Pete Powell's Life as a Pony, and Beyond

He followed the unicorn princess to her chambers, her cowering brother steps ahead, though Pete wondered if the stallion was more afraid of his sister or the Captain himself. Either way their march was unimpeded and the trio were soon in a very decadent room. Unlike Celestia and Luna, whose rooms followed a rather predictable pattern, this room was a hodgepodge of anything and everything that was, or at least looked, valuable. Everything was gold and jewel encrusted, or at least appeared as such. Pete could investigate, a simple spell would tell him how much gold was actually in the room, another could tell him if the jewels adorning the gold were even worth a bit. This was not his concern however. No, his concern was with the princess in front of him and her frightened kin.

“My brother tells me you assaulted him in the halls,” she said, bluntly.

“Did he also mention that him and his other brother were harassing the earth pony princess?” Pete's voice was calm, the mare's attempt to throw him off balance was weak and obvious.

“And since when are a few pick up lines 'harassment'?”

Pete leaned forward from his stool, “When the mare being hit on says 'go away' and your brothers corner her.” He didn't break his deadpan tone.

The unicorn stuttered for a second, caught off guard by the Captain's frank nature. She was used to dealing with ponies that, if not genuflected, at least viewed her with dignity. The 'Dread' Captain, however, looked at her with plain eyes. To him she was not a princess, she was an obstacle. She was familiar with that look, she'd seen if on her own face before.

Several thoughts raced through her mind. Initially they were haughty, a 'who does he think he is' train of thought. Which naturally led her to Princess Luna's appearance that night. The same form as her captain. The bond was far more than implied, several stories were already abound, and if half of them were true she was dealing with the most powerful creature in Equestria. The Princess Luna had not so much as considered a suitor in the past 2,000 years, but less than a week after his return... She would have to tread carefully now. Bending her will to another had never come easily to Shimmering Gale, but she saw the usefulness of such acts on few occasions. Most of them dealing with the alicorn princesses directly, but given his obvious proximity to the throne it would not hurt her to rein herself in.

“I-I didn't know about that,” she lied. Shimmering Gale was well aware of her brothers tactics when it came to women.

Pete cocked a brow, “Then it won't hurt you at all to apologize for their behavior to the princess when she recovers.”

“Recovers?” The tension in her voice was obvious. Her brothers had never hurt somepony before, and if they had...

“Trauma from their harassment.”

“I see. Yes, of course I will. Their display tonight was certainly undignified.”

The other end of the castle

Luna sat, resting, as she watched the pink pony's slowly breathing form. It had been a full ten minutes now and the princess still felt drained. It had been barely a week since the last time she'd performed the ritual, hardly any time to recharge herself and already he'd found another.

“If this is the pace he intends to keep, perhaps I should just do the spell en masse,” she said to herself, closing her eyes and leaning back.

The shifting on the bed didn't bother her, it was normal. The soul would be working to reestablish connections to the body. Tossing and turning was normal. In fact, it wasn't until she heard hooves on the floor that her eyes opened. She was far more than surprised, almost in catatonic shock was a closer description, at Pinkie Pie standing in front of her. The pony stretching out as if she'd simply woken up on any old morning.

“Pinkie!” Luna exclaimed, “You! How are- how CAN you be moving already?!”

The pink mare giggled, “That's easy silly. I've got things to do. I can't lay around all night.”

“No, Pinkie, I'm saying that what you're doing is impossible! You can't possibly be fully augmented to your body yet.”

“Really? Seems alright to me.” Pinkie said, then bounced around the room for a minute to prove it. “Now, I have to go find Pete!”

Luna blinked, “For what reason?”

The mare giggled again, “It's a secret!”

The princess paused for a moment and considered her choices. Finally, seeing Pinkie move for the door, she stood.

“I'll go with you. ...I-I have my own things I must tell him.”

Pinkie shrugged and the princess followed. First they visited his room, finding it vacant. This made Luna concerned. She had expected him to be on stand by, waiting to hear how the spell had gone. Something important must have come up. Voicing this idea to Pinkie Pie, the pair made their way to the ball, still in progress.

A few minutes of walking around and talking to ponies found everything in a state of security. Nothing was wrong, yet no pony had seen Pete since he'd left with Luna. Fear began to gnaw at Luna's heart. This party was common knowledge, even to more unsavory sorts. Her mind began to race with possibilities. If someone wanted to do something evil this was the place to do it, and Pete was possibly the biggest obstacle to that goal.

Suddenly, the room began to spin, and Luna found herself short of breath. Giving just a bare “excuse me” to the pegasus she had been speaking with, the Princess of Night fled the ballroom. Her slightly dramatic exit noticed by many. Safely alone in the hallway she began to take deep breaths, closing her eyes in an attempt to focus her mind and vision.

“I must still be worn out,” she muttered, opening her eyes slowly. “Reattaching souls was not meant to be a regular occurrence.”

As her breathing, and mind, settled down, the door behind her burst open. Whirling around, Princess Luna found Pinkie Pie and a strangely drab unicorn. She was unclothed, something that would be normal under different circumstances, but the party behind them was a game changer. If she was with the royal staff she was out of uniform, if she was with the unicorns then she was oddly naked. Shimmering Gale insisted that almost all of her wear something, typically suits and gowns at all times in an attempt to seem regal.

“Pinkie, who is this?” Luna's voice was back to being calm, though what remained of her shock Pinkie attributed to her recent door scare.

“I dunno! But she said she saw Pete.”

Luna blinked, then stared at the unicorn. “Is this true?”

She nodded, “Yes. You-you are talking about the other, um, human, right?” Luna nodded. “Well, I saw him as I was leaving my room, down by Princess Gale's suite. The Princess and one of her brothers were leading him to her room.”

Luna gave a slow nod, she knew where that was. It was a short distance away. “Might I ask, however, who you are?”

The unicorn gave a small laugh, “No pony important. I'm just Princess Shimmering Gale's seamstress. Picked one of a dozen.”

“Very well. Thank you for the information.”

With that the unicorn gave a bow, then trotted off to whatever Pinkie had interrupted her from. After watching her go the mare and the woman set out, finally with a destination in mind. There wasn't any speaking between them like there had before, Pinkie now being caught up to speed on roughly 2000 years of events. It was a swift, nearly silent walk, the only sounds breaking the silence being the sounds of hooves and heels on stone as they went. They arrived at the unicorn princess' quarters just in time to catch their prey as he left the room, giving a small nod to whoever closed the door.

Luna picked up the pace, out stepping Pinkie by a wide margin, reaching Pete just as he turned around, and embraced him. Much to the Captain's shock. Pete had no idea what had happened, but could feel the princess' worry coursing through her being. He steadily wrapped his arms around her slender frame. It surprised him, only just now, how small she actually was by comparison.

Pete was still confused, even as he hugged Luna, but said nothing. Whatever had happened the princess would reveal, or not, of her own accord. They stood in silence for a solid minute before a certain mare's giggle caused Pete to look behind the princess. For his second shock this evening he found Pinkie Pie, already up. Slowly breaking Luna's grip, he made his way towards the pink pony. Luna relinquished her hold, satisfied, and watched intently.

“Pinkie,” Pete half whispered, “Is that seriously you?”

“Well, I don't know about 'seriously,' but it is me! Who else would I be? Well, other than that other pony that I'm not any more.”

Pete stifled a laugh, “Yeah, that's you. How are you already up though? It took me like three days.”

“Like I told the Princess, I have something to tell you and it can't wait! So there's no way I was going to sleep for three days.” She said the last part while rolling her eyes.

“And I came with her,” Luna spoke, stepping to Pete's side, “Because there's something I should tell you as well.”

The still suited human scratched the side of his face with his middle and ring fingers. “Hmm, well this stuff sounds kinda important, but is it so drastic that we need to talk about it in the halls? If it is, then by all means, but I'd rather be somewhere a bit more comfortable right now.”

“Like Shimmering Gale's room?” Luna asked with a smile.

“No, that was far from comfortable.” Standing up and looking at the pair, taking their continued silence as consent to go elsewhere, Pete suggested his room.

The two voiced no objections and within a couple of minutes they were all getting comfortable. Luna had taken up on the edge of Pete's bed, and was eye level with the room's owner. Pete himself was seated in a chair he'd had made specifically for his new human form. Large, cushioned, and obviously not for a pony. The chair was right across from his bed, facing the far window, though Luna now obfuscated that view. To their left was Pinkie Pie, the mare sitting on a cushion that was the typical seating for a pony. Though it left her a few feet shorter than the two human's eye level.

Having removed his shoes, socks, suit jacket, and tie, Pete was now much more relaxed. Having stretched to work out the general kinks in his body from the overtly physical evening he was now half way sunk into the chair. He allowed himself to relax for only a minute longer after his guests had seated themselves before pulling himself back up to attention.

“So, apparently you two have news for me?” He asked, looking between them.

“I'll let Luna go first,” Pinkie said, “She is a princess and everything.”

Pete shifted his gaze to Luna. “Well, I guess that means you're up Your Highness.”

Luna smiled faintly at the last part, but the smile quickly faded. “Very well. It's about my new form, and the night we spent together.” Luna watched her captain's reaction carefully. “I apologize in advance, but I couldn't see any other way to make it happen.”

“Make what happen? I'm fairly certain I'm the one that decided to-”

“No,” Luna cut him off, her voice going quiet, “Not that.”

“Then what?”

The Princess of Night, once known as the most terrifying being in Equestria, unleashed a shaky breath. There was no way she could have gone on without telling him, she knew that, and it was the most terrifying thing she could think of having to do. It scared her less than all the months spent apologizing for the Nightmare Moon ordeal, more than reconquering her powers of night and darkness.

She opened her eyes, and looked right into Pete's. “I'm pregnant.”

Pete's blood froze, he was half way to magically setting himself on fire to make sure he didn't freeze to death when he realized it was just shock. He began to slowly work his way around the idea. How could she be in just one night? This question was quickly answered by 'she is a goddess, she could be whatever she wanted whenever she wanted.' Nature bent around her will, which meant... she chose this?

“I-I can understand your surprise,” Luna said, hurriedly trying to placate the stone still captain, mistaking his state of pure shock for calm rage. “But you don't have to worry about it. I know how you feel about Rainbow Dash, and with the rapid success you've had in finding the others I'm sure it won't be long before you two are back together. So I'm not going to expect you to do anything with the fo- children. I just thought you should-.”

Her sentence would remain unfinished, however, as Pete sprung forward and slapped her. Luna's head jerked to the side from the force, her eyes wide with surprise. Slowly she turned her head back and looked up at Pete.

“Don't you fucking say that,” Pete growled. “Like it or not … those are my kids. So don't you think for even one god forsaken second that I'm going to pretend they aren't, or be one of those worthless assholes that just abandons children. If you seriously thought that I would just go 'oh, okay' to that then you must seriously have forgotten me, Luna.”

“I just-”

“I'm not going to argue this Luna, I'm not. This is not a discussion, this is me stating fact. I don't care if you're an immortal god, raising kids is hell, and doing it alone is next to impossible. It's not impossible, but it toes the line very much. It may have just been me, or my mother, but I'm not going to take that kind of chance. I'm not going to be the kind of man my father was.” Stepping back, Pete collapsed into the chair behind him. “I have no idea how to explain this though.”

“Explain what?” Luna asked, her tone gentle.

“'Hey kids! I'm your dad, but I'm married to this flying pony instead of your mom, but I'm still gonna be your dad.' Seriously? What-how do I even...? I can't even comprehend this. Not to mention the shit message that kinda sends out.”

Once more Luna's reassurance was cut off, this time however by Pinkie Pie. The princess sat, mouth open slightly in response, as the pink mare stepped over and climbed up into the chair with Pete.

“Well, that one's easy to fix,” she said with an eye roll. Pete arched an eyebrow in question.

A moment later Pinkie was standing on her back legs, forelegs pinning Pete's arms down at the elbow. Her expression serious, the mare pressed her lips against his. The kiss was short, but unlike the one before it was passionate and lustful. Pete did far more than contemplate tossing her off, however he didn't want to hurt Pinkie, and with his arms pinned the only option he had was his magic. His dark magic that he had not tested doing anything short of tossing someone violently. Instead he simply resisted slightly, tensing his arms to break free as soon as he was able. Less than thirty seconds and Pinkie pulled her lips off his.

“I don't know exactly when,” she said with half lidded eyes, still close enough that Pete could feel the breath from her words, “but I fell in love with you. I-I never settled down you know. Even after you sorted all those guys out I never found one that clicked. I kept hoping that... that you'd come around. That you'd get over those old human things and... …” She sighed, “But you never did.”

Pete sat in shock for the second time that day. Pinkie had never said anything, and he'd never guessed. Suddenly things started clicking though.

“Every Sunday, you came over.” Pinkie nodded. “You were always on call to foalsit.”

Then the memory of her death surfaced. She had been the first of their friends to go, and the hardest to let go. The next would be Applejack a full twenty years later. Everypony said the same thing, she had been too young at age 68. Such an idea was jarring to Pete at the time, 68 was a fairly respectable age. Then he considered the other earth ponies, 80 was even a fairly rare number while 90 came much closer to the average.

What stuck out though, what suddenly occurred to him, was that she passed alone. She didn't die next to someone that loved her like the others. Nothing like what he had been able to do for Dash. He stared into Pinkie's eyes as he thought, the mare viewing each of his emotions as he was hers. And a twinge of pain echoed through his heart. Pinkie had been the one to suffer this, and she'd smiled the whole way. Even now she was smiling.

His arms went from primed for escape to putty in a single moment. He just sat there, unable to say anything at all. There was no amount of apology that could be said to rectify what had passed. So he thought. He turned all his brain power to one single though, one idea. One question. 'Can I love more than just Dash?'

It was more than ethical to him. It was almost spiritual. Then there was the mare in question. How would Rainbow respond if she came back to find he'd accepted other lovers? Already how would she respond to his infidelity with the Princess? Could she love him after all of this? He had betrayed the Element of Loyalty. No matter what he did that much was already certain.

“When,” he began, the single tear slipping out of his eye quickly becoming a flood, “when did you suddenly mean so much to me?”

Sometime, he wasn't sure when, but some time ago Pinkie had become something more to him. Looking back on it now he could see the strange limbo they had been in. More than friends, but less than lovers. To both Pete and Rainbow Dash. Had he clung to 'foolish' human breeding unknowingly? Perhaps, or perhaps he had done so subconsciously, understanding in the back of his mind why. Either way he had hurt her. This wasn't like others, though. A few times during his stay in Ponyville several mares had shown interest in him and he had brushed them all aside with resolute words of love. All of which failed him now and for the simplest, most obvious, and most painful reason. Somewhere, either in the hundreds of years of life or thousands in death, he had grown to love Pinkie Pie.

He suddenly found that each day he had gone without her smile had been almost empty, her laugh like a timeless composition of music. And it scared him. It worried him that perhaps while the love for her had grown his love for Dash had weakened. The past, the future, suddenly they scared him. It had been too long since he had known fear, and it had taken him some time to realize what the feeling gnawing at him was atop his sadness and love.

Slowly Pete pulled his arms out from under Pinkie's hooves and wrapped them around the fluffy mare. Burring his face into her chest he felt her forelegs draw tight around his head, tears streaming down his face the whole time. In this embrace he said three words, for better or for worse.

The next morning he would wake up with Pinkie Pie snuggled up on him to his right, and Luna on his left. He would kiss them both on the forehead before slipping away as quiet and gently as possible to the shower. There Pete would stand underneath the warm cascade of water until it turned freezing and then longer. The whole while contemplating. He loved them, and as far as he could tell he loved Rainbow as well, where ever she was. The question still echoed in his mind, no matter how hard he tried.

After what I've done, will she still love me?