Author's Notes:

Now, to make the confusion complete:
This chapter takes place right after Sephiroth's second appearance in Moon_Fire's Chapter 41. (Sex-Warning)

I try not to let such a confusing mess of chapter-jumps happen again in the future.

Awareness was slow to return to Sephiroth. The events of the past… actually she didn’t know how long it was since the fight with Celestia, caused her to be rather exhausted already and the sex, her introduction to Lance had led to, left her completely drained. So it came as absolutely no surprise, that when she felt something poking her and then her breasts, that she was unwilling to give up on sleep. Lazily, she made a half-hearted attempt to wave, whatever was causing her discomfort, away, as enough of her mind emerged from the depths to remind her just with who she ended up in bed. Of course, Max would try to tease me awake…

She gathered all strength she would dare, as to not cause herself to drift away from heavenly slumber any more, and mumbled. “Not now… Max…”

Through her muddled state of mind, she just heard a muffled droning that vaguely resembled what could have been a voice. She tried to concentrate, but only caught the tail end of what was said. “-fore they start biting.”

Now confused enough to irk her curiosity, she felt herself slowly waking up. “Who’s biti-” Only to have that process jump started when something did bite her. Right. In. The. Nipple. With a yelp she sat up abruptly, feeling several fuzzy weights gliding down her body.

Wide awake, she felt her anger rise when Max’s voice chimed from next to her, with amusement in it. “Well, they seem to like you even more now.” Seph was about to yell at, what she still thought was the cause for her lost sleep, when Max continued. “Lucky, come join your sisters and say hello to your mom.”

Confusion took hold of her once again and she tried to see what was going on, but her vision was still blurry when the young and still a little high pitched voice of a colt answered. “O-okay.”

Then everything clicked. Max’s children. Rubbing at her eyes to clear them, she thought she knew what exactly happened, and mumbled. “I thought you told me that you are weaning them. Why would they just latch onto me?”

“I dunno how foals think. Maybe they just wanted to imprint on you as their mother as well as me?”

Every, single thought process came to a screeching halt.

Wuzzat? Ru- uhhhh… bluh? MOTHER?!

Completely and utterly shocked, not to say quite overwhelmed, she looked down on the assembled foals. There were four. A light blue alicorn filly with a two toned red and white mane and tail that reminded her of peppermint sticks every time she saw it. Her name was Light Sweet. Next to her, like almost always, was her twin sister. An orange coated unicorn filly, with a purple mane and tail. But her most prominent feature were her eyes, her teal eyes with slitted pupils. They resembled Sephiroth’s own and for a reason at that. This was Golden Spark. The foal she had shared her Cells with, in order to give her her front leg back and free her from a curse that would have slowly killed her from the inside out. Max told her that the little one had lost her foreleg to a crazy guard which had attempted to kill her daughters with a cursed blade, after she ‘disgraced’ his family of vermints for the abandoning of not one but two foals. They left the two to die on the streets.

After hearing that and after what Max had done for her, Sephiroth decided to go through the process of sharing her Jenova Cells with the filly. They were the reason that her eyes were now like her own and that the foal had four fully functioning legs again. That was what had caused the wound in Seph’s life that bugged her at the moment, as she had to cut a piece of it off to give it to Golden, so her Cells would accept her as their new host. Basically it made the little filly at least part her daughter.

And that brought her back to Max’s exclamation. Sephiroth had settled with a rather unorthodox method to share her Cells to make it easier on Golden and stressfree. She had deliberately and actively filled her breast with milk and infused it with them so the filly had nothing else to do than drink them from her. It was an indescribable sensation, nursing Golden. Just the memory of it almost brought her to happy tears. Of course seeing her sister get something, Light wanted to feed, too and after Max had allowed it, Sephiroth had filled her other breast with just milk, making extra sure that there weren’t any Cells in it, before letting Light join her sister at her breasts.

The realization hit her pretty hard. She wanted to experience that again, but unfortunately Max tried to wean them at the moment, so that would be out of question. To distract herself, she looked at the two other foals. One of them was basically a filly version of the very cyan blue pegasus, that had interfered in her fight with Celestia and ultimately caused her to lose. Rainbow Dash. And the other was a pale blue colt with a grey mane and tail. Sephiroth remembered that Max had shown her a picture of her family and told her his name was Lucky. Also hearing his name earlier helped to remind her.

Oh wait. Shit, how long was she staring already? She needed to come up with something intelligent, and fast. “Huh…” Oh yeah. Fucking smooth, you idiot! Okay, backup plan! Casting a sidewards glance at Max she asked. “I… guess it would be counterproductive to, you know… give them what they want?” A~nd screwed. Of course Max wouldn’t want-

“Not really, they haven’t been trying to sneak a sip ever since I got back from the mirror. I’d say it’d actually help to reinforce that good behavior.”

Huh…

Restricting herself to a small smile Sephiroth nodded. “Okay.” Before she did anything, though, she felt herself blush and averted her gaze. “Thanks. For that.”“Morning Max. Morning Seph-.” Lance’s voice sounded from across the room but Sephiroth was too enraptured by the sight of the two foals in her arms to look up at him.

“Morning, Lancie. Just letting Seph bond with Golden and Light.” Max said, putting her arm around the filly-covered woman.

The latter just inclined her head in greeting. “Good morning.”

Lance sighed. “Yeah… Bonding… Hang on, if the kids are here… then that means-”

He was interrupted by an annoyingly hyper voice. “Hiya Lancie!!”

“Gah!” Lance reacted, followed by a thud. Probably, he fell to the ground out of surprise. To Seph though, it was off putting, so she kept to herself and decided to ignore them for the time being.

Only for that plan to go to hell, as she was practically yelled at. “OOH!! Who’s the new pony?”

Reluctantly, Sephiroth lifted her gaze to look at the source of all the noise, blinking in surprise. Wasn’t that the pink mare from the elements? Well she was in another universe, so it could be possible that this mare was a completely different pony. “And who would you be? It’s quite rude not to introduce yourself first if you want to know who I am.”

“Oooh!! I’m Sorry!! I’m Pinkie Pie!! Super Duper Party Planner and Filli-Second of the Power ponies!!” She cheerfully replied to Seph.

The uber hyper behaviour of the pink pony caused the woman to frown. “I’m Sephiroth. And since you seem to like titles, I’ll share a few of mine. Angel of Destruction, Dragonslayer and - my favorite - Godmother to all Children. I’d like to ask you to turn down the shouting a little bit, if possible.”

Max gave the mare an apologetic smile and nodded. “Yeah, we just woke up and Seph is obviously not a morning person,” she said. Actually Seph rather enjoyed mornings, if they were quiet. “Besides, she isn’t really a fan of your usual attitude.” Now that hit the mark.

“Right,” Lance sighed, getting his coat off of the coat rack. “Well, Pinkie and I should get going. I still got some work to wrap up in Centrail City and also some members of a Suicide Squad to track down-”

Sephiroth was about to interrupt him, but was beat to the punch by Pinkie. “Ooh! Ooh!! You mean the group that has your father be part of it?”

Great, the pony has completely ignored her request to tune down her shouting. Wait, father? She opened her mouth to voice her thought but was beaten to it, again, this time by Max. “Wait, father?” The brown haired woman shot Lance a questioning look. “Your father is in your universe? How come this is the first I’ve heard of him?”

Sephiroth decided to stay out of that conversation, since she technically still knew almost nothing about Lance, and focused on the two foals again, only half listening to their conversation.

“That’s the thing. It’s the first I’ve heard of him too. I thought he was dead because he committed suicide. Now he has a mechanical arm, is a bounty hunter, and is known as McCree.” He explained.

Max answered him after a few seconds, while Seph decided to nuzzle the two little fillies alternating between Golden and Light. “Huh, I wondered if I’d ever meet a Displaced from that game.” A small pause. “What’s he done to get on something called a ‘suicide squad?”

A relaxing warmth had settled into her heart and in that very moment, she realized. She would die for these foals. Not just Golden and Light, but all four of them. It took a mountain full of willpower not to break into tears at that, so she missed the following exchange.

Deciding to distract herself, she added her piece into the conversation she lost track of. “If I’m understanding this right, you’ll have to leave, soon?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” Good, she hadn’t made a fool of herself. “Centrail City and the Cutie Mark Crusaders need my help in catching a group of Vigilantes. It’s all in a day’s work.”

Max turned slightly to look at her, while her gaze was fixed on Lance and without any warning whatsoever, her black wing flared into existence out of nowhere, missing Max in the process, so that it was spanned behind the other woman’s back. “Max? Would you do me a favor and select one for Lance? My hands are a little occupied at the moment.”

Sephiroth looked down to the fillies again while she waited for Max to pick one of her feathers for Lance. They had stopped to drink, seemingly satisfied and snuggled themselves into her arms. Should I try to burp them? They don’t look troubled or as if they needed it.

Smiling down at the two she hugged them a little tighter to her chest before her eyes went wide. Max had started to stroke through her wing and, if she felt that right, actually was straightening a few feathers. A blush threatened to appear on her face, but she managed to subdue it. She’s just looking for a suitable feather. Certainly she wouldn’t start preening me in earnest… or would she?

Max just continued at a slow pace, combing through her feathers, but Sephiroth shook the thought away and looked back at Golden and Light. It was a rather… distracting feeling and she lost her train of thought. It took her so long to find it again that she hadn’t noticed Max finishing with the entire front of her wing before finally deciding on a feather. “Okay, time to let me get to the other side.” While Max said that, she floated the feather towards Lance and fixed Seph with an expectant stare.

Which she promptly returned with a glare, although the blush she felt on her cheeks would probably lessen the effect. Sighing, the silver haired woman pulled her wing to her side and, before she really thought about it, extended it again, to show the backside to Max. Mentally adding another sigh, she just left it there. It had felt really good, after all. Where was I? Oh yes.

Turning her gaze back to Lance, she decided it would be the best to explain. “It’s directly bound to my life, and as you saw, I gifted one to Max, so I’m offering you the same. If you ever need my help, or just want to see me, you can use it to summon me, as it doubles as a token. But it is also my promise to the both of you, that there will always be a deeper connection between us.”

Taking the token, Lance decided to add it as an accessory to the hilt of his energy blade as he looked back at them. “Thank you. Now, it would be kind enough for me to provide you with the same thing.” He told her as he formed one of his tokens in the palm of his hand. “Use it to call on me or just for any purpose you see fit. Max uses it as a Hairpin to keep her hair tied down so maybe you can do the same thing.” With that, he threw it to Seph and left the room with Pinkie Pie.

Sephiroth caught it and waved him goodbye, supporting Light in her magic for the time being, before looking at it. It was basically a small metal plate in shape of a yellow lightning bolt with two white wings attached to it. Her brow creased. Not that is was bad looking, but it wouldn’t really fit with her usual style. She carefully replaced her arm under Light and instead floated the token over to her coat.

Max broke her out of her musings, saying, “You really need to take better care of yourself. I’ve pulled about forty feathers so far because you went up against RD and Celestia by yourself.”

Guilt pierced through her heart when she remembered her, what she thought at that time, last moment. How it had hurt more to know that she would never see Max again, than her actual wounds. The thought, that had flashed through her mind then, seemed so utterly pathetic, so ultimately insufficient, now. Her head lowered in shame. “I- can’t rectify what I have done and I won’t even try to. You’re right. Because of my arrogance I nearly got myself killed…” What she didn’t add was, And almost made you go through losing another lover.

Her breath hitched in her throat out of surprise when she suddenly felt her own wing being wrapped around her and being hugged. “Just next time you’re being tossed around, call me or Lance. Please. We’re here to help you, and we don’t want you to die.”

The white hot knife of guilt in her heart twisted painfully, but was soon soothed by a realization that pulled her emotions in several directions at once. The most prominent being appreciation and… love. Closing her eyes, she leaned a bit more on Max. “I will. You showed me that I’m not on my own, anymore. And I won’t let my pride get the best of me again. There is no shame in calling for help.” The last part was more meant for herself, to drill it into her mind.

A sigh came from next to her and she felt Max shake her head. “At least you get that.” It was obvious that she was talking about another, and equally obvious about whom. Kat.

“Speaking of her. You wouldn’t happen to know of a master goldsmith that can turn her token into a pendant?” She had a promise to keep, after all.

“Sure, just go to the forge here in the castle and tell the smith what you want done. If he says anything about paperwork, just tell him I said he could shove it up his-”

Sephiroth swiftly interrupted Max by gently lifting her wing to cover the other woman’s mouth. The mother of the two should know better than to swear in front of her children. “I get what you are saying. I have to speak with him later.”

Suddenly Sephiroth felt something slide between a few of her feathers, something that felt even better than what Max did with her fingers before. She shuddered and closed her legs a little tighter together as she felt Max’s teeth caressing one of her feathers before grabbing and, oh so gently, pulling on it to set it straight.

Forcing her voice to attain a warning tone instead of quiver with her rising arousal, she spoke, “Max… we’re not exactly alone right now. And you shouldn’t start what you can’t finish.”

The teeth left her, drawing an almost inaudible, needy whine out of her, that was, luckily, drowned in the ruffling of her wing as Max pushed it out of the way. “Oh, fine. I’ll wait until I can, but trust me. You won’t be able to walk straight once I’m done.”

Successfully suppressing another whine she desperately tried to hide her growing desire behind a smirk. “Is that a promise or a threat?”

Max giggled, but when she answered, the deep and reverberating voice of her male self made Sephiroth’s insides clench in anticipation. “Both.”