Ten days later

Celestia smiled satisfiedly as the sun rose. It never failed to bring a smile to her face. Moments later, she heard some faint voices singing. She instantly recognised Lieia’s voice.

Damn Vasari came along

Though they’re gonna take us on

Immediately, she heard more voices repeat the words.

Damn Vasari came along

Thought they're gonna take us on

They went on and burned our homes

Grabbing everything they could

They went on and burned our homes

Grabbing everything they could

She saw the ponies in the distance, jogging across a field, with Lieia at their side.

We came back and kicked their asses

All the way back to deep space.

We came back and kicked their asses

All the way back to deep space

I don’t want no goddamn peace

I’ll just have my KIL Two-Five

I don't want no goddamn peace

I'll just have my KIL Two-Five

I was sitting in the trenches

When I saw their ugly mugs

I was sitting in the trenches

When I saw their ugly mugs

So I grabbed my trusty rifle

Painted the ground with their own blood

So I grabbed my trusty rifle

Painted the ground with their own blood

And I’m gonna stand my ground

Send those bastards to their graves

And I'm gonna stand my ground

Send those bastards to their graves

“And again!” They sang three more times. Celestia took off, deciding to see how things were going.

“Okay, everyone, take five!” Lieia shouted at the ponies, seeing Celestia alight a distance away.

“Hey, there, princess. How’s everything?”

“Very well, thanks for asking. How are the recruits holding up?”

“We’ve been jogging for two hours now and they’re still holding up pretty good.” She brushed a stray lock of her hair out of her eyes.

“I’m thinking of starting the weapons training in three days. We’ve already gone through most of basic Marine training.” She placed her hands on her hips, inspecting the ponies who were busying themselves with their drinks at the moment.

“Could I join you on your way back? It has been a long time since I’ve been on a morning jog.”

“Y’sure you can keep up?” Lieia flashed a grin, flexing her shoulders. Celestia shook her wings, getting her game face on.

“I accept your challenge, Lieia.”

“One moment. Okay, folks, get back to base, do some cooldown exercises. Wouldn’t do well for you to end up with aching muscles.” She turned back to Celestia.

“I bet a thousand credits I can get back to the base before you do. What do you bet?”

“Well…” Celestia leaned closer, whispering “If I win, we will have our date this evening. What say you, Lieia?”

“Deal.” She stepped up alongside Celestia, starting the countdown.

“Three…”

“Two…

“One…”

“GO!” Celestia galloped ahead gracefully, then gasped in surprise as Lieia easily overtook her, her enhanced musculature allowing her to gain greater speeds.

“You’re slow, Celly! You owe me a thousand credits!”

“Not yet I don’t, Lieia!” She increased her pace, closing the gap considerably, eventually coming alongside her opponent.

“You’re slower than a snail, Cel!” Lieia pushed ahead another few paces, before Celestia unfurled her wings, taking to air. She overtook Lieia, who shouted indignantly.

“Hey! No flying!”

“I don’t remember you saying that I couldn’t fly, Lieia!” She laughed happily, seeing the frustrated human chase after her. Then, she saw Lieia stumble and trip, tumbling wildly. She didn’t get up.

“Lieia!” Celestia immediately wheeled around, landing at Lieia’s side. She prodded her body, feeling worry seep in her.

“Lieia?” She brushed her muzzle against Lieia’s neck, trying to wake her, when Lieia leapt up, tackling Celestia, and pulling her down on the ground.

“Gotcha!” They rolled around in the grass, their laughter echoing in the air, with neither of them being able to gain the upper hand. Lieia eventually managed to get on top of Celestia, straddling the panting alicorn.

“Well… That was fun. Heh…” She chuckled.

“It’s a good thing that no one can see us, no? We must be quite a sight, you and me.” Celestia squirmed under Lieia’s legs for a moment, just as she smiled slyly.

“Well, we are alone for now.” Her fingers caressed Celestia’s neck, before she leaned down, whispering.

“I suggest we make good use of that time.” Celestia met the kiss halfway, craning her neck. She held the kiss for a moment, before lunging forward. She got Lieia on her back, eliciting a yelp of surprise from the human.

“Careful, there!” She laughed, wrapping her arms around Celestia’s neck, kissing her again. A moment later, she somehow managed to wiggle free from under Celestia. She stood up, panting, a mischievous edge to her smile.

“Can’t catch me!” She took off and Celestia immediately followed her. It took her a few moments to realise Lieia was nowhere to be seen. She felt a tap on her back and she looked back, seeing an overly smug Lieia stand there.

“How ya doin’?”

“Lieia? How did you get behind me?” They slowed down to a stop.

“I can jump pretty high.” She gave Celestia’s flank a firm slap, before catapulting herself forwards.

“Lieia! Did you just do what I think you did?” Celestia gasped indignantly. Lieia landed a ways off, and then turned to Celestia.

“If that hand-shaped mark on your butt is anything to go by, then yes!” She laughed again, before launching herself in air again, heading towards the nearby trees.

“Can’t catch me! Whoops!” She landed in a tree, snapping half a dozen branches and landing on the ground.

“Ack!” Celestia was bearing down on her, but she managed to evade the irate alicorn, leaping forwards again.

“You want to trade the bread for gold?” She shouted from the top of a tall birch, waving her arms around.

“What are you talking about, Lieia? You’re not making any sense!” Celestia frowned in puzzlement.

“I stole your bread fair and square!” She shouted back again, before jumping again.

What?

“I don’t have a friggin' jetpack, I’m probably gonna die, but bye!” Lieia landed with a thump, running away full-pelt, with Celestia in hot pursuit. Lieia was still shouting ‘Can’t catch me!’, but Celestia would change that soon. Her horn lit up with magic and she teleported right behind Lieia.

“Gotcha!” It was all she managed to say before she leapt forward. Lieia turned around, surprised that Celestia had caught up with her. The next instant, Celestia had tackled her, and they tumbled across the ground once more. When they stopped, Celestia was on top of Lieia, pinning the woman down. Her hair was dishevelled, falling across her face, her cheeks flushed as she panted. To her, Lieia had never looked more alluring. Lieia started to apologize, but Celestia simply kissed her, cramming their lips together.

Unbeknownst to the two lovers, they weren’t alone. A well-concealed pony photographer working for the newspapers who’d been assigned to observe the Coalition base. Now, he fumbled for his camera, staring in disbelief at the scene unfolding some distance away.

Celestia broke the kiss, on the account that she really needed to breathe. She raised her head, failing to hear the soft click over their panting.

“We… we should get going, don’tcha think so?” She slithered out from below Celestia, who looked around her thoughtfully.

“What? Is something wrong?”

“I thought I heard something.” Away in the bushes, the photographer froze, fearing for his life.

“’s probably nothin’. C’mon, let’s finish our race. No flying or magic this time.” They lined up again.

“Go!”

“I gotta say, Celly, you’re one helluva sprinter. You beat me fair and square.” Lieia chuckled, emptying the water bottle. “Well, I guess I’d better get ready for that date tonight.” She tossed the empty bottle in a trash bin.

“Then meet me in Canterlot at six. I’ll have to perform the spell on you somewhere discreet, and then I’ll take you to the finest restaurant in Canterlot!” Lieia couldn’t help but smile at Celestia’s optimism.

“Deal. Meet you there.” She winked at her, leaving the room to address the ponies gathered outside.

“Okay, everyone, listen up! You’ve trained real hard all this time, so I‘m giving you rest of the day off. Have fun. Dismissed!” The announcement was met with cheering from the ponies.

“You’ve earned it. Enjoy while it lasts.”

Later that evening

Canterlot

“So, you’re sure you can do this spell?”

“Ye of little faith. You don’t have to worry, Lieia. I’m perfectly confident I can perform it safely. Now, stand still.” Celestia closed her eyes, her horn lighting up with magic. Lieia squirmed uneasily, as the tendrils of magic enveloped her. The room became unbearably bright. The light eventually began to dim, and Celestia could see Lieia’s outline. After another few minutes, the light dissipated completely and Celestia’s eyes widened in surprise.

In front of her, dressed in now ill-fitting clothes, stood a tall, grey pegasus mare, albeit slightly shorter than Celestia herself was. Her mane was the same dark blond, although it was longer than in her human form. She took a step forwards and immediately tripped and fell on the floor.

“Ow. Okay, I got to learn how to walk on four legs now, eh? Right…” She stood up straighter, trying really hard not to fall over.

“These clothes don’t fit me anymore, Celly. Gerrrr…” She fell down again, trying to extricate herself from the now-useless garments.

“Easy now, Lieia. Let me help you.” She used her magic again, and the clothes were teleported away on a nearby chair. Lieia stood up again, glancing around queasily.

“Dude, I feel so naked right now, it ain’t even funny. Hey, I got wings!” She unfurled them, examining them smugly. “Neat!”

“You’d be wise not to try to fly inside, Lieia. You don’t even know how to.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Lieia sighed wistfully, flapping her new-found wings a couple of times, before furling them up, and then turned to Celestia, a wry smile on her face. “Shall we go and have our date?” Celestia only now noticed something strange about Lieia.

Her eyes had no whites, being completely black. Her irises retained that intense blue colour, though.

“Well, are we goin’ or not, Celly?” Lieia circled around the room slowly, acquainting herself with having four legs.

“Oh, right. Sorry, I sort of started daydreaming. Let’s go.”

The wide streets of Canterlot were relatively empty at this hour, something Celestia was thankful for. Even so, the restaurant she’d chosen was rather busy. An immaculately-dressed unicorn bowed low before her.

“Gooood evening, Princess Celestia! I have your table ready! Ah, and who is your… companion this fine evening?” He gave Lieia a grin so oily she felt like a cubic meter of gun oil had been dumped on her. She started to respond, but Celestia beat her to it.

“Iron Night. She’s a good friend of mine, one that I haven’t seen in a long time.”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Very well, then. Follow me, ladies.” They entered the restaurant proper, and soon were sitting at a secluded table.

“So, what do you want to talk about?” Lieia sat up a bit straighter.

“Well, I have no idea. I guess I could tell you a bit about what life I had before the war.”

“It was nothing special. I was getting through my engineering degrees at the high school. I was going to continue the family business when Dad retired. I had recently completed my restoration project on the Thundercharge. I found it in a ditch where it’d been abandoned by someone when I was twelve. Towed it back home with Dad’s truck. Mom was livid, lemme tell you.”

“And your father?”

“He has never raised a hand against me. He just inspected the wreck; eventually concluding that is was salvageable. Mom just face-palmed. Me an’ my dad were both obsessed with cars. He helped me with my project when he was free. Even mom helped. She knew a lot of people on Linv. She helped me get my hands on some parts I needed.” She smiled wistfully, decimating her meal some more.

“Cara was always there for me, too. Whenever I was sad, she knew how to cheer me up.” She chuckled softly.

“I had it all. A family, a job, good education. A life. And then…” A tear rolled down her cheek. Celestia leaned across the table, brushing her muzzle against Lieia’s cheek.

“I understand your pain, Lieia. I had to banish my sister to the moon. I have seen many good friends age and pass away before my eyes.” Lieia smiled sadly.

“Well, we got something in common, then. Y’know, I wasn’t really sure about eating something with hay, but I guess my being a pony at the moment makes it okay. It’s real tasty, actually!” She wolfed down some more of the food on her plate.

“Can you explain how I am able to hold stuff without fingers? Sort of an enigma for me.”

“Oh, all ponies are able to. It’s a sort of magic.”

“Good ‘nuff for me.”

Om nom nom nom.

“We lived some distance away from the big cities. Linv was mostly big islands that weren’t quite continents. Each island state was self-sufficient. Every five years a president was elected to lead them all. The biggest thing was the Ring – a huge strip of metal a hundred kilometres wide and circling around the whole planet. Thieves, maniacs, whores and smugglers. And they gather there from all around the galaxy. You can buy almost everything there, for the right prices, of course. Some of the stuff is relatively harmless; some’s just downright idiotically dangerous. But that’s the Ring for you. Most of the gangs on Linv are from there. I ran with one for a while, fixing their rides. They were one of those few gangs that were honourable, the sort who never resorted to slavery, gun-running or drug trafficking. A sort of impromptu police force, if you will. They kept others in check; the government turned a blind eye, most of the time, at least.”

“But I digress. Now, our house was some distance away from the highway to the harbours. Real quiet and peaceful there. Dad built the house some while ago, with his own funds. There were several fruit trees in the garden, too. Dad’s workshop was a stone’s throw away from the house. When I wasn’t working on the Selvar, I’d spend most of my time clambering up and down those trees.” She smiled sadly at the memory.

“Sometimes, I wish I could go back to those times. I’d finish building my car. Take over the workshop when Dad retired. Finish my high school degrees. Find someone to fall in love with and marry. Live an uneventful life. But it’s not meant to be.” Celestia took Lieia’s hoof in her own, smiling reassuringly.

“That’s why I’m here for you.”

“Yeah. Well, I’m almost finished eating. What have you got in mind next?”

“I was going to let you make that choice.” She smiled wryly.

“Let’s get going, then. I’m sort of enjoying being a pony, but could you change me back? I can’t really get used to it.”

“We should go, then.”

“I really enjoyed the meal, Celly.” She stood up, following the alicorn out of the restaurant.

One boring walk later

“So, you gonna cast the spell or not?”

“Just a moment, Lieia. It’s not wise to rush this.” She closed her eyes again, concentrating on the spell. With a flash, the grey pegasus disappeared, leaving a stark-naked Lieia in place.

“CELESTIA! WHAT THE HELL?”

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