While Twilight's castle wasn't too difficult to navigate out of, Ember was finding it challenging to find which specific twists and turns she was now following. Or at least which ones she had to guess the scent was the strongest in.

Not fast enough to have caught up, an unfamiliar voice made her jump.

"Are you lost, Princess?"

Ember froze in place, suddenly feeling vulnerable and strangely embarrassed.

"Lost?" She asked rhetorically. "Me? Uh, no. I was just looking for the, uh, room with—where I can wash… my staff!"

She turned around to address the voice, revealed to be a Solar Guard unicorn.

While finding a guard in a castle was expected, it was strange to see him here. The only other two Solar Guards she had seen were the pegasus with Sniff and the Earth pony guard she thought she was following. Maybe this one could help?

"I think I remember that Onyx pony saying something about a place I could… do that. The washing—staff washing. For my staff... Do you know where he went off to?"

Despite Ember showing said staff, Helix was a little apprehensive of the royal dragoness acting so strangely. Even so, he still tried to recall where Onyx had gone off to. At the very least, to put enough distance between himself in Ember that Onyx would have to deal with her.

"Uh… probably up on the roof. That’s where I last heard he was going when he was walking out of the study with Chris. And I guess you could use the hot tub to rinse off your staff."

Happy for the convenient update, and a quick end to this awkward conversation, Ember nodded and took a stronger grip around her staff.

"Oh, that must have been it. Thanks."

As she turned and started off for the exit, Helix called out to her again.

"Princess? The stairs to the roof are the other way."

Embarrassed yet again, Ember tried to repress her goofy smile as she passed the guard in a hurry.

"This way. Got it. Thanks again."

Utterly confused by the Dragon Lord, Helix shook his head and continued down the hall, a cheeky smile growing as he wondered how much Onyx would bitch about this later.

"Really glad I took this position. Canterlot was never this entertaining."

For the flustered princess, after a few wrong turns and one big loop, she found the last set of stairs that opened up to the roof. Just outside of it, she could hear that same Earth pony discussing his experience with Chris.

"No, I'm telling you guys. You need to train with him. I've been in the clench plenty of times, but I've never been pulled out of it and punched to the mat the way he could. And another time, he managed to pop me in the eye from behind his head… How is that even… Who would think of that?"

Unfortunately, standing there wasn't going to accomplish anything. It was time to be the brave leader she was and work herself into the conversation. Preferably while maintaining her dignity and respect.

Mustering her courage, she opened the door and stepped out to nothing but disappointment.

"What the?"

Sitting next to the hot tub was Onyx, talking to Midnight and Ralph. As per protocol, all three immediately rose to their hooves with Onyx to greet the princess.

"Princess Ember… can I help you?"

With Chris nowhere to be seen, she had to default back on her makeshift excuse.

"Oh… well… my staff-" She raised her staff to distract them. "-waaaas dusty. I thought I could rinse it off up here before I left… to go somewhere else. Aren't you supposed to be with Chris?"

Still unsure why this Princess would be wandering around on her own, not to mention thinking that rinsing off her staff should be done in a hot tub, Onyx gave her the benefit of the doubt. She was a dragon, after all. Probably didn’t even have indoor plumbing.

Then he remembered the Dragon Lands was made up almost entirely of rivers of lava, and, yeah, probably a safe bet.

“I’ll be with Chris tonight, but right now, he’s being escorted by one of my other guards. I’ll be heading out to join him after I finish coordinating security for the human embassy tonight.”

Curious, Ember dipped her staff in the warm water, still looking for a way in, or at least directions.

“Is that by invite-only? If humans are going to be here for a while, I’d like to establish a strong relationship between our races.”

Chris looked over the order he put in, hoping it was sufficient for what was planned.

“Thanks again, Mrs. Cake. This should be more than enough.”

From behind, Pinkie’s excited voice filled the room.

“Squeezy!”

Chris turned around to see Pinkie bounding over just fast enough to brace for her wrapping him up in a hug.

“I forget how huggable you are, Chris! Oh! And let me introduce you to some more of our friends."

Without putting Chris down, Pinkie took a deep breath and pointed her free hoof to new faces.

"Prince Rutherford, Grandpa Gruff, Gilda, Gallus, and Smolder."

Knowing he was going to be captive until Pinkie had her fill of hugs, Chris briskly waved his fingers that were still in view towards the newcomers.

"Hello. Nice to meet you all. I'll shake hands...or hooves, first chance I get."

"Excuse me, Pinkie," Thunder firmly addressed the clingy mare. "I know you and the humans are close, but perhaps you could put him down so he may properly greet them? Preferably while he still has feeling left in his arms"

Realizing just then what she was doing was bound to lead to an ass beating, Pinkie put on a nervous smile and carefully set Chris down. As she backed away, she tucked her twitching tail between her legs while she apologized, the smell of champagne he emitted was even sweeter than the mimosas she had tasted with the real thing.

Why did he have to have a sweet scent? How could fate be so cruel to this sugar-addicted mare?

"Oopsies. Sorry, you know me. Can't let go of a good hug."

As much as Chris didn’t want to deal with this, he started to speculate any female could be another horny nuke set to blow...pun not intend. His six was already enough to handle, and he didn't need anything else coming between them, especially a pony with as much energy as Pinkie. Might as well make this quick.

Of course, Pinkie had to ruin it with a question.

"What happened to your face?"

This again? So much for making it quick and just sticking to the explanation in the most simple of terms.

"I started training Onyx," Chris answered, not trying to sound too enthused about it. "He's already a professional boxer, so I showed him a different way to box, and he got some hits on me."

Of the new faces, Gilda took the initiative to introduce herself, probably thanks in part to the mention of violence.

"Another warrior from the human world. I’m liking you humans with every new one I meet. Even your public relations guy was pretty cool."

Very cordially, Chris shook her claws and noticed that smile so many others had when greeting them.

"Yeah, we're all pretty special. I'm glad you're on good terms with Rainbow Dash by the way."

He shook Gallus's claw rather pleasantly, but Grandpa Gruff did more of a quick grip and let go, likely living up to his name and was just being a dick. Prince Rutherford and his two assistants/guards were overly enthusiastic with their greetings, and Smolder introduced herself in a rather chill manner.

At least this dragoness didn't seem overly drawn towards him, though Chris wondered if maybe she had a crush on Spike. It wasn’t until she stepped up to greet him that he realized she had been passing glances at the blind drake the whole time from behind. Regardless, he didn't feel comfortable sticking around without Starlight or at least one of his other mares with him.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I have to head back to the embassy. I'm sure I'll see you all around soon."

Thankfully, Thunder must have recognized his discomfort and covered the cost by the time Chris had finished, allowing the two to make a hasty exit.

Left behind, the group made ready to partake in some sweets of their own. So, as Pinkie forced her attention on explaining the many available desserts, Spike ordered a double of his usual.

Either clueless or playing ignorant, he was quickly joined by Smolder at his booth, who was ready with another conversation starter for him.

"So… is fighting and all this action what it's usually like over here?" She asked, not sounding rude or disinterested like she was before, as her eyes stayed focused on parties who’d been discussing combat.

Still not sure how he was supposed to react to the attention, Spike opted to focus more on explaining the recent uptick in excitement as of late.

"Not really. Normally we have to go somewhere before a fight starts. Ever since Sniff and the others showed up, there's been a lot more danger to face. Otherwise, I knew Chris was going to help train Onyx, but I didn't know they'd be fighting each other. Kinda makes me worried about how Cerb is going to train me."

After all the storytelling of how ferocious the human Cerberus sounded, Ember was even more blown away.

"No way! The same one that hurricane-decapitated the Timberwolf and saved your scales?!"

She quickly realized just how loud she was and covered her mouth. Though, much to her surprise, none of the others around her seemed to notice or react to the outburst. She had almost stood up and barged out, but there wasn't any dragon around her to make her feel obligated to put up a strong front. The sense of calm and lack of pressure left an odd feeling of comfort she wasn't used to.

"So, ugh… I know I got all excited about the fighting and cool action stuff you've done, but… how did you learn to do that while living with ponies?"

Such an odd question after being told what Twilight and the others did in the forest should have clued this dragoness in, but Spike had to re-educate her on the subject.

"I don’t know what it's like living in the Dragon Lands, but Equestria has a lot of dangerous ponies and other creatures that Twilight and her friends have to deal with all the time. The only reason so much of the kingdom looks so safe is because Twilight and her friends keep most of the threats away. We only have to actually fight maybe every other month or so, so it's not like I don't ever see any action."

Despite the words coming from her leader. Smolder looked far from convinced, almost looking insulted at the idea.

"How tough could the bad guys be if even ponies could defeat them?"

Despite Spike's normal pleasant nature, this was two days in a row he had to explain to an outsider not to underestimate his friends.

"Twilight and the rest of us have saved the world so many times, I would have lost count if I didn't have to make a report for it every time. But if you don’t believe me, I don’t know what to tell you. I can't show what we've done outside of the movie Cerb and Benny took of us fighting the Timberwolves."

Before Smolder could counter with some other put down, Spike remembered something that could help show her what he was talking about.

"Oh, yeah! That's right! I can show you. Well, not me in particular, but I know who can."

Without any warning, Spike took Smolder by the wrist and dragged her over to Pinkie, who seemed to just be sitting strangely in place, almost begging for something to do.

"Pinkie, I know we’re supposed to be showing all the delegates around, but can I take Smolder to the human embassy?"

Pinkie, still trying to shake her urges, looked to Spike, a twitch in her ear fighting its way through.

"What? Oh?! Umm."

Try as she might, she had no control and was going to cause a scene if she stayed. She needed Spike's help and grabbed him by the face, lifted him up eye to eye, with nothing but desperation to share.

"I left something in my room and need anywhere from five to ten minutes to find it!"

Giving no further explanation, Pinkie dropped Spike and made a mad dash for the stairs, leaving a pink smoke trail in her place.

"Entertain them until I get back and then ask Benny if you can go!"

Just in time to give Spike a reason to stay, Mrs. Cake returned to the counter with his usual, completely missing the sound of Pinkie’s door slamming shut.

“Two Ruby Cherry Jubilee Cupcakes.” She gave a glance towards the new dragoness and then winked at Spike. “With a few extra rubies.”

Just behind Spike, the group knew what they wanted if they only had a few minutes left with him, and Gilda was motivated enough to speak for the rest of them.

“Tell us again about that wicked fireball.”

Not expecting company, Prim made her way to the door and was surprised to see Starlight had made an early appearance.

“Starlight? You’re a bit early. Is everything alright?”

Doing her best to maintain her composure in public, Starlight stood rigid with a large nervous smile, and only her left ear refusing to cooperate, twitching frantically.

“Oooh, everything’s fine. I just needed to talk to you about something before Chris foalsits for us tonight… and I was really hoping you could help me out with… something before our date?”

The scent carried in with the wind was enough to have already told the unprepared pegasus everything she needed to know. Thankfully, she found it kind of cute and happily invited Starlight in.

“Get in here before you create a scene, hun.”

With a great sigh of relief, Starlight happily trotted in, ready to get through the important matters first.

“Okay, so, first things first, Chris told me that it’s important all the foals, at the very least should know that Chris is dating all of us. I’m not sure how you would want to tell Cotton Cloudy about us being with each other and potentially being one big happy family, but it’s better they find out from you instead of somepony else.”

Prim blinked a few times, waiting to see if there was anything else, but if that was it, there wasn’t going to be a problem.

“No worries, Glimmy. My little girl knows that you and I are going out tonight and that she’ll be with Chris for the evening. I didn’t tell her about the rest of us all dating now, but she knows that you and I are seeing Chris at the same time and that… well, I left it at you, and I are friends, but I’m sure once she spends the evening with him, she’ll be fine with everything else.”

Since that only took a brief explanation, she could now start the date early. Wrapping her wing around Starlight’s neck, she started to pull her in the direction of her bedroom.

“Now, how about we get you taken care of so we can enjoy the rest of the evening in the clouds.”

Even if it wasn’t Chris she’d be fooling around with, Starlight had taken a rather strong liking to Prim. While she was certainly attractive for a mare, though still not her preference at the moment, she was sweet and aggressively affectionate.

Of course, there was also the fact that she had no qualms about embracing this new concept of tending to each other’s needs, which Starlight had plenty of at the moment.

“I need this so bad right now. I didn’t want Chris to feel left out, so I started his morning with a blow job. Then he was training with Onyx and… watching him dominate Onyx Armor was so… Oh, you just got to watch him in action, Prim. That alone had me wanting to rut, but that would have ruined our plans for tonight.”

Now in the bedroom, Prim cleared off some laundry from the bed while Starlight watched and continued on with her struggles. Between her frantically twitching ears, and the rapid shaking of her legs, it was taking all of Starlight’s willpower to not just start rubbing one out right there. It would have been a first, but with so many options of partners, it seemed like a waste.

“I went to Cream first, and she was on board since Button already knew she was seeing Chris. Then I went to Red’s to see if Derpy was still there, and they had just finished their lunch date, but they skipped having lunch and-”

With similar needs of her own, Prim let Starlight know that the time for talking was done by pressing their lips together.

That was another thing. None of the other mares could recreate the magic that was a kiss from Chris, but Prim certainly had the passion for it down perfectly.

More than just the passion, the aggression she showed was much like what Starlight usually led with while with Chris. At least now, while alone, they could both stop worrying about holding back and really let themselves go.

The kissing was great, but Starlight needed that aggression focused elsewhere and pulled back with her horn already glowing. Her spell quickly covered the room, granting them the privacy they were going to need for what she was about to request.

“Get on the bed and lay on your back for me. Chris showed me, Red, and Cheerilee something last night that just the two of us can do.”

“Oh?” Prim asked, implementing a cute but seductive tone. “Will I be able to join in next time?”

Starlight smiled drunkenly as she thought about what it would be like with this mare in the mix and was already looking forward to it.

“I would certainly hope so. Though, I wouldn’t mind you being the one on top next time. Maybe even Red can take turns with me, so I don’t get so worn out like I was last night.”

While getting comfy on the bed, Prim giggled as thoughts of what must have happened would have looked like.

“You, me, Red, and Chris? What have you got in store for us now?”

Not able to hold out any longer, Starlight jumped up on the bed and stood over Prim, lining herself up to lay down over her and eyeing her prize with her tongue peaking out of her mouth.

“Imagine you were laying like you are right now on Chris’s chest while he ruts you, then you’ll be licking me out while I lick both of you and him at the same time. For now, though, let’s just enjoy our time together.”

Standing on the table, Spike had quickly gathered a small audience and was doing his best not to embellish on any of his highlights.

"And then I ran up and screamed out as loud as I could. My scream became a mighty roar and a massive green fireball erupted."

He fell on his butt theatrically, recreating his disappointment.

"I thought I had failed in my attempt to help in the fight. It looked like I was going to breathe fire like normal, but it all came out at once in this slow-moving ball of… I didn’t know what it was. It was so different from anything I had ever seen before. But then it kept going, incinerating everything it touched and burning everything that came close to it."

As the audience drew closer, Pinkie returned, looking much calmer and at ease, though with a noticeable coating of sweat. She took a deep breath, relieved and, even in a bakery full of sweets, was enjoying the oddly pleasant scent she still carried while cheerfully talking with herself.

“I wonder if Twilight can find a way for Benny and them to go home if she can bring them back with more single humans. Although, if other ponies are as sweet as me, that could be fun too.”

She licked her lips to confirm her theory, getting mild results, evident by the slight shiver that coursed through her body from snout to tail.

“Might need a little more sugar. Or, maybe a syrup would be better with all the drippies.”

Finally coming into earshot, she could hear Spike’s storytelling getting more lively.

“-in the nick of time, Shining Armor’s shield goes up around us, and then BOOM! Massive flames exploded everywhere! Who knows how many Timberwolves must have been taken out.”

Having been there, and heard the retelling that morning, Pinkie stepped up in the group, ready to move along with the rest of the day and her plans.

“I got what I needed, Spike. You can go now. Have fun with your new friend. Oh! And let Benny know I’d like to talk with him later today. Gotta check up on his progress with my program he’s on.”

Happy to have the chance to finally see the show about all the ponies he knew, Spike jumped down and led the way for Smolder, waving to the rest as he left.

“Sorry, guys. Gotta go, now. I can tell the rest of the story later. Bye!”

With the storyteller out of the picture, along with a chorus of awws from the many listening, Prince Rutherford turned to Pinkie, needing another fix of action and suspense.

“Pinkie! Tell story again of dearly departed party cannons.”

After no response came after knocking on the door for several seconds, Rarity let herself in.

"Hello? Fluttershy? Justin? It's just me. Is everything alright?"

"Upstairs," Cerb’s voice fell down from Fluttershy’s room.

Assuming she knew what had happened, the familiar scent grew only strong until Rarity opened the bedroom door to find what was to be of no surprise. Not even angry, though feeling left out, she stared at the two.

Cerb lounged comfortably against the headboard with Fluttershy still asleep on top of him, his body barely covered by the blanket, confirming his state of undress.

"So… What have you two been up to this morning?"

Cerb grinned and tried to look innocent. The smells of sex and lack of attire sadly making said efforts an utter waste.

"We got really invested in a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. Then things just kinda spiraled out of control from there."

Figuring there was only so much time left in the day for her to privately enjoy each other's company, Rarity kicked the door behind her shut and trotted up, gently joining them on the bed. Now laying flat, her ears wilting back and tail bobbing and twitching, she hoped the visual signs were enough to not make her beg.

"I came to see if you both would like to join me for lunch, though I had also had other aspirations for enjoying our afternoon if you were more horny than hungry."

Cerb gave a soft laugh and helped Fluttershy lay down at his side, which was like moving a rag doll for how out of it she was.

"Well, I can't exactly say no to such a charming request as that."

Rarity giggled for a moment and looked away. Her elegant classy nature on full display to charm her human stud.

"I'm sorry darling, but clearly this morning could only sustain me for so long knowing there would be more of you to have."

She pulled back the covers to take her place but noticed part of him wasn't ready.

"Oh? I suppose this is rather sudden. Is there something you would like me to do to help... get things started?"

Elated with her forward nature, Cerb only smiled and pulled Rarity on top of him. She took this as a request for getting him aroused, taking a seat firmly on his crotch and leaning in for a kiss, but something felt off. So off that Rarity had to pull back and investigate.

"Justin, are you sure you're alright?" She asked, intentionally putting her hooves between them to keep some distance, her previous desire replaced with concern.

For as well as everything had been going, Cerb did have some issues he couldn't fully get a handle on. None of which would likely make sense, even to him.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, looking away from her eyes, his face marked with shame. "I just don't know what I'm supposed to be doing and I hate being laid up like this."

He looked up again and placed his hands around her hooves, a sad smile starting to show through.

"It seems like when I'm with you and Flutters everything just… fits. I can see where I am, what I'm doing, and having both of you next to me, I don't worry about the unknown so much."

Sadly, Rarity was familiar with this setup and was worried about what the catch was.

"Darling, I’m sensing there is a ‘but’ at the end of that sentence?"

Before he could answer, he already started feeling calmer from just talking to her. It didn't remove his concerns, but they didn't feel so heavy on his mind. Everything from his touch to his voice seemed to verify that things were on the rise, in more ways than one, and he could tell she noticed.

"But it feels like when I think about what I don't know, I have no idea what to look out for. I don't know if this is how our life is supposed to be, or if everything so far was only a small sample of what lies ahead."

There was something else, those thoughts just felt like such a terrible thing to say, though he was going to anyway.

"I still don’t feel like things should be this good for me. It doesn't matter how much I want it or the fact that I found an impossible dream and fell in love with it and-”

He choked on his words a little, seeing how much his confession was upsetting Rarity. This was looking to be as challenging for her to hear as it was for him to say.

“Please don’t think this is anything you’re doing or not doing. I don’t know how to live without having something to worry about. Even if I am the thing I’m afraid of the most.”

While she could have found a reason to blame herself, not being able to help was still a terrible feeling to have by itself, her being the Element of Generosity was only making things worse. Now instead of wanting to enjoy herself, all she wanted to do was give Cerb the comfort he needed.

“Justin, dear. You know you have all my support, but if keeping all of us safe is causing you to worry, I’m afraid I don’t know what I can do to help put you at ease.”

It was unfortunate, but there was no easy answer. He knew that but explaining it was going to be difficult. It probably would have been impossible if Sniff hadn’t gone on about his phycology rants in the past.

“Sniff once described it as a learned behavior. It doesn’t matter that I’m not in danger. I spent so much time living in fear that my brain hasn’t allowed me to realize that I don’t need to.”

He started to rub Rarity’s sides as more of those positive feelings she was so good at bringing out came back. Along with his improved mood, a small smile he shared was mirroring back at him, making it too difficult for the vibes in the room to remain so dim.

“It just means that I’m going to lean on you two a lot more. Because, like I said, it’s only when I’m left alone with my thoughts.”

Naturally, Rarity was more than happy with this suggestion. If the solution was more time with her man, then that was something she could easily accommodate. It was the...generous thing to do, after all.

“Well, then. I suppose that just means I’ll have to stick even closer to you.” She turned up her eyes in a posh manner, suddenly speaking highly of herself. “And while I tend to have a rather busy schedule, I suppose I could fit you in throughout the day.”

Joke or not, it got a few good snickers out of Cerb, something Rarity was glad to hear.

“In all seriousness, though, I’m glad to hear that this was all something I could easily help you with. For a moment, I thought the idea of having sex again was the problem.”

That got an even stronger reaction out of Cerb. It was a smirk suddenly had that looked uncharacteristically snide or cocky. It might have been accidental, but it was enough that Rarity’s face looked a little cross, as if insulted.

“Oh, shit,” Cerb humorously lamented. “Not even close. I was actually wishing you were here earlier.”

In one fluid motion, he pushed Rarity’s forelegs out of the way and pulled her back to locking lips and grinding hips. With the combined softness of her body, its heat, her arousal coating his, and that lovely sweetness that filled the air so much more he could taste it, he was ready to go in no time at all.

Rarity pulled back from their kiss, taking deep breaths from her excitement she struggled to catch up with.

“Is your leg well enough to ravish me as brutally as you fight? I know I’m asking for a lot, but I want your brutish nature just as badly as I want your soft and gentle ways of indulging my salacious desires. I want to see what else you can do to me.”

As much as Cerb wanted the same, he knew he’d catch hell from Flutters for hurting himself. Actually, he’d probably catch just as much hell for not waking her up for her chance. Nevertheless, a repeat of what Fluttershy serviced him with earlier was still more than appealing as he thought back to it.

“Unfortunately, I’m not quite there yet, but if Fluttershy was conscious, I’m sure she’d recommend being on top and doing that thing you both do by squeezing and stroking with just your muscles… fucking phenomenal. If you don’t mind staying with it long enough for me to cum, that is.”

Rarity grinned and rose up, taking hold of his member in her aura, lining herself up to take him. All her earlier desires returning with reinforcements, her eyes practically mad with hungry desire.

“I’d love nothing more than having you put a little filly in me, Justin. However, as it stands, simply going through the motions is just as inviting.”

Before she lowered herself down, he gave her horn a playful tap of his finger, reminding her of something she was forgetting.

“I don’t know how close the neighbors live, but knowing you, close enough. Oh, and tonight, I think Flutters would like a little one on one time with you… if you don’t mind me being there for it.”

Casting the spell with ever-increasing ease, Rarity lowered herself, a throaty groan now privately shared only for him, she wasn’t hearing anything that didn’t sound appealing.

“Mmmph… I look forward to it, though I’m sure with you there, we’ll eventually pull you in. In more ways than one.”

She buried him to the base and took a moment to adjust to his girth again. She thought it was a little funny how much the pain only seemed to make the pleasure seem so much more rewarding as the one gave way for the other. Something that came along much stronger with each contraction her body gave.

“Now, then… let’s see how much better I am at this, this time around.”

At an impossibly slow pace, a belch finally escaped Discord’s throat, returning his normal movement of speed. With the relief finally granted, he pounded on his chest with his lion’s paw.

“Oh, my goodness,” he called out with great relief. “I should really cut back on my time intake.”

He looked at one of the flakes of time he had been snacking on, then tossed it to the side.

“Such a tragedy that something so scrumptious takes so long to digest… Really bogs you down.

Now that the effects of digesting a gluttonous meal of time had run its course, Discord raised his left clawed limb to check the time on a watch with no arms or numbers. Somehow, he could read it and was devastated by what he saw.

“I’VE BEEN HERE TEN DAYS?! Fluttershy must be worried sick about me. Missing two tea parties in a row? But I can’t just leave all this-”

He turned and saw just how much, or little, he was able to get done. Then he remembered how boring it was.

“Bah! I could use a break anyway.”

He looked down at a serving where one of his doubles had left a collection of the thousand-year-old Banishment Reserve. He couldn’t just leave it there to go to waste.

“I can’t believe it took me five days to get that out of my system.”

He bent down and started packing as much as he could into a Princess Twilight lunch box.

“If I don’t take it now I’ll never remember to bring it back.”

After a pleasant little nap, Fluttershy woke to Cerb’s bicep and Rarity’s hoof in her line of view. As she started to move to figure out what happened, Cerb noticed she was now awake.

"Sleep well? Oh, and Rarity stopped over."

Fluttershy looked further up to see Rarity passed out on Cerb's chest. That coupled with Cerb’s grin and the scent wafting through the air made it obvious what’d happened while she was asleep.

"I guess she couldn't wait till tonight… or you were awake… Also, you are a deep sleeper. She got loud.”

Quiet happily, Fluttershy smiled and cuddled up next with her two lovers.

“Sorry I missed it. If Rarity got loud, that means she really enjoyed it. Did you?”

Cerb reached out and laid his hand on his pegasus, giving her a loving touch, welcoming her back to the waking world and his company.

“We talked for a bit first, but yes I did, and Rarity is looking forward to some time with you tonight. Also, before she passed out, she said we’re invited to dinner at Twilight’s tonight after drinks at G & O’s. The yaks, dragons, and griffons are visiting and they want me and the rest of us to be there.”

“Mmm, that’s nice,” Fluttershy hummed, still rather tired.

As pleasant as this was, Cerb had been sitting too long and needed to get the feeling back in his legs. A bath wouldn’t hurt, either.

“You think Rarity would mind if we got washed up without her? Not that I'm complaining, but…"

Fluttershy giggled again, knowing all too well what he was talking about.

"I’m sure she'll be fine. We can wash up together after she wakes up,” she said, still floating on cloud nine. “I’d offer to join you, but given how small my tub is, I don’t have the stamina for it with you.”

Cerb gave her a funny look for a moment, but then realized what she meant.

“Oh… yeah. We probably would, wouldn’t we?”

If Fluttershy had the strength with her at the moment, she would have mounted him before the bathwater even started, but there was no need to be greedy.

“You go on ahead and take your time. I’ll rest up a bit more with Rarity, and do you know what time it is?”

Cerb looked over at his watch sitting on the nightstand next to the bed.

“About a quarter after one.”

If that was the case, there was no need to rush for anything and Fluttershy gave into another yawn.

“Okay. Just wake me when you’re done.”

With that, Cerb scooted himself towards the edge of the bed and let Rarity slide off his chest to take his spot on the bed. Leaving the unicorn to ball up and be smothered by Fluttershy, Cerb made his way to the bathroom and started the water in a tub that certainly was only for two ponies to bathe intimately close, or him and one of them with not enough room to thrust from underneath.

Cerb stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, or rather coiled halfway around as it clearly wasn’t designed for someone of his size.

“Swear to god, I need to get this girl some bigger towels… Fuck it.”

With the sad excuse of a drying cloth already past its usefulness, he laid it over the back of a chair by the vanity mirror. He was dry enough to get dressed to the point he could open a window.

Not that he minded the scent of his mares, but for all their sakes, he should have opened the window before the bath. The air was thick with their arousal to the point it was kind of distracting. Perhaps too pleasant would be a better way of putting it.

Unfortunately, before he got that far, he noticed that he had potentially ruined the towel with a little reminder of his time in the Everfree Forest.

“Goddamnit,” he groaned as he saw how much blood he left on the fabric, then to his side to see he had ripped open one of the poorly developed scabs. “Just my fucking luck.”

Making do with what he had available, he MacGyvered together a new bandage out of toilet paper and reused the medical tape from his old bandages.

Despite the admirable attempt, even an amateur would have laughed off his impromptu engineering, but if he hadn’t woken up either of his two mares by cursing, then he wasn’t going to bother them for help with it. Certainly not when they’d hardly be awake enough to keep their eyes open while patching him up.

Unfortunately, now that he was dressed, had the room airing out, he was bored again and left with his thoughts.

Knock-Knock-Knock.

Downstairs, someone was at the door. How convenient that Rarity’s privacy spell kept their noises out, but let other noises in. At least he would have some company.

As he reached the door, he tried to guess who it could be. One of the guys maybe came by to pick him up for something special Twilight was putting on? Becky coming over to check up on him? Pinkie with the delegates and the new royals? It could have been anyone.

The door opened, and he was greeted with a sight he never would have guessed. Much the same, Discord wasn’t expecting what he saw behind the door. Though he looked far less happy about it than Cerb.

“Who are you and where is Fluttershy?” Discord demanded, eyes already glowing red with barely disguised anger.

Knowing little about this character, as well as the havoc, Cerb didn’t know what to expect, but also knew to tread very lightly.

“She’s in bed taking a nap. I take it you must be Discord?”

After being gone for so long, Discord wasn’t about to let this stranger keep him from his favorite pony… so long as he didn’t have to touch whatever this creature in front of him was.

“Of course I’m Discord. Have you seen any other Spirits of Chaos floating around Ponyville? And… well, clearly you’re a human… Though I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one quite like you. Then again, I never thought it was possible for something to survive with your kind of makeup.”

Now there was a statement Cerb thought was worth exploring.

“How many have you seen and how are they different?”

Unfortunately, Discord wasn’t in the mood for a game of twenty questions. He was there for one pony and one pony alone.

“I’ve seen plenty… in passing. But at least they had more than an acorn’s worth of magic for me to work with, you though? Could you make yourself useful and let Fluttershy know I’m here and tell her that I apologize for being so late.”

He sniffed the air coming from the house, quickly growing both disappointed and confused.

“I don’t smell the tea or any of her cucumber and ginger sandwiches. Did she already put everything away?” He folded his arms and huffed. “Ugh. I can’t blame her. I wasn’t here last week and now I’m late today. You know what? I owe it to her to make up for this grave injustice of making her worry about me. I’ll get started on warming up the tea.”

With a snap of his fingers, Discord disappeared, only to have his voice return from inside the kitchen.

“Tell Fluttershy that… wait a minute? Where’s the tea and sandwiches?”

If Chris was right about anything, it was that this Discord character was kind of a dick. Certainly, not one Cerb wanted to mess with.

“Uh, I’ll let her know you’re here. Be right back.”

Quickly rushing back upstairs, Cerb gently nudged Fluttershy to wake her.

“Hey, Flutters? Discord’s here to see you.”

“Hmm?” Fluttershy quietly mumbled before the message had her eyes open wide and a shot of adrenaline had her sit up abruptly. “Oh, shit. I didn’t think he was going to still come over this late. Where is he?”

“In your kitchen,” Cerb flatly answered, pointing in the direction of the stairs. “Chris said you and him are friends. Is that still the case?”

Fluttershy started to roll out of bed, though the adrenalin wasn’t enough to make up for the extra time she was going to need to move on her own.

“Fuck… Could you carry me downstairs, please?”

Taking one slow step at a time, Cerb carried Fluttershy in his arms, careful not to drop her. As expected, this sight was something Discord wasn’t ready or willing to accept. And being Discord, he responded accordingly, now in a doctor’s outfit, standing ready wiht a medical bag.

“Fluttershy! Why is he carrying you?! Are you alright?!”

Not having the time to properly wash up, and still exhausted, Fluttershy blushed with a smile.

“I’m doing more than fine. And he’s carrying me because… umm… let’s just say that sometimes spending time with him can be exhausting, but it’s such a wonderful, lovely, and sometimes arduous time.”

Taking another look at his favorite mare, Discord had to rub his eyes to make sure he was seeing things right. Something had dramatically changed… or maybe not. It was hard to tell. Whatever it was, it would have to wait until after Fluttershy finished her introduction.

“Discord, I’d like you to meet Justin, my new coltfriend.” She looked up to Cerb, cute, but needed confirmation. “Although Sniff said, boyfriend. Which do you prefer.”

Cerb gave a half-hearted shrug as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

“I’m fine either way, although coltfriend would make more sense here.”

“And the next day before the party, we asked him out, and he said yes. Now it’s the three of us as a trio.”

Given how long that conversation was, Cerb needed to stand up again and figured Rarity would have been rested enough by now. Also, Discord had been giving him the evil eye for most of the conversation, and he wanted to put some distance between them.

“Hey, I’m gonna go wake Rarity. We wouldn’t have been able to hear her if she did wake up.”

Fluttershy set her cup down, hoping Rarity would like to join them.

“Please do, I’m sure she would like some tea to share with us.”

There was so much to take in, and even without the visuals, Discord had been stuck on every word. So, as soon as Cerb was away, Discord opened up.

“Fluttershy, my dear, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you. Had I known, I would have turned all of those Timberwolves to balloon animals, or sand, or… I don’t know. I would have thought of something unexpected.”

It was clear that Discord had been concerned for her, but she wanted to hear what he felt about the others.

“You don’t think I’m weird for wanting to be with Justin or… well… I don’t know what you might think about me also being with Rarity. Ponies don’t normally talk about it, but it seems like they don’t talk about it because they don’t like the idea of-”

“I don’t care what other ponies think,” Discord snapped. “And neither should you. Even this new Justin guy thinks the world of you and supports your… Did it have to be Rarity?”

Fluttershy tried not to laugh, knowing he was mostly joking.

“Discord.”

In truth, he was only half-joking, but she was beyond getting talked out of what she had invested herself in, so he could have some fun with it.

“Pinkie would have added a little more chaos in your life. That way you’d never forget about me.”

That time he did make her laugh… The thought bubble above his head, playing out his thoughts like a movie certainly helped.

“I could never forget about you. You know that.”

Despite her honest words to comfort him, he wasn’t done. Evidently, there were a couple of other good choices out there he found tolerable.

“Starlight is better with her magic and so is Twilight. Although with Twilight, you’d end up being a Princess one day.”

She knew he was having fun with this and didn’t want to stop him, but she also wanted him to know how serious she was about her choices.

“It only could have been Rarity, and I don’t need any other pony’s approval to know that. Just like I didn’t need any other pony’s approval of being your friend. They don’t need to understand it for me to still be happy with who I want to keep in my life.”

The sound of a pair of footsteps caught the attention of the pair. At the top of the stairs, a visibly moved Rarity welcomed their guest from Cerb’s arms.

“Discord, where have you been? Out of anyone, we thought you would have loved to see all the chaos our new human friends have been creating in your absence.”

True, some of the stories were entertaining, but he could already tell his time was growing short to be with them.

“I’m sure in due time we’ll have a chance to catch up. Unfortunately, there’s still plenty of work for me to get done. And speaking of that work, Justin. One, you’re welcome. Two, I don’t know if I personally can find you a way home, although since you took care of and protected, not to mention made my very best friend the happiest pony there ever could be, I’ll go as far as I can and offer whatever help I can to Twilight after that. Three… despite everything you both have told me, and all that I’ve seen, I don’t know how The Pony of Shadows managed to bring you here.”

That was a cold confirmation of what they all had already assumed, but being right didn’t make it feel any better hearing it confirmed.

Sadly, there wasn’t much else Discord could offer as support either.

"I may know just about everything, see just about everything… but I have no idea what's all going on with or what happened to bring you here. What I can tell you, and I'll be sure to drop by and tell Twilight the same, The Pony of Shadows more than likely worked alone.”

Come to think of it, he never had a reason to have this conversation with Fluttershy or any of the others. With time almost running out, he figured now was the best time to at least get them pointed in the right direction.

“The Umbrum that were responsible for King Sombra likely didn’t place all their bets on him freeing them. Their Hopeless Magic is the same that turned our adorable Princess Luna into Nightmare Moon. It thrives on the misery of others, and I would wager them to be the most likely responsible for bringing you here. Likely for all the hardships you suffered. Though that would complicate matters as I don't see how The Pony of Shadows would have been able to work with them if he was so weak, being only a fraction of his former self that roamed Equestria after my banishment. The same goes for the rest of him in Limbo.”

He gave a cocky grin, suddenly sounding very proud of himself.

"I do recall hearing stories every so often over the years while imprisoned in stone to make some theories. However, I have no doubt that he was defeated for good after his fight with your friend Benny.”

Needing a visual aid to help explain himself, Discord conjured up a regular baseball and tossed it to Cerb. Once Cerb had it in his hand, Discord was ready for this human to see for himself.

“Justin, my dear boy. If you could do me a favor and try to get angry for me. Anything that annoys you. A tragic childhood memory, an insult you can’t get over…”

Despite Discord’s overprotective attachment to Fluttershy that initially had him starting to plot against Cerb, his opinion had started to change. Given the devotion Cerb had shown in Discord’s absence that had kept her safe, he needed to make sure this human was one he could trust with Fluttershy for himself. And he had just the question to verify his worthiness.

“The thought of anypony trying to hurt our lovely Fluttershy?”

That last thought must have done the trick, as the baseball in Cerb’s hand started to disintegrate and fall apart like a wad of beach sand, crumbling under its own weight. Discord could now allow this new union to continue without his interference.

“Everything in this world is imbued with magic. There are various kinds of course, but you and your other friends, Justin. You are not made of magic. You and everything that likely came from your world are made of Order. Invisible strings that weave together your existence and do not allow for the rapid changes or movement of magic. That is why you are not affected by it and why that ball in your hand is falling apart.”

Discord looked again, feeling the separation with a slight burn from a part of his magic was destroyed.

“That ball is only, as your friend correctly identified after his fight in the Castle of the Two Sisters, a construct of magic. You just being close to it for a while… Okay, the being angry part is a little confusing to me, but while you are angry, that Order emanates outward much stronger than if you were calm and it breaks apart those strings of magic that make it tangible."

For a moment, Cerb felt some clarity. Such a baffling component of their existence now made sense. Then he noticed the ball still crumbling at the same speed, despite his anger fading.

"Hold up. I'm not angry anymore. Why isn't it slowing down?"

Discord squinted his eyes and looked closely at the ball, suddenly pulling a comically large magnifying glass out of thin air.

"Well, now. Isn't that interesting?"

Hearing his own reaction, Discord looked up to see that indeed his audience was waiting for some explanation. However, what he saw left him conflicted and needing to consult with one of the few others he trusted.

"Unfortunately, that’s something that will need some more looking into, but I must be going for now," Discord announced as he stood up. "And Justin, it was very nice to meet you, and I don't say that to just anyone. I also trust that you will take care of Fluttershy for me while I'm gone. Fixing the mess created from your travel here will take a while."

Cerb stood but remembered that shaking hands wasn't going to be an option, making his motions of discarding the ball on a shelf made him look awkward and sloppy. Kind of disappointing not being able to shake hands since Discord had dropped the attitude he originally entered the house with.

"It was nice meeting you too, and I'll be sure to take care of her. She means a lot to me. Both her and Rarity."

While it was good to see Discord again, it was sad for Fluttershy to see him go so suddenly. Now knowing that he would be gone for the foreseeable future, she mustered as much of her strength to slide down from her couch and walk over to give him a proper farewell.

“It was nice to have tea with you again, Discord. And thank you so much for helping as you have.”

Seeing how much she was struggling to stand on her own, Discord leaned down and picked her up, giving her a hug that had been bracing himself for. A hug that was likely to be the last for a long time came with a grunt and a sigh that sounded just as physically painful as it did emotionally.

“It’s not a problem at all, Fluttershy. I may be the lord of all things chaos, but I’m also your friend.”

Ending the hug far sooner than either would have liked, Discord set her down, ready to say goodbye.

Not fast enough, Fluttershy had one more request that would keep in a little bit longer.

“Oh, before you go, could I ask you something… in private?”

Fluttershy started walking towards her front door as if knowing he couldn’t say no, led him outside. A silent nod from her to Cerb and Rarity let them know that everything was fine and they would respect her space.

As soon as they were outside and the door was closed, Fluttershy nervously shuffled her hooves and looked adorable as she tried to work up the courage to ask her question.

“I’m sorry if this comes off as strange, and if it’s not possible, I’ll understand, but... “

She looked up with hope and longing in her loving eyes. If the impossible could ever be made possible, she believed Discord would be the one to make it so.

“Not every human wants to return to their world, and Rarity and I are hoping that Justin will want to stay with us. If he does… would you be able to change whatever it takes to allow Rarity and me to make a real family and allow us to have a foal with Justin? Right now we can’t, but if we could, we could be a real family for him, and that would mean the world to me.”

The thought of it had only occurred to her while explaining how the attraction to Justin first started. She didn’t go into the graphic details or even admit to already having sex, but she assumed Discord knew.

After explaining the physical process of reproduction and how exhausting it was had essentially been an admission of guilt, considering how tired she still was.

“I’m sure some of the other girls might be interested, but I know this is what I want. Even if Justin can’t stay or won’t be able to return, at the very least, Rarity and I plan on staying together and would still want a family of our own. But… is that something you can do?”

Discord felt so many things from her request. He was happy for her finding something that gave her so much joy in life, sad to be losing her, but above all else, worried that he couldn’t.

“I won’t make a promise that I can’t keep, Fluttershy. But when you’re ready, let me know, and I’ll be sure to see what I can do… so long as I can be in the wedding. You’ll owe me that much.”

Unable to control herself, Fluttershy reared up and gave him another hug around his waist.

“Thank you, and of course, you can be part of the wedding. And if you can make it happen, you can count on being our first foals godfather.”

As much as it hurt to let Fluttershy hold him, he never tried to stop her from showing how much appreciation she held for him. Then again, if he was to give her away, Cerb seemed like a creature worthy of her, and he could live with that.

“I look forward to the day you become a wife and a mother, my dearest Fluttershy, but I really must be off. There is much work to be done.”

Fluttershy of course, let go of her embrace around him and stepped back, touched by the single tear he couldn’t hold back for her. Then, without another word, and only the snap of his taloned fingers, he was gone.

As soon as Fluttershy walked back into the house, Rarity wanted to respect Fluttershy’s privacy, but had to ask, "Was everything okay? Is there anything we need to know about?”

What was discussed would be a secret for now, and Fluttershy smiled as she returned to join them on the couch.

“Everything is fine. I just wanted to ask him in private about helping us more in the future. He was happy to do so.”

As she cuddled in with Cerb and Rarity, she hummed happily with the hopes of one day starting a big loving family. A husband and a wife at her side, foals of their own running and flying about their house, a wonderful future to be had was possibly in reach.

“How about we rest a little while longer before we head out? School should be over soon, and I’m sure Sweetie Belle would love to hear about how lucky her big sister is.”

Rarity giggled at the idea, imagining how her sister would react. It was such a warming thought to her heart that she pulled Fluttershy in closer with her and Cerb.

“I’m sure she’ll be delighted. And might I add that the closer we become, the more fantastic it feels to be with you. It’s like all of my senses are experiencing more as I take more of you in.”

Now noticing it as well, Fluttershy leaned in and kissed Rarity, letting their tongues meld momentarily before expanding upon their findings.

“I’d say you get sweeter with every kiss as well.”

A flash of light popped in, and Discord collapsed to what was, for now, the ground. He groaned and cradled every part of him that Fluttershy had touched. All of it hurt like his very essence was melting away in acid.

“Fluttershy… I want to help you,” he croaked out, still writhing in pain. “But how can I help you when I can’t even hold you?”

He had noticed it right away, the strings of magic inside her, breaking down as the Order injected inside her reformed the strings to something different. Making more of itself and breaking down the rest of what made her the pegasus he knew and loved.

“Okay… Okay,” He huffed, slowly recovering from the Chaos Magic of his realm healing him. “She’ll be fine. She’s just tired from the magic drain. Probably not her first time by how well her body is adjusting to Justin’s Order… She’ll be fine.”

Luckily, the limited contact had done minimal damage, and within only a few minutes, he was up and brushing himself off.

“Hmph… Well… At least with these humans around, that shouldn’t change any plans too much. Although, I really should check in with the panicky princess.”

By methods unknown to Sniff, things had escalated so quickly with their combined urges that not only had Twilight not made it out of her skirt, she hadn’t even led him to the shower, but her bed instead. Also, Twilight had managed to talk Sniff out of his clothes, mounted his lap, and was grinding herself into one orgasm after another.

"Peter… I don't know how you can keep this pace up. I can barely… uh. Uh, uhh, uhh-ohh. YES!"

She sat shaking over his rigid member, starting to feel the exhaustion taking hold over the bliss she worked herself into. Although, the pros and cons of having him at her disposal were becoming painfully, wonderfully clear.

After the high faded, she took a moment to catch her breath, knowing she didn't have much time or energy left.

"Peter… I want to keep going to help relieve you, but I have so much more I need to do today. Can you hold out until tonight, and maybe both Ovens and I can take care of you then?”

She could see the look of disappointment on his face, not doing anything for her morale or priorities.

“Or do you need this as badly as I did?”

Sniff knew what he was getting himself into, but was glad to see Twilight could still control herself. All the more promising for the time they had together and the mental restraints he kept on himself.

“I hate to admit it, but Ovens was right about her needing help. I’m not going to interrupt her busy hours for lunch, and the mayor already had me this morning, and I know she’s got work to do.”

Much like Twilight, he had his own set of pros and cons to work through. Having so many mares at his disposal gave him a wide set of options for relieving himself with. However, with his current three, their times of availability was still an issue. That was also on top of how much he was holding himself back, fighting his own insecurities.

“But at the same time, and I trust you enough to talk to you about this... I need to slow down. I’m having a hard time trying to figure out how to balance all these relationships and not have them be just about sex.”

For as amazing he was at this, Twilight slid off of his lap and laid next to him. She had her desires satiated for the time being, and his current needs required dialog, not a physical release.

“I think it’s wonderful that you put so much thought and concern into how you treat us, but don’t forget we want to do the same for you. Especially me, considering how important you’ve become to me. I love how you’re teaching me so much, and I can see why you want to take your time with us.”

She giggled for a moment, watching his dick flex and stand up as she talked about their pace of intimacy, then nuzzled in closer to him, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Had we jumped straight to you rutting me, or fucking me like one of those porno nurses, I would have missed out on everything we’ve done so far. But all the same, teaching me the wonders of what a mutual sexual relationship should be like, I would like to learn more of what I can do to make you feel like I do.”

She raised her hoof and examined it in front of him.

“I don’t have fingers, so I can’t give you a handjob, and I’m not sure how much I can do for you with my hooves. Plus, you said you wanted to wait before we try oral on you. It just seems like such a shame that there isn’t anything else I can do until you’re ready to do more.”

Seeing her hoof as a reminder of her inadequacy, she laid it to rest on his chest and sighed. His rich scent was building the urge of trying to work through the conversation on his lap again, but she could hold it off enough to stay strong for now.

“Is there anything we could do more of? Like we did in the shower? I know you liked rubbing yourself against me, and when I asked you if you wanted to put it in, I asked because it was something I wanted to try.”

That was such an amazing moment the more she thought back to it, making her cuddle in closer again and drape her rear leg over his.

“Then, when you finally came on me, it felt so nice, I couldn’t help but wonder how much better it would feel inside of me. At least more than what little I was lucky enough to get before you pulled out.”

While having an open dialog was good, it was making his desire to hold back much harder. So, despite how horny he still was, and the terrible case of blue balls he was likely to end up with, he turned to face Twilight next to him and wrapped his arms around her.

“Believe me. I want it too. There’s a lot I’ve fantasized about doing and intentionally held off from, actually. Even some other mares I’ve had to distance myself from because of how tempted I was, come to think of it.”

“Really?” Twilight asked, somewhat confused as to why he would even want to put off having sex. “Anything in particular or any pony you can tell me?”

Considering all the “help” Twilight’s offered him already, she didn’t need any more fuel to add to this fire.

“Nothing you won’t learn about later, and no one you need to offer my penis to.”

Entertained as always by his wit, Twilight giggled and rewarded his efforts with a peck on the lips.

“I look forward to finding out, and since you have a pretty nice selection of mares already, are you seeing any of them today before drinks and dinner, and do you have anything in mind for them?”

Sniff did a quick check of his mental calendar, another thing he needed to bring up, but did recall what he had planned, in spite how things had been so rushed since before the party yesterday.

“Well, I’m not gonna lie and say I’m not playing favorites, but after last night and this morning with Mayor Mare, next on my list is Top Shelf. Though, I plan on taking things slow like I did with Mayor Mare after we escorted her home. Tomorrow, I said I’d have lunch with the three florists, and speaking of them, what kind of calendars do you have. None of them knew what Wednesday is.”

Twilight tilted her head.

“A what?”

Lumberman wheeled Applejack in, wondering how long he’d have to wait for Becky to get back. Applejack was thinking the same, but for different reasons.

“I’m just saying, there’s plenty of rooms we could slip into. Twilight wouldn’t mind if I needed to take a nap with you by my side.”

Knowing that wasn’t at all the case, Lumberman wasn’t at all fooled.

“Psh. By your side and between your thighs is what you mean.”

“Ha!” Applejack laughed at being called out. “Thirty minutes, partner. I still got ya on the hook for that.”

From the stairs, one very grainy, groggy, and hungover voice called down.

“Ow… No loud noises, please. My stomach feels like I spent too long in the Dizzitron. And my head feels like that’s what I landed on.”

Judging by the looks of things, and Spitfire's slow descent down the stairs, as well as her symptoms, she needed some hair of the dog. Although, on second thought, maybe just a recovery day, as far as Lumberman was about to suggest.

"Welp, I see three ponies who drank too much," he announced, trying to sound cheerfully apathetic… if that were at all possible.

Fleetfoot was no better, though she looked to hold herself up better.

"One of your friends said, beer before liquor, never been sicker. Liquor before beer, you're in the clear… but what if you go back and forth between the two?"

Lumberman laughed, pretty sure he knew who said it.

"I'm guessing you'd be Benny, since that rule doesn't apply to him for some messed up reason. Anyway, go ahead and take a seat. I'll see if there's anything to snack on for the three of ya and grab some water or coffee if they got it."

Soarin’, slowly bringing up the rear, took his seat and laid his head on the table, looking like he was the worst of the three.

"Losing at beer pong is like winning the battle but losing the war."

Spitfire almost agreed with that assessment, though refrained from nodding to avoid feeling another imaginary spike run through her head.

"Last night was so amazing until everything kept spinning."

Applejack, in the meantime, was jealous and simply going by her annoyed expression, wasn’t going to be silent about it.

"At least you got to drink. I coulda really gone fer some more tequila. Shit, even a beer woulda been nice."

Fleetfoot, likewise, also had a thin case of jealousy.

"At least you're not single."

And to that, Applejack conceded all further complaints.

"Point taken."

With that melodrama out of their systems, the woman they were all waiting to see finally arrived with Rainbow at her side.

"Morning, everypony," Becky greeted the room, eyes scanning the varying faces of those in attendance. "And how are you all feeling this morning?"

Applejack turned and smiled at the friendly face.

"Morning, Becky. I'm not hurting as bad, but muh hooves are still pretty useless. How you doing?"

Before Becky could answer, the Wonderbolts gave a collective answer of groans and sounds of disgust. Not that it stopped Becky from being cordial.

"I'm doing fine, AJ. But, since I have all of you here, might as well do a quick checkup. Wonderbolts, you're all up first."

Thankfully, checking out the Wonderbolts yielded nothing more than the expected dehydration and other consequence of a hangover. Lumberman returning with water and some leftover goodies Spike had stashed from his night at Sugarcube Corner would give them the sustenance they needed to rehydrate and recharge. Along with taking it easy for the rest of the day, that would be all they needed.

With their diagnosis complete, they went back to their room to nap again. However, Lumberman requested a little more privacy for Applejack and carried her up to Becky’s room.

"Okay," Becky sighed, thinking everything was on the up and up. "Let's take a look at those hooves."

With little work to unbind the wraps from Applejack lying on her bed, what Becky saw was promising.

"Wow… the scabbing is complete. And not only is there no sign of infection, it looks like the wounds are already closing up and healing. Completely unreal."

That prognosis was promising, even for only one hoof, but Lumberman wanted Applejack’s anomaly to be looked at.

"That’s good, but I wanted you to take a look at some other swelling."

Becky looked up, a little confused if not surprised.

"Which hoof?"

Knowing what he was referring to, Applejack blushed and lowered the brim of her hat over her eyes.

"It’s... not my hooves."

Given the location, Lumberman thought it best to have a smaller crowd.

"Hey, do you want Dash to step out?"

Any other day, it probably would have been a yes from Applejack. However, there weren’t many she trusted with what was going on, and by the sound of things, Rainbow was one she figured she could count on to help. At the very least, Rainbow would keep looking out for her.

Besides, she was the Element of Loyalty, who better to put ones’ trust in?

"Nah, she can stay. Can't keep everypony in the dark. And Becky, the swelling started before my hooves got messed up."

Now even more curious, Becky started to wonder what else could be wrong. However, her mood made a sudden shift to discomfort as Applejack rolled onto her back and started to spread her legs open. Then, just as fast, it mutated to intrigue as the swelling was noticeable.

"Oh…Are they sore or giving you any discomfort."

Not being helpful, Rainbow noticed the same thing and called it like it was in her usual way. With ally the subtlety and grace of a sledgehammer into a stained glass window.

"AJ? Are you growing a pair of tits?"

Not sure what that meant, Applejack grumbled to herself before glaring at her friend.

"You best not be cracking jokes, Dash."

Becky shot Rainbow a dirty look to hush the blunt mare, but quickly turned her attention back to her patient, finding it hard to argue with her crude assessment.

"Don't mind her, and she's only half-joking if anything… Do you mind if I examine them?"

After another deep breath, Applejack was ready to bite the bullet.

"Yeah… Do what ya gotta do."

There was no joy in what Becky was about to examine, if not outright mentally unpleasant. Yet, she powered forward as sShe carefully explored the expanding lower glands with minimal reaction from the apple pony.

The flesh was soft, yet not any warmer than the surrounding tissue. There was no discoloration or signs of infection. It appeared to be normal growth. That is, of course, if breast on a pony was to be considered normal. She needed a second pair to compare them against.

"Umm… Dash? Can you come sit next to AJ for a second?"

Rainbow went on alert for a moment, not sure why she was getting called out.

"Me? What for?"

Now it was really becoming awkward for Becky.

"Dash, I don't have any hands-on experience to compare her breasts to what might be normal for others. But if you don't want to have me examine you, I can wait until Twilight or someone else gets here to help."

If that was a call to Rainbow’s loyalty and willingness to help her friends, it worked.

"Oh? You should have just said so."

After Rainbow sat next to Applejack, the comparison took less than a minute, leaving Becky stumped and Rainbow a little flustered.

Visually, physically, nothing stood out other than the sizes,. and that could be the result of any other factors.

"I have no idea what to say," Becky explained. "Nothing looks or feels wrong, but it's not like I've been checking out any of the locals to compare this to. They look and feel like normal breasts."

This next question might not go over well, but she needed more to go off of.

"Without getting into any details, have either of you noticed anything out of the ordinary with this new development?"

This was going to be embarrassing, but not so much Lumberman had to hide it.

"Well, when I first started taking care of her, going back as far as the night of their magic exhaustion, I never noticed anything. Not either from the bath or the rubdowns to help her relax. Nothing until yesterday morning."

Thinking back, Applejack had noticed when they first started their expansion.

"I noticed it in the morning I went into the forest before fighting the Timberwolves. They didn't hurt or nothing. More of the opposite, I’d say."

Now for things to really get awkward with Applejack divulging her recent history.

"Then again, it was only a few nights before that, the night of the welcome party, that other changes started happening tuh me."

Oh, the things Becky was about to hear from this confused apple pony. It was honestly making her consider consulting a therapist.

"It started with an ear twitch. Fluttershy and Rarity noticed it and pulled me aside to let me know that… Oh, fuck me, this is embarrassing."

Applejack could see everyone noticed just how uncomfortable this was making her, and understandably so. Even still, she had enough bad luck by not coming forward with her physical issues. Holding back wasn’t looking like a good option.

"I was already in love with Lumberman at that point, even if a bit in denial of it. But apparently, my body was ready to start a family with ‘em, even if we can't on account of biology 'er something."

If this was going where Becky thought it was going, one thing quickly came to mind that would put that idea into the debunked category real fast.

"Did you two have sex that night?" Becky asked, doing her best not to sound anything but professional.

Sadly, despite the professional approach, Lumberman couldn't help but feel a little insulted, though he hid it very well.

"No, we did not. She was drunk and just wanted a belly rub before going to sleep."

Applejack immediately nodded, visibly red and embarrassed, but could see the jump in conclusions.

"I think my body wanted to, but I didn't know how that worked until yesterday. And if it helps, we still ain't done it. But I brought this up because that night, Fluttershy explained to me that I felt that way because my body was ready to start a family. So… maybe that’s related?"

In hindsight, if that was to be taken literally, maybe it was helpful information after all. It certainly gave Becky a good theory to work with.

"Oh… I guess. If that's how your bodies work, enlarged breast tissue could either be a biological response to help attract a mate-"

Saying that out loud came off sounding wrong, and she immediately caught herself. Ponies or not, explaining things like a National Geographic special would easily be taken as an insult.

"I mean, your body’s response to look more attractive for Lumberman. That, or since you can't get pregnant, maybe your body is still thinking it can and is getting ready so you could start breastfeeding after giving birth."

Despite the scientific explanation, Applejack turned and looked up to Lumberman, the explanation utterly lost on her.

"Could you put that in some kinda Ponish I can understand?"

Lumberman snickered for a moment but started to nod.

"Yeah, I can. Just not right now. Let's get the rest of your hooves looked at first. And Becks…Thank you."

Still lying in her bed, after looking over her notes and adding a few more lines with details, Trixie closed her book and groaned.

“Arg… if this is over, what am I still doing here? Starlight has taken my spot of being the one to fuck Chris, and so has everypony else; what am I even needed for?"

She rolled over on her belly, which thankfully had settled enough that it didn't leave her dry heaving. There was still so much of this on her mind.

"I don’t get it. I wasn’t even gone two weeks, and practically everypony is gaga over these humans. I guess I see the attraction to Cerb and Sniff, but this Chris isn't even that cute."

She thought about it a little more. Maybe it wasn't the looks that had them so attracted.

"They all do seem really nice, and there is the added power they all get, but I don't think they realize that… Not unless they're keeping it a secret, but that wouldn't explain why Starlight is sharing Chris with so many others. Certainly the only explanation I can think to explain that."

After laying in bed this long, she figured enough time had passed and was tired of thinking about all of it. The sooner she could explain things to Twilight, the sooner she could be out of there.

So, not able to sleep, and anxious to leave, she made her way to Twilight’s study. Of course, as soon as she opened the door, what she saw only made her day worse.

"Discord?!"

The Spirit of Chaos lay lounging in a hammock, held up with only one end tied to a hook suspended in midair. His arrival couldn’t have been any less appreciated by this magician.

“Oh! Oh, my gosh! I wish I knew those human curse words so I could curse you right now!”

Discord held a bemused look as he lowered his shades and sipped from a coconut.

“Well, well. If it isn’t little miss third-tear reformed villainess, Trixie. If you don’t mind, I’ve been waiting for Twilight so I can-”

Re-adjusting his eyes, he noticed something entirely out of place and unseen by Trixie. The sight made him yelp, removing his gag props and cower behind the nearest desk. Funny enough, despite his fear, he didn’t lose his sense of humor.

“My goodness, Trixie. I know Fluttershy has been busy with her future human husband, but how many humans have you been with?”

Knowing full well what was being implied, Trixie stomped her hoof and charged her horn.

“Trixie has done no such thing, you jerk! But does Trixie ever have a bone to pick with you! We might not be friends, but why did you leave me in that terrible dream place with the Echos?!”

Thoroughly confused, Discord popped his head up a little more in search for some clarity.

"Left you in a dream? Clearly, you have me confused with Luna. And as fun as it can be to go gallivanting in a pony’s dreams, I have to assume your interactions with the humans wouldn't allow me to do so."

"Trixie saw you there," she angrily grumbled. "You opened your little portal, looked around, talking about all the different magic around you. Then you pulled out my hair and said I was hopeless!"

While not always too quick to pick up on the subtleties of those he toyed with, that was too specific for Discord to not put it all together. Unfortunately, what he was putting together wasn't sitting well with him, prompting him to rise from behind the desk.

"And just exactly… where... were you when I pulled your hair? Because this is the first we’ve met, let alone me ever seeing you.."

"What?!" Trixie yelled, only further enraged. "You looked right at me!"

If what Discord was looking at in front of him was a sign of things to come, he knew he had to fix things fast. Not without getting more information first.

“Yes-yes-yes. I know that’s what you think, but just where were you, exactly? Because if what I pulled out of that dimension was your hair, then you and I weren’t necessarily in the same place. It also most certainly wasn’t the dream realm for either of us.”

“Where was I?” Trixie scoffed. “You wanna know where I was? Here!”

In one fell swoop, Trixie reached into her cape, pulled out her journal, and chucked it at Discord’s head.

He caught it with little effort, forming a hand from his beard, and started to flip through the pages, speed reading at an impossible rate. It took no more than five seconds, and he was done but wasn’t exactly sure how to proceed with what poor writing skills Trixie had used to record her experiences.

“Well… Should I file this book under fiction or is there a section lower than garbage to dump this in?”

Everything on Trixie’s face said she was about ready to burst into a series of violent acts, but Discord could dissuade that mentality away from her.

“Trixie, you dear, sweet, silly filly. You certainly have been through a lot, but if you haven’t noticed, none of this matches up.”

Trixie didn’t soften her anger, and she might not have fully trusted Discord but was curious nonetheless.

“What do you mean? The Darkness? The Pony of Shadows? The humans? It all matches up. The only thing that’s different is that Starlight and the others were allowed to be with their humans, and I didn’t stick around to screw things up.”

Falling back into his humor driven practices, Discord floated up and a Zen-like pose, ten book-sized human-shaped cutouts floating around him.

“These Echoes, you wrote about. They called for ten humans to be brought to Equestria by Celestia, but there are only seven delivered by you and-”

He flipped the book open again, pretending to be entertained by the writings as he looked over pages. Above him, he let three of the cutouts fall away to keep the demonstration lively.

“Did this Trixie Rose tell you why her Harmony was a rose and not a tree, or how she managed to hijack a spell you botched?”

For all the questions she could have asked, those were probably the ones she should have brought up.

“No...”

With Trixie’s convictions evaporating, Discord floated overhead and continued to break down the drama.

“Also, I think your alter-self must have been very confused about how these humans work. They’re not vulnerable to magic. They’re practically immune to it, in fact. That big one, Justin, he can shrug off magical attacks better than I can. Oh? And this whole nonsense of the power of humans making you stronger, it actually is the very opposite of what you thought.”

Closing the book and dropping on the nearest desk, Discord rearranged the seven cutouts of humans and arranged them in a straight line. Above each human figure, a series of symbols appeared above their heads.

“Light, Darkness, Friendship, Love, Chaos, my favorite, obviously. Then Hopeless… and Order. There are, of course, many others, but I’m talking about what matters to you ponies for now. Oh! And only one of these actually applies to humans.”

In a puff of magic smoke, all but one of the crude cardboard cutouts turned to four pony shaped cutouts, plus two more she wasn’t familiar with. To make it easier for Trixie to understand, he lowered all his props in a circle for her to see.

The one in the center was without a doubt Pinkie. Around Pinkie’s shape, just above to the left had to be Cerb, being how it had Fluttershy’s cutie mark over his chest.

To Cerb’s right, was some kind of royal unicorn with a red horn, robe, and metal greeves over its legs, but also with a creepy purple aura paint behind its eyes.

Below Cerb had to be Twilight, opposite the corner of Fluttershy. At the bottom of the circle was Applejack, the stetson hat giving her cutout away. Then a larger stallion with an apple cutie mark… Big Mac, maybe?

Finally having the proper props in order, he lowered the lowest two cutouts and brought them towards the front. Applejacks had two light-colored lines that waved a flow with each other while Big Mac’s had two black lines with a dark aura around them that waved against each other.

“Light and Darkness, as I’m sure you know, are the opposite of each other but are still very much the same in many regards. Raw and unrefined, they bolster great strength from start to finish but offer nothing special except for working against each other. And don’t believe all the hype about dark magic. It can just as easily be used to create nightmares as it can be used to remove them from the Dream Realm, for example.”

The pony cutout of Starlight drew to the front with two golden straight lines with a rainbow aura radiating around them. The other cutout with Fluttershy’s big, beautiful eyes came next to it with two intersecting red lines with a pink and purple aura glowing around them, presented in the same fashion.

“Friendship and Love are basically two peas in a pod. Their refined forms of both the Light and Darkness. Both are very potent and more versatile than Light and Darkness, but much harder to control and maintain. Unlike the Light or Darkness magics, Friendship and Love, refined or not, can become something much more dangerous if the pony using them isn’t feeling friendly or loving. Pleasant or malicious, light and darkness won’t change. However, all four can be easily altered.”

The two were lowered, and Pinkie’s cutout came into view. Above her, was what looked like an infinity symbol, but the loops on either side were elongated and tilted off-center. Its lines were black with an off-yellow, almost green, aura.

“Chaos is unlike all the others, as it can alter the properties of the other magic types I mentioned, but it can’t be refined or turned into another form of magic, baring one exception.”

The Chaos cutout suddenly burst into a bright pink color and floated out of view with three balloons that carried it away overhead.

With only one pony cutouts remaining, the menacing unicorn cutout was brought front and center. A dark orb that didn’t move but seemed to draw in the light and color around it seemed fitting for the pony it was paired with.

“Hopeless Magic is dangerous, but not too hard to find here. What shouldn’t be here is Order. Something our new human friends seem to have brought with them, and is the polar opposite of Hopeless Magic, but can do the same thing, only… in much different ways.”

The other pony cutouts returned over the Hopeless symbol as Discord continued to explain.

“Hopeless Magic is dangerous because it corrupts and devours other types of magic, making them it’s own.”

The other five magic symbols were removed from their cutouts and were absorbed by the black sphere, making it grow larger. Just as quickly as it reached its max size, it disappeared in a puff of smoke, with a cutout of Nightmare Moon in its place.

“While I sadly wasn’t around to see the destruction caused by Nightmare Moon, as short lived both of her events were, I can tell that Hopeless Magic was used to corrupt our cute little Luna into such an entertaining terror.”

He conjured the cutout of King Sombra again, and a large black unicorn mare with Rarity’s diamonds cutie mark next to Nightmare Moon’s.

“Strange how Darkness and Love are so much easier to corrupt with Hopeless Magic while Light and Friendship can just as easily fall into chaos.”

A closing curtain fell over the dark, villainous figures, then raised to show the first five magic symbols over a human cutout that was unmistakably supposed to be Cerb. Far different than the other examples, there was a complex structure of lines that looked like a hexagon-cube above the cutout. There was a line running down the center of it, allowing the ridged strings to converge and fold in on itself in a repeating process.

“Order, on the other hand,” He paused and chuckled before pointing towards the human’s hands. “See? Because they have hands?”

Trixie rolled her eyes and groaned, disappointing Discord from yet another pony not getting his jokes.

“Oh, you’re no better than Twilight,” Discord complained but went on with his display. “Order is much stronger than any form of magic because of how it’s structured. And what it does, is force the other strings of magic to conform to its design.”

To make his point easier to understand, the other symbols flowed into the top of the Order symbol and came out the bottom as more hexagonal cubes of Order. Except for Chaos, which came out in pieces, making Discord frown.

“Hmm… well, Chaos, much like myself, can’t interact with Order. The strings of Chaos can’t be broken and still function. Or just the strings at least. Not sure how well a pony would fare since they’re not a construct and have a body to hold them together.”

Despite being educational, and certainly cutting down all the theories Trixie had, she had to ask, “So… what does that have to do with my notes?”

Discord grinned, removing the cutouts, then held out an apple in his eagle claws.

“Let’s just say that your dreams were telling you how things taste in feet.”

He held open his dragon’s paw to reveal mini versions of Chris and the other Trixie making out.

“When really, they were supposed to tell you how things feel in meters.”

Understandably, Trixie’s anger spiked at the insult, and Discord had one last jab to get in.

"What I’m saying, humans can have sex with anyone they want without marriage and don’t have to get pregnant if they don’t want to. And ponies rutting a human won't get them pregnant, no matter how much they might wish it would. Instead, they just like the way it feels and don't care how much it wears them out."

Making things as clear as he could, Discord flashed away in a small burst of light, reappearing in his hammock again. Now with a bigger coconut in his claws and an even larger shit-eating grin, he was ready to send Trixie away.

“In other words, this Trixie Rose of yours showed you the problems she had, not the problems you have. And just like trying to make a big, powerful spell on your own, you had no idea what you were looking at.”

After a shortlived erotic encounter and a quick shower, Twilight was chatting it up with Sniff on the way to her study.

“We did skip lunch. Which is kind of funny considering how much more you could have eaten. Emph… I would have loved to have kept you eating long after our shower. It might be better than the finger-food this morning.”

Sniff laughed along with the jokes, a little surprised at what else happened in the short time they had. Plus, Twilight was getting a lot better with her puns.

“Yeah, yeah. You got yours, but I could seriously use your help tonight. Right now, it’s just you and Ovens that I think are ready for more. At least the two I feel the most comfortable with.”

Already looking forward to it but not wanting him to have to wait, Twilight didn’t think Sniff needed to limit himself.

“If you end up having some fun while you’re out, I’d love to know about it. You shouldn’t restrict yourself so much, and I’ll understand if you can’t wait. Though, I’m sure Ovens and I would love some more time with you tonight, regardless. I’m only going to get hornier as the day goes by.”

Continuing on, the two finally came into view of the study, looking like a truly loving couple. Twilight, specifically, was positively glowing from the added attention she received in the shower. Thankfully, both were just far enough back to miss getting hit when Trixie all but knocked the door to the study off its hinges as she stomped her way out.

“Oops!” Twilight blurted loudly, now trying to look innocent after she thought Trixie must have heard. “I mean… Ohh… Trixie is here. I mean, already.”

Seeing the terrible display of Twilight trying not to look like she wasn’t, in fact, trying to hide what she was talking about, Trixie rolled her eyes and continued away from the study.

“I could care less about Sniff fucking you and your friends, Twilight. I doubt anything you accidentally say in front of me will be worse than this hangover I woke up with or anything else that’s happened today. We’ll talk later. I’m in no mood right now.”

Watching Trixie storm off, Twilight sulked with a heavy sigh. The feeling of putting her own selfish desires in front of her obligations to others wasn’t very becoming of her.

That, or she needed to learn better privacy spells.

“Goddamnit… Should I even try to keep what we do private?” She looked up at Sniff, genuinely asking for advice. “I kind of suck at trying to censor myself or lie about it.”

While it was true, Sniff didn’t want either of them to dwell on it. From what he remembered from Chris, Trixie was essentially a walking punching bag and a living joke. Even still, she was kind of growing on him.

“Maybe it’s better just not to comment on it. If anyone asks, just tell them that our personal relationship isn’t something you’re going to talk about. Besides… It’s none of their fucking business.”

Slowly, Twilight forced a grin despite her less than stellar mood.

“Phrasing?”

That was reaching for the joke to work, but cute all the same. At least enough for Sniff to show his appreciation with a kiss. That seemed to be what she needed to get over the slip-up, and he figured he’d give her a good send-off.

“You know what I mean, Twi. And while our relationship shouldn’t be news for everyone, you’re also a princess and have to protect your image. So… just do what you think is right.”

That sounded reasonable enough, and Twilight took it to heart, cheering up as her appreciation for Sniff grew stronger.

“You’re right… and so smart. Oh, and could you tell the others about dinner tonight? I don’t know if Applejack will be up for joining us, and I think both Chris and Starlight have plans, but it would be nice to have as many of us together. I just hope Italian Stallion doesn’t mind catering here and us borrowing Top Shelf again.”

She only now realized how much the ponies in town had been pulled away from work to help with one human-related event or another. Sure, two were parties, but they all still have bills to pay.

“Do you think we’re taking advantage of them for as much as we seem to utilize their time and labor?”

Sniff shrugged, not showing any concern over it. It was something he had taken into consideration, as well, but already had things worked out.

"Nah, not really. We've always compensated them more than enough. Besides, I doubt Grapes and Olives could accommodate all of our guests, the guards, and they certainly shouldn't have to risk any of the collateral damage of having them all together."

All good points Twilight was happy to have reaffirmed.

"You know, if you don't start fucking up or feeding me bad advice, I'm going to start thinking you're too good to be true."

Sniff grinned, knowing how much of a problem he was for her. Even if he did love the praise, he wasn’t going to let Twilight put him on a pedestal.

"Oh yeah. It's been nothing but clear sailings with me since I showed up? Not counting everything before the last two days."

Carelessly throwing her head back, Twilight laughed at how true that was. However, now that they were dating, she knew he deserved so much more than what he had been given. The fact he never tried to take advantage of that only made her want to love on him even more. Starting with one more kiss.

She reared up and pulled Sniff into a deep passionate embrace, letting him know what he had to look forward to after dinner. Such a kiss was playing with fire. It wouldn’t take much more to have her pulling him back to her bedroom, and she had to end it sooner than she wanted to.

“Swift Sails is standing by for you, downstairs. I’m going to catch up with Pinkie and the other delegates to go over more boring shit, so I can free up some more time for you and Ovens this evening. Aaaaand tonight starts my first day as Pretty Pretty Princess Twiggels Twinkles, so that’s going to be annoying. But, I look forward to seeing how well you adapt to something bigger than what Mayor Mare was wearing last night.”

Not giving Sniff a chance to kiss her back and tempt her into waiting until after dinner to help put her into a sex induced coma, Twilight dropped down to all fours and started towards her study.

“See you tonight, Peter.”

After a quick readjustment of his pants, Sniff cleared his throat and collected himself.

“Let me know if you need a hand getting through the day, Twigs. But we’re definitely on for tonight… Or sooner if you feel like skipping drinks or dinner.”

After parting ways with Sniff, Twilight returned to her study to grab a few things. Backing her way inside to see him off, she waited until he was out of view to close the door, not expecting to already have a visitor waiting for her. A visitor with a voice she had been waiting to hear from for days.

"Oh, dear. It was seem even the ever-faithful savior of friendship has fallen to the charms of a human."

Twilight looked around the room, knowing who was there, and eager to finally talk to him again.

"Discord? Where have you been?"

Not wanting to stay long, Discord swiveled around in a large executive chair. His expression was one of regret.

"I've been busy fixing what I now know was more than anything I ever could have imagined Trixie could screw up on her own. I also seem to have lost track of time while away and missed all the excitement."

He raised his eyes, looking for some hop or at least something to ease his mind.

"These humans… Do you trust them? Not just the one you've clearly been spending some... quality time with. All of them. More precisely, Justin."

With a string of questions like that, Twilight didn't know whether to be embarrassed or concerned.

"Cerberus? I mean, Justin. Of course, I trust him. I trust all of them just as much as I trust Peter. Why?"

At that moment, she noticed something all too familiar in his sad eyes. The same look she saw with Pinkie. Why was it only now she could see it?

"Oh… Discord… I'm sorry… Did Fluttershy know?"

"Hush now, Twilight," Discord politely requested as he turned up his nose. "Clearly you are the smartest pony of the bunch, but you clearly-"

"You went and saw her first," Twilight interrupted his speech of denial. "I can… Well, Cerb has a very unique scent, as well as Fluttershy when she…”

There was no mistaking it. Even just the faintest trace of both of those scents, as well as Rarity’s, Discord had visited her. Then, clearly knowing what these new relationships had led to, Discord had to know how involved with Cerb Fluttershy had become, making him miss his chance to have her just like Pinkie was too late with Benny.

“I’m sorry, but I can smell them on you, and I'm guessing you must know now what I do if you know that I’ve been with Peter."

With no real reason to deny it, Discord sulked as his pupils turned to heart shapes that shattered. Tears started to fall as he accepted how things were.

"I've never really believed in true love. Sure, we can love things, find passions in our pastimes, or enjoy spending time with those who make us feel… the way she made me feel that changed how I felt about not having friends. Maybe one day having something more."

In a sudden snap, he flashed out and reappeared behind Twilight. His body now looking massively muscular as he flexed.

"Not to worry though. I can be just as big and strong as Justin or any other human."

Comically, and maybe not even intentional, his left butt cheek popped, deflating the blowup bodysuit began with a long wheeze. With it, his strong persona seemed to be leaving along with all his hot air, literally and figuratively.

“Well, maybe not as strong as him. He could destroy me like Benny did to The Pony of Shadows. A very tragic story by the way, but if they can survive horrors like the ones Fluttershy told me about, and you trust them, I won’t have to worry about having to leave like I’m going to.”

He looked down again with a grin at Twilight. It was a grin that didn’t mask the hardship he wanted to joke his way through.

“Oh, by the way, I had a long chat with Fluttershy and Justin. Sadly, I don’t have the time to go over everything with you that I went over with them. Be sure to talk to them about what they know now.”

“Wait,” Twilight called out before Discord could snap his fingers. “How long will you be gone? How do we get ahold of you if we need your help? Can we still use the summoning spell if we need to?”

Discord frowned as if she had asked him some terrible question. Perhaps she knew more about his intentions to leave than he gave her credit for. He knew he had to leave, and coming back might take a very, very long time. Yet, he had stayed long enough. It wasn’t his fault he couldn’t find Twilight earlier.

“Twilight, the space between dimensions is still in tatters, and I wasn’t joking when I said that terrible things could find their way through. And besides… I told Fluttershy I would fix the damage, and I will not let her down again. So, I’ll be gone for as long as it takes.”

He pulled back slightly, realizing he might have come off a little more angry than he intended, and softened his tone.

“I'm the only one capable of fixing this. So, if the humans need a way home, even if Fluttershy wants Justin to stay, I still need to go because the damage will only get worse in time… I'm sorry, Twilight, but this is where you need me. So be sure to keep Peter, and Justin, and all the others close to you and each other. If they really were sent here to cause your demise, they are now the key to your salvation.”

Seeing the desperation in her eyes, he could see all the plans for her going up in flames if she thought she needed him. All he could do was remind her of what she already knew.

“Don’t look at me like that, Twilight. Smile… and put some of that faith Peter has in you to good use. It’s where I’d put mine.”

Without another word, and a snap of his fingers, Discord was gone.

So... Is Ember on the prowl? That could be dangerous for a lot of parties involved.

Still... kinda funny seeing her get flustered so easily and all her goofy interactions trying to make up excuses.

Meanwhile, Chris is starting to realize just how dangerous even a handshake can be. Just the same, Pinkie is realizing how dangerous even a hug can be. And even if Thunder Glide is clueless, she noticed that Pinkie was acting inappropriately... or... maybe she just doesn't really know how Pinkie rolls.

Just as clueless, maybe, Spike seems to have earned an admirer.

A little later, Pinkie is getting really adventurous with herself, but at least she has some control over it.

Making a visit over to Prim's, Starlight lucked out and made it safely over to see her date for the night, just to skip straight to the long kiss goodnight.

Over at Fluttershy's, Cerb is dealing better, but clearly has his cooping methods on lock. More on that in a bit.

Now... I really hope you didn't think I forgot about Discord. Turns out, eating time reeeeeeealy bogged him down.

At least he pulled out of his slowed down state just in time to miss his morning Tuesday Tea with Fluttershy. (That took some planning on my part to have these days all lineup.) Although... Discord knows what a Tuesday is? Odd...

Regardless, this was the big event. Not just Discord coming face to face with Cerb, but finally some insight for Cerb and the others to understand why their interactions with certain forms of magic happen the way they do.

What he should have told them was all the Order affecting Fluttershy. It would have helped her to under why sex wears her out so fast... also would have let her know that Discord's magic wouldn't be able to allow her to bear a foal if Cerb order would undo any magic he used to alter her with.

Aaaaaaaaaaand holy shit, Twilight. Not sure if that was her simply working her sexy magic, or Sniff just got her so worked up that even he couldn't resist.

Regardless, had she not been fucking around, she probably would have picked up the same run-down Trixie got. Instead, she was told to get the rundown from Fluttershy, not Trixie.

Where do things go from here? Guess you'll have to wait and see next week in: