Author's Notes:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/160Ij8YKYmf-LClx8cXfwFroUdLhJ7CCndUSGE1saod8/edit

Spending some quality time as Twilight’s sex toy helped me forget the horrors in store for me upon waking. My memory was refreshed as soon as I opened my eyes and beheld a massive grinning golden dragoness who was staring right at me. I couldn’t stop myself from flinching, but instead of trying to run like a normal person, I did my best to grin and say, “Good morning.”

“And a good night as well,” she said with a terrifying giggle. “Well, if the whimpers, moans, and wetting yourself were any indication…”

Oh right. That. “I… I had some… nice dreams,” I said, trying my hardest not to blush and failing pretty miserably.

“Dreaming about your handsome husband, hm?” she asked, almost sounding… coquettish.

“N-no, I’m not… I’m not in a relationship.”

She gasped and I immediately realized I fucked up. “WE HAVE TO FIND YOU A HUSBAND!”

Thankfully, I was saved by the sound of a clearing throat. “Have you already forgotten, my lady?” a giant female dragon asked. That stopped Tintaglia in her tracks and gave me time to finally look around. Unfortunately, it was just the three of us.

“Does she have to go so soon?” Tintaglia sighed.

“I’m afraid so, my lady,” the dragoness replied.

Holy shit, am I finally free? I started to sit up, but the giant gold lady placed her claw on my chest and pressed me right back down. “My precious little hatchling isn’t going anywhere without breakfast,” she said with a nod.

“Lord Pyrite was quite insistent…” the chick said, her ear spines quivering.

“I’m not hungry,” I quickly said, struggling against Tintaglia’s grasp.

“Regardless, you need to eat,” my… mother said, finally grabbing me and carrying me back over to the pile of gems. The other dragoness sighed and followed, though she did her best to stay at a distance. I just resigned myself to dealing with it, happy that I’d finally be free. She set me down in front of the pile and started poking over it. “How are you feeling this morning, sweetie?” she asked. “Do you want… Oh, what were they…” She looked over a few of them again before sighing and shaking her head. “Oooh, I just can’t remember their names anymore.” She looked at them for a few more moments before smiling and looking back at me. “Do you want red, blue, or green, honey?”

“...I wouldn’t mind a sapphire.”

She blinked before looking at the gems in her claws. She stared at them for a few seconds before looking at the other chick for a hint. That dragoness just stared back, obviously not interested. Finally, Tintaglia dropped all the gems in her claw and stared at the pile for a moment, mouthing the word ‘sapphire’ over and over.

Finally, she tenderly reached a claw out and grasped the largest sapphire I could see, a chunk about the size of one of my claws. She held it up to me with a smile. I slowly took it in my claws. “Thank you, mommy,” I said. That made her smile grow even more. The dragoness that was watching just snorted as I finally ate.

When I finished it, I sat up to finally try to go, but she pushed me back down. “What next, dear?” she asked, her eyes glittering.

Before I could reply, the other chick sighed and said, “Lord Pyrite really needs to see this… Ugh, his sister, my lady. Right. Now.”

“Well, he can just wait,” Tintaglia said, glaring at her. “You can either go tell him yourself or wait for one of the others to come back.”

“They did come back, my lady. Hours ago. One of them was pretty badly singed. He’s…” Her eyes moved around the cave for a moment before rolling and fixing back on Tintaglia. “He’s lonely and dearly misses his little sister. He would… Ugh, quite like to see her again.”

“Well… I can’t stand in the way of a big brother, even if he is my son…” She sighed and eyed me for a moment again before snagging another gem from the pile and staring at it. “I think this is… ruby?” She held it up for me. “For the walk to your brother, my lovely little daughter,” she said.

I took the ruby she offered with a grin. “Thank you, mommy. I’ll uh… come back to see you later.”

The other dragon chick snorted and muttered, “Don’t count on it.”

Thankfully, Tintaglia didn’t notice. She pulled me into a hug that I hastily returned, trying not to drop the ruby. I wasn’t hungry, but I wanted to be able to leave as soon as possible. She hugged me for five minutes. Finally, the other chick cleared her throat again, which made Tintaglia finally set me back down. “Next time you come visit, you should bring my grandhatchlings!”

“Momma, I… The next time you see me, I’m not gonna be a dragon. You know that, right?”

She waved a claw. “Oh, fire. Why would that matter? I’ll love you no matter who or what you are, dear! You saved my one and only son, so I made you my one and only daughter as repayment!” Her claws came together for a moment before she used one of them to pierce the palm of her other, drawing a small amount of blood. She placed the bleeding palm on my forehead. “You are now of my blood, daughter. I will love you for all of time.”

“I… I love you too, Tintaglia,” I cautiously lied. I knew the crazy old lady didn’t want to hurt me, but if she so much as touched my human body, she might break bones. I’d have to be extremely careful if Pyrite ever actually forced me to visit her and I’d have to take extra care with my daughters if they came as well.

She pulled her palm away and then tugged a loose scale out to hand to me. “To remember me by,” she said with a warm grin.

“I definitely won’t forget,” I said, taking it in the claw that didn’t have the ruby. I had no idea where I would keep it until I could dump it on the ship, but I’d manage. It would basically be a badge identifying myself as Tintaglia’s daughter if I ever needed it, though I was really hoping the need would never arise.

Still though, there’s nothing quite like having an ancient, twenty thousand year old massive dragon that loves you on your side. If I ever did decide to overthrow Celestia, I’d be keeping Tintaglia in my thoughts. Even if she couldn’t get out of her prison, she could send a lot of help my way.

Once I had that in claw, she gently picked me up and started slowly walking toward the entrance of her cavern. When we got there, she stared at me for a few long moments before pulling me in and kissing me on the cheek. She finally set me back down on my feet and patted me on my head.

The other dragon grabbed one of my arms and started dragging me away, but Tintaglia grabbed my tail before we could get far and said, “One more thing, while I’m thinking about it…”

The chick holding my arm sighed in disgust and let me go so I could turn to look at my ‘mother’. She was rummaging in a pile of treasure near her. It took her a moment to find what she was looking for. When she did, she pulled it out with a gasp. Once she moved it close enough, I realized it was a necklace with Rarity’s cutie mark on it. “This was part of Bahamut’s hoard. Since you helped heal my son, I believe you should get part of it. And as my daughter, I’m bequeathing this to you.”

“...Thank you, mommy,” I quietly replied, taking the element of generosity. She smiled ever so sweetly and ran a claw across my cheek, then finally pulled away. The other chick grabbed my arm and started dragging me back off again. I let her because I honestly wanted to get away as quickly as possible and never look back.

That said, I couldn’t stop myself. Before we were too far away, I finally did look back. Tintaglia’s crazy eyes were honed in on me, watching my every motion.

I had a feeling I would be getting a lot of letters from Pyrite asking me to come visit.

Once we were out of view of the cave, the chick finally dropped my claw and then smacked the ruby out of my claw. “I don’t know what you did to her, but you’re nothing. You’re nobody. She may call you kin, but you will never be a dragon. You will never be a sister.”

“I know. I never wanted any of this. I never asked her to adopt me and I never asked to be a prisoner here. I’m sorry that it didn’t work out so well for you guys, but I’m not to blame.”

She snorted a blast of steam. “So you say, outsider. But another outsider visited a few hours ago. An outsider that slapped Pyrite in the face. He told Pyrite to kill you and those watery freaks on the island to the south. Enjoy the warmth of Tintaglia’s love while it lasts. You’re on the way to the executioner.”

That stopped me in my tracks. “What?!”

“You heard me. A visitor more powerful than anything we’ve ever seen ordered Pyrite to kill you. He’s sent a dozen messengers to come get you. Tintaglia wouldn’t let them wake you up. I’ve heard he’s been considering ripping the mountain apart to get you himself. He’s going to tear you apart and we’re all going to watch. And then we’re going to burn Canterlot to the ground. It will be glorious! Now continue walking or you will be dragged.”

I did so, numbly. What she said… floored me. I barely took in the dark grins of all the female dragons around us as we walked further away from Tintaglia. At the time, I found myself wondering if I could make it back to her lair and if she could protect me. I also wondered if that kind of life would be worth living, because there’s no way anyone could teleport me back if I was still a dragon and rescuing me would be impossible. As we walked, I realized it wouldn’t matter. The instant I stopped moving or cried out, they’d surround me and either kill me themselves or drag me to Pyrite.

The only person I knew who was powerful enough to order Pyrite around and wanted me dead was Discord. What I couldn’t understand is why he would make Pyrite do it instead of just doing it himself. Maybe that’s how the sick bastard got his kicks. That just seemed like such a waste, though. He had been putting all of his pieces in order. What made him finally decide to end it?

That’s when I realized that I just decided to overthrow Celestia. I don’t know if it was possible for him to watch my dreams or not, but if so, he might want to prevent me from ruining any of his longer running plans. Still though, that wouldn’t mean he couldn’t just kill me himself. Something had to have changed, something I didn’t understand yet.

Something I would never have the chance to understand, given that I was about to die.

I found myself clutching the necklace Tintaglia gave me and thinking about Taya instead. It was nicer than thinking about… my impending demise. Though I couldn’t help but wonder how she would take said demise. I guess it would give her the willpower to fight on against Discord, not that it would do me much good. Any remnant of a soul or afterlife I might have had was going to be eternal suffering, so it didn’t mean much.

It wasn’t surprising that I missed the entire walk up to the lava pool. My mind was completely consumed and I didn’t even realize we were there until my escort forced me to stop. It was then that I noticed that we picked up several guards. They were all male dragons my size or larger and they were eyeing me with… hunger in their eyes.

That’s when I remembered that dragons occasionally raped people to death. I started shivering uncontrollably as one of them flew off to get Pyrite. He was sitting on his throne, smoke billowing from his mouth. When the guard finally got to him, he roared and leapt off his obsidian chair and into the lava, sending waves of boiling hot rock across the cavern. He started sprinting toward me, the thick magma barely impeding his movement. Once he was close enough, I realized he had three new scars on his face. One was still leaking blood.

He stopped directly in front of us, drenching us with magma. It felt like a burst of hot water. Then he grabbed me with his claw and wrenched me off the ground. “Who are you?” he hissed, his eyes narrowing. “What are you?!”

“I’m… I’m Navarone.”

His grip tightened and his eyes widened, though his pupils shrank to slits. “If you lie to me again, you will die choking on your own blood! What is your name?!”

“A-Anonymous!”

He dropped me and fell to his ass, sending waves of lava everywhere. “I don’t believe it…” he said. I picked myself off the ground and looked at him. His eyes were fixed on the ground, though they were unfocused. “I truly… How?”

“What’s going on?” I slowly asked.

His eyes honed back in on me. “I was visited by the demon, Anonymous. The demon. I didn’t realize it at first because I couldn’t believe he’d have the audacity to show himself now. But he did. And he told me to kill you. He offered me the world. The entire world, and all I had to do was kill you to get it. A demon powerful enough to do this to me,” he said, poking at one of his new wounds. “And all he asked is that I kill you and the elementals.”

“...If you’re taking votes, I’m gonna say you probably shouldn’t side with the guy who killed your father.”

He stared at me for several long, uncomfortable seconds before saying, “That demon can go back to Tartarus where he belongs.” He stood back up and stared down at me. “I want to know why that demon wanted you dead, human. Why is something so powerful that he can beat me, even now, afraid of you?”

“Strength won’t beat this guy, Pyrite. You can punch him or slash him or burn him all you want. Your rage just makes him stronger. He… It is the personification of conflict, a being of magic that grows stronger when there is fighting in the world. If you killed me and took revenge upon Celestia, you would fuel thousands of years of misery and conflict that would make him powerful enough to rule for ages. That isn’t the way to beat him.”

“...What is? I would do anything to defeat the demon that killed my father and drove my mother to her darkness.”

“Peace,” I replied. “Part of what I’ve been doing while traveling around the world is righting wrongs. Making the world a better place. He put Celestia in power after he beat the alicorns and she sealed him in stone. She’s started going downhill from stress and things are getting out of her control. He’s free and I’m trying to kill him. If you really want him to die, you should help me.”

“...You and Spike are free to go,” he quietly said. All the dragons around us gasped. He fixed one of them with a glare and said, “Go fetch the hatchling.” That guard groaned and left to do his bidding. Pyrite looked back at me. “I will promise you no aid, but I ask that you keep me informed. I will stay my hordes… for the moment.” He looked at another one of them and said, “Fly to the island on the south coast. Inform the… elementals that they are welcome in my home. For now.” His eyes found me again and he asked, “Will they need any sign from you that it is safe?”

“Tell the one named Brook that Anonymous is waiting for her,” I said. The dragon took off without another word, though I imagine he was bemoaning the fact that he was actually having to do work.

Pyrite swept his gaze over the rest of them and said, “This… person may not be a dragon, but she has helped me. She cured my mind. And she is the archenemy of the one who cast me down. If I find out that any of you intend to harm her or the ponies without my permission, you will die. Dismissed.” They walked away, muttering and occasionally looking back to glare at me. “All of the eggs have been returned, human. Every single one was accounted for and have been returned to their respective parents.”

“...Even Spike?” I asked.

He grabbed me again and started walking back to his throne. He wasn’t rough or anything, so I just rode it out until he was settled and he held me up. “Every egg was accounted for,” he said. “Every egg. Spike was not on the list and no parents are missing him. His egg was never reported missing, as far as I can tell.”

“So… What? Are you saying his egg just fucking appeared in Canterlot one day?”

He massaged his temple for a moment before very slowly saying, “He is Bahamut’s son, Navarone. Bahamut intended to sell him into slavery. That’s what started this whole mess to begin with! I wouldn’t be surprised if Celestia hatched his egg on purpose so she could have Bahamut’s heir on her side, living proof of what he had done.”

Jesus Christ. “Have you told him yet?”

“No, I have not. If you choose to tell him, I advise you tell him to keep it to himself. Bahamut is not popular here and his son would not be well-received, even if the son was an unwanted accident sold into slavery. As it is, the old bastard still hasn’t woken up. Now that the demon has come to declare you his enemy, I’ll believe you when you say that he never will. I will leave it up to you to decide if you want to tell Spike or not.”

“You better fucking believe I’m gonna tell him. He’s wanted to know his whole life. The answer won’t be what he likes, but that doesn’t mean he won’t wanna know.”

“That is fair. Speak to me again before you depart, human. Until you are ready to leave, return to the caves. Spike should join you soon.”

I jumped off his claw, slowly flying back to the caves. My mind was racing and my body felt numb. Coming off the adrenaline high to end all adrenaline highs can do that, I suppose. Not to mention getting told that I’m apparently the archenemy of the thing that killed my entire race, of course. Oh, and finding out that one of my best friends was an unwanted child sold into slavery by a man I basically killed.

I hit the ground with a heavy thud and just sat down, staring into space until Spike got to me.

As soon as he saw me, he shot across the cave to hug me around the neck. It sounded like he was both laughing and crying. I couldn’t stop myself from hugging him back, holding him tightly. It felt very nice to touch someone who actually cared about me and wasn’t either horrifyingly insane or trying to hurt me.

For what might have been the first time ever, Spike let me go first and pushed me back. “What happened to you, Nav?” he softly asked. Sure enough, it looked like he had been crying. After a moment, I realized I had been as well. This has been a really, really bad trip.

“A whole lot of horrible bullshit,” I just as softly replied. “I’ll tell you about it when we get home. I know who your father is, Spike.”

His eyes lit up and he smiled. “Really?!”

I very gently picked him up and set him down on the ground. “Do you know how this whole mess started, Spike?” I asked.

“Who’s my dad, Nav?”

“Humor me, Spike. Please.”

He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Celestia found out that Bahamut was selling his eggs. Luna caught him, Reginald confronted him, yada yada, the ponies got one dragon egg every ten years. Who’s my dad?!”

“...Bahamut was selling one egg, Spike. One.” He stared at me for a few very long and uncomfortable seconds.

He finally hung his head. “I wanna go home, Nav…”

I hugged him close. “Me too, Spike. I’m sorry for everything that’s happened.”

“I’m… I’m sorry for dragging you into all of this. If I… If I hadn’t come, you could have done this quickly and already been back home… I put you in danger for… for nothing.”

I pushed him away and stared him dead in the eye. “I did this for you, Spike. And you aren’t nothing to me. Now you know where you came from. Now you know your past. It isn’t a good one. It isn’t nice. It isn’t pretty. But you know it. You’re better than that, Spike.”

His eyes fell and he said, “No, I’m not. All I did was drag you down on this trip, Nav. All I’ve ever done was slow you down. Maybe I should have just stayed in Canterlot with Celestia…”

I shook my head. “No, Spike. We didn’t go through all of this together so you could be Celestia’s pet dragon. I don’t want you to be her tool. I don’t want you to be Bahamut’s tool. I don’t want you to be Pyrite’s tool. I want you to be you, Spike. I did all of this so you could find yourself. This wasn’t for nothing. You aren’t nothing. You may have been unwanted, but you have a place now. You may have been sold into slavery once, but you’re worth more to me than any amount of money. You’ll be by my side as long as you want to be.”

He was silent for almost a minute before his eyes tenderly met mine again. “I… think I know what I want to be, Nav,” he said.

“Then tell me, so I can help you make it happen,” I said with a grin.

“I wanna be like you,” he said. With that, he leapt up and hugged me again.

It… stunned me and I honestly didn’t know what to say. After a few awkward seconds, I patted his back and said, “Then uh… I guess I’ll try to teach you.” That just made him start laughing.

That’s how the elementals found us, about two hours later. I was completely exhausted and wasn’t interested in moving and he had nowhere to be, so we were both just chilling in front of the lava lake. My mind was too exhausted to talk and he was too busy just thinking.

Neither of us really noticed the elementals were coming until all of them were just suddenly there. “You’ve been crying,” Flo said, her face slowly elongating to move closer to us.

“It’s been a long, painful trip,” I dully replied. “Please, rescue Char so we can just fucking go home.”

“Would you care to talk, first?” Brook asked. Her eyes flashed pink, so I think she was trying to be comforting.

“No, I just want to go home,” I said.

Brook sighed and Flo used a watery tendril to wipe my face. That done, the sisters all converged around the edge of the lava pool and combined their bodies.

“It will be nice to finally be free,” Char said in my mind. “I am grateful to you, Navarone. Or is it Anonymous?”

For some reason, my mind flashed back to the conversation Brook and I had a few nights ago. What Pyrite said only made me think even more. Finally, I came to some manner of conclusion, even if it wasn’t a conclusion that I liked. Anonymous may have been Discord’s archenemy, but that was ages ago. He was dead. I was… something else. Something different. And maybe the world needed a different approach, even if I wasn’t sure what it was yet.

It’s Navarone. And you’re welcome, Char.

“Hm. I will be vacating your body once I am released. I apologize for the intrusion.”

I thought fire elementals didn’t apologize.

“This one does,” he replied. “I was isolated on this island for a very long time before I was trapped in this mountain, Navarone. I am different from many fire elementals, not that you have many to compare me to at the moment. I am not afraid to admit mistakes, apologize, or show gratitude.”

I would have replied to that, but I heard a few giggles in my ear before someone sang, “Naaaa-aaavi!” Then I felt a small burst of wind caressing my ears, followed by more giggling. “You’ve been a busy little bee, haven’t you?” Aerie asked. “I heard you made a few lizards unhappy. You’ll have to tell me all the details!”

“I might, once we get back to Canterlot,” I replied. “At the moment, I’m too exhausted to think straight.”

“Hmm… Too exhausted to think straight, you say?” With that, I felt a few gentle brushes of wind… elsewhere on my body. “You never have to think straight when I’m around, silly! Not anymore…”

“I thought you were only interested in fire elementals. And Spike.” That made the little dragon huddling against me flinch, but he didn’t say anything.

“Well, I wouldn’t mind showing appreciation to the one who’s giving me two wonderful fire elementals to toy with. We have quite a long flight back, after all.”

“...I’ll think about it,” I cautiously replied. At the moment, I honestly wasn’t that interested in sex. I didn’t know if it was because I was too tired or if I had been a dragon for so long that my new hormones were finally in order. Either way, the thought didn’t really appeal to me.

“I shall await your permission,” she said, her voice tickling my ears and making me shiver. “Oooh, here he comes!”

Spike and I looked back to the group of water elementals, who had finally shot a large tendril of water into the magma, sending steam flying everywhere. As we watched, it quickly withdrew from the lake. Once it was out, I realized Char was clinging to it with one of his hands. The water elementals slowly lifted him out of the magma like a crane.

Where Blaze was tall and fairly thin, Char was short and bulky. He was slightly taller than Celestia and about as thick as the naga. His horns curved down and around his head. One of his claws was clutching a long whip of fire that dangled into the lava as the waters moved him over to land. His eyes stared me down until his two legs hit the ground. It looked like he was covered mostly in armor made of rock. Fire was flaring out of all the seams in the armor.

Once he was down, he released the water elementals and summoned another weapon, a brutal looking shotel. He cracked the whip against the ground and swung his sword twice before grinning and making them disappear. That done, he walked over to me and held out a hand. “You have my gratitude, Navarone,” he said.

I took that hand with my claw and found myself forced off the ground and into a hug. All the water elementals gasped and a few of them moved forward as though to assist, but thankfully they all realized I was a dragon and he wasn’t interested in hurting me. I felt a small flicker of heat in one of my ears as Char left my mind. Once he was out, he released the hug and backed away.

“So, shall we depart?” he asked with a smile.

“I need to talk to Pyrite first,” I said. “I don’t know what he wanted, but I can’t just blow him off.” His dick would be way too big for that. “The water elementals can ferry you to the top of the volcano and I should be able to fly you back to Equestria.”

“I’m looking forward to riding you,” he replied. That made Flo turn bright green.

Brook slid forward before Flo could say anything. “We can easily ferry you back, cousin,” she said. “In fact, we could likely ferry all three of you back. It’s not a long trip and you would be much lighter than a full boat.”

“I’ve been underground for too long,” I said. “I wanna stretch my wings.”

“And I’ve longed to fly for a while,” Char said. “It would be remiss of me to reject Nav’s offer.”

“...So be it,” Brook said, lowering her head for a moment. “Then we will ferry you to the top and begin traveling to Equestria. Navarone, when you are ready to talk, we will be at the bottom of Canterlot’s waterfall.”

“Then I’ll find you there,” I said. “Spike, go with them. I’ll meet you at the top.”

“Do I have to?” he groaned.

“Yes.” He sighed and I spread my wings. I had time to see a pink Mist scooting toward Char, a big grin on her face. He had already been warned about her, so I just took off and flew toward the middle of the magma lake. Pyrite watched me fly toward him with an unreadable expression on his face.

He held up a claw when I got close and I landed on it. “So you have rescued the one who held my mind hostage,” he rumbled.

“Yes, we did,” I replied.

“Peace will be an… interesting thing,” he said. “As is being alone in my head once more.”

“I know dragons crave battle and whatnot, but surely you guys get tired of it all. And if it means killing Discord, I’d say it’s worth it.”

“Perhaps. That demon is an ancient thing. A powerful thing. Having it on my side might be valuable.”

“...Chrysalis made the same choice, you know. He offered her everything she ever wanted, then delivered in the most horrifying way possible. She regrets her choice to this day, over six thousand years later.”

“Hmm. I’ve never been one to make deals with devils. Especially one who murdered my kin. Do you truly believe you can beat it?”

“I really hope so,” I said. “It’s been a long time coming, that’s for damn sure.”

“Then I will choose to believe in you. For now. Spike has been taught how to send and receive messages to and from any dragon or unicorn. If I have need of your knowledge or your presence, I will send a notice through him. I will try to avoid wasting your time, as long as you are using it to defeat that monster.”

“I don’t know how much more knowledge of mine you need, but okay.”

“Likely very little. Reginald is currently getting his cave in order for an extended absence. He will be returning here and filling me in on much of what I missed since the birth of Equestria. One of the things he told me is that you possess an airship. If I request your presence again, you may bring it, though your crew will stay on board until you leave.”

“...Are you only going to request me for your mother?”

“Our mother. Remember that, human. She has claimed you as her own. And likely. I might have a task or two that I need done outside of Iceland that a dragon cannot do. You would be rewarded handsomely if you choose to assist.”

Oh boy, more side quests. “Okay.”

He stared at me for several long seconds. I stared right back. He finally said, “You healed my mind and you helped rid me of an ancient enemy. You helped unite Iceland. You spit in the eye of the most powerful demon in existence, one who threatens all life. Thank you.”

That feels a little hollow, given that you spent a few days torturing me first. “It’s what I do, I suppose,” I replied.

“Then I am looking forward to hearing about more of your deeds. Return now to Equestria, human. I will call on you in time.”

I didn’t waste time replying and just took off, finally flying out of that smoky and disgusting volcano. The air gradually became more clear as I got closer to the surface until I crested the top and beheld a single pink water elemental, Char, and Spike. I landed next to the three of them.

“So who’s ready to go home?” I asked.

“I think I’m fine right here,” Mist said, reaching a tendril out to stroke Char’s side.

He eyed her for a moment before looking back to me. “Mist has been telling me about Canterlot,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing it.”

“And I really want to talk to my m—Celestia,” Spike said. “I’m ready when you are.”

“You can play with Char all you want in Canterlot,” I told Mist. “Now go on, shoo.”

She giggled and stroked his face, creating a small amount of steam, before taking off down the mountain. I slowly looked at Char. For some reason, he was grinning. “I do not share my brother’s distaste for water elementals either, Navarone,” he said. “They are very different, but they were created to be very different. It is through no fault of their own. They have some good points and some bad. I will choose to make my own judgments about the ones you have found.” Blaze snorted in my mind.

“Hey man, you do you,” I said with a shrug. “How’s Aerie taking it?”

“I already have one fire to play with,” she said. “I don’t mind sharing the other one with that wet hussy. Especially since I have the one she really wants already.”

Well alrighty then. “Whatever. Let’s go.” Char walked over and carefully sat on my back. He barely weighed me down at all, which might have had something to do with being made up mostly of fire. Spike and I took off and I quickly felt an extra blast of air under my wings, propelling us forward much faster than we could normally go. I had a feeling that with the extra speed boost Aerie was giving us, we could probably make it to Canterlot before night. I was really looking forward to being back in my own body again, even if it was disfigured.

The wind in my ears made talking impossible. Aerie caressed me in every way she could, but she kept it as nonsexual as possible for me. Spike was blushing up a storm for the first hour of flight, so I had a feeling she was caressing him in a few lewd places. I’d be willing to try things with her later, but only after I had some time to recuperate from that hellish place.

After several hours of flying, we finally hit the Equestrian coast with about two hours to sunset. The angle we were flying at put us right over a large coastal city. We flew over it and got to watch them try to scramble a flight of pegasus guards before we passed the city entirely. That made me wonder about Equestria’s combat readiness, but it didn’t really concern me.

About half an hour after we hit the coast, we found ourselves at Canterlot, where it was currently snowing. I thought about landing back on the mountainside and letting Twilight and Taya come to me again, but in the end, I decided a… flashier approach would be more fun. So instead of landing well outside the city to avoid freaking anyone out, I landed right in front of the palace with what looked like a large fire demon on my back. Spike touched down next to me, looking a little concerned.

Given that we almost immediately got surrounded by guards, I could understand that a little. “Hello, everyone,” I politely said. “Would someone be willing to send a message to Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia for me?”

“...Who’s asking?” the guard with the fanciest helmet asked.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to answer. Celestia herself came trotting out of the palace with a large smile on her face. “Welcome back, Spike,” she said. “Guards, there’s no need for alarm.”

Char finally slid off my back and I stretched my wings as the guards cautiously backed off. “I don’t even get a hello?” I asked with a small grin.

Celestia fixed me with a very cold stare. “Twilight will be notified of your arrival.” Her eyes became warm again as they moved back to Spike. “I would like to talk to you, my son. Please, come with me.”

Spike didn’t move. “I think I’ll wait for Twilight to turn Nav back, actually.”

That made Celestia’s eyes narrow very slightly. “After such a long journey, you’d prefer to stand out here in the snow?” she asked. “Come along and I’ll get some hot cocoa brewing.”

“I’m plenty warm,” Spike replied, crossing his arms.

Her teeth subtly clenched for a moment before she let out a small sigh. “Very well.” She trotted forward to hug him, at least. He didn’t hug her back. “It’s good to see you safe, Spike. Join me in the throne room when you are ready to speak.” After a few long and awkward seconds of him just standing there, she slowly let go. She eyed me for a moment before looking at Char. “Hello, Char. I am Princess Celestia. Welcome to Canterlot.”

He actually bowed, though it wasn’t a very deep one. “Greetings, Princess. I ask permission to stay here until Navarone returns to his journey.”

“You have it,” she said with a nod. “If you would care to join me, I can lead you to where Blaze is currently staying.”

He looked over at me. “Do you require my presence for anything, Navarone?” he asked.

“Not at the moment,” I said.

His gaze moved back to the big horse. “Very well, Princess.”

“Right this way, then,” she happily said before trotting off. Two of the guards joined her and the rest went back to their normal positions. Char followed her into the palace.

Once they were both inside, Spike let out a deep breath. “I don’t think she’s very happy right now,” he said.

“I’d wager you’re correct,” I replied. “Aerie, are you still here?”

“I am indeed, my lovely dragoness.”

“Would you mind finding Twilight and asking her to join us?” I asked.

“As you wish, though after that I shall join Blaze once more.” She floated away, singing softly. I sat on the tiled ground, doing my best to get comfortable.

“So now what?” Spike asked.

“Now I get turned back and go hug my daughter,” I said. “And you can go talk to your mother.”

“Um. W-without you?”

“Dude, I get the feeling she really doesn’t want to see me right now. And I also know she wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. That said, if you want to borrow my ring, you can. Just don’t wear it for any longer than necessary.”

He clacked his claws together a few times and his ears started twitching, but he didn’t say anything.

We didn’t have to wait too terribly long for Twilight to show up. That was good, because we attracted a lot of attention by landing in the city and a few private citizens were eyeing us from the safety of the gates with curiosity. Twilight trotted out of the palace with a smile on her face and walked right up to Spike to hug him. He hugged her back.

“Man, he’s getting all the hugs today,” I said with a sigh.

“You can wait your turn,” Twilight said, gently swatting my side with magic. Thankfully, my turn came right after that, though she could only hug one of my legs. I patted her back with the other one. Once that was done, she backed away and looked me up and down, then stared at what I still had clutched in one of my claws. “So you found the element of generosity,” she said.

“Yep. Bahamut had it, apparently. Discord also showed up, told Pyrite to kill me, and smacked him around when he refused.”

Her eyebrows lifted for a moment before her eyes turned blue. “You should have informed us of this,” Aqua said.

“The last time I gave you news that you didn’t like, you beat the shit out of me. Until you learn not to shoot the messenger, I ain’t gonna tell you shit in person.”

“Are you still mad about that?” she asked.

“Uh. Yeah?”

“Tch. Get over it.”

Before I could tell her to go fuck herself, her eyes went back to purple. That didn’t stop me, though. “Go fuck yourself, Aqua.”

“She told me to stick my tongue out at you,” Twilight said. “But I’m not gonna.”

“Good. I don’t reckon you could turn me back now, could you?”

Her horn lit up and two things appeared. One was a bag with clothes in it and the other was the alicorn amulet. “It’s a good thing I got this back last night,” she said, slipping it on. “Celestia confiscated it when she… Well, never mind. Are you ready?”

“Yep.”

Her eyes closed and her horn lit up. A burst of red light hit me. A few seconds went by and her eyes clenched shut tighter. Then she grimaced and lifted a hoof to her head. Finally, I heard something crack and looked down to see the tiles under her hooves breaking. What would have been my eyebrows lifted and she finally groaned and a huge burst of energy smacked me dead in the face.

It threw me back five meters and sent my human body rolling. I ended up on my naked stomach, smoking slightly. When I achingly looked up, Twilight was on the ground and Spike was kneeling next to her, concern on his face.

She blinked a few times before slowly getting to her feet and looking at me. When she did, her mouth dropped and she lifted a hoof to her face. That made Spike look up as well and he gasped. I looked down at my arms and my chest and saw nothing wrong. Then I looked back.

“...Twilight, why do I still have a FUCKING TAIL?!”

“I… I… I don’t…”

I finally pushed myself the rest of the way off the ground and got a better look at it. It was about a meter long, not terribly thick dragon tail sticking out of my lower back, right above my ass. One of my hands slowly caressed it, just to see if it was really there. Sure enough, I felt the smooth white scales under my fingers.

My eyes very slowly found Twilight’s eyes again. “Can you fix this?”

“I… I don’t know…”

Rage instantly burned into my mind, but I calmed myself quickly. I’ve spent enough time being angry. I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Give me my clothes, Twilight,” I said as calmly as I could.

“Nav…”

I looked at Spike instead. He gulped and tossed me the bag of clothes. I opened it and started getting dressed. My shirt hiked up a little around the tail and my pants wouldn’t pull up all the way, but at least I was fully clothed. With that done, I spread my wings and took off toward the ship. Unfortunately, my feet were immediately grabbed by magic and Twilight floated me back down.

“Nav, I’m sorry!” Twilight said, running forward to hug me.

I slowly hugged her back, patting her mane softly. “It’s okay, Twilight. Try to fix it if you can,” I quietly replied. “If you can’t… It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not,” she whispered.

You’re right, it’s not. “It’s something I’ll come to accept. Take some time and rest. Do a little research. See what you can find.”

She took a deep breath before finally letting it out and releasing me. “Okay. Okay, I can do this.” She finally reached up to her neck and pulled the alicorn amulet off. “I’ll go back to my lab and start looking right away. Will you be on the ship?”

I took a moment to look back at my dangling tail. It was just barely hitting the ground. “Yeah.” My wings spread again and I looked back at her. “Homecoming’s a bitch.”

She weakly smiled. “So much for my luck, huh? I think you can keep it…”

“Maybe for now,” I said. “I’ll see you later, Twilight.”

She sighed and nodded. I finally took off again, flying up to the ship. My… my tail made flying weird and kept throwing me even more off balance, though it wasn’t enough to make me fall.

“You could try cutting it off,” Blaze finally said. “Though I imagine it would grow back in time. Especially if I was in you.”

I’m not allowed to have nice things. I figured you would have realized that by now.

“True.”

The ship was docked at the palace, so it wasn’t a very long flight. It was snowing and cold as fuck besides, so the deck was abandoned. I slipped below quickly and went straight to my room, where I found Taya wearing my largest shirt and cuddled up in my bed, reading.

She looked up at me with wide eyes before smiling and trying to jump out of bed. She failed and face planted because she was completely covered in blankets. I tossed Tintaglia’s large scale and the element of generosity aside so I could walk over and pick her up, then fall into bed with her. Her filly body was very soft and she smelled like blueberries for some reason, so I cuddled her as tightly as I could while laying on my side. I didn’t want her to see the tail just yet because it would make her stop hugging me for a while.

“I missed you,” I sighed into her head, before kissing her hair.

“I missed you too, mommy,” she replied. She couldn’t hug me back since she was trapped in the blankets, but she still tried to snuggle closer. “Did you have fun?”

“No. I do have some good news, though. You have a new grandmother.”

“Um. What?”

“It comes with some bad news, I’m afraid. She’s a twenty thousand year old completely batshit crazy dragon who’s trapped underground.”

“Um. What?”

I started telling her the majority of what happened, leaving out a few minor details here and there and all of what happened in dreams. She didn’t get to find out that Pyrite tortured me or that I murdered a dude and trapped his soul. But for the most part, she got the whole story.

By the time I had finished, she managed to twist and turn enough to get her legs out of the blankets so she could hug me back. “You always have so much fun without me,” she sighed, actually sounding disappointed.

“I almost died. Several times. And I almost got raped. A few times. And I got tortured. A bunch of times. How’s that fun?”

“As often as you talk about playing dress-up, I figured getting to be a dress-up doll would make up for the rest.”

“Taya, I am not above dressing you up like the prettiest little filly ever and taking you shopping.”

She fell silent for a few seconds before saying, “I’m glad you’re back, mommy…”

“I’m glad I’m back too. Although I do have a little bit more bad news, I’m afraid.” I swung my tail into view. “Twilight fucked up and left me with this.”

She gasped and placed her hooves on my body and pushed herself up to get a better look. “You have a tail!”

“Oh, is that what that is? I thought I just had a really big tape-worm sticking out my ass.”

“...Gross.” She hopped the rest of the way off the bed and gently batted it with a hoof. I let her toy with it for a few moments. “And you can control it like normal?”

“So far, yeah.”

“And you can feel everything?”

“Yep, though it’s pretty muted because of the scales.”

“Huh.” She stopped poking it and gently pulled on it with magic. “So what are you gonna do with it?”

“Twilight’s looking into ways to get rid of it now. If she can’t, I guess I’ll have one more thing making me a freakish abomination of nature.”

“Daddy, it hurts when you call yourself that. You know that, right?”

“Hurts who?” I asked, finally spinning over and accidentally smacking her in the face with the tail. It also hit the wall behind me before settling down against my legs.

“Me,” she quietly replied while rubbing her nose. “It hurts me to know you hate yourself so much. It… it hurts me to know you think you don’t belong, even now…”

Well I mean, I literally don’t belong, but… I sighed and reached out to pull her into me again. Unfortunately, she backed away from my grasping hands. “Taya, I have to cope with all of this somehow. That’s part of how I do it. I’m sorry I’m not happy about all the forced changes my body has been through.”

She slapped a hoof against the floor. “You don’t have to be happy! But just because you don’t like what’s happened doesn’t mean you don’t belong anyway. You’re a hero! A noble! You’re one of the most powerful people on the planet. And… And you’re my mommy. I could never love a freakish abomination of nature, but… I love you, mommy. And I’ll always love you, no matter what happens!”

I sighed and withdrew my arms. “I’ve hated myself and considered myself an outsider for so long that returning to the fold won’t be easy.”

“You do the impossible all the time. I believe in you!”

I slowly held my arms out again. She walked forward with a grin and hugged me. I leaned in to kiss her on the head, right behind her horn. “You mean everything to me, Taya,” I whispered. For some reason, that made her giggle. “I’ll learn to fit in for you.”

“Good!”

“Now why are you wearing my shirt?” I finally asked.

“...It was cold.”

“You have your own clothes.”

“Yeah but… They don’t smell like you!”

Great, now I’m going to have to clean her hair out of another shirt. I reached down to her back and started peeling it off. Once I did, I realized she was also wearing a pair of my panties for some reason, though they barely fit her. “And these?” I asked as she let me pull the shirt off.

That made her blush like crazy and she used magic to pull them down. “N-no reason!”

“Uh huh.” Note to self, wash those extra hard. “Well, if you’re still cold, come on up,” I said, scooting back and patting the bed next to me. She joined me with a smile, though the blush was still there. I threw the blanket over the two of us and cuddled her. “It’s good to be home,” I happily sighed.

She grunted softly in reply before hugging me back.

I woke up well before she did, of course. After carefully extricating myself from the bed, I grabbed a towel and went to take a much needed and very hot shower. That’s when I was unfortunately reminded that I had a tail. It stuck out of the shower at almost every angle I tried, but I managed to get clean without splashing too much water everywhere.

Once that was done, I got dried off as best I could and walked back to my room, though I had to leave my top uncovered because the tail was still in the way. That meant when I ran into Watcher in the halls, he got a good look at my chest, though he didn’t take a long look. “I was wondering if you’d survived,” he said with a grin. “Welcome back, Nav.”

“My body may have survived, but it did so with an unwanted addition,” I said, turning my body so he could get a look at my tail.

He let out a low whistle. “You’re just collecting all kinds of odds and ends, aren’t you?” He prodded the end of it with magic before shaking his head. “How’d this one happen?”

“Twilight’s spell to turn me back malfunctioned, I guess,” I said, straightening myself. “I don’t know why. It worked just fine before.”

One of his hooves moved up to his chin for a moment before he grunted. “Gems. I bet you had eaten several of them before changing back. If they were still in your system, they would have greatly affected any magic used on you. Especially if you ate any blood gems while you were there.”

God dammit, no wonder. “As far as I know, I didn’t. But I guess that might explain it. My life is designed to be suffering, so I just assumed there wasn’t a reason.”

“...All things told, that’s also a fair assumption. I assume Twilight’s looking for a solution?”

“Yep. Once she tells me there’s nothing she can do, I’ll start getting some clothes modified. It’s a good thing I hate dresses so much, because I don’t think I could wear any with this stupid tail.”

“Sure you could,” he said with a smirk. “But only really frumpy ones. I bet they’d hide the tail, too. Oooh, or you could let the tail ride the dress up and give everyone a nice view…”

“What happened to not being old enough to be lecherous?”

He shrugged. “I’m older than I was then, aren’t I? Maybe I’m a sudden-onset lecher.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Did you have any luck in the Crystal Empire?”

“Yes,” he replied with a nod. “I found a few books on demonology. I’m now working on collating all the information my teams have found into a few reports. I imagine we’re going to find more as the ship starts traveling.”

“Cool beans.”

“I also happened to find a few flowers that I believe Celestia will enjoy.” His horn lit up and they appeared next to him. They floated on over to me. “I imagine she’ll be eating breakfast shortly, if she isn’t already there.”

I eyed the bundle of wildflowers for a moment before taking them. “Thank you.” I may have been planning treason, but until I decided to go through with it, I needed Celestia to think nothing was wrong. “I reckon I might as well go pay that particular piper.”

“Good luck. If she rebuffs your advances, just remember, you can always… Well, I guess you really can’t do better than the princess, but there are definitely plenty of other fish in the sea.”

“Not so sure I agree with that, but whatever. Do you know if Silver Quill has found any possible homes yet?”

He shook his head. “I haven’t had a chance to ask. The ship got back a few hours before you did and she never came back to it. I believe she’s currently at the hotel with Smiles. He apparently got her a good price on a room.”

“Then I’ll hunt her down later. Are you going to be around the ship today?”

“As far as I know, yes. I have a team at the mage tower right now and they’ll be bringing more information that I can add to our collection. Once that’s done, I’ll probably see about cashing in a few more of the invitations I’m getting for being your vassal.”

“‘Kay. I was just hoping you’d be able to go with me to check out any possible houses.”

“If I’m around, absolutely,” he said with a nod. “Especially if it means I get first dibs on room picks.”

“I’ll make sure you get one with a view of a pool,” I sarcastically replied. “That way you can watch all the mares go skinny dipping.”

“It’s good to serve under somebody who looks out for me. Just let me know when you’re ready.”

“You got it.” That seemed to be the end of what he had for me, so I finally made my way back to my room and got dressed in the nicest skirt and blouse combo I had that fit around the stupid tail. Another little tidbit I very unfortunately discovered is that panties didn’t want to stay up around the tail, so I had to go without any. That wasn’t currently a problem, but I knew it was something I’d have to get rectified in the future.

I grabbed the flowers, kissed my sleeping daughter on the forehead again, and went to go bother Celestia. The two guards at the entrance to the palace started to salute, but they stopped when they saw my tail and just stared at it. Since that’s about what I was expecting, I didn’t let it get to me and just kept walking.

The path to Celestia’s dining hall was a familiar one. My feet tread down it as my mind wandered. I wasn’t quite sure how my meeting with her was going to go and I really wasn’t looking forward to it. Unfortunately, it had to happen and the sooner the better.

When I got to the door, there were two guards in front of it and it was closed. I unconsciously smoothed my blouse for a moment before stepping forward and smiling. “Is the princess in?” I asked, trying to sound nice.

“She is, Lady—You have a tail!”

“Yes, I do.”

The other guard kneed the one who said that in the side and he cleared his throat. “Ahh… Uh, please, go in!”

“Thank you,” I said with a nod before letting myself in. Celestia was sitting in her typical spot, sipping on tea. She did not acknowledge me. I closed the door behind me and turned to her with a grin. “Morning, sunshine.”

She set the tea down and looked at me for a moment before going back to eating. I walked over to the table and set the flowers down next to her, then joined her in sitting. A bit of magic grabbed a single one of the flowers and she floated it over to her nose. Once she had its scent, she ate the damn thing. “Good morning,” she evenly replied.

“So—”

“How’s the tail treating you?” she asked.

“It’s super annoying,” I said, adjusting myself on the seat. Thankfully, it had an open back, so my tail just slid right through. Arm chairs would probably be ruined forever now, though. “Half my clothes don’t fit and I accidentally smacked Taya in the face with it.” A very tiny smirk came over her face, which pissed me off and made me reconsider getting back in her good graces. “I don’t reckon there’s anything you could do about it, is there?”

“I’m afraid not,” she immediately replied before going back to eating. She ignored the rest of the flowers.

“So—”

“I spoke to Spike last night.”

“So—”

“We had quite an interesting conversation, too. You were mentioned once or twice.”

“...So—”

“It seems that my son has quite an interest in you, Nav.”

“Celestia, you can either talk with me or talk at the air. If all you want to do is be a child, I’ll leave.”

“...There are not many who would dare to speak to me in such a manner.”

“I’ve been in the minority for a while. So do you wanna skip all the petty little bullshit and jump straight to the angry sex or should I go?”

“Communication is a very vital part of every relationship, Navarone. It is not ‘petty little bullshit’.”

“Oh, does that mean you’re going to let me talk instead of cutting me off every time I try to say something?” She stared at me in silence for a few seconds before going back to eating, though it looked like she picked up a hint of a blush. “I came here to apologize for being rude. I want you to understand that I’m not apologizing for what I actually said, just how I said it.”

“Hm. But you’re not going to apologize for talking to my sister behind my back, almost starting a war, and turning my son against me?”

“No, I wasn’t planning on it.”

“I see.” She went back to eating. She either obviously wasn’t expecting company or snubbed me on purpose, because there weren’t any other plates set up and there was only enough food for her fat ass.

After a few minutes of mostly silence, she daintily dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. “You understand that I am in a very unpleasant position right now, Navarone.”

“Yeah, I bet.”

“And you realize that it is because of you that I am in said position.”

“You put yourself in that position, Celestia. You knew I was going to Iceland with Reginald. You chose not to tell me anything. I was almost killed, almost raped, and repeatedly tortured because you didn’t tell me anything. How hard would it have been to tell me the truth? I could have avoided dealing with Reginald and I could have avoided even speaking to Bahamut. Hell, how are you even in a bad position because of this? The only one here that suffered at all is me!”

“I lost my leverage over the dragons! I lost my son’s trust! Pyrite could attack me at any moment now and there’s nothing I could do to defend Equestria. You turned an entire nation into a hostage!”

“Again, due to lack of information. If you had given me the full story as soon as you knew I was going to Iceland, I wouldn’t have invited Spike, I wouldn’t have invited Reginald, and none of this ever would have happened. But life isn’t so easy when you can’t push the blame for your failures on someone else, is it?” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “It doesn’t matter too much anyway, since Pyrite said he’ll cool it until Discord is dealt with. I’ll admit that I went above and beyond what you were expecting of me, but that’s because I wanted my ignorance corrected. Since everything I learned was something you knew, you could have avoided all the problems we ran into.”

“Have you ever considered that I didn’t want anypony to know any of this, Nav? That’s why I had the records expunged!”

“So you don’t trust me.”

She leaned back in her seat and placed a hoof on the table. After a few seconds of thought, she quietly said, “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Nav. I just… I don’t want you to think ill of me. What happened with the dragons was not a pretty situation and I came out of it looking… worse than I would have liked.”

“I think the word you’re looking for is evil.” Her eyes flashed and she started to say something, but I continued, “You were holding unborn babies hostage, Celestia. You can say it was for a good cause all you want. They were still unborn children, complete innocents.”

“...I took the only option I had. If you can’t accept that, so be it.”

I shook my head. “I understand why you did it, Celestia. But if you had told me what you did instead of letting me find out on my own, it wouldn’t have seemed like you were hiding it. After everything we’ve been through, after everything I’ve done for you, it feels like you still don’t trust me. And I’m suffering because of it. Hell, the world is suffering because of it. Can’t you see that’s a problem? I respect honesty. Telling me what to expect would have made everything go much more smoothly.”

She sighed and hung her head. “Honesty is not a virtue I’ve had the luxury of having, in recent years. I’ve spent a thousand years alone, Nav. Even now, after Luna has been back in my life for years, I’m struggling to adjust. If I had taken time to tell her everything I should have told her, I believe much of what happened could have been avoided. And yes, if I had taken time to tell you what the situation was with the dragons, what happened there might have been avoided as well.”

“I got nothing but time before the Tartarus trip,” I replied. “I’m not planning on going until all my affairs are in order here. Will you tell me what I need to know before I go?”

“Yes,” she said with a nod. “The problem is that I don’t know everything there is to know. Some of the demons were there before I came into power and some of the demons were put there by other races. That said, I can summon several for you and let you interview them, but it will take time for me to make preparations. I’ll also need to call back a few of the inquisitors.”

“There’s more than one?”

“Oh, yes. There’s an entire order of them. The one you met was one of the higher ranking members of said order. Most ponies never even know they exist. Getting more than one together in one place will definitely take time.”

“That’ll be something to look forward to, then.” Especially if they all look as weird as the last one. “I’m also having Watcher dredge up whatever information he can find as the ship travels around trading. He’s in the process of collating it all now.”

“Hm. It will be interesting to see what I missed. My purges were very thorough, but destroying information is difficult. All it takes is a scrap to make ponies start asking questions. I’ve done my best to silence any such questions, but it can be difficult to do so in such a way that doesn’t raise even more questions.” She sighed and shook her head. “It can be so difficult to do what’s best for some ponies when you can’t even explain why what you do is for the best…”

God damn, you are such an evil bitch! “Yeah, I bet. So, we cool now?”

Her eyes moved to the flowers and she floated another one over to eat it. “I am still not happy about your conversation with my sister. Or about what you told Spike.”

“Oh.”

“...That said, I believe I will learn to forgive in time. Luna is likely unsalvageable anyway and Spike will return to me eventually. You may have filled his head with the dirty and damning truth, but love will guide his path back to me.”

I hope you aren’t holding your breath, you heartless monster. “Cool beans.” I stood back up and smoothed my skirt, not that it did any good since the thing was ruffled. “Then I’ll leave you to ruling.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Leaving so soon?”

“Yeah. See you later.” I turned to go and started walking to the door.

“Not even going to give me a kiss?” she sweetly asked.

“You didn’t seem interested,” I replied as I turned the handle. She didn’t say anything else as I let myself out and closed the door behind me.

Once I was free from her, I let out a small breath before starting the walk to Twilight’s room. Things went better with Celestia than I was expecting, but not as good as I was hoping. I still had a long way to go before I decided for sure that she needed to die, but the conversation we just had didn’t make me hopeful.

The walk to Twilight’s room was calm and peaceful. There weren’t too many servants out and about, though all the ones I passed stared at my new tail. Thankfully, none of them bothered me about it. When I got to her door, I took off one of my shoes and smacked it against the stone door so I wouldn’t hurt my hand.

A minute went by without an answer. I got tired of waiting and tried the handle. It was unlocked, so I let myself in, hoping to catch her doing something naughty. Instead, I caught her passed out in a pile of books. She was drooling all over one of them and cuddling up to another one.

She didn’t notice me walk in, so I went to her bathroom and got a towel, then walked back to her and gently prodded her with one of my feet until she flinched and woke up. Her eyes jerked around the room before settling on me. I handed her the towel. “What… Oh!” She grabbed it with a hoof and wiped the drool off with a blush. “Good… good morning, Nav.”

“It’ll be a better one once you cut this tail off,” I replied. “So lay it on me. How are you gonna fix it?”

Her ears drooped down and I felt my stomach curl. “I… I couldn’t find anything…”

“Oh. Did you ever talk to Kat?”

“Nav, I… I’m so sorry! I had no idea this would happen!”

“Yeah, I know. It wasn’t your fault, Twilight. It’s just another bit of proof that my life was designed to be suffering. No biggie. So—”

She hopped off the ground and hugged me. “Don’t say that, Nav,” she whispered. “Not unless you think your time with me is suffering, too.”

“Twilight, you’re too soft, cute, and cuddly to cause suffering,” I replied, hugging her back. “And that thing you do with your horn is amazing. But—”

“No buts, missy!” she quickly said. “You have an amazing life surrounded by awesome friends and beautiful lovers and a wonderful daughter. You have a few setbacks here and there, but nothing you can’t get around with plenty of support. So don’t you dare tell me that your life is suffering or that you hate everything, because I’ll follow you around listing all the great stuff until you admit you’re wrong!”

“Oh, so you’re going to annoy me into submission.”

“Yes. And there’s nothing you can do to stop me. So don’t push me, missy.”

“Fine. But only because you’re absolutely adorable.” I finally let the hug go, but she didn’t reciprocate. “So what about Kat?”

That made her let go, finally. “I believe we figured out what exactly her curse is,” she said. “Her left paw seems to permanently open and unlock everything it touches while her right paw seems to permanently close and lock everything it touches. Gloves seem to stop the effects.”

“What about the guard she touched?” I asked.

“I haven’t been able to find him and she’s not in a hurry to touch anyone else. I assume, given what you were able to do with it, it will make whoever she touches either truthfully answer every question you ask or never talk again. Since guards typically don’t talk when they’re on duty, finding him won’t be easy. At the moment, there doesn’t seem to be any way to reverse the effects anyway, so it wouldn’t matter.”

“Then she’s going to have to be extremely careful from now on and wear gloves at almost all times.”

“She already knows. And uh… She isn’t happy about it, either.”

“Yeah, I fucking bet. Is she still staying with Fleur?”

She nodded. “For the moment. She wanted to return to the palace as soon as she realized the extent of the issue, but Fleur talked her into staying. She’s been a big help so far.”

“That’s going to continue, with luck. I’ll go and see them today. Until I get a house here, I’m going to have my people spread around the city.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “I didn’t know you were planning on buying a house in Canterlot.”

“I decided to do it right before I left. I asked Silver to check out the housing market while I was gone. I’m hoping she’ll have found something to fit my specifications.”

“Which are what, exactly?”

“It’ll need enough room to hold my guards, my crew, my vassals, and all the other random people on the crew. It’ll also need a skydock and possibly some kind of warehouse to store trade goods. Everything else is optional.”

She quietly whistled. “That’s gonna be a tall order, Nav. There are houses like that out there, but there aren’t many and they aren’t cheap. I know you’re… well-to-do, but are you sure a house in Canterlot would be worth it when you already have a fortress in Ponyville? Sure, it doesn’t have a skydock or a warehouse, but you could have them built. It would also be a lot closer to the Everfree.”

I reached out and ruffled her mane, because I knew she would make an adorable face when I did it. Sure enough, her nose scrunched up and she backed away and shook her head to straighten it. “Silly Twilight. I’m a noble now. I can’t just avoid Canterlot all the time. If I ever want to do anything with the Everfree, I’ll need supporters here. Hiding away in my fortress will make that difficult. I need to be seen here and make allies here, even if the idea is distasteful.”

“Well… You’re not wrong. I’m just… surprised that you’re so willing.”

If I ever have to kill Celestia, I want the nobles to back me willingly, not because I have the army at my back. “I asked Watcher and Gourd to hold me accountable. I also asked Fleur for ways to improve my reputation. In the end, I decided this would be one of the better options. It’s also closer to a lot of sources of knowledge I’m going to need in the coming days. This way, I can send people all across the city to get whatever I need and they’ll all be able to come back to one central location. It won’t be cheap, but the money’s been burning a hole in my pocket for a while now. You should know by now how lucrative writing books can be.”

She rubbed the back of her neck with one of her hooves. “Yeah… I don’t think any of your books hit the bestseller list, though…”

“Yeah, mine weren’t… Wait, are you telling me that your books did?”

Her eyebrows lifted. “You didn’t know? It took them a few weeks to catch on, but when they did, they spread like wildfire. Miss Shady Grey and her lovely assistant Snow White are incredibly popular right now.”

“...You named me Snow White?”

“Nav, I gave you signed copies of all the books. Are you telling me you haven’t read a single one?”

“I’ve uh… been busy.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Look, I didn’t want to read sex books about myself. I do have the books, it’s just… Well, I thought reading them would be awkward.” That made her roll her eyes. “How many more do you plan to write?”

“I dunno. There are a few festivals coming up that I would love to go to with you. I imagine we could find enough material in one of them to write an entire book. Especially if we actually went to Maredi Grass in New Horseleans.”

“Ugh, those two puns are just painful.” Unsurprisingly, she rolled her eyes again. “I’m down for whatever, Twilight. I’m going to make sure all of my affairs are in order before the trip to Tartarus. I would love some time to relax. I’ve never been to a real Mardi Gras—”

“Maredi Grass.”

“I’ve never been to a real Mardi Gras festival before. I’ve also never been to New Orleans, so—”

“New Horseleans.”

“I’ve also never been to New Orleans, so I’m down. When is it?”

“Some time next month,” she replied. “We missed Hearth’s Warming Eve, I’m afraid. You were in Iceland for New Years.”

“Man, time flies when you’re saving the world…” Shows how much attention I pay to my surroundings, at least. The city had been covered in decorations, but I just flew or walked right past them. “Whatever. Let me know when the festival is and I’ll absolutely make time for it.”

She grinned and nodded. “There’s also an event happening up in Gryphus in about two weeks. I’m not sure what they’re celebrating, but that would be a very interesting opportunity as well.”

“Well, just let me know if you decide to go. After that hellish trip to Iceland, I’m down for any way to relax. I need to speak to Princess Gilda anyway. It’s about time I find out just what exactly is in that old human bunker in Colorado.”

Her ears shot straight up. “Say what now?” she slowly asked.

“When I went back in time, I ended up in a bunker in the mountains around the middle of this continent. That bunker is where I met myself, the original Anonymous. He’s the guy who created all the other races. That bunker still exists, but it’s guarded by a ton of people. That’s where the dream machine came from. I want to know what else is there. I’ve put the trip off because there were more pressing matters, but if there are any weapons or tech I could use there, I want to know about it before I go to Tartarus.”

“...I’m going with you.”

“Good. I was planning on waiting until later, but if I’m going to be in Gryphus anyway, I might as well do it now.”

“Why? What’s in Gryphus?”

“I did a favor for Princess Gilda a while back. In return, I asked her to assemble me a strike team capable of getting into that bunker. She’s had more than enough time to get it ready. I’m going to take her people and my people and try to break into it.”

“...I’ll do some digging. I remember reading something somewhere about something similar, but it’s been so long and it’s one of those things I assumed was a legend. I can’t imagine Celestia would have hidden any knowledge about that, so I might be able to find something.”

“I advise checking out the library in the Crystal Empire. Celestia didn’t get to it before Cadance and Shiny were able to lock it down. They got it properly organized and there are huge research projects happening there right now. They’ve invited scholars from all over the world to check it out.”

“I imagine Princess Celestia is not happy about that.”

“She’s not happy about a lot of things right now.” That made her sigh. “Anyway, does Kat still have my ring?”

“Yes. Please be careful with that thing, Nav. I know you’re afraid of magic, but after the last two curses… I don’t think you should wear it again.”

“I’m not planning on it,” I replied. “I’m going to lock it in my chest and hope I never need to put it on again.”

She sighed in relief. “Good. That does leave you defenseless against magic again, though…”

“Which gives me a really good reason to spend more time with my daughter. Being defenseless against magic means a lot less when you have an adorable little filly with a penchant for blowing things up at your side. Not to mention guards in general. At this point, my reputation is so dark with blood that I doubt anyone would dare attack me.”

“Here’s hoping we don’t have to deal with another Pertz…”

“He was a special case. I imagine you and Taya could have wrecked his shit if he wasn’t in the middle of a massive anti-magic field.”

“Perhaps. Anyway, what’s your schedule looking like today, Nav?”

“I need to make sure Char’s settling in, then I need to find Silver Quill and see what she has for me, and then I need to find Kat and make sure she’s alright.”

“Oh… I was hoping you’d have time to help me write.”

I reached down and booped her on the nose. “That’s something I’ll always be happy to make time for. So when and where, Miss Shady Grey?”

She shivered with delight. “Here and now,” she sultrily replied. Her horn lit up and I felt something caress my lower lips. “My oh my, no panties? You naughty filly. How will I ever punish you?”

“I’m sure I can beg for a few ways,” I replied with a dirty grin.

Her magic lifted me up and she pulled me in for a kiss. “Ah… It’s good to have my luck back,” she sighed. With that, she started trotting to her bedroom, with me floating behind her.