“Let me get this straight. You’re going to try to use their powers in conjunction with your own to naturally make diamond of varying colors without fucking it up?” Mun asked.

“Is there a problem with that?” I asked back, feeling a bit put out by his lack of trust.

“Oh no problem, I’m just having trouble visualizing a way that this won’t FUBAR on us.”

We were standing on the steps to the throne room looking at the coal. Sol was standing on my right while Mun was on my left and Kat and Typhon were standing just behind us, still! looking like ponies.

Kat was a gold-coated Earth Pony with bright red eyes and a golden-yellow mane and tail. Her black jacket almost covered her cutiemark which looked like a cat-shaped cut out of the night sky.

Typhon was a brown unicorn in every sense; from his dark brown, windswept mane and tail to his almost chestnut-colored eyes. His cutiemark was the symbol that was on his shirt.

“Come on, you know I control time. If it starts heading south I can just rewind time and we can avoid whatever made it do that in the first place.”

"I love it when timelines are sturdy enough to absorb ontological paradoxes." Typhon commented. "Because then they are not paradoxes at all, merely a curiosity."

“I don’t make paradoxes I-... wait.... Yeah, I don’t make paradoxes. I bend Time to my will, changing it to suit my needs or wants as I see fit.”

“A friend of mine always warned me about those, how it could affect time everywhere and cause universal destruction if left unchecked.” Kat shivered. “Hopefully my own powers won’t affect yours, Max. I’ve been practicing becoming immune to time manipulations lately… whenever I could find time away from my studies, that is.”

“You’re merely visiting this universe so I don’t think you count in the whole space-time continuum,” I said. “You might even be under different universal laws than me.”

Kat blinked. “That… that sounds both bad and good.”

“It basically means that I don’t think you're powers will affect mine, but mine might affect yours,” I explained.

“Let’s uh… let’s just get started. We can talk sciency later… and I’ll need permission to quote you later, too.” Kat’s body glowed, forming an aura around her entirety. When the light cleared, she seemed almost like a fiery white alicorn.

Typhon's contribution was much more subdued - his horn lit up, and there was a second layer to the aura around his horn.

I took a slow, deep inhale and let it out before raising my hands and saying, “Let’s hope we get this right before I lose too much blood from a nosebleed.”

The piles of coal were wrapped into Typhon's blue aura, floating in a way that loosely resembled the poses I intended the statues to have in the end. They were pressed tightly, breaking some of the lumps and filling the gaps between each other.

Then they started to glow.

Not from the magic hold, but the sheer heat that was being applied - enough to make iron soften considerably. Typhon had put them inside a vacuum, making sure to leave no oxygen that could make them ignite. Time, pressure, and heat forced the carbon to take entirely new shapes at the molecular level, and knowledge of modern chemistry was applied to color the appropriate portions - there would be some excess, yes, but those would be taken away in due time.

For now, it was making sure that the crystals formed properly; once that was done, it would be time to make the statue 'come out' of the uncut stone.

Letting the equations into my vision I focussed on the ones that represented the statues noticing that while they had heat, there was barely any pressure outside of what was holding it up. “Kat, you need to use your power more,” I said. “Typhon can’t produce the force necessary by himself and keep up the temperature.”

Kat took a deep breath, igniting her ‘fire’ even more. More and more pressure was applied to the minerals. “This is actually a little easier than I feared it to be,” she commented. “Though, we may want to speed this up just a little bit. If I start adding much more than this, I’m gonna end up offsetting the planet’s natural gravitational field.”

“I was just waiting for more pressure,” I mumbled while I started adding zeroes to the end of the Time number, stopping when I saw the equation stutter and rocket upwards. “Oops.”

"That's encouraging." Typhon deadpanned as the quickened time started eating up energy. "Just press down, dear, pressing up is part of the way I'm injecting the kinetic energy."

Working quickly I stopped Time right as it went nuclear, the radiation mere inches from us. That was too close, I thought as I cut half of the Time off the statues, bringing it back to what I had intended it to be. I rewound Time two seconds to when Typhon just finished his sentence and said, “Damn, never thought we might accidentally make this explode.”

“That’s putting it mildly, Maxie,” Kat groaned, refocusing her efforts to keep things stable.

"Heat and pressure are the chief explosion-makers; what I didn't expect was not having to start over - kinda forgot who I was working with." Being a pony had the disadvantage of power-use becoming physically-draining, so it wasn't that hard to see why it would happen.

“Like I said: Time is my bitch, I’ll make it bend over and let me smack that anytime I want,” I said with a smirk.

“...must stay sober,” Kat muttered to herself, blushing deeply. “Must stay sober… just keep it stable, Ally. Don’t focus on… that.”

"I just had to turn into a pony, didn't I?" Typhon mumbled, too, and his ears flicked a few times. "Don't make a retort... I'm not even into humans in this shape."

I bit my lip, holding back what I was about to think. We don’t need those thoughts while we’re holding five tons of molten diamond over our heads. I focussed back on the equations, noticing that they almost matched what I had seen with a normal diamond. “Okay, it looks like we’ve done it. There’s a little deviation from a regular diamond, but that was a plain clear one I looked over,” I said. “Just need to shape it now.”

"I suppose that's my cue." Typhon rolled a shoulder with a faint 'pop'. "I'm good with shape and volume - all that air must occupy some space, after all."

He had spent some energy, yes, but he could still reliably do so so long as he didn't do anything outright unsafe. He could distribute the load through his body, and recovered his breath quickly.

His horn glowed again, then became covered in a second layer once more. He took into account each groove, each bump and valley in the end product.

He put that mental image into the world - then took all the excess and teleported it ten feet to the left.

He promptly fell on his face.

"Min't'." He mumbled, hindlegs slowly slumping with the speed of lukewarm butter. "'N cld wtr; f'r m' hed."

“Sol?” I began to ask.

“I’ll go get him a barrel of ice water,” she said dejectedly, not moving from her spot.

“Thank you.” I then said to Kat, “Think you could take some of the excess and form spikes on the bases of the statues with it?”

“Not a problem,” Kat said, using her powers to slowly manipulate the diamonds. “And… done!”

“Now, how do we cool this down without cracking it or making it lose its shape?”

"Cnduction." Typhon mumbled through the floor. "Cnvection, 'oo. Lmme wrk, 'm nt out. Yt."

“You’ve done more than enough, Typhon. I’m sure-” I slap my forehead. “Duh, I can just look for the Time that controls that and mess with it.”

Without waiting for a reply, I searched for the heat. I had a bit of trouble , but when I looked at the statues as a whole I found it. “Okay, I got it. We have to set them down and let the spikes settle into the floor before I try messing around with the heat,” I said, straining against the urge to look back at the smaller numbers.

“Then let’s set these babies down a little quicker. This form is hard to maintain for long periods of time.” It was clear that Kat was starting to strain. She must not be used to using all this power as a pony.

As the statues turned around to face the opposite end of the room, I glanced quickly at Kat and slowed the rate of her exhaustion some. I would’ve done more, but her training was preventing me from doing anything else.

Typhon, though slumped and clearly wishing to lie down all the way, was shedding the heat through the air - although not fast enough for anyone's liking.

With the statues starting to sink into the floor, I helped Typhon cool the statues even faster. They were beginning to lose their shine and settle into their colors. When their bases touched the floor, they were cool to the touch. I rounded on Typhon then, “I said you could leave the rest to Kat and I.”

“Finland~” Kat moaned, already powered down and lying on her back.

“What are you trying to do, kill yourself for my sake?” I touched under my nose and pulled away bloody fingers. “See? I didn’t even feel this and I don’t have a headache, I could’ve done the cooling down myself.”

"I'm made of stern stuff." Typhon said, having moved his face sideways so it was a cheek, not his muzzle, what rested on the floor. "I know my limits. 'sides, I die for this, I just come back. It's not very heroic."

I made a face that was half scowl, half grimace and said, “I’d understand if you didn’t have Kat....”

"Let me rephrase - I have resurrective immortality, so long it wasn't a heroic or just death." Typhon clarified. "I literally cannot kill myself working because it doesn't stick."

I turned my back to him, a blush making its way onto my cheeks. “Yeah well, you might want to change that work ethic when you’re helping someone with something like this. A girl might get the wrong idea.”

Just then I caught sight of Sol’s war hull pushing a barrel towards us.

"Come on." Typhon rolled his eyes as he got his legs back under his body. "It wasn't anywhere near that. I got dramatic; it's not unlike a farmhand at the end of the day - I can keep going if I need to, and I'm not in real danger."

That being said, he tore off the top of the barrel with a flash of his horn, and plunged his head into the water, drinking deeply.

My blush got deeper when he finished talking. Images of him working on Sweet Apple Acres flashed through my mind before I could stop them, his muscles slowly getting a bit more pronounced with each one. “Dammit, now I have to go take a cold shower!” I started to stalk off.

“Um…” Kat said before I did. “It may be the exhaustion talking, but… need a partner?”

“Only if you feel like getting off as well,” I called over my shoulder. “And if you’d like to join me in bed afterwards.”

Kat levitated off the ground and hurried up after me. “...this isn’t helping me stay sober, but satané if this world ain’t sexy as enfer.”

Trees flashed past me as I followed the scent of mouse. I was hungry but had to hunt for my Clan; Clan before yourself, as the warriors say.

I slowed, the trail was getting fresher.

Dropping into an almost-weightless crouch I snuck my way closer, trying to pinpoint where the mouse was my smell and sound. I had almost found it when the smell of another cat reached my nostrils, blowing downwind directly at me.

My fur rose and a growl worked its way loose from my throat as I turned, my eyes settling on a smaller cat with a blue-grey coat that almost looked silver.

“They are with you now,” she meowed. “StarClan shall join them in time as kits. Please, help them find their way.”

“Who is ‘with me’? And why are they invading my territory?” I spat.

“The Clans aren’t invading, they are coming here to escape from a terrible enemy-” She looked behind her, apparently hearing something. "Dammit, he broke through!”

“Who did?”

As she turned away, she meowed, “Beware the cat with dog-teeth claws.” With that she bounded away through the underbrush.

“mmmph.... Best night’s sleep in a while,” I mumbled sleepily, holding another body to mine. As I drifted off back to sleep one of my hands brushed against a breast on that other body. Squeezing it, I slowly remembered last day and who I was spooning became clear. Well, Typhon has no right to be jealous. Teasing me with his attitude and character like that. I sighed and untangled myself from Kat, going over to the window and watching the sun as I made it set.

One life ends... I gazed at the sunset until it was close to fading completely. I nudged the moon up on the other side and thought, ...Another begins.

I turn and look at the side of the mountain and see several pony-sized things making their way to the gardens. I couldn’t make out many details, but I could’ve sworn they looked like cats. I was puzzled for a little until I remembered my dream. .... One of my favorite book series is now real.

I walked back to the bed and shook Kat’s shoulder lightly and said, “I know that last day was fun and yesternight was tiring, but there are some cats I would like you and Typhon to meet.”

Without waiting to see if I actually woke her up I turned to the closet and pulled out a nightgown that wasn’t see through. Even though I could walk out there with nothing on, I have to wear something. I sighed inwardly. Seriously, why have the ruler wear something if everyone else is naked twenty-four seven?

"Morning," I heard Kat yawn. "Is it breakfast time?"

“Not yet, it’s only just dusk.” I turned and walked towards the door. “I would’ve woke you up to see me change the sky, but I decided you would like your rest.”

Kat stared at me for a moment. "Um, Max? Are you sure you wanna go out looking like that?"

“What do you mea-” I caught sight of the phallus between my legs. “.... If only I could get away with it,” I muttered as I slipped the strap on off and tossed it onto the bed next to Kat.

Kat stretched in the bed, the covers only just barely doing their job to her figure. She flung them off, instantly dressed in that moment... sadly. "That certainly was fun," she said with a cheery smile.

“You tend to pick up quite a few tricks when you share the bed of an immortal,” I chuckled as I reached for the door. Only for it to open from the other side, revealing Sol with the foals on her back.

“You’re lucky you planned for this ahead of time,” she said.

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean I planned for this?”

“The second day you were back you ordered for one of the staff to milk you and store it in a fridge every day an hour before dusk,” Sol explained as she handed me Golden and Light.

“Kinky,” Kat commented walking up behind me.

“No wonder my chest wasn’t hurting when I woke up,” I commented as Golden tried to push my gown open. “Okay, here you go.” I opened the front of my gown and let them each take a nipple, walking towards the gardens as I did so.

“My republican side is screaming right now,” Kat remarked as she followed.

“Yours might be, but I’m nothing but practical.” I giggled. “I’d do this in court if they were hungry.”

“Heh, there are somethings I guess you do miss out on when you can’t be that kind of mom.”

“Oh, I plan on being there for them no matter what. I don’t care if I’m trying to rewrite the tax system; I’ll drop what I’m doing even if it’s only for kissing a scraped knee.” I promise.

“What about national threats?” Sol asked.

“I meant, uh, the kind of mom that could do those infant-mother things. Like breastfeeding. Can’t really ever do that,” Kat looked a little uncomfortable, rubbing her arm.

If I had been the one drinking something I would’ve done a spit-take, instead I just stared at her. She- No, she does have-.... Tears began collecting in my eyes as I tried to say, “You.... But....” I took a shaky breath. “Under the throne -- Not Discord’s statue, but the thing beside it -- they might be able to help you. Use it when or if you want to.”

She smiled sadly and shook her head. “It’s not fixable, Max. I’ve been this way for a long time… long time. This new body of mine can’t even possess the necessary organs. It’s… it’s just the way I have to live.”

I looked down at my fillies and knew. I wouldn’t have been able to live the way Kat had. I couldn’t even imagine knowing and still pressing on despite it. “They might be able to anyways,” I whispered. “I don’t know what tech Jack and F.A.U.S.T. have, but they might be able to.”

She put a hand on my shoulder, a sad expression on her face. “I’m glad you’re willing to try, but it’s not going to happen. This is the way I am and I came to terms with that long ago. You can’t force a body to accept what it’s not designed for. And that’s okay. I’m fine with who I am and what I am. But it means a lot that you care.”

.... That’s... I don’t even know.... But, if she’s really okay with it.... I straightened up a bit, sniffing to clear my nose. “Still, if you need a weapon or a shield, or even another companion. You can call Jack using his token I have.”

“That means a lot, Max. It really does. Remind me next time I visit, I’ll bring Kuna and they can all have a play date.”

I smiled at Kat and jokingly said, “As long as I get to shunt some of the paperwork onto you.”

“Oh ho ho~” Kat chuckled. “Uh… you may not want that. I suck at paperwork. It’s taking everything I have just to keep up with my schooling.”

“So do I, but I will still have to deal with it. Can’t just give Twilight the paperwork and all the emergencies, now can I?”

“Why not? Have you met Twilight? Paperwork is her dream job! ...Before we set up that playdate though… this world doesn’t have any misgivings about changelings, does it?”

“Nope, Cadence and I found them before they even kidnapped her and got Chryssi into talks about changelings....” I thought for a moment and then shrugged. “I don’t know what exactly she, Celestia, and Luna agreed to.”

“Hoo,” Kat was visibly relieved. “Good, didn’t want anypony going to try and put my daughter on a stick.”

I opened a door, surprised that it was one to where I actually wanted to go. “That reminds me, I probably need to renegotiate with them. Just to make sure the peace lasts.”

"Wouldn't be a bad idea. Chrysalis can get a little odd if things don't go quite right."

“I don’t think it’s that way with this one, she gave up with barely ten minutes of thinking.” I turned a corner, coming across a scene I didn’t want to find.

Five guards had surrounded the party of three cats I had seen on the mountainside.

"Are... are those cats?" Kat asked. "Please don't let them be cats."

One of the guards pricked his ear and turned, bowing once he saw me. “Grandmother, we caught these three trying to sneak into the castle,” he said.

Recognizing the fluffed up cats I smiled and said, “Kat, meet Firestar, Whitestorm, and Cloudtail. They are warrior cats of ThunderClan.”

"Hi," she replied hesitantly before whispering my ear. "I am really uncomfortable right now."

Firestar, obviously surprised that he could understand us, meowed, “You... can talk?”

“I should be asking you the same,” I said with a smile. “A... friend of yours told me that you would be coming here with the other four Clans.” I then muttered to Kat, “You’re going to make me drop Light Sweet if you keep holding my arm like that.”

"Sorry, this is just too creepy! I loathe cats! With a burning passion!"

I gave her an amused look. “I told you we would be meeting some cats.”

"I didn't think you meant literally!" She hissed.

“If I may interject here,” Whitestorm meowed. “The Clans have a camp just on the other side of this hill. Are we trespassing on your territory?”

“No, but I could help you find better hunting grounds,” I said, gesturing for the guards to lower their spears. “Most of my... followers eat only plants. If you want to stay anywhere near here, you’ll have to know what not to kill.”

“You have our thanks, then,” Firestar said.

“Would you care to join us for something to eat?” I turned towards the way we came.

“Yes, please,” Cloudtail meowed, following after me.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Whitestorm and Firestar had hesitant looks on their faces. “Don’t worry, this is my main camp. No harm shall befall you here.”

They gave each other a last glance before they too began following me inside.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Kat muttered. "This is gonna turn out worse than that fancy dinner I was at with Chrysalis."

“With that attitude it will.” I held out Light to her and said, “Here, you want to burp her?”

"Alright, I suppose," she shrugged, taking Light. She put my foal against her shoulder and lightly patted her back.

I glanced back, noticing that the cats were whispering to each other. I turned to a guard and said, “Have the chefs prepare some of the cockatrice for our guests. Enough for three griffons and tell them to not cook it or cut it off the bone.”

“Yes, Grandmother,” he said, trotting off down a side corridor.

“I think one of the Clans might like -- Oh, Golden! This is the only nightgown I have that isn’t see through! -- Anyways, I was thinking about giving one of the Clans part of the EverFree to roam,” I said to Kat.

"You really don't want my opinion on this," she replied.

“Right, not a cat person.”

"That and I'm not a politician. I'm a soldier, first and foremost."

Let’s see.... If I give them part of the EverFree, I’ll need to give the other ones a place nearby so they can have their ‘monthly’ meetings. I could just give them the whole forest and the Old Kingdom. I might have to bend a few laws and make new ones- wait, I’ll have to make new laws anyways.... Heh, the looks on the nobles’ faces when they see a cat the same size as them walking into court. That’d be funny. But no, I don’t think they’ll be comfortable in the palace for more than an hour or two. I turned a corner, surprised that I recognized the door to the dining room about half-way down the hall. “How did I manage that?” I muttered before saying to the cats, “The... place for everyone to eat is just ahead.”

“Thank StarClan,” I heard Whitestorm mutter.

When I opened the doors I saw Typhon sitting between Twilight and Rarity discussing something with them, Pinkie and Spike had what looked like a whoopee cushion and were putting it under Applejack’s flank as she sat down, and Fluttershy was next to Applejack, eating what looked like porridge.

"... then you can just... sort of poke everything apart." Typhon concluded. "It needs a good attention to detail, like yours, or a specialized tool, but yeah; a fireball would get too unstable to actually hurt me, even at sword range."

“Wow, that’s-” Twilight stopped when she caught sight of Firestar, screaming as she teleported away.

“Yeah, wish I could do that too,” Kat muttered under her breath.

"Well, they are her size." Typhon shrugged.

“I’d rather not be here, myself, is what I meant, Typhon,” she whispered in his ear. “I do not like cats in the slightest.”

"I gathered - I meant that it's understandable." He whispered back. "Don't worry; between the both of us, we can deal with anything, right?"

“Just take a seat, someone will bring you your breakfast,” I told the cats, gesturing to the chairs.

Whitestorm glanced at one of the chairs and, sitting next to it, said, “What fresh-kill do you have?”

"And just like that, a lower extremity is firmly planted inside the buccal cavity." Typhon raised his arms and let them go in an over-dramatic gesture.

Smaller words, please. They won’t be able to understand you if you don’t, I thought to Typhon before saying, “You’ll like it, I’m sure. It’s called cockatrice, but tastes just like chicken.”

“A cockatrice is part chicken,” Holo said through a mouthful of apple.

"The cragodiles are, more often than not, rather nice smoked over applewood." Typhon contributed.

I licked my lips and said, “Hydra ribs with a hickory rub....”

“I don’t think you should have asked,” Cloudtail muttered to Whitestorm.

Kat started to drool a little. “Mm, now a nice manticore steak sounds delicious. Nice and rare and soooo juicy~.”

“Oh, basilisk eye stew. It can cause paralysis if it isn’t prepared right, but it’s so good when it is,” I gushed.

“Although, it you want any kind of meat done right, it’s alway sooo much better when you’ve killed it yourself. Just makes it that much sweeter~.”

"Tell me about it - there was something... nice about preparing something that just tried to kill me ten minutes prior." Typhon gave a content sigh. "Also, the look of surprise on its face when my thrown ax flew a hundred meters in a few seconds."

“Try being as weak as me and still overpowering a manticore enough to snap its neck,” I boasted. “Of course, it had just gotten run off its territory by a pack of timberwolves and was weakened by blood loss....” I chuckled weakly, rubbing the back of my head. “Still, I killed it with just these two hands.”

“Just a trio of bloodthirsty people, ain’t we?” Kat giggled.

A knowing smile slowly worked its way onto my face as I said, “Not bloodthirsty, just... meat-hungry.” I waggled my eyebrows at the last bit.

“...Merde Max!!” Kat shouted with a deep blush. “Stop with the kinky talk!!”

Almost laughing myself out of my chair, I said, “I’m sorry, I can’t help myself! You’re cuter when you blush.” I then muttered, “And sexier when I’m-”

“Nopony needs to know what you do in bed,” Applejack interrupted, trying to hide her red face with her hat.

“Geez,” Kat sighed. “To think, I might have found someone more sex-crazed than my late sister.”

“Okay, I’ll tone it down for the rest of your stay then,” I said, wiping a tear from my eye.

Kat glanced at her boyfriend. “You… you have some catching up to do.”

"Good thing I don't need sleep." Typhon replied with a smirk.

She kissed his cheek. “You. Are. Perfect.”

“Tell me about it,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “If the two of you weren’t together....”

"Err, breakfast for our feline guests?" Typhon awkwardly reminded, wanting to move the meeting along.

I glanced over to the three cats, noticing that they were tentatively taking their first bites.

“A little colder than we’re used to, but definitely good,” Firestar said, Whitestorm nodding in agreement.

“Thish ish better tha’ fat wole!” Cloudtail meowed, his mouth mostly busy with pulling another bite off his portion.

“...I feel like mentioning the lack of table manners, but I am certainly not one to talk.”

"They are cats." Typhon nodded.

“I guess I’m the only... twoleg -- damn, it feels weird to say that -- that likes cats, then,” I said, taking a bite of my bacon.

"I like cats, too; what gave you the impression I didn't?" Typhon asked, before waving the question away. "Nevermind; what is next on the agenda?"

“Aside from finding them a place to live in peace.” I pointed to Firestar and his Clanmates. “Just sitting down and talking with Chrysalis, which I can handle myself.”

"I suppose that means Typhon and I will be leaving soon," Kat said.

“Yeah....” I looked down at my plate, noticing that it was now empty. “I don’t really know how to say this, but,” I looked back up at Kat and Typhon. “Thank you for... all of this.”

"Hey," Kat said, taking my hand in hers. "You're my friend and, no matter what, I will always be there for you." She gave me a soft smile. "I'd do anything to see my friends smile.”

"Same here." Typhon nodded. "Memories are important and, well, helping make something this... this meaningful is quite an honor. I'm always ready to help."

“Heh, I guess Fate isn’t all that bad if it gave me friends like you,” I said with a smile. “Call me whenever you need a helping hand or just want to hang out. In any case, you should probably get back to your own universe.”

"Very well then." Typhon said, standing up and offering his arm to Kat. "Shall we go? It would be remiss to- well, miss out the rehearsals for the Hearthswarming play..."

I stood up then and said, “So long and thanks for all the fish -- I mean... help.”

"A reference, hehe..." With that, both simply vanished into thin air.

Author's Notes:

Now begins the age of Grandmother Maxine.