Twilight Sparkle and the Stupid Original Pony

Two years, almost, of study, catechism and ritual, had not turned me into a fully trained sorceress, nor would this tutelage ever do so, but it had earned me the right to stand with Isha, as a lay speaker of the shrine of Aphrodite. At her side, I would recite the prayers before today’s service to demonstrate my learning. The regular congregation in the small temple did not number many, but it was an honor to speak before them.

“Sister Tanna will lead us in prayer today.” Isha had been back on her feet for a week now, but still recovering. She was relieved to let me take this role today, to save her strength for the ceremony. “Sister.” Gently she placed her hand on my shoulder. Whether she was signaling me to start, or steadying herself, I leaned into the electricity of her touch.

“Αφροδιτη, thou patron of love and beauty,” I began…

—

It was at least an hour before the time of gathering when my daughter and I arrived at the shrine. Gloam had run on ahead of me. Ish’ would be waiting already, so I didn’t worry, but I was surprised not to find a trail of her clothes littering the final approach to the green heart that beat so secretly in the city. Instead, I found her still fully dressed, at the verge of the grass.

“Gloam, show some respect, don’t clown around.”

“Hey mom, watch this—” she stepped across the sacred bourne “—ouch!”

For a moment she stood in a cloud of fuzz and fluff, the remains of her clothes.Man made fibers, long chain molecules never intended by nature, had snapped throughout her entire outfit, reducing fabric to tiny shreds, hard plastic buttons to dust. The energy of broken chemical bonds was released as a flush of sudden heat; charge separation driven by the the sundering of instantaneous dipoles of uniformly oriented molecules had discharged across her skin like a full body static shock.

Gloam was slapping at her arms and legs when I rushed to her. Brushing at the residue clinging to her skin, I found no evidence of actual injury and my heart rate ceased to peak.

“Silly child,” Isha murmured, rising from a mat where she might have been meditating or drowsing, “are you hurt?”

“I don’t think so?” Gloam was hesitant.

“No harm done,” Bear assured us, speaking from my satchel, safely outside the forbidden zone.

Metal, semiconductors, synthetics. These things were not welcome on holy ground; very tangibly unwelcome. I’d warned her enough times in the time since our first trip to the shrine. There’d be no doubt about it now.

“It didn’t sting me, before,” she confessed.

“Before?” Isha and I demanded together.

“I tested with one sock, to see what would happen.”

“So that’s what I found in the grass after the equinox vigil.”

“Scientific method!” said Gloam proudly.

“Well, clean it up, science girl. Lab upkeep is part of science, too.”

—

Gloam was still at work cleaning her mess as celebrants arrived. She swept up the last fragments of perished sythnthose and stood at the rear of the gathering of skyclad worshipers. From my spot near head of the sanctuary I caught her eye and twitched one corner of my mouth in a quick half smile. It was my first time speaking before the gathering and I found it a daunting prospect – but I couldn't chicken out with my daughter watching.

Many of the regular congregants were well known to me, but today there was a larger group than usual: Isha would be marrying a young couple who had met under conditions unsavory, but their lot improved after joining the congregation here. She, a programmer in a pointless government bureau, and he, a shopworker selling grey goods in a grey city, had found love blossoming here before the goddess of love. A sometime barfly, and a washed out space marine: just another miracle.

The wedding was simple, not much more than the promises and a pronouncement. But first Isha would formally introduce them. During my prayer they had been out of sight; now they stepped into view on the far side of the stone doorway symbolizing the passage between the sacred ground of the shrine and the greater mystery of the forbidden grove.

As they stood, apart from the congregation, Isha gave a brief account of their lives and origins, neglecting some details that no longer seemed relevant. Then came the oaths, solemn and sincere.

“Your next step begins your ‘happily ever after’, not a destination but a journey.”

She threw a handful of leaves and resin drops on a bed of low coals simmering in a ready thurible. Incense billowed, a swirling, opaque cloud, wrapping around the stone cromlech and spreading wisps throughout the entire shrine. Barely visible in the midst of the opening there seemed to be three figures where there should be two.

“Come forth,” Isha beckoned.

The lovers stepped forth. For an instant before the narcotic vapors closed behind them, I glimpsed into the grove and sank to my knees in awe at the sight.

“You have stood in the presence of Aphrodite herself,” Isha declared, “walk with her and love will guide your steps always.”

I rose to my feet as they stood, hand in hand, before her. No longer blindingly thick, the smoke was spreading throughout the entire gathering, it’s intoxicating effects a distant second the the joy all felt for the newlyweds.

Isha wobbled slightly, paused for a breath. Now it was I who put my hand on her shoulder to steady her; again the tingle of skin on skin.

Saving Isha’s life had cost me deeply in both effort and compromise; now I spent as much time with her as I could, lest her health relapse. I’d come so close to losing my best friend on Terra. I had counted on her many times, in her need she would be able to count on me. There could surely be no other excuse for my frequent presence than safeguarding her well-being.

The short service was drawing to a close.

Isha placed leafy crowns on the heads of the now wed young lovers, stifling a gasp as she raised her arms. A look of concern passed like a shadow across the bride’s face.

“I’m okay,” Isha mouthed silently. The sutures were out, but a small surgical scar now marred the otherwise flawless ebony of her belly. In a few more weeks the residual aches should be gone. “Just a twinge.”

The bride’s smile returned to its full brilliance, full of the glow of the divine.

Now, the newlyweds lead the way forth, followed by the rest of the congregation, as Isha and I stood on the green, watching. The procession would take them all to the feast the bride’s father had prepared. Beulah and Edna were in the crowd; they waved, probably expecting to meet me at the wedding feast. It was a pity that Isha’s health required that we miss it.

“That was beautiful,” I said after the last had gone.

“Yes, it is,” Isha agreed, squeezing my hand before releasing it. “What can we do for you?”

One young woman had lingered behind, waiting near the cubbies where clothing was stored safely outside the shrine.

“Um, my husband and I, we kinda— and I was wondering— can you—”

“Initiate Tanna,” Isha said, “would you be so kind as to see if Laurel is pregnant?”

“Of course, elder,” I said, “come with me.”

Leading Laurel to stand between the two rough pillars of white granite, I began the examination. Eyes closed and fingertips on her lower abdomen, I could sense her health and fertility.

“When did you make love?”

My nose told me it was recent.

“Just a few minutes before the wedding. We’ve been trying for a while, and thought that here at the shrine, well, um—”

“You were correct, the timing was perfect, and your body is ready. But it might take a little longer for his seed to reach your ova. Where is your husband?”

“Waiting for me out by the street.”

“I’d like like you to go get him. You should make love here in the shrine, after appropriate prayers to our lady. Today is the day and another load or two will—”

Something was happening and the ground tilted.

Strike that, it was me tilting; I nearly fell, but did not lose consciousness. Beneath my touch conception took place and my active perception opened my eyes to the wonder of that moment and a glimpse what the future held.

Without opening my eyes I described what I was seeing.

“Your son is working in space, I don’t know what year it is, but he is confident and mature in his thought. He thinks of the location he is at as a Lagrange point station, whatever that is. He’s working outside in a spacesuit and looking back at Terra and the moon, the planet is back-lit by the sun and the moon looks so small in the distance. His wife went into labor just as his shift started today. It’s two weeks before his tour of duty ends, but he knows that you are with his wife and he’s not worried.”

The vision faded and I open my eyes to see that Laurel’s husband had joined her. They were holding hands, aglow with delight even stronger than the couple who had wed here today.

“Rise, Adept,” Isha said, “rise and bless the new parents.”

I stood and led the two through the stone doorway into the inner sanctum of the forbidden grove, and prayed over them. A spark of life had formed even as I watched, and I had glimpsed the future through the eyes of their son.

“If she’s already pregnant, does that mean you don’t want us to do it again?” the husband asked.

“Indeed I do want you to. Twice more, if you have the stamina for it. Celebrate the conception of your son and honor our lady.”

The goddess was with us and her holy presence made itself known. On the male side of the equation, his cock sprang to full, straining, erection in a heartbeat; on the female side, hormones coursed and rivulets of prequim ran towards the ground. Laurel stumbled into her husband’s embrace, her damp legs weak with lust.

“May the goddess be with you.”

I left them to finish the rite without me.

—

“Where’s that little mænad of yours gotten to?” Isha asked after I cleaned up from my unsated collateral arousal.

“I told her to stay back, out of the cloud, when the smoke started.”

“She didn’t. I’ll go find her.”

Isha’s illness was mostly past, but I still worried about her state of mind – there was a certain lackadaisical casualness to her lack of worry about her own health. Another reason not to tax her strained resources with secrets far deeper than the mysteries of Aphrodite.

“You sit down,” I said, “I’ll track down my wild girl and then we’ll get you home to rest.”

But then again, who could stay sane in this world?