The next day, after waking up, I found myself under a pony pile. Celestia had somehow ended up at the bottom of the pile, with Luna just on top of her. Button was laying on my neck, happily snoozing away, whereas Shiny and Cadance were on both sides of me, with Cadance having laid a wing over my back. I shifted slightly to look at her lower half… Okay, okay. Cadance is still whole, this is my world’s Cadance, not the evil one. I shuddered, before taking a moment to nuzzle her. Luckily, I was lying within the pile so that my head was right between Luna’s ears. I was laying basically on top of Luna. It was pretty comfy.
I missed Lulu.
Even though my human brain said no, I still started grooming Lulu. The pony in me was probably cheering at being able to ‘groom the perty gurl’. Plus I missed my surrogate sister; grooming her felt appropriate. It certainly didn’t hurt that I looked another Luna in the eyes as she died, and… I took a deep breath, mid-groom lick, and let it all out. Somehow, she didn’t wake up from me blowing air out of my nostrils and into her mane.
I nuzzled Luna, and wrapped my hooves around her neck and held her in a hug. While I was doing that, I pulled some parchment out of a drawer that Celly kept on standby in case she wanted to respond to any letters that Twilight sent… I wanted to let Twilight and her friends know that I’m safe. Well, besides Pinkie Pie. Pinkie was missing for some reason. She was probably in the castle doing her Pinkie Pie things.
I sent the letter off to Twilight in DragonFire. I just wanted to hug her. I wanted, no, needed to see if she was alright. I know she would be, but I just wanted to see her.
After I made sure everypony was alright, I teleported myself out of the pile, and kissed Celly… Only for her forelegs to shoot out and grab me. I made sure to gently leave Button in Cadance’s mane before she did. I almost immediately tried to run, but felt the pleasant warmth of Celly's forelegs, and immediately calmed down.
“Good morning, dear,” she said as her horn lit up to raise the Sun. Luna’s horn, despite her being fast asleep, lit up and the moon went down. “Did you think I would let you sneak away after what you’ve been through?” she asked as she laid her head on top of mine.
“I… uh…” I whispered.
“Well, my dear, you and I are going to enjoy some morning snuggles first, and foremost. You have a therapy session shortly after breakfast, and then the six of us, since Pinkie is still here, go to Ponyville to enjoy a nice day in the park. While I do enjoy Canterlot’s parks, Ponyville has much nicer parks. I know you want to see your students and Twilight and her friends, so we will all be having a picnic as well.” She started nibbling on my ear.
I sighed in delight. “This is so much better than fighting you, or another timeline’s version of you.” I sighed. “Did you know that I adore how much warmer you are than the average pony?”
“I do. Allow me to guess, you figured out just how hot my body can get?”
“Well, you’re already hot… just that Celestia, the psychotic one, not you… She almost burnt my fur off.” My Celly’s eyes opened and she started looking over my burnt shoulder.
“Would you like me to heal it?” I could hear the silent ‘please let me heal you’ in her voice. I don’t think she was super happy with seeing that on me. I decided to try and lighten the fact that I got burnt by an evil Celestia.
“Thank you for the offer, Celly, but… hey, a stallion with a scar’s got a cool story to tell, right?” I chuckled. “Uh… it makes me look tough, right?”
“It does,” Celestia nuzzled me. “But you don’t need a scar to prove that to me, Source. I think you’re just fine the way you were. Though a scar does give you a hardflank look.” That was Ponish for ‘badass’ by the way.
We both laid silently as we both soaked in each other’s touch, I was feeling much better, being in her embrace, safe, warm, untouchable by the world. Sadly, the other inhabitants of our pony pile started waking up, one by one, they slid off of Celly, or Luna. Shining rolled off, with him being a guard captain, he was a bit of an early riser. Cadance woke up, realized she had Button in her mane, and gently slid off to not wake up my colt, before… she is silently squealing at the fact that there is a colt in her mane.
“That is adorable,” I whispered to Celly. Cadance had sat down, moved Button into her forelegs, and simply cradled him while Shining Armor stretched. Luna slid off next, before promptly latching onto my shoulders as she attempted to pull me up into her chest. Her efforts were stopped dead in their tracks when Celly’s hooves shot out and latched onto my flanks before I could fully leave her embrace.
“Sister,” Celly said.
“What? I wish to comfort my younger sibling in law,” Lulu said. “I know you wake with the sun, but Source is still asleep.”
“I’m awake,” I said, lifting a foreleg.
“No you aren’t,” Luna said.
“I guess not,” I agreed. “Can’t we just snuggle up together for five more minutes, or until Pinkie makes pancakes like I bet she is?”
“We could…” Button woke up, happily took his cousin’s nuzzles, before hopping out of her grasp. He climbed up on my head, ignoring how two alicorns were trying to break me apart to snuggle with me, and started grooming me. I know ponies treat grooming each other as the ultimate sign of affection, and… Button’s never done it before. I magically removed Celly and Lulu’s hooves from my butt and shoulders respectively, before laying my head down to accept my son’s affection.
Then I lifted him up, laid him on his back, and started blowing raspberries into his stomach. While I wasn’t feeling incredible… tickling my kid did make me feel just a little better.
“Dad, stop! I’m gonna pee!” I immediately stopped. That is not a lie, that’s hardly ever used as a bluff. My kid definitely was going to pee if I kept tickling him. Button just laid there, giggling while I laid my head on his chest. Now that he wasn’t getting tickled, there was a very, very low chance that he’d pee on me. He wrapped his forelegs around my muzzle.
“Good morning, kiddo. How’d ya sleep?” I asked.
“I slept much better with you here, Dad.” Button whispered. I brought a hoof up to my mouth to push my jaw back into place. Just seeing how much better Button was doing, simply because of me being here… I started just grooming his chest while we waited for Pinkie to finally come with our pancakes. I think Pinkie was taking her time on purpose; she probably knew just having Button with me would make me smile, and she was apparently going to use this week to make me smile more often, to help me get ‘better’.
Pinkie eventually opened the door.
“C’mon, everypony! I made tofu bacon, pancakes, and some scrambled eggs!” She stopped when she saw me genuinely being happy while I groomed Button. A smile, more than just the one she wore all the time, a genuinely warm, happy little smile formed on her muzzle. “I’m glad you’re doing a little better, Source. Hopefully you’re doing a lot better by the end of this week.” That has to be the calmest that I’ve ever seen Pinkie be.
The six of us went into the dining hall, the larger one usually kept for pony dignitaries, since the private one was a little too small to host six ponies at once. The more personal dining room could easily host me, Button, and Celly just fine, and sometimes Luna, but since three of the ponies present were alicorns, all of whom are larger than the average pony, we figured we needed the extra space. I sat down, and took a fork in my hoof.
“So,” I said, opting to leave my butter knife where it was placed. “Aside from the picnic in Ponyville, what else are we doing today?” I asked.
“Well,” Cadance hummed. “We’ve never seen a male alicorn before, so I know Twilight will want to study the crap out of you. There is the possibility that Rainbow Dash will want to teach you how to use your wings, even if you don’t need them. Then we have to figure out…” I extended my one of wings with my magic; I may have had wings before from doing spells, but those were more for show than anything else. I still have no clue how to work mine. I stared at it, before moving it so it was laying over Button.
I don’t know how to move my wings with my muscles, but I can move them with my magic. At least I can wing hug my kid?
“...You forgot that you grew wings?” Luna teased.
“...Shut up, I had a lot on my mind when I first grew them, and never took a moment to fully process… that I have wings.” Luna was sitting right next to me, so her ‘smug’ look changed pretty quickly, and she started rubbing my back.
“You are definitely spending an hour or two with your therapist today, Source,” Celestia said, sipping on some tea. “Some of the things you’ve seen… I have, admittedly, seen myself. From personal experience, I understand how awful you must feel. Having to fight your friends, sometimes to the death, is never fun. And… while the versions of myself, Luna, Cadance, and Twilight were far from your friends, I know how you felt while fighting them. I know it feels worse… since I don’t think you’ve actually killed anypony before.”
“It… It was not fun.” I then pointedly looked at Cadance. “You are getting some combat training, missy. I know you’d probably hate it, but your counterpart was way too easily caught off guard. While that was good for me, it’s not good for you. I love you, Cadance, hence I want to make sure you can defend yourself. Even if you never, and hopefully, ever need to fight, I want to make sure some random joe can’t hold their own against you. In that world, I met a unicorn named Starlight Glimmer…
“She was fighting Twilight, or the Portal’s Twilight, and was handily holding her own until I sent her away. I think; she wasn't immediately killed by the evil Twilight. If just a unicorn can keep pace with an alicorn version Twilight, I am terrified of what a unicorn at that level could do to you, Cadance.” I looked at Shining Armor. “No offense my man, I bet you’d defend her until you drop dead, but teach her a few tricks, at least a few tricks to get out of a fight. The whole reason why I stayed alive was because of a spell I’ve been trying to field test for a while now.”
“Perhaps you could teach it to Cadance? That on top of any guard training she gets, will help do wonders for her.” We both looked at our favorite, pink alicorn to see what she said.
“...If you think it’s best, then I’ll do it. May I ask what this spell is?”
“Throw your best Stun at me,” I said.
“But…”
“Trust me, I have strong faith in this spell. It held up against an evil Celestia, Luna, both at the same time with some helpful dodges and teleports, they didn't touch me. It helped me mop the floor with one of the Nine Masters at the Mage Tower.” Shining shrugged and launched his best Stun at me. The Light Shield immediately activated, and grounded the spell into harmless magical particles, before being completely stopped. “This spell is kinda useless for stopping anything like a sword, but that’s what a shield is for.
“It’s basically just a series of diagnostic spells, it senses a spell from a source that isn’t the user? It will set an alarm system off in the spell itself, and will make the proper procedures necessary to protect the user of Light Shield.
“For instance, god forbid I fight another Celestia, she goes full tilt? Well, I’ll probably die, but if the shield gets hit with a spell that it can’t instantly defend against, it will simply teleport me out of the way. I don’t know how, but Light Shield has its own way of casting spells, to the point where it made me use spells that I don’t know how to use, such as a Portal, to catch a spell and throw it back into somepony. Hell, I bet it could even let ponies that aren’t as magically inclined as somepony going to a unicorn college, to teleport without them knowing how. They wouldn’t remember how to Teleport after the Light Shield does it for them, but…”
Celestia licked my nose. “While it is adorable to watch you go on, and on, about how your spell works, I think you lost Cadance and Shining Armor, and to be honest, myself as well. What does this ‘Light Shield’ spell do besides defend you from magic?”
“Oh, uh, I think Light Shield has a mini-magical system that is entirely unreplicable. The spell’s job is to protect you first, and foremost from any you from any spell no matter what needs to be done to protect the user. In doing so, if it deems that you need to Teleport, but the user doesn’t know how to teleport? It’ll bullshit together a nonsense set of Runes, I think it’s based on Latin, I dunno, and equations, that somehow result in a teleport to act as a dodge from any spell.
“And literally, none of the Runes or equations make a lick of sense. I ran a diagnostic spell on one of the spells that Light Shield reproduced. I ran a test and forced Light Shield to teleport me twice. The Runes, the first time around, roughly translate to ‘the dwarf can’t swim in the air’ while the equation was literally two plus two. Then the next time it deemed it necessary to Teleport, the Runes wrote out into ‘Glorp’ and then the equation was the hardest, known equation known to humanity-” as in it was a basic algebra problem that I didn’t bother solving- ”Luckily, it seems to just use mathematical equations, but if I try to reproduce the Runes, I might as well be reading in Enchanting Table.”
“The buck is that?” Luna asked.
“A thing from a human form of entertainment, Minecraft, or whatever. There’s a thing in the game that has a language that is basically unreadable, but is an actual language. The thing that I’m talking about is a step in progression. There’s three options, each using this stupid language to make it seem like a mystical text. Usually, if translated, you get similar phrases to ‘Glorp’. Uh… anyways, I tried reproducing the Runes and my horn muscles literally cannot do it, and given my experience, I am willing to bet that nobody can.”
“...You developed a spell with its own spell system,” Celestia sighed. “Source, your skills with magic are so stupidly broken sometimes. And in this case, I am not complaining since it helped you in coming back home safely.”
“Oh, maybe Source is the Alicorn of Magic?” Pinkie asked.
“What?” I tilted my head.
“Every alicorn that we know of, all four of us, well, besides you since you just became an alicorn, has a realm. Mine is the Day, Luna’s is the Night, and Cadance is the Princess of love. With your proficiency in magic, and your ability to use dark magic without it corrupting you, I would say the Alicorn of Magic fits rather nicely, don’t you think?” Celestia asked.
“How would I be the Alicorn of Magic when there are dozens of unicorns with significantly larger amounts of magic, or more knowledge in spells? All I did was make my own spell system.” I shrugged. “I dunno, to me, it doesn’t matter, I’m not gonna be much different from before I’ve grown wings. But I feel like anypony else is more deserving than I am of these wings, namely Twilight.”
“You utilize magic in a rather marvelous way, Source,” Celly smiled. “Seeing you work spells into existence with Python, or convertinng them into Pyrhon, and then making efforts in passing down that knowledge, to developing spells that are designed specifically for unicorns that are not magically gifted?” She teleported my draft for Python’s Combat Expansion textbook, and flipped to where Light Shield was. It was a weaker version, since it wasn’t tailored specifically to one pony, but it can get similar results to my personalized version. “Source, this could be taught to Button right now, and he could do the spell no problem. It may leave him winded after one use, but… He can use it if you taught him, and Button is a foal.”
“A foal that will be able to kick my shit in when he’s all grown up.” Nopony commented on that. Button looked like he wanted to snuggle up under my chest and hug me.
“Either way, Source, you are talented even if you do not believe in yourself. Perhaps the Alicorn of Individuality if not magic? You do everything in your own, weird, specific way, and achieve your goals. And nothing is more important than being yourself, is there? You’ve made Python from being an idiot, after all.” Luna pointed out.
“Mmm, I dunno. We’ll just say 'hur durr, Magic Alicorn', and call it a day. That, or I walk out on stage, pronounce myself the Alicorn of Booze, and drink sixteen gallons of beer. That would be fun.”
“Oh! The Alicorn of Acorns! It has some nice alliteration!” Pinkie said excitedly.
“Of Acorns it is!”
…
“If you say that’s what you are on stage, dear, you will sleep on the couch for a week straight.” Celestia said. It was a teasing tone, but I knew there was some undertone of ‘please don’t’.
“Yes dear. Can I still drink a pint of beer on stage?”
“...Yes you can.”
I lifted up a piece of uncooked bread and looked at Pinkie. I think she’s up to something… I casted a spell, and… Perfect Toast. I MADE A PERFECT TOAST! Finally! I took a bite, well I tried to, but Celly popped it in her mouth and ate it in one bite. I know Celly and Pinkie were planning it, and frankly, Trollestia was one of my favorite ‘modes of Celly’ as I’ve labeled it. So I took the prank in full, smiled, and happily just relished in being able to be fortunate enough to at least start having breakfast again with my pony family.
Celly and I kissed, and we all started laughing.
My therapy session came and went, I will admit, the castle has a good therapist, they actually got me talking on the second session. I didn’t immediately start talking about what happened during… My visit to the other world, but I did start talking about my frustrations with being initially stuck in Equestria. About how I missed my family, and overall… I did just feel a little better getting all of that off my chest. I know Celly and the rest of my friends, the ones who know of my background at least, somewhat suspect how I felt about leaving my old life behind.
But I’ve tried to at least not let it all out on them. I know, I know Celly is more than willing, Lulu’s more than willing, Shining Armor’s probably heard me say these things while I was drunk. However, truly just getting it off my chest to a trained professional… Fuck, dude, it may take a while, but it’ll help me eventually.
Hopefully it’ll help me.
Luckily for me, we were all getting on the train to head to Ponyville. It was part of the plan, and since our group is huge, I was tucked under Celly’s wing while Button rode on her back. I just had my legs dangle in the air, they swung back and forth and she walked through Canterlot. While I would’ve asked to walk, I realized that she was trying to hide the fact that I was an alicorn now. She was trying to make sure I’d get some peace and quiet before being hounded about how I became an alicorn, or keep nobles from getting on me about being an alicorn.
I know I might get given the title as an official high prince, but I doubt Celly would force me into taking any political position unless I wanted it.
With that said, I happily let myself get squeezed under a wing that shouldn’t be able to hold me, and happily smiled. Winter Wrap Up happened while I was gone, apparently, so it was a nice, cool spring morning… Nah, spring sucks in the morning as usual, and it was kinda cold. Celly was kinda warm. Celly comfortably, kinda warm, actually. Not too hot, not too cold, just right.
Under Celly’s wing is very comfy. I like my spot under Celly’s wing. Luna sat on the bench next to us in the train station, happily nuzzling Tale while she kept a wing draped over him. Cadance was keeping a wing draped over her Shining Armor, and I could tell that all three of us stallions were happily thinking one thought:
‘I’m the luckiest fucker in the world’.
And we were all right. We got the loveliest mares in all of Equestria, namely the Princesses, and somehow made them fall in love with us. I had my Celly, Tale had Luna, and Shiny had Cadance. We were all just happily enjoying ourselves while the staff got the Celly’s train car hooked up to the rest of the train.
“Watcha reading, Button?” The colt hopped off Celly’s back and had gotten a book out. Adorably, he was nose deep in it, while holding it with his magic. If I weren't in wing jail, I'd ruffle his mane. The book he was reading was one I haven’t seen before. Well, I recognized the name; it was a Daring Do book. Though it was one kf it's many sequels.
“It’s a Daring Do book, Dad. Scootaloo told me to read it, and Sweetie Belle agreed on it being good, so I was going to try and read it…" I heard the undertone if 'my Dad is stupid' in the start of his response. I am a proud, stupid father to Button Mash, who is apparently an earth pony in most of the timelines he exists in. I got lucky and got the unicorn Button Mash, the cutest one in the multiverse.
“Have you started a herd without me knowing, kiddo? Last time I saw you with them, Scootaloo was happily snuggled up with you, and Sweetie Belle was doing basically the same thing.”
“...We’re just friends, Dad.”
“Mhm,” I smiled. “It’s adorable, Button. Though I know Celly expects grandfoals from you at some point, and I wanna be a grandpa too, kiddo. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are respectable little fillies, just refrain from doing anything too crazy until all of you are older, eh?”
“Okay Dad, that is good advice… but they’re still just friends.” Button rolled his eyes, but kept his muzzke in his book to try and hide the faint blush on his cheeks.
“Would you like to dance with them at the Gala when you’re older? I know that it’s hard getting tickets, but between me and Celly, we could maybe find a way to make it work.”
“...I would like to dance with Sweetie Belle, she always wanted to go to the Gala, even after Rarity told her it sucked. I don’t know if Scootaloo would want to go, though. If they do…” He started giving me puppy eyes.
“Button, you don’t need to do that with me. You wanna dance with your little filly friends when the three of you are older? I’m all for it. Just don’t sleep with your future bedroom’s door closed when y'all turn in for the night.”
“Okay, Dad.” My kid closed his book after apparently getting through another chapter of the thing. He looked ready to climb on my head and sleep, but I think me being jammed under Celly’s wing pit was the main thing that was keeping him from doing so.
“I would be all for seeing the three of you in your little tuxedo and dresses, respectively, dear,” Celly said as our car finally got hooked up to the rest of the train. “It would be adorable, and I bet that you would look rather dashing in a suit.”
“Can I wear the suit Dad had made? The one I wore on Nightmare Night?” He asked.
“Mmm, we’ll have to get it resized for you when you’re older, kiddo. When I said ‘until you’re older’, I meant it.”
“I know, but why must I wait?”
“Button, lemme let you in on something. You know how me and Celly are only a little popular?”
“Yeah. Well, Mom is very, very popular and most of Canterlot knows about you at this point.”
“Okay, so there’s these super rich ponies, known as nobles. Unlike your mother, most of them are unsavory assholes that pretend to be nice, but are just… assholes underneath their act. Most of Canterlot doesn’t know you exist right now, hence allowing you to get a normal foalhood. If anypony here knew you were my kid,” I must point out that I did palette swap Button’s coat before we left the castle. “These nobles would be hounding you, me, and Celly about giving you their daughter’s hoof in marriage for a leg up.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. I’m certain you don’t want some random filly to be your first date. You probably want it with Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo, or both, don’tcha?”
“I… do want my first date to be either of those two, yeah.”
“Imagine being able to do that when every other filly in Canterlot is throwing them at you. I’m saying to wait, since then both you and Sweetie Belle will be very capable mages, so you can defend yourselves and Scootaloo’ll be big and strong too. And while I would love nothing more to see you in a cute little tuxedo, dancing with either of those kids at the Gala next year, I also would love it if you had a normal childhood.”
“...I get it now. I’m not happy about it, Dad, but I get it now.” I reached down and ruffled Button’s mane. “Dad… I spent all morning messing with it!”
“Don’t your filly friends like it more when your mane’s spiky?” I asked.
“...Yeah. Thanks Dad.” I chuckled, and wiggled out of Celly’s leg pit once we were all on her private train car; there should be nopony watching us. I stretched like a dog, laid down, and pulled Button closer to me, only to subsequently be stuck under a pony pile.
“We are going to constantly do this, Source,” Luna said happily. “I do not know if you know this, but you being gone for a month warrants a pony pile at every opportunity. I’m sure you won’t complain since you also desire some snuggling?”
“...Yeah, I won’t complain about being under a pile of lovely mares, and two other stallions. No funny business, Lulu, your coltfriend’s-” she licked my eyeball. “Right there… Fuk.” I shivered. “That felt so weird, Lulu. What the fuck?” She simply giggled, before pulling Tale closer to her so she could groom him.
When we got off the train, I was happy to say that… nopony was paying me much mind. Granted, they were all too busy at seeing the entire royal family, save Blueblood, in Ponyville. I think everypony here was looking forward to either meeting any of the alicorns present, well, the female ones, until Shining Armor wrapped a hoof around Cadance’s neck, Luna promptly draped her left wing over Tale, and I just sat sat there, wondering what would happen if these ponies found out that I had wings now.
I didn’t need to wait for long.
“Hey…” One of the random folks, Lyra, I believe, saw me immediately. “Aren’t you that one stallion from the papers, the one that was saying you were the Princess’s fiance?” she asked. She looked at me, looked me over, and hummed. “You’re quite a scrawny looking stallion,” she mused. “Is that… a pair of wings?”
“Uh… yeah. I made a spell that lets me grow wings once, everypony here saw me use it during that one unicorn meetup, or whatever. Why do you ask?”
“You couldn’t move those ones! I was there; you had to use a spell to walk in the air to make up for how you can’t fly. I see those wings involuntarily twitching every now and then.” I looked down to notice that my right wing did, in fact, twitch every now and then for no reason.
“Huh, that’s pretty dandy. Never knew-”
“Wings produced with magic don’t have that sort of thing; they literally either don’t work, or are a pair of very, very delicate butterfly wings that melt in direct sunlight on a hot day. I would know; I’ve gone to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns…”
“Damn. You certainly know more about magic than I do, then…” I shrugged. “Meh, for all you know, I could be moving them with my wings.”
“And Lyra,” Celly spoke up. “While it is wonderful to see you, and seeing you enjoying your life after school, please refrain from harassing my fiance. He’s been through yet another magical accident, which luckily did not result in him disappearing. Instead, he grew a pair of wings, and is now an alicorn. Anypony here bothering Source Code about him being an alicorn, will be kindly reminded not to do so by his guard,” I would like to point out that Solar Strike was flanking me and Celly. “Unless Source Code wants the attention, do respect his boundaries.”
“Alright,” Lyra shrugged. “So you found a coltfriend, one that’ll live as long as you?”
“For that, I am not quite sure. The last alicorn to ascend was Princess Cadance, and so far, she is growing to be taller than she would’ve been as a pegasus, much taller. This sort of thing is a rare incident. No, he will not be officially crowned as a ‘high prince’ in anything other than title alone. My little stallion has stated he has no interest in any political power.”
“Alright,” Lyra nodded. “I recorded everything you just said to hand to the Ponyville Press, and likely the more national newspaper. This way most ponies, hopefully, won’t bother him too much.”
“Thank you, Lyra. I believe you and Bon Bon are getting along quite well? You two seemed rather.... Touchy at your graduation,” Celly asked. While those two began catching, I noticed six certain mares, along with four fillies I was all too happy to see, were approaching. So when Twilight got within grabbing range, before she could say a word, I pulled her close with my magic and hugged her. I held her tightly, and let out a long, deep breath.
“I didn’t think you’d miss me that much, Source. Usually it’s me hugging you like this.”
“Uh…” I chuckled. “Want me to stop hugging you? I’m just glad to see you’re doing alright.”
“Source, we’ve been over this, most ponies are huge cuddle bugs in Equestria. I don’t mind being hugged for an extended period of time, not after what you’ve been through.” I did pull back, to give her some space. And to say hi to the rest of the girls, while I noted that the fillies were barely containing their excitement to see me alive and well. They luckily weren’t in hearing distance of us yet.
“Okay, what happened to you after you went through that portal?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You’re usually not that touchy.”
“I ran into another Twilight, one that was an alicorn, and downright evil.”
“Nopony can be evil, I would say,” Rarity started. “I mean, we all thought Luna was evil, then…” She turned to see Luna holding down and tickling her coltfriend, probably after he had embarrassed her in public.
“So, imagine you wake up in another Equestria, Rarity, and you see a large, large pillar of smoke along with a lot of screaming coming from that direction.” Rarity closed her eyes, and nodded. “Next, imagine four alicorns, you know, the Princesses, and Twilight who is also a princess in this new Equestria. Twilight’s mane has some blood in it, and you’re surrounded by the other four.
“Next, imagine it in my hooves. I sensed Celly was nearby, even if my brain knew it wasn’t my Celly, and I sought her out for protection. She made a joke about sleeping with me, and somehow didn’t kill me after doing so. I’ve reason to believe that the day before, the four visited a village, pretended to be nice, seduced a few stallions, and killed them. Then the next day, burnt the whole village down, killed everypony and then promptly tried to kill me because they believed me to be a survivor of their first attack.”
“...Oh.” Rarity hissed. “That… does sound particularly bad.”
“According to somepony I met, Starlight, she and Twilight were once good friends, and had a mutual friendship in some dude named Thorax, a king or something. That world’s Twilight was responsible for killing Thorax after he surrendered. On top of that, they were doing this in their ‘natural’ forms. No Nightmare Moon, or Cadance’s ‘evil’ counterpart, or Celly’s.” I wrapped a hoof around Twilight, who was now standing at my side. “I’ve seen some shit, horrible, horrible shit. I’ve done some arguably just as horrible shit.”
“But they were evil!” Rainbow pointed out. “It seems like you did that version of Equestria a favor, and I got a new flying buddy out of it.”
“I killed Twilight, Celestia, Cadance, and Luna, Dash. It’s why I’m being a little, just a little clingy to Twilight. I’m trying to spend as much of this week with those four for a reason. I know it was all so I could live, but I still didn’t like seeing them killed. I didn’t like being the one who killed them, no matter what timeline I was in.”
“But you’re being extra clingy with me right now, Source,” Twilight pointed out.
“I blew your counterpart’s head up, Twi. Please, please just let me hug you a little bit, and let’s stop talking.” I shivered. I just imagined Twilight's head blowing up. My world’s Twilight.
“Okay… you know, I do have some training as a therapist,” Twilight pointed out. “If you need to talk, I’m here. I felt you shiver at something in your imagination, Source. With what you just said? I can’t blame you.” She nuzzled me. “Go say ‘hi’ to your students, they missed you, and I’m certain that four bubbly, adorable fillies at least going to alleviate some of your troubles.” I nodded, and started making way towards Apple Jack and Rarity who were keeping Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Dinky from tackling me off the bat.
“Howdy,” I greeted, I waved to Aj and Rarity. “I believe you four have been doing well in my absence?”
“We have!” Sweetie Belle, well, Squeaky Belle, said. “Dinky and I have been practicing with our magic more; Twilight stopped by on the days you usually tutor us, and was shocked with our progress!” Before I could react, the Crusaders and Dinky were released from their hold, and I was promptly tackled to the ground, laughing as four wiggly bodies were soon joined by a fifth. Button wanted to kick my ass too, apparently. Luckily, the torture they’ve brought upon me, tickling, didn’t last long, and I was soon laying on my stomach, trying my best to drape my wings over all five foals.
I was a giggling mess, though.
“Sorry I couldn’t make it to that event, kids,” I genuinely felt like an ass after remembering that I agreed to stay in Ponyville for a week for some event.
“It’s fine, Mr. Code,” Dinky said. “We heard what happened, and mostly just cared if you were safe.”
“Did you kick some weird, alien butt?” Scootaloo asked. I froze for a moment. “Mr. Code?” I took a deep breath and chuckled humorlessly, luckily none of the foals caught that. Button definitely knew what I’ve been through, he was there during breakfast when we were talking about what I’ve gone through during my small excursion into the portal world.
“Eh, depends on your definition of an alien. I… certainly did some things.”
“Say,” Apple Bloom said. “Uncle Source, when y’all get a pair of wings?” She, aside from Button, was tucked the closest into my wingpits.
“Uh… I dunno. After I did some things in the portal, restore harmony or whatever, I had wings. Now, however, I can give you guys wing hugs. Celly does it all the time, and it’s lovely, and you are my favorite foals in the world.” I nuzzled the little Apple, before nodding to AJ and Rarity. “Howdy ladies, I had to greet these little ladies first before I could be allowed to say hi.” Dinky crawled onto my head somehow, despite being wedged between Apple Bloom and Button.
“Ah heard you’ve been needing to forget some things. Stop by the Sweet Apple Acres, and Ah can hook you up with some extra strong cider, Source,” AJ offered.
“Mmm, tempting, but I’ve seen what relying on alcohol to forget things can do to you. Usually it doesn’t help, but hey, some cider, or whisky, in some good company? It’ll at least be fun.”
Rarity spoke up. “I’m sure you’ve heard this a lot, Source, but if you need to talk, you’ve got friends to talk to. Don’t just shut yourself in, deary.”
“I will. Say, I saw you at the Gala with a pretty handsome looking stallion. You two hit it off, or something?”
“Oh yes. I met this lovely gentlecolt by the name of Fruit. He was a unicorn, and didn’t have a cutie mark resembling any fruit I’ve seen, but he was rather nice. He said he woke up outside of the Gala and snuck in, no clue of what happened, or anything. He was a rather weird fellow, but he was nice, through and through. The two of us have been exchanging letters while you were gone, and were planning out another date here in Ponyville.”
“...No recollection of how he got to the Gala? Where’d he wake up?” I asked.
“Somewhere in the gardens, according to Fruit.”
“Mmm, alright then.” I think there might be some instability in this timeline. Or just whatever the heck kept timelines separated. It definitely did not help that there’s a group of ponies fucking around with portals in the Mage Tower that doesn’t really follow any Equestrian law.
“Well,” I pointed towards the picnic basket on Celly’s back. “The two of us may have brought a few goodies, recipes from back home for the picnic. Once she gets done with talking to Lyra.” Now Celly was talking to Lyra and another pony, I think that may have been Bon Bon. Cream colored coat, nice, almost grape-colored mane and tail. She almost looked like a weird, grape, cream candy. It was fine, since Luna and Cadance were getting some fanfare, despite them very clearly holding, or being held, by two stallions that did not look amused.
“Ah think if anypony hits on Princess Cadance one more time, they may get a hoof in the face,” Apple Jack snickered.
“Yeah, I think.... Oh hey, there’s your brother.” Luna was actually happily trying to converse with Big Mac, but he just looked concerned. “Wasn’t there a photo of him in the paper, of Luna saying she was trying to find that stallion?”
“Yeah. Ah was wondering’ why Big Mac was redder than usual after you picked Button up. Which one of you three came up with that?”
“Luna. She found a special somepony and was trying to hide his identity, so she picked the most random, handsome looking farmer in the most random town ever, and accidentally chose your brother…” I paused. “I think Luna is trying to start a reverse herd. God dammit.”