Despite hours pouring over the book, Shining couldn’t think of another option, aside from getting Caramel a Consort. And he’d never go for that.

Shining used the last of the crushed leystone to finish the fifth arcane tangent on the floor of Caramel’s living room, completing the receiver’s rune. He stood up and glanced around. On the other side of the room, the giver’s room glowed softly in moonstone chalk. Caramel had purchased both reagents from the local apothecary after lunch.

Shining took a deep breath and studied the spellbook again. This was Twilight’s area of expertise, not his. He shouldn’t be doing this… but…

He did feel guilty for last night. Yeah, he didn’t know and it wasn’t his fault, but… he’d totally crashed and burned as a wingpony. That irked him.

The least he could do was spend a little time looking like Caramel if it helped his friend finally bed a mare. Three days wasn’t that bad. He’d just need to be careful. Anyway, Caramel had been right. There was no chance Caramel could get enough action to push Shining anywhere near the danger zone. He might end up looking good, but not that good.

The only other variable was the time Shining took casting the spell, and that definitely wouldn’t be a problem.

The front door opened and Caramel stepped inside. He looked rather smug, since he’d just informed the bank he’d be out for a few days. Shining hoped he hadn’t said why.

“Ready?” Shining asked as the last few rays sunlight glinted off the arcane patterns. “I’d like to get this over with.”

“Don’t act so excited,” Caramel teased, clapping his hands together with glee. “This is going to be great!”

“For you, maybe,” Shining muttered as he stared at the giver’s rune. “I get to stay locked up in here for the next seventy-two hours just to avoid the weird stares and… other risks. This wasn’t what I had in mind when I came down here, you know.”

“No, but apparently it was what the Princess of Love had in mind!” Caramel singsonged.

“Get in the damn circle, Caramel,” Shining snapped. “But we’re doing one last review before I cast this!”

“We’ve reviewed it like five times already!” Caramel whined as he hopped into the receiver’s rune, careful not to mess with any of the lines. “Let’s do it already!”

“No.” Shining snapped in his Captain of the Guard voice. “We do this by the numbers. This isn’t my specialty, so we need to be precise!”

“Fine,” Caramel said, making a motion for him to hurry up. “Just go already!”

Shining pointedly did not step into the giver’s rune. “What does the spell do?”

“Transfers ‘masculine energy’ from one stallion to another, whatever that actually is,” Caramel droned. “You know you’re not a sergeant anymore.”

“I was never a sergeant. I started as an officer,” Shining snapped. “How long do the effects last?”

“Seventy-two hours.”

“What happens at the end of that time period if the counter spell is not cast?”

Caramel rolled his eyes. “Both stallions will lock into their current forms permanently, the energy realigning to their individual internal magics… or something like that..”

“The important word is ‘permanent,’ and you got that right,” Shining growled, rubbing his hand through his hair. “What’s required for the counter spell?”

“Just the pattern behind cast by a unicorn. Runes are only for the start.” Caramel groaned again. “Come on, Shining!”

Shining glared at him, his eyes hard. “What happens when a stallion with the higher level of masculine energy engages in what they believe is masculine activities?”

“If the receiver truly believes it’s masculine activity, they’ll draw out more masculine energy from the giver.”

“And if that reaches the thresho—”

Caramel cut him off. “Shining, we both know that’s not going to happen! I get it! That part freaks me out a little too! I swear I will pay you back however you want. Blank check! Please, can we just do this?”

The sun had disappeared and Shining could see the stars out the front window despite the glowing lights of the Appleoosa's nightlife scene. There wasn’t much point in delaying any longer.

Shining stepped into the giver’s rune.

Caramel let out a girlish little squeal, then clapped his hands over his mouth.

He’ll probably be lucky to get a single mare, Shining thought.

“Okay,” Shining announced. “Here we go.”

Shining closed his eyes and visualized the spell form. It wasn’t all that complex, but it still took some effort, even with the runes to help focus the magic. His horn ignited on its own as he let it flow through him. He made minor tweaks to to magic as it first touched the giver’s rune, then drifted over to the receiver’s rune. A brief hum filled the air as the runes activated. Caramel clapped his hands, but Shining stayed focused. He could almost feel the magic work its way up Caramel until it finally locked onto the stallion’s chest.

Shining’s eyes snapped open. He met Caramel’s gaze. Then he pushed the rest of the spell through his horn.

Instantly, a twisting, pulsing stream of blue and pink energy swirled into existence between the two of them. Blue light burned around Shining’s chest and he gasped as an alien force unlike anything he had ever felt pulled something from him. A pulse of blue magic slid through the stream before Caramel’s body absorbed it. The other stallion gasped.

“Oh wow,” Caramel whispered. “Wow.”

Shining would have said something similar, but he found it hard to speak as the spell pulled the next surge of blue magic from him and shoved it into Caramel. In fact, as the third one hit, he found it becoming harder and harder just to keep his feet. Whatever this was actually doing to him… it felt amazing. A single look at Caramel told Shining the other stallion felt the exact same way. Though why did Caramel already look as tall as Shining? That was faster than expected…

On the sixth pulse, Shining’s shoulders began to shrink, as if being massaged with prickly sponges.

The eighth pulse had removed all the tone and definition of his upper body with those same sponges.

By the tenth pulse, his shoulders were even smaller than Caramel’s. His hair grew a shaggier, too. That wasn’t quite right, but he couldn’t quite seem to care.

The next pulse worked his feet and legs, shrinking them slightly as he lost muscle tone. Years of time in the gym vanished in moments as the spell worked. And yet he didn’t want it to stop. He could barely focus. He could hardly even see the tall stallion on the other side of the room.

He’d lost count of the amount of pulses when that prickly sponge feeling ran over his hips and his stallionhood. Despite himself, his stallionhood stiffened completely and he almost dropped to his knees as the brightest pulse of all surged across the stream.

“Shining…”

The next pulse did finally drive him to his knees. He felt small and a little weak, but he liked it, but only because he liked the sensation. The wonderful fog seemed into his mind and—

“Shining!”

Another pulse, another blast of pleasure. More things were happening, but he couldn’t keep track of what.

“Shining Armor, stand to attention!” bellowed out the voice of a strong and confidant stallion.

Shining scrambled to his feet just as another pulse pulled free, making him almost giddy, but years of training in the Guard had ingrained certain things into his head. He snapped to attention, though he could barely see or stand up straight.

“Disengage your spell, immediately!” The voice bellowed.

The pony in him didn’t want to obey. The soldier, however, had been conditioned to obey. With a grunt, Shining cut the spell pouring out of his horn.

He instantly collapsed onto a soft rug in a daze.

Some time later—Shining wasn’t sure when—he became aware of a tall and very good-looking stallion looking down at him. For some reason, that made him blush, though he had no idea why. His face seemed oddly familiar, but Shining was sure he’d never seen such chiseled features, such shockingly blue eyes, such devil-may-care brown locks and such a smooth caramel-colored coat before—

Wait.

“Caramel?” Shining all but shouted. Or at least he tried to shout it. His voice sounded a lot softer than it had only a few minutes ago.

Shining tried to sit up, but Caramel effortlessly held him down. “Hey, calm down. The spell worked. Maybe a little too well.”

“Too well?” Shining demanded. “What does ‘too well’ mean? Why won’t you let me up?”

“You’ve been out for a half hour!” Caramel said, waving his hands in the air. “You freaked me out and I didn’t know what to do. So, I just set you on the couch and stayed here with you.”

“What happened?” Shining rubbed his throat.

Caramel sort of waved to himself and took a step back. Shining’s breath caught in his throat. He’d never been interested in stallions… but Tartarus, even he couldn’t help but gawk at what Caramel had become. The stallion had to be at least a six inches taller than Shining had been. His chest and shoulders had swollen to the point where he’d burst out of his polo shirt and the changes to his lower half had ripped his jeans. The creature before him looked like the perfect specimen of pony maleness, complete with perfectly toned abs, a sculpted arms and legs and even a rather impressive bulge in his pants.

“That’s… a little more extreme than the spell should have done.”

Caramel winced, picked up a hand mirror and held it up to Shining Armor. “I think I know why.”

Shining stared at the reflection that wasn’t quite his own. If he squinted, the pony staring back looked a little like himself as a young awkward teenager. But even that didn’t describe his features. All the colors and parts were there, but the shapes were slightly softer. To the point where he thought of his sister.

Shining quickly peeked underneath his now absurdly-oversized shirt and breathed a sigh of relief when he found nothing there. Ignoring Caramel, he did a check downstairs. His stallionhood was annoying small, but still very much present. He was definitely still male… but it would be very hard for anypony to know that with a casual glance.

Shining shoved the mirror away and struggled to his feet. He had to cinch the belt around his waist tight to keep his pants from falling off, but when he stood, Caramel towered an easy foot and a half taller than him. Shining gulped audibly.

“I, uh… tried to get you to stop,” Caramel said hesitantly. “But… it was hard to think. That book didn’t say anything about how good it would feel. Guessing you felt the same thing?”

“I could barely hear you,” Shining whispered and blinked a few times. “Wait… did you say a half hour?”

“Uh… yeah. Needed to make sure you were okay.”

Shining nodded. “Duly noted and appreciated. Now, get out.”

“Wait, but… just like that?” Caramel protested. “After what it did to you?”

Shining started to shove him toward the door, though the only reason Caramel moved was because he wanted to. “Yes, just like that. I am never doing this spell again! So go enjoy yourself while you can!”

“Uh… shouldn’t I get some proper clothes on first?”

Shining stopped. “Oh. Right. Yeah… go use mine.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really!” Shining rolled his eyes and shooed his idiot friend away. “Now go!”

Caramel, grinning, bolted upstairs. Meanwhile, Shining glanced at his reflection in the window. It was unsettling. There had been a few other situations where he’d seen a face like this. Situations that tended to crop up every few weeks when his darling wife was feeling a special kind of frisky.

“Hello, Gleaming Shield,” Shining Armor muttered to the reflection. “Why don’t you just stay asleep, okay? Don’t need you complicating things any more…”

Caramel scrambled back down the stairs. He now wore a black silk dress shirt—with the top three buttons undone—with a pair of black slacks. He’d even put on Shining’s best shoes. “How do I look?”

“Like me on a hot date. If you wreck those, you’re going to buy new ones.”

“Yes, sir.”

Shining rolled his eyes again then marched over to the door and threw it open.

“Go!” Shining shouted. “Go have the weekend of your life!”

Caramel grinned like an idiot and scampered out the door.

“Thank you!” he called back.

“You’re welcome!”

Shining slammed the door, locked every lock and drew the curtains, giving himself full privacy to consider just how close he’d gotten to making a bit mistake.

“Sorry, bud, I’m going to hope you don’t get too lucky,” Shining said as he looked in the mirror again and shivered. “I doubt I’d last long if you did.”

Author's Note

Oopies~! Silly Shining. You should let Twi do all the sexy spellcasting. She's way better than you. And she's cuter, too!

Heee!

Let me know about any problems by PM so I can get them all fixed~!