All our other plans were put aside for the moment. We settled together and prepared to cast our minds out to that royal pony. Neon nudged at me gently. "Take me with you. I want to talk to her again."

Cindy perked an ear at Neon. "Why?"

Neon rolled a hoof slowly. "I said some unkind things before. I want to make amends. We were friends, before. Please?"

I saw little reason to deny Neon. "I can try, but I'm not sure how well it'll work."

She hopped up on top of her forelegs and curled with us, and soon we were all relaxed. I drew Neon into our private mindscape, where she could see me and Cindy as separate beings, then we were flung, together, through the void.

We arrived in the garden to hear a loud thump and broken branches. Neon had landed like a meteor in some bushes and was busy picking herself free with some loud grumbling.

Luna approached quickly. "Who go-- Oh, William, Cindy. Neon? I was given to believe you were stripped of royalty."

Neon shook her fur free of burrs. "I was. I came to talk to you, about how I acted the last few times we were together. Sorry."

Cindy pointed a hoof at Neon. "She's been good with us. She really has turned a new leaf."

Luna smiled. "This is good to hear. Is that the only reason you came?" She looked between us. "Is everything alright?"

"Not exactly," I started while taking a step towards her. "From what we're told, Cindy's basic nature is to become one with any pattern she likes, and she likes me. We may be becoming one person, who won't be either of what we used to be."

Luna's ears twitched as she processed that before her eyes widened. "You two will become your own parent, and your own child? How distinctly odd. Can the process not be interrupted?" She looked to Cindy pointedly.

Cindy shrank back. "I suppose if I wasn't in contact, it would stop..." She sounded sad to even admit it.

Luna nodded. "And you have not already done this because...?"

Cindy sank to her belly and sighed. "I love her."

Luna moved a hoof under Cindy's chin, raising it up so their eyes met. "And why do you not want to protect her?"

Cindy's ears flipped back. "It's not hurting her, or me... We'd be closer than ever before, and better. We'd be something with both of our strengths. It's... It's how it's supposed to be."

I could feel my heart thumping. Was it a dream heart, or was our shared heart thudding away back in our body? "So you knew it was happening?"

Cindy scrambled to her hooves. "No! I mean, yes? A little... Please don't hate me..."

I didn't seem to even be able to hate Cindy. The more I thought about it, the more I understood her. She wanted to advance, with me, together. As Luna said, we would make a child, out of ourselves. It was very romantic in a--

Luna struck me across the snout, disrupting my thoughts. "Enough! Tell me, Cindy, of the other royal ponies who appear to have no other half. What happened to them?"

Cindy tilted her head. "They probably merged early on, without fanfare, or even knowing what happened. They just thought it was part of the 'disease' and adapted, forever changed, at least if they were patterns like me, which is very likely."

Neon shook her head. "I had a different one. She doesn't merge, but she was asleep inside of me."

Luna pointed at Neon. "But you were a curious case. I think Lady Cindy is correct, in your being the minority." Her horn glowed brightly and Cindy was suddenly encased in a field of force, frozen as if in ice. "William, I need you to make a decision. If you wish to go ahead with this, then do so with open eyes. If you don't wish this, then I have a few plans to divert it, but in no circumstance does that mean continuing as you are. You will either finish this, or end this. Do you understand?"

Well, shoot. "Now, forgive me if I'm misunderstanding, but I'm getting the idea that most royalty went through this, and just never knew."

Luna nodded at me. "That is what I am led to believe. It would explain a few things."

Neon snorted softly, shaking her thick tail. "I read once that we're never the same person twice."

I shook my head at Neon. "That's not the important part by far. I love Cindy. I want her around, not just a part of me, lost in the soup."

Luna pointed at me, but her hoof was directed at a specific part. Within me, something glowed gently. "You have a life that is still young and fresh. We could let her inhabit it. It would be hers, alone. She will likely be very traumatized at the thought of being alone, but she won't be truly. Are you and your herd ready to support her, and convince her that this form of living is worth doing?"

The imprisonment that held Cindy cracked, then shattered violently, scattering the area with bits of magic as Cindy shook herself out. "Luna!" Her attention slid off of her and onto me. "Will... do you want this?"

I moved up to her and embraced her, squeezing her tightly. For a moment we were silent. I could feel her warmth, and her love. "Is it my choice?"

Cindy nodded shakily. "Whatever you decide, I'll live with, so long as it's living with you. Please, don't punish me for showing you what's ahead instead of just quietly taking it."

Luna pointed at my lower belly. "And if you were to live with her as her foal? To be loved as a parent would their first child? Would this satisfy?"

Cindy took an uncertain step back away from me before stopping. "If it's what Will wants... If we're still together, I'll... It'll be so lonely, not having your thoughts there beside me. You'll be so exposed and vulnerable! Please, it won't be so bad, not at all. We'll be one magnificent person."

I felt an ear rise without thought. "Didn't you say you weren't doing it on purpose?"

Cindy clenched her teeth. "You don't understand. I've been holding back! When I first arrived you were so scared for your friend. You were so lost and desperate. You needed me as a person, so I stayed separate, pulled myself back, and kept doing so, even though we were so close. Your pattern sung to me. I've wanted to become part of it from the start. I haven't done this on purpose anymore than a sponge soaks up water 'on purpose'."

Neon rolled her eyes. "It's just like Karen said."

"Karen?" Luna looked between Cindy and me. "A choice needs to be made, before it is made for you both. Cindy, if you separate, as we've suggested, would William remain noble, or is that power only gained by your presence?"

Cindy circled around me. "We have to be together. A princess without the 'gift' as it's been called is no princess at all. If I were to become your child, you would only have full access when we were in contact. We would, separate, be duchesses at best. Separate, we are wea--"

Neon suddenly kicked Cindy right in one of her shins. "Stop prattling about being weak! I'll remind you I'm not a princess anymore, and I haven't shriveled up and died."

Luna scowled at Neon. "Please refrain from physical violence in my garden."

I turned to face Cindy. "Being weaker is not the end of the world, if it means I can hug you and hold you close when I want to. If it means we'll be together, but not indivisible. Do you really think I'm being petty for wanting you to be in my life without being lost in it?"

Cindy glanced at my lower belly, then turned to face Neon instead. "You. I want your child, not hers."

Neon blinked and perked up. "What? Mine? Sandra gave me this egg."

Cindy nodded. "She did, sired by Dusk Hope. If I must have my own form, I want it to be one compatible with William. If I take Will's child, we can't be that close. We have shared thoughts enough for me to know what incest is. Give me yours instead."

Neon looked baffled a moment before she began to laugh. "You'd be partly my daughter, you realize, and Dusk and Sandra would be your true ones."

I realized where Cindy was going. She didn't want to just stand beside me. She wanted to be my lover. My wife, probably, if I let her. Did I want that? "Cindy, are you going to get between Sandra and I?"

Cindy shook her head quickly. "What? No! She'd be my mother... anyway. So there will be some oddness in this, but no, I'm not jealous of what's between you two. We're a herd, all of us. I won't breed with Dusk Hope or Sandra, since that would be inappropriate, right?"

Luna put a hoof over her face. "I have lost track of what exactly is being discussed, but it pleases me to hear you seem to be coming to something of a conclusion."

I nodded at Luna, then at Cindy. "Alright, what happens next exactly?"

Cindy tapped her chin. "I will move in, grow it, change it, become it." She gestured over herself. "I will be born like this, and grow as quickly as you feed me, until I'm large enough to take my place beside you all." She shuddered softly. "Controlling a fleshy body on my own will be a little frightening. You won't abandon me, right?"

Neon waved a hoof. "Come off of that. Of course we'll be there for you, Cindy. Like you just finished saying, we are a herd."

Suddenly it seemed all eyes were on me. It was time to make a decision, for better or worse. Would I send Cindy to inhabit that child, my own, or perhaps just merge with her? Why couldn't she just stay the way she was? I got used to it that way, but that didn't seem like much of an option, with what I'd heard. There was no going backwards, only forward, and a few obvious choices awaited me.

Author's Notes:

Which should she choose? A choice must be made. Even the typos can't stop one now.