“Since when did the floor in here get so cold?” you asked, shivering slightly.

“Sorry!” Celestia apologized.

“You’ve gotta stop apologizing for everything.”

“S-Sorry!”

“Celestia,” you warned, “You say that one more time and I’ll make you sorry. With my dick.”

“I-I… I still haven’t said it enough for what I did. You know that wasn’t me, I would never-”

“I know, I know.”

“It’s just I got so frustrated! It seemed like you were trying to take everything I loved away from me.”

“Celestia,” you tried.

“First Twilight, then my Sister, then it turned out Atlas-”

“Celestia,” you tried again.

“The one pony I actually fucked, the one pony I let myself go with - he wasn’t even real!”

“Celestia!” you snapped, drawing her out of her monologue.

“S-Sorry… I got carried away …again.”

“You’ve really got to let this go.”

“How could I? I did - almost did unspeakable things. I’m terrified of my sister being overtaken by Nightmare Moon again, but if you hadn’t stopped me, I would have been worse.”

“Like you said, that wasn’t you. Just like that magic, that anger… that wasn’t me.”

There was a long silence, just you, Celestia, and Metamora, who so far had surprisingly little to say.

“How do I atone for this?” Celestia asked, “How do I rise above?”

“I’m not sure that you do,” Metamora spoke up, “You don’t leave that behind, you learn from it. I was jealous too not that long ago. Jealous because of so many things for so many reasons.”

“How did you… What got you past it?”

“The same thing that’s gotten me past everything lately, love.”

“Well that’s easy for you,” Celestia said, a sorrow to her tone.

“It is, but that wasn’t always the case. I never thought I’d find love like I have now. I never thought I’d even want to be loved like this. But here I am, and if I can find love, I’m sure you can too.”

“You don’t understand.”

“I’m sure I don’t, but what’s stopping you?”

“I’m always so busy and I have to be the responsible one, always cleaning up after some royal mess or defending Equestria from whatever threat is on the horizon next. And everypony I’ve ever loved, they… they don’t feel that way about me.”

“Oh Princess,” Metamora sighed, “That can’t possibly be true. I know how much all of your subjects adore you, any one of them would jump at the chance for something more.”

“Yes. They’d all jump at the chance to be with a Princess, the status, the notoriety. But no one loves me. No one’s ever loved me. I’m unlovable.”

“You know you’re talking about being unlovable to a Changeling, right?” Metamora giggles, “I understand that more than you could possibly know. And yet here I am, with more love than I know what to do with.”

“But you have him,” Celestia challenged, looking over to you.

“I do. And right now there’s enough of him to share. Anon, do you think you can help Celestia feel loved until she’s back on her hooves?”

“I uh…” you paused, shaken from your contentment in just listening to them talk, “Are you sure?”

“Really Metamora, you’d share your lover and his love with me?”

“Yes. I have a bounty far more than I need, its only fair that I share.”

“Em, where is this coming from? Just the other day you were ready to bite my head off over a slip of the tongue.”

“You’ve been fucking other ponies left and right and you’re surprised that I’m okay with it now?” Metamora laughed, smiling at you, “To be honest, Anon, I don’t know where this is coming from. But it feels… it feels right. It’s the same high I get from feeding another Changeling, but it’s… deeper?”

“Well if you’re sure you’re okay with it, then I guess I can oblige.”

“So any time you’re feeling alone, Celestia,” Metamora started, “you let us know, and we’ll be there for you. Whatever you need, it doesn’t have to be sex, but I’m sure Anon wouldn’t mind if it was.”

“I can’t…” Celestia started, “I can’t thank you enough.”

“You don’t need to. This is a gift, freely given.”

Celestia fell silent for a minute, leaving you to stare between the two of them, feeling an ache in your heart every time you looked at Celestia and a burning fire of pride and love every time you looked at Metamora.

“I want this to mean something,” Celestia said, breaking the silence, “I want to show you the same compassion you showed me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want you to feel at home in my kingdom, Metamora. Heavens above have you shown you’re not the monster we make your kind out to be.”

“You’d do that for me?” Metamora asked, tears coming to her eyes.

“Of course we’d have to confer with our sister, but I don’t think she would disagree.”

“No, sister. We definitely would not.”

“Luna!” you called out in surprise, spinning to see the only other princess you’d put your dick in, “What are you doing here?”

“Well we wished to see our sister, but it was a pleasant surprise to run into you and Metamora.”

“How do you… How do you know her name?” you asked.

“Oh Anon, we’ve known for quite some time.”

“You what?” Metamora asked, snapping to focus on Luna.

“We’ve been meaning to ask. Which came first, Em or Emerald?”

“You knew that far back and you didn’t say anything?” you asked incredulously.

“Our curiosity was best satiated from afar.”

“Curiosity? What curiosity?” you prodded further.

“What curiosity? Before our eyes lay a fantastical creature from another planet, and furthermore he seemed to bear love for a creature that we believed loveless. Would thine own curiosity not burn under these conditions?”

“But you didn’t tell anyone…”

“And risk our observations be interrupted? Then would we have seen a display as moving as that night before your escape?”

“You saw?” Metamora asked, blushing. Why was she so embarrassed, you didn’t even fuck her that night.

“Indeed we did. We saw something that was nigh impossible, for a Changeling to, well, change. We were going to bring our findings to our sister when, well… We couldn’t very well argue for your innocence after what happened.”

“You know Luna… I’m glad you didn’t. It took what just happened to open my eyes.”

“Sister,” Luna asked, looking around warily, “what did happen in here?”

“That’s a very long story,” Celestia sighed, getting to her hooves, “and I don’t have the words to tell you right now, Luna.”

“Over tea then?”

“Yes sister, over tea. We can talk about that and how I’ve not told you that I love you lately.”

“Sister, you’ll make us blush!” Luna giggled, fanning her face with a hoof.

“I mean it Luna.” Celestia clarified, walking to the now open doors with two stoic guards still posted outside, “But right now we have an announcement for the court. Come on everypony.”

“Can, uh, can we get me some pants first?” you asked, earning a laugh or a snort from everyone.

“Guards,” Celestia called, the two stallions snapping to attention. “Three things. First, we need to fetch the court for an urgent matter. Second, Anon needs his pants. Third, I’d like to ask you two will meet me later. I need to apologize for my behavior.”

“Yes your Highness!” they both responded with a practiced decorum.

You all four stood on the dais of the throne room, Celestia and Luna in front of their thrones and you and Metamora off to one side. Metamora wore a hooded cloak, concealing her features and you, for the first time in far too long, wore pants. The crowd before you was much larger than the court you recalled from your last visit, packing the spacious throne room with an absurd number of ponies.

“My subjects, we stand before you today to welcome two new creatures into our lands. First, we wish to welcome Sir Anon, a human, into our fold. He is a being from another world, teleported to us by some act of cosmic discord. Since his arrival, he has performed great service to the Crown,” Celestia announced, nodding to you with a laugh at the edge of her tone, “He has demonstrated that he is a valuable and insightful creature, and we are proud to welcome him fully into our lands as one of our own.”

The crowd cheered, watching as you waved gingerly to them.

“However Anon, despite being a foreigner in our midst, has shown us something new of another species indigenous to our lands. A creature we believed to be a parasite, that we hunted and exiled. A species we had discounted because of our failings and theirs, that Anon showed us was capable of goodness and compassion.”

The crowd had gone silent, waiting in anticipation as they stared at the hooded figure next to you.

“Allow us to introduce you to Her Highness, Queen Metamora of the Changelings.”

The crowd gasped collectively as Metamora doffed the cape shrouding her form. She stepped forward, smiling just the same as you had, waving with one hole-ridden hoof. The crowd churned upon itself, ponies turning to each other in shock, the murmur of thousands of simultaneous questions, exclamations, and declarations buzzing through the air.

“Yes, yes. You are hearing this correctly, my little ponies. A Changeling, reformed by love, living within our lands as freely as you or I. Never in a million years would we have imagined such a monumental accomplishment. Never in our wildest dreams would we have considered the possibility that Metamora has shown us is reality; the possibility that Changelings and ponykind can coexist. Today, one creature has brought love to another, but tomorrow - who knows what possibilities are in store!”

The momentum of the crowd had turned, seizing on an obvious pause to cheer on this surprising new direction.

“So starting today, we’d like to offer asylum for any and all Changelings willing to find the goodness in their heart. We will feed you the love you require, and teach you how to earn your own. I’ve asked Metamora to talk a bit about her journey. Please, listen with an open mind and an open heart.”

“Thank you, Princess.” Metamora started, stepping forward, even with Celestia, “Thank you everypony. It feels so wonderful to be a part of your beautiful world, as an eager participant rather than a scorned outsider. I’m so very hopeful for the future, so excited to know that the change I’ve undergone - and for those in the audience in disguise, I do not mean my metamorphosis - that others of my kind can feel it as well. Much like many of you must think of us, I never believed I was capable of love.”

She looked at you, her eyes burning brighter than you’d ever seen before,

“But Anon showed me that love is universal. He showed me that love could be freely given, that I didn’t need to take what he would give away. I learned that there’s love in all of us. That there’s a love in me that’s been growing every day. Which is why I want to say, with all of you as my witness…”

“Em, don’t…”

“I can’t help myself, Anon,” she whispered, turning to face you.

“I love you, Anon.”

“Em,” you cried, definitely not feeling tears welling at the corners of your eyes. You reached out and grabbed her, lifting her up and holding her to your chest.

The crowd stayed silent for a moment, attention focused on your embrace. But after a moment, as some took notice of the princesses motioning them to applaud, a slow roar built up growing into a deafening thunder of cheers and applause.

She did it. We did it.

“Hey Anon, let’s go celebrate…” Metamora whispered into your ear, leaning even further into your embrace.

Author's Note

We've come off all the shit from the last two chapters, well most of it. That magic is still a mystery... Anyway, I hope that this sands down some of the rough edges that people complained about from the previous chapters without feeling like a cop-out. This is where this was headed all along, a poignant series of events that convinced a headstrong princess to lead with her heart instead. In retrospect could I have handled this a bit differently? Sure. But I stand by what I've written, and I hope that, now having a more complete picture, you can appreciate it as well.

I promise it gets lighter for a bit after this. It should be very clear where tomorrow's going, and the rest of the Act is mostly just tying off dick-shaped loose ends here in Canterlot. After that... Who knows what happens. (Hint: I do)

That thing that happens at the end of the chapter... That wasn't supposed to happen yet. Honest! It was supposed to happen next chapter, but I got caught up in the moment, er... Em got caught up in the moment. Yeah, let's go with that one. No, finally putting it on paper did not bring a tear to my eye.
...it brought several. I cried like a little bitch.