The first thing to surprise Daring when she got up the following morning, aside from a delightful looking breakfast on the bedside table, was the sight of Starswirl the Bearded looking over a copy of her official report along with a look at the original idol and the copy Twilight had made. Along with Starswirl, Twilight and Starlight Glimmer were looking over the report as well, that explained how they got the report and how there were multiple copies. To even more surprise, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were there, surprisingly enough not reading over the report.

Celestia was dressed in her usual white robes with golden regalia, Luna was in a more old-fashioned star-themed dress with her silver regalia. Twilight was in what many would just call a cute librarian look, with what looked like platinum regalia spread around her with only the crown portion on her head at a lopsided angle, giving the impression that she was both unused to such adornments and that she found the attire restrictive. Starswirl’s attire was immensely outdated, even though it was likely made by Rarity in bulk for him, it gave off the impression he had raided a museum for a style that was easily over thousand years out of date.

The attire of the dozen or so other experts strewn about the facility were dressed in seemed to be business casual attire, these experts were from all the tribes, with a surprising bulk actually being earth ponies. Daring looked down at herself, she was still in the sleeping attire Twilight’s friend had provided her. The surprise from her vantage point almost made her forget that she was heading to wash up in the restroom, she really needed a shower after the weird experience she had after falling asleep.

When she got to the door decided to knock at the door a few times, to her embarrassment Spike answered on the other side of the closed door, “I’ll be out in a few minutes, just finishing up my morning routine.” She almost panicked, that meant Spike had just gotten up as well.

It was also at this moment Daring noticed a bit more weight on her chest than usual, she hoped she something hadn’t caused to make her sleeping attire get tight around some part of her body again. Looking down, she noticed that her bust line was a bit bigger. She blinked, looked up at the ceiling to try and get her bearings, looked back down and confirmed her breasts had indeed been enhanced in size some way. She was now staring at a pair of rather luscious looking D-Cup sized breasts under her sleepwear. How had she jumped from nearly flat to something so obvious to notice at almost any angle? And why was she just noticing this sort of thing now?

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The sound of a knock wasn’t all that much of a surprise to Spike, seeing as how long he’d shared a residence with a mare. He just gave one of his usual responses, besides he was almost done. Spike had a figure that made him look like a slightly buff teenager, the unique compact muscles present in his variety of dragon allowed him to have a much more sleek look. Spike just hated that he didn’t have a few bulging muscles, even earth pony males like Big Macintosh had those around their arms and legs.

He was finishing up drying off his lustrous, smoothly rough, and very sleek scales when the sound of Daring Do’s voice, with a slightly more sensual tone for some reason, crossed the threshold, “I really need to use the restroom now, I just got a feeling of greater urgency a moment ago.”

Spike felt his rods go to half-mast almost immediately, usually, it was just one that showed excitement but something about Daring’s voice brought both to the same position at the same time. Spike could feel the spiny ridges on the shafts of his cocks aching to feel the pleasure that voice seemed to be inviting. Down boys, this isn’t the time or place for that sort of thing. Spike was starting to feel nervous, even more so when he remembered only bringing a pair of boxers and pants into the restroom with him on some misguided notion he would have plenty of time to get to his room and leisurely choose a shirt before any of the mares in the house got a good look at him. Now, one of those very mares was literally on the other side of the door, this was what he would call a worst-case scenario.

Spike was no stranger to having females be the dominant force in his life, most of his life had been just that. But this was the first time he felt like letting a mare dominate him in any way she wanted, he did a quick shake of his head to clear it of such thoughts. He barely knew Daring Do, the real one. His only experience with Daring before all this started was through her books, he recalled her mentioning secret messages were hidden in all the books but the only way to find them was with a cipher she had helped her sister develop ages ago. Nopony could keep a code like that running as long as Daring did without a physical copy of the cipher, maybe the cipher was cleverly hidden somewhere that was easy for Daring to find it but disguised well enough that it would escape suspicion.

Spike knew what he would be doing today after he made sure everything was packed. But before all that, he would have to get his penises down. For most ponies, and probably dragons, that was probably easy, seeing as you usually just had to think of family or friends that had something about their features to kill your mood, Spike had almost no one in his immediate set of ponies and dragons he knew that would do that. It took him some time to come to terms with, but Twilight and all her friends were not something he could look at to soften his cocks. Same held true with most of their families, even Granny Smith had a quality to her he would rather not think about.

Looking down, he was glad his boners were gone. Spike had learned that he needed a roundabout way of thinking to bring his erections down, if he thought about anyone in his life directly he would start thinking about all the things that made them physically attractive. He used to not mind it when he was younger, but now that he was more matured it was something hard to ignore.

Princess Celestia was one of the worst cases for him, he saw her as more of a mother than most ponies and she had the sentiment of him being the closest thing to her for most of his life, she even had a discreet legal document that showed him as her adoptive son. Even though she had been missing for most of his early life, Princess Luna was an incredible aunt to him and always got a delight when he referred to her as such. The less said about how attractive looking Twilight and her mom were the better, he didn’t even want to think about his “sister” and her mother that way. Similar sentiments were shared regarding Twilight’s friends, Rarity had been a fixation of his during his younger years and he tried to avoid thinking about Sweetie Belle like that as well. Thankfully Starlight Glimmer had moved out, he really didn’t want to think about her figure due to it being so similar to Twilight’s.

He could feel one of his rods starting to swell again, he really had to stop thinking about why it was a bad idea to think about certain things. He quickly finished wiping off his scales and threw on his pants and underwear, almost putting them on wrong in both order and location in his rush. After he got them on he tossed the towel on over his upper body, after spreading it about and having part cover his head it left him with his midriff still showing along with part of his chest.

Thinking about it, it was better than nothing when it came to potentially sexy mare seeing him, even Daring Do had physical features that he was starting to find sexy. When he opened the door, the sight of Daring made him rush to his room at a speed that would impress Rainbow Dash. He hoped she hadn't seen much.

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Daring had only seen Spike for a moment when he opened the door, which turned out to be a sight that made her feel tingly for a split second. She suddenly realized she didn’t have a towel or bathrobe and completely forgotten a fresh change of clothes. Daring rushed to her room to grab a change of clothes, which were mysteriously placed on a well-made bed that she swore she hadn’t just left a mess when left it earlier. Next to the change of clothes were a folded towel resting on top of a folded bathrobe.

Daring would wonder about that later, she needed a cleansing shower to take her mind off the previous night. Once she got back to the bathroom she locked the door, she didn’t want anyone wandering in on her while she was occupied. Once that was taken care of she set her clothes, towel, and bathrobe on the counter before removing her sleeping attire.

Once her nightgown was off, in pile on the floor Daring saw that it really was true that her breasts had ballooned to their new default size, she had thought somepony had snuck into her room and stuffed some sort of padding over her breasts to give the impression her bust line had grown over the night as some sort of prank.

Daring felt she really needed to clear her head, a shower with the frigidity and force of a waterfall would definitely wake her up. The chances of a shower having those features, even if it was in a castle, was next to nonexistent. The moment she entered the shower she noticed it had an opening in the wall above her head that looked more like a cut in the wall than shower nozzle, she also noticed the door had closed behind her and there was no sign of levers or knobs for adjusting the flow of water. All she saw was a crystal panel where such things would likely be placed, she thought nothing of it and just figured it was some new sort of magic control system. Twilight Sparkle was a princess that was known for being a little eccentric and prone to trying some of the newest developments in her own home. Daring placed her palm on the crystal and jokingly said, “What are the chances this thing can replicate the feeling of a frigid waterfall, because I feel like I really need one now."

The next thing Daring knew she was bombarded with exactly what she asked for, which was immediately followed by her scream of shocked surprise that practically rang through the castle. Chances were everyone in the castle heard her rather undignified response to the shower. Almost fifteen minutes later, mostly having to do with her fighting the water to get to the panel to deactivate the water’s flow, the water was off and Daring was about as soaked as she would have been on one of her adventures that involved a waterfall. She would have words with the Princess of Friendship, probably very loud ones, when she was more presentable.

After a thorough drying off Daring tried to pull her clothes on, finding her underpants and shorts a little tight with her bra and shirt unable to fit entirely. There were few things Daring hated more than getting a new outfit, especially when the attire she had at the moment was still serviceable. Rarity would probably be very happy, the adventuring mare wouldn’t though. Daring found the white unicorn’s personality grating and endearing at the same time, much to her great annoyance. She decided her best option for something resembling modesty in the princess’s castle was to wrap the bathrobe about herself, the overly large size of the bath garment worked to her favor in regards to covering up her chest. She quickly tied a loose knot into the belt to ensure the robe stayed the way it was. She gave a little sigh as she reached for the door, her coming interactions would likely not be socially pleasant.

The moment she opened the door she saw Twilight, Spike, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Rarity all with worried looks on their faces. The first words out of Daring’s mouth were, “And the reason nopony bothered to warn me about the shower was? Well, you better have a good excuse.”

Twilight gave a sheepish look while the rest of the group moved to make it so the door was no longer crowded. “I guess we forgot to give you warning about this,” said Twilight, “mostly because the castle seems to have a mind of its own at times. The new shower structure for the castle was one I was theorizing about five years ago, everypony in the area was warned about it about two months after. If it makes you feel any better, Spike and I both had similar responses the first few weeks it was around, it took us almost a month to get used to the whole thing. It made all the papers a few months after that, I’m guessing you didn’t get a chances to read any of those from around that time.”

“Wait, the castle has a mind of its own?” said Daring in surprise.

“More or less,” said Spike in his surprisingly sexy baritone voice, Daring started to feel a little warm in her more private areas for a moment, “the castle was given to Twilight by the Tree of Harmony. It has an intense link to Twilight and her friends, which is why their thrones around the map have changed every now and then as time went on. I used to have mini-throne next to Twilight’s, but that got removed around the time I was closer to her size.” Now that she looked at him Spike did look a bit bigger than the average pony, she’d actually wouldn’t be surprised if he matched Princess Celestia for height.

“Okay then,” said Daring, “Um, Rarity, was it? It looks like I’m going to need an entirely new wardrobe, my pants are a little tight and my shirts don’t fit anymore.”

“Always glad to help, darling,” said the purple maned white unicorn, “any preferences?”

“My attire just needs to be able to take a punishing, comfort isn’t really necessary. My clothes just need to be able to resist tearing, I’ve had it happen more times than I care to admit out on my expeditions. Just keep the aesthetics the same as my usual look, maybe add a few more pockets. I didn’t see you on my way to this room,” she turned her attention to Rainbow and Fluttershy, “same with the both of you.”

“Oh, um,” said Fluttershy, “I was here to take a look at Owlowiscious, he’s been around a bit longer than an owl normally would.”

“That bird’s almost as tenacious as Twilight,” snarked Spike under his breath.

The comment earned him pointed stares from Twilight and Fluttershy. Rainbow picked up the explanation, “I was here to discuss some show plans Twilight wrote up. Rares is here because of your lack of wardrobe, she said it in a bit more flowery manner.”

“Refined, darling,” Rarity retorted, “you have over a dozen copies of three different outfits, with exception of those five dress uniforms and three actual dresses.”

“My dressing habits aren’t your concern,” retorted Rainbow.

“Actually, they are. Especially when I’m the one who either had to repair them or outright made them,” said Rarity, “also, we have a guest and should be a bit more respectful to her.”

“Don’t mind me,” said Daring, “it’s preferable to most of the other fights that have happened around me, especially when it gave me the opportunity to escape a pretty bad situation. Now, give me some space. I’ll be in my room if you need me, seeing as walking around somepony else’s places or town topless is rather ill-advised.”

Spike looked visibly heated when the image came, clearly, unbidden to his mind. Daring was having mixed feelings about being a sex symbol, it was unfamiliar and unnerving but also exciting and empowering. Next time she saw that dragoness she would have a lot to say, on more than she anticipated.

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The one thing Spike really didn’t want to think about was what a mare looked like in different attire, mostly because he developed a bit of an outfit fetish regarding mares due to his overly long crush on Rarity, but the thought of a mare with only half an outfit was easily second on the list of things he really didn’t want to think about. Now he was picturing Daring Do, of all ponies, topless around the castle and town, his face wasn’t just heating if his groin had anything say about it. Two semi-boners with both dicks in one day, that was a new record he didn’t want to contemplate at the moment. Thankfully, none of the mares around him seemed to notice the bulging tent in his pants.

Rarity was more excited about basically making Daring an entirely new outfit from scratch, Spike immediately redirected himself towards his room to avoid hearing Rarity talk about making custom undergarments. There were a lot of things Spike wanted to stop thinking about, a mare in lingerie was pretty high on that list. Once again an unbidden image of Daring in scandalous attire came to him, this time she was in black and indigo lingerie. He hated how good he thought she looked in it, thankfully he was in his room before the image had come to him.

Spike quickly locked his door after closing it and tried to get his members soft again, to no effect. He hated that he’d have to be jacking off to a mare without her consent, especially one he had a great deal of respect for. Spike had always told himself if Daring Do had turned out be real and was even half as impressive as she was in the books they would have his deepest respects, then he found out all the stories written down were true with only a little embellishment.

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“So,” said Daring, noticing the sultriness of her voice somehow toned itself down on its own, “who messed with my room for the time I was waiting at the door without any of the necessities for a morning ritual in civilization?”

“Was everything neat and tidy with exactly what you thought you would need?” inquired Twilight.

“Yes,” said Daring with a hint of confusion in her voice.

“Probably Pinkie,” said Fluttershy, finally joining the conversation, Daring noticed how well the yellow pegasus’s attire obscured her form.

“She’s pretty random,” said Rainbow, “and some of the things she does can come off as a little unnerving. But chances are she’s the one who got everything set up for you in your room in the short amount of time you were away from it.”

“Alright,” said Daring, “how about we get this out of the way, I think Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will want to have a chat with me, soon as possible. Rarity, I’ll swing by your establishment after my meeting with the princesses.” I just want to be out of here already, why does everything have to be so problematic now?

After Daring made her way to Celestia and Luna they gestured for her sit, they probably expected this to last a while. Soon as she was seated Luna immediately launched into the first discussion topic, “You could not be found in the dream realm last night, despite my attempts. Care to explain this?”

Right into the tough questions, Daring pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment and took a deep breath, “I got pulled in to have a chat with an ancient dragon goddess, she had a lot to say. She said something about the Crystal Heart in the Crystal Empire once being hers, something about how a bit the power of her sisters is with the two of you and keeping them from fading away but not really awake at the moment, an…”

“We’ll get to the part about the Crystal Heart later,” said Celestia cutting her off, for the normally respectful Celestia to cut a pony off meant she saw something of great importance that needed immediate addressing, “what do you mean when you say we carry the power of her sisters?”

“She didn’t go into detail,” said Daring, “but apparently they all had their power waning at an intense rate. She was better buffed against it because of the power being sent to her from the Crystal Heart, but her sisters weren’t so lucky. Just like the two of you, they reigned over the Sun and Moon, while their power was waning they felt the presence of your awakening to the power over the Sun and Moon so they sent a portion of their essence into you as a means of not fading away. But because of the lack of energy being sent to them, they’ve been in a deep sleep since around that time. The dragon goddess I spoke with last night was in better shape because of Crystal Heart and a restoration ritual that Spike and I accidentally performed that more directly linked me to her. She also said something about watching the progress of some pony bloodlines, which was made possible because of her old pony worshipers. She also made a few comments about subtlety influencing the development of some relationships.”

“We have the essence of ancient dragon deities mixed with our natural magics?” inquired Luna, likely choosing to disregard the rest until later, “we will not expect a report on this, but a complete account as you can of your interactions with her would be much appreciated.”

“She said the three reigned over certain domains that were of greater importance to ponies than dragons, thus were relegated to minor roles within the standings of the ancient dragon pantheon. The first one that she said reigned over the Sun also reigned over Justice and Agriculture.” Daring Continued.

“Well, I am quite good in dealing with the legal system and have quite the green thumb,” said Celestia with some amusement.

Picking up again, with a polite cough, Daring said, “The one that reigned over the Moon also held dominion over Dreams and Art.”

“It would seem, sister,” said Luna, “I picked up a bit more from our ‘donors’ than you.” This was followed by a bit more playful banter between the sisters, during which Daring excused herself and made her way to Rarity’s place of business. She had her progress slowed by Starswirl and some of Equestria’s notable modern scholars inquiring for further details regarding her report, she respectfully told them that she would talk to them about the matters length at a later time but had urgent business to attend to.

Thankfully, she didn’t get any weird or odd looks as she passed through town. Unfortunately, her experience once in the store was less enjoyable. Rarity’s babbling to herself, as she moved around a naked Daring on a literal pedestal didn’t help much. She really just wanted to leave and get this all behind her, this would probably be a bit more endearing and less annoying once she was retired.

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Spike had finally managed to soften his rods again, although he had to spend a few minutes thoroughly cleaning his wall afterward. Thankfully, it was a blank space of his wall he ended up splattering his semen on. With that out of his way he began packing for the long hike, Daring said it would take over a week to just get to the destination.

Spike just wanted to leave already, fewer chances to potentially embarrass himself around Daring where the ponies he knew far too well for his liking at the moment. Daring seemed to be acting awkward around him as well, she probably just wanted to get this whole thing over as well.