That night, it was just me and Derpy in that bed, cuddling in the nude atop the covers, with beams of moonlight illuminating our bodies through the curtains.

Twilight had stuck around for another hour and a half. Mostly her interest lied in playing with Derpy's body and Derpy returning the favor, as expected. But Derpy repeatedly insisted in involving me somehow, which I was more than happy to oblige (and Twilight tolerated). Eventually, she decided that she needed to make a quick trip back home to pick up some materials she wanted to bring to the therapy session tomorrow, so she teleported back to Ponyville.

Princess Cadance was apparently on the way from the Crystal Empire as well, which was... exciting and filled me with equal trepidation, for multiple reasons.

For now, though, Derpy and I were taking this opportunity to rest and relax. It was going to be a long, loooooong day tomorrow, and I needed to save up energy, resolve, and (let's face it) semen.

Derpy, for her part, was absolutely happy as a clam as she snuggled against me. She had every right to be. She'd done what I couldn't – helped Twilight finally realize something about herself that was hampering her approach to sexuality. I never would have guessed 'leaning lesbian.' Probably because I had a severe conflict of interest towards her. But Derpy's simultaneous natural empathy and ability to goad people to their limits worked their magic once again. It put my magical mental powers to shame, really.

"Mmmmm," Derpy hummed, breaking the calm silence of the night. She opened her eyes and nuzzled against my cheek. "That was a lot of fun. I hope tomorrow goes that well."

"If it goes half that well, I'll consider it progress," I murmured. Celestia was going to be a doozy, but Twilight had been a tough nut to crack in her own way.

Derpy sighed and her happy smile refused to leave her cute little face. "I think... I think I like threesomes and group sex the way you love titfucking. I can't get enough."

My eyebrows jumped up. She knew exactly how addicted to titfucking I was. That was a hell of a metaphor. "Oh really?" I replied with a teasing lilt to my voice, turning over on my side to face her. "Well, good to know...!" That explained why she was so down for the whole poly/harem idea.

Upon admitting this, Derpy actually pouted a little bit, her frown traced by the dim moonlight. "That probably means I've been a bit selfish in the way I've... encouraged you. And Twilight. And... everypony, really."

I shook my head and rubbed her shoulder. "And I'm any less conceited? C'mon. I could have never helped Twilight the way you did."

Derpy took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh, making her breasts rise and fall against the bed. "Yeah... that went okay, at least. But... I don't know." She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling in thought. "I feel like, you've said many times that what I said the first day we met, that kind of helped you focus on the good things about these powers... but I wonder if, maybe, I dunno..."

"What?"

She shrugged. Her nipples waved up and down. "...If what you did that day, what worked for me, won't work for everypony?"

I pouted in thought. "What do you mean by that, exactly?"

Derpy's face-scrunch was just barely visible. She was quiet for a little while. "I'm still thinking about it."

I wasn't sure what to say to that.

Eventually, Derpy said, "I guess... what I needed was to... sort of... get permission to think positively about my body. And a lot of ponies – a lot of people – do need that. But it's not what everypony needs. It's not what Twilight needed... and it's not what Celestia needs, I think."

It was my turn to scrunch my face and nod. "Yeah. I've been thinking the same thing."

Derpy got up, and I decided to join her in a sitting position on the giant bed. We weren't gonna get to sleep just yet. How could we, knowing what was coming tomorrow? The pegasus gave me a questioning look, her golden mismatched eyes glimmering in the dim moonlight. I was slightly struck by the unassuming beauty she so effortlessly possessed.

"Well..." I said, trying to recover my train of thought, but it escaped me briefly. I tossed up my hands. "I don't want to give up on the method I had in mind, but after my experience with Twi in the vault, I can't help but feel like I'm trying to do the same thing with Celestia by rushing things. The same way everypony rushed with me, trying to get me to be a good person while I was trying just to... to hold everything together and not break down because of the sudden trauma I'd been through."

Derpy nodded on my shoulder. "And we're doing the same to her."

I nodded sadly too. "Pretty much. Everybody forcing her to 'bounce back'... and she's probably doing everything she can not to break down in the middle of court."

My marefriend lifted her head and put a finger to her chin. "...Hate to say it, but she probably needs an actual therapist."

I burst out laughing. Laughing so hard my stomach began to hurt! Wiping my face, I groaned, "Yeah...! Yeah... I'm not cut out for this shit."

"And a vacation."

I sighed. "That's... probably gonna be a much harder sell. They've been ruling for what, a thousand years? More? Not only would everypony kinda freak out... Celestia in particular is a girl after my own heart – if she's not workin', she doesn't feel right."

Derpy nodded with a sad smile. "You push yourselves to the limit, and then get upset at yourselves when you don't meet your high standards."

At this point, I could accept that about myself.

We fell back onto the pillows, finally feeling sleepiness start to claim us once again. "So none of this is right," Derpy murmured sleepily, "but for some reason, we're all being called in – you, me, and the Princesses..."

"Maybe..." I yawned. "Maybe she just really needs the support of her peers."

Derpy shook her head lightly. "It can't be that... It can't be just that..."

I couldn't really agree or disagree, but thankfully sleep finally claimed us before we could get into another philosophical conversation.

In the middle of dreaming about... something I couldn't remember, something about... being the sidekick in an Indiana Jones-style adventure (but with busty mares), I saw Luna approach me through the haze. In all her busty glory, and looking rather upset.

"Let us meet in your room before the raising of the sun," she said to me very clearly in a voice that pierced into my mind. "Wake an hour before dawn."

I jolted awake, and Derpy stirred beside me. I looked towards the window, then squinted at the clock on the wall. It was 5-something in the morning.

It occurred to me that Luna's message had been some kind of hypnosis-style suggestion, an order to my subconscious. Normally I'd be very upset about that, after the mind-warping adventure I'd had last week, but this morning I was just like 'fuck it.'

Sure enough, a few minutes after the two of us had gotten up, there was a knock at the door to my suite. Very unusual for this time of day. As I approached the door to open it, I heard a snippet of conversation.

"No matter what happens, I'm super proud of you, Twilight."

"Shh, not in front of him..."

I opened the door wearing nothing but a robe, my hair still unkempt and my eyes feeling baggy. Sure enough, there was Princesses Cadance and Twilight. Cadance was still her immensely busty, bosomy, pink self, dressed in a very light blue maternity dress that was stretched tight around her pregnant body. And Twilight was... not visibly mad to be here, for once. That was a significant improvement.

"Come on in, Your Highnesses," I muttered, opening the door more fully. Twilight hurried past me, and Cadance... Well, Cadance had to use magic to squeeze her belly and breasts through the doorway, and even then she had to force herself through with a heave.

"Whew!" Cadance called out, chuckling. "You'd think Celestia would widen the doors a bit..."

I leaned down towards her belly, too tired to really think straight. "Yeah, what are you carrying in there, the Crystal Empire's new army?"

Derpy laughed. Twilight boggled. "PASCAL!"

Cadance just laughed. "I take it you haven't seen a lot of pony pregnancies."

It was my turn to boggle, 'cuz that woke me up. "Wait... pregnant ponies always get THIS big?" I slapped my forehead. "Fuckin'..."

Twilight tilted her head. "Wait, is that a..." She facepalmed too. "...Of course that's a fetish the Masters built in. Why am I even surprised."

The pink Princess chuckled, which got her assets bouncing, which made her wince as she tried to get her wobbling under control. With a sigh of effort, she waddled over to our massive bed and... pretty much took up the entire width of it, denting the mattress deeply. Naturally, my eyes were locked onto her every second.

"You're lucky you're so normal that you can just blatantly stare at an expecting mother," Twilight chided me.

"Culture shock," was my usual answer.

Derpy frowned. "We're on the same side, you two."

"Trust me, this is us being cordial," I insisted. Twilight nodded in agreement.

Cadance yawned a long and deep yawn. After blinking her drowsiness away, she said, "I take it Luna warned you we were going to have this 'strategy meeting'?" When I nodded, she nodded back and replied, "Twilight's been doing what she can to fill me in, but out of all of us here, you're the one who's had the most contact with Celestia, so I'd like to hear where you think we're at."

I frowned and shrugged. "Not sure. I think we're in trouble, either way. And the plan I had to fix it is... turning out to not be such a great plan on second thought."

Twilight's eyebrows jumped up. "You're... reconsidering the hypnosis? The regression therapy?"

Derpy and I both nodded. "We talked about it last night," she said.

"It's the same problem with my approach towards you," I told Twilight. "Trying to find a magic bullet to end the problem in one shot, when the actual solution might be beyond me. And beyond that, trying to rush Celestia like everyone tried to rush me. It leaves us back at square one, but... I don't think I can go through with it."

Cadance listened to all of this with a thoughtful look and a hand on her chin – with her elbow digging into her enormous wall of pink breastflesh. "So what would you say is Celestia's condition right now? Without going into confidential matters."

I sighed and rubbed the back of my head. "Hard to say. She's gone cold turkey for three days. I thought our first session was great, but since then she's been avoiding me and backsliding pretty hard, so I guess it wasn't."

There was a sad look on Cadance's face as she nodded.

"Could it be withdrawal?" Twilight offered. "As much as I hate to say it... maybe she didn't get the 'kick' she needed from that night with you, and now she doesn't have anything to really... erm... look forward to?" I tried not to take that personally.

"Wow, you've gotten much better about talking about sexual stuff," Derpy remarked.

"I'm... working on it," Twilight mumbled.

Cadance looked around at all of us, studying our expressions. "It's pretty much what I thought, then. Maybe I should have spoken up sooner... Maybe I too was hoping for that 'magic bullet' like everypony else... Or maybe we were all so distracted by the truth we'd just learned..."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Got something to share with the class?"

Taking a breath to center herself, Cadance looked at me and said, "In all of this craziness, I think we all lost sight of the fact that, well... what Celestia went through with you was a mental and emotional breakdown. You pulled her back from the brink of total surrender and helped pull her together... but she still had – is still having that breakdown." She looked to each of us in turn. "Think about it. For 1300 years, she managed to somehow mostly 'turn off' that sexual, 'feeling' part of herself, and expected everypony else under her authority to do the same. Then a human appears, and her mental safeguards just stop working, and that emotional dam breaks. She's just starting to feel everything she refused to feel for 1300 years, and she can't stop it. She shouldn't stop it. This is part of the healing process."

We were all silent as she paused to let that point sink in.

I rubbed my forehead and glanced away. "Yeah... Didn't really look at it that way." I sighed. "Again, not a real therapist."

Cadance tried to give me a smile for a moment. "It sounds like you've been doing your best, really. But this isn't going to going to be 'fixed' today, or even next week, or even next year. She's practically a whole new pony now, who has to learn how to cope with... living again."

I let out another longer, deeper sigh.

A cloud of blue magic manipulated the lock on the balcony doors, and they opened just as Princess Luna swooped down and landed. She was in her 'restrained' form, towering over us with her tall, slender, powerful body. "I see you have all gathered. Good. My apologies for any inconvenience."

Shrugs all around. No one really minded, considering there was important work to be done today.

Luna's expression was decidedly grim. "Yet I'm afraid it might all be for naught. My sister is..." She stopped and took a shuddering breath. Something was very wrong. "...is very not well."

My eyebrows very slowly raised as I got a very bad feeling. And I wasn't only the only one. "As in...?"

The moon princess seemed to struggle to find her words for a few moments. Her arms pulled around her stomach in a defensive, uneasy posture. "Celestia is... overcome with anxiety at being in your presence again, Pascal." She didn't seem to want to make eye contact with me. "The thought of being near you, your scent, your cock... It is... It is making her dry-heave."

"Oh god."

"Oh no!" Derpy cried out, covering her mouth.

"Celestia...!"

"Auntie..."

Luna let out a breath, now that the bad news was out there and she didn't have to carry it alone. "She's barely slept. Her brief nightmares have been chaotic and indecipherable. ...I don't think this 'session' is going to be feasible."

I felt numb. I had to sit down in a chair and hold my head up with my palm. How the fuck were we supposed to do this now?! If just getting the thought of being near me was making Celestia want to puke?!

Cadance was the first one to rally. "Well, maybe Pascal doesn't have to go, but the rest of us still can. We can give her all of our support."

Twilight rubbed the sides of her temples, looking deeply disturbed. "But... rrrrnngh! Pascal's the only one with the mind-soothing power. And the human cock that her body is craving."

CLAP!

"THAT'S IT!" Derpy cried out.

All eyes turned to the gray wall-eyed pegasus.

"Pascal's not the only one with the power!" she explained, bouncing on the balls of her feet – making her naked breasts jiggle wildly – while she pointed two fingers up at her smiling face.

Twilight stared at her, then stared at me. "What?!"

My brain caught up and rebooted. "She... She can do most of what I can do. I gave her a modified version of my own aura." Though without the whole 'accidentally taking statements as a Normal order' thing, as I recalled. "She... has my power."

Luna glanced over at me with an inquisitive brow raised. "Please tell us you're not handing out your powers to all of your best friends."

"Right now, just Derpy and Moondancer," I admitted.

"MOONDAN- Wait, okay, I trust Moondancer. Alright." Twilight took a VERY big breath and forced it out, pushing out with her hands as she did so. "But no more, please!"

Cadance leaned forward a little bit. My mattress creaked loudly. "Would you be alright with that, Pascal? Derpy going in your stead?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah... Yeah, actually." I looked up at my marefriend, who was looking more excited the more everypony was getting on board with the idea. "That explains why the Map called you here too. There's no one I would trust more with this."

"Thank you thank you thank you!" Derpy swiftly buried my head in a boob-filled hug, squeezing me tightly.

"And what about if Celestia's need for human cock becomes overwhelming?" Luna asked bluntly, hands on her hips. "Will we need to fetch him and risk pushing her anxiety over the top again?"

Princess Cadance cast a sly glance in Twilight's direction. "I'm sure some growth spells might come in handy... and we just so happen to have Equestria's foremost expert in the composition of a human cock..."

Twilight blushed in shock, but simply nodded with her lips pursed tightly shut.

Derpy jumped up away from me and stood proudly in the center of the group, a fist raised high. "We have a plan!"

Desperately wanting to change the subject, Twilight said, "Pascal, Celestia sent you a scrying orb, right? I might be able to tweak that to at least let you see, hear, and speak without having to actually be there."

I blinked. "You want me to call in? Yeah, if that's fine with Celestia."

Luna looked less uneasy and a bit more hopeful now. "This... may just work in theory. Anything could happen during this all-day 'therapy session,' but it sounds like we might just be prepared for whatever challenges or opportunities arise."

Derpy was still bouncy with excitement, but there was a focus in her good eye as she looked at each of the Princesses in turn, and me. "And maybe... just maybe...!" she murmured under her breath. Was she planning something? She was definitely planning something.

Outside the window, the sky started to lighten. Luna glanced behind her and said, "It's time to me to lower the moon. The appointed hour is upon us." She stepped out onto the balcony and spread her wings.

Cadance groaned as she got up from my bed. "In that case, I guess we can all fly to Celestia's tower, then?"

"Will you be alright flying?" Twilight asked worriedly.

"As long as I'm very careful," Cadance said with a huff. "Just don't expect me to do much of anything... strenuous today."

Twilight's blush reddened a little more as she nodded. Then she looked at me. "Stay near that scrying orb, Pascal, and I'll get the spell working from the other end."

I got up from the chair, and Derpy hugged me one more time. "Thank you!!" she repeated emphatically. I smiled and hugged her tightly back.

One by one, the alicorns and my pegasus marefriend took flight from the balcony. I stood beneath them and watched as they took to the skies above the palace, flying up towards the towers that housed the private chambers of each royal sister. I sighed, only a little dejected that I wouldn't be joining them physically – and not as dejected as I might have suspected.

This is good for me, I thought as I went back inside, closed the balcony doors, and sat down next to the scrying orb on the nearby desk. It swirled with dormant, calm magical energy, just waiting to be activated. I wondered how many minutes it would be before I would see any activity – before it would 'ring' for me to answer. It's... not all about me. I can rely on Derpy and the others to get this done. It's not all up to me. I don't have to be everyone's hero every time. Sometimes, the best thing I can do to help is take a step back.

But I was still going to see this through to the end. Not just because of my responsibility in this incident, but because I didn't want myself or Celestia to hurt anymore.