How to train a Princess

by Foal Star

Rating: teen
Tags: Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Night Light, Comedy, Twilight Velvet
Length: 46000

Shining Armor was transformed into a alicorn princess by a strange book and now he has to attend classes to either go back as a stallion, or remain a alicorn princess.

This story takes place after the events from the episode Power Ponies

Shining Armor and Twilight are spending a few days with their parents for a reprieve and one night the stallion walks into his sister's bedroom. There he finds an odd book labeled "How To Train a Princess" from the peculiar Enchanted Bookstore. Without realizing it he is magically transformed into an alicorn princess and now has to complete a course of strange classes within the tome. The courses will be hard and many will take days within the strange universe that this book constructed. He will have to pass a final test in which he may either turn back into a stallion or remain a princess alicorn forever.

Cover Artist: Pridark

Published 2020-06-05 01:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2021-04-10 02:51:04 UTC

Prolouge: Welcome to Faust's Princess Academy

Shining Armor, the new prince of the Crystal Empire, suddenly woke up in his old room from a nightmare he gasped, looking up to see old posters of Brutus Forces." Some early "Join the Royal Guard" posters as well. He slowly looked around the dark room with a feel of nostalgia and loved the fact that some of his old stuff was still hung up around his room. Despite his parents trying to make his room welcoming which it was, Shining was too exhausted to appreciate it. Ever since he became a prince and his wife a full-fledged princess of a kingdom of crystal ponies, it's been a never-ending rain of stress and work for the prince. It was becoming quite overwhelming. His parents wanted to spend some time with their kids and invited them for a few days of reprieve. His sister Twilight was sleeping in her old room nearby, probably staying up all night reading her old books. The stallion slowly got up, lighting his horn and moving through the halls, not making a lot of noise. He turned to his sister's room and slowly opened the door and peeked inside. Twilight was slumped at her old study desk with a book lying on the ground. It looked as if she was reading all night, and from the looks of it, she only recently dozed off. The stallion chuckled, as this scenario was something that's happened multiple times throughout his childhood. He helped carry his sister back into bed and tucked her under the sheets. After that, he turned to the book she was reading with an odd look. "Huh? What's this?"

The stallion slowly came over to the book and flipped it over with his magic. The cover was a dark velvet color with "How to train a Princess" written in fancy golden cursive. Shining eyed the book with a look of confusion as it had some special gleam to it. He even seemed to have this overwhelming feeling of takeing the book and read it. He's never been so engrossed in wanting to read the tome, but he couldn't put a hoof on why?

He turned the book over and opened it to the table of contents the first chapter was about the anatomy of a alicorn, the second was on diplomacy and politics, the third chapter was about etiquette and decorum, the fourth chapter was about a princess's formal fashion wear and grooming standards, the fifth was about defeating your demons, and the sixth was a test of the everything in the book.

Shining chuckled as he looked at the book, thinking about how his sister invariably overcomplicates things. "Oh, Twilight, you're taking this princess thing too seriously...but I can understand all the stress you're going through."

He placed the book on the desk and was about to leave the room but seemed unable to take his gaze from it. The stallion continued over to the book levitating it with his magic and then slowly snuck back into his room. Shining Armor reached his room without waking anypony and sat on the bed, and opened the book to the prologue. On the first page, there was only one sentence written in a fancy cursive "If you wish to continue reading and to become a princess, please write your name down below. But beware once your name is written, the course will begin!"

Shining Armor snickered, seeing at the book and was surprised to see Twilight didn't already write her name down. But he started to have a strange feeling wash over him as to wondering why the author would have this in here? Was it for little fillies to pretend to be princesses? Or maybe it was merely a way to show ownership?

Shining looked it over and was now a bit curious and wanted to see what would happen if he wrote down a name? The prince quickly found a quill and a pot of ink as he snickered, "I wonder...what would be my princess name if I became one? Gleaming Shield? I think that was the name my parents would've given me if I was born a filly."

The stallion tapped the feathered quill against his face as he was lost in thought, then slowly placed the tip of the quill down on the line and wrote it down. Gleaning Shield in a messy script, then suddenly, the book lit up with a bright light as it suddenly engulfed Shining's entire room, and he was suddenly sucked into the book.

The stallion groaned as he slowly got up from the ground and slowly got up to see he was in an office of some that looked like a principal's office. There were dozens of awards on the wall and on bookshelves with "Faust" labeled and etched into the plaques. There were dozens of pictures of a strange tan looking alicorn posing with many ponies he recognized. There was one with Celestia and her eating cake together in some fancy gowns, one where she and Luna were on top of a castle staring into the night sky; there was even one with her hugging Twilight who was sporting a graduation gown and cap. Then in the far back of the room, there was a large oak desk with "Lauren Faust" printed on a large plaque and a massive emblem with a big crown in the back of the room. "Faust’s Princess Academy" was placed around the symbol. The floor beneath him was a light pink carpet, and there were suns and moons printed on it like a chessboard. Then a door in the back opened up, and of all the ponies who could've walked in was a strange mare who walked in. She had a tan-colored coat, a straight red mane with blue eyes, and a cutie mark with a quill on her rump. She gave Shining a smile and replied in a cheerful tone. "Hello, my name is Principal Faust, and I believe you're our newest student."

"Wait, what!?" Shining responded loudly with his eyes wide open. He turned to the door, wanting to just break through but resumed his calm disposition and replied. "This is a mistake I never signed up to attend any academy. Can I just go?"

The princess looked over with this stern look and rolled her eyes. "You did sign up to be a princess, that's why you're here isn't it Gleaming Shield?

Shining squeaked as he felt his cheeks flush pink. "Wait! That's not my name; it's really Shining Armor, I just wrote that name down as a joke of sorts! I wasn't actually trying to sign up for being a princess, honestly! I'm fine being a prince."

Faust shook her head and grumbled something under her breath as she continued, "Well, you certainly put me in quite the predicament please sit and let me explain."

Shining unconsciously sat down on the chair across from this alicorn princess. He looked around, chuckling as a thought crossed his mind. "This must be some dream I was reading that book, fell asleep, and now I'm just dreaming of actually being in some academy for princesses.”

The mare eyed Shining Armor and was quite stern with her response. "What are you talking about? This is a school, and you won't be sleeping through classes here. Now I don't have all day, and I wish to make sure you're ready for your first day."

"Wait, I told you I don't want to attend your school. I just wrote Gleaming Shield down as a joke!" Shining shouted back, being quite serious.

Lauren Faust shook her head and explained, "it's too late for that once you sign your name in my book it's magically binding. You'll have to attend the entire course and pass your final exam to break the spell. After that, you can decide whether to be a princess or not."

Faust then lit her horn, and a cute filly's school uniform with a blue and white plaid skirt suddenly appeared. What made it more embarrassing a heart along with "Princess in Training" was printed on the front of the blouse. "See, we already have your uniform all prepared!"

Shining Armor got up in disgust upon seeing the uniform and shouted angrily. "Seriously! I'm not wearing that!"

Faust squeaked as she rose up with a blush. "Oh my! I'm so sorry I forgot something only mares can be princesses."

Shining gave a long sigh of relief and continued, "Yeah, see! I'm a stallion, so I can't be a princess, so can I just go now?"

Faust scoffed in an annoyed tone. "We have teachers with lesson plans, all prepared for you. You're not getting out of this that easy."

Tendrils of magic swirled around the stallion and he slowly felt his body change, with years of physical training started to melt from his body slimming him down, as his bones and muscles around his body and muscles shifted and made him grunt in pain. While his body continued to morph into that of a mare, his face became rounder as the bones and muscles contracted and morphed around his face. He cried out a bit from the pain but it wasn’t terrible as the two giant white feathery wings that sprouted out from his back. Before Shining could say or do anything, he then squeaked, feeling the weight of a tiara placed on his head and the mare's school uniform dressed over his body. The prince slowly held up a hoof to see his reflection how round his new face was with longated eyelashes and a flowing mane cried out. "What did you do to me!"

He then gasped, hearing his voice being so light and fluttery almost similar to that of his wife, Princess Cadance.

Faust slowly walked around Shining and examined her work blushing to see she added a bit of fat to Shining's rump and continued. "Seems the uniform fits you well even as a mare. Now for tomorrow, you will wear this and your tiara before re-entering the book, and if you need help with your new gender, just have your sister or mother help you out.”

Shining got up in pure anger he narrowed his gaze at Faust and shouted, "turn me back into a stallion right now!"

Faust shoved a hoof up, and Shining obediently sat back down as she continued. "Sorry, but as I told you before, once you start this course it won't end until you pass your test. Until then, how long you remain a mare is up to you. Now your first class will start at exactly noon tomorrow so don't be late. If you don't show up on time or if the teacher thinks you didn't grasp the lesson, you'll have to retake the class the following day."

"This is just a stupid dream! I'm going to wake up!" Shining cried out as he ran across the office and threw open the door only to see a bright light as it exploded and engulfed him. He then felt himself fall through into an endless void of light.

Shining woke up in his bed with the strange book flailing over and down on to the ground with a thump. The prince then waited for a while, not wanting to look into any mirrors. Even though he can't see his reflection, he felt the oddities in his new body. The wings that were now on either side of him, his lush mane now flowing around his head, and some new feelings in his underbelly he dare not explore. But the sun was climbing in the sky, and it was only a matter of time before his parents and sister woke up. So Shining had no choice but to slowly rise from his bed and looked across his room to a mirror nearby. Instead of the sturdy bulky prince, he saw what almost looked like his sister with the dark and light striped blue mane flowing around his head. A rounded out face with two white feathery wings slowly flexed out over his new body. Shining knew deep down that what happened last night wasn't just a dream and slowly puts his front hooves to his face and screamed out in rage.

Hearing the odd screams from Shining's room, Twilight rushed out of bed and slammed her brother's door open, shouting, "Cadance you ok!" Twilight gasped, seeing this strange looking mare before her. She was older and looked stunning. Still, the color of her coat, the dark blue mane, those blue eyes, the long beautiful white feathery wings, and the cutie mark sold the fact that this alicorn mare standing before her was none other than her older brother.

"Sh...Shining! What happened here?" Twilight asked, looking around the room, thinking some evil sorcerer was lurking about.

The prince was quite embarrassed with his sister seeing him like this. He thrusted his new dainty hooves over her face with her cheeks flushed pink. “Don’t look at me! Just go!”

Twilight was unsure of what to do but she stayed put and replied, “Sh...Shining Armor listen i’m here to help..t..tell me what happened?”

All the embarrassment suddenly left the stallion as he lifted the tome with his magic that turned him into a mare and shouted, "this is what happened! Your stupid book turned me into a mare!"

Shining threw the tome across the room and Twilight gasped, catching it with her magic and shouting, "Hey! Don't take your anger out on books!"

She coddled it like a newborn foal and whispered, "it's ok. Shiny didn't mean to do that; he's just being a big meanie."

The quite flustered Shining simply plopped down on the bed, muttering under his breath. "Where did you find that accursed book, anyways?

Twilight looked down a bit unnerved as to how she got to the book and explained, "After my coronation, Celestia gifted it to me, saying it helped her out a long time ago…" The princess then levitated it and flipped through the pages as she whispered to herself. "Huh? Why are all the pages blank?"

The prince's eyes went wide with confusion and exclaimed, "what!" He lit his horn, levitated the book back with his magic, flipped through it, and was astonished that every one of the book's pages was empty. "I swear they weren't empty before!"

"I know! I was reading the book last night!" Twilight shouted as she took the book and turned it over and gasped, seeing the back cover had "From the enchanted bookstore in Canterlot" printed on the back. She shoved a hoof to her face and shouted, "Oh my Celestia!

Shining gulped now, getting nervous and asked, "enchanted bookstore, what does that mean?"

Twilight gave an annoyed sigh and started to explain. "Ok...look, there's a strange enchanted bookstore here in Canterlot. A few days ago, my friends and I were sucked into an enchanted comic book Spike had and long story short, we had to defeat the evil villain Maneiac to escape…"

The prince had to regain his composure as he talked about what happened the night before. "Ok...last night I saw a strange alicorn princess named Faust, and she told me that I have to attend this academy to break the enchantment. She told me that I have to attend classes and then take a test. When I'm done, I could return to being a stallion."

Twilight shook her head and sighed a little as she felt bad for her brother as she explained, "Then you have to attend these classes and take this test. I think there's no other way to get around this."

"Why can't we ask Celestia! She obviously must've known this stupid book was enchanted!" Shining exclaimed suddenly, her eyes gleaming with hope that this maybe a solution to her predicament.

Twilight shrugged but she was also feeling abit nervous as whether Celestia knew about the enchantment as she responded, "the problem is I've been reading this book for a while, and it never did anything to me. I would assume she didn't know it was enchanted either."

Shining tore at his mane and whined, "ugh, why did it turn me into a mare then!? I don't want mom or dad seeing me like this!”

Twilight couldn't help but snicker, thinking of how her parents were going to react but then calmed herself and explained in a rational tone. "Shining... that'll be almost impossible, it'll probably be best if we let them know what happened and have you stay here where nopony can see you like this."

The former stallion crossed his hooves with an adorable pout and grumbled, "just wonderful.”

Twilight saw how distressed her brother was, but she didn't know how to console him at the moment, so she slowly walked out of the door and closed it slowly behind her.

The princess then went to the bathroom to take a shower as she pondered to herself. "I don't get why the book didn't suck me into it? And why do I have a vague feeling I know this Faust Shining spoke of." Twilight continued to ponder these questions as she left while Shining sat on his bed, trying to figure out what to do next.

A few hours later, in the main living room, both Nightlight and Twilight Velvet were stunned, seeing their son as a mare but an alicorn princess. At the same time, Twilight explained things, and Shining added context to his experience with the enchanted book.

Twilight Velvet blushing, seeing how cute her son was as a mare as she replied, "so...um...from what you and Twilight explained, you'll be like this for a while? I mean for how long exactly a week...a month?”

"Mom, I'll do these stupid princess classes for a few days and after some stupid test I'll be a stallion again," Shining responded abruptly, having a feeling his mom is going to annoy him the most. Twilight Velvet looked a bit disappointed and replied, 'well don't rush dear, I'm sure those courses could be quite difficult. Besides, I would love to do some shopping with you or help you out with your new mane."

"Mom, please! I'm not going out in public like this, and secondly, I've been around my wife long enough to know how to brush a mane!” Shining snapped back feeling more bashful then he has been since becoming a mare.

Night Light saw his wife was clearly embarrassing Shining and came over. "Come, honey, let's leave him be and make the kids breakfast."

"Oh, yes! I'm going to make something special!" Twilight Velvet cheered as she bounced off.

Twilight shook her head, seeing how her mom was acting so inappropriately regarding the whole situation. The princess then turned to Shining with his new wings still spread out and stumbling around like a chicken. She had to stop herself from laughing as she asked, "Um...do you want me to help you with anything before your first class starts?"

Shining spread his new wings completly outward and asked, "c...can you at least help me with these things first! I kept stumbling into the walls walking over here."

Twilight came over and replied cheerfully, “sure; I'll give you a quick tutorial." She then helped Shining slowly fold his wings against his body and explained, "see you tuck them in against your body, and they don't get in the way as much. I mean, since you're not going outside for the next few days, I doubt you'll even have to learn how to fly."

Shining gave a small nod but secretly wished he could fly just a little. But Twilight had a point he didn't want anypony seeing him as a mare either. So he walked around the living room with his wings all tucked to his sides, getting used to the feeling of his new apendages. "They aren't terrible, you know. I think I can get used to them."

"Yeah walking with them is easy, flying on the other hoof is a pain; trust me, i've been practicing with Rainbow Dash for a while and I’m still having trouble with the basics.” Twilight grumbled, having too many memories of herself crashing and running into clouds.

Shining snickered thinking of his sister crashing and leaving craters over Ponyville. The mare then squeaked as she felt a pang in her bladder as she needed to use the bathroom and stammered, "well..thanks...I need to um...pee…"

Twilight gave a sly grin and responded in a mocking tone, "what? Does little Shiny need his big sissy how to use the potty?"

"No, of course not!" Shining shouted as he stomped off down the hall. He knew how to use the bathroom sitting down! It was just the feeling of it is what made him nervous, realizing that the one thing that all stallions had was gone. The former stallion shook his head and calmed his nerves. "It's just for a few days; then, this will all be just a bad dream."

Shining walked off still having a feeling of dread wondering if he failed this course was he doomed to be a mare forever?

Chapter one: Princess Cadence's class on the Alicorn Anatomy 101

Author's Note

Note: I want to make it clear when I mention stuff about alicorns this is all from my head cannon and as far as I know isn't cannon for GEN 4.

The "true source" is from the wheel of time series and I only used it because it makes sense to me as for why there aren't any male alicorns. But again this is just conjecture and me making somthing up for the sake of the story. It's not really important as it won't come up again.

Chapter one: Princess Cadence's class on the Alicorn Anatomy 101

Shining Armor begrudgingly sat with Twilight as they ate a breakfast of waffles and eggs. The newly transformed mare was looking down, being angry at her predicament. She was just sitting at the table, sipping her coffee with an angry look on her face as the mare wished she could simply disappear and somehow wished this whole ordeal over. Twilight Velvet stood there, blushing to see her new daughter being quite distraught as she came over and asked, “honey, are you feeling any better?”

“Oh, I’m doing just fine! Being turned into a mare against my will and having to go to classes about being a princess, it's just wonderful!” Shining snapped out loud. She then plopped back down and continued eating her food and looking downwards, still feeling moody. Twilight Velvet decided it was best to leave Shining Armor for now as she served food to Night Light and Twilight.

As Twilight was given an extra waffle, she looked over with a blush knowing full well Shining didn't want to hear anything regarding her recent transformation. But if Shining didn't do what the book said, he will be a mare forever, so she decided to get her new sister to get ready and replied, "Look, I know you don't want to talk about it, but you need to get dressed. It'll be noon in two hours."

Shining rolled her eyes, not caring if she was late or not to this stupid class. The mare continued to eat, still not adequately caring for what will happen next, but she continued munching on her waffles, nonetheless.

Twilight Velvet blushed watching her new daughter munching away and asked, “so...you sure you don’t need any help from me?”

“No, I’m done, thank you.” Shining stammered now feeling a bit embarrassed and continued to finish her meal, feeling quite full. She then slowly got up, blushing as her wings made her wobble about as she was still definitely not used to her new appendages, making the mare squeak out. "Ugh, these bucking wings are so annoying!"

When the mare finally whispered, "I'm going to excuse myself and go to my room if that's ok?"

Shining's parents both blushed and nodded as she slowly walked off, grumbling to herself. Twilight then got up and ran after her shouting, "Hey, wait up!"

The mare eventually caught up with Shining who turend around and snapped back. "Hey, seriously, I don’t need help getting dressed."

Twilight rolled her eyes, realizing that her newly transformed sister thought she was only asking because of her gender swap. "Look, if your gender simply changed, I wouldn't be asking, but you never dressed yourself with wings before."

Shining blushed as he realized that his sister was right and stammered out. "Yes...I get it.... thanks…"

Shining Armor followed her sister to his/her old bedroom, and she saw that the uniform given to her by Faust was hanging there on a ponyquin. Twilight took the outfit off the plastic model blushing as she turned to her new sister and blushed as she asked, “first, I’m going to need you to fold your wings."

Shining did as her sister asked and folded her wings to her sides and stood still as a statue. Twilight then went about dressing the blouse over her popping the mare's head through the neck hole. The younger mare then helped pull and slide the mare’s wings through the slits on the blouse's sides. Then Twilight went about and helped pull the blue skirt over the mare's rump and slowly pulled it through her sister’s tail and slid it up right below the blouse.

Twilight then adjusted the clothing a bit more with her magic rubbing a hoof over the clothing, taking out the creases and making it look more beautiful and sighed, "there all finished."

“Thanks,” Shining grumbled quite angrily and was still quite irritated, needing help simply dressing herself now. The mare looked herself into a mirror and blushed, seeing how cute she looked in her new outfit.

“Well, you do look rather nice in it?” Twilight whispered with a blush trying to make her new sister feel better.

“Thanks?” Shining grumbled as she finished her outfit, plopping the silvery tiara on her head. The newly transformed mare turned to a mirror and looked at her reflection for some time, seeing how round and cute her face looked, with the outfit fitting snug on her body. It was still so unreal that she was now a mare with almost no trace of her masculinity that could be found.

Twilight slowly came up behind Shining with a blush and whispered, “Hey...you do look nice if that’s ok to say? Not saying you looked better as a stallion just...ya know…”

Shining chuckled, looking over at her sister. “It’s fine, Twilight, I do look rather good in this outfit.”

The violet alicorn gave a small smile seeing that at the very least, her new older sister was getting used to her new gender. She turned to see a clock on the bedside table and saw it was around eleven. “So... would it be ok if we go over some things about the alicorn anatomy here before hoof?” The mare asked with a twinkle in her eyes even as a foal, she took advantage of every opportunity to teach her brother stuff.

Shining sighed and reluctantly nodded, seeing there wasn’t much harm in her sister helping him get ahead of the class she would take soon.

“Alright…. let’s do this,” Shining grumbled, she plopped down on the bed as Twilight started showing parts of her body to her former brother and lecturing things about alicorns in scientific terms she never heard of before. Shining did her best to pay attention, but for some reason, she started to feel drowsy and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Shining Armor slowly woke up with her eyes to see that he was clearly in a basic classroom, but the room itself had only him sitting in one desk in the middle of the room. He looked around, seeing that there was a chalkboard in the back. Some posters of alicorns posted all over the place showing muscles, bones, and organs with lines and words pointing to each body part were a few ponyquins shaped like various alicorns with “a young Twilight sized” at the left end followed by a “Cadance size” then a “Luna size," “Older Twilight size” and “Celestia size” at the right end room. She then peered upwards over at a clock ticking above and saw that it was noon on the dot. But that’s when he turned to see that his wife; princess Cadance, entered the classroom and as she strode to the front of the room and smiled at him. "Hello Gleaming Shield, you ready for your first lesson?"

Shining’s mouth dropped upon seeing his wife as she got up with an excited look in her eyes and exclaimed, "Cadance!? It's me, Shining! What the buck are you doing here?"

Cadance gave him a sheepish smile as she explained, "Um...I'm sorry, but you're not my Shining Armor. It's too difficult to explain everything, so please just understand we’re complete strangers."

Shining blinked as he had this feeling that despite this mare looking like Princess Cadance, she was not his wife. She sat down and, with a confused look on her face and asked, "so if you know anything about me, you know I would never want to turn into a mare, let alone a princess alicorn, right?"

Cadance came to the front of the classroom with an apologetic look on her face as she seemed to know about Shining Armor well and explained, "Sorry, but what happened to you is beyond my power. The book that turned you into a mare has specific rules, and we must abide by them. But trust me, my class is super easy; you’ll pass trust me.”

Shining huffed as she slumped in her seat seeing this, Cadance wasn’t going to help her with her predicament and grumbled, "fine whatever get on with the lesson then."

Cadance gave a nod as she then pointed to herself. "Now I am an alicorn as you know an Equestrian with wings and a horn. But there's more to us then you probably understand."

She then pointed at her wings and continued to explain. "We may have wings, but pegasi are much better flyers then we are...as our main talent is usually with magic."

She spread them out entirely, and Shining couldn’t help but amazed seeing how elegant they looked as she explained, “However, I will be teaching you how to fly with them. You won’t need to be as good as a Wonderbolt. You simply good enough to get you from point A to point B.”

“Ok, whatever.” Shining snapped as she crossed her hooves with an angry look on her face, not really caring.

Cadance then pointed at her horn and explained in an ominous voice, trying to get Shining. "Now I’ll tell you something else…. alicorns can only be female, and there's a reason for that...have you ever heard of the true source?"

Shining shook his head as it was something he never heard of, and Cadence continued her lecture. "Very simply sadly somehow, the male side of the true source was corrupted eons ago and were not sure how. Only alicorns can tap into this wellspring to perform powerful magic, but if a male were to do so, it would corrupt them, and they won’t be able to control it."

Shining’s eyes went wide as she exclaimed, "seriously? Can you clarify that?"

Cadance nodded as she continued her lecture with a sheepish smile. “Um...I would know a lot of this is beyond my knowledge, and it's not very relevant, so let's continue."

Cadance then turned around to show her plot straight at Shining Armor. Despite being a mare, she still felt a sexual attraction for mares, so seeing his wife’s rump right in her face. Shining started to sweat bullets as Cadance shook her rump a bit as she explained, “now you see an alicorn, strangely enough, can't get fat. But if they eat too much food filled with fats and processed sugar and don't exercise, all that weight will go right to your rump. And if it gets too big, it will hinder your duties, so keep that in mind."

Shining snickered, thinking how he should remind his own Celestia of this little tidbit of knowledge. Cadance turned around with a smile happy to see her student finally loosening up and continued, "Now, for your tail and mane, some alicorns prefer just to let them grow naturally, but most eventually do become ethereal, but that's up to once you graduate or when you become older. "

The stallion turned mare rolled her eyes thinking how silly it would be to have a mane like Celestia or Luna’s but didn't say anything merely wanting to get through this lecture. Princess Cadance then pulled a tab down from above the chalkboard with “warning: this may be a bit embarrassing for stallions who were turned into mares” as she explained, "now it’s time to talk about the biology mares as you're now one. And if you ever feel squeamish or uncomfortable about what we discuss here, please feel free to leave the room.”

Shining rubbed her head groaned, not wanting a “birds and the bees” talk as she grumbled, “seriously!? I don’t need to learn about female pony biology; please let’s just skip this part!”

Cadance giggled, seeing how cute her new student was as she explained, "sorry, but I have to cover some things, so please just bear it, ok?”

Shining rolled her eyes and sat back and grumbled, “fine, just make it quick.”

The princess of love then pulled the warning screen back up she then explained, “now you have all the sex organs a female mare has in your world. So, as we both find this topic a bit too squeamish, you did go through a sex-ed course in your Equestria correct?”

Shining's face was already pink and nodded as she stammered nervously. “Yes, and... well...you should know I'm married to another Cadance who is...pregnant...so yes I am very well-versed in a mare’s biology.”

The teacher Cadance blushed as her cheeks flushed a shade of red. “Oh, right, well, congratulations.”

“Thanks.” Shining chirped meekly, feeling a bit embarrassed as she hasn’t even told any pony else yet about her wife’s pregnancy.

Professor Cadance cleared her throat and continued, “So if that’s the case, I won't go into details. But there are a few exceptions between alicorns and normal mares. First off, we don't go into heat and rarely give birth if ever.”

Shining blinked as this dawned on him that this was true as his wife rarely ever had an “intense desired” to have sex and asked, “wait...but what’s the reason for that, is it magical or biological?”

Cadance shrugged and responded, “like I said, I’m not sure why some things. I’m just here to explain what you're going to have to expect if you stay this way. If you still wish to go back to be a stallion, then at the very least, this knowledge will help you pass this course.”

Shining shrugged and sat back down, letting Professor Cadance continue her lesson. “Unlike most mares, you won’t have a period every month we might have one maybe three or four times a year. It's on a case by case basis, but you’ll eventually have a pattern.”

Shining sighed as she rubbed her head, being quite enough as she responded. “Is that finally it? I mean, I’ve been around my wife for a few years now, so yeah, I know a lot of this stuff already."

Cadance laughed as she shook her and exclaimed, "nope! Now we're going to go outside!"

She then threw a hoof gesturing her student to follow her, who gave an annoyed sigh following Cadance out of the building and was quite surprised to see he was now in a vast valley. There was a long grass plane as far as the eye could see with a single running river going through some mountains. She looked behind her to see they were on a hill, and the building they came out of was gone as if it never existed.

Cadance then spread out her wings. “Now come on! I’m going to show you how to lift off!”

“Wait!” Shining cried out as she was not ready for flight and continued. “I can barely walk with my wings! I don't think flying is a good idea!”

Cadance took the “princess in training” by the hoof and exclaimed, “just come on Gleaming and follow me!”

“My name is no-eeek!” Shining Armor cried out as Cadance helped her fly through the skies gradually gaining altitude as they flew into the air. Shining was squeaking and kicking about as she clumsily got tossed about by currents and gusts of wind. It was quite embarrassing as she felt her skirt keep flying upwards and despite ponies walk around naked all the time. The mare still felt so embarrassed about her new plot being exposed. Cadance couldn’t help but laugh at "The princess in training" being so clumsy and cute. “Alright, now flap your wings slowly and stabilize yourself.”

Shining did as Cadance asked, slowly flapping her wings to keep herself fluttering essentially without falling. Seeing herself actually keeping herself airborn she congratulated herself. “Ok...this isn’t so bad.”

Cadence cheered seeing her student fluttering in the air and clapped her hooves. "Good job Gleaming, you’re getting the hang of it.”

Shining blushed, feeling better about herself as she and Cadance flew through the valley towards one of the mountains. The mare stumbled about still trying to get used to her new wings, and then she squeaked flying right straight into a tree. Cadance gave a sigh as she flew over and pulled her student out of the tree then helped fix her uniform and centered the her student's tiara with a blush on her face as she whispered, “I'm sorry about that.”

“It's not your fault...how do you deal with wind and currents?” Shining asked, still feeling so embarrassed about how terrible she was at flying.

Cadence showed her wings off, expanding them to their full length and explained. "Remember your wings give you lift, and you can adjust your down feathers so that you can glide with the wind or currents. But for now, I think you got the basics down. You just need to fly around a track once for you to pass the exam. If you want to learn more advanced flying techniques, we could, but you're not planning on staying like this, so there’s no point.”

Shining crossed her hooves across her chest and scoffed,” yeah, you’re right about something for once!”

Cadence chuckled, seeing her own Shining's stubborn behavior in this mare and waved a hoof. “Alright, come on, you need to test your magic before you do the actual test!” The princess then helped Shining, taking her front legs and curved them under Shining’s leg-pits. The mare squeaked as she kicked about wondering what the heck was going on and shouted, “Hey, what are you doing!?”

“Well, I don’t want you were crashing from a few hundred feet up, so just relax and let Cady help!” The princess cooed as she nuzzled Gleaming’s mane. Before Shining, she could protest she was hoisted up the side of the mountain. The mare cried out, feeling her skirt flying upwards, and it made her even more furious, shouting and cursing at Cadance.

They then both landed on a mountain top, and both turned looking across the valley. All the anger and frustration she had melted away as she looked out onto the valley with wide eyes. The view from the mountain with the added clouds covering the valley. Professor Cadance turned to her student and asked, "Nowhere, I’m going to leave you here by yourself, and you're going to shoot your magic into the air!"

Shining started to sweat pour down her face and gulped as she asked, “why? I mean, is there a reason for this?”

The princess giggled behind a hoof and explained in a calming tone. “Remember your magic is ten times more powerful than when you were a normal unicorn. Now I'm going to fly off just in case if you acciedently cause an explosion.”

Cadance flew off and left Shining all by herself as she looked into the sky and squinted her eyes and started to light her horn and shot out a bright pink light. As a giant pink shield went around the entire mountain, the mare was astonished entirely how wide her magical shield was now compared to how she was a normal unicorn stallion. As the mare let the shield dissipate and then slowly felt so exhausted and panting as sweat poured down her face with her head feeling like a hammer was pounding it, she suddenly collapsed and blacked out.

Shining woke up slowly, feeling in frothing hot water all sound her bubbling and producing a steam cloud around her. The mare adjusted her eyes and looked around, seeing she was in some natural hot spring on the mountainside with rocks jutted around her. The mare turned to see she was sitting beside Cadance, giving a deep sigh of relaxation. The princess turned her head as she opened her eyes a little and gave a relaxing sigh, "ah, good thing you're awake now, just relax in the hot spring for a while, your body is probably aching from all that flying and using so much magic."

“Ok, sure...I don’t think my back ever felt so stiff before.” Shining groaned, feeling her muscles aching but felt so relaxed in the steaming bubbling water hitting every tender point in her body. It was quite odd as the bubbles continued to feel so good despite the sharp pain going through her wings and back.

After soaking in the spa for what felt like a few hours, Cadance swam over and nudged her. “Alright, come on I’ll help you learn some good stretches.”

Shining begrudgingly grumbled, "fine, whatever." And she slowly got out of the water shaking some from her mane and tail. She followed her teacher to a cliff overlooking the peaceful valley.

Princess Cadance turned to the soaking wet mare she was teaching and her cheeks turned red seeing how cute Shining looked all dripping wet. The mare shook her head as she needed to stay focused then explained. "Hey Gleaming just follow my lead ok? Were just going to do some basic stretches."

Shining looked over feeling so tired and exhausted to reply back and simply nodded. The princess of love then slowly bent down and lifted her butt, and Shining followed suit right next to her. They held the pose for a bit and as they then slowly moved the pose from lifting their heads into the air and lowering their bottoms. Shining felt as of this was a good oppurtunity and asked, “so...my shield can cover an entire mountain now?”

Cadance took a hoof to her mouth and giggled, “yeah, I honestly didn’t know what you were going to do. But yeah, I told you your magic was going to get a boost.”

The mare stood up on her hind legs and raised her wings and stretching them out to their full glory. Shining blushed as she also did so as well with her white feathered wings looking so graceful and yet so powerful. But the awe of her wings ended when she heard popping and felt the bones and muscles flaring up causing her to e eeep and shout, “Ugh, everything hurts!”

“Of course, it does, it was your first flight, and you also slammed into a tree,” Cadance explained as she booped Shining’s nose and giggled seeing her student's nose twitch.

“Right good point,” The princess in training grunted as they then laid on their backs as they stretched their back legs up into the air. Shining peeked down and blushed hoping to see her stallionhood. It was obviously gone which was something she kind of accepted by now. But it also made her feel unsure of herself and kept her hoping she would turn back into a stallion as soon as possible.

After a few more hours of stretching Cadance helped dress her student back into her uniform popping the blouse over Shining's body adjusting the skirt around her rump and plopping the silvery tiara on her head. After stepping back to admire her work Shining rolled her eyes. "I get it, I look super cute. Can we just go back to the classroom so I can finish my test?"

"Not just yet, we got one more thing to do before your test,” Cadance explained, then they flew to a valley where there was a fountain. It was huge with water bubbling out Shining was told to go in, and she squealed as it bubbled, and she saw herself grow into a Cadance clone essentially. Her body slowly grew out with her mane growing out into a flowing waterfall down the right side of her face. The mare's face scrunched up and her tail flowed outward with her wavy dark and light blue striped ethereal mane. Shining Armor was stunned, looking down at her new reflection and seeing how even her uniform seemed to morph with her body. She peered down at her reflection for a while completly astonished how much she looked like her wife. Professor Cadance came over and nuzzled her near identical clone as she explained, “that’s what you'll look like in ten years! Isn't that so cool!"

The newly transformed alicorn blushed, feeling so weird couldn't really even reply feeling too awkward being in her wife's body. She slowly went back outside of the fountain and her form reverted to how she looked before being much shorter but oddly enough her face and mane were still quite similar to the princess of love. Shining was a bit confused as to what he just went through and asked, “what was the point of that?”

“Just a little thing we do to new princesses is all. It’s usually eye-opening for most.” Cadance explained with her cheeks flushed pink as she still couldn't believe how cute Shining will look in a few years.

The Princess of Love flew over to Shining, and they both flew back to a giant building with the princess in training mostly silent as she was still unsure of how to feel about everything. As they entered through the front doors, she was back in the original room and then blushed to see a new ponyquin next to the Cadance one labeled. “Gleaming Shield."

Shining pointed a hoof right at it feeling nervous she would have to wear a dress or something even more emberassing and shouted, “H... hey! What’s that for!?”

Cadence turned around with a smirk on her face knowing full well what that was for but had no intention of telling her student and scoffed, “oh, don’t worry about that Gleaming it’ll be helpful for another class.”

She then sat Shining down at the desk and was given a standard school bubble sheet, a pot of ink and quill, and a test booklet. Cadance pointed to the clock and saw it was about two-fifty P.M as she explained, “now you have an hour to take the test, first off put your name on top of the bubble sheet."

Shining crossed her hooves and scoffed as she dipped her quill into the pot and was going to write “Shining Armor,” but instead she wrote down in fancier script that looked a lot similar to a cursive font with an elegant flair of, “Gleaming Shield.” on the top of the bullet sheet. She groaned and grumbled, and then she turned to see the gender option was only female, and specious “alicorn." Once she begrudgingly check-marked the boxes Cadance took the sheet and nodded, “good job, the quill is enchanted by the way they're called, “princess's first quill." When you learn how to write like a princess, you won’t need them.”

She then pointed at the clock. “Now it’s almost Three P.M once it does, you have until four to complete this test. You need to have an eighty-five or better to pass!”

Shining grumbled as she started answering the questions bubbling answers about the stupid things. Cadance explained earlier, but some of them were funny as one asked, “why in most universes is Celestia’s rump so big."

Shining couldn't help but laugh out loud at the question. “Well, obviously, she eats a ton of cake.”

She continued to bubble in answers as she went down the test looking as she read. “Who can fly faster in most universes, Celestia or Twilight?”

Shining rolled her eyes and the question. “Obviously, Celestia has had over a thousand years of practice.”

“How many foals can Cadance have?”

Shining blushed, knowing full well his wife is pregnant with one foal and shrugged, "I guess one?”

After bubbling the final answer the mare closed the booklet and exclaimed proudly. “Done!”

Professor Cadence took the bubble sheet and scanned it with her horn and exclaimed, “Wow a hundred percent! See, I told you my class was easy. But you still need to pass one more test!”

Shining sighed and shrugged, hoping the next test would be just as easy. The mare was then led to a gym as she explained, “now fly around the track once!”

Shining gulped feeling a bit nervous but did as she was asked. The mare flapped her wings a bit slowly gaining altitude then started simply fluttering around the track. The mare was a bit nervous as she continued to fly but in the indoor track there were no rouge winds or currents so it was rather easy to keep her momentum. She then landed on where she started and her eyes lit up and then clopped her hooves and squealed, realizing she did that all by herself. “Wow! That's crazy! Did I just do that?”

“Yep! Now try using your magic!” Cadance clapped her hooves and exclaimed out loud.

Shining Armor tried shooting out her pink shield straight through the ceiling in which her shield then covered the entire school without any problems. She looked up with astonishment as the princess of love clapped her hooves again. The princess then flew over and hugged Shining close and squealed, “congrats Gleaming, you passed!”

Shining blushed even though she knew deep down this mare wasn't his wife, it still felt good to see the princess so happy and asked, “you didn’t make this course easy because you’re married to a Shining Armor right?”

“Oh, stop, I wouldn’t do that to any pony; now for passing your first class, you're going to get a few extra things from me!” Cadance explained casually overdramatic tone as a basket popped in Shining’s mouth.

"First, here’s a book on a mare’s body. “A little pink book then suddenly appeared in the basket, and Shining tried to shout, "Hey, stop that!"

Princess Cadance continued to explain, ignoring Shining. “Now, here’s one if you have any particular questions regarding your alicorn body.”

Another purple coated book with a tiara on the cover appeared in the basket, and before Shining could protest, Cadance exclaimed. "Here’s one if you get pregnant, and one I think help’s a lot of newly transformed alicorns about the basics of flying!”

A blue book with clouds printed on the cover and a giant pink covered book then plopped in her basket, making her head droop from all the weight.

“There now, do you need anything else?” Cadance asked in her overly cheerful tone and seemed to be quite excited.

Shining placed the basket down as she had to ask this Cadance about her unborn foal before she left. “Wait! Do...do we have a boy or a girl? and what specious is it?"

Cadance had a blush growing on her face and thought for a second if she should tell him but smirked as she responded, “Oh, you're just going to have to see for yourself.” She then lights her horn, and the mare disappeared in a blinding light.

Shining woke up to see Twilight standing over him and asked how she did. The princess in training groaned aching from all the flying still and mumbled, "yeah, everything is fine."

Twilight picked up the basket and saw the books and blushed, “wow, these are some nice books! Maybe I'll even ask to borrow them?”

“Yeah, sure if you want. Heck, you can keep some of them, I'm not staying like this for long.” Shining grumbled, still feeling pain from her wings. Twilight helped undress her newly transformed sister as the older mare shivered feeling her aching wings and back with her head pounding. Shining gave a long sigh, “seriously, I had a long day and just need a bath.”

Twilight nuzzled her new sister, knowing how much it hurt her when she first flew, “how about you take an ice bath?”

Shining paused remaining how she took ice baths for her aching muscles when she was a he and was in training. The two then slowly walked to the bathroom. Shining then turned on the faucet and plugged the tub with a stopper and filled it with freezing cold water. Shining slowly slunked into the ice water and squeaked at initial shock of how cold the water was. But she slowly laid down soaking in the cold-water shivering, but she felt the pain slowly leaving her muscles. Twilight then came over and poured a bucket of ice bath into the tub. "Do you need anything else?"

"Could you preen my wings? After a long flight, I know my wife's wings would get all ruffled, and I would preen them." Shining asked, feeling so embarrassed for asking her sister for more assistance.

Twilight blushed but began to help preen her sister's wings as she started to unbend some of the feathers and clean them making Shining winced and moaned feeling her wings sensitivity was off the charts but it also felt quite nice. Thinking her sister was in pain Twilight paused and asked, "hey you ok? I didn't hurt you did I?"

Shining gulped as she didn't want to tell Twilight that felt so good but she also didn't want to have her think she hurt her and whispered, "its fine...just keep going…"

Twilight blushed getting the hint that her sister was liking it she continued the preening despite the constant moaning.

Eventually Shining got out of the bath and she dried herself off she looked around realising Twilight was gone and probably has been for a while. She then slowly walked to the kitchen and saw the rest of her family sitting together eating. Without talking much, deep in thought pondering over all that's happened to her.

As Shining ate her salad, Twilight Velvet blushed, feeling a bit unsure of how to ask Shining about her class and asked, “so...how was your first day?”

Shining took a deep breath, not sure on what to say and shrugged. “I learned I could fly decently, and that alicorns only have periods two or three times a year.”

Twilight blinked as she put a hoof to her chin. “Huh? That’s something I never even considered.”

Night Light's face was bright red. “Wow!? Was there anything about you getting pre-”

Twilight Velvet gave a nudge to her husband trying to indicate that was a rather rude question to ask. But Shining wasn't actually embarrassed by the question, in fact she thought it was quite funny and snickered, “oh, that is funny, and yeah, alicorns actually don’t get pregnant that much from what I learned.”

“Oh really!” Twilight exclaimed out loud with her eyes completely wide.

The violet coated unicorn started to get super excited, clapping her hooves and exclaimed, "Are you and Cadance going to have foals!?”

Shining blushed realizing she never told her sister that Cadance was pregnant. But she was planning to reveal it in a fun way later and stammered, “No... not right now…” She continued finishing her salad.

Twilight blushed as she asked. "So, how was the flying? Did you get the hang of it?"

"I loved it...though I'm still a newbie at it." Shining whispered with a blush on her face not wanting to talk about how she crashed into a tree.

Shining also wanted to tell how much more powerful her magic shield is to her sister. But an idea suddenly popped in the alicorn's head instead of telling she was going to show her the new power she has. The "princess in training" smirked as she lit her horn and shot a beam of magic through the ceiling and had a giant shield of magic surround the entire city of Canterlot in a matter of seconds. Shining's family was stunned as they all raced outside and gasped at how large the pink shield was. It dissipated after a few minutes, and Shining came strutting out of the house with her head in the air. "How's my magic Twily? isn't it impressive!?"

Twilight squealed as she clapped her hooves excitedly, "oh wow, your magic has gotten so much better! Oh I should be able to teach you some cool tricks now!"

Shining felt so proud to finally show her sister that she too was now gifted with powerful magic. She bent down next to Twilight's ear and whispered, "Thanks, that means alot coming from you."

Twilight said something back but Shining couldn't discern what it was as she started to feel drowsy. Her eyes started to droop, then she slowly stumbled about, then she collapsed and blacked out again.

Chapter Two: Gleaming Shield's New Dorm

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter three: First day of Twilight's acadamy

Gleaming Shield woke up groggily in her new dorm alongside Sunset Shimmer and was surprised that she was already up doing yoga in front of a t.v. The white-coated mare slowly got up and squinted as she looked over at the screen and saw a Celestia in sweat pants and a headband doing stretches on a yoga mat. The white-coated alicorn slowly walked over, being a bit fascinated by the video and mumbled, "You're up already?"

Sunset then stood on her hind legs and stretched her hooves to the sky. "Well, I'm going to be a princess of the sun! I need to get up earlier than everypony, so I thought doing yoga would be a good way to start the day."

Gleaming sighed, seeing she was already up and wasn't going to be able to fall asleep. She decided to join Sunset Shimmer in doing yoga. Gleaming slowly lowered her back in a dog style and with her wings fully spread out. It was quite relaxing as she felt new wings were quite sore from the previous day when she flew with Cadance.

Sunset smiled, seeing Gleaming stretching beside her as she seemed so relaxed and peaceful, more so then she was yesterday. They continued to do their stretches in silence, with only the Celestia on screen talking about switching positions and encouraging them.

The princess rose with sweat pouring down her face as she gasped, "good job Sunset your doing very well and Gleaming I know your new at this, so just continue watching you can buy my entire DVD set intro for-"

Sunset quickly turned the T.V off then waved a hoof. "Oh, that's just Celestia trying to get ya to buy her DVDs. I have her entire set. You can borrow them if you want."

"Um, ok…" Gleaming whispered, not being entirely comfortable with all these different versions of ponies she's known most of her life.

Sunset then turned and turned to Gleaming and asked, "how about you go take a shower? I need some coffee."

Gleaming was quite sweaty and shrugged, "alright, I'll go shower." The mare walked off and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day and went about taking a quick shower then brushed her mane and tail like how Twilight taught her the day previously. She blushed, seeing makeup on the bathroom counter and decided not despite being tempted. After freshening herself up, she went to the kitchen and was surprised to see that Sunset Shimmer was making breakfast, flipping her pancakes, and cooking some eggs. The white-coated mare didn't know how to feel about another mare besides Cadance making her breakfast. Gleaming sighed," you don't need to make breakfast."

Sunset Shimmer turned around with a bright smile. "I'm trying to be like Princess Celestia. I might as well try to learn how to cook a proper breakfast for Luna and my other staff?"

Gleaming Shield just blushed as she sat down and replied, "yeah, but I don't want you treating me like I'm helpless."

"What do you think I'm doing here? I'm not trying to be your mom or something! It was nice!" Sunset Shimmer snapped as she slammed a plate of pancakes and eggs on the table.

Gleaming Shield squeaked, jumping back." S...sorry! I didn't mean it like that."

"Ok well, don't get used to it! You can make breakfast tomorrow!" Sunset snapped, getting suddenly quite angry as she stomped off, leaving Gleaming there wholly baffled at what just happened.

The alicorn princess quickly ate her breakfast and then went over and dressed in her school uniform. Sunset seemed to be still angry as she stomped around, fixing herself in her outfit, and Gleaming looked over and responded, "I didn't mean it about you being like my mom or something; it just felt weird you doing a lot for me for no reason."

"Whatever we can do a job scheduled later, then it won't feel weird." Sunset snapped back as she adjusted her skirt then walked off, angrily out of the room.

Gleaming rolled her eyes, seeing how Sunset held a grudge and snapped, "Seriously, you're still mad about that." She gave a deep sigh and then followed after Sunset Shimmer out the door.

Gleaming Shield followed her roommate down the crazy winding halls. It was unnerving to see how many classrooms there were and how easily she would get lost without a guide. She was at least happy to know that they eventually got where the stressed-out crazy looking Twilight was standing in front of them with her pet bunny stomping a foot on the table, shoving a pocket watch out into their faces.

Twilight snapped her glasses in place as she turned around and shouted, "you're late, Gleaming Shield!"

"I...I thought we woke up early!" Gleaming cried, looking quite distressed.

The air tension lasted for a few moments; then, bunny started laughing maniacally as Twilight blinked and turned to the clock over her and shouted, "Time Hop! That wasn't nice! I told you to stop doing that!"

Gleaming looked up and saw that the clock showed that she was early as they were supposed to be here by eight, and it was only seven. The mare grumbled irritably and walked over to a desk near Sunset, who scoffed at her and moved a seat away. Gleaming grumbled under her breath, still angry at how Sunset was still mad at her. Twilight handed them notebooks and a quill and a pot of ink. The white-coated mare sat there waiting patiently as the other ponies to start pouring in. She noticed one light blue coated unicorn with a waving striped darker blue and a light aurora green mane with a pair of violet eyes. The shy looking pegasus who walked in her wings hung at her sides as she cautiously looked around with a nervous look on her face. Gleaming decided to try being nice, waving a hoof. The mare blushed as she walked over and sat down next to her. The alicorn whispered, "Hey, it's nice to see a normal pony here."

"Me normal...um I'm a goddess of winter." The shy looking pegasus whispered back with a blush on her face.

"Oh, that's interesting...a goddess of winter, huh?" Gleaming whispered, looking quite amazed at what she just heard.

"Yeah...I know that it sounds weird, but as a goddess, I control the weather in my Equestria, but I live on a higher plane, so ponies don't really know who I am." Winter whispered, feeling a bit embarrassed as she explained herself.

Gleaming casually waved a hoof and responded with a smile. "That's fine; there's no need to be so coy about it. I only recently turned into an alicorn princess."

Winter rolled her eyes and responded, "Well, I think that's everypony here besides that teacher Twilight."

Gleaming Shield sighed as she was still not ready to tell anypony here she was once a guy. "Well, my circumstances were quite strange, and I'm not planning to stay as an alicorn princess."

Winter whispered back, "I don't blame you; I heard from some of the other students that being a princess is tough."

Twilight seeing all her students arrive, cleared her throat, and everypony looked ahead as she started the lecture. "Now I know that many of you are new to being royalty and have almost no experience with the topics we'll be covering. Now I have a time spell placed over this classroom. It will seem you've been here for days as I teach, but it'll only be a few hours in truth. So please take notes and pay attention as you need you to pass the test at the end of the week." Gleaming gulped as she got her quill ready and began writing notes as soon as Twilight's lecture began; she wasn't planning on being a mare any longer then she had to be.

It was a long day of lectures as they went through a dozen different subjects, first was political science, then tax code, pony sociology, and Equestrian law. Each one was more boring than the last, and Gleaming felt completely mentally drained after what felt like a week. The alicorn looked over at the clock and realized that it was only noon; the lecture really was only a few hours. After the long lecture, Twilight turned towards her class, seeing most were dead-eyed, some drooling, and have fallen asleep. In contrast, others seemed to be doodling in their notebooks, hardly paying attention as she replied, "I know you all must be feeling quite weary so take the rest of the day and tomorrow to work on the assignments assigned to you."

Time Hop then held up a pocket watch and points at it glaring at Twilight, who squeaked, "now I must be going as I have about thirty other classes to head to!" The mare then opened another portal with her horn and shot through with the bunny bouncing after her.

Soon all the alicorns and strange god-like beings began walking out of the classroom and back to their rooms. As Gleaming Shield slowly went to her bedroom just wanting to sleep. She spotted Trixie running over. "Gleaming! Trixie needs your help! Trixie was busy doodling herself and was not paying attention! May Trixie copy your notes!?"

Gleaming scoffed at how her bersion of Trixie and this one were almost identical and sighed, "fine, sure…"

Starlight strutted over and asked, "I also would like to study with you...you seemed to be paying attention and understand this stuff better then us. With your husband being a prince and all."

Gleaming blushed, just imagining a male version of Cadance but quickly shook her head and hurriedly responded, "fine! Let's make a study group ok!? And you can all copy off me."

Winter then slowly walked overlooking as she came over and asked, "m..may I join? I actually have a good understanding of the material as well."

Gleaming's eyes lit up, seeing the goddess of WinterWinter coming over and chirped, "sure, I would love for you to join!"

Sunset stomped, overlooking quite irritated as she snapped, "fine; then I'm joining too! You all have no idea what it means to be a princess!"

Gleaming was stunned and turned to Sunset, sith her eyes narrowed as they walked down the halls heading to the common room, wondering if Sunset only joined because she was making friends with Winter.

The four studied the rest of the afternoon under Sunset Shimmer and Gleaming Shield, teaching everypony what the teacher taught them over the last few hours in the small library in the breakroom. The hay burger wraps were strewn about with empty cups of soda, water bottles, and hay fries strewn about on the table. Gleaming's brain was on fumes after nearly a whole day of studying and finally closed her book and snapped, "ok, ok, I need a break, or my head will explode!"

Trixie was rubbing a temple on her head and groaned, "yes, Trixie admits you and Sunset Shimmer know more about this princess stuff than her."

Winter yawned as she closed her notebook and mumbled, "yeah, at the very least, we should be ready for that big test at the end of the week. Honestly, this stuff isn't too hard to learn, but it's so dry and boring."

Sunset turned to Gleaming, seeming to be still peeved at her and snapped. "Well, I think that you could, at the very least, not interrupt me when I'm trying to teach the group something."

Gleaming glared getting quite furious right back at the orange coated mare and snapped back. "Maybe you should stop being so bucking rude! I never interrupted you, and you've been attacking me all day!"

Sunset stood up, seeming not backing down, and shouted, "Yeah, every time we went over a subject, you just came bursting in blabbing about Cadance doing this Cadance doing that! I don't see how your husband will know about political science, then Celestia!"

Gleaming was steaming as she got up, stomping a hoof on the ground. "Oh, buck you! I didn't do that! You're just mad I know more about this stuff than you or Cadance knows more than Celestia!"

They continued to argue and shout together when suddenly the two were trapped in magical blue bubbles as Trixie stood up and shouted, "Trixie has had enough of you two bickering like little fillies!"

The two ponies turned their backs to each other as the bubbles popped, and they landed on their rumps.

Trixie waved her mane and scoffed, "it's late, and Trixie needs her beauty sleep goodnight!" The showmare then stomped off quite angrily.

"Yeah, I'll follow Trixie, night." Starlight quickly responded, also seeing the tension got up and followed her friend out the door.

Winter looked quite worried as she closed her books. "Ye...yeah, Gleaming, when you're done arguing, maybe we can hang out later." The pegasus then meekly left the room, not wanting to get involved in the two alicorns' argument.

Sunset Shimmer and Gleaming Shield glared at each other both were quite furious at each other. The white-coated mare got up and responded first, trying to mitigate the situation." You and I probably are going to be leading the study group so let's stop fighting and work together, ok?"

Sunset threw a hoof at Gleaming threateningly and shouted, "You can do what you want, but if you dare challenge me, I'm kicking you out of the group."

"Seriously!? Why are you acting like this!?" the white-coated mare snapped back.

"Because I tried being nice, and clearly, you just want to take advantage of me!" Sunset Shimmer cried out.

"Look, I didn't mean what I said this morning, and I'm happy about you being nice to me ok? I won't take advantage of you, and I'm willing to let you lead the study group." Gleaming Shield responded back, still trying to mitigate the conversation but seeing that Sunset had a grudge, and she couldn't figure out why the mare was so mad at her.

Sunset Shimmer paused, realizing maybe she was quick to judge her new roommate's behavior and sighed, "sure...sorry I didn't mean to snap at you... let's just get going to bed, it's late." The orange coated mare quickly left the room then walked off.

Gleaming Shield stood back and shook her head."Even as a mare I don't understand them. They're like a separate species." She then walked off down the hall, hoping to get some sleep before the next day of studies.

Chapter four: The Royal Simulation

It was another few days after Gleaming and Sunset initially started their study group, and Gleaming woke up groggily again to see that Sunset Shimmer was doing her morning yoga stretches. The white mare smirked as she slowly got up and trotted over towards her roommate and was still stunned at how well Sunset performed those stretches. The orange coated mare looked amazing, stretching her body out and spreading her wings. Sunset Shimmer looked dazzling, and Gleaming then turned to the Celestia on screen who looked rather perky this morning with the princess of the sun wearing the familiar cute yoga outfit and that sweatband around her head.

"Don't just stand there; come on over and join me." Sunset Shimmer asked as she waved a hoof. Gleaming rolled her eyes and sighed as it seemed her roommate caught her staring again. The white-coated mare slowly walked over as she decided to join in, and soon the two were performing their stretches together as instructed on T.V. by the alternate Celestia.

As the princess of the sun bent down in a dog pose and slowly stretched out her back and her wings from her side. Gleaming and Sunset followed suit, and the white-coated mare slowly did as she asked, "so, are you ready for the test today?"

"Of course, I am." The orange coated mare scoffed as she felt as this whole course was too easy for her.

Gleaming Shield's cheeks grew pink as she responded, "Yeah, me too I'm finally ready for all of this to be over with. How about you?"

"Yeah, I can't wait to go start ruling Equestria. Honestly, this whole school was a waste of time for me." Sunset whisked her mane as she proclaimed quite boastfully.

Gleaming Shield's cheeks suddenly grew hot red as she got quite embarrassed as she responded, "yeah, you think so?"

"I'm sorry I've been through school before, and i've been taught by Celestia herself on how to rule a kingdom." Sunset Shimmer groaned as she replied, feeling her back and wings popped.

Celestia then slowly stretched her whole body upwards while standing on her back hooves, and the two mares did the same following suit. They performed the final set of stretches for some time, going on their backs and stretching their legs. Gleaming pondered about what Sunset said, feeling unsure of her feelings about this experience as a mare and a princess.

The two continued to do their morning routine, stretching together and enjoying each other's company having a lot of fun together. Sunset then turned the T.V off and yawned, "I think it's about time we went and got ready, but thanks again for joining me with some yoga."

"Yeah, it's no problem; why don't you go wash up while I go cook some breakfast." Gleaming chirped while Sunset gave a nod and walked off to take a shower.

The white-coated mare was busy cooking breakfast that morning, making some eggs sunny side up and toast with coffee and tea. The orange coated mare came back with her mane soaking wet and sniffing the air. "Wow, that smells so good!"

"Does it?" Gleaming asked with a cute smile as she helped sit her roommate down and presented her with a plate of eggs and toast. "There you go, breakfast is served!"

Sunset took a long whiff of the food and drooled down her chin. "This looks so good! Let's dig in!" She and the orange coated mare went at their meals, chomping down their food happily and eating their fill. Sunset then looked up from her plate and snickered, seeing Gleaming getting food all over her face. "You have no etiquette for a princess."

"Sorry, I honestly just get so carried away with good food sometimes." The white-coated mare whispered with an embarrassed look on her face as she let her roommate then helped wipe the food off of her face. Sunset turned away with a blush feeling a bit embarrassed as she asked. "So, we're not going to be roommates anymore."

Gleaming thought about this for a second as she sipped her coffee and sighed, "yeah, I know, I'm actually going to miss you a lot."

Sunset sat back in her seat, thinking about the many exhausting days and nights of studying and gave a long sigh. "Yeah, I guess so. You think our friends will pass the next test?"

The white-coated mare responded with a smile of pride, seeing she and Sunset taught their friends well. "Yes, I believe, so we did enough training with them, and they have improved in their studies."

Sunset shrugged, not feeling as confident about Trixie and Starlight's study habits as she responded. "I hope so, Winter might pass, but I have a bad feeling about Trixie and Starlight. They might struggle a bit."

The white-coated mare turned to face Sunset trying to be a bit more optimistic as she asked, "I guess they might need some help, but we taught them good enough, so try relaxing a bit."

The two then slowly got up, and Gleaming left to take her shower; then, when she got back, she and Sunset started dressing. The white-coated mare still felt so awkward dressing herself once again over her new feminine body and squeaked as her skirt came over her poofy tail. The orange coated mare laughed as she helped her friend adjust her friend's blouse and fixed her mane. "There you go, gosh, I have to do this every morning. You sure you were born a mare?"

Gleaming squeaked as her cheeks grew hot pink as she chirped. "Of course, I was!"

Sunset laughed and booped her friend's nose. "Stop being so overdramatic. Now come on, let's get going."

Gleaming sighed but slowly followed her friend down the winding hallways of their crazy school. They then both went to the classroom where the Teacher Twilight stood there proudly with a smirk. "Hello, you two early as usual?"

Time Hop looked at his pocket watch and shrugged as the mares both curtseyed. "Yes, Twilight, we're here to learn."

The two alicorns squeaked as they spoke in unison and snickered. Twilight then turned towards the giant clock over the chalkboard. "Well, since you're early, you can take your seats and study; the test will begin shortly."

The princesses gave quick nods and hurried off to their seats. The two mares went about taking notes as Twilight slammed a ruler on her desk, and the princesses in training both looked up in shock, seeing that most ponies were now in their seats.

The violet mare didn't give anypony a chance to settle as she shouted, "everypony! Are you ready for today's test!?"

Every student groaned as Twilight placed a pile of books down on her desk as she explained, "now, now you all knew today was going to be your final so go pick your partners." Sunset slowly trotted over to Gleaming Shield and asked, "may I join you?"

Gleaming, feeling a bit surprised that Sunset would ask her and replied, "of course, you can roomy." Sunset nuzzled her friend as she sat right next to her.

Winter gulped, seeing no other groups to join, she slowly got up and meekly walked over to the two. "Hey, is it ok if I join your group too?"

Gleaming turned to Sunset and blushed and asked that being unsure of her roommate would be ok with their team's addition. "Is that ok with you?"

Sunset shrugged casually and replied, "I'm fine with her; I think she would make an excellent addition to our group."

Winter flew over and pulled the two into a tight hug and squealed excitedly. "Oh, thank you so much!"

The white-coated mare squeaked as three were then suddenly hit a burst of energy and were suddenly teleported into thin air.

The three mares were all looking around the new room; they were teleported into a large ornate throne room. Gleaming looked around, seeing it looked precisely like the throne room princess Celestia had. A line of ponies was stretched out before them in front of them, waiting for them to help with their problems.

Gleaming was the most surprised, seeing so many ponies at once and shaking all over. She never felt so nervous in her life and exclaimed, "we have to hold court!?"

The crazy looking Twilight then suddenly appeared as she exclaimed, "that's right! For this test, you need to listen to what each pony has to say and try to help them in the best way possible. Good luck!"

Gleaming's eyes went wide as they started coming forward, and one unicorn stallion walked in, wearing a fancy looking suit and held his head up and scoffed. "Hello, I have issues with my business. I believe I'm being taxed too much."

The white-coated mare shrugged, "Alright? Can we see your last bill?" The stallion took out a form, and the mares looked it over. Sunset Shimmer looked the form over with an eyebrow cocked. "Hmm, he's right. He's being taxed way too much. We'll pay you back how much we owe you next!"

The stallion nodded as Gleaming nuzzled Sunset and whispered. "Good job you're a natural at this."

Just then, another noble stallion came strutting forward and asked, "so I need assistance with my pool. The water is far too hot, and I need somepony to cool it down."

Winter beamed a smile and exclaimed excitedly. "Oh, I can do that!" She whisked her wings, and suddenly out of nowhere; she blew a blizzard through the air with snow piling inside the throne room. The stallion stood there with his eyes growing wide in disbelief, "Hey! Stop that!"

The two alicorns quickly flew upwards as the snow piled inside the throne room, and Gleaming stood there with her hooves wrapped around her body, shivering as he shouted," Winter stop!"

The mare squealed as she flew down on the ground. "Sorry about that?"

Gleaming rubbed a hoof over her face and gave a long deep sigh. "Ok...look, we can't just change the weather for anypony's issues."

"Right…" Winter squeaked as maids suddenly appeared and started shoveling the snow out of the castle.

Gleaming turned her attention to the noble. "Now, I know that your pool water might be too hot. But seriously, we can't change the weather simply on your behest."

The stallion nodded and gulped, feeling somewhat guilty as he stammered, "right…sorry about all of this…"

He then slowly walked away and then turned to the next pony that came; it was two earth ponies, one was bright orange and the other a tomato red. The orange coated stallion smashed a hoof down who asked, "so my pumpkins are growing just fine, and this hooligan is growing his tomatoes across my yard!"

"My tomatoes need room to grow!" the other earth pony shouted and got into the face of his rival.

The mares got into a huddle as Winter blushed and squeaked. "I have to be honest; I don't know anything about farming."

"This is about farming, it's about a dispute over land." Sunset groaned as she turned to Gleaming and asked, "we need to figure out a solution to this dispute."

The white-coated alicorn looked up with this light in her eyes, nodded, and chirped, "right!"

Gleaming turned towards the two farmers with a smile and asked, "so, to settle this, how about you show us some pictures."

The earth ponies placed pictures of the farm with the tomatoes growing into the pumpkin patch. Gleaming rolled her eyes. "This is so obvious that your tomatoes are growing into this pumpkin pony's yard. Seriously!? How can you see this as anything else."

The orange coated stallion beamed a smile of pride as the tomato earth pony farmer stomped a hoof. "This is insulting! My tomatoes need more room to grow!"

"Those darn tomatoes are growing in my pumpkins!" the orange coated stallion roared back.

Gleaming came forward and explained in the most sincere manner possible. "look, pumpkin sir…"

"My name is Pumpkin Patch!" the stallion snapped and stomped a hoof on the ground.

Gleaming squeaked and quickly replied, "yes, Pumpkin Patch, you see you have a lot of land, and we do need other fruits and vegetables to grow in Equestria, so would you mind lending some of your land for Mr. Tomato?"

Tomato looked over at Pumpkin Patch, who then sighed and waved a hoof. "Fine, I'll agree to those terms."

The two then left as Sunset squealed, hugging Gleaming. "That was amazing!"

Winter flew over and hugged them both. "Yeah, that was pretty amazing!"

Then they turned to see a battalion of pegasi burst through the throne room with trumpets blaring. Then a stallion flew in and bowed. "Princesses! We have an emergency! The yaks of Yakyakastan have declared war!"

The princesses all gasped except for Winter rolled her eyes and simply waved a hoof. "Oh, please, you're all over reacting. Bring in the envoy of Yakyakastan."

A burly thick-coated yak wearing a thick set of armor came stomping into the throne room shouting. "I am the ambassador of Yakyakastan and demand that ponies give us our land of ice and snow!"

Winter flew over and explained, "to be fair; not everything has to be ice and snow."

"What does ice pony mean?" The yak asked, scratching his horn.

Winter casually pointed a hoof and explained. "The ponies can't live in a world of only ice and snow. They aren't as built like you yaks."

"I see, so we have to let silly ponies live in their nice flowery fields!" The yak chortled and laughed.

Winter gave a small nod. "That's right, and if you can please not go to war with us, it would be sure to show how amazing and brave you are."'

The ambassador smashed a hoof to his chest. "Right, you weak ponies can keep your fields, we yaks shall go!"

The yakyakistan ambassador stomped off with Sunset, and Gleaming blinked in surprise. Winter turned around with a blush on her face and shrugged. "What?"

The two other alicorns rushed over and hugged her as she laughed, "What's this all about!?"

Gleaming eyes lit up as she couldn't believe her friend Winter just stopped a war squeaked, "that was simply amazing! I can't believe you pulled that off!"

"Me too!? I never thought you knew how to trick yaks!?" Sunset exclaimed, being quite excited as she flapped her wings.

The three were then suddenly teleported back to the classroom where the Teacher Twilight stood over them with a beaming smile, as she exclaimed. "You all passed!"

"What!?" All three exclaimed excitedly as Twilight nodded, "you three are doing excellent and have done everything I asked for! So for the next few days, I'm going to give you a break and send you to a dimension of your choice."

Sunset snickered as a thought came over her mind and asked,"Can we see where Gleaming comes from?"

Gleaming was quite surprised, and the mare was quite scared of anypony knowing who she was and exclaimed, "Wait, what!?"

Winter had a smirk on her face wanting to know more about her new friend and replied, "Ah, yes, that sounds like a great idea. I would love to see Gleaming's dimension."

The mare stammered, "W...w...wait! No, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Hmm, I say it's two against one. Well, go on and enjoy your time together. When you come back, you'll be having etiquette lessons with Celestia." Twilight proclaimed as she lit her horn, and three were then sent flying through a portal.

Chapter Five: Gleaming Sheild's gender is revealed!

Gleaming Shield groaned as she slowly rubbed her head and rolled over as the mare realized that she was somehow in her parent's dining room. The alicorn felt as if she was just slammed by a chariot. The mare rolled over and saw her parents, Twilight and his wife Cadance, sitting around the table enjoying dinner. The alicorn princess in training groaned, rubbing her head as she slowly got up. The mare gasped in surprise upon seeing Sunset Shimmer and Winter both scratching their heads as well groaning as they slowly got up as they looked around confused as well. Cadance then flew over to Gleaming immediately and embraced her in a hug wrapping her pink feathered wings around her husband. "Oh, thanks, Celestia, you're ok! Twilight's told me everything!?"

Gleaming squeaked at the sudden embrace while Sunset Shimmer blinked in surprise, then took a hoof over her mouth and snickered, "oh wow, I didn't know you were gay."

Cadance blinked, being entirely confused by the mare's statement. "Huh? What are you talking about, Sh-"

The white-coated alicorn lifted her wings in front of her wife with sweat pouring down her face and squeaked, "oh yes, I'm gay; you all figured out my secret!"

Everypony blinked as her family all turned to Gleaming with confused looks, and she gave them a sheepish smile. It didn't take long for her family to understand he didn't tell these other mares that she was really a guy.

Twilight laughed at this revelation as she turned to the orange coated mare and, with a surprised look as she exclaimed, "Sunset Shimmer is here!"

"Oh, you have a version of Twilight Sparkle to; hello, it's good to see you again." the orange coated mare replied with a sarcastic smile.

"'Well, I guess in your universe, you're not a spoiled brat," Twilight responded with a smirk.

The orange coated mare performed a curtsey. "Yes, I do apologize how my alternate version of me. If she was anything like how I was before I met Celestia, I was quite a monster."

Twilight waved a hoof as she continued, "oh, you weren't honestly that bad. I've met and fought a few actual villains, and you were nothing like them."

Sunset Shimmer eyed her and snapped back. "Oh yeah!? Am I supposed to take that as a compliment!?"

Twilight rolled her eyes, not feeling like getting into a fight with Sunset Shimmer, and asked. "And who are you?"

"I'm W..Winter a..a goddess of...um...winter." The mare squeaked, feeling quite embarrassed with Twilight inspecting her closely as if examining a specimen of some kind.

The violet alicorn was quite surprised at what she said and cried out. "Seriously, a goddess!?"

Twilight turned towards Gleaming Shield and giggled, "you made such good friends!?"

"Y..ye..yeah! And we um..finished your course and passed..n...now were just waiting to get called back in to do the next course." The mare stammered, being quite nervous.

Twilight put a hoof on her brother. "Then you need to relax, every time I finish a huge test the next day, I just sleep and read."

Cadance snickered behind a hoof, still getting all jittery from the idea of her husband becoming a full alicorn princess. "I can't believe my hus-I mean um wife is becoming a princess! We should go out and celebrate!"

Gleaming's eyes lit up as she stamped a hoof on the ground and snapped, "No way!"

The other mares turned in surprise as Twilight blushed, seeing they were getting mixed signals. "Um...sister, you should go and hang out...nopony...um...will...see that you're any different."

"R..right, I get what you're saying." Gleaming Shield stammered as she realized herself that she did look like Shining. Still, there were a lot of significant differences to hide her true identity.

Twilight Velvet smiled as she came forward. "Well, I agree with Twilight. I think you all should celebrate passing your test knowing my daughter that test probably wasn't easy."

Gleaming rolled her eyes. "The studying prior was more exhausting than the test itself. The test was practical too, so all the studying was a waste of time. I've been around princess Cadance and Celestia long enough to understand how to hold court."

Winter nuzzled, Gleaming as she whispered, "are you kidding? If it weren't for her and Sunset, I would've definitely failed. That test was nerve-racking."

Gleaming nuzzled her new friend of all her new friends, Winter was the softest of the group but also the kindest. The alicorn nuzzled her pegasus friend, and Twilight Velvet and Night Light slowly left, not wanting to get involved in this.

Cadance raised her wings and sang, "That's it! No more stalling! Let's go have some fun!" The ponies cheered as Gleaming tried to think of a way to get out of this and squeaked, "wait, shouldn't we wear something to hide our wings!? I mean, we can't hide our horns, and ponies would freak out seeing a few alicorns wandering around town."

Twilight scoffed as she pointed out. "You're all wearing your uniforms, and they do a good job of hiding your wings already. So just pretend your unicorns."

Gleaming realized Twilight was right (except for the fact it had a princess in training written over her chest.) "fine...guess you have a point…"

Winter fluttered over, getting all excited as she chirped, "you all stop worrying now come on, let's go!"

The mares all pushed Gleaming Shield out through the front door. She kicked and cried out, hoping no pony would recognize her resemblance to being Shining Armor!

The mares were all now in a shopping center, ordering all kinds of things from a nearby dress shop, a shoe shop. Now they were at a cafe sipping coffee together. They were laughing and having a blast except for Gleaming, who didn't buy anything she mostly stood about and watched, being too nervous to really do much. Cadance noticed, and it was evident that her husband had kept the secret about his gender change from the others but didn't say anything and simply stood by her husband. The princess of love turned to Sunset and asked, "so I heard the stories about the human dimension but are they actually true? Do they walk around on two legs and wear clothes all the time?"

The mare gave a blush as she responded. "Yes, that's all true, in fact...I feel more comfortable in clothes then I do without."

Cadance shrugged as she asked, "I guess it makes sense if they don't have fur, goodness knows, just being in your skin would be so uncomfortable."

Winter looked over and replied, "yeah, I guess so...but I have to admit I wonder what my human form would look like?"

Gleaming rolled her eyes at the notion of even seeing herself as a human and scoffed, "I don't even want to know what my human form would look like. I think maybe it's best we stay as ponies."

Cadence dawwed as she nuzzled Gleaming. "Oh, stop being so adorable! I bet you would look so cute as a human too!" The true alicorn princess rubbed her muzzle into Gleaming and snagged a kiss and held the embrace for a bit.

Sunset got a little jealous, seeing the two kiss and snapped, "ugh, get a room, you two!"

Winter shoved Sunset as she turned around and being a bit bashful as she wanted to know how they met and asked, "tell us...how did you two meet? I mean, did you find out you were...um….into mares before? Or after?"

They both blinked, not expecting the question as Gleaming stammered, "Wel...well, you see... I..I've always been into mares. I...I can't completely understand why I fell in love with Cadance, but when I was being a royal guard in Canterlot palace, she simply caught my eye...I asked her out, and the rest is history." Gleaming felt a bit more confident at the very least the answer wasn't a lie at all, seeing that despite lying about her true gender, she really was into mares and how she met Cadance wasn't a lie.

However, the princess of love was taken abit back; she actually did have an interest in trying to be with another mare, but it never really came across as a question from another pony before. Cadance gulped before she answered, "I was quite surprised that Gleaming asked me out and um...yeah, I was surprised I was into mares more then she was."

Cadence slowly rose up, seeing the sun setting. Luna raising the moon, she asked, "My love has been sucked into a book for almost a week, and I did love our time together, but I need to have some alone time with her."

"Um, of course!?" The other mares exclaimed, and Gleaming was quite surprised at her wife's outburst and squeaked, "wait, what do you mean by that!?"

Cadance turned to Gleaming's worried look and asked, "I mean? Don't you want to be with me?"

"Of course!? But...oh...nevermind." The princes in training mumbled, too embarrassed to try explaining what she thinks Cadance wants to do in private.

Sunset got up with a bunch of shopping bags within her magic. "Well! We'll head back to your parent's house, Gleaming. I hope you don't mind if we take your room."

The princess in training eyes lit up at this and realized her room had tons of evidence she was a stallion and squeaked, "nope! No problem!"

Winter looked down at the ground and whispered, "thank you, Gleaming?"

"Well, I've been staying at a hotel. I mean, your parents only have two spare rooms, so I got a hotel room." Princess Cadance explained casually.

Gleaming cheeks flushed pink, wondering out loud as she responded, "I mean, couldn't you have gotten a room at the palace?"

Cadance strutted over and nuzzled her husband and whispered, "I could've, but I didn't want to bring too much attention and I do want to have our privacy."

Gleaming gulped as she strutted off with her wife, wondering what Cadance has planned.

The white-coated alicorn walked into Cadance's hotel room and blushed, seeing how grand and quaint it could be at the same time it was with a single bed, a vanity table, and a bathroom. The mare was quite stunned at what she saw. "Wow, this is a nice room?"

"Yeah, it is perks of being royalty and all...soon you'll enjoy these perks too." Cadance chirped, booping her husband's nose.

"I'm not staying like this!" The alicorn princess snapped as she plopped on the bed with her hooves crossed over her chest. "I know you all think this is cute and funny, but I seriously want to be a stallion again."

Cadance sighed, seeing she might've teased her husband a bit too much as she sat down across from her. "Ok then go on explain everything that's happened I won't interrupt."

It took a while, but Gleaming took a deep breath as she started to tell his wife everything from how he wrote his name in Twilight's book as a joke, then he was shown to an all powerful alicorn named Faust. After that, she was taken to a version of Cadance and learned "anatomy." She was taken to an understanding of Twilight, who taught them all kinds of normal subjects like Tax law and political science and passed a test where they had to hold a mock court. Cadance laughed and snickered at a lot of the things her husband told her. The princess gave a sigh taking a breath, and explained, "oh my!? You've been through a lot."

"Yeah, I mean honestly, I maybe a princess alicorn now. But like I said, I honestly prefer being a stallion, and I'm only doing these stupid classes trying to get my original gender back." The mare grumbled under her breath being agitated about the whole situation.

Cadance thought things over for a bit before whispering, "I know, but I think you should tell your new friends the truth about your gender swap…"

Gleaming laid down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling as she responded, "honestly, I think when they snoop around my room, they'll find out on their own...I know that Winter might understand she seems forgiving enough. But Sunset Shimmer she'll be furious at me...I think that at the very least, Sunset's feelings for me will die down. I honestly think she's into mares."

"Yeah, thanks for not cheating on me." Cadance scoffed as she got up and laid right over her husband.

The white-coated alicorn cried out in surprise, her eyes widening, seeing Cadance on top of her with the lovely pink and yellow mane pouring over her mane. Gleaming gulped being quite nervous as she knew what was going to happen next and stammered, "w..wh...what are you going to do?"

Cadence looked over this cute alicorn mare with a smile. "Well, who knows when you'll go back into that book, and for how long. I honestly never laid with another mare before. It's something I always secretly wanted to try."

"Wait, you don't me-" The white-coated alicorn cried out as Cadance kissed her
former husband. They held the embrace for quite some as they laid with each other in the bed as the lights dimmed around the two mares.

Sunset Shimmer and Winter were back at Gleaming's parent's house; the orange coated mare was in deep contemplation as she looked at the ground and trotted off and grumbled, "Gleaming is hiding something from us."

Winter sighed as she looked over with a smile. "Oh, that's obvious. Did you see his parents and sister they were surprised when Gleaming said she was gay?"

"Yeah... it's rather odd. I mean, I could've sworn Cadance almost said husband at one point...you don't think Gleaming might've been a guy?" the mare whispered.

Winter shrugged as she replied, "it wouldn't matter to me. It honestly wouldn't change my opinion of her...or him."

"I think that at the very least she should've been honest with us! I mean, he's seen me naked!" Sunset cried out loud.

Winter snickered behind a hoof. "Um, Sunset, you keep forgetting most ponies don't wear clothes."

“R..r..right.” Sunset replied sheepishly that the mare kept forgetting that fact about ponies. She kept trotting off as the mare thought things over about Gleaming hiding her true gender and grumbled, "still, he should've told us the truth anyways."

Winter gave a sigh seeing Sunset wasn't letting this go. "We don't even know if he or she is actually a stallion."

"Yeah, not yet, anyways…" Sunset smirked as they came to the house, and she knocked.

Twilight opened the door with a smirk." Well, well, it's about time you showed up? You had fun?"

"Oh Twilight, we had an amazing time!" the orange coated mare chirped as she skipped inside the house.

Winter meekly walked in behind her as Sunset Shimmer threw off her uniform and unfurled her wings.

Twilight was quite stunned to see one of her former enemies now a full-grown alicorn princess and she has to ask."How? I mean, seriously, how did you become an alicorn?"

Sunset Shimmer turned towards Twilight and scoffed, "honestly, you became the princess of friendship even after for years denouncing friends. So why couldn't I change too?"

The violet alicorn paused as she turned towards her friend. "Yes, I know you changed and became a better person, or in this case, pony. But I'm just still surprised by it all."

Sunset sighed as she replied, "well, to be fair, I started as a human and came through a portal on accident. I was rude and a bully and made life miserable for other students. But when I came to Equestria, I was alone and had nopony, but Celestia took me under her wing and showed me how to be better. To be fair, you and I were rivals, and friendship was never my forte.' Still, Celestia decided she was retiring and thought I would be a suitable replacement and ta-dah! She gave me this strange book that teleported me to interdimensional school to become a princess!"

Twilight was quite surprised that Sunset would tell her all of this. "So..d..did we ever become friends?"

Sunset turned to Twilight and scoffed, "of course we did!" The princes in training rushed Twilight and hugged the violet alicorn. "You helped me accept Celestia's proposal to take her spot. I didn't think I could do it."

Twilight was quite stunned at Sunset's sudden embrace. "Y...yeah...I...I guess that makes sense."

Sunset Shimmer then broke away with her cheeks flushed and replied, "well, it's rather late and...um... where's my bro- I mean sister!" Twilight was sweating as she almost gave away her brother's secret.

Sunset heard the mistake as it made her suspicious even more, but she kept her questions to herself as she answered, "oh, she's with her wife at a hotel for some alone time."

Sunset Shimmer growled as she knew that even if Gleaming was married, she still did have feelings for her. Twilight rolled her eyes, being a bit annoyed by her brother and his wife not coming by to at least say goodnight."Cadance and Shining could've explained things better. But alright, you two can have Shi-I mean Gleaming's room!" The violet alicorn scolded herself mentally to keep Shining's gender a secret.

She flew across the house as she led the other alicorns across the house and opened the door. Twilight then lit her horn and made a copy of Shining's bed. "There two beds! So nopony has to sleep on the floor!"

Winter squealed, clapping her hooves. "Wow, that was pretty cool!"

Sunset placed down their shopping bags and scoffed, "it was just a copy spell Winter. I'm sure you can do more amazing things than that."

The goddess got flustered by her friend's comment. "Well yeah, but it was still cool!"

Twilight laughed at how the two were fighting reminding her of her own friends bickering. "Ok, ok, you two are so different. Anyways get some sleep, I'm sure you're going to need it."

The violet alicorn slowly closed the door. As soon as she did, Sunset started going around the room, the closet with a bunch of dresses. She turned to see there was a vanity table, even a Ponyquin. There was even a chest of "old Gleaming stuff" filled with a bunch of dolls, but they were mares in armor.

"Hmm, something doesn't seem right…" Sunset mumbled under her breath.

Winter turned with a smirk seeing Sunset being all flustered at her being wrong and asked, "what? That Gleaming was a mare the whole time, and she was telling the truth?"

Sunset Shimmer turned around with a smirk at Winter and explained, "Nope! I recognize a transformation spell when I see one. Twilight is good, but I was also taught magic by her too, watch this." She lit her horn, and the vanity table turned to a simple desk with books on being a royal guard, the dresses turning into suits, and the dolls turned into stallion action figures. Winter squeaked as the magic dissipated at the revelations as Sunset sighed, "well, looks like I was right Gleaming is really a guy after all."

The next morning Cadance and Shining walked back to her parent's house with the white-coated alicorn shaking all over. She was so nervous about seeing Sunset with her secret probably now exposed, she had no idea how she was going to take it. As they approached her house, Sunset threw open the door as Sunset stomped over and snapped, "so! I figured it all out!"

Gleaming shivered as the furious mare stomped over. "You were a stallion the whole time! Why didn't you tell me!"

"Be...because I didn't want to ruin our friendship." Gleaming stammered with sweat pouring down her face.

"Well, it was weird! Honestly, you shouldn't have lied to me!" Sunset cried out, feeling actually hurt Gleaming was lying to her.

The alicorn princess rubbed her head as she explained, "I was a stallion big deal, I just didn't want a bunch of mares asking me awkward questions with me being the only stallion, ok."

Winter slowly trotted over and meeped. "I don't mind you being a stallion.."

Gleaming gave a sigh as she turned her attention to the goddess. "That's a relief, thanks Winter, I knew you would understand."

Sunset stomped over and shoved her snout into Gleaming's face. "Well, Winter maybe ok with this. But I'm not! I trusted and cared for you, and this is how I'm repaid!? Ugh, I need to fly off and think!" The orange coated princess raised her wings and flew into the air.

Gleaming was going to go after her Cadance placed a hoof over her husband's shoulder and whispered, "let her go, she needs time to process this."

The princess of alicorn looked downwards with sadness and disappointment in herself. "Yo..your right, I should've told her sooner."

Winter, however, came over and nuzzled Gleaming. "I still think you turning from a stallion to a mare is really cute."

"Ok, ok... let's just go eat." The alicorn princess squeaked as she wasn't used to Winter's strange behavior and quickly walked inside.

After an hour of eating breakfast with her family, they were all eating pancakes and eggs with coffee in silence. Twilight was sullen. She saw how easy Sunset Shimmer saw through her spell, Twilight Velvet and Night Light were both eating their breakfast, silently feeling awkward. Winter kept blushing, looking over at the stallion turned mare with a blush on her face. Meanwhile, Cadance looked content thinking over last night while Gleaming, who enjoyed her night with her wife, was still feeling strange about it. Suddenly the front door burst open, and Sunset slowly trotted over and apologized. "Look, I'll accept you being a stallion, and I'm sorry for how I acted earlier. To be honest, I just want to be your friend and you being a stallion before...it...it was a lot to take in all at once."

Gleaming smiled at Sunset feeling a lot better all of a sudden, seeing her being more reasonable as she replied, "ok, and I'm happy to see that our friendship isn't ruined."

Twilight dawwed as she got up. "Oh, it's so great to see you two making up, now come on Sunset, enjoy some breakfast! My mom and dad made plenty!" She then slid her a plate of food and a mug of coffee. As Sunset sat down to eat, the mare looked up at Gleaming and Cadance; seeing how they were acting, she smirked and asked, "so, how was your time at the hotel last night anything interesting happened?"

Being the most reasonable, Cadence simply blushed and turned her head, unable to answer. At the same time, her former husband slammed a hoof on the table. "That's none of your business, Sunset!"

Twilight got the hint that something did happen, and then it came to her as she unconsciously asked, "wait, you two had…"

Gleaming stood there with her face now a tomato red stammering and squeaking noises as Cadance rolled her eyes and scoffed, "we had sex big deal? We're married, and it's been a while since we were together."

Gleaming cried out in horror as everypony burst into laughter. The princess in training fell backward, feeling so embarrassed and wishing that she could just go to her next class when all of a sudden, the "how to train a princess" book suddenly appeared as the familiar voice or princess Faust echoed throughout the kitchen. "Sorry to break things up, but your next course is ready!"

Before anypony could say anything, the book slowly lit up and shined a bright light, and all the princesses in training suddenly disappeared.

Chapter seven: Princess Celestia's school of etiquette part two: How to eat like a princess

Gleaming Shield was suddenly woken up the next morning in her soft, comfy “princess style bed,” looking right up at Sunset Shimmer’s smug face. She looked rather silly with her mane frazzled and looking quite a mess and with bags under her eyes. The princess alicorn was gently nudging her and whispering in her ear. "Hey, it's time to wake up, sleeping beauty."

The white-coated mare rolled her eyes at the dumb joke as she slowly got out of bed. Gleaming was still feeling quite tired, noticing that ever since she became a mare waking up seemed to take more energy than when she was a stallion. But she eventually got on all fours and was now looking out the window and seeing the moon still out; Gleaming rubbed her eyes with a hoof and mumbled, “what time is it?”

Sunset was not really in the mood to answer her friend’s question and snapped, “seriously, just come on, I have to get going soon, but I want to make sure you're properly ready for today.”

Gleaming groaned as she knew today would be the start of their official "Princess in Training." The alicorn princess slowly trotted to access the room towards the bathroom to start getting ready for the day. She was quite surprised to see that Winter was already inside the bathroom and a pout on her face. The goddess of winter seemed to get quite angry seeing Sunset come in and snapped, "Ugh, I wanted her alone. Come on, you two hung out all night together."

Sunset got a little prissy as well and snapped, "yeah, because she was helping me with my penmanship, that doesn't really count a “hanging out” now you can get her mane and tail. I got her makeup."

"Fine, then," Winter grumbled with a cute pout on her face. The white-coated mare started with washing and slowly brushed out the tangles from Gleaming's mane and tail. She squinted and clenched her teeth every time the goddess pulled the knots from her hair, making her squeak and kick about in pain. Winter was starting to feel bad as she meeped out, “I’m sorry,” multiple times throughout the brushing. Gleaming didn’t say much else and endured the rest of the makeover. The mare then saw Sunset rubbing some foundation on her face and then snapped, “pucker those lips, please.”

Gleaming grumbled but did as Sunset asked and puckered her lips with Sunset giving a smirk and the former stallion wondered if Sunset thought about kissing her. But the alicorn princess went and smeared some pink lipstick over her mouth. It felt chalky, but it wasn’t too thick, and Gleaming smacked her lips, a feeling time getting them wet. Sunset then went about putting some light makeup around her eyes. Gleaming just stared straight at the tiles behind Sunset, trying to ignore what was happening to her. She can get through this, no matter how embarrassing. If she could get through boot camp, then she can get through this. The mare then felt Winter start to curl her mane, and this made her squeak and feel her mane being pulled and curled by the mare. At the same time, Sunset placed false eyelashes on her and continued to put eyeliner over her eyes. Gleaming could feel her face growing hot red from sheer embarrassment; this was becoming more than she could handle ever in her life would she considered putting on mascara. The mare was even considering that going through boot camp a second time wouldn’t be as bad as this.

"Alright, I need to do her tail," Winter snapped as she took the curling iron once more, and Gleaming turned with her already red face now steaming from embarrassment as she cried out. “Seriously!”

But before she could protest, Winter was running the curling iron over Gleaming’s tail. The white-coated alicorn squealed in pain as the mare's tail was being pulled and curled. Winter did multiple pass-throughs as Gleaming had enough and shouted, "Ugh! Stop that! My tail should be bouncy enough now!”

Winter stepped back, feeling a bit embarrassed as she whispered, “sorry.”

Sunset shook her head and sighed, coming around Gleaming and looking at her back and grumbled, "you forgot about preening her wings."

"You did that yesterday! She doesn't need them preened every day," The pegasus mare cried out.

"Gleaming needs to look perfect! Besides, we got this far already," Sunset shouted, seeming to get quite furious as she took the mare and started to use her teeth to remove the dirt from her feathers again. However, this was the least painful part as she moaned as the alicorn went and quickly cleaned and spat out some bent feathers. But the moment was ruined once again when Winter exclaimed, “ok! I’m done!” As she skipped in front of her friend and the alicorn princess in training gulped, seeing the big wide-eyed mare while Sunset's face was a shade of pink.

Gleaming gulped now, feeling quite scared of how she looked as she cried out, "hey! Stop that! Tell me, how do I look!"

"Um...uh...just see for yourself!" Sunset snapped out loud as she ran off, and Winter feinted with what looked like blood coming from her nose. The mare gulped as she turned towards the mirror and gasped, seeing her reflection. It was unlike anything she could imagine; her mane was perfect and bouncy, her tail curled delicately while her eyelashes were doubled their average length, with her face now had light blush on her cheeks. Her lips had some pink lipstick gently applied to them making them look glossy. She was undoubtedly the very definition of the term "sexy" and now Gleaming was starting to feel self-conscious about her looks and quickly went back to her room. She went through the wardrobe of dresses taking out a light gold dress with white satin lacing and trim; she placed it over her body and turned to see Sunset wearing a simple yellow dress with her mane and tail curled and all prettied up. Gleaming was quite stunned seeing Sunset looking so beautiful she had to turn away as her beauty as if her beauty was hurting her eyes.

Sunset stood by, seeming to be too angry at her dress as she was adjusting it in the mirror nearby. The orange coated alicorn grumbled under her breath. "I have to go deal with the prissy Celestia, I hope you'll be ok without me."

Gleaming slowly came over to her new friend, feeling uncomfortable with the dress swishing around her. She slowly came over and took her hooves around the mare and hugged her close."You'll do fine, remember to relax; you got this"

Sunset bowed her head from what Gleaming saw; her classmate wanted to say something, but she grumbled under her breath as she walked off down the hall quite disgruntled. Gleaming just stood there staring at the door, hoping Sunset will pass and everything will turn out alright. She barely even noticed Winter comer over all prettied up too with her mane curled, and wearing a sparkling light blue dress, she nuzzled Gleaming making her sigh as she replied, "Come on, let's go eat before we head to our classes."

She sat down with her new friend at the small table set up in their room. They used the phone and ordered some light pastries of croissants and coffee. They then began to eat breakfast together in almost perfect silence. They ordered some pastries and coffee as they ate their breakfast together. It was relatively calm and peaceful, with the two mares eating their breakfast together.

Gleaming couldn't help but notice that it was quite apparent that Winter had feelings for her and asked, "so...you want to get something off your chest before we go to class."

The goddess gulped, seeming to be unsure of asking her question, and whispered, "so...um...yeah, I have a question."

"Yeah, go ahead, ask away," Gleaming replied; she would rather get this over with now and not in front of the anal Celestia.

"So….um do...do you like Sunset Shimmer," Winter whispered meekly into her coffee.

The white-coated alicorn princess seemed to be a bit confused and responded, "Of course I do."

The goddess rolled her eyes looking rather annoyed, and replied, "I mean..more than a friend."

"Well...I do like her a lot, but I'm married. I can't just do what I want," Gleaming snapped, getting quite angry as she continued to eat her food, now being angry at Winter even implying having feelings for Sunset Shimmer.

Gleaming decided to try to find a way to keep this conversation from getting any more awkward. The mare got up and grabbed the chessboard and placed it down between her and Winter. "Let's just play something to keep our minds occupied."

"Right...not what I was hoping for," Winter mumbled under her breath as they went and played together for some time.

It wasn't long after Gleaming beating Winter on their first game that Celestia came through the door. The two performed curtseys on instinct, with Gleaming still feeling so awkward in her dress she was only glad that her wife wasn't there to see her.

Celestia took a hoof and replied, "rise, please."

The two princesses in training did as Celestia asked, standing up in front of her as she circled them. Gleaming felt it was like when she was Shining and having his uniform inspected. As Celestia spun back to face them, she clapped her hooves. "Bravo, you two look simply beautiful; now come, let's go to the dining hall."

The two princesses in training followed their mentor down the hall, with Gleaming still feeling flustered from the morning, not knowing how much more of this princess stuff she would be able to take.

The two princesses walked down the stairs and through a set of double doors; what laid before them was a long table with plates and silverware already set up correctly in straight lines. Alicorn princesses were sitting across from each other. Sunset Shimmer was sitting proudly, and Gleaming quickly strutted over and sat down next to the mare; and she was quite excited as she asked, "did you pass!?"

Sunset was also giddy from excitement and whispered, "yeah, in fact, I was told I had the best penmanship than anypony else, thank you."

The two alicorns then hugged each other wrapping their wings around as Winter looked on with jealousy. Then Celestia interrupted their happy reunion and exclaimed," "attention, my students! Listen up!"

Everypony looked down the table towards Celestia as she cleared her throat. "Now, this will be a class in proper table etiquette. Now I must warn you this class will be long and tedious as the last, as before you may use the restroom at any time properly excuse yourself. Also, don't worry about refreshments.. you'll be quite full by the end of the day, I'm sure."

Gleaming grumbled under her breath, not looking forward to this; she then noticed a few bottles of wine, and Sunset leaned over to her ear and whispered. "You want to get drunk while Celestia isn't noticing."

Sunset had a devilish grin on her face, and even Winter snickered beneath a hoof. "Hehe, whoever can sneak in the most glasses wins."

"Ok, I'll keep count, so no lying," Sunset cooed as she took a bottle and poured each of the mares a glass.

Gleaming smirked as a stallion; she had been through her fair share of drinking games these two were going down. They then turned their attention to Celestia as she began her first lecture on proper silverware placement.

Gleaming had to endure a class even more tedious and boring than the last going over topics like proper silverware etiquette. They went over how to eat soup properly, then how to eat and dress a salad, how to eat spaghetti, to simple fancy dinners, to how to dab their chins with napkins, how to drink wine and tea properly, and how to eat desserts like ice cream and cake. However, the three princesses in training were getting quite drunk. Winter was wobbling back and forth while Sunset was trying to throw grapes into a bowl nearby and missing most of her shots. Gleaming, however, just couldn't keep her eyes off Sunset while Celestia blabbered on about." "How well they were and how she was quite proud of them...but the words they all heard was, "you are now dismissed."

All of the mares started to leave as soon as those words left Celestia's lips. The three mares stumbled off down the halls, drunkenly mixing into the crowd of other princesses. Gleaming stumbled about as things were going through her head, she liked Sunset, but she was married; they can't be together. Even if they did, it would only before a few days, and it would be just a stupid fling. Winter couldn't help but snicker as she opened the doors and flexed her wings." "Yay, it's finally over."

Sunset just groaned as she slumped over her bed and grumbled, "I'm done... I don't want to eat anything else for the rest of the day.”

"I bet you ate more than the rest of us combined," Gleaming laughed out loud as Sunset snickered at the joke as she tore off her dress and flung it across the room. The white-coated alicorn removed her dress next, slowly pulling it from her body. She kicked it and scoffed, "what improper manners, I think the anal Celestia will come and shove a stick up your rump."

Winter laughed as she threw her dress off next and laid down on the bed. "Come on, who won the wine contest? Was it me?"

Sunset burst into laughter, kicking her legs about uncontrollably, and exclaimed, "it was me I won! I drank three full bottles of wine! Both of you only had two.”

Gleaming stumbled, actually feeling embarrassed as a stallion should've been able to drink at least four or five before getting this tipsy; she must weigh a lot less as a mare. The drunk alicorn stumbled about, unable to keep her balance as she came forward and fell between the other mares. She turned to Sunset first, and before she knew it, they were kissing, and her mind exploded as feelings she hadn't felt before flooded her mind. Then she somehow found herself with Sunset on top of her with the mare's hoofs digging near her crotch area. Sunset was giving her bedroom eyes and making her feel so hot and bothered as she whispered seductively, “so Gleaming, you helped me with that stupid penmanship class; now I’m going to reward you and show you the pleasures of being a mare.”

Thoughts of bucking Sunset off soon came into Gleaming’s mind, but she felt as if all thoughts of infidelity seemed to have melted away as they embraced in a sudden kiss. Gleaming then thought about Cadance, and she used her magic to push Sunset back. “No, stop! We can’t do this!”

“Why not!? You want me, right?” Sunset slurred as Gleaming shook her head as she grumbled. “No, we can’t do this...you're drunk, and so am I we're just not thinking straight.”

Sunset groaned as she tugged her mane. “Ugh!? I keep forgetting you're married! Fine! You're right I’m sorry...please pretend that never happened…” The orange coated mare slammed down on the bed.

Gleaming on the other hoof slowly backpedaled onto another bed and curled up under the covers as she grumbled, “it’s fine...let’s just get some sleep…”

The mare just stared at the ceiling, realizing how close she was to cheating on her wife...in fact, she just kissed Sunset. Gleaming just laid there trying to keep her emotions in check, but she seemed unable to think straight with her realizing that she did, in fact, had feelings for
Sunset Shimmer and Cadance.

Chapter eight: Princess Celestia's school of etiquette part three: How to dance like a princess

After a few more days of classes, the mares endured through the tediums of etiquette and decorum. Gleaming, Sunset Shimmer, and Winter were all rather swamped with the regal Celestia's studies. Gleaming Shield, however, became even more distant from Sunset Shimmer after she almost cheated with her, and the two now rarely spoke a word to each other. The two mares were at their final class before their final test, where they all stood in fancy ball gowns. Gleaming decided to go with a simple blue gown, and she was standing next to Sunset Shimmer and Winter nearby. Sunset was sporting a fiery red dress and seemed to be determined to get through this final class.

Princess Celestia eventually shook her tush as she strutted over as she clapped her hooves together. "Attention, students! Please pay attention!"

Every student turned their attention to Celestia as she looked down at the students. "Now, after seeing you practice nearly all day, I think you all have the grasp of ball dancing. I believe it's time for me to watch you all perform. Now, you have all passed my expectations, so this should be relatively easy. Now please pick a partner, and let's begin."

Gleaming Shield gulped as she looked about and turned to see Winter gallop over and asked, "would you be my partner?"

"Oh yes!" The mare squealed in delight as they took their positions on the dance floor, and they began to dance around the base. The two did their best to perform the ball dance. Gleaming had gotten used to wearing gowns, which wasn't that difficult; they just had to do the simple ball dance. She already had practice with her wife Princess Cadance before, so this entire course was merely a refresher. But as the dance went on, she noticed the goddess of Winter seeming to be bowing her head and looking rather shy.

Gleaming shook her head, seeing that the mare had a crush on her. It's been rather obvious, but she didn't really have any feelings for the pegasus. So she decided to continue to dance with her to at least make Winter feel better.

Celestia watched over her students, dancing about the room like a hawk looking for any missteps. Still, overall it seemed every student was performing well. She then clapped her hooves together. "Alright, switch partners."

At that, Gleaming and Winter broke off, and then the white-coated alicorn gasped as she saw she was now partnered with Sunset Shimmer. The orange coated alicorn squeaked, looking somewhat flustered. "um...G..Gl...Gleaming...I didn't…"

The alicorn quickly placed a hoof over her partner's mouth. "Shhh, let's just dance; we don't want to fail."

"Right…" Sunset stammered as she looked down and tried not to look directly in Gleaming eyes as she turned her gaze away as they danced together. Gleaming sand Sunset moved their dance as far away from Celestia's gaze as they possibly can. She then nudged her partner and asked, "Hey...um...so you ready for the ball later this evening? Do you need any pointers later?"

The orange coated mare rolled her eyes. "Seriously, I got this; there's no way I'm failing."

Gleaming smiled as they danced around the floor and couldn't pull her gaze from Sunset's eyes. They continued to twirl about the room as if it was a fairytale. Gleaming felt somewhat awkward about the whole situation; she still had feelings for Sunset, and she opened her mouth to say something. But Celestia then clapped her hooves twice and exclaimed, "switch partners!"

The white-coated mare had to shake these feelings off as they switched partners, and now she was dancing with Winter once again. The alicorn snickered as they twirled about and asked, "so you ready for the final test later?"

"Yeah, I hope you're ready...though I guess for you, you're going to turn back into a stallion."
The pegasus grumbled, seeming to be quite depressed.

"So...have you decided yet? Are you going to stay a mare?" Winter asked as she seemed to have been reading Gleaming Shield's mind. The alicorn looked over the dancing mares and pondered things over from what she heard from the other students' gossip that this is the actual final class. The "class" after this will be a final test by some alternate version of Luna then she'll graduate. After that, she'll have to decide on whether or not she'll stay as a mare. Gleaming squeaked when she suddenly realized that she was thinking this over for far too long as she answered Winter's question. "As I said before, I am going to turn back to a stallion, and I'm still determined to do so. Though I would be lying if I didn't say being an alicorn princess was rather lovely.

"Well, it was fun being with you while it lasted," Winter whispered as she nuzzled into Gleaming's chest, making her squeal as the goddess laid her head over the alicorn's shoulder; Gleaming wanted to knock the pegasus off her. But decided instead to continue dancing with her back towards Celestia so she wouldn't see their "informal behavior."

Luckily for the two, Princess Celestia clapped her hooves and exclaimed, "everypony pay attention!"

Every mare all turned to face the Princess of the sun as she unfurled her wings and exclaimed, "my fellow students! I see you have been practicing well for your final test tonight! Now, if you do well and pass, this will be the last time we'll be seeing each other. Now, I'm letting you leave early to ready yourselves; you better be cleaned, scrubbed, preened, and beautified before the ball. If I see anything wrong, I'm going to fail you on the spot. Is that clear!"

"Yes, mam!" all the princesses in training cried out.

"Good, now move along," Celestia snapped as she clapped her hooves once again before everypony filled out of the classroom. They all went down the hall together with her friends.

Gleaming and her friends were back in the bathroom; all taking one final soak in the hot bath together dipped in the hot tub soaking up the bath salts mixed in hot water that surrounded them. The three mares sighed in relief as they soaked in the bathwater as Sunset looked over at her friends. "Well, tonight is the last night we'll be together."

Winter curled up on her side of the tub where she had made the water on her side of the tub freeze over abit, and just gave a nod, then whispered, "yeah, sure…."

"Yeah…" Gleaming whispered the mare looked over to Sunset, seeing how sexy she looked in the hot tub, and asked, "do you wish to be preened?"

Sunset's cheeks flushed pink; she didn't answer with words but turned her back towards Gleaming as she unfurled her wings. The white-coated alicorn went about biting her wings and cleaning the dirt from them. She could hear Sunset moan as she hit sensitive parts of the wing, and it made her shiver and squeak with every pass, with her mouth removing bent feathers or scrubbing the dirt between them. Gleaming practiced with Winter a few times, so she actually got pretty good at this. The white-coated alicorn didn't notice right away, but she felt a pressure on her back as she felt Winter starting to preen her. Gleaming squeaked and cried out as she felt the goddess of Winter pulling out her bent feathers, and she squirmed about feeling rather uncomfortable. But it felt so good at the same time, and she didn't want the feeling to stop. So she let Winter continue to preen her as she did the same to Sunset. After an hour of preening. Sunset went over to Winter and began to groom her wings in return while Gleaming just sat relaxing in the tub. This might be the last time she'll be in a steaming hot tub as a mare. She had to admit the feelings she had with this body were things she never would've imagined feeling in her life. The sensations, the emotions, all of it were things she took in and embraced fully. She let her long mane soak in the water as she looked upward, wondering...maybe...she should…

But her thoughts were interrupted as Sunset took her by the hoof. "Come on, if you stay in there any longer, you'll shrivel up into a prune."

"Alright," Gleaming grumbled irritably as she was lifted from the hot tub and escorted to the towel rack; after drying up, they all went to the bathroom counter and started applying makeup and replacing their false eyelashes. Then they went about and started combing their manes and tails together all in relative silence.

It was all rather fun as they curled each other's manes. Winter sighed as she whispered, "you know...I don't think we need to beauty ourselves this much when we're actually princesses."

Sunset scoffed out loud. "you think!? This Celestia is insane! After this, I will never wear a dress again."

"Yeah, I...um...guess I won't need to wear a dress again." Gleaming sighed, feeling somewhat relieved of that fact, but she hinted a bit of regret in her tone. The alicorn shook her head and saw she had finished brushing and combing her mane again and, to her surprise, finished rather quickly.

Sunset rolled her eyes again and replied, "this isn't what being a mare is about, Gleaming; if you decide to stay...um...as an alicorn princess, I can show you how to have actual fun without all the fru fru crap."

Winter couldn't help but burst into laughter as Gleaming snickered behind a hoof.

The two other mares noticed and decided to drop the subject, and then they went to the dorm room as they saw their wardrobe was gone, and instead, there were three beautiful ball gowns. Gleaming blinked at what she saw and then took the golden dress and held it over her body. "Wow!? so...I guess Celestia had some of her servants bring these?"

"Yeah, they did, I guess…" Sunset murmured as she took out her fiery gown, looking like a fiery blaze of orange, yellow, and red.

Winter took a sparkling white and blue gown looking like a bed of untouched snow and held it out with her hooves and squealed. "this is amazing! I never felt fabric like this before!"

Gleaming's cheeks flushed pink as she looked over her own golden gown and helped it out with her magic. It was quite professionally made with white trim around it and a rose pattern sewn in the dress's skirt. It was rather beautiful, and she could feel that a lot of work had gone into making it. But a chime of the clock nearby made her realize they had to get ready soon, so the three mares went about dressing themselves in their gowns, then clopping matching slippers, and all three were now prepared to go for the ball of the night.

The three walked with each other down the large flight of stairs once more and came down into the crowd with all the other dolled up alicorn princesses. Gleaming was still relatively embarrassed by her outfit, feeling the fabric swish around her body and still feeling rather uncomfortable wearing a dress. But luckily, every mare there could care less about how she looked; they were all in front of a giant golden mirror set the grand hall. There they were, all staring up at Celestia, who was looking over each and every mare. They were all standing at attention like soldiers as she inspected them one by one.

Gleaming gulped nervously as she waited for her turn to be looked over, which she was, and Celestia seemed to be rather impressed with a smile on her lips. "Well done despite being a stallion, you're probably the most gorgeous mare here, but keep that between you and I."

She winked and continued to look over her friends while Gleaming held her head high as then the Princess went back to the front of the group. "Now, I believe that it is time for us to proceed with the final test... in fact, you already passed. I think all of you have performed admirably and will all make fine princesses. So please enjoy yourselves at this fake grand galloping gala. However, be on your best behavior; if you act boarish or ill-mannered, I will fail you. Is that clear!"

"Yes, mam," Every Princess in training replied back.

At that, the giant mirror lit up and a portal swirled in front of them. Everypony went in line as they all started going through the portal one by one.

Sunset, Gleaming, and Winter all stood together and gulped in unison as they all trotted through the portal together.

Gleaming Shield blinked in confusion as she found herself in the middle of the gala itself, already with hundreds of ponies like Princess Celestia surrounding her. She stood there like a deer in headlights with her heart going a hundred miles an hour. But she slowly calmed herself as she remembered what the Princess of the sun said; they were all constructs none of the nobles talking and gossiping were actually real.

"Hey, shi- I mean Gleaming!" somepony yelled across the room where she saw her Cadance wearing her own cute frilly white and gold gown as she strolled over with a big smile on her face. "Hey! I was told we could hang out in this fake gala!? You were surprised!?"

"Hey, Cady! I can't believe you're here!" The white-coated alicorn cried out as she flew over and hugged her wife.

They held each other close while Sunset stood by and grumbled something as she left, taking Winter by the hoof. Gleaming just gave a small sigh and took Cadance by the hoof as they led off. They went to the buffet table, where they picked the horderves from the long table. After they got what they wanted, the two sat together at a small table. They started to enjoy themselves as they sat down across from each other at a table, and they drank wine and enjoyed their meal.

Things were relatively quiet with Gleaming Cadance was the first to say something as she asked, "so, why don't you go over what happened during your um...time at the academy?"

The white-coated alicorn gave another gulp and was starting to feel quite agitated as she began to eat. "Um...look...I..um yeah, everything was fine? Just doing all this um...girly stuff was... weird but also rather....um...delightful."

Princess Cadance couldn't help but snicker as she replied, "so um... how's wearing dresses?"

"Oh, you know I love them!" Gleaming exclaimed sarcastically as she placed another horderve into her mouth.

They both laughed as Gleaming started to blabber on. "You wouldn't believe what this alternate Celestia is like; she acts like we need to be damsels in distress twenty-four seven. I mean, when have you seen Celestia or Luna wear a dress?"

The Princess of love's cheeks flushed pink as she replied, "yeah...I think that this whole "princess in training" stuff was rather unnecessary. I mean, you already followed Celestia around. You got a lot of knowledge from her, and you seem to have gotten to know the ponies of the Crystal Empire."

Gleaming rolled her eyes once more as she laid back and looked upwards. "Yeah, I agree that these classes weren't that helpful. But still, my time here wasn't all that bad…"

"She must've daydreamed for quite a bit because she wasn't woken from the dream until her wife spoke up. "It must've been something you seem to have slipped off there," Cadance replied.

Gleaming squealed as she snapped back to reality. "Ye-yeah! It was actually kind of fun! I mean, we had a hot bath! We enjoyed each other's company and had a lot of fun, you know….being girly…"

Gleaming Shield going about each other as they finished their meal together. The Princess in training was also somewhat nervous as she spotted Sunset standing at a table just glaring at her with Winter, who seemed to be just trying to be invisible as the pegasus just sat there drinking a glass of wine.

The Princess of love decided to finally break the silence as she rose up and took Gleaming's hoof. "Alright, come on, let's dance. I want to see if this school could teach you how to dance."

The white-coated alicorn snickered as she got up. "Oh, you're about to be surprised."

The two mares took to the dance floor, and they danced through the night with Cadance rather impressed as she commented, "wow, you've gotten really good; you're even better than me."

"Well, I did just learn ball dancing all day," Gleaming replied with a sigh of exhaustion.

Cadance nuzzled into her special somepony, and they held each other in a tight wing hug as they bent their heads into each other's shoulders as they continued to dance around the hall.

After an hour or two of dancing, the two mares being somewhat exhausted, went strolling through the garden in the moonlight. As the two eventually came to a bench, the two mares sawt down and looked at a giant statue of the pompous Celestia with water spouting from her mouth into a pool below.

Gleaming rolled her eyes and spat, "ugh! I hope I never s-"

"Sshhh!" Cadance whispered as she looked around with a worried look. "You'll fail if you insult her."

"R...right…" Gleaming stammered as she bent her head down, realizing how close she was to failing and having to retake this entire course again!

However, something else was bothering Gleaming. She sighed as she had to confess that she almost cheated with Sunset or wouldn't be allowed to live with herself.

"Cadance, listen...while I was away I...I sort of cheated on you. I was drunk...and...well...things got a little out of hoof with a mare named Sunset Shimmer….love you I still do...but I had feelings for Sunset, and we almost had sex...but I stopped before anything happened."

Cadance looked at the statue, looking rather stoic for what felt like hours, with the only noises that echoed through the garden were the chirping of crickets and the water from the fountain's water splashing. The pink coated alicorn then sighed and whispered, "I was afraid this would happen…But I forgive you..."

"Huh?" Gleaming responded, somewhat confused.

Cadance looked up as she replied. "Look, I was explained by...um...some alicorn princess named Faust that my husband Shining Armor and Gleaming were different ponies, and she was right. I thought you would be the same just gender-swapped...but you're much different than my Shining...If it weren't for that, I would be quite angry with you."

The alicorn princess in training was rather confused. "Well, I wasn't expecting that….but...what do you mean that I'm not Shining anymore? Gleaming isn't another pony! I'm still…"

Cadance held a hoof as she continued. "Don't worry, Luna, in your last class will explain things better. However, I won't stand by and just let you do whatever you want now….you need to come to terms on your own...will you stay with me? Or will you love this other mare?"

Gleaming looked up at the night sky as she realized she couldn't say right away whether or not her love for Cadance faltered, and with tears filling her eyes, she whispered. "I'm not sure…"

Cadance seemed to be disheartened by this as she got up and replied, "well….then you're going to have to...until then….I think it's best we go our separate ways."

Gleaming gave a nod as Cadance left, and she sat there on the bench crying and balling her eyes out; she felt so horrible. She didn't even care if Celestia decided to fail her; she needed to cry. That was until she spotted Sunset slowly walked over from around the corner with her head down. "Sorry…this...this is all my fault."

"It's not your fault; I would be lying if I said I didn't have feelings for you, and I didn't want to be with you too." Gleaming whispered. She wiped the tears from her eyes as she looked over at Sunset. "We still have the test with Luna, right? Maybe after that, I'll know where I'm at and what I truly want...because right now... I'm not even sure who I am anymore."

"Yeah, ok…" Sunset whispered, still feeling guilty as Gleaming got up and came over and kissed Sunset on the lips and held it for a bit before whispering. "Just in case if we don't meet again."

Sunset then took her hooves and dragged Gleaming into another kiss and they embraced under the moonlight with their wings sprouting from their backs.

chapter nine: Princess Luna's school of Dreams

Gleaming Shield blinked as she realized that the garden she was standing in had disappeared, and now she was standing in what appeared was a large circular room. The room in question was rather large; it was like a wizard's study with stormy weather blowing outside sounding like a rather powerful storm. Rain and wind were blowing against the window outside. The white-coated mare looked over and saw that the room was somewhat cluttered with books and scrolls scattered across the room. There was a hearth with a fire crackling within and giving the entire room a warm feeling as she looked around, trying to get used to her surroundings. She then turned to see princess Luna sitting across from her. This version of Luna looked like she was rather wise with her eyes glowing white with power wearing a cloak, and she had a hot cup of steaming tea in her hooves. She gave Gleaming a glare as she greeted her. "Welcome, Gleaming Shield; please sit and have a cup of tea."

The white-coated mare eyed her but continued to the table and sat across from her and then turned towards the princess of the night. Gleaming Shield sat down, took a small cup of tea, and started drink from it quite daintily, and then squeaked as she was somewhat surprised to see herself subconsciously doing what Celestia taught her. She continued to drink her tea, enjoying the ambiance around her with the crackling fireplace and the stormy weather outside. This was all starting to feel like an odd dream.

After what felt like a good few minute, Luna spoke up. "Seems as if my sister has you past her test."

"Yeah...though I guess my drama wasn't much help." Gleaming grumbled angrily into her cup, hoping her fight with Cadance didn't count against her.

Luna shook her head and explained. "On the contrary, that drama you and princess Cadance had helped Celestia come to her decision to pass you."

Gleaming's eyes lit up as she couldn't believe what she was hearing and shouted, "seriously!? Is that true?"

Luna looked over at the princess in training. "Yes, she was very pleased with how you handled yourself as you embraced who you really are."

The white-coated mare was stunned as she poured herself another cup of tea and asked. "What does that mean?"

The princess of the night continued to explain. "This was, in fact, a trap of sorts; it was meant for Twilight as this book was created by a Lauren Faust in another timeline. She wanted to infect other alicorn princesses with her definitive version of them in other timelines. However, you took it before Twilight read it, and then she set her sights on you."

"Right…" Gleaming replied, still not fully accepting what Luna was saying.

The princess of the night sipped her tea and continued to explain. "So, we had to redirect our plans and create a new alicorn princess through Shining Armor."

The mare gulped as the words Princess Cadance said about her not being Shining Armor came to her mind once again and she stammered. "Wait...what do you mean by that!?"

"Let me explain...now, yes, your Gleaming Shield and Shining Armor still exists within you, but you're in control of his body right now as it was intended by Lauren Faust."

The white coated princess alicorn looked down, looking rather horrified as she whispered, "wait...so... I'm my own pony; I'm not Shining Armor…."

Luna took a sip of her tea as she continued to explain. "Yes, Lauren Faust placed me as the last test in hopes that you would've been brainwashed into believing your Gleaming Shield by now. But unlike her, I believe in free will, and I'm glad that you still believe yourself to be Shining Armor. You should have the choice to decide whether you wish to stay as you are, or give Shining Armor his body back."

Gleaming sat there shivering taking all of this new information in. It started to make sense in her mind seeing her feelings with Sunset and her love for some of the more feminine activities she spent doing throughout her time in the academy. She continued to sip her tea until she finished the cup then stammered. "But...if I give Shining his body...would that mean…"

The princess of the night bowed her head as she finished. "Yes, you will cease to exist; in essence, you'll be dead."

Princess Gleaming gulped as she began to sweat bullets and stammered. "W..wait...if I give this body back to Shining, I have to die!?"

Luna placed her drink down as she took a potion flask and poured a thick liquid inside a goblet. "That's up to you, there are three challenges in a dream I'll send to you, and through those dreams, you must decide on your own what you want."

"Right, so whatever I do in these dreams will determine my decision to either keep this body or give it back to Shining..." The white coated alicorn whispered under her breath.

Luna then presented her the goblet, and the white-coated mare looked down into it to see it full of purple nectar. She bent over and gave the liquid a good whiff. It smelt rather good that smelt like a cool night breeze with a mix of lavender. Luna sat back and waited patiently for Gleaming to stop before preceding. "When you're ready, drink this."

Gleaming paused, not knowing what she was going to do…or willing to do…but maybe she'll come to that decision after the test. So she did as Luna instructed and drank the sweet liquid; she could already feel sleep come over her as her eyelids grew heavy. The princess of the night drifted the white-coated mare her magic and drifted her to the bed like a mother tucking her foal into bed. She then placed the covers over her and the princess of the night watched her fall into a deep sleep.

Gleaming woke up the next morning and rubbed her eyes as she tried to figure out where she was. The mare slowly tried to gauge where she was and looked that she must be in some little filly's room. The walls had flowers and rainbows printed on them, a toy chest was placed in the back, and there were plush animals all over on her bed and all over the room. The mare was somewhat confused as she got out of the bed, then she realized that she must've shrunk in size. Gleaming squeaked as she looked over herself and saw she was the size of a school foal and cried out. "What the buck happened to me!"

Her shouting didn't do anything and only got a thunderclap in response, making the filly squeak out. She scurried under her blankets, shaking all over. Gleaming Shield waited there for a while and then decided to slowly got up and peeked out of her sheets and looked around her room but saw nothing with only the pitter-pat of the rain outside hitting her window. The filly then got out from the bed and slowly came to a mirror where she got to see herself. She was shrunk to a school filly and her scruffy mane and tail. She was even surprised to see her cutie mark was gone!

The filly looked around her rump, seeing she was a blank flank…though technically, that cutie mark was never hers.

"Ok, this is clearly a dream…somehow this is connected to my first challenge." Gleaming grumbled to herself; she then decided to run down the halls to find out what she had to do to overcome this challenge. As she ran down the hall, the filly started to realize that this house was much more prominent, but that was due to her shrunken size. It didn't take her long to see that this place was Shining Armor's old family home, and then she saw the colt in question. He was the same age as her and a scruffy blue mane; he had a board game in the middle of the room. The stallion looked up and waved a hoof. "It's about time you came by. I've been waiting for you."

Gleaming blinked upon seeing the colt and despite never seeing him before she shouted, "Shining Armor!"

The alicorn filly got rather excited as she ran across the room and hugged the colt to her chest held each other in their embrace.

Gleaming looked up, and rubbing the tears from her eyes, she asked, "so you're in my subconscious, right?"

"Yeah...been here for a while...glad we finally got to finally meet," Shining added as he sat across from the filly.

The alicorn filly sat down across the board game; it looked relatively simple, with the main goal is to get their pawns across colored tiles. She took a piece and placed it at the beginning of the board. The two then took turns spinning a plastic wheel with the arrow landing on a color, and they moved their pieces as indicated to the nearest colored tile. The two took turns not really talking with the rain outside pounding away. Gleaming felt that winning this game might be the challenge…though it was rather simplistic and there were a lot of tiles. The filly finally broke the silence as she had to ask. "So...um, why are we school foals?"

"Guess the dream sees us as siblings living in the same body." the white-coated colt replied back as he took his move spinning the wheel and placing his piece on a blue square.

The filly did the same and smirked, seeing her piece was now ahead. However, the smirk faded as she slowly came to the realization he probably saw everything she did while in his body and replied. "Right, so...you saw everything I did?"

The colt took his turn and grumbled, "Yeah, you did alright in my body except for cheating on my wife."

"Right...sorry about all of that…." Gleaming stammered as she quickly played her next turn. She was feeling somewhat embarrassed about Shining seeing her kiss Sunset Shimmer.

The colt, however, wasn't super angry as he spun the wheel and moved his piece. "Hey, it's not like you have any obligation. I'm married to Cadance, not you."

The young filly was sort of surprised at this reply and whispered, "so you're not mad at me?"

"Yeah, I would be lying if seeing you break Cady's heart didn't piss me off. But...I understand you have your own feelings and desires." Shining added as he was now busy drawing something in crayon.

"Right, though...I thought I was you until only a few moments ago." Gleaming mumbled, still feeling somewhat guilty. She was drawing her own picture…she paused, realizing they were playing a board game moments ago. Now she was drawing a picture she turned to see she was drawing a heartbroken in half in pink crayon.

Shining Armor was busy drawing a picture of himself with a pink alicorn. "Yeah, I know... I've been watching you the entire time."

The princess alicorn took a blank piece of paper and started drawing something else as she lowered her gaze. She then gave a sigh and whispered, "right...well...I think that I'm ok with you retaking your body."

The colt seemed to give the idea some thought before he looked up and replied, "I knew you would say that...but honestly then I'll just end up being a stallion in a mare's body...there has to be another way where you don't have to end up disappearing, and I get my original body back."

The filly started to feel tears coming down her cheeks. "You heard Luna, this was all a trap...I don't think there is a way to get you to be a stallion again….at least not without me dying."

Shining shook his head and replied back quite adamantly. "I don't believe that there's always a way out of any situation, and I think that we can, in fact, fix this whole scenario with both of us getting what we want. So I refuse to take my body back."

"Why!? Are you crazy!" Gleaming cried out; she realized that the two were now outside with the storm outside with rain slamming over them, thunder booming, and lightning flashing.

Shining took her by the hoof, and they ran across a field with the rain pouring down on them as they headed to a tent. The colt and filly were now standing outside the flap. The colt placed a hoof over her. "There's only room for one, and you have already proven to be a good filly, you could've cheated during the board game, but you didn't. I trust you to make the right decision if you truly don't want to go…then I won't go either."

The alicorn was getting somewhat agitated with this colt's logic and growled, "you're not really giving me a choice, and I didn't even know that the board game was the challenge heck, we didn't even finish it!"

"Of course not; when I changed the dream to us drawing, I wanted to see how you really feel. You feel guilty for taking over my body, but you never had a choice…you shouldn't have to feel guilty for just existing." Shining replied, placing a hoof on the filly's shoulder.

Gleaming's eyes went wide as the storm then suddenly began to dissipate, and the pounding rain was now a light trickle. "Ri…right, no, your right…I shouldn't feel bad for existing."

She wiped the tears and rain from her eyes then turned to the tent. "I guess this is the way to the next dream…"

"Yeah…I don't know what's on the other side…but I can feel that whatever it is. It's not something to take lightly." Shining whispered, seeming to look somewhat scared.

Gleaming, however, turned to the tent, and she seemed determined to go through. "Well! When we see each other again, I hope we each have our own bodies."

The young unicorn colt came over and stuck a hoof out as he replied, "Yeah, me too…good luck!"

The filly shook his hoof and ran off towards the tent, and when she went through, she fell down a dark void screaming as she fell into a pitch-black pit.

Gleaming groaned as she rubbed a hoof over her forehead; the filly looked around to gauge her surroundings. She was sitting in the Canterlot palace gardens. She saw that the rain was finally stopping with only a few drops falling down from an overcast in the sky above. But from how she was sitting on a booster seat and that everything around her seemed more extensive than usual meant she was still a school filly. She then looked across the table. Sitting across from her was another version of herself; this mare was wearing gold armor, her tail and mane were braided, her wings had gold tips forged over them, and her helm had a colossal gold spike over her horn. In front of the two was a chessboard with a teacup on both sides and a teapot in the middle. This alicorn princess looked rather stern as she snapped. "So, you were just going to give Shining Armor your body without a fight?"

"Yeah, it's not our body. We have no say in this." Gleaming snapped back and blinked, wondering why she was saying "our" or "we."

The militaristic alicorn princess unfurled her wings and proclaimed, "well then, your weakness is something I can't allow that! I'm also tired of your girly attitude! It's time I take over!"

Gleaming was starting to feel scared as she eyed the strange version of her and asked, "who are you exactly?"

"I am Glory Shield! And you and Shining Armor both are a disgrace to this body! You both lack the ambition to control Equestria and the crystal empire to ensure their protection!"

Gleaming eyed her and realized this must be some evil version of her. "Right...I don't think so…"

Glory threw her hooves over her chest and responded rather smugly. "You don't really have a choice in this, you have to beat me in a game of chess to keep this body, and I'm a tactical genius."

"Don't think just because I'm in this filly body that I don't know how to play chess." The filly growled as she took the first turn seeing her pieces were white.

They continued on with the chess game with only the sounds of light rain hitting the board and the grass around them. Glory Shield smirked as she had one of her knights taking Gleaming's queen and laughed, "your feeble attempts to stop me are all in vain! Just give up; your weakness will only get the ponies you love killed."

The filly rolled her eyes as she deliberately had the queen put in a position to be taken. This version of her wasn't a tactical genius; she was just pretending to be smart. Seeing that she's practically won the game, Gleaming decided to tease this mare and replied, "please, you sound more stupid as we go on; both Shining and I want to protect others, not enforce our will over them. You're clearly just an overconfident oaf who wouldn't be able to preserve any pony.

Glory was taken aback and scoffed, "we have a tactical mind and know more about politics and how to run the kingdoms more so than the other princesses. We could keep every pony safe and ensure their security; we should dominate, and you sit around acting like a princess, and Shining acts like a lapdog to his wife. You're both insults to this body, and I should be the one in control."

"Not in this lifetime!" Gleaming roared and took her rook and had it slide across the board to checkmate the king who was trapped. Glory gaped as she was focused on getting Gleaming's queen; she left her king exposed. As for the little filly, she stood upon the table and pointed a hoof at the alicorn and snapped, "I will not let you take over this body! Ever! If you ever even come close, I'll have Shining retake this body, and we'll both die together!"

Glory glared at the filly but could do nothing as she sat back and growled. "You'll regret this decision, one day and when that day comes, I won't be there to save you."

The rain finally ceased as the grey clouds began to disappear, and Gleaming chuckled, "I won't need you because I'll have Shining to help me."

The dream dissipated as she woke up once again; she was now on a beach with the ground below her shifting sand, and she saw the waves of the ocean crash on the shore. Gleaming was somewhat surprised to see all of this around her, and as she got up on all fours, she saw her stubby short self, and she turned to see Sunset Shimmer sitting at a table. She was an adult and looking rather beautiful with the setting sun behind her casting an orange glow over her. Gleaming ran across the sand as Sunset turned towards her with a smirk. "Hey Gleaming, glad to see you made it through the last two tests."

"Right, they weren't really tests, I would never give my body to my crazy self," Gleaming Shield proclaimed rather proudly; she then paused before she continued, "as with Shining…well…I made a deal with him that I have to find a way to get him his body back…and find a body for myself."

Sunset took a pack of playing cards and asked, "Well, that's quite the gamble Shining placed on your decision…how do you think you'll find a body for yourself? And how will you convince this Lauren Faust to give this body back to Shining Armor?"

The mare dealt the cards out, and Gleaming sighed, shaking her head. "I have no idea; all I know is that I have to try."

Despite being in this body from Shining Armor's memories of playing cards with his fellow soldiers. She knew how to play poker; the two both had a stack of plastic chips as well, and they played the game for what felt like hours. Gleaming paused as she didn't even know what they were betting? At this realization, she asked, "so...what am I doing here?"

"Were playing a game and were going to see whether or not you want to marry me?" Sunset replied quite angrily.

"Of course, I want to marry you! I love you!" Gleaming cried out squealing in her high pitched voice.

"Then why would you so eagerly let Shining take his body back?" Sunset snapped, throwing her hand down as did the little filly; she saw that Sunset's hand was the better as she took the pot. Gleaming then gave a small sigh and looked down at the sand below her and whispered meekly, "I have a right to exist; I get that, but it wouldn't be fair to steal Shining Armor's body."

Sunset dealt out the cards once again and asked. "You were bluffing, right? You're not going to just give up this body to Shining? You just said that to keep him at ease so he wouldn't take it back."

"Of course, I meant it! He was born in this body and lived a life, I only existed for a few weeks. How would it be fair that I steal this from him!" Gleaming cried out loud.

Sunset then threw all her chips in the middle and gestured. "Alright, you have to call."

The little filly sent her entire pile of chips into the middle as well; she then looked at her hand; it was a royal flush! But how!? She looked over at Sunset Shimmer, who held out her hand. "Got a pair of threes, and I know you have a royal flush. But there's a catch you win the game, you get me, and you keep this body. If you forfeit the game, then you have to live with the consequences."

Gleaming got somewhat nervous and whispered, "W...what do you mean?"

"You failed! You were supposed to take this body and become who you were meant to be, but you're still a little blank flank! That means you still think this body belongs to Shining! Do you think the princesses outside will let you just leave? I don't know what they'll do to you, but you don't have a choice: throw down your hand and take this body by force and destroy Shining Armor.

Gleaming looked back down at her hand and gulped, feeling nervous as she shook all over, unsure of what she should do…

Chapter ten: Back to square one...

Gleaming Shield was relatively happy with herself as she strolled across Ponyville; she was sporting a simple purple dress and golden slippers. Nothing too gaudy or fancy, she was simply heading to Carousel Boutique to pick up a particular order. Ponies were walking by bowed in front of her, but she waved a hoof, and they quickly got up. Ever since she was coordinated as the princess of Guardianship, this was relatively common despite only recently becoming a princess a few days ago. However, she continued to strut off down the road toward her destination and eventually came to the Carousel Boutique. The white-coated alicorn opened the door, and as she entered, Rarity looked up from behind the cash register. "Oh, darling!? I didn't expect you to come by today!"

"Oh well, I …um…just wanted to see if my dress is ready?" Gleaming squeaked with her cheeks flushing pink as she knew she kept annoying Rarity asking if her dress was finished.

But the fashionista seemed rather happy to see her as she got up and threw a hoof. "Follow me, darling!"

The alicorn princess walked behind Rarity, and she couldn't help but stare at the mare's rump…despite being engaged with Sunset Shimmer, she couldn't help but not stare at the mare's rump. She snickered as she thought about all the times she would do that to Celestia when she used to be her captain of the royal guard.

She then slowly came to the fashionista's workshop and saw a beautiful wedding dress over a ponyquin, with her cutie mark sewn into the seams around the dress's skirt. Gold seams were lining the dress with a beautiful silk gown, and the mare couldn't help but squeal. "Oh my Celestia! It’s beautiful! Thank you!"

Rarity couldn't help but beam a smile of pride and placed a hoof over her chest. "Thank you, darling, this is my first wedding dress."

Gleaming looked it over and couldn't help but hug it and bury her face in the soft fabric. "Oh, my goodness, it feels so soft and smells so good! It's perfect!"

"Well….I would like to see it on your darling…bu…wait!" Rarity cried out, but Gleaming was already undressing herself, then putting the dress over her body, slipping it over her in a matter of seconds. She twirled about in her newfound dress and chirped, "oh yes! It's perfect, and it feels so soft and snug!"

The fashionista shrugged, "supposedly, it's bad luck for the bride to wear her dress before the wedding, but we can skip that…just in case if there are any adjustments I need to perform."

She ran around the dress poking pins while Gleaming stood there striking poses in front of a mirror, loving how the dress was around her body. It was quite tight around her upper torso but the skirt puffed out from the back with a few layers of frills. It looked like a mix of a party gown and a traditional wedding dress…it was precisely what Gleaming was hoping for. Of course, the white fabric blended into her pristine white fur. Still, the golden seams around the outlines and the embroidered shields on the skirt popped out and made her look like a princess from a fairytale. When Rarity finished poking pins and finding where she needed to make adjustments, she asked, "so Gleaming? How are you doing living with Twilight again? Are you comfortable?"

The alicorn princess gave an exhausted sigh. The Golden Oaks library was quaint, but it was definitely not Canterlot Palace in Sunset's universe where she mostly lives now and explained. "Well, yes…I mean, the library she lives in is rather cramped, but we make do. I'm just visiting, if I'm honest, I mean we need to do the wedding twice, once here and in Sunset's universe as well…."

"Well, that just means my work can be seen by more ponies!" Rarity chirped as she finished poking pins while the alicorn princess blushed and explained, "well, I can't keep bringing matter from one universe to another, and I promised the Rarity in Sunset's universe I'll wear the dress she made to that wedding."

The fashionista scoffed as she undressed Gleaming. "Well, I hope this other Rarity knows what she's doing!"

Rarity stomped off, making Gleaming shake her head seeing her friend getting jealous of her counterpart rather funny and a bit absurd. She walked back downstairs, and that was when she saw Sunset Shimmer standing in the doorway.

"Sunset, what are you doing here!?" Gleaming cried out as she flew down as Sunset poked a hoof into the white-coated alicorn. "We need to be with Cadance and Twilight to talk about the wedding plans, or did you forget?"

The white-coated mare rolled her eyes; her fiance' could be rather demanding and has taken her sister's need to follow a strict schedule. "Of course, I remembered! I just came by here first to check out my wedding dress."

"Well, fine! So, come on!"

"Wait, let me get my other gown on first; you know I hate going out unclothed!" The white-coated alicorn cried out as she fixed a violet gown over her body. The mare placed on her gold slippers as she then walked off with Sunset, who shook her head. "Never could understand you getting into all that girly crap back at the academy."

"I don't know? I never was into it until then…I was a totally different mare before then." Gleaming scoffed as she walked down the road following Sunset. They eventually came to Golden Oaks library; she opened the door and came upon princess Cadance. Twilight was sitting across from each other.

"Oh, hey sister! Your visit to Rarity's was fruitful!?" Twilight asked.

"Oh yes, the wedding dress she made me was perfect! Just a few more adjustments and it'll be finished." Gleaming explained as she sat down across from the other mares. "You should see my counterpart in Sunset's universe. She's my total opposite. She practically begged Cadance not to wear one!"

The mares all laughed as Sunset plopped next to her fiancé and scoffed, "sometimes I think I should have tried dating her first! I never met a mare who took the princess academy so seriously!"

Gleaming paused as Sunset's comment was rather odd...it had a ring to it that made sense to her…her train of thought was suddenly broken when Candance started balling and crying. "Oh Gleaming, you remind me of somepony I know…but I can't seem to remember him…"

"Hmmm, not sure if there's any pony like me! especially a guy!" Gleaming chirped back rather smugly, pointing a hoof at herself trying to cheer Cadance up and got a instead a few groans from Twilight and Sunset Shimmer.

"Probably not…just, oh why am I crying?" Princess Cadance whispered as she wiped the tears from her eyes. Sunset on the other hoof just snapped, "can we get on with the wedding plans! I have another meeting with another Twilight today as well!"

"Right, let's discuss." The violet alicorn chirped as she brought out a chalkboard, and they all began discussing the wedding that'll be done here soon. As Twilight blabbed on about catering and the guest list, Gleaming couldn't help but wonder what Cadance meant by another pony like her? Why did she cry like that? It…it doesn't matter, but she always felt like something was wrong…like somehow this body wasn't really her's…

Gleaming's eyes lit up as an image of Shining Armor entered her mind and she rose up and shouted, "wait!? I don't want this!"

Every mare looked at her, somewhat confused as Gleaming realized for some reason that she was being tricked…she said no to Sunset at the poker game. Still, yet…she realized that for some reason, she was forced to say yes…why? Why did she say yes? What is going on! She didn't care if there were consequences if she said no…she won't be responsible for Shining Armor to die and be erased from existence!

Gleaming Shield slammed a hoof on the ground and shouted, "you hear me! I will not accept this! I won't! I promised Shining I wouldn't take this body from him, and I meant it!"

The dream then began to dissipate and dissolve around her as she was soon enveloped into a thick black void once more.

Gleaming now found herself into a black void and looked around and saw that she turned to see Shining Armor; he was in a wispy looking form, but it was him. She flew across the void and headed towards him, and tried to hug him again, but she felt her hooves go through his formless body. He just laughed, "guess you didn't take my body then."

"No, I didn't, and I'm glad you're here…But where are we?"' Gleaming replied in a threatening tone as she looked around the void worried that this might be their punishment for her defiance.

Shining Armor shrugged as he looked around and replied back, "I really am not sure…"

Then the two turned to see Luna slowly fluttering towards them come clapping her hooves. "Well done, Gleaming; you did well resisting my final challenge."

Gleaming shuddered as she did deep down wished she could stay in that dream. It was beautiful; almost everything she wanted except…seeing Cadance's eyes tear up made her snap out of it as she whispered. "I should've known that was another challenge…" The mare shook her head then looked up at Luna. She had to focus and figure out what she had to do next and asked, "So what's going on here?"

Luna glared down at her as she continued to explain. "Right now, you and Shining have both agreed to not take the body, and it's in a comatose state at the moment. Basically, the body is brain dead…"

"Seriously!? Can this get any worse!" Shining cried out loud.

Gleaming looked around the formless void and squeaked out, "so… we're…basically ghosts?"

The princess of the night shook her head with a smirk and continued to explain. "You two are more like consciousnesses with no bodies. Now, if Lauren Faust finds out what I'm doing, she'll probably take the body and force consciousness to infect it and kill Shining Armor. So we need to do this fast; what I'm going to propose might break the space and time continuum...Gleaming, I'm going to try sending you back in time to your own body."

"You can do that!" Gleaming cheered, feeling relieved that Luna could do that.

Luna held a hoof and continued to explain. "however, there is a catch…. Basically, you'll have to be reborn as Shining's twin, go through over twenty years of life, and you'll come and stop Shining from picking up the book again and endure the trials of this book again...if we do this. The plan turns out successful in return, when you come back here, you'll have to do something for me."

Both Shining Armor and Gleaming blinked utterly dumbfounded, and they were both somewhat surprised. Shining was the first to speak. "Wait a sec... you'll...um...basically make Gleaming Shield my twin sister?"

Luna clapped her hooves and continued, "yes, and you will always think of her as such...you will have no recollection of any time prior from opening the book and singing that false name."

Gleaming's shade of white was now a beat red as she floated close to Shining. "I think I should do this... it's the only real way to make sure you keep your body, and I get one of my own...and on the plus side, you will have no memories of what's happened."

"Right...honestly...I wouldn't mind having you as a sister…" Shining commented as his shade was turning red as well.

The mare then turned her attention to Luna and asked, "wait...are you saying? That even when...um... I'm basically reincarnated into a body even as a baby...will I be fully aware of my surroundings?”

Luna lowered her gaze as she continued to explain, "yes, you will have to endure every moment from childbirth to the night before Shining picked up the enchanted book...But you cannot tell ponies of the future, or this entire plan will fall apart…"

Gleaming stood in the void with her eyes closed thinking things over, knowing deep down that this could end badly for her, which would be somewhat awkward. However, she's determined to see this through and reunite with Sunset at any cost. The mare gave a deep breath before she gave her answer. "Ok, then I'll do it.”

Shining would’ve burst into tears if he could and tried hugging Gleaming one last time and whispered, "guess, the next time we see each other we're going to be in the maternity ward, imagine that?"

Gleaming smirked wanting to not make this moment so gloomy she tried hitting Shining's shoulder. "Oh, I can't wait to be your sister! I'm going to definitely get you with some awesome pranks!"

"Good luck, Twilight's already tried and failed." The stallion laughed as the mare turned her attention back to Luna. She then closed her eyes and thought about Sunset Shimmer in her mind that no matter how long it takes she'll find her again and then shouted. "Ok, I'm ready!"

Princess Luna gave the student a stern look as she warned. "Alright, and remember when you return, I will expect you to do a favor for me!" The princess of the night then lit her horn, and Gleaming saw a bright flash of white light before disappearing into another spaceless void.

Chapter Eleven: twenty five years later

Gleaming Shield was now standing at the Canterlot train station looking across the tracks as she reflected on her. She was standing there with her long blue mane and tail with her cutie mark of a shield with a tiara in the middle, standing proudly on her rump. Many ponies who walked by bowed to her, but she simply waved a hoof, not really trying to draw attention to herself. She turned to see her sister Twilight, who was walking back and forth muttering to herself about how Shining was late as usual. The white-coated alicorn just rolled her eyes and replied, "oh come on, Twilight, stop worrying about it; Shining and Cadance probably had some things to do at the Crystal Empire."

"Well, unlike my brother, I performed all my royal duties before leaving; why can't he ever be proactive?" Twilight snapped as she spread her wings out.

Gleaming came over to a bench and patted the seat next to her, and offered. "Oh, come over and relax. I'll give you preening before he arrives."

The violet alicorn cheeks flushed red as she walked over and sat next to her older sister. "Well...I can't say no to a preening...Rainbow Dash started to give them to me, and Fluttershy heck, they've even been fighting over who does it better."

"I bet, I um learned it's a way for ponies to show their affection...so don't take it the wrong way." Gleaming explained as she went about cleaning the dirt and plucking bent feathers from Twilight's wings. She was quite careful smoothing the feathers out gently.

As the white-coated mare went about her preening as time went on. Twilight was relatively relaxed, and she couldn't help kick and moan a little as Gleaming hit sensitive parts of the wings. Twilight looked upwards as she asked, "Hey um...seeing you've been a princess longer than me...um...would you mind giving me pointers?"

Gleaming chuckled at the question as she had finished cleaning Twilight's wings. "To be fair, I haven't officially been a princess long myself. But I'll give you some advice...but you're not doing so bad without me."

"Well yeah, but still just getting to know how to deal with politics is something you seem to do better than me...and since Celestia is no longer my mentor, I feel…" The violet alicorn whispered under her breath and held it for a second Gleaming saw that she dearly missed having Celestia be there for her.

"You feel like you need guidance?" The princess of Guardianship replied curtly as she sat back, finishing the preening.

Twilight then took a strange book from her wings and held it up as she proclaimed, "Yeah! I even picked up this odd book at the enchanted bookstore."

Upon seeing the enchanted tome, "How to train a princess," Gleaming quickly exclaimed. "Oh, you don't need that, um...you shouldn't get books from there. I mean, who knows that that will do to you."

The violet alicorn rolled her eyes as she replied back, "trust me, I know, Spike's crazy comic book recently took us into a weird dimension where we played as the heroes."

"Huh…" Gleaming mumbled as she took the book from Twilight she was and replied. "I'll...um, have Celestia analyze it just in case it doesn't do anything crazy."

"Right, good point…" Twilight sighed. "I tried analyzing it myself, but it seems fine to me...but your right, better be safe than sorry."

Shining's train finally arrived, and he and his wife came off. Gleaming ran over and gave her "twin brother" a hug as Twilight stomped around, seething in anger. "Seriously! Where have you been!? We've been waiting for you for hours!"

The prince just rolled his eyes and snapped back. "Oh, calm down, we missed our first train because we had some last-minute issues giving Sunburst his duties while we were gone."

Cadence chimed in after her husband. "Right...though I think he was a bit rough, I'm sure Sunburst will do fine!"

She then rushed over to Twilight, and the two performed their dance; then she squealed and enveloped Twilight in her wings and cried out. "Oh, it's so great to see that you're an alicorn now! I'm sure your sister may have tried to explain how to be an alicorn princess, but I have more experience than her."

Gleaming rolled her eyes ever since she became older, Cadance. She had this rivalry of being "Twilight's big sister." Still, the white-coated alicorn was more excited to meet her twin brother than battle with Cadance. The two hugged as they walked off down the road. It was uncanny for most ponies to see the two together; they were almost identical in every way except, of course, their gender and cutie marks. They eventually made it to their old family house, where Twilight Velvet and Night Light greeted them.

"Oh, I love it when you two are together!" Velvet cried out, making the two groan.

Twilight just snickered behind a hoof. "Sometimes I wonder if they were really the same pony? You sure one of you isn't a changeling?"

"Haha, very funny. "Gleaming snapped sarcastically as she was then escorted to her old room. It was almost exactly as she left it so long ago. Then they went to the dining room, and there they enjoyed a home-cooked meal of green bean casserole and drinking wine.

Gleaming woke up as if she was shaking in her bed from a long dream and was looking around the room. The mare looked around, somewhat confused as she was a bit unsure of where she was; for a moment, she looked up to see she was in a room with two ponyquins, one with a set of armor, there were posters of royal guards all over. She turned to see a closet full of various dresses and uniforms plus tons of awards on a shelf and a bookcase. The mare blinked as if she woke from a long restless dream. The white-coated alicorn slowly got up, flexing her wings, and yawned as she stretched her limbs. "I think tonight is the night…"

She slowly got up, admiring her room. This was where she lived for almost her entire life...she now had lived a full life, which was rather odd, especially during her younger years. But overall, it was a wonderful life, and she was somewhat satisfied with how things turned out. She slowly got up and squeaked, seeing that Twilight was sleeping next to her. The white-coated mare paused as she stared at the younger alicorn. Twilight sparkle laid there in a blissful sleep looking relatively peaceful laying there. Gleaming nuzzled her and gave her a kiss on the cheek; she was, in fact, her younger sister. She then slowly tip hoofed out of the room and then went down the hall. It was rather uncanny seeing her in family pictures of various ages from her foalhood next to Shining as they grew up together. Then there were ones with the two and a baby Twilight Sparkle and her in her teenage years. She was in a soccer uniform, graduation outfit, and armor when she first entered the royal guard. She was, in fact, given the title by Celestia, the princess of Guardianship. Basically, she was promoted to "princess" of the royal guard after Shining left to become the crystal empire prince. The mare snickered as she saw pictures in her coronation armor. She decided to go in armor instead of a dress, and she was looking rather stoic beside her, feeling like she was being crushed under a weight of pressure. Everything about her life and how Gleaming was born an alicorn and her parents being confounded, to trying to be a role model for Twilight despite her little sister outpacing her in all her studies and then saving Equestria a few times over. It was all somewhat crazy thinking that all of this happened over the course of twenty-five years; in fact, she could feel her face burning as she entered Shining's room. The stallion was up with his wife sleeping at his side; he looked over with a tired smile and greeted her in a whisper. "Hey sis…"

The mare stood there in the doorway; she wanted to tell this to him for years...but she never dared to be too scared to think she was crazy. But this might be the last time she saw him, and she wanted to at least tell him the truth as she whispered, "Hey...um...I need to tell you something I...um...not your sister…"

"I know.." Shining replied as he sighed, "you're basically a clone of me."

"How do you know!" Gleaming cried out, being somewhat surprised at the response.

He put a hoof to his lips and then pointed at Cadance Gleaming nodded as he continued, "I know...because Luna held the subconscious of me until now….time works differently in that dimension and can be altered using her magic from what she told me anyway...basically, for her and me, it's only been a few moments since you left to live a life basically."

"So...this book is bound by that Luna's magic...did she tell you what she wants me to do for her as a part of our deal?"

"No, in fact, she didn't tell me much…" he held his head. "Ugh...but she did say that my consciousness from before merging with this new one would give me a massive headache."

Gleaming lit her horn as she helped ease her brother's pain. "That should help…"

She took out the book and a pen. "Um...just in case if I don't come back...um, thanks for being an awesome twin brother…"

"No problem, and I'm sure you'll be back. Your me...and if I know anything about you, don't give up."

"Right." Gleaming then took a quill within her magic and scrawled her name down; as the book glowed, she whispered, "I'm coming, Sunset, just wait a bit longer…" Magic tendrils swirled around her as she disappeared.

A few weeks of going through the princess academy…

Gleaming was now back in Luna's study; it was the same as before, cluttered, smelling like dusty old books. With a raining storm outside and sitting down across from her was the mystical-looking Luna. The princess in training cheeks flushed red as she whispered, "so... I'm back, huh?"

"Yes, you're even more capable than before and headstrong. I'm glad you rekindled your love with Sunset Shimmer as well." Princess Luna responded as she gave another nod and sipped her tea.

"Well, I did explain to her later that I was really created from Shining Armor's consciousness and literally traveled back in time and lived a life...it was rather confusing, but she accepted it."

Luna gave another and continued, "yes, it was, but you did it nonetheless, learning from your mistakes and not lying to her and plus being more upcoming with her during your time in Celestia's class... didn't expect you two to have sex so soon."

"The buck!? Why were you spying on me!" The white-coated alicorn shouted being auite angry Luna spied on her intement moments.

The princess of the night looked down at the younger alicorn seeming to not really care about Gleaming's question and replied, "let me ask you a question first, in your time living a life and knowing you would become a princess, did you ever use the information in this school?"

Gleaming paused before she responded throughout her life; almost none of the information she learned in this academy was somewhat useful, as she admitted. "Not really...I mean, some of it was helpful, but most of it felt….I don't know... this entire school feels odd…"

Luna placed her teacup as she got more serious. "Right, the point of this school is not to teach new princesses; it's used as a tool for brainwashing you into what this imposter Lauren Faust believes in."

The white-coated alicorn gulped as she was now somewhat scared as she asked, "who is she then?"

Lightning flashed outside as the princess of the night continued, "she is an imposter and has created these books to lure young princesses in to have them brainwashed and manipulated. Then on graduation day, she'll plant her subconscious into your mind, and you would be under her control for all of eternity."

The princess in training rose up, seething in anger, and slammed a hoof down as she shouted, "And your helping her do this!"

Luna looked down with a guilty look on her face. She sighed, "in my universe, I wasn't evil...but some of my experiments into magic were quite unethical...when I banished my sister Celestia I became quite fascinated with magic as I lost the ability to wield the elements of harmony. I conducted experiments on my subjects. Many became insane or worse...when Twilight and her friends freed my sister from her imprisonment, and they learned what I've been doing. I was given this book as a way to learn from my mistakes...instead, I was trapped here and imprisoned. I, as the other Twilight and Celestia here, are not here by choice."

"Oh my Faust!" Gleaming wheezed as she sat down, blinking. "So, what do you want me to help you escape?"

Luna shook her head as she looked over and asked, "to kill the imposter and free us."

The princess of Guardianship shook all over as she stammered, "I...I...I can't do that!"

"Yes, you can; you're not brainwashed along with Sunset. You can pretend to graduate then attack her. She won't see it coming."

"Isn't she like a god here!? How would we even stand a chance to defeat her!" Gleaming shouted now she was frustrated and concerned.

Luna smirked, "if she were in the office, yes, but the graduation room makes her seem mortal she is as weak as an infant in there. You can strike her down easily with a simple beam spell. I can even give you an amulet to amplify your magic ability."

Gleaming looked down at her drink and sat there for what felt like hours. As a royal guard, if anypony dared attack Celestia or the subjects, she was willing to defend them…but kill? She never thought she would have to ever kill anypony…no, not even this imposter, she won't ever do such a heinous act as she stomped a hoof and replied in defiance. "I won't kill her."

Luna shook her head and replied, "You can't give her a chance to understand you're not brainwashed; if you try to simply capture her, she'll teleport you and Sunset to another dimension, and you both will be destroyed in seconds. The only way you have a chance of escaping is you taking her down with the element of surprise."

Gleaming shook her head as she was not going to back down from this. "No...I can't do that! I won't kill her; there has to be a way to capture her then talk some reason into her. You were given a second chance, and so did your sister? How is it fair to take her life without at least giving her a chance to stop this."

Luna paused; she seemed to be somewhat surprised as she whispered, "Maybe your right... I'll have you and Sunset talk it over, and you have access to this library. However, you have three days to make a plan if you can somehow capture her."

Gleaming stood up. "Trust me, we will," she got up and stomped off as she opened a door and saw Sunset standing there with a blush. "Um...you think we can do this?"

Gleaming just rushed over and kissed her before replying, "of course, I made it back here...now we also need Winter's help if we're going to have a chance to take this headmaster down."

"Hey, did somepony call for me!?" the goddess of winter exclaimed as she flew down and took her friends into a big hug. They all nuzzled each other as they sat together as Sunset turned to her and asked, "before we continue with talking about our battle plan? Tell us everything about your life? Don't leave any details out."

The princess of Guardianship gave a sigh as she sat down at the table with a steaming cup of tea in her hooves. "all alright, well, it all started when I was born…"

Chapter Twelve: The life of Gleaming Shield

Gleaming Shield sat down with her friends in the dark gloomy tower at the small circular table; the white-coated mare took a cup of tea as she took a few sips. She looked up and explained, "I'm going to try to do my best to talk about the most important details of my life…so I won't go over every little thing."

Sunset slammed a hoof on the table and shouted, "just tell us! Don't leave us in suspense!"

Winter's cheeks flushed pink as she bowed her head and whispered, "yeah, just tell us everything you remember…"

The white-coated alicorn took another sip of tea and then gave a long-winded sigh as this was going to be a rather long tale. "Alright…the first thing I honestly remember were bright lights."

25 years ago…

Gleaming Shield woke up quite suddenly as she was trying to gauge her surroundings; there were bright lights all around her. The random hospital objects seemed to be bigger than her. The chubby white-coated filly tried to move her limbs, but they weren't responding to her movements. Her hooves felt jelly; she wanted to kick them about, but they seemed to not do what she wanted. The filly laid her head back and thought things over for a second, for what felt like forever she was stuck in a viscous fluid that surrounded her, she was clearly in another mare's womb…but…she wasn't alone; there was a colt there with her. They held hooves and listened to their mother's heartbeat. After that, things were a blur, a lot of screaming, crying…The filly was somewhat confused as she sat there thinking about things…for some reason, she couldn't remember the name of the colt that was with her in the womb. Gleaming paused and took a second to understand where she was, the white tiles, the glass window across the room; this had to be a hospital. Looking down at her stubby body once more, she must have just been born. The small white-coated filly turned her head and saw there were a few other ponies in the room with her, an older violet mare, with white and purple striped mane, a night blue-coated stallion with gold eyes and a dark blue mane, and a dull-looking brown coated stallion in a white coat with a stethoscope around his neck.

The blue-coated stallion looked down at the filly with a look of surprise and awe. "An alicorn!? How is this possible!"

The doctor looked awfully confused as he scratched his head. Gleaming was lifted up by the magic of the stallion she kicked and cooed, feeling the cold air hit her naked body making her shiver and whimper. She didn't realize that being outside her mother's womb being so warm that outside would be so cold. But the doctor was quick with his observations, placed a cold stethoscope on her chest, put a light in her ears; he then wrapped her back up in a fluffy pink blanket and placed down in her bassinet as she continued to reply. "I have no idea, she's healthy, and her vitals are good...I mean, other than that, there's not much else I can say in regards to her species."

The violet-coated mare trotted over and dawwed at the filly below. "Oh, why does it matter if she's an alicorn? That just means she's that much more amazing!" She took Gleaming into her hooves and nuzzled the filly close to her face.

The filly couldn't help but kick and giggle as she was being smothered. Night Light came over with a smile as he looked at his new daughter. "Yeah, your right; she is rather adorable…I just can't believe it!? An alicorn filly…what do you have an alicorn princess in your family tree?"

Twilight Velvet rolled her eyes at the comment and scoffed, "I doubt it; most likely you had one."

She then noticed across from her another baby pony, this one the white-coated colt with her back in the womb; he was wrapped up in a blue blanket sleeping peacefully with only a wisp of blue for a mane. When Gleaming recognized the colt tried to shout at him but nothing, but babbles came out, and it was all coming to her, that other foal had to be Shining Armor. But her gibberish seemed to elicit no response from her twin brother. She decided to look around a little and recognize some of the other ponies. The older mare Twilight Velvet was her mother, the blue-coated stallion was her father, Night Light it all came to her quite suddenly. Luna sent her back in time to live her life as a foal! As the alicorn realized she was just born, this would be her new life being the twin sister to Shining Armor.

The white-coated alicorn went and poured herself another teacup as Sunset and Winter were silent and rather astonished. at the story so far. Sunset was the first to say something and whispered, "wow…you actually remember your birth?"

Gleaming shook her head as she continued to explain. "No, not really; like I said, it was all a blur until much later."

Winter was a bit confused and asked, "before you continue, you actually remember yourself being a foal?"

The alicorn princess cheeks flushed pink as it was rather embarrassing but she did explain her situation once again, "Remember Luna took my consciousness and placed it into its own body. So yes, I was self-aware for most of my filly years. I'll skip most of it as it's either embarrassing or not important. In fact, next, I'll explain how I first met my version of Princess Celestia."

20 years ago

Gleaming was shaking all over as she stood in one of the towers that made up Canterlot palace getting ready for her test. The little filly was there to take the test to see if she will enter Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. Gleaming knew deep down magic was never a strong suit of hers,' but she felt compelled to at least try to see if she could get in. On the other hoof, she'll maybe be able to see Princess Celestia herself.

A purple dragon egg was pushed into the room on a cart as one of the angry-looking proctors, a mare, glared at her and snapped, "alright, Gleaming Shield is it!?"

"Yes!" The young princess squeaked out as the proctors all looked over at her as the mare waved a hoof and snapped, "proceed hatch the egg."

The little filly gulped as she lit her horn to try showing her skills; all she could muster was a few sparks. The ponies frowned and mumbled to each other as they wrote down notes as the filly rolled her eyes. "I already told all of you that my magic isn't that powerful, and I didn't want to join this school." Before the proctors could do anything, the little filly placed a giant shield on the proctors as she ran off and squealed, "Sorry about that! I'm going to find Princess Celestia!"

She ran off as the proctors banged at the magical bubble shouting at her as her parents ran after her. The filly just laughed as she ran through the halls and squeaked as she ran right into a tall white-coated alicorn. Gleaming looked up and saw that it was none other than Princess Celestia standing over her. The princess of the sun looked down with a smile. "Hello there! It's good to see you Gleaming!"

Gleaming gulped she was super nervous but the filly didn't have a lot of time before the other ponies reached her so she quickly stammered, "Hey, just wana say hi! Also, wana ask if you can teach me how to be a princess?"

The proctors (who all seemed to come down the hall after the shield dissipated) the princess of the sun held up a hoof making all the ponies pause as she replied, "I guess you didn't have a lot of magical talent, which is fine, Instead why don't I give you private lessons, and I can give you tips on being a princess."

"That would be amazing! Thank you!" Gleaming Shield squealed; she couldn't believe that she would get solid advice on being a princess from Celestia herself. The little filly skipped off after her parents, who both quickly bowed, gave their apologies, and skirted off after their daughter.

After a very scolding from her parents, Gleaming came back home, slipping into her room, looking rather cheery with herself as she went into her room. Inside was a rather quaint room with two beds on either side one had posters of comic book superheroes and stacks of comics on his bedside. The other had mostly Daring Do posters and Daring Do novels. Shining was reading one of his comics as he looked over at his sister and asked, "you back already?"

The little white-coated filly gave him a smirk and chirped, "yep!"

Shining now had a smirk on his face as he asked, "so you passed?"

Gleaming already had a feeling her brother knew the answer to that question. Still, she decided to just exclaim proudly once more. "Nope!"

Shining burst into laughter as he closed his comic and snickered, "of course not, but I have to ask, did your plan to convince Celestia to teach you how to be a princess work?"

"Yeah, it did! Instead of magic lessons, I'll be getting princess lessons!" Gleaming squealed in delight; she was so happy her plan worked. As she plopped right onto the bed, sitting across from her brother.

Shining looked at his sister with a smile on his face. "Well, it seems you got something out of it…though…from the shouting downstairs. I assume you're grounded?"

The filly's cheeks flushed pink as, despite her plan working rather well, her parents were still furious with her as she admitted, "yeah…well…I had to place a magical shield on the proctors."

Shining laughed, even more, rolling on his bed; the colt shook his head and continued, "wow!? You actually did that?"

Gleaming couldn't help but snicker behind a hoof as she explained, "yeah, it's true, trapped them good you should've seen their faces."

The colt looked back at his sister with a smug grin and shouted, "wana have another shield contest?"

"Oh, buck yeah! You are ready to lose again!" Gleaming snapped as she slammed a hoof on the ground, and then they both lit their horns and produced bubbles around each other.

The other mares burst into laughter and tears upon hearing Gleaming's next part of her story. Sunset poured herself some more tea she decided to ask. "So, what about when Twilight was born? You witnessed that?"

Gleaming shook her head and replied modestly. "Sadly, not the moment of her birth, but my brother and I visited her in the hospital multiple times. To be honest…the moment that I most remember was when my brother and I snuck into her nursery one night."

19 years and a few months ago…

It was a long quiet night for Gleaming Shield; she was staring up at the ceiling; she shared a room with her twin brother. She had to whisper under her breath, "hey, Shining you awake."

The colt whispered back to his twin sister. "Yeah, I'm awake."

"Hey, wana go see our new baby sister," The little alicorn squeaked hoping he’ll say yes.

“Oh heck yeah!” Shining Armor exclaimed rather excitedly the two were both rather excited, waiting for their parents to go to sleep so they could sneak over to the baby's room to see their newborn sister. They both then slowly crept out of their room and headed to the nursery and peered over the top of the crib, and there was a tiny purple filly. She was so small and cute, suckling on a pacifier tucked under pink sheets. The little colt smiled down and placed a hoof over his chest. "Hi, my name is Shining Armor."

"I'm Gleaming Shield! And I'm your big sister!" the filly quickly cried out.

Shining ssshhhed her as Gleaming placed hooves over her mouth. Right she didn't want then turned to the filly. "Sorry, she can be quite rude sometimes."

"Nah, uh, your rude." Gleaming snapped, getting rather angry at her brother, making a wrong impression of her to their new sister.

Shining rolled his eyes. "Anyways, were your older siblings, and at the very least I'll protect you."

"Yeah, me too!" Gleaming chirped with her eyes aglow, the filly seemed to give a slight nod as the two foals quickly ran back to their bed, and they snuggled under the sheets. Later that night Shining Armor under the blankets whispered, "hey Gleaming let's make a pact."

The little princess alicorn thought about it for a second as she looked into the dark void towards her ceiling. She couldn't help but think about how frail and small Twilight was and whispered, "yeah, that we'll protect our new baby sister forever and ever."

"Yeah, until the end of time." Shining yawned as he snuggled under the sheets Gleaming just stood awake staring at the ceiling as she couldn't wait to be Twilight's big sister.

Gleaming's friends both were tearing up, making the mare squeamish and cry out. "hey, stop that!"

"What, that was so cute!" Sunset wailed and started to ball her eyes out as Winter rolled her eyes and the goddess turned to Gleaming and asked, "why don't we skip to when you got your cutie mark? That must be one heck of a story."

"Oh yeah! You have to tell us!" Sunset snapped, slamming a hoof on the table.

The white coated mare rolled her eyes and sighed, "fine, but I'll just say it's more embarrassing than it is interesting…"

18 years ago...

"Gleaming you ready for school!"

"In a minute, mom!" The white-coated mare shouted back as the little white-coated school filly was getting her mane finished combing out the knots growling to herself. It's been about five years since she was reborn into her new life, and at the moment, she was trying to get ready for school. Shining ran over into the bathroom and shouted, "Come on, Gleaming, your gonna make us late!"

"Oh, like you care, you're the one who slept in." The filly snapped back, making Shining wince as he mumbled under his breath, "whatever, let's just go, your mane looks fine."

"Hmmph, fine, but you owe me for waking you up." Gleaming chirped back as she booped him on the nose.

Shining wrinkled his muzzle with a pout. "Fine, as long as you don't do anything crazy or embarrassing...I don't understand why you have to brush your mane every morning?"

"Ugh, you have it easy; you're a colt." She finished doing what she could before taking up her saddlebag and heeded off with Shining down the halls and headed to the kitchen. As they came to the kitchen, they saw quite a sight; two saw a baby Twilight Sparkle babbling and kicking and screaming at Night Light covered in foal food trying to feed her.

Twilight Velvet placed two bowls of cereal on the table. "Come on and eat your breakfast; you're already late, so hurry up." The two quickly ran over and gobbled down their meal, then the mare came by and gave both of her foals a kiss on the forehead, as the twins shouted, "bye, mom! Bye, dad!"

"Bye, kiddos!" Their parents shouted back as they ran out the door for school.

Later that day, the two foals were at a playground for recess; the two ran around the playground, racing each other. They then spotted a big, rough-looking colt bullying some other foals shouting that he owns the playground.

Gleaming looked over at the colt and growled under her breath, "Iron Mace, that jerk, and he's supposed to be a royal guard when he grows up?"

"As, if more likely he'll grow up to be a bully!" Shining exclaimed as he puffed up his chest.

The filly wiped the sweat from her brow. "We need to stop him! I'm tired of him picking on every foal and getting away with it."

"Right, but how? We can't beat him up?" The colt asked as his sister rolled her eyes. "Seriously, why do colts always want to get physical? We can make magic shields. Let's trap him!"

Shining Armor smirked as he exclaimed, "right, let's give him a timeout!"

The two waddled over as Shining struck his chest out and shouted, "Hey Iron! I think we all had enough of your bullying! If you really are going to be a royal guard one day, this is definitely not how you should act!"

The colt hopped down and stomped across the padded yard. "Oh yeah, make me stop! Or you're going to let your sister fight me!"

"maybe I will!" The white-coated filly snapped; this got the colt to lower his horn and ran at her.
Gleaming then gnashed her teeth as she braced herself to be tackled. The little filly then lit her horn, defending herself and her brother. Iron Mace slammed into a magical shield and fell backward, groaning as Shining smirked as; he lit his horn and created a magical shield over the bully, making him cry as he rose up and smashed his hooves against the shield. "Hey, let me out!"

Shining Armor stomped over and snapped, "no, not until you promise to let every foal use the playground."

Iron Mace gritted his teeth as he kept slamming against the magical shield, unable to breakout. He wasn't going to let these two. "Fine! I'm gonna tell my mommy, and you two are gonna get in big trouble!"

Shining dissipated, the shield and Iron Mace ran off as every foal started to cheer and ran towards the playground shouting thank yous at the two foals.

The colt gave a sigh as he rubbed a hoof over his mane. "Ya know we probably gonna get in big trouble."

"So what? He was a bully, and he needed to stop-" The white-coated mare paused as she saw Shining's Armor cutie mark was now on his rump. "Your cutie mark! You got it!"

"What!?" Shining cried out as he turned towards his rump and gasped, seeing the blue shield and the starburst printed on it. "This is so cool!"

He turned to his sister and pointed a hoof at her rump. "Hey! You got a cutie mark too!"

Gleaming turned her head to see her mark was similar to her brother's, except her shield had a pink tiara in the middle of it. "Yeah, I did too! This is so awesome!"

Shining gave a salute to his sister and replied, "looks like we're one step closer to being royal guards."

Gleaming beamed a smile of pride back at her brother and saluted back, "yeah, one more step towards our dream."

The white coated alicorn princess finished her tale as she took another sip of her tea as she finished, "so yeah, that's the story…"

Sunset eyed her and asked, "that's it? I was hoping for something more interesting?"

"Told you, my life wasn't that interesting; I mean after that it was mostly just school, getting into fights with Cadance over trying to be Twilight's big sister, getting into the royal guard climbing the ranks…and there were also Celestia's private lessons were either boring or embarrassing…" Gleaming sighed as she shoved a piece of cheesecake in her mouth. Somehow the princess rubbed off her addiction of cake onto her. Even Luna has teased she was basically Celestia Jr.

Sunset eyed her mare friend and asked, "were you at your brother's wedding?"

Gleaming was caught by surprise by the question as she spat out some of her tea and cake then grumbled, "yeah, I was, now that was an exciting story."

about a year ago...

Gleaming Shield was looking up as the magical shield with an army of Changelings fluttering above. She was scared, fearful not for herself but for the dozens of civilians cowering around her, shaking all together like leaves in a storm. The mare knew her brother's magic was waning, and she knew that the shield was going to collapse. "Alright, everypony, stay close! Royal guards create a boundary around the guards! I'll create another shield around all of you, but if they break it, you'll be the last line of defense! Your job is to keep these ponies safe, is that clear!"

"Yes, princess!" The other royal guards shouted, all shaking, looking somewhat terrified but holding onto their spears, ready for anything.

The shield did disappear above them, and everypony around her started to scream! But Gleaming was fast, placing another magical shield on everypony around her. She stood firm, glaring at the changelings; she wasn't going to let anyone of them hurt the civilians or her fellow guards. The changelings came swarming over them, smashing their hooves against her barrier.

She stood her ground with her shield overhead and kept them all safe within her magical barrier for as long as she could. Every hit on her shield started to make her shake all over, with her head starting to ring. Then there was a giant explosion that rocked the area, and soon the changelings began to flee with Gleaming standing there panting with a tired smile came over her face. "We…d…di…did it…" Completely exhausted, Gleaming Shield couldn't hold herself any longer and collapse to the ground.

Winter and Sunset were now on the edge of their seats straing right at the alicorn princess. Gleaming saw their astonished and worried expressions realizing the story was left sort of on a cliffhanger and quickly added. "I mean, I lived, of course! Spent a few days at the hospital…and begrudgingly learned Twilight and her friends saved our rumps again, that's about it."

The two mares gave sighs of relief as Sunset shook her head. "You and Shining are the same, suckers to the end that'll be the death of you."

"As if! I knew my limits and held myself rather well!" Gleaming snapped back, making Sunset roll her eyes. Winter, on the other hoof, whispered, "so…um…were you crowned as a princess?"

The white-coated alicorn turned to the goddess of winter and chirped, "yep! I am the princess of Guardianship! The ceremony wasn't anything spectacular… I gave a speech and then had my helmet replaced with a tiara…"

"Oh, you didn't wear a gown!? You wore armor!" Sunset cried out, somewhat surprised.

"Oh, shut it! I was also replacing my brother as captain of the guard! Wearing his armor was more appropriate!" Gleaming snapped back getting quite irritated with her marefriend Sunset who was starting to get on her nerves.

"Alright, fine, anyways…what about it? You sound like you're keeping something from us?" Sunset Shimmer asked with a suspicious tone.

Gleaming grumbled under her breath despite her and Sunset having made up and rekindled their love; she then snapped, "fine, it was just a good memory. I'll just explain what happened."

A few months ago

The next few months go by; after defeating the tyrant Sombra, she was now standing in front of a mirror wearing purple-plated armor. She was there standing tall, looking quite proud of herself, not only in helping to stop the Changeling invasion but supporting her brother and his wife in their expedition in defeating the spirit of the tyrant Sombra. Her brother was now the prince of the Crystal Empire. She was going to be crowned as the princess of Guardianship. This was, in fact, the day she will take his place as the captain of the guard. She was pretty proud of her accomplishments and felt as if everything she was ready to go for her big day.

Then she saw her brother slowly come in and strode over as her eyes went wide in surprise; she turned around and shined a smile at Shining and spread out her hooves. "Hey! I didn't think you would come!"

She gave him a big hug, and then he took a step back as he admired the armor on his sister with a smirk." It suits you…I thought you would be wearing a dress?"

"Well, I thought about it, but I felt this would suit me better; I want to prove I'm ready to be the Princess of Guardianship not just as their princess…but as their protector."

Shining gave his sister a salute. "Well, good luck!"

"Yeah, you too!" Shining’s twin exclaimed and saluted back; Gleaming Shield stepped forward as Celestia came around. "Just look at you!"

Gleaming cheeks flushed pink as she came over and hugged the princess of the sun as they both wrapped their wings around each other and they held the embrace for sometime. "Thank you for coming as well."

Celestia looked down at her student with a warm smile as she applauded her. "Well, you did a lot to get here, and you definitely deserve this, and might I say you look impressive."

Gleaming nuzzled into Celestia and whispered, "thank you for being my mentor…" She then rose up, wiped the tears from her face, and followed the princess of the sun out onto the balcony to deliver her coronation speech.

"So, what about the speech?" Sunset asked, being a bit peeved.

The princess of Guardianship scratched the back of her mane realizing she had forgotten most of it as she explained, "oh, it was just super long and boring; it would take forever to remember everything I said. I'm sure Twilight wrote it down; you can ask her when you meet her."

Winter's cheeks flushed pink as she whispered, "so…um, I have a question? Why did you send your consciousness back in time?"

Gleaming looked down at her teacup for a bit of bit before she whispered, "it was because I was living inside Shining Armor's body and for me to have my own body I had to live my own life…I don't know how Luna did it all…but in the end, it was a well-lived life, and it was worth it."

She turned to Sunset Shimmer and Winter and replied sternly. "What I realized in the last twenty-five years is that my life has taught me a lot of lessons. One is that no matter which some pony is in trouble, and we can stop it, we have to do so. I hope you both feel the same."

They both nodded in agreement as Sunset looked over at Gleaming; she opened her mouth to say something but then promptly closed it before asking, "so…um…you have a plan to stop this fake Lauren Faust?"

"Yeah… it's simple, really, and if we do it right, not only will we stop the brainwashing and free the other teachers. We can make a better school for young princesses now listen closely." Gleaming chirped, the three huddled around the table discussing their plan to save the Princess Academy.

chapter thirteen: Gleaming Graduates!

Gleaming Shield and the rest of her friends were all in line for their graduation; they were in an oversized auditorium with rows and rows of seats. The princess academy graduates were now all standing together, all wearing their graduation caps and gowns standing as they were heading to the stage where Faust was standing above them. Gleaming, Winter, and Sunset Shimmer were standing together, all giving each other nervous looks. Gleaming looked around, gauging the area seeing many different versions of Twilight, Sunset shimmers, Trixie, and other various creatures and goddesses like Winter all sitting in their respective seats. Princess Faust then suddenly appeared on the stadium above everypony and tapped a hoof on the microphone. She started her speech. "Welcome! I am happy to see so many princesses graduating today! It is with great pleasure that I give out your diplomas as you set off to serve and rule your respective kingdoms and nations. I know each and every one of you will do your best."

Everypony in the stadium applauded Gleaming however was looking somewhat nervous at her friends with an unsure expression on her face. They then looked over back at Faust as she began the ceremony. "Now, I will call your names one by one; please come up and receive your diplomas."

The line of alicorns did as they were asked and came to Faust; she started to hand out their diplomas one by one. Things seemed to be normal as Gleaming walked up the steps to receive her's. But at the same time, both Winter and Sunset Shimmer all surrounded Faust from behind. Before she could react, the white-coated mare lit her horn, and they initiated her spell; they teleported themselves and Faust into professor Luna's study. Gleaming and Sunset both tied magical chains around the mare. Faust tried to maneuver herself, lighting her horn, but only tiny sparks came out of it. The other mares all sat around on the table as she looked around with a terrified expression. "What's going on here? What have you done to me!?"

"We're going to have a talk about how you run this school," The white-coated mare replied with a snarky smirk on her face as sat sat across from Faust.

Sunset Shimmer crossed her hooves across her chest. It snapped, "Yeah, I don't like the fact you're trying to brainwash ponies, especially princesses."

Winter glared at her and eyed them as she snapped, "me neither seriously!? I don't even know why I'm here, I'm a goddess?"

Faust laughed at them as she exclaimed, "what do you think you can hold me!?"

She tried to struggle from her bonds, and when she tried to light her horn, but again, only tiny sparks shot out. Faust was utterly tied down and couldn't do anything. "How did you do this!?"

"Luna put a ward around her study that negates your magic on top of that; those chains will hold you down until you hear us out." Gleaming snapped as she rose up; she wasn't going to hold back she had to make her demands clear and continued, "First off, Luna told us all about you and how this whole school is about brainwashing princesses; in fact, she even implied you might not even be the real Faust."

The alicorn started to snicker under her breath then replied, "of course not! She is a true goddess who loves the idea of free will? I'm just a clone created in an idea that was long discarded. I saw that the multiverse needed order, and I decided to create that order!"

Gleaming shook her head as she responded, "you're wrong, your perfect system failed when you tried to brainwash my version of Twilight, but instead, her brother wrote his name in one of your books and he accidentally took her place."

Faust went wide eyed at the news and asked, "that's never happened before? Why would he do that?"

Gleaming scratched the back of her mane, feeling a bit sheepish as she explained, "well, I think he did it as a joke; anyways, that's not the point. The fact is because Shining accidentally took the book instead of Twilight that proves you can't control every outcome. Your brainwashing didn't work either, in fact, I would say it didn't work on any of my friends at all."

Faust eyed them giving them a nasty glare and growled, "the only reason for that is Luna betrayed me, but can you honestly trust her? That version of Luna has done some horrible things in her past."

Gleaming rose up, glaring right back at Faust; she had enough of this debate especially when she’s trying to divert attention from the main issue at hand and snapped, "of course she isn't, but so did I, and I bet there are thousands of princesses graduating here who all did things their not proud of. We're not perfect; we're not immune to making mistakes or turning evil. The point is we're given the free will to decide what we want to do without lives and not forced to be mindless drones."

Faust glared at the two; she seemed unphased or willing to back down as she growled, "ok, so what's your plan? You give me a pep talk and force me to change? You're going to have to either trap me here forever, which I know you're all too soft to do. So just release me already."

Gleaming gave a small sigh of relief; at least this conversation was getting somewhere; she looked up and continued, "no, I have a better idea, I'll reform the academy with a better structure than the one implemented. You can still run the school, but you will not be allowed to brainwash anypony, either the teachers or the students."

There was now silence within the room everypony was as quiet as a mouse, then Faust spoke up once more. "First off, before I agree to this, I have to ask, are you still Shining Armor?"

Gleaming Shield shook her head before she continued, "no, it's a long story, but Luna helped me get my own body, and I lived my own life.." The princess of Guardianship paused as she reflected on the past twenty-five years of her life, all the memories flooding through her mind before she finished. "If I learned anything is that life is a way better teacher than any school."

Winter dawwed while Sunset Shimmer just rolled her eyes at Gleaming's comment. Faust simply looked down and grumbled, "all alright, you have a point, but still, I have thousands of alicorns under my control already. What makes you think I'll just release them?"

Sunset seemed to have enough as she stomped over and shoved a hoof in her face, "listen! I've had enough of you! We could just have you imprisoned here forever, and we can run the school ourselves! You should be lucky Gleaming here is so nice!

Gleaming turned to her marefriend she was being far too aggressive and shouted, "enough! Stop that! We're not here to imprison her!"

The white-coated mare then turned her attention back to Faust and asked, "Look, I'm tired of playing good cop bad cop here. Obviously, the only way this works if we have a deal. We want to restore the free will of everypony that has entered this school, so what will you want in return?"

The mare paused as she looked at the three princesses in training and replied with a smirk on her face. "Actually, I think I'll retire and let Gleaming be the new headmaster."

"What!?" All three mares shouted in unison.

Faust looked straight into Gleaming's eyes as she replied. "That's right, you have a better idea for this school fine, but then you can run it. I need a break anyway."

The three mares gave each other worried looks. Gleaming however pondered her decision for sometime she was definitely weary of this Faust. However, this is what she wanted and this copy of Faust get what she wants so there should be no reason for her to lie. Besides she has a way to ensure that Faust keeps her word. The mare then slowly came over and held out a hoof. "Well, a deal's a deal, you release everypony in your control, and I'll take over as the new headmaster."

The two then shook hooves, and then there was a long pause before all three mares burst into laughter. Faust was somewhat confused as the chains around her started to disappear, and the room around her turned from a gloomy-looking study to the grand auditorium where they were holding the graduation ceremony. Faust's mouth just dropped as she saw that they never left the stage, and surrounding her were giant blocks of ice surrounding her.

Then everypony started bursting into laughter as Sunset got up, wiping tears from her eyes. "That was awesome! Can't believe she fell for that!"

Even Winter was snickering as she walked over and commented, "Yeah, that was rather hilarious! You thought we could break through your dimension magic!?"

Faust sat there still wholly dumbfounded as the walls of ice melted by Sunset Shimmer's magic which revealed the hundreds of alicorns sitting in their seats, all either looking quite angry or surprised at the recent revelations.

Gleaming stood up proud of herself; they just defeated a goddess and not in battle but simply tricking her. She then trotted over as she continued, "just in case you decide to break your word, we have a few hundred witnesses. And yeah, I don't mind being the headmaster and proving that you're wrong."

Faust sat there sweating bullets as the crowd then started getting up from their seats, shouting and yelling. Gleaming saw that things were going to get out of control fast, she quickly ran over to the microphone and shouted. "Everypony, stop and hear me out! All of you!"

The army of angry princesses paused as Gleaming stood there somewhat nervous. She needed to make sure that the crowd didn't come over and lynch Faust as she continued, "I know what this copy of Faust has done is unforgivable, but we still need to uphold the values of who we are. As of today, I'll be the new headmaster, the brainwashing and the lying and the...um...all of them over-the-top mare stuff comes to an end. I will start a new curriculum that is built around building princess alicorns to be who they want to be!" She stomped a hoof on the ground and closed her eyes, unsure of how the crowd would take her speech. But soon, everypony around her started to clap and cheer, making her cheeks turn red. Gleaming had no idea what she was getting herself into.

A few hours later, Gleaming was now back in the office, where she first met Faust and was enrolled into the academy. The room itself was rather barren as the copy of Faust taking her nametag and a bunch of the pictures on the wall and stuffing them into a bag. She tossed the bag in a giant box as she threw a hoof and bowed before Gleaming in a sarcastic gesture. "Well, I guess this is your office now, Headmaster Gleaming Shield."

The white-coated mare looked over at the copy of Faust with a sad expression as she replied, "I mean...I don't want to run this school all the time. I'll need somepony to keep things in check while I'm in my universe...or when I visit Sunset or Winter."

Faust rolled her eyes as she placed the box onto her back and replied, "I honestly don't care, you and your friends won, I lost, end of story."

Gleaming trotted over and placed a hoof on the former headmaster's shoulder and continued, "look, you know I don't think you're completely wrong, but you have to see now that nopony wants to be brainwashed or used."

The copy of Faust looked downward at the giant scroll laid out on her old desk. Gleaming saw that the alicorn goddess knew she was right but didn't want to admit it and grumbled, "Yes, and I see your new curriculum is...well...more freeform as you would put it."

"Yeah, more freeform, the idea is that we get alicorns from all over to come and live in a city where they can go to a simulation of a kingdom, they can learn more in a classroom and a palace for mares who like all the frilly fru-fru stuff." Gleaming explained. "Basically, you get to choose what you want to learn, and if you don't want to do anything, you can go home free of charge."

The copy of Faust looked upward at her former student and asked, "you honestly think this will work? What if everything falls apart?"

The white-coated mare gave the former headmaster a friendly smile and replied, "give freewill a shot. I'm sure things will turn out just fine."

The two then headed towards the front door as Faust gazed around the empty office. She seemed to look it over with an expression of nostalgia on her face as she whispered, "I'm going to miss this place."

Gleaming nuzzled Faust and whispered, "As I said, you can come back at any time to help out if you want." The mare then looked towards the door and opened it, showing a swirling pink void before she gave a deep breath; everything was about wrapped up. But there were a few more things she needed to take care of before she could feel ready to run a multidimensional school, like telling her family the truth about her and finding Sunset Shimmer's dimension. "Now I need to go home; I have some explaining to do to my family; they deserve to know the truth." She then headed to the door and let the magic consume her as she went back home.

After Gleaming returned, she held an "emergency meeting" back at her parent's house in their living room. That was where she explained everything to them, how she took over Shining's body without realizing it, how she went back in time and basically lived a whole life, and then taking Shining's place, writing her name in the book, and going through the academy again, then defeating the copy of Faust.

"So... that's how I became the headmaster of an interdimensional academy for new alicorns." Gleaming explained she looked up at her family. Twilight Velvet and Nightlight were wide-eyed and seemed to be entirely overwhelmed by the information. Shining Armor seemed to be unsurprised or concerned as he rose up. "Come on, it doesn't matter what you are; as far as I'm concerned, she's my twin sister, and I'm proud to be her twin brother."

Tears filled Gleaming’s eyes as she walked over to her twin brother and threw her wings around him and pulled him into a hug. She just started balling and wailing unable to control how happy and emotional she was with Shining accepting her in such a manner. But it didn’t end there as Twilight cried out. “She’s my big sister too!” She then flew over and gave Gleaming a hug, and then her parents came over, and they all hugged her, Shining, and Princess Cadance.

Gleaming felt so squeamish being buried by her family, and she just sat there and nuzzled them all, being so happy she could be with them after everything that's happened to her. They eventually broke off as Gleaming rose up and flexed her wings. She wiped the tears from her eyes and got control of herself then whispered meekly. "Thank you...all of you for being so understanding I promise to be the princess I can be. However there’s one more thing before I can officially say I’m ready to settle down…”

Just then the emotional rollercoaster ride came to an abrupt end when a purple portal opened in the middle of the living room and another Twilight came out. This one had thick glasses around her eyes and her mane tied in a bun she was pointing at a watch on her hoof and snapped, “come on! You don’t want to miss your only chance on reuniting Sunset Shimmer.”

Gleaming turned to the rest of her family trembling this was all rather sudden but she couldn’t miss this chance to find her love. Shining however placed a hoof on her shoulder and whispered, “go after her, we’ll be here when you return.”

“Thank you!” Gleaming squealed as she rushed to the portal and jumped in head first.

A week later...

Dawn was breaking over Ponyville while Twilight's castle two alicorns were together in a bedroom laying underneath the sheets. Sunset was on top of her special somepony. The two alicorns were lying together embraced in a kiss as they seemed unable to be separated. Sunset groaned as the rays of the sun hit her face as she laid back on the bed. "Buck it, Celestia, you couldn't wait to raise the sun for one morning?"

Gleaming was still panting as she caught her breath; she may be exhausted having sex all morning, but she wasn't ready to get up just yet. She bent over to gaze at her lover as she stroked Sunset's chest with a hoof. "Oh, who says we need to get up with the sun? It's not like we have anything we need to do right now?"

Sunset nuzzled into Gleaming and responded, "shouldn't you be running a school right now?"

"No, I shut it down until we're officially married...besides, I'm still in shock after that stunt we pulled. It was quite a gamble we pulled, tricking that copy of Faust. I was sure we would probably be killed or end up being brainwashed." Gleaming replied as she got up from the bed and stretched her hooves.

"Yeah, sure, but that wouldn't have happened without my illusion magic." Sunset scoffed in an overconfident tone.

Gleaming snickered as she walked around the bed and kissed Sunset on the muzzle. "Well, at the very least now, our only problem on our hooves is how we'll plan two weddings."

"Oh please, let's not go that far; let's just enjoy being marefriends for a bit," Sunset grumbled as she started to get up as well. Gleaming frowned; she was already in the midst of planning two weddings with both versions of Twilight and scoffed, "oh no you don't! I've spent all week planning these weddings! You're not backing out now!"

"Am not! I mean, you caught me off guard when you proposed; of course, I want to be with you forever, but I...well...I don't know; I just don't think I'm ready for a wedding." Sunset snapped back as she finally got out of bed.

"Oh i'll make you ready." Gleaming whispered under her breath she was already behind her marefriend as she started preening Sunset's wings. She started making the orange coated mare shiver and moan as Gleaming hit bent feathers and the sensitive parts of the wings. Sunset began to press her rump into Gleaming as the princess of Guardianship finished the preening Sunset turned around with her green eyes; it didn't take long for Gleaming to lose herself in her fiances' gaze, and the two began to kiss. The moment ended as Spike opened the door and shouted, "hey Gleaming! Twilight was wondering if...oh…"

The two mares turned towards the young drake with glares that would turn him into stone if they could. Spike gulped as he realized he came at a bad time and stammered, "I...um...well...sorry!"

Sunset just stomped over and slammed the door in Spike's face as Gleaming couldn't help but laugh afterward and commented, "seems in most universes Spike will be Spike."

Sunset seemed to be less amused as she just grumbled, "he's such a nuisance like a pesky little brother." She came up to Gleaming with bedroom eyes; the white-coated mare knew Sunset was now checking her out as she whispered, "Anyways, why don't we hit the shower and continue our fun in there."

"As you wish, my princess," Gleaming whispered back, and the two mares strolled into the bathroom nearby to continue their alone time together.

Chapter six: Princess Celestia's school of etiquette part one: How to write like a princess

Gleaming Shield rubbed her head as she tried to adjust to her surroundings, who was quite dazed from the sudden teleportation. The mare saw that she was now in a fancy looking lobby with the entire room had white tiles with suns printed on them with a gleaming gold carpet rolling down over the stairs and spread out through the center of the room with columns down the lobby. Classical music flooded the room with vases with all kinds of flowers bursting forth that surrounded the grand room. Her classmates were also slowly getting up, groaning and rubbing their heads as they also tried to gain their bearings.

"Ugh, you think they would warn us before randomly teleporting us!?" Sunset Shimmer shouted into the air with her voice reverberating around the lobby.

Winter was looking around in awe and whispered, "if we get teleported to places like this, I wouldn't mind doing this more often?"

Gleaming Shield was also quite starstruck, looking around the empty lobby wondering where they were. She gazed around, not recognizing this place at all, looking like a hybrid version of Canterlot palace's grand hall but with a more elaborate design. Then they turned to look up the steps and saw Princess Celestia above slowly walking down the steps. She was different from a beautiful golden gown that flushed around her, making the princess look like something from a fairy tale. Her mane was much more curly and done up in braids, making her look more proper with her light rainbow-colored tail tied in satin ribbons. The princess looked over her students and started her lecture. "Good morning, my new students, I do apologize for the abrupt teleportation spell, but we do have a schedule to keep. Now, I am sure you all know my name, but I should explain that for the following week, I'll not be your princess, but your teacher in proper etiquette and refinement."

She waved her mane about after and continued to strut around the three mares seeming to be gauging them. Gleaming has only seen Twilight's friend Rarity a handful of times, but this version of Celestia reminded her of that fashionista with a dose of that aristocratic pompous flair. After circling her students for a second time, the princess of the sun stood in front of the three and continued, “this class will only be a week, and I don't expect you to turn out as proper as me. However, I do expect you to pass your final test, which will be a simulated ball."

The "princesses in training" all groaned as Sunset Shimmer got quite angry and snapped, "come on, Celestia, this is ridiculous!? When have you ever acted this regal?"

This version of Celestia gave Sunset a disgruntled look and continued, "yes, many versions of me can be quite liberal in how they conduct themselves. But as for me, I am quite more refined than my counterparts, and proper manners are important in certain situations."

She then looked over the mare with a smile, "now, I don't know what time it was where you're from; however, it's rather late here, and I do have a strict schedule. So I'll have you three adjust to your new room before we start your classes tomorrow."

Princess Celestia led the mares through the halls with doors on every side. Gleaming Shield looked around the halls, and there were fancy-looking lights and vases. They eventually came upon one of the doors, and the Princess of the sun opened it. All three mares gasped upon seeing a few canopy beds, a fancy wardrobe, a lush fancy white carpet, with golden silk curtains hanging over the wide window. The mares turned to see that the bathroom door was opened, showing off a luxurious looking hot tub. The ponies all blinked at what looked like a room from a five-star hotel. Gleaming was quite astonished looking over their accommodations and whispered, "I don't think that even the palace back home in my dimension had guest rooms that were this nice."

Princess Celestia seemed to be quite pleased with this compliment and asked, "now is everything up to your satisfaction?"

The three students bowed and whispered, "yes, Princess Celestia."

"Good, now if you're hungry, please order anything on the menu, and if you need anything at all, my servants are a call away."

Sunset Summer pointed a hoof at Gleaming Shield and snapped, "Actually, I have a problem. Gleaming was a stallion before hoof. I think she should get her room."

"What's wrong with you, Sunset Shimmer!" Gleaming shouted with her eyes wide in disbelief at what she just heard. She was furious with her former friend while Celestia held a hoof and exclaimed, "girls calm yourselves!"

They all paused and turned towards the Princess of the sun with respect as she continued, "now it doesn't matter if Gleaming was a stallion before. She's a female now and will be so until the end of this course, now behave yourselves. I'll leave you three to settle; however, I expect you three to be ready tomorrow morning as soon as I raise the sun at seven A.M sharp, and that is when your first class begins."

She then left shaking her thick rump under her luxurious golden gown and when the door closed behind the Princess Sunset Shimmer scoffed, still quite angry. "Well, I'm taking dibs on the hot tub!" She stomped off as Winter came over and whispered, "Hey, don't worry; just give her some time."

"Fine, but she better stop with this crap." The angry Princess in training grumbled under her breath, still clearly irritated.

Gleaming and Winter both came to the small table to look over the menu looking at low-calorie foods that didn't look filling at all. Gleaming Shield grumbled as she threw the menu down. "Even my wife doesn't eat stuff like this; this is just ridiculous."

Winter pointed at a small pasta meal. "This looks rather good." She then picked up the phone, looked over at Gleaming, and asked, "you sure you're not going to order anything?"

Gleaming sighed, throwing the menu aside. "Just get me a caesar salad and a bottle of wine."

The goddess snickered as she dialed the phone and then placed their orders. Gleaming decided to walk over to the wardrobe and got a look at a bunch of fancy gowns. This was almost like a weird fever dream, or she was stuck in a fairy tale. It was all too surreal as the door opened, and a cute maid wearing an adorable prench maid uniform stood with a silver platter waltzed into their room with a smile plastered on her face. The maid placed the food down along with the wine bottle; the maid then performed a curtsey. "There you go, princesses in training, please enjoy."

She walked off with the two drinking their wine together and eating their food when Sunset Shimmer came back, drying herself off with a towel complaining, "ugh, have you seen the bathroom!? So much makeup and frou-frou shampoos, soaps…"

She turned to her classmates, still angry at Gleaming, as she sat across from them while ordering her food. After a few minutes of silence, Gleaming glaring at Sunset across the table finally snapped, "Listen, I get your still angry at me for lying to you, but it's not like I asked for this to happen to me."

Sunset gave a long deep sigh. "Look, I thought things over...I may not trust you, but I can understand why you didn't tell us about your true gender. So tonight, you're going to get drunk and tell us all about you."

"What!?" Gleaming squeaked, absolutely stunned, and even Winter was intrigued by this proposal.

The former stallion turned towards the mares. At the very least, Gleaming did feel like she owed it to them to be honest, and grumbled, "fine," She took the bottle of wine first and chugged it down her throat, lapping up every drop. After drinking all that wine, Gleaming did start to feel tipsy, but she felt ready to talk. "Alright, alright, I’ll explain who I really am. My name is Shining Armor, and yes, I was a stallion before I read that stupid book Twilight had in her room.”

Gleaming grumbled under her breath, wishing she never picked up that book before she continued. “Anyways, I was captain of the royal guard for my version of Princess Celestia for about ten years before I married princess Cadance."

Gleaming chuckled under her breath as she sipped some more wine, starting to feel more drunk with her vision blurring as she continued to ramble. "Changelings attacked our wedding if you can believe it. But I chased them off and later took down the spirit of the tyrant King Sombra and saved the Crystal Empire, where princess Cadance and I were crowned Prince and Princess not long after. That's about it..."

Sunset rolled her eyes, crossing her hooves, and snapped, "seriously! Nothing else!? What a boring life."

Winter burst into laughter as she sipped her wine. "Oh, I think it was rather interesting!"

Gleaming scoffed at Sunset, now having the wine being through her body, she was quite drunk as she wobbled back and forth, unable to keep her balance as she rambled, “oh yeah!? Did you ever meet somepony who not only took down an army of changelings but defeated an evil spirit!”

The mare then slammed her bottle down and splashed wine all over the place, and shouted, “I mean buck! I had to fight changelings on my bucking wedding day!"

Sunset was also getting tipsy now and snickered, "I think you're exaggerating. Weren’t you the blushing bride who was captured by changelings waiting for your prince to save you!?"

Winter stood by laughing and kicking her legs. "Oh, we should dress Gleaming up in a wedding dress!"

Gleaming couldn't help but laugh as she wobbled to the wardrobe and sug around before pulling out a wedding dress, "would this do!? I bet I would look great in it!”

Winter and Sunset both burst into laughter as the orange coated alicorn got up and wobbled over to Gleaming and whispered, "you're so beautiful...to...too bad you're already married…"

Sunset then wobbled off to one of the beds and collapsed, as Gleaming looked down at the mare and was unsure what her friend meant by what she said. Winter even got the hint that things got awkward as she got up and whispered, "why don't we get going to bed, huh? We probably have to get up super early."

The white-coated alicorn nodded as she hobbled to her bed and pulled the sheets; she looked up at the ceiling of her bed, wondering how she'll have to deal with Sunset knowing now that she did have a crush on her.

The three mares slowly woke up the next morning as Sunset was up first, Winter and Gleaming next. The orange coated alicorn turned to her friends. "So...I...I want to say whatever I said last night was just the wine talking…"

Winter slowly got up, chirped, "Hey, don't fret! I get it you were just drunk!"

Gleaming merely nodded her head, not fully agreeing with Winter but too embarrassed to say much else. She and Sunset went to the middle of the room and started to do yoga. Sunset was stretching her back out as she stammered. "I...I didn't mean what I said last night...pretend it didn't happen."

Gleaming, stretching her own back, looked over at Sunset with a smile, and replied. "Hey, don't worry about it; seriously, I knew you had feelings for me...but...yeah, I am married."

"Right, anyways...did you really have sex with your wife?" Sunset asked with a smirk on her face.

The quite flustered white-coated alicorn squeaked out loud. "Seriously, I don't want to talk about that!"

Sunset was now on her back, stretching her legs, and whispered, "oh come on, you're not telling me you didn't like having the feeling of being a mare with another mare on top of you."

The former stallion got into the same position and stretching her legs. She thought things over for some time, and the time she had with Cadance was definitely an experience that she enjoyed. "Fine... I'll admit it was quite interesting...however, I do miss having...a...um...you know the thing that makes me a stallion between my legs."

Sunset burst into laughter as she got up the hoisted Gleaming to her hooves. "Oh, come on, enjoy having the thing that makes you a mare for a bit longer."

She and Gleaming both sweaty headed to the hot tub where Winter was getting out of the tub, which now had sheets of ice floating around in the water and icicles growing on the pipes. The mare slowly got out with a blush, "sorry, I prefer the water cold…"

Gleaming snickered while Sunset snapped, "seriously Winter!? it's called a hot tub for a reason!" She turned on the faucets letting the hot water burst from the pipes melting away the ice. Gleaming helped, using her magic to pour in some bath salts and soaps, making the tub’s waters bubble and froth with sweet smells coming from the water. When the tub’s waters began to steam, the two mares slipped into the steaming tub. Gleaming moaned as the steaming waters hit her most sensitive parts of her body. She stretched her wings out and gave a relaxing sigh, and laid her head back while her body was engulfed in the suds and soaps. Sunset looked over at her friend and asked, "so...are you going to just go back to being a stallion after you graduate?"

"Yeah, I have no reason to be an alicorn princess," Gleaming grumbled, still set on turning back into a stallion.

Sunset shrugged as she continued, "alright, but I think you haven't explored the option of staying as a mare. You're never going to get another chance, so you should think things over."

Gleaming turned towards Sunset feeling a bit peeved at her, and snapped, "I assume you had to go through a similar position?"

"Yes, I have; I easily could have gone back to being a human anytime I chose while living in Equestria. But I just made a lot more friends in Equestria than I had back where I came from, so I decided to remain there." Sunset explained as she started to scrub herself.

"Well, my position is different; as soon as this school is over, we're never going to see each other again; So again, I have no real reason to stay like this," Gleaming replied as she started to do the same scrubbing her own body with soaps. Sunset seeing the sexy mare trying to scrub her body, couldn't help but wave a hoof. "Oh, come on, let me do your wings now."

Gleaming was taken aback by the proposal, but she did enjoy being preened by the alternate version of Cadance and slowly swam over, being quite nervous. Gleaming had her wings stretched out before Sunset, who then took her mouth and began to slowly preen Gleaming's wings gently with the white-coated mare's face glowing a bright pink. Gleaming kicked and moaned as Sunset hit all kinds of sensitive parts in her wings and squeaked each time she pulled out a bent feather. The white-coated alicorn kicked and squirmed about, splashing water all over, never feeling so squeamish in her life. However, Sunset was struggling with the squirming mare, but she managed to continue to smooth out Gleaming's feathers. The white-coated alicorn, who was now starting to relax near the end, sighed, “How do pegasi and alicorns not do this all the time!? This is so exhilarating!"

"Well, preening does take time and, as you see, can be quite sensual. From what I've learned, pegasi and alicorns only let those they trust preen their wings." Sunset mumbled under her breath as she finished up the last few feathers.

Gleaming (now feeling quite embarrassed) decided to get out of the hot tub, and Sunset followed after her. They then started to dry themselves with towels. Not long after brushing their manes and teeth (both Sunset and Gleaming decided to skip the makeup), they headed back to their room. There they saw laid out before them a breakfast of fruit tarts and small cups of tea were on the table. Gleaming was looking at her food with uncertainty feeling the sense they were enchanted. "Girls, I sense something odd about these tarts."

Sunset Glimmer and Winter were also hesitant, with the mysterious food seeming to have appeared out of nowhere.

The orange coated mare sniffed the warm tarts on the table. "I also sense the magic that Celestia is starting to piss me off."

Winter whispered meekly. "I think that maybe we should at least eat them. I have a feeling there's a reason they appeared."

The mares all sat down together as Sunset Shimmer looked over at Gleaming with a devilish grin and asked, "why don't you try them first?"

"Oh really, why don't you try them first then!?" The white-coated alicorn shouted right back.

Soon the two alicorns were bickering amongst each other. Winter rolled her eyes, having enough of their bickering, took one of the pastries and bit one and squeaked as she sat up then and adequately dainty dabbed her lips with a napkin. Winter snickered and chirped, "they just make you eat more properly; that’s all?"

The mares shrugged, and they ate the pastries and sipped their tea as they ate like proper princesses. Gleaming's face was red while eating like a proper princess, with her posture as straight as a stick and taking small bites of her food and sipping her tea. All the while, Sunset watched and couldn’t stop snickering. "Ok, this is actually hilarious; you look like somepony just shoved a literal stick up your rump."

"Oh, so unladylike you must be punished for such awful manners!" Gleaming Shield joked back, throwing her tea at Sunset making her gasp as she did the same with both mares bursting into laughter. But after their small breakfast, Celestia came bursting through the door and clapped her hooves together. "'Hello my students, did you enjoy your breakfast?"

The three mares all performed a curtsey and proclaimed, "yes, Princess Celestia!"

The alicorn gave a nod and looked down at the three. "I am pleased to hear that you all are well refreshed now; I don't expect you to be dressed today, as I would rather not get your dresses stained with ink. However, you will all be properly dressed and have your makeup applied before I arrive each morning here on after."

"Yes, princess." All three mares whispered once again. Celestia gave a nod as she led the three down the halls of the castle once again. Sunset was the most reluctant, grumbling insults under her breath; even Winter seemed to have a distaste for this pompous version of Celestia. The princesses in training followed her to the end of the hall and entered a fancy looking classroom. Inside it wasn't much different than the dorm room except for the only furniture being a marble podium at the front of the class, and desks made of rich oak were lined up in rows, with other "princesses in training" already sitting down in them with quills and scrolls laid out on their desks. The three mares sat down quietly, and Gleaming looked upward nervously at this strutting peacock that was the Princess of the sun came to her podium. "Now, for many of you, this will be your first time here, so that I will make this quick. This is a class on fixing your penmanship and to make it look proper."

Celestia took a piece of chalk and wrote out "Princess Celestia" in a fancy looping cursive. She then turned back to her students and continued the lecture, "the quills on your desks have been enchanted to help your hoofwriting improve, and you will be here all day until I feel that your writing is as adequate as mine. However, you are not prisoners here; my maids will come by, and you will be fed and have any selection of tea you like. Also, if you do need to use the restroom, please do so. Now everypony, pick up your quills."

As everypony in the room lifted their quills with their magic, Gleaming lit her horn as with a quill now within their magical grasp as the Princess of the Sun turned to face her students. "Now, let's begin first by writing your names."

They groaned but did as asked and wrote their names. Gleaming realized her writing was getting fancier and more cursive like with each stroke. It must've been an hour or two of writing her name nonstop, but soon she looked onto her page and saw "Gleaming Shield" written in fancy cursive on the scroll. She turned to see Celestia scolding Sunset for her writing. "This looks like a foal's letter; please redo this."

Sunset growled under her breath as she started to scrawl angrily, splurting ink all over herself. Gleaming watched, and she wanted to help; however, the pompous alicorn then walked over towards her. Gleaming quivered nervously as Celestia nodded in approval at the former stallion's writing. "Well done, Gleaming; you did well for a former stallion."

"Thank you, princess, " the former stallion mumbled angrily, a little peeved at this Celestia's tone but knowing she couldn't talk back.

The princess of the sun then went back to her podium and exclaimed, "alright now, let's move onto official forms; I will give you fake official documents and have you read and respond to them as such. From your classes with Twilight, I'll assume you will know how to respond properly. So take your time and make your responses as if they were real documents."

The white-coated alicorn went about doing as Celestia asked, writing letters for dignitaries and nobles regarding boring things like taxes, trade deals, and various letters regarding galas. It must've been hours of non-stop writing only taking short breaks to drink tea, eating small sandwiches, and using the bathroom. But near the end of her stack of scrolls, Gleaming was amazed at her writing, looking so pristine and "princess" like. She turned to see Winter's penmanship was quite pristine as well, and she wasn't surprised to see that the mare who was thousands of years old had perfect penmanship. She then turned to her left, seeing Sunset struggling the most of the three. The orange coated mare was sweating as she struggled to make the fancy loops that everypony else was doing while getting her hooves and face covered in black ink. Gleaming leaned over to her friend and whispered, "Hey, need some help?"

Sunset was looking quite nervous and whispered under her breath, "yes, please...I was never good at this."

Gleaming turned to the scrolls on Sunset's desk and saw how soppy her penmanship was. Gleaming snickered and assisted writing Sunset Shimmer in fancy text and continued to re-write most of her forms in the cursive scrawl. The two were so intent on writing for another hour or two they didn't notice the princess of the sun coming their way, and Winter quickly made a psst and whispered, "hey, Celestia's coming back."

The two other alicorns quickly went back to their desks, and Celestia came by Sunset Shimmer's desk with a smile. "Well, improved, but I will have you wake up earlier tomorrow. I think you'll need to practice your penmanship a bit more before I can properly say you have this down."

As Celestia moved off, Gleaming could see Sunset seething in anger; she clearly wanted nothing else at that moment but to burn all of these scrolls on her desk. The white-coated alicorn took a handkerchief and started to wipe the ink stains from her friend's face and hooves to help calm her down. Sunset sighed, seeming to be a lot calmer, and whispered, "thanks, Gleaming, I appreciate it."

Sunset then took a handkerchief and returned the gesture wiping the ink stains from Gleaming's face and hooves, and asked, "how are you so good at this? I mean, did you practice with Cadance?"

Gleaming laughed at the comment as she replied, "oh no, it's because of my sister Twilight; she always thought my penmanship was sloppy and taught me to write properly."

Sunset laughed out loud at this, having similar experiences as she explained. "My version of Twilight tried doing the same to me, but I never caught on."

The two continued to wipe the ink stains from each other in silence for a few moments before Princess Celestia interrupted them as she came to her podium and proclaimed, "alright! I do believe it's time to retire for the evening! Now go wash off those ink stains and tidy yourselves. Tomorrow we'll be going over dining etiquette, and I do wish to see all of you preened and proper in the morning, now go relax and enjoy yourselves this evening." The mares all rose from their seats, and most grumbled, stretching their wings and aching bodies trotting out of the classroom towards their rooms.

The three mares, Gleaming Shield, Sunset Shimmer, and Winter all trotted off; as soon as they entered their room, Sunset was seething stomping a hoof with rage as she shouted, "I can't stand that pompous bitch! She could buck off for all I care!"

Gleaming was surprised at how angry Sunset got as she walked over and placed a hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Easy there, we only have to deal with this for a few days."

Sunset turned to Gleaming’s calming gaze and sighed, "You're right; I should calm down...rather not risk getting expelled.”

Winter meeped, "look, I don't like this, Celestia either, but Gleaming is right; we have only have to deal with this for a few more days. I'm sure we can manage."

"Right...and Sunset, I may need your assistance doing my...um...makeup," Gleaming whispered meekly.

Sunset gave her friend a smirk, "oh, don't worry, I'll make sure to pretty you up tomorrow. But in return, you're going to teach me how to write like a princess tonight so that I can show up that pompous Celestia tomorrow."

Gleaming held out a hoof with a smile and chirped, "alright, it's a deal."

The two mares shook hooves, with Winter taking the mares and embracing them into her wings. "Oh, it's about time you two made up and are friends again! It makes me so happy!"

Sunset and Gleaming looked at each other with their cheeks growing red on their faces as both mares were starting to feel closer as more than just friends.