Growing Closer (or, You've Seen Enough Hentai to Know Where This is Going)
Once again, someone grasped for more Equestrian magic than they could handle, and once again, Sunset Shimmer had to watch.
Granted, backing an already unstable person into a literal corner that contained even more magic was a mistake, but Sunset Shimmer only realized that when Gloriosa Daisy reached for that magic. "I just need more power!"
"NO!" Sunset and Twilight both shouted. They reached out to grab at Gloriosa, but she already had all seven geodes in her grasp. Vines grew around her neck to replace her homemade necklace, even as much larger ones sprouted from the bare rock of the cave to hold the other girls in place.
Sunset's thoughts raced as she struggled against her bonds and the magic flared ever brighter.
Celestia's cake-fattened rump, who ever heard of an earth pony going mad with power?
By the time the light of the geodes faded, Gloriosa Daisy had taken a strange form somewhere between Sunset's demonic self and Midnight Sparkle in terms of monstrosity. Black sclera, glowing pupils, oddly leafy hair, but no other immediately apparent mutations.
And what are you supposed to do when one does!?
"I appreciate your concern, girls," said Gloriosa—Gaea Everfree now?—floating past them on a nimbus of stolen power. "I really do. But I don't think we're quite on the same page."
"Gloriosa, please, we've both been where you are." Sunset didn't expect an appeal to reason would work. As she'd just said, she'd been in that position herself. But it couldn't hurt. "The power's going to your head. It'll make you do things you'd never dream of doing without it messing with you."
All it got her was a chuckle and a shake of the head. "We're definitely not on the same page.” Gloriosa held out a hand. More vines grew up to it, producing a pair of daisy-like blossoms the color of Princess Celestia’s coat. “I'm trying to save my home, Sunset. I was already willing to do anything to make that happen." She adopted a surprisingly self-aware smirk as she put a flower in each girl’s hair. "Do you think I'd have turned to weird glowing crystals I found in a cave otherwise?"
"She has a point."
Sunset just turned to Twilight, an utterly flat look on her face. "Really?"
Twilight cleared her throat. "Sorry. Trying to think about anything but our actual circumstances."
A rumbling sound from the mouth of the cave drew their attention back to those circumstances, and the rocks getting dragged to trap them inside. The cave grew dim with the loss of sunlight, though the glowing crystals kept it from becoming pitch black. "Don't worry, girls," Gloriosa said over the stones. "I'll make sure you won't get bored in there."
"Wh-what do you think she meant?" Twilight said shakily.
"I don't know, but I don't like the look of those growths." Even as Sunset watched, the vines holding them put out green shoots that then swelled and discolored. "Do you think you could break the vines with your magic?"
"If I use that much, Midnight could take over!"
The swelling continued. Sunset could make out the lines of leaves or petals now. "At this point, I'd rather face Midnight than whatever Gloriosa has in store for us."
"But..." Twilight bit her lip, quivering with fear.
Sunset wished she could reach out to her friend. She settled for the most confident look she could muster. "Twilight, Midnight only has as much power as you give her. You haven't harvested everyone else's magic. You haven't given in to any vicious schemes. You are the one in control of this magic; embrace it." She smiled. "I trust—"
The bulging pods burst open in a blast of choking pollen, sending both girls into coughing fits. Then Twilight's breaths grew even shorter and shallower. Even with her eyes squeezed shut against the stinging dust, Sunset could see a violet burst of energy as a wave of force tore her bindings apart.
She fell to her knees once she was freed. The magic burst had also cleared the air, but it still took a few coughs before she could breathe again. Even then, her eyes still stung. A drawn-out, pained moan—definitely pain, what else could it be?—brought her attention back to the situation at hand. "Twilight? You okay?"
"F-fine!” Twilight sounded short of breath herself, but the volume of her cry meant she was managing. “Sorry. I panicked. And I, um, kind of overdid it."
"What do you—" Sunset finally opened her eyes, then looked away from way more of Twilight than she meant to see. "Oh. Well then." She checked herself. Like Twilight, she'd been stripped bare of everything from neck to ankles. "That's actually kind of impressive."
"I think that pollen was... digesting our clothes somehow. Look at the scraps."
Sunset found one fragment of her shirt. "I see what you mean." She picked it up, watching the edges of the fabric brown and degrade. "That's... kind of weird. Why would it—"
Vines moved once more, like a nest of snakes all lunging at once. Modesty forgotten, Sunset moved to Twilight's side. "Look out!"
Twilight held out her hands. They glowed with power, holding back a dozen vines. She gasped with the strain, horribly familiar flames bursting into being around her eyes.
Then the vines from behind her grabbed both her and Sunset, and the lapse in focus let the rest join them in recapturing the girls. The coils wound even tighter this time, binding their hands behind them. Sunset gritted her teeth as bark brushed against her bare breasts and thighs. It was smoother than she expected, more like leather or snakeskin, but it was still going places she wanted to keep to herself. The vines began secreting some kind of warm, golden oil, making Sunset shudder as their continued motion became even smoother.
That Twilight's vines were doing the same, pushing her breasts up and out, slowly pulling her legs apart, making her glisten in the faint light of the cavern's crystals...
Sunset tore her attention away from that. Not the time, Shimmer. She kept her focus on the pale pink flower in Twilight’s hair as she said, "Any chance you can blow them away again?"
Twilight's wide eyes kept darting from her own body to Sunset's in a way that would be flattering in just about any other circumstances. "I don't know how I did it the first time! And, well..." She trailed off.
As much as Sunset wanted to ask, she had other concerns at the moment. "Well, think fast. It's not like reading a plant's mind will be any help." Even as she said that, she piqued her own curiosity. She was touching it. An involuntary shiver as some tendrils briefly moved closer to her opening thighs made her realize just how much she was touching it. But maybe if there was something sentient there, something she could try to communicate with...
She opened her mind to it. She didn't get bombarded with images like when she'd last touched Gloriosa, only hearing a voice, genderless and monotone.
Feed. Grow. Seed. Feed. Grow. Seed.
“Sunset?”
Feed. Grow. Seed. Feed. Grow. Seed.
“Sunset!”
“Gah!” Sunset gasped as she came to. It took her a moment to remember what she’d been doing before communing with the plant. “I… There’s barely anything there. Just an urge to…” She licked her dry lips as her gaze drifted down Twilight’s body. “Spread.”
Twilight hummed at that, though she soon focused back on Sunset with clear discomfort. “Uh, Sunset?”
Sunset shook herself. Not. The time. Shimmer. “Sorry. That, um, it wasn’t anything like seeing Gloriosa’s memories.” She didn’t rub her thighs together, but only because her bindings didn’t allow her to. “I don’t suppose you can try to tear off the vines again?”
“I tried while you were spaced out. I, uh, I think there was something in the pollen keeping me from focusing.” Twilight squinted at the vines wrapped around her. Purple energy spread along them for a few moments, but it vanished as Twilight gasped, her cheeks flushed. “It, um, there’s this odd reaction where—”
The vines’ languid motion grew more energetic, writhing along Twilight’s body as if to demonstrate. Some squeezed her legs, others caressed her breasts, practically bathing them in the golden oil. One vine slipped between Twilight’s thighs and moved back and forth against her crotch. Soon she moved in counterpoint, her body shining in the faint light...
Sunset bit the inside of her cheek to get her focus back. “Okay, so it adapts to everything we do. Nothing will work more than once.”
“Yes thank you Sunset I noticed.” Twilight squirmed almost as much as the vines holding her, yet the pink blossom in her hair didn’t budge at all. “Any ideas? Because I’m out.”
Sunset’s own bindings started acting up as well, going from slow, blind touches everywhere to focused gropes of her own breasts and thighs. She gasped as she felt a length brush against her lower lips. “I… I could try going back in?”
“That didn’t do anything last time, and now it knows you can do that!”
“I don’t know if you noticed, Twilight, but this is not a good position for creative thinking!” Sunset’s binds began exploring further, the end of one brushing against a nipple. She shuddered, and the vines pounced, teasing her breasts mercilessly even as their fellows sought out other sensitive spots. “I’ve never tried to send thoughts back, that might work.”
“Because the plant tentacles definitely care about consent!” Twilight’s vines were exploring just as much. Judging by how her knees shook, they were the only things keeping her upright. “It could swallow your mind whole. Your body was practically drooling on itself while you tranced out.”
“Look, this thing is going to figure out we have bits it can stick roots into sooner rather than later. And if that pollen does make us horny every time we use our magic—”
“I never said that!” Twilight cried, somehow blushing even more.
“I feel it too.” Sunset glanced down. She knew it wasn’t just oil on the vine between her legs. Even now, it pressed against her labia. One thrust brushed against her clit, sending a shiver down her spine. “Felt it since the first try.”
Twilight managed to look back from following Sunset’s gaze after a few tries. “Then why try it again?”
“It’s either struggle or give up and let the thing have its way with me.” Sunset offered the most confident grin she could given the circumstances. “I don’t give up.”
Twilight reached out to her. “I know. Be careful, Sunset.”
Sunset stretched out as much the vines allowed her. It wasn’t quite enough to hold Twilight’s hand, but she tried to put as much emotional weight into brushing fingers as she could. “Don’t worry. I’ve—”
“I could live a long and happy life never hearing the phrase ‘I’ve got this’ again.”
“Yeah, that’s fair.” Sunset took a deep breath and opened her mind. “Okay. Here goes nothing.”
This time, she got a visual effect. Not a memory, but something like the sugar-fueled madhouse within Pinkie Pie’s brain. And this wasn’t much more comprehensible.
Immediately before Sunset lay a great green mass like an enormous cocoon, or a misshapen emerald sun. Lengths of that viridian energy emerged from the source like nerves from a brain or lines of a spider web. And some of them were wrapped around Sunset as securely as her bindings in the real world.
And even here, she was naked.
Feed. Grow. Seed. Feed. Grow. Seed.
The words boomed out, somewhere between sound and thought and battering against Sunset’s awareness either way. She’d expected as much.
Less so the other voice. “Wow, you weren’t kidding.”
Sunset blinked and turned, seeing another bare girl where she least expected one. “Twilight?”
“Hey, we were touching too. You didn’t think I was going to let you face it alone, did you?”
“I didn’t think there was any other choice.”
Feed. Grow. Seed. Feed. Grow. Seed.
Both considered the entity for a few silent moments. “It really says something that we’re tied up in here too, doesn’t it?” said Twilight.
“Not sure how symbolic this is all meant to be, but yeah, probably something to worry about.”
“Oh good, you still have some capacity for threat recognition.” The reply came in Twilight’s voice, but not from her. “You want to do something about it?”
Both turned away from the great vegetable mind and gasped. “Midnight Sparkle!”
The dark figure hovered before a crack-riddled field of stars, hands on her hips and snarling. She’d definitely seen better days. Her wide, raven-like wings were ragged, and the dress from the Friendship Games had been torn to tatters. The outer skirt was gone and Midnight’s midriff was left bare, the rest barely enough to keep her decent. Even as Sunset watched, Midnight’s only glove dissolved into fuchsia sparks.
She rolled her eyes. “We don’t have time for you two to gasp at the surviving villain. I’m the shut-in’s survival instincts as much as her raw intellect, and in case you hadn’t noticed, you're both just about doomed, and me with you!”
Sunset narrowed her eyes. “Let me guess, the only way out is for you to assume control of Twilight again.”
Midnight threw up her hands. “I’m not sure if even that’s going to work! Just look at those parasites Gloriosa planted on your crania!”
“What para—”
“Sunset,” Twilight said softly. “The flowers.”
Sunset’s eyes widened. Her head whipped to the side, looking past the shock of Twilight being here and focusing on the girl herself. She glowed the same color as her skin along her whole body… except for the bright pink veins spreading across her forehead.
A chill running down her spine, Sunset turned back to Midnight. She couldn’t help but notice how the green light had spread, making some of the stars fade. “You mean—”
“Yes! Obviously! Take it from the girl who was in that brain first, those things are feeding off your magic and retransmitting it as pure lust! And that’s just one of at least four different aphrodisiacs it’s throwing at you.” Midnight shuddered as the last remnants of her top faded into nothingness, freeing breasts just a little bigger than Twilight’s. She panted, face flushed. “And I’m getting hit by it even worse than either of you.” Her hands began to fondle her boobs as she stared into the middle distance, not seeming to notice.
Sunset shared an uneasy glance with Twilight, trying to ignore her own stiffening nipples. “So what can we do?”
“Mmph…” Midnight bit her lip and shook her head. She stopped fondling herself, though she still didn’t pull her hands away from her chest. “Best-case scenario, break free again. Then tear off the flowers, if they haven’t already rooted themselves in your skin or aura or something.” The last few inches of her skirt dissolved into nothingness. Sunset couldn’t tear her eyes away as Midnight trailed fingers down her abdomen, teasing her lower lips.
“I can’t say I was expecting this.” Twilight speaking up was enough for Sunset to cough and avert her gaze.
That managed to last for all of two seconds before Midnight responded, “Twily, I’m trying to keep both of you sane enough to get out of here. I’m holding back two teenagers’ worth of horny, and the two of you really should just kiss already. At least.”
“B-but Timber—”
“Fuck him. Or Sunset. Fuck Sunset. Much better advice.” Midnight nodded at her own wisdom and began to finger herself, the green light washing out more and more of her starry night.
Feed. Grow. Seed. Feed. Grow. Seed.
Twilight gulped. “Um, Sunset?”
“Yeah?”
“Remember how you were worried it would discover we have bits it can stick roots into?”
“Vividly.”
“I think I just demonstrated that.”
The core of the plant reached out, entangling Midnight as much as the other girls.
And then, together as one, the vines rubbing along their crotches stopped, positioned themselves, and plunged in.
The intrusion sent Sunset gasping back to reality, where it was still happening. The other tendrils had found every sensitive spot she knew about and some she didn’t. One wrapped around her ribs kept rubbing against the undersides of her breasts, its end drifting up to flick against one nipple or the other to add a little spice to pleasure that was already making her lightheaded. A pair of vines gave her lower thighs and the backs of her knees continual massages, sending electric tingles through her whole lower half.
And, of course, there was the vine actually going at her. Every thrust came at a slightly different angle, a different speed, a different distance into her. With everything else happening to her, Sunset had no hope of predicting what it would do next, leaving her unprepared every time. It was all but maddening.
Twilight’s cries gave her something else to focus on, and once Sunset looked, she couldn’t turn away. Where Sunset’s vines were keeping to a largely slower rhythm, Twilight’s were going hard and fast, sending her breasts jiggling with the jackhammering. Fitful bursts of purple energy danced along her bindings, unfocused as a filly’s first sparks. Sunset managed to drag her head up to see Twilight's eyes roll back, her tongue loll out of her mouth, and the flower in her hair darken until it matched the lighter streak in her hair.
Feed. Grow. Seed. Feed. Grow. Seed.
Sunset’s eyes widened. The voice had always been there, just in the background, setting the pace for her vines without her even being aware of it. But now it was almost blasting in her ears. She tried to shut it out, but nothing she did even slightly dampened it.
Feed, Grow, Seed. Feed, Grow, Seed.
The mantra sped up, and with it the thrusts, now going at just the right angle to brush against every nerve ending Sunset had. With every repetition, she felt the heat build on her skin and in her core. Her breathing sped up to ragged, desperate pants. Her lips began soundlessly repeating the words in time with the plant’s mind.
The vines pulled down with an unyielding, insistent pressure. Both girls leaned forward, then squatted, faces barely inches from one another. Sunset's head swam as her eyes met Twilight's, as she felt the other girl’s breath against her face.
Before either could try to say anything, every tendril holding them squirted out great gouts of golden oil, slathering both and filling Sunset with a heat that made her earlier arousal seem balmy by comparison. She felt the root slide out of her and the oil begin to drain. Twilight's followed suit, and Sunset tried to catch her breath, the scents of pine trees and sex mingling in her nostrils in a not-unpleasant way.
Then the root that had been inside her surged up between the two of them, and the vines shoved them together even closer. Sunset ended up giving the thing an inadvertent boobjob, her gasp at the sudden movement leaving her tongue pressed against it, while the tip plunged into Twilight's mouth.
The oil had a greasy mouthfeel to it. After a few seconds, Sunset’s mouth filled with a warmth that was more feeling than aftertaste. There wasn't any real flavor to it, but it flooded Sunset's nostrils with more of that pine scent that made her head swim. She still hadn't cum, and this wasn't helping. As the root withdrew, she caught herself running her tongue along the retreating surface to get more of the ooze.
"S-Sunset," gasped Twilight, oil dribbling out between her lips. She swallowed, caught some of what had escaped, and stopped midway through licking her palm. "We... We gotta..." She trailed off, brow wrinkled in concentration even as the tip of a vine brushing a nipple made her gasp and give off a few more magical flashes.
“R-right. Gotta… gotta…” They had... something important to do. Right? It was so hard to focus. Especially when Twilight was right there, panting and flushed and glistening, flower the color of her skin almost glowing in the crystals’ light. But there was one thing in Sunset’s muddled mind that seemed sure of itself. “Gotta feed?”
“N… no? That doesn’t sound—”
“Gotta grow. Gotta seed.”
“I… No, Sunny, that’s the plant.”
The mantra kept going. Sunset saw no reason not to speak it aloud. “Feed. Grow. Seed.”
“It’s not you, it’s the plant.”
“Feed.” Sunset didn’t even look down as the vines released her. She just crawled closer to Twilight. As she began licking at the places the other girl hadn’t been able to reach, soft moss grew between them and the cold stone.
“Sunset, you’ve gotta focus.”
“Grow.” The vines withdrew from Twilight as well. After all, Sunset had her now.
“It’s the plant talking and… and… Why was that bad again?”
There was only one thing to say to that. “Seed.” And then Sunset put those lips to better use.
Their tongues played against one another. Twilight’s mouth still had a hint of oil to it, which Sunset appreciated as much as the other girl. Their hands tried to replace the missing tendrils, to touch every spot they’d seen on the other.
They pulled back to breathe, lost in one another’s glazed eyes. “I…” Twilight drifted off, kissed Sunset again, and slid down to her crotch.
Sunset laid back. “Fee—” She shook her head. The mantra would be stuck in her head for life, but she knew other words. Definitely knew them. It just took her a second to remember them. “Flip around.”
Twilight answered with a confused murmur as she trailed kisses down Sunset’s waist.
“Want to do it too.”
“Oh! Of course.” Twilight turned, letting Sunset appreciate her crotch as much as the other way around. The pink stood out vividly against her purple skin. Sunset couldn’t help but wonder what color the flower in Twilight’s hair was. Or the one in hers.
Then Twilight began to lick along her entrance and she wondered no more, focused on returning the favor. Time passed, however much of it, Sunset lost in an eternity of pleasuring and being pleasured, of fingers and tongues and clits. They thrust against one another and a vine that wriggled in between them, hitting all the spots neither could reach.
Eventually, Twilight moved away, leaving Sunset whimpering and reaching for her a few moments before she got to see her beautiful face again. They kissed, and roots reentered both of their passages. The girls pressed their chests together, rubbing against one another with every alternating thrust.
There were no words now, just pants and passionate looks through barely open eyes as the pleasure flowed through Sunset inside and out. Her awareness of the world shrank to this moment and this woman. It was just her and Twilight and the cave. What more could she want? What more could she need?
As if trying to answer the question, the roots sped up, making Sunset's body shake along with them. "T-Twilight!"
"Sunset!"
There was only one thing to say after days of concern and a short eternity of passion. "I love you!"
"I love you too!"
And every vegetable tendril within and around them let loose another torrent of oil.
The girls panted as the stuff dripped off of them, their world reduced to touch and smell as they recovered. Finally, Sunset wiped off her eyelids, turned to Twilight, and blinked. “I like the, uh…” She pointed.
Twilight sat up and brought her hands to her head. The single flower had spread, thin shoots weaving through her hair and presenting more than half a dozen rich indigo blooms. She nodded to Sunset. “You too.”
Sunset felt her own arrangement and tugged at one experimentally. “Ah!” It was worse than trying to pull off a hangnail. “Okay, bad idea.”
Twilight leaned against her. “Want me to try to kiss it better?”
“Well, if you’re—”
A rumble cut Sunset off. Both turned to see a boulder move aside, reminding them of the world outside the cave. They shielded their eyes against the harsh light until Gloriosa moved in front of the sun. "I'm sorry, girls. I'm all for freely expressing yourself, but you're proving just a touch too rowdy right now. Especially that talk of the spa." She snarled that last word, pupils glowing until she collected herself. "You can just wait here for a bit and get into the proper Camp Everfree spirit."
More vines surged up behind her, tossing five girls into the cave. With a wave and a pleasant "Play nice, girls!" Gloriosa moved the boulder back to blocking the cave.
Sunset blinked, not just because she’d been dazzled by the sudden sunlight. Those girls were definitely familiar, but pulling up the memories was like trying to wade through knee-deep mud.
"We've gotta get out of here!" cried one. Probably Rainbow Dash, going by the hair.
"Reckon I can move that rock aside if'n I can get a good grip on it." Right, that could only be Applejack.
"Um, girls?"
"I'd give you some handholds, but I'm fresh out of candy." The poofy silhouette and sheer non sequitur confirmed Pinkie Pie.
That left Rarity as the only one who hadn't spoken. "I can try jamming a shield into the boulder. I'm not sure how sharp they are, but it's worth a try."
"Girls?"
"Welp, sounds like a plan t' me." Applejack rubbed her hands together. "Alright, Rarity, let's give it a try."
"Girls!"
The others finally turned to look at Fluttershy, the only one who'd bothered to look in the rest of the cave, and had been staring ever since. "You say something, Fluttershy?" said Dash.
Fluttershy shakily pointed at the couple. "Um, I found Sunset and Twilight."
"Really? Girls, where have you—" Rarity cut herself off with a gasp once she turned, then averted her eyes. The others looked similarly shocked. "Good heavens! What happened to you!?"
Sunset opened her mouth, but then froze in place. Everything took on a fuzzy, dreamlike feel. She tottered to her feet, seeing Twilight follow suit in her peripheral vision. The others couldn’t look away, which was perfect, since that kept their focus on her while the bulging flowers drooping down from the ceiling. At least until the massive burst of pollen.
Still, she owed her friends that explanation they’d asked for.
“Feed. Grow. Seed.”
Author's Note
Before anyone asks, I didn't mention Juniper Montage in the long description since she showed up after Gloriosa. The sirens didn't get mentioned since, you know, not actually human.
This was an experiment in more extreme stuff. Feel free to let me know what you thought through text. Thumbs only tell me so much.
(Addendum: And after taking that text into account... Well, you can see there's another chapter now.)
And Flourishing (or, You've Seen Enough Pony to Know Where It Goes Next)
Twenty minutes later, the only sounds in the cave were gasps, moans, and liquid schlicks. Each head bore a full floral wreath, the colors lurid in their intensity. Fingers, tongues, vines, and roots reached everywhere they could. The smells of sweat, sex, and pine were almost thick enough to taste.
Finally, all seven came together to pleasure one another. No words were exchanged. None needed to be. Bound together by the rudimentary plant mind, each girl knew the others’ most sensitive spots, where they wanted it most and where to leave off for a time. They worked together without shame, fear, or hesitation.
In short, they were in harmony.
And in a forgotten corner of the cave, a crystal formation that looked a bit like a stump began to glow.
Everything was going wonderfully. The troublemakers were confined, the bramble dome was in place, and Gloriosa was hard at work perfecting a highly specialized form of orchid that would have words with any troublesome bankers who couldn’t leave well enough alone.
Oh, and the campers were having fun. Couldn’t forget that. Sure, most of them had holed up in the crafting lodge, but that just meant they were in one place for the pollen to take care of things. Not that all of them were screwing each other. The principals were both surprisingly strong-willed, some had politely asked to return to their tents during the reorganization, and one girl had learned she was asexual in a way that she was sure to look back on and laugh.
That was Gloriosa’s story and she was sticking to it.
A few were unaccounted for—the two underclassmen, the grey girl who kept ruining the archery supplies, the blue girl with an ego large enough for five—but Gloriosa would get to them in time. Timber was the exception, of course. For one, ew, he was her baby brother. For another, he was an employee, not a camper.
pop
It was like walking up a set of stairs and putting her foot down on one that wasn’t there, especially since Gloriosa stopped floating and fell stumbling to earth. A sudden chill swept through her body from the base of her neck. She clutched at her necklace.
The geodes were gone.
“What!?” She looked around, seeing through the brambles like they were made of glass… even if that glass was getting increasingly tinted. No sign of where they could have gone. “No. Don’t tell me they just vanished. I haven’t worked as hard as I have just for them to crap out now!” Gloriosa’s volume rose as she ranted, until she found herself railing against the heavens, her hands clutching at the sky.
Then a low explosion, half-heard, half-felt, made her turn towards the cave where she’d stashed away those seven troublemakers, along with her prototype camper entertainment system.
The boulder blocking the entrance of the cave had been reduced to fine gravel, though that took a backseat to the beacon of rainbow light bursting out of the mouth.
Gloriosa blinked, and to her eyes, the dome became too opaque to make out more than glimmers of all colors slipping through it. “Oh. Well. That’s probably not good.”
“Yaaah!”
She didn’t even look behind her as vines grabbed her brother yet again. “Timber, if you keep charging at me with an axe, I might get the wrong idea.”
“Release my sister, demon!”
Gloriosa sighed. “Last time I was a nature spirit. Are you just going to guess mythical creatures until you hit the right one?”
A few seconds of silence passed, enough for her to turn and see Timber’s blush. “Maybe.”
She couldn’t help but snicker for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t have time for this. Those girls—“
At that point, the brambles turned to crystal and shattered into shards that vanished a moment later, revealing a septet of avenging angels clad in glory and not much else.
“Those girls?” said Timber.
“Yup.”
Then Gloriosa took a rainbow to the face.
“So.” Twilight cleared her throat as she sat on the shore of the lake. “This could’ve gone… better.” She kept her gaze pointed straight up. It was one of the few directions that wouldn’t have her looking at nearly bare skin. Thankfully, everyone’s towels had been spared the fiber-eating pollen, but those only did so much.
“It worked out in the end,” said Sunset. “Hold still, you’ve got a little…” She plucked another bit of ash that had once been a flower out of Twilight’s hair. “Can’t get into that shower tent soon enough.”
Twilight shrugged. “Rarity’s going to put together something for almost everyone. I’d say she earned getting first dibs.”
“And to think, we all laughed at how many supplies she brought.”
“Given the charity concert, she might not have had enough if Rainbow Dash couldn’t run back to Canterlot for her.”
The two sat in silence for a few moments, soaking in the happy sounds of their classmates swimming, kayaking, and performing… other activities. A lot of boundaries had come down while everyone had waited for the girls to sweep in and blast the bad guy, and the principals’ official stance was “We saw nothing; we weren’t here; we didn’t even get up this morning.”
Twilight wrung her hands. “So, about, um, us…”
“Oh. Right.” Sunset cleared her throat. “I mean, if you’d rather be with Timber…”
“Honestly, I’m not sure.” Twilight bit her lip. “I mean, he’s sweet, but you’ve been there for me practically since the day we met.” Tiny teal flames flickered into being at the corners of her eyes. “And I really doubt Timber knows how to use his tongue as well as—“ The flames winked out as Twilight slapped her hands over her mouth.
“I appreciate the compliment for what it is,” Sunset said with a smile. “Is Midnight cooperating aside from getting some words in edgewise?”
Twilight nodded. “I’m familiar with ‘She really needs to get laid’ as a narrative trope, but I didn’t think it would apply to my dark side.” She gave Sunset a side glance. “Though you’re not helping in terms of keeping her under control.”
Sunset just smirked, lounging bare on her towel like she was posing for a centerfold. “Not like anyone didn’t already get an eyeful when we saved the day. And I’m hardly the only one.”
Pinkie bounced by in every sense of the word, hauling more building supplies for the sixth attempt at rebuilding the camp dock. “Hi, girls!”
“Hi, Pinkie,” both chorused, watching her go and greet several couples who’d formed earlier in the day.
Twilight caught herself, cleared her throat, and averted her gaze again. “You’ll have to pardon me if I don’t want them to get another eyeful now.”
Sunset reached out and took a hand in hers, wearing a devilish grin. “Well, we could always head back to our tent for a bit…”
“Really? After everything we did in the cave, you’re still raring to go?”
“Is that a no?” said Sunset, raising an eyebrow.
A pause stretched out. Embers danced along the frames of Twilight’s glasses, her mouth moving in silent inner debate. Finally, she got up, secured her towel as best she could, and said, “Let’s at least put in some work on the dock first.”
“Deal.”
Author's Note
Shameless Author's Saving Throw? Shameless Author's Saving Throw. But let it never be said I don't listen to criticism.
