Rainbow awoke feeling incredibly sore, almost as sore as that time she ran a triple marathon. Although not quite the same type of sore. By Celestia's thick flanks, that stallion is utterly insatiable. Rainbow was suddenly aware of the stallion's absence, being alone in the bed

As if summoned the stallion appeared in the door-frame.

“Twi...” Rainbow croaked out, her voice incredibly hoarse from last night. She blushed faintly at recalling what exactly made her voice that way.

“Oh, um, you're awake. I, uh, went and made breakfast for you. Spike usually handles the cooking, but he wasn't anywhere to be found. And, well, I thought it only fair after ... well everything” Twilight said awkwardly, a tray levitating in behind him surrounded in an almost imperceptible magenta aura.

Rainbow looked pensively at the stallion, it was very difficult to reconcile this gawky colt with the dominant stallion who had thoroughly ruined her and made her his own. Well, I should get up now. The pegasus hopped out of bed ...

... well less 'hopped' and more 'bonelessly flopped'. The pegasus glared at the stallion softly chuckling. “... blame you.” she wheezed out which only made the stallion laugh harder.

“Here, let me help you,” Twilight lit his horn and touched it to the collapsed mare's forehead.

Rainbow felt a wave of warm tingles flow across her body driving away soreness and restoring strength to her muscles, “You know restoration magic? I thought that was incredibly difficult for arcane aligned unicorns.”

“It is, but I was Princess Celestia's personal student. Anyways it's great after long night of studying.”

“Be careful, abusing restoration magic can be really bad for your health.”

Twilight eyed the mare, it was fairly surreal to be lectured on magical safety by a pegasus. “Don't worry, I'm always very cautious with magic.”

Rainbow stared dubiously at the stallion. “Twilight, you literally just turned yourself into a stallion, accidentally. I'm not complaining,” Rainbow blushed, “but I think I'm entitled to worry.”

“That isn't my fault, the spell I was trying to cast should not have been even capable of causing a physical transformation. Also, such female to male transformations is apparently nearly impossible to successfully do, or at least that's what Luna implied.”

“Hmm, yes the spell residue contamination. Damn bucking nobles and their obsession with having fillies.” Rainbow paused, “No offence intended.”

“None taken, House Twilight wasn't around when that was going on, nor would we be the kind of house to engage in such a practice anyways” I didn't even know about that until Luna told me, how could Rainbow possibly know. I hope the Twilight Manor library has any books that could help figure out what exactly is going on with her.

Twilight set the tray down, “I hope you like your eggs scrambled, I tried to make an omelette but, well, Spike usually is the one doing the cooking.

“Scrambled is fine.” The two young lovers sat down on the bed to eat breakfast.

“So, Twilight, I've been thinking ...” Rainbow set her utensils down

“Mmhm.”

“I think we should find a couple more mares for you.”

Twilight coughed on his eggs, “Rainbow, what?!”

“The restoration magic helps, but if the last two nights are normal, I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to survive your undivided attention.”

Twilight sputtered, “Rainbow, you're not actually suggesting ...”

“That you rut other mares, yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. I don't know why you're acting like this, you're the one from a strictly polygamous house.”

“And you're okay with this?” Twilight was aghast.

“Didn't I say I didn't care if you married a hundred mares?”

“Yeah, but I didn't think you were serious.”

“Well, I was and I am. And even if I wasn't, I know how insanely strict you nobles can be about your traditions.”

“We're not like other noble houses.”

“Yeah, you're paranoid, isolationist, militaristic, carnivorous and literally insane. That's really reassuring. So tell me I'm wrong, and that your family would be happy if we reject your long held traditions.”

“I wouldn't let them hurt you!” Twilight shouted protectively.

“See Twilight, that is exactly the problem, you all but admitted that some of your house might try to hurt me over this.”

Twilight looked down ashamedly, “I just though you wouldn't want to.”

Rainbow sighed, “Well, I do. And it's not always about what we want to do, sometimes it's about what we have to do. You have already admitted your house is powerful, if rather odd, I would much rather have them as allies than enemies, even if that means doing some things I may not want to do.” Rainbow paused, “Wait, did you want me to demand monogamy from you?”

“Um, a bit.” Twilight admitted.

“Un-be-leivable, why you selfish cur.” Rainbow Dash stormed out of the room. Forgetting something?

Rainbow Dash stormed back into the room, grabbed Iridescence and stormed back out of the room. Calm, my wielder, calm. Your mate has gone through a very confusing couple of days, and you are moving oh so very fast.

---

“”Is that trouble in paradise, I'm sensing?” Shadow 'greeted' the fuming mare.

“Why don't you mind your own business and act your station for once, knight.”

“Ooh, scary. Is little Sparkles' 'hungry little slut' angry. Why; you sounded oh so enthusiasic last ni ...”

Shadow was interrupted Rainbow's hoof to her muzzle, sending her flipping out of her chair and landing on the floor in a heap.

Storm made a low whistle.

Rainbow made a huff and turned to leave the room.

“Uh, Rainbow.” Interrupted Umbra.

“Yes.” She replied acidly.

“You coming to Twilight Manor with us today? We're leaving from the castle in a couple hours. Your mutual friends have somehow convinced Sparkles to let them come, so I'm pretty sure you're invited. Likely would have been even if they hadn't.”

“You're leaving to Twilight Manor today?! Why didn't anypony tell me sooner?!” The angry mare glared at the four assembled mares, before settling on Theory, her eyes narrowing.

“Hey, don't look at me, I just found out this morning.” The mare flinched back in fear.

Rainbow snorted, “I'll come.” she slammed the door.

There was silence for a good minute.

“Shadow, why are you such a bucking bitch.” Umbra sighed, “You're lucky Captain Aura didn't stay the night, if she had seen that disgraceful performance, it'd be straight back to boot-camp for you.”

“Ughhhh...” Shadow moaned.

“And, didn't you see the bucking huge sword she had on her back, or the wingblades, or the featherblades, she isn't the kind mare you want to piss off. I bet she could cut a pony in two before you blink.”

Umbra turned to Theory, “Theory, now that you mention it, why does Rainbow Dash have a 'bucking huge sword' and wingblades and featherblades?”

“Eh, heh, heh. Why are you asking me?” Theory asked weakly.

“Because you were the one to bring a bunch of magical artifacts, including – if I remember right – a couple weapons. Because she didn't seem to have any weapons before talking to you. Because you are horrible at lying.”

“Eh, you see ...” Theory trailed off and paused for a bit, “Did you notice that she was leaking, if you know what I mean.” Theory winked.

Umbra rolled her eyes at Theory's amateurish segue.

Storm jumped down to examine the slimy trail left by the mare ...

“Storm, get away from that, it came out of your cousin.”

Storm jumped back, “You know, I don't think that mare did any kind of hygiene this morning. Her mane and coat were pretty matted, and she stank of sex.”

Umbra sighed, “And now she walked – presumably – out of the castle and into Ponyville proper.”

“Yep,” Storm popped the p, “I admire the ovaries on that filly, to go out there without shame and so boldly and so publicly claim her stallion to the ponies of the town.”

Umbra facehooed, “Storm, I don't think that was intentional.”

“What? Of course it was.”

---

Rainbow Dash walked through Ponyville. Strangely the townsponies were all standing still, staring at her, and quietly gossiping to each other. Rainbow rolled her eyes, sure Iridescence was a beautiful sword but this all seemed a bit much.

A couple steps later she saw a small brown Earth Pony colt who had a beautiful mare holding her hooves over his eyes.

“Mooom~, I want to see.”

“No, you don't.” The mare hissed back.

Rainbow continued walking, How odd.

---

“What was intentional?”

“Oh, your mare just went to stake her claim on you in the most vulgar way possible. It was rather romantic.” Storm replied.

“What? I'm going to need more context than that.”

Umbra sighed, “Rainbow Dash forgot to shower before going into town.”

“What? ... oh .... OHH, buck. She's going to kill me.” Twilight noticed the groaning pile on the ground. “What happened to Shadow?”

“She learned that a hoof beats word-shivs.”

“She decided to be a bitch to Rainbow Dash, and got knocked the buck out. Honestly, that mare has a freakishly strong left hook.”

“Rainbow usually beats Applejack at hoof-wrestling.” Twilight replied absentmindedly.

Storm's stomach grumbled, “So, Sparkles, none of us have eaten yet, and as much as I love the wonderful pain of starving to death, the Geas I'm under demands I make every reasonable attempt to feed myself.”

Which apparently didn't include leaving the castle or cooking. As much as Twilight was glad for the second – considering what happened to his kitchen yesterday – it was concerning that the Geas was so loose. Maybe we need to tighten it, the last thing we would want is for her to find a loophole and torture herself to death. “Uh sure, I'll make breakfast for you today. Although, on that note where is Spike anyways.”

“Sparkle, your bedroom doesn't have a door.' Umbra deadpanned. “He went to Fluttershy's place after displaying a frankly impressively colourful vocabulary.”

“Oh.” Twilight blushed brightly.

“I mean dayam, stallion, you kept at it for six hours and thirty seven minutes, most stallions can't even go for ten minutes, and that's with chemical assistance. It's a damn travesty that I'm your cousin.” Storm stated.

“'Chemical assistance?” Twilight asked in confusion.

The three coherent mares stared at Twilight, “Um, you know, Stallion Up.”

Twilight tilted his head, “Stallion Up? I'm afraid I don't.”

Umbra gave Twilight an odd look. “I mean, it's technically supposed to be a secret known only to stallions and studding agencies, but everypony knows about Stallion Up.”

Storm scoffed, “Apparently not everypony. Our little Sparkle is clearly too pure for this world.”

Theory chuckled, “I don't think anypony can accuse Sparkles of being 'pure' after last night.” She paused, “Stallion up is a male performance enhancer, it's made primarily of strong aphrodisiacs and sildenafil along with some other ingredients that I'm not 100% on. I've never actually read the box though; only registered studding agencies and ponies with prescriptions are able to buy it, and the pharmacies keep it firmly under lock and key. But it's well known that most stallions cannot even become erect without it, yet alone ejaculate.”

Twilight made an involuntary shudder at the mention of 'studding agencies'; despite his nature as a black sheep of the family, he was still emotionally and intellectually revolted by the institution. He found the contractual nature of the practice inherently repulsive and demeaning, and he would never sell his his children to anypony. Any children he sired would be conceived of love, loyalty and trust, not of a twisted, inherently corrupt economic institution. “Hmm, I knew mother had a hobby of making her own custom aphrodisiac cocktails, but I thought that was just mother being mother, not some kind of necessity for sexual functioning.”

“A necessity you seem to be able to go without apparently.” Theory mused, “It might be something to do with you being an alicorn. Science doesn't know nearly enough about alicorn physiology, the Princesses have always been very reluctant to undergo a full examination for some reason, and, well, there's never been an alicorn stallion before. So anything is possible.”

“Honestly, this is very strange. My question is: how did ponies reproduce before we had access to such drugs?” Twilight felt like he was missing something, something that was just on the tip of his tongue, but that he couldn't recall.

“I, don't, know. Hmmm.” Theory became very pensive. “Ponies really should have gone extinct long ago with such a specific restriction on reproduction.”

“I don't know about you, but I blame your stupid unicorn magic” Storm waggled her wings, “You unicorns are always doing strange and unnatural things with those horns of yours”

Twilight paused before suddenly remembering, “Storm you're a genius.”

“Why yes, of course I am.”

“Theory, do you think that most stallions' incapability to preform could be caused by spell residue, like if – for example – a spell amalgamation residue trying to make stallions more feminine?”

“Uh, it's possible, but highly unlikely. Such a spell residue would have to be very old to be so ubiquitous and consistent among ponykind, so it would need to be strong to last that long. Far stronger than any spell resedue I've ever heard of; you would need hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of individual spell casts, of numerous different but constructively interfering spells, broadly spread across the entire population and sustained for multiple generations to create an amalgamation that strong. I can't possibly think of a reason why so many ponies would want more feminine stallions.”

“Yeah, traps are gay.” Storm spoke sagely.

Twilight was silent for a second, “Thank you Theory, You've given me a lot to think about.” I wonder if the princesses are aware of this widespread erectile disfunction, I would have thought Celestia would have at least mentioned it to me if she was.

“Now, not that this isn't all fascinating and what not. But I'm starving.”

Twilight sighed, “Okay, I guess I'll deign to make you lot breakfast. Scrambled eggs good?”

“I want a souffle.”

“Okay, scrambled eggs it is.”

---

Rainbow trotted towards the castle, wearing a pair of saddlebags. It's important to pack light when entering a potentially hostile enviroment, you never know when you will have to retreat. She had cooled off a bit since earlier; oh, she was still mad, her stallion had wanted to use her as an excuse to reject his house's strongly held tradition. And while Rainbow was confident that they could both protect themselves, you don't just go pissing off a house with that many battlemages on a whim.

And this was after she had already decided that she wanted to do it.

Intellectually she understood that polygyny made sense, with the demographic imbalance, monogamy was a farce perpetuated by the nobility and Rainbow could never support studding after seeing it chew up and spit out her father. Not to mention all the stories of a couple to start dating only for a social worker to show up and tell them that they were actually sired by the same stud, Rainbow shuddered, Who the buck even has the resources necessary to keep track of all that? It's bucking creepy.

And it made even more sense when she considered Twilight's outright supernatural libido. 'Supernatural' was the only way Rainbow could explain it. She remembered just how many pills her father had to take on those days he was too intoxicated or too depressed to hide the vulgar affair from her. Admittedly it wasn't a perfect comparison, Twilight was an alicorn in his prime – a prime he would never leave, because alicorn – while Blitz was well into the ravages of – what Rainbow now recognized as – andropause, likely why mother left us, selfish bitch, along with being heartbroken, depressed and often drunk. And while Rainbow had extremely limited experience with the opposite sex, she had heard enough gossip to know that her father was, far, far, far closer to the norm than Twilight was.

Intellectually she knew it made sense, but emotionally, she was oh so confused. After all, her entire upbringing had drilled into her that – in the unlikely chance she ever found a stallion – she should jealously guard her stallion, never letting him even have the chance of building a relationship with another mare. Of course, this was while also fulfilling his 'social obligations' by selling him to every mare who wanted a foal. It was utterly hypocritical, you force your stallion to rut strange mares, but forbid him from even speaking to them, hay, it wasn't even uncommon for mares to have their stallions wear blinders while studding so that he wouldn't even know who he's rutting.

Instead, Rainbow was rapidly coming to understand just how little grasp such teachings had on her. Her opposition to studding wasn't new, she had long ago sworn to never take part in the institution, even before she found her father unconscious in his bedroom, barely breathing. The hospital had told her it was a 'narcotics overdose', that 'there was nothing we could do', that 'stallions just aren't as strong as mares.'

House Twilight's opposition to the practice honestly came as a pleasant surprise, even if the opposition seemed to come from a desire to protect their bloodline rather than a principled position. Of course, that came with a considerable amount of other idiosyncrasies, not least of those which was polygyny.

When Twilight first mentioned he was expected to marry multiple mares, Rainbow had started preparing to force herself to be okay with it, after all she needed Twilight more than she needed air, Whew filly you've got it bad; if I didn't know better, I would suspect a compulsion. But shockingly , she quickly discovered that such preparation were completely unnecessary, the was not only okay with Twilight rutting other mares, she found it hot, It's called a fetish, my bearer, all you fleshy types tend to have them. Just so long as they were good mares worthy of her stallion's affections, not worthless whorses like Cloudchaser.

Frankly it was probably a good thing they were leaving Ponyville now; heat season was coming up soon and Ponyville mares had an unfortunate tendency to get rapey in their heat fuelled desperation. Last heat Applejack had put four in the hospital while protecting here brother and that was a good year, it had been far worse before the Apple Family Reunion, Back in my day, such mares would be lucky if they only got a public flogging. Rainbow found it fascinating that mere days before Twilight showed up and changed their lives forever, Applejack had led a group of thirty something burly earthpony mares around town threatening to break ponies' kneecaps like she was a mafia don. And that was for Big Mac, a stallion that – while far better than the average – was simply inferior in every way to Prince Twilight Sparkle, Not that you're exactly an impartial judge miss 'I need my stallion more than I need air'. Although it is rather difficult for a mortal pony to top an alicorn.

Intellectually she knew it made sense, emotionally she was confused, but sexually she was excited, and she had no idea how she felt about that.

Rainbow entered the castle's antechamber to find four mares and a disgruntled looking baby dragon, all five of them with their bags packed.

Rainbow stared at Rarity for a second, the mare had more luggage than the rest of them combined and was wearing a long and incredibly intricate patterned scarf. “Hello girls, Spike.”

All five of them stared at Rainbow in shock; Fluttershy blushed with a soft “oh, my.”, Pinkie's jaw dropped halfway to the ground, Applejack stared wide-eyed with a blush, Rarity covered her mouth with a hoof and Spike glared with resigned disgust.

“Seriously, you too? Why is everypony staring at me today? First, all of Ponyville, now you. Yes, I have a sword.” Rainbow drew Iridescence, the sword coruscating brightly. “Yes, she's beautiful. You can stop staring now.”

“Rainbow, Ah don't think the ponies were staring at your sword.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Uh, dear ...” Rarity moved forward whispering in Rainbow's ear, making sure to avoid touching the filthy mare.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ...” Rainbow started squealing, blushing incandescently.

“Dear, I think you should go get cleaned up before we leave.”

“... eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Sorrygottogogoodbye” Rainbow disappeared in gust of wind.

---

Twilight Sparkle was surprised just how little time it took him to pack his bags, as a mare he, or rather she, would have taken hours as she would have felt the need to prepare for nearly anything, and that's not mentioning the analysis paralysis such an event would cause. There was a reason that she used to schedule everything weeks in advance, as it was the only way she had been able to consistently avoid her neurotic episodes. Well, other than a crisis, but that was hardly something to rely on for day to day living, even with their concerningly high occurrence in Ponyville.

And her schedule, he had outright forgotten about it. And wasn't that odd to think about, something that had been such a omnipresent part of her life was now completely absent from his. As relieving as it was to be free of her cripplingly high neuroticism, it was terrifying to notice how much had changed about him. Was he even the same pony anymore, or had he destroyed and supplanted the old Twilight?

“Um, Sparkles...”

Twilight was torn out of his existential horror by the interruption, “Yes, Theory?” He replied, annoyed at being interrupted.

“Uh, it's about that Rainbow Dash mare.”

“Yes?” Twilight said shortly, feeling protective of his mare.

“I don't know if you've noticed, but she's been acting really odd. I mean when I was showing her the collection of artifacts I have been studying ...”

Twilight rolled his eyes, “Theory, ponies aren't 'odd' just because they they aren't interested in the same things you are. Different ponies have different interests.”

'What? No, that's not what I mean.” Theory paused, “You know what, forget it. I tried, I really tried. I wash my hooves of this entire mess. Now excuse me, I need a drink or ten.” Theory stomped off. “When you come back from that place, I'll either be drunk, or you'll be out of alcohol.”

That was really strange.

Twilight trotted into the castle's antechamber and saw, to his dismay, all four of the mares he had so hastily 'invited' were there. Oh, and Spike was boring a hole through his head with his glare, Twilight rolled his eyes, he'll get over it. “Rarity, what exactly are you wearing?” Twilight glared at the excessively long scarf.

“Well, you said to not wear a dress, so I improvised, it would be an utter travesty to meet such a prestigious noble house naked.”

Twilight sighed, “House Twilight is not a house out of your storybooks Rarity, nor are we the vain, vapid nobles of Canterlot. We are a militaristic isolationist outcast house; ditch the scarf. In fact unless what you're wearing is armoured, enchanted, a mark of rank or otherwise serves a purpose beyond aesthetics, it's far better to go naked to House Twilight.” Twilight paused, “In fact, I believe that it would be best if you abandoned all your presumptions about the nobility, Rarity. Most of them are outright wrong, and most the rest don't apply to House Twilight.”

“Hmph, I don't know what you are talking about.”

“Yes, despite being raised by them, I don't know anything about them.” Twilight rolled his eyes, “Okay, if you are going to come to Twilight Manor there are some ground rules to cover. Please do not interrupt.

First, you will listen to me, and anypony I tell you to, this trip is potentially dangerous and listening can save you from a lot of danger.

Second, Twilight Manor is ancient, well over a thousand years old, and has been constantly expanded by members of the house, many of whom were outright insane, and all of whom were powerful mages. Therefor it's big, complicated and a nightmare to navigate even when you're familiar with it. We're also reasonably certain that it had a confusion curse-ward placed on it's halls keyed to new arrivals, and there are parts of it that do not seem to obey euclidean metrics, so only follow a trusted pony and DO NOT wander off on your own. Otherwise, you WILL get lost, and quite possibly find something dangerous.

That brings us the my third point, do not touch ANYTHING unless you're explicitly told you can, House Twilight has a long history of fighting the things that go bump in the night and that has resulted in some dangerous objects and entities in our possession, many of which aren't well stored, and some are outright uncontained.

Fourth, obey all warning signs, they are there for a reason. House Twilight is not the most cautious of houses, so anything with a warning sign on it is Dangerous, with a capital D. I'm talking the kind of Dangerous that means you would be lucky if you died.

Fifth, don't approach anypony you haven't been introduced to, especially if they are acting twitchy, laughing hysterically, talking to themselves, or otherwise odd in demeanour. Moreover, do not insult or attack anyone, but that should go without saying.

Sixth, do not harm or disrespect books, the Twilights were the librarians for the Orders Stalwart, and we take that responsibility seriously. So no dog-earing, overextending spines or any of the many bad habits many ponies have with books. The one exception is any book written by the author, 'Lustious Velvet', that is 'lustious' spelt L U S T I O U S – yes I know that's not a word – those are written by my mother and are an abomination against literature; feel free to burn them if you find them, we have an infestation. It is also highly advised that you do not read anything written by her, but if your curiosity manages to get the better of you, talk to me and I can get you some amnestics.

And finally, there will likely be a feast – that you will be expected to attend – which means that there will be a boar, that's dead, roasted and ready for ponies to eat it's flesh.”

There was several gasps.

“Twilight, Ah don't think ponies can eat animals.” Applejack was green in disgust.

“Ponies are obligate herbivores.” Fluttershy said weakly. “We can't properly digest meat.”

“Ponies can actually, we're properly omnivorous. We have to cook the meat first, but otherwise the only thing keeping ponies from eating meat is the taboo, which we abandoned long ago. Now, none of you are expected to eat the meat, although if you want to impress the Twilights, you might want to.” Twilight made a meaningful look at Rarity – who was looking rather green – and chuckled. “Although, please try to keep yourself from vomiting, that would reflect badly on you. The feast will be preceded by a boar hunt, although none of you are expected to participate in that.” Twilight looked at the four mares. “Any, questions?”

Pinkie suddenly started laughing, “Oh, good one Twilight, you almost got me, you silly stallion.”

There was a brief pause before Rarity spoke up in outrage, “Twilight, that wasn't funny. You really shouldn't joke about such things.”

“Uh, Rarity, Pinkie, Ah don't think Twi was joking.”

“You don't think Twilight was joking about what?” Rainbow trotted into the room, took a quick look at the disturbed looking mares and then swiftly moved over to her stallion.

“Rainbow, what are you d ...?” Twilight asked in confusion before being forcefully kissed by the mare.

There was an awkward silence before Rainbow broke the kiss and leaned over to whisper in Twilight's ear, “This doesn't mean I'm not still angry with you. We will talk later.” Rainbow pulled back, “So what did I miss?”

Twilight shuddered from the mare's quick emotional whiplash.

“Oh, nothin' much. Twilight was just talkin' about how his family murder and then eat the flesh of innocent animals.”

“Oh, that ...” Rainbow remembered Twilight mentioning the house being 'omnivorous'. She had found it odd, but she had also been best friends with a griffon in flight school, so it was hard to be disgusted; especially as Gilda had taken a perverse joy in making the pegasi at camp nauseous by making the deed as gruesome as possible. It certainly didn't win her any friends among the noble ponies, but it did stop them from harassing and bullying the griffon, and later Rainbow herself when the two of them became friends.

Rainbow sighed, she should really try to make up with Gilda.

“'Oh, that'? Rainbow, did ya not hear me. They eat animals!”

“Yeah, and so do many different peoples. Griffons, dragons and thestrals being the most prominent."

“Thestrals?”

Twilight sighed, “Some ponies call them 'bat-ponies'.”

“Oh, why didn't you say so.”

“Because, they don't like being called that. Thestral is their proper name.”

“Wait, bat-ponies eat animals!?”

“No, they don't, dear.” Rarity said glaring at Rainbow, “That's just tribalist nonsense, designed to make them sound like monsters.”

Twilight found himself growling at the attack on his mare's honour, “They do actually, but they try to keep it quiet because many ponies think that it makes them 'sound like monsters'.”

Rarity took a step back at Twilight's growl, “Come on dear, are you going to tell me they drink ponies' blood too.”

“No, Rarity, that's vampires that you are thinking of.” Twilight forced down his glamour for a fraction of a second as he stalked towards the mare.

Rarity's eyes widened as her subconscious was briefly overwhelmed by the sheer aura of predator, Rarity took a step back shivering in terror. What was that?!

Twilight trotted past Rarity, “Now, follow me everypony. If you still want to.”

“Uh, Twilight, the train is that way.”

Twilight chuckled, and trotted deeper into the castle. “We aren't taking the train.”

“So, Twilight, were you ever going to tell us that you have access to a long range intra-planar teleportation network.” Rainbow asked staring at the large slab of granite engraved with golden runes. “Honestly, it feels weird even saying that, such a thing was long theorized as possible, but the mathematics involved with even short range teleportation was nearly insurmountable, and it only gets worse with increasing distance.” Rainbow glanced at the four mares staring at her like she grew a second head, “What are you looking at?”

Twilight sighed, “I didn't until recently; this is the only teleportation circle in Ponyville, and it was built only a couple months ago. As to the difficulty, my great, great grandmother Twilight Aurora invented the Aurora Metric; it allowed her to make much simpler spells that are actually usable by mages, unlike the deliberately obfuscated work of Starswirl. Although, her work isn't without it's own idiosyncrasies, all of her spells and all objects created using them are aurametrically locked to those of Twilight descent.”

“I don't think I've ever heard of anypony managing to aurametrically tie spells to a bloodline, that's ...” Rainbow was interrupted by a certain pink party pony tacking her, “Hay, Pinkie what's your problem.”

“Who are you and what did you do to Rainbow Dash?!” Pinkie growled out, shining a flashlight into Rainbow 's face.

“What? Pinkie, I am Rainbow Dash.”

“Likely story, that's exactly what an imposter would say.”

“It's also what the real Rainbow Dash would say.”

“So you admit that you aren't the 'real Rainbow Dash', changeling. What have you done with her? What is your mission?”

“What, no, that's not what I mean. The 'real Rainbow Dash' as in me.”

“Pinkie, Rainbow isn't a changeling, she's Rainbow Dash.” Twilight levitated the pink mare off of Rainbow.

“What, how do you know that?”

“Magic.” Twilight deadpanned, flashing his horn, “Nobody here is a changeling, nor is anyone using illusion or transfiguration magic to change their appearance.” Aside from myself, but I don't need questions about my fangs.

Applejack's eyes widened, recalling her friend frequently flashing his/her horn. “Twilight, how often do ya use tha' spell?”

“I'm not paranoid, I'm just cautious.”

“Sure ...”

“Well, as fascinating as this has been, I think it's best we get going. It is inadvisable to keep Lady Velvet waiting.” The suddenly visible Shadow stated.

“You!” Applejack snarled.

“Me!” Shadow replied in the same tone.

“Even though it pains me to say this, my sister isn't wrong. Lady Velvet the Mad is not somepony you toy around with.”

“Is it not 'inadvisable' to call the Lady of your house 'mad'?” Rarity asked.

Twilight scoffed, “Not when she calls herself that. Unfortunately, my mother has made insanity a core part of her self-image.” He paused, “Come on, everypony who still want's to come to Twilight Manor into the circle.”

All of the ponies (and one dragon) present moved into the circle.

Twilight turned to Umbra, “Theory made it clear that she wasn't coming, but what about Storm.”

“I believe her exact words were 'I just got out of that nightmarish madhouse, I'm not going back anytime soon.' She then descended into incomprehensible ramblings about sex toys for some reason.”

Twilight shook his head, “Well that's ... something.” His horn brightened to the point that it was more white than violet.

The entire circle lit up and with a flash of blinding white light the room was empty.

Here's chapter 18, next chapter takes place in Twilight Manor.