Source material for this chapter: The Journal of the Two Sisters - The last chapters

Melvin was a great source of information about the Everfree Forest. He knew his way around it to practically every corner of it. Luna had me ask him why he avoided one area of it, though. The manticore merely stated that it was forbidden to go beyond it and I think I understood why that was. Most of the predators that tried to do so never came back and the few peaceful animals living within this forest said that all they knew was that the predators were hunted down if they couldn’t be driven off.

A thing that most predators in the Everfree were notorious for not doing, it seemed. Luna wanted to go explore the land beyond the Everfree Forest under all circumstances and wasn’t deterred by the warning I relayed to her from Melvin.

So, because I didn’t want to let her go on her own, I accompanied her so I could at least act as a decoy should things get dicey and we needed to flee. Celestia was against it at first, but Luna managed to drive her crazy with the continuous begging coming from her until she relented.

My twin wanted to go instead of me, but I told her that I didn’t want to have them bicker all the way on their journey and promised her we would be careful. Didn’t change her opinion on it, but then Luna started to complain and whine about Tia being too protective of me and hogging me all to herself.

So, my twin gave up and Luna and I started to make our way through the forest where Melvin told us these things were happening. I wanted to make sure all my animal friends were safe and if it meant investigating this curious cause, then I would do so.

And what a cause it was. After we managed to break through the dense thicket and came across what appeared to be a savannah, we found something I never expected to find so close to our home. We had to take to the air just to look over the tall grass and there, in the near distance, was a small village of huts with very unique inhabitants.

The inhabitants were unlike any normal ponies because quite frankly, they were no ponies. What we found was a group of zebras looking fearful of us and their manner of speech was... different. It wasn’t like they spoke a completely different language, they just... rhymed whenever they talked.

Oh, and they also thought we were manticores just because we had wings. Talk about generalizing. They were quite... isolated, weren’t they? I could tell Luna wanted to laugh her flanks off as I tried to get them to understand that we weren’t there to harm them.

I got to understand just how isolated these zebras had been living after they put down their weapons so we could talk in a slightly more friendly setting. They had never seen anything in the form of a horse (or pony, as the case may be) but a zebra. It was a little weird that they got so fascinated with our horns and wings as if they were entirely alien concepts to them.

So, to show them that there was nothing to fear about our appendages, I let them inspect them from up close. By that, I mean that I let them touch me, much to the amusement of my sister.

When I asked them why they were hurting my animal friends when they left the forest, they told me that they did it for self-defense. It wasn’t that much of a surprise, considering what predators normally do. They also explained that they used their unique shamanistic magic and the potions they brewed to ward off their land.

Then, they also told us that they had a small manticore population problem in the past, which led to them hunting them down in the first place. Melvin was apparently too young to have known about that little tidbit of manticore history and I wasn’t particularly keen on explaining it to him when we returned home.

The zebras were gracious enough to host us with a small feast of their delicacies and we got to witness them do a little rain dance (I think it was a rain dance) to show us how their magic worked. It had a lot to do with movements and rhyming, it was a little bit cute to watch in my opinion.

We told the zebras that if they were to ever venture through the forest they would be welcome to stay in Equestria as we prepared to leave the next day. They promised to come visit us in our home should they decide to take us up on our offer, and so we said our goodbyes to the first foreigners we had come across, glad to call them our friends from now on.

Tia was glad nothing happened to us and got slightly excited about having zebras so close to our doorstep. I could tell that she had been fretting over us while we were gone, though. It warmed my heart to see her worry so much for the wellbeing of me and Luna.

We returned to our duties without much hassle, although I had to literally force Luna to do her paperwork at times. She couldn’t just pile her stuff on to us while only doing the things that were entertaining to her. Celestia was more fed up at her carefree nature than me, though. We had all agreed to rule equally and Luna was already shoving her work onto us when she felt like not doing it.

Something I would have honestly expected to happen with Tia, too. I suppose our duties to the ponies of Equestria finally managed to motivate not only her but also me to procrastinate less.

Paperwork was still boring, though...

Starswirl had us come over to his library again one day, telling us that he had some exciting news to share with us. And as we got there, we saw what he meant when he came tumbling out of a small vortex of a very complex looking spell.

He had just successfully traveled in time and he could control where (or I suppose, when) he wanted to go! Celestia’s inner child was getting all giddy over him finally succeeding in his quest for more knowledge and I wasn’t that much different from her with my reaction, either. I wondered what he saw while he was gone, but the old coot never told us. He had a strange gleam in his eyes, though.

The thing about that new time travel spell, though, was that it didn’t leave him entirely unaffected. We tried telling him gently that, while he obviously could use the spell to travel through time, it also left a very obvious mark on him. Luna got so fed up that he didn’t notice what he had done to himself that she levitated a mirror directly into his face, stating that the spell was too dangerous to cast while still incomplete.

Starswirl had stared completely baffled into the reflection within the mirror. A reflection of his obviously younger self. The spell had de-aged him at the same time, so while it was a time travel spell, it was also an age travel spell. Something that we all unanimously agreed on shouldn’t ever be made public, it would lead to too many problems down the line. You could basically live forever with this spell alone, something that would come with a heavy cost.

Agelessness wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, in my opinion. It only led to heartache once you started to outlive your loved ones. While Luna, Tia, and I could probably cast the spell at some point, we wouldn’t ever want to. Not only because we would leave behind all our friends that couldn’t cast the spell, but also because the spell took one back by a lot of years. Starswirl was now in his late fifties and not at the old age of eighty-ish.

He had been one of the oldest ponies in Equestria alive before this, now he would continue to get even older than that. Starswirl didn’t really see a problem with that, but I feared what other effects it would have on him given time. I just hoped that he wouldn’t go senile by using this spell over and over again.

It was quite funny to see him with a small brown goatee, though. He had the face for it though, his muzzle not being so wrinkly anymore. The fact that he felt stronger with his magic than ever took a load off my mind.

The not so old coot also wanted to begin teaching us how he and the unicorns raised the moon and the suns, having that strange cryptic gleam in his eyes, so that was a lesson that would probably take us quite some time to learn. Now that he had quite literally all the time in the world to do so, I hoped that he would at least go easy on us.

It was something that I had thought we would never have to learn, but just because we were the rulers now, didn’t mean it wouldn’t become useful knowledge in the future. He assured us that he would do his best to prepare us for the task before we even attempted casting it with anypony and told us that if the unicorns were ever unable to fulfill their task that we would have to help out. It was our duty as princesses, looking out for the good of everypony.

If it meant saving the rest of the world, I suppose losing my magic would be a minor thing to sacrifice. While it wouldn’t probably come to that, hopefully, I was prepared to do what was necessary. It was the far more preferable option, wasn’t it? I’d rather lose my magic than live in a... dead world.

When we weren’t busy learning about our new duties, we had our fun with the rest of our friends. One day Commander Hurricane came over and he taught us quite a lot about the weather. We even had a nice little competition of who could fly the fastest. While I wasn’t that particularly good at it, my sisters were having a lot more fun with it, trying to leave Commander Hurricane in the dust.

Tia and Lulu were able to go quite fast with their wings if they wanted to, but Hurricane put up quite a challenge for them. He was the fastest pegasus alive, after all.

While I watched them from a cloud after having given up on catching up to them, my heart plummeted as I saw Tia get tackled out of the air by a griffon, falling to the ground below while unable to right herself in time.

I was glad that Hurricane was here with us or I fear I would have lost my wife that day. He was able to catch up with her with no problem and I touched down beside them as Hurricane set her down on the ground. Luckily, while she had taken quite a nasty hit from that griffon, she was none the worse for wear.

I didn’t let her out of my hooves for a whole hour afterward (only reluctantly letting go of her as she started to get fidgety), afraid the griffon would return to finish the job. Hurricane explained to me and my sisters that there was quite a bit of history between pegasi and griffons. There had been an extensive and complicated rivalry between the two species for as long as they could think back, oftentimes resulting in skirmishes (and the odd few wars) between them.

While there was a somewhat friendly truce between pegasi and griffons in the past and they had respected the borders in between them, it seemed to me that with me and my sisters in power now, they wanted to challenge us for territory again.

Hurricane wasn’t all that certain about going over to their lands to negotiate with them, he was unsure if this was a good idea on my part, preferring to rather prepare a retaliatory attack, instead. Even Luna and Celestia were hesitant in that regard, too, but as I gave them my reasoning, they understood it was for the best. If we could come to a peaceful solution by talking, I would try that before resorting to military might.

Even though the bastards just attempted to kill my wife. I was willing to look past that if they gave us an apology, though. It wouldn’t do to hold a grudge over the actions of a single griffon, after all. I wouldn’t be able to look myself in the eye if I were to condemn the rest of their race for what one idiot did.

Although... on the other hoof, I was sorely tempted to eradicate their entire race for daring to lay their dirty claws on my wife. But that was the rage in me speaking, something that I wouldn’t ever follow up on. I couldn’t let myself get consumed by these dark thoughts because of what might be a misunderstanding here. That griffon could have acted on his own without any incentive from their king, after all.

If only I was right with that little train of thought...

The thing about their king, I sadly had to find out, was that he was a total asshole. And I don’t say this lightly, but I was starting to consider going to war with them just to get that dickhead off the throne. He was just skirting around the definition of being a selfish dictator with the way he ruled his nation.

This attack on our airspace happened because of one little technicality in the wording of the previous treaty. Seeing that Equestria wasn’t entirely comprised of pegasus territory anymore, King Gregor thought it would be okay to think the treaty was null and void. We tried to get him to accept our proposal of changing the wording from “Pegasus” to “Equestrian” in the treaty, but he continued to be stubborn.

The bastard really was out for war and he even told us that if we wanted our airspace back, we would have to fight for it. He sent us on our way back home with not so kind words and I could tell that he was just waiting for the chance to invade our home.

I told him he was welcome to try. I’ve had enough of his attitude and if he didn’t want to do it the peaceful way, then he would have to learn it the hard way that we were no pushovers. I’m sure my animal friends would be happy to lend us their aid, too.

If he wanted his head decapitated so badly, let him come...

So, while we prepared our own forces over the following weeks after that, repelling the prodding advances from the griffons (for now), Melvin and I had a talk about the chickens pretending to be lions. It turns out that my manticore friend knew quite a bit of interesting things about the race that he shared a common ancestor with. While both of their species were known to have inherited the temper of lions, the griffons had something else that they were known for.

Melvin told me that they had a massive sweet tooth. And as he told me this, a devious plan began to form in my mind. I would make the griffons rue the day they threatened my kingdom and my lover. That I swore with a vengeance. And it had the upside of not having to shed blood over this stupid conflict, so that was a plus in my book.

My plan was a very simple one, as the simplest of plans always worked best. I would get the griffons addicted to the confections our subjects could whip up and I would hold the recipe under their little beaks once they were and threaten them to never mess with ponies again.

Celestia found my plan to be ingenious and together with Melvin, we learned the favorite dessert of King Gregor: éclairs. I think I might have gone overboard with this plan by enlisting Starswirl’s aid. In hindsight, it kinda bordered on brainwashing by giving the damn birds a batch of éclairs that made your mouth water just by looking at them through a subtle mental suggestion from a spell Starswirl put on them.

I sorta felt bad about it? I... I don’t know. I mean, it got the job done at the cost of their blood sugar levels skyrocketing through the roof, but... was it worth it? On the one hoof, they kinda, maybe, sorta, possibly deserved it? On the other hoof, it felt like I went a little bit too far with my (admittedly insidious) plan. It wasn’t my proudest moment in the history of my (still relatively short) reign and I vowed to never resort to such underhoofed methods again.

So long as they didn’t try to kill my wife again, that is...

At least we got them to sign the new peace treaty in return for the... ahem, ‘recipe’... of the éclairs. We told them they would have to ask Starswirl for that, I wasn’t particularly in the mood to tell them we had just brainwashed them into stopping their attempt of an invasion.

Who knew you could avoid a war by appealing to the stomach of your (admittedly shitty) neighbor with enchanted confections? I’m glad that there hadn’t been any casualties, at least. Would that have been the case, I don’t think I would have been as kind as I was towards them. Brainwashing would have been the least of their problems in that case. Taking the head off that idiotic king still sounded very tempting...

Equestrian morality was really weird, considering taking away the freedom of thought was the most heinous crime a human could come up with. I got over it, though. Sure, I might have made a massive mistake that would probably still continue to haunt me every once in a while, but I’m sure I can learn to live with it.

Months passed us by with nothing really worthwhile happening, besides Luna turning sixteen and finding out she could suddenly dream lucid dreams on command, even enter another ponies dream for a little while. It seems to me that it was no coincidence that we developed these unique abilities and Starswirl attributed it as a trait of our kind. Alicorns were apparently extra special in contrast to normal ponies.

I was glad Luna couldn’t enter the dreams of anypony without their permission. Yet. Otherwise, she would have surely seen some of the naughty things my sister and I dreamt about.

Luna couldn’t just dream walk, though. No, she had the very ability to put ponies to sleep even under circumstances less ideal for that. She oftentimes helped out the healers with some of their patients when they were unable to do something to aid them. It was almost like putting the ponies she used this ability on under narcosis with a single word.

It wasn’t just other ponies she could use it on, though. Luna could just tell herself to go to sleep and she would. She tried getting out of her work by constantly causing herself to fall asleep after that. It got so annoying that we had to ask Starswirl for a spell that would wake anypony up from slumber.

Luna was grumpy that she was denied her ‘rest’ because of that. Sometimes she just couldn’t stop acting like an immature filly, I swear. Celestia and I were working our flanks off while she thought this was a game.

She could act her age, she simply didn’t want to and it drove me and my twin up the walls of our castle. I mean... sometimes Tia and I had the tendency to goof around as much as Luna, but we didn’t let that come in between our duties as princesses. I suppose our reincarnation was one of those things that gave us that child-like wonder back that Earth had taken from us as we grew older.

Equestria was our home now and I wouldn’t ever want to leave this magical place behind me. I wanted to see it grow into a beautiful nation that was the envy of every other race on this planet, see it prosper into a land that was almost utopia-like from an outsider's perspective. That would be something, wouldn’t it?

Something told me that making such a goal become a reality was going to be a grueling task for me and my sisters and that we would go through many hardships to reach it. We might not even see the hard-earned result of our efforts during our lifetime, my thoughts whispered treacherously to me as a little bit of self-doubt crept up within me.

After all, Kings and Queens on Earth were few and far between that could claim to have brought a golden age to their nation. Most of that was built on things I would never resort to. Blood, slavery, exploitation... those were common themes throughout the history of humanity, a history I’d rather want to distance myself from if I was honest with myself.

I don’t know... every time I thought back on the time before my reincarnation, hatred flared up within me like an ugly disease. The thought of me having shared a race with such despicable monsters that used any means imaginable to further their selfish goals left me with a queasy feeling.

I was glad that humanity had (mostly) learned from those times and tried to be better, but there always were those few black sheep that had me doubt my faith in humanity. The last Great War was perhaps the darkest time humanity had born witness to, erasing almost a third of the human population over something that was unbelievably petty.

Freedom to express yourself. The right to love. Creativity. All of that had almost been taken from humanity and I vowed to never let the same happen to the ponies of Equestria. The first World War had looked almost tame in comparison to the Great War (nothing about it was great, as the people fighting in it quickly found out). Not a single nation on Earth was exempt from the conflict and it showed in the final death toll. A conflict that would surely traumatize the ponies under our guidance if they were to ever learn of such horrors.

Heck, even war veterans from the first World War had been traumatized by the sheer cruelty of the Great War. I shudder to think what would have happened had humanity not stopped at the point they had. Humanity had come extremely close to the point of no return. Thankfully, that red line had never been crossed and humanity slowly recovered from the horrors of war.

I feared my parents would have been forced to fight for their rights if the war hadn’t ended at that point and it might have gone on long enough that I would have grown up in a time of war... if my parents survived long enough to get children, that is.

I might have never had children with my beloved if the Great War raged on for even longer. The Great War brought out the worst in humanity but also the best. Shining examples that, in the end, brought about an era of lasting peace. Shining examples that I wanted to emulate with my reign over Equestria together with Tia and Lulu.

Aside from Luna developing her own gift, Celestia started to have... weird dreams as we turned twenty-two. She constantly saw the Tree of Harmony in her dreams and both Luna and I started to think it was some kind of premonition. What it meant though, was anypony’s guess.

I, on the other hoof, could somehow turn my gaze into something that would get any creature to freeze up in fear. I don’t know why I got something that was normally so against my very nature while Tia’s ability expanded upon itself. It was quite useful to get Luna to do her work, though.

Starswirl told us to not worry about Celestia’s visions of the tree. The not-so-old-anymore archmage with the short beard was using his time travel spell again (he had apparently managed to ‘perfect’ it now) and whenever he returned, he had this weird knowing look in his eyes when we asked him about it.

We had little time to worry about what these visions meant afterward. While Starswirl was his usual cryptic self annoying us to the high heavens, we received a missive from a nation up north that had settled in the frozen wastes for whatever reason.

The message was a short one and merely stated that the Crystal Empire and their princess was in danger as something very important to them had been stolen. We had only seen Princess Amore briefly during our own coronation, so we were quite surprised that they were asking for our help in locating the Crystal Heart.

Without the Crystal Heart, their barrier against the cold would be gone and the city-state would slowly start to freeze over. The ponies living there had a clock on their lives now and we were all too happy to come to their aid. I remember Amore to be quite the nice pony, so I looked forward to properly meeting her.

“Sister, hurry up!” I said, bouncing up and down as I saw the gleaming tower of the centerpiece within the Crystal Empire in the distance. We were traveling with a detail of some of our best guards and I was already giddy to get over there and meet Princess Amore, the unicorn that was said to be able to power the Crystal Heart with her love all on her own.

“Summer, we’re almost there, get a grip on yourself,” Celestia retorted with a roll of her eyes. “You’re behaving like a little filly entering a candy store for the first time.”

“Can you fault me for that? I can’t wait to meet Amore!” I giggled, trotting happily in front of her. “She is the ideal example of what a princess should aspire to be! She rules with kindness, with compassion, and with generosity! She takes after my own heart, sister!”

“Oh, what a joy... Another bleeding heart,” Luna muttered. “Are you sure Summer isn’t Amore’s twin, Tia?”

“I don’t know... are you, Summer?” Tia asked me, a jealous tone in her voice. I stopped bouncing up and down so much with my ears splayed back, ashamed of how I have made my wife feel.

“I’m sorry, I just...” I mumbled apologetically. “She is like the perfect role model, you know?”

“It’s fine,” Celestia said looking down and away from me. “Just... don’t go all googly-eyed on her, weirding her out with your fangasm, okay?”

“Okay, I’ll try to keep myself from... weirding her out, sister,” I said with a nod, rubbing my neck awkwardly with a hoof as she still avoided eye-contact with me. It was... sort of sweet that she was envious of a mare we hadn’t actually met with, yet.

As we entered the city, we saw all manners of buildings made from crystals and the ponies themselves shimmered like diamonds. Their fur had this otherworldly beauty to it that I had never seen before, I was quite jealous of it. It looked so elegant and beautiful!

Princess Amore truly had a great Empire here, I was glad she had asked us for help instead of somepony else. The adorable sparkling ponies bowed to us as we passed them by with our guards on our way to the castle and I couldn’t help myself from happily giggling at their cuteness, I just wanted to hug them all day!

And rip the head off of the thief that dared threaten these cute and adorable and pretty ponies... Maybe burn their brain out with magefire? I... I might be getting a bit too overprotective of my ponies (even if they are technically not mine).

Princess Amore was waiting for us by the large plaza under the palace that eerily reminded me of the Eiffel Tower. I shook the snowflakes out of the white cloak I wore that had managed to stick to me without melting while walking through the light snowfall in the city. Normally the north was surrounded by a perpetual snowstorm, but Princess Amore’s unique magic was able to hold it at bay for now.

“Welcome to the Crystal Empire, Princesses of Equestria,” she greeted us and I happily gave the pink mare a big massive hug (despite her being larger than us by quite the margin), much to the chagrin of my sisters. Amore didn’t seem to care, though. She giggled at my enthusiasm, returning the hug gently. “My, how very affectionate you are!”

“Sorry!” I said in embarrassment, letting go of her. “I promised to not go all over the top to my sisters and here I am, doing exactly that... I’m so sorry.”

“You don’t have to be,” she giggled and began to lead us into her castle. It was a very fancy place, even fancier than our own home. Once we were in her throne room, we saw her tiredly take a seat on her throne with a sigh. “Now, let me tell you the reason why I asked for your help... Without the Crystal Heart, I fear my little ponies will continue to fall into depression, a few already have. Their coat doesn’t shine healthily anymore and I fear for their wellbeing.

“Without the Crystal Heart magnifying my love magic, I’m hard-pressed at keeping my subjects safe from harm and my powers continue to dwindle with each day that the Crystal Heart is gone. Even worse, the one who stole the artifact is a dragon. It lives high up within a cave in the Crystalline Mountains that used to be a place where my ponies mined for crystals.

“It is from there that the Crystal Heart originates and we desperately need it back. I am loath to say that I can’t give you more information on this, as we ourselves have little information on the Crystal Heart. We found it in the mountains and it allowed me to create a barrier that kept the weather in a constant spring-like environment.

“I wouldn’t ask this of you if it weren’t for my weakened state, but we need your help. Could you return the Crystal Heart to us and save this Empire? I would be forever in your debt.”

My sisters and I looked at each other for just a moment and came to an instant understanding between us. Together, we gave Princess Amore a determined nod.

Princess Amore let out a relieved sigh at our answer and we saw her let down her strong princess façade, seeing just how exhausted she was for the first time. It seemed like she could barely keep herself awake. She almost looked like she would fall into slumber at any point now as she leaned tiredly against the back of her throne and it made my heart quiver anxiously for a moment. Just how much of herself had she already sacrificed to keep the weather at bay so that her subjects were safe? How... how much longer could she keep this up if we failed to retrieve the Crystal Heart?

“I thank you from the deepest parts of my heart,” she told us with a shaky smile. “I’m glad that you came to our side so fast. Please, feel free to stay for as long as you need to. I’m sure you will need to rest from your journey here, I wouldn’t want you to be at anything less than your best when you confront that dragon.”

“We thank you for your hospitality, we won’t let you down,” Celestia said in return. “I’m sure if we explain the situation to the dragon that he will see reason, but just in case he does become hostile, we will take a platoon of our guards with us.”

“And if it comes down to a fight, Starswirl taught us many spells to subdue a creature of that size!” Luna nodded, stomping her hoof down in determination. “He won’t stand a chance.”

“Yes, and if all else fails, I think I can... convince him with my stare,” I said, rubbing my hoof against the back of my neck. “I’d prefer a more peaceful solution, though.”

“I’m glad that you have put so much thought into this already, may you return victorious,” Amore said. We gave her a nod and some of her guards came over to lead us towards our chambers that we would be staying in.

The rooms were as luxurious as the rest of the Empire appeared to be and I had to say that the soaps within the bath chambers were absolutely divine. I enjoyed a nice long soak during the evening and my sisters joined me in relaxing before the big day.

Sleep came easily to us thanks to Luna, but that didn’t stop us from feeling nervous. I woke up multiple times during the night as my anxiety kept me from a full night’s rest. So I sneaked my way into my twin’s bed and after I snuggled myself into her embrace, I was finally able to succumb to a peaceful slumber.

Celestia roused me from my sleep the next morning with a pleasant wake-up call by nibbling on my ears. I giggled into her chest as she mumbled out her good morning to me.

“Morning, Tia,” I replied with warmth in my tone. “I couldn’t sleep, so I invited myself in. I’ve missed sleeping with you in the same bed.”

“Maybe we should combine our rooms back in the castle...” she whispered over to me, placing a tender kiss on the tip of my muzzle. “I don’t care what Luna would think of that, we’re allowed to share our rooms if we want to.”

“I think that wouldn’t be a good idea, though,” I told her, a bit downtrodden. “She would get the wrong idea, I’m sure.”

“It’s not like we haven’t shared a bed when we were fillies,” Celestia rolled her eyes. “Why would she get the wrong idea?”

“If you’re sure...” I said. She was kinda right, after all. Until just before we became princesses we had to share our bedroom because we could only take one bed with us to the little shack we had built in the forest, so maybe Luna would just roll her eyes at me and think I was unable to sleep away from my twin.

“Now, let’s go and get breakfast,” Tia said and my tummy made an agreeing noise to her proposition. “You need to eat your veggies and become big and strong like your sister, after all.”

“Haha, very funny,” I retorted unamused. “I thought you liked me with a slim figure?”

“Learn to take a joke, sister,” she shot back. “And I do, but a little padding would also look cute on you.”

“Learn to be funny, sister,” I taunted, blowing a raspberry at her.

“I am...” she pouted. “Nopony appreciates good humor anymore, I swear.”

“Your sense of humor wouldn’t even get the crickets to chirp.”

Celestia grumbled at me, saying that I was being mean to her again. I found it adorable and judging by the small giggles from Princess Amore as we entered the dining hall, so did she.

“You know... normally I don’t condone relationships like yours, but you do make for a cute couple,” Amore whispered over to me as I sat myself down beside her. Luna was across the table from us, snoring into her pancake while she also nibbled on it in her sleep. Once more I cursed myself for not having a camera, we really needed some of our ponies to invent them just for moments like these.

“How... how did you know?” I asked, my heart beating fearfully in my chest.

“Dear, I rule the Empire that runs on love magic, what did you expect?” Amore giggled. “I can see your love for your twin from a mile away.”

“Please, don’t tell anypony,” I begged her quietly, shifting uncomfortably in my seat as a server came with our own breakfast. Celestia was oblivious to our conversation, trying to get Luna into a properly awake state. I couldn’t help but snort as she propped Lulu up only for her to fall back on her pancake, continuing to nibble on it in her sleep. “Nopony would understand...”

“My lips are sealed, fret not,” Amore reassured me, giggling as Tia grumbled while she shook Luna until she finally managed to startle our little sister awake, the pancake hanging out of her mouth in a very cute manner as Lulu blinked wearily at what was going on around her. “Although, I’m curious how it came to be?”

“It’s a long story...” I answered, cutting my pancake into small bite-sized chunks. I was so happy that ponies had these fluffy delights despite being practically in the middle ages. I had no idea when humans had invented them, so I was glad that ponies had done so.

“I see,” she said, nodding understandingly. “If you don’t want to tell me, then that’s okay.”

“No, I guess I could, just... not now?” I told her before popping another piece of sweet goodness into my mouth. “Certainly not with Lulu present where she could overhear. She is really bad at keeping secrets.”

“You have not told her?” Amore inquired and I shook my head. “Keeping such things away from her will only lead to resentment.”

“I know, but telling her would also do that,” I said, my ears splaying back on my head. “I don’t think she would understand.”

“Sometimes family manages to surprise one,” Amore sagely said. “But it is your decision. You’re welcome to come visit any time and talk with me about this if you want.”

“Thank you,” I said with a smile. “I never thought I would meet somepony as understanding as you.”

“I try my best,” she smiled back, her tone jubilant. “Would one of you have been a stallion, though, I would have given you a few choice words.”

“I, uh,” I laughed awkwardly. “I don’t think we would have risked that, either. I mean, I have a spell, well... for that, but it’s completely safe.”

“Oh? I have not heard of such a transformation spell.”

“It’s of my own making,” I told her with a red face. I noticed Celestia and Luna give us a confused stare, although Tia looked a bit too suspicious of us. I mouthed a ‘later’ towards her, promising to explain what we were talking about before I returned my attention to Princess Amore. “It works somewhat like this, I’m not sure you will get my meaning here, but bear with me. I usually rely more on my instincts and emotions for spells, so I use desire for the outcome, lust for the act, love for the sensation, and determination for functionality purposes. It doesn’t work on the caster, sadly.”

“My, very interesting, indeed. And you came up with this on your own?” she asked me intrigued. I gave her a nod, explaining my trial and error approach on a brave mouse. “That I have never thought of this myself, it boggles the mind.”

“It took me quite some time to figure out,” I told her. “It’s nothing special...”

“Oh, on the contrary!” she said, perhaps a bit too loud as my sisters looked over to us again. “I myself use emotions for spells and that particular mix is quite similar to each other that it would be easy to tangle the spell up.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I laughed, feeling a bit embarrassed at her praising me. “My sister is still trying to figure out how to use her emotions for spells like that, she is more of the methodical caster.”

“So similar, yet so different. You are very interesting twins, my dear. Your parents must have been very proud of you,” Amore told me with a small smile. “I’m sure that they still are, in whatever afterlife they have found themselves in.”

“Perhaps...” I said, unsure. “Or they are rolling in their graves seeing what I do with my twin.”

“I’m sure they would still love you despite that,” Amore said gently. “Parents are a lot more understanding than one might think.”

“If you say so...”

Our conversation petered out after that and we got ourselves ready to make the journey towards the Crystalline Mountain. The guards wanted to go in first, make sure that the dragon wasn’t there to ambush us, but I told them that we could handle ourselves if that were to happen. They were merely there for back-up should we fail.

As we flew up towards where we saw the opening in the rocky terrain, we could already see a few hooves in. No sign of a dragon, thankfully. I don’t think I really wanted to be here, but my duty demanded of me to stay strong for my sisters.

I needed a confidence boost if this was already wreaking havoc on my nerves. I don’t think I have ever been so antsy while I lived as Rudolph on Earth, so what has changed? Wasn’t I a grown-up mare already? It certainly didn’t feel like I behaved like that at times.

Then again, I had a different body compared to the one I had as a human. Celestia certainly was just as confident as she was on Earth, so there must be a notable distinction between my old body and my new one. Most likely the difference in hormones has caused me to behave a lot more cautious? Reserved? It was hard to tell.

Now that I think about it, I don’t think it was confidence that I lacked, but more of my true self shining through. It just wasn’t in my nature to be as brave as my wife or little sister. Although I could and would still stand by their side, I wasn’t a complete coward. I mean, I am still as protective as ever (way more than what I have been like as a human), so I think it is okay to not be as assertive most of the time. If I screwed up enough confidence when it was really needed, everything would be just fine, right?

Luna pointed out that the Crystal Heart was just conveniently discarded on the ground right there within the entrance to the cave as we came in for a landing. Either this was an elaborate trap set out for anypony foolish enough to try and steal from the dragon’s hoard, or the dragon just... dumped it like a useless trinket.

Both of these options were bothering me a great deal. If the dragon wanted to spring a trap on us, then we would show him why that wasn’t a good idea. And on the other hoof, if the dragon treated the Crystal Heart as a mere toy, I would give him a few choice words about endangering the lives of my cute crystal pony friends.

“Let me do the talking,” Celestia said, her voice offering no room for argument, and without even giving us time to respond, she went up to the entrance, calling for an audience with the dragon. I wanted to tell her to shut the hell up before she actually managed to rouse the dragon, as did Luna because the Crystal Heart was right there, but Tia was of the opinion that asking first was the polite thing to do (and also make sure there would be no repeat performance by the dragon).

I wanted to groan at her reasoning. Now of all times did she want to be the polite one? Normally it was I that had to convince them of that, and I definitively didn’t want to actually have a talk with a massive, fire-breathing, big ass DRAGON. One that has incredibly sharp teeth and a maw big enough that could swallow us whole.

Now that I think about it, maybe it was this world that was making me this anxious? I mean, with monsters like dragons and star beasts, who wouldn’t be afraid to be here?

“Who dares enter my lair?” a deep voice boomed and had I blinked, I would have missed the surprisingly swift entrance of the massive beast with sky blue scales. His eyes glared balefully down at my twin as she stood calmly before him. I’m surprised neither of us had fainted from his appearance, his teeth looked extraordinarily ferocious, or that Tia was putting on such a serene façade.

“We have come here to talk about an artifact that you have taken from the city in the distance. My name is Celestia Sol and these are my sisters, Summer Sol and Luna Nocturnis,” she said, pointing us out to him. “We are the Princesses of Equestria and are here on behalf of the Crystal Empire, from which you have stolen the only defense it has, the Crystal Heart.”

The massive being before us turned to look at the discarded crystal in the shape of a heart, picking it up between his claws. “This thing here?”

“Yes,” Tia nodded. “If you could return it to us, we would be on our way and you can have your peace back.”

“Hmm...” the dragon rumbled. “I have to give it to you namby-pamby princesses, you have a lot of nerve demanding something from a dragon. Something that was originally stolen from me by these crystal ponies.”

I felt a bit awkward about that, technically he was telling the truth. I wouldn’t call it stealing, though. As far as I was aware, the crystal ponies had found the heart while mining in the mountains and judging by how this dragon took care of his hoard? I wasn’t sure if the Crystal Heart had been in his possession in the first place and he just claimed it because it came from his so-called ‘territory’. Then again, what need did he have for it, anyway? He could be so kind as to give it to us if it meant lives would be saved by it.

“Are these ponies behind you here to battle me if I say no?” the dragon chuckled, a menacing grin spreading on his face as he started to toss the Crystal Heart tauntingly up with his claws. I cringed as he almost let it fall to the ground and make it shatter in the process, giving us a mockingly apologetic gaze, not at all sorry for it. “It’s pathetic, really. Come back with more if you are serious about this, pony.”

My eye twitched a bit at the way he pronounced the word pony as if we were lesser creatures. Lulu looked like she was ready to draw her sword and I had to admit that I was tempted to do so, too.

“But I guess I could give it to you... it looks tacky, anyway. And I suppose I have enough treasures, already,” he said. Then he grinned cruelly again. “That is if I wanted to, pony. I don’t care what happens to those crystal ponies of yours, they are of no concern to me.”

“So, I guess asking politely won’t be enough?” I spoke up, glaring up at him for his inconsiderate comment.

“Pfft,” he laughed, wiping a tear away from his eye. “Dragons don’t share, pony. And certainly not to some little bitch of a princess thinking they can get whatever they want.”

“How dare thou!” Celestia shouted angrily, resorting to what we had dubbed the Royal Canterlot Voice. It was Luna’s idea, she had been practicing with it a lot lately in the valley on Mount Canterhorn, much to the chagrin of the ponies living in Canterlot. I felt my nethers heat up slightly as she used the archaic tongue.

That was a lesson that I hadn’t ever seen a particular need for, but Starswirl insisted that we should learn how to properly address the nobles and peasants and King Bullion agreed with him on that. That didn’t mean that I used it all that much, though. Perhaps if some of the ponies got a bit too rowdy while in court, but that was all.

Celestia mainly used it in her court because she found it sexy and I had to agree with her on that. It truly was breathtaking watching her lay into the dragon with the deafening voice, a furious scowl on her face.

“Thou art a blight upon this land, endangering innocent lives for thy mere amusement! We shall not stand for thine asinine behavior like this, we demand for thee to return to us what is not thine to hold onto! The ponies of this land are under our protection and we will see them safe! It matters not that the Crystal Heart had once been in thy ‘possession’, thou dost not need it!”

The dragon didn’t seem all that impressed. Surprised, sure. Impressed? Not so much. As Tia finished her speech, I saw the dragon take in a massive breath. And then, my ears felt like they would never stop ringing from the roar that he let out directly in her face, the force knocking her off her hooves.

After he did that, I saw red. He did not just do that. Not while I was here and not to my wife. The blue flames of my magefire turned into a yellowish red as they raged around me, charring the ground I walked on as my temper flared completely out of control and the only thing on my mind was retribution. The dirty, despicable thing calling itself a dragon was but a lowly iguana with no sense of respect and compassion. He would pay for hurting my wife...

Nothing hurts my wife. Nothing.

In the moment following that, I was in his face, my active stare paralyzing him in fear. I snorted out a puff of flames as I stalked closer to him as he took a step back with each I made forward.

“Apologize,” I growled out with the Royal Canterlot Voice. “Right. This. Instant.”

“I’m sorry! Take it! Just leave me alone!” he cried out, tears streaming down his face. “I promise I won’t steal it again, you can have it!”

“Good,” I snarled. “If I hear from you again, I won’t be so kind. Do you understand me?”

“Yes!” he whimpered, scampering back into his cave with his tail tucked in between his legs. Celestia came up beside me, putting a calming hoof on my side. I let the flames disappear with a shudder, shaking like a leaf from having been so mean that I managed to scare myself with it.

“Let’s go back to Amore,” Celestia said, nuzzling my cheek. I gave her a nod and levitated the Crystal Heart into her saddlebags and I just wanted to forget this day ever happened. Luna looked at me in concern, so I gave her a small shaky smile with a shake of my head.

Fuck... I was this close to ripping his throat out and I felt scared that I thought he deserved it... What’s wrong with me? This... this can’t possibly be just simple overprotectiveness, right? These dark thoughts weren’t like me... they weren’t what I strived to be...

The flight back was a fast one, mainly because we could just glide on the winds and they took us where we wanted to go. Princess Amore was relieved to see us return, all of us alive and (relatively) well. She could tell that we had gone through an emotional ordeal, though.

As we gave her the Crystal Heart, her magic seemed to be rejuvenated by its mere presence. She focused all her positive emotions into the spell to cast the weather barrier and as if a miracle just happened, the whole city lit up with a mystic light. The light traveled back up into the Crystal Heart and then it shot out through the spire in a beautiful display of an aurora borealis.

Like a switch being turned, the snow around the city disappeared and a warm breeze caressed my muzzle as the temperature returned to a spring-like state. The power from the artifact floating serenely under the castle turned the fur and mane of me and my sisters into a sparkling resemblance to the naturally born crystal ponies.

That managed to cheer my mood up like nothing else could while I giddily skipped around, trying to look at every part of my body in this facsimile of the native ponies. Amore giggled at my childish behavior as Tia and Lulu rolled their eyes with playful smiles on their muzzles.

“Hmm?” Princess Amore let out a hum as one of her guards whispered something to her. She raised a brow intrigued and then turned back towards us. “How would you like to be the guests of honor at a faire here in the Empire?”

“A faire?” Luna asked, a large smile spreading on her face.

“Yes, I guess we could even make it a yearly event. A Crystal Faire, if you will,” Amore told her. “My ponies would very much like to invite you to celebrate with us, you have just returned the Crystal Heart, after all.”

“We would be delighted to attend,” Celestia said. Luna and I were giddily skipping ahead as we saw ponies set up all manners of attractions.

Celestia and I tried out some of the interesting crystal food items they had to offer, they had a distinctly cool and fresh flavor to them. Especially the berries, they just seemed to melt on the tongue with an incredibly fruity taste.

My twin and I watched our baby sister win the main prize in the ring toss game within the first try, not even using her magic to cheat her way through the game. I shook my head as she gave me the life-sized plushie of Princess Amore she won and giggled as my wife gave it a baleful stare in jealousy as Luna smiled happily as I hugged her in appreciation for the plushie.

Princess Amore looked on in amusement as I levitated it after me everywhere we went to, Luna and I tried to beat each other in every game that the crystal ponies offered us to play and Celestia continued to grumble about us ‘wasting’ our time with our little competition. I think my wife was just pouty because she wasn’t that good with most of them.

And she was grumpy because of the plushie, but I didn’t care~. I was just too happy to indulge in my obsession with games, even if they weren’t of the virtual kind.

But there was also something that was right up the alley of my wife. Celestia and Luna had a great time facing off at the jousting tournament the crystal ponies set up in a large arena with a ton of spectating ponies cheering for both of them.

Luna was a bit sour as Tia beat her in the final round, which wasn’t really all that much surprising to me. It was a great duel, though. Celestia just had the superior strength over her, so I told her not to feel bad about it. I would have lost, too, if I ever made it to the final rounds, that is. And if I had competed, I suppose.

Around the evening we participated in the largest feast I had ever seen and some of the ponies in the crowd even decided to have a little singing contest. Ponies, in general, seemed to be very good with their singing voices, so it was a nice experience to round out the day. Amore was kind enough to let us stay for another night at her castle before we would depart back to Equestria.

This time it was Tia that snuck her way into my room during the night and I was very happy to cuddle with her. She was extra cuddly with me even, most likely because of the massive plushie sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. It was adorable how jealous she could get over me.

The cuddles were nice and all, but I enjoyed the small nibbling on my ear even more. It managed to relax me into a nice deep slumber that Celestia felt I shouldn’t be roused from. So, she brought me breakfast in bed the next morning much to my surprise.

Normally she didn’t do this that often. Usually, it was me that brought her a tray of food to our bed while we were on Earth. It was quite nice being on the receiving end of such a thoughtful gesture, every once in a while.

I enjoyed the variety of food items that we had gotten to sample yesterday at the faire and I definitely wanted to set up a trade deal with Amore for more of the crystal berries. I couldn’t live without them anymore, they were just so... yummy. The berries weren’t the only thing that was yummy, though~... Celestia was really adorable feeding them to me with her levitation as we shared a few kisses here and there. Small ones, but ones filled with love. Sometimes those were the best ones, I thought while happily humming.

I also told Tia about the things Amore and I had been talking about the day before. She was relieved to hear that she wouldn’t go around spreading our secret, even surprised when she heard me retell what Amore had to say about the spell I had invented.

Once we were finished with our breakfast, we met Luna and our guards in the throne room of the palace. Amore was giving out her thanks to us again, and I saw Luna blush as she gifted each one of us a crystal in the form of a delicate flower. They had a small glow coming from within their blossom and smelled like a rose would have. It reminded me of my (old) mother and my daughter and I would forever treasure this gift with all the reverence it deserved.

Before we were about to leave, I asked Princess Amore about the trade deal and she assured me with a smile that she would have a draft ready for my next visit. She saw us off as we began the journey back home with a wave, one we returned until we were out of sight from her.

The trip back was just as uneventful as the one to the Empire. We didn’t stop for much besides some small rests every few hours to relax our wings. The guards took the pace stoically, I had never seen them make a different expression, anyway. At least not while they were on duty. I think.

They might have snickered during one or two pranks from Luna, now that I thought about it. All of them looked the same under the enchanted armor, though. So there was no way to tell if there were some of the ones here with us that didn’t have sticks shoved up their butts.

Anyway, I was glad to finally be back in my bed on the evening of the day we arrived home. Celestia followed true on her promise to keep sharing a bed with me again, even if Luna might find out we were doing so. It was nice having my twin be with me during the nights, gently nibbling on my ears and giving them loving licks. It considerably improved my mood over the following days.

Starswirl was gone a lot over those few days. Tia and I had a few talks here and there with him while he practiced his time travel spell. We secretly planted the idea of other worlds into his mind as a ploy for him to help us out with one thing in particular.

We wanted to see how our daughters were doing on Earth. Starswirl, while we never directly mentioned other worlds to him, was intrigued with exploring the possibilities of creating a device that would allow us to do just that. Travel to other realities. He already had a few ideas on how he could create an anchor to find his way back to our Equestria. I was relieved he was thinking about things even Tia and I had (admittedly) overseen.

The multiverse was a vast place and it wouldn’t do to get lost in it, after all.

When we weren’t bugging Starswirl with complex magical theories about moving through the Void in Between, we were busy dealing with a few ponies that thought the idea of trying to tame one of the magical animals within the Everfree as their pet was somehow a good idea. That animal? It was a cragadile, a type of crocodile that had rocks as part of its thick hide, which is also an extremely territorial and hostile creature at the best of times. I told them quite thoroughly that I wouldn’t be using my gift to help them with their absurd goal and that they were forbidden from even trying. Cragadiles were extremely temperamental and even I had trouble communicating with them.

They didn’t even tell us why they wanted to do that in the first place. I could make a fairly accurate guess, though, and it made me very wary of their little group. Cragadiles were magical creatures, partially animal and partially elemental. There were a few rituals that I knew of that used reagents from such beings and I wasn’t inclined to let them hurt an innocent animal just so they could get more easily at those.

Amore and I at least had a nice chat over tea a few days after I was finished dealing with those idiots. Besides complaining about how stupid some of our ponies could get, I told her a heavily censored version about the dream I had of ‘Celestia’ and my subsequent confused feelings for my sister. She listened patiently as I recounted the forbidden love story between me and my twin, not judging me for anything that I told her.

I didn’t tell her anything about Earth obviously, as that would have just made her even more confused. Instead, I told her what had happened after I teleported out on my twin as I went into the middle of the forest. She was a very understanding pony as I told her what I had to struggle with as I came to grips with my feelings for Celestia.

Then again, she raised her eyebrow at how Tia just seemingly accepted my feelings for her because I left the part about her being my reincarnated wife out of the story. Either way, I told her how my twin made me feel safe in her embrace and the thing about her playing constantly with my ears. She giggled at that part, finding it quite cute that Tia had done this since I can remember (at least, in this world).

We also got the trade treaty done while we were at it. But there was one other thing that she wanted me to look into. Her guards had found an abandoned young colt of about twelve or thirteen years of age out in the cold and brought him back into the Empire. He was currently in the orphanage as nopony knew who his parents were and she asked me for my aid in finding little Sombra’s parents, just in case they were from Equestria.

I was feeling bad for the poor colt, so I readily agreed to do what I could once I returned back to continue my duties in Equestria. Sadly, besides his general description, there were no unique details that could be put on a flyer aside from that he wasn’t the normally brightly colored variant of ponies that I was used to. While it wasn’t unheard of, it was quite odd to have a grey coat of fur.

Back home, things were as smooth as ever. Luna tried to get out of her duties a few more times to instead do whatever else she wanted to do, but that was easily dealt with.

I bribed her with cookies, I had gotten quite good at making them. Nowhere near the level that Mom’s cookies had been, but mine were still extremely delicious. It helped that my human mother, too, had been a big enthusiast of all things cookies, so I already had a base upon which I could start working on in my quest to perfect them. One day they will be the most perfect... nay, the most divine cookies to have ever been baked!

Celestia was more into the cakes the staff made, though. I swear, she will get fat if she continues to eat them so much. I wasn’t entirely free of being guilty of stuffing my face with sweets, though. I just loved the chocolate covered crystal berries our kitchen staff whipped up. I really couldn’t get enough of those, to be honest.

And just as we thought the world was finally peaceful enough after settling into a routine, the universe decided to stick us the middle finger. Or a middle primary feather? I wasn’t entirely sure if that could be done in the way I envisioned, although our wings were quite flexible. It gave me cramps trying to figure out how to do that, so I just stopped trying. It wasn’t that important, anyway. And quite unbecoming of a princess...

So, as the world threw us our next curve-ball, we were wondering what the ever flying penguin happened to the day cycle as the moon was still hanging up above in an inky black vastness of empty space.

Clover came to us in a panicked frenzy just as we were about to go out to investigate what must have happened to Starswirl and his merry band of unicorns.

“Starswirl collapsed after he tried to complete the ritual on his own,” Clover told us as we galloped after him. “The unicorns trying to help us had just run out of magic before they could finish helping Starswirl, so he decided to take matters into his own hooves.”

“Why would he do that?! Aren’t there any unicorns available to help out?” Celestia asked incredulously. “Couldn’t he have reached out to us? I mean he had been teaching us the spell, for pony’s sake!”

“I can’t tell you what he was thinking,” Clover answered. We just left the forest behind us and hopefully, the rest of the way wouldn’t take us that long, either. “He had been a bit more scatterbrained than usual as of late.”

“We might have had something to do with that,” I grimaced, thinking back on giving him the idea of a portal to other dimensions. “Does he still have his magic?”

“I’m not sure, his beard turned entirely white again and it is back to its original length,” Clover said. Celestia took the stallion in her magic as we took to the skies to speed things up a bit. Time was of the essence, so Clover had to suck up his fear of heights as we thundered through the sky. “Even then, I fear he won’t be of any use for the ritual for the foreseeable future. He didn’t look that good as I left to come get you.”

“Perfect,” Celestia groused. “Why does he have to be like you, Summer? You and your bleeding hearts... Doing stupid things is a specialty of both of you...”

I didn’t bother to argue against that with her, seeing that she was somewhat right with that statement. I did do some... questionable things every now and then to help a poor animal out. Besides, she most likely didn’t mean it in a degrading way, our emotions were kinda running wild right now.

As we arrived in the city of Canterlot, I had to wince at what I saw. The state the city was in... wasn’t entirely reassuring. Ponies were panicking left and right. Tia grimaced as we saw one stallion run headfirst into a building in their panicked state and my sympathy went out to him, but we couldn’t stop right now to help him because there was something much more important that we had to take care of. The longer this continued on, the worse it would get.

“Let’s just get to Starswirl and see what he thinks we should do,” I told my wife, blasting the doors open to the building we were headed for. It was the one we had been first brought into before we were princesses. Can’t believe so much time has already passed between then and now.

“This way,” Clover said, thundering through the hallways and up the stairs. Back up in the chamber where we had first witnessed the ritual, we saw a severely weakened Starswirl on the ground. While he still looked as youngish as when he first cast his time travel spell, his beard had indeed been turned white again.

“You stupid old geezer, what have you done to yourself?!” Celestia mumbled angrily as he tried to wave her away from worrying over him so much. It was nice to see her be so concerned for the old coot, considering how suspicious she had been of him at first.

“There were no unicorns available, somepony had to do it,” he coughed and I saw that his hoof came back slightly red. Oh, this wasn’t good at all...

“We were available, you idiot...” Luna said, looking sadly at him. “Why not come to us?”

“You’re more important where you are, but you’re welcome to try raising and lowering the moon and the suns,” he told us. “I have taught you as much as I could, I’m sure you can do what I have failed to do...”

“How can you be so sure about that, huh?” Luna shot back. “What if the same happens to us? What then?”

“Spoilers...” Starswirl said and let out a small chuckle like he just made the best joke in the entirety of history. That made him cough violently again, though.

“Just rest for now and take it easy, Starswirl. We will try, okay?” I said to him, stopping him from getting up on his hooves like the stubborn stallion that he was. “Just... don’t be disappointed in us if we fail, too...”

“My dear Princess, I won’t ever be disappointed with you and your sisters,” he said, stopping his attempt to get back on his hooves at my insistence. “Remember what I taught you and everything will be just fine.”

“If you say so...” I said unsurely. “This isn’t something you have seen on your visits to the future, is it?”

“No,” he chuckled. “This, what is happening right now, isn’t something I have seen before, Your Highness.”

“What is it that you aren't telling us?” Luna narrowed her eyes on him.

“Ah... yes, that...” he said, smiling mischievously. Although before he could say anything further on the matter, he was already fast asleep. For a moment I considered waking him up to find out what he was about to say but decided ultimately against it. He needed his rest and I’m sure the healers will see to it that he recovers from his foolish attempt to do this on his own. Hopefully.

“Let’s do this and hope this doesn’t fry our magic,” Celestia said, looking sadly at the sleeping stallion. Her eyes hardened into determination afterward, ready to fulfill the task Starswirl passed onto us. “Ready?”

“As we'll ever be, I guess,” Luna answered and I nodded in confirmation.

Celestia counted down from three, and together, our horns lit up with massive amounts of magic. It was even more magic that was coursing through me now than the time I had the mana surge as a little foal. As I called out to the core of my magic, I felt the spark within me heat up into a roaring inferno. It surged through me for a moment and then... everything was seemingly gone from my sight.

At first, I thought I finally managed to use so much magic that I burned my very existence out of reality, but that was thankfully not the case. I felt strange, though. My mana had suddenly flared much stronger than I had ever felt it before and this time it didn’t feel like my blood vessels had been turned into magma.

It did feel warm, but more in the sense of a comforting warmth. Almost like it was meant to be used like that. Like a comforting blanket, even. And, as my sight came back to me, I stared at what was in front of me with awe.

Instead of the chamber my sisters and I had been in not a second ago, there was now a path of twinkling lights. All around me I could see little bubbles floating around with images and scenes playing out within them as if they had been taken straight out of my mind. Each time I tried to reach out with a hoof in order to touch them, they began to float out of reach and away from the path I stood on.

Confused, I walked slowly along the small lights, not actually seeing or feeling a physical floor beneath my hooves. My mind tried to come up with theories about what this place could be that I had suddenly found myself in, but I came up blank. This was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The Tree of Harmony didn’t even compare to the beauty of this place and that was something I had thought to be impossible, honestly.

Starswirl never mentioned a place like this before and I doubted he actually knew anything about it.

A bubble with a scene from Earth floated past me, the last memory I could remember happening on my old planet. But this time, there was something different about it. Right in front of my past self was a floating ball of light, not unlike the ones I was now treading carefully upon.

“I don’t remember this...” I said with a baffled tone of voice. I’m pretty sure I would remember being killed by a friggin’ light of all things. One couldn’t possibly oversee such an obvious thing, floating directly in front of yourself. Either I was majorly blind to not notice such a thing or something fishy was going on.

“That’s because you had no connection to magic at the time,” a voice answered. Startled, I turned my head around to look at myself. Well, more like a past version of myself, as my male human form stood just a wings length away from me.

He looked exactly like I remember... well, myself to have looked. The cleanly shaven face showing just the slightest bit of irritation from the crappy razor I never bothered to replace, the black pants that showed the tiniest hint of wear and tear, the nerdy T-Shirt with a picture of Pac-Man chasing Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde on it, and the necklace around his neck with the depiction of a rosebud hanging off of it. His grey eyes stared into my pale magenta orbs with disinterest, slightly unnerving me by how... dead they looked.

“Who are you?” I asked warily. “Where are we?”

“In the Hallway of Memories within the Domain of Harmony itself, the Realm of Ascension,” he told me and as I looked up at him, I noticed that his eyes had the faintest hint of a glow to them. “I am one of the keepers of this realm. I am Magic.”

“That’s not pretentious at all...” I mumbled and Magic-Rudolph let out a disinterested hum. “So, why am I here?”

“I brought you and your sisters here from Earth because you are needed,” he explained in a matter-of-fact tone and expected me to understand his vague declaration as if it was obvious. I had a feeling that this ‘Magic-Guy’ had next to no actual social interaction for quite some time now.

“For what?” I asked. “And what do you mean, sisters? Is Tia somewhere around here in this place? Wait, wait, wait... hold on a moment! What do you mean from Earth?! Are you telling me Luna is also from Earth?”

“She is,” he said with a nod. “One Rebecca Raven, if I’m not mistaken.”

“So she is the sister of my wife!” I muttered, stomping my hoof down on nothingness. “I was right about my gut feeling.”

“As you often are,” he answered with a slight shrug. “Both you and your twin are notorious for knowing these things, it seems.”

“Where are they?” I asked worriedly. “Are they okay?”

“Yes, but they are in a different hallway right now,” Magic-Rudolph stated. “I can be here and at their sides at the same time. Magic is everywhere in this place, so I see everything here.”

“So you’re basically like a god?”

“No.”

“What are you then?” I asked, confused.

“As I said, Magic,” he simply said, his expression never changing from a bored one. He began walking down the path without waiting for me and I decided to follow him, not having anything better to do than trying to figure out what the flying pancake was going on.

Was I dead, again? I didn’t feel like I was dead, so this must either be a really weird dream or I actually did manage to somehow find a way to get into this weird Harmony Realm thingy. Might as well just go along with it for now.

The pictures around us seemed endless and I even saw memories I had thought to have forgotten. Like my first time as a baby, or that time I broke a bone from trying to climb a tree to save a little kitten while I was barely old enough to take care of myself for the first time without needing supervision (not like that backfired, I suppose).

Another bubble showed me the first time I met my wife and her sister, trying to get them to talk with me while Catherine was extremely skittish around me, holding onto the little form of Rebecca in her arms. One could hardly believe they were sisters at all, seeing that they looked so different from each other.

It always was strange to me, their stark contrast to each other. Cath had a slight tan that never seemed to disappear even in winter while Becky was almost pale to the degree that her skin appeared to be snow white. Even their hair colors differed so strongly, it was like night and day. Becky’s red eyes sought comfort in the deep blue ones of Catherine, shying away from mine whenever I had looked at her, trying to hide behind the thick black locks of hair of hers. Cath had been very protective of her sister and always kept herself between her sister and every other person that tried to get close to them.

It was a miracle I managed to get them to talk with me, eventually. Heck, I remember one green-haired girl Cath had hospitalized after she had bullied them for being orphans. No one had tried to talk with them in a friendly manner in our school besides me and I never gave up on trying to become their friend. After I managed to get them to open up to me, we became the best of friends, almost inseparable even. And from there, everything else was history.

I smiled as I saw the next memory, seeing Cath start to be the awesome girl I knew her to be while I tried to keep up with her on the bicycle. She always wanted to see me at my best, even at some of the things I was really bad at in comparison to her. I think she knew that I didn’t like most of the things she liked to do (sport is really not my thing...), but she was never offended by it. If anything, it made her like me even more, seeing me try to enjoy the things she did.

Of course, she always found a way to be a pervert about things even as a child. I am a hundred percent certain she groped me on purpose most of the time she helped me when I did something wrong or hurt myself after some of the more riskier things she managed to convince me into doing with her. Not that I minded it that much, having a hot girl touch me everywhere... It was awkward from time to time, though.

Especially now that I knew those few subtle feelings I had were hints of my gender dysphoria showing through that I never acknowledged. Some small part of me always seemed to know that I didn’t want Cath to be in love with me because I was male at the time. Now that I knew that I was meant to be female from the beginning, it felt like a massive relief that my love could be in love with my true self.

“The reason I brought you here is because this world needs someone to uphold order,” Magic spoke up after a few minutes of silence as we traveled along the pathway to who knows where. “Forces are starting to move that seek the destruction of this and I plugged you from your world for that purpose. You and your sisters were compatible.”

“Compatible? What does that even mean?”

“Compatible.”

“Fine, don’t tell me...” I grumbled annoyed. He returned his gaze forward as we strolled through this place. My muzzle turned a bright red as we passed the memory of my first estrus. “Where are we going?”

“To your Destiny.”

“Like... what? I don’t understand,” I said looking at him. He merely looked at me from the corner of his eyes, not elaborating. I was starting to get the feeling that I wouldn’t get any concrete answers about anything from him. Magic-Me was even more cryptic than Starswirl, a thing I thought previously to be not at all possible.

“Do not be afraid of what happens next. Or be afraid, I don’t really care,” he suddenly said and I turned to give him a questioning stare, but he was gone.

“Great...” I muttered, trying to look at where it was that he had led me to. Around me was what seemed to appear like a stream of golden light not unlike my own magic.

Slowly, I saw it begin to reach out a few tendrils towards me. I stepped back in surprise, trying to find a way out of here before it could do anything to me. Whatever this was and what this Magic entity said, I didn’t trust it.

As if reacting to my distress, the tendrils quickly struck out at me, ensnaring me within them and I let out a scream. They seemed to flow into me everywhere they touched me and my vision faded from the tendrils to... somewhere else.

In every direction that I looked at in this strange new place I found myself in, I could only see a desolate rock empty of all life. It looked... almost scorched? Burnt in some sort of way, but I couldn’t put my hoof on how something like that could have happened. Or what could burn an entire planet to such a degree (I’m pretty sure this was the planet and not the moon)...

And whatever this place was, it only invoked a feeling of horror and... desire? My feelings felt jumbled and murky, so I couldn’t tell for certain. It couldn’t be desire, it made no sense to me. Whyever would I feel the desire to live in a desolate wasteland of all places?

I only got a short glimpse of this... destroyed world before the scenery changed once more to an out of body view of the sun I was named after.

Feeling a bit calmer from its mere presence alone, I felt its desire to move around the orbit of our planet, weirdly enough. Not knowing what to do I sort of tried to reach out to it.

The feeling of warmth, not unlike the roaring fire I had felt as I had my magic flare and just moments before I ended up in this weird plane of existence, spread through me again and this time it felt like I didn’t want it to ever go away. It felt like a part of me that, if it were to be gone now, would make me incredibly sad. It was something that I couldn’t live without anymore.

This feeling... it was like a gentle caress of my mother to me, a feeling I wished wouldn’t ever leave me. It was like the sun before me was communicating with me in a way that I was comfortable with.

And it responded to what I tried to do as it slowly began to move. I felt an exorbitant amount of happiness and love emanating from the burning ball in front of me, so much of it even that I was suddenly overwhelmed by the foreign emotions. Concern flooded me afterward, then an apologetic feeling, and then peace. It was a jarring experience.

Not only was the sun a magical one, but it was also somewhat semi-aware as it seemed. Another feeling entered me, one of annoyance and then a series of other feelings I was too confused to interpret correctly.

I think it was mad at me for the thing I had just thought about, and if that’s the case, I’m sorry? It wasn’t meant in a degrading way if it is any consolation.

The sun responded with indifference.

Wow, talk about being petulant. I’m sorry, okay? I really didn’t mean it like that and if you want me to, I’ll call you a self-aware sun? A very intelligent one?

The sun sent me back feelings of happiness, so I felt glad that we were on the same page again.

After I finished setting it on its course, I found myself back in my own body. The transition from out-of-body to back in it was a little bit confusing, but I managed to not lose my bearings... entirely. I mean, my body felt slightly weird, so there was that...

A body that wasn’t entirely like I remembered it should have been like... There was something different about me now. Something that was... slightly ticklish, if anything.

“Sister, why is your hair floating?” the voice of my twin reached me and I turned my head to the side, seeing Celestia there, but she, too, looked different. “And why is it red?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” I answered back, staring at her multi-colored hair. “It’s light blue, green, pink, and a... deeper blue? Almost a blue-ish purple, I think.”

“It is?” Tia asked, turning her head to look at the part that was flowing back from her in an unseen wind. I looked at my own hair in the meantime, admiring the way it moved. “Have you had a... weird conversation with your past self claiming to be Magic itself?”

“Yeah...” I whispered back, still staring at my red mane. Sometimes what looked like a solar flare moved through it, causing a small rippling effect in my mane as it moved in the ethereal wind. That’s the best description I could come up with, anyway.

“SISTER!” the bellowing roar of Luna came from behind us and I turned my head to see the furious gaze of my little reincarnated sister that was the sister of my sister. Really smooth explanation there, Summer. Really smooth.

“I can’t believe you wouldn’t tell me that you were Catherine! Did you think I loved you and Rudolph so little?!” Luna snarled. “I had to bury your bodies, you assholes!”

“You did?” I asked, wincing. “I... oh god, Luna, I’m so sorry...”

“You better be!” she growled, poking a midnight blue hoof at me. “You have a lot of explaining to do. And you! You and sister? Seriously?!”

“What? She is my wife,” Celestia shrugged. “What did you think I would have done?”

“And here I thought you would have asked me to join your little herd,” Luna said, sarcasm dripping from her voice as she rolled her eyes. “Or are you not as sexually deprived?”

“Do you want to?”

“Wait, what?! Are you out of your mind?!” Luna shouted, rearing up in surprise. “You can’t be serious.”

“What, ponies have herds, I’ve read about that in my books,” Tia shrugged. “What would be so wrong about that?”

“YOU’VE READ IT IN BOOKS?! Is your whole life a narrative in somepony’s fantasy, sister?!” Luna shouted, her eyelid twitching madly and I was unsure if I should say anything at that moment, considering how emotional she was right now. “And I’m your fucking sister, that’s what is fucking wrong about it!”

“Summer is my sister and we still have sex, so what?” Celestia shot back.

“You little perverted stupid-head!” Luna growled. “Even though that is true, she was your husband before this! Your husband! While I think this is still inappropriate and depraved and... and disgusting, I can at least somewhat understand this. And really, must you mention what you do behind closed doors?!”

“Why not?” Tia shrugged and I facehoofed. Leave it to my sisters to get worked up about this in a weird floaty magic space. “The offer still stands, by the way.”

“I... are you really serious?! Tia, what went wrong in your foalhood?!” Luna asked exasperated. “You were bad before this whole reincarnation business, but this? This is madness!”

“Summer would also have you in our relationship, even if she won’t admit it out loud. I’m not mad because I love you,” Celestia said and rolled her eyes. “Believe me when I say there are no risks involved and you do look extremely sexy with your starry mane and midnight coat.”

“I can’t believe this... Summer, say something to your idiotic sister. Wife. Whatever,” Luna said, desperate eyes moving over to me and I had to bite my lip as Celestia’s words were kinda... true. She did look fucking sexy like this. “Not you, too. Am I the only sane one here?!”

“I, uh...” I giggled nervously, an awkward smile on my muzzle. “Sorry?”

“This can’t be happening...” Luna muttered, starting to pace back and forth and my eyes moved to her flanks as the black splotch with the depiction of a crescent moon within it moved alluringly right in front of me. “Both of my sisters are depraved morons. Why, oh, why, did I have to be reincarnated here with you?! Couldn’t I have enjoyed a peaceful afterlife as fucking Magic decided to kill us off? What’s wrong with this world?!”

“Uhm... sister?” I asked meekly, she gave me a raised eyebrow together with a miffed look. I pointed at her flanks, suppressing the shudder that wanted to go through me as her angry glare just looked sexy to me instead of having the intended effect. “You have your Cutie Mark.”

“So have you, Summer,” Tia interjected and I turned my head to look at a stylized orange-red sun on both of my flanks. My heart fluttered as I saw it and joy flooded my being. It... looked so beautiful. Like a perfect representation of my name. “And so do I, apparently.”

I looked over to my twin and saw her with the same symbol, just with the minor difference that it had lighter yellowish-orange colors. My muzzle turned up in a smile as I felt even more happiness at us sharing something in common.

“Okay, that aside, do either of you know how to get out of here?” Luna said after we all had time to admire our buttmarks. “And don’t think I have forgotten the conversation from earlier, sister!”

“Well, I don’t know how we got here in the first place besides Magic foalnapping us,” I answered. “And I can’t believe I’m actually going to say this, but why are you against me and Tia so much?”

“You didn’t just ask that, did you?” Luna snorted. “How about you being my sisters? Ever thought about that?! I would have thought you of all ponies to be better than this... depravity.”

“Didn’t you love me while I was human?” I shot back with a raised brow. “I seem to remember you being jelly of your sis.”

“That was then, this is now! This is incest you’re talking about!” Luna snapped back at me. “That isn’t something that is normal!”

“Eh, debatable,” Celestia said with a shrug. “Depends on your view on it. Is it wrong for two sisters to love each other? I don’t think so. Summer and I are twins, so it’s kinda like masturbating.”

“What?! But...” Luna turned towards her. “We’re still siblings, what is it that you don’t get about this?! Just because you two are twins doesn’t make this okay! Besides, I’m not your twin! What other depraved reason could you possibly have to justify asking me out?!”

“None of you are stallions, so what’s the worst that can happen?” Celestia asked. “Worst case scenario is our subjects finding out about this, but what can they do about that? It’s our own private life. Besides, we’re the princesses, right? We can... you know... just make incest legal.”

“No!” I growled, sending her a glare and she pouted back at me. “Don’t you dare, Tia! I will kick you out of the castle and forget I ever loved you if you do something stupid like that!”

“Fine...” Tia mumbled. “Still, even if nopony else knows about this and we have to keep our relationship a secret,”—under her breath she muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘stupid Summer, having no sense of fun’—”what is so wrong about loving your sisters, Luna? Don’t tell me you don’t find Summer at least still attractive. Be honest with yourself, Lulu, you loved her in your previous life. Where is that love now? Summer wouldn’t mind, why do you not allow yourself to feel like that again? It’s so easy to just... look past this little thing called incest and allow yourself to feel good... You want to, right? Admit it, little sister. All it takes are a few words and your whole world will be so much better~.”

“I... well...” Luna stuttered, looking back and forth between me and my twin. “No! Stop with this nonsense, I won’t be swayed by your honeyed words, sister! This is still wrong!”

“Amore approves,” I mumbled weakly.

“You’re kidding,” Luna gave me a look. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Oh, she is telling the truth, sister dearest,” Celestia grinned, coming up beside her, her wing outstretched. She trailed her primary feathers along her sides and I giggled as Luna’s midnight blue wings popped open, a scarlet blush on her muzzle. “I know you have entertained the idea, don’t think I haven’t noticed you trying to win Summer’s heart here and there. I know you still love her... I wouldn’t mind sharing her with you... not when I get to have you, too...”

“N-n-no! I-it’s not like t-that!” Luna stammered, trying to get away from my twin and ending up bumping into me. I was... confused. Luna tried what? I... I didn’t notice, to be honest. I always thought it was a sibling rivalry or something along those lines, nothing more. “I don’t love Summer like that. No. Nuh-uh.”

“All I hear are lies~,” Celestia sing-songed, giggling. “Admit it, you have been checking her out, Lulu. I know you want it, give in and everything will be so much better... Go on, turn around and tell her how much you love her, Lulu~. Look into those beautiful eyes of hers and tell me honestly that you don’t want to shove your tongue down her throat...”

“Don’t you dare put words in my mouth now, Tia!” Luna shot back. “You won’t manipulate me to sate your depraved fetishes!”

“You know, this has been fun to watch, but you are overstaying your welcome,” Magic-Whoever said, appearing in the form of our mother this time. “Can you just get out? I want my quiet back. You have done what you came here for, so why are you still here?”

“You!” Luna snarled. “This is your fault, you piece of shit!”

I held Luna back before she could try to beat the god-like entity to a pulp. She struggled against me while flailing her limbs and I feared she would break free. Why did she have to be so strong?!

“Uh-huh,” Magic-Mom said. “And I care, why?”

“Fucking die in a hole!” Luna growled.

“Like you? No thanks. Now get out.”

“Don’t you dare antagonize my little sister! That’s my job,” Celestia snarled, glaring at the entity wearing the face of our mother. “And if you want us to leave, we wouldn’t even know how to! How do you propose we do this? Snap our non-existent fingers?!”

“You mortals and your feelings, I’ll look forward to how you react when you find out that your bodies are very different from normal ponies,” she said in a bored tone. “And how do you not know how you entered this place? You have cast the spell, didn’t you?”

“So we just cast it again?” I asked, my glare no less baleful towards the being sitting in front of us. “That’s it? How do we raise the sun and moon then?”

“You cast the spell with the core of your alicorn magic, achieving your full potential,” she told us. “Cast it again and get out. If you want to get back here, for whatever reason, just reach out to your core and then will yourself into this plane, instead. Does that answer your question?”

“That’s so much bullshit right there, it’s not even funny,” Luna mumbled. “What spell works differently for alicorns? This is ridiculous.”

“If you hadn’t reached your full potential, it wouldn’t have done anything differently from normal unicorn magic, but you tapped into your font of power directly, drawing forth the most potent form of magic a pony like you has.”

“Okay, then...” I said. “Goodbye, have a nice day? Or whatever this is here. I can’t really say it has been a pleasure getting to know you.”

“Uh-huh,” Magic shrugged. “Can’t say that either. But you were the first available ponies I could get ahold of. I have to work with the things I get, so I don’t care either way.”

“That’s... a really bleak outlook to have...” I whispered sadly. “I’m sorry for what must have made you this way.”

“Understanding the futility of life and still trying to save it,” Magic answered monotonously and shrugged. “And I’m sorry for killing you if that is worth anything to you. I guess you are not so bad after all. For naïve little ponies.”

“We’ll be going then, I guess,” I replied awkwardly, reaching inwardly to the same feeling that this being has told us was alicorn magic. A moment later, I willed myself back into reality and noticed all the stares directed at us. I fidgeted slightly with my wings, noticing that Celestia and Luna were also opening their eyes.

We were still in the same spots that we had been standing in as we started trying to lower the moon and raise the suns. A slow clapping noise started and I saw Starswirl continue to do so with his hooves as the other ponies started to follow his example.

“Bravo!” he said, a proud smile on his muzzle. “Just like I knew you could! How did it feel, Your Highnesses?”

“Uhm... magical?” I said, trying to think back to when I guided the sun across the heavens. “Fulfilling? Like a part of me being completed?”

“Yes, that I can see,” Starswirl chuckled. “I didn’t know how it would happen, but here you are with your Cutie Marks! Ah, to see you little moody teenagers grow up so fast, it warms my heart.”

Moody teenagers?! I’ll give him moody teenagers... Damn crazy old coot... he was one to talk, doing the ritual on his own.

“You knew we would get them?” Celestia asked, standing beside me and I stared at her mane again. Whatever it was about her mane, it made her look more... Celestia-ish. I don’t know.

“Yes,” he nodded. “I have seen you raise them in the future, all by yourselves. A breathtaking view, I have to say.”

“I guess you won’t tell us more than that, huh?” I said, knowing he would be nodding his head to that, too. And he sure did, looking mischievous. “So, what now?”

“How about you becoming the new stewards of the moon and the suns?” Starswirl told us. “It is your destiny, is it not?”

“I... Yes...” I whispered, looking back at my Cutie Mark with pride. “Yes, it is.”

“Let us go home, Summer,” Celestia said. “Lulu already left, it seems.”

“She did? Why?” I asked, feeling a bit of sadness well up inside me. Tia started walking out of the building, taking to the skies afterward and I followed after her. “Do you think she is still mad at us?”

“Probably,” Tia answered. “She will get over it, I’m sure.”

“If you say so...” I muttered, uncertainly. “I don’t want her to hate us. You kinda went a little bit overboard there for a moment.”

“I just hate that she continues lying to herself,” she stated. “You have seen her react to that, there is no doubt about it. And the way she tried to deny it was the falsest thing I have ever heard leave her mouth.”

“Still, I don’t think you should pressure her so much,” I said. Tia let out a sigh but relented. “Let’s just give her some space and let her come to grips with her own feelings. Even if it has to take a few years, she should feel comfortable with such a decision.”

“You’re right...” Celestia sighed. “I don’t know what went over me. Perhaps I was just getting too excited about having her with us.”

“Tia,” I whispered gently. “Don’t beat yourself up over this, okay?”

“Yeah, I think I can do that...” she whispered back. “Thanks for being with me, Summer.”

“I won’t leave you, you know that. As long as you don’t make incest legal, that is. And if Lulu decides to take you up on the offer, I won’t be leaving either of you,” I told her, a small smile gracing my lips. “I guess you were right about me, loath as I am to say it out loud.”

“You being a pervert?” Tia giggled. “Or you loving your sisters in a romantic way?”

“Isn’t that the same question as the first one?” I giggled back. “Yes. To both of those.”

“See? It wasn’t that hard to admit, right?” Celestia laughed and I pouted at her. “Don’t give me that look now, you know I’m right. It was nice giving in to your inner pervert, I can see it in your eyes~.”

“Shut up,” I shot back. “Sometimes you just don’t know when to quit, do you?”

“Where would I be if I did?” she quipped back and I snorted.

“You know, these marks seem so familiar to me, it feels like I have seen them somewhere before,” I said, changing the topic to the marks adorning our flanks. “Like some sense of déjà vu...”

“Now that you mention it...” Tia mused, looking at my butt with undisguised lust. “They do remind me of the markings on the Tree of Harmony. You think Starswirl knows something about that?”

“Oh, definitely,” I muttered. “What are the chances of us getting the answers out of him, though?”

“Next to none, I would wager,” Celestia said, just as unhappy as I was that he continued to have secrets from us. “We will have to find the answer to that on our own, then.”

“Think it could have something to do with those crystals in the branches of the tree?”

“Most likely.”

Once we were back in the castle, Celestia and I went to look where Luna went off to and found her soundly asleep on her bed. I sighed at the obvious sign that she had put herself to sleep to avoid us, not even closing the door of her bedroom before throwing herself on her bed (she rarely ever closed her door, anyway), so I let her have her way and we gave her her space. Perhaps she would talk about this with us at some point, but I didn’t get my hopes up. She was confused right now and the best thing we could do right now was to let her sort it out on her own and hope for the best.

As Tia and I went to my room, I absentmindedly opened the door with my magic and Celestia tackled me to the floor while throwing up a shield with her magic (one that quite obviously was much stronger than what we were used to) as the door got ripped out of the wall in pieces, scattering every which way with such a force that it would have probably caved my head in had my twin not saved me from them.

We found out what the cause of that little problem was relatively fast. After our visit to that harmony magic thingy place, our magic had gotten a significant boost in strength. So much so, that just the slightest nudge sent things flying.

That also meant we would have to learn control all over again. It was like everything was made out of paper and it annoyed me to no end. Celestia wasn’t faring better with her magic. We both set things randomly aflame as we passed them by and we had to order our servants and guards to keep their distance from us until we were able to rein our magic in.

This passive aura of heat had the slight advantage that we were now immune to any hot temperatures and even low temperatures didn’t manage to bother us that much.

Luna, on the other hoof, had a perpetual coldness around her that managed to give Tia and I pleasant shivers whenever we encountered her in the dining room or in the hallways. It was clear to see that she was avoiding us, though.

I just wished we could go back to how it was before, it was breaking my heart.

Author's Notes:

So, there we are! The Crown, the Castle, and the Cutie Mark are complete and the next chapter starts off with the next story arc. I'm sure some of you can guess what will happen next *rubs her hands in glee*
I'm a little bit disappointed none of you guessed that they were killed by magic (and Magic, but I suppose Zapper Frost got pretty close with the Random Deity guess. Sorry, no tactical flamingos ;D )
The next chapter will be out on Halloween!

Edit: Please note that from now on the italic version can be found here.