonight, I will connect her dream to his wist, and bless them both." He snorted, and swished his tail. "Provided a certain proud wench and bratty niece doesn't decide to interfere, of course!" Winking, the old bull grinned-- and raised an eyebrow at Luna's reply.

"Interfere-- nay!" Luna declared. "Intervene. Let's not leave them separated by the infinite thinness of the water's edge. With my rights here and your rights to his soul, let us bring him through for a night of passion with his beloved; a whim and wild fancy to remember for both realms. Such love should have one last climax." She leered. "Or more, if one of your stodgy males can handle the job!"

"I would appreciate it, Lulu," Auros replied. "Her soul has served with heroic distinction, in this life as much as any other save Shi Who Cleaves. Shall we enter her dream?"

"Surely," she agreed, and took the larger deity's hand with hers. Dragging him easily along, she accelerated through the more traditional hallway of Auros' care and love for his mortal. Strange, she thought. Some deep, trembling connection runs to me through cow and shade, not merely Uncle's affections. What shall I find here-- a convert? Neigh, or Uncle would have used that in his salvo. Curious!

She looked forward to seeking and finding alike.

Laughing, the pair hand in hand-- ish-- strolled through the Hall of Dreamers, there to find the minotaur paragon's sleeping locus.

Luna was impressed by the home. She presumed it was at least roughly accurate to the domicile that female and fallen husband had made together. The Dream tended to create at least minor distortions and idealizations, especially in an environ as well-loved as this obviously had been. In her experience, however, homes tended towards at least a snapshot of reality in the virtuous and in the flawed aspects alike.

It was a modern version of a traditional Bullic round-house, or rather, round-houses; three ground-level homes connected by an typically minotaur labyrinth of yawning, connected tunnels beneath. Even had the well-defended borders of the Bétail Federation been breached, it would have proved a fortress in miniature. Indeed, the couple would have been quite able to provide for friends and neighbors. A fourth building, long and rectangular with a circular southern end, was clearly the shop/smithy, and attached to the private buildings above and below ground alike.

Luna was impressed by the security and solidness of the small compound in the first place. In the second, as she and Auros' dreamforms traveled through the forge, she was deeply touched by the anvils and forge openings set so that bull and cow could work their craft, their art, together. "I see why they have a love that could transcend death, Uncle," she commented, and the massive bull-god merely smiled and nodded.

Within the dwellings, simple, hand-worked, but well-made brick walls in circular alignment had been given an internal wooden sheath, painted over in bright colors with scenes from the couple's life. Again, love was the theme. Their wedding and their meetings, their favorite spots to vacation-- these and similar were emphasized. Indeed, seeing as only their son's birth was detailed of the calf's part, Luna felt this was back when the couple was happiest. Retired, before her return had heralded the Millennial Storm.

Shan't obsess, she reminded herself. Sister and Sparkle alike have it to rights. That ills were coming to Equestria and Epona was inevitable; as Nightmare Moon, I was one of those misfortunes. Heroes like these saved me, and we are here to honor love and Harmony alike.

Battle-victories weren't treated shamefully of course. Broken weapons, cloven shields and other trophies were tastefully-- if discretely-- placed between the scenes of domestic bliss, with subtle, bordering on abstract mementos of victory. A smile curved along Luna's lips, and she tugged at Auros' sleeve.

"Mm, Lulu?" he asked softly.

She grinned and replied, "I was thinking this was set in the past, around the time of their son's birth, and I believe my guess true." Though her voice was similarly quiet to avoid attracting the dreamer's attention, it was cheery. "Look." She pointed where Steel Orchid's dream showed indeed 'flaws.' As Auros tilted his head, Luna drew his attention to areas of much lighter paint and recently filled-in designs. Areas which corresponded roughly to the shelves for dangerous or fragile trophies higher up.

"Ah. Calf-proofing," Auros said with a quiet chuckle. "I recall my attempts long ago-- or rather, my servitors' attempts-- but a pair of winged fillies put paid to such nonsense." She beamed back at him, not in the least sorry. She and her sister had brought youth into the old god's heart.

And had helped his cows push him into finally having demigod children of their own-- one lineage of which had led to the hero they were here to bless this very night!

Luna tasted the flow of fancy and revelation that wove together the Dream. "She's in the center roundhouse," Luna muttered to Auros. "Do you wish to appear in a clap of thunder and masculine noise, or shall you take subtle cues from more deft hands?"

The big bull snorted, and to her protests, fuzzled Luna's mane. "I think you might credit me and mine with more wit than that, Lulu," he said with a grin. "Especially since I remember which of two sisters was far more prone to finding noisier objects to knock over… and more valuable ones to break."

"'Twas Celly's fault; she ever plotted more," Luna muttered. "Fine then, we'll summon the male here and project his manifestation through the wall?"

"I think so, yes. Perhaps watch a bit to make sure all goes well."

"Pervert male. You would leave your mortals not a whit of privacy, and you know it!"

"I don't see you denying a voyeurish female intrigue, Lulu."

"Of course not. These realms are mine by right of Sphere and strength of soul. Let's get to it, or has age slowed your joints the more?"

With a carefully crafted sending to Fluttershy, the process was even less difficult than the last Invoking Luna had practiced with Auros-- and they had been assisted by Celestia for the heavy lifting then! Thence is a benefit of a pantheon, one supposes, Luna mused. Neither she nor Celestia had ever pushed Auros much on the nature of the pre-Fading Plague alicorn pantheon. The question had come up once or twice during their stay at the Last Village, but the responses had always been vague to confusing, not to mentioned twisted with grief.

Here and now, as her hands clasped the larger bull's, and their divine essences comingled, she felt the faint and distant locus of the young Goddess of Kindness shift the locks of the very Gates of Life and Death themselves. A filter was applied as Auros and Luna spoke the ancient Words, and as their merged miracles called the shade of Golden Axe across the thinner veil between Auros' afterlife and the Dream, their preternatural efforts flowed in a way that Luna had never felt in her life.

This was the world of her people, now. This was the New Alicorn Age, and Luna privately swore she'd make sure they were all worthy of the blessings thus bestowed. In this moment, at this time, she channeled the fickle flow of both Dream and Illusion, governed by her sweetiepie Moon.

Like the tides she rocked across the ocean beds, the real and the unreal rolled and curled within the substrate of malleable Dream. Auros' solid strength and connection to the married couple formed a pair of solid pillars, again with the strange web tying her essence in tiny part to them as well. Between them, the portal yawned, the Penultimate Chasm forming, bridge and door and gap all alike as death was for a little while no barrier.

It was a rare act, but the soul that Luna felt travel along through the gates was worthy in and of himself. Loyal, giving, and courageous; she tasted the dreams he had inspired, the hopes he had saved. And knew from them the nightmares of the waking and sleeping worlds he had destroyed. This was no longer a favor to her uncle; this was an honor in and of itself.

She was thus more than satisfied at the character of the husband's soul-- not that she had much doubted her uncle, but the channel gave her such an exposing dip into a rare delectable-- that of a patient, loving male, with a kindly sense of humor. Poor lass, she thought. To lose such a paragon among his gender; aye, as clear a soul as the diamond I'll have my own share in soon enough. She'd known many a reincarnation of Shi Who Cleaves, and always found them stout and meritorious comrades, no matter the mortal sheath.

And all warriors born, she reminded herself, and turned to the minotaur female with expectations of a handsome sight, indeed.

Luna was impressed again. Even the first glance was enough to stir a whimsy of lust, a faint regret that her uncle had not requested of her a more personal blessing for Steel Orchid. All twelve feet of her, she thought with salacious glee, and gently stirred the dream to be convivial for amatory sport between the two. Treat your wife on my behalf, Golden Axe! She claimed you first, and may you have joy of each other.

Large, that was Steel Orchid. She was herself a towering paragon of many archetypes, mixed into a radiant synergy that made the whole all the greater. Her sharp horns were nearly as long as her mate's, a characteristic of many of Shi Who Cleaves' female reincarnations. The males, as Luna expected, were honestly ridiculous in that regard, but tended to make it work.

They were curved forward in the paragon manner, and her long, black hair descended in somewhat messy forward bangs between them. Behind, it was clasped back in a low ponytail, the steel clasp woven into a large, pink orchid, carefully preserved. It hung to her mid-back, with the same sort of joyful chaos as the front, swishing in time with her tail as she worked in the kitchen quarter.

It was her positively massive shoulders that truly caught Luna's eye. The hair was cute enough, descending between bulky shoulderblades over a light white t-shirt. But that gigantic breadth! And while she did not have Luna's own unparalleled definition, the rounded softness that periodically ebbed to show titanic strength beneath the surface added a motherly, maretriarch-warrior's look that Luna adored.

She estimated the cow's overall appearance to fit a similar scale to Applejack or Rarity in terms of muscularity, though without the alicorn-hyper-earth-pony Archimanedes Void to enhance the natural strength. It would not do to underestimate the soul-lineage of Shi Who Cleaves, however. Time and time again, they manifested demigoddess potency when heroism was called for.

Despite the inevitable cost when Maze Spirit-Twister's vengeance hunts renewed.

The simple shirt could not conceal the bulk and the might beneath. Hampering it in this task were the long black straps of her apron, clinging to her chiseled back and pulling the shirt in all the way down to the broad black sash at her waist. From there, it dipped out of sight behind the waistband of Steel Orchid's sadly loose-fitting jeans.

Despite the relaxed conformation, nothing could hide a pair of matronly hips that showed a delicious pair of handholds for, say, an interested alicorn war-goddess to hold onto for proper anchoring at sport. If such a thing were to happen. The exquisite curvature jiggled slightly with every little motion the cow made, even the light flick of her long, tufted tail behind.

She would be glad later that it was an undetectably subtle bend in the dreamflow, for her uncle would soon have more than sufficient ammunition to tease her with for millennia to come without such embellishments.

The jeans themselves also attracted note, and not merely because of the immense musculature that showed beneath in quiet fits and starts, proportionally greater than even her amazonian upper body. While Luna appreciated the view, her professional interest was piqued. Much like the house, the detail on the jeans-- and more than likely the apron, though it was hard to tell from behind-- was as near to waking world levels as made no difference. No fuzziness, no glitches of memory or perception from the loops at the waistband to where the cuffs hung over well-maintained hooves...

Perception, that's the marker, Luna thought. And detail besides. That's a thing of this lifetime, not the pattern of the soul I've known. In this life, she has a craftsmarely eye for detail, and a sharp, precise memory to boot. I must seek her out in the waking-- not, she told herself conscientiously, to stalk the lass-- but to acquire arms and armor built by her hands.

Though divine gifts and the memory of Midwife were what Luna would use upon the actual field with equivalent foes, she adored collecting the tools and trinkets of battle made by master craftsmares (of whatever species). There was an art and a resonance to the best-made weapons and armor, even, or perhaps especially, those made by mortal smiths. Their dreams are what make them wonders, she thought. I deem it a wonder of the terrestrial; hopes that are breathed into art and craft that wander further afield than even the divine might wager, for all our supposed wisdom.

Then Orchid turned around, eyes alight as her similarly tall and muscular spouse's shade fade in. A not inconsiderable fraction of a percent of Luna's discipline went into not growling hungrily and giving away the game then and there. Was it the gigantic L-cup breasts, barely constrained by the purple and black apron, let alone the poor, overworked shirt beneath? Not quite; for all Luna would readily agree that a fair pair above on a female was even more welcome than a thick pair below on a male, that wasn't quite it.

Though she did note lustfully that this pair was more than fair, jiggly to an extreme with a slight teardrop droop that betrayed nothing else in its vast smooth curvature beneath. Whatever bra the cow was wearing was hayculean not only in holding the huge orbs fast, but in managing to disguise into the whorls of the apron's design all but the slightest hint of fat, ready nipples. It may have been Luna's imagination, but she thought she heard a chest-forward creaking as other signs of arousal-- bright eyes, whipping tail, beaming smile and slight pant-- stuck Orchid at the sight of her long-absent husband.

Nor was it the delicious combination of warcow muscles and motherly softness, a slight muffin top of civilian life being rapidly pulsed by shallow dreamer breaths to show the still-mighty six-pack beneath. The broad sash cut across the whirling pattern of the apron, tugging just a bit into the adorable portliness over stout strength. Oh, she had burly biceps and terrific triceps, yes, and the beautiful mega-quads of thunderous thighs that the rear view had promised, a cute little holstein pattern on the visible hide of arms, neck, and face-- one black spot and teasing whirls over her left eye, even.

No, it was that smile, that face. A welcoming warmth had shown there even before the soul-deep connection and honest face of her husband had revealed the miracle Luna and Auros had wrought. Gentle blue eyes behind broad, circular glasses were all but shining brands now, and her smile was as bright as Luna's lovey Moon in full-- perhaps even as bright as her sister's vainglorious sun at its zenith. The strength of her jaw was a hint that she'd have a fierce countenance in battle, but the only thing fierce about her now was the way she smished her titanic bosom against Golden Axe's dream-form and wrapped her arms in a tight hug.

For all that I wish that was me, Luna thought with a broad grin, I'd not miss that smile of welcome 'twixt mates for all the world, save to protect it. A miracle well-received is a miracle-well wrought, no matter how personal or how grandiose.

Deed accomplished, Luna gently tugged Auros into an ethereal sublayer. Invisible and insubstantial to the dream, the deities floated into the roundhouse, directly viewing the reunited couple. At that, the pair would like as not have missed our presence, Luna wagered, Even were we accompanied by a full chorus of Messengers.

Of course, doing so would have been quite the rude interruption! After all, pure of mind and soul, she and Auros were only here to insure the miracle stayed firmly in the realm of wondrous Dream, and that grief or longing would not turn it to horror.

Luna chewed lightly on a gauntleted fingertip. The facts that the lad is shirtless and the lass has decided to evaporate all clothing save the apron and frilly underthings is not, she noted, making our task difficult in the slightest!

The kissing soon ceased, and the heroic pair slipped hands to their lovers' hips in easy, loving symmetry. Tears glittered in Luna's eyes, and she wondered, When decades become centuries, shall I find such comfort and casual grace in the arms of my wives-to-be? Spouses. I pray to Harmony that it should be so.

"How..." asked Steel Orchid, breaking the silence to reach up and caress her husband's jawline, back and up past floppy ear to leave trembling fingertips at his right temple. She started again. "How can this be, Axe? It's you, I'd know you anywhere, dearest."

Golden Axe shook the massive prominence of his great-horned head slowly. "Auros... Auros promised a payment for my deeds," he said. "But I had thought that he meant we'd speak across...". He waved a hand, awe and a mortalish mind leaving him unable to describe the Gap and the Veil. A soft smile chased blank awe away. "However, whyever this was granted...". He kissed Orchid's throat. "We have time..."

Steel Orchid made an aggressive low, and she pulled her husband all the closer into the deliciously soft lushness of her massive rack. "Time for the loving I've needed from you so much, beloved."

"Volunteering to top?" teased Axe.

Orchid snorted, pulled back just enough to give them room between pecs and pinnacle titflesh. Her vast, chiseled arms swung round to the front, upper arms squishing her delectable L-cups into a dangerous, apron-creaking forward smoosh. Her right hand formed a fist as she crouched slightly, her left open and palm up beneath the right.

Axe smirked and casually assumed the same stance, formed the same puzzling gesture. Less the lovely frontal accompaniments.

Luna abruptly recognized the modern "duel" form just before the pair shouted, "Rock, paper, scissors!". They shook their fists above their palms, and repeated the whole affair for the requisite three total runs.

Fate or foreknowledge blessed Steel Orchid. She won, and smiled with gentle care to take away regrets he faint sting of losing for her mate. "It was your turn to dress up as her anyway, let alone top," she pointed out. "So get the box and -- oh!"

Luna watched the mists of Dream flow over Golden Axe with interest. A cross dressing role they both enjoy, eh? she wondered. What-- or who-- could they...

Fate was not quite so kind to Luna as to Orchid. Save perhaps that the insubstantiality she had imposed prevented the dreamers from hearing her uncle's sudden guffaws.

To Luna's half-embarrassment, half-flattered intrigue, the Dream accommodated a quick change for Golden Axe as it had for Steel Orchid. By changing his casual garb to a scaled-up, but otherwise absolutely detail-perfect, recreation of her pre-Nightmare Moon war mistress dress uniform, oriented around an imitation of the armor she wore now.

Complete with extremely padded hips and prosthetic breasts sized to his twelve feet and Luna's bosom, making Axe's cleavage dwarf his wife's generous natural allotment. Orchid blinked. "I don't remember finishing hammering out..."

It was at that point that Luna's smirking uncle nudged her. The irksome old smooth-tooth's grin made his point clear; the dreamers were getting away from the dream. Blushing dark under dark hide, Luna exhaled a beachcomber wind; sand, heat, and forgetfulness swirled into the dream, and little things like where and how and why faded away, leaving only the who of their pairing and the what of the fun to come.

Covering her face with her hands, Luna shook her head back and forth rapidly. At least Auros was silent-- for the moment. He'll chortle; and thence ruin the dream, she thought. I know he will. Clearly, he thinks this is some infinitely amusing jest, and what male could resist mocking a mare over such misfortune?

She steadfastly ignored the part of her that reminded her that she'd known a few males, of stallionkind and other, who might not. Instead, she grabbed her uncle's massive arm by the wrist, and hauled the startled bull away before he could even snort in protest. Through wall and furniture alike she pulled him, until they were outside the dream home. "Tell me you knew naught of this, uncle," she growled up at him. At least I can trust his honesty, if not his discretion.

And indeed, with the immediate threat of spoiling their blessing over, Auros had to cast a dreamweaving of his own-- An amateur one! Luna huffed-- to create luxurious and thick standing tapestries between them and the compound as the buffoonish male began to laugh. She could do no more than fume as he let loose all shreds of dignity and rolled on the floor like a calf!

So she kicked him. Not hard by the standards of deities, but it would have put a reasonable dent in the side of a mountain. With a half-choke, half-snort, he waved her off and struggled back to his feet. "No, no," he promised her. "I hadn't the slightest id-- well," he amended, the dutiful god's inherent honesty rising to the moment, "I suppose I did know that they both admired the histories of your generalship and deeds during the Unification years." A most unbecoming giggle shattered the calm he'd gathered. "Not that 'Mighty Warmistress Luna' would be 'interrogating' in their wilder thoughts."

Luna sighed. "It was even historically accurate," she agreed, ears drooping. "Mostly, I deem. And--" A bit of interest stirred as she shifted the dream slightly-- "Unless I miss my guess, he's even pretending that bull-thick member of his is a strap-on." She shook her head, and her uncle hugged her tight. She slammed her forehead into his chest, careful of her horn.

There was no force in the headbutt. The whole scenario was simply too uproarious for further words, and she wanted it out of her head. Not that she objected to a fair lad pleasing his mate! That was only proper, the male's best use in many ways. But I didn't expect to see me! she groused mentally.

It was not as common as her shockingly beautiful and tremendously sculpted form might hint. Luna grumbled and cupped her oversized tits for a moment, then let them fall before bonking her head against her uncle's broad torso yet again. He had-- they had-- the nerve to even size them up! she groaned. But no; even in her millennia, such imitation and flattery was rare. After all, to her thestrals, she was divine; to the rest of ponykind, the same, only there was the added pressure of Celestia's pretense on such matters. Not to mention the mere decade past Nightmare Moon's foolishness, at that.

"There, there," Auros rumbled and set her back on her feet. "I'm sure it's not the first wet dream you've seen including yourself."

"Moist and wet and drenched, uncle, from fair mares to saucy lads to intriguing futa," she replied. "And yet, they dream of me, idealized or nightmarish or however I am to them. 'Tis flattery, but it touches upon the symbols of their hearts and souls, not a driving will, and almost never when I've had a hand in directly shaping things!" She grunted, and punched her right fist into her left palm. "This, now-- this is will. Action. A rite of sport such that Our Niece might encourage, and here I am, here we are. I feel like I have trespassed upon sweet Orchid's proper rights, and indeed, your due worship, uncle."

The huge bull shook his head. "Don't trouble yourself for the latter at least, Lulu," he said with a smile and a toss of his massive horns. "I know acts of dream and passion are worship to you, but they are still dedicated at their cores to me. I can … Hmm."

Even as her uncle trailed off, Luna was already testing the Dream currents by the flare of her nostrils and the subtler senses that attuned her to her sphere. "Demon," she growled. "Neigh. demons, and with a power I've seen only rarely."

"Maze," snarled Auros. His massive axe, as golden as the ghost male's name, appeared in his hands with a flash of light. For a moment, she was tempted to summon Midwife yet again, but her heart failed yet again. Spear and shield and a stout companion at her side would have to do.

The two of them comfortably slipped into a ready partnership. Luna stood protectively in front of Auros with her shield raised and her eyes alert, while he held Final Gift at the ready, his height allowing him an angle to attack around her defensive front. She wasn't surprised that even here on her home ground, her uncle could identify the Soul-Eater's spoor faster than she. The vendetta between Maze and Auros was a thing of storied legend that had reached even her parents' isolated home, long predating Maze's corruption and possession of one of the scions of his chosen rulers for his minotaurs.

The two moved cautiously. Though they recognized their enemy, they could not place them as of yet. The corrosive presence of one of Maze's top lieutenants and entourage, or perhaps even the master monster hirself, ate steadily at the edge of the dream, disrupting her finely tuned perceptions. A single misstep could rob them of the element of surprise; and neither cared to hand over such a gift to their enemies.

At the edges of the dreamscape, where sleepy compound and rolling green hills swirled into mists and nonsense, the night bled. Blue ooze ranging to the harsh brightness of violet-flecked nightmare dripped from jagged holes in the nothingness. It was being feasted upon.

Mutates don't survive that much befoulment! Luna thought in protest as she saw the five loathsome hulks. Each was a swirl of blighted and blighting colors, though each in turn had a dominant theme. Goo grey, bruise-yellow, bone-white, scabrous green, and a brownish-black the color of diseased and dried blood, those were the five monstrosities. Multiple limbs of no coherent order, let alone symmetry, popped out around bulging, cancerous bodies, save for White. That monster was thin, pulled tight as though made of naught but skin and the bones it resembled.

It, that was the word; none of them carried enough consistent features to permit Luna to tell species, let alone gender. Claws and fangs of a wide variety were peppered across multiple limbs and multiple maws per each soul-twisted monstrosity. Only the Grey seemed to lack claws, though its sloughing flesh, more fluid than its fellows, seemed to whip into sharp-edged pseudo-talons as it ripped into the flesh of the dream.

Yellow, Green, and Bloody were much of a type. All five showed so many characteristics of so many kinds, whether pony or minotaur, griffon or diamond dog, that she couldn't tell exactly what their original species had been. They broke all the rules that she knew for how mutates worked; and hence, how strong they might be.

And I… still cannot bring myself to call Midwife, Luna thought. Other than that and, So they were merely guidelines, then? she didn't have time to think of much else. She could feel Auros' barely-concealed battle focus behind her, and could not disagree with that lethal intent. This was abomination, and it needed to be cleansed. She raised her shield and racked her spear along the shining edge; her mammoth quads tensed, and behind her, she felt the Dream respond to her uncle doing the same.

Ready, they leapt upon the mutates.

The battle opened well; the divine ambushers had the element of surprise and divine force. Luna’s spear pierced Green to its very core, driving the monstrosity back into its fellows. Auros fell upon White and with a single arc of Final Gift, lopped off every bit recognizable as a head - and several bits that weren’t.

Luna ran a risk of spilling toxic, corrosive viscera in the over-deep thrust, but that gamble, at least, proved to be worthy. For though the tides belonged to Luna and her moon, the tide of battle nonetheless turned back upon them swiftly. First, White, though wounded, seemed barely paused; the abomination formed new heads out of its seething self-stuff, and turned to answer the attack right alongside its corrupt siblings. Green, at least, stayed down, pierced through whatever vital regions lay deep within.

And as Auros and Luna braced for the answering assault, they found themselves pincered, for Maze hirself appeared out of the Dream; shi must have been near to shepherd these new prototypes of mutation.

Luna swiftly understood why even Maze might dare risk hirself. Unlooked for, these new horrors seemed nigh-unto alicorns in potency. The costs shi must have sunk to create them would both be painful to lose and worth the apparent reward.

The fight should have been over in instants; instead she swiftly found herself wishing she'd had more time to prepare a trap, or summon the Elements, or call an army of her thestrals to her side. Even invoke that terrifying chaos which called itself the Cutie Mark Crusade. Something, anything, to pull the heat off.

Instead of a rout, the fight swiftly resolved into a stalemate. Only the long swing of Auros' strokes kept the beasts from surrounding them, focusing them against Luna's shield and superior guard. Maze hirself laughed horribly as shi scrawled spells of anathema and horror upon the dreamstuff, the very blasphemy of the spells weakening Luna even as they attacked both deities. "I went to find food and now my creations shall feast!" crowed the demon lord. "Better yet, I'll carve more of their kind and better from your souls, your godstuff thrown back against your helpless, unsuspecting kin!"

Well, that's Maze for you, Luna thought. Braggart, bully, and barmy. Thankfully, the creature's insistent need to mock and blather on meant shi wasn't focusing as much on blasting Luna and Auros with defilement. Or more to the point, blasting the dream with defilement.

In an ordinary, stand up fight, Luna could easily have crushed Maze and any ten mutates on her own. In the physical world, especially, she was simply so much stronger both in body and magic that even without Midwife, she could have obliterated them in seconds. Here, in the Dream, it should have and would have been even more of a one-sided fight, the very heart of Luna's power.

Whatever these creatures were, and however Maze had managed to sustain them, seemed to synergize with the demon lord's vile magic. Luna was having to split her attention and her power to thread and repair the damage to the Dream node, lest it spill over into the lovers' reward, or worse, spread to infect multiple Dream nodes by the same lines she had traveled once stepping off the Starlit roads.

Nonetheless, by shield and spear and strength of soul, Luna kept both Maze's magic and the mutate's might at bay, blocking, bashing, stabbing, striking as the manifold limbs of the mutates came at her from all sides. Mostly, she concentrated on forcing Bloody, Grey, and Yellow back, while Auros cleaved with Final Gift, keeping them within her forward arc and hewing at White's renewed limbs.

Footwork and fade, deception and strength, that was the foundation of her duty. Illusions made solid-- or not-- by her influence of the Dream let her confuse and baffle the flailing abominations as they struck at her and not-her-- but not Auros. As a result, the potent mass of her uncle's body remained untouched as he made wide arcs and heavy, two-handed slams that would have left him open for retaliation.

Righteousness amidst blasphemy. Mare protecting male; male wielding strength on behalf of mare. Luna took strength from the blessed balance, and channeled it into every hard block, along every stern thrust.

And yet: stalemate still. For all her deadly strength on this realm or any other, she could not drive her spear's tip deep enough to destroy their spiritcores. That her defense had the perfection of millennia, even against clearly manufactured demigods such as these, was cold comfort in face of the task they'd stumbled on. It was a warmer comfort that they had sprung Maze's plot by accident, before it could take root, but nonetheless, five demon-mortal hybrids and one crippled demon lord were keeping two of Epona's most potent deities on the very edge of disaster.

An impossibility, but there it was. She had to protect not just herself, not just her uncle, but the whole of her Dream. A virus is a little thing, but it can lay a full-grown hyper mare's body low, if it is virulent enough. She knew that if she let her concentration and will drop for just a moment, they would begin to feed on her poor Dream once more-- healing themselves all the faster and infecting those she was sworn to protect.

Never, Luna promised herself. She began to draw on deeper reserves, saved against Equestria or the world's direst need. Is this not a moment for heroism?

A battlecry that had not roared from her throat in millennia abruptly proved her speculation right. Two bellows, deep and proud, mingled. "Moon for Epona! Moon for Epona!" The two mortals joined the divine fray in a mutual charge, crashing upon Bloody from its undefended side.

Auros' axe-cut removal of the eyestalks along that side of Bloody made the surprise total. Still wearing the faithful recreation of her old armor-- made as whole and nearly as mighty as the original by faith and hope-- Golden Axe lead the charge, with Steel Orchid slightly to his left. As though an instinctive mercy, he did not wield a fabrication of Midwife. Instead, he slammed home a dreamsculpt of his namesake, a mighty golden labrys in the model of Auros' own. As his wife joined him, the broad edge cut deep into the diseased flesh.

Purity of faith made flesh by the hope of the Dream, made more sacred still in union of love. And his love was with him. A giant zweihander, long, dark steel with a damarescene ripple was gripped in the musclebound cow's huge hands, a gauntlet and plate-armored sleeve guarding her leading right arm. She bore, well, a breastplate over her prodigious chest and taut abs, though for whatever reason, her only lower 'armor' was the heavy leather of her blacksmith's apron and high, hardy sabatons.

Dreams, Luna thought irreverently, dreams and dreamers. I love them all. And from that love, she worried at this sudden heroism. After all, she and her uncle, well-worshiped and well-trained deities, were struggling hard with the monstrosities. What hope would mortals have here?

The same hope all mortals have when the divine and the profane clash: to tip the balance. Maze's savage smugness turned to rage and panic across the goat-minotaur hybrid's ruined face as Golden Axe's labrys cleaved a deep rent into Bloody's side. The resultant call of anguish and rapid shifting, squirming to meet the threat left the creature distracted; Steel Orchid's lunging thrust nearly skewered the beast all on her own!

Luna's shield was to the side Bloody foundered on, and she still had her tactical plate full of dealing with White, Grey, and Yellow. She could not shift her focus to take advantage of the abomination's distress. Then again, she didn't have to; after all, she could trust the shieldmate at her back.

Rumbling his triumphant cry of, "Duty to the End!" her uncle swung Final Gift in a vast arc from side and back to front and center. Or rather, above and center, the wide, glittering blade smashing into Bloody's carapace and cutting deep, deeper, deepest yet. The core was there, its defenses already made vulnerable by his two mortal charges' surprise strikes.

Not so elegant as this well-fashioned spear, Luna noted, but indeed a final gift to that tortured blasphemy. Uncle's swing speaks with fitting authority! Stalemate at last turned into catastrophe for Maze's forces. Though Luna's cobalt energies were forced to divert to protect Axe and Orchid from the demon lord's hastily assembled curses, their own faith and fervor proved an active defense, as opposed to the passive ones she'd reinforced to isolate the battle from the Dream.

Buoyed by the symbolic potency of their weapons, here in symbol-laden dreams, Luna was able to thread her energies into the dream-woven matrix of the minotaurs' armaments. With their whole hearts thrown into the effort, the sum total of the magic thrown against Maze and hir mutates was greater than the investment on either divine or mortal sides. Thus do dreams aid their mistress; thus do hopes repay dreamers.

Bloody's fall was accompanied by wounded White's in moments, as Luna's spear dove deep into one of the beast's many starvation-stretched maws and penetrated to the core, using her shield to wedge its jaws apart. With her titanic strength, she literally rolled the dying mutate's body against its fellows, shielding herself and her uncle with its expiring mass much as Axe ducked around Bloody's hulk to ready another wild swing.

Steel Orchid had no such patience. With a wild, ululating cry, she leapt above the blood-colored mutate and spun the huge heft of her zweihander-- bigger than she!-- around with the arc of her pounce. Yellow raised clawed tentacles and polluted spell-energies against her; her blade clove through both, and Luna found herself wondering at the weapon's name and lineage.

She shook her head free as she dislodged her spear and drove a wave of pulsing reality against Maze, confounding the creature with illusions and dreamsculpts half-real, half-incorporeal, even here. That which Maze sought to block passed through hir hastily erected mage shield, harmlessly dispersing, while that which was ignored whipped against it and shredded it like a vicious, living sandstorm.

It seemed like her impulse to aid Auros in gifting Axe and Orchid might be repaid a thousandfold. After all, could they secure Maze's first death, the blight of the Souleater might be constrained outside of the world for a year or more. And if the hunt could be joined fast enough, they might even be able to exterminate hir, weakened but in the seat of hir power.

Alas, it was not to be so. As Yellow fell and Grey began to splatter and part-split in fear, Maze thrust hir staff into the creature's gelatinous substance, and uttered a Word. Not one of the Great Words, holy and true, but a qlippothic Word, a Word of anti-reality and undying, unliving, unbeing hate.

As though they had continued to drill together daily, Luna and Auros raised their full divinity in an enveloping cocoon at once. It secured both themselves and the mortals, though the glare of their aura seemed to weaken the poor dead male's hold on physicality. His once-sharp form wavered, the faux uniform dispersing into ectoplasmic robes, and his face grew vague with confusion.

Maze fled, of course; the energy for the qlippothic invocation would have been considerable, after all. While it had failed to harm them, even Golden Axe, it had given the foul creature a moment when hir foes were fully focused on defense, and shi had split as utterly as hir own organs had been hewed from hir flesh. As the gods lowered their defenses, Luna's concern turned to the lesser of the two males in her care.

She recognized the signs. He had thrown much of the dream-reality he had been lent into the assault and into supporting, defending, and earlier, presumably sexually satisfying his wife. He was wearing his spirit sheath down to the soulcore beneath, and she felt it was time to return him to Uncle Auros' paradise.

"Hist, lad, you do my old armor proud," Luna said soothingly, "but your duty has been done; at your wife's side in battle, if not as within her as we'd intended your dream to be blessed by."

Steel Orchid blushed, a pleasing hue on her splotch-marked hide, but Golden Axe merely smiled vaguely. "Thank you, divine ones," he said, whispering both to Luna and Auros. "The time I had with my love is short, but I will treasure the memory always; both to see her stand against the infernal one last time and to know her touch, her love." He made a deep obeisance towards Auros and asked, "May I implore your niece for a further boon?"

"You--" Luna started

Auros spoke over her, and glared; these were his minotaurs, after all, and embarrassed, Luna let him speak. "You have once more shown the heart of the infinite within mortal kind," Auros rumbled at the ghost. "I can think of no reason to deny you." A sly smile dashed over his muzzle as he looked at Luna. "Though of course, my niece can be mercurial."

"I prefer whimsical," Luna huffed. "Or better yet, quicksilver as my darling Moon."

He smirked. "I know you do, Luna," he told her. "I know you do. Which is why I have a boon of my own to ask-- isolation does not seem likely to protect Steel Orchid and Brave Frog any more. Will you have them moved to Canterlot as soon as would not outright draw attention to them?"

She nodded and replied, "Easily done; dear Fluttershy is taking a tour of the front soon. We'll move it up, and my sweet apprentice shall simply have to cope." As would Twilight Sparkle, but Luna knew she would be able to continue instructing and benefiting from the lad personally; his dreams were ever in her grasp.

"That makes my request a bit less noble," Golden Axe said cheerfully despite the obvious strain of retaining coherence. "But no less needful. After all, I've gone and gotten my lovely blossom all worked up and we weren't able to complete more than two or three times… would you take my place, O Magnificent Moon?"

Before Luna could consider this generous offer-cum-request, not her first thus by far, especially in a dream, Steel Orchid interjected with a loud, "Axe!" Soothing Luna's conscience, the fair warcow's emotional resonance seemed less objecting to the idea as to saying so openly.

In front of their idol and their god, in fact. Stallions! Luna thought, bemused. The same, no matter what species the male may belong to. She blinked. With the exception of insects, dragons, and a variety of truly multimorphic creatures, one supposes.

The smile on Golden Axe's face managed to avoid the slow obviousness of Hopper's worst smug, and the arrogant matronization of Auros' direst smirk. It broadened, loving, if salacious as he pointed out, "She's always been our It's Okay exception, love, and I got you worked up. If you don't want to, don't... But if you do, my lord Auros, may I feel the dream of it?"

The huge god grinned slyly, bringing said infuriating qualities full to the fore, and Luna was not certain whether she would be best served by punching him or thanking him. "If your wife and my niece agree," Auros laughed. "I certainly won't be peeking!"

Both, she decided.

"Thank you for that bare courtesy, uncle," Luna growled, and turned to face the anxious looking musclecow. "What of it, lass? You're comely enough to swell my inner tides high, but I'll not take you unwilling."

Blushing, Orchid wriggled and squirmed with indecision. The effect brought Luna's clit to a full and fervent throb! Each squirm sent curvy plush jiggling enticingly while the humongous muscles beneath flexed and pumped in idle power. Finally, Orchid spoke. "For the both of us?" she asked at a whisper, eyes more fixed on her mate than her potential lover.

Luna smiled tenderly as she watched. Golden Axe lifted Steel Orchid's chin, just slightly, and pressed a kiss to her lips that transcended all gods could make to reward mortals. "Have I even a place to take after this?" Luna asked softly as Auros' smile became as gentle as when he first held a demigod calf-- or a fully divine filly-- up close. The two divinities looked at each other as the pair shared their farewell agreement. "I will see you again, uncle. Duty keep you strong."

Golden Axe pulled away from Steel Orchid, regretfully; for all he loved her, he must know that his time was wearing thing, even within the Dream's odd dilation. Auros took the smaller minotaur's shoulder in hand, and leaned over to hug Luna one last time. "I look forward to it, dear niece," he rumbled in reply. "Moon guide your aim."

The two lovers, one mortal and one past mortality, looked at each other once again. "For us," Golden Axe whispered. "Don't speed to my side this time, my love; bring me the world and the memory of our grandcalves, and remember my blessing; death has parted us, but you are not dead." His smile took on what Luna thought of as typically masculine smugness for once. "I'm not saying I won't find it a compliment if you only take the divine to bed…"

Arrogant? Perhaps. Or perhaps just enough of a comfortable teasing that it stole Steel Orchid's tears with laughter, and she kissed her husband one last time. He and Auros faded, leaving Luna standing eye to chest with Steel Orchid, quite a change from her usual. The tall cow cleared her throat and said, "I don't suppose we asked if it was alright with you, Warmistress…"

Ah, Luna thought with a grin that clearly was nowhere near as smug as those males', my cue. She stepped all the closer, and reached up to grab the adorably muscular and deliciously curved female by her chin yet again. She pulled down, and pressed a kiss to Orchid's lips with a fire that would have done sweet Celly's sun proud.

"You've volunteered, pretty one," Luna purred. "Volunteered to come under the spell of the mistress of illusions as well as war." She kept pulling, not letting Orchid catch her balance, until the cow's hot breath was misting over Luna's argent armor.

Which unzipped itself to the navel at a thought, freezing Luna's gigantic Zs to wobble out magnificently. These may not be bodies, she thought, but dream-drool from dreamy lips and lovers' lips below alike make for compliments to sight and smell just as well. It was Luna's turn to clear her throat. "And how would you have had your… brave… mate dominate you, my gorgeous warrior?" she asked. "If it meets my fancy, I may take you thus."

"Please," whispered Steel Orchid. "Don't give me substitutions. Give me you." Luna found that quite a fitting demand for so broad and beautiful a sub.

So she yanked now, driving the minotaur's muzzle into her prodigiously perky cleavage, full face down until sharp horns that had less of a chance of piercing Luna's skin than they did poking a star from the sky rested against the dark navy tops to Luna's tits. Then she flexed, pecs swelling with immense expansion and trapping Orchid's face in heat and flesh. "Struggle," cooed Luna, and reached a wing back to slap Orchid's bared derriere, only the strap of her apron between jiggly cheeks.

Obedient fem, Luna thought with a lusty sigh. She held her flexion casually, pecs pounding behind her broad breasts' hold, but Orchid's attempts to break free were anything but casual. She shook her head and musclebound body around like a bull trying to charge in reverse, flailing armored gauntlet and bare fist alike with wallbreaking fury at Luna's tits. Magnified by the symbolism of the Dream, and Orchid's self-belief, they were all the more potent.

And failed to budge Luna an inch-- save in the wobble of her beautiful rack!-- from her half-posed stance. All Orchid's fury could elicit was a long groan and whinny of pleasure, her punching fists no more than delicate caresses to Luna's sensitive mammaries. "Such a pleasant toy you are, my dear!" Luna cooed at her. "I can believe that you'd have harmed your metalwork thus on your husband's costume… but to me, a delightful trifle."

Having had enough of that play, Luna took her time to strip the trapped wench. As though all of the furious, near-berserk thrashing was nothing more than a lewd dance done in her honor, she plucked Orchid's gauntleted fist back from a swing with two dainty fingers, then carefully slammed the heel of her other palm into Orchid's unarmored armpit, stunning her. Not to damage, though Luna let her feel the difference in strength, but just to stun her for a moment, which was all Luna took to tear the straps free and flick the dream-wrought armor to the side.

"A reminder, my sweet," Luna warned as Orchid's struggles slowed after the slam. "While I have mercy on flattering mortals, I have expectations. I ordered you to fight me, and I did not give you leave to stop masturbating my melons thereby."

Further arousal perfumed the air to mingle with Luna's own horniness, and proud thighs squished together as their quads flexed in reaction to Luna's demands. Orchid flailed and stomped and squirmed to the lunar alicorn's delight, and Luna reached across her vast shoulders to drag her fingers over Orchid's mostly bare back, flat nails digging lightly into flexing flesh.

The squeal of Orchid's first mini-climax was muffled, but Luna heard, and she rewarded this form of worship as well, with light stinging swats from her feathertips along Orchid's inner thighs. They flew close enough to the soaked final strap of Orchid's apron to turn mini-climax into stumbling, lowing orgasm, just as Luna intended.

"More," growled Luna, insatiable as any alicorn with a mortal lover. She tore off the apron straps, thankful that the Dream gave her leave to damage what would be uncouth to shred in the waking world. Impatient, she vanished all coverings beneath, leaving Orchid naked to her steel boots. Those, she felt would make a nice touch to the picture of captive warmare. Warcow, she reminded herself.

The flailing hyper-strong punches began to weaken slightly as Orchid's instincts convinced her she was suffocating between Luna's enormous melons. Her own giant breasts keep bouncing up against Luna's nips with every shake and shimmy. But before Luna could be disappointed, the giant minotaur showed she wasn’t out of the running yet. Arms that near Luna's legs for mass and definition wrapped around the alicorn's sturdy torso, ducking beneath her wings, while vast hands clasped in the small of Luna's back.

Then came the shove, the delicious pressure of impotent horns and futile ferociousness, of strength spent and only one thing accomplished: pleasuring Luna's demanding super-titties. "Ah, sweet lass, if you wanted to be further smothered amidst lunar mounds, you had only to ask!" Luna told her with a giggle, and asserted her control of the Dream.

Transmutation might belong to her sister-mistress, and Illusion might only be able to go so far in the real world. But here, in the Dream, Luna rose to royalty, and all that was, became her whim. Cooing, Luna grew, or Orchid shrank, or perhaps both. She rapidly shifted all dominance to herself, stealing any position that Orchid might maintain from her twelve feet of amazonian height, and neatly tucked the muscular minitaur into her cleavage entire.

Then, of course, she flexed again and trapped poor Orchid in an utter inkiness of smooth breastflesh. Pectorals bulged and abs tensed, a slow but inevitable (and inevitably gentle, for Luna meant nothing but pleasure and play) crushing of her captive. Groaning with delight, Luna twisted her pose forward slightly, cabled arms pressing against the sides of her mountainous melons to replace the flexion of her pecs. By will alone, she unzipped her armor further, revealing the denser darkness of her inky mound. Her strong fingers ran up and down her own dampened thunderstorm thighs, anticipating, wanting, feeling the squirm of her helpless captive.

And ever the mother moon, Luna made sure that when Orchid's thoughts of panic and suffocation were overwhelming, that she was lulled into a half-calm, half hyper-alert state. Of course, Luna took advantage of that too. Within, Orchid was 'forced' to feel every jiggle and jump of Luna's titanic tits around her body.

At last, at long last, Luna tweaked her clit lightly, edging herself with a delightful shiver of sex. Not yet, she promised herself. She wanted to cum all over this beautifully buff cow-- and at full size, too!

Besides… she thought with a grin as she jiggled her subbie around in the cleavage trap one last time, The poor thing's climaxed before her mistress of the night. Best she be put to work rectifying her 'transgressions.' Not that Luna minded the light dampening between her tits as Orchid's climaxes grew with each squishing shake. She'd tweaked the minotaur's dream-body to be more… agreeable… to the fantasy, after all. Here, and now, by Dreams I rule.

Which did not preclude Luna teasing the lovely war-wench. She slipped her sturdy fingers into the plush-yet-perky embrace of her bosom, and pulled out the squirming, squealing, shrunken Orchid. "Naughty little slut, to orgasm so…" Luna paused, savoring the moment as the tiny minotaur whimpered in lust, in pleasure, and in just enough fear to make it tasty, "So freely before even making proper obeisance to your mistress. Now, how should we rectify this, mmm?"

As she dangled Orchid in front of her, Luna pretended to give the panting captive a stern glare. In fact, she instead carefully scanned the cow's mind and spirit-stuff. After all, her duty as a dom was to be sure Orchid was still enjoying the 'torment' and had just the right amount of distress.

Satisfied with Orchid's satisfaction, if not her own, she gently flicked the minitaur up and into a spiral. Shifting the dream yet again, she made Orchid float and twirl like a falling feather, made her grow and stretch back to proper proportionality with Luna herself. Luna grinned, watching the disciplined warrior struggle to try to rise, half-climaxing, half-shuddering, all ensnared. Ultimately, the massively muscled cow was only able to make it to her knees before nigh-collapsing into a cow's kowtow before Luna.

Head on the ground, kneeling at my feet, Luna purred to herself. Proper. Speaking of feet… Luna advanced a silver-clad boot, and Orchid desperately kissed at it. "A good start," Luna rumbled. "But not enough. No, I must punish you, in my sweet Moon's name! Clearly, the only fitting sentence for orgasming before your mistress is to eat me out!"

Honestly, she thought wryly as Orchid lifted her head up hopefully, half-blocked by the swell of Luna's prodigious melons, I'm horny. Perhaps when we meet in the waking world I might top you longer, pretty musclecunt, but for now? My loins yearn, and you have tonguework to be about!

Steel Orchid wasn't the first minotaur that Luna had laid claim to, even for as temporary a moment as a dream. One convenience, she'd always felt, to the larger species as subs, was having their kneeling position so close to their responsibility: taking care of Luna's needy pussy. She tossed her ethereal mane back, letting the locks flow and whip between her outstretched wings. With just a teasing hint of the perfect power contained in her chiseled thighs, Luna arched her back and shifted her knees.

Thus presenting the musclecow with her 'duty,' Luna waited, toes curling in her boots and tongue lapping along her own muzzle. She wasn't disappointed. Stunned and bedazzled Steel Orchid might be, and however long she'd been married to a male, she both knew how to please a mare and was swift to the task. Panting and groaning, Luna's hypnagogic musk swirling in her flaring nostrils, she let out a long low of submission and began to reverentially kiss Luna's silver-clad super-thighs.

In between each kiss, she nuzzled closer to Luna's dripping snatch, but let out a whimper, her every mighty muscle shuddering, when she got too close to the waiting sex. As though she feared to be unworthy of the beautiful paradise before her. Luna didn't need to goad her, though; before the anticipation changed from pleasant to irksome, the warrior within the "beaten" slave rose to the occasion.

Kisses traveled from still-clothed thighs to divine hide clad only in dark fur and an iridescent pubic mound, marked by the same power as her mane and tail. Kisses that soon became fervent licks, as though Orchid could swallow the overpowering aphrodisiac musk that rose from Luna's arousal through sheer effort.

Well, Luna noted as she tossed her head back and let out a pleased moan of her own, she's certainly bringing more of it to the fore. Still… Despite being pleased with Orchid's performance, Luna had her own act to follow and she grabbed her temporary pet's long horns in firm hands. "No more delays, slut," she growled. "To work with you." With a lewd swing that set Orchid's heavy-hanging melons jiggling, she pulled the minotaur's massive head front-and-center, nose to mound, lips to lips.

Luna had to hold onto poor Orchid's dream with a flare of her horn to prevent it from dissolving into a semi-shamanic trick as her pheromones flooded the hero's senses. Even more potent here than in the physical world, Luna had quite the view of Orchid's stripped, super-strong body shuddering and flexing and bulging as another orgasm ripped through the lass.

The parts that weren't blocked by Luna's own oversized breasts, of course.

"More effronter-- ooh," Luna said with a pleased shudder. For all that she'd forced Orchid to climax again on scent alone, the obedient cow had sufficient discipline to begin long, tender strokes of her broad tongue against Luna's needy pussy. Half of the tension in the minotaur's mighty frame seemed to come from restraining herself to continue to work up her cunny-pleasing technique, to not simply slobber around swiftly like a stallion honoring his first mare.

Females know, Luna thought in between groans. Males must learn. For now, she simply enjoyed herself, grinding her crotch back against Orchid's muzzle as the latter began to lip and lick more intently, her tongue making daring flicks into the divine secrets within Luna's folds. She tended well to Luna's gushing sex, always returning to Luna's stiff clit before its buzz of sensation could fade overmuch.

"Yes!" Luna cried out as the combination began to work. Her exquisitely chiseled ass tensed, mighty glutes squeezing tight below her flagged tail in the back, while in the front, her rippling abs bowed inwards, tightening and then releasing all at once as the first climax struck-- all over Orchid's face, indeed.

Many mortal lovers would have passed out at that point on a wave of their own concomitant orgasms, and indeed, the Dream around them wavered in the hold of Luna's hornflare. But Orchid was a hero, and heroes are made of sterner stuff. Not merely in the mighty thews that trembled so nicely as she knelt and came beneath Luna's drip, but in her willingness to give more and more to the mistress she'd never realized she might pleasure.

As Luna's fingers curled tighter over Orchid's proud horns, the luscious warcow drilled deep into Luna's snatch, steady tempo discarded for a desperation to please as much as she was able before losing herself to Luna's orgasms. And please she did, guided by Luna's arousal as much as her hands, eliciting toe-curling shudders and long whinnies of delight as her long, skilled tongue pressed against Luna's G spot again and again. As much as the broad-backed musclefem tried to alternate the eager laps with swirls against more of Luna's sex, to please more of Luna's need, Luna's potency soon drove the cow to only move between adoring Luna's clit and worshiping Luna's G.

It was enough to drive one of the better mortal-made climaxes out of Luna's cunt since she'd ordered Trixie to check on one of the thestral retreats a week ago. Wings stretched out and vast, horn glowing almost as brightly as a horngasm, Luna roared in triumph as she squirted right into Orchid's open and drooling mouth. She swung her hips like she was wearing a strap on, grinding her pussy over her sub's face as she filled Orchid with alicorn juices.

The poor cow wasn't long for the higher dreams after that, of course. She passed into the deepest soothe of the Dream's most primal levels as Luna recovered. But alas, satisfaction was brief, leaving Luna needing more.

Her mind reached out across the dream, tapping into the Similarity of the alicorn cum she'd saved to find a more direct route back to her apprentice. I see, she thought, noticing that Twilight had claimed his wakefulness. Well, perhaps it is time for an examination of more elaborate carnal rites with more partners than the boy has had before.

A wicked grin graced Luna's lips as she rose into consciousness, twinned on dreamself and body alike. I do hope he's been studying...

Author's Note

With thanks to au naturale for additional editing.

Shock! Plot!