“So that’s what we’re going to be doing for a few days,” I said, taking a sip of coffee, nice and early in the morning. Celly and the family were sat around the dinner table, Cadance and Shiny were here, as they’ve not gone home yet. Luna, Tale, and Snowdrop were also here. My whole family was in one place for once. It felt good. Tia made pancakes today, so that’s what we were all eating. Since there were four alicorns present, three of whom have massive appetites, there was just a plate in the middle of our very large, round table, stacked to high hell with pancakes. I took another sip of my coffee as I put another pancake on my plate.

“So,” Ma hummed. “There’s a convention for unicorns, where most of them get to basically have a dick measuring contest?” She asked. “Sounds odd when most of y’all ponies aren’t even males, but whatever.”

Shining Armor and Cadance snorted, with Cadance, the poor girl she was, started choking on her food. In an instant, she started pounding on her chest while Shiny did his best to smack her back. The food, luckily, didn’t choke my niece out. Luna was snickering while Celly was just smiling. I could tell that my wife was trying not to start laughing too.

My siblings and I completely expected this simplified explanation of what we were going to be going to.

“Eeyup,” I nodded. “I asked Ms. Cheerilee, if she could get permission from her students’ parents, if she’d want to take a field trip to the Crystal Empire, where the convention’s being held. She said yes, so Twilight and her friends and Filthy Rich are all acting as chaperones along with Cheerilee. I would too, but I plan on competing this year just to see how boned I am, or if I’m suddenly ‘creative’ enough to kick ass no matter who I fight.”

Cadance coughed after she got her food down her throat. “What the buck, Great Auntie Maeve? I wasn’t expecting that out of you!” She giggled and coughed some more. “I thought you had more class than that!”

“Pfft, that was nothing.” Ma chuckled. “Wait ‘til you see me drunk. I get really vulgar when I down a few glasses of some cheap whisky.”

“More like a few bottles,” I interjected.

“Shush, we don’t need your wife and your in-laws knowing that most of the family can handle a few bottles of whisky before we even get tipsy.” Ma actually did the shushing gesture. Like most ponies, she did the gesture even though she had no fingers to do it. It was kinda funny.

Button chose now to interrupt what was happening. Probably because it was beginning to get into ‘adult stuff’ and he didn’t know shit about that stuff. I don’t think he’d want to know what half of that shit meant. “Can I compete in the foal’s part of the competition, Dad? I want to test out Cobra and…”

“Kiddo,” I nodded. “Just do your best, and make me proud, alright?” He saluted me, which really sucked for him. He was right next to me, so I planted a nice, big smooch on his forehead. He was in the prime spot and him saluting is adorable. He groaned and rolled his eyes.

“That…” Katie hummed. “I’m an aunt now,” she hummed. “It’s weird to think that my brother’s a dad now.”

“Yeah, and my first best friend is my nephew,” Dave pointed out. “It’s a little odd.”

“You’re a year older than I am,” Button pointed out. “Nothin’ wrong with that, is there?” He asked. The two colts were seated next to each other. So that basically meant they were piled in the same chair and even sharing the same plate. Neither of them really protested this, or cared. They didn’t even seem to really notice, or care, about the fact that they’re cuddling together.

“Nah,” Dave shrugged. “Just weird to think that Cadance, who is a grown ass mare, is also my niece.”

“...Source, why is your whole family so vulgar?” Cadance asked. “I love it, but why is Dave, a ten year old, cursing?”

“I know a few swears,” Button said proudly.

“I do not fully approve of it,” Celly said, her mouth full of pancakes, like the regal, beautiful, perfect sun god she totally saw herself as. “But then, he is going to learn how to curse at some point. At least he knows there’s a place and time for it, which Source did a decent job at teaching Button.” She cleared downed her milk. “I believe we all should be getting on the train by noon. None of you need to pack; some maids have already done most of the packing for us.”

“Like there’d be much to pack. Not needin’ clothes makes packing for multiple days easier,” Dan pointed out. “Katie might have the most luggage out of any of us. And that’s only because she does have a bunch of clothes and wears them all the time.” We all turned to Katie, who was wearing an adorable, light blue dress that was basically her pink, floral one, but light blue. Just like when she was human, her mane and tail were kept straight, almost like how Twilight keeps her mane and tail. It made her look extra adorable and we all were probably thinking it. Her hooves were clad in her newly acquired high-horse shoes. No, not heels, more like horse shoes that went higher up her legs. Kinda like boots. She looked up from her food and stopped chewing.

I almost booped her on the nose. She was sitting right next to me. I held my hoof down before it could boop the snoot on its own.

“...What’s wrong with me having clothes?” Katie asked with a head tilt. I watched Luna’s eyes as her heart melted at the sight.

“Nothin’,” Dan said. “I’m just stating a fact. And the fact is, you might have more luggage than our sisters in law, two literal princesses.”

“Hmm,” Katie shrugged. “You’re probably right. I don’t think I’ve seen either of them wearing dresses before, but we have only known Celestia and Luna for a week and a half at this point.”

“We both have about… twelve, thirteen dresses when you combine our wardrobes,” Celestia admitted. “We often don’t get to wear them. ‘Tis a shame, if I were not in my position, I’d wear the dress that smitten your brother during our honeymoon.” She chuckled. “He thought I looked gorgeous in my wedding dress, only to ‘get factory resetted’ by my honeymoon dress. Or in his words… ‘Mindfucked’ when I put on a suit.”

“...Can we see you with a suit?” Dan asked. “I’m just curious how’d that look. You look beautiful, Tia, but seeing a pony with a suit would be interesting.”

“Oh, perish the thought, Lulu, away we go!” Luna and Celly shared a sibling look. Then they side eyed me and Tale.

“We’re gonna fuckin’ die,” I mouthed to Tale.

“I know, and I’m ready for it,” he mouthed back.

“Same, at least we’ll die with our last memories being our special someponies in lovely suits.” I said aloud. I turned to the rest of my siblings. “Don’t look shocked. I know y’all saw the looks those two were giving each other.”

We were all interrupted when the doors opened. Celly and Lulu walked in wearing Suits. Me and Tale just sat there, staring at our lovely, chosen princesses. Dan just whistled. Ma just kept eating, shaking her head. A small smirk grew on her face. Dave and Button didn’t seem to mind, and Shining Armor just now noticed that his wife was missing. She came in just after her aunts, also wearing a suit. His jaw hit the table.

“We figured, since it is the first unicorn convention that Cadance will be hosting, we’ve all decided to put on our nicest suits,” Celly announced. I got up, and DragonFired into the hall, before grabbing my own ‘suit’. Or just my trench coat, white shirt, and my Irish Cap. I then blew myself up with magic, and reapparated in the dining hall. The smoke cleared and I stood up with a bow. Everyone just stared at me for a good minute.

“Source,” Shining Armor said, breaking the silence. “What the fuck?”

“What?” I asked. “I needed to put my suit on so Celly also has some eye candy, if she’s giving me some eye candy.”

“Source, I felt you blow yourself up,” Celestia deadpanned. “What did you do?”

“Oh yeah… that. So it turns out Light Shield lets me blow myself up without killing myself. So I abused that to get a teleport, since I learnt how to force Light Shield to teleport me to where I want to be when it chooses to teleport me. I just used so much magic to blow myself up so that Python would be forced into teleporting me. So, here I am,” I chuckled. “I dunno how well I’ll stack up against the rest of the ponies this year, but if I can compete, I plan on bringing home gold medals and big, golden trophies.”

“...I can see that,” Celly nodded. “That was such a flashy teleport that it may get you a lot of points during the magic show on the second day.”

“Mmm, we’ll see if Twilight and Trixie’ll compete this year.” I’m hoping Trixie will at least show up. I wanna see her again.

My siblings and Ma just kinda stared at me the whole damn time.

“What?” I asked.

“Da fawk? And you’re concerned that anypony here will surpass you in terms of magic? You just sounded like you spoke Spanish and French mixed in with motherfucking German! The fuck did half of that even mean?” Ma asked.

“...Magi-” Ma threw a pancake at my face.

I walked over to Katie with the pancake still on my face… I’ve been resisting the urge since I saw how cute she looked in her dress. I booped her nose and she bit my hoof. I didn’t get that hoof back for four hours.

I still don’t have my hoof back. I’m sitting in the train car, the royal one. We all went with Celestia’s, since there was so many of us, that Cadance and Luna had to hitch their own personal cars on for the trip. Shiny and Cadance were carting Twilight and her friends, Luna was carting Snowdrop and Tale, and Celly was carting me and the family. I was laying on a cushion, with Katie laying on top of me. As soon as I had laid down, she took my hoof back in her mouth. She kinda just sat there, like a dog, on my side, with a blank expression as she held onto my hoof.

“Can I have it back now?”

“Nuh.” Katie said.

Dan and Dave were snuggled up together, while Ma and Celly were snuggled up with Luna since Luna decided to visit our car until we all had to go to sleep. They were all staring at me and my sister as the two of us got our usual stupidity out on each other. Button was laying with Luna, tucked under her wing, snickering at the predicament his old man was in, instead of helping his poor, poor old man.

“Please?”

“Nuh. You booped my nose.”

“YOU LOOKED BOOPABLE!” I yelled.

“So? You booped my nose.” Katie shot back.

“Please, please give it back so I can hug you and take a nap while holding you?”

“Tempting. What else?” Katie had taken her shoes off before getting on the cushion, so luckily there weren't four, heavy boots burying themselves into my side. Katie may want to torture me right now, because she just had to look unreasonably adorable as a pony, but she’s actually pretty considerate when it comes to my comfort or just not actually hurting me. It’s a fun little, silent pack that we’ve always had. We fuck with each other, we screw with each other, but we always try to never actually hurt each other on accident. Luckily, her hooves were a lot softer than the metal horse shoes she likes wearing, so I was actually kinda okay with her just sitting on my side.

Ponies are actually relatively light, especially unicorns. Since Katie’s not even close to being a full grown mare, she’s even lighter than that. Granted, I’m only like… a head taller than her, which is still pretty fucking short. I lifted my other hoof as I prepared my next point.

“I wanna cuddle with you. Please let me?”

“...Fine,” she spat my hoof out and laid down, only to be trapped in my forelegs in a nice, soft hug. She could easily leave at any point, but we both knew this was gonna be a long ass train ride. The Crystal Empire is just north of the most northern part of griffin territory. Or basically the top of Equus’s version of Canada. “You’re lucky that this is really-blurg…” I booped her nose with a hoof again and planted a kiss on her head, right between her ears. “Really? You had to do that again?”

“...Yes.”

“God dammit, Kodi. I love you, but I hate you so much at times. And yes, I know, love and hate are two sides of the same coin. Blah, blah, blah, you love me…” She eeped when I started grooming her. “Okay… this is really nice. I take back the part where I started mocking you, do continue.” She sighed in content and not too long after, we were all taking a nice, long nap.

We made it to the Crystal Empire, since most if not all the schools for unicorns were in mainland Equestria, just about everypony getting off was guaranteed from a school. Save for the new school set up in the Crystal Empire for obvious reasons. Shining Armor still ultimately registered as a student at the Royal Guard’s School for Gifted Unicorns. I made sure to hide my wings with a spell, even though there’s actually a solid chance that everypony knows that I’m an alicorn at this point.

I didn’t care, I just didn’t like having my wings on display amongst a bunch of my ‘peers’.

Twilight and her friends hopped off Cadance’s train car, and my niece and Shiny followed suit. I looked around a few times, before shrugging. I know the first day isn’t going to be much; it’s a meet and greet and not much else. But that was actually being held off for a day so everypony here could get some rest after sitting in a train car for at least a week straight.

“Holy shit,” Ma whispered as she and my siblings first laid their eyes upon the Crystal Empire. Luckily for us, that was the majority of reactions I was seeing. I wasn’t occupied with what they were doing. That fucker that keeps sending griffins after me is here. I’m going to kick his ass… I could change my fur and mane colors and sneak into the main tournament… and accidentally hit him so hard that it’ll obliterate his very being from existence. Seriously, I’m sick of this fucker sending hitmen after me. I sure as hell don’t want him sicking those assholes after my family.

“So,” I said as we all grouped up. I smiled as I saw Cheerilee and her class all get off. The crusaders, not having seen Button’s Cutie Mark yet, all ran up to him and started asking him how he did it. “What’s up first on the agenda, Celly? You said something different was happening this year.”

Celestia hummed. “Well… I did send some letters out before we came out here. Everypony here knows you’re actually an alicorn now. I asked, and they’ve all agreed that you cannot actually compete in any competitions that involve combat; your earth pony magic, by default, puts you at a higher standing than most unicorns here, on top of that, you’re much more fit than you were a year ago; you being in a fighting tournament would basically be cheating… So instead you’re competing against myself, Luna, and Cadance this year in an exhibition match at the start of the competition.”

“...What?” I asked.

“Every alicorn present is having an exhibition match… the last alicorn standing wins, and it’s more or less to ‘hype everypony up’ for some magical bouts.” Twilight simplified. “Is something wrong with that?” She asked.

I am fucked. I stood where I was, slowly looking at my fellow alicorns. So this year, I can’t compete with anypony because I’m an alicorn… that’s fair. Ma would’ve competed this year, for the fun of it, if she was a unicorn for longer than a week. So this year I’m just watching my kid compete, with other foals, watching Twilight and Shining Armor compete, and I get to basically be roadkill for my fellow alicorns.

“So basically I get to fight three alicorns, without the advantages I had against most of the alicorns I’ve fought before, cool.” I sighed. “Why do we have to hype everypony up and when is the free for all happening?” I asked.

“Oh, tomorrow morning,” Celestia hummed. “Are you comfortable with fighting myself and Luna? Or even Cadance? I know… that you might freeze up during the competition.”

“I should be fine, yeah.”

A few hours later, I skipped meeting anypony else until tomorrow, and I booked my own hotel room. Everyone else was staying in the castle, because they wanted to; why wouldn’t they? I needed to be in my own room, not because I wanted to spend time away from my family, no. I needed to devise a plan or come up with a way so I don’t instantly get ‘killed’ during the exhibition match. Something I have learnt pretty quickly while fighting other versions of Luna and Celestia is that they are very good at fighting with magic and melee attacks, however, so I needed to steer clear of them for the most part.

I can easily take Cadance on, but that’s assuming I don’t get sideswiped by the other two alicorns.

Luckily, I can mix in Light Shield, along with my apparently decent fighting skills to keep myself in the fight. There’s just not a chance that I could actually overpower anypony here besides maybe Cadance. Then there’s the fact that I don’t think I could bring my full might to bear during this. I don’t want to hurt my wife, obviously, I wouldn’t dare think of hurting Luna or Cadance. So there’s that. Tomorrow, I just need to keep myself alive. The unfortunate thing is, Celly. Celly knows how to use DragonFire. She can do it faster than me. Luna can’t, as her fire spells are already pretty underpar for somepony like her, and Cadance never really picked up fire magic… but Shining Armor may have trained her a bit, or else Cadance wouldn’t be doing this either.

I hummed and continued thinking. So everypony here expects me to use Python Plus, so what if I didn’t? I could try intermixing Python with WME and Python Plus, along with traditional spells to throw everyone off. After all, why would Source use traditional magic systems when he sucks at using them right? Luckily for me, constantly fighting alicorns in other dimensions for a while really helped with my endurance when using traditional magic systems.

Also, because of Python, and my training using WME, I am faster at spell casting than even my own wife.

That’s not something one can… boast.

I can cast more than one spell at once. I can cast up to fifteen at a time.

Mmm, that’s an idea.

Nopony here can use Python; without getting a hornache Light Shield is literally unusable for them.

…

I am going to feel so bad if I hurt Celly too much. I’ll feel like an asshat for hitting Luna or Cadance too hard.

I started planning out how I was going to possibly not get taken out first.

I only booked the hotel for one night; I couldn’t let anyone know what I was scheming. If I did, my only advantage would be gone. And that’s that I couldn’t come up with a plan and just assumed I was going to explode the moment somepony shot something my way. So pretty much the whole empire was emptied out, as most of the crystal ponies were watching the darn thing, and was promptly enchanted by a lot of the unicorns present to make it magic-proof.

Then most of the city, surrounding the castle, was closed off. The immediate parts of the city surrounding the castle were being used for the exhibition match. I stood amongst my fellow alicorns on the balcony, just staring out while Cadance, this year’s ‘host’ was giving her speech to everypony here. Most of the ponies were off in the bleachers, just outside the city, getting ready to watch the beat down of Source Code. They were using giant crystals that were showing ponies five things. Each of us alicorns, close up, and an overview of the arena.

“Good morning everypony,” Cadance started. “It is an honor to be hosting the Crystal Empire’s first ever unicorn convention!” Ponies all around started stomping their hooves. “This year, we decided to do something different. Seeing as there are now four alicorns, we are holding an exhibition match. I’m sure you all are wondering how alicorns would fare against each other; not many get to witness Princess Celestia fight at her full might, after all. Yours, truly, will be competing in this match today, I, the Princess of Love!” More applause. Cadance stepped back and Luna went next.

“I, Princess Luna, will be competing in this exhibition match as well. I am Princess of the Night!” She then stepped back. There were a shitload more ponies clapping for her than Cadance.

“You all know who I am,” Celly said. “I, Princess of the Sun, Princess Celestia shall also be competing!” Celly turned to me. “And my, once a student of mine, has managed to ascend into alicornhood! Please give a round of applause to my husband!” She stepped back and gestured for me to step forward. Unfortunately for my stupid ass, my body acted on its own and stepped forward.

“Hi, I’ve no actual titles, or fancy, smancy things to my name. I’m just Source Code, the… Alicorn of… Bread, I guess? I dunno. I’ll be trying not to die and stuff during the exhibition match.” Everyone blinked a few times. I don’t blame them. “So uh… welcome to the show.” I backed away from the balcony and back inside, before grabbing a bottle of whisky. Okay, Source, you’ve got this. You just gotta drink some performance enhancing drugs and you’ll be fine-

I drank the whole gallon of whisky right as I teleported into the arena. Each alicorn was to start from a main, central road from the center of the castle. So Celly was taking the north side, Luna the south side, Cadance took east, I took west. I realized that my booze actually didn’t teleport with me and I didn’t drink any of it. So I quickly summoned another bottle, took a sip, and took a deep breath. Okay, Source. Just keep calm, oh wait. That is not very far from the center of the city. I could see the others circling around the outskirts.

I immediately casted a Ghost and a Cloaking Spell and went invisible. Celly… Instantly saw that. Good. She shot a laser beam my way. What she didn’t see was me shrinking to the size of a colt; her spell whizzed right over my head and into the barrier protecting the nearby housing that was being used for the perimeter of the arena. I kept myself where I was, while Cadance actually brought a shield up and actually managed to fully block an attack from Luna. I started moving as the shrinking spell and the Cloaking Spell wore off. I just barely Mirrored a Stun Spell from Cadance into the sky.

“Shit,” I muttered. Well, I didn’t expect the Cloaking Spell to have a time limit.

“Sorry dear, but…” Celly was on me... I didn’t even feel her move. I quickly teleported on her back. This is usually where I would like being if we weren’t doing this stupid, just fucking stupid, exhibition match. It’s quite comfy here. She grabbed me with her magic, plucking me right off her back. Usually she did this while we were playing around and it was often endearing; she usually planted a kiss on my nose before we made out or whatever. Right now, it is probably not going to end well. Celly brought me up to her face, but unlike so, so many times before, we did not kiss.

I looked her right in the eyes, she stared into mine. We stayed like this for a moment while Cadance and Luna traded spells behind Celly. I smiled at her, and she gave me a small, apologetic one… I could hear her apologizing to me for what she was just about to do. Ha, just kidding. No, she’s holding onto a fake, magical clone I made that’s set to explode. It’s a traditional spell that I just remembered and never actually translated into Python and made it work. I casted a Ghost for a reason; the ‘puppets’ don’t have magical signatures.

Celly wasn’t expecting me to not use Python at all as it turned out.

Celly slammed my double into the ground, and if it were real, it would’ve put me in a coma. My wife notably shut her eyes and shuttered at the sound of my magical double’s ‘bones’ breaking. It made me feel bad for what I was gonna do. Celly blinked a few times when my magical double just laid there, twitching on the ground, like it was broken. She stared at it blankly, wondering what the fuck just happened as it whisked away and broke into light particles.

That was more than enough of a distraction.

Celestia didn’t see me shoot a stun her way, though. She blocked that side with a shield, only for me to teleport right under her. “Hi dear,” I said. I resisted the urge to rub the glorious belly that I rub whenever we get a moment alone together. “I am so, so sorry,” I shot another spell before my wife could react, a telekinetic blast and a stun spell mixed into one. It launched my poor wife into the sky, and I followed with a DragonFire. I hugged her neck as she was whisked away in the dueling enchantments placed on the Arena’s area; it’s to keep us from actually killing each other. Luna and Cadance just stared, bug eyed, at me as I landed on the ground. I paused, I know it didn’t actually hurt my wife, but I still felt bad.

Wait. I just took my wife out.

Holy shit I beat my wife in a sparring match for once.

Holy fucking shit.

Light Shield teleported me out of the way of a telekinetic blast from Luna. I think… She was just probing me or Cadance, deciding which of us would be harder to take down. I lowered my stance, before I blew myself up, let Light Shield teleport me, and then I quickly shot a Stun into Cadance when it put me right on top of her. She was taken out of the fight. She just stared at me while laying on the ground, genuinely shocked at that. So that stupid party trick I made came in handy during an actual fight. Cool.

“Source, what the buck-” Cadance was whisked away by the enchantment.

Me and Luna started circling each other after I just scored two ‘kills’ on Cadance and Celly. Now, if I were not mistaken, Luna was the best overall fighter of the alicorns, and definitely the better fighter compared to her sister. The problem I was facing right now was trying to find an opening. Before, I had Celly distracted through a bunch of tricks and well placed teleports. I caught Cadance off guard since she was too busy staring at what I did to my wife. So I stopped moving and sat down as Luna started circling me.

“So you are actually capable of taking on multiple alicorns,” Lulu hummed.

“You didn’t believe me?” I asked.

“Oh, I did, I still do. It’s different to see it happen in person, however. It’s quite impressive; Cadance isn’t much of a fighter so I’m surprised she held her own. You… beat Tia pretty soundly. I’m genuinely impressed with that; you didn’t go head to head with her which was wise.” She tilted her head. “Can you repeat that with me?” Luna asked as her horn lit up. Light Shield redirected it into the sky and I felt my magic starting to give up. Taking my wife down took a good amount of magic, and blowing myself up with magic literally used whatever magic I had left in the tank. I hummed, before shrugging. “You’re out of magic, aren’t you?”

“Oh yeah, I am.” I nodded. “However, you and I both know that doesn’t mean this is over,” my horn lit up. “Try me,” I rolled out the way of another attack before I started running forward and screaming like a dumbass. “LERRRROY JENNNNNKINS!” I shouted as I brought a Mirror up in Luna’s face just as she shot another concussive spell at me. It bounced off the Mirror and into her face, but also broke my Mirror and I fell on my face. We both got whisked away since we both kinda exploded upon that Mirror happening.

We were teleported back to where the main event was happening, just outside of the residential area of the Crystal Empire. I just sat there panting up a storm. My horn was aching, I was aching, everything hurt… I hit my wife. I stumbled over to Celly, who was sitting with a cup of tea, staring at the Eye Spy spell window in shock. In fact, a lot of the ponies here were staring in plain, unfiltered shock and awe. I paid them no mind, I nuzzled up to Celly and she instinctively brought a wing over my back.

“Never…” I panted. “A…” I groaned. “Fucking…” I fell into her side. “Gain. Please, Celly. I hated every second of that.”

“...Source, you beat me in a fight,” Celly pointed out, breathlessly. “You… should be proud.”

“I am,” I chuckled. “I really,” I let out a long, deep breath and groaned at my hornache. “It fucking hurt to do. I also hated fighting you, Celly. I’m your husband; I should be loving, and kissing, and cherishing you every single day. Not fighting you!” I hugged her. “Sorry about hitting you so hard.”

“...You do realize the enchantments keep you from feeling pain, correct?” Celly asked.

“I still feel bad, Tia!” I pushed her onto her back. “And now I’m going to claim something I’ve been meaning to claim since I teleported under your belly during our fight.

“...What…?” Celly’s confusion quickly gave way to a pleased hum as I rubbed my hoof on her belly. “Okay, yes, this does beat slamming you into the ground as hard as I can. I… It hurts hearing your ‘bones’ break, and snap, and crack. DId you have to make your illusion puppet, not only solid, but hyperrealistic?” She asked, looking down at me.

“No. I didn’t have to, but I needed it to feel like me,” I shrugged. “Did I do a good job with it? First time using a traditional spell as best as I can.”

“Do a good job? It was perfect!” Celly blushed when she realized she got a little too excited for being out in public. Even her wings were out stretched. “Uh… it was perfect, Source.”

Luna walked up to me grinning. “So it turns out neither of us won,” she chuckled. “You just had to do that?” She asked.

“Run in and essentially suicide bomb you? Yes.” I chuckled. “I was gonna lose, might as well take you down with me, right, Lulu?” I grinned.

“I will say,” Cadance hummed. “Seeing you actually in action rather than hearing it… is something else, Source. You say you’re bucking average!?” She yelled. “Uncle Source, you’re above and beyond just average.”

“Mmm,” I shrugged. “I had time to plan and stuff.”

“And so did we,” Luna pointed out. “Yet by technicality, you just took down four alicorns. You just happened to be one of those alicorns. I’d say the Alicorn of Magic would be rather fitting, don’t you think, sister?” She asked, looking up at my wife.

“I believe it would be an appropriate title. Source, you may not be the strongest alicorn present, but you are certainly the most formidable.” She kissed me. “After such a performance, young man, we are going to have some fun tonight, okay?” Oh.

I’m gonna get laid again.

Twilight and her friends, along with Source’s family just sitting, staring at Source as he sat under his wife’s wing. He was probably soaking in the fact that he didn’t have to fight her anymore, for the foreseeable future. Spike was just sitting there, not even surprised. Source’s family was sitting in awe, while Twilight was sputtering and holding her head. She took a long deep breath before sighing. Apple Jack let out a long whistle, before taking her hat off.

“Hoo’ee, that sure was something,” Apple Jack wiped some sweat off her brow that she didn’t know was even there.

“That’s m’ah boy!” Maeve cheered as she started clapping. “Showin’ everypony here just who is boss!”

“...I…” Twilight took a deep breath. “That was really impressive,” she admitted. “It’s kind of… insane, seeing Source work like that. Using a Double Spell like that? Using a Mirror to end the fight when he was out of magic?” The unicorn shook her head and smiled. “I may have to do some catching up now, in terms of magic application at least.” She hummed for a second. “Source is looking a lot more confident than he did going into that fight,” Twilight pointed out.

“That he does,” Rarity nodded. “I think he needed that. That stallion never was confident with himself.” The fashionista even noted how Source was actually holding his head up high for once, rather than it just… being held in place.

Katie ran off the bleachers, along with the rest of her siblings to go greet their brother. Soon, Source was laying on the ground, laughing and smiling as his siblings, and his son, started tickling him to death. Maeve shook her head and got up from her seat.

“C’mon, we’ve got a whole three day convention to partake in. Let’s go rescue Source before his siblings kill him.” Source’s mother started heading down towards the alicorns, and Twilight’s friends, save Twilight and Spike followed suit.

“You know Spike, it was literally a year ago when we first met Source,” she said, just smiling.

“Yeah. I remember when he had me sit down with him, shooting fire at his request. That resulted in one of his signature spells,” Spike nodded.

“I’m happy for him,” the unicorn admitted. “I wasn’t exactly nice to him when he first came to Equestria-” both of them were teleported over to where Source was, by the alicorn himself.

“Hey guys,” he rubbed their shoulders and hugged them both to his sides. “What were you talking about?”

“Oh, Twilight was about to lament about how she treated you poorly when she first met you!” Pinkie bounced.

“Oh.” Source chuckled. “Twilight, don’t worry about it. We’re friends now, and friends just have the present to look forward to. It’s a gift, after all.”

Twilight giggled when the alicorn started licking the inside of her ears, his neck was stretched as high as he could get it to achieve this; he was still the short little guy he was when they first met. “You’re right,” she nodded. “But-”

“By the way, I’m borrowing Spike. You know, us stallions gotta stick together, and it’s been a minute since I’ve hung out with my first bro. C’mon, Spike, I bet somepony here’s selling gems!”

Source ran off, carrying the, now excited, baby dragon on his back, into the convention.

Author's Note

Now that source is a little more confident, he may become more willing to use his full magic. Mayhaps finally tap into all of his magic? Hmm.