There was a loud knocking at the door. Shining Armor grumbled and pulled the pillow off his head. "Who is it?" he called out. Cadence grumbled next to him. He gave her an apology smooch on the ear.

"Private Double Time, Sir," came the voice from the other side of the door. "The Princesses request your presence in the Western Solarium."

"Understood," Shining Armor called back. "Tell them I'll be there in ten minutes." Shining heard the pony's hoofbeats as he trotted away. Regretfully, Shining Armor left his nice warm bed and his nice warm wife and went to jump in the shower. "I really hope this is something important," he groused as he gave his wet mane a quick combing and tugged on his uniform tunic.

Five minutes later he was trotting into the solarium.  The large circular room was occupied not by Celestia and Luna as he expected, but by Twilight and her five friends. "Oh, right," he chuckled. "The other princesses. It's gonna take a while to get used to that. Morning, Twily, what's up?"

"You'll see in a moment. BBBFF." His little sister trotted to the center of the room where the intricate mosaic on the floor formed a seven sided star. "Would you come over here and stand right here, please?"

Curious, he obliged. Wait. I don't remember the floor here having a mosaic--

"Okay, now stand here and don't move, this won't take a minute." Twilight trotted away from him and took her place next to her friends, standing on one spot of the intricate and yes, very new pattern on the marble tile. He tried to move... and found that Twilight had magically glued his hooves to the floor. "Twily--?" Shining Armor said uncertainly. His alarm level went up when the circle of mares around him started to chant.

It went even higher when he noticed that Spike was there. Wearing a helmet. And crouching behind a small bunker made of sandbags.

"From one to another, another to one. A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, UNfulfilled;"

"Twilight, what is this--"

From all of us together, To each of us together, With the marks of our destinies made one,

"Twilight this isn't funny--"

and one shared by all without end--"

"I'M TELLING MOM--!"

The Solarium bloomed with light.

Cadence sat bolt upright in bed. "Ebbeh?" she said.

What had that been? It felt like someone had played a power chord with guitar strings wired to her horn. She quickly shook off the last vestiges of sleep and tumbled out of bed, instinctively heading in the direction of the strange, extradimensional "twang."

By the time the cobwebs had cleared she was already halfway to the source. "What could it have been? The last time I felt anything like that was the night that Twily and her friends..." she gulped as she realized what she was saying.

She broke from a canter to a gallop.

She skidded to a halt as she arrived at the Western Solarium. All six of the Bearers were there, standing in a circle on the edges of an ornate pattern charred in the floor. Rather than staring at the huge smoldering blast spot in the center of the floor, however, they were all looking up at... where the glass ceiling of the solarium used to be. She saw Spike sticking his head up warily over a pile of sandbags. "Whoa," he said. "At least you contained the collateral damage better this time."

She could see Twilight biting her lip as she stared up into the sky. "Come on," she heard her whisper. "Please, please..."

Cadence edged closer. To her horror she saw the tattered remains of a tunic-- Shining Armor's tunic-- lying around the charred spot on the floor. "Shining!! Twilight, what happened here??" She started forward.

Then leapt back as a shimmering ball of light fell through the shattered ceiling. It touched down in the center of the circle, slowly taking form of a stallion standing with his head lowered.

"Shiney!" Cadence said.

Shining said nothing. He raised his head-- and flared out his wings.

An almost inaudible gasp went around the room. There was silence for half a heartbeat.

Then Cadence fell to the floor, shrieking with laughter.

Shining Armor stood there, struggling to smother his humiliation as the Diarchs(1) slowly scanned him with their magics. It wasn't easy. His wife was still lying on her stomach on the floor, giggling like a loon; his sister and her friends were all trying to stifle snickers and smirks(2). Even Spike, the heartless traitor, was still hiccuping from his most recent laughing fit.

Whatever happened to 'bros stick together?' Shining wondered glumly.

Even Celestia was biting her lip, darn it. "Well...." she said, finally letting her horn dim and stepping away. "The good news is... it worked."

This was met with blinks of astonishment all around. "You mean..." Twilight said hopefully.

"Yes," Celestia said. "Shining Armor is now an alicorn." There was a burst of cheers and congratulations all around.

"B-but..." Twilight said. She pointed. "But the wings...!"

Everypony started snickering again. Disgusted, Shining Armor regarded his new wings.

His new, perfectly formed, foal sized wings.

"Well, as near as I can explain it," Celestia said, amusement in her voice, "Is that the... well, the essence of alicornism in Shining Armor was just enough for the transformation. Just barely. A drop less and nothing would have happened. But... there wasn't enough to make an entire, full grown alicorn out of him all at once. So the spell gave him, well..."

"Iddle baby wings," Princess Luna cooed, fluffing one tiny pinion with her hoof.

Half the ponies gathered collapsed to the floor.

"Essentially, he's an adult unicorn, but an infant pegasus and earth pony," Celestia continued when everyone regained their composure.  "Fortunately everything is healthy and hale; his earth pony and pegasus sides will grow and catch up with his healthy strapping unicorn stallion side in due time."

"I'm so, so sorry, BBBFF," Twilight said, managing to look guilty even as she smothered her giggles. "It was supposed to be--- be this wonderful gift for you, but..."

"Wait... please, I want to be sure I understand,"  Cadence said suddenly. "Does this mean...?" Her eyes grew wide and dewy, filled with a wonderful, terrible hope.

Luna and Celestia smiled at Cadence, their eyes shining. "Strewth, dear Cadence," Luna said. "Thy husband is now an alicorn, and as immortal as thee."

That was all it took. Cadence's eyes welled up and overflowed; tears gushed down her face. She held her hooves to her mouth as she looked at her husband. "Oh, Shining," she said. "All this time... I never dared hope... I never dared dream...!"

They met each other in a rush; crying, laughing, kissing away each other's sudden tears. The room glowed with Cadence's love aura. The girls squeed and cooed; Rarity all but swooned at the romance of it. Even Rainbow Dash 'dawwed a little.

"I think, in this case, that we should keep this particular ascension 'on the down low,' I believe is the phrase?" Celestia said. "At least for the immediate future."

Shining Armor started. "But-- but what do I do now?" He said. He turned to face the Diarchs. "I can't possibly fulfill my duties like THIS!" He flared his wings, instantly sending the girls back into a fit of snickers and explosive snorts.

"Calm thyself, Shining Armor," Luna said. "Twill not be thusly for long. Thy wings should be fully grown within a year or so. Less, if thou keepest a robust alicorn diet." (3)

"But what do I do in the meanwhile?" he fretted.

"Oh, not to worry, darling," Rarity said. "A little retailoring of your uniform and you can wear it over your wings till they grow in."  She tossed her mane. "I can hide the earl of Trottingham's paunch, I can hide a pair of growing wings."

Twilight stepped over to where Shining Armor stood nuzzling Cadence. "I shouldn't have sprung this on you without telling you," Twilight said meekly. "I figured if it worked, then everything was fine, if nothing happened, no harm done... forgive me?"

Shining Armor grinned wryly. "Baby sister casts a spell and turns me into an alicorn without my permission? I think I'll get over it," he said. "Right now though I'm going to get back to our suite and stay out of sight-- till I get some appropriate covering for these." He nodded at one of his wings. He turned to head back to his and Cadence's room.

Cadence pressed her cheek against his as she leaned against his side. "Sounds like a good idea," she said, nuzzling him. "Besides there are things I have to show you about being an alicorn. Changes in your magic, wing exercises..." she moved the nuzzling to his ear. "Preening lessons..."

Shining Armor slowly grinned. "Tell me more..."

The diarchs and the mane six watched them leave. "Well, that sort of clinches it," Twilight said with a sigh. "We can't find the Panacea without more ascensions. We can't ascend more ponies till we know more about how and why they ascend... and how to do it right. And we can't learn more until we go out and find more ascended alicorns.

"It looks like the great alicorn hunt is on, after all."

1)he was just going to have to get used to thinking of Celestia and Luna that way, rather than as "the Princesses." There were altogether too many princesses running around at the moment.

2)Except for Princess Rainbow Dash, of course. She had nearly passed out laughing.

3)Golden apples, zapapple jam, and a few other exotic foodstuffs. Celestia kept trying to add "cake, lots of cake" to the list, to the aggravation of her dietician.

Next Chapter: Chapter 8 Estimated time remaining: 7 Hours, 53 Minutes