Chapter Sixty-Three: Lost Time

I don’t really know where to start with this one, so I guess I’ll go back from the point where I got shunted into my mind and Kaid got sent to the front lines. I’ve already read over his journal entries because I wanted to see how sixteen year-old me would take to being forced to write, but the guy didn’t do too bad the second time around. I’ve already marked off his sections and I’ve blocked off some text so that Twilight won’t be able to read how myself and the Others feel, but if you’re reading this Cherry, don’t worry. We’ll take care of it ourselves, and having pieces of you in my mind keeps all of us happy.

Getting on with my entry, I went to sleep facing Twilight, but I woke up on the platform Kaid mentioned in the last entry, and I’ve gotta say that it was pretty sucky since the platform was rather hard. I groaned and sat up, wondering if I’d passed out after smoking too much and Twilight just hadn’t felt like bringing me to bed, but when I opened my eyes and started listening to the other groans from around me, I got to my feet in a second and whirled around. The rest of the people were reacting pretty similarly, but I was still the first one up. I took the time to survey the dark guy and the woman before the light guy could get to his feet, but when I saw the woman, I knew I recognized her as Roxy. She saw me looking at her and gaped before looking down at herself and to the other two people.

“What the fuck!?” The two of us shouted simultaneously.

The light guy finally got to his feet and took a moment to be bewildered. “Well well well, look what we have here. It would seem as though we’ve all been had, no?”

“Mate, we haven’t been had.” I said. “Do you know who me and the lady are?”

“Max and Roxy, of course. You two are the mains.” The light guy stretched. I’m not mentioning names because I didn’t know them at that point in time.

“How do you know about us, but we don’t know you?” Roxy asked cautiously.

“It’s my job to be calm and collected, Miss Roxy.” The light guy said pleasantly. “After all, I am the Prince Path personified, you know. I believe it’s my duty to get you two up to speed while Primal over there,” He pointed at the dark guy, “probably won’t be willing to help you.”

“Damn straight.” Primal growled. “We’ve been stuck here long enough without you bitches pulling any bullshit, so stay on your side of the platform and fuck off.”

“Mate, I don’t know what the fuck is going on here, but I’ll wreck you in heartbeat if you really wanna be that big of a prick.” I warned. Turning back to Prince, I asked, “How did Roxy and I end up here? You and Primal have been here for some time, haven’t you?”

“As the different paths you walk, we had a form of sentience that we can’t truly call being alive, but when Twilight gave you her potion, the four of us and the one in control of your body were split apart from just you, I do believe. The latter part of that is pure conjecture, but it would seem to be the most likely cause of you and Roxy becoming two separate people.” Prince explained.

“... So who’s in control of my body?” I asked carefully.

“Well, I do believe that it’s a version of you. We’ll have to watch and listen to find out which part.” Prince pointed to the viewing screen that was easily fifty meters tall and seventy or so meters wide. “We’ll talk more once we find out what’s going on, no?”

Roxy came over to me and I met her at a certain point and we watched the proceedings together, confused as fuck . We started paying attention around the time Kaid started telling Twilight that his name wasn’t Max, and from there we continued to watch until Twilight asked herself how she was supposed to help me regain my memory. Kaid just stood there like a dumbarse while Twilight freaked out, so I thought hard and imagined his head in front of me before slapping it, hoping that it would do something. It did do something, and he apparently had the idea to go and comfort her, so we left him alone for a little bit.

“Alright, so we’re dealing with a sixteen year-old version of me that undoubtedly wants to nail my wife.” I murmured.

“Uh, she’s kinda my wife too.” Roxy said softly. “I think we’re all just versions of you, Max.”

“It would certainly seem so. I suppose I don’t mind sharing all that much.” I replied, kinda weirded out.

Prince was standing next to me when he said, “I don’t believe I know how to right this situation. We should try exploring for a little bit to see what all is on this platform, should we not?”

Roxy and I glanced around, spotting some doors, but I felt something magical near the edge of the platform, so I said, “Let’s split up. I’ll check out the Magic thing while you two go give those doors a look-see, yeah?”

“Who do you think you’re bossing around?” Roxy said playfully.

I passed her a little smile. “What? Am I not allowed to tell myself what to do?”

She rapped my arm with her knuckles and started walking away, so I checked out her arse because it was nice. Female Me turned while she was walking away and said, “I might give you some later so we can settle that whole ‘masturbation slash sex’ conundrum, but later is later. Stop staring at my arse, fuckboy.”

“My eyes are metal and your arse is a neodymium magnet!” I called after her, heading toward my own task. I glanced up at the screen as I walked from time to time and tuned in when I got to the runes on the floor.

Kaid was being salty about not being able to see Twilight get undressed, so I slapped the back of his head again for being a little shit and went to inspect the runes. I didn’t have a limiter bracelet in my head, so I just waved a hand over it and cast ‘Inform’ over the circle with my God Magic, and it told me that the circle was the way to get back into my body, but I knew it wouldn’t work until whatever potion was flowing through my veins ran its course. It was a bit sucky, but with my task sorted, I went over to the door to see that Primal was gone and so were the other two. I tried each door, starting with the black one, and I was allowed entry after a little working of the knob.

When I went inside, there was a dark grey floor to a black void, but I wasn’t exactly blind.
I brought out a light and Primal shouted, “Oi! How the fuck did you get in here!?”

I looked at him and he was walking toward me. “I jimmied the handle for a bit, mate. That’s all it took.”

“Fucking Roxy and Prince couldn’t get in here, so why can you?” He asked irritably.

“I’m the main. I suppose I get special privileges.” I shrugged.

He stopped about a meter away from me. “I don’t like you.”

“You’re me, so I’m guessing you got the self hatred.”

“We all have it, shitbutt. As far as I can tell, we’re all people with our own thoughts and shit.” Primal grunted.

“... So there are five people inhabiting one body? This isn’t going to go well.” I made a face.

He threw a quick punch at me, but he was using one of the styles some cunt taught me, so I was well versed in the movements. I slipped into Riptide and deflected the punch easily before jabbing him in the throat. “Oi, knock that shit off.”

Primal made a strained noise and glared at me. “Fuck you.”

“You’re the one who threw the first punch. What’s your deal, mate?” I asked irritably.

“... I’m fucking angry all the time. Doesn’t take much.” He admitted scornfully.

“Ah.” I imagined a punching bag since I was pretty sure we were in an alternate version of my mindscape. “Hit that a few times, see how you feel.”

He stared at it before looking out to the void and recreating Wiltshire around us. He smiled as we stood in the old church. He started looking in the hidey-hole and pulled out a big black button with a suction cup on it. “Would you look at that,” he mused gruffly.

“What’s it do?” I asked.

“Dunno. You press it.” Primal tossed it to me.

I shrugged and pressed it while looking dead at him. He dropped like a rock and I went over to check on him, but he just seemed to be unconscious, so I pressed the buttonon again and he woke up. “Well, apparently it puts you to sleep.”

He rubbed his head as he got off the floor. “Fucking shit! Did you have to let me fall?”

“Sorry mate, but it’s not like I knew that you weren't going to stay cool. You good?” I asked.

“Yeah, downright frosty.” He grumbled peevishly before holding out his hand. “Lemme have that shit before you knock me out for the rest of eternity.”

I inspected the button and saw that it had minute marks on it like an egg timer. “Don’t think it works like that, mate. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have been out for more than an hour. Mind if I check something real quick?”

He sat down in one of the moldering pews. “Don't drop me, faggot.”

“Will do.” I pressed the button gently, seeing an indicator on the button travel across the tally marks and numbers until it hit five. I let it go and waited for five minutes while Prime snoozed for a bit.

Lo and behold, Prime woke up on his own and he yawned. “Alright, that was a decent nap. Can’t even be mad about that. How long was I out?” He asked looking at me.

“Five minutes flat. Apparently you can control how long you sleep.”

“Handy. It’ll be good for keeping sane.” He grunted.

“Exactly. I imagine that we’ll get some use out of these if we all have one.”

“Wouldn’t doubt it. You wanna try going to see Prince?”

“Sure thing, but why not Roxy?”

Prime snorted. “Prince has a nicer arse.”

“Mate, are you gay or something?” I asked, confused.

“Yeah, I’m guessing so since I wanna fuck you and the other guy more than the only woman we got around.” He scratched his head. “Guess I’m the fucked up one.”

“Nah, mate. I’m pretty sure you’re just the little bit of gayness in my heart or some shit like that.”

“Got there because we kept getting raped.” He growled. “Fucking bullshit.”

I put a hand on his shoulder and said, “You’re my rape baby, Prime.”

He glared at me. “You think that’s funny?”

“Hell no. I’d have to be a special kind of twisted to actually find that amusing, I just wanted to see if it’d piss you off.”

He scoffed. “It does, jackass. I told you it doesn't take much.”

“I’ll try to avoid-”

“Not gonna work. You telling me that you’re gonna try and not do it pisses me off.” He grunted bitterly.

“... We’ll see about taming the beast inside, but for the time being, you go handle Prince and I’ll go check on Roxy. We’ll see if we can find their buttons, and we can tell them that we’re in the mindscape.”

“Whatever.” He muttered, heading toward the door to the church. He opened it the first time and almost walked into the outskirts of Wiltshire, so he put his hand on the wall next to it and the black door appeared, so we went through that one and back onto the main platform.

I assumed the violet door was Roxy’s, the blue door was mine, and the green one was Kaid’s, so I went for Roxy’s door as Primal tried Prince’s. He couldn’t get in, so I went over and opened the door for him before going into Roxy’s realm. When I walked in, I found myself in the mansion I’d given to Trixie, and upon entering the living room, I saw Roxy on the floor with the button nearby, so I walked over and pressed it again to rouse her. She got up slowly, bitching all the while, but when she realized that I was there she stopped.

“Fucking ow.” She complained.

“The button puts you to sleep.” I said frankly.

She rubbed her head, glaring at me. “Couldn’t have told me that earlier?”

“Didn’t know up until I accidentally put Prime to sleep while we were in his realm. Why’d you pick the mansion instead of the castle, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I don’t really know. Feels more like home to me, I guess. I mean, this is where we lived when we first proposed to Twilight, and I can’t really say that I don’t have emotional attachment to it.” Roxy confessed.

“I feel it. I wish I could go back to my first house sometimes, but then again, I’ve never really been one to live above myself.”

She nodded. “Believe me when I say that I understand.” Roxy made a face and looked me up and down, giving me another once over. “It’s so wrong that I want you, but at the same time, I’m pretty sure that I’m still a lesbian.”

“So you’re only straight for me?” I asked teasingly.

Roxy gave me a look and blushed. “I’m only straight for myself, sweetie. It makes more sense if we put it like that.”

“You already know that I find you attractive, so why don’t we clear it with Twilight and get together sometime?”

“Like we need her permission to sleep with each other.” Roxy scoffed. “We’re different branches of the same tree, Max.”

“So we can’t pollinate ourselves? Radical.” I smirked.

She rolled her eyes and came a bit closer, standing within arms reach. “You know, it’s only natural that we love ourselves. It’s not something we can do on a personal level, but being separated into different beings makes that a whole lot easier.”

Wait, what? “... Are you trying to say that you love me already?”

Roxy’s face flushed and she cleared her throat. “Well, we both know that we were more up front about our feelings when you were being me.”

I waited a moment to reply, but instead of saying anything I just kissed her, and I knew that she was right. She loved me and I loved her, but Twilight was still on the top of our list either way. When I pulled away from the kiss, Roxy put her hands on my chest and I said, “You feel that too, right? The cool ocean breeze?”

She gave me a little smile. “No. I get a smoky warmth. I guess we really are different people.”

I kissed her again, but before we could let our hands wander, I felt a sharp pain in my head that passed after a split second, so I pulled away. “Fuck! What the shit was that?”

Roxy touched her temple. “I don’t really care. We were snogging, yeah?”

And so we went back to snogging for a few minutes, but the pain hit us again, so we ran out of her realm and onto the Central Platform in time to see Primal standing over Prince with blood on his boots. I shifted over to Prince and tried to see if he was okay, but he was clearly dead as fuck. Roxy apparently handled Prime because I heard the grossest sound I’ve heard since I fought in The War. The blood on the platform was slowly withdrawing back into Prince, so I assumed that he would be okay in a little bit, but when I looked to see what Roxy had done to Prime, I saw that he was rather headless.

“Well shit.” I said elegantly.

“Shit indeed.” Roxy growled. “We need to get some rules set up in here, Max.”

“Damn straight. Kill and be killed is the first one.” I replied darkly. I levitated the blood that was seeping back into Prince’s ruined face and had it pool in his head, making him revive a few minutes sooner than her would have.

Prince suddenly sat up and gasped for air, breathing like he’d been underwater for hours on end and shaking like a chihuahua. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck Hell Hell Hell Hell-” He muttered over and over.

I traded a look with Roxy and put my hand on his head, making him ball up until I shifted his memories around, making him just barely remember the fact that his arse was grarse for a little while. “Mate, you alright now? What the fuck happened?”

Prince took a deep breath, so I stood up and offered him a hand. I conjured up a seat for him and he sat down giving me a grateful look. “I’m not completely sure what I did to set Primal off, but I’m pretty sure it was because I told him that I wasn’t interested in sleeping with him. He’s both ugly and he doesn't look like Dusk or Twilight.”

“... So he snapped and killed you twice because you wouldn’t sleep with him?” Roxy asked incredulously.

“... I may have gotten a bit harsh with my words.” Prince admitted. “I did call him ugly to his face.”

I snorted. “I’m still wrecking him when he comes back. He can’t pull bullshit like this and expect nothing to happen to him.”

“Killing him once was plenty, but I do believe that you’ll have your hands full when he revives. I’m rather certain he killed me the second time because I wouldn’t stop screaming about Hell.”

“So you went to Hell when you died?” I asked.

“I served a hundred years of your time.” Prince muttered, hugging himself. “It was terrifying.”

Roxy and I put a hand on either shoulder. “It’s all good now, mate. If prime starts some more shit, Roxy and I will handle him. Don’t feel like you’re in danger of going back.” I comforted.

Roxy rubbed his back. “It really will be okay, sweetie. If I’m not trying to jump Max’s bones, then I’ll protect you.”

I sensed Primal coming back to life, and when I looked at his body, he jerked and twitched for a moment before he started screaming. I went over and plunged a conjured knife into his heart. He revived faster the second time, but without the screaming, so I stabbed him again. The last time was the final time, but instead of healing his mind outright, I let him suffer for a few minutes before shuffling his memories and dragging him to his feet. Prime just glared at me, breathing heavily while I glared right back. He turned away from me, so I made my feelings known.

“You kill someone in here, you get killed twice as many times. You try and pull some rapey bullshit, then I’ll let Roxy handle you, and neither of us are gonna be nice about it. You fucking hear me, Prime?”

“... Whatever.” He muttered, not meeting my gaze.

I shoved him and he stumbled a bit, but trained fighters tend to get their footing rather easily. “If you’re a branch of me, then you know I’m not gonna let that shit slide.”

Prime nodded. “I already regret it, so let it go.”

Prince spoke up. “And I forgive him. If he went to Hell, then I’m sure that it was painful enough as it was.”

“So what? We just let it go after the punishment is meted out?” Roxy asked.

I nodded. “Sounds like a good thing to me. All in agreeance?” I raised a hand.

Everyone else raised their hands. “Radical.” I turned to watch the screen and saw that Kaid was hugging Twilight for some reason or the other.

I sensed him jam his thumbs into her ribs, so I smacked the back of his harder than I had before because he was fucking with my wife, even if I didn’t know what the fuck was going on. I focused in and tried to connect with his memories since I didn’t know what had occurred so far, but when I saw that he’d broken down after being burdened with so much bullshit, I felt pretty bad about him trying to get out of Twilight’s stranglehold by the nicest means he could think of at the moment.

“You hit that guy too much.” Roxy commented, her tone chilly.

“I’ll rein it in, but you can’t tell me that him fucking with Twilight doesn’t piss you off.” I said.

“I get it, but you gotta realize that he’s only sixteen. The kid is still dealing with the death of our parents, being raped, and fending for himself for years right now.” She reminded.

“Ah. Fair enough. I guess I’ll lay off for a little bit.”

We watched as he breached some of his feelings with Twilight, but everyone watching knew that he was only skimming the surface and that he was still hiding things from her, but that wasn’t the important part. Celestia started coming in for a mind-dive, but when she surfaced on the platform, she apparently couldn’t see any of us. She walked around and started opening screens and vaults that appeared from the Ether, glancing at memories and muttering to herself. Sunbutt took the time to watch a lot of the times I got raped when I was thirteen and shut everything down when she was done, covering her mouth and shaking her head.

“You poor bastard.” She murmured before she magicked herself out of the mindscape.

There was a long silence before Roxy said, “Does anyone else feel ill because Kaid just let Celestia see that shit?”

“Eeyup.” I replied.

“Unfortunately.” Prince groaned.

“Fucking bitch.” Prime growled.

“Why do you insult people every chance you get?” I asked curiously. “I’m not riding you, just asking.”

“It’s automatic. The filter on my mouth doesn't work.” He grumbled.

“Ah, fair enough. Do you think we can stop watching now, or…?”

“I say we take turns keeping watch. I volunteer for the first slot if no one else wants to do it.” Prince said.

“I’ll take it.” Prime said. “Not like I got better shit to do.”

“Fair enough. I believe finding each other in our realms should be as easy as knocking on the door, no?” Prince looked at Roxy and myself.

“How about we test that?” Roxy suggested. “Give me five minutes to start heading toward Ponyville and knock. If I don’t hear it after ten minutes, I’ll come back.”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s get a move on.” I said , already heading toward her door.

Since the process wasn’t that long anyway, I summarize it by saying that knocking on the door only worked if you were within earshot, so I added a Magic chime to the door since I could do that. We got Roxy to come back after seven minutes with the doorbell, though she hit me when she came out because I’d pressed the button at least forty times before she finally came out. I got bitched at for that, but it was worth it to get Roxy all bothered, so my next course of action was to add ‘hot’ to that so I could see what she felt like on the inside. Prince fucked off into his realm because he’s kind of a solitary guy anyway, so Roxy and I slipped off into my realm and I made my first house all over again since I really did miss it. We sat in my living room on the couch and had some tea for a little bit and talked to each other, which is how we learned that our thoughts and feelings really did differ enough to make us two separate people.

For example, Roxy thought that we shouldn’t be friends with Rarity or Rainbow Dash because they were just so unreasonable, but I defended Rarity by saying that she had more good moments than bad, but Roxy just hated the bitch, no matter what I said. She didn’t love Applejack like I still do, though she did ask if my feelings for herself were more intense than my feelings for the mare, and I had to admit that they were, for some odd reason. Romantically, Roxy was only second to Twilight, beating Celestia by a decent margin. Instead of occupying separate chairs like we had been, Roxy and I moved to the couch and sat pretty close, our shoulders touching as we drank our hot toddies.

Roxy and I learned that we also had differing opinions on being penetrated. She actually liked the feeling of something hard inside of her while I’d preferred the feeling of a tongue in my inner depths when I was feeling. In fact, I preferred it so much that Twilight and I only used the strap-on during rare occasions, like when we were trying to have sex for as long as possible anyway. We talked about some of our turn ons and turn offs and the differences between some of them, like how Roxy enjoyed when someone nibbled on her ears, whereas I didn’t like the feeling all that much, but wouldn’t complain if Twilight did it. She liked to be properly bitten while I was on the fence about it, though Pony teeth aren’t really made for biting people, per se.

On the same vein, we chatted about how we both liked having our thighs stroked and
squeezed when things were getting intimate, or even when some nice, normal cuddling was going on. Roxy requested that I give her a little affection by way of a kiss, so I gave her a little peck, but she wasn’t quite satisfied and came in for another, longer kiss before we shifted around on the couch so we could continue comfortably. I rubbed her arm the way she’d let me know she liked and she held onto my neck with her thumb brushing across my jaw according to my own preference. While we were snogging, her hand came up to my face and we started slipping each other a little tongue, but before we could get any further, the chime sound and we found the restraint to stop, though it was clear that we were both ready to take a few more steps.

I went to answer my door and Prime was standing there, looking irritated as usual. “Are you two fucking each other or what?”

I looked to Roxy. “How’s that sound to you?”

“I’m good for it if you are.” She replied airily, like we hadn't just spent the last fifteen minutes snogging like teenagers.

Prime snorted. “Whatever. Prince is on shift now, so you two only have three hours before one of you has to take over.”

“Two three one.” I replied.

“Dumbarse.” Prime grumbled.

“True enough most days. What brings you to my humble abode? Wouldn’t happen to want some tea, would you?”

I couldn’t see most of Primes face past his hair, so I couldn’t judge his response right away. “... If it’s cool, yeah.”

“Come on in then, mate.” I stepped out of the way and he walked in.

“Always was fond of this place. First house we called our own.” He muttered.

“I’m surprised you didn’t pick the old hangout with Will as your place. Some of our best strolls happened there.” I said neutrally.

Prime shrugged. “The church was there for us when the egg-donor died. You’re forgetting that we lived there for years, sleeping on the pews or on the floor with stolen blankets.”

“Nah, I’m not forgetting, I just try not to remember. Those were rough days, mate.”

“I don’t blame you, but I see both sides.” Roxy chimed in.

Prime nodded to her. “Nice tits.”

“Aren’t you gay?” I asked before Roxy could say anything.

“Yeah, but she’s got some nice tits. It’s a compliment.” He finished, grumbling.

“I dunno if I should thank you or slap you, so I’m just going to tell you to shut the fuck up.” Roxy said icily.

“Noted.” Prime said.

“They are nice.” I gave her a cheeky grin.

She rolled her eyes. “You like them because they were yours, fuckboy.”

“Damn straight. I liked ‘em when they were on me, and I like ‘em when they’re on you. I really have to say though, I love the purple in your right eye.” I said honestly.

She raised a brow. “Yours is still blue.”

I looked to Prime and he was checking his shit with a hand mirror. “Dark grey. I like it.” He grunted gruffly.

“I’m pretty sure Prince’s is ash grey, so we’ve got the light, the dark, the man, and the woman.” Roxy said, sounding like she was pondering something.

“Don’t forget the youth. Kaid’s still bumbling about in my body, probably pulling all kinds of bullshit.” I said, hoping that he wasn’t causing too much trouble.

Prime snorted, but before he could spit on my floor, I said, “Oi! Swallow that shit before I break your balls.”

He did as I commanded. “Right. So far, Kaid managed to get his mouth washed out by Blue for swearing so much, had a breakdown on the way to her shop, and snogged Fluttershy for a bit. The day’s coming to a close here in a bit, so we won’t have to watch until he wakes up.”

“Huh. Snogging Fluttershy is always nice.” Roxy commented.

Prime barked out a laugh. “It doesn't hurt that she’s just the right kind of slutty.”

“I’d dispute that, but the woman’s a nympho to the core.” I said drily.

“What, liking sex makes you a slut? Fluttershy’s slept with WAY less people than we have!” Roxy objected hotly.

“Chill, Roxy. We all know we’re a slut.” I said calmly. “It’s just that Fluttershy has some Fleur-like tendencies.”

“... Fair enough, but I just don’t like the idea of calling a friend something like that.” She said, cooling down.

“She called us a slut to our face.” I reminded.
“Damn straight.” Prime grunted. “You’re lucky I feel like holding my tongue.”

“Thanks mate, no point in starting anything, right?” I patted his shoulder and he shrugged me off, his neck growing red.

“Yeah.” He replied eloquently.

“Let’s get you some tea, mate.” I went over and sat down in my easy chair since it’s fucking mine, but I ended up making a couple more of them. Roxy took one and tried changing its color, but she couldn’t affect it at all, so I did it for her and changed it to the color of her right eye.

The three of us sat and talked for a little bit, though it was pretty clear that Prime didn’t really want to be a part of the conversation. It seemed to me that he was happy enough to just hear us talk and be asked the occasional question, and Roxy picked up on that as well, so we made sure that, between the two of us, we let him in and pushed him out depending on whether or not he looked like he had something to say. It was a subtle little dance that I knew he appreciated, so when Prince came knocking, I hoped that he would be able to keep the conversation up with Roxy so that Prime could catch a break.

When I took over, Kaid was writing in my journal, detailing the day’s events, but he was finishing up when I made my chair and he went to go study in the library for a few hours. The guy was a natural bookworm, if his ridiculous pacing and comprehension were anything to go by. Kaid obviously loved reading about Magic and figuring out how the ends connected between theories, but even as I watched him and followed his train of thought, I didn’t really get much of what he was detailing in his reports. I guess I was brilliant when I was young, but never really had anyone to nurture the talent I had for learning. I didn’t think he’d be a bad match for a younger Twilight, but the guy’s libido was ridiculous and that was going to cause a rift between them.

When Kaid retired for the night in Celestia’s room I was a little staggered, but he didn’t try anything with her for a little bit. I watched on until Sunbutt woke up and made him leave, which clarified things a little bit, although the way she’d been holding him in her sleep made me wonder if something could spark between them beyond the student-professor relationship they had going on at the moment. I can’t say that I wasn’t interested in seeing where it would go if something did happen, but Kaid started fapping in the privacy of his new room, so I fucked off because I wasn’t trying to watch that and my shift was over anyway. When I collected Roxy and told her that it was her turn, she only stayed on the Central Platform for like, five minutes before ringing the fuck out of my doorbell.

I got hit for that, but it was so worth it.

Prince, Prime, Roxy, and I all got to know each other a little better over the course of a few hours, and we reminisced on different memories, looking at them from different perspectives. Prime, Roxy, and I still held a grudge against She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named while Prince was ready to talk things out with her, but his meager arguments were batted down as they came by everyone else. He still wanted to talk to the unforgivable cunt and ask why she’d turned on us, but Prime straight up didn’t give a fuck, it hurt too much for me to want to think about it, and Roxy was ready to cry when she thought about what the bitch did. Prince changed the subject soon enough and started asking about how we all felt about Luna.

I still had a massive crush on her, just like I’d always had. In my defense, the woman is beautiful and she’s a little shorter than me now that I’m a lowercase ‘G’, so I feel like she’d make the perfect snuggle buddy, sparring partner, and confidant. Roxy just wanted a piece of her because she tasted like blue raspberries and she was particularly fond of the scent and the flavour, but I was the only other one who liked those things about her. Prince didn’t like the way she smelled, acted, or looked because she wasn’t Twilight, but Prime wanted to fight her because he’s all about the violence.

We also talked about Twilight, but that’s been covered already by Kaid, though finding out that we all had similar feelings toward her was a little unsettling. Cherry, don’t worry about what we said. Anyway, we moved on to Applejack. Prime was the first one to say that we should’ve killed her, and much to my surprise, Prince agreed with him, saying that she deserves a taste of what she gave us on both occasions. Roxy and I argued that we’d already forgiven her and that her regret and pain was enough to be satisfied, but the light and dark ones were adamant about Applejack getting her just deserts.

We moved onto Fluttershy and it was agreed that she could get annoying at times, but that she was otherwise pretty radical in general. She was kinder than anyone we’d ever met, sweeter than sugar, more generous than Rarity, and generally pleasant to be around,even if you weren't looking to get your genitals wet. Prince liked her well enough as a friend, but that was when we figured out that if it wasn’t Twilight Sparkle or Dusk Shine, he didn't much to do with anyone, which explained why he came off as a little aloof at times. Roxy and I agreed that Fluttershy severely needed to learn how to properly do cunnilingus, but I doubted that it would be much of an issue in the near future.

Prime, Roxy, and I all liked Pinkie, but Prince was terrified of her and wanted nothing to do with her in the slightest, stating that she was just too dangerous to deal with on any basis. Prime actually said that he would go straight for a shot with Pinkie in bed since he was into knife-play and being dominated, both of which are things that Pinkie has told me that she’s into, but I withheld judgement because it’s not my problem until he tries to fuck her with my body. He said that it was unlikely to happen in the first place, but still. Roxy liked Pinkie because she was pretty honest, fun to be around, and her jokes made her laugh because they were ridiculous. I like Pinkie because she’s playful and kind, though she still has a spine and isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. Plus, I’m pretty sure that she’s on my level when it comes to hand to hand combat, so I’d love to spar with her some time when no one’s watching. Roxy called me crazy for wanting to spar with someone like, a third of my size, but I asked her if she wanted to do it and she said no because Pinkie might actually win.

We moved onto Rainbow Dash and Prime was the only one who liked her, so we didn’t talk about her very long, instead moving onto Rarity. Roxy repeated her feelings toward the marshmallow muffin and Primal agreed with her wholeheartedly, but Prince was on my side about her being alright most of the time. After Rarity, we talked about Trixie and it was unanimous that we really need to spend more time with her, even though I try to get out and see her when I can. Everyone agreed that Trixie was the perfect blend of supportive, loving, and when the need arose, authoritative. Trixie might be older than me, but we treated each other as equals on everything until one of us needed a stern talking to, and the one time Trixie objected to me setting her straight, I reminded her that I wouldn’t have said anything at all if I didn’t love her, which had earned me a hug. We talked about that particular memory for a little while, though surprisingly it was Prime who said that we should’ve gone easier on her. Turns out he’s a complete softy when it comes to Trixie and Blue, so we talked about Mum next.

Roxy and I lauded and praised her for being loving and stern when she needed to be, and Prime gave his approval of her tough side since she was feisty as fuck, but Prince quietly said that we should have looked for another mother.

That opinion wasn’t popular.

Roxy practically ripped his head off, calling him all sorts of ingrates and swine since Blue had done a lot for us, but Prince just said that she was using us to fill a hole in her heart, to which I replied that we were doing the same damn thing, and that he either needed to see what all Blue gave us or shut the fuck up about our Mum. He shut the fuck up since Prime was seething, black flames flickering from his eyes, Roxy was freezing, frost gathering on her hands, and sparks of electricity were crackling around me. When Prince apologized for speaking without considering the boons Blue granted us, we calmed down, but I had to go over and warm Roxy’s hands back up since she was cold as fuck.

Prince watched on in mild interest. “I sense that there’s more than just friendship between you two, if your body language is anything to go by. I’m not saying anything untoward or criticizing at all, but I am curious.”

Prime scoffed. “Who gives a damn? If they wanna fuck, let ‘em.”

“Again, I’m not suggesting that they don’t do just that. In fact, I find it endearing and more than a little heartwarming to see you two grow so fond of each other so quickly.” Prince gave us a pleasant smile.

I raised a brow at Roxy before lifting our hands to my mouth so I could use my breath to warm them, which made her blush. “It’s not like we’re an item or anything quite yet, so don’t think about it too hard. We might do some snogging later, so try not to interrupt that.” Roxy warned.

Prime rolled his eyes. “You say that like it’s not your shift next. You only stayed out for five minutes and we’ve been talking for the last six hours.”

Roxy groaned. And he went to bed late at that! Fuck me!”

“Happily.” I gave her a wry grin.

She gave me a womanly look. “If you weren’t warming up my hands, I’d hit you.”

I took the time to give them another breath of life and Roxy blushed again, looking away. “You two might wanna go hit your Snooze Buttons for a little bit. I think Roxy and I have some business to attend to.” I said suggestively.

There was a slight shift in the air and we all raised our heads, looking upwards. Roxy sighed and asked, “How much do you wanna bet that Kaid is up?”
“I’ll bet you a Frenchie that he’s gonna bop the bologna before bumbling out of bed.” I smirked.

She gave me a look. “I’m not trying to watch that.”

“It’s your shift.” Prime said sadistically, chuckling.

“I’ll-” Roxy started.

“Nah, fights have to be mutual, otherwise it’s just beating on someone for petty reasons.” I interjected.

She sent me a chilly look. “Shut up and breath on my hands.”

I rolled my eyes. “Can I get a please?”

She rolled her eyes in turn. “Do you want a blowjob to go with that? Because it’s not happening.”

“What, so you don’t suck dick?”

“Did you like it when you had to do it?”

“Fair enough. In my defense, I thought it might’ve been another difference between us.”

She shook her head. “Nope. Still don’t like the Ol’ Chap that much.”

“I’m still not hearing a ‘please’, Miss Frigid.”

“PLEASE warm my hands up some more.” She muttered, her face turning the most adorable shade of pink. I did as she asked.

“Tsundere much?” Prince chuckled.

“Weeaboo.” Roxy said harshly.

Prince shrugged. “I like good manga. I’m not exactly ashamed.”

“You should be.” Roxy and I said in unison.

He rolled his eyes. “Your shift only starts when you get out there, Roxy.”

She sighed and got out of her easy chair. “I guess I’ll give you fucks some time to talk about me behind my back.” She looked at me. “We’re stepping into my door next time, okay?”

“Sure thing, Amourette.” I gave her a little smile.

Roxy blushed and shook her head, getting a move on soon after. Prince, Prime, and I didn’t bother talking about her behind her back because there was an unspoken rule that such shit wasn’t about to fly in the mindscape since all of us hated to be gossips, but I did invite Prince and Prime to talk to each other about us. They said that they weren’t exactly the closest due to the earlier events, and it’s not like anybody had a problem with that, so I focused on getting to know the fellows a bit better, but this time, Prime actually engaged in conversation, though his responses were still coarse at times.

I feel like taking a break. I noticed that Kaid pretty much pumped everything out in one go, but he’s not me. I want some tea, dammit.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Roxy’s shift passed quickly enough, meaning that it was Prime’s turn again, so Prince fucked off to go be on his own, leaving Roxy and I to go to her realm for a little bit. We settled down on her couch and she wrapped my arm around her shoulders for a little bit of snuggle time. I kept my hands in decent places, but I wanted to feel the cooling sensation I got from her that combated the warmth I felt near near the collar area when we kissed, so I asked her if she minded giving me a little peck, knowing that it wouldn’t just be some paltry smooch. Roxy gave it to me eagerly, so before I could get lost in her lovely lips, I put on some Chrome Sparks to set a nice mood, starting with All or Nothing. I thought it was a good song to make out to, and evidently she approved.

We didn’t do anything other than snog and wrestle with each other’s tongues for a good while. I never realized how much I missed kissing someone without a freakishly long tongue until I started Frenching Roxy, and I was sure that she was appreciating the feeling every bit as much as I was. However, when she took her hand from my neck and put it on my chest, I knew that she was waiting for my signal to go any further, so I pulled away from the kiss.

“You know, Twilight isn’t fond of straddling me. She says it’s only fun when we’re lying down.” I commented.

Roxy took the blatant hint and threw a leg over mine so that she was sitting on my thighs with her arms around my neck. “It’s a good thing I’m not Twilight then, iddinit?”

“Little Chavvy there, Amourette.” I teased.

She rolled her eyes and licked my neck in one long, slow go. “Forgive me my trespass, O’ Mighty Doofus.” She purred.

I put my hands on her hips and she moved them down to her thighs. I gave her a squeeze and said, “We don’t even need to have snacks. I’m enjoying the kisses and teases to be honest with you.”

“Then why don’t we hold off on it for a little while? It’s not like Kaid is getting any closer to finding out how to get you back in control of our body.” Roxy said, her voice tinged with a hint of sadness.

“He’s a brilliant kid, Roxy. He’ll put it together in no time, and it’s not like I intend on keeping our body all to myself. I’ll give everyone time in the Sun when it’s peaceful enough to do so.”

“... Promise me.” She requested softly.

“I promise. Seal it with a kiss?”

Roxy gave me a little smile and came in for seconds. While we snogged for who knows how long, I stroked her thighs until she moved my hands again, putting them on her perky, full breasts before pulling away. “Are you sure you don’t want to have a little more fun? I’m enjoying myself and all, but I’m ready for a little release.”

“I’ll happily give you a taste or ten, but I’m just not feeling the sexual at the moment.” I gave her an apologetic smile.

She kissed my nose. “I’ll have to take what I can get then. Come on, I know you remember where our room is.”

Roxy got off of me and lead me to our room by the hand, though it’s not like I needed to be guided. I’d fucking lived in the house for about half of my total time in Equestria, but I did enjoy the extra contact. I’d describe what happened with Roxy, but I’ve explained the process of eating a woman out many times in these pages, so I’m skipping it this time around. I will say that she tasted uniquely Human and had a slight sweetness to her folds that I was fond of, though I imagined that she would have tasted like ice cream or mints if she were a Pony. I shared that thought with her three orgasms later and she agreed with me after tasting herself on my lips and tongue.

We finished up and hopped in the shower for a little bit because I wanted to, and I helped Roxy wash her ridiculously long hair. It was a bit of a process, but it was easier than having her do it herself, and the shower gave us a reason to change clothes since we hadn’t bothered to do so earlier, but all too soon it was my shift to watch over Kaid, but all the dude did was read or write theses about what he found.

That actually went on for two days until the day he told Twilight to kill herself. That pissed all of us off to no end, but Roxy’s cool head won the day and she limited us to one hit apiece with no killing intent since he was still young and dumb. I was planning on breaking his nose, but Roxy, again, put the kibosh on that and said that I was either going to throw a jab or a kidney shot to avoid actually fucking him. I settled on the jab since it meant I could still hit him in the face, but while we were debating on a proper punishment for his transgression, Celestia sent him to the fucking Moon, and that made everyone livid. Kaid already detailed the time he spent up there, but that was a rough week for everyone. Prince stayed in his realm and never left, even when it was his shift, and Prime spent most of his time working punching bags until he either tore them apart or made his hands into a mess. Roxy actually turned fucking ice blue and was too cold to even touch, but it’s not like I could’ve touched her anyway. When I’d laid a hand on Prime to try and get him to calm down, I’d gotten burned and shocked the shit out of him. Prince’s element is still unknown, but he was leaking some kind of smoke before he up and disappeared into his realm.

Roxy and I took turns standing in the circle of runes, trying to take some of the pain from Kaid whenever we could when he was cycling through being hurt and feeling empty. We managed to make things less severe for him, but we couldn’t manage to get him to stop self-harming from inside our mind, so we just sat as close as we could bear to be to each other and watched as Kaid coated himself in golden blood, day after day. It was heart-wrenching and brutal to have to sit back and observe, but he had to make it through one way or the other.

When Celestia came for him and returned them to Equus, everyone finally stopped balancing on a knife’s edge, but we were all pissed at Celestia. Roxy collected Prince from his realm and he let everyone know that we could only sleep for two hours at a time in a given twelve hour period, so that was some handy knowledge to have, and when Kaid apologized to Twilight, it just saddened me to know that he needed her in a way that she just wasn’t willing to give him, no matter what she said. I know my Twilight would’ve balked if he’d actually gone and tried to have sex with her, and he knew it too, which is why he didn’t press his luck and push her away any further.

Roxy and I spent some time cuddling since we’d missed out on a full week’s worth of it due to the volatile nature of our Magic, but when Kaid finally managed to convince Twilight to let him turn the power on the bangle up, we all felt a shift in the air and started talking among ourselves. The rest has already been detailed by Kaid, so I’ll leave it there.

Now to pick up with the life of Max. After another break, that is.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I switched places with Kaid via the runic circle on the main platform, trying to make the process as easy for the both of us as possible. He let me take over without a problem, and when I shifted into the main body, I immediately had to change forms and clothes because I just didn’t like being ‘Kaid’. I’m fucking Max, dammit, and I’ll always prefer to be in the body I’ve built. I collected my journal from Blue’s kitchen table and headed into the living room where she and Twilight were knocked out, neither of them having been able to stay up after a full day of running around and trying to spend as much time with Kaid as they could before he had to go. I knelt before Blue first and gently roused her from her sleep, making her rub her eyes and sit up.

“Kaid?” She asked blearily.

“Technically, but not quite.” I said softly. “Good to see you again, Mum.”

“Max!?” Blue exclaimed, her eyes shooting open. “Oh, baby! I missed you!” She wrapped me up in a wonderful hug.

I hugged her back. “I missed you too, Mum, but I need something from you. I promised Kaid that I’d-”

“Whatever you need to do, baby.” She interrupted. “I’ll help you in any way I can.”

I let her go. “Then close your eyes and try not to be weirded out, okay?”

She tilted her head. “... I trust you not to do something too weird.”

I sighed. “It’s pretty weird, but I made a promise.”

Mum gave me a bemused smile and closed her eyes. “Then it’s for the best that we just-”

I kissed her and started inhaling, holding her in place as I tried not to gag over the grossness of touching lips with my own mother. It made me feel dirty and creepy in all the wrong ways, but as I drew an impossibly deep breath, I got a mouthful of her essence and broke contact, my face hot as I swallowed the piece of her soul.

Blue chuckled awkwardly and said, “I don’t know what all the hubbub is about; you’re not that good.”

I returned her chuckle with one of my own and it was just as awkward. “Yeah, I really wasn’t trying to give my Mum a proper snogging. It was weird enough already. Speaking of, let’s never speak of this again.”

“Speak of what? I don’t recall you doing anything other than waking me up to let me know that you came back.”

“‘Atta Mum. Feel free to go back to sleep and forget all about waking up in the first place.”

“I think I’ll head on up to my room, if it’s all the same to you. These old bones are already aching from being on the couch.” I stood up and moved so she could stand. “Will I see you tomorrow?” She asked hopefully.

“Hmm… I dunno. Are you gonna wash my mouth out with soap if I swear too much?” I joked.

Blue whacked my arm softly. “I warned him multiple times before I did that!”

“But you still did it and Kaid was pissed. You really should’ve shown him a little less of your harsh side, Mum.”

“Well, I’m sure whatever you did will let him see whatever side of me he wants-”

“Hopefully he doesn't want to see the nude side.” I cut in.

Blue hit me harder this time around. “You shush! Now you’ve got me all riled up!”

I gave her a grin in the low light. “That was the point, Mum. Have fun trying to sleep with thoughts of your youngest son trying to shag-”

She clapped a hand over my mouth, her face reddening. “If you don’t hush, I’m gonna tell Twilight to hold out on you for the next month!”

I licked her hand and she gave me a look. “Are you gonna hush?”

I gave her a thumbs up and she removed her hand before wiping it off on my jacket. “Love you, Mum.”

She puckered her lips to the side. “I love you too, baby. I’m heading upstairs before you say anything else that’s ridiculous, and that’s not an invitation to come up with something else, okay?”

I gave her a hug. “Your breath smells like blueberries.”

She patted my back. “Well, what did you expect? My name is Blueberry Tart.”

“More like blub-” I cut myself off as Blue froze. “Nevermind.”

She held me at arm’s length and glared. “That’s what I thought. Good night, Max.”

“Good morning, Mum.”

She let me go and I kicked off my boots to join Twilight on the couch for a spell, but before I could get settled down and rested up, she said, “I saw that.”

“... Forget you that.” I said, my voice warbling. “Forget you saw that.”

“I really can’t.” Twilight deadpanned.

“... I had to magick the taste off of my lips.” I murmured.

Twilight reached over and patted my head. “There are worse things than giving your Mom a quick peck, Amour. You could-”

“Not listening anymore. Do you wanna let me get a taste of your essence too? I kinda made that promise-”

“If it means getting a kiss from my Max, then I don’t care.” Twilight said, sitting up. “And you might want to shift us back home. Watching Kaid have snacks with Strawberry and Mary still has me ready for a favour.”

I grabbed her hand and shifted us onto our bed and the snogging began all over again, but when Twilight went to pull away, I held her in place and started sucking a bit of her essence from her. I needed a lot more from my wife than I did from my Mum, but Alicorns have stronger souls anyway, and she’d regenerate the missing pieces quickly enough that it wouldn’t really affect her. Once I was sure that I had enough of her for three copies, I let her go and Twilight swooned.

“Wow… That was a good kiss~” She cooed.

“Glad to hear it. Is now a good time for a favour?”

Twilight teleported her clothes off, leaving the best bits for me to handle. “Take me, Maxxy~” Thought you were gonna say ‘Daddy’ for a second. Whew.

“With pleasure,” I growled sexily. At least, I hope it came off as sexy.

Either way, I got a good taste of Twilight and I got to get Mr. Wiggles into her Cupcake Castle for a long, creamy visit, and by the time I was done making a mess of Twilight, the Sun had risen and I was debating on whether or not to go for round four. My wife wasn’t making much in the way of sense, and I’m pretty sure she came when I just barely touched one of her lips while I was stroking her thighs, so I decided to call it there, but then Twilight asked me to put it inside of her and leave it there until she wasn’t as sensitive, so I complied happily and tortured her with slow thrusts, making her Cupcake Castle get icing all over us as I did. I eventually got bored and Mr. Wiggles wanted one more go, so I asked Twilight if she minded to terribly and she practically begged me not to be rough, but that’s what it was going to take to get me off, so I asked for a favour instead. Sadly, Twilight wasn’t in any shape to give it to me, so I was stuck with a rigid member and nothing to stick it in.

My wife passed out when the Sun cleared the horizon, so I put myself inside of her and she came again while asleep, but I wasn’t trying to give her the good dick again. I just sighed and put myself to sleep for a couple hours, hoping that my erection would fade in time. When I fell asleep, I snapped myself out of my dream and slipped into Twilight’s so I could see if I could dream fuck her, but when I got there, Twilight was lazing around under a tree, obviously sated for the time being. It sucked that she couldn’t keep up with me even after months of time to get used to my libido, but I wasn’t terribly upset about it. I joined her under her tree and we held hands for a little while.

“Amour.” She sighed contentedly.

“Yes, Cherry?”

“I can feel you inside of me.” She murmured.

“In fairness, it’s a nice place to be.” I chuckled.

“It’s a nice feeling.” She sighed again.

“Like a perfect fit?”

“Like you’re the only key to my lock.” She squeezed my hand.

“Well, you kinda made a couple copies.” I said drily.

“Hmm?”

“The Others that Kaid told you about. They’re different versions of me.”

“Oh yeah. How are they doing?” Twilight asked curiously.

“I dunno, I haven’t been back to see them yet. I’ll probably check up on them when I wake up, but before that, I kind of need to tell you something.”

“... Don’t tell me it’s about Blue.” Twilight said fearfully.

“What? No. Why would it be about Blue?” I asked, befuddled.

“Nevermind.” My wife said quickly. “What did you need to tell me?”

“... I’ll just let that one go for the time being. No, the thing I need to tell you is that I met Roxy, yeah?”

“I remember Kaid telling me that Roxy was- Oh you pervert! Don’t tell me you slept with yourself!” Twilight laughed way too hard at that.

I grabbed one of her ears and tugged it, making her stop and say, “Hey!”

“I didn’t sleep with Roxy, but I came awfully close. I need your permission to go any further with her.”

“Max, she’s you. You don’t need my permission-”

“No,” I said firmly, “Roxy is not me. She’s her own person, Twilight.”

“I know that, but she’s based off of you when you were female, right?”
“Sorta kinda. She’s got her own preferences and we differ a lot, to be honest with you.”

“... Really?” Twilight asked.

“Like Kaid said; we’re all different. Kaid’s a young genius with a foul mouth and ridiculous libido, Primal is an arsehole, but he’s actually nice if you can get him to stop being angry, Prince is a real nice guy who likes to be by himself most of the time, and Roxy’s a little spitfire who’s in love with me.” I added the part about Roxy in casually.

“Wait, what? Did you really just say that Roxy is in love with you?” Twilight asked, completely staggered.

“Yeah. I love her too.” I admitted.

“... Max-”

“She doesn't compare to you, Cherry. No woman ever will.” I chuckled.

“So if I’m number one on your list, where’s Roxanne?” Twilight asked coldly.

“Number two. She topped Celestia and Applejack in less than a day.”

“I want you to break things off with her.” Twilight demanded.

“... I can’t.” I said softly.

“I beg your pardon?” She said, steel entering her tone.

“Twilight, she’s not a threat to you, I promise! I-”

“No. Just no.” Twilight hissed. “You spend all night having snacks with me, but all this time you’re thinking of another woman!?”

I looked at her. “Is that really what you think?”

“Give me a reason not to.” She snarled.

“I really don’t appreciate-”

“Like. I. Care.”

“Twilight, I-”

She grabbed my face and leaned down. “Do you even understand why I’m so upset right-”

I grabbed her by her horn and bore my teeth at her. “Get your Goddamn hands off of me, Twilight Sparkle. This is not how we communicate.”

Twilight let go.

I let her go in turn and rose, glaring daggers at her. “Do not break our rules. You are not above the rules. Neither of us should be taking this kind of tone with each other, and I’d like to think that you’re just misunderstanding my feelings for Roxanne.” I softened my gaze. “You are my perfect woman. You are the pinnacle of what I want from a relationship. What Roxy and I have is an understanding, and that understanding is that by loving each other, we will learn to love ourselves since we do share similarities. Seeing traits that we hate in ourselves in the other person makes us feel less like we’re absolute filth. Knowing that we can love a version of ourselves makes us feel less alone-” Twilight’s face fell, “No, Cherry, you just don’t understand what it’s like to only see the opposite sex of your own species when you take a trip to your home planet. You’re also disregarding the fact that Roxy loves you more than she’ll ever love me. You’re in a love triangle, Twilight, and the other two points love you from the deepest parts of their hearts. Roxy and I don’t and never will love each other like we love you.”

Twilight lost all of her fervor and looked down. “...That was a real nag thing to do. I’m sorry, I should’ve… I should’ve thought about the fact that Roxy loves me like you love me…”

I lifted her chin and levelled a look at her. “It bothers me when I feel like my words are being ignored. I love you, Twilight, but you need to learn how to stop and think when it comes to me because I’m tired of you jumping down my throat.”

“I-I… I’m sorry.” Twilight murmured, tears filling her eyes.

I leaned in for a kiss, and when Twilight pulled away, I brought her in for a hug instead. “Twilight, I know you like words of affirmation when it comes to love, but Kaid and I are both physical affection kinds of people. This is me showing you that I will ALWAYS love you, even if you hurt my feelings by being thoughtless at times.”

She tried to push me away, but I licked her horn and she shivered. “Don’t do that! I’m trying to be ashamed of myself!”

“As you should be.” I said bluntly. “What are you going to do to change your behavior?”

“... I don’t know how. When you say you actually love another woman, its… It’s hard to hear, Amour. I-I want to meet Roxy myself.” Twilight pushed me away gently, leaving her hands on my chest.

“Alright, I’ll introduce you to everyone. We’re going to have to wake up so we can get into the mindscape since I don’t know how to slip in from the dreamscape.”

Twilight nodded. “I’m still not good at the kick, so can you wake me up?”
I put a hand on her face and kissed her. “Of course. I’ll see you soon, Sweet Plum.”

She slipped her arms around me and took a deep breath before letting me go. “Okay. I’ll see you soon, Smokey Bear.”

“That’s adorable.” I said before snapping out of the dream.

I nudged Twilight a couple of times, but she wasn’t waking up anytime soon, so I tried giving her a good thrust or two and she moaned herself awake. “Smokey! I’m too sensitive for that!”

“Sorry, Cherry, but you feel too good to let the opportunity pass.” I kissed the nape of her neck.

“Mmm~ Can we enter the mindscape now? I think I’m getting clo~se” She moaned as I gave her three good strokes. “Amour~ Stop!”

I chuckled and scooted a bit closer so that I was as deep as I was going to get. “Just relax and go with the flow, okay?” I closed my eyes and used the contact I had with Twilight to draw her into my mind after three deep breaths.

We shifted around until we were upright, and when we arrived, we were at the bottom of the staircase Kaid mentioned in the last entry, so I dressed Twilight and myself in some casual clothes so we weren't just going around naked before leading her up to the Central Platform. When we arrived, Roxy was already sitting on a semi-circular couch and smiled at us, patting each side with her hands.

“Are you two going to take all day or are we going to have ourselves a talk?” Roxanne called out.

I shifted us over to her and she continued smiling. “Hullo, Sparky, Twilight. It’s good to see you two so soon.”

“Wotcher, Frosty.” I said cheerfully. “Wasn’t expecting to be back this quick, but I can’t say I’m upset about it. Are you just gonna sit around, or are you gonna get off of your fat arse and give me a hug?”

Roxy gave me a look and got up. I didn’t even bother moving when she slapped my chest. “Shut the fuck up and get your damn hug, you limp-dicked cock-swallower.”

I hugged her and she returned it, both of us chuckling. We let each other go and she turned to Twilight. “Must be weird, seeing the male and female version of your husband at the same time, yeah?”

Twilight smiled nervously. “It’s a little odd, I’ll say that much. Not to be rude, but where are Kaid and the others? And don’t you all get bored in here?”

“They’re relaxing in their realms with either their versions of you, or in Kaid’s case, he’s trying to learn how to be a decent kid by following Blue’s rules.” Roxy gestured towards the doors. “Max is the only one who can freely enter every realm, so I can’t really offer to show you anyone one else’s place other than my own. As for the boredom, Max made a few adjustments to everyone so that we CAN’T get bored or lonely.”

My wife perked up. “Well that was nice of you, Max.” She gave a peck on the cheek before turning to Roxy. “So what’s your realm like?”

“It’s just Ponyville.” Roxy said dismissively. “I live in Max’s old house, the mansion.”

Twilight looked at her, confused. “Why wouldn’t you want to live in the Castle?”

She gave Twilight a half-smile. “Can I call you Cherry? Is that too weird?”

“It’s a little weird,” Twilight admitted, “but I don’t mind.”

“Cherry, I don’t like the Castle. I know Max was perfectly happy in his first house, and he was alright with the second, but the Castle is just too much for people like us. I like the mansion because that’s where I lived when I first proposed to you, and that’s the place where we were intimate for the first time. The mansion holds a lot of good memories for me.” Roxy gave her a warm smile.

Twilight clasped her hands over her heart. “Oh, Amourette, that’s so sweet!”

Roxy came in for a hug and Twilight gave it to her readily, though Roxy waited until she was holding Twilight’s arms to say, “I could transfer the memories I’ve made so far with the you Max gave me so you know what I’m like. My Twilight and I have been doing a lot of talking, giggling, and tea drinking.”

My wife’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Yes please!”

“It requires a kiss, if that’s okay with both of you.” Roxy looked at us in turn.

“You know there’s no one I mind sharing Twilight with less than you, Frosty.” I gave her a lopsided grin.

Twilight turned and looked at me. “Why is that?”

“I know she loves you as much as I do, and I highly doubt that Roxy would ever willingly hurt you in any way.” I replied easily.

Twilight turned to Roxy. “So you really do love me like Max does?”

Frosty gave her a genuine smile. “Of course, Cherry. All of the Others love you like Max does, though just not as intensely, if that makes any sense. We love you with the same devotion, and it’s honestly just shy of the Covenant. It’s really not a notable difference.”

“I-I don’t know what to say…” Twilight’s cheeks slowly grew pinker before she started turning red.

Roxy glanced at me, raised a brow and tilted her head toward Twilight in the space of two seconds. I gave her a nod and she gently tilted Twilight’s face upward so she could give her the kiss she’d mentioned earlier, and I must say, seeing the woman I married and the woman I fell for face first at first furtive glance kiss was elating, but when Twilight cupped Roxy’s face with her hand and started getting into it, the event was absolutely stiffening. I smiled like a blissful idiot and watch as Roxy and Twilight battled back and for for control, but then Roxy pulled away and gave Twilight a peck on the cheek.

“Thank you, Cherry. That was just lovely.” Frosty sighed.

Twilight smiled shyly. “You’re a really good kisser.”

“Better than Max?” Roxy teased.

Twilight giggled and shook her head. “I wouldn’t say that, but I can’t really compare you two. Kissing you feels like-”

“A cool breeze coming from the ocean?” I interjected.

My wife smiled at me. “It’s really pleasant! I like the way I feel when I kiss you, but Roxy is just so different! I honestly can’t believe I said that you two were the same person: it’s just so ridiculous!”

I gave her a knowing smile. “I like being right. So have you enjoyed the time you’ve spent with Roxy so far?”

Twilight offered Roxy and I her hands, so I took the left one and Roxy took the right one, and thus we made a triangle. Triangles are my favorite shape because they’re three points where two lines meet. Anyway, Twilight said, “It’s strange to have memories of a place I haven’t been to in over six months with a Roxy so different from the one I already knew, but it’s so obvious that we’re a great match. Roxy is funny, compassionate, sweet, playful, and it doesn’t hurt that she’s just so darn pretty!”

Frosty blushed brightly. “Oh, hush Twilight. Everyone here knows that you’re the hottest thing on two legs.”

Twilight looked at me, her eyes shimmering. “And she’s modest, just like you! Oh, Amour, it’s so nice to be able to share even more of my love with someone who loves me back!”

I glanced at Roxy and we had the same idea, going in for a kiss on either of Twilight’s cheeks. However, we weren't expecting her to lean back at the last moment and we ended up kissing while Twilight giggled. “If you two want to love each other, then it’s officially fine by me! I can’t believe I was so worried over your relationship.”

Roxy’s face was bright red as she smiled at me. “Glad to know we have the go ahead. I told you Twilight would be okay with it in the end.”

I rolled my eyes. “I had to get stern with her to get her here, so bite your tongue.”

Twilight blushed. “I was being pretty unreasonable…”

“No, Cherry, you were being jealous. It’s natural for a woman in love to not want to share her man with just anyone, especially if you’ve never technically met them.” Roxy reasoned. “Max is just goofy.”

My wife smiled at her. “Thank you for understanding, Roxy.”

“No problem, lover-girl.” Frosty gave her a peck on the cheek. “Do you want to go meet the rest of the Others? I’m sure Max isn’t just here to see me, after all.”

“Well, I would hate to take away from your time with each other…” Twilight said softly.

“Time doesn't pass while I’m here with all of the Others, so we have as much time as we need.” I informed.

“Really? That’s fascinating!” Twilight beamed.

Roxy and I chuckled. “You’re going to have to ask Kaid about why time doesn’t work properly when we’re all in here. He and Prince are the only one’s magically adept enough to understand it entirely.” She said.

Twilight looked at me. “Can we save Kaid for last? I’m sure the rest of the Others would be a little upset if I saw him first since I’ve actually met Kaid.”

I looked at Roxy and she said, “I’m pretty sure no one really cares what order you go in. We all have our own Twilight in our realm, so it’s not like we’re losing any time with you.”

“Well, isn’t that convenient.” Twilight said, approval evident in her voice. “I wonder what memories everyone has made with me so far.”

“It’s probably all just ‘getting to know you’ type stuff. All of the Others except Kaid know how you are with personal contact, so I imagine that there’s a lot of talking going on.” I surmised.

Roxy shrugged. “I only came out of my realm because I felt you two come in. I couldn’t tell you what’s going on with anyone else.”
“That just means we should see for ourselves! Which door should we knock on first?” My wife asked.

“I suggest getting Prime done first. He’s rough around the edges, but I know he’s a softy at heart.” Roxy said.

“Which door is his?” Twilight inquired.

“The black one. Don’t take much of what he says to heart, Cherry. If he’s being a dick, it’s not because he’s trying to hurt your feelings, it’s just how he talks.”

“Well now I’m a little less eager to meet him…”

Roxy and I squeezed her hands. “Don’t worry, Sugar Plum. I’ll shut him up if his mouth gets too loud.” I promised.

Twilight gave me a look. “Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

Frosty giggled and I just rolled my eyes at her joke. “You’ve had better ones. Let’s get a move on, yeah?”

Roxy let go first and I followed suit, both of us taking one of Twilight’s sides as we walked over to the doors. It wasn’t a terribly long walk by my standards, but the Central Platform is pretty fucking big, if I do say so myself. It was easily the size of the Throne Room in Castle Arcadia, so it took a minute or two to get across the radius of the circle since Roxy had been in the middle. We arrived at Prime’s door and I gave him a knock or three, waiting for him to come answer the door. When he didn’t answer, I rang the bell and waited for another couple of minutes, but I figured that whatever he was doing had to be important, so I started to lead us toward Prince’s door, but the moment we got two meters away, Prime came out.

“Oi!” He growled. “I was busy with something!”

“That’s why we were about to leave you alone, mate.” I replied evenly.

“Ah. Thanks.” He looked at Twilight and smirked. “See you’ve brought everyone’s sweetheart along with you. Give me a sec, I’ll be right out.” He closed his door behind him and came out about two minutes laters, wiping his lips off.

“Were you snogging Twilight or Dusk?” Roxy jibed.

“Dusk.” He grunted. “No offense, Twi, but you’re hotter as a guy.”

“Oh… Uh, thank you. I think.” Twilight said.

He nodded and came over while he was saying, “So what brings you by so soon? Figured you’d be wary of coming to a place where everyone’s head over bollocks for you.”

My wife blushed. “Well, it’s kind of a funny story actually…”

“... And that story is?” Prime said as pleasantly as he gets.

“W-Well, Max and I just finished with eating some snacks and we went to sleep. In the dreamscape, Max told me that he was in love with Roxy and I got a little upset-”

“Understatement of the day, but go on.” I interrupted.

Roxy shot me a dirty look. “Would it kill you to shut up every once in awhile?”

“Probably. Twilight, please continue.” I said magnanimously.

She chuckled nervously. “Right. So I was more than just a little upset, but Max kept a level head and told me that Roxy loved me more than she loved him, which made me want to meet her and all of the Others, so we came back to Equus and slipped into the mindscape. That pretty much sums it up.”

“Huh. Just so you know, I’d love you more if you were a guy right now.” Prime snorted.

“He’s full of shit, Cherry,” Roxy said, “so don’t pay him any mind. He loves you just as much when you’re female as when you’re male. He’s just gay.”

“I kinda picked up on that, Amourette.” Twilight chuckled.

Prime barked out a laugh. “You ought to know that Twi would get it, scrubber.”

Twilight frowned. “I think Kaid called me that. What’s it mean?”

“It means I’m cashing in the one punch rule.” Prime growled.

“It’s really not that serious, Toasty.” Roxy admonished.

“Besides, Kaid doesn’t get away with much, and I doubt he gets away with anything now that Blue's on his case. It was the first day he met Twilight anyway, so I think he’s earned a little leeway on that one.” I said, despite my feelings on the matter.

Prime curled a lip. “Little shit needs to watch his mouth.”

“You swear a lot more than Kaid ever did.” Twilight pointed out.

“I’m also a grown-fucking-man. I’m not saying he needs to clean up his language, I’m saying he needs to stop insulting you.”

“I’m still wondering what it means. It can’t be something as harmless as a little scrub-brush or anything like that, otherwise you wouldn’t be upset about it.”

Prime shook his head. “If he called you a fucking cleaning tool, I’d still be pissed about it. If you haven’t figured it out already, I only calm down with Dusk.”

“So you’re like Max’s angst personified?” Twilight asked.

“Shit, kinda? I just know I’m based off of the Primal Path, and that shit sucks.”

“... Do you want a hug?” My wife offered.

Prime looked down. “... Yeah. Please.”

Twilight looked at me and I gave her a nod, so she went over and gave him a hug. He was rather gentle with her, like he was afraid to break her, which I appreciated. “I don’t know why Roxy and Max think you’re so bad. You just need to be a little less hostile with your diction and you’ll be just fine!”

Prime’s neck reddened and he cleared his throat. “Dusk’s been telling me that since I met him. Hell, told me to watch my language before I even came out here.”

“It’s nice to know that you’re listening.” Twilight deadpanned.

He rubbed his neck. “It’s not really something I control, Twi.”

“I’m sure you could tone it down if you really felt like it.” She assured him.

“Time will tell, I guess. Speaking of time, you want the memories of the time I’ve spent with Dusk? Have to transfer it through a kiss, but it doesn't have to be much more than a quick peck or something.”

“I don’t know, can you get your hair out of your face so I can actually look you in the eyes?” Twilight asked teasingly.

Prime mumbled some random words that had no meaning to anyone other than him as he conjured up a familiar black ribbon that I’d lost within my first month of coming to Equestria. When he got his hair out of his face, the guy was probably more attractive than I am to be honest, but the blush he maintained probably made his look cuter than handsome to Twilight.

“Wow… I thought you’d look more like Max, but you’re handsome in a different way.” She said sweetly.

His blush intensified and he stared off to his right. “Whatever. S’not like it matters.”

Twilight touched his face and guided his chin so that he was facing her. “I think Dusk would really appreciate it if you pulled your hair back more often.”

“... He hasn’t said anything about it yet.”

“That’s because you’ve been blowing him since he got here.” Roxy teased.

“Bite me, skuzz.” He snarled.

“I might. You are kinda cute for a guy. kinda.” She emphasized.

“Stop making fun of Toasty before he bursts into flames or something.” I chided. “You know he has less control of his powers than we do.”

Twilight turned and gave Roxy a look. “What Max said. I really don’t think ‘Toasty’ means to be hostile, it’s just how it comes out.”

“Pretty much.” He muttered.

My wife cupped his face with her hand. “Still, once you grow some more as a person, you’ll smooth out the roughness. I believe in you, Prime.”

If he wasn’t already bright red from having his face exposed, he would’ve flushed hard anyway. “... Thank you.”

“Hot shite on a shelf, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard him say ‘Thank you’.” I said , surprised.

“He’s said ‘Thanks’ multiple times now, Amour.” Twilight pointed out.

“The meaning is different between the two in Wiltshire. ‘Thanks’ means ‘I appreciate it, but you’re not getting shit from me.’ while ‘Thank you’ means ‘I owe you one.’. I’ve gone years without actually saying ‘Thank you’ before.” I explained.

“Oh. Well, you’re welcome, Toasty, but don’t think I’m going to ask you for something because of that, okay?” Twilight said.

“Wouldn’t mean much anyway. All you have to do is ask.” Prime grumbled.

I couldn’t see Twilight’s face, but I could feel her happiness. “I think that deserves a kiss. What do you say, Toasty?”

He waited to reply. “Why do you keep calling me Toasty?”
“Because it’s cuter than Prime, silly!”

“God, you’re fucking adorable.” He spat angrily.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Roxy chuckled.

“Oh, shut up.” He groused.

Twilight held his face with both hands and gave him a kiss before anyone could say anything else, but after a few seconds, Prime pulled away. “They should all be there.”

Twilight gave him a hug. “You really are trying to curtail the swearing! Good job, Toasty!”

He hugged her back briefly and let go. “Yeah, that’s real nice. Mind if I go back to Dusk now?”

“Feel free. Tell him I said hi, please.”

Prime nodded. “Will do.” He looked to Roxy and I. “Any messages from you arsewipes?”

“Tell him to give up the tail already.” I snarked.

“Give him a decent BJ. That’s not a message, that’s just a suggestion.” Roxy grinned.

“You’re full of shit, both of you.” He growled before heading toward his door.

We decided not to bother him any further, and as we walked over to Prince’s door, I wondered how he was going to react when he saw Twilight. I figured he’d be pleasantly surprised, so when we rang the chime, I was feeling pretty alright about it. Prince came to the door soon enough, though he just stepped out like Prime instead of inviting us in.

“Well hello Twilight, Max, Roxy. It’s good to see all of you again.” He said pleasantly.

Twilight beamed at him. “It’s nice to meet you. Your name is Prince, right?”

“It is, but you can feel free to call me Misty or Foggy. I prefer Foggy since it’s not as effeminate, but either is fine.” He conjured up a chair, an inn table, and some coffee. “Would you all like to sit and chat for a jiff, or are you terribly busy at the moment?”

I made my easy chair and a straight-back for Twilight while Roxy made a lounger. “We’ve got the time if you’ve got the inclination. How are things going with your Twilight?” I asked.

“They’re going quietly at the moment. We’ve been reading through The Lover’s Days Trilogy simultaneously and I think she’s starting to warm up to me a little. I’ve been trying to be myself, but you know how love is.” He smiled disarmingly.

“Mate, being yourself is your best bet for getting to the good stuff with Twilight. Reading with cuddles involved shouldn’t take much more than a couple of weeks with how pleasant you are.” Roxy said kindly.

“Ah, but I believe I’ve been making a few mistakes as of late. I sat a little too close to her when we started talking to each other, but she didn’t move-” Foggy said before he got cut off.

“If I didn’t move, you probably weren’t too close.” Twilight gave him a warm smile. “I really have to say, you’re a lot more relaxed than I thought you’d be.”

He gave her a gentle grin. “I suppose you could say that I’m many of Max’s good aspects personified, although I do believe my tongue tends to get a bit sharp when I’m upset.”

Roxy scoffed. “You actually hurt my feelings when you called me a ‘worthless filth-fucking, gutter-diving, rubbish-cunted frivolous whore’. I’m still mad at you for that.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped and Prince sniffed. “You shouldn't have insulted my sexuality.”

“... There’s no way you said that.” Twilight said slowly.

“Nah, I was there for it. Dude hurt my feelings, and it wasn’t even directed at me. Made me feel like shit on the bottom of his shoe.” I shook my head.

“How do you think I felt?” Roxy said flatly.

“I’m not apologizing.” Prince said calmly before sipping his coffee.

Roxy rolled her eyes and conjured up a teapot so she could pour herself a drink. “Didn’t expect you to. I was in the wrong anyway.”

“As long as you see that.”

“... You’re not going to say stuff like that to me, are-” Twilight started.

Alarm crossed Foggy’s face. “Dear Heavens, Twilight! I would never say anything so crass or hateful to you! I have the utmost respect for you as both a woman and a Princess, so please; perish the thought!” He touched a hand to his heart like she’d struck him.

My wife gave him a small smile. “I think I’d appreciate it more if you just didn’t say things like that at all.”

He sighed. “I wish such words would never leave my mouth, but when my blood is boiling, they’re the only things I have to get my point across. I do believe it’s a far sight better than coming to blows with someone.”

“If you woulda just hit me I wouldn’t still be feeling the sting.” Roxy sniped.

Twilight nodded. “Words can be far more hurtful than being hit if you use them the wrong way.”

He nodded. “I know. That’s why I attack the psyche rather than the body, but this is a terribly dreadful subject for a first impression. Why don't we talk about something more pleasant, like your wonderful singing voice? I’d love to sing a duet with you sometime.” His disarming smile was back.

Twilight wasn’t about to let it go. “I told Toasty to keep his language in check and I think you might need to hear the same thing.”

“Twilight, beloved, it’s a complete non-issue as long as I’m left alone as I often ask to be. Roxy simply made the mistake of taunting me one too many times, and Primal couldn’t take no for an answer. It really is nothing to worry about as long as everyone plays nice as we’re supposed to. Please, let us leave this topic before it sullies your opinion of me. I assure you that my inborn manners and etiquette bar me from simply spouting such evil things like so many drops of rain from one of my clouds.”

“Fine, but I’d like you to remember that I don’t like it when you actively try to hurt people’s feelings.” Twilight said firmly.

“Of course, beloved. I’ll remember your words as I remember the rest: fondly, and held in great esteem.” Foggy grinned, his eyes wrinkling giving him a general aura of being harmless.

Twilight returned his smile. “As long as you take it to heart, I think we’ll be fine. So what are some of your preferred hobbies?”

“Well, I like to read and paint, as well as experiment with whatever instruments Max has tried to play. I also enjoy long walks, though I’ve yet to find the nerve to ask my Twilight to accompany me on one as of this moment.” Foggy replied.

“I would go with you, so I’m sure your version of me will be happy to join you. If you really want to speed things up, I’d suggest reading Max’s Midnight Stroll series with her. I know they’re some of my favourite books. I can’t say I’m terribly fond of The Lover’s Days Trilogy anymore.” My wife shot me a dirty look.

“Ah! I should’ve realized that it ended in tragedy! I’m glad I asked her to halt her progress until I returned.” Foggy facepalmed, grimacing.

“Don’t worry, I already know that the ending is terrible, but the first two and three-quarters of the trilogy are nearly perfect as far as romance novels go.” Twilight gave him an easy smile.

“Still, I believe your advice is rather apt. Definitely worthy of putting to use.”

“If you really want to get close to Twilight, ask her if you can hold her hand for a moment and tell her what you think. I’m sure you can come up with some compliments that’ll have her heart melting in minutes.” I advised.

Twilight gave me a confused look. “Why my hand? Wouldn’t compliments about my mane or eyes work better?”

I offered Twilight my hand and she placed hers in mine. “It’s because the first contact we had as a couple was holding hands on the train back from Canterlot after we visited your parents for Hearth’s Warming Day. It was one of the first steps we took towards becoming a real couple.” I gave her winsome smile.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure I gave you a favour the night before we left.”

“And it was perfectly fine.” Prince said brightly.

My wife’s head whipped to face him and she stared. “... You know about that?”

“Beloved, I am the personification of Max’s Prince Path. I share many of his memories.”

“So does everyone except Kaid. Trust me, if Kaid remembered that favour by itself, he wouldn’t have pressed you so hard.” Roxy teased.

Twilight blushed hard. “Wh-What’s that supposed to mean!?” She turned to face me. “Max, what does that mean?”

“In fairness, I think that was like, your second time trying a peppermint stick, and I’m not really the easiest fellow to fellate.” I soothed.

“What does peppermint have to do with anything? And what does ‘fellate’ mean?” Twilight asked, becoming more confused as we went on.

Foggy coughed. “I do believe we’re getting off topic here. I was to ask for Twilight’s hand and honestly compliment it, no?”

“Eeyup. It’ll get you a start in her heart.” Roxy said for me.

“I am not letting this go! What were you three talking about?” Twilight pressed.

“Why, I don’t know if I’m following your train of thought, Twilight.” Prince said calmly.

“I’m loving the outfit, Cherry. Is it one of your own, or did Max make it for you?” Roxy asked.

“Max made it for me, but-” Twilight began.

“Yeah, I thought burgundy and wine would work well together. Speaking of your style in general, now that I’m back, do you want me to start doing your mane and makeup again?” I asked, shifting the conversation.

My wife glared at the three of us in turn. “I know what you’re doing and I do not approve!”

“Why, whatever do you mean, dearest?” Prince asked smoothly. “You should know that we wouldn’t try anything untoward or unbecoming with you.”

“That’s not what I’m saying at all!” Twilight protested.

“Then what are you saying, sweetie? We’re all listening, so please; speak your mind.”

Twilight opened her mouth and made a frustrated noise. “Ooh! You got me all riled up so I’d forget!”

I put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “That wasn’t the intention, Cherry. No one is trying to pull the wool over your eyes.” I said calmingly.

She glared at me, but Roxy shifted her chair closer and put a hand on Twilight’s arm. “You know we love you, Twilight. We’re not trying to upset you here.”

My wife let out a heavy sigh. “You suck sometimes, you know that?”

“Only when I’m female.” I nodded wisely.

She shot me a dirty look. “I understood that one, you pervert.”

I gave her a look. “It was a favour for you anyway. How am I a pervert if you’re the one who asked me to do it?”

Twilight turned away from me and looked at Roxy. “Do you understand what I meant?”

“... Did Max not get it right?” Frosty asked, bewildered.

Twilight groaned and sat back in her chair. “I’m not even going to bother with it anymore. You three are infuriating.”

Prince looked stricken. “Why, I do apologize for any trespasses, but I happen to be unaware of any mistakes I’ve made thus far. Please, beloved, speak your mind and let us ease your irritation.”

Twilight gave him a pointed look. “You know what you did.”

He frowned and his eyes gleamed. “I assure you that I speak the truth! If I have made any follies, I do sincerely apologize.”

Twilight set her jaw, so I squeezed her shoulder. “Cherry, you’re being unfair with Foggy. You know he can lie to you about as much as I can.” I said softly.

I saw her frustration take a hit, but Roxy started working her too. “Far be it from me to tell you what to do, but maybe opening up about what’s making you upset will help you feel better?”

“The three of you teamed up to dodge a question I had until I forgot it.” Twilight said angrily. “That's unfair.”

“I would ask what the question was so I could answer it for you, but I don’t believe I remember what it was.” Prince said sadly, his voice thickening. “Please, dearest, don’t be upset.”

Twilight looked at him. “You must have some of Max’s acting skill.”

“Oi, he’s not acting.” I said sharply. “You really are hurting him.”

Twilight cut me a glare and I sent an equal one right back at her until she backed down. “... I’m sorry, Foggy. I’m not trying to hurt your feelings-”

“No, dear Twilight, it’s not my feelings that are hurt. My eyes brim for your feelings. There is not a molecule of my being that wishes ill emotion upon you, and I do wish that you would see this as I see your vexation.” Prince said earnestly.

Twilight had the good grace to look ashamed. “I’m sorry, I should’ve realized that your concern was genuine.”

Prince gave her a watery smile. “As Kaid would say, ‘It’s all good’, though I must request something of you, beloved.”

She gave him her full attention. “... Okay?”

“Could you try to smile? I understand that it may not be what you want, but even a fake smile can balance your mood.”

She gave him a little one and he beamed, clearing the tears from his eyes. “And there we have it! A lovely little smile from a lovely little lady!”

My wife blushed and I realized that she was absolutely fucked if she wanted to stay mad at more than two of us for any amount of time. Prince’s acting was too good, Roxy vibed too well, and I’m already pretty damn good at taking Twilight on an emotional roller coaster on my own. She’d had a foot in our trap the second she answered Roxy’s question about where she got her apparel, and her forgetting what she was supposed to be mad about was an unexpected boon in itself. Between the three of us, we’d made her teeter on the brink of losing her composure, but unlike when I had to solo her frustrations, we were able to bring her back down to sea level before she could pop.

Damn, are we good, or not?

We spent some more time talking to Prince before he excused himself, stating that he didn’t want to keep his Twilight waiting too long since she was alone, so we left him to his own devices and didn’t bother to get rid of the furniture we’d set up since the Central Platform was empty as fuck anyway. After we finished up with our beverages, we went to go knock on Kaid’s door, but it was Blue who answered.

“Oh! Max, Roxy, Twilight! It’s good to see all of you.” She said warmly. “Are you here for Kaid, or are you coming for a visit with both of us?”

“We’d like to visit if you have the time.” I said with the same tone.

“Well, as much as I’d like to let Kaid out of his room, he’s gone and gotten himself grounded before our first day together has even ended.” Blue gave us a sad smile.

“Dear lord, what did he do?” Roxy asked.

“He called me a ‘minger’, though I don’t know what that means. I’m sure it’s something quite nasty, and that was after he kept slipping up with his language.” Mum shook her head. “It really is a shame that the colt can’t control his tongue, but we both agreed that being grounded for a couple of days was better than me using liquid soap to really get that foul mouth of his cleaned up.”

Roxy and I worked our jaws. “Lemme know if he calls ya a minger twice, yeah?” I requested.

Twilight put a hand on my arm, but Roxy spoke before she could. “Or you can come and ring my bell. Max isn’t always going to be around, but I’ll make time to talk to him about why that’s not a good idea.”

“Trust me, as long as he doesn't call me the N-word, I’ll handle him myself.” Blue sighed. “Still, would you all like to come in? I’ve just made some tea not even ten minutes ago and it’s still hot!”

“We’d love to, Mum, but I really would like to have a chat with Kaid.” I said neutrally.

Blue looked unsure about that. “I’m not too sure about that, baby. Unless you can do it without swearing or threatening him, I’d really rather you not.”

“I’ll talk to him, man to man. No threats, no swearing.” I promised.

She still looked uncertain, but she said, “I’ll trust you on this, Max. Don’t make me regret it.”

“Since when do I make you regret things?” I asked cheekily, grinning.

“You made me regret letting you become a Prince many times over,” She said stonily, her tone like a slap in the face, “but the past is the past. It’s the choices you make now that matter.”

She walked away from the door, but nobody moved. “... Max? Are you okay?” Twilight asked, concerned.

“... Yeah… I’ll be right in a mo’.” I shook my head.

“That was just unnecessary.” Roxy said, sounding hurt herself. “I’m going to go talk to Mum about that. You get your head straight and talk to Kaid, okay?”

“Thanks, Roxy. I’ll…’ I shook my head some more.

Twilight hugged my arm. “Max, what did she mean by that?”

“She… She meant a lot of things Twilight.” I said softly. “It’s whatever though. Go join Roxy and I’ll go talk to Kaid. When I’m done with him, I’ll be around to talk to Mum too.”

“It’s not ‘whatever’.” Twilight’s brows furrowed. “What she said obviously hurt, Amour.”

“Yeah, shit was a low blow. Like I said; get with Roxy and calmly get your point across. There’s no point in getting upset over the truth.”

Twilight brought me in for a quick kiss before heading inside. I’m not going to explain why Blue was disappointed in me because I already know, but there’s also just a fucktonne of morally sketchy decisions I’ve made while ruling that I’ve told her about, like when I first instituted the ‘Lap or Lake’ rule, or the time I made a squad of guards run extra laps because I caught a few of them slacking. I know she thinks the Esteril event was the worst mistake I’ve ever made in my entire life, but those are only a few examples, and she’d supported me through all of them, one way or another, even if she disagreed. Still, she didn’t need to say that.

I shoved my feelings to the side because I didn’t need them at the moment and headed into the copy of Blue’s townhouse. It was an odd thing since I’d expected Kaid to go with somewhere he’d spent more than a few hours in, but his choices are his choices and all that. I headed on up the stairs and found Cream Pie’s old room, but when I knocked on the door, it took him a minute to open in.

“Wotcher, Kaid.” I said calmly.

“Aw come on! Not you too, bruv.” He groaned.

“I’m not gonna hit you or threaten you, mate. Just here to talk for a mo’, give you a couple tips.”

He glared at me, but he still opened the door the rest of the way. “I’m guessing Mum asked you to come talk to me?”

“Nah, this is all me. Roxy wants to talk to you too, but she’s chatting with Mum about unnecessarily saying hard truths.” I said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means Blue verbally slapped me across the gob for no real reason.”

“Trust me, I know the feeling.” He said bitterly.

“... Let’s parlay, mate.”

He gave me an up-nod, which I returned. “Any reason you’re using street-talk now?”

“It’s the language you understand best.” I stepped into his room and looked around. He’d already painted murals on the walls, and I recognized one wall as a forest scene that I’d stolen for a banker back when I was about fifteen. I always did regret giving that one up.

“True enough. So you want me to explain my side of the story, or are you talking at me?”

“I’ve always got an ear to listen, kid. Give me the long version and I’ll roll us one.”

“Fu-” I gave him a look. “Fun. That sounds fun.” He finished.

“You have to keep your mind on it, mate. Slip ups come when you’re not paying attention, and that crap gets you in trouble at your age.”

Kaid ran a hand through his hair, grimacing. “Bruv, she caught me before I could even drop an F-bomb and I still wound up grounded. I never even finished a ‘bad word’.” He air quoted.

“Really?” I asked. “Start from the top, Kaid. I’ll get rolling.”

We closed the door and Kaid let me have his desk chair, so I thought up some indica, a grinder, and some papers while he sat on the desk itself. “Alright, so the night started off pretty decent, yeah? Mum showed up while I was trying to get her house right, so she helped me out and fixed up some of the wonky walls and whatnot. We started talking about some of our favourite stuff to do and I mentioned that I actually enjoyed strolling and she started riding me about that, so I backed down, yeah?”

“Right.” I dumped the ground herb onto the desk and folded my paper. “I know that can’t be the end of it.”

“Oh, bruv, you’ve got no idea. So I’m being all docile and acting like a lil’ punk so I can keep her happy, and I even promised her that I wouldn’t steal shi-” I gave him another look. “Shtuff. Said I’d stop stealing stuff and all that, but she just kept on me like I was back talking her or some…” He searched for a word. “Rubbish, I guess. So I was trying to be nice and calm her down, but Mum kept on- Wait, can I say the N-word with you? Not the racial slur, but the word for a female horse.”

I licked the glue stripand stuck it together. “Mate, it’s in your best interest to leave that word on Earth. All the Twilight’s and Blue are gonna be pissed with you-”

“Oi, she got me for saying ‘piss’ too!”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah! But I get what you’re saying about that word, though. Where was I?”

“Mum was chastising you.”

“Bruv, it’s been a day full of it. I let her go for three hours with her little comments and snipes, but I didn’t backtalk her at all, but frickity-frack, did I ever want to, Max. She finally let up when breakfast came around, so I thought I was in the clear and that she’d got it all out of her system, but she was petty enough to make me some angry-face pancakes, and when I tried to thank her for making breakfast, she told me to ‘Shut up and eat’, like I’d pissed in her-” He let out the rest of his breath.

I passed the joint to him. “Hit it easy. Stuff’s pretty potent, and I don't want you to get in more trouble for being blazed beyond belief.”

“You alliterate too much.” Kaid said, though he followed my advice. “Ooh, that hurts.” He made a face and took his smoke in deep.

“Like I said, it’s pretty potent.” I took a drag. “You were saying Mum was acting like you’d pissed in her cereal and/or soup?”

I passed the L to him. “Right. So I asked Mum if there was anything I could do to help her out and she just shot me the dirtiest look I’ve gotten from her and told me to mind my own business, so I got fed up and called her a pissy minger, which got me grounded. She doesn’t even know what it means!”

“I know what it means, and you shouldn’t have called her that, even if she’s been acting like a proper cunt all day. I-”

“Wait, so you can say ‘cunt’, but I can’t say anything? What kinda logic is that?” He practically shouted.

I raised a brow at him. “Are you just going to let that burn or are you gonna hit it?”

He shook his head and got his two puffs in before passing it. “Bruv, all I’m tryna say is that Blue’s bein’... Hateful, I guess. It’s like she’s stressed out about somethin’, but she’s not followin’ her own bloody advice and just spittin’ it out.”

I took a long drag and held the hit for a bit. “Tell ya what: If Roxy and Twilight can’t get it out of her, then we’ll have you stay with Roxy for a little bit until Mum starts playing nice. I’ll try talking to her if I can, but like I said before I walked in, she hit me with a low blow before I even came into the flat.”

“... She’s bein’ real cruel, Max. This ain’t like her, and I don’t even know her that well, but I do know that somethin’s wrong with her.” I roached the last little bit of the joint. “I never signed up for this, bruv.” He finished softly.

“What’s on your heart, mate?”

“... How long is it before she starts actin’ like Babs? Shit like this was like her after a binge.” He asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Blue might be going through tough times right now, but she’ll pull out of this nosedive, Kaid. She’s not gonna turn into the egg-donor, and you’ve got me seven shades of messed up if you think I’m gonna let her keep going down this path.”

“You said she’d pull out of it on her own.” He said, his eyes bright red.

I scooped the rest of the herb I conjured and made a fat sack that I dropped into one of his desk drawers. “True, but she’s not going to do it fast enough for my tastes. The sooner Twilight, Roxy, or myself can kickstart her back into being her normal self, the better off she’ll be.”

“I’m fuckin’ stoned.”

I snapped and cleared the air. “Put on some tunes and chill out for a bit. Oh, and by the way,” He looked at me, blinking slowly, “if Roxy catches you powdered up, she’s gonna let you binge and dry you out like Maxwell did to me. It’s not a threat, it’s fair warning.”

“Bruv, are you psychic or something?” You fucking idiot.

“Or something,” I said, my tone dropping. “Remember the warning, Kaid.”

“Yeah, I gotcha. Roxy’s looking out for me.”

“Exactly. She cares about you, so if you can’t talk to Blue, go talk to her. Hell-”

“She got me for saying ‘Hell’ too.” Kaid cut in.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Yeah, this talk is happening. I’ll send Twilight and Roxy up if they’re done with Mum, so don’t start bopping the bologna.”

“I’ll save it for later. What’s Roxy wearing?”

“Black V-neck and something called ‘jeggings’. I dunno when they came around, but I think you’ll like ‘em.”

“I think I’ve heard of ‘em. They’re basically tights that look like denim trousers, yeah? I think some sloppy slaws at school used to wear ‘em, but I wasn’t exactly there to see.” He scratched his head.

“Shame we can’t get that time back. You really are a brilliant kid.”

“You know you’re the only one I’m gonna let get away with calling me ‘kid’, right?”

“Bucking fetter. I’m you, just older.” I scoffed.

“Switch the letters around! Spoonerism! It’s brilliant!” Kaid exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes. “Don't try it too often, or she’ll start catching on and that might land you in the doghouse anyway.”

“Gotcha. You gonna let me enjoy this buzz, or are you gonna keep droning?”

“Bite me, shrimp.” I stood up and started toward the door.

“Eat a dick, wanker.”

I passed him a smirk and he had a similar one on his own face, so we left it at that, and I closed his door behind me as I left. I knew what it was like to have some bumbling fuck leave the door open when it was closed in the first place, so I found it extra pertinent to do what what I just said I did. On the way downstairs, I heard Blue hotly deflecting or outright refusing to answer Roxy and Twilight, so I hurried up and got into the kitchen before she could start swearing or being especially cunty. When I got in, Blue stopped herself in the middle of telling Twilight that something or other was none of her business and glared at me.

“Mum, we-”

“I’m done talking. You need to leave.“ She said icily.

“No,” I replied.

“I beg your pardon? Did you say ‘No’?” Blue challenged.

“We need to talk.” I looked at her calmly, but when she opened her mouth, I raised a hand, which pissed her off. “You swore to make time for me, Mum. Do you break your promises?”

She glowered at me with fire in her eyes. “You get five minutes until I escort you out.”

“I’ll set a timer and I’ll leave when it’s up.” I looked at Twilight and Roxy respectively. “Can I ask you two to go talk to Kaid for a minute-”

“No!” Blue shouted. “I said he is grounded!”

“Mum, restrain yourself before I do it for you.” I said calmly.

Fury etched its way onto her face and I spread my hands in a placating gesture, but that didn’t stop her from exploding. “Who do you think you are, Max!? Who in Tartarus do you Think. You. Are? You do not give me-” I silenced her with a wave of my hand and forced her back into her seat with a flick of my wrist.

Roxy and Twilight stared at me. “Max… Did you just…?” My wife asked, absolutely staggered.

“There are three things I think this can be about, and none of them are things I intend for either of you to hear.” I said, my voice placid. “Please: Go talk to Kaid.”

“... Yeah, no problem.” Roxy said, rising from her seat. Twilight was too busy staring at me to do so herself, so Frosty grabbed her arm gently and lead her out of the room.

When they were gone, I made a barrier in the kitchen so that no one was getting in or out, and soundproofing was an absolute must. When I finished magicking the room, I walked over to Blue who was shouting wordlessly at me, so I snapped my fingers. “-ucking Tartarus! You’re a bastard, Maximus! A bastard beyond comparison!”

I knelt in front of her and she smacked the fuck outta me. I looked at her calmly. “You’re not going to push me away.” She hit me again. “What are you doing, Mum?” I asked calmly.

“I’m trying to get my Celestia-damned point across! I don’t want you anymore! Get. Out!”

“Those words hurt you a lot more than they hurt me. I know for a fact that you’re lying.” I stated plainly, which got me punched. Luckily she couldn’t get much force behind it because she still couldn't stand.

“You filthy little minger-”

“You don’t know what that means. It describes how you’re-” She punched me two more times. “Acting right now.”

“How dare you-” She bellowed.

I silenced her again. “This isn’t about being in the mindscape.” I said softly.

She glared her lip curling, so I carried on. “And this isn’t about me or Kaid being bad sons, so I only have one more guess, Mum. It’s gotta be the last one.” I unsilenced her.

“Don’t you dare, Maximus. Don't’ you bring that up.” She warned, her eyes brimming with tears.

“Mum, these feelings-” I sighed. “When’s the last time Onyx paid you a visit?”

Confusion took over. “What?”

“When’s the last time Onyx was able to come over, Mum?” I asked.

“... It’s been a few weeks, but what does that have to-”

I swallowed my disgust. “When’s the last time you were… Satisfied?” I felt like choking on my tongue, my face most likely the brightest fucking shade of red.

Blue turned red. “I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, and if you’re talking about what I think you are-”

“Mum, you’re a ‘mare’ with desires, and I get that. It must be incredibly frustrating for you right now.” I said sympathetically. “I’ve been there too. Hell, Twilight held out on me for months, and it was a daily struggle not to cuss her out for not being there to help me.”

“Max, we are not talking about this! We are mother and son!”

“You won’t talk to Twilight or Roxy.” I said softly. “They’re women who understand what you’re going through, but you were, and I hate to say this, but you were being a proper twat when all they were trying to do was help.” Blue opened her mouth to give me another tongue lashing, but I spoke first. “We both know that not being able to take care of your desires isn’t why you’re so upset.”

She switched tack. “Max, don’t say it. Some things just don’t need to be said.”

I gave her a gentle smile. “Mum, you don’t have feelings for me. You never have, and you never will. The kiss was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, the first piece of affection you’ve gotten in how long?”

Blue’s tears fell and I conjured up a handkerchief so I could dry them. “Max, you don’t understand! I’m a sick, sick mare!”

“No, you’re truly, honestly not. You’re starved for romantic love-”

“No!” She bellowed, weeping like she’d lost another child. “I’ve felt this way for years!”

I shut my fucking mouth.

Mum let out a few more thick sobs before she could continue. “When I met you in the park, I knew full and damn well that Rainbow was the one who called me chubby, but I wanted you, Max. When you told me that Rarity slipped you Lover’s Tea, you don’t understand how bad I wanted to do the same thing, but you loved me like I was your mother! I-I was too weak to let you go, but then I came to love you as my son, and I hoped that the feelings would go away-” She choked out another sob and took a shaky breath. “When you went away for those two years, I felt like I lost more than just another son, but the feelings were dying slowly. When you came back and you slapped some sense into me, the feelings came back worse than ever and it took so much not to ask you to take me then and there.”

“Mum-”

“Don't call me that!” Blue shrieked. “I don't deserve to be your mother! I’m a sick nag, Max! I’m so bucking disgusting!” She sobbed harder than before, covering her face in shame.

I wrested her hands away from her face despite her struggling and held them. “Get it all out, Blue. You’ve been holding it in for too long.” I gently prodded.

“You- Max... “ She shook her head. “I can’t! I just can’t!”

“You can. You’ve been strong for three years, Blue. You’re still strong, so let it out.”

“... How can you even look at me?” My Mum sobbed.

“Because I can help you, but I need you to get everything out on the floor. You’re drowning right now, and I need you to spit up the water before you lose yourself. I really don’t wanna have to slap more sense into you.”

Blue looked at me, tears steadily flowing. “I-I… Every time we go out on a mother-son date, or when we’re alone, I bite back lust. There are things I wanted you to do to me that I-” She let loose another sob. “I’m a filthy whorse, Max. I’m some some bucking whorse who’s lusting after her own son.” She confessed, sagging in her seat. “I-I… I can’t be your ‘Mum’ anymore, Max. That kisswas the last straw, it just wasn’t for what you thought it was.”

“I can take these feelings away, Mum.” I replied. “I can make it so that you’ll never have another lustful thought about me ever again.”

She looked up from her lap. “... How?”

“... You’ll be the fourth person I show this to, Mum. Not the Magic, but what’s underneath these bandages.” I placed my left hand on her thigh.

Blue stared at the contact. “... Your arm?”

“Yes. When I finish taking those errant feelings from you, I’m going to-” I swallowed hard and took a breath to steady myself. “I’ll show you what I’ve been hiding since before The War was over.” I activated my True Theft. “Now stay calm and stay still. This is going to be a strange sensation, but it will not hurt. It’s awfully ticklish, so try not to laugh or anything, alright?”

“Max, just DO IT!” Mum begged. “I don’t want these damn feelings anymore!”

I reached inside of her chest, not wasting another second as I fished around for what I was looking for. I knew the keywords ‘Taboo’, ‘Lust’, ‘Shame’, and ‘Love’ would help me out, so I swirled them around in my mind until I felt two spheres that were connected. One was plush, warm, and felt inviting while the other was wrapped in barbed wire and was outright hot. I separated the two and Blue gasped, drawing a deep breath as I extracted the taboo sphere. When I pulled my hand out of Blue, She eased visibly and stared at the bundle of emotion like I was. The bright red orb was crossed with gunmetal grey barbed wire, and just seeing the thing that cause my mother so much pain and turmoil made me livid, so I did what came naturally (As far as things I hate) and stuck it in the Sun. I waited until I couldn't feel it in my grasp anymore and brought my arm back to Equus before looking up at Blue.

“It’s gone. Burned away by the Sun’s flames.” I announced. “... How are you feeling?”

Blue’s smile made my day. “Never kiss me again, you deviant.”

“No problem. I don’t really like blueberries anyway. The texture’s just awful.” I said honestly. I freed Mum from the chair and stood up with her following suit soon after.

“Max, thank you. Just… Thank you.” She hugged me and I returned it.

“If I’d known, I would’ve done it sooner.” I murmured. “I know you’re my mother, but you can come to me with anything, judgement free. No matter what it is, I’ll lend you a faithful ear, and your voice be hwilleard. I swear I will do everything in my power to make sure that you don’t have to suffer.”

Blue gave me a good squishums. “Baby, I’m so sorry I hit you. There’s no excuse for that.”

“Mum, even if you could put your full weight behind a double-hoof buck you still wouldn’t be able to do much more than irritate me slightly. You’re forgetting that your baby boy is built tougher than your average train.” I chuckled.

“Be that as it may, I shouldn't have put my hands on you.” She said softly.

“You’re forgiven, Mum. However, the next time you hit me in the face, I’m gonna make you constipated.”

She put her hands on my chest and pushed me away, giving me the most ‘What the fuck?’ look I’d seen from her in some time. “Max, I don’t think bathroom time is necessary up in the mindscape.”

“It’s not, which is why it’s gonna suck so bad. Also, I’m planning on transferring these memories to the you on Equus so I don’t have to make you hurt anymore than you already were all over again. This way I can get two birds with one stone.”

Blue gave me a look. “Why would you be throwing stones at birds?”

“Well, for one, I hate them with a passion. Two, it’s an old saying from Earth that’s actually ‘kill two birds with one stone’. I’m an omnivore, Mum.”

She tilted her head to the side. “I do tend to forget that you eat meat. At least you tried to clean it up for me.”

I gave her a sad smile. “Speaking of people who tried, you owe Kaid one Hell of an apology.”

Mum pursed her lips. “I was pretty harsh with him.”

“From the way he tells it, you were being straight up awful. He’s been swallowing his pride all day, so my honest opinion is that you should let him know that you’re back to being sweet Blueberry Tart. Maybe let a few of his slip ups go for a couple days.” I gave her a half-smile.

She nodded. “I’ll apologize and unground him, but the language needs to change.”

I shook my head. “Mother knows best.”

“Darn tootin’! Sometimes she needs help, but she’s right for the vast majority!” Blue glanced toward the hallway connecting the kitchen and the living room.

I looked over and didn’t see anyone. “Whatcha lookin’ at?”

“... I can come to you with anything, right?” Blue asked nervously, a far cry from her former bravado.

“Anything.” I repeated.

She blushed and wouldn’t meet my gaze. “... Would you mind making a few toys for me?”

Shit was super awkward, but I applauded her bravery nonetheless.

“I- Uh… Yeah, I can do that. This doesn't have to be weird.” I shook my head. “I’ll just make a bunch and put them in a box in your closet or something.” I thought for a second. “And I’ll magick your room so it sound-proofs when you lock your door. That outta prevent any emotional scarring on both ends.”

Blue gave me an embarrassed look. “Good idea. I don’t think I need to explain why I’m asking, right?”

“I think I covered it earlier. Speaking of which, nothing said in the past fifteen minutes leaves this conversation.”

“Agreed.”

Blue looked at me for a moment, her gaze flickering to my arm. I looked toward the hall again and sighed, shedding my jacket and hanging it on one of the kitchen chairs. I really didn’t want to show Mum my arm, but she’d exposed a fucking massive secret to me, and I owed her the same courtesy, so with a shaky hand, I pushed up the sleeve on my left arm and started unwrapping it, keeping my breathing as steady as I slowly exposed the last bits of flesh I had left. The joint came into view and things got harder, but I steeled my resolve and remembered Kaid’s words about my arm. He’d said that it was something to be proud of, something incredibly cool to have, but I just couldn’t feel the same way, though his thoughts did ease my mind a little bit.

“Take your time, baby. I can tell that this is hard for you.” Blue said supportively.

I didn’t respond to that, but I did try to slow down a little, closing my eyes so that I didn’t have to look at it, but my hands froze on their own before I could finish getting it down past my bicep. “I-I’m sorry… I-I can’t do it without Twilight.” I said shakily.

“Max, it’s okay. Do you want me to go get her? Will you be okay if I leave you for a moment?” Blue placed her hands on my shoulders.

“Y-Yeah… Please.” I waved the barrier away and Blue gave me a quick hug before making herself scarce.

I had a seat in the chair I’d hung my jacket on and tried to quell the shaking, but I didn’t quite calm down until I felt Twilight and Blue come into the room. Twilight asked me if I was really ready to show Mum and promised that she would tell the story if I was, so I told her that I was as prepared as I was gonna get, so she started unwrapping me properly and I sat and bore it. When she got my fingers freed, Blue knelt and held my arm, touching the thing like she was handling a fragile tube of glass or something similar. I could feel her fingers gently dance across the plates and she touched the mesh of my hand.

“It… It’s incredible, Max.” She breathed. “What kind of machination is this?”

Twilight started explaining my the story of how I lost my arm and that earned me a hug, but I didn’t want to touch Blue while my arm was exposed, so I held onto her with my right arm. I had Twilight wrap me back up when I was done hugging Blue and the shaking stopped after another minute or two of calming breaths. Once I was done, I asked if we could go talk to Kaid for another moment, so Blue took the lead and we went up to his room. She knocked and Roxy answered the door, letting us in after a moment. Kaid was chilling on his bed and Roxy went to his desk to have a seat. Twilight and I stood around and Blue sat next to Kaid.

“Baby, I have to apologize.” Blue said softly. “I’ve been treating you unfairly all day, and I’ve been far less than the mare I am. Max… Max set me straight on a few things, and he helped me get my head out of my rear. This won’t happen twice, Kaid. Not if I have anything to say about it.” She put a hand on his leg and looked at him, her resolve firm.

Kaid was still lit, but he played it off well. “You know what? Next time you have a problem, I want you to talk to me, Mum. Even if you don’t wanna tell me what it is, tell me how it makes you feel or some sh- Rubbish. If I’m supposed to be more open with you, then I kinda expect the same thing.” He held her hand and looked at her. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask, yeah?”

Mum gave him a sad smile. “There are some secrets that don’t need to be spoken, Kaid. What was bothering me will never be spoken about again.”

He blinked at her. “Was it that serious?”

“It depends on how you look at it, but it’s embarrassing either way, so Max and I have agreed that the topic of our conversation is going to stay between the two of us. Just know that it will never bother me again, right Max?” She turned to me.

I smiled and gave her a nod. “It will not.”

Mum looked at Kaid again and smiled warmly. “For the record, you’re ungrounded. Feel free to spend the rest of your day however you want.”

“Can I try and snog Roxy?” He asked cheekily.

The woman in question snorted. “Good luck, sweetie. You’ll get a good peck or two, but I wouldn’t press your luck just yet.”

Blue shot her a look. “Don’t lead him on, Frosty. That’s just cruel.”

“I’d give them to him now, but I don’t really want you to see your son and daughter kissing, even if they’re not siblings.” Roxy said, turning a little blue as she shivered.

Mum turned a little green herself. “Yes, please hold off on that until I’m out of the room.”

“Probably gonna take some getting used to.” Kaid shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe Roxy won’t have the hots for me anymore and we’ll try being siblings or something.”

“Tch. You’re cute, but you’re not that cute.” Roxy smirked.

Blue rolled her eyes. “Young mare, be nice.”

“You’re really going to have to drop the Pony specific words, Mum.” Roxy said. “The only Ponies here are the Twilights, and they all use the inclusive words like the rest of us.”

Mum blushed. “I’ll try, but I’ve been saying things like ‘everypony’ and ‘somepony’ my entire life.”

“I’ve heard people say ‘bad words’ my entire life and yet I’ve gotta clean up my language.” Kaid grumbled.

“That’s because polite people don’t use those words, Kaid. When’s the last time you heard me swear?” Twilight asked.

“Do you jump and buck around like ponies from Earth?” He asked out of nowhere.

Twilight gave him a funny look. “I’ve never actually had to buck anything other that a tree. Why do you ask?”

“Can you whinny?” He asked.

Twilight and Blue whinnied at the same time shortly before Kaid, Roxy, and I all lost our shit completely. Mum turned red and asked, “What’s so funny? Every Pony whinnies!”

“Apparently ponies from Earth whinny too, and the fact that we can do it is something that always cheers Max up. When he’s in a really bad mood, all I have to do is whinny and he cracks up like it’s the funniest thing since whoopie cushions.” Twilight said, rubbing my back.

“Ah, friggin’ Christ! That’s some good shit!” I chuckled.

Blue shot me a look. “If I’m not going to let Kaid get away with it, I’m not going to let you get away with it.”

I gave her a winsome smile, working out some chuckles. “It really is some good stuff though, Mum. Humans don’t get to make those awesome little noises.”

Blue blew some air through her lips and sent the three Humans in the room into another fit of giggles. “What’s so funny about that!?”

“Ponies from Earth do that too, apparently.” Twilight said drily. “I only ever do it when I’m irritated, but I’ve had to stop since it just makes Max laugh when I do. It never really helps anything.”

Mum sighed. “Great. Three of my children are spending their time laughing at me, and I’m pretty sure two of my sons are trying to sleep with my daughter. This is weird.”

Roxy straightened up. “It’s more weird when you consider that Max and I are closer than you might think.”

Blue just shook her head. “I really don’t want to think about that, sweetheart.”

“Oi, Mum.” Kaid said.

She gave him a look. “Don’t even. I will ground you again.”

“Oh come on!”

“Don’t take that tone with me, young… Man, right?” Blue asked.

“Yeah.” Roxy and I said.

Blue nodded and looked at Kaid. “Remember to watch yourself.”

Kaid sighed. “Yes, Mum. Respect and honor and whatnot.”

She gave him a strange look. “I expect respect, but you don’t have to honor me or anything.”

He blushed and looked at his hands. “Package deal.” He murmured, glancing at me.

I gave him a smile and an approving nod, so he continued. “It’s not one or the other when you have someone you love.”

Blue beamed and wrapped her arms around him. “Oh, baby, you’re just adorable!”

“Oi! I’m handsome, not adorable! Get it right you kooky old bat!” He protested, though he still hugged her back.

Blue let him go and whacked his arm. “I might be old, but I’m not an ‘old bat’ you little goat!”

Roxy, Twilight and I chuckled at their little exchange as Kaid threw little jabs at her that wouldn’t hurt her feelings while Blue gave him a good whack for each of them. Both were smiling the entire time, and when Blue pinched his cheek and called him an ‘insufferable little kid’, he grabbed her side and started tickling her, which was amusing all on its own. With the air between them clear and cool for the time being, Twilight suggested that we warm up some tea and head downstairs for a nice long chat, and chat we did. It was a good time, but I knew that Twilight and Roxy were dying to know what Blue and I had talked about, but I’d rather go back to Hell and keep the memories.

Hell, I don’t even know how I feel about the whole Blue thing. I know I still love her, no matter what, and I know that I’m glad that she’s gotten a little peace, but I just don’t know what to do with the knowledge that the woman I love, respect, and honor as my mother wanted me to fuck her senseless ever since I knew her. I mean, how the fuck do you deal with that? I kept my feelings to myself and resolved to talk to Blue about it when I went back to Equestria since it wouldn’t have made any sense for me to talk to her about it in the moment, but I was still reeling from the blow. It was hard to keep my mind on task, and I can’t say that I really felt betrayed or anything, but I did feel as though I owed it to Mum to share my feelings on the matter with her since she’d spilled the secret in the first place.

Roxy, Twilight and I took our leave from Kaid’s realm after a couple hours of chatting and joking around, but when we got to the Central Platform, Roxy invited us into her realm so Twilight could meet Twilight. Twilight wasn’t sure about meeting herself, but Roxy assured her that it would go just fine, and that it would be a new, once in a lifetime experience that would be awesome on its own and even better once they started talking. I mentioned that I was interested in seeing how Twilight would react to meeting herself and her reluctance weakened, so Roxy allowed us entry through her door and my wife smiled at my old house, saying that it just wasn’t the same ever since Trixie and Orchid had moved in.

When we got to the living room, we saw Roxy’s Twilight on the couch with some Pony-specific headphones on, smiling and reading while lying down. My Twilight stopped when she was about seven meters away from the other one, so I stopped with her and let Roxy go over and talk to the reclining one. I took Twilight’s hand in mine and squeezed it.

“Welcome to my world, Cherry.” I said cheekily.

“... It’s so strange.” Twilight murmured. “... Do I really look like that?”

“Yes, and you’re every bit as beautiful as she is, if not more so because you’re mine.” I gave her a reassuring smile.

“... The mare in the mirror doesn’t look like that, Max.” Twilight said softly.

Roxy gestured for the Other Twilight to look at us and she did, her eyes widening. My Twilight and Roxy’s Twilight moved in sync, both of them starting toward each other and crossing the gap between them slowly. Roxy and I accompanied our lovers until they met in the middle, and when they stopped less than a meter away from each other. In the most cliche of ways, the Twilight’s reached out to touch each other with both hands, pressing their palms together like they were looking in a mirror. They both looked that their respective right hands and back to each other before they interlaced their fingers. They both took a step to their right side, then a step to their left.

“Wow,” They said in unison, “it’s… This is so odd.”

“It’s like there’s a duet going on.” I chuckled.

The Twilights looked at me. “Hush!”

Roxy laughed and they looked at her. “You too!”

Roxy and I flipped our shit and held onto each other as we guffawed at them, but when we got it together and looked up, the Twilights were standing side by side, both of them tapping their right hoof on the ground at exactly the same pace, their arms folded, and their faces holding the same expression. I was literally looking at my wife twice over, and I was loving every second of it.

“Oi, Frosty, can I give our ladies a hug?” I asked excitedly.

Roxy nodded. “I want one too. Is your heart ready to overflow like mine is?”

“We’re totally on the same wavelength on this, Frosty.” I gave her a brilliant smile.

She returned it happily. “Seriously, Sparky, this couldn’t be better!”

We turned toward the Twilights who looked confused. “What are you two talking about?” They looked at each other. “I guess asking you wouldn’t do much.”

“Cherry-” I said to my Twilight.

“You know what? Why don’t we give all the different Twilight’s different pet names?” Roxy cut in.

My eyes lit up. “Yes! You have no idea how many pet names I’ve wanted to run by Twilight!”

The Twilights looked at each other. “I’m Cherry.”

My Twilight gave the other one a look. “I’m Max’s Twilight, so I should be ‘Cherry’.”

“Well, I’m Roxy's Twilight, so I should be ‘Cherry’!” The Other Twilight argued.

“Twilight, don’t bicker with yourself.” I said patronizingly.

“Shush, Amour.” The Twilights said.

Roxy took over. “Why don’t we call my Twilight ‘Sugar Plum’?”

Roxy’s Twilight folded her arms. “Why don’t we call me ‘Cherry’?”

“Because I think ‘Sugar Plum’ is infinitely cuter than ‘Cherry’, to be honest with you.” Frosty said.

“I like it, but I prefer to call my Cherry Twilight.” I chimed in.

“You mixed up the words, silly.” The Twilights said, both wearing little smiles.

“Did I?” I asked.

“You sure did.” Roxy grabbed my hand and kissed my cheek, giving me a lovely smile.

“Ahem.” Sugar Plum coughed.

Roxy looked at her. “Hmm?”

My Twilight looked at Sugar Plum while a stormy look gathered on her face. “Is there something you’re not telling me here, Roxy?”

Frosty tilted her head. “Did I not tell you that I’m in love with Max?”

“You did not.” Sugar Plum replied, her tone hard.

“Ah. Yeah, Max and I love each other. It’s kinda weird.” She admitted.

Roxy’s Twilight glared hard until my Twilight put a hand on her arm. “If you don’t trust them, then trust me, or rather, yourself, to know that Roxy loves you more than she loves Max, and that Max loves me more than he loves Roxy. Besides, we’ll both have our own lovers more than they’ll have each other.”

Sugar Plum still frowned. “... I would’ve liked to have known ahead of time.”

Cherry gave her a hug. “It’s okay, Sugar Plum. We can hold out on them for as long-”

“Oi.” Roxy and I both objected, garnering their attention.

I spoke first. “Cherry, we just had a talk about the rules. Don’t break the rules.”

She gave me a look, but Roxy cut in. “Remember that they’re in place because you fucked up. Breaking them is a betrayal of your word, and you swore you wouldn’t break another promise.”

Sugar Plum pursed her lips while Cherry had the good grace to look ashamed. “... Alright, but you’re still not getting any snacks tonight.”

“And that’s perfectly within the rules.” I nodded.

“That also means that you’re not allowed to come and have snacks with Roxy.” Sugar Plum added.

Roxy huffed. “I’ll just take care of myself and make sure you can either see or hear me.”

I shrugged. “I can do the same thing, but I’m not exactly feeling it right now anyway.”

Frosty gave me a devious look and said, “I could always strip and we’ll see how you feel after that.”

I groaned. “It’s a damn shame that cheating like that isn’t beneath us.”

“Roxy, I will be very upset with you if you do that.” Sugar Plum said, trying to keep her voice even.

Frosty made a face. “I’m not going to. I’d be the only one in the buff in a room with wandering eyes. Max is the exhibitionist, not me.”

“I don’t really like being watched, you know.” I responded.

“You don’t?” The Twilight’s asked.

“No, not really. It’s fine because it’s you, but it makes me feel anxious anyway.”

Roxy nodded. “That’s pretty much how I feel about it, but I refuse to let anyone other than a Twilight or Max see me having snacks.”

“Huh.” Cherry and Sugar Plum chorused. “I didn’t know it made you uncomfortable.”

Roxy and I shrugged, but I let her speak first. “It was a little odd with Cadance, but it was okay because you were so obviously into it.”

“It was a little awkward with Fluttershy and Applejack, but doing it with Rarity was fun because she’s into exhibitonism,” I added.

“What does that have to do with anything?” The Twilights asked, blushing.

“Fulfilling someone else’s kink is practically ingrained into us,” Roxy explained. “It’s what we were forced to do when we were a tweenager and it left its scar on our psyche.”

I put an arm around Roxy and she put her head on my shoulder. “We either had to learn to deal with it, or we had to suffer. We chose to deal with it.” I explained.

The Twilights looked at each other and back to us before rushing to hug us. “Oh, Amour/Amourette!” They cried, differing for our pet names, “I didn’t know!”

“It’s okay, Cherry/Sugar-” Roxy and I stopped at the same and chuckled.

Roxy and I let go of each other, but the Twilights still hugged us, though I had Sugar Plum and Roxy had Cherry. “It really is okay, Twilights,” I said, “The past is the past-”

“Don’t try to gloss over this one, Max.” Roxy said icily. “We’re going to talk about it.”

“I wasn’t trying to get out of talking about it.” I placated. “I was trying to make them feel a little better.”

Frosty looked me in the eye as she licked my Twilight’s horn, so I did the same to hers not even half a second later. There was an echoed moan and we both got pinched for that. “Hey! Don’t do that!” The echo continued.

Roxy took my Twilight by the hand, so I did the same with hers and we all went over to the sectional before pairing up with our proper lovers and having a seat. The ensuing talk wasn’t all that long, but it was boring and a bit repetitive, so I’m skipping it. When it was over, Roxy and I asked the Twilights if they wanted to do a little snogging, but they jumped to conclusions and thought we were asking them to kiss each other. It was a glorious thing since they were curious about what their own lips felt like, and since they were both Twilight, they started with a little peck. I offered to show them what a real kiss looked like on Roxy and they practically leapt at the opportunity for some odd reason, but it’s not like I was complaining.

I went to go sit next to Roxy and she blushed. “You’d better make this a good one, Sparky.”

“Just one?” I teased. “I’m sure we can slip a couple in here without any complaints.”

Roxy rolled her eyes and shut me up with her lips, bringing me for the kiss by locking her hands together around my neck and pulling me down to her level. I had shift a little to get comfortable, but when I did, all was well from there. Frosty’s lips are more firm than Twilight’s, but they’re just as smooth and the slightly minty taste to her lips wasn’t at all bad. I briefly wondered why she hadn’t tasted like anything when we’d kissed before, but I didn’t really care all that much and found myself trying to slip her some tongue because I wanted to taste more of her. The longer we osculated, the more intense Roxy’s personal flavour became up until the point where I felt like her tongue was a flexible, living piece of peppermint. It was absolutely enticing, and the more I tasted, the more I wanted, but I had to break our kiss to sate some curiosity.

When I pulled away, Roxy was blushing brightly and gave me a pouty look, so I gave her another quick peck and looked towards the Twilights who were both biting their lips with their hands sandwiched between their legs. “So? Do you two want to try something like that, or are you not sure you can handle yourself?”

“.... That was… Interesting.” The Twilights said, both of them rosy around the cheeks

Roxy touched her lips. “I’d say it was a little more than interesting.”

I grinned at her. “Damn straight. Your lips are definitely kissable, and your technique is marvelous.”

Roxy smirked, though she was still blushing. “I might not be fond of dude lips, but yours are perfectly okay, and your style isn’t half bad.”

I gave her a look. “Shut up, you minty little minx.”

She looked at me funny. “Minty? Is that a joke?”

“No, you literally taste minty. The longer we snogged, the stronger it got.”

“Huh. You tastes kinda like how I imagine burning cherry wood would smell. I thought I was just having a stroke or something.”

“I’d say that you could stroke me, but you know how I feel about finishing like that.” I made a face.

Roxy pursed her lips. “Might sound a little strange, but I can’t wait to feel it when we can finally get together. I might not like having the Ol’ Chap in my mouth, but I’d like to feel him with my hands.”

“Make sure they’re warm, or you’re not touching him.” I said flatly. “Mr. Wiggles prefers a tropical climate.”

Frosty giggled and patted my leg. “Sure thing, Sparky. If they’re cold, I’ll just have you warm them up the usual way.” She gave me a loving smile.

I gave her one in turn. “I’ll always do that for you, you know. Ask and you shall receive.”

“I feel like they’re a better couple together than we are with them.” The Twilights complained to each other.

Roxy and I got a chuckle out of that. “That’s just because you’re looking from the outside in.” Roxy explained. “How many times have people told us, as in Human plus Twilight, that we’re adorable together?”

The Twilights tilted their heads and put their right index fingers to their lips. “Huh. I don’t think we thought about that.” They looked at each other. “... Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Roxy and I stared at them as devious smiles came to their lips. At the same time, they asked, “Can we change anything in the mindscape, or is that only something that Max and the Others can do?”

“... It’s something only me and the Others can do since it’s my mindscape.” I answered cautiously. “Roxy can’t affect anything anywhere other than the Central Platform or her own realm, and the same is true for all the Others. I can do what I want since I’m the main, but I really try not to disrespect anyone.”

“So does that mean we should ask Roxy for what we want since it’s her realm?” Sugar Plum and Cherry asked.

I looked to Roxy and she raised a brow. “You know what I’d be cool with and what would piss me off.”

We looked at the Twilights as they smiled. “We were just wondering if you could change our shirts into blouses.”

“What color?” Roxy asked.

Cherry and Sugar Plum tried to let each other speak first, but it just didn’t work like that. “Alright, I’ll take white, you take black.” They tried. “Okay, we’ll do the opposite.” They tried again. “Ugh! You raise your hand, I’ll leave mine down, and we’ll decide like that!” They failed.

I snapped my fingers at Cherry and Roxy did the same with Sugar Plum while the two of us tried to quell our laughter. Cherry got a dark blue blouse and Sugar Plum got an ice blue blouse. They looked at each other, then at themselves and shrugged before they reached for the top buttons of each other’s blouses, but their hands collided. They both made a frustrated face and agreed to only use their right hands, so they undid three buttons apiece, showing a nice amount of cleavage before they stroked each other’s cheeks and leaned in for a kiss. They started with one little smooch, but after that, they locked lips and kept things innocent for a minute, but then they tried to slip each other some tongue at the same time. Their little giggles were adorable whenever they slipped out, but I know that I was getting turned on by the sight of my wife and her clone snogging.

I leaned toward Roxy and murmured, “This is fucking radical.”

“Awesome isn’t the word for it.” She replied in the same tone, placing a hand on my thigh. She ran her nails down my quadricep, starting high and ending just above the knee before she retraced her steps and did it again.

I grabbed her hand and held it. “How would you feel if I started squeezing your thighs?” I asked.

“Like you were doing what I want you to do.” She replied huskily.

I complied with the demand she hadn’t actually made because I’m a people-pleaser when I feel like it, and as we caressed each other, the Twilight’s got a little more adventurous with themselves, each of them putting a hoof on the floor and keeping a knee on the couch so they could continue kissing while getting closer. Evidently Twilight liked how Twilight tastes, and I say that because I could see their cheeks bulge from time to time as they wrestled with each others tongues, trying to garner momentum so they could take control, but they were at a deadlock. Sugar Plum’s left hand went to Cherry’s left arm, and vice versa, but they didn't keep their hands where they were for very long. Each Twilight reached for the other’s breast at the same time, squeezing with the same gentleness, moaning in the same second in the same cadence.

Roxy’s hand made a move toward something that wasn’t my thigh, so I let my hand slip to the inside of her’s and gave her a moderate squeeze to judge how she felt about it. She made a soft noise, so I squeezed a bit harder as she ran her hand up and down my stiffened lifelong friend. The Twilight’s broke their kiss just as Roxy gave me a pleasant little squeeze and looked at us, both of them smiling sultrily.

“How was that for a show?” They asked lasciviously.

Roxy and I took our hands off each other and clapped. “Fucking lovely.” I beamed.

“Absolutely tantalizing.” Frosty said, her voice still low and seductive.

Sugar Plum and Cherry gave each other one more peck before they sat back down. Their hands didn’t stay in their laps for very long, however. Each of them reached toward the other and their hands collided again as Sugar Plum reached for Cherry’s thigh, or as Cherry reached for Sugar Plum’s. Whichever. If one of them fucking did it, so did the other. They started getting frustrated as theirs hands mirror each others until Roxy and I went over and placed our respective lover’s hands on their doppelganger’s thigh like we assumed they were trying to do. The Twilight’s gave us grateful smiles and carried on, gently stroking each other in circular motions.

They started pushing each other’s skirts up as they went along, making different amounts of progress because I’d put Cherry in a skirt that went to just above her knee while Sugar Plum’s skirt went to about mid-thigh. My Twilight had the initiative, so when she got Sugar Plum’s skirt nice and high, she started caressing the inside of her thigh, making the Other bite her lip and send a lustful look her way. Cherry gave her a naughty little smile and squeezed her thigh, making Sugar Plum give a little moan while Roxy and I were mimicking them.

I really hated that Roxy was wearing her jeggings at the moment, so I softly asked, “How much do you hate miniskirts?”

“I actually like them plenty, I just prefer trousers,” She uttered.

“Would you mind changing for a mo’?” I lifted the hand I was touching her with.

She snapped her fingers and then there was skirt. I glanced down and saw that it was black and a little on the short side. “I’ll give you so many muffins if you wore this to go see Kaid.”

Frosty gave me a womanly look. “This is only for you, dickbutt.”

I gave her a kiss for being sweet. “Thanks, Sugartits.”

She rolled her eyes and blushed, giving the Ol’ Chap a squeeze. “Change into something a bit… Looser, yeah? Some shorts maybe?”

I turned my trousers into some breezy shorts and Roxy wrapped her hand around my member, making me take a shallow breath as she did. The Twilights watched on, licking their lips at the same time. “Remember what Sugar Plum/I said earlier, you two.” They warned.

Roxy and I looked at each other and back to them. “You can’t be serious right now.” We chorused.

The Twilights grinned evilly before looking at each other and reaching for the end goal with each other. “We can be as serious as we want to be.”

Roxy and I groaned. “That’s just cruel at this point.” I complained.

They shrugged, still grinning like devils and tried to slip a hand into each other’s knickers, but Roxy and I snapped at the same time putting a barrier around our respective Twilight’s privates. They looked at each other for a moment and tried again, but there was nothing doing. Cherry and Sugar Plum glared at us pretty hard.

“Roxy/Max!” They said in warning tones, pointing fingers at us.

I looked to Roxy and she looked at me, so I stood up and she pulled my shorts down before giving me a nice, long lick that both Twilights could see. “You’re forgetting that we can play dirty too. If you really want to be petty and tease, then we can stop you from doing anything to each other.” Roxy chuckled darkly.

I changed my shorts into trousers again and Roxy brought back her jeggings, so we just levelled smug looks at our indignant lovers. “Anything you’d like to say to that, Twilight?”

“This isn’t fair!” They huffed.

I dropped my smug look in favor of a disappointed one and Roxy outright glared. “No, not fair is making us watch you two have fun while not being able to have any of our own,.” Frosty said, her tone indicative of her nickname.

“While I don’t agree with the way Roxy said that,” I gave her a look and she flushed, “she’s still right. You two know that we’re getting all hot and bothered, just like you.”

They pouted. “It’s not fair that you can just stop us any time you want! The only thing stopping you two-”

“Is our respect for you and the rules.” Roxy finished for them. “What you’re trying to do is just mean-spirited, spiteful, and like Max said; cruel.”

They looked at each other. “Aren’t we just teasing them? They do it to us all the time, right?” They nodded. “Yeah! It’s fair-”

“No, we don’t have doppelgangers to tease you with. When we kissed, we weren't teasing you.” I said civilly. “Besides, it’s in the rules that if one of us holds out on the other, we abstain because the person that’s being held out on isn’t allowed to go get some action from anyone else. Again, for the third time today, Cherry, you’re trying to break the rules.”

She looked at her lap and Sugar Plum put a hand on her back. “... I’m sorry.” My Twilight said softly.

“Is there something bothering you, Cherry? You’ve been really good about sticking to our rules up until today, so please, talk to me. Don’t be afraid to say what’s on your heart, because everyone in this room either loves you or IS you.” I prodded gently.

“... I don’t know… I guess I’m just having an off day. I really don’t think anything in particular is bothering me, Amour.” Cherry looked at me, her eyes watery. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a foal today, but I’ll do my best to follow our rules.”

Sugar plum gave her a hug. “I know it feels bad now, but Max wouldn’t have put the rules in place just to throw them at us whenever he feels like it. We both know that he and Roxy love and respect us.”

Cherry hugged her back. “It’s so weird to be comforted by myself, but thank you, Sugar Plum.”

“You’re welcome, Cherry.” They held each other at arm’s length and smiled.

“You know, when I look in the mirror, I don’t think I look as pretty as you do.” Cherry and Sugar plum said. They giggled and gave each other another little peck before turning to Roxy and I. “I think we agree that making you two keep your hands off of each other is more than a little mean since we practically started having snacks in front of you. We still don’t want you to have some snacks right now, but if you want to help us…” They looked at each other and blushed.

“Help you what?” Roxy asked, brow raised.

“W-Well…” They coughed. “We’d like to explore a little. I mean, I never knew my lips were so soft!”

“Now you see why I like kissing you.” I nodded sagaciously.

Roxy sighed. “You do have some lovely lips, top and bottom.”

They turned bright red. “Roxy! You don’t have to be so vulgar!”

We Humans had a chuckle at that. “Oi, it’s the truth!” Roxy protested playfully. “Just tell us what you want to do and we’ll help you out as loing as you follow the rules.”

“We just want to snuggle for a little while.” The Twilights said. “We want to feel what you two do when you’re with us.”

“Well, I’d advise you to give each other a lick, but you already know what you taste like.” I said cheekily.

Roxy giggled. “Shut up, Sparky!”

The Twilights rolled their eyes, blushing. “We just spent how long kissing?”

The Humans had a giggle at their misunderstanding, but they laughed right along with us anyway. When Roxy stopped laughing, she asked, “Do either of you mind if I snog Max for a little while longer? I doubt I’ll see him that often, so I’d like to make the most of what little time we have together.”

“Shouldn’t you be asking me first? They’re my lips, after all.” I protested playfully.

“No they’re not.” The Twilights and Roxy chorused. They looked at each other and tittered like schoolgirls.

“Right.” I rolled my eyes. “I love it when you make me feel like an object solely for your pleasure.”

Roxy put a hand on my arm and I shot her a dark look, shaking my head subtly, so she said, “You shouldn’t joke like that. If they take it seriously, they’re going to feel guilty.”

The Twilights breath a collective sigh of relief. “I thought you were being sincere for a moment.”

I was, but I don’t wanna be bothered with it right now. “Glad Roxy’s here to clear things up.” I smirked.

“Roxy’s right though, Max. You shouldn’t say things like that if you don’t mean it.” Sugar Plum and Cherry said.

I raised my hands. “Message received, ladies. No harm meant.”

“No point in chastising him about it, Twilights. I say we just get back to snogging and try get everyone all hot and bothered so we can take care of it later.” Frosty suggested.

Cherry blushed and Sugar Plum gave her a look. “You know we need to spend a little more time together before I’m okay with that.”

Cherry shook her head. “Max and I just spent all night having snacks. II can’t really eat anymore.”

Roxy sighed. “You have no idea how envious I am right now. Honestly, what I wouldn’t give for a decent night with Max.”

“He IS pretty voracious with his snacktual appetite.” The Twilights murmured.

“Exactly! He’s the perfect guy to keep going all night long.” Roxy shot me a dirty grin.

I raised a brow. “Clear it with our wives and I’ll show you everything we’ve ever learned, plus a little something I picked up from Kaid.”

Roxy gave me a look. “You learned something about sex from Kaid?”

“You’ll love it.” I gave her a predatory grin.

She returned it. “Someone has high hopes, don’t they? I’d like to see what you’re talking about, with the Twilights permitting it of course.”

We looked at them and they looked at each other before looking back at us. “Can we watch?”

“Of course.” I said easily.

Frosty’s eyes lit up. “You mean I can…?”

Sugar Plum and Cherry smiled shyly. “Well, if you’re okay with us watching, we wouldn’t mind seeing a pair of people we love have a little fun.”

Roxy made a squee-like noise, but it wasn’t a ‘squee’ per se. Still, she hopped up off of the sectional and straddled me, placing my hands on her hips before I could move. She grabbed a fistful of my hair and kissed me fervently, surprising me and turning me on simultaneously. I would describe what went on after that, but Roxy asked that I leave it out of my journals, just in case one of the Others takes over and decides to read through and see what her depths feel//taste like. I don’t really blame her on that one, but I can say that Roxy and I are very compatible in all the right way and that, while she’s not normally a gusher, I got her to that point without resorting to tricks beyond those that I’ve learned from experience. I did show her the little trick I picked up from Kaid, however, but she didn’t like being mildly electrocuted as she was having sex, so we kept it ‘vanilla’ as far as Magic goes.

Cherry and I took our leave after Roxy and I turned and got the Twilights involved, so after saying goodbye to my favourite Others, we stepped onto the runic circle and returned to Equus. Twilight was pretty much down for the count since she wanted to get more sleep, so I pulled out of her and let her get some rest after I carried her to the bath and helped her wash up. I earned myself some serious brownie points for being gentle and attentive to her needs, but that’s not why I did it in the first place, so I don’t feel all that smarmy about it or anything. Still, it was nice to get a little recognition and some more affection, so when I laid Twilight back down (I helped her get dressed too), I got myself prepared for an awkward talk.
I didn’t bother with walking into town and instead just shifted myself to Blue’s house since I felt it was important enough to make the journey quick. Blue wasn’t home when I got there, so I just shifted to her and she was at one of her friend’s places, but I don’t knows whose place it was. I do know, however, that I was interrupting one of their talks and I got womanly looks from a few of them for just showing up uninvited until they remembered who they were glaring at. Blue still had something to say about it, however.

“Max! You know that teleporting into somepony else’s home is very rude!” She chastised. “What do you have to say for yourself, young stallion?”

“I went to your house first.” I shrugged. “We need to talk anyway.”

Mum gave me a look. “Then you’ll have to wait until I’m done with the fillies.”

I looked around at the five other women in the room. “You can always come back. This is rather important, Mum.” I said softly.

“Are you okay, baby?” She asked. “Is something wrong?”

“I’ll tell you on the way to the park.” I gave her a sorrowful smile.

Blue reached for my hand and I let her have it. She turned to her friends and said, “I’m sorry to cut my visit-”

A yellow woman with green hair shooed her away. “Just go, Blue! It’s obviously important, so don’t feel bad about skipping out a little early. It’s fine, sweetie, it really is.”

The rest of the ladies nodded and Blue gave them an apologetic smile. “I’ll have to catch you girls next time.” She rose from her seat and waited on me to do something. “... Are we leaving?”

“It’s just as rude to teleport out of someone’s house as it is to teleport in.” I said. “Lead the way out, we’re gonna need some time to talk.”

She nodded and started heading out, so I gave the ladies a quick wave and followed her through whoever the fucks house it was, and once we were outside, Mum asked, “What’s the deal, baby? I know you said that you’d come and see me again today, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so soon.”

“I can either tell you or I can show you with my memories. Showing you might make this a little easier since we shouldn’t have to talk about it again.” I replied evenly.

“I recognize that tone, Max. It’s something dark, isn’t it?” Blue murmured.

“No, it’s not harmful or dangerous.” I assured her. “It’s… It’s partially about this morning.”

“... I thought we agreed to not speak about that.”

I reached over and put my thumb on her temple. “Take a deep breath, it’s a bit of a conversation.”

Blue complied and I gave her the memories. Once she was done shuffling through them, we continued walking and she was awfully silent throughout the affair, not speaking for a good long while, but I didn’t want to break the silence until we got to the park. We walked casually until we actually got to the park, and then I decided to say something.

“I can take care of those feelings again. We just need to stop and find a place for me to get rid of them for you.” I offered.

“... Please.” Blue said softly, heading toward a bench.

We sat down and I got to work, treating her the same way as I’d treated her Other in the mindscape. Once I had her little orb in my hand, I burned it away in the Sun and asked, “Do you feel any better?”

“... I don’t see how you can look me in the eye, Max. I really don’t.”

“Love is weird like that. I still love you, I think you still love me, so let’s leave it at that and keep this mother-son thing going. I need you in my life, Blue, and there isn’t a single person who can take your place.” I sounded a little desperate, even to myself.

Blue put a hand on my arm and gave me an apologetic smile. “You still want me to be your mother, even knowing I had those kinds of feelings for you? Max, you’re a bucked up stallion.”

“So? I love you, Mum, and nothing is going to change that.”

She sighed and rested her elbow on her knee and her chin on her hand. “If you really want me to continue being your mother, then I have no real reason to say no since I still love you too. I just think it’s weird that you know and you don’t care.”

“I DO care, I just don’t want to let it get in the way of my happiness. Like I said, you’re irreplaceable, Mum. I can’t imagine loving someone else like I love you.”

Mum gave me a little smile. “Then it’s already settled, now isn’t it? I keep being your mother and you keep being my son, and we don’t let that little hiccup deter us from loving each other. I’m just worried about how we tell Trixie.”

“Uh, how about we don’t?” I suggested.

“... That works too. Does Twilight know?”

“She’ll understand that I’m not going to tell her, one way or another.”

“I’m just glad she wasn’t awake this morning. That could’ve been hard to explain.” Blue chuckled awkwardly.

“Um…” I trailed off.

Blue sighed. “She saw, didn’t she.”

“In fairness, I had to do the same thing to her, so she understands.”

“She’s your wife. She should be the one you’re kissing, not your poor old mother, giving her a heart attack all the while.”

“What happened to not talking about it?” I gently admonished.

“That can of worms is open now, all we need to do is keep reeling in the fish.” She chuckled.

“Damn fish, not biting when I want them to.”

“Watch your language.”

“Shut up before I kiss you again, but this time it’ll be a proper snogging.” I warned.

Blue gagged. “Please don’t.”

“That’s what I thought.” I chuckled.

“How would you feel if I threatened to kiss you?” Blue asked hotly, feigning indignation. “In fact, go kiss your sister and even the score!”

“Mum, what the fuck!?” I broke out into laughter.

“Language!” She chastised.

“If you don’t want me to swear, don’t tell me to kiss my lesbian sister!”

“Oh? Trixie being a lesbian is the only thing stopping you?”

“Mum, I swear I’ll tell Onyx to come give you some affection if you just drop it here.”

“Well… That is awfully tempting.” Blue admitted. “It has been awhile since we’ve had a date.”

I magicked up some paper, wrote out a note, and sent it off to Onyx. “Just don’t pressure him into revealing state secrets and you’ll be fine. How’ve you been, Mum?”

And so we talked for a little while, leaving the rest of that bullshit behind in favour of just loving each other like we should’ve in the first place. I enjoyed Mum’s insights on the mindscape and what she thought was possible within it, though she wasn’t all that imaginative. She asked how Kaid was doing and I told her that he was doing better now that I’d gotten her Other out of her funk, but Blue was confused as to why she would ever start acting like that without anyone actually hurting her or something of the sort, but I blamed it on the fact that she didn’t have her cadre of friends to fall back on in the mindscape. Blue acquiesced and asked me to let her know if she ever started acting like that again and apologized for saying something mean to me, even though it was her Other who said it. We hugged it out and I told my Mum that she could still talk to me about anything, so she asked me if I could make Onyx give her some D, but I gagged hard and she laughed at me for far too long.

I parted ways with Blue not long after that, so I decided to take myself to Canterlot because I had some business to attend to real quick, and as I walked through the halls of Canterlot Castle, I thought about what I was going to say until I decided to just wing it and hope I got my point across. I found Celestia in her study after having visited a few places while trying to find her, and when I did see her, her eyes widened and she put down the paperwork she’d been filling out in order to come give me a hug. I returned it because she is soft and her tits are definitely that, but when I cupped her face in my hand, she gave me an odd look.

“You’re not going to kiss me, are you?” Celestia asked hesitantly.

I relocated my fingers to her chin. “Not quite.” I pulled her face down to mine and glared at her, gripping her tightly with my metal hand, not allowing her to move. “I should be beating you like a fucking mutt right now.”

Celestia gripped my wrist and tried to pull away. “Max, I-”

“You fucked up. You sent a sixteen year-old kid with more emotional baggage than a fucking extended passenger train to the Goddamn Moon, Celestia. You, instead of locking down his powers while he couldn’t do anything about it so he could be safe and angry on Equus, fucking decided to send him to the Moon. Give me three reasons not to hurt you and I’ll only hit you once.” I snarled.

There was shame in her eyes. “Whatever punishment you have, I deserve. I drove you-”

“No, you drove Kaid to the point where only love could bring him back. Kaid is inside my mind right now, healing with a piece of Blue’s soul from the bullshit you pulled. We are two separate people.”

Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth, so I quickly ripped out one of her teeth and she recoiled, holding her mouth, glaring at me with pain in her eyes. I held up the gross little thing and tossed it to her. “You’ve got one last chance, Celestia. You only get one more time to fuck with me and mine before I come back and make sure you don’t get another chance to fuck up again. Be happy I’m not doing to you what I did to Noir.”

Celestia spat out some blood and popped her tooth back into her mouth, putting it back into its proper place and healing it so that it would stick. “... I understand.”

“Do you REALLY?” I asked with no small amount of hostility.

“I do, Maximus. I won’t make this mistake again.” She promised.

I levelled a look at her. “Keep that in mind when you meet one of the Others that reside in my mind now. There are four more people in my body that there used to be, and all of them want their pound of flesh.”

“... You have four beings that overshadow my power exponentially waiting for my head on a platter?” Celestia murmured.

“Yeah. You fucked up bad.”

“... Is there anything you can do?”

“If you can get Kaid’s forgiveness, then you might be alright.” I said stonily. “Until then, try not to get yourself killed permanently.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Celestia replied, her voice tinged with fear and anticipation.

I shook my head. “For the time being, try and get you head out of your arse so I don’t have to hurt you again. It really doesn’t bring me any joy when I do.”

“I would hope not.” Celestia said softly.

“I still love you, Celestia, as little sense as that makes. Take that to heart if nothing else.”

“If you didn’t, I wouldn’t have legs right now. I understand your point, Maximus, and I understand why you plucked one of my teeth. If that’s all you do, then I can forgive you for it.”
“It’ll do.” I replied coldly. “If there’s nothing you want to address, then I have to go apologize to Luna for Kaid’s bullshit.”

“Could you tell me about the other beings in your mind? I understand if you don’t want to speak with me-”

“No, I’ll save myself some time and explain it to you and Luna. If you can leave your paperwork behind for a little bit, then we’ll go see her now.”

“She’s not going to like being woken up.” Celestia warned.

“I’ll stick a finger in her bum.” I replied flippantly. “That ought to perk her up.”

“Luna isn’t one much for that sort of thing normally.”

“She still calls me ‘Sir’ in our letters occasionally. She’ll live with it.”

“I’d say it’s your funeral, but neither of us die easily.”

“Too true.” I poked Celestia’s breast and shifted us into Luna’s room. Celestia went over to wake her and I popped my neck, making Luna jolt awake anyway.

She threw up a shield before she could see who was in her room, but dropped it once she figured it out. “Sister? What has brought you to interrupt my slumber?” She asked peevishly.

“Max has returned and he brings interesting news, as well as an apology on behalf of a separate being.” Celestia answered. “I don’t know much of the situation myself, but Max said he was planning on explaining it to us together.”

Luna groaned. “I don’t care.”

“Shut up before I spank you.” I said flatly. “Kaid sends some heartfelt apologies and I send a few more.”

“Apologies not accepted. Give me a taste of something black and bitter and I’ll consider listening to you.”

I conjured up a cup of coffee because I can do that and passed it off to her with some Telekinesis. “Sip and listen, slaw.”

I took my time in explaining the circumstances surrounding my mind now and answered a few questions, though I had to chew Luna out for interrupting me multiple times, but she eventually quit her shit and stopped being fucking rude. I stopped from time to time to take more questions, and by the end of it, Celestia and Luna knew a fair amount about Roxy, Prime, Prince, and Kaid. Celestia wasn’t sure how she felt about me taking pieces of Twilight and Blue’s souls, but when I explained that the Others would have been miserable and unruly without them, Luna backed me up and said that keeping them happy was more important than shunting them off to the side and ignoring them, though she also tried to bring up She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and I accidentally electrocuted her a little because she forgot that her name pisses me off. It wasn’t too bad and she forgave me for it since she knew that the betrayal was still raw and aching, but I felt bad for it.

After we got the little embers on her fingertips to go out, Luna asked, “Since when do you shock innocent people?” She was rather irritable about it, but she kept her tone in check.

“Well, the last time I was ready to start striking people down, the air was crackling with electricity and I sprouted magical, intangible wings. I’m willing to bet that since I no longer have any piece of Dark Magic, I can actually feel my rage like I’m supposed to, and since I can do that, my best guess is that my True Magic and Alicorn Magic have been different things all along; I just never had a reason to use the Alicorn Magic.” I theorized.

“Isn’t it more likely that the electricity is your God Magic?” Celestia asked.

“Could be. It might be the attribute to it, but Hephaestus told me that Discord’s Reality Warping was rare enough as it is. I’ll go and ask him about it, but I’m pretty sure that it’s linked to my Alicornication since I fucking sprout wings-”

“And a horn. It was effervescent, but it was there.” Luna cut in.

“So you agree?“ I inquired.

“It would seem likely, though it should have surfaced before you became a god.” Luna rubbed her chin.

“Well, I had Dark Magic running interference up until that point.” I scratched my head. “I’ll ask Kaid if he wants to run some hypotheses and scenarios on the matter, but as far as I know, Dark Magic isn’t very well studied.”

“... It was well documented up until four thousand years ago.” Celestia said softly. “Luna knows more about it than anyone else alive, but the Traitor knows far more than any other being, possibly even Sombra.”

“If you want to ask her, then go ahead. I don’t give two shits about a damn thing she might have to say.” I said bitterly.

“We know, Max…”

Luna sighed. “Maximus, there’s something I must confess.”

“I know you’ve been talking to her.” I guessed.

The shock on her face was well warranted. “How did you learn of our correspondence?”

“Don’t worry about my means,” I evaded masterfully, “just know that I’m not going to do a damned thing about it. If you want to hand her the knife and spread your wings for her, then don’t expect me to feel bad for you when she drives the blade into your back.”

“No-” I stared her down hard. “She didn’t mean to betray you, Maximus. She was-”

“I don't give a fuck. I don’t care why she did it.” I said, ending that line of conversation. “Like I said, ask her if you want, but I’ll have Kaid dig into my memories with Magic and see if he can see when this shit started.”

Celestia and Luna looked at me, both of them wearing masks of remorse and pity, which pissed me off a little bit. “Max, we understand that you’re hurt-” Celestia started.

“How did you feel when Nightmare Moon took Luna’s body and tried to kill you?” I asked sharply. “Because that is the level of betrayal we’re talking about, but the Traitor doesn't have an excuse like being controlled by a separate being. She doesn't have an excuse after all I’ve fucking done for her!” The air crackled and sparks leapt from my fingers. “I gave her back her sister! I freed er from my mind! I gave her fucking life back and she-” I shut my mouth, arcs of plasma forming on my fingers. My teeth were grit so hard my jaw hurt, so I shifted out and went to the Moon so I could start making craters to calm down.

It took a good while and I actually made a pretty decent trench by the time I was done, so I fixed my damage and returned to Luna’s room to find her and Celestia talking on her bed. When I showed up, they paused their conversation to look at me and Celestia said, “Speaking about her isn’t helping you at all, Max. We’ll… We’ll try to keep her out of any conversations in the future.”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

“... I don’t believe there’s anything else we need to talk about.” She said softly.

I nodded again. “I’ll be at home then. I apologize for losing my cool back there.”

“It was a permissible outburst.. We knew that nerve is still beyond sensitive, yet we still brought her up. The fault lies with us.” Luna said gently.

“I don’t necessarily agree, but it is what it is. I’ll try to control myself better in the future, but I can’t make any promises.”

“We wouldn’t ask you to. Time will heal this wound, as much as it hurts right now. I speak from experience, as you know.” Celestia said kindly. Time might heal all wounds, but that doesn’t mean it won’t leave a scar in it’s place.

I took a breath and let it out slowly. “I trust your wisdom, I just don’t care to hear it, Sunbutt. Have a good day, ladies.” I shifted to my study.

I’ve been in here for a little while now, writing this entry out and thinking. I went back into the mindscape and asked Kaid to do some digging a few minutes ago, but I didn’t stick around, preferring to let him get his project done on his own time. I’ve been drinking since I came back to reality, but I know that it’s not going to do anything for me. It’s just comforting, the burn that is. I never drank much other than wine with N- The Unnamed. It’s a shame that I started getting furious just writing her fucking name down, but it still hurts. The wound still feels fresh, even after months of time to heal…

I don’t want to write anymore. I don’t want to think anymore. I’m going to go ask Twilight if she has a little time for me. If she doesn't, then I’ll be seeing Roxy and Sugar Plum for a little bit, though I don’t know what I’ll do if they don’t want me to intrude on their time together.

Fuck… Thinking about her always ruins my day.