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Sweet Apple Acres...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanie***

Kick the trunk. Collect the ice apples. Put them in the cart. Repeat process until full. Then when the cart is full, move cart to the family home for processing. Take empty cart back into the orchard. Repeat the process until time has concluded. That's usually my schedule for the day whenever I'm working. Does it seem boring as all hell, yeah it can be. Does talking with the girls about our relationship issues and thoughts help us move a little faster, that is a sure bet.

Kalimba had a lot to say over the past day. Apparently she met up with her deadbeat father, he seemed like he was trying to get a second chance at being in her life after abandoning her when she was twelve. I don't blame her for her being angry about it, I can't imagine how it would feel to lose your mom and then your dad just up and tosses you to the wolves. In fact, I resonated with her on that. I watched my mom be a sparse figure in my life, all while she hung around for the idea of getting paid by my dad to be there. Hell, thinking about all the things he could've done for himself with that money, he gave it to her. He helped feed her addictions, and I was left wondering how the hell I was supposed to respect a lady I'd hardly even see in my later stages of life.

And of course, my dad tries to get me to embrace my mom's efforts to get cleaned up after years of substance abuse. How do I even forgive someone of not being my mother for all the moments I needed her to be there? I don't need her to just show up for my birthday party, my graduation party, or every seldom weekend vacation. There's a lot of times where my dad actually paid her first before something, she didn't show up because she was too busy trying to touch the sky, hugging against the wall, bending her ass over to pull her cheeks apart for every motherfucker with a five dollar bill in his hand. Where was she in my first serious breakup? Why wasn't she there to tell me how pretty my makeup was, or how my shorts were too short. I had my dad fight with me over shit my mom was supposed to be bitching about. I shouldn't have my dad throw a tantrum for me looking good in a mini skirt with a black thong on during my period.

It was as if the moment I got my first period, she was there to tell me what I needed to buy and do. But nothing after that really, she didn't stick around to tell me anything. She didn't warn me of the cramps, clue me in on the back pain, say that chocolate would be a godsend. She didn't tell me how to walk in heels, help me pick out my first dress for the 8th grade dance, the freshmen-sophomore dance. Senior prom night was supposed to be her moment to get me dressed, make sure I looked good, cry in the mirror as she saw how beautiful I was, she didn't plead with Nondis on when I should be getting back home. Dad did everything for me.

It's not that my mother was a druggie. It was the fact that my dad was there when shit got bad, and when it was all good. He was there for every step of the way for me. The fact that her dad wasn't man enough, even woman enough to make sure she had a roof over her head, showed her love and compassion, didn't let himself get distracted by bullshit, walked every step with her and for her, that's what pisses me off. But she says he's trying to pay that off with some other little girl he has.

Maybe he is a good dad in some respect, but I can never see it after the stories she told us about her past.

Today, Kalimba didn't have all that much to say about it, but she did talk more about Nondis and what he had said to her. Applejack jumped in with her opinions of him.

"Here's the thing." She began while kicking an apple tree. "Ah know that Nondis is pretty busy an' all, but Ah'm startin' to get mighty worried for him."

"Don't tell me you fell for the romance trap, did you?" I joked, earning a rapid rejection from the farm girl.

"With all due respect, that ain't a deal Ah'm buyin' into." She said as she kicked up an ice apple like it was a soccer ball. "Nondis is a peculiar fella' with a drive to do right, but he sometimes go about it the wrong way. My friends see a lot in him, but I don't see a cause for attraction. He's more like a good cousin ya see every other time, not as close as a brother, not as distant as a stranger. But in any case, I'm just not drawn to many stallions. He's no exception either."

"Maybe you're looking for something you can tame?" I questioned the mare as I watched her effortlessly kick a few apples up and into a nearby cart.

"That sounds a bit fun. But it's already trouble enough to deal with a hardheaded, loose-minded, slumberin'-on friend who thinks she can outfly time itself. Now if only all of that came in a fella 'round here."

I quickly spoke on the first guy I thought of at the time. "Stanton's pretty loose-minded with girls. He's also hardheaded when it comes to a lot of things. He prides himself on his athletic ability, he sure as hell can run faster than Nondis, and he's got the ego to match."

"His younger brother?" Applejack said with a groan. "Are we really talkin' bout that?"

"He doesn't really believe he can be tied down. Stanton is the kind of guy who would workout, take power naps, wake up and eat something, go to practice, come back, call a girl on his phone, meet up with her, ram her to death, and tell her to find the front door while he goes to sleep. He the quintessential douchebag, but with a heart of gold though."

"Ah, doesn't sound very convincing to me." Kalimba said with a hint of disgust.

"Yeah, guys like him are only good for those one-night flings." I replied as I kicked another tree for it's apples. "I don't know, I'm just more interested in something more substantial. I really thought Nondis would've been it since we had the whole best-friends-since-high-school thing. I felt like him returning was my chance to at least make things right for myself. Guess I was wrong."

"So what is it about him that ya like so darn much?" Applejack asked.

"The longevity, I guess it was the familiarity. I could come to him when I had issues in my other relationships, he was my emotional support, and I really wanted to keep him focused on me for a while. Between him and my dad, they're the only two guys who make me feel good when I need to, and they both give me a good talking to when I step out of line. I kinda like that stuff."

Kalimba appeared disgruntled as she spoke. "I always hear dis, but for me it is a cruel tease of fate. Dey often say dat a faddah's love is de blueprint for a daughter's mate.

"Yeah, that's probably why I try to approach every relationship with the long-term goal of marriage. I know I hate bragging about my privileges in front of others, but I can't help but to smile when I think of the memories my dad made for me... as long as they're not with my mom."

"At least you had your parents." Kalimba replied as she plucked a few apples from a nearby tree.

"My mom was a drug addict." I quickly replied. "She wasn't in any part of my life except for when my dad offered her money to be there. How do you love a mom who's only there for her next fix? So I don't even count her."

"Dat pain I understand. Well at least your muddah did not gain possession of you."

"No kidding." I agreed. "All she had to do was sue for custody and child support, the system would've let her win at the time anyhow. I'd probably be slinging in some alleyway downtown like her."

Kalimba's tone then softened. "If my muddah was like yours, my faddah could have been just like yours."

Applejack didn't really say anything to add to the conversation, but I could tell she was pretty distant about what we were talking about. I then asked her. "So what about you? What's with your folks?"

"Ma and Pa passed away when I was young." She quietly answered, making the cold winter air feel heavy with melancholy. Even her words were a little more straight forward. "I was far too young to know much of 'em. But I was a crying mess when they left us. Poor little Applebloom was a foal not even a year old, so she don't know nothing about them, unlike me and Big Mac. Granny Smith took us in, giving us the last little bit of love she had. In a way, we all healed each other. That's our family dynamic for you. I know my situation ain't bad like Kalimba's, or as shaky as yours, but y'all still have a pa to call on when you're ready." The farmer stopped for a moment and glanced at the sky. "I gotta admit, I'm mighty jealous of you two."

After that, it was odd how the three of us just continued working like nothing had been said. I worked significantly slower than usual with the heavy thoughts permeating my brain. The next thing I knew, Applejack threw a snowball at my head and went back to her usual country twang with a side of her homegrown smile.

"Alright, enough of the lingering on. Let's get back up to speed."

Sometime after our harvest, we hauled in the last of the ghost apples we could harvest without the sun doing too much damage to them. As soon as we showed up to the family home, Granny Smith gave us our stipend for the week of work we just finished. After that, she dismissed us for the day, citing our job was over until Monday morning. Their work continued on throughout the day and weekend. but both Applejack and her little sister had the night weekend off for their getting ready for an upcoming event in Canterlot.

Since Kalimba had her own plans of doing god-knows-what, she took herself to the Everfree Forest. So that left me without much of anyone to talk to outside of maybe a casual run-in or two with one of the locals. And I had to admit, this place is pretty chill for the most part. I can see how Nondis had a lot of time to shed a bunch of weight, both mentally and physically. The locals here speak to you, they have the small-town mentality of getting to know one another and trying to build up their community. They also invest heavily in local businesses, purchase home-made products, and attend all social functions as an easy way of getting to know your neighbors. It's a bit different from Austin, there aren't as many assholes looking to break you down, though there can be some.

Along my travel, I made a pit stop at the local bakery. Looking around, I could see that the owners─a husband and wife pairing─loading up a wagon full of treats and cakes for what I could assume to be a large event taking place somewhere. They seemed to be going down the checklist, all while loading the goods onto the wagon. Pinkie Pie, who also worked there, had her hooves full juggling orders and taking care of a set of twins on her back. She didn't seem to skip a beat with those two crawling up through her mane to the top of her head. I was really impressed with how she multitasked her job along with babysitting. It's almost as if she had a mind made for being a good mom. I wouldn't be surprised if she treated them like they were her own kids.

At least I don't think they're her kids.

I sat at a table, waiting patiently in line for myself to get served. The line was pretty clogged, at least long enough to have me standing outside while I waited. As I did, I felt the area around me getting darker, I danced around myself seeing what it was until I looked up to see a fluffy white cloud floating directly above my head. I grumbled, realizing that this was actually a prank. "Okay, you can stop throwing shade on me now."

Of course, it was Cliff hopping from off the cloud with a chuckle. "I swear you are the only one around here who gets that joke."

"It was funny the first time." I said with a light smirk. "But you can't tell the same joke twice to the same audience."

"I know." He replied as he kicked the cloud out of existence. He hovered above me, flapping the wings chance granted him with in his transformation. He seemed to be getting the hang of his newfound mobility. "So, what's the tea on Kali? Heard she was working with you and I thought she may have some juice on a certain someone we know."

"Mr. Asshole reintroduced her to her dad. She's not too happy about it." I replied.

"Oh word? So is she mad about him trying to get them to reconnect, or is it something else?"

"She's mad he's alive. She's also mad that her dad is trying to be a dad now after all this time." I replied.

"Slimy. That nigga know he wrong for it." He said as he hovered to the ground. "You can't just do what you did all them years ago and think it's all cool when y'all get mixed up a decade later. I'm legit surprised she ain't fade his ass on sight."

"Who knows, maybe she already did and won't talk about it."

"He deserves it." He said as he plopped himself next to me. "So, quick question while we on the subject of who deserves what."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "Please not this again. I don't wanna talk about that."

"He's been asking about you, Cherry. I mean he's been trying to get in touch, leaving letters, being the first one to dinner and the last one to leave the table when miss landlady come by with the food. He's been trying to reach out."

"Has he gotten a hold of me yet?" I asked.

"Nah, you wake up too early to catch then, and then you go to sleep too damn early for him to meet up with during the evening. So it's hard to keep in touch." Cliff stated.

"So it must be pretty obvious that I don't want to get reached out to. He knows what he did." I muttered angrily, not just with him but with myself in particular.

The brown pegasus sighed. "I don't know, Cherry. Been hard to watch him like this. He's been crushing real hard over the past week."

"And it's probably another booty call he's looking for." I responded. "I'm not too interested in guys with one-track minds."

He placed his hoof on my shoulder, bringing me in closer to whisper to me. "M... You gotta hear my boy out. He's been working pretty hard, but I ain't never see him like this. Over the week, it's been downhill. First he was excited about flying, but then he just stayed walking the entire time like he ain't got wings. He started slowing down, he don't talk as much as he used to, he spaces out a lot, he's just... I think you got him in his feelings."

"Yeah. I was in mine when I started feeling good in the moment. But it's just like you guys are, after the ride is over, you come back down to Earth, you realize the mistake you made. I'm just not for it anymore, and he's not either. It's just like me and Mr. Asshole. He dropped me off, I had to learn to move on. He's better off doing the same."

Cliff walked in front of me, placing his hooves on both of my shoulders. "M, we ain't gonna ignore the fact that you still hurt over N getting hooked up with Miss Manager. You gotta be able to see where R's coming from. Hell, you in the same damn river trying to swim upstream. It ain't gon' work if you don't realize you ain't the fish to be doing that. You just gonna find yourself in a situation that ain't healthy for you."

"I said I was done with this." I replied quietly. "Please drop it."

Again, Cliff sighed and shrugged. "Can I at least pass him a message?"

"Tell him I said not to bother me again. He knows what he did."

"Man, you girls are difficult." He said before hopping up into the air and taking off in the other direction.

As our conversation came to a close, Pinkie walked out with the twins on her head and looked up to the sky. "Sheesh, boys are pretty dense when it comes to us girls, aren't they?"

"It's like they can't catch the hint." I said in response to the pink mare.

"I know, right?" Pinkie cosigned. "They're always ignoring the small stuff and look at everything big that isn't the problem. So then they come back later like they don't know what happened when they don't even pay attention to the fact that even the smallest gestures in our most sensitive moments can make a huge difference. It hurts to see that they don't know any better because they should know by how they treat us. They say they're being attentive, but they're overlooking the small details that make the big situation feel right."

"Seriously! It's not rocket science! You know what you did, you didn't even bother to explain yourself to begin with, and then you leave like it's fine for you to give me the space to cry. There was a chance in the moment, and you messed that up for me. You didn't apologize, you didn't comfort me at all, you didn't even try and figure out what you did."

"Walk out and think that 'maybe it was something I did' but never say it until the crying stops. They don't get that we sometimes hurt when we aren't getting chased down. Our imaginations tend to run a little wild at times, so we might need the extra security to keep us safe. But if you can't get that, then you'll never get it when or how it matters most. Then it only starts to feel like a huge mistake."

I threw my hooves into the air with a long-suppressed sense of relief. "Oh my God, you get it!"

"Cherry, we're both girls, just like how we're both pink." Pinkie said with a warm smile. "We're also the reject clan of captain douchebag."

"The asshole of assholes." I cosigned. "How's he doing anyways?"

"He's a mess." Pinkie answered.

"He's always a mess, I'm not surprised." I said with a scoff.

Pinkie looked down for a moment. "...He's not eating, he's not sleeping, he's not going to talk with his counselor, and his investigation got a little rough. I wouldn't be surprised if he got himself killed going on like this."

I stopped to let her explanation weigh heavily on my mind. Eventually, I started to feel a bit saddened, but also deeply worried. "You're worried he might get himself killed. I'm worried that he might try to kill himself again."

Pinkie nearly broke her neck looking at me. "Wait, what?"

"Yeah, he's done it before." I explained quietly. "His grandfather died, I rejected him after prom, he got into a fight with his dad and accidentally punched his mom... he was probably three seconds from pulling the trigger on himself. I wouldn't even be surprised that he might've tried it a second time with how he drove his car into the gulf. There's no way that he wasn't aware of how mixing all those drugs would've reacted in his body. I think there's something inside of him that he really wanted dead. Maybe it was that lingering darkness inside of him, the idea that there was nothing for him to live for. I guess he wanted to drown that out somehow, but nearly ended up drowning himself in his own car."

Pinkie's mane seemed to deflate a bit as she looked to me with expanded eyes, filled with immense worry. "Why would he do something like that to himself?"

I looked away from the mare and closed my eyes to think more of what happened when we had our argument, the last time we talked before he disappeared. "He and I got into it. He was still trying to be like his brothers, but trying to do it in some other way. He thought if he could be this party animal frat boy, he'd get his shot at being seen as normal. I didn't like how he was doing himself, he did a lot of what he would never do, things people told him to do, he became completely dependent on the idea of being that kind of guy to get my attention. I wasn't for it and I told him why. He then let the cat out of the bag, I didn't sleep with him or give him the privilege of being with me after five years of trying, and apparently I was a 'dumb-ass bitch' for doing that. So I stopped talking to him, erased him from my life from that point on, at least I thought I did."

Her mane didn't inflate back to normal just yet, but she started to lightly smile. "You know, I do remember him talking about how he felt like he was in a one-sided relationship. Something about how he didn't want to be the emotional rebound anymore." Pinkie added. "I gotta admit, he's really good for that."

"What did you tell him when he told you that?" I asked. "Do you remember?"

"I told him that he was probably being too immature for what you were looking for, that he didn't quite age the way you wanted him to mentally. I also said that you were probably scared to lose him." Pinkie looked over to see the twins sitting next to their parents. "I bet that's what you were thinking when you thought you could cut him loose."

"Fuck sake, you know me." I said with a half-laugh, half startled expression. "That's why I feel some type of way with all of this romance stuff going on around him. But I guess that's just me being entitled. I was the first one out of anyone to get chased down, I just didn't close the deal. Silly me."

"You're not the only one." Pinkie said with a sigh. "I made a choice of my own. I wanted to try and keep up with Cheese, but I also wanted him to be there for me. Granted, it would've been more than emotional support I was looking for, but I can understand him not being open to that kind of living. Can't have your cake and eat it too, you either let it get stale or you eat it until there's nothing left. I could've made the decision to only be with him, and I think we would've been great... until he left back to your world." Pinkie's mane deflated a little more while she spoke. "He wouldn't even think of staying for me, even when I begged him not to go. He was already saying his goodbyes to Rarity, no hope there. Twilight won out, she kept him here... and they're not even together anymore."

I hugged the pink party mare. "Captain Asshole at his finest, huh?"

"Just so dense you could use his brain for reinforced concrete."

I really couldn't help but to laugh hysterically at her description for Nondis. I had to take a moment to catch my breath. "Yeah, but we both love him, even if he won't love us back."

"We both screwed that up for ourselves. It's best for us to know that he's really happy with where he's going. That's pretty much why I'm so scared for the guy. He doesn't look happy, he looks..."

"Like he's holding on to his last thread." I finished.

"Yeah..." She said sadly. "I want him to come back home, to us, just be the happy little hobbit hiding away in his room. Not the guy who has to hide everyone else."

"I miss the nights when I had bad breakups, and we'd watch movies together over ice cream. He and his chubby five-foot-nine self giggling over stupid YouTube videos."

Pinkie wiped her eyes as her mane started to slowly inflate back to normal. "Yeah, simpler times."

I nodded my head repeatedly. "So... got any lemon petit fours?"

"I'll go see if I have some made." Pinkie said as she was about to head back into the bakery. But she stopped herself and walked back up to me. "Uh... I kinda got sidetracked on what I wanted to say earlier."

"Why, what's up?" I asked.

Pinkie tilted her head and smiled. "Well... I guess you could say that not all guys are completely dense. Sometimes they know what they did wrong and they try to acknowledge it. Sometimes it's better to have closure and know that you tried your best, and it didn't work out. Other times, it's better to drop it altogether. The question is if it's really better to drop it knowing that they'll get hurt from it, or keep it going knowing you'll probably hurt for a while? As long as it's not abusive and they're really trying to be there for you, I think it's worth a look."

"You think so?" I asked.

"Yeah." She replied. "I had a bad relationship where somepony wasn't very nice to me."

"Ditto." I said, thinking about Jasper.

"I'll go check if I can draw up your order real quick."

"Thanks." I said, watching the pink mare walk into the bakery.

The bell rung to announce her entrance, she walked past the numerous clients still waiting in front of the register for their order to get taken. She maneuvered past the line and spoke to all the queued customers. "I'm going to check on a few orders, I'll be right with you as soon as I check in back! Thank you for your patience and being a loyal customer of Sugarcube Corner, where we hope your day continues to be sweet!" Pinkie then went through the door and saw a stallion wearing a white chef hat. He appeared to be rushing from one side of the kitchen to the other. While he was working, Pinkie cleared her throat to get his attention. "So..."

"More orders?" He asked frantically.

"Actually, something else." She said with a cheerful smile. "I told her to keep her options open. Doesn't mean you go running out there at the first chance. Try again later, like this evening."

The stallion pumped his hoof in celebration. "YES! Thank you! Thank you so much, Pinkie! I swear I owe it to you!"

The pink mare pronked across the kitchen to help him with some of the prep. "Two things. You're helping me close tonight, and I'll take one smile, please."

"DEAL!" Rickey shouted excitedly.

Canterlot Castle
Later That Evening...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Sometime after our call for recess, I had walked into the main hall leading to the foyer. It was hard to not notice how busy the staff were with preparations for both tonight and tomorrow. Looking around, I saw that much of the place was converted into a pseudo ballroom. I could look at the doors leading in, seeing how there was a table set up to the side, I guess for ticket admissions.

Of course I knew what this was all for, it's the junior edition of the Grand Galloping Gala taking place tomorrow. Only difference is that this one was catered exclusively to keep the young children of the tomorrow night's attendees satisfied with not being able to get the right to participate in the more exclusive venue. Usually they are sons and daughters of the politicians, some cases are adopted foals, the others remaining are the high-achievers in Celestia's school. If your kid got in through that, it means your kid's probably got a future at someplace bright. Though from what I heard from others around the castle, their parents are typically cosseting or projecting their child's achievements as a result of their raising them. In short, there are going to be at least five groups of kids here; spoiled, sheltered, introverted, anxious, or passive. Thankfully, I won't be around to check out the festivities or seeing how the parents get to use their kids to gain political favors.

After that bit of distraction, I got back to the chamber and we started the preliminaries of our case. I had to present the idea of potential witnesses and testimonies being presented. Blue had to establish a counter argument of how my accusations were simply based on speculation rooted from my disdain for Count. In either case, the parliament were left with no other choice but to reopen the investigation, that very same one they blatantly chose to table in passing their spending measure from last month.

Of course, that means Shining and Cadance's baby had a window of relief until this case was concluded. Even if this was a cut and dry case with lots of evidence stacked up against the defense, it was in our best interest to drag this out for as long as I could. And since the time frame for that was two weeks, I intended for that to be the prescribed ten business days. And Blue didn't make the schedule easy either, citing a very small amount of days where she would be available to represent her father's estate. The spacing she offered allowed more time for deliberations, and she wasn't going to fight that hard to win the case. My only concern comes from how they're gonna try to rig this measure to where it's nothing but the same bullshit as before.

Here's to hoping that doesn't happen a second time.

Shortly after dinner, which was scheduled an hour earlier for the cooks to accommodate the catering prep for tomorrow night's event, I ate a very light meal to not disrupt my stomach. A moment later, I could finally start planning my meetup with Blue and the others in Corrotto. But in a rare rebuke, I was strictly advised not to attend tonight for the sake of paying on some overdue debts. And I knew exactly who I was going to be paying.

Instead of traveling the way of Corrotto, I started moving on out to the place Blue had instructed me to go to. She wanted me to meet with her in one of the parks over in the Fringe District. Once I got to being there, I found myself sitting in a familiar place. I looked around, noting the gas lit lamps illuminating the outer boundaries of the children's park. But looking into the quiet play castle, I felt some eerie sensation run down my spine. The sight of the one barely illuminated swing idling back and forth against the wind was giving me the vibe of a horror movie. The faint but haunting squeaks added much to the atmosphere that started to develop within my mind.

"It's wonderful to know that the kids have such a good place to play." A voice spoke out from next to me. I looked over quickly, startled but also relieved to see Blue standing by me. "Think of how many after-school memories are made in a place like this."

I looked around and thought more about the creepy aspect of it. "Yeah, it's also a good place for predators to choose who they're kidnapping."

She walked forward and shrugged her shoulders. "That's everywhere you go. It's not just isolated to a place like this. I'd rather think of this place as somewhere we can feel vulnerable, free, open to discuss what's on our minds and hearts."

"You're more of an optimist than I am." I muttered.

"Someone's gotta be, you're too dark and moody for your own good. You should take a moment to swing with me." She said as she parked herself on the barely illuminated swing.

"I wonder if you realize I'm a little too big for that." I said with a smirk.

She promptly returned my smile. "I wonder if you realize you could change that."

I glanced around, noticing hardly anyone around the dim streets. I looked at a few other adjacent buildings, seeing not a soul staring through their windows. I realized with even as open as this place was, no one was here. I took a deep breath and transformed myself.

***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

After that, she lightly illuminated her horn, showing another swing beside her. She patted the seat, beckoning me to join her. I did just that. "You know, from this point of view, I can see what you mean. It's a little bit more nostalgic."

"Isn't it?" She said warmly, swinging herself back and forth. "When I was younger, I didn't have to worry about picking up my mother's corporation. I didn't have to think about my father doing bad things to me. Hell, he wasn't even remotely interested in my being his daughter in the first place. Who cares about stuff like that when you've gotta hide from the pony who's 'it' in a game of tag. To hell with the investors, I don't want my big brother finding me in a tree somewhere."

"Probably a little too big for that tree now, huh?" I joked.

She glanced over to see a proud standing mother oak sitting close to one of the walls surrounding the park. "Oh no, she's much bigger than me still."

As she swung, she started to gain enough air to where she could jump off. As soon as she was high enough, she leaped off the seat and yelped in joy as she took to the air. When she landed, she looked back at me silently. I started to laugh over how awkward she appeared on her landing. "Maybe your body is saying you're a little too big for stuff like that."

"Maybe it is." She sheepishly stammered as she stood herself up straight. "But I miss being a free spirit. It's just so much weighing me down nowadays. So what I'll sometimes do is that I'll come here to lighten my mood. Whether you believe it or not, my mom and brother would always take me here after school. When we finished, we went straight home."

"Good memories to have." I said as I started swinging myself.

She walked over to the side of the swing set, a frown appearing on her face. "You know, the last time I came here as a foal, it was with my brother. Then our aunt and uncle came to find us, they took us out for ice cream... and then told us that we would never get to see mom again. I was really young, so I didn't react to that as hard as I did when I found out that my brother and I were getting separated. Both of them were the siblings to my mom, so my uncle took him in while my aunt took me. He went to Vanhoover, I went to Fillydelphia. He was sent to an all-boys school, I was sent to an all-girls institution. When I graduated, I wrote a letter to my brother and came back here to this park to meet with him. From there, we were happy, and we went home."

"So this place is like a homecoming of sorts." I said, slowing down my momentum.

"Not entirely." She said. "It's more of a precursor."

"For what?" I asked.

"For where I'm going to next." She said with a brightening smile. "Where we're going to next."

"Your place?" I questioned.

"...Used to be."

A little while later, I found myself going through the four checkpoints that lead to the back side of the mountain. What used to be an arduous few hours of travel inward had been dropped to an absurd forty minutes from where we stood in that park. Along the way, there was no one jumping in the way, trying to double check my credentials. Instead, it was smooth sailing. As soon as Blue lifted her hoof, the gates just swung open. Even while I came through, there were no objections. It was as easy as how the guard treated Celestia. If you seeing her walking down the road, get the hell out of the way.

Once more, I went through the richest of the richest neighborhoods, but with hardly an interruption. And then we were brought back to the front gates of the large villa. She didn't even bother ringing the front gate, she just used a red card, one similar to the ones they use in the Sun Cryst Resort. Again, the gates swung wide open and we were given access to the grounds. She pulled out a key, unlocked the door, and we were inside, just that quick.

The place was lit up like a warm welcoming home, the large lobby appearing eager to usher us within. A familiar pony approached from one of the side rooms and bowed his head out of respect. "Ah yes, the ever so beautiful Ms. Blue Sapphire Royal. I bid you welcome to the home."

The mare walked up to the servant and hugged him with an air kiss to each cheek. "Handy Dandy, it's been so long! I haven't seen you since my last visit. How's the missus?"

"She is well, my dear. I only hope that you are doing the same." He said before glancing to me. "And I see you have finally broken out of your shell and started pursuing a suitor! Much excitement to be had, hmmmyes?"

The mare extended her hoof to me. "I know the two of you have already met. But I suppose a reintroduction to his current form would benefit you. This is Captain Nondis, of course in a simpler form to bypass the security."

"Ah, the one who almost dropped me in one of his magic lessons with the young master, very good." The stallion started smiling earnestly as he approached me. "From suitor to a princess to one for our young heiress. I can certify that she will be in good hooves."

"Handy was actually a really good help to me since I came back from graduation. He was with my brother for the longest time, and came with him when my Alabaster came back home to the estate. From there, he's been a good caregiver to both my brother and I. He's almost like a dad to us, rather the one we never had." She said, proudly doting on the elder butler.

"You flatter me much, mistress." Handy replied with a bow. "Shall I inform your brother of your presence?"

"You may." She said as she escorted me towards the stairs. "I'll be in the usual place."

"Very good then." He said before turning to me. "Good sir, might I request a fruit bowl to start the evening with?"

While many would be surprised of why they would suggest something like that immediately, I'm more surprised he's accommodating for the occasion so openly. "Just a small bowl. Stomach's been a bit rowdy the past few days."

"A fruit salad with almonds and raspberry balsamic vinaigrette dressing, compliment with a nice red wine and an optional side of sweet crème. That shall be on it's way to you." That's not a small bowl, that's more like a fucking buffet. "Are there any fruits the mistress requires?"

"Strawberries and water is fine. Hold the chocolate, everypony who's worth their goods know that the whole chocolate boosting the drive thing is a load of misinformation." She turned to me and winked. "Chocolate makes you feel too good, you don't want to feel like you don't need to hold up to obligations."

"Is that really true?" I asked.

"It's more of a psychological thing." She said while running behind me to push me onward. "Let's get moving, we have a pretty long night."

"Do you think it's in your best interest to let Alabaster, your own brother, know that we're going to be making the house a little noisy?" I asked.

"Just warning you now, he'll be joining us." She said without skipping a beat.

...I might not like where this is headed.

A little bit later, I was sitting inside of an awfully large master bedroom. All over the walls were photos of a plainly brown unicorn mare with gray hair doing various things. The photos themselves actually were mostly in sepia tint. The mare was standing with a few stallions while holding a large check in one photo, standing in front of a masonry in another with yet another check, then stood before an empty plot of land with her her apparently angry husband. Neither of them smiled. Another showed up of that same plot of land, but with the semblance of a home being built in the background. Large wooden frames started to make out the shape of the front of the home. The next photo was of her standing beside her completed estate, again without a smile beside her angry husband. Her husband appeared to be a fair-looking guy with quite the Napoleon complex.

Count must've really hated her guts.

The photos then went to black and white with the improvements of camera technology. There were photos of her being seated, her husband standing behind her with a nonchalant appearance. The mare then stood behind the chair while the husband sat, this time with a visibly angry disposition, I could assume from the fact that her hooves were so close to him on the chair. The next one was of him standing with the maids of the home, nowhere near as angry, completely relaxed as he stood at the top of the stairs being surrounded by them. Next was a photo of him holding a book with Starswirl's mark on the cover, looking very distinguished.

And then the family photos started popping in. A photo sat of him holding his son, a baby Alabaster looking up to his father with curiosity. Count appeared pleased with his son, but refusing to smile. The mare, however, was a different process. She smiled warmly and looked down to her child, loving on him with every chance she got. The family photo appeared to be a contrasting disaster, the baby was situated between the two, the mare as close to her son, while the father as far away from the two as he could be in frame. The boy started to grow, standing on his own. He began to smile towards his mother and father. But I started to notice that he held his son much closer to him, breaking the symmetry between them. In fact there was a photo of him being stood to his father's right, while the mare was stationed to Count's distant left. The stallion started to hold his son closer to him, smiling. The mother began to not smile as much, glancing over to her son.

Then the pictures began to hide a more tragic story. The mare began to wear more makeup. The son stopped smiling, appearing anxious. The mare smiled, but I could tell that it was more forced than anything. Pictures of her and the maids started appearing frequently. And there was also a maid she appeared to have a close friendship with, who she took a personal photo with in a rose garden. After that one picture, I saw the pattern of more makeup being placed on the brown mare. A young Alabaster started to grow more attached to his mother, almost clutching to her like he was afraid.

The maids disappeared, the wife's belly grew big once more. Count was nowhere to be seen in any photo with her in her pregnancy. But there was one photo where the makeup looked extremely caked on, and her son had hugged on to her with his best smile. He seemed to be trying to cheer her up, and he didn't look any older than possibly four years. The mare almost appeared to be holding back tears her picture. The next one was of her holding her healthy newborn filly. She appeared quite proud of her daughter, holding her with a fond smile.

And just as Alabaster grew to his own size, Blue came to hers. The photos started looking grainy, but colorful. They appeared to show the mare and her daughter playing in a similar rose garden, but with a standing absence of her maid friend. I began to notice there were a lot less of Count in the photos. Alabaster and Blue loved on their mother in every one of them. And then came the largest frame on the wall facing the foot of the bed. This one wasn't a photo, but a painting. It was rich with vivid colors and contrasting tones, subtle shades and a vast perspective, a true work of art. The family of four was finally united, the father stood behind the chair where the two foals sat, the mother standing beside him with a warm glow. The father, however, stood with a cold indifference. A stern father, a loving mother, and two bright children who loved their home and family.

The rest to me was an unspoken history.

After my brief tour into their family history, Blue walked beside me and started to speak. "My mother would've loved you as her own, you know? She may have been a cruel face in the industry, but she was a devoted mother who loved openly."

"A stark contrast to your dad?" I asked.

She looked up to her father and shuddered while backing away. But she then bucked up to the image of her father while nuzzling me. "You have no idea how great it is for you to be here, for me."

"I'm just here on a visit." I replied. "I can't believe you and your brother have this huge castle to yourselves."

She frowned and stepped away from me. "Actually,.. I don't live here."

"Wait, seriously?" I asked, completely astounded. "Why'd you leave this place?"

She appeared saddened as she turned towards the bed. "...My father raped me in the downstairs warming room. My mother hung herself from the rafters of the main study." She walked towards the bed and ran her hooves over the sheets and smiled. "But this bed, this was where my brother and I shared our last night with our mom, hugging and holding us in her hooves... all while our father banged on the door violently."

"Why did you want to come back to see him after all of that?" I questioned the mare.

"I figured he didn't like our mom. I thought that he had been hostile to her and only her. And of course, I was too young to know what was really happening. I was only four when all of this happened. Maybe my brother saw more of it because of how my father looked at me back then. I should've been more attentive to the fact that he kept shoving me away, telling my mom that I wasn't his daughter. He always said I was much too pretty to be her child."

"From what I gathered in the pictures, he appeared possessive of your brother. I may be wrong, though." I said with a groan of uncertainty.

"Oh no, you're absolutely spot on." She replied energetically. "He wanted a son and he was content with having that. He wanted an heir he could mold and shape to his desire. And again, I was just the leftovers of his tryst with one of the maids."

...I don't want to know how that came up, it's probably something involving a turkey baster and a sworn secret entry. "I don't wanna ask."

She giggled to herself sadly. "I was probably shot out of a turkey baster. I wouldn't be surprised."

Me thinking about it was an example of dark humor. Her saying it was more of a depressing reality, one I couldn't laugh at. I felt pity for her, knowing that her existence was made possible through a wish and a nefarious method. Probably explains the lack of maids in the later pictures. I wanted to say something to cheer her up, but I really had nothing to say to that.

A knock on the door sounded, I stood idly by as she walked over to greet the butler. She walked from the door with a silver tray with two silver platters covered in lids. She placed the tray onto the bed and levitated me a platter. I opened the lid to see it was a whole bowl of salad with a cup of red dressing to the side. Along with it was a silver bowl with a spoon sticking out, filled with whipped cream. Next I heard a cork pop from a bottle. I looked over to see Blue pouring some wine in a glass. She levitated it to me with a smile. "I guess you can see why I'm a bit of a drunk at times."

"You can have the bottle if you want." I suggested to her, hoping it would make her feel better.

She shook her head. "No, I have water for a reason." I started to take a sip of my wine before she spoke again. "Drink slow. Don't get too invested in the alcohol."

She opened her lid to a bowl of plump, fresh strawberries. She bit herself one and was pleased in the taste. I stuck my fork into my salad and looked down at the contents, seeing a lot of fruit and spinach. I took a bite of the food and felt nothing pulling me to stop on it. Instead, I was more interested in eating it. I found myself taking fork after fork of the salad while she watched me quietly.

"Sheesh, it's almost as if you were starved today."

"The job had me eating a lot less." I said, keeping my tribulations confined to that one sentence. I continued to stuff my face full of fruit and vegetables until the bowl sat empty with the remnants of leaves and dressing. I was pleased with the meal, appreciative that my stomach wasn't negotiating with me. "That was good. I could do that more often."

She smiled as she took a sip of water. "I'm glad. At least I know you'll be good for tonight."

I glanced over to her and questioned her on her choice. "I'm curious though, you could've had something more than just strawberries. Why just that?"

"Because strawberries boost the libido, and has antioxidants that give you more of an energetic boost. I'm drinking water to make sure that I am well lubricated."

I snickered to myself. "I guess you've done your research."

"You know, fruit helps guys with the taste of their seed and promotes better sperm production, in turn making you much more fertile. The almonds in your salad increases drive and potency of your orgasm."

I stopped snickering as I looked down to myself. "Well... that's new."

"I did say that we were in for a long night." She replied as another knock came to the door.

She looked at me and instructed me to sit on the bed. While she opened the door, I felt my stomach grow nervous in seeing her brother walk into the room. "So, I take it that the party hadn't gotten started without me?" He sat to the opposite side of the room where I sat. He looked over to me nervously. "Apparently not."

I slowly glanced back at Blue. "Uhhh..."

She quickly addressed my concern. "Okay. Now... I know what you're thinking right now. And I know that you're not exactly comfortable with anything involving the same sex."

"Can I ask why he's here?" I questioned the mare. "Isn't this a little awkward?"

She slowly slid over to my side and spoke softly. "Nondis, do you remember when I said that my brother would be joining us tonight?" I immediately opened my mouth for a retort, but she quickly jumped up to argue her point. "I know, I know! You're not that open to the idea of being with a guy! And I'm not telling you that's what you have to do!"

Alabaster stayed on his side of the room, speaking softly. "If I may... I know that you're not agreeable to this, I can understand why with what happened recently. And I will stay true to the idea that I will not force you to do anything you're not comfortable with. What you do with us tonight is completely your decision, not ours. And I don't want you to feel revolted at the idea of being forced into anything with me. All that does it just hurt me and you, me especially because I'll feel terrible about it. So I'm fine with just watching."

"Dude, it's your sister." I explained.

I watched his ears turn red at that moment as he quietly whispered to me. "Well... I might know her a little more than that."

"Say what!?" I shouted, standing up.

"Hey, we all know who we're dealing with." He replied quickly to save face. "That bastard has all sorts of sick fetishes running through his mind. And sometimes we just have to roll with the punches to make sure that nothing bad happens. It's not that I want to see her..."

"You want to see me." I slowly concluded.

The stallion looked in the direction of the door as he nervously rubbed his foreleg. "...It was always you. Just the fact that you stepped into my office yesterday was driving me mad. That's why I had to clear my throat, that side of me I keep hidden from the public eye, it lunged out a bit. I had to reign it in, because I knew you were uncomfortable with it. So... when I said that I wanted to get some compensation for it, I went with my best option, one that didn't involve you being uncomfortable."

"I'm kinda uncomfortable with what's going on now." I confessed. "I'm supposed to play tap out with your sister while you watch?"

"If anything, this is more of a practice condition for any possible future occurrences." Blue explained. "You-know-who is going to want a show the next time you get in. And again, we have to play to his rules or bad things happen. And sometimes we do it for information, we do it to negotiate. Sometimes we do it to achieve proximity. But as long as we play along, nothing else bad happens."

"Do you remember the pictures Blue showed you of Damper and his little fun session?" Alabaster questioned.

My mind went back to the night at the downtown park. Images of the young effeminate stallion getting plowed into ran across my mind. "Yeah, the twins, right?"

Alabaster's ears ran red once more. "...Twins... not exactly." He started to fashion his mane back into a bun and smiled shyly with much more falsetto in his voice. "I'm quite shy to admit that you were witnessing my work."

My jaw dropped as I realized that it was him who was getting dug into by Damper. I immediately held my hoof over my mouth and shook my head. "No."

The stallion still spoke in his falsetto, almost as if it was natural for him to do so. "I guess we do pass off as twins if we paint ourselves well enough."

I looked over and saw Blue, covering her muzzle as she looked off. "I... had to take the photos."

I sat down on the bed, stunned to damn-near complete silence. The truth had to run a few laps through my brain for me to process what the hell was going on. "...You two─"

"We didn't go that far!" Blue shouted. "We had a rule, no further than the red line. We weren't going to do anything more than that to each other for the sake of our getting the information you needed. We swore that nothing else would come of it, it was for business, and we wanted to put an end to not just our father's legacy, but also the troubles you've suffered because of him and those who think like him. I can assure you that there's nothing more to it than us doing what we needed to do."

"For my sake?" I questioned, still astounded.

"I guess more than our sake." Alabaster stated. "We know of Princess Cadance's unborn child, and we know why the royals and you have placed aside your qualms to that end. What they're doing is wrong."

"Guys, what the both of you were doing was wrong." I replied.

"On MANY levels." Blue agreed. "But that's the world we live in. We can't get it done playing safe. All avenues have to be covered, and if we have to sacrifice a bit of ourselves to get you what you need, fine."

"There is no way you two did all of this for me, I didn't even know you! I did nothing for you! Why would you go that far for me? There's no reason!" I said, still trying to process all of this.

The two ponies looked towards one another before Alabaster spoke. "Because you gave us hope."

"How the fuck did I give you two hope to do some crazy shit like that? How is my being here any hope for you?" I asked.

"You gave us the hope to overcome our father, to do what we could not. We couldn't touch him because we were trying to protect ourselves so much. We couldn't intervene because we were so defensive. And when we got the newspaper that showed you getting cornered by that big beast, we felt like we had lost. We were essentially your biggest fans, and seeing you like that was... terrible for us. I'm sure the royals had expressed that same sentiment to you." Blue explained, trying to get closer to me.

"But seeing you still survive in spite of our father's best attempt to send you to your grave, it made us see that we still had a chance to make a difference. So we grew bold, we broke out of our shell and actively played our roles. And now here we are, with you to thank." Alabaster concluded.

"I still don't get any of this." I replied while shaking my head. "How does this any make sense, how do you justify doing this?"

"Because we know what it's like to be subjugated and abused." Blue explained.

"Because we know what it's like to watch others suffer because of the actions of a select few." Alabaster explained.

"And we're willing to go to whatever end to change things."

"Even if we question ourselves. My sister is looking to end his legacy, and that will be achieved. I have a different purpose for what I'm doing. And I know that I can't play it safe to undo the system that gave my father such power. It doesn't make sense to you, I know. But my sister and I have had to do things like that to keep our standing in that realm. And if we intend to keep you safe, we'll have to gradually warm you up to the idea of committing to the role."

"It doesn't matter that they know what you're doing or who you are, that's your business. But keeping it that way still requires you to play by His rules. If you don't, he'll start to torture you in ways that will make you wish for death. Trust me, the things he whispers in my ear to put me in line terrifies me with nightmares. And I want to save you from this getting any worse. You can't be comfortable anymore, and you can't just run away."

"So if it's possible..." Alabaster pleaded as he rose from his seat, inching closer with every step. "Please, I want you to be open to the idea of playing along. I won't force anything on you tonight, but I want you to know that it's okay. If you can't trust me, then I ask that you at least try it a step at a time. I know I'm telling you to be something that you're not... But please, give us a chance to find an opening, let the walls down a bit, just see us. Please."

"For all of our sakes." Blue finished as she nuzzled. "We can't let him win."

My eyes closed to the two ponies in the room, allowing myself to look inward. There were many places that screamed an objection to what was being proposed to me. Even by my own moral convictions, I had much of myself standing in my own way, from openly acknowledging that I had to place myself aside. From the moment I walked in that venue, it was obvious to me that I had to engage in lecherous activities that made me very uncomfortable, to see things that I didn't want to give direct attention towards. It actually started from the moment I took a wrong turn down the alleyway. I was met with a choice then, a truly disgusting one I would never accept at that. This one was far more tamer, at least I could control how uncomfortable I was willing to allow myself to be.

At least I'm in a position where I have some control.

There wasn't a chance in hell that I would ever consider myself as homosexual. The thought of my even embracing something like that wasn't anything I was fond of. And of course, I'd hear of some of my classmates getting drunk enough to have an experience or two of that caliber, maybe a dare, or even something they've harbored some level of curiosity they've stashed away in secret from the world. It's a fair assessment that gave root to the famous idiom 'giving the old college try'. It made sense in that aspect, to be open minded enough to walk the experience for yourself and possibly discover whether or not this was something you felt was missing in your life, or if it's something you'd probably stash away in some obscure corner of your brain to be deleted somewhere down the line. For some, it could be a moment of validation, a hidden impulse they longed for while trying to hide their desires from their religious or politically puritanical parents.

The college try, this situation was no different. As far as I'm aware, I've had a drunken moment of being involved with more than one pony at a time. But even that experience was so obscure that I could only make out bits and pieces of it. Outside of that, there was no one opportunity that I had with another partner, much less them being male.

To say I was nervous was an understatement.

Blue laid on my chest, adorning my neck with her lips. Her horn glowed before my eyes while she massaged the most sensitive parts of my nethers in hopes to incite a desirable reaction. It wasn't until she saddled herself onto my stomach and held her hooves down to mine. She leaned in to give me a sultry kiss before leaning in to whisper in my ear. "Keep your eyes on me."

The moment for me, while having plenty of experience in the company of a mare or woman, I couldn't have been more of a virgin in the mind. It felt like it was my first time all over again, minus the immense pain of having a fractured right shoulder and left arm. That being said, there was nothing that distracted me from the pleasure of having myself being toyed with by the blue mare. The freckles I barely paid attention to in the daylight hours had been more visible to me with her being so close. Her eyes were much softer than what I had previously anticipated.

Her hoof wandered, slowly trailing down her chest and between her haunches as she lifted herself slightly to reach further down. With a bite of her lip, she started to shift her hips against her seeking hoof. Her magic continued to work on me while her breaths warmed the air between us. Soft moans escaped from her lips while I was being tantalized by her actions. The mare's scent began to brush against my nose, the musk driving my equine mind to attain the primal desire that slowly began to devour every bit of my thought process.

She rose and fell against her hoof slowly, advertising her body a foot away from my muzzle. Her head fell back, eyes rolling while she had me pinned between her hind legs. Her tongue slid from between her lips, moistening them while she whispered. "Okay, a few things. You do as I say while keeping three rules in mind. First, no touching yourself, that includes your hooves, your magic, even the little boys trick you stallions are known for. Second, no thinking, that means you can't try to focus on what's happening right now, just enjoy the experience. And third, no cumming until I tell you to, you will tell me out loud when you're close. And if you don't, thinking you can sneak one past me, I'll know."

Her magic pulsed a bit brighter for the fraction of a second, causing her grip to tighten on me. I instinctively throbbed against her telekinetic grasp. The slight roughness of her approach had surprised me, actually arousing me in kind. "What happens if I go too early?"

"Then it won't stop until you apologize. You'll be in post-stimulate hell." She said, leaning onto my ear while roughly tugging against the base of my length, slowly working her way up to the tip. "Every second will be suffering, there will be no breaks, there will be no begging for me to stop, and there won't be a moment you'll wish for me to stop. I'll keep milking you, you'll hate it and love it, and then you'll agonize from the overload. I'll feel like you're being tickled, but it won't stay that way after the second or third orgasm." Her magic ring quickly slid down my equine features, causing me to thrust back up into it. The methodical delivery of her intent was something I was never accustomed to from any prior experience.

I admit, it was pretty wild to know such torture existed. But I had to keep myself controlled, no matter how nervous or excited I felt. "Okay, so you're the dom."

"You learn quick, that's cute to me." She said softly. "Now, close your eyes."

I did as she ordered while she inched her muzzle closer to mine. Her lips planted against mine for a second time, but her tongue became a second unexpected guest to my senses. There grew a gap of separation between us, one that our tongues bridged between. She pulled off with a hearty grunt and pant. I giggled at her, not being able to see the probable smile on her face. "You're trying to keep yourself calm, aren't you?"

She went back to my ears to whisper, the sensation of her stroking me slowed considerably to a maliciously labored pace. "I forget that you never really remembered how the other night went when you first came by."

"I remember pieces of it." I confessed.

"Well, my magic allows me to be a little more... immersive with your memories." She stated, nibbling against the tip of my ear. "So I'll start from the moment we realized you were a little excited. You were pretty turned on with all of that wine in your system. Kalimba, the maid, and I were pretty amazed to how you were just touching it like you didn't know how to get it back down. I saw how you were sitting there like a young teenage colt, rubbing yourself. You were so cute. The maid and I just got in closer to see if you were going to burst at any moment. Usually takes around thirty seconds before a stallion bursts with that much of the wine in them. But you were different, you were really different."

"How so?" I asked while she continued to tease me.

She giggled and cupped my ear to her lips. "You still kept going. So we started to place a wager on how long it would take before you'd succumb to the build-up. We restarted the timer, gave you another thirty seconds, and saw that you were still stroking away. The maid actually started touching herself when she watched you. I was pretty impressed myself. So do you wanna know what I did next?"

"Yeah." I grunted, feeling a desire to pump my hips into her magic.

The next thing I heard was the wetness of her lips parting before she spoke. "I positioned myself in front of you, stuck out my tongue, and waited. And I started helping you, my hoof worked just as hard as yours did, and then I on what you were doing. I said to myself that you were timing yourself, working it slow to keep yourself going. So I thought that my being there would've sped things up. I was really trying to sabotage your little effort, but for some odd reason, you just wouldn't go. Now, can you tell me how I felt watching you do that to me?"

"Mad?" I guessed.

"Oh no." She replied as she started to slowly grind herself against my chest. "I was excited. Really excited. I wanted to see what ways I could sabotage you. So..." The sensation of a pair of lips began to kiss against my shaft. I started to open my eyes, but she tapped me on my nose to correct me. "The maid and I started kissing and licking you. Up and down, we shared the idea of seeing how far you'd go before blowing all over our faces. For a moment, we thought we had you. You looked at us for a second before rolling your eyes. You whispered to us to keep going. And since we had a front row seat to every last moment you throbbed, we caught every second of your eyes being focused on us. You even put your hoof against my head and showed me where you liked it. And then you came back down."

As she told me the story, I imagined that I felt the wetness of her tongue continuing to show admiration to my features. The sensation of a pair of lips digging themselves against the side of me made me shudder with delight. "Oh... yes. Every inch." The pace picked up slightly, placing me in a position to nearly lose myself. Before I knew it, all the sensations that began to amplify around me had stopped, leaving me cold and unfulfilled.

The mare giggled in my ear. "That feel good?"

"Yes. You are really good at this." I said with a chuckle before stifling a moan.

The tickling pressure that built in my loins began to subside, allowing me to come back down to ground level. Blue continued to tell her story from where she left off. "We were pretty shocked that you didn't go off there. I was more amazed than anything... and turned on. But Kalimba called us out, saying that we didn't know what we were doing. So she took the leading role, and she used her tongue to bathe every bit of you."

I was reintroduced to the warmth of her magic working against me, giving me the sensation of Kalimba's tongue dancing around to crown me, tickling and dressing me down in her warm embrace. There was a slight pause before I could find myself being taken in whole, from top to bottom. Slowly.

"She wasn't into the foreplay for long. She went straight for it. She climbed on top of you, lined you up, and sat until you bottomed out." Blue said while nibbling on my ear some more.

"What else did she do?" I asked in a strained voice, trying to hold back as much as I could.

I began to recall the sensation of her moving against me, almost as if it was too real for the imagination. In and out, my hips began to sway and circulate. My eyes launched open to see Blue staring at me with a seductive glare. The sensation around my enveloped sex came to a cold and sudden pause. She continued to grind against my chest while she questioned me. "You close?"

"Yeah. Really close." I said longingly.

"Okay. I'll give you a moment to breathe." She said, nuzzling into my neck. She glanced back to see just how close I was go giving in. "Oh wow, you were really about to go out there. Where's all that stamina gone?"

"You're really good at what you do." I whispered with a chuckle.

"Deep breaths, breathe slow." She urged, placing a hoof on my chest. "Loosen your legs, try not to contract your muscles too much. Don't compress anything. Just ride it back down." She also took the chance to stop herself from grinding on me as well, remaining stationary to give my senses the chance to calm down in spite of the closeness of the scent she produced from her own sex. She gave me at least thirty seconds before I was able to continue. "Okay, you ready?"

"Yeah." I responded.

"Close your eyes." She ordered. I then obliged as my journey continued. "Now, while the maid wasn't inexperienced, she was in awe of how Kalimba took command of the situation. The three of us watched while you snapped back into it and saw her grinding on you. She started off really slow, hoping that she could convince you to get off to her. Poor thing was so confident that she felt like you were about to blow. So she sped up, feeling you get a little more stiff inside of her. But, you placed your hooves on her, driving your hips into hers."

Her magic reactivated, my mind simulated the event while her magic gave me a more realistic recollection. "Did she go crazy?" I asked, pleading for my imagination's sake.

Blue kissed my ears, dragging her tongue against my cheek. "She went nuts. She loved every inch of you inside of her. So much that she sped up even faster and faster until she couldn't stop herself from her own little orgasm. You should've seen the look on her face, she was lost in pleasure. She kept cussing at you, smiling and dumping her hips down on you with each pulse of her ride down. The way she dropped her head to look at you, the way she gazed into your eyes, I knew then she was addicted to you, like she wanted you for herself. She even went so far as to hug you all while trying to ride her way down. But she didn't exactly stop there, she started clutching onto you while she went back into riding on top of you."

The sensation around me had gotten a lot more intense, more fevered, as if she was actively riding on me at that moment. I began to pump my hips into her, giving her the same attention she gave to me. "Yeah. Take it. Take it." I growled, clenching my teeth. I began to speak praises to her out loud, thinking of her. "Good girl. Good girl, yeah. That's it."

My mind began to recall the image of her from earlier in the week, the sight of her face while greedily shifting herself on and off of me, I could recall the concentration she had wrought to her face while seeking her third climax that night, her grunts, the accent that dripped with rich ebony dialect from the Congo. I could imagine her words speaking to me. 'You silly boy, look at you and your greed. You want all of it, don't you?' I nodded my head at the imaginary figure. "I want it."

Blue smiled, sucking on my neck. "You may not remember it, but you were egging her on. You did it so much that she angrily dropped her weight on you until you started throbbing again. She felt exactly what you were about to do right there and jumped off. And in that moment, me, her, and the maid watched as you started to go off. It started off pretty slow, like you were drizzling down and hugging every vein. But then you held your breath and threw your head back, and right then you blew a load across the room. We really all had to clap at that one. It was the best orgasm we ever watched you have, possibly the best one that you'll never remember. Shame."

The pressure mounted once more, but the sensation didn't stop. Blue shifted on top of me as she realized that I was about reach my breaking point. She watched as I struggled to hold myself back. I'm sure she watched me with pity, feeling somewhat guilty that I was holding myself back.

The mare kissed me on my lips. "Okay now. You want to finish?"

"Yes." I said as I instinctively reached my hoof down.

But at the moment I felt there was no return, I found my hoof grabbing at a head that bobbed fervently up and down. Blue rose from off of me with a smile while she watched me arch my back and concede to my climax. I let out a slow croak that broke into a guttural moan. My hips spasmodically launched forward with every pulse of my delivery. I glanced down to see the head I was holding.

Alabaster moaned himself as he pumped me dry, his magic pressing into the very tip of my shaft as his tongue collected every drop I unleashed on his face and mouth. I was in orgasmic shock while he worked every direction my hoof pointed him to. Lapping his tongue religiously, every ounce of seed I spilled was brought to his taste and swallowed as if he was a thirsty wanderer of a desert seeing water for the first time. I didn't want to admit it, but the look he gave me as he hummed, gagged, and swallowed down every inch of my turgid stature was the most feminine experience I had ever watched. The level of submission he gave me was vastly different, attentive to every vein, every crevice, every pulse, and every drop.

I stayed there with panting breaths, shaking from the fact and realization that he was my source of pleasure in that moment. I was astounded, unwilling to confess to myself whether I wanted to be angry about it, disgusted at myself, or even surprised that it still felt pleasurable. I was awash with both shame and guilt. But I was surprisingly tame about it, nothing to argue it now.

What's done is done.

Alabaster smiled as he glanced over to his sister. "You think he liked it?" He asked while summoning a towel for his face.

The mare giggled. "I think he may want a moment to decide."

The effeminate stallion wiped his face. "I think you should do the talking for a while. It was your story that got him all riled up like that. Maybe you can talk to him a lot better than I'd get through to him at the moment."

The mare kissed me on my cheek, questioning me. "So? How did you like it?" I couldn't help but to cover my face, not wanting to openly admit to what had happened. The mare rubbed my chest softly as she nuzzled me. I'm sure she noticed how red the tips of my ears were. "You know, it's okay to talk about it. The last thing you want to do is repress it into your mind. That's not healthy, you know. So whenever you feel ready, just tell me what you think." I grabbed a pillow with my magic and flopped it over my face so that I couldn't be seen. Blue whined out at my response. "Aw, don't be embarrassed. Please? How about this, you don't have to go into detail. Just a yes or no, did it feel good?"

I didn't want to answer her.

Alabaster sighed, sounding a bit depressed. "I went too far, didn't I?"

"...I..." My thoughts were slow to formulate into verbal form. "I feel like... I..."

Blue hugged me tightly, being as nurturing as she could in the moment. "I'm sorry. I really thought you were into it, so I tried to make it a little easier for you. I just wanted you to see him at that moment because I thought you needed to see the truth eventually. I didn't want you to have to experience a lie like that and then find out way later on, that's not healthy either."

Alabaster dropped his head and turned himself away from me. "I probably should've waited longer before doing this. I'm such an idiot."

His sister quickly corrected him. "You're not the idiot here, I'm the one who suggested it."

"But I agreed to it." I replied, pulling the pillow off of my face. I slowly sat back up to see the two ponies sitting in the room with me. "I can't even lie and say that I'm not feeling some type of way. I... I..." I clenched my eyes shut to the both of them and slowly worded my confession. "I felt good... in the moment. And I admit that this was a little better... a lot better than when... you know... he tried to do that when he did. Just being kissed by another dude out the blue wasn't really a good starting point, you know. But... I... I guess there was some part of me that didn't mind the lie. I knew what was going on, it felt too realistic to be a spell after a while. I just... I went with it because it felt good. And..."

"It scares you." Blue finished.

"Yeah, it does. Really, like I can't tell this to anyone. Everything is racing. I don't know─"

Alabaster then spoke up. "Then don't tell them until you feel that you are ready to do so. Or don't, keep it to your grave if that's what makes you feel comfortable about it." He still maintained his distance as he spoke. "Nondis, I know this experience is new, and it's conflicting because that's not who or what you really are. But in the moment, it did feel good, I mean it's good enough to where you unloaded on my face, at least. But even if this isn't who you are and what makes you happy, it helps you get the job done if you want something. I have to tell you from my standpoint that it isn't great to have to do those kinds of things with a bunch of old geezers looking for some exotic thrill. And it wasn't completely exciting to see how my dad hated me while I had one of his coworkers in whatever hole they were occupying at the time. But what I did know was that if I made that same offer to my dad, he'd be disgusted at the sight of seeing his own coveted son open his mouth and be a cum slut willing to satisfy his darkest desires, all for the sake of draining that attention away from his daughter. And if I had to keep her safe around me, I had to fulfill that in the moment. Think about it, I was willing to fuck my own dad to stop him from raping my sister again. That's why he hated the times I came around, because he knew Blue was somewhere right behind me."

"What Alabaster is trying to say is this." Blue said as she hugged me gently. "Even if this isn't what you like, try to focus on the moment. Is it good or bad? If it's good, try to at least enjoy it and be open to it. You may even like it, but you don't have to stay there if you don't want to, it's not some lifetime change you're subscribing to here. But if you know it's bad, try to avoid it. Don't do anything that you can't properly recover from. Getting sucked off by a guy feels like a girl sometimes, maybe even better because of the anatomical knowledge. I know getting eaten by a girl feels like a guy, or sometimes better because they know how everything works. And I'm sure Alabaster is gonna say that you won't get it better than him."

"Bitch, I am the best at what I do." The stallion replied proudly. "I suck dick better than you."

"Not exactly a bragging right you want in the living room display case." Blue deadpanned before returning her attention to me. "But yeah, tonight was to get you to open your mind to things like this. I didn't want this to be a traumatizing moment, so we eased you into it, at least to experience it once. The rest of the night can be with me, if you want."

I remained mum for a while, not wanting to offend but also not wanting to heavily acknowledge that I had some weird part in the back of my brain that actually embraced the experience. Again, it wasn't really something I was fond of morally, but I was at least a little more willing to go along with things. It's nothing like when Umbra forced his tongue down my throat. It was literally them holding my hand throughout the process. And even if I was uncomfortable, they tried their best to make it comfortable enough for me to process. Credit to where credit is due, I'm still processing the fact that another male sucked me off, but it wasn't like I had a bad time.

Now I can't just sit there and watch him go to work on me for a whole night, but I can grow to accept the experience for what it is. This isn't a lifestyle change as much as it is a life-changing event, at least I don't think so. It's a college try, it's an attempt to let myself explore, and it's not something that I have to explain to anyone unless I decide for it to be. I'll always love rearranging a girls insides, the feeling of feminine curves against my fingertips, the warmth and moist embrace of a woman or mare. But I feel that I'll honestly be open for a pit stop across the street for the time being.

If anything, my dick obviously can't tell the difference.

I turned away from the two siblings and threw the pillow over my face, still embarrassed that I was going to say this out loud. "...Look, I'm not used to that. But I did feel good in the moment. Maybe if we take it SLOW... I might be open to a little more later on."

Blue turned my head over and moved the pillow out of the way. Alabaster quietly sat himself on the bed, but at least giving me a few feet of separation. The two siblings smiled softly. "We'll do what we can to keep you happy. Try to remember this is a controlled environment where you have the final say."

"And of course, this all stays between the three of us." Alabaster said with a wink. "So asking for a friend, could I... do what I did earlier? You can keep your eyes closed and pretend it's my sister. I really wanna see your reactions this time because my sister's tail was in the way of everything."

"Slow, Alabaster!" Blue chided her brother. "We just got him on the ship and you're already trying to rock him overboard!" She then turned to me and pushed me onto the bed. "Besides, it's my turn for once."

"Well then, I got next." He said with a smirk, wagging his tail eagerly.

I looked up to the mare and asked her a bit worriedly. "Uh, you two seem to be really into the whole taking turns with me like it's a normal thing for you two to do."

"Maybe I should get this out the way so you won't have to ask about it later." Alabaster said as he brought himself to watch his sister go back into using her magic. "We're used to it by now, especially dealing with those crusty politicians. You remember Damper Trot, he and my dad were close but he loved every opportunity to piss him off by force-feeding me a healthy helping of himself. I have to play pretend around him, call him daddy, clean him off, kiss his cock after I'm done, things like that."

"And what does that have to do with the both of you?" I asked.

"Damper wanted the both of us at the same time, mainly as a bragging right for our ex-father. I thought if I went along with it, I'd get in where my brother was. Turns out you-know-who didn't like that deal too much, but he loved the show regardless." Blue explained while she started brushing her hoof against my chest.

Alabaster continued after his sister. "He likes the control, Blue being in the same place as me would remove some of my dedication to keeping her protected, dulls the blade. So he kept me in the bind, threatened me with my sister being humiliated around the lounge, and threatened her with some time alone with my dad. I'm sure you know how that ends."

I turn to Blue and questioned her. "So what does he threaten you with now?"

"Burying me alive with him." She replied quietly, causing her to stop her motions while being lost in thought. "It's one thing to see his slimy face again, but it's another being thrown in a hole and buried with him. And the worst part of it is that he's capable of surprising us in the way we'd least expect it."

I knew exactly what she meant. Hell, I could relate. "He's pretty known for throwing in monkey wrenches, isn't he?"

Blue buried her head in my chest as she hummed lightly. "At least while you're around, I don't have to worry too much about the big bad guy hurting me, right? Just the thought of you overpowering my father's influence and causing him to damage his own standing puts me at ease. All because I know each time you're with me, he's not gonna be smiling at the fact that you're still walking around."

"Hell, I'm sure he'd be ready to kill you himself if he saw how Blue's all over you now. He'd probably even go so far to tell you to get away from the very daughter he refused to claim for many years until recent." Alabaster said with a chuckle.

Blue turned back to the large family painting and directed her eyes towards the unhappy smoke gray stallion depicted. "Hey dad, I'm about to ride the human after he learned MAGIC from YOUR SON while reading YOUR NOTES!" The mare flipped her mane and stared down at me intently. "You know, just that fact alone is making me pretty excited. I'm all for a fun time tonight."

While I had some questions about her particular brand of daddy-issues, I wasn't going to deny a good time entirely, especially since I felt the same way in my mind. In fact, let's do some math. I just watched as his son─the one he's been trying to closet─worship my dick like a newly-wed woman. Now his daughter is about to ride me with the intent to shove it in his smug face. I don't think my therapist could guide me to anymore of a breakthrough moment. Maybe I'm crazy off the revenge high, but why should I care? He's dead, the spending incentives he's drafted is set to die in two weeks, and I'm getting serviced by both of his kids in bed.

All that's missing is a law removal and a ticker parade. I've won.

Ten minutes later...

It didn't take long for the two siblings to get me back up to speed. It mainly started with the sensations of my getting teased while having my eyes closed. But what was different this time was that I was given the option to open them, that and how Blue took a more hooves-off approach to start off. What started off as simplistic fantasies filling my mind was quickly subverted by the familiar sensations of a pair of lips slowly suckling against my endowment. This time, I knew what was going in. I didn't have to open my eyes to see who it was.

If anything, the sounds of him gasping for air before diving in that gave it away.

An explicative sharply lept from my lips as Alabaster took all of me within his maw. As my eyes remained closed to the world around me, the sound of his efforts had started to take an unexpected effect on me. Instead of Blue whispering in my ears what madness took place in my drunken state, it was the distinct noises that began to feed my lust.

There was something about the sounds that reached my ear, the gargled breaths between withdrawal and submission, the sloppy kisses that periodically proceeded sessions of intense worship, the air that escaped the pockets of his cheeks as he sank himself down upon me, the wet thuds of him beating his tongue with every turgid inch exposed before him, and then the sudden silence after he consumed my endowment, remaining religiously tethered to the devotion of showing his patience and endurance, and then the following retreat to allow a labored gasp of air.

I slowly opened my eyes, seeing the stallion before me as he gazed up to me with a disheveled countainence, his cheeks lathered in his own work. He appeared lost in his ministry, his eyes glazed over with a desire to watch me culminate solely from his efforts. He continued to keep his eyes on me, seeking my every reaction from the motions he made from that event forward.

Now that he had my undivided attention, he lolled out his tongue and hugged the under of my length, his head slithering from side to side while his lips sang the soothing motions that made me throb in the unexpected anticipation of the moment. My legs started to whittle under his administration, my pelvis instinctively tugging away at him as he started to see that his effort was not far from being rewarded. He kissed the tip of my flaring head, smiling while his heated breath became the precursor to his encore of his earlier actions.

The lips he spoke with, the tongue that delegated the order of a city, was submitted onto me with unyielding fervor. Strands of his saliva began to bridge between my loins and his chin. His head bobbed while his magic started to twist against me at the base. While his tongue dressed the underneath in one motion, his magic lightly massaged in the other. I felt myself becoming close, even reaching a hoof to his head to stop him from being too anxious. As I held him back, he continued to stimulate me with his magic, submitting his tongue to me. "Cum." In almost a drunken motion, he batted my hoof away and sank his throat onto me another time, his eyes briefly watering with his sudden invasion.

Before I could break, another ring of magic encircled his horn and quenched his magic in a sweeping motion. At the same time, his younger sister pulled against the back of his mane while watching me throb in anticipation for the climax I was to be denied. I breathed heavily, trying not to compress my loins too much. My chest rose and fell slowly as Blue addressed her brother in a mocking tone. "Now there you go, trying to have all the fun while I only get to watch. Haven't we discussed the fact that we're sharing the experience?"

"Sorry, I got caught in my mode again." He replied in a coy feminine manner.

She glanced down at her brother and looked away in an embarrassed blush. "Sheesh, you're already about to go and you didn't even touch yourself."

"I really enjoy what I do, you know. It's the eyes rolling back and his hoof grabbing my head that does it for me. Reactions are like my biggest turn-on." He admitted. "You should've let me keep going, he was almost there." He then directed his commentary to me while he battered his spit-worn face with my shaft. "Having fun up there?"

"More than I'm willing to admit." I said honestly, also blushing at the thought of openly confessing it.

"Aw, he's shy." Blue said with a giggle before glancing down at my swollen member, finally brought back to a calm. "And this one's not so angry anymore. You left him a mess."

"Didn't you want him lubed up for you?" He asked.

"You look like you were lubing him up for yourself at this rate."

Alabaster moaned as he found himself grabbing a pillow to sit on. "Trust me, it took everything in my power to keep things slow."

"You call all of what you did slow?" I asked incredulously.

I began to notice that the stallion started to rock himself in a subtle sweeping motion. "Honestly, I'm kinda close. You going would've meant me falling right behind you."

Blue looked at her brother and shook her head. "You are an insatiable cumslut."

"Wreck my ass to wreck your family, my pride and joy." Alabaster joked before feeling a strong tug within himself. "Dammit, I'm there."

Noting her brother was soon to reach his climax, she left him to ride himself over. Meanwhile, she took the opportunity to clean up some of her brother's mess with a smile on her face. Tilting her head to slowly clean me off of the excess, she gave me a brief explanation for why she was cleaning after her brother. "Sorry, he sometimes forget that his situation requires the extra insurance. But obviously with my being a girl... not so much."

As her tongue started to clear off the excess of her brother's work, she started to send her hoof downward to warm herself for what she wanted to do next. In her efforts to stimulate herself, she grew more anxious in her efforts. She quickly suckled and nestled much of what was left on me, her eyes fixated to her prize. She wasn't as audibly alluring as her brother, but what she lacked in her attention to detail, she was more than willing to provide in other areas.

But there was something else that grabbed my attention.

Not wanting to be left out of the picture immediately, Alabaster sought to finish himself at the idea of pleasing me. Instead of leaving his sister to clean up after him alone, he eagerly joined the effort to prepare me for her part of the show. She looked over, moderately annoyed that he was looking for more attention. He glanced back at his sister, smiling as if he had met his mark. Without question, the two began to quarrel in the manner of who would outperform the other.

The two looked up to me, each trading extremities of their own side. As he went down, she climbed upwards. Her eyes would break periodically to observe her brother, who was performing admirably. She continued to try and holder her own, not by competing against him directly but instead working in tandem with his movements. Before long, the two unionized their motions, locking in rhythm as they both bathed their tongues against me. A head on either side, I grabbed and caressed the both as the moved like twins, sadistically glancing up at me to see the moment where I'd lose control.

It didn't take long for that to result in my heightened state of arousal being reintroduced to my loins. My throbs were a little more subtle this time, but the indication was no different. However, the act itself was too much for Alabaster. He stopped for a moment and found himself pressing down against the pillow he rode on. His head lowered for a moment, his teeth clenched before he unleashed a cry of release. The moment he threw his head back, I knew he had given up on holding back, that or he had been trying to build to that moment. In the midst of his release, he faltered and simply kissed against me, taking in my scent.

Blue wasn't exactly turned by the prospect of her brother, but the act of his climax. It seemed that the idea of sex was completely organic to her, as it was for me in the moment. While I wasn't too far from where he was, Blue had already decided it was time to claim her prize for being the sole holdout among all three of us. Straddling me, she aligned herself to take me inside of her and slowly settled down with a gasp. Looking down, I watched as the inches I was given had been sheathed within her body.

While my flare pushed through her, she opened her mouth to let out a slow groan. She was careful on her initial descents, giving herself the chance to get used to my size. She leaned over and whispered in my ear. "Okay, now I know you're pretty close. But I'm not gonna stop. I'm gonna keep going, don't hold back when you feel it."

She wasn't joking. In fact, she was taking everything slow. I thought she was trying to adjust, but it was really her preferred speed. It wasn't the speed of someone looking to get it over with quickly, or even the idea of trying to quench a brief spike of arousal. The way her hips rose and fell, the clenching warmth around me, the subtle movements and the occasional hard grind against me, it was as if she had time.

She wanted to assert herself, to dictate the pace, pressure me for the big moment. I'm sure she had it on her mind for months. No doubt, it felt a lot different from any others she took in throughout her life, she treated it like it was hers. It was hers, just for tonight. And she didn't stop for me to let her know that I was close. Instead, she slightly increased her speed. And when I instinctively reached to move her, she didn't allow me to alter her course. She had a set destination, and she wanted to reach that place, my opinions be damned.

I began to pulse with anticipation, but was soon overwhelmed by the warmth that surrounded me. I planted my hooves against her hips and thrust upwards, sending stream after stream of my offspring well within her womb. My eyes closed to the world while I cherished the momentary embrace. Tremors shook my body as jolts of pleasure drove me to empty myself in powerful but shallow thrusts. As I grunted with the satisfaction of reaching my end, I was left panting on the bed.

And yet, it didn't end.

She forced her hips down harder, pressing against me an unknown trigger to cause a strong trembling sensation to erupt from my loins. My eyes gazed down to see her rising and falling, all while a thick helping of my seed lathered and lubricated our union even further. With each withdrawal, I witnessed our act becoming a creamy mess. I began to tap against her, she giggled and gazed down at me. "Not yet. I wanna feel every last minute of this." She continued to squeeze against me, milking me for every last bit of what I had left within her.

She adjusted herself for a second, giving me a moment of reprieve before she suddenly burst into action. I began to writhe in a mix of pleasure and stress, pushing against her as she slammed her hips against me. In doing so, she ensured that I wouldn't find myself softening within her.

Her continued efforts proved potent. As she carried on, she also got progressively louder, her grunts became full fledged cries, lecherous screams, and wild laughing fits. Looking up to her as she pinned me down, a unusual glare showed in her eyes as she forced her tongue down my throat. Without my knowing, I felt myself building to a second climax to follow. And in seconds, I released within her again. My forelegs shook as she rode on ceaselessly. She started to speak to me as she continued to milk me for what I had. "You're probably wondering why I'm so happy right now. It's because I finally get a taste of what I've been begging for. Too often I have to hide my voice so that my father doesn't hear me. For the longest time, I felt like I've been caged in between his legs, ever since that day..."

While my post orgasm mind had already manifested, I began to realize that my time here had taken a bit of a downward turn. By that point, I was trying to actively nudge myself from underneath her, but she kept me pinned to the bed with her magic. The post-orgasm stimulation I began to experience was still somewhat pleasurable, but I started to feel an aching sensation throughout my loins. I looked down to see what was going on, and noticed that there was a glow of her magic taking place there as well. I glanced back up to see a wild smile creeping up on her face.

"I never once felt like any part of my life was in my control since that day. But now, this moment... I love it! I fucking love it! I love being in control!" She then leaned down and spoke to me, forehead to forehead while her body clashed with mine. "I bet my daddy never thought that I'd fuck his worst enemy. And here you are... BREEDING ME!"

Any and all good sensations I felt had stopped from that moment on. But for her, it only gotten her more excited. I started to see that her efforts to keep things moving was really more of her trying to reach her own benefit. She grabbed the back of my head, grinding her body against me, grunting and screaming loudly past my ear.

"You want my help? You want every lobbyist money can buy? I just want want one fucking thing!"

Sinking down, she planted herself firmly against me, shuddering at her own orgasm. Her magic turned my head to where she could firmly lock her lips with mine in that moment. Her eyes clutched onto the sight of me looking back in horror. Meanwhile her awfully frightening display softened and was replaced with a much softer smile.

"I just want a family to love."

The sudden swap between personalities left me speechless, far more than the sight of her brother actively pleasing me. I watched as she flopped down onto my chest and took a moment to breathe. Her hips still jolted, grinding slowly on me as she rode her descent and whispered in my ears.

"...Sorry. I got a little lost in the moment there."

"And you're telling me I need to slow down." Alabaster called out from the foot of the bed. "I know you have a strong dominatrix streak, but can you at least ease him into it next time? That was far too sudden and way too scary for anyone to adjust to that quick."

Immediately, she went from riding me to hugging on me and lightly patting my chest. "Sorry. I am so sorry, babe. I kinda fell into my mode there. I should've warned you a little more of how I am in bed."

Alabaster chuckled from where he was. "Nondis, on behalf of my idiot sister, I'm sorry you've had to stick your dick in crazy."

"I am not crazy!" She replied, jolting up to confront her brother. "I'm just overstimulated by circumstance. And it just so happens that I'm really happy to see him spending some quality time with us."

"More like you're happy that you don't have to compete with Kalimba for a change." He replied with a snicker, standing up.

She gave a sigh of acceptance and lightly rubbed my chest. "Well... that too."

I finally had enough bravery in my system to question her on what just happened. "Um... I have questions." I said, raising my newly freed hoof.

Blue's ears started turning red as she slid off of me, our separation causing a soft plop to sound between us. "I'm sure you do. I'm sorry."

"First, what was that all about?" I questioned.

Alabaster answered for her. "She's still trying to mentally cope with the fact that our father did what he did to her. That's why I call her crazy. Also her in an orgasmic state is genuinely terrifying. It's significantly worse during estrus."

"Second..." I pointed a hoof at the mare. "You said 'breed', was that something you meant or was that some crazy shit in the moment type of deal?"

She covered her mouth and her ears folded back in shame. "So... I... might have had a fantasy or two about getting knocked up. So I usually... let them finish... inside." Before I could say anything in response, she quickly spoke out again. "But don't worry about that too much, me getting pregnant is out of the question in terms of my job! I can't run a whole company and have a foal out of wedlock! That looks bad to investors!"

"Third, you said you wanted a family..." I started to sit myself up, still a bit sore from her activity. "...Is that legit?"

"It's just some crazy shit I said in the moment. Please don't take it any further. I just scream things when I feel good enough, alright. The spell I used on myself when we were going at it was a contraceptive." She climbed off of the bed and looked at me with a frown. "Besides... I can't have foals to begin with."

I saw the sadness on her face as I started to feel pity for her. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear tha─"

"I'm far from infertile." She quickly corrected. "It's... It's my personal reason. I just can't do it. I'd rather wait a decade or two, then adopt some young orphan looking for a home. At least then I'll know... I'll know we're happy."

I looked over at Alabaster and saw the same frown on his face. By that point, I realized what had been revealed to me. "You're gay." I said to the stallion before turning to his sister. "And you're not having kids at all. You both are ending your father's bloodline."

"That's what we've decided." Alabaster said in a low voice as his sister took off to the bathroom to clean herself off. "I'm gay because that's who I am and who I'd rather be. It's just hard to find a lover who'll accept that choice openly, all while trying to keep our relationship a secret from society. She's living the fantasy of conceiving every time she does this. I don't expect you to understand why, but I can only say that we know who's blood courses through our veins. So yeah... that's it. We said we were ending his legacy, we mean it." He glanced over to the large family portrait hung on the wall, namely to the image of his father. "Tonight was our big 'Fuck-you' to him."

The bath water started to run in the bathroom and then I started to hear some semblance of sobbing. My heart dropped as I started to identify her crying. "...She really does want a family, doesn't she?"

"She wants the one she couldn't have." He said as he summoned a towel and tossed it to me. "We don't do midnight evictions here. There's a shower down the hall, first door to the left. When you finish, leave the towel in the hamper. There's a robe waiting for you on the back door, it's comfy. You're welcome to sleep in this bed if you'd like. Checkpoints are closed anyways, so you'll be stuck here for tonight. Handy takes care of any and all late-night snack requests, so don't be shy to give him a ring."

"What about you?" I asked.

"I'll take the shower after Blue is done. Other than that, that's the night for all of us."

Meanwhile in Ponyville...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanie***

I can't sleep.

It's not because of some nightmare about what happened last week, I usually try to wake myself out of that before it gets really serious. Instead it was like my mind was wandering on a bunch of stuff. I wasn't even aware of how long I was up for, it took me looking at my alarm clock to realize that it was only 12:43. Maybe it was because I had the day off, or probably because I'm so used to staying up a little longer. Our day ended earlier than normal, that's a good reason why I haven't found myself being super tired to where I'd just pass out. No, my day was pretty tame.

As nice as the ponies are here, there's jack shit to do after 9. Usually there's a few places open like the train station, or even the hayburger, possibly the Sugarcube Corner take out for any wandering pedestrians looking to satisfy their nightly sweet tooth at an absurd mark-down. But outside of stuff like that, there's nothing around here. There's no bars to get a buzz in your system, there's hardly any liquor on sale past 6, there's no club to dance your troubles away because there's a celebration almost every two or three weeks. There's no late night lounge to sit at and listen to some music, and the only place that was open past that time was the local town library and that's to check in a book past 10. And being curious, I went to see what that place looked like, it looked like an explosion wiped it off the map.

By 11, everything's locked down, ponies are sleeping, front desk of the hotel is ring-in only. Nothing to do past that time but read books, think about your life, let your imagination run wild, masturbate, go to sleep. And that's it. It's a really boring place when the sun's not out. It makes me pretty sad that I have to adjust to the quiet life of no random booty calls, no games to play on my TV, no TV either while I'm on the subject, and no late-night text messages over anything. It's really boring. I guess this would be a great place for an introvert like Nondis. I know it sucks for someone like Cliff and Rickey.

As his name came up, I started to hear his voice pop up in the hallway. I looked down at my hooves, lightly tapping them together as I contemplated what I wanted to talk with him about when the sun came up. I knew he had to be tired from the work, maybe even exhausted from his job and trying to hunt me down. I can only assume that he was probably outside of my room, thinking about how he was gonna knock and leave me another stupid letter under my door.

However, a female voice replying to him had instantly grabbed my attention.

I hopped out of the bed, cracked my door open, and peeked outside to see who it was he was talking to. To my surprise, it was Kalimba chatting it up with him. As he appeared lost in the conversation, he didn't even notice that I was actually looking at him, probably didn't care since he had another girl in the immediate proximity.

I shook my head and closed my door, realizing that there was no use in talking to him about what was on my mind. He probably had late-night plans since he was talking with her at this hour. I mean, who the fuck in this town is talking with anyone at this hour for anything outside of the possibility of sex? I'm willing to bet that ponies here don't even think about having sex after midnight. And he's here with Kalimba, possibly looking to get himself an exotic experience. Hell, we're all ponies so it's not like the human thing doesn't fucking matter to him at this rate. I hopped back in my bed, laying my head on the pillow and forcing my eyes shut so that I could brute-force my way into the sun-up.

The duo of voices got closer to my door, I waited for them to pass before I could allow myself to scream into my pillow for the night. And just as I predicted, they passed right by my door and walked down the hall. I felt like my intentions to at least level with Rickey was completely trashed. I couldn't even blame Kalimba for it, she's probably going to be a victim to his smash-and-dash strategy. But knowing her, she probably wouldn't care too hard about it. She can go ahead and have her fun, she's had a hard week too, she deserves it.

The sudden knocking at my door had startled me as I was lost in my thoughts and I remained motion-locked to my bed. I think I even held my breath to not give an indication that I was even in here. But a second knock came at the door along with a voice. "You silly girl, why try to hide? I saw you peeking out from inside!"

Sometimes I forget what she usually does at around this time, she the closest of all of us to Nondis and works as his late night subordinate. It's no surprise that she's awfully keen on what goes on around her. Since there was no hiding from her, I decided to open the door and speak with her. "Kali, what are you doing here?" I said, trying to pretend I was sleepy.

Kalimba wasn't fooled. "Come now, you are not asleep. I can see in your eyes dere are some thoughts you keep."

I shrugged her accusation off. "I'm trying to sleep. I really am."

"But something keeps you awake?" She asked, lowing her head to look at me with a critical glance. "You should remember dat we do talk when we see each other. So come and talk, do not lie to yourself and stay up until dawn thinking you cannot make a change in your brain."

"It's late, I should be sleeping." I replied to the zebra, who looked me up and down before slowly and emphatically kissing her teeth.

"We are coming in. Move your pum out de way." She said as she used her magic to hold the door open. While I had some objections, she pushed me back towards the bed while dragging in Rickey behind her. He even seemed unwilling to participate in her attempt. As he resisted, she chided him also. "Stop being such a wuss, come here and say what you mean, you stupid boy."

"I said I'll talk to her in the morning." He replied as he tried to escape her magical grasp.

Meanwhile, she had a firm grasp of his wings as he pulled him into the room and shut the door behind him. "It is well after midnight, you are in de morning hours now. So talk and be honest, do not hide like some silly little girl trying to hide her grades."

"Kalimba, what is going on?" I questioned before she pointed a hoof at me.

"And you, silly girl, sit and listen. No talking, Ah."

I shook my head as I plopped myself on the bed. Meanwhile, he sat back against the wall, trying to formulate what he wanted to say. "...Mel. I know that what happened last week wasn't fair."

As I started to draw air to speak, Kalimba held a hoof out at me. "Do not talk, listen. I will slap him if he says something stupid, so do not worry."

"Slap me, are you serious, lady?" He mumbled before her hoof raised to him. He flinched in anticipation of a hit that only wound up but never followed through. Kalimba nudged her head in my direction, urging him to speak. "I'm sorry. I let my senses get over me and I just followed on them. And even though I felt like I just... I was... I was kinda in the zone of it and I think you saw me in my feelings at that moment. I kinda wanted to tell you what was going on in my mind, but I could never get a hold of you. That's all."

Kalimba reared her hoof against the stallion. "So you blame her for it, you are stupid, you know!?" She then turned to me and pointed at me. "And you know he's right. You made it your purpose to avoid speaking with him. You have made a note of every letter dat came from him and said dat he wronged you. You are not a victim here, I know dat de both of you are wrong. He is wrong for not talking with you, he is wrong for jumping on you like some colt in estrus season, and he is wrong for not confronting you sooner. But you are wrong for denying him de opportunity to explain himself, you are wrong for feeling like you made a mistake when you could've talked to him about it, and you are wrong for assuming dat whomever he talks to outside of you is an opportunity to get himself laid. He has told me what occurred in de past, and he acknowledges his wrong for dat. But de way he obsesses over you is nothing short of something he desperately yearns for! He may joke around like a dumb idiot, a stupid, immature, waste of space, but he is still trying his hardest to protect you, to do what makes you happy, in spite of how he feels."

Rickey cosigned her statements. "Yeah, what all she said."

She immediately cocked her hoof back to smack him, but instead threw a magazine at his head. "IDJIOT! SHUT UP!" While he fell back from the unexpected impact of having a bunch of paper thrown in his face, I couldn't help but to snicker. She quickly addressed me in retaliation by taking the same magazine and knocking me on the top of the head with it. "Oh you shut up! You do not get to laugh when you open your legs to an idiot like him. It took two of you to you to mess dis up, and it will take two of you to fix it. If you don't want to fix it, fine. But do not complain about somepony not giving you de attention when you had it and dey decided to move on with deir life! I cannot believe you would shut away some idiot who fell in love with you."

I waved my hooves and shook my head in denial. "Oh no, he doesn't love me for shit."

"But how do you know that!?" He hollered back at me.

I tilted my head at the stallion and angrily called him out. "Rick, if you loved me, how the fuck would I even know? You'd probably get with some other girl while you were here."

"Have you seen the other girls around here?" He questioned emphatically. "These bitches are crazy! They're either adrenaline junkies, they're homely and looking to start a family off the rip, they're just absolutely psychotic, or they're just downright bossy like Kalimba." Kalimba promptly threw the same magazine she bopped me with in his face.

"And I'm not? I'm fucking crazy too, I do a bunch of shit for a guy who doesn't even love me back, somehow expecting a different result. I love thrill rides, I might not like the crazy shit Nondis gets himself into and how it's a threat to our lives, but going along with him on that trip to Everfree was fun, in spite of the changelings. I might not be trying to start a family, but I am looking to at least be serious in my relationship. If you're scared of commitment, then I'm not for you! And if I had magic, I'd probably throw a magazine in your face for the hell of it! So how the fuck am I anything different than what you see out here?"

"You're the perfect mix of it, though." He responded as he tossed the magazine aside. I quietly watched as he explained himself. "Yeah, you're batshit insane, I knew that from when you started looking for Nondis for nine months straight. Then there's the moment when you said you were okay after you agreed to go back with Jasper, I knew you were going to murder that man in cold blood for what he did to you. I wanted to stop you, that's why I grabbed you when I did, so that you wouldn't just throw your life away. If I had the chance to, I would've done the same shit Nondis did! And the way you saved his life after seeing him come in all cut up and bloody, that was fucking crazy. And you like being chill too, you like sitting at home while cussing people out who live half a country away for sitting in a corner the whole game. You're pushy and you like to make all the big decisions. You assume shit's wrong when nothing's wrong. And then when there is something wrong, you're not afraid to tell me. I like the way you sometimes get a little obsessive about keeping things monotonous, even if it is a bit possessive. I might be an idiot who did something stupid in the past that you can never forgive or forget, but I really want to be the bigger fool for believing there's a second chance in us. Does that means shit will work? Hell no, but I'm not gonna lie and say that I wasn't secretly rooting against you and Nondis because I wanted you for myself. I'm not gonna lie and say that I'm not selfish at times. I'm not gonna lie and say that I may not have moments that I'll look other ways, and then look back at you. I need work too, and I can't work on me alone. I need you to boss me around sometimes to keep me on track, give me a good whack on the head as a reminder. And I know I'm not that organized on speeches, but I'm working on it. I just want to take the risk of us being us. And if you don't want that, I can live with that. I'll just go back to wishing you well and secretly hoping it comes out the other way around. Yeah, I'm an asshole and that line of thinking is fucking terrible, but I can't not love you, and I can't not want you for myself. It's pretty fucked how I'm hooked on you."

I stayed seated on the bed, looking at him in silence as he sat himself down. His eyes remained honed in on me, his lips tight after the massive, yet disjointed, confession he gave. I couldn't help but to point out a few things about what he said. "Okay, first off. Why do you want every relationship I get into to fail? That means if I got into a relationship with you, we'd fail too. I don't get your logic in wishing for something that stupid and mean. I mean, it's one thing if you were my worst enemy, that would be like your big fuck-you to me alongside wishing my dad had cancer."

I then started to laugh as I realized that what I had just said out loud was no different than what I had been doing with Nondis for the longest time.

"Oh God, I'm no better. Hell, I remember the first time I met Twilight. I actively tried to enforce to her that I was the first girl in his life and that she should back off. Their entire relationship was something I hated because it was different and it wasn't me. But after getting to know her, I guess I found myself trying to be nice and we eventually grew to be acquaintances. Then they break up and I'm sitting here pushing Nondis in his wheelchair like I've won something... And fell apart after I saw who he went to next. I actually tried sleeping with him to get him to go back home to Austin that first Saturday his parents was brought over, but that went about as well as you'd think."

A growing sickness started in my stomach and forced itself into my chest. I don't even think I realized I was really depressed in that moment of confessing my truth. I couldn't even look anyone in the eye past that point because I was so ashamed.

"I keep making mistakes, the same ones. Open my legs, hope for the best, see if they stay. I put so little value on myself sometimes that I feel like I'm in the right for feeling the way that I do. I sometimes forget that I'm vulnerable, thinking that I can do something and won't regret it later. I try to stay strong, but then I need someone to be my emotional pillar for when I fuck up... every single time I fuck up. And for the longest time, I knew Nondis as the pillar I needed. But now he's taken by someone I can't even compete with in any capacity."

I tried my best to look at Rickey without that shame causing me to get physically sick.

"Rick. I can't even blame you anymore, I'm doing the same shit for a different man. I'm making the same mistakes for the off-chance that I'd win, knowing that I can't. And I'm afraid of doing this because I'll feel like I'm settling for second place. That's not a knock on you, it's just a glaring example of how I'm not any good for anyone like this."

A bright flash grabbed my attention. I glanced up to see him holding his phone in his wings. He then flipped the screen and showed the picture he took of me. "Have you ever heard of there being a prize in plain sight? Try looking in a mirror sometime."

"That's not me." I answered. "That's just a picture of a pony."

He put his phone aside and walked up to me, placing his hooves on my cheeks as he looked at me. "And she's you, this is your experience. And as cute as you look on that picture, I look at that like I would kill to make that cutie smile. I ain't gonna die for it now because I gotta make it into something I wanna die for later, it's an investment. I want to invest my time into you, I've known you for three years, been with you for one, we broke off for another, and that year of seeing you getting abused and ignored ain't sit with me, you know you're worth more than that. And I wanna show that to you, so let me invest in you, so I can make our lives a little richer." Once again, the magazine came down on his head. "Hey, what did I say this time?"

Kalimba twirled the magazine in her magical grasp. "What you said was fine, but you need to back away. Give her de space to make a decision."

He did as he was told and let go of my cheeks, but I started to feel strange about him not touching me after that. Some part of me still felt him, the warmth of his hooves against me. I couldn't help but to feel saddened that the warmth was no longer available. I cleared my throat and turned away. "So you got it for me that bad?"

Kalimba seemed as if she was ready to give me another whack upside the head, but was stopped before she could follow through. "Now it ain't that bad." He playfully denied, earning a bop to the nose from Kalimba. "But I can't see myself going past this month without trying. We have the time."

I pursed my lips and exhaled. "...I'm gonna need some time to think it over."

Rickey sighed heavily and smiled lightly as he replied to me. "I'm glad we can talk."

"I never rescinded the order for you to leave my room. I'm gonna need you to follow up on that." I answered.

He looked over to check the time. "So... breakfast maybe?"

I hopped out of my bed and started pushing him out of my room myself. "You know, you did good by addressing the reason why I was mad in the first place, but I never told you that you could walk your happy ass back over here like you're expecting a fucking parade. Out."

"Is that a yes?" He asked.

"No. I said I will think about it. Don't push me." I replied as I shoved him out of my room and through the hallway. "Speaking of which, what's your room number?"

"Three doors down from yours." He replied as I dragged him through the hall, stopping me before I could go any further than where we had gone. Turns out I was already at his room. I then waited for him to open his door to shove him inside.

I shoved him over to his bed and promptly walked out before speaking again. "We'll talk it over during lunch. No funny shit, no flirting." I announced. "Now beat your meat like you usually do and get some sleep already."

I closed the door and walked back over to my room. Kalimba stood outside of my room with a smirk on her face. "You know you are wrong for doing him like dat."

"He's my ex, not yours, you don't understand our thing." I replied as I started to close the door behind me, but not before addressing the zebra one final time. "...Thanks."

Kalimba rolled her eyes back at me as she closed my door. "You humans are odd."

The DuMoneé Estate Villa
Later That Morning...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

My eyes slowly fluttered open to see the sight of the room being bathed in the light of the sun. Ahead of me was the family portrait that remained there for some time. The room was not completely silent, but filled with the sound of Blue snoring quite loudly. I looked over to see her completely sprawled out wildly, including a hoof that reached over over my chest to hold me in place. Her head was partially buried in her pillow as a pool of drool formed on them from her slightly ajar mouth.

She seemed an entire league happier than what she was going to bed last night.

I was more surprised to tilt forward and see that Alabaster had taken a nearby loveseat. I looked down at myself, seeing the white bathrobe that had warmed me throughout the course of the night. I got out of the bed and walked into the bathroom to relieve myself. Upon entering, I noticed that there was an assortment of perfumes, colognes, and shampoos available for use. The master bath was quite expansive, taking the space of a large bedroom even. Within it held a walk-in shower capable of holding two occupants, a tub capable of holding the same, and a private commode space outfitted with a bidet. I took the moment to alleviate some overnight build-up and took to the sink to gather my appearance. While I did that, I started to hear the others in the bedroom stir.

Next I heard a voice elevate in volume, indicating something had happened. I quickly rushed out to see the servant Handy standing at the door. He urged to the two siblings to stay inside. "Sir, madame, please stay within the room. I assure you this is a matter that will soon be attended to."

Alabaster appeared more attentive than his sister, who seemed a lot more cranky than anything else. "Is there something wrong?" I asked the elderly butler.

"Captain, I need you to accompany me post-haste." He leaned in and whispered. "This is a sensitive matter I wish not to disturb the master and the mistress with. Please come and address the matter."

"Sensitive as in how?" I asked.

As I looked back, Alabaster seemed ready to charge out the room with me, but the butler continued to stress his request. "Sir, please remain in the room until the situation is addressed. This is a security breach and I cannot compromise your safety and well-being."

I glanced back to the two. "Alright, both of you hang back for a second while I see what's going on. I'll come get you after."

I walked out into the hall and watched as the servant slowly closed the door behind me. After that, he started to address me with a low voice. "I'm so terribly sorry to interrupt you this morning. But it seems there is a troubling matter that I wish to have you oversee."

"You said there's been a security breach. How the hell is there a security breach with four checkpoints of private security? This doesn't make sense to me. And weren't the checkpoints closed last night?"

"They close at eleven every night. No one can get in unless they have special permissions, in short you'd have to be a resident to get in. No others."

I shook my head as we walked towards the main stairs. "So you're telling me that it was someone who lived here on this side of the mountain that has that same permit? Who the hell would come in here with a permission like that?"

The butler brought out a cloth and placed at against his muzzle as he slowly turned to the issue. "...The late lord of the manor."

I started smelling the smell again. Not just the smell of something foul, but of decayed flesh. I turned and angrily cursed. "Fuck me if that isn't─"

My mind was petrified. Again, he was there. Count's body had been strung up on a rafter at the center of the foyer, facing the top of the stairs were we walked from. hung from his neck, he swayed lifelessly as the moans and creaks of the support structure above contrasted against the once peaceful silence of the manor. I covered my nose and looked over to the hallway where Alabaster and Blue started to leave the room. I pointed them out to Handy, who quickly galloped over and addressed the two. "Please, I ask that the both of you remain in the room until the issue is resolved!"

"Handy, what is going on?" I heard him ask as the sounds of the rope creaking started to drown out his voice. "You're not yourself this morning. Something must be wrong."

As I walked towards the center, I heard Blue's voice faintly address the butler. "Please tell us if something's wrong."

The butler tried to explain to them the importance of heeding his advice, a conversation my mind had tuned out while my eyes were locked to the decomposed stallion hanging from the ceiling. I walked down the stairs to see if there was anything else that could have showed evidence of a break in. Upon a brief search of the lower level, I confirmed that there was no sign of forced entry or even a trace of hoofprints that were coming from any of the windows outside. I walked to the front door and inspected the locks to see if there was anything that might give me evidence of it being tampered.

My entire body froze, almost as if someone had ran a block of ice down my spine. The whisper brought a shiver throughout my entire body as I quickly turned around to see if anyone was close to me. The only thing that seemed to remain was the sight of Count's body hanging above, still creaking and swaying. I looked back down and chalked that instance to my growing sense of paranoia. I closed my eyes and refocused myself to my job. "He's dead. His skin is bound to fall off his bones any day now. This is just some more of Umbra's bullshit, he's done this before." My eyes opened and I took a deep breath. And I went back to work, looking up at how I was going to get started.

...The entire body was turned my way.

The sounds of my own heartbeat drowned out any other sound aside from the creaking of the rope that held him in place. I quickly covered my mouth to hide a shriek of terror from leaving my lips and alerting the others. I quickly walked backwards, running my tail into the door. Hyperventilating into the hooves that tightly sealed my lips together, I tried and failed to mentally process what was taking place. I turned every way, bumping into a lot of things as I quickly walked along the walls and reached the stairs. Walking upwards, I found myself staring at his back instead of his face. Once I got to the top of the stairs, I started feeling my way to the hall I came from.

The chime of a grandfather clock startled me as I looked down to the floor below and back up, again seeing the body looking my way. At that point, I didn't care what I bumped into, I rain into the hallway and stood outside of the master bedroom. My hooves, my entire body trembled with fear as I tried to think of what I would do next. Rational thought had become a backseat process in contrast to looking for sanctuary inside of the bedroom. I knocked against the door repeatedly, still staring back down the hall, a walk that started seeming shorter and shorter to my mind. I kept my eyes on that opening, just banging at the door until someone offered to open it.

The door swung open to Alabaster, who appeared mortified over my frantic beating of the door. And he became even more concerned with how I pushed through him to get into the room, spin myself to the back of the door, and barricade it closed with my own body. I was short of breath while I slumped to the ground. "Christ almighty..."

The three other ponies in the room watched me as I sat in panic. Handy then walked over to me. "Sir, is it resolved?"

I leaned over and held a hoof over my mouth, trying not to scream or vomit. I just shook my head while shivering.

"Sir, please. I wish for you to have it resolved in some manner, I am in no way capable of addressing that outside of calling for security. You're the guard here."

"I can guard doors, a life, even a princess or a few." I turned to the servant. "That out there, not even with God as my witness can I do that... Not again."

"Again?" Alabaster questioned. "What did you do the last time?"

My entire body seized as I quickly summoned a shotgun. I took a sharp intake of air and hollered out to the knocking from behind the door. I pressed my back against he door and held my weapon tightly against my chest. "YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO RESPOND BEFORE I BLOW YOUR FUCKING ROTTING BRAINS TO THE WALL! YOU HEAR ME!?"

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

I didn't even skip a second of my cadence while transforming back into a human, giving me a lot more weight to throw against the door and more height to use to my advantage. The three ponies stared at me, mortified over the strained fearful expression on my face.

"NOW I'M FROM TEXAS! WE DON'T REALLY DO COUNTIN' LIKE WE S'POSED TO! SO YOU GOT TEN SECONDS, MOTHERFUCKER!!! TEN! NINE! EIGHT!" I pumped a shell into the shotgun and loaded the chamber. "THREE! TWO! ONE─"

"Nondis! It's me, Shining!"

I quickly opened the door and looked down to see the young prince standing at the door. "Holy shit! Say something sooner, you fucking asshole. I was seconds away from making your unborn kid an orphan."

"Prince Shining Armor?" Alabaster questioned as he walked beside me. "Sir prince, what are you doing here?"

Shining cocked the round out of my shotgun and explained his appearance. "Discord dropped a call to my phone, telling me that you needed an emergency drop-in. Considering what I saw on the way in, I'd see why you're so alert."

"Shining, these fuckers, I can't stand it!" I announced loudly, throwing my arms to the air. "I fucking increased security at the castle for this same goddamn reason!"

"I know." Shining said with a sympathetic sigh. "Just sit down and relax. We got this covered."

"Shining, he fucking looked at me!" I replied, still shaken about what happened earlier. "Shining, I fucking watched him die, I watched his head hit the pavement, I had to fucking scoop his brains to reassemble his face so I could I.D. the FUCKING BASTARD! Why him!? Why me!? WHAT DID I DO IN HIS LIFE OTHER THAN LIVE!?" I again slumped down to the floor. "Why this, why can't we just let the dead and gone stay that way?"

The group of ponies watched as I tilted my head back against the wide open door. Alabaster started walking into the hallway, quietly turning to the direction of the stairs. "Handy... Is my father out there?" He asked angrily.

Blue's face quickly went from being afraid of my reaction to being completely petrified as soon as Handy gave his answer. "I am so sorry, sir. He is waiting in the foyer."

The mare started to panic as she collapsed to the ground, growing short on being able to breathe. Alabaster quickly ran to his sister to comfort her. Shining then told them the truth. "It's not the only time. A prankster who left his name as 'Ummie' signed a letter to Nondis last Friday morning. They left him in a pop-up gag coffin in an apartment located in Nondis' home world. This is our second time seeing him out like this, much less smelling him."

Alabaster clamped down on his sister, holding her as she squirmed in a panic. As she whimpered and shrieked, I turned away from the two as they had the chance to mentally digest what was going on. Meanwhile, I looked towards the curtains on the master bedroom window and snatched them down with my magic. In seconds of watching the two adjust to the pain and humiliation of having their father's body exposed after his death, I went from being unable to do much of anything but act in violence, to snapping back into action. I grabbed the curtain and walked out of the room.

As soon as I walked out to the staircase, I used my magic to throw the curtain over Count's body and wrap him to where I couldn't see his face anymore. After that, I casted a simple magic bolt to cut the rope and slowly levitate the body down to the floor. From there, I quietly reloaded my shotgun and aimed it at him to make sure there was no other surprises. I called up to the young prince. "Shining! What's the ETA for pickup?"

"I broke protocol getting through to here! So it'll be another twenty minutes after the permits follow through for anypony else!"

I covered my nose with my hand and shouted back. "Make it five if you can!"

Thirty Minutes Later...

The start of our Saturday had already been off to a rough start, for me it was watching over the body and having to adjust to the smell of death, enough to where it couldn't immediately turn my stomach inside out. I found myself humming a lot to keep it all down, at least to distract my mind with something else other than the smell. When the other guards got in, they quickly went to work on investigating the scene. While I and others had already identified the body, they sought to have a family member identify it for security purposes. Handy had to relocate Blue to another room on the east wing of the home, at least until she had calmed down. That left Alabaster to step up to the plate.

All processes were completed, and he made a request for the body to be cremated instead of reburied. The coroner filled out his request and had it sent for processing. From there, the small crew of guards did their thing while I walked off to another part of the house where the scent of pumpkin spice wasn't corrupt with the odor of rotten flesh. Alabaster paced back and forth outside of the room where Handy and Blue had been inside of for the past half hour.

As soon as I arrived, I had to ask. "How is she?"

"She's not taking it well." He announced with a grim tone. "We had the idea of burying him next to our mother, just so his spirit could suffer with the idea of being next to her. Turns out he hated her so much that he magically got up and walked over here to make a complaint. Typical of him to leave her alone."

My mind started to go back to last night, as I was looking at the pictures of the family's progression. There was a firm theme throughout his photos with the exception of a few. "I know this is a sensitive topic, but why did he hate her so much?"

"He hated my mother because she wasn't pretty, because she wasn't what he wanted."

"That's it?" I asked, seeing the explanation as rather shallow.

He went further in his explanation. "Their marriage was one of convenience. My uncle told me that he and my mom were arranged when he was twelve. Apparently my grandmother on my father's side was left with all the decision making after her husband passed away. The business started to belly-up after his death, and then on the verge of complete financial ruin after that."

"So your mom and dad were married to save his family's business? Why wouldn't he be happy with something like that? He gets to keep his company and he walks away richer." I stated.

"My grandmother was never kind to the idea of letting their lifelong investment go to waste. So she tried to marry my father off while her health had worsened. She felt if she died before establishing him the position, their hard work would die with them, leaving the family disgraced and bankrupt. She had fought through lymphoma, he wanted to be free to do what he pleased."

"Kinda rough to be losing both your parents at twelve." I thought aloud.

"My grandmother was said to be physically abusive to him when he disobeyed." He then added.

"Oh... well I guess that explains his abusive tendencies then." I noted. "Still doesn't explain why he had to take that out on you and your sister."

"There's never a reason." Alabaster continued with his explanation. "To hurry along the business transaction, he was also signed off to be adopted into my mother's family. She was already twenty at the time, but she was never seen as a fair catch for many stallions, few approached her for anything outside of money."

...Well that's an age gap. "So, your dad got married to a grown adult, for the sake of saving his family business."

"He got adopted into her family at that age. He got married to her three years later." He explained, still not making the circumstances look any better than they were. "The reason it was so soon was because my grandmother's health had began to fail. So she made it her final wish to see her son being married in the effort to save their business. But instead of that happening, my mother presented the idea of merging the businesses to create a monopoly on real estate and construction."

"And with a kind smile and a good heart, she had your grandmother sign her life's work over to her." I concluded.

"Hence why she forced the marriage. She knew that if it would come out that way, it would've saved their construction business. And so, my father was married off at fifteen, his fidelity forcefully sowed into a mare he too saw as ugly." Alabaster took out his father's pocket watch to glance at a picture of him in his younger days. "She tried to make the best of it for him, doing whatever she could to make him happy while ignoring the choice of forcing him to comply to his oath. She let him do whatever he wanted."

"I can imagine that didn't look too good to investors." I added.

"It didn't. She had to inevitably make the choice of letting him do what he wanted in public view, soothing the ire of investors by forcing him to play his role as her husband, or compromise in keeping things quarantined to their private life behind closed doors. So she made the decision to do just that, keeping him happy to keep him around. She built for him a grand playhouse, a place to fraternize with all the private maids he could while keeping him confined to home." He then looked up to the rafters of the hallway we stood in. "This is the playhouse she made for him. She let him live the wild, loose life he wanted, and she could live the semblance of the life she wanted to a degree. She could never say she was alone, she just wanted the company of another."

"I can imagine that your mom wasn't too thrilled to be pushed away the entire time." I stated.

"You're not wrong there." He said with a smirk. "Mom watched as the years went by, she watched him grow into an adult, but started to force herself into the picture more and more, ultimately to remind him that he was married. He didn't like that too much and cut her a deal. If he gave her what she wanted, she'd leave him alone. And they consummated their marriage eight years after their union... guess what else they got out of the deal?"

"You." I answered.

"The maids started to dwindle after seeing how my mother was neglected after that. They knew she was with foal, and he still sought after them like a rabid sex-crazed colt. So more of them resigned after a while, the house grew emptier, and sometime after that, I was born. From what my uncle told me, he started spending less time with mares and more time studying magic. He then started attending advanced courses for a degree in magic studies. Then he came home to flirt with some mares, take me around the castle to woo some of the younger maids, had his fun with them, and immediately went to raising me away from my mom."

"And she wanted to be in the picture." I summarized.

"She knew what my father was doing, and she didn't like it. So they fought for years over that, and the maid numbers continued to drop as I got older. At a certain point, I started to see mom get hurt more and more, and I slowly began to identify the source of her hurt. So I stuck up for mom more, and he backed off of me some more as mom and I started to bond. But she quietly came up with another compromise in her mind to where she could have someone of her own to bond with, to at least not have as much friction with my father. From there, you can already guess where that's heading."

"Blue came into the picture."

"He never accepted Blue as his daughter because of the way she came to be. In fact, as soon as he pieced it all together, he fired every maid from the home, leaving just the four of us in what was once considered his personal playhouse. And so it became a family estate."

I looked back to the direction where I had walked from. "Well that's a lot to adjust to, I'm sure. So this was pretty much the Playboy Mansion converted to a family villa. Make me wonder about the other rooms in this house, what stories they hold."

"Very few wholesome memories, I can tell you that." He said as he sat himself in front of the door. "To this day, I still don't know what it was that made my mother snap and see him as a monster. All I knew was that I came home to her being her usual self, to being highly protective of both of us. We went to school the next day, and we never saw home again."

"Because your mom committed suicide." I answered. "Blue told me that you both went to a park to play after school in the Fringe District. But instead of seeing your parents, you saw your aunt and uncle. The rest is history."

"Blue could never stop crying when they told her she and I were going to be separated for a while. My uncle told me it was to keep us safe, to give my father as little of a chance to use us for our inheritance."

I looked back over to the room Blue was being held inside of. "Poor girl doesn't deserve any of this."

Alabaster's eyes narrowed as he started to get lost in thought. "The only thing she did was draw breath in our mother's hooves." He stamped his hoof into the ground, loudly cracking a floorboard beneath him. "Damn you, Umbra. Blue did nothing for this."

"It wasn't for her. It was for me." I explained.

"It was for all of us." He replied. "I helped you escape, Blue tried to hide you away from him, and you're just merely his appetizer of the month. I have no place to blame you." He looked at me with a stern scowl on his face. "You are more than welcome to this estate. Anything you desire, it is yours. Information of my father's past, his crimes, his account records, his history, I give it to you willingly as my apology for this."

"You guys gave me more than enough already─"

"No... we didn't." He said as he summoned a scroll with a blue ribbon set on the middle. "This here is your ticket. Up to code, signed with my own signature. A permit for search and seizure of District 3. I suggest you take this and have either Princess Celestia or Princess Luna sign on it. From there, start your flush on Sunday evening, that's when the newer shipment of illegal goods start coming through. And for bonus points, Umbra will be nowhere around there to hype up his entourage. Hit them quick and hard from all sides."

I started to look at the scroll before Alabaster used his magic to shove it into my shirt. "Don't you let ANYPONY other than you or a high princess see that. They see that with you, we're both are going to be strung up in the town square, more likely upside down without our heads and cutie marks. And we will both live our existence as mere soccer balls for him and his goonies to kick around. Have I made myself clear?" He whispered.

I stuffed it in the inside pocket of my coat and nodded. "Crystal."

After our assessment of the scene was complete, I escorted Blue back to her place of residence. She didn't say anything to me, only walking closely against me for comfort. When we arrived, she turned around and looked up to me with sadness. I simply turned around, not having anything to say to her outside of 'Have a good day'. And I couldn't even say that with a clear conscience.

So I returned to the security of the castle, noting that the halls were quite busy with many maintenance crews and planners pointing a number of decorations to other places. Banners held high to the top of the pillars above were festive and lively, a stark contrast to the morbid discovery of my morning. Windows colored with stained glass depicted moments of national saviors were the backdrop to the journey to my room. Beasts so great and deadly that could turn the world upside down being bested by a purple mare and her five friends, a swarm of invaders batted away by aura born from the love of a guard and his princess, a young dragon standing with his hand stretched to hold a heaert banishing the sprawling shadows to the ether.

And yet, the only thing that hangs as a testament to my works is the corpse of my enemy staring back at me.

Even as I shut the door to my room, plugging my phone into a charger, my mind paused and replayed the moment I turned around to find Count staring at me from high above. The silence of my room was the symphony of the precursor, the opening movement of the rope that creaked in defiance of the opening measures of rest. No defined time signature, the measure seemed endless, until the chiming of the grandfather clock ushered in the next movement, the marked measure where the tempo accelerates until the darkness of the mind swallows the backdrop, leaving the body to swing with the face smiling back at me as if he was dancing majestically on that rope. 'Join me.' He would say, swaying to the silence, almost asking me to embrace the absence of the mortal coil.

My brain was overloaded on paranoia and unease. The scroll that remained on my person started to feel cold in contrast to the shirt I wore. I quietly reached inside to beg the moment of discovering what was written on it. Not as a curiosity, but as a distraction, the possible glimmer of hope being bound in that blue ribbon.

But even the sounds of those walking outside caused me to instinctively hide the letter. I lowered my head, relieved.

A knock came to my door, I straightened my appearance the best I could on such short notice and answered to see a guard standing at attention with another scroll in tow. He looked up to me and saluted as he expected me to take the scroll from him. I cleared my voice and ordered firmly. "Report."

"Captain, these are orders from the higher ups in the office. They want you to oversee, in close spectacle, the security for tonight's event." He said without skipping a beat. "You are to report on castle grounds security measures in the area and act in surveillance to maintain the safety of the princess."

I stealthily levitated my phone to my back pocket. "Sir, with all due respect, tell my higher-ups that I've already monitored the grounds and will continue to do so while in the comfort of my own quarters."

"But sir, that would not be ideal as it isn't anywhere as efficient as─"

I pulled out my phone and immediately started looking at random checkpoints to sustain my argument. "There are five guards at main checkpoint, there are seven in garden, there are thirty-six in the main hall, two at the door of the ballroom, there are three officers and one non-commanding officer at post in the barracks, those four being Colonel Crackdown, First Lieutenant High Tail, Colonel Quest, and Sergeant Major Solemn Oath. Precious Cargo is stationed in royal antechamber to the ballroom discussing matters with other guards in present. Precious Load is located to northeast tower on overlook duty. Pristine Baggage is en route to his quarters. Pristine Salvage is reporting to main checkpoint right now. And Precious Carrier is quarantined to her chambers for sensitivity."

The guard's jaw dropped as I informed him of exactly where everyone was stationed in the castle.

"Tell my higher-ups that I'm doing what they're asking me to do in spades, and I am not to be disturbed until the conclusion of these matters have been decided by the attending princess herself."

"But sir, Princess Twilight is set to attend with her friends." He stated, trying to urge me to reconsider.

"Precious Treaty will be observed and well-cared-for. Now are there any other concerns?" I asked sternly.

"I'll inform command." He replied with a bow.

"Very good. Carry on." I said before closing my door and looking back behind me, still feeling a cold chill crawl down my spine. I looked around my room and started looking for any place I could use to hide a scroll until the time I could summon for it. In the midst of my thought process, I began to pop open my message feed, seeing that Rarity had sent me another voice message.

"Hello, darling. I know tonight's going to be a bit of a stretch for the both of us as you have your own duties to attend to. But I have a simple request. Would you be a dear and become my escort for the Gala tonight?"

As much as I would love the distraction, I had to think about my duties and how I had just told command that my method was superior than just standing pat in a room full of ponies that felt either way about me. I had to be on lookout for anything that was here. Not to mention the scroll Alabaster gave me is supposed to be of some importance, so I had that to look after as well.

"Sorry, Rarity. I'm on surveillance tonight, so I can't get around to you guys." I replied in a voice text and sent it over to her. I placed my phone back on the charger and got back to monitoring the halls. Once I got started, I noticed a group of pony musicians gathering in the hall, cooks getting their final deliveries for the evening, and servers getting their last sequence or regular orders before prepping for the main event.

If my day can be just as boring and eventless as last Saturday throughout, I'll barely even let this morning distract me.

Time crawled throughout the day, instances of paranoia flared up when I went off to do other things like use the bathroom and reach under my bed for anything of use. As long as there wasn't a screen or two in front of me, I realized there was very little to worry about. The castle was outfitted with thermal motion sensors and high-definition infrared cameras. A good portion of the features were locked on standby because I didn't want to deal with the constant notifications telling me that something was moving in a room or hall that would be frequented by guards or guests.

But the portal room was something I had set a particular way. The alarm was set to stay-mode, arming every bit of the place for the event that anyone would come through or try to sneak over without my explicit permission would be welcomed with a blaring alarm sure to alert the guards in the vicinity. And if anything so much as moved in there, alarm goes off.

Sure enough, the guests started to pour in and the staff got busy. Kitchen was booming with chefs cooking up their meals, maids and butlers were graciously escorting guests to the main hall, checkpoint was thoroughly secured with the guests queued up for entry, tickets were checked and verified, Celestia was secure in her lovely new dress, and Twilight appeared with her friends ready to have a good time. But also along with them were some unexpected guests. It's typical to see Twilight with Spike, but I never thought I would be seeing Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo here as well. In a shocking turn of events, Fluttershy was accompanied by a green pony with sunset orange dreadlocks. Discord came with a... blob... I guess. Pinkie came with her eldest sister, I haven't seen Maud in a while.

Also in faces I weren't expecting to see, Alabaster made an appearance to the gala, as well as Kalimba's father. But he seemed to be accompanied by a pompous mare holding a pair of spectacles to her face and a black frilly fan. In time, yet another unexpected guest also appeared in the room. Blue, who wore a gripping cream colored dress, weaved her way through the crowd to reach her brother's side. The both of them appeared to remain upbeat in their interactions with the other guests. Blue was even smiling, doing her best to keep a brave front. Alabaster probably had ample experience in performing under personal stress because he looked completely unaffected.

I can only wonder what they spoke about.

Gala Ballroom...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melaine***

Today, I wasn't really expecting anything outside of a simple lunch with Rick. Turns out that the princess had other plans for us. By noon, a letter had dropped in my P.O. Box with three golden tickets in the mail. So I did what the letter instructed me to do, grab myself a dress before the boutique closed down, get the guys fitted up, and ride the train to Canterlot. From there, we had to make our way to the castle, show our tickets, and get into the big dance.

As soon as the three of us arrived, I knew we were outclassed. I wore a simple yellow spaghetti gown, the guys just wore standard tuxedo tops. And here's everyone in the place wearing decorative pieces, cufflinks, frilly dresses, and even small elegant headdresses. My mane was a basic do-over to at least look presentable in public, theirs look like they spent half the day with a sculptor trying to replicate famous artistic pieces from a good three centuries back.

Guess we didn't get the memo of how dolled up we were supposed to be.

Cliff stood back as a blue mare wearing a cream-colored dress walked by us. "Oh shit, I didn't know we were invited to the damn rich people ball."

"I don't think any of us were." Rickey said under his breath.

"At least you two look passable. I'm far too basic for this shit!" I said as I glanced around, looking for a bathroom to use. "Fuck, I need an emergency operation, my kitchen's full of fast food and I'm supposed to look like a four star restaurant."

"Hey, some people like fast food." Cliff snickered as he joked at my expense.

"Funny." I grumbled back at him. "Now where's the nearest bathroom? I need to get this shit looking like a three star at least."

Rickey walked up to me and tried his best to reassure me of my appearance. "Mel─" He then got nudged by Cliff to remind him of our names. He promptly adjusted. "Cherry, come on. Not everyone's got their mane looking like the Eiffel Tower, look over to Princess Celestia, she's done nothing with her mane."

"You're comparing a low-born one-star fast food joint to a five-star bistro in the middle of Dubai. And do you see that fucking dress!? Her cutie marks all over that shit, she's got the gold accessories, and then the slippers and tiara to boot. And look at that rose sash, I'm a whole cheap meal looking for a welfare case right now, I can't do this. My hair requires an emergency operation, stat."

As I stormed off, I could hear Rickey call back to me. "Hey, try not to overdo it!"

I didn't pay him any mind while I walked out of the room and questioned a nearby guard for directions to the nearest bathroom. He pointed down the hall and I quickly found myself in one standing in front of a large mirror. As I leaned in, I subconsciously started scoping out a lot of flaws in my appearance. The main one was my mane, it was far too simplistic. I had to at least try to do a little something with it, but hooves made it a lot harder than I wanted it to be. I began to get frustrated and began to look at myself in defeat.

Even as a pony, I couldn't even stack up to her.

A mare walked into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her, breathing heavily as she shivered. She quickly noticed that I was in there with her and immediately perked up to form. "Oh, hi there. I didn't see you standing around."

I looked at myself in the mirror and still felt dismay over my appearance. "I guess I'm not the only one struggling with myself."

The mare walked up to me and kept up her facade as she glanced over my mane. "Let me guess, guy you like is here and you wanna make a good impression?"

I glanced back at her. "More like I just wanna make a good impression. I hate being an earth pony sometimes."

"Why? Unicorns have some of the worst hair to deal with. Split ends, magic can singe your mane and cause it to dry out if you overcast a spell, and then it's just so high maintenance." Without my even asking, she started digging into my mane. She began to swirl and adjust my mane with two of her own hair prongs. She smiled and hummed to herself as I watched her slowly change my appearance for the better. "Now the most style-able mane I've always seen belongs to pegasi. Their manes stay in the wind, so it's strong, it grows really long, it's got volume, and it's extremely malleable. You earth ponies got the best of both worlds, if you ask me. It's much better to be able to get angry and not have wild strands making you look like a distraught puppy."

While she nursed my mane to standard, I asked her about her unusual entrance. "You seem like you're going through a bit, the way you came in was like you ran into someone you didn't wanna see. So is everything okay for you?"

"My stress is from a private issue. No sense in boring you with that when we've got a gala to attend. Gotta keep that smile bright and cheery for the masses."

"But isn't it painful to try and hide away like that?" I asked.

"Aren't you the one trying to hide away in a bathroom to get your mane done instead of fraternising with the populous?" She questioned back at me. "At least your issue can be turned around, inside out, and set in place to look pretty enough for whoever you're trying to please."

"I know it's not healthy for you to lock yourself in here like you're terrified of something. Maybe you need a bubble buddy to keep you up for tonight." I suggested.

"I kinda already have that." She said as she did the finishing touches of my mane. "My big brother's pretty good at protecting me."

"Won't he be distracted by a lot tonight? I mean you can look around and see a lot of influence around here."

"...It's hard when someone gets his attention. He's pretty important to a lot of the operations around here. It'll be easy for me to wander off and not have anyone I can trust to look after me. And don't let anyone tell you that money can buy you happiness." She warned as she finished. "There, all set." I looked up to see the mare clear herself away from my head. I looked up to see my mane pulled back. I turned around to see what she had done. But upon a better look, I started to see my mane done in a small rose before being pinned together with a single pin decorated with white flowers. The rest of my mane cascaded down my back. She looked at her own mane and another idea popped up in her brain. "Oh, one more thing!"

Immediately, she grabbed a white hair clip from within her mane and used it to clip one side of my mane back while the other side curled slightly over my right eye and back down to my side. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw the stylish mare staring back at me. She looked beautiful, as did the mare who started adjusting her own mane in the process. She soon finished with her own reconfigurations. In seconds, we looked like a pair of discolored twins, our manes fashioned to the opposite sides. She had freckles of her own, just like me.

"I guess we'll have to deal with this for tonight." She said quietly.

"You're amazing." I said with earnest praise. "How do I even begin to thank you?"

"Just go out there and be beautiful." She said as she summoned a pouch filled with her make up. "Yours will hold up a lot better than mine."

I looked at the mare and smiled. "What's your name?"

"Nopony important." She replied. "I just did a thing out of good will."

I smirked and stood beside her. "I think if we go out together, we would be the best not-twins out there. So how about it, we can go out and make the night better for each other. I have two other friends with me, at least one of them can keep you company while we're out having fun. At least then you won't have to worry about losing sight of your brother."

She appeared uncertain of my request. "Hmm, you do have a point." But she then turned to me and grabbed my hooves. "Okay, if the three of you can introduce yourselves to my brother, I think I can live with the idea of being paired up for the evening."

"As long as we get your brother's blessing? That's fair." I replied. "My name's Cherry, Cherry Balm."

She smiled as she moved a thin strand of her mane out of her eye. "Blue. Blue Royal."

"That's such a pretty name."

"My mother gave it to me." She replied as she started to look behind her. Her eyes bulged for a second before she quickly walked to the door, waiting for me to join her. "Let's try to get a move-on. I'm sure the others are wondering about you."

"Sure thing."

When we walked out of the bathroom, I couldn't help but notice a few heads turn our way. The mare walked beside me, looking all around her while she kept up with my pace. It was almost as if others who were standing pat, those like the guards, had kept more of an interest in me. It was a stark contrast to how I walked in, where everyone around didn't even pay any mind to how I looked, like I wasn't worth the glance. But now I felt confident about myself, like I could really get the attention of anyone who's in the room.

And of course, the boys took notice of my sudden change in appearance. "Yo!" Cliff announced with a hoof to the head.

Meanwhile Rick was stuck in stare. "Holy Christ."

I looked down at myself, tilting my dress and giving them a twirl. "Can't do much about the dress, but I feel a lot better."

"You look a lot better." Rickey said as he became lost in my appearance, but in a split second his attention was grabbed by the one who walked up behind me. "Who's the twin?"

"This is Blue, she helped me with my hair in the bathroom." I said, scooching over and formally introducing her to the two. "Blue, these are my friends Cliff and Rickey. Shea doesn't seem to be locked down to anyone, so he's also a great option to bubble with tonight."

Cliff bowed with a polite nod. "Nice to meet you, ma'am."

"Charmed to meet you as well." She returned the gesture.

Rick was still lost in my appearance before he finally caught on to what I said. "Me─I uh... Cherry, um... what do you mean by bubble?"

"Right, so hear me out." I started to explain. "Somepony she doesn't like is hunting around for her. So you're gonna need to be Mr. Right for the evening." I said, tapping Cliff on the chest.

Blue raised a hoof to interrupt. "Um, I propose that we meet with my brother before we continue."

"You're running from your bro?" Cliff asked.

"No, her brother's busy with all the usual dinner party things." I quickly clarified.

"So what does your brother do where he's too busy for you?" Rickey questioned.

"He's a member of city council." She said with an eye roll.

Cliff immediately caught on and nodded in agreement. "Oh, okay. I guess something like that could be an on-the-job kind of deal, keep up with appearances, take pictures, network, all that good stuff. So yeah, let's see if we can link up with him and talk."

The two started walking forward to the ballroom. Meanwhile, Rick tugged on my dress and whispered over to me. "Hey, Cherry, can we talk?"

"Okay, what's wrong?" I asked him, seeing that he was already skeptical of what we were doing.

"Why are we going to talk with her brother and for what reason do we need to do that?"

"I told you already, some guy around here is lurking like a shark. It's making her feel uncomfortable. If we tell her brother what we plan on doing and how she's going about the rest of the night, maybe it'll make her time here a little better. Plus she fixed my hair, so this is my favor back."

Seeing how we were falling behind, we both got off to a trot to keep up. "I don't wanna tell you how to repay a favor, but something about this screams to me that we shouldn't get involved."

I turned to him and stressed my reasoning. "If you saw her face when she hid in that bathroom, you'd do it too. Hell, you'd be even quicker to jump in if I was in that position."

He glanced ahead, seeing the two presenting their tickets to the security. "Still..."

I tapped him on his head lightly. "Girl's intuition, something's wrong at the bar, you get involved so that the creep doesn't do some shit to hurt her. Doesn't matter the scene, same rules apply. C'mon, just play along with me for once."

Rick sighed in resignation. "You're lucky I like you."

"Then like me enough to trust me." I replied back as I pulled out our tickets for the security.

They checked our tickets and made way for our entry into the grandiose-looking ballroom. Walking in from the antechamber, we were overwhelmed with the sight of what I could bravely consider high society. There were pristine ice sculptures of ballerina ponies extending their hooves out to the viewer while servants in the back poured a ladle of punch into the head, watching the drink flow through the carefully cut ridges and come out from the bottom to a spout made of ice. Cooks were waiting on another table, offering tiny morsels to the guests. The musicians at the corner were playing their classical pieces to the tune of a few waltzes.

While we entered, we saw Cliff being led to an off-white stallion with a honey and cantaloupe orange mane wearing a white tux with black accents. On his chest was a blue sigil with a stamp with the shadow of Canterlot's skyline being the backdrop. He turned his head to see the blue mare approach him.

"Ah, Blue! I've been looking everywhere for you. Last I looked, you just ran out of the room. Is everything alright?"

"I'm much better now." She replied before pointing to the three of us. "Alabaster, I would like for you to meet these three ponies tonight. Cherry Balm, Strapping Lad, and Cocoa Shea. They're going to be my association for the evening."

The stallion looked at all three of us with uncertainty, starting off with Cliff. "Hmm... I see that you have a flier's build. Very well then." He swapped his attention to Rick. "Hmm... I see that you don't fly too often, and I noticed that the two of you are wearing the same outfit. This must be your first Gala. I take it you were given a special invitation."

Rickey tried his best to keep himself suppressed. "Yes, I was invited. Thank you. It's a pleasure to meet with you after a conversation with your lovely sister, she's so kind."

"That she is." He replied as he turned his attention to me, levitating my hoof to him. "Though I can't help that my sister has changed her manestyle to match yours. Must I ask, where did you two meet?"

"We... met in the washroom." I replied nervously. "I saw that she was worried for something, and I wanted to do what I could to help her get comfortable. She looked pretty terrified, I looked a hot mess, so we've offered to trade favors."

The stallion's approach seemed to subtly change as I explained myself. "A kindhearted mare you are, to observe someone else's troubles and step in. It's truly admirable." He then kissed my hoof with a bow. "My lady, you have my gratitude for caring to my sister's well-being."

I laughed lightly as I took a quick glance to Rick, who was not happy with what was going on. "It's no problem. You're quite the enchanter yourself."

"Well, milady, Charm is my second name." He said, glancing down to his button. Looking down, I read the words 'Alabaster Charm, City Council Representative of District 3'. He let go of my hoof and questioned me. "Now is there anything I can do for you, a payment for taking my sister along with you and your friends today?"

Blue stepped in. "You should let me repay them personally. I don't think it's fair to pawn off your own sister."

Alabaster chuckled at her statement. "I wouldn't dare dream it, you're the one with the goods after all."

As the conversation went on, I noticed that Rick's eyes had expanded and he quickly tapped Cliff on the shoulder. Cliff took a glance at the two and his eyes did the same. Before I knew it, Blue was directing her conversation to me. "I am looking forward to spending time with you and your friends this evening. Or as you say it, bubbling together?"

"Yes. Total bubble buddies for tonight." I said while her brother smiled at me.

"I am in debt to you, miss Cherry." He bowed to me and offered me a business card. "If you ever need a favor, I'm happy to oblige one."

"You're so sweet." I replied as Blue quickly trotted over to grab Rick and walk him over to the punch bowl. "And they're off to the races, guess I better catch up."

"Don't fall behind. Blue's like the wind at these kind of gatherings. Don't be afraid to reach out if need be."

As I caught up with the others, Cliff had hung back a bit to tap on me. "Yo, we need to talk."

"About what?" I asked.

As we approached the bowl, I noticed that she was looking a lot better while Rickey was appearing really nervous. Cliff pointed to Blue. "So you notice anything familiar with that mare?"

"What about her?"

He started speaking in a low voice. "Nothing at all, not even on Twitter?"

"Why would she be on Twitter, she's a pony. Ponies don't have phones... except Twilight and Shining." I argued.

"No, but you know who does have a Twitter account? Nondis."

"Okay, and?" I asked.

"She's on his Twitter feed." He replied as he watched the two interact with one another.

I shook my head in denial. "How the hell is she on his feed? He doesn't post ponies on his timeline except that one..." In time, my mind began to piece together what he was talking about. I started to think back to the one Twitter post where Alex posted the comment 'when you see it.' This time I saw it, and I was close to shitting bricks. "No fucking way."

"So what Rickey was telling me, we might've ran into both the son and the daughter. Your take?"

I glanced back to see the pony named Alabaster speaking with another member of high society. In doing so, I watched with caution over the two's interaction. The both came closer with Blue being the main one speaking. "So I know that I'm pretty much an outlier to you guys, but I want you all to know that I'm willing to go for whatever you want to do tonight."

Much like a soldier watching a grenade land on the ground before them, Cliff dived on top to take the shrapnel. "Actually, we could make tonight a double date."

The blue mare blushed. "A date?"

Rickey joined in. "Yeah. Cherry is supposed to be my date for the evening. We're gonna try to make the best out of this night, she got a little nervous about the others here and how she looked. That's why she ran to the bathroom so quick. Sorry to get you mixed up in all of this."

"No, that's fine!" She said, adjusting her mane from over her eyes. "I'm completely open to the idea of dating for the night. But, why a third wheel?" She glanced over to Cliff.

"I got a ticket too, but we didn't have a fourth. So I just thought to tag around until things got advanced between the other two."

The mare paused for a moment, turned to me with a snicker, and quickly ran up to me. "Well if this is a double date..." She then grabbed my foreleg and playfully nuzzled me. "Then she's my date."

"What!?" Both the guys yelped out.

"Sorry, guys. I'll take my chances with the strong earth pony girl. It's not that you both aren't strong enough, she's just stronger than you." She announced playfully.

Rick stammered through his words as he pleaded for her to reconsider. "H-Hey, um. I kinda wanted to talk to my─"

"A real special somepony knows how to wait his turn." She said with a giggle. "Sorry, guys. Rule of the Gala states that we ask for one dance before coughing up."

"Is that really a rule?" I asked.

"No, but it is a courtesy in this society." She quickly yanked me along for the ride, escorting me to the outside patio. "Later, boys!"

Rickey stood with his jaw agape, Cliff shook his head. "That's seriously his daughter... That son of a bitch who wound up in Cherry's apartment, that's his daughter."

Rickey rubbed his head with a feather from wing. "Did my date seriously just get cancelled?"

Cliff shook his head and patted Rick on the back. "Hey, if shit worked out for Nondis and his girl on New Year's, it'll probably work out for you."

"I hope so." He replied with a dejected sigh. "Maybe you're right. I'm probably just overthinking."

"Overthinking is a characteristic of hesitation." The two turned around to see the off-white stallion approaching between the two of them, reaching his hooves out to both of their shoulders. "It's also a preceding habit of procrastination and a show of insecurity. Maybe she'll get to respect you a little more if you start to trust your gut more often. The first step of commitment is to decide with prejudice."

"I bet you're a real ladies guy." Rickey said with a fake smirk, his mind on how flirty he was with his date.

"I can be confident in my approach, just as long as I don't come off as chauvinistic." He replied casually with a nudge towards Cliff. "You guys are looking quite lost here. Can't just sit around and look at the walls, mingle a bit, make a few connections, network and gain some association. That's the true purpose of the Gala."

"Kinda looks like a high-class ball to me." Rickey replied.

"You think it's like that until you realize that it's more for corporate purposes. My sister attends these a lot more than I do sometimes. I'm more susceptible to leaving early because these kinds of gatherings are only good for touching basis with a few donors for my next campaign. I won't be up for reelection till three years from now."

"Well we're from Ponyville, I don't think we have much of a need to do anything like that. We're just happy to be here." Cliff replied.

He then pointed across the room and aimed his hoof at a particular group of ponies. "Look over there." He suggested. "Now that yellow one, she's an element bearer. Shy, timid, and very much the recluse she is, there's no stopping her from engaging with some of the animal conservationists groups present." He pointed another direction. "See that one? She's as out of place as you can possibly get, even brought her younger sister along. But she's eager to talk about her concerns for agriculture and her views of conserving the practice of hard work over mass industrialization. Also an element bearer." He then pointed to another pony. "Military aspirations to gradually climb the ranks, element bearer." And then another. "Aspirations to expand her business into an aesthetic powerhouse, element bearer." And yet another. "Booking her engagements with some of her clients up to five years in advance, element bearer." And finally to one of the princesses. "Need I say more?"

"Okay, we get it." Stated Rickey with a slightly annoyed tone. "Mingle with the crowd."

"Even if you don't belong, find someplace where you can play the part." He hunched us both in closer as he said in a lower voice. "Between us three, it'll help you be a lot less obvious to your being new around here. Everyone is watching you."

The both of us slowly turned our head to the stallion.

Alabaster smirked as he broke off from the both of us and trotted off. "Enjoy the double-date, boys."

Meanwhile...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

My night continued to be quiet, often filled with the whirring of the fans from the monitoring system. And of course with my growing sense of paranoia, every light was burning brightly in the room to give my mind a better sense of security. I had some comforting music playing on a bluetooth speaker, running in background while I went between the monitors and my phone. My feed was locked to the main ballroom, seeing how everyone was doing and what all was going on.

From what I was gathering, I saw that some of the guests were having an issue with the green blob Discord had brought in. I was primarily focused on what would develop with that slime creature as opposed to the other auxiliaries like the halls and corridors leading around the castle. Thankfully, I had a means to communicate with the guards on ground level. I was given a crystal orb, similar to the one Shining would often carry. As soon as I got a hold of someone, I told them to give me a sitrep. The orders were to allow the development to proceed, as issued directly from Celestia herself.

That honestly didn't sit well with me.

I immediately pulled up Instagram and shot her a brief message asking her about the situation. She never answered, as she was too busy tending to the ball. But that didn't stop her from sitting back with a nonchalant look on her face, watching the mess get even messier. However, this ball was also filled with a lot of politicians who she wasn't exactly aligned with. And knowing her, she's probably having a fit of 'curiosity' in seeing how all of this pans out.

Still, a job is a job. And I had to intervene in some manner. I couldn't just let this happen without my getting involved, the other officers would throw a fit if I didn't show some dissent to the issue. I started to gather my things and measure out my approach on how I was going to combat this issue, especially since gunfire wouldn't be advisable for the situation. I looked around one last time, noting what's in place and not. I even took a moment to hide the scroll Alabaster had given me earlier today. After that, it was time for me to make my move.

MOTION DETECTED: PORTAL ROOM

I immediately froze in place, as the notification went off again, this one from a second motion detector.

I snapped my phone up to my face, quickly swapping the feed of the ballroom to the portal room instead. I saw nothing in the night-vision feed. I swapped over to thermal feed to make sure that there was nothing in there. But as soon as the imagery flipped over, I saw three signatures congregating around the portal, all ponies. One of them whirled their foreleg to notify the others that they found the portal they wanted to go through. And judging from the angle, they had chosen the one that went directly to Mel's apartment.

It didn't take a second thought to convince me that a gun would be unwarranted. I quickly summoned one and hid it in my waist belt. From there I got off to a sprinting start, blasting through the empty halls that were once lightly filled with security. I kept my phone on that feed as the three started to pull something along their way. The signature of that other was much cooler, but it indicated that it was pony-shaped.

PORTAL 2

I was already fuming at the thought that they were doing this shit again. I was already thinking of ways to approach the three and dispatching at least two of them before subjugating the third for interrogation. And it didn't take me long to get to the portal room either, it was still a relatively short distance away from my room. When I got inside, I busted the door open and pointed my gun at the area around the activated portal.

Using my phone, I tried to aim as best as I could at one of the intruders who appeared to look back at me. Since they were invisible, it was hard for me to get a clear view of what I had my sights on and who. I fired a shot in the direction of the goon before calling out in an authoritative voice. "Who's there!?"

My voice echoed in the silent room, the three figures on my feed started to slowly step away from the portal. One of them appeared to pull out a knife while I kept my gun aimed at the area. "That's it!" I called out loudly to the intruders. "You have two seconds before I blow your fucking head off, and I mean that!"

My eyes expanded in hearing the familiar voice, not to mention it's proximity. I turned around with my gun aimed at where the voice came from, only to have the gun disappear from my hand and reintroduced to the side of my head. The hammer pulled back, clicking in my ear to notify me that my situation had quickly grown dire. Without fail, the face revealed itself before me with a Cheshire grin. He waved his hoof at me while tilting his head in a playful manner. Umbra licked his lips as he spoke.

"Captain Nondis in the flesh... your real flesh, that is. Oh how I've missed your presence this week."

Holy hell... It's been a while since I've been on the release schedule. Sorry it's been so long guys. I've had to dedicate a lot of time to the homestead. Problems kept coming up and I had to keep working to keep up with everything. So instead of releasing this one at the end of January or early Febuary, I ended up releasing this one in May.

Yikes, I'm behind schedule.

But the good news is that this month is the first month in well over a year where I've been booked solid, including Sundays. I'm trying to at least make sure I'm able to pay the bills, then my taxes, then get another fridge since it's dying on us, learn music for five different groups, recording for some others, and get my laptop fixed.

Oh yeah, I managed to buy a new laptop in January, needed to have the hard drive and the motherboard replaced at the end of April. Joy. And I was just getting the hang of Windows 10.

So yeah, between everything at once breaking and my trying to make good on my schedule with everyone, I ended up putting the writing of this on the backburner. Yeah, life sucks. But I'm glad to be able to find some time in between calamities to try and get this one done.

Expect the next chapter in three weeks or less. It'll be a long one.