“Gosling, we’re going out to eat tonight,” Celestia said to her mate, informing him of the plan for supper. She watched as his face ran an entire gamut of emotion, from shock, surprise, fear, confusion, and then, at last, doubt. His quizzical expression caused her to start laughing, so much so that her wings tickled against her sides.

“Sunshine, that seems like a headache.”

Gosling’s naked wings moved beneath his sweater and Celestia could see his apprehension. Going out could be complicated, but there were means, and she was determined to go out for supper. “Oh, Gosling, there is still so much you don’t know. I suppose it is time to reveal a few more secrets.”

“Secrets?” One eyebrow lifted, which Celestia found quite charming.

Arousing too, but mostly charming.

“Gosling, tonight, we’ll not be going out as the Royal Pony Sisters and their Prince Consort.” A persistent giggle made Celestia’s voice a little shrill, and it took a lot of willpower not to laugh. Gosling appeared so very confused now, which made him adorable. There was still just a touch of his foalhood left to assist in such endeavours, such as looking young, innocent, or just plain confused. “Ah, here’s Luna, now we can discuss disguises.”

“Disguises?” Gosling asked.

Keeping a straight face while she drew near, Luna refrained from rolling her eyes, fearing further injury. No emotion showed and Luna wore a deadpan expression like a mask. Her horn flashed for a moment, which caused her body to bubble like boiling liquid, and then she shrank a greal deal. When the spell was completed, a tiny pale grey-blue filly now stood in Luna’s place.

“Hey, Mister, I’m lost. Can you help me find my mama?” the filly asked and she looked up at Gosling with big, innocent eyes.

“That’s a little creepy…” Retreating away from the filly, Gosling took a few steps backwards. “I’m not comfortable with this at all and I’m feeling really weirded out right now and I—”

Gosling went silent, gasping as the spell took hold of his body, and then he endured the change. There was a faint squeak, like a rubber duckie being squeezed, and Celestia laughed as the spell continued to transform the sometimes silly pegasus that she loved and adored. She wished that she had a camera, as she was certain that Gosling would be cute in any form he took.

“I feel really weird! And small! Why is everything so large? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

In Gosling’s place there was now a tiny earth pony colt, pale green, with a sunny yellow mane. Celestia felt herself gushing, her heart becoming warm and squishy. He was adorable at this size, and his look of confused panic brought a flood of maternal instincts. She sat down on the floor and watched as Gosling gave himself a thorough checking-out.

“Look what I found!” the filly crowed. “Can we keep him?”

“No,” Celestia responded, and the filly’s lip protruded in a pout. “He looks like trouble.”

A pegasus once more, Gosling turned a wary eye on Luna, who was an alicorn once more. Things had crossed a weirdness threshold for which he had not been prepared, for such was the danger of living with alicorns. He had been little once more, and seeing a much larger world all around him caused him some distress. It dawned upon him that the sisters could be anypony, from the common earth pony pulling a wagon to the most regal pegasus in the guard, or a curious unicorn student in the school.

“Yes,” Celestia said, as if she had read Gosling’s mind. “By the way, Luna is far, far better at this magic than I am. It’s not an illusion either, it’s actually something far more complicated. Her mastery of alteration is second to none.”

“I remember our wedding… and Stinkbug.” Gosling licked his lips and studied Luna’s face. “Everything felt wrong because I was still attracted to you,” he confessed. “I didn’t like the unnatural feeling of feeling attracted to a filly. Please, don’t ever do that to me ever again.”

“We are sorry,” Luna replied in a low voice. “You must have a strong attraction for Us, for it to shine through in such a manner.”

“Well… duh..” Gosling allowed himself a rare moment of absolute sarcasm with Luna, hoping it would drive his point home. “Look, I understand the boundaries. We’re friends. Really close friends and I respect that. These boundaries will hold. But I am a flesh and blood pegasus male, and of a young age with a mind screaming for a hook up. And you… you are hawt.” While speaking, he saw Luna’s cheeks turn purple. “With you being my best friend and my wife, my brain is still hopeful… if you get my meaning. I’m gonna fly me to the moon.” He waggled his eyebrows in time to his flirtatious words, and gave Luna a gentle, well-meaning smile.

Ears pivoting around, Celestia listened, but said nothing while her sister began to stammer. Luna recovered, her face now quite dark—as dark as the inky spots on her backside—and her ears were splayed out to the sides. Celestia took a step backwards, perhaps to give Luna and Gosling some much needed space. Flustered, unable to speak, Luna fell silent and gave the saucy pegasus a blank stare.

“So, what’s the plan?” Gosling asked.

Luna turned to look at her sister and posed a question: “Moonlight and Sunshine?”

To which Celestia replied with a serious nod, “Moonlight and Sunshine.”

When Gosling recovered his vision, the mares he knew were gone. Blinking, still half blind from the dazzling light show, he saw two unicorns, one a pale blue-ish grey, the other was the colour of a pretty pink rose. Both were significantly smaller than he was, which left Gosling in a somewhat excited state. His head whipped from one direction to another, trying to take every inch of them in, and he didn’t know which was which, or who was who.

“Woah, I think he’s gonna pull a neck muscle,” the pale blue-grey one said in a voice that was filled with grating gravel, a raspy, subdued deadpan.

“Like, oh my gosh, he’s so cute when he does that!” The pink one began to dance in place, and then, “Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

After licking his lips, Gosling pulled himself together. “Your voices—”

“All part of the illusion,” the pale blue-grey one said. “We’re talking normally and nothing has changed, nothing at all… nothing ever changes.” She punctuated her words with a bored-sounding sigh.

“So, Goth Girl and Valley Girl.” Towering over the two mares, Gosling went after the dark one with a wicked smile, moving with swift assurance. “I’m getting me some Goth Girl,” he announced, and before she could react, Gosling mounted her. He went no farther than that, other than rubbing her sides with his forelegs, and when she turned her head around to stare at him, he kissed her on the nose while resting his barrel on her back.

“Like, oh my gosh, the two of you are so cute together! Can I like, you know, take a picture! Oh, Moonlight Raven, you two are so totes adorbs! I can’t stand it!”

“She’ll be like this all night, Gosling. I recommend you stick something in Sunshine Smiles’ mouth to keep her occupied, or she’ll talk our ears off.” While Moonlight was speaking, the pink one’s mouth fell open and her eyes went wide with shock. “Go on, she won’t mind.”

“Oh, she’ll get her turn soon enough,” Gosling replied as he continued to live on the edge and he rubbed his snoot against whom he was certain was Luna. “But you… you’re just so very huggable right now, and little, and hey… don’t you trust me to behave myself?”

“No,” Moonlight Raven breathed the word, “I don’t trust myself. Now get off, you’re getting me all excited.” With a little buck, she slipped out from beneath Gosling, leaving him standing behind her with a self-satisfied confident grin. “Thank you, or whatever… for not taking that joke any farther than you did.”

“Like, you can totally come over here and mount me, Stud,” Sunshine Smiles said in a jubilant voice that bubbled with effervescent joy. “Like, I’m really small and I can be dominated, it’ll be like, totally great and awesome.”

“Woah, hold up.” Moonlight raised her hoof and shook her head. “We’re never going to make it out if we don’t focus. We need to disguise Gosling.” She watched while her sister began bumping Gosling’s barrel with her backside, trying to get him to respond, all the while making frustrated, needy snorts.

“Like, I get it, you like totally want food, but I have other needs,” Sunshine Smiles said as she began rubbing her pert, pink posteriour against Gosling’s leg, and the now much larger pegasus was laughing. “Don’t just stand there, like, do something. Do me! Why are you ignoring me! Come on, what’s it gonna take, Stud Muffin?”

“I take it the excitement is part of the illusion?” Gosling asked.

“No,” Moonlight responded, her voice creaking like an unoiled hinge. “This is just her natural lack of inhibitions shining through, unhindered and unfiltered. She’s gonna talk our ears off, you just wait and see.” Blinking once, she sighed, then shook her head. “This is the sister I remember from my foalhood. Only now, she is as perverted as she is obnoxious.”

“Like… whatever.” Squinting, Sunshine Smiles stuck her tongue out, and then grinned the biggest grin she could muster. “Tonight, I’m like, totally getting laid and it’s gonna be awesome.”

Shoving her sister aside, Moonlight began to examine Gosling with a strange, almost-sleepy stare, and her horn began glowing. Gosling stood still, not sure what was going on, and he ignored the fact that Celestia, now a much smaller pink unicorn mare, was grinding her dock against his leg, scratching who knew what sort of itch.

“Do you trust me?” Moonlight asked Gosling.

“Of course,” Gosling replied.

Motes of magic began to fly from Moonlight’s horn, and Gosling felt a peculiar sensation once more. It was disorienting, confusing, and most of the sensation seemed focused in his sides. There was a jarring moment when he realised that his wings were gone, and his body was changing, gaining bulk, growing larger and more muscular.

“Like, try saying my real name,” Sunshine Smiles said to Gosling.

“Sunshine Smiles,” Gosling replied as the magic continued to change him, and he looked both startled and surprised. “Wait, I tried to say Sunshine Smiles!”

“See, you can’t mess this up.” Moonlight Raven took a step backwards to check out her magical sculpting. “Straight Key. It’s best to have what you do best be a part of your persona. There is no finer telegraph operator.”

“You can like, mash my button and send a message to my brain!” Sunshine Smiles began to pronk around, causing her sunny-yellow mane to bob and bounce. “Oh my gosh, I can’t stand it, you made him really handsome, Sister! You’re like, one of those artists that makes those really juicy romance novel covers!”

Moonlight Raven stood there, staring straight ahead, offering no reaction whatsoever.

Gosling, now Straight Key, realised that he was an earth pony. A bit bigger, a bit bulkier, and he was now heavyset. His coat was a dark, sooty blue, and his short tail was a light, vibrant blue streaked with bright, vivid orange. He didn’t look all that bad, but he missed his wings, featherless though they might be. Still, he didn’t have to hide his shame, so this wasn’t all bad.

“Like, let’s go out, ‘cause, like, I’m starving!” Sunshine Smiles whined in a high-pitched, nasal, reedy voice that grated on the nerves of her companions.

“Straight Key, I will make you the Crowned Prince of Manehattan if you stick something in her mouth to make her be quiet,” Moonlight Raven offered while her sister pronked about with her tongue sticking out. “You know what needs to be done. All of it. In her mouth. I might even enjoy watching, or maybe I’ll just enjoy her being quiet.”

“Kinda mean, Goth Girl.” The change in Gosling’s voice made him pause, and he stood there, blinking, trying to become accustomed to the sound of his own voice. “I suppose this is you, unfiltered?”

“Whatever.” Moonlight let out a huff and her ears folded back. “I love her, I just can’t stand the sound of her voice. By the end of the night, you won’t be able to take another second, either.”

“We’re going out!” Sunshine squealed, and the ears of her companions twitched in pain.

Gosling picked up on one thing right away. Free from alicorn bodies, the two sisters were free to be themselves. They didn’t have to be regal, majestic, perfect alicorns. There were no expectations, no standards to live up to, they were just two common ponies, free to be themselves. They were happy in a way that he had never seen. Celestia—Sunshine Smiles—was unhinged and weird.

She was still reserved around others, maybe even a little shy, which made for an odd contrast. But around him and her sister, she was chatty, excitable, and a motormouth. It was strange to witness this contrast, to see how open and warm she could be around those she knew, but also how reserved and timid she was around those she didn’t. Even in this form, he didn’t understand her. She was a beautiful creature of contradictions that he found arousing and exciting.

As for Luna—Moonlight Raven—she was sarcastic, sardonic, playful… and far more affectionate of her sister even as she was spitting out acerbic barbs of caustic wit. There was a warmth there that he was unfamiliar with, and seeing it made him happy. Free of the heavy weight of the bodies that bore the crowns, the sisters were free to be themselves, unhindered, and he began to understand that this is how they would be, as themselves.

Being an alicorn was more than a state of body, it was a state of mind as well.

He walked between them, his hooves crunching in the ice and snow, and tried not to think about all of the hidden guards shadowing them. They were just a normal family, going out for the night to have a nice time and eat supper together. Already, he was making plans to do this more often, because in his own opinion, the sisters needed a break.

“Like, oh my gosh, everything is so pretty and I’m so happy!” Bouncing with a lighthearted step, the pink mare’s head turned from side to side, taking in everything around her. “This city is fit for a princess! It’s all so perfect and my companion is so handsome and I’m totally gonna get fronked tonight!”

“Whatever,” Moonlight deadpanned. “I’m happy for you. Now, where are we going for supper?”

“Like, I totally know a Windian place that was recommended to me by Rarity! It’s gonna be awesome! I’m gonna totally eat spicy food until I’m like all sweaty and gross, and it’s gonna be great!” Unable to keep herself contained, Sunshine Smiles began pronking in a circle around her two companions, her hooves crunching in the snow, and her scarf whipping in the wind. “I’m the luckiest pony in the whole wide world because I have my two best friends and we like, totally love one another, and this is gonna be the best night ever!”

So far, Gosling was inclined to agree.

Author's Notes:

Next chapter: Straight Key's discovery.