Starlight nodded appreciatively as the other pony rambled on and on. "That's a bit... dense."

Twilight inclined her head. "Oh, it is, sorry." She reached a hoof and her magic bridged the gap, bringing over a book. "But I need you to understand it, at least some of it. If only I can do it, not much has been proven. It's time to learn how to use your horn."

Starlight pointed up at hers. "I have. I'm a lot better at it than I used to be. Accident free for over a week!"

Twilight adjusted the red polo that covered her front. "Not the telekinesis. This goes further, and deeper. Look." She turned to an X-Ray on the wall of a unicorn's head, horn included. She brought a pointer in her magic, tapping at darker portions inside the horn. "These muscles allow us to control what's going on in there. Very specific motions can produce specific effects."

"But you still have something to prove," noted Starlight. "What is that?"

"I made a specific effect." She glanced over her shoulder towards Starlight. "If you can reproduce the same effect with the same internal effort, then we know it's not just a fluke. I think we're on the edge of something new, and fantastic. Magic, for lack of a better word for it. I may have discovered our first spell."

"That's great," gushed Starlight genuinely. "One thing, a tiny thing." Twilight was looking at her expectantly. "Why are you wearing that?"

Twilight looked down at her polo, then back up at Starlight. "I have no idea, but please, focus."

Derek's tail had grown longer, her legs and arms transitioned up to her torso. She scampered on two legs as often as four, but was currently seated on her haunches, looking at Starlight . "A friend?"

"Besides me," Starlight qualified. "A fellow convert to talk to. They'd like to meet you."

Derek brought her strong thighs together. "They won't make me clothes," she grumbled. "Not anymore."

"Because you're changing too quickly?" guessed Starlight.

"I'm not changing so fast a hospital gown wouldn't work," she spat, her voice sounding far more female than it had a few days before. "But when I get too... upset... I kind of light on fire, and the gowns don't like that. It's not fair!" Flames rushed over her form, fading out as quickly as it came, but if she had been wearing something...

"Well... he is a perfect gentlecolt, and changing just like you are. His eyes will be on yours, not anything past that unless you ask him to," Starlight gently assured. "Would you like to meet him? He has a horn too."

Derek smirked at that. "We are the horn club," she sang without trying before taking a soft breath and rising to all fours, the song continuing, sweeping Starlight right along into it so powerfully that both lost all track of time until they realized, at some point, a third person had joined them, a human male with a horn and hooves clearly of pony origin. He wore not a gown but a blue starry robe like a wizard that draped over his form.

Sunburst sat as the music died away. "Oh, um, hi!"

"Sunburst?" guessed Derek. He had announced it during the musical number, she remembered, gathering her wits back up. "Er, hey, why are you in my room?!" Her form exploded in fire and heat, a pool of it collecting just beneath her.

"You were singing and suddenly I was inside," he hastily explained. "I can go, if you want. I just wanted to say hi."

"Oh, yeah, hi." She crashed as the flames withered away. "Sorry, I'm... Ugh, this sucks, a lot. I'm turning into this... thing, and apparently I can mind control people? That's more than a little weird."

Starlight gestured at Sunburst. "This is Sunburst, that friend I was mentioning before. Neither of us are upset about a little song, are we Sunburst?"

"Huh? No! No..." He stroked his little beard with a hoof. "You remind me of a kirin."

Starlight and Derek both blinked at him. Derek pointed a cloven hoof at herself. "You know what I am?!"

"I'm... a little of a myth nut," he admitted with a shy smile, reaching up to adjust his glasses. "I'm a unicorn, but not a classic one. Myth unicorns look more like you, minus those tough scales. With the scales, kirin, I feel confident." He held out an arm, only the end of it fuzzy and sporting a hoof. "Proper unicorns have cloven hooves, like yours. And I don't usually have either one, but here I am."

Starlight smiled as she patted Derek on the shoulder. "Well, now we know what to call you, not that you weren't just fine without a name."

"Kirin." It was like Derek was tasting the word in her mouth. "I heard of those once before. Weren't they... magic? Like good magic." Her eyes were settled on Sunburst. "You're a myth nerd, tell me more. Make me happy to be a kirin."

Sunburst blinked owlishly behind his glasses. "Oh, well, Kirin hail from the east." He pointed a hoof in what he hoped was an Easterly direction. "They bring many things, good fortune, acting as heralds of coming good events, fertility, protection, and success."

Derek giggled at that. "Wow! I'm a good luck charm!" She looked happy, a big grin spilling her changing face. "That's kind of great. East? Like China?"

"Exactly," he quickly agreed, reaching to rub a hoof against his chest, though his chest was still entirely human and bare of fur, a fact he noticed when he did it. "Hooves are weird."

"You're telling me?" Derek shoved a cloven hoof in his face. "Check this out."

Sunburst brought up his hooves awkwardly to hold the hoof being shoved against him. "It's, um, fascinating." His eyes wandered past. "Oh, um..." He began to color, glancing away.

Starlight saw where his eyes had made contact. Derek had moderate breasts, but they were halfway down her chest, still in the act of migrating to where equines typically held them. She coughed into a hoof softly. "Your hooves are perfectly fine."

"And strange." Derek set her hoof back down, covering the view somewhere with her arms back in the way of it and none the wiser for what she had shown off. "So... you got the Ponid too? Sorry, sucks."

"It's not, uh, all bad." He rubbed one hoof along the trim of his cloak. "I was a... It isn't like an... alien thing. On some levels, it's really kind of exciting." He looked skywards. "Starlight tells me, eventually, my horn will start working and I really will get magic." His tension seemed to ebb, thinking about future magic. "I can't wait."

Starlight gestured at Sunburst. "Oh, something else, Derek. Just in case you're feeling too strange. Sunburst here had his name come to him on the first day. Can you imagine that? All he had was changed eyes and a new name."

Sunburst blushed at being called out, but also didn't deny it. "I liked it..."

Starlight stepped over and touched her nose into his human cheek. "That was very brave of you. You must have been so confused, I can only picture it." She turned towards Derek. "You'll get a name too."

"I hope it's a good one." Derek raised a hind hoof suddenly, batting at one of her new fuzzy ears. "I like Derek."

Sunburst inclined his head. "If it's like me, you'll know it when it comes to you, it'll fit... If it doesn't fit, nobody's forcing it on you. So, uh, you light on fire. Kirin are known for their elemental connections, but not typically..." He frowned, plumbing the depths of old knowledge. "No, wait, breathing holy fire is on the--"

"--holy fire?" cut in Derek. "That is... metal." She sounded pleased.

Starlight started for the door. "You two seem to be getting along just fine. Call me if you need me, but I should get on." The two waved as she departed and she fled with a little smile, confident the two were getting along famously.

I patted a closed box. "All done." Another batch of lab supplies, down! "You were saying?"

Starlight nodded, eyes wandering over the piles of things I had assembled. "Kirin, that's what Sunburst said she was becoming, and she liked it, so I logged that as a species name suggestion, and it was accepted. So, ta da, she's a kirin."

I leaned against the pile of boxes lightly. "You look satisfied. Everything going great?"

She was perfectly happy to go over the details, which I already shared with you. "You weren't watching?"

"I don't watch you all the time, Starlight." I reached for her, gently stroking her soft mane. Ponies were so pettable, and when they liked you, it felt good for them too, so win win there. Soon she was almost purring like a cat as I worked her with my claws. "I trust you."

"I appreciate that," she sighed out, leaning against the petting and scratching. "Really, I do... You have every right to keep an eye on me, and my patients, but..."

"Been on the receiving end of that," I huffed. "I trust you'll let me know if I'm needed really badly, but mostly, I let people handle themselves. You're not prisoners, you're all... we're all patients, as I liked to remind no few times." I crossed my arms under my chest. "I'm not reversing that the instant I get a taste of power."

"Good!" She stuck out her tongue a little. "Oh, little thing... but if Derek is comfy being a girl, which I think she's becoming, she may end up doing... things... with Sunburst. Sunburst is a guy, and awkward, but also easily pushed into things. If she gets aggressive, I doubt he'll resist for long."

That brought a thought to me. "Hey, but have we had any pregnancies? I mean, we're not the randiest bunch out there, but we're far from puritans either, overall, through the lab." I raised a hand, a finger twirling. "There are natural consequences and the orders for condoms are nowhere near enough to explain it."

Starlight coughed into a hoof. "I don't remember wearing one..." She glanced away and back. "I didn't really think about that."

"We're both exactly the people that should be thinking about that," I challenged. "Now, I could cheat, but I don't... think I would."

"Again?" Starlight hiked a brow at me. "You have the power of a god, but don't use it so often."

"I was never a mother before... I'd want to experience it, properly." I moved to perch myself on a seat. "All the ups and downs, then probably just not do it again."

"Just... not do it again?" Starlight trailed after me. "I guess you could just make that decision, but it's still strange to hear... and a little sexy." She licked over her lips. "So, stupid request time you'll probably shoot right down."

"Yeah?" I watched her squirm with some question in her head, probably salacious. I'd learned to tune out thoughts without needing big headphones, which was good. I didn't want to hear what she was thinking all the time.

"I'd like you to do it." She looked me up and down. "Shining Armor is great, don't get me wrong. I like him a lot, but I want your foal. If I'm not already occupied, I'd want you to... do it."

Well, shoot. I really should have seen that coming, without mind magic. She had basically mentioned that before. It wasn't like I didn't have the power... "I wouldn't fast forward you either," I warned.

"Then we'll do it together," she brushed off. "Besides, I happen to enjoy a little pain delivered by somepony I like, and I happen to like you quite a bit, so, go ahead, make me uncomfortable." Starlight's eyes half-lidded. "Make me cry, I'll thank you afterwards."

I knew she was a well balanced adult female, and she was perfectly happy to roll over and surrender entirely to me. I reached out, scratching her cheek fluff just the way she liked it. "I could never hurt you, Starlight."

"Not directly," she sang in defiance. "But you will, and I'm ready. As was mentioned before, natural consequences. I just want to choose mine..."

There was an easy way to pause that, and I took it. "You're not in heat. Unlike a human woman, we can't just 'keep trying' and hope for the best."

"That's half the fun," she groused. "Besides, you could, snap, make me so in heat I literally competed with Derek for combustion levels."

I could do that... "But you have work to do, and you waddling around with a lady boner that won't quit sure won't help with that."

"It'd be hilarious... but no," she admitted, though it looked like she didn't want to admit that. "Well, fine, then next time we get two days off in a row, first day, you set me on fire, then we spend the rest of it dousing me down, hard." She licked over her lips meaningfully. "Then I go to work with a satisfied smile that'll have everypony asking questions."

"There is literally no way of doing this without Shining noticing."

She raised a brow. "So tell him? A healthy poly relationship requires honesty. You're letting him knock you up. You're knocking me up. Everyone's involved! One big poly family." She threw her hooves wide. "No secrets. Secrets make it all awkward. You need me to tell him? I will, don't test me!" she said as if she was threatening to shoot a hostage, a grin on her face.

I gently, but firmly, pushed her back. "I'll talk to him, promise. Still, seriously, you want to be plowed by a magical horse dong?"

"Yes?" she replied without a hint of hesitation. "It doesn't have to be a horse. You can be whatever you want. Experiment. It'll be fun for both of us." She turned and started trotting off. "Back to work for me," she sang as she went, looking happier than when she had come in.

I let her go, watching her trot away, considering what she was promising. Damn crazy woman, she wanted me to become a mom and a dad simultaneously, while running an entire crazy secret facility. And also crazy sex. Lots of that. Shoot.

I hated that I didn't immediately have a no on my lips.

"So, uh..." Sunburst rubbed his cheek with a hoof. "You were a normal person, like me, right?"

"Was," agreed Derek. "Now I'm shrinking, and all fuzzy everywhere." She moved a cloven hoof to rub at a furry arm. "And, hey, just to make it worst, I stopped being a guy." She half-lidded her eyes. "Is Derek a name that works for a girl?"

"Not really," he admitted with an awkward smile, adjusting his glasses. "Oh... do you think that'll happen to me too?"

"Hope not," she said before even noticing the tone she said it with, blushing and pushing that emotion far away. "Maybe? You'll still be you, right?"

"We'll both be here," Sunburst promised, reaching to put a hoof on her shoulder, then noticing something. "You're warm."

"Huh?"

"No, really." He let the hoof run down her arm. "You're warm, really warm. Curious. Do you feel cold?"

"Why would I feel cold? You just finished saying I was hot..." She hiked a brow at him, peering.

"Well, if you're warming, everything else should feel cooler, you know, relatively." He shrugged at that, his cloak flowing in the motion. "Sorry, not trying to bother you." He suddenly sniffled, reaching to grab a tissue. He was still in the mild stages of Ponid.

She was much further along and took the prompt to grab a tissue herself, or try. "How did you manage that with hooves?" she challenged, bits of flame wafting over her as she tried to get a better grip.

He clapped his hooves together, trapping a tissue between and raising it up. He held it in front of her and she buried her face into it, blowing a big nasty blob into it. "Oh... thanks," she sighed, sitting back with her flames dying away, the frustration ebbing with her less clogged nose. "Seriously, how?"

He looked to his hooves and waved one at her. "If you press them flat and imagine you still have fingers, inside, and clench them real tight, they can stick to things."

"Huh?" She reached out a cloven hoof and rubbed it against the topmost tissue, slowly working it out. "Hey, you're right. That's a great trick!" She grabbed the next one, wrenching it free, even if it just ended up fluttering to the ground. "I saw you looking, by the way."

He blinked rapidly. "Saw me looking at what?" he asked, nervousness rising.

"Me." Derek leaned in a little. "You're a guy, lucky you. You checked out the goods... I would have too, if I was a guy..." She raised a hoof to roll it. "God, what, am I supposed to look at guys like that? What do you even look for? How big their bulge is?"

"I... uh... Starlight probably could answer that far better than I could... sorry." He rubbed at his beard softly. "Why are you getting longer?" he chastised it.

"Hm? The goatee? Good look." She nodded softly before she realized she had stepped in it again, glancing away.

"Thanks," he accepted without realizing anything at play, an innocent boy. "I really like your tail." She colored, and that he noticed. "I mean, it's... neat."

"Yeah," she allowed, glancing at it. "It is kind of neat, isn't it." She rose up to her hooves. "Look, glad we met, really, maybe tomorrow? Today, a nap is calling me."

"Am I going to get that bad?" He stood up, taking a step towards the door. "I hear Ponid gets really rough."

"You have no idea." She hopped up onto her bed, watching him go. "See you tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow." He gently shut the door behind himself. He had made a new friend. "That... went well."

"Well?" Twilight leaned forward with an expectant expression. "How are you coming along?"

"I have the first ones worked out." She concentrated, Starlight's horn glowing, that glow shifting in subtle ways. "A... B... C!" She said each part as the glow shifted. "Ta da?"

"Perfect. That's the first part down." Twilight nodded firmly. "Now that you have those, do it."

"It?"

"The spell." Twilight slapped a pointer at a hanging piece of paper that read, 'A C C A B'. "Nice and quickly. Doing it slowly causes nothing to happen but wasted time. While you play that, focus on this." She levitated a pencil over. With a loud wooden snap, she broke the pencil in half and placed it down, the two halves pressed against one another, but clearly still broken.

Starlight looked at the letters there, playing the magic letter A, then C, then back to A. "Alright, so... It'll put it back together?" Twilight hadn't told her that, but the broken pencil seemed like a hint. "Let's give it a try." She took a slow breath. "This'll be nice, if it works." She began to play the notes of magic, unheard of outside the gentle usual hum of unicorn magic.

The pencil began to shake and quiver. Then went still. "Did I do it wrong?" Starlight looked up from it to Twilight, who looked like she was holding in a joke. "Did I miss something?"

"Oh, nothing..." Twilight's magic brought over a mirror for Starlight to see.

Starlight squeaked at what she saw, a hoof rising quickly to her mane. "What did you do?!"

"Just a little spell, and you did it, technically," she coyly defended. "Still, it worked!" She brought her hooves together in a rousing clopping. "It worked! Starlight, do you know what this means?!"

"It means you will get my mane the right color right now or I will be cross with you, Twilight." Her magic grabbed Twilight by the scruff of the neck, yanking her closer. "Now."

"Hey hey hey... relax." Twilight gently pushed back at her irate friend. "It'll wear off on its own in a few minutes. Still, the effect is exactly what I experienced when I found the spell, which is important. Same spell, different pony, same effect, which is vital. Entirely, 100%, vital. Magic, we have magic." She giggled with growing excitement. "Actual magic."

Starlight's eyes fell at a flash. Adorning Twilight's flanks were new marks. "Hey, yo, Twilight. You... feeling alright?"

"Never better," she sighed out, taking a deep breath. "Huh, my cold wore off."

Starlight rolled her eyes. "That was the lingering effects of Ponid, which you were holding onto for record amounts of time, and you just threw off with the arrival of--" She grabbed Twilight's head in her magic and turned it carefully to see. "--that." She pointed for emphasis.

Twilight blinked at the sight of her mark. "Oh! Like yours." She coiled on herself. "Stars? Mmm." She raised a hoof to her chin. "Magic? I was... celebrating our achievement with magic. It's magic, or science, or collaborative achievement!" She squinted in thought. "There are multiple stars arrayed around the center. That collaborative element seems even more likely." She unwound, smiling at Starlight brightly. "Still, we did it!"

"We did do it," Starlight echoed, not as manically excited. "Next time, tell me the truth of what spell I'm practicing though if you want me to be a happy participant. I will sic Eri on you." I did hear that. It was hard to avoid hearing when people were speaking of me specifically. "And invite her to be creative."

"I promise." Twilight rose and trotted towards a book. "Now I just need to start finding other spells, confident that they can be replicated. Oh! We should try sharing the spell we do know to others." She looked over her shoulder at Starlight. "You have contact with many more unicorns, share the spell? It's harmless, making it great for a first spell."

Starlight peered at the reflection of her discolored mane. "Mostly harmless... But I will tell them what to expect at least. I will not lose trust in patients for your cause, Twilight. And you shouldn't want that either."

"That wasn't the intention." Twilight waved it away. "It was a practical joke, with a friend I trust."

Starlight smiled a little. "Well, if that was the intention... I can accept it as that. It is a little funny, now that I know it'll wear off." She reached out and booped Twilight. "But not a joke I will be repeating."

"Not angry anymore?" She smiled a little nervously.

"Aw, no." She wrapped a leg over Twilight and pulled her in. The two shared a nice friendly hug a moment before Starlight slid back. "Keep me posted, and no sharing spells until you throw it past me. Depending on what you find, we may not want some of those spells ever being shared." I could imagine a few spells that sharing around the lab would cause all kinds of trouble.

The question was if there was a limit to it. There was no limit to me, but I wasn't a unicorn, so there was only one of me, thank goodness, right? Unicorns we had a lot of, so if they had a worrying spell, we could get into a lot of trouble really quickly. Starlight was doing things right by keeping it quiet until they were sure it was safe.

I'd agree with her, later. For that moment, I had gotten myself distracted, and Starlight was not talking about me, so tuning back in wasn't something that happened by accident. I respected her privacy enough to not tune back in. She did tell me later what happened though.

Author's Note

Developments continue. I do like this setting. Hi Sunburst!

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