Deep within the ludicrously extensive library of the Castle of Friendship, a young unicorn was obsessively at work. At some point - perhaps days before - the clothes she wore had been neat. Presentable, even. Her mane was now a tangled mess, her black skirt creased in awkward places from sitting on it for too long, and her pale green shirt was rumpled. Her small black jacket lay draped askew, half-off the back of her chair.

Mountainous piles of books surrounded Starlight Glimmer, annotated with hand-written notes and scribbled out formulae in the margins that were going to earn her a very stern talking to when Twilight eventually found out. Fragments of torn parchment littered the floor, each bearing scribbles that evolved from fragment to fragment, finally achieving the form that Starlight held in her hand.

She was breathing quickly, her pink skin coated in sweat, staring at the parchment with a bright-eyed manic energy.

"I've definitely got it this time! I mean, I'd have gotten it sooner if she hadn't banned me from using the Want It Need It spell, but – well, I'm sure Twilight won't mind I included it once she sees how effective this spell is. You don't have to warp light to make yourself functionally invisible, if you can make people want to not realise you're there! This is a whole new approach to magic!" Starlight took a deep breath, drawing herself up straighter despite the dark marks of exhaustion under her eyes, and declared to no pony in particular, "She is going to be so impressed."

Starlight focused, bringing to mind the complex formula she'd shaped over dozens of long days and sleepless nights of experimental work. Magic shimmered to life around her horn, the aura of power sharpening to a point. A thin, high whine cut through the air, the sound of the air itself breaking down in the presence of a powerful magical field.

She gestured with her horn.

In a single, crowded instant, the pulsing node of power exploded. Flaring, pale blue energy snapped over her body, grounding through her skin and sparking behind her eyes. Starlight jerked in surprise, shaking her head rapidly as if she could dislodge the strange tingle. After a moment, even that faded, and as far as Starlight could tell, the entire accumulated magical charge was simply gone without trace.

"Oh, are you kidding me?" Starlight burst out, hurling the nearest book aside in a fit of pique. "It took weeks to store up that charge!"

Simmering with frustration, she stood amidst the mess for a moment, brooding, before shrugging impatiently and turning for the door. She'd tidy up the mess later. Right then, she couldn't face the evidence of her failure.

Celestia looked down at the note pinned to the arm of her throne. 'It is not normal to fuck Starlight Glimmer. Try not to forget it.'

"Go on, Twilight," she said soothingly. "Tell me again. You felt a spell being cast. What happened next?"

Twilight blinked up at her, obviously confused by the repetitive line of questioning, but willing as ever to indulge her mentor. "Well, as I said, the magical surge felt enormous. I haven't felt anything like that since Starlight opened the time portal. I was worried. Starlight was just leaving the castle, and she looked upset, so I wanted to ask her if she was okay."

"But you didn't, not at once. Why was that?" Celestia glanced at the note again.

"Oh. Well, I did want to, but it had to wait until I'd finished eating her out." Twilight's expression of mild concern didn't change.

Celestia coughed, her own alabaster cheeks touched by pink. "Yes, so you said. When you saw her, you knelt, placed your head under her skirt, pulled her - her panties aside, and began licking. Was there a reason to do that?"

The expression of vague puzzlement on her former student's face replied, even more eloquently than Twilight could, that she might as well have asked what the reason was for saying 'hello'. "I'm sorry, I'm... not sure I understand."

Something that Celestia had often admired about Twilight was her methodical approach to things she didn't understand. Pausing to formulate her words carefully, she asked, "Twilight, I'm sorry to ask you this. I hope you will understand later why I need to know the things I am speaking of; this is not from personal curiosity. Would you say that you have ever made love to another pony?"

Twilight had grown visibly wary as Celestia's disclaimer unfolded, but even so, she didn't seem to have been prepared for that. Her head jerked back, looking up at Celestia in total shock. "Princess! I - I - of course not, I haven't even-"

"It's alright, Twilight," the elder Princess soothed at once. "There are no wrong answers to the questions I must ask you. Have you ever been tempted to do something intimate with another pony? What is the furthest you've gone?"

Twilight was growing so red that her normal lilac was approaching deep purple. Her words obviously caught in her throat, and she struggled to make herself speak before she forced out, "Y-yes, I, I've had... crushes. No more than kissing, though, I - just kissing! Princess, why?"

"Please be patient with me, Twilight. Would you like to talk about fucking Starlight instead?"

The crude word was spoken with deliberate precision, and Celestia's eyes narrowed as Twilight visibly relaxed, nodding. "That would be easier, thank you. It's not that I don't want to answer your questions, I do, and you know I'd never lie to you, it's just..."

"It's alright, Twilight. Consider that topic closed," Celestia interrupted her, then added, "How did Starlight taste?"

"Do you mean her pussy or her breasts?" Twilight asked, much more at ease with the new topic of conversation. "Her pussy was kind of... tangy, I guess. I wasn't really sure what mares would taste like, but I think I could get used to it. She wasn't as perfumed as Rarity, anyway."

"Did you make her orgasm?" Celestia asked, then - with mingled embarrassment, guilt and creeping arousal - added, "Did she cum all over your face, Twilight?"

"I did!" Twilight replied brightly.

The simplicity of Twilight's response, the innocent lack of realisation of what she was saying, sent a fresh thrill of arousal through Celestia, and even though she tried desperately not to show it, her nipples grew obviously stiff, pressing through the silk of her perfect white and gold dress. She'd never imagined speaking to Twilight of crude things, and to her own surprise, it was one of the most shudderingly erotic things she'd ever heard.

Even so, that wasn't the point. There was some sort of malformed normalisation spell centred on Starlight, and Celestia knew that she couldn't afford to let herself get distracted from diagnosing the root cause. This was serious.

"She didn't cum in my mouth, though," Twilight added innocently. "She pulled up her top and I sucked on her nipples, and fingered her a bit. That's when she came. The first time she came, at least. ...Princess?"

Trying to cover the strangled whine she'd just released with a cough instead, Celestia dismissed Twilight's question with a flick of her fingers. "Twilight, while you were… eating Starlight's pussy, would you tell me where you were?"

"Um. Let me see…" Twilight frowned thoughtfully, trying to remember an obviously unimportant detail. "It was a couple of days ago, so... I saw Starlight step out of the main gate as I was hurrying back, and I stopped to lick her out. I suppose that's technically in the outskirts of Ponyville? Just outside the castle."

An area that was generally pretty quiet, then. That was good. "Did anyone see you?" Celestia asked gently.

"Well, Rarity did arrive at some point? I'm sorry, Princess, I couldn't really see with my head under Starlight's skirt."

"How did you know Rarity was there?"

"I could hear her voice. She was shouting about something - I thought I heard my name, but I wasn't sure what she wanted, and Starlight was pressing me into her pussy pretty hard. But when she let me come up for air, I started sucking her tits, and then I could hear Rarity better. It didn't really make a lot of sense," Twilight finished apologetically.

"Did she come over to talk to you?"

"Oh, yes. She was saying something about doing something in public, at first, but when she came over, she apologised for yelling. She said she couldn't imagine what she'd been making a fuss about, so I offered to let her suck Starlight's nipples instead. Starlight had just cum over my fingers, so she was a little tender, but she said she'd be happy to let Rarity suck her tits as well. That's when I decided to eat Rarity out too, so I could see if she tasted different. She kind of tastes a little like skincare soap. It smells good, but it's not my favourite to lick."

Celestia shivered, gripping the arms of her throne tighter, but tried to push the wave of arousal aside. Feeling her heart beating faster, she asked in a lower, more urgent tone, "Do you remember how far away Rarity was from Starlight when she stopped shouting?"

Twilight's expression screwed up as she tried to picture the scene. "I'm... really not sure, Princess. I'm so sorry. Was that important?"

"Twilight..." Celestia trailed off, then tried, "Twilight, have you harboured romantic thoughts about Rarity? Could you see yourself being intimate with her?"

Again, the rising tide of the younger pony's blush threatened to cook her head. "I - I, I mean, she's very fashionable, and she's very caring, but I'd never really... thought about her like that. She is a mare, after all, and she's my friend. So... I don't, I don't think so?"

"And what if you were both being intimate with Starlight at the time? Would that change things?"

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't realise what you meant." Twilight shook her head in sheepish embarrassment. "Of course I'd have sex with Rarity if it was with Starlight. You always taught me to have good manners."

Her mouth dry, Celestia hesitated, then found herself speaking before she could stop herself. "What if Starlight and I were being intimate, and you entered unexpectedly? Would you be intimate with me, Twilight?"

Twilight blinked up at her mentor owlishly, cocking her head. "Princess? Of course I'd have sex with you, if Starlight was there."

It was much too late for Celestia to stop herself now. Her hand twitched towards her skirt, then stopped and gripped the arm of her throne with renewed force as she tried, "Would you describe that?"

"...is everything okay, Princess? I really don't understand why you're asking these questions - is something wrong?"

"Please, Twilight!"

In a gently puzzled tone, Twilight replied, "Well, I'd peel down the front of your dress and knead your breasts, at first; they're really impressive. Then, once your nipples were hard, I'd like to suck on them and bite them a little bit, and perhaps you'd like to fondle me back? If you hiked up your dress, I could see how you taste. It'd be nice to get some handfuls of your ass, too, I've always loved it, but I think Starlight would be doing that."

"You think-" Celestia started, then cut herself off. The normalisation spell's parameters were still unknown. Talking about sex in Starlight's presence was obviously part of it, but asking about her own attractiveness without that cover would probably go poorly. The spell was lingering now that Twilight had left Starlight's presence as well, which marked the effect out as one of extraordinary power. Just how many ponies had already succumbed to the new normal?

It would be a lot easier to think about all of that if she wasn't so cursedly horny. It was all she could do to stop herself from squirming on her throne, and if she let her concentration lapse for just an instant and began touching herself in front of Twilight...

Celestia took a deep, calming breath.

"How many ponies have been exposed?" she asked, in a pleasant, level tone.

"To what?"

"Forgive me, Twilight. How many ponies have you witnessed having intimate relations with Starlight Glimmer?"

"Oh. Did you mean exposed as in undressed?" Twilight tipped her head to one side, deep in thought. "Less than twenty, directly. It was pretty much just the visitors to the Castle until this morning, but then when we got on the train-"

"She's here?"

Twilight jerked in surprise at the sudden sharpness of Celestia's voice, her eyes wide. "I - yes, Princess! She's my student, so when you summoned me, she asked if she could come, and we got on the train."

"Where is Starlight now?" Celestia asked urgently. She hadn't even pinned down the effective range yet!

"Uh - I don't know! A lot of ponies greeted her on the way here, so I asked if she minded me going ahead, so I wouldn't be late, and she said she'd catch me up!" Twilight looked spooked, obviously paranoid she'd done something to upset Celestia, even if she couldn't imagine what that was.

And they'd been talking for a while. Celestia's gaze turned to the doors, which - now that she noticed it - were slightly ajar. Raising her voice, projecting it powerfully through the chamber, she demanded, "Starlight Glimmer, are you there?"

Perhaps only a pony with Celestia's excellent hearing could have caught the little 'eep!' from behind the door. A moment later, Starlight bashfully stepped around the door and into the chamber. "S-sorry, Princess, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just didn't want to interrupt, and-"

"Stay where you are," Celestia told her firmly, giving the young mare a hard stare. Starlight's clothes were in disarray, her makeup smudged, and she looked terrified by the attention Celestia was giving her, but there was no smugness, no sense of lurking triumph. She'd been hit by the normalisation as hard as any of the other victims, perhaps harder.

The note on the arm of her throne still made sense. Whatever the range of the effect, it wasn't long enough to span the throne room end to end. Now, she just had to decide what to do next. Her gaze slid from Starlight to Twilight, her favoured student looking anxious but obviously holding her tongue. It would be easy to order Starlight quarantined until the spell on her could be figured out. And yet...

Celestia turned over the note on the arm of her throne, and with a few quick strokes of her pen, addressed it to Luna, and summarised all she knew. There wasn't much of it. With that done, she sighed, a small, wry smile curving her lips. "There's no need to panic, Starlight. You're simply the centre of a normalisation spell we need to defuse."

Starlight blinked, protesting, "But the spell fizzled! It didn't do anything!"

"That isn't true, I'm afraid. You simply can't tell because you're affected by it. But don't worry." Celestia rose from her throne, descending the steps and taking Twilight's hand. Smiling at the younger Princess, she led her gently towards Starlight, continuing, "We will figure out how to remove it. But first..." She braced herself for the spell, trying to cling onto her knowledge of what it would do, and stopped trying to disguise the sigh of desire in her voice, "First, Twilight and I should greet you properly."

Author's Note

A while ago, I wrote this out over four days, and aside from showing it to DbzOrDie, never got around to doing anything with it. This seemed like a good excuse to post it! The concept shares a little DNA with Universal Acceptance.

DbzOrDie actually wrote a short piece based on this: check it out here.

• Proofing by Djmill and JustTheBast
  Suggestions by DbzOrDie