“So…” Doug drawls as he gets to his feet and brushes himself off. He gratefully accepts a nuzzle from Celestia and Twilight, who seem unharmed, even empowered from whatever trial they went through. Luna gives him a curt nod, nothing out of the ordinary, while Cadance hangs back with a timorous queasiness contrary to her normally confident stance. She seems to be measuring the hairs on her coat. “How’d it go?”

“Everything’s just fine!” Twilight replies, grinning from ear to ear. “We all passed! …I think.” Concern scrawls across her face as she inspects him. “Are you okay? It took you some time to wake up.”

“Long enough for Raikou to fall asleep again,” Luna comments, the Storm King indeed nodding away with his head resting on his staff. Doug wouldn’t have expected the small grin the alicorn wears, especially in reference to the tyrant.

“Which leaves just one more thing,” Twilight says ominously.

“Do we really need to fight?” Fluttershy asks, dipping her head down. Doug realizes the Elements of Harmony have taken up posts around him and the alicorns, ready to defend against anypony that approaches.

Shining Armor takes an imperious step towards Grogar and his acolytes, the former Dragon Lord Torch looming behind them. “See?” he calls. “We have all passed your test!”

Grogar takes his eyes off the sky, turning his contemplative gaze their way. “All shall come to embrace Harmony.” He scratches at his scraggly beard. “Yet perhaps not as I foretold.”

Tempest Shadow takes up a defensive position on the large goat’s side. “Could it be a trick?”

Shining Armor smirks. “I saw what happened when your ‘sign’ appeared in the sky. It did not end well for you.”

“Really?” Tempest Shadow’s unbroken horn sparks with magic, static charges rolling down her back and clustering on her flanks.

Shining Armor pauses, not recognizing the spell the orchid unicorn cast. It looks like a variant of the one on Twilight that would shock any contact greater than a heavy hug. A way to extend it? It threatens his confidence in the victory he foresaw. He glances at Twilight. “Is it possible…”

“...that the victory you saw isn’t sure?” Her muzzle purses to a thin line. “Obviously, any cognition of the future with the ability to act on that knowledge threatens the veracity of that cognition, unless it’s under a Cassandra clause. Could you verify it somehow?”

“Grogar activated his righteous fire and bypassed shields with a flaming dash,” Shining Armor explains, the goat slowly nodding in agreement. “Torch was petrified by Raikou.” The Storm King tosses an obsidian ball into the air, then slips it back into his armor. “Sombra, Tempest Shadow, and Radiant Hope were subdued by Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and Starlight Glimmer.”

Tempest Shadow scoffs. “I’d like to see them-”

“-Boo” Pinkie Pie says from directly behind the orchid unicorn.

“Gaa!” Tempest Shadow shouts as she flails backward. She scowls at the small bit of cake in the pink hoof, then at the grin plastered on Pinkie’s face.

Time seems to stand still, everypony holding their breath as they wait for Tempest Shadow to attack.

Pinkie Pie, with an exaggeratedly slow motion, tosses the cupcake towards Tempest Shadow. She doesn’t move; it lands in front of her, splattering against the ground.

“You’re supposed to catch it,” Pinkie Pie says with a roll of her eyes, rummaging around her mane for a spare.

With that, the tension breaks. “They have passed the required test,” Grogar declares, gratefully accepting a brick of chocolate from the baker. Tempest Shadow growls, taking a stiff step back, and only with great reluctance takes the offered spare cupcake. “Who are we to deny Harmony?”

“We wish for you to join us,” Celestia says with a motion to the spot next to her. “To hash out our differences, and for all to ultimately be guided by love and harmony. But it must be a choice they make, not one forced onto them.”

“An unlikely outcome it might be, but may Harmony’s will be done.” Grogar looks between his companions. Radiant Hope is the only one with anything approaching optimism.

“Thou claims it as unlikely,” Luna states, a flick of her mane indicating the Storm King and former changeling queen. She places a hoof on her peytral. “Yet even the most vile of creatures can be forgiven, and become friends.”

“In my test,” Twilight offers, “I saw ponies with fundamental disagreements separate, each believing their way as the one desired by Harmony.” She reaches her hoof forward, heedless of the distance between them. “Yet there is nothing stopping them from later reconciling, different ponies realizing that those very differences bind them together and allow there to be friendship at all.”

Grogar laughs, deep and echoing. “There are few who see anything but stark difference between us all,” he says as he trots forward, gently placing his hoof against Twilight’s. “And fewer still who embrace it.” He looks from one alicorn to another, resting on the human. “Princess Celestia. Princess Luna. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Princess Twilight. Prince Consort Shining Armor. Prince Consort Doug Gardens.” Grogar offers a deep bow, his acolytes following. “We thank you for your enlightenment.”

Doug’s eyes widen in surprise. “How did you know my name changed?”

Twilight whirls toward Doug, peering at him closely. “It did?”

“Harmony said that at the end of my vision,” Doug says, flabbergasted.

“The truth is revealed to me,” Grogar says mysteriously, failing to elaborate further.

“It’s an advanced Honesty technique,” Starlight Glimmer states, ruining the mystique. “But much like any lie detector, it doesn't necessarily reveal what happened, it reveals what you believe happened. It is capable of being deceived, which is why such evidence is inadmissible.”

Doug frowns. “You mean I merely thought that I talked to Harmony?”

“It’s a possibility,” Cadance says, surprising Doug with how quickly she jumps in to support Starlight. Why would she want to discount whatever happened?

Twilight ponders this, looking cute as ever with her forehead scrunched up. “You said ‘already something that happens’ when you woke up.” Her eyes sparkle with anticipation. “You believe you had some sort of vision? A revelation? The third kind of close encounter with an omnipotent deity?”

“I wouldn’t say omnipotent,” Doug says, recalling how the being specifically said it wasn’t. “But we talked about free will, then alicorn fertility and why it was limited. It ended with her observing that my name is a bit of a misnomer and changing it to Doug Gardens.”

“Did you learn anything new?” Cadance asks, overly curious, almost like she’s hiding something. “Something that surprised you? Something verifiable, information you couldn’t have had before, not merely an argument that you might have made yourself?”

Shining Armor glances at Tempest Shadow and the lightning orbs still clinging to her back. He speaks first, unhappy his wife is raising doubts on the victory he foresaw. “Everything I saw was from briefings or speculation, fitting within known parameters.”

Twilight is equally as unsettled. “Mine was more of a hypothetical situation, involving ponies who likely exist-” A glance at Celestia gets a confirming nod. “Who do exist, but I’ve never met.”

A few ponies glance at Cadance, but she merely looks at Luna, her expression grim.

“Ours was an extension of dream navigation,” Luna confides. “Not immediately recognizable as such, but a distinct possibility.”

“Mine was…” Celestia trails off, looking euphoric for a moment before staring at the bright sky above. “Do you feel them?” she asks Luna, no louder than a whisper. She gets a concentrating frown in return, then a slow shake of starry mane. “I dare not test it; the stars above are no longer mine to command, and I would not excuse another to tamper with my sun without my permission.”

Doug feels a profound sense of loss at the admission; he loved seeing the patterns Celestia would draw in the night sky on the new year. He hopes whatever she gained makes up for it.

Grogar takes the opportunity to depart during the solemn moment. “We will return to our sanctuary.” Radiant Hope’s horn flares blindingly bright. The three ponies and Grogar disappear, leaving Pinkie Pie in front of Torch.

Celestia claps her hooves together, putting on a bright smile. “We have an Equestria Games to complete, do we not?”

“Yes,” says Emperor Spike, glad to get back on track, especially if they can drop the ineffective security arrangements put in place against Grogar. “Yes, we do.”

The alicorns and the Elements of Harmony spread out to all corners of the stadium, helping usher ponies back to their seats and calm the most distressed with assurances that all is well. They need little coaxing after the first, and soon all Doug does is stand and watch the procession.

As the last of the ponies file back to their seats, Cadance pulls Doug aside into a slim hallway, out of view of everypony. Her horn flares, a soft buzzing that would hide their conversation from all but the most adept of listeners.

Doug’s heart beats faster, wondering what’s going on, but any quip dies in his throat at Cadance’s distraught appearance. She chews on her lip, furtively glancing behind her as though she is worried about anypony - including Celestia - overhearing their conversation.

“What is it?” Doug asks, dropping to his knees and running a hand through the thick purple part of her mane, searching for the back of her ear. Even frazzled she looks beautiful, a part of him drawn to any mare in distress and wanting nothing more than to comfort her.

Cadance briefly struggles against herself before giving in, careful to point her horn over his shoulder as she draws close to him. “I could use some love right now.”

“Err,” Doug says, abruptly aware of their close proximity, his hands suddenly with nowhere to go except velvety fur that gets his heart racing. Her head presses against his chest and nearly knocks him over; he braces himself, which just makes her snuggle closer. He knows ponies are tactile, extraordinarily so, and she hasn’t done anything too extreme yet, but he’s just as afraid of her tilting her head upward and kissing him as he is of trying to reassure her the same way. He steels himself, wrapping both arms around her neck and holding her tight.

“Of course.” The words coming out of his mouth feel like a betrayal, but he hasn’t done anything. Yet. “I’m happy to help. Anything you need.”

For a long moment they stay there, just breathing, until he feels a wetness trickle against his arm. He looks down, only to meet her tear-filled eyes staring up at him.

“Anything?” she whispers, barely able to manage the word.

Doug doesn’t quite grimace, but neither can he force a smile. She loves Shining Armor. She wouldn’t do anything to hurt him. “...Within reason.”

Cadance draws a large breath, slowly growing less despondent. “You have to keep this a secret.”

Now he grimaces. “I… I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that.”

“The others can’t learn about this,” Cadance nearly shouts, shaking with unexpected fervor. She spins in his arms, trapping him with one leg as immobile as iron on each side. “Ever!”

Doug’s mind turns to desperate thoughts of escape, or failing that, if he could subdue Cadance if she becomes hysterical. The hallway seems quite cramped, the walls pressing in and leaving nowhere to maneuver. But with her directly on top of him? He settles for hugging her as tightly as he can, one hand snaking through her mane to the base of her horn.

Perhaps Cadance recognizes his plan, or perhaps she merely seeks more contact. “Please,” she begs, pushing him prone with little effort and straddling her full belly against him. She stares into his eyes, blinking away her tears, and only now notices his distress.

“Please,” she tries again, softer this time, but without budging. “I-I can’t go to any of the others. Luna keeps no secrets from her Sister, a-and the rest were in on it. It would destroy them.”

“Your vision,” Doug guesses, grasping at anything other than how this position normally ends with his mares. “It had to do with the spell Twilight cast?”

Cadance nods quickly, glad to get it off her chest. “I saw a being that could only be Harmony. It… it knew things about me that nocreature could possibly know. It knew everything. I tried estimating the number of hairs on my coat, and I was within a hundred of the number it gave. It knew about the spell Twilight cast on Shiny, it showed me the elemental version of the spell, the one stripped off all the safety features we added. But it was the same spell, in essence, and she said our foal would have been a soulless abomination if she hadn’t intervened!”

“T-that’s,” Doug stammers. An abomination? Didn’t Radiant Hope say the same thing? Does the same thing apply to his foals? His vision didn’t include anything like that. If anything, it was encouraging him to keep going. But such a stark difference seems unfair, grossly so. He glances down at the belly pressing against him, slipping a hand to gently rub against it. Her fur is incredibly soft, taut against his testing touch. “Is she…”

“The baby is fine,” Cadance says, both releasing a sigh of relief. A twinge of a smile appears on her muzzle. “I may have promised to raise her in Harmony’s ways in order to escape the punishment my own words decreed, that we all should be beheaded for conspiring to cast such a terrible spell.”

“Obviously you should have gone with me from the start,” Doug quips with a wink. He finds it funny how quickly he reverts to flirtations when the possibility of acting on them is remote. Cadance chuckles, giving him a quick nuzzle as she relaxes. “But if it wasn’t Harmony giving you this message… you think it could have come from you?”

“The message lined up with so many of my fears,” Cadance says, sounding relieved at just the suggestion, “that it very well could have been my subconscious, a figment of my imagination condemning me.” Just as quickly, her distress returns. “But even if that is the case, what does that say? That I believe, deep down, that what we did was wrong, that it goes against my understanding of Harmony? They cannot know that!”

“But how did your vision end?” Doug asks, scratching at her long muzzle, hoping to encourage her to break from her doldrums. “With you broken and defeated, or resolved to further Harmony and her goals, whatever they may be?”

“Well, I did surrender to my fears, if that’s what they were,” Cadance says, her eyes twinkling.

“Your fears of doing the right thing?” Doug withdraws his hand with a look of mock indignation. “Well, if that’s the case, then I don’t know if there’s any hope for you.”

Cadance playfully headbutts Doug, both of them laughing. She sighs as she stares out at the empty corridor, resting against him once more. “You really think it was just a dream I concocted?”

Doug takes a deep breath. “I’m… I’m not sure. In a way, mine felt too good to be true. I can’t have done everything right, you know? But it sounded like Celestia believed it was real, with Luna and Twilight on the fence, while you and Shining Armor had your doubts. Do you believe you did the right thing, using forbidden magic to conceive?”

“I love Shining Armor with all my heart.” Cadance presses her hoof to her chest, smiling at the fond memories they share. “I would do anything to make manifest that love.”

Doug wraps one arm around her withers. “Well, it sounds like you have your answer.”

Cadance darts in to give him a quick peck on the cheek. “Thanks, Doug, for helping me feel better about this.”

It feels far too good to be kissed, and Doug has to clamp down on the part of him that wants to continue. “Of course.” Suddenly, he remembers. “Hey, I can ask Celestia about the sun. If it doesn’t line up with what I learned, then that’s more proof it was just your subconscious, right?”

“Then what are you waiting for?” Cadance bounds to her hooves, gently and then more forcefully ushering him to the entrance to the stadium.

The two return to the special seats designated for the Princesses. Celestia eyes him, curious what took them so long, as he slips next to her.

“Celestia,” he greets with a quick nod. “What’s the mass of the sun, using yourself as the reference?”

“Myself?” Celestia ponders a moment. “Approximately one thousand quadrillion times. Why?”

“Thanks.” Doug counts threes on his fingers - thousand, million, billion, trillion, quadrillion. Fifteen, and another thousand makes eighteen zeroes. Not the twenty seven zeroes ‘Harmony’ told him, brushing off the fact that Celestia could have used quintillion instead. He covertly winks at Cadance, who releases a sigh of relief. “Well, I better head back to my seat.”

Next Chapter: Ch. 200 - Inertia Estimated time remaining: 12 Minutes