Clean and dried, I walked down the hall to the sound of… breathing. Nothing else. Twenty years ago I would have been surprised to be able to hear ponies breathe from a room away—now it was perfectly natural and if I focused I'd hear their heartbeats too.

There was little point hiding myself, though I didn't want yet another pony to walk in and find Pinkie and Dinky chatting with a siren. So, opting for my usual look, I shivered a little as I spent some precious energy enacting my form before I stepped into the room.

Dinky looked at me, narrowed her eyes, then looked back at Pinkie as if Pinkie had just told her the Great Seedling wasn't real. Pinkie, however, seemed to be doing her best to ignore Dinky and look at me, and Pinkie's best was pretty darned good.

"All better?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Her eyes kept flicking between my back legs. It was something ponies in polite company didn't do, but what Pinkie wanted to do with me was far removed from polite.

"Yeah. How'd your cake handle it?" I noticed the spare armchair to one side and made my way over to it. Climbing up on the couch, I settled myself as best I could.

"Why are you really here?" Dinky asked.

She was persistent, I'll give her that. "We're predators. We feed off ponies."

Dinky jumped to her hooves and pointed at me with one foreleg expressively. "Ah ha! I told you, Pinkie! You seem flush with magic—who have you fed off?"

"Dinky!" Pulling a muffing from her mane, Pinkie tossed it to Dinky. "Eat this, you're way too hangry. Also, a gentlecolt doesn't tell who he's"—Pinkie giggled—"fed off. Wait, is it gentlecolt or gentlefish?"

"I'll take either," I said.

"Then I have no other option than to report you to Princess Twilight." Dinky had all the vehemence of a pony who had never had to face a monster without powerful magic on her side. "She's currently in her castle here in Ponyville."

I looked at Pinkie for help, but she shrugged and gestured to Dinky. "I guess I need to get this over with, then. Would it be okay if I fly back to our wagon and get something?"

"And run away, never to be seen again? Of course not!"

"I didn't want it to come to this, but you've left me no choice." I turned and looked at Pinkie first, then leveled my gaze upon Dinky Hooves. A look of fear touched at her features as I continued to just look at her. "I'll only go to my wagon and get one object, then I'll meet up with you at the front door of Twilight's castle. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

A gasp cut the air as I finished. Pinkie Pie rushed over to me and held my cheeks while staring into my eyes. "Y-You can't back out of that! All you had to do was run away and you'd be safe! Why—A Pinkie Promise?!"

"Because I have friends and family who believe in me, and despite all I've heard about Twilight's history with sirens, I don't think she'll do anything without thinking first." I'd sealed my fate—maybe—but I'd eked out enough time for me to warn Feather and the others. "But I'd like you to promise—to Pinkie Promise—that you won't tell Twilight until I get there."

Pinkie's head swiveled around until she looked at Dinky.

"Oh, alright. I won't tell Princess Twilight about you being a siren before you get to her castle or it's obvious you aren't coming. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." All the while she held my look as if daring me to gainsay her extra bit.

I let the room hang in ominous silence for a few seconds longer than was comfortable for anyone before breaking into a big smile. "Perfect! I'll just go get my thing. Last time I spoke to Twilight, she'd told me I needed to bring it back."

Dinky stared at me in surprise while Pinkie seemed barely able to contain a giggle fit.

Turning for the door, I arched my tail and put on as prancing a gait as I could. It was all show. I was terrified of what Twilight would do when I tell her the truth, but a siren was nothing if not a consummate performer.

As soon as I was out the door, however, I felt the dread of what was to come settle in tight around me. Princess Twilight Sparkle—ruler of Equestria. A lot had happened while I was away from Ponyville.

I made a beeline for the wagon and—as I reached it—I saw Feather sitting casually at the back door. He looked so relaxed I almost dreaded what I had to tell him. "Feather!"

"What have you done now, booked an appointment with Princess Twilight Sparkle herself?"

"Yes."

Feather Bangs let out a disappointed sigh. "I like your style, Sure Beat, but you've gone too far. We're leaving now, and we'll not come back to Ponyville for a few hundred years, I think."

"You should go, but I have to do this."

"No you don't. You are a siren, Sure Beat. You are my siren. When I tell you to come with—You realize you have another of the Element Bearers following you? What on the waves did you do?" Feather had stopped moving. It wasn't the "stopped moving" that a pony will do when they want to chat—he was barely even breathing he'd stilled so much.

"Hi!" Pinkie Pie had slipped up beside me without me hearing her. It was uncanny how she moved so quietly, but it was something I was at least somewhat familiar with. "You must be another siren. Sure Beat needs to collect something, then he's coming to visit Twilight with me. Don't worry, I won't show her where to find you before you can get away."

Feather noticeably jerked in surprise. "I can't give myself the hope that you're the bearer of the Element of Honesty?"

"No, silly, I'm Pinkie Pie. So what was the important thing you need B—Sure Beat?" She turned to look at me. "Do you have an overdue book?" The sudden fear in Pinkie's voice actually made me chuckle.

"No, Pinkie. The opposite of an overdue book." I walked into the wagon and to my own little drawer of precious things. Opening it, I lifted out the slip of light cardboard and carried it between two feathers of my wing.

When I stepped back outside, I could see Pinkie and Feather having a staring contest. "I was inside for ten seconds and you two are about to—"

"You blinked!" Feather's grin was surprising to me, but not as much as his laughter. "Now you have to come with us and teach me baking too!"

Okay, so I might have been more than ten seconds, but this was ridiculous. I looked at Pinkie Pie and saw only a huge smile. There was no guile or attempt at deception. "Let's go to the castle before Dinky can claim I broke my promise."

"She better not! I'll be so cross if she breaks her Pinkie promise. They're meant to be completely and stupendously true… forever." Turning to look at Feather again, Pinkie gave him a nod. "If Twilight gets angry for some reason, I'll launch a bunch of blue fireworks, okay? I'll make sure he meets you south of town."

I stared at Pinkie. Everything was going too far. "Pinkie, you can't promise that. If Twilight is—" I was cut short by a pink hoof pressed to my lips.

"Shhh. You just leave the worrying to Pinkie Pie. Now, let's go talk to our friend."

The castle of friendship was imposing. Well, it wasn't, but it sounded better to me if the castle itself was the thing to be afraid of, and not the alicorn princess within.

"Go on. Knock."

I turned my head to look at Pinkie Pie. She might be all that stood between me and oblivion. Raising a hoof, I knocked on the door three times. "Oh, well, she's not home. I fulfilled my promise, so now I can—"

The door didn't creak, but rather it opened easily and revealed a mound of muscle, claws, fangs, and scales in purple and soft green. Spike had grown since I'd last seen him. He was now about five ponies long from his nose to his tail, and by the look of it he was stuck mostly on all fours. His eyes flicked from me to Pinkie Pie, and his mouth curved into a smile. "Pinkie! Come inside! Who's your friend?"

"He's an old friend, he wanted to come and talk to Twilight about something. Spike, this is Sure Beat." Pinkie trotted in with no hint of fear of the adult dragon just inside. To be honest, I wasn't exactly afraid of Spike. I used to play Ogres and Oubliettes with him so much, but it was hard to connect that baby dragon with this one.

I took two steps forward and spotted Pinkie's tail go rigid, then wrap into a corkscrew, then she bounced three times on all fours before spinning around to look at me.

"Wait!"

Her warning came a moment too late. The instant my hoof had touched the polished floor of the inside of Twilight's castle, an alarm started going off and, to my literal shock, my disguise evaporated. The shock was literal because some kind of spell had jolted me as it banished my disguise.

Every instinct screamed at me to run. I was a siren, yes, but I wasn't an old siren—and I'd really like the chance to be. So I began to spin on the spot when a loud POMF sounded. Nope, I wasn't getting away.

"Stop right there. What are you?" Twilight Sparkle's voice was a little deeper than I remember it.

As I turned back to face her, I saw her take an involuntary step backwards as my gemstone became visible to her. "A very silly siren, it seems."

Pinkie Pie moved before Twilight managed to get a word out. Faster than I could follow, she imposed herself between me and Twilight. "Twilight, don't do anything rash. Sure Beat isn't like those nasty sirens you dealt with on the other side of the mirror. Tell her, Sure. Tell her you don't use your magic on ponies!"

Not the best wording. I hung my head. "I do. I use my magic on ponies every day."

Looking over her shoulder at me in shock, Pinkie blinked a few times. "But—But you're nice!"

"Pinkie, please step out of my way so I can deal with him. We can't allow sirens to invade Equestria again. Not since the Pillars sent the Dazzlings to the mirror world has a siren walked the land of Equestria. What do you have to say for yourself?" Twilight towered over us, and I had a sense of dread that I couldn't take her on in either physical or magical combat.

"There's only one thing I can do, Your Highness. I'd like to borrow a book." As I said the last words, I flicked out my wing and made the little piece of card visible. "A friend gave me this a long time ago and promised I could come back and use it."

The slip was showing its age. Reddish-raspberry light glowed around it and plucked it out from between my feathers. Seeing it float over to her was like having party of myself stolen—part of my pony self.

The library card had been something of my old life. No, it had been the last something of my old life. Twilight had promised me I'd always be welcome so long as I had it, and now she'd taken it from me.

"This library card belonged to a friend. What did you do to him?" Twilight's voice was hard. She glared at me with more steel in her eyes than I'd seen when she'd fought Tirek after he'd destroyed her library.

"I-I was him." The words were so small and so weak. I wondered how I'd been keeping them alive within me for so long. "Th-That's what I was leaving to do. F—" I almost said Feather Bangs. I'd almost given my love away. "I don't hurt ponies."

She looked at me with an incredible stare that seemed to cut me open and examine every part. I felt like she would discover all the bad things I'd done and pore over them. I wanted to panic and run, but that would be insane. Princess Twilight Sparkle was faster than I could ever hope to be, and running would be a sure indication of my guilt in—in whatever she thought I'd done.

"I want to believe you." Twilight sounded perplexed. She looked at me for a moment longer before she gestured to the hallway beyond. "If you're serious about borrowing a book, please come to my library."

Yeah. Running away would be the most insane option, but following the ruler of Equestria deeper into her castle is a close second. Feather never managed to teach me to be rational. I stepped forward, letting my tail and body shift with each step in the natural sway I'd learned was just how half-sirens walked. "You gave me that card."

"I figured that much out. How long does this process take?" Twilight was a sight to behold be it standing over you or walking away. Actually, from my angle, walking away was a nicer view. Maybe that's just the hedonist in me talking.

"Becoming a siren? A hundred years. I'm about a fifth of the way there." Despite my situation, I felt joy enter my voice at the thought of the change. I was becoming a siren, a beautiful siren, and nothing in the world would change that.

"I am not completely familiar with the process, but I believe I could halt i—" Twilight stopped speaking (and walking) because I'd stopped. She turned her head and looked at me, one eyebrow raised. "But that's not what you want. Where's the siren that did this to you, McInto—"

I lowered my head and looked at the ground. "That's not my name anymore. I—I hated everything that name stood for. McIntosh Apple was a pony trapped by his love for his family, his own body, and the expectations of others. Sure Beat is a stallion who makes his own waves, who is exactly who he wants to be—or is on the path to be." When I'd started crying, I had no idea, but it was a single feather of Twilight's big wing that brushed one of my cheeks and alerted me to it.

"Okay, but that was you?"

I had to look up at Twilight, sniffed sharply to try to clear my head, and nodded. "Eeyup." It was the first time I'd used that countryism—or any countryism—for quite some time. "He gave me everything. He promised me everything, that is, and he's delivering. When ponies look at me, when I look back, they want to be near the cute, handsome stallion who can move and dance and wear pretty things."

"You went to a lot of work to wear pretty things and dance, Sure Beat, but that was your choice to make. A choice I can respect, if not understand." Twilight turned back and started walking again. "I don't suppose you read the latest version of Surprising Suspects?"

"I've read a version of it. Even read the section on sirens. It was a little lacking." I couldn't help myself. I might not be mercurial exactly, but I didn't like to dwell on a sad moment if I wasn't going to be forced to. "Would you like help with that?"

"Would you actually help me with that? With—With all you know?" Twilight sounded hungry, and it was a hunger anypony (or anyfish) who'd spent a good bit of time in Ponyville knew. Twilight Sparkle, even before becoming the princess of friendship, devoured information.

"No." I didn't want the word to hang in the air too long. "Not without asking those I would be harming with it."

"So there's more of you here, in Equestria."

"I said I'll talk to them. The sirens outside Equestria, like the ones that attacked Vanhoover not long ago, I'll give you all the information you want about those." I almost spat the last word out, and almost considered with the sort of language Feather would be upset I used—to say nothing of using it in front of a princess.

Leading the wait up the stairs that led to the library, Twilight made a curious sound. "You know about that attack? I saw the reports myself, a whole gang of sirens driven back into the ocean by the bravery of our guardpo—"

"By us. Sirens are territorial, Princess. The siren who made me what I am has gone to great lengths to claim all of Equestria as his hunting grounds. Any siren that poaches here will get hunted down." I didn't like cutting in on her, but after what I went through, I couldn't stand listening to whatever somepony had misreported.

"'Hunting grounds'? So you admit you hunt ponies for food?" At the top of the stairs, she led the way down a familiar hall toward her library.

"Of course ponies give us food, but we give something else back. We love them, we let them have whatever their hearts desire, we trade dreams for—for adoration." I probably shouldn't have told her that, or any of what I was saying, but I needed to tell Twilight all this before she got an even worse opinion of us than she already had of sirens in general. "Yes, we feed off adoration. The Dazzlings? They fed off anger. The ones in VanHoover? I baited them out and had to watch as they fed off a pony's helplessness. They were monsters, Princess, they gave nothing in return."

"What do you give ponies?" She seemed to just accept that we were the ones who fought them off. Did she question the reports too?

"Whatever they want. May I have permission to use a little magic on you?"

"You'd normally ask a pony permission to do this?"

"No. I'd wait until they gave me permission to do whatever I wanted, and then I'd try to read them in other ways first before resorting to this."

Twilight walked in silence all the rest of the way to her library. Opening the big doors with her magic, she walked inside and left me to close them. Until I saw what was padding up the hallway after us.

Spike wasn't the little dragon I'd played O&O with all those years ago. When he turned at the open doorway, I jumped aside to let him past. And past. And past. Sweet Celestia he was huge!

"Excuse me, Twilight?" Spike flicked his tail as he finally passed the doorway, which perfectly swung both the doors closed after him.

"Yes, Spike?"

"I'd like to sit in. I don't trust anycreature that tries to sneak into my castle without telling me who they are first." Spike coiled himself up on a small mountain of cushions in the middle of the room. "Uh, what is it again? Pinkie said she wouldn't tell me."

"He's about a quarter siren, Spike. His name's Sure Beat, and he doesn't seem to want to hurt me, though he thinks he can find out what my heart desires with some simple magic." Twilight's eyes locked onto mine and I had to wonder who was the predator here.

"He better not. Siren magic doesn't work that good on dragons, or so we found. I was only a little dog last time we fought some, but I think I might be better at it now." To punctuate his point, Spike brought his teeth together with a clashing sound that reminded me that even if Twilight pretended she was a predator, Spike was the real deal.

"If you want, later, I could help you spar. If—If you want to," I said.

"For now, Sure Beat, I give you permission to use limited magic on me. Nothing that will try to alter my mind or I will push back. Understand?" It was a relief to realize she still considered me dangerous.

It didn't take much effort to spin a wisp of my magic from my gem—it practically wanted to jump out. I put my will into what I wanted from it and let it flow over my senses. She looked… "Peace. Safety. Knowledge. Friendship." I blinked a few times and tilted my head. "I hardly needed my magic to see that." I looked deeper, explored her, and found something.

Walking with all the grace Feather's gifts had given me, I circled around where Twilight stood, not intending to touch her until I'd done a few laps. On the third I reached out with a hoof to stroke Twilight's shoulder.

The lavender fur under my hoof twitched once, but when my touch firmed it stilled and I began to rub the muscles there. "Lay down for me. I can't do this with you standing."

"Y-You're not using the magic on me directly. You used it on yourself so you could—Ohhhh…"

I followed her movements as Twilight sank slowly to the floor, positioning myself over her back. I shifted my weight onto my back legs and tail and lifted my other forehoof up to her back and started to massage in earnest, only to find a single talon slide around along my throat. "I'm not hurting her."

"I've seen creatures cause more harm without hurting than with." Spike's voice was flat, as if he were preparing himself mentally to do something he'd later dislike. "Twilight? Are you okay with this?"

"I want to give him a chance to show he's good, Spike. I don't think he can feed off me, not unless I let him. I want to see if he's a monster or a friend." Twilight didn't even look back to see Spike remove his blade-like claw from my throat. "If you want to stay, you may, but try not to interrupt him."

Spike blew out an annoyed breath, or at least I think it was annoyed. With my focus on Twilight I wasn't going to be as good at reading others around me. The best indication he was annoyed was, of course, twin plumes of smoke that left his nostrils. "I'll go have a bath. If I find out you hurt Twilight in any way, I'll find you again." The words were casual and could have been about wanting to return some sugar he'd borrowed. I had no doubt that he would follow through on the very real threat if I so much as plucked a hair from Twilight's coat.

Waiting for Spike to leave, I returned to the massage once the doors closed. "He's angry at me," I said.

"And me. He's not dealing with growing out as well as he thought he would. While he was still bipedal, he could still be my shining knight. Now he sees himself more and more as a true dragon. I hoped giving him a castle and a hoard—of books—would help him relax." Twilight's words had a cadence to them, the rhythm of my massage modified her breathing and her speech.

"You did it wrong. You asked him to leave his castle." I waited for Twilight's attempt to reply before working on the knot of muscle between her wings. The repeated rubbing and working at the knot silenced her words and only let her speak in vowels.

Only when I let up could she reply. "You're right. I—I have to run so much."

"Then give him something that will only be his. He's a predator as much as a siren is, he wants to be a master of something."

Twilight's voice started then drew into a slow whine before continuing. "W-What are you master of?"

"Nothing, not even myself. Sirens are social within their groups. My master dictates what I can and can't do. He is master of me and my brothers, and he is master of Equestria—in a way." I paid extra attention to each wing, rubbing the tension out of flight muscles down each before returning to Twilight's shoulders. Neither of us spoke during that part of the massage.

"Equestria is mine," Twilight said at last.

"Or are you Equestria's?" I asked back.

It never ceased to amaze me how I gained insights into ponies with this magic. The sound of her breathing and her heartbeat echoed in my ears as I worked up from her wings to her crest and poll. I worked down to her shoulders, then up to her back and down to her croup and was starting on her left thigh when I heard her take enough air to speak.

"Your magic is very subtle and you know how to use it to choose your words. You have me thinking in ways I never have before, and still I feel your magic picking up on this. Have you stopped reading me yet?"

"No. I won't stop unless you ask me to or until I am done." When her leg twitched and stretched out backward, leaving her lying on her belly, I couldn't help but smile and start work on the offered limb. "I know he used this magic on me, once, to find what I wanted. He must have known then I'd be joining him. When was the last time you truly relaxed with another pony?" Information for information.

I got all the way down to her pastern before she replied. "Like this? Not since I became a princess. The Ponyville Spa."

Reaching forward, I tapped her right thigh and she extended the leg obligingly. "I didn't mean exactly like this. You don't have any lovers? Nopony to warm your bed and wait for you to be done as servant to the mighty Equestrian kingdom?" As I started on her right rear leg, I leaned forward and kissed the base of her croup—where her dock met her body.

A shiver ran all the way from her dock to her shoulders and came back toward me at a gallop. I met it with my lips and then leaned back again to continue my massage.

"There's no time for lovers, not when I have to run Equestria." Twilight waited a few more minutes until I was almost going to prompt her with another kiss. "You're offering." It wasn't a question.

"If that's what you need. Do you need a stallion right now, or do you need somepony to help you relax enough to see what you need to?" I gave her another kiss anyway, but there was no wave this time. Instead, Twilight's rump shifted slightly.

Up until now I'd gotten the smells of a mare as she relaxes and shows a little interest in a nearby male, but now a new scent hit my nose. I froze for a moment as I tried to process it. It wasn't Spike's strong draconic musk. It was male and equine. "Twilight?"

"Hrmm?"

"You're not just a mare, are you?"

She stiffened and shifted her hips again, and again I got a hint of maleness. "What?"

"Like it not, Twilight, I'm a predator. This body is adapting to how sirens of the past would hunt ponies, and part of that is being able to smell them. I can smell you, Twilight, and that scent is—unique." I leaned down to her dock, then a little lower, and inhaled. Male, female, excited… it was a delicious blend. "Roll over."

"You said you wouldn't use more magic on—"

"I'm not, Princess. Roll over." I leaned back, sacrificing the heady aroma for the chance to watch her shift and show me what was happening. She didn't, of course.

"I didn't know it would happen. It's why I can't—why I don't have anypony." Still she wouldn't roll over. When I touched her left flank with my hoof, gently stroking her cutie mark, she let out a defeated sigh and shifted.

Though the pressure I put on her was little, she moved as if I were using all my might. First she shifted her wight to the right, then further, and finally she lifted her left leg off the floor and revealed what had happened.

"You're a true hermaphrodite?" I asked.

"Where did you learn—?" Twilight bit back her question, but I liked showing off now—it was part of me.

"I learned a word like that reading books written by princesses who love knowledge so much they wouldn't let even the humblest of snails be forgotten." Memories floated through my head, Winter Wrap-Ups, mostly. "You weren't always like this."

"You looked at me?" Her surprise overpowered her confusion.

"You were a pretty mare who was trying her best to help. It was admirable. I think even Applejack was looking."

"Princess Celestia told me. It was, ironically, just after I became an alicorn. The big change was my wings—that was visible. The coming of my earth pony stoicism was later, as was this. An alicorn must represent all of Equestria—earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi… mares and stallions." I couldn't see her eyes, but Twilight's cheeks were flush.

"And you haven't been intimate with anypony since?" Wheels clicked into place as my magic led me to another need of Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria.

She didn't answer.

"Do I need to make a game out of this? Perhaps exchange knowledge for knowledge?" I took hold of one back leg and stretched it to full extension. Holding her hoof steady with my wings, I began to work my hooves over the stiff muscles.

She looked up at me with a confused and disappointing expression. When I raised an eyebrow at her, she let out a sigh. "I thought—I mean, you were being so forward, and you're a—" Now I realized what it was.

"Frustrated? You wanted me to do more than just massage?" I asked.

As soon as she nodded I reached one hoof down and started to massage her balls. Her look of startled surprise—mixed with excitement—made me smile.

With one side of her leg free of my touch, I nuzzled down from her hoof to the inside of her thigh. "I was being polite. I could be less polite. My brothers and master have trained me in how to be less polite in ways that would make you howl like a timberwolf."

"Y-You're going to make me ask you or give you permission, aren't you?"

I didn't care if I looked like a predator right then. She knew what I was and had faced what amounted to my kin before. Hungry, I smiled and gave a nod. "I don't know if I could pleasure everything you have on offer at the same time, but I could try. It's up to you." I gave her balls a more ambitious squeeze—nothing that would be painful, but she'd surely feel that I had intent behind my actions.

"Wait. Slow down."

At her command I drew my hoof away from her balls and my cheek from her thigh. "Something the matter?"

"Rules. We need—need rules." Twilight's breath came fast and deep, like she wasn't getting enough air. Was it really that intense for her? If so, this was going to be a blast.

"First then, what do you want out of me?" My slow massage of her leg continued.

She didn't seem inclined to reply until I swapped legs. "I want to feel—Anything. Anything you feel I need."

"And if I think you need to be fed from, to feel what I am capable of in the first person?" I kissed the bottom of her hoof—which twitched and her foot curled.

"S-So long as it won't hurt me or impair my duties." A shiver ran along her spine—I could feel it through her leg. She opened her mouth to say something else.

I was here to give her what she wanted, and as far as I could tell… "Liar. You want one of those."

Blush, but more than just her cheeks going red was my instincts telling me I'd hit a nail right on the head. She shook her head. When she stopped moving her head, she opened her mouth to say something, then stopped and closed it again.

"Tell me what you'd like to happen, and I'll tell you if I think it's safe. This will have no bearing on whatever we do." Pressing my tongue to the frog of her hoof, I licked and stroked along the sensitive flesh there.

"What they—"

When Twilight cut herself short to moan, I realized I might have been going a little far with the hoof worship. I backed off to just nuzzles.

"When they took control away from me and made me fight my friends, there was…" She didn't seem willing to continue, so I nibbled at her hoof just a little. "D-Do you really enjoy doing that?"

I set my chin against her hoof and smiled. "Making you squirm, worshiping your hoof, or nibbling at you in ways you have never been nibbled at before?"

"Worshiping?"

"An act of selfless love. Showing you that every part of your body is amazing. I could probably get you worked up enough to climax just with one of your legs." I drank in her expression of shock—my inner predator (that was far more outer right now) stirred at a hint of what could be adoration in the air. "But that's changing the topic. You liked something the Dazzlings did to you?"

The tiniest of nods, but it was enough to break a dam. "They pushed thoughts and ideas into my head that weren't mine. I couldn't—couldn't think of anything but those. They made me think about things and—and they made me want things."

"That's not nice to do," I said, "without getting someone's explicit permission first."

"Huh?"

"I am not a master of siren magic, Twilight, but my master has instructed me in ways to accomplish things. What those Dazzlings did was foal-stuff." I pressed my nose firmly to her hoof and inhaled the rich aromas. Dirt, my own saliva, a little musk, and a hint of perfume came to me. "Would you like me to make you want something for just a moment?"

"J-Just a moment? Like just… just a few seconds? You can do that?" Hope. Excitement. Lust. Arousal. Lots of very positive emotions boiled up in her, but so too did shame. "It's wrong—"

"No. It's wrong to do it against somepony against their will. It's wrong when you hurt somepony with it."

"Just for a second."

"Just. One. Second." I pushed my siren magic into her. It was a simple task—with her protective wards down—and made her want/need/desire just one thing.

My power burned in Twilight's eyes for the moments it took the magic to wear off, then she began giggling. "Ice cream? Really?"

"What did you expect me to do?" I asked with a huge grin on my face.

"Sex! I thought you'd make me want to—to fuck you!" Twilight, on her back, broke into a fit of giggles and cycled her forelegs in the air. "Now I just want ice cream really bad. Is it still working?"

"No. You're hungry."

"Of course I'm hungry. Somepony just made me crave ice cream!" She kept giggling, but stilled when I took back up nuzzling and licking her hoof. "Y-You can make me want you, just for tonight."

"That's a lot to tell a siren, Twilight. This magic is only the start. I could make you addicted to feeding me, and a lot of other siren groups would." Okay, so maybe I had a bit of a hoof thing, but what a set of hooves! A princess!

"Do it, then, but only for one night. And, if anything happens, and you know what I mean, then end it. Or are you afraid of doing that to me? You won't break me. I could put up a shield to block your magic and—"

"But you wouldn't if I tell you not to." I brought her back legs together so I could nuzzle both hooves between words. "Very well, I will make you do all kinds of things tonight, but we tell somepony first."

"What?! Why would we do—Oh. So you don't get in trouble if somepony stumbles in here while we're doing, while I'm doing, stuff. Uh, who?" Twilight's mind raced so fast I couldn't keep up sometimes, but it was pleasing when she didn't need to have things explained.

"One of your close friends. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy…" Ticking names off was surprisingly easy. They were all mares who knew the truth. "Dinky too. Especially Dinky."

Shock and surprise in heavy measure poured from Twilight. "Y-You had sex with all of them?"

"No. They all know what I am. Dinky doesn't trust me, which is why I suggested her most of all. Call me crazy, but it's good to know somepony who is willing to fight you for the good of ponies. I know exactly where I stand with her."

Twilight looked concerned for a moment, then grinned. "But the easiest to find will be Pinkie. All I need to do is think of breaking a Pinkie promise and…"

"Foreve—"

"Gotcha!" Twilight used her magic to levitate Pinkie out from behind the bookcase she'd appeared from. "Pinkie?"

"Hey! You said you were going to break a Pinkie promise? Why are yo—Ohhh. OH!" Pinkie Pie's grin spread wider and wider while she floated in the air. "I told you he was nice!"

"Pinkie! It's not—Okay, it is what you're thinking. He wants to make sure somepony knows what particular thing we're going to do so if anypony gets crazy notions again, there's somepony to set them straight. I'm too damn horny to wait for anypony else." Twilight blew a snort out her nose that would have almost made her fierce if she wasn't laying on her back still.

When Twilight's bubble of magic that held her popped, Pinkie dropped to the floor without so much of a hint that it had inconvenienced her. "Well, what is it?"

I'd been alternating hooves I was nuzzling, but had to pause while I spoke. "She wants me to use magic on her."

"What's it do?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"The correct question is: what will she want?. And the answer is: whatever I want her to." I Licked each of her hooves just once. "She wants to give me control for the evening, and I was worried what somepony might think if they come in in the middle of it."

"Oh! Oh! Like ice cream?"

Twilight froze up. "How did you know he made me want ice cream?"

"Pfft! Silly, of course he would. Ice cream is the best thing in the world to want. Or was that cookie dough?" Tapping her chin, Pinkie shook her head. "Cookie dough flavored ice cream!"

"Pinkie!"

"Twilight, relax. I'll even wait downstairs until you're done, then sleep over. I'll have to rush and get Gummy first, but I don't think I'll be needed for the time that takes. Oh! Can you make me want ice cream?"

I snorted. "Pinkie Pie, you want ice cream."

"You didn't use any magic," Twilight said.

"Like I need to—And, there she goes." Only a dustcloud-shaped-like-Pinkie was left behind, and a moment later that too was gone. "Now, where were we?" I let my smile return and started to gather magic.

"Y-You're going to—"

I didn't let her finish. Power flowed from my mind into her unprotected one. She didn't resist as my yellow gemstone let loose wisps of mist that poured around and through her. I stepped forward, standing over Twilight and staring down into her face. "You can feel my magic and my will?"

Twilight stared up at me and nodded. The gentle yellow glow in her eyes was unmistakable. There were several images and concepts I had planned for her, first and foremost was an extremely selfish one. "Adore me."

The air around her thickened with food. Her tongue started to loll out the corner of her mouth as so much of Twilight's free will circled weakly around the concept I'd just forced her to focus on. She looked up at me and her eyes sparkled with desire.

I couldn't keep a purr out of the low chuckle I made before I licked at her aura. It was like eating ice cream. I fed. I fed without reservation or desire to stop. I fed so deeply I thought I would have surely done any other pony harm, but a glance at Twilight revealed only more power—more magic and more adoration.

"I need you so much…" Her voice was soft and weak. "Please?"

"Please what?" I asked.

"Please do whatever you want."

Leaning down I pressed my lips to hers and felt her enthusiastic kiss. It wasn't much different from the Want-It Need-It spell that had affected me many years ago, except in this situation somepony was in complete control. I was in complete control.

Lust. I filled her head with a desire for gratification and to gratify. I flooded her fertile mind with images of all the things I could think that a pony with her equipment and one with mine could get up to. I did all that while forcing my weight down onto her until our bellies—and shafts—were sandwiched together.

I didn't wait for her to ask. The look in her eyes confirmed that she wasn't just under my control, she knew she was. Drawing back slowly, I thrust myself along her length and belly, rubbing our shafts together and forcing our balls to press tight.

Twilight's head was back and she was panting so hard I thought she was going to start hyperventilating. My magic fed on her, and she seemed only too happy to let me. The sex was good, but it was the metaphysical situation that me so focused on my task.

I barely noticed the first loud crash outside Twilight's personal library, but the second finally impinged on my senses and startled me.

"Oh no, Mr. Fishy, you can't go in there and interrupt my friends!" The muffled voice of Pinkie Pie managed to sound both deadly serious and giggly. Another crash. Another giggle. "Oh no, none of those mind whats-its. They don't work so good on me."

The next crash was against the door, then another, and the third saw the door give way and Feather Bangs rush into the room. "What have you done?!"

There was a lot of things I could do and a lot I wanted to. I wanted to keep pleasuring Twilight, I wanted to make my mast happy again, and I wanted to say exactly the right thing to calm him down. But I was too slow.

Twilight was charged with furious energy. My own magic had been purged from her in a heartbeat by her power, and she somehow got out from under me without any effort and put herself between Feather and myself. "How dare you?!"

It wasn't often I saw my master completely off balance, but that's the only way I could describe his look of fading indignation and anger. "W-What?"

"You storm in here and interrupt me—interrupt us!" The moment of realization, when Twilight finally clued into the fact she was shouting at a full-grown siren, hit home, and I got to watch every emotion she possessed play over her face. "You're a siren!"

Feather Bangs focused his stare on me, and I felt his will start to reassert itself over the situation while Twilight fumbled for her next words. "Sure Beat! What is the meaning of all this? I felt you draining an alicorn! Every siren on this half of the world would have felt that."

I blinked in surprise. It's true that I fed well from Twilight, but it surely couldn't have been that much. She was still practically a bright sun of power and had blown her way out of the simple mind control I'd used without so much as a lick of trouble. I turned my attention inward and examined my own reservoir of magic. "Oh horse apples…"

Looking between Twilight and me, Feather's stare turned to surprise, and finally he laughed. "Sure Beat, my little fish, there's a reason sirens keep to the shallow ends of Equestria. For one, an alicorn of Princess Twilight's power can shatter our fragile mind magics with the slightest of flexing. Second is that it chums the water, so to speak. Sirens can sense weakness in creatures and a nation. I hope you drank well, little fish, because we're going to have work to do."

"Hold up. Don't talk past me. What you're saying is that by feeding him so much—not that it felt like much, err, considering what I have that is—it makes it seem like Equestria's weak and under attack?" Twilight looked surprised, worried, and still a little flushed from what we'd been doing. "S-So I need to call the E.U.P. Guard to order to patrol more. I can also call in the hippocampi…"

"No. Simply not needed." Feather Bangs flickered with his own magic flashing out of his gem to make him his pony-self. "Of course we'll deal with this problem ourselves. We've never relied on ponies to defend our feeding grounds before, and I would be a poor siren if I didn't now."

Twilight looked surprised. "So the reason you were so angry that you broke in here was…?"

"To blast you with as much magic as I could and grab my little fish to safety. It seems I have gravely underestimated his talents." The look Feather gave me now spoke of a long talk that would happen when there were no ponies around. "Perhaps I can suggest that in future you both stick to just sex?"

"No." I hadn't realized I'd said it until Feather looked at me with a brow raised. "I mean, maybe, but there's something else we can do. Twilight, you trust me?" When she turned around and looked at me with a smile before nodding, I felt my heart swell. "Then let Feather feed from you. If your magic can do this to me, imagine what it would do to a full siren?"

"You trust him that much?" Twilight asked.

I nodded. "He has protected Equestria for over a thousand years. Perhaps a regular top-up might be a good way to show your thanks and help him ensure it stays protected against more sirens?"

Feather stared between me and Twilight, shock registering at last that we wouldn't have to make a quick exit from Ponyville. "It would never work. Princess Twilight would need to trust me with two things: the protection of Equestria and her own mind."

"No she doesn't. The first you were already doing. What she has to do is trust you with ponies, and I think she's halfway there already. As for feeding, couldn't I channel for you?" I asked.

Twilight looked at me then Feather, then back to me. "Would that work? You can act like a conduit?"

One glance at Feather Bangs revealed the excitement in his eyes. He grinned like a young stallion having his first time with somepony more experienced. "Your Highness," he said, "you wouldn't believe some of the tricks I've taught this stallion."

Author's Notes:

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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