Universal Acceptance: Avatar

"Are we ready?" Twilight's voice asked through the connection.

I had my hand on the scrying orb in my bedroom. In retrospect, I had spent the whole week learning about my magic to prepare for this. I was working with some of the most powerful beings on the planet, period.

I still didn't feel 100% ready.

"Yep, go for–"

Before I was finished replying, my vision was overtaken by light.

I saw myself racing into a glittering starry void, towards a platform made of light – an intricate magic circle that was solid like glass. Before I knew it, I was already standing upon it, joining the other mares in a round. Or at least most of them. Derpy looked as surprised as me. Cadance gave Twilight an impressed look. Luna and Twilight simply opened their eyes as their horn-lights dimmed.

"Where's... Celestia?" I asked tentatively, looking around. My movements felt slightly sluggish, like I was immersed in water. My voice had a very faint echo to it, along with every other sound. I looked down at my hand, turning it over. I could still feel myself standing in front of the scrying orb, my hand along its glass... but I could also move around independently here.

My question wasn't immediately answered as everypony else got used to the 'visualization.' But then Luna said, "We are inside Celestia."

I turned towards the outside of the magic circle and looked up. I realized that the glittering stars above us formed the shape of the Princess's body all around us. A whitish pink for her body, and then the many ethereal colors of her mane. We were situated in the star-Celestia's abdomen.

It wasn't just the Princess's modified body, either. It was her 'true' body. The one with the gigantic ass and breasts, stretching out so far beyond us that one couldn't really tell where they ended.

"Celestia has opened her body, her very being to us," Luna murmured. "In the real world, Derpy's hands are upon her head, channeling all of our magic through her."

Twilight nodded, a look of grim determination on her face. "This visualization represents our magic inside her. What we do here will guide our magic through her, via our will."

"No pressure, then," I quipped. I turned to the rest of the group. "What now?"

Cadance, ever the pillar of support, had to drop her helpful optimistic demeanor and admit her confusion. "I've done transformation spells before, but never on the genetic level. I've fought against magical curses before, especially with King Sombra, but again, never one this insidious."

"We take it slowly," Twilight instructed. "Narrow it down, isolate the magical signature, and give it all we got."

The purple Princess stepped towards the center of the platform and raised her hands up. As she spread them out, a long blue double-helix string materialized out, stretching out as far as the eye can see in two directions.

"Wait," I had to ask, "are we literally looking at Celestia's DNA?"

"It's a representation tool," Twilight replied. "Transformation spells aren't so complicated as to require perfect knowledge of the genome, but they do alter a being's physical form on this level to accomplish what the caster wills. We're looking at this not because we're looking for the right amino acids to change, but because if we're going to find forensic evidence of the Master's magic, their hold on Celestia, this is more or less where we'll find it - in the tiniest essence of her being."

Derpy rubbed her forehead for a few seconds, then let out a sigh and gave Twilight a nod. "We're investigating the crime scene."

"Looking for the fingerprints of the gods," Luna remarked with a nod of agreement.

Twilight waved her hands, and the giant double-helix strand above us whooshed by, seemingly neverending. "From what I learned by – ugh – researching Pascal's semen and the effects on a pony's biology..." She thrust her palms out, and the 'scrolling' of the DNA came to a sudden halt, resting and gently spinning above us. "The genes we're looking for should be right around here."

It sure was a length of blue double-helix, same as the rest we'd seen. "We'll take your word for it," I muttered.

The Princess of Friendship lowered her hands and rubbed them together, squinting her eyes at the sequence. "Now we need to scan for some magic that isn't part of Celestia's natural mana... Hmm. If we had some trace of the Masters' magic, this might go faster..."

That gave me an idea. "Oh!" I remembered the little auto-drone thing we'd found back in the vault... and a second later, it was hovering above my palm.

"Ah!" Twilight yelped at the sight of the drone, jumping a little.

Luna's eyes widened too, but she quickly said, "Cease! It is just Pascal's visualization." The way she stared grimly at it definitely confirmed that she knew exactly what it was.

"Sorry," I mumbled, then held out the image of the drone. "If the Masters' magic is anything like this drone's, I've probably got a trace of it from when I shut it down."

The night Princess's eyebrows rose. "You... reactivated... and shut down an Atomos?"

"...Yeah, it was wild." It sounded like Luna had some context to add there, but there were more important things to focus on.

Twilight's magic took the drone from my hand, and, after a moment's concentration, tore away all the black cubes that made up its body until only the teal light in the center remained. She lifted the drone core up to the DNA strand above us (I had to remind myself that this was an abstract visualization, a metaphor conjured by our imaginations.) and bathed the double-helix in its glow like a flashlight. After a few moments of this that stretched on in anticipation, a few of the strands lit up with the same bright teal light, standing out among the gentle blue and pink surrounding us.

Twilight quite literally jumped for joy, an excited grin on her face. "Haha! Got it! Good thinking, Pascal!"

My eyebrows shot up as far as they would go. "Holy shit. A real compliment?"

"We're one step closer!" Apparently, she was too happy to get reflexively judgmental towards me. That was something.

Derpy raised her hand like she was in class. "Um, so what is that exactly?" She pointed at the teal light highlighting some of DNA links.

I folded my arms and tilted my head at it. "I'd assume..." I glanced at Twilight. "...the power that's keeping certain aspects of Celestia's physical form on lockdown? Her biological, er, predisposition towards human semen?"

Twilight observed the visualized data for a moment. "That's... extra," she realized out loud, raising a hand to her chin. "What the Masters did to her specifically. But I think it shares the same power source as the magical law they wrote into the universe - that every sapient creature has to revert back to their 'default' form after a certain amount of time."

Cadance chuckled, mainly just holding her enormous pregnant belly steady, lacking anything better to do at the moment. "Can't say I'm entirely following this, but... I knew the two of you putting your heads together would result in something amazing."

Luna smirked at us and folded her arms. "As much as you two fight, you have similar minds."

Twilight and I both whipped our heads towards Luna, mouths open for a snide retort... and then we caught ourselves and looked at each other. We made eye contact, our facial expressions silently communicating. 'We were both just about to–' 'Yep.' 'Great.' 'Better off dropping it?' 'Agreed.' With a bit of awkwardness and not a word spoken, we ignored Luna's comment and returned our attention to the project at hand.

The purple alicorn set her jaw and wove her magic with her horn and her hands, apparently manipulating something very complex that wasn't immediately apparent. The teal light surrounding Celestia's biological data glowed ever brighter. Twilight's magic burst from her horn with a cloud of power. Gradually, strands of emerald green connected the points of teal. Those strands appeared ghostly at first, then the image of them sharpened into chains, chains of pure magic. Those chains wrapped around Celestia's DNA, as if to lock it down and prevent it from moving. Was this the representation of the Masters' universal decrees?

The emerald chains binding Celestia's DNA continued to form, stretching down towards us on our magical virtual platform. From multiple points above us, they met at a single point at one end of the magic circle, looping through what looked like a padlock... albeit an emerald padlock as tall as my forearm.

There was a sense of gravity among all of us. "Is that...?" Cadance murmured.

Twilight lowered her hands. Her eyes were closed as she took a breath to steady herself after that complex magic usage. Upon opening her eyes and looking upon the padlock, she announced, "I think we've isolated it. The Masters' lock on our bodies. The Masters' magic signature."

Feeling like I had to quip something as a defense mechanism, I said, "Well, hopefully that was the hard part."

The silence that followed told me no one believed it. Neither did I.

Luna had a very grave expression on her face. She was almost a little pale, though one wondered if that was a trick of the many colored lights in this visualized space. "Yes..." she murmured, barely audible. "That is... That is his."

Cadance had a pretty adverse reaction to seeing this glowing emerald padlock, drawing back and closing both her hands and her wings around her pregnant belly. "Wow, that's... That's sickly and powerful in a way I've never... Even Sombra's magic wasn't quite this–..."

Derpy's muzzle scrunched up. She balled her hands into fists, and her wings bristled. "That's because they don't want us to touch it. To mess with it. But we're going to!"

That gave us all a little courage. Even me, if I was being real. My gut was telling me loud and clear that this was the hard part, for certain. This lock wasn't just a lock on Celestia – though Celestia's in particular was a stronger version – but on every single pony in Equestria. This had stood the test of time for over a millennium. This was an artificial yet immutable law of nature made manifest, right in front of us. We were going to need courage for this.

BWEEM! The rest of us were startled by Twilight firing a laser of pinkish magical energy from her horn at the glowing padlock. It splashed against it and radiated outward, completely repelled. A growl emanated from Twilight's throat, and her aura enveloped the padlock and the connected chains as she tried to break, bend, or even budge the thing. No dice.

Twilight stopped magically attacking the lock, taking a break to catch her breath and rub her forehead. "...Okay. That's strong. And intricately constructed."

I tilted my head at that last part. "Really?"

"The visualization makes it look like just a big lock to us, because that's how the majority of us are thinking of it at this moment. But it's a representation of the aftereffects of a very potent series of spells from a very powerful source, who clearly knew what they were doing."

"Even if they were dicks."

"If anything," Cadance cut in, "that's even worse. Having so much power that you don't even need to care..."

Luna seemed to be grinding her teeth as she stared at the 'floor' of our virtual world. "Yes... Describes them to a T..."

Derpy looked around at us, still in her 'battle-ready' pose. "So... how are we doing this?!"

In response, Luna unfolded her arms, took a few steps back, and charged up her horn with her night-sky-blue magic. "Derpy, in the real world, you are the one with your hands on Celestia. So we will all channel our magic into you, and you shall attempt to break the curse."

The pegasus went wide-eyed in shock. "Oh! Um... Is there anything special I need to do?"

Twilight shook her head. "Just carry our spells to the lock and do everything you can. Remember: It's not literal, it's a representation guiding our collective magic. Do whatever you think is right."

"Okay..." Derpy turned and looked at me, looking a little concerned – not for herself, I sensed, but for me. "You ready, Pasky?"

I smirked and shrugged, deflecting any worry. "You kidding?" I said a little eagerly. "I've always wanted to be a part of something like this!"

Cadance's horn lit up with bright pink magic. "I'm ready when you all are!"

Luna did much the same, widening her stance and bracing herself. "Let us begin."

Twilight charged her horn once more, and I stretched out my hand towards Derpy, who was in the middle of all of us. Since my magic relied on my words, I said, "My magic, through the scrying orb, into you. You've already got my aura, so for this, everything I've got, it's for you!"

My hands glowed and a blue mist rushed from my arm, streaming into Derpy's body, while beams of pink, purple, and blue hit her one after the other. The pegasus gasped and writhed in place, her feet lifting off the ground, as unbelievable amounts of energy channeled into her. The outer edges of her form glowed with a bright light, and her messy blonde mane
and tail rippled upwards like they were being charged with static electricity.

Derpy opened her eyes, grinning, beyond excitement. The magic of three alicorns and one human avatar coursed through her, embodying Love, Friendship, Acceptance, and the Night. She floated there, her wings and arms outspread welcomingly, looking all the part like a holy angel descending from heaven.

Keeping my arm raised to maintain the flow of energy from myself to her, I said, "You've got this, hun," unable to be more proud than I already was.

Derpy nodded and then turned towards the emerald lock. With a grunt of effort she charged into it shoulder-first!

There was a loud BANG and a splash of magical energy, but no breaking or budging.

Something in my gut tightened and fell like a stone.

Still in her supercharged form, Derpy slammed, punched, and kicked the lock over and over, to little avail. Once she even tried to smack the seal with her mighty, milky jugs, but that just resulted in her afterwards rubbing her poor tender sideboob area. She eventually grappled it, tugging on the loop, the chains, even digging her fingernails into the keyhole. Grunting and growling and flapping her wings furiously as she put all of her considerably enhanced strength into it.

Twilight, still keeping her beam of magic connected to Derpy like the rest of us, shouted, "Keep it up! Pour everything you've got into it! Think of Celestia, how much we care about her, how much we want to help her!"

I was admittedly having trouble 'keeping it up.' My 'beam' was less focused than the alicorns'. Compared to these demigods, despite the unbelievably potent nature of my abilities, I was still a fledgling mage with only so much mana. It was like I was pissing parallel to a firehose.

There was a reverberating metallic crunch. Derpy gasped. "It budged! I think it budged!!"

"Keep going!" Twilight yelled.

But my strength was already failing me. The virtual visualizer-world flickered, and for a moment I was back in my palace suite, standing over the scrying orb, the edges of my vision turning black. I caught myself and kept my legs from crumpling beneath me, but my 'virtual' self fell to the ground in a heap.

"Pasky!!" I heard Derpy cry.

"K-Keep going...!" I managed to groan. Derpy still had the essence of my power, so hopefully that would be enough, I thought. I was drained once again.

They struggled with the lock for a few more minutes while I struggled to catch my breath. But eventually Cadance put a hand up to her forehead and stumbled back, steadying her hugely pregnant belly. "I'm sorry...!" Her horn's light faded.

Luna seemed to still have strength to spare, but her will took a blow seeing us drop off one by one. "It is... little use now..." she murmured as her magic ceased.

Twilight, however, didn't give up. Still keeping her magic focused, she herself marched forward alongside Derpy, her eyes blazing with magical fury. She gripped the lock with her hands and fought to tug it apart alongside the pegasus. "RrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRGH!!!"

After one last surge of effort, the tired mares finally relented. All the magical glowing faded away, and everyone but Luna sat on the ground, all catching their breath.

"It... It budged...!" Derpy insisted quietly, her mane all a-frizzled in the aftermath of funneling all that magic. "It definitely moved just a little...!"

Twilight, panting for breath, mumbled, "You sure...? Ugh..."

"Y-Yeah!" Derpy insisted, sitting up a little straighter. "And it was like... when something's been in place a long, LONG time, like when you're moving to a new home? And it's a little sticky and then it jumps? That's what it felt like! But like... if it'd been there for literally hundreds of years!"

Cadance let out a weary sigh. "Progress, then! Sweet progress..."

Luna stifled a growl and shook her head, folding her arms beneath her chest. "Mmmgh. Then what is required??" Her tone was pretty pissed off. "A hundred, five-hundred more avatars of Love, Friendship, Acceptance?! We do not have five-hundred more alicorns!"

My health had recovered enough that I could finally get up to my feet. I stared at the Masters' lock, then down at myself. We need more ponies? I thought. Or... maybe...

I thought back to when I first got this power. When I was hollow, magicless, little more than an empty outline amidst the cosmic tapestry of destiny. That was the reason I'd been able to absorb the concept of Normality in the first place. And right now, after draining myself dry like that... well, I was feeling pretty empty again.

"Well- er, maybe we just need to do this repeatedly!" Cadance insisted, trying to stay positive. "If we loosen it a little more each time..."

"Assuming," Luna replied pointedly, "that it doesn't regenerate given the slightest bit of time. Which, I'm sorry to tell you, is all to likely with the Masters' magic."

Before I really knew what I was doing, I was walking across the magic circle, past the ponies scattered around me, towards the emerald lock. I had a bold idea in my head, you see.

"Pascal? What are you doing?" Twilight asked.

If I attuned with some of this 'human' magic, much like I'd attuned with the power of Normality/Acceptance... I could control every remnant they had left behind, like like that auto-drone back in the vault! I could fix everything, change everything... I'd have all the keys of the kingdom, and I could finally unshackle every creature from the fate the Masters left them! I could become a new Master myself... but a benevolent one!

I put my palm firmly on the emerald lock. 'Touching' something in this visualization was strange - I didn't feel it like a physical object, but sort of a magical force buzzing back against my hand. But ever so gently, I could feel its power seeping into me. It was working!

Everything was starting to feel fuzzy, though. Especially my hand.

"PASCAL, NO!!"

That was Derpy screaming, I realized a second later through the haze of static. Just as a pair of arms pulled around my virtual waist and yanked me back with all their might.

My body and mind disagreed whether I was being physically pulled back or not, so I stumbled. In the span of a couple of seconds, my hand lifted off the scrying orb, the visualization enchantment connecting me to the others was dispelled, and I stumbled into the chair behind me. I toppled backward, tipping over the chair and landing on the floor, my pelvis propped up uncomfortably against the seat of the wooden chair.

It took me another few seconds just to process what had happened. And then there was pain and discomfort in my right hand, from the knuckles to the tips of my fingers. Fucking intense buzzing and pressure.

"Pascal!!" I saw the scrying orb glow as somepony (Twilight, probably) turned it into a vocal communicator. "Pasky! Are you alright?! Please...!"

My head was full of pain and confusion, so it was harder than I initially expected to speak. "I'm... augh, I'm OKAY!!" I raised my voice in case my voice couldn't get through from the floor.

"Are you alright?" It was Twilight's voice this time. "Any pain, anything–...?" She trailed off hesitantly.

I pulled my right hand up to my eyes and clenched it hard. Everything was intact, nothing bruised or scorched or broken. "Ugh... 'm alright... hand fuckin' feels like it's been asleep for 10,000 years...!"

Next I heard Luna's voice accompanying the glow of the crystal orb. "My deepest apologies," she said sullenly. "This... was probably MY fault."

It dawned on me.

I facepalmed with my other, non-throbbing hand. "Oh, son of a bitch!"

Luna's wish. The memory of her telling me about it during an anesthetic dream, while delayed in remembering initially, was burned into my subconscious:

"Eventually, we found a device: A piece of the source of the Masters' power, a raw shard of creation itself. The last piece that was unclaimed, unspent, discarded and forgotten. It was enough to grant us a Wish, one for each of us. The power to write an indisputable law into the fabric of our world's reality.

"My sister Wished that all ponies would be able to find their own destiny, like we had, while I Wished that no human would ever set foot in our universe again. And just like that, the humans were banished from our world, along with their absolute power.

"In some ways, it was a hasty mistake: We no longer had the power to permanently change ponies' bodies, much less return my sister back to a normal shape. And our image of 'human' at the time meant specifically the Masters and all of their race, which you are not, and that's why you have not been ejected from our universe. Not that we could have predicted the arrival of someone like you 1300 years ago."

"Aaaaaaugh, FUCK." I covered my eyes and groaned. "I almost... Fffffuck!" I pounded the carpet next to me and glared at the ceiling. "Human. Defined as 'a human with that magical signature.' If I'd absorbed that power, I would've- fuuuuuuck." (This was worth at least three 'fuck's.)

"Yeah, you were... fading..." Twilight murmured, sounding a little shaken.

"I'm just... glad you're alright..." Derpy said with a sniffle, sounding a LOT shaken.

As much as I wanted to just be mad at the situation, it was impossible to ignore that all of the rightful blame for this landed on me. My boneheadedness had nearly gotten me teleported out of this universe. I was lucky to have fingers on my right hand at all, let alone the rest of my body. If Derpy hadn't pulled me back... Whoa-kay, not thinking about that too hard right now. "Sorry," I replied lamely, deflating a bit. "I wasn't thinking straight."

"Everyone, please..." This time, it was Celestia's quiet voice that I heard through the connection. Whatever trance she'd been in during our ritual, it seemed she was out of it now. "You've all done more than enough for now. It's okay..."

It wasn't okay. Not when we were that close! Despite nearly getting launched off the planet, there was something in my gut telling me... I didn't know exactly, but I felt like I'd made a wrong turn at the last second. I fixated on the ceiling as my mind raced to figure it out.

Celestia continued. "Pascal? I think I'm ready for you to come up here. I just want to... see that you're alright..."

"I'll go get him," Derpy said.

With a groan, I finally got out of my awkward position on the floor. "No, no." I got up on my feet and set the chair upright. "I'll walk. I need to fuckin' think."

I was already mostly dressed in my shirt and pants, so all I had to do was put on some slippers and I was out the door before anypony could object. The hallways were occupied by guards and the occasional servant or bureaucrat making their way through. A couple of them who recognized me as a guest of the Princesses gave me only a quick nod as I passed by.

Once I could be alone with my thoughts, I took a deep breath and rubbed my forehead. I couldn't give up on finding a solution yet. Derpy was right – we'd been called here by the Map for this reason. We were so close, and yet so far...

My head was aching; my gut was churning. The answer was somewhere in my head, but I couldn't connect the dots.

Okay, so absorbing the Masters' energy and taking it for myself wasn't the option. But what had I been thinking before that? We need more ponies? Luna didn't think that was enough. My guess was that she was partially wrong and partially right. We DID need more ponies, but... we needed the right kind of ponies. So who was the right kind? Luna seemed to think we needed more alicorns, more paragons of virtue, more gifted magicians, but... was that really necessary?

Why was I thinking that? I couldn't think of a reason in words why I thought that was the wrong way of looking at it. For some reason, whenever I thought about 'enough ponies to beat the Masters,' my brain went to...

• Humans are unbelievably strong.
• It would take the SOUL of nearly every monster...
• ...just to equal the power of a single human SOUL.

...Undertale. Fucking Undertale.

I was lightyears from home, stuck in a land of high fantasy and sexual excess, and my reference pool was still as shallow as fucking video games. Because I'm a huge incurable fucking nerd.

But alright, fine. My brain was clearly trying to tell me something by bringing this memory up. Maybe it was true for ponies, too, that a small army of them were needed to overpower a Master.

...Huh.

The Masters weren't invincible. They were so obscenely powerful that they could create life, but...

They had been afraid. Of Celestia. Of the ponies' destinies. Of even the slightest hint of independence or rebellion.

Once you accept all that... then it seems obvious a small army of ponies could overcome the Masters' magic.

But what do you do with that small army?

By now I was in one of the palace's interior gardens, with Celestia's tower in view at the end of a long pathway. I remembered running down this hall, throwing socks into the fountain just to stay abnormal long enough to face her. ...No, that was distracting to think about. Head in the game, Pascal, head in the game.

We needed more ponies. But not just for numbers' sake. They needed to be... 'right.' ...What the fuck did that mean?

Derpy described us as having the virtues of Family, Love, Friendship, and Acceptance, and that seemed to be the difference-maker in at least getting the lock to budge. But Luna was right - there were no more alicorns or avatars. So anyone else we got would be a regular pony with no holy virtue to champion like that. ...Unless...?

C'mon, brain, where are you going with this?!

The flow of words stopped. Once again, my brain was tugging at some ridiculous nerdy bullshit memory:

An image of Goku raising his hands to the sky. "The rivers, the trees, the wind! All the living things in nature! Please offer me your energy, I ask of you, please!"

Fucking Dragon Ball Z now?! I was fucking ashamed of myself! I didn't even like DBZ that much! I only had these memories burned into my brain because they were in my Saturday morning cartoon rotation as a very young 90s kid (with nothing better to do before the golden age of the internet)!

Why the fuck was my brain thinking about the Spirit Bomb?!? What, like I'm supposed to gather up all the Acceptance of the ponies around me and use it to–?

"OH MY FUCKING GOD!"

The guards and servants in the hallway jumped and stared.

I kicked the door to Celestia's quarters. It didn't open. After a quick moment to regain my balance, I grabbed both handles and shoved them open. I entered the room with a dramatic point towards Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Twilight, and Derpy.

"I'VE FIGURED IT OUT!!" I shouted triumphantly.

The mood in the room was both startled and in despair. Already I could see faces falling. I knew what they were thinking. 'Oh, he's just trying to overcompensate for his mistake. Poor guy. We'll have to let him down easy.'

Not so fucking fast!

I kicked the doors shut behind me and started pacing horizontally. "Derpy!" I yelled as I pointed at the nude pegasus, making her jump a little bit. "The lock definitely budged, right?!"

"U-Uh, yeah!" Derpy replied after a moment, balling her hands into fists determinedly. "It definitely did!"

"Luna!" I pointed at the tall moon demigoddess. "We need more ponies, but they have to be properly spiritually aligned, right?! We need more power, but it has to be the right kind of power, the right kind of energy!"

Even the normally unflappable Princess of the Night seemed taken off-guard, confused. "Er... yes...?"

"Twilight!" It was the bookworm's turn to get pointed at by me. I was grinning with excitement, jittery even, and my finger lowered as I marveled at all the pieces falling into place. "Fuckin'... This is what you ponies are all a-fuckin'-bout! Putting your hearts and minds together in the spirit of friendship, community, harmony, combining your strengths to pull off something impossible!"

The Princess of Friendship stared back at me for a second. A breathless chuckle escaped her, as an incredulous smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "My lectures, you... you listened...!"

"Of course," I said quietly, smiling back. "Friendship is Magic."

Cadance smiled at seeing me and Twilight have this little moment, but her overall expression was one of nagging doubt. "Are you sure? Bringing more ponies into this? Won't that mean...?"

I smacked my forehead, my palm glancing off as I rolled my eyes. "Right. We'll have to move up the timetable for telling the public about all this."

Celestia, still kneeling on the floor wrapped up in her blanket, squeaked, "What?!"

Reconsidering, my mind still racing in overclock, I raised a finger. "Actually...! We can probably leave the Masters stuff out of it. That's a huge bitter pill to swallow. But the stuff about Celestia's real body and the reasons she needs to change for her own health? Yeah, we have to be honest about that. This doesn't work otherwise. But I think saying 'Hey Celestia was cursed with a hypersexual body this whole time, details later, just help us out now' is something we can get away with. Especially if they see it for themselves."

Celestia pulled her blanket tighter around herself. "S-Sh-Sh-Show them...?!?"

I took a step forward and got down onto one knee, looking Celestia in the eyes. (Actually, even with her on both knees she was taller than me, so I had to look up into her.) "Celestia. I know. It's a tough ask. But if there was ever going to be one way that this could be done... I am fucking 99.9% certain about this. And Luna's been in my head; she'll tell you that I'm only 65% sure about getting out of bed every morning. This is IT. You can finally have a normal body again. But we need the help of your subjects to make it happen; we can't do it by ourselves." I smirked a bit. "Don't worry, I can MAKE them understand. But I think, on the whole, they deserve more credit than that."

Luna, more than a little exasperated, used her magic to pick me back up onto my feet. "Would you mind giving us ANY details for this 'brilliant' plan of yours?!"

Celestia's gaze had gone far off into space for a bit as she thought. "How... How soon? How soon would we have to...?"

Good question. I looked out the window. We'd started this therapy session at the crack of dawn. Despite all of the intense stuff we'd been through already, the morning had just barely begun. If we started the process of gathering ponies posthaste...

I looked back at Celestia with an awkward grin. "Um... today?"