Universal Acceptance: Avatar

I hovered by the scrying orb on my desk. My anxiety was basically rising with every minute that passed by. I desperately tried to imagine what was happening in Celestia's tower – what was being said, how Celestia was reacting to this change of plans, how all the Princesses were feeling as they met together for basically the first time since the truth was revealed earlier this week. Not knowing was driving me up the wall a bit.

It wasn't like I could walk away. We hadn't set up a protocol for this. If this all fell through, I could only assume that at least one of the mares would fly back here and tell me. Or Twilight could activate the orb remotely at any moment, and who knew how fast I would have to react.

So when the orb glowed purple, I reacted so fast I slapped it.

It was made of smooth, solid crystal. My palm hurt.

All at once, my senses were overridden like I was plunging my head into a pool made of buzzing water. Slowly, the image of my surroundings began to clarify all around me, and I found that I could look around. It was not unlike wearing a virtual-reality headset.

I was viewing Celestia's private study from the perspective of something in Derpy's lap, probably another crystal orb. The mares were all seated in a circle on the floor among the pillows and cushions on the center rug. Celestia was across from Derpy and Twilight, flanked by Luna and Cadance.

Celestia was wrapped up in a large quilt up to her chin, and looked rather... small, for lack of a better word. Which was impressive, considering she was nearly ten feet tall. But she looked as bad as I'd ever seen her, probably worse than anypony alive in Equestria had ever seen her. She looked sick and upset and withdrawn, visibly wincing away tears, not looking at any of the other ponies in the room.

"Pascal? Pascal, can you hear us?" Twilight asked, her voice still a little static-y in my ears.

"Uh, yeah, hello?"

After about a minute of Twilight fine-tuning the spell, it was like I was right there. Well, more like my disembodied head was right between Derpy's crossed legs. Thankfully that wasn't what it looked like to them – I was just an orb with a voice. I could see and hear in every direction, but I couldn't touch, smell, taste, or move under my own power.

Celestia took a deep breath as soon as we were done, collecting herself. "Pascal..." she began. Her voice was a little ragged, and I could tell she was really putting in the effort to sound like her regal self. "I thank you and apologize, for putting up with my difficulty and agreeing to this arrangement. I do not fully understand it myself; by all expectations I should have..." She trailed off and began to cough.

"It's okay! It's okay," Princess Cadance insisted, leaning over and rubbing Celestia's arm through the quilt. Sensing that it was best we change the subject, she said, "Why don't we just get started?"

"Yeah, it's fine," I agreed quickly. "This is your show, Celestia, so we'll follow your lead. Anything on your mind from over the past couple of days, or anything you particularly want to begin with?"

Celestia looked down for a moment, then at the rest of the mares gathered. "...Yes. I want to... say something to each of you in turn. And then, I guess, if you have anything to say to me... you can say that." I could tell even through the orb-o-vision that she was really, really nervous about where she stood with her fellow Princesses and Derpy.

My viewpoint shook and was briefly obscured when Derpy nodded hard enough to make her boobs bounce on the orb in her lap. "Sure thing, Princess!" After that, a decision was made to just put me in the middle of the circle so I could look at everybody.

Once that was settled, Celestia decided to just go around the room, starting with Cadance on her left. "Cadance... You were trained by me to be a Princess. And I know you chafed under that, under my perfectionism and chastity. I'm sure the reasons all seem obvious now, but that still wasn't fair of me to inflict– to project my insecurities onto you and everypony under me. For whatever it's worth, you've made me incredibly proud with your work in the Crystal Empire, and I'm confident you have what it takes to make your people a happier, more free society than I ever showed you."

Cadance let out a chuckle and raised her knuckles to her mouth, but mostly to brush off the fact that her eyes were tearing up. With a cough and clearing of her throat, she glanced down at my viewpoint and asked, "Do we respond now or do everypony first?"

"Celestia's choice."

"I'd... like to say my piece first. I've been thinking about these things a lot the last few days." Celestia's gaze turned to Twilight. "My precious student... I fear I may have taken advantage of you. You took to your studies so thoroughly and completely, revered me so highly, there was a time where I thought: 'This is going to be a new generation of pony, one who is above all these carnal pursuits and will advance ponykind forward at last. I'll give her the ultimate example to live by.'"

Twilight looked a bit taken aback.

Celestia shook her head and sniffled. "That explicit thought didn't last long, but... my actions towards you may as well have been directed by that idea. It wasn't fair to you, and I can't help but worry now it might have stunted your ability to form deeper relationships. Whether or not that happened, it doesn't change the fact that I created that environment for the duration of your adolescent years. That's... part of the blame I'm struggling with. I still want to say I'm so proud of you and everything you achieved, but now... now it feels like I'm saying I'm proud of you for expanding my dogma, too." She sighed. "From now on... it would make me happiest if you lived for your own ideals, rather than mine. Mine are compromised. Yours are so much stronger."

And now Twilight was utterly shocked. "C-Celestia...!" She looked nearly on the verge of tears herself. She was dying to respond, but held it back as her mentor turned to Derpy.

"Ditsy... Er, Derpy... Which do you prefer?" Celestia asked in a somewhat awkward, cute manner.

"Oh! Derpy's fine, Princess. My friends call me Derpy," my marefriend responded with a beaming smile. But then she looked sadly at Twilight. "But, um, I know this is out of order, but I think Twilight really needs to say something."

"No, no, it's fine..." Twilight said through grit teeth, her hands tightly knotted into fists atop her skirt.

Celestia nodded sadly. "Please, Twilight. Let me have it."

"No, that's not it!" Twilight shouted, leaning forward and pounding her fists on her lap. "I don't want to yell at you! I'm just so..." She sniffled and wiped at her eyes, losing control over her sadness. "This is so messed up..."

Cadance levitated over a big box of tissues, which Twilight hurriedly used to wipe her eyes and nose. I noticed there was a small stockpile of tissue boxes in the corner of the room.

Once Twilight was in control of herself a few moments later, she looked to her mentor with determination. "I... I..." She struggled to find her words. Finally, with a bit of a huff, she blurted, "I just found out that I like mares over stallions. And I think it's because... I really really liked you!"

It was all I could do not to let out a Huh?

"You were... perfect, Celestia," Twilight rambled. "I mean, to me you still are, in a way... But I meant a different kind of 'perfect.' Flawless, idealized. Back then, when I was your full-time student, I wanted to be just like you in every way. And that included the attitude towards sex. I wanted to be smarter than sex. But I was also kind of a budding teenager! And guess who was the most beautiful mare in my life?!" She laughed a little in sheer shock and disbelief. "So I... I unconsciously pushed it all down! So I could be more like you! And it worked! I mean, I guess it sort of... turned into a platonic desire to... be your kinda 'knight' to rescue you from your tower of sadness... which definitely didn't help with the whole orientation business..." She looked around sheepishly. "...but– but hey, here we are!"

Celestia closed her eyes and let out a breath through her nostrils. "I'm so sorry, Twilight."

The purple alicorn winced and rubbed her temple. "No no, this is sounding so much worse than I intended..."

How was this supposed to go down, Twilight?! I wanted to scream.

"The-The point is!" she finally said. "I don't need that anymore!" She got up onto her knees and waddled across the circle to reach through the quilt and take Celestia's hand in both of her own. (Her knee ended up knocking my orb away towards Luna.) Twilight looked deep into her mentor's eyes and said, "I don't want or need you to be on a pedestal for me, not anymore. I... I don't need you... to be... to be... perfect."

Twilight let out a long breath, like that had been a difficult thing for her to say (which everyone in the room knew it was).

"I don't need you to be my flawless, shining ideal anymore," she said more quietly this time, looking down at their clasped hands. "...I forgive you. For whatever you think you deserve blame for. But... what I want now... is to be your friend. Not your student, not your peer, though – heh heh – I will always be those things, deep down." Twilight smiled and wiped her eyes before looking up into Celestia's. "I just want to help, in any way I can. Can I be your friend, Princess Celestia?"

Celestia sniffled, then hugged Twilight tightly, pulling the quilt around both of them, and fought back a sob. "Y-Yes, Twilight...! That's what I want too, more than anything...!"

"It's... It's a deal, then...!" Twilight murmured into the white alicorn's shoulder. The group let them hug it out for about a minute, before they finally parted and Twilight made her way back to her place in the circle. "Sorry about that...!"

Derpy shrugged. "It's cool! That looked like it was really important for both of you."

The princess of the sun looked towards the pegasus. "Derpy, then... You've had to grow up during my reign of repression..."

"I forgive you," Derpy interrupted with a smile.

Celestia blinked a couple of times. "Huh?"

Derpy covered her mouth. "Oh! Sorry, I was supposed to let you finish. Go on."

"I... But..." It seemed Celestia couldn't quite let this go. "After everything you had to go through...? Growing up feeling like you had to hide and hate your own body?"

"Well, yeah," Derpy replied casually. "But I get it now! And I got lucky – I have a special somepony who showed me I could love my body almost as much as he does!" She giggled at that. I laughed too. "You had your reasons, Celestia," she continued. "I understand them, and I forgive you. That's really kind of the end of it for me. Can't speak for everypony in Equestria, but hey! That's what I want to work on with you, together. If... If you'll let me and Pascal, that is."

Celestia let out a breath of relief and smiled gently at Derpy. "That's very kind of you. Thank you."

"Luna's turn!" Derpy called out excitedly.

The two sisters looked at each other with a sudden gravity and depth that none of us were prepared for. It was like they were speaking telepathically in that way only siblings with a lot of baggage can.

"On second thought," Luna murmured, glancing aside, "perhaps the two of us have said plenty to each other, and we don't need to go into all of it in front of everypony..."

That was somewhat true from my perspective. Out of all of us here, Luna had been the one most in contact with Celestia, even checking on her frequently in her dreams. There was no way of knowing what they had said to each other up to this point. Hopefully healthy, helpful things.

Celestia took a deep breath. "Luna... I've... I've always admired you, for being the one who ultimately rose up against the... the Masters."

Luna sniffled and didn't reply.

"You were right, all those years ago," Celestia said sadly. "You were the champion who first broke free of their chains, and you had to drag me along, kicking and screaming..."

The moon princess's eyes widened as she stared gravely at her sister. "Sister... I said that when I became Nightmare Moon. I said that to hurt you. I didn't mean that! Don't tell me you took it to heart...!"

Celestia refused to make eye contact, staring off to the side with a sad smile. "You've always been the brave one. The one with conviction and the defiant spirit to act on it."

Luna grunted and sat up straighter. She gave her sister a deadly serious scowl. "Then why did I need you?" That got Celestia's attention, and Luna continued. "Why did I have to foalnap you, steal you away from them, and spend the next month 'weaning' you off in that torturous way? All that before I could ever have the courage to take the fight to them?" Luna took a shuddering breath. "I was the coward. Breaking and remolding your mind so that you could lead the charge, with myself behind you. I'm the reason for your... your fear of this. I deserve the blame!" With that finally out there, Luna fell silent and kept her lips pursed shut in sorrow and anger.

I looked around at Derpy, Twilight, and Cadance. None of us really knew what to do or say. All we could do was watch and hope for the best.

But Celestia just shook her head and let out a sigh. "No... That's not how I see it."

Luna sniffled.

"Back then... you saw me, your sister, being..." Celestia closed her eyes and winced at the memory. "...being absolutely used. And your immediate reaction was horror and to hatch a plan to steal me away. To defy our creators, our gods! Putting your big sister's well-being above them, sacrificing our comfortable lives of endless pleasure, because that's what you thought was right."

Celestia, still wrapped in her blanket, scooted over to Luna bit by bit, and reached a hand out from under the blanket to take Luna's clenched fist.

"That thought – 'My sister risked everything to save me' – has given me more strength than I could ever say."

It was clear the moon princess wasn't going to allow herself to cry today. But she still reared her head back and took a deep sniff to rein herself in before she threw her arms around Celestia's shoulders to give her a big, clingy hug. They held it for half a minute or so, interrupted only by the occasional sniffle, sigh, or whimper.

Eventually, the royal alicorn sisters parted, and Celestia returned to her place in the circle. She looked significantly happier than before this all started, even if her eyes were a little puffy around the edges.

The sun princess lowered her gaze to me, the little blue orb in the center of the circle. "I guess that brings us to you, hm?" Celestia asked brightly.

I'd been content to just sit back and watch, I hadn't actually been expecting to get called. "Uh, that's not– We've talked plenty."

"I thought about what you said," Celestia went on, then paused. "Well, a little bit. Mostly I've just been... stressing out the last day or so, preparing for this... which, so far, has turned out better than I expected, I'll say." She shook her head a little and got back on track. "You asked what I'd say to myself. My past self. And I think at the beginning of this week, or before you ever arrived... I would have said that I hated her. That I blamed her for her naivete, for selling her soul for pleasure because she didn't know any better. Now..." She sighed. "I don't know what I'd say. But I don't think I'm that angry anymore. This... This sexual dysfunction... This is something THEY did to ME, not something I did to myself. I think I'm ready to admit that much."

I bit my tongue and stopped myself from letting out a quiet 'holy shit.' Was this actually... progress???

She laughed a little. "I mean, of course they did... Not that I ever believed otherwise. I hated them for it. For their 'curse.'" Sniffle. Hugging the blanket tighter against herself. "But... for 1300 years, I thought that I'd be so foolish again, that I'd give into them immediately if they ever returned. I wouldn't be able to resist." I finally saw a little bit of a smirk on her face, albeit a wry one. "Thanks to you, though... I guess I've gotten a little bit of practice in, now. We've learned a lot over this past week, and I feel more... armed and ready, for lack of a better phrase. So thank you, Pascal."

When she was finished, the conversation lulled, and I felt an expectation on me to say something in return, when I had nothing. All I had was, "Thank you for saving me, and keeping me around. Even though I've been a little conceited about it."

Twilight let out an involuntary 'tch.'

Celestia waved her quilt dismissively. "It's a highly unusual situation. And with all due respect, you're the equivalent of a stallion in your mid-twenties who just got his cutie mark. My expectations weren't that high."

Derpy covered her mouth in surprise, but couldn't completely stifle the giggles that followed. The whole circle shared a bit of a sudden laugh at my expense. I didn't mind; I was just amazed that Celestia had cracked a fucking joke. She had enough of her wits to roast me. This was a TON of progress!

It was cathartic, too. Everything had been heavy for a while, and something to laugh at was much needed by pretty much the entire group.

Then Cadance cleared her throat to get attention. "Um... if we've gone around the circle, I haven't actually gotten my chance to respond, and there's... something I need to confess."

Of the entire group, only Twilight and Celestia seemed unaware of what that might be. "Confess what?" the elder princess asked.

Cadance arched her fingers together and turned her gaze downward. "Remember my 18th birthday?"

Celestia's eyes widened, and she immediately became contrite. "Y-Yes. In the garden... I apologize for–"

"No, no, you see," Cadance interrupted, blushing red atop her pink cheeks, "that happened because... my powers were going haywire that day. Amplifying all the kinds of love all around me. ALL the kinds of love."

Twilight narrowed her eyes, confused. "...I just remember being very sad that day..."

"That's because I was boosting your love of your family, and me and Shining were about to disappear from your life for a few years. For Celestia... apparently there was some... repressed eros towards me."

Derpy, Luna, and I already knew about this, but Twilight was shocked and Celestia was rather embarrassed. "Oh," was all Celestia said after a few moments of silence, followed by another few moments of silence. "So... it wasn't just spiked punch..." Personally, I was actually a little surprised by the reveal that Celestia hadn't known about this, considering her love of espionage. Maybe she had just refused to investigate it or question the incident out of shame.

"Wait... what happened?!" Twilight asked with increasing concern.

"We kissed." "They kissed." The ENTIRE group answered her, almost at once.

There were some looks exchanged. Celestia towards Luna in particular. "You KNEW??"

Luna shrugged. "A similar thing happened on their wedding night, and I interrogated them in their dreams."

Celestia facepalmed with the quilt for a moment. "No, I knew about the wedding night incident, but I chalked that up to the Alicorn of Love getting married to her true love, after generating so much love that it sent the changelings back to the Badlands. I never... connected the dots– oh goodness."

The aforementioned Alicorn of Love grimaced sheepishly and shrugged. "Sorry...! Just, if that's been bugging you all these years... that's why. Sorry I didn't say anything."

After a moment, Celestia shook her head and waved her hand to one side. "No, I absolutely understand. Thank you." She sighed. "That one had been bugging me a little bit. Whenever my lusts, my pent-up lust would shine through, I was always angry at myself for slipping. At least that time, I can chalk it up to powerful magic. Thank you for telling me."

Cadance let out a sigh of relief and smiled back at her aunt. "Thanks...!"

Then there was another lull in the conversation, somewhat awkward this time. We had gone around the circle and sorted a lot of baggage, so... now what?

Actually... "Celestia? Now that we've all kind of broken the ice a bit... I think there's something I should ask." This was a difficult question on my mind, but it had been bugging me gradually more and more for most of the past few days. "At the end of the first session – I won't go into any details – things seemed... alright. On a positive upswing, at least. And then in the morning, and every day since, you've seemed really down on the whole thing. And I thought I could just guess why, but... I never really bothered to ask, either. What changed between the end of that night and the next morning?"

Celestia blinked a few times at me – or rather, my orb – in surprise. Like I had proposed something she had never considered. "I... was fine?" she murmured to herself, raising a quilt-covered hand to her chin and looking down and to the side. Something dawned in her expression. "I was fine... doing those things with you... until the morning–"

She stopped. Her hands fell in her lap.

And then she started laughing.

"...hahahaha. Ehehe! Ahahahahaha!" Celestia, princess of the sun, threw her head back and laughed like she'd just figured out a punchline she'd heard days ago but hadn't understood at the time. Relief combined with utter disbelief.

Naturally, the rest of us were very confused. Twilight in particular looked concerned, like her mentor had just snapped or something. "C-Celestia?"

The princess took a deep breath, but she was still chuckling. "Oh goodness..." She finally removed the quilt from her shoulders and tossed it aside. Underneath, she was wearing rather skimpy clothing on her slimmed-down body, barely more than a pajama top and shorts, custom-tailored with her cutie mark logo. She looked to the rest of the ponies in the room. "I guess, for context..." She hesitated. "...I'll just say it. The night ended with a... with a blowjob. A blowjob that lasted through to the next morning."

I looked around the circle to see the others' reactions. Luna was imperceptibly nodded. Derpy was trying not to grin. Twilight was trying not to look alarmed. And Cadance's eyebrows rose just a little as a ghost of a smile curled her lips.

Celestia shook her head wryly as she recalled that night. "It started as a– a reward. For his volunteering to do something very awkward and humiliating for my entertainment. It made me feel better. The night had some bumps, but I was just so happy to... to have any reason to feel better about my condition, I thought, 'Why not?'"

More than that – she had grown her body to full size and let me sleep atop her cleavage like a hammock while she stuck my dick into her mouth like a pacifier. It had been a giant leap in confidence for her. It wasn't that strange that she had bounced back, but it WAS strange that she had leaped forward in the first place. That was the puzzle I wanted to solve.

The princess's face fell. "The fact that it lasted all night – that in the morning I was still sucking your cock automatically, and my instincts demanded even MORE..." She sighed. "That's what disgusted me... about myself."

"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm," Derpy hummed and nodded, hand over her mouth like she was suddenly deep in thought.

Then Celestia started to chuckle. "I was so disgusted... that I kind of forgot that I'd been fine at the start! I'd been fine with the blowjob! Fine with... the sex!" She actually got up from her seat on the floor to stretch her legs and pace about near the cold fireplace. "It wasn't the blowjob itself that disgusted me, it was... my body's artificial, endless NEED for it. For human cock and semen." There was a moment's pause, accompanied by a quiet gasp of surprise. When she turned around to the rest of the group, she had a bright look of amazement on her face. "I'm fine with sex!"

To Twilight most of all, it was like an alien had suddenly snatched and replaced her mentor. "Wh-What??"

Cadance shushed her and looked eagerly back at Celestia. "No no, go on!"

Celestia paced around the circle excitedly, motioning with her hands as she spoke. "I used to love sex. Of course we were MADE to love it, engineered to... but once upon a time, I had a genuine, earned affection for it. I had my reasons." She stopped and stared off into nothing. "I saw sex as... a way to stay humble." She glanced over at her sister. "Our power was still nothing compared to the M-Masters, but you and I, Luna, we were still the commanders of all of ponykind. We led armies to build their utopian playground. Our little ponies obeyed us, because we had the authority of the M...Masters. And I didn't take that lightly. I thought it was a great honor and responsibility."

Luna gave her sister an odd, confused look from where she sat, but then nodded to herself. "Back then, you did seem to have a... sanctimonious attitude towards the whole sex slave thing."

The Princess of Love grinned. "Lemme guess – YOU were a bit more of a party girl type. Am I right?"

"Hmph."

The sun princess's excited energy started to cool off a little bit. "So... being submissive, focusing on others' pleasure, being called derogatory names like slave, whore, cunt, bitch–"

Twilight looked like her eyes were about to bug out of her skull.

"–I saw all of that as an equalizer. Not as a humiliation, but as a source of humility. A way to remind myself that I was just one pony, not special because of my station."

"I doubt the Masters saw it that way," Luna murmured a little darkly. "And that attitude would have played right into their hands."

Celestia took a long, deep sigh. "It certainly did." She slowly made her way back to her place in the circle and sat down. "And I didn't see their betrayal coming because of it. And now... they've ruined sex for me." She looked down into my viewpoint from the orb in the center of the circle. "To answer your question, Pascal: It wasn't the blowjob that bothered me, it was the fact that my body made me suck you through my sleep, all night. And that my body still wanted more in the morning. That... That is just not how sex should be."

Well, it was something. More than something, honestly. I felt like we'd made another breakthrough. Celestia had rediscovered and started to accept her earlier self's attitude towards sex, hooray!!

But... where did that leave us?

"Your body..." Derpy echoed, nodding to herself. She suddenly got up, flapping her wings to get on her feet. She put her hands on her hips and looked over the group. "I know why the Map brought us all here!"

All eyes turned to the nude gray pegasus.

Derpy's confidence faltered a bit as she realized she had the attention of all four alicorns. "Um..." She clenched her fists and rallied. "Okay. I was Pascal's first success story; I needed to rethink how I felt about my body and realize I was happy with it. And I think a lot of ponies could benefit from that kind of thinking." She gestured her shaking hands in Celestia's direction and continued to ramble. "But you, Celestia... With you, I think we've been going about it the wrong way, thinking that that could work for everypony. For you, it couldn't! Your body is literally fighting you! Torturing you! Every day you have to wake up and recast the transformation spell and put on a fake body so that nopony suspects your past, it's a reminder of what they did to you! And it doesn't matter – well, it kinda matters – what you think about sex, but– because the Masters screwed up how your body even reacts to that! You don't need therapy! ...Well, you do kind of need therapy, but from a real therapist. But from us... You don't need therapy, you need surgery!!"

My marefriend took a moment to catch her breath, her chest heaving up and down and her face sweaty with nervousness. Twilight beside her looked up and asked, "Are you saying...?"

Derpy nodded at the whole group. "I think the Map called us here to help Celestia get a new permanent body. Today. We're here to change the rule, the Master's rule, that says everypony is STUCK with the body they grew up with whether they like how sexy it is or not. We are here to break. the. curse."

Shock washed over us. In my heart and in my gut, I knew she was right. But was it even possible?

Luna, poker-faced as ever, took a breath to calm herself. "...Temper your hopes, Derpy," she said solemnly. "Though I think your assessment is correct, the–"

"More like she's absolutely right," Cadance agreed, though there wasn't a lot of hope in her eyes.

Luna shook her head. "The Elements of Harmony couldn't do it." She let that hang in the air for a couple of seconds. "The Tree of Harmony couldn't do it. The Pillars of Equestria couldn't do it. Star Swirl the Bearded and dozens of his most clever students and disciples, all pooling their minds and their magic together, couldn't make a permanent change to a single pony." She glanced at Celestia, who looked rather sullen, and added, "And to my understanding, a thousand years of the brightest minds working on Equestria's most secret research hasn't cracked it either."

The sun goddess couldn't look anypony in the eye at the moment. "We made... a little progress. Narrowed down the genes that were altered to make me... crave the things that I crave so intensely. But they're locked by the Master's magic. No pony magic can break them. It's why, even in this form," – she gestured at her slimmed down 'public' body – "I still react to human pheromones and... fluids the way I do. If I could change that, I would."

Derpy balled her fists, scrunched her muzzle, and stomped on the rug. "But look at who we've got here!" she insisted. She pointed at Luna, then Cadance, then Twilight. "Family. Love. Friendship." She gestured at both herself and the orb I was viewing and communicating through. "Acceptance! If any forces combined could break through the Masters' magic... IT'S ALL HERE!" She looked around desperately. "...Right??"

I decided to speak up. "We've got nothing to lose by trying. We might learn something."

My Normal words bolstered Derpy's, and together we achieved an almost visible ripple of changed minds around the room. Twilight groaned as she stood up and looked at her mentor. "It's up to you. This is your body we could potentially be altering."

Celestia was quiet for a long while, and all of us waited patiently.

"I... had given up hope," she admitted. She forced a bit of a smile and looked up at her favored student. "But if there's anypony I trust to open up my body to... they're all here in this room."

Oof, left out on a technicality.

"And you too, Pascal."

Hooray! Wait, how did she know...?

Luna seemed to take a moment to consider it more, and then nodded. "We'll make an attempt, then. Pool our magic. The power of Acceptance is the newest variable, so we'll channel it through Derpy, with Pascal guiding remotely. If he can do that through this focus."

"Probably," I said. "My powers have been growing by the day. If I can visualize it and put it into words, I can kinda pull it off."

Twilight tapped her foot. "I know a visualization spell that can work on a group. It's usually used for, ah, other things... but I think it can help us navigate Celestia's genome and find the sequences marked by the Masters."

Princess Cadance adjusted her posture. "I don't know how much help I'll be, but I'll pump in as much love magic as you need."

Derpy looked back and forth between all the princesses, her wings fluttering faster and faster as it became clear that this was happening, that we were really doing this. "Yeah, yeah! We've got Twilight Sparkle, we've got Pascal... Those Masters are going DOWN!"

I smirked as I came to a realization of my own. "I know why the Map called you here too, Derpy."

She looked down at my orb. "Oh?"

"Because without you, this session wouldn't have come together, and I don't think we'd have been nearly so bold as to try something like this."

Derpy blushed and swayed with her arms behind her back. "Awww..."

Princess Celestia smiled, and it looked like she was fighting back tears. "Whatever happens... Thank you. Just the fact that you have hope, Derpy..."

The pegasus swooned with her hands covering her eyes and cheeks. Princess Celestia had used her nickname!

But that was my Derpy for ya. Equestria didn't deserve her.