A hundred things must have flashed through my mind as I walked, flanked on three sides by armed guards, down the path to the moat and drawbridge separating the noble quarter of Canterlot from the Royal Palace itself.

One of the things that flashed through my mind was how pretty the scenery was. The 'moat' was actually fed by waterfalls coming down the mountain, and once the water passed under the bridge, it fell down further below to the left, underscoring the great view of the central valley of Equestria that the palace overlooked. And the palace itself – it looked exactly like every image I'd ever seen of it, precisely as gaudy and fantastical in its architecture as the cartoon made it seem. White and gold and shades of purple bombarded my eyes from each and every spire perched precariously over the verdant mountain cliffs.

Another thing that flashed through my mind was, of course, my life. It wasn't a terribly impressive one. More regrets than joys, but not even dramatic or important regrets, or anything you could write a screenplay about – just the sadness of a guy who'd tried but not quite hard enough to succeed. And that was just my time on Earth. The first three weeks in Equestria had been just miserable, and the past three days felt like a fever dream in comparison. If I hadn't been there for every second of it, I might've wildly guessed this was all some kind of elaborate coma dream, and I was actually in a hospital bed about to die of brain cancer.

Items three through about five-hundred, of things that flashed through my mind, was a compilation of everything I'd learned about the mystery of ponies and this world's ancient humans. Out of all that data, three major groups seemed to be the most relevant:

One, ponies' bodies were universally sexually excessive, and every single one of them found almost every aspect of a human male pleasurable in all the senses; taste and smell most obviously, sight more subtly.

Two, Princess Celestia buried and censored whatever information she could find about humans – save for vague legends of 'they were very evil' – and she was also suspected of deliberately engineering Equestria's current climate of sexual repression.

Three, Celestia was so scared of me that she'd spied on me from afar for my entire stay in Equestria, worried all of her subordinates in the process, cleared out her schedule for the weekend in case there was any fallout from our meeting, and still tried everything in her power to delay me while the Normal took me over – all because, for some reason, meeting me in person would be a catastrophe in the making.

There was one major question to all of this, and that was 'Why?' And only Celestia had the answers.

As we crossed the drawbridge and passed under the castle gate, my mind flashed forward to item number five-hundred-and-one: Trying to predict what was going to happen when Celestia and I met face-to-face. It was a volatile conundrum. The Princess was panicked, yet still under the unyielding influence of my power – which, from Moondancer, I knew could push a resistant mind towards unexpected rationalizations. Our combined delaying tactics had run their course; I had now arrived. The ball was in Celestia's court, and there wasn't much I could do but prepare myself for her next swing.

For what it was worth, the interior of the palace – specifically, the grand entrance hall – was still pretty and colorful. We walked along a beautiful red carpet, passing by all kinds of giant banners hanging from the walls… There was just one thing that stood out as a little strange.

Besides us, there wasn't a soul to be seen.

We climbed up the grand staircase, where Celestia would greet her subjects at formal events like the Grand Galloping Gala, but the halls only faintly echoed with any kind of life or activity. I'd never been here before, but it felt wrong for a place so vibrant – it was spooky and unsettling, and did nothing to help my nerves.

We headed left, passing by an impressively tall stained-glass mural styled after the sun and avoiding its moon-based counterpart. The carpet led up another staircase, and there was a tall exit leading to some more constrained halls spanning, I assumed, the western section of the main castle's second floor.

There was one problem: This exit from the grand hall was blocked by a wall of golden magic.

My shoulders hiked up reflexively. The game was on.

"What the…?" Lieutenant Rook started, but he was interrupted by a bright golden flash, and a sealed scroll fell into his hands.

He unfurled it and began to read. I tried to move up and see it, but Rook pushed me back firmly with one very strong arm. Apparently this was for his eyes only, order of Celestia. That was bad news for me.

"Uh… Guards, you are dismissed," he said after a moment, still reading the letter.

The two decorated pegasi by my sides saluted and flew off, leaving me alone with Rook before I could say anything. A second after they went out one of the hall's other exits, I winced and silently cursed – those were the guards I could still influence with my power, and Celestia was taking them out of play. I resigned myself to this new wrinkle and waited for the next shoe to drop. It was still 'important' that we meet; that was my one guarantee in all this.

Rook finished reading the letter and lowered it, looking up at the force field in front of us. Then, hesitantly, he turned around to face me. "You are…" he said, "meant to go the rest of the way yourself."

I raised an eyebrow worriedly. "Pardon?"

The royal unicorn guard checked the letter again. "Yes. The barrier will let you through, but then you must find the meeting location yourself, with no help or… guides…" He looked at the barrier with a surprised expression. "Has she removed every guard from the west wing, then…?"

"Oh, SHIT!" I cursed out loud this time. She was isolating me! Without anyone to influence… I couldn't affect ponies' perceptions! I wouldn't be able to keep the Normal at bay! She was trying to run out the clock, AGAIN! I reached out and grabbed Rook's armor desperately. "Rook, c'mon, this is insane. You can't let her do this."

Rook was visibly torn, looking between me and the force field meaningfully. "It's… meant to be a test. My orders are…"

"I know! …I know," I muttered, my hands shaking and tears stinging the corners of my eyes. "You're loyal. I can't ask you to betray her. I know." I let go and stepped back, standing parallel to the barrier from him and pointing at it. "But if I have to wander in there for an hour before finding the meeting location, I won't arrive the same person I am now. Rook… please."

The lieutenant looked between me and the barrier a couple more times, then lowered his head gravely and let out a deep sigh. "I'm sorry," he said, and moved to leave.

Despair gripped my heart. My mind raced for a way to convince him otherwise.

But then he placed a large, firm hand on my shoulder and leaned down to my ear. "Celestia's private quarters," he whispered. "Second hall on the left, third hall on the right, straight on to the end, and up the stairs to the top of the tower." And without waiting for a reaction, he resumed marching down the stairs.

I bolted. I hit the barrier hands-first, and it disappeared in an instant, so I kept running. The entire wing of the castle outside the entrance hall was dark and unlit, save for moonlight pouring through the windows looking over the castle's central garden. The carpet ran out and I was soon running on ornate marble, dashing past statues and busts and paintings and many doors to many rooms, stretching on for what looked like a mile. If I'd had to check these rooms one-by-one…

The Normal came back with a vengeance, sending an electric buzz through my whole body – like I was filled with static, like someone was trying to change the channel on my life. I tripped over my own feet and went sprawling to the floor.

"MotherFUCKer!" I cursed again, since no one was around to hear me. The initial shock had been brief, but it was close now. Celestia's gambit was working like hell. I needed to do something abnormal, fast, but what? The halls were devoid a single soul; no light shone from any of the many doors. I had nothing but the objects around me and the clothes on my back.

A flash of inspiration struck me, and I got to a kneeling position so I could take off my loafers. "Sorry, Fancy Pants, wish I could've worn this for more than five minutes…" I muttered, before slipping out of my shoes and tossing one at the wall.

My loafer bounced off a giant painting of a beautiful landscape, glancing the wooden frame and making it tilt very slightly to one side. The buzzing of the Normal faded for just a second.

With my new strategy solidified for the moment, I kept running. My spine tingled like I was being chased, like I was running from something very solid and real and it was right behind me. When I felt like it was getting closer, I tossed the other shoe at the nearest object I saw – a stone bust of some pony's face on a pillar, which I managed to knock over. It didn't break, but it made a loud BANG, which was just anarchic enough to push back the aura of normality.

I almost missed the second hall on the left in my panic, but I only had to double back a couple of steps before dashing down the hallway. It was even darker and more narrow a hallway, though there was more moonlight at the other end.

"AAACK!" I screamed as another shock ripped through me. I caught myself this time, landing on my knees painfully. "Guhh… Seriously, sorry Fancy Pants…"

I picked up the pace again, unbuttoning my tux and my dress shirt, and practically ripping off the bowtie. As I ran, I tossed the tuxedo onto a door handle, the white shirt onto a small statue, and the bowtie into a plant. I was now topless and still running for my life. These were only delaying tactics, I knew, but they were somehow helping.

The third hall on the right was impossible to miss. I passed through a grand double-door and the hall opened up to a semi-outdoor view of another palace garden with a water fountain. Instead of continuing forward, I dashed to the right, passing by exotic plants on the left side and various palace doors on the other.

I could almost feel the next wave coming on, so I preempted it by kneeling down again and pulling off my socks. "Leave me alone…" I growled, balling up the socks, "you stupid… fucking… spell!" And on the last word, I tossed the sock-ball into the garden with all my strength, so that it landed in the water fountain. Gross, which was perfectly abnormal, so I kept running.

Ignoring every side-door, I reached a bridge that connected the main palace to one of its grand spires, with a spiral staircase leading all the way up. I looked up, and blanched at the thought of having to climb so many stairs to reach Celestia's quarters, but the Normal's constant reminder of impending doom pushed me onwards and upwards.

It wasn't long before I could feel the burning in my lungs. I was no longer overweight, but I was still out of shape, and I'd done nothing but walk around and have sex for most of the day. And yet stair after stair after stair remained between me and Celestia.

Nothing prompted me; I just felt like it was about time, and trying to climb stairs three at a time in fitted slacks was getting obnoxious. So I ripped off the belt, shucked off my pants, and tossed them over the ledge. I bounded up the spiral steps wearing nothing but my underwear.

The closer I got, the more pressure I could feel in my mind. The Normal REALLY didn't want me to arrive at Celestia. It knew. It knew if I reached her, she was my ticket to permanent abnormality. It was doing everything it could to stop me.

One more bolt of magic tore through me, and this time it left me feeling every ounce of exertion as pain, leaving me sluggish and tired. I was close now, only a few more steps to go before I reached the top. But the mountain wind was freezing cold against my bare skin, not to mention my ears were popping, my legs were on fire, and my lungs made me feel like I was suffocating. Still, I held tight to the handrail and pulled myself forward. "Not… that… easy…" I grunted with each pull, hoping I sounded like a Die Hard-style badass and not the wheezing 20-something I heard in my ears.

When I reached the penultimate step, my vision went blurry and my knees wobbled. I reached blindly for the next section of handrail, but it ended abruptly at the top. My balance failed, and I tipped forward, my vision going completely dark.

There was a WOOSH, and my face landed between two small, soft masses. A moment later, the Normal faded into the background, like it was scurrying away.

"Not yet, Pascal," a soothing, familiar voice said. "I need you here. I need you, and her, to see…" My eyes opened, and as they cleared, I realized my face was buried in the neckline of a midnight-blue dress, belonging to a very tall, very blue woman.

It was undoubtedly Princess Luna holding me up with her arms and her body, but not nude and ultra-busty like in my dreams. Just going by the weight pressing against my cheeks, she couldn't have been bigger than a double-D at most. What was going on here? Had she enlarged for the sake of my dream request, or…?

I decided that wasn't important right now. "Thanks…" I groaned out.

Luna inhaled deeply, her nose buried in my hair. "I'm counting on you…" she murmured quietly. She leaned her head down, and I felt a long, wet tongue drag along the side of my neck.

We both pushed each other away in shot. Luna's eyes were wide with surprise and embarrassment. "B-Best of luck!" Her massive alicorn wings spread out, and she flapped off the balcony in an instant, creating a massive gust of wind that nearly bowled me over. All I could do was stare and grasp my neck as she dove towards the lower parts of the palace and out of sight.

She was no longer with me, but I could still feel the saliva. That had been no dream. It'd come out of nowhere; even she was shocked. What had that been about? A few suspicions rose to mind, but I reminded myself that I was only getting concrete answers from one pony tonight.

And the door to that pony's chambers was just a few yards away.

I strode barefoot across the balcony, my fingers still on my neck. I felt like that lick, from an alicorn's tongue, would keep the Normal at bay long enough for me to cross this threshold. And then… It was time for the most important moment in my life.

I only hesitated for a second. Summoning up all my courage, I grabbed the door's handle and–

And the door flew open, and a blinding golden light seared my eyes from within. Telekinesis gripped me and violently shoved me forward. The door SLAMMED behind me. I fell forward, but my head stayed upright, unable to look away from those eyes.

THOSE EYES.

THOSE GOLDEN EYES.

TRUTH WAS THEIR DEMAND. WHATEVER THEY ASKED, I WOULD ANSWER.

"BEFORE TWILIGHT'S SPELL," THE EYES SPOKE, REVERBERATING IN MY MIND, "HAVE YOU EVER IN YOUR LIFE POSSESSED ANY MAGICAL ABILITY?"

NOT SPEAKING THE TRUTH WAS AGONY INCARNATE. ONLY TRUTH WOULD REMOVE THE PAIN. "NnnnrrrghI've never had any magic at all before this!" THE ANSWERS CAME UNBIDDEN, I COULD NOT STOP THEM, FOR I COULD ONLY SPEAK THE TRUTH.

"DOES ANYONE ON YOUR WORLD POSSESS MAGIC?"

PAIN. ANSWER. TRUTH. "I don't know! Not to my knowledge! People have studied ESP, psychics, precognition, that sort of thing, but there's been no conclusive evidence! Many people on my world, including my close family, believe in a spiritual view of the world, in blessings from God, but that's just religion! There's no physical evidence that proves to the world beyond reasonable doubt there is a powerful being watching over mankind. Only anecdotes and faith! There is nothing like your world's magic in my world, nothing like it!" THE PAIN ENDED, FOR I HAD SPOKEN THE TRUTH.

THE EYES REMAINED SILENT. I WAITED. THEY SPOKE AGAIN. "HOW DID YOU GET TO THIS WORLD?"

"All I experienced was my body being pulled by some great force, and then parts of my house fell from under me and also on top of me! Then I woke up in Ponyville General Hospital! I told Twilight Sparkle this, and she told me that it was because of a surge, a flare, from this world's arcanosphere! A freak accident! I've been given no reason to doubt her!"

"REACH INTO YOUR MEMORIES. IS THERE ANYTHING TO SUGGEST YOU WERE SENT HERE DELIBERATELY?"

"No!"

THE LIGHTS GREW STRONGER. "HAVE YOUR MEMORIES BEEN TAMPERED WITH?"

I COULD ONLY SPEAK THE TRUTH, THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH. ALL LIES AND DISGUISES BURNED AWAY IN THE LIGHT FROM THOSE EYES. "No!"

"IS THERE ANY WAY, ANY WAY AT ALL, SOMEONE FROM YOUR WORLD COULD HAVE SENT YOU HERE, OR COULD EVENTUALLY REACH HERE, DELIBERATELY OR ACCIDENTALLY?"

"No! Humans have been developing space flight for the past fifty years approximately, but it's extremely expensive and dangerous! We've only made it as far as our moon with manned craft, as far as I know; the rest are satellites! That would be the only way they could get here, and there's zero chance any of them could cross so much distance in space and survive! Not in my lifetime!"

THE LIGHTS REMAINED SILENT FOR EVEN LONGER. THEN THEY ASKED ONE MORE TIME. "IS ANYONE FROM YOUR WORLD COMING NEXT? IS ANYONE FROM YOUR WORLD LOOKING FOR YOU? DO YOU HAVE ANY WAY OF CONTACTING SOMEONE FROM YOUR WORLD?"

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "I'm cut off from everybody I ever knew and loved! Twilight Sparkle said that what sent me here could never be recreated; it would be impossible to send me back! For all we know, our galaxies are spinning in different directions, or our worlds are in completely different dimensions! My mom, my dad, my siblings, my friends, my coworkers, my ex, all of them are gone! And I will NEVER, EVER see them again…" Tears openly flowed from my blind eyes, running down my face as I snarled at the light. "…you BITCH!"

THE GOLDEN EYES faded, and I fell onto the ground, weeping openly into the tiles. I'd spoken the truth. Every last word, every feeling I was experiencing now, was the unvarnished truth as I understood it.

I was alone. Earth was gone. No one was coming for me.

I stayed down for a solid minute of crying before I sniffled and managed to pull part of myself together and get a bearing on my surroundings, my head darting back and forth to take everything in.

I was in a very large suite. A roaring fireplace dominated one side of the room. In front of it was a thick rug surrounded on one side by a long, thick roll cushion. There was a door in the back that was open, and through it I could see a private bedroom with an absolutely ENORMOUS four-poster bed.

And standing in front of me was the back of the tallest pony I'd ever seen. She had to be somewhere between 9 and 10 feet tall. She was garbed in a flowing white dress that screamed 'pure and virginal,' accented by her golden shoes, armbands, necklace, and crown. Her figure, what I could see past the eternally flowing aurora that was her mane, was slender to the point of being almost stick-like.

Sniffling hard, I attempted to get to my feet and confront her. As I did so, there was a golden glow from atop Celestia's head, and I was suddenly encased in a golden capsule barrier.

"Hey!" I shouted, rushing to my feet and pushing against the walls of the transparent magic. There was no use; no chance in hell that my physical strength was going to overcome her magical power.

"I had half a mind to throw you in Tartarus and wait," Celestia said, the first time I'd ever heard her voice. It was as smooth and regal as I'd ever imagine, but it had none of her characteristic warmth. It was instead icy and cold enough to send a chill through my heart. Still keeping her back to me, she continued, "But that wouldn't be fair to the stallion you are to become. HE never did anything to deserve your punishment. HE will not bear the burden of your sins." She finally turned around, and I could see the grim hatred burning behind her magenta-colored eyes. "So we will wait here, until the magic within you takes its course. And when it is done, there will no longer be a human in Equestria. Only another one of my precious ponies."

"That's BULLSHIT!" I yelled back, my fists pounding on the barrier. "What, you had to fucking GEAS me to make ABSOLUTELY sure I wasn't one of the ancient ones in disguise?! Everything I've said and done up to this point wasn't enough for you?! That's the only reason you let me up here, and now you're going to fucking watch me die in FRONT of you?!? FUCK YOU!!"

Yes, I was extremely mad that she'd mind-controlled me.

Celestia stepped up to the barrier and gently placed a hand on it. "Even if you're not one of…" She visibly shuddered. "…them, you got close to corrupting all of Equestria with your lusts. Feel proud of that, if it soothes your perverted little mind."

"Shit! C'mon, Celestia!" I bellowed, hitting the barrier where her hand was touching it. She made no reaction. "Tell me the truth about humans! For everything I've been through, you owe me that fucking much!"

She didn't say anything in response. Was she somehow ignoring my words? Was she immune to the Normal somehow– No, of course not, or she wouldn't have let me up here at all. So why wasn't…

Oh, fuck.

The barrier was a semi-oval about seven feet tall and only a few feet wide. I pressed my half-naked body against one side, then the other. Her eyes didn't track me at all; she just stared vaguely into the center.

She couldn't see me or hear me. I could see and hear her, but it only went one way. She was preventing me from influencing her with the Normal! Fuckshitfuck!

The side of Celestia's mouth curled up into a triumphant smirk, almost as if she knew what I was realizing right now. "You turned my sister against me. Used the Elements of Harmony as your playthings. Caused chaos throughout the capital of my nation. I will have a lot of work to do setting things right, making sure ponies aren't too hurt as things return to the TRUE normal."

I pounded on the barrier like a madman. It had no effect on her.

She lowered her hand and stepped back, her smile fading back into a grim hardness. "But at the very least, I can take comfort in knowing there will never be another like you in Equestria." And with that, she turned towards the door to her bedroom and started to step away.

Her haughty rhetoric infuriated me, but I was too busy panicking because, well, this was the end. If she walked through that door and left me in this bubble, I was a goner. She would win, Equestria would continue to be repressed for reasons it didn't understand, and I would die in my mind without ever knowing why I went through all this. I couldn't let that happen. I was just a perverted loner from Earth going up against one of the goddesses of Equestria, but I couldn't let that happen.

I adding stomping on the carpet to my tantrum. To my surprise, the bubble made contact with the floor but didn't go through it. By stomping my foot on the ground, it created a vibration. It didn't feel like it was bouncing off the barrier, however subtle that would feel, so I suspected it was the one thing that might go through the force field…

Stomp stomp stomp.

Celestia froze in place.

Stomp stomp stomp.

Princess Celestia remained still, and I knew it was because of me. 'Yes, that's it,' I thought. 'Three knocks. I'm knocking on the door, Celestia. Trying to get your attention. You may not be able to hear my words or see my gestures or expressions, but a three-count of anything is still clear communication, isn't it? Knock knock knock.' Stomp stomp stomp.

But to my dismay, she took another step forward – hesitant and wary, but still further away from me.

"Fuck!" I yelled. How was she rationalizing around this? Did she somehow convince herself that my stomping was just the desperate struggle of a man about to… die…?

I got an idea. An awful, crazy idea. Supremely risky under these circumstances. But if I couldn't communicate with Celestia, couldn't command her attention in any way… Then I was going to have to trick her.

I stomped and pounded and shouted until everything was sore. I threw myself against the walls of my cage, deliberately falling to the ground hard before getting back up and trying again. I made sure every motion was carried out with a hard step that was sure to reverberate through the ground.

Celestia kept walking forward, getting further away from the vibrations of my stomps, but that's when I changed tactics.

I slowed down. I mimed out getting weaker, my stomps slowing down as my strength waned. Celestia stopped again, and what I hoped against hope was that she thought I was succumbing to the Normal already, and she'd come back to check on me, just in case I was becoming the ultimate average stallion.

Of course, the problem with this trick was that it was also working against me. By refusing to fight, I was essentially surrendering to the expectations of this society's ruler – a technicality the Normal seized upon. I could already feel the buzzing of cosmic forces gathering strength, getting ready to change me, body and mind. But I had to keep the act up, convince her that I was defeated and she didn't need this barrier anymore.

I reached into my underwear, the only clothing I had on me, and fished out my dick. I still had the remnants Photo Finish's aphrodisiac spell inside me, so I was at half-mast. I just started jacking off, using both hands, as I staggered and fell to the ground dramatically. I made a huge thump as I collapsed to the ground, like I'd fallen unconscious, but quietly I kept stroking my footlong cock.

Somehow, my insane gambit seemed to bear fruit. Celestia slowly turned around and regarded the magical bubble stoically, watching and waiting for any other signs. Other than the stroking, I stayed as still as possible.

She stepped toward the barrier, a serious look on her face, tinged with a mix of fear and hope. Her glowing horn sparkled, and a shimmer passed over the golden wall – it didn't disappear, but something seemed to have changed. If my intuition was right, she'd altered the barrier so that she could see and/or hear inside it.

If I was right, I had one shot.

I sprung up to the edge of the barrier and screamed, "TELL ME THE TRUTH!"

Celestia recoiled as if she'd been shot. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks in horror, her jaw agape as she beheld my raging, exposed form.

In case she only had visual but no audio, I said it again – "Tell. Me. The. Truth." – exaggerating each word so that she could read my lips if nothing else.

A dozen emotions flickered in the Princess's face. Anger, horror, sorrow, resistance, pain, struggle… She held her hands against her head, her brow furrowing deeply as she tried to force my suggestion out of her mind. But I knew, or at least hoped, that it would be to no avail.

Her eyes flickered down one more time to my exposed dick pressing against the barrier, and then her horn exploded with light. When I could see again, the barrier was gone, but so was Celestia. I was empty, with no company but the crackling of the fireplace.

I looked around, asking aloud, 'Celestia?' Or I tried to. No sound came out of my mouth.

Panicking, I breathed in and out hard, to make sure I wasn't dying in a vacuum. I tried speaking again, but I was perfectly silent. Wondering if I had gone deaf to myself somehow, I snapped my fingers – and clearly heard sound. So she'd used a silencing spell on me at the same time she'd teleported away. Great. Still, where was she?

"You want to know the truth?" her muffled voice grumbled through the bedroom door. Had she just run away and locked the door?

I groaned silently and threw up my hands. 'Well, yeah,' I mouthed, because I wasn't going to let a little thing like magically induced muteness get in the way of snark.

"The truth about… hu–" Celestia's words caught in her throat, and I heard whimpering. "Pascal…" Her voice wavered with emotion. "In this entire world, only two ponies know. I've kept this secret for over a thousand years. It's… painful, and disgusting. Do you really want me to–"

Unable to scream 'YES' at the top of my lungs, I reared up and kicked the bedroom door. It rattled – I wasn't strong enough to break it down – but I was absolutely 100% done with this bullshit and I wanted her to know it.

After a moment more of silence, I heard, "…Very well."

The entire room around me filled with a golden magical glow… and then it all faded away to blackness and… stars? It looked like I was floating in space. I could still kind of see the walls, but I was in the middle of some kind of magical, holographic projection. Was I going to get a whole presentation?

"Humans were… They were… They…" Celestia's voice boomed in the room, hesitating over and over again as the stars twinkled around me.

I nearly went mad from anticipation. What the fuck WERE humans, huh? Why was this so terrible to say?!

"Humans… came before Equestria," she finally said. "There was no Equestria before the humans."

'What?!' I involuntarily mouthed.

In the projection, three giant hooded figures rose up from the darkness, only their top halves visible. All three wore what could only be described as 'wizards' robes.' Their faces were lit by the virtual starlight, and they definitely had human skin tones and basic facial features. But when I actually tried to focus on their faces, they became blurry and shrouded, as if Celestia didn't want to remember them.

The three figures raised their hands out into space, weaving them around. Magical energy spread forth, moving the stars closer together until they collided in a brilliant explosion. The starstuff became a ball of molten magma, and the figures' hands reached out and began to manipulate it like clay.

"The ancient humans – OUR humans," Celestia monologued, "were a race that had mastered the arcane arts. The most powerful of them could reach out and shape entire universes into being, rewrite and craft the very laws of reality."

I made the motion of screaming, 'WwwwwwwwwwHHHAAATTTT?!' as I gripped the sides of my head and watched the insane display continue.

The planetoid changed like it was in a time lapse, the magma cooling, atmosphere forming, water and lakes and oceans filling the world, followed by greenery on the land. The projection then zoomed forward onto the planet, closer and closer until it was like I was standing on the very surface of this new planet, rolling green hills on all sides.

The three mages were standing close to me, no longer giant but still like 8 feet tall. There seemed to be two males and one female. They took off their hoods, and even though I couldn't make out their faces, their heads were full of the most impossible perfect hair I'd ever seen, and their physiques under the robes seemed to be even more idealized than the ponies I'd seen. If these mages were capable of creating a planet, I thought, no doubt they were capable of shaping their own bodies to whatever they wanted them to be.

The mages reached their hands out again, shaping magical energy out of the air until it coalesced into two forms… One vaguely pink, and one sort of blue.

"They were our creators," Celestia said, her voice nearly a whisper despite the projection into the room. "They were… the Masters."

Before the mages soon stood two tall, naked alicorns, very clearly a younger Celestia and Luna. They seemed to wake up and look upon their creators with unconditional love and happiness. Their figures were slender, not nearly as busty or curvy as I'd gotten used to…

Then I heard muffled laughter from one of the male mages, and he snapped his fingers. In a second, both mares' figures had swelled out with massive hips and asses and even more gigantic breasts. The young Celestia and Luna simply bowed submissively, as if thanking them for the boon. The female mage gave the culprit male mage a discouraging but playful smack on the arm, then started weaving some magic of her own.

"We…" Celestia said, "were their slaves. We were their toys and playthings and workers. They would use us to shape Equestria into whatever they wanted. My sister and I, we were the First among the slaves, their most treasured possessions, their favorite pets."

The younger, sexualized Celestia and Luna dashed forward and knelt at the mages' feet, hugging their legs and smiling up at their face. "And… we were happy," the older Celestia's voice declared. "We didn't know any better. This was our existence."

Suddenly, six more slaves appeared in the field. Three males, three females. Two earth ponies, two pegasi, two unicorns. All with bodies as exaggerated as the first two were now. All with the same submissive smiles as they regarded their Masters. The three mages deliberated, tweaked the bodies of the ponies around until they were momentarily satisfied, then waved their hands again. And then there were fifty more slaves behind the first six. Then a thousand more ponies, stretching off into the horizon. All of them waiting for their Masters' commands.

The world sped up into another time lapse, bodies of all colors and shapes working in incredibly fast motion. Buildings popped up in the blink of an eye. In the distance, mountains and forests formed, then disappeared, then reformed again.

In the scant few seconds I had between revelations, I reeled at what I'd just heard. The humans weren't even MY version of humans, but some kind of race of ultra-powerful WIZARDS?! The fuck?! And they weren't just a race that happened to live on Equestria, but they were there at the start? They created ponies as a slave race? This was Equestria's fucking origin story?!

I didn't want to believe it. She had to be punking me, right? Somehow, the real truth had to be even stranger and more terrible than this. And yet…

My head suddenly hurt. The pain was like little sparks in my brain, as though synapses were lighting up like firecrackers.

"They were… our Masters," Luna's voice said sadly, projecting images into the fog of the dream world – images of a young Celestia and Luna kneeling at the feet of three robed figures, smiling up happily at them. I watched in shock, anger, and despair and snuggled deeper into Luna's immense cleavage.

The vision left me, and I struggled to keep my balance. Was that… the anesthetic dream? When I got my first enhancement, and Luna had first visited me? She'd told me everything, but… I wasn't supposed to remember that! How could I have dormant memories of a dream, much less a medically induced one?!

It had to be magic. Somehow, Luna's magic in that dream had preserved some part of it in my mind. And now that I was hearing the truth again, it was coming back in fits and spurts.

Around me, the holographic projection had stopped fast-forwarding. I was suddenly at the top of a grand castle, very different from Canterlot's royal palace in just about every way. One of the wizards sat upon a throne at one end the room, surrounded by treasures, with Celestia and Luna at his feet.

Three more humans, dressed in light armor and bearing all kinds of exotic weapons, opened the door and entered. The wizard stood up to greet them all warmly. The alicorns moved to provide them with refreshments.

"With our help, Equestria became a world of adventure and pleasure," Celestia said. "They invited other humans to travel to our planet to take part in its various forms of entertainment. From slaying monsters in the morning…"

A massive shadow passed overhead. A great fire-breathing dragon descended past the castle and began to terrorize the village below. All four humans drew their weapons with great enthusiasm and took a running leap off the spire's balcony.

The scene shifted again, now in the evening and outside the castle. The four humans were swaggering back into the village, one of them carrying the giant dragon's severed head with just one hand. Ponies stuck their heads out the windows of the cottages and visibly beckoned the humans to come and share their beds.

"…to having their way with us sex slaves in the evening."

The three non-wizards gladly accepted – one of them gathered up a whole sorority of mares and wandered off, another sought out the biggest male to cuddle with, and the third dropped the dragon's head and called out to whoever was left to form a massive orgy right there in the town square.

The wizard of the group just kept walking forward indifferently. He stopped as the young Celestia flew down from the castle, her massive breasts clad in a revealing cloth bikini. Smiling warmly at her Master, she landed already on her knees in front of him, and, after a moment to let the Master nod in confirmation, reached for his waistband and pulled it–

BZZT. The hologram fizzled out like static, and suddenly I was back in front of Celestia's fireplace. The room was silent; Celestia was no longer speaking.

I reeled from what I'd just seen. And based on what I was starting to remember from Luna's explanation… it was all true. Ponies had been created as a subordinate race of sex slaves by another race of all-powerful human wizards from an alternate universe so that they could create a vacation resort planet for other humans to go adventuring and have free sex.

Okay, what the FUCK?

'Equestria,' I mouthed to myself, 'come for the dragons, stay for submissive sex slaves.' It sounded even more ridiculous when I said it… well, not out loud.

Truth was stranger than fiction, but this was stranger than anything I'd ever heard or read in my life. And yet… if it were really true… it would go some ways to answer a few questions about pony biology, wouldn't it?

Why did ponies have huge assets? The better to play with. Why did they like the scent and taste of humans? Why did they find them addictive? So that the ponies would enjoy the sex and stay loyal. Why did Hoity Toity find my 'aesthetic' so commanding? Because ponies were magically, genetically programmed to worship humans. Why did even today's stallions do so much hard work, pulling carts and trains? Because they were designed to do that in ancient times to help build the humans' resort planet, and they were probably programmed to enjoy it, so they just wrote it off as a strong work ethic.

Why did Celestia keep this a secret from her people? Because… how do you tell a million free ponies that their ancestors used to be the willing slaves of aliens, and that's why their boobs and dicks are humongous?

My jaw was hanging open, I was so shocked. I still didn't want to believe it. There were still a ton of questions left unanswered, weren't there? For instance – I hadn't noticed it at the time, but – I don't remember seeing a single cutie mark on any of the ponies in the flashback. So where did they fit into this?

My head burst into fireworks again.

"There was a dispute one day," Luna said, projecting an image of several of the Masters arguing amongst themselves, while Celestia watched sadly. "The Masters couldn't agree how long the day should be. Some wanted the days to be longer, while others believed it was too much effort to rearrange the entire galaxy for an extra hour of daylight. Celestia, ever the loyal servant, wished to help her Master in any way she could."

The image changed to Celestia raising her body to the sun, her wings spread and her horn pointed straight up, forming a dark silhouette against the light. Her classic Summer Sun Celebration pose. "She reached out to the sun with the magic we'd been granted. It was our role, you see. When we weren't servicing them, the earth ponies shaped the land and built structures, the pegasi crafted the world's climates, and the unicorns helped finely tune the magical essence of the planet according to the Masters' whims.

"But controlling the sun was something even the Masters did not do lightly. But we were young, and Celestia was eager to please. So she reached out with her entire essence, managed a connection. To hear her tell it: In that moment, she felt the sun's warmth over all of Equestria. She felt it giving heat and life to every living thing, feeding and protecting them. Just like a mother. A mother to all. And in that moment, that love was hers, too.

"That is the story of how Celestia obtained the first cutie mark. The first pony to realize her own destiny. The Masters were not pleased."

I came to in a sitting position on the floor, rubbing my forehead. Flashbacks upon flashbacks… I wasn't sure how much more I could take.

My thoughts were interrupted by a sorrowful moan coming through the wall separating this… study, I guess, from the bedroom beyond the door. Then there was another, louder. I could only assume it was Celestia, overcome with emotion.

I sighed, thinking hard. There was a lot to unpack here, but I still needed Celestia's help securing my own damn existence. Then we could figure out… whatever this was. So I got up and went to the door. To my surprise, it was not locked, and I slowly turned the handle and pushed it open.

The bedroom was well-lit, but I couldn't see Celestia. All I could find as the source of the sobbing was this massive white blob sitting at the right edge of the bed–

OH GOD.

Asscheeks like two round, squishy beanbag chairs strapped to her backside. Thighs that would make a fertility goddess jealous. Lips blown up into a plush, full, blowjob-inviting pout. And breasts… I'd seen breasts the size of sports cars thanks to Twilight Velvet, and while these weren't THAT big, they were still massive and buoyant enough that, if she were to stand up, they'd obscure everything but her feet and graze against the floor with every bouncing, wobbling step. With her sitting on the bed, there was about two yards of carpet that were completely covered by pure white titmeat, and her chin was resting on the upper swell of one boob as she sobbed.

I'll admit, on a weird day where I just want to indulge in an impossibly excessive fantasy, I'd fap to this picture. But my reaction was not arousal, or even curiosity, but HORROR.

Yet not as much horror as the look in her eyes when she realized I had seen her.

THIS was what she wanted to hide, even more than the origins of wizard-humans and ponies. If she revealed such things to the public, she'd eventually disclose what she'd been 'binding down' for possible a thousand years. And Equestria would be a laughingstock, because hidden underneath all the authority and power of their most treasured ruler was the body of a perverted god's personal sex doll.

Our hearts stopped as we stared at each other. That's when the smell hit me.

She hadn't been crying, I realized. Well, she had, but there was also a massive puddle of fluids spreading beneath the edge of the bed where she sat. Her lower arms were unable to be seen, buried between the tectonic fault lines between her thighs and her unstoppable breasts.

At the memory she'd been forced to relive, she'd been schlicking herself in combined shame and lust. A thousand years hadn't reduced the desire implanted in her by the Masters.

Her eyes drifted south, and my eyes followed. In all the revelations, I'd forgotten entirely that my half-chub was poking out from my underwear, and it was still revealed before Celestia.

I winced, HARD. I was a fucking moron. The dots connected in my mind, and I realized without a doubt: I'd fucked up. Then I felt another brain-blast coming on, and I had a feeling I already knew what it was about…

"The Masters feared Celestia's new power. No matter what they did, her affinity from the sun – a power that surpassed even theirs – could not be removed from her. Panicked, they instead sought to ensure her loyalty through… barbaric means.

"I remember not seeing my sister for several days. I did not worry, I assumed she was out adventuring with a lord as a companion. But when I passed by one of the celebration halls one evening, the door was ajar, and I peered in undetected." The image in the fog changed to a point-of-view looking between the two doors mentioned. All that could be seen was a wall of naked, muscular men gathered around a sweaty white mass.

"It only took a moment to see and understand what they'd done to my sister. The need, the sensation, the size inherent to all of their toys – they'd tampered with her body and increased all those traits fiftyfold. A single whiff of a human's musk filled her with worshipful contentment, and a single drop of their cum created paroxysms of ecstasy in her. And because we'd been given no reason to fear them before – the Masters had always been kind and loving and generous in our minds – Celestia simply accepted her fate and submitted to their will, even as their will eroded her senses.

"So, that night, when the men had had their fill… I stole her away and fled."

When I came to this time, I was buried up to my ass in tits.

The door was closed behind me. The front of my underwear had been shredded all across the front so that it was only barely dangling around my waist. My genitals were free to hang loose in Celestia's face.

The alicorn's muzzle was buried in my crotch. Strangely, she made no effort to suck it or lick it, but instead breathed deeply of my musk, with such desperation that I felt like I was an organic oxygen tank and she'd been suffocating for hours. "Snnnnnnfffff… Haaaaaaaaaah… Snnnnnnffffff… Haaaaaahh…!" Her pupils dilated and contracted erratically, and I could've sworn I could see hearts forming.

I was so stunned that I didn't think to stop her before her tongue scooped up my cockhead and sucked me into her mouth in one quick motion.

My hips bucked immediately. Celestia's mouth was unreal. It felt like a spa just for my dick, the perfect heat and wetness suffusing my dick with pleasure as her tongue massaged my whole length. My hanging, oversized balls dipped into the endless expanse of her cleavage. Her arms shifted to rub them against my whole lower body, my balls included, as she expertly sucked my whole length without so much as a gag. With how much larger she was than the average pony, I'm not sure my 12 inches even reached her throat.

It was such a mindblowing experience that my orgasm built quickly, bringing the rising volcano sensation I was beginning to dread. Even more so now that I knew how disastrous this situation was. In essence, this was Celestia's nightmare coming true – she was the original cum-addicted pony, and even after over a millennium without, her body still couldn't resist.

I could do nothing to stop it. There was no room to pull out or wriggle free in the impossibly soft, everpresent embrace of this exaggerated sex goddess. Not that I could have acted fast enough through the haze of pleasure clouding my mind anyway.

And then, as my explosive orgasm began, Celestia's horn lit up.

My entire crotch lit up with a gentle heat that reached deep into my body as I came. And came. And came. And came. And came…! It wasn't stopping! Somehow, Celestia was magically prolonging my orgasm, stimulating every single gland perfectly to keep pumping semen into her mouth!!

The longer it went on, the harder I breathed, the faster my heart beat. The edges of my vision darkened. And to make matters worse, I could feel another memory from Luna being reactivated…

"I hid Celestia in a cave at the furthest reaches of Equestria, bringing along food and water stolen from the humans' palace. I watched over her day and night while the humans searched for us, their precious Firsts among slaves. It took 19 days for Celestia to overcome the need coursing through her veins. All the while she begged me to take her back, to return to the Masters lest we anger them further. They'd done nothing wrong, she said, only what was their right, as our creators. Several times, I had to stop her from running back into their arms.

"I shared the same desire once or twice myself. I loved our Masters, as much as I thought they loved us. Our lives were happy and free of worry. But I saw that love dashed upon the rocks once Celestia gained real power. Even though she only wanted to help, they all turned against her unilaterally. They took our love for granted, and I came to realize that love was the chain wrapped around our throats. It was their tool, not their gift. It came not from their hearts, but from their hands.

"One night, their search parties got close to our cave. We were as close as we'd ever been to being discovered, and it was because the skies were clear and the moon and the stars were out in full force. In desperation, and to defend my sister who I loved, who inspired me so, I raised myself to the moon and beseeched it: 'Please, hide us from our evil Masters. For me, for her, for the future of all ponies.' I felt the night answer, and the light of the moon and stars dimmed – just enough to keep our little cave hidden for another day.

"And that is how I got MY cutie mark."

'Neat legends and all,' I thought sardonically to myself, 'but could I maybe reschedule these for another time? At the very least, could they not take up all of my brainpower just to remember??'

In the time between the vision starting and ending, Celestia had turned around and pressed me against the wall with her gigantic backside. My feet were completely off the ground, her firm buttcheeks smooshing up to cover all the way from my knees to my sternum.

And my cock – my cock was undoubtedly buried in Celestia's thick, hot, tight asshole, somewhere between those humongous cheeks. It was a slick motion as she pumped her gigantic hips back and forth, swallowing my whole cock with ease, so I wondered: Had she used a lubrication spell? Or did the Masters make her asshole self-lubricating, as an extra feature?

The powerful fucking got to be too much again. Despite feeling like I'd emptied my balls before, the pleasure built to a head again and released, pumping cum into Celestia's backside.

Another memory surfaced as pleasure overtook the rest of my mind. It seemed like they were coming back faster and faster the more I remembered from that dream…

"Once she could think clearly beyond the influence of semen, I managed to convince my sister of the same convictions I felt: That we were not indebted to the Masters anymore, nor were we ever. We were intelligent, free-thinking beings, and we deserved to be free of their influences and lusts.

"We quested in secret to find a way to save all of ponykind; no, all sentient life in the world. The griffons, the dragons, and everyone else was just as much under their power as we were. We were just their favored creations. Eventually, we found a device: A piece of the source of the Masters' power, a raw shard of creation itself. The last piece that was unclaimed, unspent, discarded and forgotten. It was enough to grant us a Wish, one for each of us. The power to write an indisputable law into the fabric of our world's reality.

"My sister Wished that all ponies would be able to find their own destiny, like we had, while I Wished that no human would ever set foot in our universe again. And just like that, the humans were banished from our world, along with their absolute power.

"In some ways, it was a hasty mistake: We no longer had the power to permanently change ponies' bodies, much less return my sister back to a normal shape. And our image of 'human' at the time meant specifically the Masters and all of their race, which you are not, and that's why you have not been ejected from our universe. Not that we could have predicted the arrival of someone like you 1300 years ago.

"But for the most part, the rest is history. Our history. The one we wrote for ourselves. When I look back over what we've suffered through since, that alone makes it all worthwhile to me."

I didn't have an ungrateful mental response to that when I came around. That was an uplifting tale. And here I was, splattering semen all over that legacy.

It took me a while for my eyes to clear after so many brain-bending flashbacks in a row, but I could feel things early. I was laying on a mattress now, probably Celestia's four-poster bed. My cock was once again buried in some wet orifice, but there was also a pink teat in front of my mouth, spewing milk. It was getting all over the sheets, but they seemed to have some kind of enchantment because all the liquid flowed away from the center like it was being magnetized. Something bothered me, though. 'With how big her breasts are,' I thought, 'how can I be nursing and reaching her pussy at the same time?'

Then I realized: The wet orifice my cock was penetrating was Celestia's right nipple.

Her areolae were wider than one of Rarity's breasts, and her nipples had to be about as big as my entire head. But for my thick cock, the center of them still stretched to accommodate intercourse. I wasn't just stabbing my cock forward and pushing against the skin around it; no, there was definitely a warm, milky tunnel through the nipple's opening, and I was fucking it. Or rather, she was fucking me with it. Or my body was so full of endorphins that I was doing it on animal instinct alone.

My face was half-covered in milk, and I could feel some in my mouth and running down my chest. I was too dizzy to really taste any at first, so I had a few seconds of lucidity. I decided enough was enough, and shouted, 'Celestia, enough is–'

Fuck, I was still mute.

I smacked her breasts a couple of times to get her attention – which wasn't all that effective, because they were so soft that my hands basically glided over or sunk into them no matter how I touched them. But Celestia seemed to get the message, and her left breast was moved aside with magic so that her face was visible.

I pointed at my throat urgently, trying to say 'Please let me talk again.'

Celestia, her face sweaty and covered in cum, got a mischievous look in her eye and pushed her breast back over my whole body, shoving her head-sized nipple against my mouth. Instantly, I was nearly drowning in a deluge of white milk – with bits of rainbow color refracting off it in the light of the room – leaking from her nipple and her obscene areolae. I pulled my head away, but not before a bit more of it got far into my mouth, and I swallowed reflexively to stop myself from choking.

The taste hit my brain like a freight train. It was AMAZING. It was essential, it was divine, it was the nectar of life itself.

I'd heard ambrosia described as the food of the gods, so delicious that mere mortals couldn't handle it. That's what Celestia's breastmilk was: Ambrosia for the perverted gods. Which made a certain amount of sense – these wizard humans had to have enhanced themselves, too, so why not enhance the food that they ate? Why not have literally the best pouring from their prized slave's tits?

The milk was like a drug, heightening every sense to the breaking point. Colors got more vivid, I could smell things more distinctly, and everything I felt was three times stronger – and since my dick was nipplefucking a giant, lactating breast, I erupted instantly. Celestia pulled her teat back and squeezed, shooting a mixture of milk and cum into her mouth, and I was still painting her underboob with cum.

My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. My poor mortal body was being overworked, and only Twilight's and Photo Finish's enhancements were keeping me alive at this point. And the longer I let this go on, the deeper Celestia would sink, and the further I would get from anything resembling a happy ending. Sure, I wasn't anywhere near Normal right now, but I was hurtling towards the other end of the spectrum at a dangerous pace. If I wanted to keep my soul – and possibly not die of a heart attack – I needed to stop this.

It was with this total resolve that I managed to pull myself off the bed and force apart Celestia's superboobs myself, putting my face directly in front of hers. She looked at me with an almost innocent confusion, and I mouthed, 'Let. Me. Speak.'

At least my power was still working, because she finally relented and zapped my throat. "Gah!" I yelped, rubbing my throat in relief. "Finally, fucking finally. Listen, Celestia, we gotta… we gotta stop this."

Celestia just looked at me with wide eyes and a big smile. "We can't," she said sweetly, like something had broken inside her. "The moment I saw your penis, it was too late."

How absurd. "Look, we can figure this out later," I muttered, "but I'm not gonna be much use to you if I've still got the Normal crawling up my spine. I need your help convincing it to leave me alone so I can–"

She suddenly threw her head back and let insane, staccato laughter rise from her throat. She laughed, while cum and milk and sweat and musk poured off both of us, while the clock ticked on my life, while the world waited for the outcome of our confrontation. It didn't fill me with confidence.

Finally, she sighed wearily and fixed me with a condescending look. "Help you? Pascal, I'm the last person who can help you with that." Her face changed to an insane grin. "I REJECTED you the moment you arrived. In my heart, I swore I would never accept you as a part of my world, my society. You've been on trial the moment you got this power, but I had already voted 'guilty.'" She let out a high-pitched giggle. "And you can't change my vote, either! The rules of the cosmos can't be tricked by mind control. They know, in my soul… I will NEVER call you 'normal.'"

I stared back, trying to keep my cool, but inside I was dying. If that was true, if that was the only way she could have helped me find the 'third option'… I was doomed. I was back to the binary choice between self-sacrifice and total perversion, and we were already headed one way.

Celestia giggled again. "So! The only way to keep you human is to change society so much that even your perverted ass is relatively normal." Her face split with an even wider manic smile, but her eyes became watery. "And now that I've tasted you… I can't let you go. We HAVE to do this."

"No…" I moaned, but my will was fading.

"Yes."

"No!"

"It is the only way!" she half-screamed. "I can't…! I'm not strong enough, I've never been strong enough, Luna's the one who stood up to them, not me, I knew that as soon as human ever came back, I'd… I'd… AHHHH!" And the foot of the bed was drenched in another waterfall of femcum.

My mind froze up with indecision, and with the realization that I was still somehow fucking up even worse. I'd broken her mind, I concluded. Just like with Moondancer happily calling herself my slut; the Normal had driven Celestia to believe wholeheartedly in her worst fears and accept them as simple fact.

I'd ruined everything.

Without warning, Celestia climbed over me, burying my upper body beneath her humongous boobs while she perched over my cock. I could barely see between her tits, spotting her supermodel-trim stomach and the massively swollen, almost red, excessively wet pussy fighting for space between her thighs. It dwarfed my suddenly tiny-looking erection, but looked no less hungry for it.

Celestia dropped down, and my world exploded into stars. The milk was still running through my system, and my lust drowned out everything else. As she bounced up and down, I sucked on as much underboob as I could stick my face into at the expense of breathing properly. I came quickly, and then Celestia came as my cum flooded her womb, which caused her pussy to squeeze and vibrate like a deluxe fleshlight, which caused my milk-sensitized cock to have a second orgasm, and so on.

Under this assault of sensations, I lost energy fast. My vision faded, and not because of a dormant Luna-vision this time. This time, I was just blacking out.

I wasn't sure what would happen next. Maybe she'd fuck me to death. Maybe I'd have a heart attack. Maybe I'd go insane and become a feral beast. Maybe the Normal would take me in my sleep.

Anything sounded better than having to wake up and make a choice.