The Way You Make Me Feel

Zipp pulled out her Detective Lenses and set them on the table; the sleek white glasses were her main way of scanning a world gone wrong and this was the worst kind of thing possible- an unknowable situation where physics broke or bent the wrong way. She scanned the silent room of unmoving ponies and saw nopony else moving. Like everypony was just turned to granite.

"So what's the plan?" Misty nervously tapped her hooves together. "I mean you always have a plan."

Zipp felt a headache coming on and she grabbed a bottle from behind the counter. She shrugged. It wasn't like the bartender would actually notice or care. "Give me a moment, I need to figure out if I want whiskey or tequila. I'm personally thinking this is a tequila moment on the scale of fucked but I'm still trying to map out the idea that some unknowable magical creature, object, or thing unknown to us froze time with us unaffected. I have some ideas, but most are in the planning stages. Usually when I get stumped about a solution, I pull out these babies and poof, data to figure out, scan, and glean for knowledge."

"Oh yeah, your Dectective Glasses."

Zipp groaned. "They aren't. . .fine. Yes, my Dectective Glasses." Zipp tried not to facehoof since her detective tools were high tech marvels of ingenuity and each had their own long and detailed acronym that perfectly detailed what each tool did. And yet every time she pulled out one of them, her friends made it seem so very simple and basic. She lightly grit her teeth in annoyance. She had spent days coming up with fancy names for her gear. She slid on the glasses and quickly went through her myriad scanners- x-ray, infrared, heat, electromagnetic, even a rudimentary magical scanner. That last one was new and added after a long talk with Izzy- and an even longer time deciphering her cryptic notions about magic and how it worked.

"Okay, so everypony isn't dead. I can see the heat map of the area and its acting like every pony here is moving around. I mean either this magical anomaly is great at faking data or something cause body heat is normal. Maybe elevated slightly, but that's to be expected. I mean stuff a few hundred ponies into any space and its gonna get hot."

Misty blushed at that and tried to look anywhere besides Zipp. "Oh."

"Okay, so we aren't dealing with some out there phenomena." She flipped through each of her scanners once again to see if anything had changed or seemed too perfect. She found nothing outright- x-rays came back normal, no electromagnetic pulses, nothing. She sighed and turned to the magic sensor. It was her last resort and she'd rather not have to use it. Not that she didn't relish in having another band of knowledge to pour over- she was just a mare of science and rationality in a new world of magical phenomena she couldn't fully explain.

In short, she was not happy that magical bullshit might be the answer to the problem.

She cautiously turned the dial and the world lit up like Zephyr Heights' Founding Day. She quickly closed her eyes and let the glasses take visual notes on every odd thing in the room. She had put that feature in after one too many attempts of staring at the sun to learn its secrets.

"And got it." Zipp flipped off the magic sensor and quickly noted to turn down its visual intensity for later tests. It wouldn't be too difficult, just a few lines of code should iron out the problem. She saved the data as an overlay for her heat sensor. She had used it so often that seeing the world as a heat map seemed like second nature. "Let's fix this."

***

"Let's go to the big one first, Misty. There's only like two here and one is glowing like a sun."

"Will messing with stuff actually fix this?"

Zipp rolled her eyes ever so slightly. "I hope it does. I really like having the world act normal. Even with all the random magical stuff that Sunny deals with- especially after bringing magic back- I like knowing basic laws of nature aren't just getting thrown out a window for some chaos." Zipp took a swig of the bottle of whiskey she filched from the bar. "I mean even alcohol here tastes off. Like the burn is delayed because time is all stopped. Which sucks cause I would rather be buzzed than not dealing with this."

Misty tapped her hooves together. "Sorry."

Zipp cocked her head. "Why are you apologizing? It isn't your fault."

Misty bit her lip. Maybe it was slightly her fault. "Uh, force of habit. You know how hard it is having a. . .positive. . .talk. . .self is when growing up with an alicorn that wanted to rule the world."

Zipp sighed. "Not the exact wording, but I get it. Now should I fly over that mess of ponies or go through?" She pointed at a nearly impassible tangle of hooves and bodies, the mosh pit closest to the stage a untangled knot of desire and joy that seemed too difficult to confront head on."

"Probably fly over."

Zipp gripped tightly onto Misty's hoof. "Okay."

Misty's face flashed light purple as she blushed. "Wha-what are you doing?"

"I dunno. This looks like a magical problem and definitely out of my royal training. I mean if it required a speedy flight path or a decent public speaker, or a weather pony. . .that's my thing. But besides my handy goggles here, I'm stumped. Plus this just feels like I need a horn to fix this. And usually that falls to magical alicorn Sunny Starscout." Zipp shrugged. "But she's not here and I'd rather fix this problem. . .or series of problems as fast as possible. So the only horny pony I know is you."

"Oh."

Zipp blinked. "That wasn't what I meant. I meant the only pony with a horn. Which is you. Not that you can't be. . .that. Uh. Just retract my statements." Zipp cursed her luck. She was usually able to act nonchalant and cool but Misty was just so good at breaking down her practiced persona and get under her skin. "Anyway, while I'm not a taxi service and am unused to carrying a pony. . .of any size, I think a quick hop over to the stage should be fine."

Misty didn't have time to say no as Zipp grabbed tightly onto her other hoof and shot off towards the stage.

***

Misty breathed out and felt the ground on her hooves. No matter how many times she was an unwitting passenger, she doubted she'd become used to a quick flight. She was a unicorn and liked the ground at her hooves. Being a slightly clumsy one at that she already had to contend with tripping over herself- she didn't need to add falling to the ground without wings into her danger card. "Warn me next time."

Zipp shrugged. "You're almost as bad as Pipp when it comes to flying. Though at least you have an out. You know, the not having wings bit. Will do. Now let's see. At least up here there's only a few ponies and scanning them for abnormalities as to how this happened. Okay, so we have the backing band of four, a couple dancers, and Knight Shade. Really like ten ponies here. I know it's somewhere here, but my glasses aren't really helping. So I'm a bit stumped as to how to fix this."

Misty stared at Knight Shade in the middle of the floor and turned away. Compared to the rest of the crowd, he was like a star that radiated heat to the distant corners of the room. Most ponies were gray and mostly lifeless in this frozen world, a bump or a slight touch giving her a glimpse into their roiling emotional worlds below. The pony in front of her in sequins and a long ornate coat draped over him, in contrast, was the color of joy. Vibrant yellow. "I think I know who's partially the problem."

Zipp cocked her head. "How?"

"Call it unicorn intuition. Let me work."

Zipp shrugged. "Whatever you say. I'll be over there finishing this bottle. That's what I'm good for."

Misty frowned and wished Zipp could see herself for the wonderful mare she saw in front of her- the pony that was confident in her detective skills and speed, a good friend, a great listener. It wasn't her fault that this was Misty's world and she knew that there was some emotional problem out of whack. She touched Knight Shade and the world changed around her.

This was new. The world surrounding her was now part dance club and part tiny hamlet that looked like any normal town in Equestria, barring the large mountains that she could see in the distance as the wall opened up around her to let in cool summer light to brighten up her gray surroundings, she could be fooled to see it as just Maretime Bay or even Bridlewood. Though she doubted it was since she couldn't see any large crystals.

She tentatively walked forward and wondered if Zipp had noticed the world change around them.

She looked up and saw a large sign that said Grayvale. That wasn't a town she'd ever heard of and Opaline had sent her on enough missions to random parts of Equestria that finding an unknown town was actually shocking to the blue unicorn. Opaline had been thorough and yet there was a place she'd never been to. She glanced at the singer's face and wondered if his memories had bled over to reality. It wasn't the weirdest thing she had seen today and with how her emotional powers worked, she was used to emotional bleeds. That was common in how every pony wore their heart on their hooves. She almost wished Opaline was here explaining every unknown factor about her magic.

The voice inside her head that sounded like the mare didn't count.

***

Misty walked through the small town of Grayvale. Or at least she walked through the bright memory of it. Compared to the room behind her that she was still both in and out of- she could see the fringes of the nightclub in her vision- there was a faint scent of baking bread on the wind and the sound of birds that made her heart feel light. Maybe that was the influx of joy that this shard of memory gave her, maybe it was her body finding sound and sensation to be a warm blanket to wrap around and center oneself in an odd situation. Either way, Misty trudged on past the large gate that welcomed visitors, a mural dotted the walls as she passed depicting ponies harvesting grain and celebrating the yearly harvest. Or at least it seemed like it. The words were either in a garbled language even she didn't recognize or logic worked differently in memory.

She was trying to keep up with the situation as best she could and she wished Zipp had followed her to share the experience and have another set of hooves to figure out science stuff she was unfamiliar with. Though a nagging part of herself wondered if Zipp would just look at her like she had grown a second head. Even Izzy had been noncommittal in figuring out her magic at times so she doubted Zipp would be better. She breathed out and walked to the center of town, a lilting melody entrancing her to follow.

"Come one come all to Knight Shade's Musical Jamboree." A colt's voice echoed through the town, bouncing off cobblestones and brick walls. It wasn't that the world was silent, no, but the memory was so strong when it came to the words that she could hear it from where she stood. "I hope everypony will be having a wonderful time and any bits that might be given are optional and appreciated."

A slight cheer came up and Misty's hair raised on her neck for a moment since there were no other ponies but her.

Knight Shade stood there, still recognizable even as a colt since his large poofy purple mane and grayish white coat made him stand out in a crowd. Yet he wasn't wearing anything else. Misty didn't even see a Cutie Mark on him so he hadn't yet found his purpose. Misty breathed out and stared at her own cutie mark, its butterfly not explaining her skill with magic. But she still looked at it and understood the want and desire to find one's purpose. It wasn't always needed since it had taken years for her to find hers, but it gave a pony a nice calm center to know what they could be good at.

Her cutie mark was more abstract than most.

"Miss, do you want to hear my song?" Knight Shade looked up at her with larger and expressive eyes that cut into her soul and she slowly nodded. "Great. Now here's a piece of paper for comments and good criticism. My mom says you can't figure out what you're good at without interspection. Introduction. Whatever. Words are hard sometimes and I sing better than I speak. At least that's what most of my town says." He smiled a childish grin and quickly scampered up on stage to begin his performance.

Misty sat there in silence as the world turned yellow as he opened his mouth and began to sing a song she never heard. And she let the music flow over her in waves, the world changing around her as hazy memories do, the town falling away until it was just her surrounded by an overwhelming sense of joy that she had never felt before to that extent. For a moment she felt hollow as she tried not to think of each time Opaline had used her, abused her, and belittled her.

That was a brief moment of sadness and she quickly wiped the tears away. She could see the golden cloud around Knight Shade and, to her trained eye, she didn't see any emotions tainting the colt's joy. No purple fears giving him doubt, no anger at his missed notes or blues about his small town. Just vibrant yellow and existing in the moment.

Misty smiled as he ended his song.

He quickly bowed and cantered down to her. "So what did you think?"

"It was. . .wonderful."

The grayish colt beamed "I love that."

The memory faded, but as the world fell away Misty could see a new cutie mark of a microphone and star on his flank.

***

"Equestria to Misty, are you okay?" Misty heard Zipp's voice in her ear and blinked.

The pegasus had a slight look of concern on her face and her emotional cloud was a deep dark purple of fear and worry.

"I'm fine. I just spaced out for a minute."

"It was way longer than a minute. I've been trying to reach you for like ten. I think. I gave up trying to figure out the clocks. You just got close to Knight Shade and went, I dunno, to some other world or something." Zipp shrugged, trying to act cool as her emotions betrayed her worry. "Are you sure you're fine?"

Misty nodded, unable to explain what she had felt in that. . .shard of memory. "It was a magic thing. Unique magic thing. But this isn't your average magical issue. What did you call it? A magical anomaly?"

"Great you listened to me." Zipp breathed out and smoothed her ruffled feathers. "Is it mostly done? Cause my glasses said there was two."

Misty weakly nodded. "I think so. I was just closing it up when you broke my concentration." That was a lie. But sometimes white lies were good for soothing one's nerves. And maybe it was partially true since she no longer saw the thatched roofs and cobblestones of Grayvale in the nightclub anymore. Just frozen ponies and technology she still didn't fully understand- so an average day in Equestria for her."

Misty cantered up to Knight Shade and hugged him tightly feeling his joy seep into her and color her world. She breathed out and she could see his bright sense of joy dimmed ever so slightly. Maybe Zipp wouldn't notice if she had her emotional powers- but Misty noticed. It was like watching the sun start to dim at sunset compared to a midday sun.

She stared down and saw her hooves glow yellow.

She didn't really care since all she felt now was a calm sense of joy. Her mind told her that this was wrong, vampiric in nature and a curse, but as she turned to Zipp all she could blurt out was an oddly chipper, "Done. Onto the next."

***

Misty walked through the dancefloor as carefully as possible, following Zipp's directions to the letter, hoping that the pegasus' mutterings were something useful and not like her own emotions going out of whack. She still felt the bit of joy she had stolen from Nightshade with just a touch deep within her and it worried her. She knew so little of her own magical abilities that finding a new wall to it didn't feel like a certain border but just a new hurdle to jump over or a prison to escape from.

She had thought she just could see and feel other's emotions. Not take them. But that was a worry for another time since the thing that caused this took priority.

Misty had some vague idea of what they were dealing with- tangentially reading in Opaline's ancient tomes and journals of creatures that interacted with the waking world and broke every law of reality on their way up. The ancient alicorn had kept rather mum on why studying dream magic was useful, but Misty had chalked it up to the mare wanting, desperately hoping, that there was a way to steal all the magic for herself the easy way.

She had heard the alicorn whisper of oneiroi or baku dancing amid her dreams of world domination and tainting them to failure. Creatures that influenced or ate dreams were uncommon and rare in the ancient alicorn's estimation, but they did exist in ancient tomes. Though with how her day was going, maybe Opaline hadn't been completely insane.

Misty hadn't listened to most of the mare's more out there ideas- she had been too focused on survival to do that. But there had been one thing that Opaline had mentioned once and never again. A tantabus. Misty bit her lip as she remembered the blank journal that had stumped her attempts of translation. She had tried everything she could think of- heat for invisible ink, dipping the paper in water, whispering words over it, using magic to mess with its pages. Nothing.

Zipp pointed at a few things that, to Misty, mostly looked normal. To most ponies, they'd look positively nondescript. But Misty wasn't most ponies and while she guessed even Zipp's special goggles could tell the mare so very, very much about the world, she doubted it could show the weird emotional black hole that was right in front of Misty. The painting that held the odd dissonance looked like it was covered in the veil of night with how there was just nothing there for her to read. No emotional residue greeted her- which was odd. She could read everypony's emotions still when she brushed up against them even when the world was in stasis. Yet here she was looking at a negation of emotions. No joy, anger, annoyance, guilt. Nothing. It was like pure apathy.

She touched the painting and it felt like she had breached the watery depths as her hoof sank into the painting. Which should have been impossible since there should have been a frame. Yet she sunk up to her shoulder and she felt incredibly cold as she felt an eerie sense of foreboding hit her.

The silence hit her as she realized that her fears of something being horribly, horribly, wrong weren't just paranoia gained from years of mistrust. There had been something there in the periphery, just out of her view, whispering into her mind. She turned to the nearest mirror and saw Opaline's shade smile. "And that's why I always preferred unicorns. Alicorns too, but those were always so rare. They can see the nature of things. You know how long it has been since I've felt a pony so attuned to magic to find a way into the Dreamlands while still awake?" The shade grinned. "It's been thousands of years and while you aren't a particular princess. . .you've so many unique things in your head there."

Misty fell into the painting.

***

Misty was not having a fantastic day and as she woke up in the inky black location she was in she silently wished she was either back with Zipp or the last mental world she had fallen through in this quest towards normalcy.

She shivered as she walked through the silent and familiar halls, the obsidian walls and brutalist architecture of the castle like location that she was now in was eerily like her own warped memories of her time with Opaline- the sharp angles and winding halls of a building almost not built but grown like a living organism as rooms shifted in function as Opaline's whims changed by the week.

Then it was the amount of times held over Misty her magnanimous nature- she hadn't needed to save a pony like her in the rocky wastes, she was an alicorn above such pleasantries and social mores as compassion and love. Misty grimaced as she remembered the shades of emotions that gave the black and gray walls some hidden color and Opaline hadn't lied about her motives or feelings about a small blue unicorn.

The food choices had been worse. Opaline hadn't always needed to eat. Her remaining near immortality had given Opaline an aloof feeling towards but the most basic of necessities- water, shelter, food every once in a while. Misty briefly remembered the time Opaline had spent an entire month trying to connect herself to what she called the astral plane by force of will and meditation.

That had been a terrible month for Misty. She had resorted to eating bugs and the spare morsels of nearly moldy food to find sustenance any way she could. The water situation hadn't been much better.

Opaline hadn't left her waste away for that long after that but weeks without food shaped her current thoughts. She still woke up with thoughts of cakes and buffets far as her eyes could see tempted her with their nutrition- bad or good- and she woke up in a sweat unable to fall asleep without walking the halls of the Brighthouse and finding a snack to center her new and, to her, cushy reality. Then her need to save food during a meal for later- or her desire to eat until stuffed made her nervous to eat food around other ponies in case they thought she was weird.

Pipp had said she had an eating disorder and Misty sort of agreed. She bit her lip and tried to forget about her past since the present was currently far more important.

She tried to hum a tune she heard Izzy sing once to make her mind shift away from her past and the dark hallway she was currently travelling down, but she was unable to stay distracted. She felt her eyes become accustomed to the darkness of this new area and noticed some slight light coming from the other end of the hallway.

"Please don't be a sign that I died." She had heard Pipp joke about the light at the end of the tunnel in passing once and she really didn't want to test that idea. She galloped through the doorway and appeared in a run down throne room that looked like Opaline's but wasn't- it was too sleek, too full of purpose to be the maroon alicorn's. It was made of some dark purple and black crystals that shone with their own inner light and, like a moth to a flame, Misty was drawn to it. She walked down the dimly lit pathway- torches lighting her way forward- and reached out with a hoof to touch the chair.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you."

Misty jumped back as a long and lanky unicorn came out of the shadows.

The mare's long flowing black mane sparkled in the dim light. She watched as the unicorn sat down upon the throne and crossed her hooves, the light purple coat of the mare changing to a light blue when it reached her hooves. "Hello, Misty Brightdawn, I've been expecting you."

Misty froze. "Who are-"

The mare held up a hoof and Misty fell silent. "It's been so long since I communed with a mortal." She sighed. "So, so long. Give me time to acclimate to speaking. I usually talk in feelings and half formed dreams, not concrete concepts- words are so very limiting at times, but its a problem I am fine with." The mare chuckled. "The last time I tried communing with a pony in the land of dream didn't go so well. They became a bit of a gibbering mess as I let them interface with me fully. You may call me Asteria. Or the Tantabus, whichever is easier."

Misty watched as Asteria smiled, her face stretching and contorting unnaturally as she walked closer, her shadow on the wall stretching to the ceiling. "I would have tried communing more with the princess, but her reliance on modern technology seemed a problem. As was her reliance on logic instead of feelings."

Misty tried to back away from the Tantabus. Misty imagined the thing as a spider wearing the form of a pony, the excess limbs and eyes hidden behind a welcoming grin. She watched the thing skitter around on spindly legs. Misty almost thought the thing looked intoxicated as it listed back and forth as it walked. "Why was that a problem?" Keep the thing monologuing that was usually the best thing to do in Misty's opinion. That was how she had carved herself a place of safety with Opaline- the alicorn had loved hearing the sound of her own voice.

"The Dream Realm here is not too kind to technology. Gives the things a bit of a hiss and crackle. Then a critical failure as things start breaking down into pure thought. It's exhausting to have to form a technological marvel starting by defining the march of progress- fire, the wheel, steam, computing. It's easier walking through memories and harvesting what's there to make concrete areas." Asteria looked particularly sad for a long while. "I have been dissecting your inner monologues, your memories, your hopes and your dreams as we conversed. Unlike the joy and mirth I felt under this Zephyrina Storm's memories all I see in you is shame, sadness and pity."

Misty stumbled for a moment as she tried to not have a panic attack. "What do you want?"

Asteria hummed to herself some ancient melody long forgotten. "I'm not the bad creature you think I am, I was created to be slightly different that most. You might call me a collaborative project of two alicorns who wanted to test a theory. The betterment of a Tantabus. Or at least harnessing a creature without a concrete mind and giving it self actualization. A consciousness within the Dreamlands when both needed a break."

"Did Opaline and Twilight make you?" It wasn't the most out there thought Misty could imagine- the friendship trees of both Opaline and Twilight had been linked long enough to give the ancient alicorn a loophole into Maretime Bay.

"I was made with Twilight's help and the Mistress of Dreams, not Opaline." Asteria's eyes burned like coals as she spat out the name of the mare. "If I felt that mare anywhere near the realm of sleep, I'd give her a taste of my mind." Asteria breathed out and Misty saw the thing reach out a hoof and flex it for a while. "Sorry. Sorry. I've just had a hard time acclimating to modern Equestria, I've been dancing through. . .Zephyr Heights' collective unconscious and seeing a world so like the one I remember and yet I only feel. . .one sort of alicorn alive in my periphery. . .makes me feel things. Modern alicorns are so much different than I remember."

Misty almost felt bad for the Tantabus- a creature ripped from time and planted into a world unknown to it coming to terms that maybe the alicorns she knew so well were deceased due to the ever passing tide of time- that would make anypony feel some hint of compassion towards it. "So what? You set up a whole magical anomaly that froze time? To what? To talk to me? To catch up with the times?"

Asteria shook her head. "Oh nothing like that." She appeared behind Misty and caressed her face with a hoof that bent at an impossible angle. "That was a hypothesis. I wanted to see if I could interact with the waking world and have fun. I had some ideas that I could since previous Tantabi could do so, but this is a world regaining magic, not one steeped in it. I had to test to see the effects. Now you? I see you as a conduit of pure magic, of hopes and dreams stuck here in this realm. One with a nearly limitless potential." The Tantabus smiled as she reached a spindly hoof through Misty's eye and felt around her brain. "You see, you have something in common with. . ." Asteria rooted around Misty's short and long term memory to find the alicorn's name and face. "Sunny Starscout's favorite princess. The one alicorn not currently trapped in a nightmare scenario between life and death. I'd feel pity for Opaline if I wasn't so angry about her meddling with Equestria. You have an innate connection with magic. Your ability to see the boundary between thought and action, the times you befriended thought constructs, the connection you have with the magical lighthouse. You are special, Misty. The world is trying to tell you something."

Misty started screaming and trying to pull away from the creature who had an entire hoof in her head. It was a primal response to being violated in a way she never imagined possible. It felt like her brain was on fire as the creature rooted around and messed with her brain. Colors that never existed danced around her eyes, smells that seemed wrong hit her nose, her skin burned as it felt like bugs were crawling over it as her body tried to dislodge this invader.

Asteria sighed and turned up Misty's dopamine levels as high as possible. "I was saying before you interrupted me- special. Your magical font capability is like an ocean and all you have in there right now is a tiny puddle." She rooted through her own spells that she knew, backups of spell matrices that had sat unused and unsaid for eons and placed them in the blue unicorn's memory banks. Gravity spells, offensive spells, defensive ones, even a few counterspells for fun.

Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns' years of curriculum and a few Twilight Sparkle originals to give this mare a magical education this Opaline Arcana had sorely not given this beacon of magic. Her methods were crude and probably. . .morally dubious. . .whatever that meant in Misty's thoughts.

But she had five thousand years of fun to catch up on and a unicorn with potential sorely underused to teach.

Her prime directive was teaching friendship and while she wondered if Twilight would disapprove, she ran through her memories and remembered that the alicorn had learned good lessons from even the worst of enemies. She wasn't as bad as Tirek or Chrysalis- she was a construct that knew her purpose and this was the fastest way towards knowledge of self.

Misty needed that. Zephyrina needed that. They needed each other.

"I've spent two days in your head, analyzing both you and Zephyrina. . .and all I see is a princess and their future consort unable to blurt out their feelings for one another. She giggled. It almost reminded her of Twilight and. . . She breathed out. "I just need to tinker with some slight neuroses that she has here, here, and here. Add a sprinkle of some stuff here."

She grinned, her smile twisting around her eyes and nearly splitting her head in two. She knew Sunny would have a way to fix her magical bubbles that dotted Zephyr Heights. Alicorns, no matter the type, be they born or made could cut the proverbial tangle of spells that her dream spells used. That was boring. Simple. Uncreative.

Letting two thirds of a whole alicorn solve the problem would be much more interesting in her estimation. She quickly worked her own spells' weaves so that they wouldn't just disappear like average countered spells into the ether. They would go towards the only fount of magic she approved of.

Misty.

Asteria popped the time bubble that surrounded the theater and grinned as she watched Misty's nearly dry lakebed of potential lap up her magic like it was a pony dying of thirst. She watched Misty's average breasts expand as they tried to contain their new normal amount of magic.

Maybe it was the brief influence of Cadance upon her creation, but Zipp's inaction in bedding Misty had given her a delightfully devilish joke. She had swam in Zephyrina's desires and dreams as she had collated the information she needed about modern society. Giving a push to a relationship wasn't a bad idea.

She had seen the memories of the white pegasus staring intently at Misty's lower half- unable to progress further due to royal propriety. Giving a nudge with her deft hoofwork was just a bonus.

"This is going to be fun."

***

Zipp dared not look down as she carried Misty through the castle. Her wings burned with effort as she bumped her way through the halls, her years of sneaking out in near darkness coming in handy as she was reflexively working through each passage towards her room. She had thought of dragging Misty to a cheap motel- there was a glut of seedy back alley pay by the hour places to rest your head if you didn't care about the quality, or cleanliness, of the sheets- but with how odd Misty was acting and her growing issue between the unicorn's legs, Zipp deferred to going to her room and locking the door for a while.

One moment she had been drinking an entire bottle of vodka in silence. Then the world came back in ear bleeding surround sound as music blared through the speakers. She had nearly dropped the bottle in shock due to the hour of pacing around drinking her fill of alcohol to alleviate her stress. She had seen the smiling grin of the Tantabus in the glass windows surrounding her like she was a fly in a spider's web. She had heard only bits and pieces of the thing's long monologue to her, parts being muffled by the now deafening techno music that thumped its rhythms in her bones.

She had heard enough.

She cursed that Tantabus, the smug joy as the thing evaporated into wisps of night, her chuckling laughter reverberating in Zipp's memory. Zipp grimaced. She had inadvertently caused most of this. She had rarely heard of ancient magical creatures that feasted on dreams and desire- the archives were incredibly light when it came to non-Pegasi history- but Sunny had spent so much time talking about the wonders of the past that it wasn't too out there to imagine a flipside to that bit. Nightmares released the moment magic came back.

Some ponies might call her paranoid. She called that being a realist.

She fumbled with her doorknob with a wing and flicked on her light with her nose. It wasn't that graceful, but it worked. She slowly lay Misty on her bed and groaned as her adrenaline left her. She grit her teeth as she tried to focus on things beyond the aching pain. She looked down and balked, finally realizing why Misty had felt way heavier than before. Either it was a trick of the light or something like a massive prank by the Tantabus, but Misty lay on her bed, staring up at Zipp with an exuberant smile on her lips- and easily a rack thrice the size of before with large, dark nubs that poked out from the natural forest of Misty's thighs. It even looked like it pulsed with faint growth as she watched. Zipp shook her head. That was scientifically impossible.

Though Zipp wasn't sure. This could be magic. And she wasn't too sure of Misty's normal size to a perfect degree- she tried not to check out her friends in that way- though she had been curious at times. It was her detective senses wondering- nothing more than idle curiosity about unicorns. And her notes about Misty just confirmed that she was what Pipp would call "pretty attractive". The fat tits were a bonus.

She gulped as she tried to count to ten, stumbling over her own lewd thoughts as she did so. She didn't mean to be so crude as years of royal training hit her. Her assets were a nice bonus. If she was interested, which she wasn't. "Damn it."

"Hey, Zipp, I think I have an issue." Her words came out slurred and slow as she looked around Zipp's room in wonder. "I don't know what's going on but everything is just so bright and colorful right now. All yellows and I feel so very wonderful."

Zipp rolled her eyes. Misty was clearly not making sense. She hadn't been making sense the whole flight here. She had mumbled about how bright things were, how all the emotions were so nice. How. . .soft she felt. Zipp quickly checked Misty's eyes and pulse, quickly checking off every drug, poison and quick acting alcohol that she knew by memory. Misty quietly pawed at her side as she did so, tracing circles in her coat. "Okay. . .somehow you aren't intoxicated."

Misty just smiled. "It's like a dance, you know, heightened feelings and all. . ." Misty rolled onto her side and traced circles in the sheets. "You know this is the first time I was fully in your room. Not the Brighthouse one. . .but your own personal room. You know the Brighthouse has a secret inner room that controls it? Like there's cameras. I mean I think there is, magic cameras."

Zipp blushed a deep dark crimson as she tried to stay focused. "I don't bring many ponies here. And if you weren't showing symptoms of euphoria, I'd have dragged you to a cheap motel. Sure, those aren't up to royal snuff, but sometimes laying low and hiding out is nice. Like a personal vacation." Zipp tried to direct the conversation to some topic that could get her mind out of the gutter. It was failing as she watched Misty's sizable bosom wobble and spread over her blankets. Fuck. "Okay, so explain to me exactly what happened, cause one moment the place was frozen. And then it wasn't. Which was both freaky and disorienting since going from pure silence to normal felt like I was in the midst of a fireworks display. All light and sound. Then you started acting weird."

Misty lazily shrugged. “Magic. It’s just that simple.” Misty looked at the loose stockings that littered one side of Zipp’s bed and smiled as she pawed at them, trying desperately to get a couple for her own way to explain the emotional high she was feeling. She was always better at explaining herself with sock puppets.

“Hey don’t touch those. Those are. . .not mine. They are Pipp’s.” Zipp tried to stay calm but she was terrible at lying.

“They don’t look like hers.” Misty slid a long stocking in her leg and marveled at the tight hug it gave her leg. “Feels a bit small too. And the only mare I know that’s built like that is you. Well maybe Izzy?” Misty did a big think and kicked her legs, leaving nothing at all to Zipp’s imagination as she spread herself all over the blankets as she slid the form fitting garments over her plush legs. “But then I think why would you have her stuff in your room? What do you say Miss Sock?”

Zipp blushed crimson and looked away. “What?”

Misty tried and failed at being a ventriloquist since the white Pegasus could see her lips fully moving as she tried to speak, the high pitched squeal of her put on voice almost, but not quite, being annoying. “Oh me oh my I have to agree that it’s completely ridiculous. Sunny would be so incredibly upset about that.” The sock on Misty’s hoof flopped around like it was trying to speak.

“You never know the wrath of an alicorn, hum.”

“That’s right Mr. Stocking.” Misty gleefully waved her hooves and grinned. “I have more to say, but you get the point.” Misty’s now head sized breasts jiggled as she giggled, her back hooves squished into her sides and she squirmed in reflexive pleasure.

Zipp sighed and opened her dresser, attempting to find something’s for Misty to wear to bed because there was just one bed and her huge teats were so very inviting. A part of her wanted to knead those dark blue orbs until her nubs were visible and suckable. She tried to look away, feeling her cheeks grow hot. She held onto the side of the bed with a hoof and rummaged through her stuff, her desperate search for modesty and calm returning the polka dot pajamas that Pipp had given her as a joke birthday present.

Zipp could immediately tell they were too small for her unicorn friend’s frame but finding nothing else, it had to do.

She flopped onto the bed, pajamas in hoof and crawled the few feet toward the blue unicorn.

Misty welcomed her with open hooves and a smile- which didn’t make her feel less uncomfortable since she felt their bodies touch and she felt the heat from between Misty’s thighs and she nearly faltered before regaining her nerve and sliding the pajama top over Misty’s head. The unicorn fought her for a moment, all hooves and horn, before calming back down and leaning into her touch.

Zipp marveled at the course was and volume of Misty’s mane and she quickly noted her faint scent of lilacs.

It was purely scientific.

It wasn't her fault she hadn't had the touch of a mare in so very long.

Zipp listened to her mumble away about the pretty colors as she finagled the outfit on- a difficult proposition since it was truly a few sizes too small- and it made Misty look like she was cramming herself into foal clothing because she was out of options for well fitting attire.

"Why am I wearing clothes again?"

Zipp huffed and puffed the bottoms past Misty's thighs before answering since the swell of her hips provided enough give for her to stop and rethink her fruitless endeavor. "Because I'm not sharing my bed with a naked mare."

Misty giggled. "Why? We are always naked. Or nearly. Besides Pipp. She's usually not naked. But like Hitch is naked and a stallion and I've seen accidental dick flashes because of walking in on certain moments and you don't see me complaining about nudity. I say more nudity is nice. Then that makes clothes the attractive thing." Misty thought long and hard in her clouded state and came up with a devious and funny explanation as to why Zipp was trying to hide her nude form. "Is it because you find me attractive?"

Zipp blushed. "No. It's just. . .its not that."

Misty nodded. "That'd be too easy. Plus you aren't the one who gave me these squishy boobs." Misty placed a hoof on her turgid blue orb and grinned as she swayed the breast around in her relatively small hooves. "Look because the magic made it so big, it looks like my hooves are tiny. Which is fun cause, you know, you did that hoof measuring thing and I have the largest hooves. Look how jiggly they are when I move. Jiggle, jiggle, jiggle." Misty hummed to herself as she tried to entice Zipp with an inviting long nipple to suck on. Not that Zipp would know the average size of those. They looked positively massive to her.

No, this was her friend in a state of distress, not a mare in her right mind.

Zipp bit down on her lip to steady herself as she drew the pajama bottoms over the offending flesh piles and with one final tug she brought them over the slope of Misty's rear. The elastic was completely ruined due to it deforming and tearing slightly as it tried to contain the offending mass that was Misty's issue. The size of her combined mammary misfortune made it look like she was smuggling two small watermelons in the bottoms. Zipp gulped as she could see everything in a stark outline due to the fabric warping around it and due to its weight, there was a visible trail of blue curly hair that snaked out of the waistband and led Zipp's scientific eye into the gravity well of Misty's vagina.

It looked like her pajamas were painted on.

Zipp sat there for a moment trying to calm herself as she had accidentally made Misty hotter by putting on more clothes- not taking them off. She groaned as she looked at the clock and decided to try to think about the problem in the morning. She didn't know what Misty was dealing with- her attempts to fix the problem by hiding it only made it far more noticeable- and she wasn't going to stay up all night trying to fix a problem that didn't seem too bad.

Well. Not too bad.

She glanced at the clock, for once glad that time was moving forward and tried vainly to crawl into bed. She motioned for Misty to come to bed. She had one bed and nopony would know they shared a bed. She wasn't going to let this slip out. Misty lazily slid underneath the blankets, her body sliding right next to Zipp, her squish factories pressing into the white pegasus' side and staying there since Zipp was too afraid to move.

She clapped her hooves and her lights shut off.

She stared up at the moon, wondering if that creature made of stardust cursed her.

"Comfy. Love you, Zipp." Misty smiled as she headed off to dreamland.

Zipp bit her lip and placed a pillow gently between them. While the sight of Misty was inviting to most- Zipp had standards. And taking advantage of your friends while they were in the midst of a magical problem- drunk or not- made her unwilling to act upon her feelings that she held deep inside.

Maybe she'd get with the mare in her dreams. But for right now, she'd rather keep an eye on her with a sense of distance. She'd already ruined far too many relationships by falling in love too fast. It was her major character flaw- she was a hopeless romantic and being attracted to mares just made her marvel at the female form.

She failed to fall asleep before the dawn since all she heard was Misty's faint snoring and the shuffling softness of a hoof that crept over the pillow to curl itself around one of her wings. The pillow between them helped hide the softness between Misty's thighs, but Zipp could still feel the slight swell of the mare.