The big one-eight is a very important time for a growing young mare in Celestia's Equestria. Not only is that the time you become an adult with all that comes with it, it's also when you become free to use your body however you want.

So, naturally, at 1 AM in the morning on a Friday, I was still awake and jilling off like it was the end of the world.

"Um, honey?" my husband asked.

"Yesss?" I replied, batting my eyelashes at him innocently.

He gulped and looked over at our two guests nervously. I noticed one of his hands straying towards the enormous, twitching pouch in his slacks. "You're not gonna... go over every detail, are you?"

With a wicked little smile, I teased, "Worried about containing yourself in front of our guests?" I knew Shiny's sexual appetite could be just as voracious as mine. We both kept it under wraps for the sake of basic propriety, but the difference between him and me was that he seemed to think all that repression was necessary. I looked over at the human and said, "I'm sure Pascal could make it okay for you to whip it out right here."

The human raised an eyebrow. "Um..."

"Nope!" Shiny squawked reflexively.

"Suit yourselves. And yes, Shiny, I'm gonna talk about the squicky parts a little bit. That's what this is all about, after all."

Look, every pony going through puberty has it rough under Celestia's sun, and I was no different. I had it even worse, I'd say! Because I was an alicorn, I had a much closer relationship with Princess Celestia than other ponies, which meant I got the full force of her nannying when it comes to proper sexual conduct. "Sexual addiction is a real threat." "Waiting until marriage is vital." "Do not flaunt and tease your fellow ponies and make it harder for them."

I'm not gonna sit here and tell you I was a rebel, because I wasn't. I was Celestia's good, pure little niece just like everypony expected me to be. But on the inside, I was so fucking sick of it.

My body sure wasn't helping things. I wasn't even done growing yet, and I was still about two-thirds as big as I am right now, which made me practically the bustiest and biggest-booty'd mare on the planet, as far as I was aware. Or it would've, if I didn't use reduction enchantments every single day, so that everypony saw me as another humble stick-thin waif like Celestia. I resented that too. I had big sexy boobs large enough to overflow my lap and a flank that could hypnotize a room full of ponies all on its own, and I had to hide all of that?!

I get the reason now, of course. And looking back, it seems plain as day. Celestia kept using the term "too beautiful" whenever I complained about the reductions, but at the time I always felt like she was just avoiding the word "ugly."

So for me, playing with myself at 1 in the morning on my 18th birthday was a long-awaited sort of revenge. Finally, I could use my body however I liked, and nopony could tell me what was best for me anymore. I was in charge now.

I don't even know how many times I got off that night, like seven or eight times? And towards the end, I was bringing all of my alicorn magic into the act.

See, back then, there was a popular rumor that unicorns feel orgasms more intensely when they're casting at full strength at the same time. In practice... well, we've discovered over the years that it's actually kind of a wash. It makes things a bit more tingly, but you have to concentrate, which takes you out of it... Anyway, the point is, I was all-in on orgasmic casting back then, and that's... sort of how the whole mess started, and why I'm starting the story there.

During the biggest and last orgasm of the night, I was casting the strongest magic I could muster, more than ever before. Not with any particular locus in mind, but my head was kinda far gone at that point. I didn't mean to cast a spell then, but... I kinda did.

That morning, in walks the head maid assigned to me, Care Taker.

I did not like Care Taker.

Because Celestia wanted to spare me the "indignity" of having my true size publicly known, the rotation of palace servants was rather small in my case, to keep the number of ponies who knew my secret low. Care Taker got the primary duties most frequently, and lorded that fact over others and myself. She subscribed to all of Celestia's properness doctrines, so everything the Princess lectured me about got reinforced by her in her shrill little voice.

She walked in, wrinkled her nose, and said, "It is no place for proper ladies to leave such a musk in their quarters," or something like that. Ugh. Then she started about her usual morning chores.

I remember just glaring at her, thinking about how uptight she was. I believed more than anything in the universe at that moment that what Care Taker needed was to get fucked. I felt kind of tingly, but I was tired and chalked it up to last night.

All of a sudden she stopped. A weird look came over her face. And then she walked over to the bed and gave me a great big bear hug, just leaning over like that. And she started stroking my hair and saying, "Oh, you've grown up so much over the past few years, you're a mare now, etcetera," while I'm just thinking, What in Tartarus is going on?!

Then she pulled back and smiled and said, "I'll let you get yourself ready. It is a very special day after all." And she just left. You have to understand, this was the kind of mare that picked out my clothes for the day. She never, ever just let me do my own thing. I couldn't help but wonder what I did differently that day. I thought, Did I do that? Or were those her true feelings all of a sudden?

Looking back, I know now what happened. My love magic had boosted her phileo and storge up to max – she saw me as kind of a surrogate daughter for... let's just say very sad reasons that I didn't find out until long after. So yes, those were her deeply hidden feelings towards me. But I hadn't consciously cast a spell, and my horn hadn't even lit up. By my perspective, it had just happened out of nowhere.

Though as I discovered later, that wasn't the end of it for Care Taker. Those weren't the only kinds of love I had enhanced...

But back to the present. Or the past. Whatever tense works right now.

I put on the bra and underwear with the reduction enchantments (sigh) along with the rest of my clothes and went to breakfast with Princess Celestia. She personally wished me a happy birthday, and we talked about the plans for the next two days.

You see, I wasn't going to have my birthday party that day. It was going to be tomorrow. Because Shining's 18th birthday was on Sunday, just two days after mine! This was a couple of years after the fateful Fall Formal where we met, so we decided – instead of having two big birthday parties in three days – we'd consolidate our birthdays into one event!

"Kind of a bummer we didn't just get two parties," Shining piped up, then grinned. "Though now that we have a whole nation that loves us, we get a three-day festival! So it kinda worked out, heh heh."

Our double-birthday was still a pretty big event at the time, with me being a Princess and all. Not to mention we were both graduating. Shiny was going to be entering the Royal Guard program, and I was about to start working as a diplomat as part of my Princess training. It wasn't like we were going away just yet, but there was sort of a finality in the air nonetheless. It was the end of one era and the beginning of another for both of us and our friends and families. So everypony wanted to make it special.

Anyway, I'm talking with Celestia, enduring a bit of her "You're 18 now, and that comes with certain responsibilities" speech, and over the course of the meal I'm noticing something off about her. She's smiling at me more, and can't seem to take her eyes off me. There was even a bit of blush on her muzzle, I think. So I kinda politely excused myself before whatever weirdness I had going on started to affect her too.

I had a couple of errands I needed to run before the next day's party. Shining was off camping with other Guard prospects and wouldn't get back until Saturday night. I finished dressing up and flew down to Canterlot's business district.

On the way over to my first stop I didn't really notice anything strange, I remember. Or maybe I hadn't been paying enough attention. Ponies just seemed to be their usual happy selves, going about their lives. Fewer ponies bowed or said hello to me in the street, but I always saw that as kind of a blessing when there was a slow day.

I went into this clock and watch shop, "Mr. and Mrs. Clock and Watch," a lovely little repair shop run by an older couple. Mrs. Watch was at the counter. Very nice lady already, and she was as sweet as ever that day. I walked up to the counter and asked, "Have you – ahem – finished that 'project' yet?" I was trying to be all clandestine about it.

She gives me a rare frown and says, "No... Not quite yet. It should be done by tonight or first thing in the morning."

I'm a little miffed, because I need this all gift-wrapped before the party tomorrow night and I know it's a complicated job. I'd also put a lot of bits into this order. I start asking question after question about the reason for the delay, the absolute latest I could get it, delivery vs. pickup, and over time Mrs. Watch starts to tap her foot impatiently and sweat a little bit. It was muggy in the shop, and I was laser-focused on my secret 'project,' so I didn't immediately think it was unusual.

Then Mr. Clock walks into the store, back from some errand or another. And the next thing I know, Mrs. Watch grabs him, says to me "Sorry, come by later!" and drags him into the back room. A few seconds later, I hear a belt buckle hit the floor.
,
At this point, I don't know what to think. I walk outside in a daze. For the first time in my life, I think, Wow, maybe Celestia was right, some ponies just can't control themselves.

Then I notice what's going on all around me. Not... like, constant rutting in public or anything, but I'm seeing a lot of couples holding hands or gazing into each other's eyes everywhere I look. I mean everywhere. Just all kinds of love on display in every direction.

Naturally, I go into denial. I'm just seeing things. I've got love and sex on the brain and I'm just seeing it where it isn't there.

Not a good sign when the Princess of Love is refusing to see love, is it?

By that point it's almost lunch, so I decide to eat. I head to the nearest cafe and order a sandwich and cocoa to get it all off my mind. Except that the pony at the counter is a pony who recognizes me from high school, and she's all, "Ahhhh! Princess Cadance! I'm such a big fan, ahhh!" Even back then I had my fair share of fans, but this filly was one of the loudest. She was starstruck the moment I walked in.

I'm all, "Okayyy, thank you," and try to get out of there. But as I'm looking anywhere but at her, I notice not one but two couples idly playing footsie with each other under the tables. I mean shoes off and feet rubbing up against stallion crotch-pouches or between mares' thighs. And nopony else makes a fuss because everypony else is focused on their own affections.

So I bolt out of there. At some point the sandwich got eaten, I don't even know when. I try to carry on business as usual.

My stop for the afternoon is a clothing store. A week prior, I custom-ordered some lacy pink lingerie in my true size, no enchantments. Sort of a birthday present for myself. I wanted something that would make me look and feel sexy when I was big for a change. Even if I later outgrew them, I thought it would be well worth it to have them at least for a little while.

I enter the shop, and there's a few other mares around. I'm a little nervous, because I don't want my real size to be known just yet. But I find one of the attendant mares – who's only about a year older than me – and ask if my order's in, and I give her the order number.

She heads into the back to find it, and comes out with this fairly big box and a stupefied look on her face. This is what I was afraid of. The store keeps things confidential, but the staff do get to see the item list and double-check to make sure everything's there. So this mare definitely saw the massive (well, relatively massive) bra and panties I had ordered, and she was just in shock. I wanted to get out of there, but I also wanted to make sure it all fit, too. I ask to go into the fitting rooms, and this mare was a little too happy to show me one.

I go into a fitting room in the back, disrobe, and try on my new toys. And they fit perfectly. As they should have – I'd had my latest measurements taken right before I made the order, after all – but I was still really happy. Getting things to fit on my two bodies was a nightmare sometimes. It was only after I got to know Rarity that a lot of my fitting problems went away.

I'm almost tempted to walk right out of the store in nothing but the lingerie, really let the world know how big I am and how proud I was of it. But I was worried Celestia would have me banished for that. So I put on the boring reduction garments, get dressed, and went out of there with my box.

And when I open the door, that same young mare who got my order is right outside the door.

That's when the notice the smell. Y'know, that smell. The mare's purple face is going red and her hands are shaking and she's sweating and her eyes are locked on me like I have a "Want It Need It" enchantment on me.

She goes, "Is there anything else you need...?"

And I go, "No...!" and book it.

And when I head outside, I can't ignore the love I'm seeing this time. Couples of all genders are whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears, making out, practically grinding on each other... In the alleyway next to the clothing store, two well-to-do noble ponies are up against the wall running their hands over each others' bodies, getting ready to tear their clothes off. And when I say "in the alleyway," I don't mean deep in the alleyway either. I mean you turn the corner and there they are, almost in plain view of the street.

It was only the afternoon, but at that point I just flew straight back home to the palace. All of my critical errands were done, I was overstimulated, and all I knew was that I had to figure this out.

The guards and staff welcomed me back, but I marched straight pass them without so much as a "Hello." I did not want to affect any of them with whatever was happening.

I locked myself in my room and inspected my horn. It had to have been my love magic that was causing all this, but I definitely wasn't doing any casting. Had I somehow enchanted myself? I tried all sorts of dispelling magic on myself, but all that did was turn off the figure-reduction spells temporarily. I nearly tore that old black bra asunder as I grew out of it, and the panties squeezed my butt and snapped off. Thankfully I had multiple sets, so I wasn't hosed for tomorrow night. But I still had no clues as to what was happening around me.

Then there was a knock on the door that scared the horseapples out of me! "Cadance, dear!" It was my soon-to-be mother-in-law, Twilight Velvet, and Night Light was with her!

I was at full-size and pretty much naked, so I just shouted back, "Um, I'm not decent!"

"Oh. Well, we just wanted to wish you a happy birthday!"

"That's nice!"

To this day, I can't believe I said that. I wanted to get them away from me as soon as possible, but I couldn't just tell my coltfriend's parents to buzz off on my birthday, could I? I thought about telling them I was sick, but then the party might get canceled! I had a gift to give to Shining, and I wanted the moment to be special!

At this point, while I'm holding my breath because I have no idea what to say to make them go away, I hear some whispering outside the door. "Mmm, not now, honey...! Later...!"

Oh sweet Celestia's non-existent tits! I cursed in my head. They're getting affected too!

I heard the sound of a hand being swatted playfully outside the door, and then Velvet asked, "Are you alright? Can we come in?"

I hadn't even moved. I was still indecent. I just said the first thing that came to mind. "Ummm, there's some Princess stuff that came up emergency I'll see you guys tomorrow!" It all just sort of tumbled out like that.

"Oh! Um... okay!" And they left. I heard from the palace servants later that they'd ducked into a storage closet and got caught–

"Oooooooookay, that's enough about my parents!" Shining interrupted.

...So I locked myself in my room for the rest of the day trying to figure this out. I didn't go to dinner with Celestia or any of her Friday guests. I told everypony else who came by that I was suffering from food poisoning or something. But I got really hungry later that night, so I had to sneak out and grab something to eat from the kitchen. It wouldn't be the first time.

And when I got to the kitchen...

I swear, the sight will be burned into my retinas forever.

Care Taker... naked... getting spitroasted... by two buff pegasus stallions... on the island in the center of the kitchen. Just running a brutal train on her. And she was clearly loving every second.

I levitated some apples that were sitting on the counter behind them and got out of there. I went straight to bed and tried my best to get to sleep, but I couldn't stop thinking, The party's going to be a disaster. The party's going to be a disaster!

"So, hold on..." the human spoke up, raising a finger. "You accidentally enchanted yourself so that you were boosting all forms of love. Including eros, the intimate kind of love."

"In about a one-block radius, yes," I confirmed, levitating one of the last muffins onto my plate.

Pascal gave me a scrutinizing look. "Did you actually have sex yourself? Did you take advantage of anyone? Make anypony do what they otherwise might not have wanted to do?"

I grimaced. "Well... A few ponies got warnings for excessive PDA, and some got ticketed for public indecency. I reimbursed those ponies out of pocket when I learned about it. But thankfully no, nopony did anything ultimately untoward or unwanted. I got really lucky there. Even Care Taker was happy with the way things turned out." My blush got a little bit stronger. "Well, except, there was one instance, maybe. That was on day two. But I stayed faithful to Shining the whole way."

The human let out a long, aggravated sigh. "Then it's not quite the same. Sure, there was a lot of things I didn't control, but there were definitely things I did intentionally. A good portion of those were because I was fighting for my life, but even then... Making Twilight perform surgery on my dick so I could have more sex, for example."

Shining facepalmed.

I tried to be a little upbeat. "At least you had the excuse of self-preservation...?"

"At least you had the excuse of literally not being in control!" he countered. "Did anyone even suspect you had done anything?"

Frowning, I replied, "No... Most ponies just thought 'love was in the air' that couple of days. My birthday was in the news and everything. Even the ponies who knew I was nearby didn't think I had done anything underhanded. Ponies acting more in-love around the Princess of Love was... already kind of a known quantity."

I did my best not to let my disappointment show on my face. All I wanted to do was show some solidarity. I knew what it was like to be accused just because you had a great power over others. The Princesses each got their fair share of conspiracy theorists. Celestia was playing a grand game of chess with everypony's lives, Luna was secretly building a New Lunar Republic and/or biding her time for a glorious return as Nightmare Moon, Twilight had died and been replaced with a winged body double, and I... I was apparently creating a mind-controlled harem of infatuated crystal ponies, with Shining Armor as my chief thrall while I cuckqueaned his mom. Sure, because I was just as bad as Queen Chrysalis, and that whole wedding thing had been an elaborate sham! Seriously, part of me was so glad to be out of Equestria.

Shining glanced at me, and I could tell he was about to say something infuriating that I was not in the mood for. "See?" he said a little too triumphantly. "Even he says it's different."

I leveled a low-lidded glare at him and said, "Shining, we talked about this."

"It's really not the same!" he insisted. He looked over at Ditsy. "If Pascal messed with your parents, how would you react?"

The pegasus, not expecting to get drawn into this conversation, nearly started out of her seat. "Um... Well... Honestly, I guess I would trust him? Maybe there was a good reason."

"Right, like I trust Cadance," he said. I closed my eyes to hide their rolling. "But then what if five or six years later, some other mind controller comes along and messes with your family sexually, someone you already know was being kind of a creep earlier. Also, everypony is all of a sudden trying to tell you they're alright now and you shouldn't try to stop them. Would you find it easy to trust him then?"

Ditsy frowned and sagged in her seat. "I... guess I see where you're coming from."

I put a hand up to my temples and shook my head. "Shining. He might've messed with your parents, but I messed with your parents twice! Neither of us did any lasting damage to them! If you forgive me and condemn him, that's just hypocritical. End of story."

The worst thing Pascal has done, I thought privately, when you put aside all the hypotheticals and close calls and the things he's already making up for... It might be that he broke Twilight's heart by going behind her back. Celestia broke it too, so Twilight's got to be reeling from that double whammy. Maybe those are two punishable offenses a brother can get righteously mad about. But he doesn't know that – heck, she doesn't really understand that yet either – and now is not the time to bring that up.

"I– Gah..." Shining pouted at me, then looked away and avoided the stares of everyone at the table. "I get that. I do. Logically. I can wrap my head around it. But... Ugh. Emotionally, I..."

"Because of what happened with the changeling queen?" Ditsy Doo asked. I winced – Shining really didn't like to talk about what happened before the wedding. Neither did I, if I was being honest.

Shining Armor slumped like he was a deflating balloon. "...Yeah. I've been on the wrong end of really evil mind control. I hate it. I hate the idea of someone or something turning my mind against me. Against my family. I... I want to protect the ones I love, but my greatest fear now is someone tricking me into thinking they're not even in danger..."

"How do you think I felt?" Pascal grumbled. "The Normal was going to turn my brain inside out so I could become the most perfectly boring stallion in existence. I had to push it into other ponies' heads just to keep it out of mine. It wasn't right, but I was terrified."

That seemed to break through Shining's defenses. He stared at Pascal for a long moment, those big blue eyes of his watering up, and then he looked down and to the side in submission. "Alright... I get it," he mumbled.

Pascal folded his arms and sighed. "It's your cutie mark," he said out of nowhere. "It's pushing back against the rationalizations."

"That's our Shining," I said, trying desperately to lighten the mood. "Our shield."

My husband let out a snort and put on a wry grin. "A shield to the most capable ponies in all of Equestria. Yeah, I'm super useful."

I nudged his shoulder with my magic. "Then it's a good thing the Crystal Empire's back! Now you have a whole nation to protect and satisfy your mark."

"Yep," he replied, leaning back so that his head was hanging behind the chair, "and I don't lose aaaaaaaany sleep over it!"

I adjusted myself and the blanket laying over my breasts (a motion that definitely caught the eyes of all three of them) and looked between Shining Armor and Pascal. I had a feeling that things had cooled off a bit, and they just needed a sort of final gesture to clear things up for a while. I realized this sort of thing should've been Twilight's domain, but I noticed the donkey tail attached to Pascal again and remembered that she wasn't likely to step in.

"Well," I said after a moment of silence, "since the Princess of Friendship has been derelict in her duties, I shall have to step up. I think the two of you owe each other an apology." I took a bite of muffin and waited for them to respond.

Pascal didn't even hesitate to start. "I'm sorry I used your sister to get off and enhance myself, and... and turned your parents into a public spectacle. I wouldn't if I could do it all over again."

Shiny lifted his head and let out a sigh. Much more reluctantly, he said, "I'm sorry for... acting all prejudiced and intimidating and generally being a hypocritical dick... during a time when you're probably still scared for your life. I'll... I'll trust you from here on out."

Good enough. Shining had used almost my exact words there, but at least he seemed to understand that they were the right words to use. In this case, the gesture was a bit more important than the message. I swallowed my bit of muffin and looked at Pascal. "You should definitely get an apology from Twilight, too. Don't just let her walk all over you, even if she's mad."

Pascal nodded sadly and stared at his slippers.

With a grin towards my beloved husband, I said, "This is more evidence that you're going to be impossible when our daughter starts dating."

"Oh Celestia, nooo," Shining groaned out, covering his face with his hands. He knew I was right.

Ditsy's eyes lit up as she looked at me and the blanket covering me. "It's gonna be a filly?!"

"According to the ultrasound spell, yes," I replied. "A healthy unicorn filly." I maintained a poker smile, and Shining kept quiet. That had been the reading from the first ultrasound, a couple months in... but the most recent one had made it seem like there might be something strange happening in my womb. We definitely didn't want to tell anypony yet, in case it was nothing.

Pascal took a swig of the last of his ice water, and went to pour himself another cup. "So... what happened on day 2?"

I groaned and rolled my shoulders. "Things just kept escalating from there, and the party? I was right – it was a disaster."