Service to the Crown

by biologic orthodoxy

Rating: mature
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance, Romance, Comedy, Big Macintosh, Shining Armor, Sex, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 12769

Cadence finds something for Shining Armor to do while she deals with Princess Twilight.

Princess Cadence keeps Shining Armor occupied while she prepares the world for Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Published 2013-05-18 06:20:03 UTC
Last updated 2013-05-18 06:20:03 UTC

Or, An Apple a Day

She didn't mean to be doing it, really. She probably didn't even notice...

Cadence watched Twilight's face fall into a grumpy little frown as the younger alicorn's gaze found its way out the window again.

But then, she would do this. After all, Cadence vividly remembered not twenty years earlier meeting a very cute but stubborn filly who, for their first night together, refused to even speak to her foalsitter because, alicorn though she was, she failed the most important test of all: not being Twilight’s big brother.

Her one and only friend in the whole wide world.

To that huffy little unicorn, there was one, and only one pony who got to look after her while her parents were away...

...until the next time Cadence showed up, anyways.

Now, though...

Well, now...look who's all kinds of grown up!

Cadence's eyes wandered over to the new, but unquestionably familiar features beside her at the Ponyville library table. She was a bit longer in the horn, certainly, and had a little more definition in the face and jaw—not to mention the sudden growth spurt and addition of a very shapely pair of wings.

This was Twilight Sparkle, alright. If anything, she was just more so.

And yet, some things just didn't change, even if Twilight was an alicorn now. It was a familiar story: in times of trouble, the hearts of ponies turn to constants and familiar comforts, rolling all the way back, if nostalgia is indulged, to the things that had endured as symbols of happiness and safety since foalhood.

It had been this way for the past two days. And while it was sort of adorable, and heartening in the sense that it suggested Twi wasn’t feeling removed from the unicorn she had been, it was also making her sister-in-law’s job a bit harder than it absolutely needed to be.

“You certainly know how to make a girl feel welcome, Twi,” Cadence said, taking a sip of cafe au lait to hide a smug little grin as Twilight spun back to her, stumbling over herself looking for an apology.

“I-er, I didn't—” Twilight began, trying to grin. “Um. Sorry.”

“You didn't think having your brother and I visit from the Empire would involve this much I and this little Shiny, maybe?” Cadence said, giving her a wink.

Twilight slumped, head hanging—a familiar pose of honest regret and shame from her, a behavior which as her old foalsitter Cadence was acutely familiar with. But even this was different now; as she hung her head it raised her shoulders, and thus her wings fluttered anxiously in sympathy with their owner's distress, as if by their own volition.

Cadence silently noted this as she took another sip. Some polite preliminary inquiries to some ponies in the know suggested that at first, Twilight had found her new additions exciting, but with almost clock-like predictability Twilight’s mind had ticked over and the initial rush of excitement had boiled away into nervousness. Apparently she'd been inclined to twitching in odd ways or being suddenly startled when she noticed the weight of her wings as she moved, or how her visual perspective had changed.

So she seemed to be getting a little better. A little more...used to it.

Ah, but—yep, here we go. 3, 2, 1...

“Agh!” Twilight gasped, as a long pinion accidentally tickled her rump.

Cadence laughed out loud as Twi flushed bright red. “Happens to me all the time, Twilight. I feel your pain, believe me.”

“Which is why you're here, I know, I know...” Twilight muttered, rolling her eyes as she tried to recompose herself. It was a little funny to watch—she was very graceful when she wasn't thinking about it, but now that she was paying attention her wings flopped around awkwardly.

It is important to bear in mind that this is going to be a bit of a...process, Princess Celestia's voice said, echoing in Cadence's memory. Twilight wasn't born this way—but give her a few decades and it would probably be hard to tell.

But that was then, and this was now. For now there was hard work to be done and hard words to be said, and the last thing Cadence needed was Shining Armor around being his wonderful, loving, maybe-a-little-overprotective-but-he-means-well self. The last couple days had been unproductive enough as it was.

“I'm not just here because Auntie asked, Twilight. We both wanted to see you, especially after...after...” Cadence trailed off, looking for a good word. She settled for waving a hoof vaguely at Twilight. “After this.”

Twilight sniffed. “Could have fooled me.”

“Well, clever as he sometimes manages to be, Shiny can't help you much where your wings tickling your butt is concerned. My wings tickling his butt, sure, but—”

Twilight gave a brief, involuntary little giggle, before stifling herself and giving Cadence a sulky glare for having the temerity to make her laugh while she was busy being depressed. Still, she seemed a little less broody, and that was a start.

Cadence reached out across the table and brushed a bit of mane out of the pouting alicorn's face. “I just think there's a lot that would be easier for you to talk to me about in private. He loves you, Twilight, and I know you love him, but...you know, he's not...”

Internally, Cadence cursed. That was hard enough for her to think about without putting it in Twilight's mind right now...

Okay, okay, reel it in, turn it around. Twi needs you to be Big Sister (...in-Law) Cadence again.

She quickly gave Twilight a mock-serious expression. “And you know how he is when he's got nothing in particular to do.”

The way Twi's eyelid twitched told Cadence she'd successfully navigated this particular iceberg in the metaphorical ocean of their conversation.

“Agh, you’re right,” Twilight hissed, wincing.

“He's such a nice stallion, really,” Cadence said, in a faraway tone of voice. “I love him very much, you know.”

Twilight put her head on the table and covered her eyes with her hooves, groaning. “Aghh...did I ever tell you about the time I was getting ready for my Novice's evaluations and he was on leave? I swear, every five minutes he'd show up asking me if I needed tea, or some books, or something. It was unreal. And I couldn't just tell him to leave me alone because he was being so nice! I don't know how I passed that test...”

Cadence nodded. “Mmm. So, when your friends mentioned they were a bit overworked on the orchards at the moment...”

“Poor Macintosh,” Twilight muttered from the tabletop.

“Oh, I don't know, it'll be good for him,” Cadence said, smiling a bit wistfully. “Shiny’s been a bit pent up lately, to tell you the truth. He's always been a very, ah, physical sort of pony, and these days he doesn't have as many opportunities to go work up a sweat the way he used to...”

~<3~

The barn door slid open, the latch lit with the pale purple aura of a unicorn's magic, and the bright amber sunlight of late afternoon spilled into the barn in a lazy, sleepy sort of way, as if the sun had also put in a solid six hours of bucking and hauling.

Shining Armor took a few steps in before he paused, face screwing up.

“Woof! Heavens above...!” he gasped, waving a hoof in front of his nose.

“Yeah, we usually don't need to open this barn,” Mac said, stepping past him with such ease that the huge, over-laden cart of apples he was hauling might as well have not been there. “Not for a few years now. Ah guess we musta left a bushel in the rafters or somethin'. You'll get used to it.”

He drew the cart over into a stall beside a few others left by Applejack earlier and paused so Shining could step over and help him out of the cart's straps. Both stallions were still dripping a bit after a brief cannonball contest in a pond with Applejack and Apple Bloom on the way back from the northernmost orchard—an Apple Family tradition born of not wanting the dinner table to smell like ponies who have been working in the sun all day.

“So anyways, like Ah was sayin'...Ah got two very serious problems lookin' for a good time,” Mac said, picking up where they had left off a moment earlier.

Shining finished yanking the last strap and stepped back so Mac could extract himself. “Well, for one, I suppose Ponyville's like everywhere else in Equestria. Almost two mares to every stallion, in some places.”

“That many, really...?”

“Yep. Baltimare's the worst, apparently.”

Mac grimaced. “Ah suppose Ah shouldn't be surprised. Hell, sure feels that way sometimes.”

Shining gave him a sympathetic look as they walked over to the barn door and retrieved their mugs of cider.

“An' then, of course, most of what stallions are runnin' around are busy chasin' mares, so, that's that,” Mac continued. He paused for a moment and gave his cider to Shining so that he could give a pile of fresh hay bales a good buck, splitting the bindings and spilling a generous cushion onto the floor.

Shining plopped down on the hay and lay back, smiling contentedly a the opportunity to roll around and stretch his sore body on the ground, the hay scratching his sun-baked skin. “Oh, it feels like forever since I just had some hay to lay in. This takes me back...”

“An' here's me worryin' you'd be offended, your highness,” Mac said, lying down next to him. “Don't want to offend y’all with my crude country ways.”

Shining sat up and gave him a grin. “So what's the second thing?”

“Hmm?”

“The second thing that makes it hard for a gay stallion in Ponyville.”

“No, no, for me,” Mac said, gesturing with his mug. “Any old gay stallion's got no problem, if he's good-lookin' and don't mind haulin' apples, right, because he can just buy me a drink, heh. Nah, mah problem is that, like Ah said, there's only so many stallions runnin' around, and this bein' Ponyville and me bein' Macintosh Apple...Ah'm related to half of 'em.”

They laughed, clicked their mugs together, and downed them.

Mac lay back, sighing. “So first Ah gotta find some stallion who's been eyein' me an' drag him kickin' an' screamin' out of the closet...”

Shining groaned.

“Right? Thank you. An' then half the time Ah get him right where Ah want him an' he starts goin', 'Oh yeah, Mac, Ah'm your little mare, make me your filly you big, strong stallion!' An' Ah swear, Ah just wanna scream. Ah get that everypony's got their thing, but if Ah wanted a mare ah'd go get one! Poor Cheerilee had to pretend she was mah girlfriend while we were in school just so the two of us could be left in peace...”

“Twilee's friend? The teacher?”

Mac nodded. “Eeyup. She just ain't interested in sex, Ah think. Some ponies are like that.”

“Yeah...” Shining said, trailing off as he idly wandered down memory lane. “I know what you mean, though. When I was still a cadet, there was this one earth pony stallion—huge guy, seriously, bigger than you—and he would always make a big show of how he was only after mares, right. Guardsponies, civilians, whatever. I mean, I'd say only like, a third of the guys I trained with would hook up with stallions, and most of them were like me, where it was just once or twice or whatever. But this guy acted like we were all just, you know, constantly fucking each other...”

“Ah knew Ah should have enlisted,” Mac murmured.

Shining shrugged. “One time—oh, this was bad, ha. One time, we're all just sitting around at night, drunk out of our minds because why not, and he wanders out of his room, through the common area, with his half-hard dick just flopping between his legs, and we all just turn and look at him—like, not because of his cock, right, but because he's being an asshole—and he just looks us all square in the eye and says, dead serious, 'Mare smells good, doesn't it?' And then he goes to the bathroom while we all go, 'what the hell was that...?”

Mac chuckled. “So about these barracks. Can Ah sign up with you, or...?”

“Well, you see where this is going, right?” Shining said, snickering. “A few years later, I'm a watch commander, and I'm in my office when this pegasus buddy of mine walks in with the hugest grin just smeared across his face, and he shuts the door and says to me: 'You’ll never guess who wants to be called a filly while my chubby little dick is in him'!”

Mac and Shining snorted laughter despite both trying not to.

“Ah, we shouldn't be mean. To each their own...” Shining said, because Cadence wasn’t here to do it for him.

Mac rolled onto his belly and rolled his massive shoulders and neck around, perhaps a bit more slowly than was absolutely necessary. “So, in all that time in those barracks...only once or twice, huh?”

“You met my wife,” Shining said, raising an eyebrow. “She's been my best friend since I was nine, so, I've always sort of been...you know, taken.”

“Well, best friend don't mean—”

Shining peered at Mac incredulously, his expression neatly saying: I know you're gay, but I didn't realize you were blind, too!

The larger stallion looked away, grinning. “Right, right. Dunno what Ah was thinkin'.”

“And she's the patron of love, too, you know? She can sort of...see it. Sense the true nature of relationships between ponies, like she can see past the emotions to the real truth of things. Love, rivalry...desire...” Shining grimaced. “Not that she ever really has to with me. She knows me inside and out—I can't get anything past her.”

Mac snorted a laugh. “You got some bad luck. Now your sister's gonna be seein' through walls and stuff, too, you know. You can't escape.”

“At this point I don’t think anypony can. We’re all doomed. It's just worse for me.” Shining laid back, sighing theatrically. Why, why, why did I marry a demigoddess who can read my mind without using magic, again?”

“Well, Ah'm no expert, but word is you love her,” Mac said, a little awkwardly. He cleared his throat and very obviously changed the subject. “Ah take it she caught you playin' with the other colts, then.”

“No, no.” Shining turned and gave Mac a knowing little grin. “It was actually her idea. Seriously!”

“Oh, my,” Mac rumbled. “Go on...”

Shining licked his lips, running the details through his mind again. “This was like ten years ago, now. Cadence and I weren't together together, or anything, right, we were just...you know, we'd gotten physical a couple times, but...well, anyways, that's not the point. The point is that...there was this pegasus...”

“Liked him a bit more than usual, did you?”

“What? ‘Course not. I hated his guts!” Shining laughed. “We were always neck and neck on evaluations, drill, aptitude batteries...basically, we acted like only one of us was going to get into officer's candidacy after basic. We were constantly at each other's throats. And I would meet Cadence and complain, and she'd just smile...”

“Ah, yeah,” Mac said with a deep chuckle. “You two were just gettin' all riled over each other. Oldest story in the book.”

“Right? So she just tells me: ‘why don’t you let him fuck you already?’ And then, you know, a bunch of other stuff, until eventually she convinced me I should give it a shot. And...I did. Kissed him right on the mouth while he was growling at me one night.”

“Aww...”

“Oh, shut up, it wasn’t, like, roses and flowers. We had a bit of a thing for a few months, is all. Fight all day, hump each other silly all night. Even the sex was harsh. He wanted me to hurt him a bit—like, he wanted me biting his wings.” Shining hissed between his teeth. “Hard. Feathers pulled out and everything.”

Mac's ears pricked up in alarm. “Damn! Bit freaky.”

“Yeah, but good freaky,” Shining said, smiling vaguely. “The point is I felt a lot better afterwards. More comfortable with myself, you know? Like, all these sort of urges had a name now, and it's okay.”

“Eeyup. Ah went through a few mares before Ah figured myself out.” Mac shook his head mournfully. “Poor fillies.”

Shining sat up. “That's Cadence, though. That's her thing, her...gift, her purpose. She sees that stuff and tries to bring it out, because it's good for ponies. I mean, she was definitely there for me to talk to about it afterward.”

“Count yerself lucky,” Mac said with a bitter huff. “All Ah had was some porno mags, and they ain't chatty. Speaking of, neither am Ah, usually...” he added, frowning in a way that suggested he was suddenly conscious that he really, really liked the company he was keeping.

Shining gave him an awkward frown. “Look, Mac...you're sure you're cool with this just being—”

“Didn't I just get finished telling you how very, very badly Ah could do with...how’d your princess put it...'a physical thing'?” Mac said, with a laugh. “Look, Ah know how it is. There's more stallions out there like you than know it, believe me. Guys who can appreciate another stallion in their bed, but beyond that...nah. Ah can handle that. Y’all don’t think you’re in love with every mare or stallion you think sweaty thoughts about, do you?”

“I just don't want you to do this without understanding the situation,” Shining said.

Mac rolled over, frowning. “Well Ah do appreciate you takin' mah feelins into consideration, but don’t get all mushy on me right here in the end. It was your flanks keepin' me up at night, not romantic dates in the moonlight—”

Shining grinned. “So you do realize this is just my wife trying to keep me occupied and out from under her hooves, then.”

Mac paused for a minute as this processed, then barked laughter. “She doesn't do much by halves.”

“She's been a princess her whole life, and that means sometimes I'm going to get in the way a bit. I'm used to it,” Shining laughed. “It's just that usually she makes me do research or preside over something or look important somewhere, not send me chasing after stallions. ”

“Oh yeah...?”

“Well, I say that, right, but this is only the, er, second time she's encouraged me to...ah... ” Shining trailed off, looking away as he flushed a little. “I just told you about the first time. I don't actually find that many stallions interesting except as, er...somepony to think sweaty things about. So to speak.”

This comment did not go misunderstood. Mac paused for a moment, giving Shining Armor a pleased little smile, before letting go of a breath.

“Well,” Mac said, quietly, and nothing else.

“But now I almost feel like we should just call it a night, go into town, and get absolutely hammered, you know?” Shining put in, quickly, cutting through the sudden and unwelcome seriousness. “Start some fights. Get arrested. Wake up in the branches of Twilee's library. That sort of thing.”

Mac let out a sharp breath, his face growing concerned—not, Shining was pleased to realize, because he thought Shining was trying to escape, but because this was a very compelling alternative plan. “Now, see, you shouldn'a said that, 'cause it does sound like a pretty good time...”

Shining, heart racing with excitement as things really got started, reached out and touched Mac on the shoulder. The huge stallion flexed under the hoof, as if to reinforce that he was very definitely here.

“Tomorrow, then?” Shining asked.

“Eeyup. For sure.” Mac turned back to him, a huge, coltish grin spread across his face. “So...”

“So,” Shining said, feeling himself settling into a lazy, hungry expression. He shifted on the hay so that he was side by side with Mac, who gave a happy little shiver.

They both still stank of sweat, although it was no longer a physical presence like it had been. But that...that was fine. Shining had spent a lot of time in palaces and castles and high society, but nearly all the fun of any kind he'd ever had was out under the sun or rolling in the mud. Perfume and fresh soap meant boredom, whereas even his memories of being with Cadence for the first time involved gardens, the wind, and the rich smell of the earth as she pulled him to the ground...

The tang of the pond, the rich hay, the pungent aroma of fermenting apples...Shining took in a deep breath through his nose, imagining he could feel the tingle of it all dancing on his brain.

“What're the rules?” Mac muttered, and Shining realized he had his muzzle pressed against the crimson stallion's powerful neck.

“Rules?”

Mac chuckled. “This ain't my first rodeo, handsome. There's always rules when a mare lets her colt off the leash.” He arched his head back, rolling his eyes in playful irritation. “My boy's gotta be on top. Or: my boy's gotta be on bottom. Don't make him suck your dick. Don't cum inside him. 'Course, half the time the stallion is just sayin' that because he doesn't want to suck my cock. Heavens forbid he do anything gay...”

Shining snorted out a laugh. “No, nothing like that. Just the one.”

“What's that?”

“'Have fun',” Shining said.

“Ah can handle that,” Mac murmured. “And here Ah was sure it was goin' to be the big one. 'No kissin’ on the lips'.”

Shining Armor gave him a playfully serious look in return. “Macintosh. Are you saying you want to kiss me on the lips?”

Mac shrugged, grinning off at nothing in particular. “Mighta been thinkin' about it...”

“Well, then...” Shining said, leaning in...

It was not a gentle peck.

Mac and Shining kissed like colts, which is to say, with exactly no subtlety or technique whatsoever. No hovering just apart for a moment, breathing one another's breath before the blessed contact. No gentle drawing of the lips across one another. No affectionate nuzzling. No quiet moan of subtle passion.

This was a kiss that said: I am going to fuck you now.

Not: I want to fuck you. Not: I am going to make love to you.

There was no question about it. Fucking was going to happen.

Shining's nostrils flared, because his mouth was too occupied to gasp hungrily for him. Mac's broad face was pressed hard against it, trying to wordlessly convey the huge stallion's overwhelming appreciation and desire. The low sound he made into the kiss was not a moan but a very deep and masculine growl, speaking words directly to the back of Shiny's brain in the same way Cadence's humms and murmurs did.

Yes.

Good.

More.

Mac looped a hoof under one of Shining's and rolled, pulling the unicorn over on top of him. Their kiss broke and they both took huge gulps of air, burying their muzzles into each other's necks. Shining shuddered as the stink of hard labor, the outdoors, and Mac’s...maleness overwhelmed him.

There was still something rational kicking thoughts around in his brain, and it was idly wondering why this was happening.

Mac was objectively pretty attractive, sure, but he was nothing like what Shining would have expressed a preference for before this. Usually he liked...well...pegasi. Slim, athletic, but wiry and powerful, with bright, dynamic personalities...and, well, a tendency to be a bit, er, androgynous, compared to unicorns or earth ponies.

Maybe that was cheating, a bit, now that he thought about it...

Meanwhile, Mac was huge. Not actually much taller or bulkier than Shining, but built differently such that he seemed gigantic. His chest was massive, his shoulders mountains. And he was strong. Not necessarily powerful—Shining had powerful muscles, for running and moving, even in heavy armor. Mac was just a machine. Shining was far from a desk jockey and he couldn't even begin to keep up with Mac out in the fields. That first day, he'd been humiliated to be so easily worn out, taking breaks with Apple Bloom while Applejack and Mac just plugged on.

The second day, he'd...watched. Gotten to know Mac a little better. Found out a few things he’d suspected but had the presence of mind not to just assume. Interesting things.

And Cadence had teased him relentlessly when he came back to Twilee’s library, because he was an open book to the love of his life.

And now the third day was drawing to a close, and Shining was nipping and biting at a neck that may as well have been iron. Mac was snorting and nickering in pleasure as Shining reveled in this...this...

Well, if Cadence was about as close to the flower of feminine beauty as one could conceivably get without being a parody of the whole thing...maybe it made sense that he wanted a pretty strong dose of the exact opposite. Variety being the spice of life, and all that.

And Mac was all stallion. There was no getting away from that.

Speaking of...

Shining raised himself up a bit so he could step one of his hindlegs over Mac's, staring down into the farmer's huge green eyes with what he hoped was unhidden desire. This was one of his favorite things, something he missed from his youthful adventures, something that the clever toys he and Cadence had enjoyed just couldn't give him.

He crushed Mac in a harsh, hungry kiss as he lowered his sheath and balls onto Mac's.

Shining couldn't help but shudder as his sensitive stallion bits began feeding him information about Mac's package. His balls were heavy and round and warm, so wonderfully hot that it bloomed between Shining's legs, making his powerful muscles feel faint, while at the same time filling him with a need to thrust and rub.

So he did—gently, at first, but Mac grunted in a way that unquestionably begged for more.

“I live to serve,” Shining Armor muttered, between heavy pants.

Mac rumbled pleasure, digging a hoof into Shining's shoulder, as the unicorn massaged their balls together, firmly but carefully, both stallions delighting in feeling the firm testicles in the smooth skin roll and slide across one another. The heat of their stallionhoods spread across their whole bodies, soothing aching muscles and calling them into action.

Their kisses grew harder and more ferocious, their thoughtless sexual murmurs growing more and more guttural. Before long, Shining felt his penis slipping out of the sheath. It was always nice—a drawn-out, gentle squeeze along his length—but now it was enhanced by how, pressed between two muscular bellies, it was sliding out side-by-side with Mac's.

He was out, all the way, and so was Mac; the two cocks danced between their owners, the slick, smooth skin rubbing and flowing, each seeming hotter than the fire burning in the stallions’ bellies.

One more kiss, and Shining laid down next to Mac, their stomachs facing so they could see each other.

“Hey there, li'l guy,” Mac murmured, before reaching out and gently touching Shining's cock with a hoof.

“Little?” Shining hissed, gasping as his penis jumped at the other stallion's touch. Years of communal locker rooms—among other things—gave him a pretty good idea that he was not small by any means; his mottled grey and white rod poked an appreciable way up his stomach, smearing the little gushes of lubricant it produced into his coat.

Mac gave him a wry look. “Oh, come on. Look at this,” he said, lifting a leg to give Shining a good view of the stiff pink cock rising from his generous ballsack. “Ah'd say you and Ah are about the same, right? Little bigger’n most, maybe? But everypony expects me to have a tree down there.”

Shining pushed his hips forward again, so that their lengths were laying side by side, almost touching.

Almost. It was deliciously unbearable.

“You might be a little thicker,” he conceded, heart fluttering in the same way it did when Cadence gave him that very slow, across-a-crowd, ‘I don’t want to be able to walk properly afterwards’ wink.

He couldn't contain the happy little grin spreading across his face, and Mac laughed. “Yeah, but so's the rest of me, so it looks smaller than it is, Ah guess. Well, right up until it's pokin' the poor colt in the butt, then it's suddenly the biggest thing he’s ever seen...”

“Yeah...”

Shining trailed off, staring at the penises. They were fascinating, suddenly—twitching, warm lengths usually hidden from sight. If he was honest, Shining had to admit that he was rarely this hard just swinging in the air like this, but just being this close to Mac was exciting. The other stallion was clearly pleased that his companion was so interested as well; from time to time he flexed his stomach so that his balls clenched up and his cock waved a little, some pre leaking from the broad head.

“Not somethin' you get to see a lot, Ah guess,” Mac said.

“No.”

After a long moment of fascination Shining felt, distantly, the warmth of Mac's head next to his own. “You want me to be a little rougher? You like gettin’ pushed around a bit? Or should we just keep doin' what we're doin'?”

Shining shook his head, blinking. “What? No, uh, sorry. Well, unless you want to....”

“Nah, not really,” Mac said, waving a hoof. “Ah don't like sayin' things in bed Ah wouldn't say otherwise, an' Ah'm not much for orderin' ponies about. That's your job, heh. It's just that you seemed like you might've been waiting for somethin'.”

“Sorry,” Shining said, with an embarrassed chuckle. “Can we—can we just touch each other? Just for a bit. Not something I get to do much, you know?”

“Suits me,” Mac murmured, a little glint in his eye suggesting he really enjoyed the fact that Shining was so fascinated by his equipment..

The thinking part of Shining's brain came up for air again, loudly wondering at what point “I cannot wait for this to be fucking me” became a thought that didn't warrant much analysis.

The rest of him answered: I was nineteen, staring at the item in the box, and Cadence was whispering everything she was going to do to me with it into my ear. That’s when.

Mac smiled, gently putting a hoof to Shining's sack and playing with the balls as the unicorn drew his own hoof up and down the farmer’s pink length, occasionally playing with the fluid leaking from his wide tip.

Lovely.

“That horn of yours works, right?” Mac rumbled.

Shining, panting hard as his arousal flared, just swallowed and nodded. For one reason or another, he had a lot of practice using magic while distracted—come dragonfire, wife, or warm, gently curving penis, he stood ready.

Mac reached his head out to plant a firm kiss on Shining's lips, then pointed vaguely with a hoof. “Over there...a little jar...we'll want that.”

After a moment to recompose himself, Shining found the glass jar and summoned it over. It floated over, lazily, as Mac planted some firm nips on Shining's shoulder. As it hovered between them, the wide cork popped out and the air was filled with a vaguely chemical but neutral smell.

“What is this stuff?” Shining asked, peering inside the jar. There was a pale-yellow, greasy jelly inside, and staring at it too long made his eyes water a bit.

“It's for my lips when I'm out workin' in the wintertime. Keeps 'em smooth and wet—” Mac stopped to make a few kisses in the air, before chuckling.

“Oh,” Shining said, nodding. “Feeling a little chapped after working all day?”

Mac cleared his throat. “N-no...but, uh, the zebra I get it from...she's a good friend of mine these days, and she made it clear that this stuff's good for keepin' things greased up. In general.”

The farmer glanced down at the pair of firm cocks waving in the warm air of late afternoon.

The horseshoe dropped for Shining.

“Oh, right,” he murmured, blushing as Mac chuckled at him.

He reached inside to take a hoof-full—

“Can you...” Mac began, in a quiet, shy tone of voice Shining was stunned to hear from the huge stallion. It occurred to him, suddenly, that having a red coat was an extremely good way to hide when you were blushing.

Or drunk, he supposed, but blushing was the thing at the moment.

“What?”

“Can you use, uh, your horn?” Mac asked, further surprising Shining by looking away a little bashfully. “It's just, uh, well, not many unicorns this far south, but they...leave an impression. You know?”

Shining looked from the frankly adorable expression on Mac's face, to the jar, to the firm pink penis floating on a sea of red; and having done this, he asked himself if it would be pleasant to use the extremely sensitive and deeply personal force of magic to rub lube all over every bare inch of it so that it could slide into his butt and fuck him good and hard.

Hmm.Tough one.

“Can I? Please?” Shining asked, looking up at Mac with a huge grin.

Mac just chuckled and rolled onto his back.

Eagerness didn’t begin to describe Shining's attitude at this point, but fair was fair. “I'm not Twilee, so—”

“Oh, thank heavens for that,” Mac exclaimed. “She'd be down there with a ruler and a sketchbook.”

“—so if I make a mess, I'm sorry. Fine control like this is more her thing,” Shining finished, feeling obligated to give Mac a stern look for this friendly swipe at his little sister despite the fact that he was probably right.

He closed his eyes and summoned magic to himself, savoring a last glimpse of Mac’s excited smile.

The lube was difficult for him to hold onto; it wasn't quite liquid or solid, both of which even foals could manipulate with only some difficulty. Twilee would probably know what to do, Shining admitted to himself, but the trouble with asking her about magic is she always wanted to know why you were asking...

Shining settled for sort of scooping out a generous dollop and quickly slapping it, wetly, onto Mac's waiting length. Then, biting his lower lip in eagerness, he began to gently push the jelly around with his magic, spreading a growing patch of lubrication along with the pinkish glow of his power.

He didn't hurry. He'd been on the receiving end of similar treatment himself, and he was happy to give Mac the same lovely experience of somepony slowly exploring his cock in preparation for sex. His reward for this was a slow and pleasant progression of Mac's breaths growing shallower and shallower, occasionally accompanied by a deep, wordless rumble of pleasure.

“Oh...yeah,” Mac hissed, a little shudder in his voice. “Tingles just right. Do you ever jerk off like this...?”

“I'm not quite that good. I'd probably end up crushing myself,” Shining said, laughing. “I'm a soldier. It's basically either holding or crushing with me.”

“You sweet-talker, you,” Mac murmured, although for all the mild sarcasm his cock twitched in a not-unhappy way. There are just some things stallions appreciate in each other.

More and more of Mac's penis fell into Shining's telekinetic control. He could feel its shape with his mind, its firmness, the subtle rush of the blood flowing through it in Mac's excitement. First Shining worked across the broad, flat surface of the shaft, then spread the lube around so that he could heft it, appreciate the weight of it, really hold it and feel how thick and powerful Mac's cock was.

His heart pounded. He could feel his ass clenching and unclenching. He wanted this wonderful thing in him. Now.

Shining opened an eye. Mac was laying on his back, grinning stupidly.

“So...you want to fuck me, or what?” Shining murmured, releasing Mac's cock from his control so that it thumped, audibly, against the stallion's broad belly.

Mac pursed his lips. “Oh, Ah dunno. Seems like a lot of work. Ah been out all day...”

“Oh, I see,” Shining said, reclining next to him.

Mac didn't know what he was getting into—Shining had been playing the You Need To Convince Me game against a born pro since he was seventeen.

He caught Mac's eye for a second, then let his eyes slide down to the shiny surface of the freshly-lubed penis.

“You know what I'm looking forward to the most? The...absolute most?” Shining whispered, shamelessly copycatting his wife, although in fairness, she was the best at this.

“What's that...?” Mac whispered, his breathing growing labored.

Shining snapped his gaze back up to Mac's eyes, smiling slightly. He let a hoof trail down Mac's side, slowly approaching the waiting penis.

“More than feeling this slide into me? All the way...?”

Mac said...something. It was four or five short words all happening at the same time, both trying to play along and express the waiting pleasure.

Shining leaned closer, and let his muzzle hang right in front of Mac's as he dragged his hoof lower.

“These guys,” he said, gently caressing Mac's balls.

“Oh yeah...?” Mac rasped. “Like 'em, do ya?”

“Mmmhmm.” Shining slowly massaged Mac's sack, staring the farmer straight in the eyes. “Big, warm, heavy balls, bouncing off my ass. I want to feel them slapping, Mac. Think about it. The only ponies who have been in my ass are an itty-bitty pegasus half my size and a mare. Not that they weren’t fun, but you can give me something they can't...and I want them, Mac. Bad. I want your big stallion balls pounding against my ass.”

Mac's mouth worked soundlessly.

“And more than anything, I'm looking forward to feeling them pressed up against my sack as they shoot your hot cum all the way into me.” Shining pulled the hoof away from Mac's balls and made a show of touching himself, as if he didn't know what he'd find. “Just thinking about it is making me hard...”

He had to admit, that one worked better for mares. Something about penises was slightly less subtle.

At that point Mac was blinking rapidly and drooling a little, so Shining decided to go that extra mile. He flicked his lower lip with his teeth, making a show of breathing heavily.

“How does that sound to you?” he whispered.

Mac stared at him for a minute.

“Okay, Ah can't do this anymore, you win,” the famer said, suddenly, throwing his hooves up in the air. “Damn. Damn! Damn!”

Shining started laughing, giggling uncontrollably as Mac stuttered out exclamations, trying to find something to say.

“No, no, you stop laughin' and get on your hooves,” Mac barked. “You got no right bein' that good at makin' a stallion want to fuck you. Damn! Ah am going to...Mmmmnh!”

Still chuckling, Shining rose to his hooves alongside Mac, who glared at him in a mix of lust and incredulity. The earth pony's cock twitched underneath him as he rose.

Shining took a few deep breaths to calm himself as Mac dipped a hoof in the lube. As Mac stepped behind him, Shining leaned forward a little and spread his hind legs, feeling a little flare of dirty arousal at the weight of his erect penis swinging beneath him as his asshole winked at the world.

“Now that's a view Ah could get used to,” Mac grunted, appreciatively. “Ah wasn't kiddin' when Ah said your flanks were distractin'...damn!”

“Years of standing around looking important at work,” Shining murmured, flexing his ass for Mac's enjoyment.

Mac grunted approvingly. “Y'all ready?”

“Mhmm.”

The first thing he felt was Mac's broad muzzle planting a long, slow kiss on his left cheek. Shining was about to say something snippy when he was treated to the feeling of Mac's hoof pressing against his hole, spreading the slimy lube.

“Ah! Yeah...” Shining moaned, not really trying to contain himself anymore. It was so satisfying to finally be touched, prepared for something he'd probably been craving for longer than he realized.

The hard edge of Mac's hoof probed Shining's butt for a while, pressing it open just enough to lube the inside a bit. Shining was breathing hard, now, reveling in feeling himself opened by somepony.

“Might help if you lean up against that stall door there,” Mac murmured, drawing a hoof along Shining's flanks.

Thoughtlessly, Shining obeyed. His cock throbbed underneath him as he felt Mac step forward and over him in a warm embrace. Mac let his greasy length slide between Shining's cheeks, grunting pleasure as Shining's hole flexed against the smooth skin of his stallionhood.

Mac leaned down and put his mouth near Shining's ear. His breath came in long, deep gasps, and the unicorn swore he could hear the thunder of Mac's massive heart beating a thunderstorm in his chest.

They stank of stallion. Both of them. They were starting to sweat and their cocks were out. They were filthy with a need to fuck, hard. Shining shuddered underneath Mac, taking huge draws of air in through his nose, feeling himself twitch.

“Wanna help me aim?” Mac whispered.

“Thought you’d never ask,” Shining rasped, and without any further ado, grabbed Mac's penis with magic. The earth pony grunted in delight as Shining carefully and agonizingly slowly drew the head of Mac's cock up his perineum and then, with a shudder of pleasure, placed it firmly against his asshole.

Mac snorted. “Ah was up late last night thinkin' 'bout this...”

“I hope I'm not disappointing you,” Shining managed. He flexed his butt so that his hole pressed against Mac's cock head, tongue lolling slightly as he felt himself begin to open.

“Y'all need to teach dream Shining Armor how to get fucked properly,” Mac grunted, and with that, he started pressing himself forward.

Shining gasped. The cock he'd been lovingly tending was finally pressing into him. He bore down a bit, focused his attention on relaxing, as Mac gently but firmly pushed forward, and felt his ass spread—

“There we go,” Mac hissed through a satisfied grin. “Get in there!”

Thick. Thick thick thick thick thickthickthickthickyesyesyes....

“More,” Shining almost barked.

Mac obliged. Shining closed his eyes and imagined the taut muscles of Mac's huge legs tightening as they pressed the thick firmness deeper and deeper into him. He shivered as the greasy length slid deeper and deeper, filling his ass.

“You doin' alright?” Mac grunted.

“All the way, Mac. Balls slapping. We talked about this...”

“Yes, your highness...”

More. Deeper.

Shining Armor's eyes rolled up in his head for a minute, as he felt a bit faint. Mac was heaving great long breaths above him, his forelegs flexing in time with the throbs of his cock as he pressed into the prince.

Finally:

Shining's balls were gently tapped by Mac's sack.

Mac paused, taking a few deep breaths. Shining matched him.

“You feelin' stretched out, or should I start slow?”

Shining tried to talk, but it was getting hard to concentrate. He squeezed the firmness inside him and almost melted.

“Ah, Mac...I needed this,” he managed, letting more of his weight rest against the wall.

“Oh yeah?”

Shining nodded. “Mmm. The smell. The warmth. Nothing else like it...”

Mac nickered softly. “You want it fuckin' you?”

“I've wanted it fucking me for about three hours now. Get to it, soldier.”

Mac planted a kiss on Shining's neck. “As you command, your majesty.”

He pulled back. Shining groaned as the pleasant fullness left him, only to hiss pleasure as it returned. Mac's thick cock slid into his ass as if it was made to be there, satisfying his hungry need utterly, filling his belly with a growing, warm pleasure.

Mac gave the unicorn a few more long, slow thrusts before pressing down on his shoulders a bit so that Mac could also lean against the door, both hooves pressed up above Shining's head.

“Oh, yes,” Shining hissed.

He was a pretty athletic pony, after all. He knew a pose that would let Mac use his powerful back and ass to thrust when he felt one...

“I'm not made of glass, Mac. Give it to me!”

Mac just sniffed hard and muttered, “Eeyup.”

The first stroke was powerful, a long draw out and a good hard thrust right back in. Shining felt the better part of Mac's length rubbing across his insides, the flaring tip of his head dragging along the whole way. As he drove in, Mac's thighs smacked against Shining's hard ass with a hollow clap, and the heavy weight of his balls tapped Shining right behind them.

Shining snorted, hard, eyes bulging. It was perfect. It was the perfect fuck-stroke.

He'd tried to explain it to Cadence but there was just something missing when she tried to do it. But that was fine. She was grace and gentleness and elegance incarnate; on the infrequent occasions she bent Shining over the bed and had at him, she lavished him with attention, varying her pace and rhythm to stimulate him in different ways. She was an expert painter, her husband's body her canvas, and she worked masterpieces on him just as he tried to do in return.

But this...

This was a thrust that screamed, “You are being fucked. Hard.”

Powerful. Commanding. Unashamed. Not rushed, but not timid. Confident without being painful or crushing.

Perfect.

And then Mac withdrew, and did it again.

Shining shuddered as Mac's legs smacked against his. The earth pony was grunting above him, panting, murmuring something about how perfect Shining's ass was.

And then Mac withdrew, and did it again.

And then Mac withdrew...

...and just didn't stop.

Ever.

Shining wanted to scream, or laugh, or weep. Mac even fucked like Mac. He was huge and powerful and straightforward and he never, ever got tired. Every thrust deep into Shining pressed him harder into the stall door, Mac's huge chest heaving above him as the farmer gave little bellows of effort.

It was awesome.

This is what he had been craving. Not just something fucking his ass, but a stallion fucking his ass. This stallion, his friend, fucking him, hard, and just not stopping, both of them thrilled to just...

Fuck.

His half-hard penis slapped against his leg as Mac thrust in again, a little splash of precum spilling onto the coat there. He never stayed hard when he was being fucked; that wasn't where the pleasure was. It was deep inside him, being rolled and massaged by the broad, heavy stallion expertly fucking him, a little fire being stoked by each stroke of Mac's powerful cock.

Shining gasped for air. “This...agh...”

“Ah...Ah don't know about you, but...” Mac rasped. “Ah'm getting' there...”

“Oh yeah?”

Mac's thrusting paused for a second. “Wait. Ah've heard that tone of voice bef—ahhh!”

Shining panted, closing his eyes to concentrate as he focused on the little ball of magic he'd just put into Mac’s butt. “You wanted to fuck a unicorn? You got it, Mac.”

Any time the huge stallion thrust, the little knot of power would roll over his prostate...a little trick Shining had learned as a much younger stallion that had stuck with him for one reason or another.

“Damned crazy unicorns,” Mac said, reflexively. He thrust forward, experimentally, and Shining smiled broadly as his lover shivered happily. “...maybe make it a little bigger...”

Shining obliged. “It's about as thick as me, now.”

Mac grunted appreciatively. “That's niiiiice. A little longer...”

A long tube of force filled Mac's ass now, a crude replica of the weight hanging beneath Shining.

Mac thrust forward again, hissing pleasure as he did so. Shining shuddered, too, as Mac's walls clenched around it, squeezing his concentration, feeding him a sense of Mac's pleasure. He could already feel the earth pony's penis growing thick from the additional stimulation, and he wasn't even moving hard yet.

“Ah'm warnin' you, this is going to make me cum...”

Shining looked over his shoulder. “That’s the idea.”

His reward for this was a fierce kiss on the lips, and Mac thrusting forward, hard.

Mac was in the last stages now. He was so close even Shining could feel his muscles twitching, gathering up to spasm. Mac’s ass squeezed hard around Shining's magic as each of his powerful strokes clapped into the unicorn's butt.

He was rock hard. Shining could not believe how satisfying it was to make another stallion that horny.

No wonder Cadence was always teasing him...

Dust was falling from the rafters, and the door they were leaning against creaked loudly. Mac wasn't just thrusting anymore, he was trying to drive himself as deep into Shining as he could. His grunts and breaths grew shorter and shorter, and Shining moaned as he felt the thick cock inside him twitching against his walls.

“Talk to me,” Mac snarled.

“What?”

“Tell me to cum, Shining. Like you were doing...”

Shining blinked, startled. The magic fell away, but Mac didn't seem to notice. He was right on the edge, and he wanted to be teased over it.

The unicorn braced himself against the door, grunting as Mac somehow managed to fuck harder.

“Come on, Mac,” he hissed. “Give it to me. Slap those balls against my ass and fuck me until you cum. I want you to fill me up. Show me why I’ve needed a stallion—”

Mac roared, and drove his hips forward.

The stall door's ancient hinges snapped, and the two stallions fell forward with it. Shining yelped in mixed surprise and pleasure as the door slammed against the barn's floor, which seemed to drive Mac right over the edge. The earth pony's thick cock spasmed inside him—once, twice, three times, and Shining felt hot cum filling him. Mac's balls were pressed right up against Shining's, twitching in time with his spurts, blazing with internal heat as they pumped Shining full of Mac’s sex.

“Damn. Damn!” Mac grunted, shaking himself.

“I'm fine, since you ask,” Shining smarmed, pinned beneath him. They were half-laying, half-standing on the door, Mac's penis still buried to the hilt in Shining's butt.

Mac kissed his back. “'Course you're fine. Ah was just puttin' the spurs to you...”

They stopped making fun of each other for a moment so that Mac could enjoy the last few aftershocks of his orgasm before gently pulling his way out of Shining. His cock came out slick with lube and stallion's pleasure, shining brightly in the sunlight and reeking of sex.

Shining let himself fall over.

He hadn't even cum and he was exhausted. Getting fucked was a lot of work, it turned out. And of course his asshole was sore, too, although in that really pleasant way muscles have of reminding you of the fun things that made them sore in the first place. He clenched his cheeks together a bit and shivered a bit as he felt the wonderful feeling of wetness there, lube and a little warm stallion cum mixing together where he'd been well and proper fucked.

Mac was sitting up, taking a few slow, deep breaths. “Ah have not fucked like that in a long time, Ah gotta say...”

“Oh?”

“Ah told you before, Ah'm always gettin' the nervous first timers,” he muttered, before grinning at Shining. “Felt good to have a real stallion there takin' it as hard as Ah can give it...”

He trailed off, looking around.

Shining raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Mac frowned at him. “Y'all didn't cum?”

“Uh...well, no—” Shining began, starting to get to his hooves.

Mac smiled. “Then we ain't quite done, are we?”

A hoof pressed an unresisting Shining back down again, firmly, but gently, and invited him to roll onto his back. The two stallions both looked down at Shining's penis. It was standing quickly to attention, pleased to hear it wasn't going to be left out of the proceedings.

Shining planted a kiss on Mac's nose. “It won't take too much.”

Mac grinned, and scooted down between Shining's outstretched legs as the unicorn’s cock visibly hardened as it was made center stage. Mac gently caressed its length before looking up at Shining, grinning a little lopsidedly.

“Can Ah be really gay at you for a minute?” Mac asked, chuckling.

Shining clenched his sore butt so that the nice thick load of cum would stop trying to leak out. “I suppose we ought to start at some point,” he said.

Mac grinned and nodded to Shining's penis. “You have a gorgeous cock, Shining Armor. Seriously. It is a real pleasure to, er...see to your Lordship’s lordship, heh. I think I see why Rarity’s always on about princes now...”

With that, he lowered his head to Shining's penis and gave it a long, preliminary lick up the shaft, just to say hello.

Shining's stomach clenched, and an involuntary little breath escaped his lips.

“Ah mean, look at this,” Mac murmured, lips pressed against the smooth skin of Shining’s penis. “It's just right. Matches your coat. Big without bein' too big...”

Mac leaned over Shining more, kissing and lapping his way from the hilt of the unicorn's penis to the head.

“Flares out all nice...”

Shining's breathing came fast and hard as Mac teased his tongue around the edge of the unicorn's cockhead before letting it wander across the surface to poke at the hole.

And then it stopped.

“What—” Shining started, and realized he'd been lying back with his eyes closed, focused on Mac's attentions.

Mac looked down at him thoughtfully. “Somethin's been naggin' at me this whole time,” he said, a slow grin blooming across his face. “And now Ah reckon Ah figured it out.”

“What's that?” Shining asked.

Mac just winked, and lowered his head again to plant a firm kiss on Shining's balls.

Shining grunted desperately, fighting an urge to sit up suddenly.

“Heh. Thought so,” Mac chuckled. “Everypony’s got their thing. Couldn’t shut up about ‘em...”

Shining didn't hear the rest of what he said for a little while. It was all variations on a theme of how round and full Shining's package was, and how his cock twitched nicely when Mac did this or that.

Didn't matter.

A tongue—a wonderful, firm, warm tongue danced across the taut skin of his sack, lapping at his testicles, rolling them around in their bag. Shining hissed out a series of desperate groans as he was expertly teased to the edge by a mouth that had nothing but careful and experienced affection for his most sensitive area. Kisses and gentle nuzzles surged pleasure through him, making his muscles twitch and clench, teasing his aching asshole to clench tight and produce the best “good hurt” he'd ever experienced.

“Mac,” he grunted, after an indefinable amount of time. “Mac, I need to cum. I need to cum, oh...”

The pressure on his equipment lifted, but the need to cum did not. He sensed Mac repositioning himself.

“You mind if I...?”

Shining opened his eyes. Mac gestured towards Shining's twitching cock with his head, mouth open.

Arousal surged in Shining, and he let out a sigh that screamed desire. “It's gonna be big...”

Mac grinned. “Good.”

He lowered his head to Shining's cock again, kissing and licking it with the same loving attention as before. The unicorn lay back again, moaning and quivering as well as his aching body could manage. The heavy pressure of his growing orgasm

“You close, your highness?” Mac muttered, with a grin.

Shining growled. “Oh, yes.”

Mac drew a long lick up Shining's shaft. “Mmm. You're gorgeous down here,” he repeated. “But Ah bet it’s twice as nice when you’re blowin’...”

Then he lowered his lips and kissed Shining on the sack.

He barely made it in time. His tongue slithered down Shining's shaft and lips closed over the unicorn's head just as the first hard spurt of cum fired. Shining grunted as his hyper-stimulated body clenched around a powerful orgasm, firing load after load into Mac's throat.

Heavens above, he'd needed this.

Mac let Shining finish twitching between his lips before letting go. The unicorn's softening penis slapped down onto his belly, splattering the very last little bit of cum into his coat.

With practiced ease, the earth pony threw his head back and took one very long swallow.

“Nice,” Shining said, between pants.

The earth pony appeared not to have noticed this; he just stared up at the barn roof with a bit of a grin for a long moment.

Then he turned to Shining and gave him a bright smile. “How long did y'all say you were stayin', again...?”

They laughed, and Mac helped pull Shining up to his hooves again. Neither missed the opportunity to give the other a long look-over—sweaty, panting, patches of sex all over each other...

“Damn, you look good,” Mac muttered. “Damn, damn, damn. Almost makes a fella wish he'd grow wings and a horn.”

“Don't you think things are going to be bad enough with my sister running around like that?” Shining asked, in all seriousness. “I love her, and all, but...”

Mac just grunted agreement, with a glum sort of look.

The two trotted back out into the yard, closing the stricken barn behind them, and Mac motioned for them to head back out to the pond. They walked side-by-side along the worn path through the orchard in silence for a time, both moving a little awkwardly, occasionally chuckling or passing a grin between them.

“You know, speaking of that...and the stories about the barracks...”

Mac gave Shining's vague grin a curious look. “Hmmm?”

“Well, it's just that with my sister the way she is now, Princess Luna is thinking about setting up a Night Guard outpost here in Ponyville,” Shining said, offhoofedly. Just passing along gossip, nothing important. “I told her it might be a little bit of a stretch...I know things get a little weird down here sometimes, but most of it is stuff the Guards aren't really for.”

“Suppose you're right about that, sure.”

Shining shrugged. “So we'd just have a lot of young mares and stallions standing around with a whole lot of nothing to do most of the time, you know? Well I say mares and stallions, but the Guard is probably the only profession in Equestria where there's more stallions than mares, of course.”

They wandered on in silence for awhile, the orchestra of early evening kicking up around them. Crickets chirruped, frogs croaked, and Mac hummed thoughtfully under his breath with a little grin on his face.

“Sounds awful,” he said, eventually, smiling at nothing in particular.

Shining nodded. “Oh, a disciplinary nightmare in the making. There's always problems with fraternization in rural posts like this, for example. But the more I think about it, the more I'm concerned for Twilee's safety, so it might have to happen.”

Mac cleared his throat. “Well, Ah suppose we'll have to hope the mares of Ponyville will be able to contain themselves somehow...”

“Suppose so.”

They walked on for a while.

“So...this guard outpost...”

Shining looked up at Mac, who was grinning down at him. “Yeah?”

“Think they'll need apples?”

They laughed, and wandered into the rest of the evening.

~ <3 ~

“...and having met him, I think Macintosh's a tough enough stallion to keep Shiny out of our manes for a good long while, don't you think?” Cadence finished, sipping her coffee again.

Twilight peered at her suspiciously.

Cadence gave her a slight smile. “There's always something more to do on a farm.”

“I suppose,” Twilight said, relaxing slightly.

This would all be so much easier, Cadence privately growled, if she had any idea what to say. She'd been kicking herself ever since she arrived and realized she'd expected Twilight to just gush at her in excitement, instead of doing what Cadence ought to have known would happen and be really frightened, worried she was doing or saying the wrong thing.

What does it mean to be an alicorn?

The stupid answer is that it meant being yourself. The question was more or less the same as anypony asking, “who am I, and what am I doing here?” The same as any colt or filly wondering what their cutie mark was going to be.

It's just that now...who you were was more obviously something...special. A calling, as much as an expression.

For Cadence, being an alicorn meant wandering through life, always sensing things that others seemed to miss. When Auntie Celestia had first sat her down and explained that not everypony could just get attachments and relationships the way the little pink filly in front of her could, it had come as a bit of a shock.

It was all just so obvious to her. When she tried to explain it to ponies, they seemed to assume it was literally and openly magical—that she see these bonds with her eyes, like little red strings tied between ponies. And maybe it was a little magical, but most of it was just...knowing. The way that Oma Luna knew how to keep the moon in balance with the sun.

It was just...there. Part of who she was.

Take Shining's little adventure, for example.

Cadence was so happy to see Shining and Mac just get along immediately at the little welcome party Twilight and her friends had put on. She didn't need magic to see them getting along; they had gravitated together as the only two stallions and bonded in self-defense as much as anything. Shining didn't have a lot of opportunity to make friends these days—well, honestly, he'd started having trouble when he was named Captain of the Guard, and it had just gotten worse. He took his duties seriously, and sometimes that meant being a little remote from the ponies around him. It killed him sometimes, but he did it.

But he wasn't a prince consort here. Even Cadence didn't feel like a princess in Ponyville...something about the place just made you want to relax and not pay attention to silly things like rank and title. And so, he'd happily agreed to help out at Sweet Apple Acres, and Mac was glad to have him around.

The rest of it, well...

If she was pressed—as rude ponies too often did—she would sometimes struggle to give specific evidence of this particular bond or that one. She just knew. This stuff was obvious to her.

Insight, Auntie called it.

Cadence sipped the cafe au lait again, snorting irritably. It was obvious!

Why not let them have their fun?

It was almost like a toothache. She could tell! She could read them like books. They had immediately become close friends, and both were in a bit of a mood. They wanted to wind themselves up on testosterone and really enjoy the stallionhood of each other for a little bit.

That's allowed!

Well, it was allowed because she agreed that it was allowed.

...although in this case it hadn’t been so much agreement as gleefully teasing a pair of nervous stallions almost twice her size, and then telling them to have fun while she tried to prepare the world for Princess Twilight.

Shining Armor had been her best friend since they were little. It felt like they knew each other as well as it was possible to, sometimes. They'd been partners in mischief since forever, they'd cried together, laughed together, been through life and struggle and hardship together for decades now. Getting married had just seemed like making it clear to everyone else; it wasn’t something they did for themselves.

And because they'd been best friends growing up, sex had been a part of that friendship. They'd experimented together, played together, and explored themselves together. In the process, Cadence had come to a very important understanding about sex: it was something like a language. A way of communicating things that had as much to do with flesh as with thought.

With care, it could be used to say wonderful things.

I want you. Or: You're mine. Or: I'm yours. Or: I want you to feel good. Or: Let's have fun together. Or: I missed you so much. Or: I've wanted this so badly. Or: You're not alone. Or: I want to make a little foal with you—we'll be a family.

Or at its most simple and profound: I love you.

Sex was a powerful language, one that could say these things with more eloquence and meaning than words ever could. The shame was that with all its power over ponies, sex could be used to say hurtful things as well.

I'm ashamed of this. Or: Whatever will keep you happy. Or: I don't really care about the commitments I made to him/her, it's you I want.

Or the very worst: You can't stop me from doing this to you.

It was a language she intended to speak as fluently as possible. She was still learning, of course, but even with her limited skill in the here and now, she could very clearly hear what Shining and Mac wanted to say to each other:

I need a stallion right now, and that stallion is you, my friend. Let's have some fun like only stallions can.

And that was all.

It was something worth saying.

Cadence sighed. She really was very lucky to have Shining; only he, with his openness and patience and complete trust in her, could have helped her come to this understanding...not that he wasn’t getting something out of it himself, of course.

She'd be lying if she said she was totally devoid of any jealousy, but if she was honest most of that was because it irked her that there was something her Shiny wanted which she couldn't give him because of a quirk of physiology. But on the whole, she could handle this. It wasn’t like he hadn’t indulged her in a few fixations over the years. A few good ruts and he’d be satisfied.

...it also didn't hurt that she and Shining knew a few tricks to re-live these little moments from time to time if it suited them. Mac had found that rather funny, when she'd asked if he minded.

In fact—

“Princess?”

In fact—

“Cadence!”

“Hmm? Oh, I'm...I'm so sorry,” Cadence murmured, blinking and shaking her head. “I got lost there, for a moment.”

Twilight smirked. “Yeah, I noticed.”

Cadence nodded and gave Twilight a distant smile, accepting this little barb as she mulled over her thoughts again.

“If you still have sweaty daydreams about my brother even after marrying him—”

“Sometimes,” Cadence said, catching Twilight in a suggestive grin.

On cue, the younger alicorn performed the Ritual of Cadence is Dating My Brother: she stuck out her tongue and gagged, rolling her eyes.

Cadence politely ignored this, completing the familiar ritual. “But not right now, no. Actually I was trying to sort out what to say. Got a bit lost on the way.”

Twilight's ears pricked up. “About Shining? Or about, uh...” She fluffed her wings with awkward care—apparently unconscious of the fact that she'd been thoughtlessly flexing and relaxing them anxiously as Cadence's silence had drawn on.

“Yes, about uh,” Cadence said. She gave her sister-in-law a little smile and scooted over next to her so they could commiserate, heads bowed. “I think I've got something, though.”

Twilight looked to her, nervousness shining in her eyes. She might as well have been seven years old again, looking up at Cadence and admitting she'd broken something.

Cadence paused. So much had changed for Twilight, and so little...

But there you were.

“Twilight, you've known me for a very long time,” Cadence began. “I mean, you remember when I was younger, I...I made so many mistakes. Auntie used to get pretty sharp with me, at least for her, because some of the things I can do are a little dangerous...”

“The mind stuff,” Twilight said, nodding.

Cadence gave her favorite filly a sharp eyebrow raise. “Yeah, I got an earful about your little ‘accident’ a few years back. Want-it-Need-it, I take it...?”

Twilight flushed and looked away irritably.

“So you know what I mean,” Cadence continued, more gently. “But the thing that's been hardest has been trying to understand why I'm like this. Why I'm different, why I have these powers. For a long time, I hated them. It was too much, that I had been given for no real reason; I never asked to be like this. Shining used to have to listen to me whine about it all the time, believe me...”

Cadence put a hoof on the table, and Twilight automatically put one of her own on top of it.

It was a familiar sign of affection. Everything's okay; Cadence is here, and we'll talk it out.

Just like when Twilight was young.

Almost.

“They're the same size now...” Twilight murmured, fascinated. “I really...am...”

“Mmhmm.” Cadence gave the troubled young mare a bright smile. “So now you get to have all that fun I did. Isn't that nice...?”

Twilight groaned, leaning her head on Cadence's shoulder. “I'm beginning to regret casting that spell...”

“Only beginning?”

“It seemed pretty fun, at first,” Twilight admitted. “But now I've been rethinking that a little.”

Cadence chuckled. “Ah, well...”

They sat like that for a long time, saying nothing. The evening sun began to fall behind the horizon.

“So...why do you have your powers, then?” Twilight asked, suddenly.

“Hmm?”

“You were saying you wondered why you, uh...are the way you are. I sort of assumed you had an answer, or you wouldn't have said anything.” Twi lifted her head and gave Cadence a wry grin. “What, did you, I don't know...have some big, magical revelation about how you're here to spread love and compassion and that sort of thing? A bright light shone from the sky and said, 'make these ponies understand each other and make out and stuff and also be gross with Twilight Sparkle's brother while she's trying to study'?”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Cadence said, frowning. She understood Twilight took refuge in sarcasm, but she was trying to have a moment here and it didn’t help the mood for Twilight to tease her for her stellar track record of fostering relationships. She was rather proud of it.

Cadence closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before fixing Twilight with a bright, loving smile.

“I just came to realize that it doesn’t really matter why I have them...I just do. So I decided to do my best to use them to help other ponies,” she said. “And I haven't regretted it since. Well, mostly, anyways.”

Twilight blinked. “That's it?”

“That's it. Just like Auntie uses her powers to protect her little ponies, and Oma Luna uses hers to help ponies confront their nightmares,” Cadence said, still smiling. “I'm still learning, of course, but I can try to help ponies connect and understand each other, wherever I go. So...I do. Simple as that.”

The two sat in silence for a long while. Twilight was staring up at her, as if unsure whether to laugh or be in awe.

It was actually a little creepy.

Cadence frowned. “What?”

“It's just—for a second—” Twilight began, shaking her head. “You just reminded me of...um...”

“Of Auntie Celestia?” Cadence asked, legitimately flattered.

Twilight grinned bashfully, and gave a little nod.

“Maybe I am figuring some things out, then,” Cadence said, pursing her lips.

A few more thoughts occurred in rapid succession.

“And...maybe one of those things is that you were sort of hoping you'd be having this chat with her, not me,” Cadence continued, carefully, raising a curious eyebrow at Twilight.

The younger alicorn squirmed in place. “Um...it's not so much hoped, really. And I'm really happy you're here, but I...just...I sort of assumed she'd want to talk to me about this stuff. I was sort of surprised she asked you here all the way from the Crystal Empire.”

“It was a bit of a surprise to me, too, truth be told,” Cadence murmured.

She'd never tell Twilight this, but it hadn't exactly been a convenient time and Auntie was certainly aware of that. But Twilight took precedence over everything else, for both practical and sentimental reasons.

Still...

Cadence thought back to the conversations with her aunt about this little visit, which were short on instructions and long on Celestia fretting. Cadence had been shocked to find the generally temperate Princess of the Sun pacing anxiously as she discussed Twilight's need to be gently transitioned into this new part of her life.

“I don't think I can do it in a way that would create the right...environment, Cadenza,” she'd said, very obviously forcing a smile. “Twilight will be with us for a long time, and now that she's got her own wings—”

“—it's time for her to get out from under mine,” Cadence murmured.

“She said that?” Twilight exclaimed, clapping her forehooves together in delight. Her wings flared a bit, too, and the sudden shift in weight made her tumble awkwardly off the bench, yelping in distress.

Cadence barely noticed.

For all that Twilight was acting very foalish now, she was a grown mare. Very mature for her age. And in a few decades’ time, when she had herself all figured out, well...Cadence was looking forward to knowing that alicorn, when the time came. She'd always known her little Twilee would go a long way in the world...

Twilight was pretty focused on the implied praise and hopes Celestia had expressed, but Cadence's attention was drawn elsewhere. Twilight was closer to Celestia than anypony, except maybe Oma Luna. Why go to the trouble of calling Cadence down from the Empire to be Twilight's teacher and guide, with all the inconvenience that created, when she could easily take care of this herself? And indeed, always had, before n—

Cadence's eyes snapped to Twilight, who was composing herself next to the table.

Her brand new, broad purple wings spread wide, graceful and flowing while her attention was elsewhere...

They were rather flattering, weren't they.

Click, click, click went the little pieces.

Twilight had a lot of growing to do in the next...oh, call it a half-century. And it seemed Celestia didn't want her to grow into an alicorn who thought of Her Royal Highness first and foremost as a teacher or mentor anymore. That was for when she was a foal and a young mare.

It was different now—no, no, that wasn’t quite it.

It could be different now.

Let Cadence step in and be the big sister she's always been. Let Twilight spread her wings and fly, as high as she could go...

Maybe even high enough to touch the sun, on its lonely vigil over the world.

Cadence's lips spread into a smug little smile.

If Auntie Celestia could be said to have a flaw, it was that she was far too used to being the only alicorn running around Equestria. Now there were at least four, and she still hadn't quite adjusted. She forgot, from time to time, that Cadence had some insight into how ponies treated alicorns, and thus was not cowed by Auntie's air of divinity quite as much as others.

She didn't assume Auntie always meant exactly what she was saying, for example. That mare was far, far too used to everypony taking everything she said at face value...

And despite being the one to guide and mentor Cadence herself, Auntie sometimes underestimated the Princess Mi Amore Cadenza because she was still...how did she put it? “A little young, yet.”

Well, well. We’ll see about that...

Having composed herself to her satisfaction, Twilight turned, looking concerned. “Cadence...are you alright?”

“Oh...fine, fine...” Cadence murmured, eyeing Twilight speculatively.

Words and phrases and images swirled in her mind, as the future became so, so clear.

It was just...obvious, to her.

Seeing the connections between ponies was her gift. Bringing them together, especially when it promised not only massive entertainment value but a lot of good for them in the future, was a sincere pleasure.

She was Mi Amore Cadenza, the Princess of Love...and she was damn good at it, too.

Cadence turned to Twilight, smiling.

“Tell you what, Twilight. We'll figure you out, I promise,” she said, proudly. “Because once an alicorn has a grip on herself, every day finds a way to be so very, very interesting...”

~ la fin ~