Having my twin with me during our heat was the best thing we could have come up with. It lessened the painful drive to get a friggin’ foal into my womb marginally, but it didn’t stop us from having sex like crazy depraved bunnies going at it as if they were about to die in the next minute or so.

And by the sweet sexy, hot as fuck, devil of a sister of mine, I loved every second of it. While we behaved more like rabid animals most of the time, I didn’t care so long as I had my wife acting in the same idiotic way as me.

I still can’t believe fate brought us here together for whatever reason. This couldn’t have been some kind of fluke with us dropping dead seemingly at random. Something... or rather, someone (or somepony?) had brought us here, I was certain of it.

Celestia had the crazy idea of comparing our lives to one of her stupid isekai novels that she had enjoyed so much in her previous life, where some people decided to summon a hero to save the day. Yeah, right... It sure was a weird way to go about it to get your friggin’ heroes in that case. I was content with the life we had right now, even though it wasn’t perfect.

There was no need to worry about that right now, though. For the moment, all that mattered was our little farm, Luna, Mom, and of course, Tia. Our way of life was peaceful and I didn’t want anything to take that away from me.

Sadly, even that had to come to an end. Ponies started to appear by the hundreds, all looking like they had just migrated from the other side of the world. Whatever happened between them, it seemed there was a temporary truce between all three tribes for now. Whether it would stay like that remains to be seen. Tia was rather skeptical that this peace would last for long, but I had hope.

There was one downside to this, though... with the arrival of those ponies also came problems. My sisters and I couldn’t continue our farmwork without wearing cloaks to hide away our wings to avoid unwanted attention. We had to live in constant fear of being discovered by the curious eyes of our new neighbors. While yes, we did live mostly removed from sight, that didn’t mean others couldn’t see us use our wings.

That brought about the end of our own personal weather for our fields. Luna was quite mad that she couldn’t do the one thing she was at least somewhat better than us in. And without the best weather, we had to put extra work in to achieve the same results we would have gotten with the optimal conditions.

Mom started to get more paranoid again, too. She didn’t want us to get hurt by ponies finding out what we were, so she was the only one that ever talked to strangers when they came by for trading.

While we got some nice commodities like new tools for farming, candles and oil for lamps, actual cutlery, and so on, we had to give up more and more of our privacy.

Before long, ponies started to use currencies instead of trading and we learned the name of the new nation that suddenly formed around us.

This was now the land of Equestria, currently governed by a council of the former rulers of the three pony tribes. Princess Platinum had the gall to implement exorbitant high amounts of taxes on anypony living in this land and her aide, Clover the Clever, was next to useless in stopping her from doing so just after this nation was founded.

Chancellor Puddinghead (whoever his parents were must have hated him), like the buffoon that he was, had lots of crazy ideas for new laws, some of which actually made it through. It was apparently illegal now to wear a hat that was bigger than your head, for whatever reason. Of course, he was exempt from that rule. His aide, one Smart Cookie, was desperately trying to keep him from running this new nation into a state of ruin from the get-go.

And the former commander of the pegasus army, Commander Hurricane, was already doing his best at pissing off every other nation in the world. Were it not for Private Pansy (I feel sorry for her name, too), I’m sure we would have already been invaded by an opportunistic nation seeking to expand their land. Like the Griffon Empire, for example.

It was a hard transition time into this new era, for sure. My family tried its best at staying away from most of it, sometimes successfully and sometimes... not. We had to pay our fucking taxes now. Taxes! I was quite annoyed by that because it wasn’t like I hadn’t had enough of that a lifetime ago.

The thing was, there was still quite a bit of hostility between the tribes, although officially, there wasn’t supposed to be any of that anymore. While it didn’t seem like it was as bad as it was a few years ago, there was still a heavy hint of prejudice in the air.

Unicorns were greedy, pegasi were lazy, and earthponies were dirty. That was to what this idiotic behavior basically boiled down to. I stayed the hell away from it, I didn’t want to get tangled up in that particularly nasty ball of retardedness. Racism was already bad enough in the history of Earth, I wasn’t in the mood to deal with this tribalism here in Equestria.

Then, there was the whole stigma behind ponies not having their, ugh, Cutie Marks. Who came up with that name, Puddinghead? While Mom didn’t have to be subjected to any ridicule because she had hers since she was ten or so, me and my sister were worried that we would be seen as freaks because we didn’t have one of these stupid pictures on our flanks.

Who needed those, anyway? I could be plenty good at anything and not need a pretty picture on my butt to tell me what I could do and what not. It seemed to me these ponies put way too much worth on those.

...No, I’m not jealous that I didn’t have one of my own, yet. Definitely not.

Then, things actually managed to get worse for some time. Apparently, this fucking impossible world was in a planetary centered solar system. I had no idea how that worked and Celestia was just as stumped about it as me.

So, at least now I knew why the two suns didn’t ever seem to change their position in relation to each other. They friggin’ orbited our own planet, howsoever that happened in the first place. Wasn’t the sun supposed to be in the center of a solar system? I mean, it was called the solar system and not the planet system, after all. I mean, it had been a ridiculous thing people had believed in on Earth ages ago, but... there was a good reason why ponies knew this was a geocentric system. And it was utterly ridiculous.

Ridiculous. Impossibly, utterly, stupidly ridiculous. That is what this was.

The actual bad thing about it was the fact that those suns? They didn’t rise over the horizon on their own. Noooo, they had to be magical suns, if that wasn’t enough yet. Oh yeah, and the moon? That stupid rock didn’t move on its own like it should, either!

What was wrong with this world?!

Anyway, those little celestial objects throwing physics the middle finger had to be raised by magic. And the ones responsible for that? They were all unicorns, causing the rest of them to be massive jerks to everypony else because they had a superiority complex as high as the tallest mountain.

The problem behind this little revelation wasn’t the mindset of most of the unicorns. No... It was the order of the most powerful mages burning through the magic within ponies like cheap batteries. Because apparently, their little ritual to move the heavens wasn’t the easiest thing to do and had massive consequences on the bodies of the casters.

There was one unicorn that has been able to do this for decades now, but he was getting old by now. This Starswirl the Bearded, weird title I had to say, was in charge of the ritual and wouldn’t probably be in the position for much longer.

Most of the spells our mother taught us were actually from him, so I had some modicum of respect for that old coot. At least for now, I had no idea how he was like as a pony. For all I know, he was an arrogant bastard.

While it was nice and all that they made the celestial objects their personal playthings, they had to start getting ponies from elsewhere for their rituals so they had enough unicorns to cast the spell.

Most of them never got their magic back. A few poor unfortunate souls even lost their lives, sadly. But even if somepony was lucky enough to only lose their magic to this ritual, they were doomed to live a half-life. The magic of a pony was an intrinsically important part of their self and without it, they were next to useless.

This continued on for years, them looking for all the willing ponies first before they moved on to less than ideal candidates. They went through those a lot faster than they did with the volunteers. Ponies that were sick to the degree that they hadn’t much to look forward to with the rest of their lifespan, ponies that were less ‘worth’ for society as a whole, and ponies that wouldn’t be missed.

Mostly criminals, but those weren’t the only ones. Oh no... They started to enlist the average pony because they had no other choice.

So far, they only enlisted ponies older than sixty years of age currently. I didn’t have to be worried that my sisters and I were going to be taken away and lose something that I had come to like more than I had ever appreciated my hands for.

Sadly, the same couldn’t be said for our mother.

“Stay in the house and don’t come out,” Mom said, the voice of our only parent that was left to us was quite thick with authority. I didn’t dare speak out against her, even though I really wanted to. I wanted to tell her not to go meet those guards outside of our property, but not even the slightest noise escaped my lips.

Celestia tried to argue fiercely against our mother, but Mom was having none of it. So, rather reluctantly, we continued to watch from afar as she went over to greet the stallions in golden armor.

“This really is a bad time for Luna to go through her first estrus,” I mumbled, glad ours hadn’t started yet. A few years did wonders for us in noticing when that time of the year came around for me and my sister.

“Especially now,” Tia whispered, trying to get her newest spell to work so we could listen in to the conversation outside of the house. It was quite fascinating how creative she could get with magic. Particularly in the bedroom. “We knew that the time would come after she turned fourteen, but now? She could have picked a better time for it, seriously.”

“It’s not like we can choose when we go nuts, sister,” I chided her and she stuck her tongue out at me. I gave it a quick lick, making her giggle. She nuzzled my cheek, something I was all too happy to return.

“Now let me concentrate on this, please. This is more delicate spellwork than what you call waving your horn around, sister,” she said, making me pout. Just because I relied more on feelings than actual thought out and calculated spells didn’t mean I was any less good at what I did.

I still wasn’t on the same level as my twin and that would probably never change with time. I was surprised she hadn’t actually gotten her Cutie Mark for something magic-related, yet. If there was anything that would warrant her getting one, it was that. She was almost like a prodigy with the arcane arts.

Now that I think about it, it was a bit ironic that I was the one that used emotions for spells and my twin was more... analytical about it. I would have thought, what with my past profession of programming games, that I would be the one to calculate my spells, instead. But I suppose magic was fundamentally different than programming, huh? If I ever get the chance to see Earth again, I would like to see how far my old field of work has advanced... maybe those 3D games were actually decent by now...

Magic... it’s still kind of hard to believe, isn’t it? A world full of wonders and the inhabitants don’t realize how extraordinary such a thing truly is. Well, some did, but considering how they find ways to be racist about it is... disappointing. While yes, magic was certainly something one could be proud of if they were proficient with it, it didn’t make one automatically better than the rest of ponykind. Flight to manipulate the weather and the connection to the earth to grow plants were equally as important.

No one tribe of pony was better than the other, after all. Well... whatever me and my sisters were, we sort of had an advantage over every other tribe, but that just emphasized how much each tribe had their own strengths. We knew what made each tribe unique and could empathize with them. If only they could look past their differences... Perhaps that was a futile thing to hope for on my part, but I like to see the best in everypony. Even if they are incredibly stupid and dumb and intellectually impaired... and retardedly dumb.

As I watched my sister try to calibrate her spell just right so that we could listen in on what was going on outside of the house, I couldn’t help but admire the look of concentration in her eyes. It was almost like there was nothing that she couldn’t do and... it made me wonder a bit.

Mom was wrong to call me a prodigy because I spoke my first word so soon, my twin deserved the credit way more. My wife had found her calling in this world and I couldn’t be prouder for her.

“M-ma’... We-ee-n-’am...” a sudden noise came from the glass pane in front of us, due to Celestia calibrating her spell. Currently, it was still gibberish, which managed to make her growl out in frustration. Trying to calm her down, I draped my wing over her back in a hug.

“I-I... d-do-o-n’t-n’t-n’t ca-aa-re... wh...” the sound came out a bit clearer, but then cut off again.

“Damn this spell, work already!” my sister snorted, pawing at the ground while one of her eyelids twitched.

“Just try again, dear,” I whispered comfortingly. She let out an explosive sigh, narrowing her eyes in focus. We really needed to get around to ironing that temper out of her.

Not that I couldn’t get... as angry as her at times, I suppose. Tia’s anger burned quick and hot while my own was more like... a simmering wrath that burned slowly. It doesn’t happen often, but I could be... terrifying when somepony managed to earn my ire. Mostly Tia and Lulu when they were fighting over something...

I try to keep my rage in check while my twin is prone to act on it and get it out of her system. Maybe Tia wasn’t the only one that should get her anger in control. While it doesn’t happen often that I... lash out, it does happen. I shouldn’t worry so much about this when our mother was currently out there dealing with whatever it was that those ponies wanted...

“And I told you,” the voice of our mother finally started to come through, although it was still a bit muddled. It was better than nothing, I guess. “I have children to take care of!”

“Ma’am, we understand, but the duty to this world comes first,” the voice of one of the stallions came through. It sounded quite exasperated and judging by how he held himself, he was tired of trying to argue with our mother. Honestly, arguing with Mom was a futile effort and I wasn’t surprised it got on his nerves. “If we can’t continue the cycle, then your daughters won’t have a world to live in anymore.”

“I don’t want to hear what regurgitated words your ‘Princess’ has to say on this matter, you can’t force anypony to go with you,” Mom shot back, a snarl evident in her tone. “I have to provide for my daughters, they still have a lot to learn.”

“Ma’am, please just understand where we are coming from,” the other guard said. “If we have to come back here with specific orders, we will have to drag you back in shackles. Do you want your daughters to see you like that?”

“Oh, make Platinum come for me, alright,” she retorted angrily. “What has she ever done that you’re so loyal to her?”

“Ma’am, she is doing this for the good of this nation,” the first guard told her. I heard my sister scoff at that and I was inclined to agree with her. Maybe Mom should have dethroned her while she was with our grandparents, after all. Platinum didn’t sound like the most selfless pony and I just knew she had ulterior motives behind this.

“Oh, she is doing this from the kindness of her rotten heart, hmm? Please, don’t make me laugh,” Mom snorted and we saw her cross her forelegs through the window. “That she roped Starswirl into this little scheme is...”

“Ma’am, please. Starswirl is already looking for a replacement that can continue what he does, Princess Platinum said that this is only a temporary measure,” he answered with a sigh. “But I can see you won’t come with us today, we will be back tomorrow.”

“You won’t have any luck then, either,” Mom simply said and we saw her turn around.

“Quick, shut the spell down, sister!” I said. “Before she notices we were eavesdropping on them.”

“I’m on it, don’t push me so much!” Tia retorted, sending a quick glare towards me. I saw Mom raise an eyebrow as she saw us bickering through the window and I put on a sheepish smile, hoping to not arouse her suspicions. “There, see? No need to panic.”

“What are you two up to, now?” Mom asked us as she closed the door behind her.

“Nothing!” I laughed awkwardly. “We were just... wondering what this was all about?”

“You don’t have to concern yourselves with that,” she told us. “Now, I don’t see you doing anything, so why don’t you go and work on the field?”

“Do we have to?” Tia groaned, dragging herself out anyway. “It’s always work now...”

“We have to pay those taxes somehow,” Mom scolded her and before she could send her glare my way, I scrambled to catch up after my twin. My pouty face sadly lost its effect on her years ago... Those were the easy times.

“Luna doesn’t have to do this, why do we?” my sister mumbled dejectedly. “Can’t we have a free day from time to time, too?”

“Tia, she is in heat,” I answered her rhetorical question. “Do you want to risk her running off to get impregnated by some random stallion?”

“Don’t start this,” Celestia said. “I don’t want to entertain having to feed another demon spawn in this family.”

“Demon spawn?!” I asked incredulously.

“What, she eats more than both of us combined!” she shot back.

“Yeah, because we give her the food instead,” I said. “What is this about?”

“Oh, I don’t know...” she started. “How about the fact that you coddle her so much?”

“Is that jealousy I hear?” I grinned.

“No...” Celestia answered, her tone not managing to convince me.

“You are jealous!” I giggled. “Of your own baby sister, no less. Oh, this is rich!”

“Fuck you,” she retorted, pouting cutely at me. “I’m not.”

“Oh, you definitely are,” I smirked. Then my muzzle got just shy of her ears so I could whisper into them with a husky voice. “And there is a spell I want you to try out... so yes, please fuck me.”

The sight of her cloak falling off as her wings stood up stiffly delighted me to no end. My magic wrapped around the piece of cloth and I giggled as I hung it up on her horn.

“Oh, you devious little...” Celestia breathed out a shuddering breath. I bit my lip as she glowered at me from behind her cloak, forcing her wings to comply with her before anypony saw her. Then she gave me a curious, and admittedly overly lecherous, stare. “Have you actually figured it out before me?”

“My, what is this I hear? Am I a better pervert than you?” I giggled. “While I lack the methodical skill for casting spells like you, I totally outperform you when it comes to the instinctual side of magic. What can I say, this kind of spell is well outside of your reach, sister.”

“So, how does it work?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Desire for the outcome, lust for the act, love for the sensation, and determination so one can decide if it actually does what it naturally can or just imitate the real deal. Sadly, it works only on others and not the caster,” I explained, smiling proudly. “Let me tell you, that mouse was so mad at me for experimenting on it.”

“I love you so much right now,” Celestia whispered excitedly. “Although I’m pretty sure it will take me a few years to get that mix of feelings down for me to cast it. So there is no risk for... that?”

“Not if we don’t want to~. And it’s probably for the best like this,” I answered, nodding. Celestia embraced me in a crushing hug, shaking me around like an excited filly. “A-air!”

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “You’re going to love it, promise.”

“Yeah, well... be gentle, okay?” I asked her demurely, scuffing my hoof on the ground. Tia gave me a small nuzzle reassuringly, murmuring her agreement and telling me that it would be a first for her, too. “But I think we should wait until, you know...”

“I agree,” Tia said. “Now, let’s get this work done before Mom comes out to yell at us to stop standing around while doing nothing.”

That was what we did and the day went over quickly after that. The only other ‘exciting’ thing happening that day was delivering Luna’s meal up to her room and shoving it into her room without her noticing that the door had been open.

And just as the guards had said the day before, they returned and this time they didn’t take no for an answer. It was actually kinda badass seeing Mom beat up more than fifteen ponies all at once, but even she couldn’t fight on forever. Both me and my sister wanted to help her out, but a barrier kept us from coming out to assist her.

Mom really didn’t want them finding out what we were, it seemed. Sometimes her paranoia was warranted, though. It was sort of excessive that Platinum sent so many ponies to apprehend our mother and I couldn't fathom why she would. It made no sense...

We had to watch on sadly as our mother was carted off to who knows where. Celestia had long since stopped trying to force the door open with her hind legs in order to try and break Mom’s spell.

Tia ran out as soon as the damn barrier dropped, discarding her cloak and taking to the skies to try and catch up to our mother. I did my best to keep up with her, trying to tell her to slow down a little bit. She didn’t listen to me, though.

Some of the ponies below stared up at us in surprise and I had to bite back a fearful whinny. Yeah... that was something that took me by surprise, unprepared for the alien sound leaving my throat for the first time I made it. Celestia was laughing at me for weeks afterward, at least until I managed to make her do the sound, too.

It also managed to make her perverted side extremely aroused, but that wasn’t important now, I told myself. I had to try and get my sister back home before too many ponies noticed that something wasn’t quite right with the winged unicorns ripping through the sky.

We really needed a better word for our race.

“Tia, please! My sides ache already...” I wheezed out, rasping in a breath with difficulty. I haven’t used my wings for this long before and I was kinda out of practice. Damn ponies forcing us to hide away a part of ourselves. My sister was doing her best at destroying all our efforts, though.

At my desperate cry, she let go of her maddened pursuit, trying to find the pegasus-carriage that held our mother prisoner. This Princess Platinum chick just couldn’t take a no, could she? She had just managed to piss off two extremely powerful siblings, not to mention what Luna would do when she found out they abducted our mother.

Where are civil rights when you need them, for fuck’s sake?! This was so unfair to us and our mother, I wanted to set the forest and the small village on fire in my own rage. I suppressed my pyromaniacal urges, though. It would do nopony any good if I let it out on innocents that had nothing to do with this.

I would give Platinum a thorough tongue-lashing if I ever met her, though. She wasn’t safe from the wrath of me and my sister, that much was certain. I don’t care if she was royalty, she friggin’ deserved it. And perhaps this Starswirl guy, too. It depends on how involved he is with this whole abduction business.

“Do you see them anywhere?” Celestia asked me, her breathing also quite winded. “Please, we can’t abandon her now! Not like Dad...”

“I’m sorry, sister,” I cried, sniffling. “But she probably tried to stop us from doing something stupid. You know, like going after her?”

“I don’t care about that, Summer! She is our mother, for Christ’s sake!” she shouted angrily, blue flames licking parts of her hooves and wings. Oh dear, she really was mad right now. “If I get my hooves on that bitch!”

“Please, calm down!” I said, trying to reach out to her. But she swatted my hoof away from her with a heavy snort, her wild eyes scanning every part of the horizon. “Sister, stop!”

“And then what?! Leave her to their mercy?!” she retorted furiously. “You know what happens to those ponies! Why are you trying to stop me?!”

“Because you’re causing a scene, idiot!” I shouted back at her, tears streaming down the side of my head. “Have you ever considered for one second what you have just done?!”

“What?” Tia asked, looking confused back at me. Then she noticed the other pegasi staying a safe distance away from us, gaping at us. “Oh...”

“Yeah, ‘Oh’ isn’t even doing it justice, sister,” I told her. “This was what Mom wanted to prevent by making us stay away from her! Now we have to come up with a solution to this problem, so please, let us go back home before more ponies see us.”

“Okay...” she muttered, ashamed. Her ears were splayed back in a way that made her look like a kicked puppy. “I’m sorry, sister.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me, Tia,” I said gently, wiping away my shed tears. “Mom is going to be so mad when she comes back.”

“If she comes back,” my twin said bitterly. I wanted to tell her that there was no way Mom would die from this, but then again... she was already a shell of her former self... only continuing to live on for the sake of me and my sisters. There was the very real possibility that losing this last part of herself, the magic holding her like a crutch, would bring her toppling down.

And I feared my sister was right about that. Sometimes there was this mysterious sense she had, telling her when something was about to happen. Normally, it was just a sense of something small transpiring and she couldn’t tell exactly what it would be that would happen. But then, there were the rare cases where she prevented something that could have hurt us. All of this started after our sixteenth birthday and now that we were twenty, she started to get slightly better at it.

I, on the other hoof, sometimes had the feeling I understood what the animals around me were feeling. It was a jarring experience the first time I felt like I knew the bird that just caught the worm was happy. Or that little mouse that I used for my small experiment.

I don’t think this was something normal ponies could just do. Mom certainly never mentioned having experienced anything like what we were telling her about. I had no idea if this was something specific to the race my sisters and I belonged to or not.

For now, it certainly seemed like it. It just reaffirmed the belief our dad held that we would never get to experience an ordinary life. I really missed him, despite inheriting his damn pink hair.

My sister and I were actually glad we had something to remember him by. The same could be true for Luna if our mother... left us... just as suddenly as Dad. I didn’t look forward to telling her that Mom could potentially be gone for good, now.

Something about this world just wanted me to lose my family members, didn’t it? Fat chance I would let it take my sisters away from me, too. Not Luna, and definitely not my wife. I already thought I had lost her once, not again.

A few days later, Luna was finally able to leave the confines of her room and she was happy to be let out. That happiness was soon taken away from her, though. We had to lock her away in the training room as she accused us of abandoning our mother.

Celestia was all too happy to enter a fight with her, both of them slinging around spells like there was no tomorrow. I tried to stop their fight, throwing up two separate bubble shields around them. Those quickly got destroyed, much to my dismay.

It was when they started to rip each other’s feathers out that I had enough and teleported them into the middle of the forest with me. If they wanted to make me mad, they had managed it.

And I was a terrifying force to deal with when mad. My little gravity field forced both of them to the ground as I let my magefire circle around them. They couldn’t get out even if they tried.

“Stop this at once!” I growled at them, my eyes narrowed and I extended my wings in a threatening manner. “None of this helps our situation. We have to hope Mom comes back and if not, then we have to figure out what to do with the ponies knowing about us!”

“Let me out, Summer!” Celestia grunted, snorting like a wild animal. “I will teach this naughty filly a lesson for accusing us of abandoning mother!”

“You let those ponies take Mom away from us!” Luna shot back. “Don’t deny it, sister!”

“Didn’t I tell you to stop?” I asked, my voice low. Both of their eyes shrunk to pinpricks. Good, they knew what was about to come.

“Come on, sister! We can talk about this?” Luna laughed nervously, but I didn’t care anymore. They didn’t want to talk before and they certainly wouldn’t now.

“Summer, don’t do this, I beg you!” Tia whined. I raised a skeptical brow at her. Then, the gravity well started to increase tenfold under them, beginning to crush them cruelly and I levitated two loose leaves from the ground, growling with rage. I was this close to let loose and beat some sense into them, but I had a better idea. Perhaps it was even crueler, but they had asked for it.

No mercy.

The tickle apocalypse was swift. It was relentless. It. was. GLORIOUS!

I didn’t stop until I had them apologizing to each other and even then, I continued on until they begged me for release. I wasn't in the mood to be merciful and until they couldn't breathe on, I would torture them to teach them a lesson. These were hard times and required equally hard decisions. Cooperation was a must if we wanted to get through them and I would be hard-pressed to let my family tear each other apart. What was left of it, that is.

Once everything calmed down from the heightened emotional stress and I gave them a few minutes so they could calm down, we started to debate what we should do next. We had to come up with something, and the faster we did so, the better. The secret was practically not so secret anymore, meaning we would either have to deal with the ponies coming for us or run away.

Celestia wanted to observe our house for a few days to see what would happen while Luna just wanted to continue like nopony ever saw us. And I just wanted my mother back with us, have the secret still be undiscovered, and have Equestria accept homosexuality, but we couldn’t get what we wanted, could we?

No, that would be too easy. The universe wasn’t that kind to us, after all. As we reluctantly went with Tia’s plan (because Luna’s honestly sucked), we saw those guards return a couple of days later.

And our mother wasn’t with them.

Fear gripped my heart like a vice and I had to stop both a raging Celestia and Luna from going over to them to burn them into a crisp. Never before have I felt hatred in my two lives. Well, not the true kind of hatred where you hated someone’s gut so much you wanted to make them evaporate with your gaze alone.

This got me very close to that feeling, but I had to stay strong. If not for Celestia, then for Luna. She was a heartbroken mess like us. One of us had to keep this family together, though.

Mom was already old, that much we were aware of. Ten to twenty years and she would have died, either way. Ponies here in this world seemed to have a great life expectancy even in the equivalent of the middle ages. Something about a healthier lifestyle, I’m sure.

This didn’t mean that we wouldn’t have been grateful to have her with us for the next odd few years, though. But we would have had to come to terms with it sooner or later, anyway. And while the loss of our father had hurt just as much, it was still hurting us to this day even, we learned how to cope with it already.

We... would just have to cope with this, too... I... Fuck, I can’t do this. This was exactly what I had feared most since losing my old family. While Catherine was still here with me, we had left everyone behind on Earth. And now, we had lost the two figures that had raised us since we had to wear diapers and nurse from the teats of a mare that was at first just a replacement for what we had lost. Not that we actually thought of Mom as a replacement for that long (if at all).

Both of whom we had learned to love with our whole heart, having embraced them as family. And neither of them we would ever see again... Now, we only had each other to rely on. And we weren’t exactly the most mature bunch, even though we were mentally older than our physical bodies.

Well, at least Celestia and I were older than we appeared. While Luna acted quite mature for her age at times, she also had the tendency to goof around like a little foal. She was still a teenager, after all. Not that we were better in that regard, sometimes.

So, during the night, we packed up everything worth something to us, mainly food, blankets, and memorabilia of our parents. We filled a whole cart full of all the things we wanted to take with us and we set out to find a clearing in the forest where we could hopefully live undisturbed.

If Mom didn’t want us to risk our lives for xenophobic idiots, we would honor her last wishes for as long as we could. Her memory deserved nothing less.

That also meant building a new house with all of the wards we could muster up that Mom had taught us over the last couple of years. While we weren’t exactly on the same level of spellcraft as her, we managed to at least safeguard ourselves from most threats.

We were experts in building homes by now, so the task was literally done within a few days. It helped that we had a lot of resources to work with, mainly our magic. And we didn’t actually need such a big house like before, we did kinda want to be hard to find.

At least we had gotten Mom to write down most of her spellwork so she wouldn’t forget it somehow. It was no problem to replicate what we had in our old homes.

That included a safe room for us to lock ourselves away during estrus, much to Luna’s annoyance. I didn’t want her to run off and find the first available partner, though. So I just told her to deal with it like a big pony, because the alternative was worse.

All thoughts of sexytime between me and Celestia were on hold for the foreseeable future, though. Luna was already suspicious of us about something that we kept from her (the relationship going on between us, duh), we didn’t need to add fuel to the fire.

But, as it turns out, we shouldn’t have bothered with trying to hide away again...

“You’re not that hard to track down, little filly,” a voice startled me as I sleepily left the bedroom to go get some water to wash myself for some modicum of hygiene. I let out a shriek in fear, bolting back under the covers of our shared bed, managing to wake up my twin in the process.

“Summer?” she groggily asked, lifting the blanket tiredly up with one of her wings. “What’s going on with you?”

“B-b-b-bur... B-burglar!” I squeaked out. That brought her to full wakefulness very fast, an angry grimace starting to replace her confused expression. Celestia leaped out of bed like an avenging angel, some type of spell already lighting up her horn.

“Begone, foul intruder!” she shouted, almost ripping the door out of the hinges as she went to confront whoever was foolish enough to break into our home. The noise startled my little sister out of her sleep, an alarmed gaze upon her face. She almost fell out of our bed, but she too was out the door a moment later with murder on her expression visible.

I heard the beam attack of my lover splash against what I thought must have been a very powerful shield spell if it could hold up to her assault, judging by the sounds alone.

The sounds of futile attempts to get to the supposed burglar continued on for a little while until one of my sisters must have noticed this wasn’t working as expected, so they stopped their current approach to do something different.

Crackling blue flames tried to eat away at the magical defense of the stallion within our home and once more nothing seemed to change.

“Are we quite done, yet?” the elderly voice asked, not in the slightest bit worried for his safety.

“What do you want from us?!” Celestia asked him. I peeked out further from underneath the covers, trying to see what the intruder looked like. All I could see was the soft glow of a shield and the threatening stance my sister had taken on for intimidation purposes. Slowly, I dared to leave the safe confines of the bed, trudging carefully to the open doorway.

There sat a very old stallion on one of the chairs in our living room, staring back at us as if nothing was wrong with this picture. He had a long white beard and piercing blue eyes, wearing a ridiculous hat with bells and a cape that looked more like a blanket, also decorated with little golden bells.

He cleared his throat while standing up from his position, transitioning over to a small bow towards us.

“I am here to ask for help,” he said. His tone was of the wise wizard type of quality one would have seen in a lot of fantasy films back on Earth. “I’m terribly sorry for startling your sister, dear. I was told I lack... tact. Anyway, my name is Starswirl the Bearded, pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Why would we give you our help?” Luna asked, snorting. “All you ponies have ever done was bicker among yourself, letting hatred guide your hooves. It caused our father to die at the hooves of raiders and now, you dare come here asking for our help after you took our mother away from us, too?”

“Yes, well...” Starswirl coughed awkwardly into his hoof. “While it seems unfortunate you have lost so much over the past conflict, and now with these desperate times calling for ponies to lend their magic to a cause that should have been handled by the Mage Order, I ask you to not forsake this world entirely.”

“And why should we accept your offer of an apology?” Celestia asked, still staring angrily at him. I came over to her and nuzzled the side of her head, giving her a pleading gaze. Hatred had started this cycle, we shouldn’t continue it. I had felt my rage flare up, too, at his... nerve for asking us so casually, too. But I wouldn't let my feelings get out of hoof, allowing them to control me.

“Perhaps we should hear him out?” I asked, uncertainly. At least that much we could do, right? If this cycle of mistrust just kept on, nothing would ever change. Somepony has to look past their misgivings first and I... I'd like to give him the chance. I had hope that he wouldn't abuse our trust and a little bit of kindness could go a long way. If we... if we continue to hold the death of our parents against these ponies, we would never get over this. I don't want to hold a grudge. Not against ponies that had nothing to do with this.

Platinum, though? She could burn in hell for all I care. Knowing me, though? I would offer her a chance, anyway...

“I can’t believe this. You know what these ponies did to our mother, Summer!” she snarled, growling in the direction of the old pony standing in the middle of the room. “He is the reason she had to die! Can’t you see that?!”

“Yes...” I said meekly, looking down and away from her. “But shouldn’t we show at least some small bit of kindness to somepony willing to offer their condolences? Shouldn't we be willing to forgive?”

“Summer, you and your fucking bleeding heart! Look at that old geezer and tell me he is truly sorry for what his ineptitude has caused!” she shot back, forcing me to look at the stallion that seemed to look totally indifferent to what was going on at first glance. But what I saw in his piercing blue eyes wasn’t a coldhearted monster. No. It was somepony desperate for a solution, willing to do everything that was necessary to save the world he loved. And mourn every loss along the way.

“So much pain...” I whispered, tears trickling down my face as I beheld him. He was quite startled as he saw me weep for somepony that was for all intents and purposes a stranger to me. “Why do you take on this heavy burden upon your own shoulders for so long?”

“My dear, somepony has to,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. It sounded quite lonely, too. He must have lost somepony close to him in his duty to uphold the order of the world. “If not for me, countless more would have already given their lives to this. I’ve done my best to take on as much of the burden as I could, but without the rest of my colleagues? I fear we will not have much time before even I can’t continue on with this.”

“What do you need us to do?” I asked, curious about what we could possibly offer that others could not. Although, I might have an idea regarding that...

“I think you know quite well what it is that I want to ask of you. This nation needs ponies like you, not those fools blathering in their seats, talking over each other all day long,” he smiled sadly. “I wouldn’t have come had I not heard the rumors. You truly are magnificent beings, aren’t you?”

“We can’t tell you much, mainly because we don’t know ourselves,” I answered, scuffing the ground with my hoof. Celestia had lessened her glare considerably by now but was still staring distrustingly at the old pony before us.

“Then we will have to find out in due time,” he said, nodding slightly in thought. “I see it was a mistake in asking you so brazenly to help a nation that has caused so much suffering for you. All I ask is that you think this over and perhaps accompany me to the city from where we raise and lower the celestial bodies?”

“And why would we want to do that?” Luna asked warily. “What purpose would that serve us but bring up painful memories?”

“To show you what I seek to prevent, my dear,” Starswirl told us. “And perhaps show you that we mean you no harm. You could be a symbol for the whole of ponykind, I hope you realize that? By the observations I have made on your particular species of ponies, I assume you are a combination of all three tribes?”

“Well, yes...” I answered. “But wouldn’t ponies fear us? We are different from normal ones, after all. Mother always believed we would be ostracized for what we are and I am inclined to believe so as well.”

“Why would you think so?” he asked me, confused.

“Well, ponies already find ways to hate each other for minor differences,” I argued. “And the tribalism that had led to the great winter? We represent all that they fear in others, hatred would be a natural response to that.”

“You are quite mistaken, my dear,” he laughed in his wizened old way. “Ponies would look to you and see somepony representing a part of their tribe in one pony having all three characteristics. All three tribes, unified by that which is all three of them at the same time. Do you see?”

“But... you can’t be asking us to lead a nation! We know next to nothing how something like that is done,” Celestia said incredulously. He chuckled at her answer, shaking his head slowly.

“No, my dear,” he retorted. “I’m not asking you to do that. I couldn’t even do something like that, to begin with. All I could do would be to try to convince the ponies of this land to accept you as their leaders. A leader is only a leader as long as their followers stand by them, after all.”

“That still doesn’t make us qualified for such a task,” Luna shot back.

“No, I suppose not...” he agreed. “But all great leaders start out somewhere, right?”

“That might be true, but I still don’t think my sisters and I would be all that good at it,” I said morosely, feeling like it was a massive undertaking to even entertain such a notion. “What if we make mistakes and cause a war? What if those ponies in charge resent us from taking their position from them as their new leaders? Wouldn’t the current leaders rise up against us? And what about the common ponies, what would they think of us? They don’t even know us.”

“A great many fears for something that is only a possibility,” he laughed. “Don’t wallow in the ‘What if?’ and instead think about ‘What can we do to make life better?’. Focus on that and I can tell you will make great leaders with a little bit of training in the more mundane tasks that such a position would require.”

“Can we think about this?” I asked, not sure how to feel about his arguments. I mean, he was kinda right. A leader that didn’t want to be one would make for the greatest one, right? We didn’t want to be in that position, but maybe it was something that would allow us to make this world a bit more bearable.

To guide all the little ponies in this land towards a brighter future... That is what he wanted to do, and if he could accomplish that in some small way already, what could we do for these ponies?

They deserved to have a unified banner to stand behind, a literal embodiment of harmony between all three tribes. Somepony leading them that wouldn’t let the difference between tribes cloud their judgment, like the current ruling body.

And it would allow us to take revenge on Platinum. For taking our mother away from us, we would be taking away her position as ruler of this nation in return. Something that our mother had been trained to do in the first place by her own parents, but we wouldn’t have to do it in a violent fashion.

We could just ask the ponies to follow us instead and they would jump at the opportunity of a pony that represented the very ideal Equestria was founded upon. Harmony.

Love. Generosity. Kindness... Those ideals were important to me and I had no doubt my sisters would think so, too... so why not think about this over a couple of nights, discuss this among us, and then decide? And in the meantime, we could observe what Starswirl wanted to show us.