Xenophilia: It's a Herd Life

Chapters

Date Night
Elements of Love Page 69
Movin' on up
Elements of Love Page 214
Persuasion
Generous Forgiveness
Elements of Love Page 333
The Last Supper
Elements of Love Page 100
At The Gala
Elements of Love page 123

Date Night

Cinnamon Swift didn’t fly often, but when she did, she certainly enjoyed it. It wasn’t that she was a bad flyer, or some nonsense like being afraid of heights—whoever heard of a pegasus who was afraid of heights, anyway? Rather, she didn’t fly very often because more often than not, her thoughts would drift in certain directions. Certain directions that really, really weren’t her fault!

Still, it was nearly impossible to fly when your wings stiffened up like boards.

After the fifth time she had crashed headfirst into the ground or cloud surface, Cinny had decided it was probably safer just to walk places. If Unicorns and Earth Ponies could do it, well, it was good enough for her! At least, that’s what she kept telling herself like a unicorn trying to cast a verbal spell.

Today, however, was special. Today, however, was a good day, and if her luck held, it was going to be a good, good night. A great night even! Hopefully she wouldn’t jinx it.

First, it was a super hot summer day, perfect flying weather for someone whose wings couldn’t always be called upon to remain totally flexible. Secondly, Canterlot University had finally coughed up the cash they were supposed to pay her for running their stupid cloud-based telescope. Which was good, because it meant the landlady wasn’t going to be giving her (as much of) the evil eye now that she could pay her rent.

But it was the third and fourth reasons on her List of Things To Be Excited About, that really made the day great; her novel was going to be published!

Cinnamon had received the news in the mail just that morning, along with her check from the University, and she couldn’t be happier. She had been trying to break into the publishing market for years now, ever since she had moved out of her parents' herd’s place and started living on her own—it made keeping the drafts secret easier, which was important because her parents weren’t exactly thrilled that she wrote erotic fiction. On more than one occasion, they had taken her work and burned it and everything! Burned it! The nerve!

It wasn’t her fault that erotica appealed to her so. Ever since she had started puberty, she had been more than a little bit interested in such things. She had always enjoyed writing and reading, of course, but once the hormones started flowing, she found herself pouring them into her works.

Unfortunately, the preoccupation meant that sometimes—

Cinny grimaced as her wings started to stiffen, and after a moment’s thought she managed to relax the muscles holding her airborne before she ended up planting herself in the Canterlot pavement. Perhaps flying wasn’t the best idea today after all. Especially not since she couldn't help but think about the fourth and final reason on her List; she had a hot date tonight.

If it wasn’t obvious, Cinny liked sex. 'Like' was probably an understatement, but that was more or less the truth. If anything, she didn’t get enough of it; but finding said sex wasn’t always easy. Most of her fellow classmates were either not interested in long term relationships, or they were already in herds that weren’t interested in accepting another member.

Originally, she had gone to Commander Hurricane’s University in Cloudsdale, but after her second year and eighth time accidently seriously injuring herself flying—it really shouldn’t be legal for those Hoofball players to wear such tight uniforms—she had decided it’d be way more safer at a University that didn’t expect them to fly everywhere. But by then most of her same year students had already paired up, leaving Cinnamon high and dry.

Or wet, she supposed.

That was neither here nor there. Cinnamon shook her head to get those thoughts back into their respective cubbies as she landed so she could focus on the task at hoof; getting a bloody flower.

Very few students bothered with that particular tradition, even if they’d pick it up later in life—Cinny certainly planned to do so, just like she had most certainly—and not at all let it slip her mind—to pick up a bunch of them for tonight. Among other important things, like a nice… hat. Or something.

Canterlot was a big city, and the flower district was just as big, taking up nearly four city blocks on the city’s west end. It was like stepping into huge meadow, and wherever Cinny turned and looked, there was more and more flowers.

A good chunk of the merchants sold flowers to eat—you could eat almost any of them, naturally—but some species were particularly tasty, especially when dipped in chocolate or spiced just so. However, those weren’t the type of flowers Cinnamon was looking for.

No, what she sought was going to be a lot more frustrating to find; a courtship flower. The flower had to match her coat almost perfectly, and she needed one for each member of her date’s herd, even if they wouldn’t be there.

Impressing stallions really wasn’t something she was used to doing, but really, it was his boss mare that needed impressing more than he did. Lucent was a much older, very handsome and sexy stallion, but he was also very easy going.

Star Sparkle, on the other hoof, wasn’t. Cinnamon suppressed a shiver of fear. She hadn’t taken any classes with her directly, but all her friends that did considered her to be one of the worst professors ever; she was oddly strict and apparently very abrasive. Once, it was rumoured, she made her teaching assistant gallop out of the room in tears.

Why Lucent would be caught up in the web of such a bitch, Cinny hadn’t a clue—she was totally floored when he mentioned her—not merely as a mare in his herd, but lead mare—when she had asked him out. She had known he was in a herd, of course, most stallions his age were, and normally she wouldn’t have even bothered if he hadn’t expressed such an interest in her.

This, she was sure, had nothing at all to do with the fact that she might have submitted a draft of one of her erotic novelles in place of a research paper one week. That… probably had nothing to do with it.

Still got her an A though.

Regardless, she had to find a bouquet of flowers that matched her coat, and within a few moments of searching, Cinny could tell it wasn’t going to be easy to do. While the ‘flowers for dating’ made up a significant portion of the Flower District, most of them were unfortunately geared towards Unicorns—typically cooler colours like paler blues and whites. Not only were there lots and lots of those flowers, there was also lots and lots of empty slots in the merchant’s charts and bins showing where flowers used to be—flowers she wouldn’t be surprised to find out matched her coat.

“Can I help you with something?”

Cinny nearly tripped over her own hooves as she spun around to face her speaker; an elderly looking unicorn stallion; old enough that his mane was as white as his coat; he smiled slightly as she flared her wings to keep from falling over, before taking his glasses off and wiping them on her apron. “I may be old, but I can tell a filly in a panic when I see one.” His smile got a bit wider. “Especially one who’s passed my booth three times already.”

Her first thought was; oh crap. Clearly she had already seen what there was to see, and her second thought was; maybe this pony could help her.

“Oh, er. Well, I’m looking for a… you know…” Cinnamon let her voice trail off as she stared at the stallion. He stared back and after a second she gestured vaguely to herself. “Colour same dating. I mean a flower that’s the same as—”

“Your coat, yes,” suddenly the Stallion’s smile was gone, replaced with what Cinny could only describe as ‘all business’. “Let’s see what we’ve got in stock.”

Checking the stock involved Cinny standing still while the flower merchant, whose name turned out to be Colourful Meadow, held up flowers one by one against her coat, checking to see how they’d match. They didn’t, not really. It didn’t help that her fur was a rather dull looking brown, so light that it was almost white, but not white enough that she could use white flowers. What a pain.

Naturally, it was also really boring—and more importantly—it meant her mind was free to wander. It wasn’t long before she started to recall a rather erotic scene from a Daring Do fanfic where she was enslaved and sold in a market by her luscious stallion captors; the feeling of being measured and weighted certainly seemed to same… which led to her wings stiffening and popping out from her flanks.

If Colourful Meadow noticed, he didn’t say anything, and after some relaxing thoughts about arc seconds, she was able to refold her wings against her side, just in time for the flower merchant to sigh dramatically.

“I’m afraid we don’t have anything that matches your coat in stock, Madame.”

“W-what?” Cinny hadn’t even considered that she might not be able to get the flowers—and she needed them too! They were very not optional! “I need them!”

“Well, there’s always a dye job—”

“Yes! Yes do that!” Cinnamon interrupted, bouncing from one hoof to another. If Coloured Meadows had heard her, he didn’t show any sign.

“But of course it’s substandard, in my opinion, you’d be better of waiting for a new shipment to come in. Or I could place a special order for you.”

“No time!” She protested, leaning in towards the stallion’s nose so he couldn’t ignore her. “Do the dye job! Do the dye job!”

“Okay okay, calm down,” the flower merchant said. He said other things too, but Cinny was too busy checking the nearest clock; one of the good things about living in Canterlot was that there were all kinds of clocks around; less good was the fact that her date time was rapidly approaching.

“… of course, it won’t be—Miss, where are you going? I can’t make up a dye without something to model it after!”

Cinny paused, freezing before she could break out into a full gallop over to the clothing district to get something worth wearing. But Colourful Meadows was right… after a second’s thought, she twisted and pulled one of her feathers out of her wing. It hurt like hell since she wasn’t moulting, but she ignored the pain and passed it to the stallion.

“Use this! I’ll be back soon!”

In the end, she was disappointed.

Not only were the flowers not really the right colour, she also paid through the nose for them.

By the time she returned from the clothing district with a new hat, which at least was nice looking she thought, all rainbowy and what not, she was very nearly late. She barely had time to grab the bundle of flowers and pay for them before galloping halfway across town to where Lucent lived. After all, she had to pick him up, if they were going on a date… him and his herdmates.

Finding the place was both harder than she had originally imagined; Cinny only had a vague sense of where Lucent lived, although she did have his address. However, it turned out Lucent lived in what could only be described as the fanciest district in Canterlot, where all the rich ponies lived. Cinnamon had known he was well off, but not this well off!

Regardless, she finally found the place with a few minutes to spare, just enough time to let her heart rate go down and for her to catch her breath. Of course, as soon as she knocked and no pony answered right away, her heart rate shot through the roof again and she found herself suddenly without a good breath in her lungs.

Then the door opened; it wasn’t Lucent, but it also wasn’t one of his mares either. She was dressed in what Cinny had really only seen in soft-core porn mags; a maid costume. For once, though, her body was too nervous to react at all, even when the mare gave her a cute little smile.

“Madamé Cinnamon Swift?” Cinny felt her throat close up. Oh my gosh she even has a Pranch accent. That’s so sexy! “You’re early. I’m afraid His Grace is not yet ready to receive you.”

“His what?” Cinny’s brain had decided, at this moment, to take a vacation to the South Seas.

“His Grace,” The Maid repeated, slowly but surely adopting an expression of ‘who the fuck is this mare’. “Duke de Smaragdvea.”

“Oh, er,” Cinnamon shrugged, “perhaps I’ve got the wrong place, I’m looking for a stallion named Lucent? Maybe he’s your neighbour?”

The Maid’s face was full on scowl now. “Yes, that is what those close to him call His Grace.” From her tone, Cinny got the feeling the Maid didn’t think she ought to be using that name when talking about him.

Also: he’s a Duke? Sweet Celestia’s rear! She thought those only existed in novels! Wait… Cinnamon’s brain froze up even more. Am I about to go on a date with a Duke? And his herd? Suddenly her colourful hat and poorly dyed flowers didn’t seem quite so acceptable.

“If you would please step inside? His Grace and his herd will be joining you soon.” The Maid’s voice, as sexy as it was, brooked no argument—not that Cinny had much of a chance or brain to formulate one.

The Maid hurried off to do… maidy stuff, while Cinnamon stood in the foyer and tried not to throw up. She had never been this nervous before; not ever. She had expected to be a bit worried about being rejected, of course, a mare who wasn’t was either Cadence herself or a emotionless whore. But there was an almost sort of unbelievable pressure occupying her mind, a very surreal one.

She never expected to date with somepony so high above her station.

Maybe you should run away, whispered a voice in her ear. Less shame that way.

Cinny found herself nodding, but wanted to hear a second opinion.

Did you see that Maid’s flank? Sweet Tartarus, I’d like to hit that!

Okay, so that voice wasn’t particularly helpful.

At least you’ll have something for your next novel, whispered a third voice, and Cinnamon snorted.

“That’s not very helpful now, is it?” she said out loud. In the empty rotunda, the room echoed vaguely, making it sound like she had shouted.

“Well I try to be,” Cinny grasped and spun on the spot—or tried to. This time she managed to trip over her own legs and landed face first on the floor. She wished ponies would stop sneaking up on her. Still, she scrambled up to her hooves within seconds, finding herself face to face with Lucent.

Unlike her, Lucent was a wonderful shade of midnight blue, and a more than a bit taller than her—not counting his horn or anything. Of course, his height wasn’t the only thing that was attractive about the stallion, he was well muscled and had nice flanks and… er… Cinny realized he was waiting for her to say something.

“Um, hi,” she said finally, “Or, uh, greetings, Your Grace? I guess?”

“Great, another social-climbing ass-kisser.” For the first time, Cinnamon realized that Lucent wasn’t alone… who else would be there, but his lead mare; Star Sparkle.

If Lucent was looking at her with a kindly, bemused, expression in his eyes, Star Sparkle was watching her with a similar expression—amused, but not exactly kind. Cinnamon got the feeling she was laughing at her on the inside… and it was probably only out of respect for her stallion that she wasn’t laughing at her to her face.

The two of them were the same age, more or less, at least to Cinny’s unpractised eye, although Star Sparkle was a pale pink rather than any shade of blue, not that it really mattered, since she clearly disliked her already. As Cinny stared back haplessly at her, Sparkle’s eyes narrowed, the sort of gaze that said she was pulling her apart bit by bit and determining her worth. Sort of like how Coloured Meadows had done… except where he had made her feel… sexy, Star Sparkle’s stare had a far more clinical angle to it and made her feel cold.

“I’m glad you could make it,” Lucent said, snapping Cinny out of her stupor. “You had no trouble finding the place?”

“Uh… no… no,” Cinny said, blinking like an idiot. Then she remembered the flowers. “Oh! Yes, uh, these are for you…”

She had put the flowers under one of her wings while she galloped through the city because she had managed to forget her saddlebags and now that she had them out in the open, she could tell they were worse for wear. Not only was the dye painfully mismatched as Cinny held them out towards the two ponies in her mouth, her sweat must have caused the dye to run and her feathers to smear it. No doubt she had a big orangey stain under her wing now.

The wait was excruciating, but after a second two auras flared into existence, each tugging a flower out and towards their aura’s owners. Lucent smiled at the flower for a second, before putting it behind his ear as was tradition whereas Star Sparkle examined the flower more critically—including giving it a lick—before shrugging and doing the same.

Okay, so first hurdle taken care of. Cinny puffed a sigh of relief, except she was still holding quite a few flowers. And she was sure Lucent had mentioned he had more than Star Sparkle in his herd. She wasn’t going crazy. She hoped.

“Uh, where… where is everypony else?” Cinny asked. Then she glanced around the room just to be sure; knowing her luck, they were already in the room hiding behind one of the potted plants or clinging to the ceiling or something. Thankfully, the coast was clear.

“They’re in the sitting room,” Lucent said, flicking his muzzle towards one of the rotunda’s doors that didn’t lead outside. Lucent then turned and headed for the indicated doorway. Cinnamon couldn’t help but watch him go—he had such nice flanks, after all—but then she realized she was about to be left behind, so she decide to admire them later.

Her first impression of the ‘Sitting Room’ was ‘very big and lots of stuff’. The room was easily bigger than her living room and kitchen, but it felt a lot smaller because of all the stuff laying around. There were chairs and sofas and tables of all sorts, and that was just the normal things. There were also statues and wooden thingers that Cinny had no idea what to call but was pretty sure they were more suited to some sort of Zanzebra tribe than the middle of a lushly carpeted sitting room in Canterlot. And the sea of stuff continued right up to the walls, which were also decorated with all kinds of strange things, like masks and spears and other things she couldn’t name.

Oh, there were also a bunch of ponies in the room too, those were probably important to mention too.

“Everypony, this is the mare I’ve been telling you about,” Lucent said as they approached, and everypony’s head turned to face them. Cinny only had a second to take in their faces before Lucent started to introduce everypony.

“This is Star Sparkle,” Lucent said, gesturing with his hoof, “Twilight Velvet,” Cinnamon’s impression of the pale purple unicorn was she looked an awful lot like Star Sparkle—except her smile was far more friendly and open than Star’s had been.

“This is Scintilla...” The mare had a green mane and tail too, like her own, and Cinny tried not grimace. Cinny dyed her mane to make her stand out in a crowd, and here this mare was stealing her thunder and—no wait… she didn’t dye her hair. Huh. Well it wasn’t Scintilla’s fault they had the same hair colour—she was sure the mare was nice and all.

“Glint Garnet...” Another stallion, not totally surprising, of course, but Cinny hadn’t been expecting him to look so handsome… her wings twitched slightly. She felt like she knew him, but she couldn’t place him at—

“Charmed,” Glint’s voice was both cultured and more than a little bit Bitish. Not to mention warm and kindly. The stallion actually got out of his seat and bent to kiss her hoof, like a gentlecolt. She couldn’t help but let out a nervous giggle.

“Thank you, Glint,” Lucent muttered under his breath—and it occurred to her she probably wasn’t supposed to hear that. Part of her chuckled—Pegasus hearing was very good, and if they weren’t used to being around one… that could make things interesting.

Cinny spent the next ten seconds thinking about donuts to keep her wings from knocking over a very expensive looking lamp.

“Where was I? Oh yes, Crystal Glimmer,” Lucent gestured to the lone earth pony of the group. Crystal’s smile wasn’t nearly as warm as the others, and Cinny got the impression she wasn’t too happy to see her. But at least it wasn’t the same sort of dislike that Star looked at her with. “and finally, we have my wife, Marquise Crincile.”

Wait, did he say wife? Cinny could count the number of ponies she knew who were married on one wingtip. Nopony got married. Well, that wasn’t true, some of them did, but Cinnamon always found weddings rather boring. Only natural, she supposed as—oh damnit.

Everypony was staring at her, probably waiting for her to say something.

“Um… hi?” Cinnamon tried to disarm them with a smile, which didn’t seem to work since they all were still looking at her like they were expecting something else—oh right! The flowers! “I brought flowers!”

Cinny grabbed the bouquet out from under her wing again, and started forward, intend on handing them out to the individual herdmates. Strictly speaking, they could probably still refuse her, but since Lucent and Star Sparkle had already accepted their flowers, it wasn’t likely.

Before she took more than a step, the bouquet was pulled out of her mouth by a painfully colourful rainbow of auras, one from the remaining four unicorns, who distributed them among themselves, as well as passing one to Crystal Glimmer. Within a few seconds, everypony in the room had a flower behind his or her ear—except Cinny of course. She hoped they wouldn’t notice how messed up they were getting. More importantly, she hoped the ponies wouldn’t sweat and end up with orangey-browny splotches on the sides of their heads. Cinny was almost certain that wasn’t fashionable. Either way though, they accepted them without hesitation. So that was a good sign.

Now she just had to woo a herd of ponies probably more than twice her age. No big deal…

“Well, uh… we should get going?” Cinny ruffled her wings nervously, and for the first time noticed that she was the only one wearing a hat. More importantly though, every other pony seemed to be dressed to the nines. Oh dear. Cinny thought. Dinner and a movie really didn’t seem enough anymore. But it’s not like she could afford much more.

“Are you telling us, or asking us?” Star quipped, and Cinny found herself staring at her, wondering what she meant.

“Uh… both?” Cinny said, “If… if that’s okay? Are you, uh, guys, ready?”

“Of course,” said Crincile. Like Glint’s, her voice was smooth and cultured. At least Cinny was pretty sure she was Crincile. Suddenly, she wasn’t sure she could remember everypony’s name. “Where will we be going?”

“Uh… Dinner… and a movie,” Cinnamon tried not grimace as she waited for their reaction; she was beginning to suspect that everypony in the room was important in more than one way. They were probably expecting her to have tickets to an opera or the Grand Galloping Gala or something.

“Sounds fun!” Scintilla beamed, leaping to her hooves. “I haven’t been to the movies in ages.”

“How are we going to get there?” Star Sparkle asked in the tone of voice that suggested she already knew the answer. “I didn’t see any carriages out there.”

Oh crap. Of course they’d be expecting a carriage or something! Maybe she should have made a list of things to get before she had asked Lucent out. Oh well, no use complaining about it now. “Oh, well, err—”

“As you may have noticed, we can’t fly,” Star continued, cutting into Cinnamon’s thoughts before she could gather them into a coherent reply. “Or are you blind?”

“Star,” Lucent’s voice had a tone of warning in it that seemed at odds with Cinny’s mental image of the stallion being a gentle giant. Maybe that’s how he was able to deal with his lead? He could be rather domin— Cinnamon shook her head before that train of thoughts could leave the station.

“I guess I thought we’d walk,” She said before Star could interrupt her again. “I mean, well…” Cinny shrugged. “It’s a nice night out?” she added lamely.

“Ugh, walking?” Cinny hadn’t expected Crystal, of all ponies, to be the one to object. “Lucent can’t go around walking through Canterlot! It’s uncouth.”

“Well, I think it’s a marvellous idea, m’dear. A bit of exercise could do us all some good,” Glint said, leaning over and poking Star Sparkle in her barrel. “Especially you, Star, you’re starting to get a bit round.”

“I am not,” Star snapped, “You're a stallion; do you have any clue how hard it is to shed weight after you've had a foal? Let alone two of them? I think not."

Two foals? Sweet Celestia! Cinny didn’t realize Star had foals! Hopefully they weren’t too scarred growing up with a mare like Star for their mother.

“Well, I hope it’s not far.” Crincile asked, looking at Cinnamon with a questioning look.

“Oh, uh. No, it’s not far at all.” Well, if one considered the other side of the city ‘not far’. The restaurant was a bit closer, though, so it wasn’t like she was completely lying. Just… stretching the truth. She was getting the feeling she was going to be doing a lot more stretching of the truth before the night was over.

It was… interesting. Assuming one of the definitions of interesting was ‘stressful beyond all reason’.

Dinner provided to be the best part of the evening by Cinnamon’s estimation, and even that hadn’t gone as well as she had hoped. The restaurant itself wasn’t a particularly bad place, at least in Cinny’s opinion, and she had eaten there a few times before, usually when celebrating some achievement or whatever with her friends or classmates. And it was certainly fancy compared to some places, but when they arrived Crystal Glimmer made it clear—sort of, anyway—that it wasn’t fancy enough. Obviously, it was too late to find another place, and Cinny really wasn’t sure she could afford anything better.

Thankfully, Lucent wasn’t nearly as put off as Crystal was and he was able to persuade her to give the place a chance. Star helped too. Well, sort of. Well, not really. Mostly she mocked the mare for being so stuck up, which Cinnamon couldn’t say was particularly helpful at all. Crincile seemed somewhat apprehensive about the place as well, and Cinnamon got the impression the mare rarely went places that weren’t the crème de la crème, or off the beaten path. But whereas Crystal required both gentle and not so gentle persuasion—and a couple of small kisses from Lucent—Crincile was more than willing to just follow her stallion’s lead.

Then came getting a seat; Glint insisted that they get table near the window, which proved to be a bit difficult since the restaurant didn’t have big enough tables to sit eight separate ponies that close to the window. Eventually, Cinny resorted to slipping the Maître d' a couple of bits to convince her to shove two of the smaller tables together. Once they were clear. Which took a while.

And those were the complications she wasn’t directly responsible for.

Cinny had thought, if she was going to be dating—and possibly becoming a part of—Lucent’s herd, she ought to get to know the rest of the mares… and Glint, who comprised it. Silly her, that was a bad idea.

It wasn’t that any one pony was particularly rude, or gave her the cold shoulder—although Crystal certainly seemed less than interested in her, and Star seemed to spend most of her time being cynical or rude. And she certainly learned a fair deal about everypony. The problem was, she couldn’t help but feel like she might have insulted—or at the very least hurt the feelings of—a couple of them with her questions.

Scintilla, for example, turned out to a banker, a fractional reserve banker, to be precise. A term Cinny had never heard of before, and Scintilla was more than happy to explain. As it turned out, it was a big complicated thing involving investing money in onions or carrots or something—she wasn’t totally sure, she might have half-zoned out after Scintilla started drawing a diagram on a napkin. When she found out that all banks did the fractional reserve thing, though, Cinnamon apparently had the poor sense to ask why they called themselves fractional reserve bankers if every banker was one. Scintilla had just given her a dirty look and decided to talk to Crystal instead.

Maybe they called themselves that because it made them sound cooler? ‘Fractional Reserve’ certainly sounded neat, maybe she’d used that as a character name in a future story…

Then, of course, there was the fiasco with the waiter. It really hadn’t been her fault—how was she supposed to know Glint would turn out to be a former model—especially one she had idolized and kept a scrapbook over when she was younger? Nopony could have predicted her wing would snap out and catch the poor waiter in a rather delicate area. Nopony at all.

It wasn’t all bad; Twilight Velvet and Crincile seemed nice enough, and of course there was Lucent too, he was very nice, and somehow managed to keep things from getting too out of control. Somehow. Nevertheless, by the time the eight of them stomped out the door and Cinny paid, she was glad to get out of there. After the restaurant, surely the movie would be easier to handle?

There was no such luck. Cinnamon had made the mistake of not picking out any film in advance for the herd and herself to watch. She had reasoned that since she didn’t really know Lucent’s tastes in film, it’d make sense to let him—and by extension the herd—pick when they got there. She had assumed they’d want to see the same movie. She assumed wrong.

Every mare wanted to go see a different movie, and try as she might, she couldn’t figure out how to persuade them to see any one movie without half the herd being pissed off at her. In the end she broke down and bought everypony their own ticket so they could each get to see what they wanted, and for the first time that night, everypony seemed to be happy about something she had done.

Naturally, that’s when she realized she was out of money and couldn’t afford to buy herself a ticket, which is how she found herself stretched out limply on a park bench opposite the theatre, waiting her dates out. The day had been warm, but now that night had rolled around, it was fairly chilly. Made her wish she had more than a hat.

Still, a pegasus’ pelt was pretty good at keeping out the cold, yet she didn’t want to get too comfortable, lest she fall asleep or something. Knowing her luck some blankflank foals would wander on by and she’d wake up with a pair of marker-glasses on her face. Or something.

It looked like the date had gone pretty much south though, which was a real shame. At least she still had her book-to-be-published to look forward to. Cinny still had to do a bunch of revisions for her editor. Still, she was getting published! She had begun to think she'd never make it. Of course, some small part of her found it irritating that her first published erotica novel was essentially fan fiction about the Elements of Harmony. Elements of Love, as she had titled it, was something she had thrown together one week after the Elements had gone and saved all of Equestria from Nightmare Moon’s… something. Cinny was a bit fuzzy on the details, but she was still grateful towards the Elements, even if she’d never meet them.

Regardless, anything related to the Elements was becoming very popular, and Cinnamon was a big enough filly to admit she fell for the fandom too, which was why she wrote the Elements of Love at all. But she hadn’t expected to publish it—she hadn’t even planned on submitting it, if a friend hadn’t suggested she do so—and it wasn’t her best work.

Or at least, she didn’t think it was.

But it would get her name out there, which meant when she sent the next manuscript in, publishers would look at her a bit less sceptically. And she’d get money. It was a win-win for her.

“Cinny?” Cinnamon looked up in time to see the silhouette of a unicorn stallion approaching from the theatre. She couldn’t help but smile as Lucent approached, despite how everything had gone—and was going so far—and scrambled to sit up. “What are you doing out here?”

“Oh, uh,” Cinny blushed, although whether he could see it in the darkness was another matter.

“I kind of thought you’d be joining me,” Lucent said as he sat down beside her, carefully brushing aside her limp wing. Cinny folded them up as she twisted to get a better view of the stallion’s face. “If you didn’t want to see a documentary, you could have just said so…” Lucent’s face took on a wry expression, “unless it was Star who’s putting you off?”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” Star had been one of the few ponies from Lucent’s herd who had actually gone to the same film as another member of the herd. Which was a bit off putting, Cinny had to admit, but she had already stomached Star for most of the evening, if she could have joined them, she wouldn’t have been too put off. Although she supposed it would have put a wet blanket on any opportunities to make out or whatever. “I… ran out of bits.” She felt her blush deepen, as Lucent’s eyes grew a bit wide with surprise. “For the ticket.”

“Oh,” Lucent considered her for a moment, although Cinny had no luck reading his expression. “You could have asked…”

Cinny shrugged and said nothing.

“Come on,” Lucent patted her foreleg and stood up, making as if he was going to head back into the theatre. “You’ve missed the part on the lunar rabbit, but there’s still at least an hour left and—” Lucent froze halfway out of his seat, “—or we could go see one of the other movies, if you’d prefer…”

“Thanks for the offer, Lucent, but I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Cinnamon said with a sigh, and then hauled herself up onto her own hooves. “I mean, I fu—” maybe she shouldn’t be swearing at a duke, especially not after the fiasco of a night. “—bucked, rather, up pretty badly tonight, didn’t I? I think I’d rather just go home.”

Lucent frowned in the twilight cast by the theatre’s lights. “I wouldn’t say that, exactly. I know dealing with my herd can be… trying at times. For what it’s worth, I enjoyed myself.”

“Really?” Cinny felt a small flicker of hope in her chest. Maybe she was just being too hard on herself—though try as she might, she couldn’t think of a way she hadn’t screwed up the date. “But…”

“No buts,” Lucent shook his head. “If anything, I should be apologizing to you. My herd isn’t always the easiest to get along with.”

“They weren’t… uh, that bad…” Cinny lied through her teeth. Well, that was a bit much—she did like some of them, but she couldn’t say she’d necessarily seek them out if she had the choice.

“Uh huh,” Lucent’s smirk told her he wasn’t buying it, “I love each of them, Cinny, but I know they can be as difficult as mules, sometimes.”

“Then why do you—” Cinnamon flinched and her ears folded against the sides of her head. She kept fucking up, and any chance she might have had of being fucked in the other way was clearly dead. It was incredibly rude, and she didn’t have much to hide behind to excuse it. “S-sorry, Y-your grace.”

“I understand,” Lucent said with a chuckle—a chuckle! “Suffice to say, I have my reasons. Maybe one day I’ll explain them to you.” Lucent’s smile slipped a bit, and his eyes became slightly unfocused—an expression Cinnamon knew from her classes with the stallion that he was lost in thought. She almost poked him before he shook himself out of it. “But what about you? Do you still want to leave? I don’t mind paying so you can join us…”

“I don’t know…” Cinny began, and then Lucent kissed her.

It wasn’t a terribly great kiss, mostly because she hadn’t been expecting it, but it made her lips tingle and pretty much ensured she was going to be walking home tonight. Lucent eyed her outstretched wings with a bemused expression on his face—unicorn or not, he clearly knew about pegasus anatomy. That thought didn’t help the stiffness of her wings any either.

Her first instinct was to find a quiet bunch of shadows somewhere and, well…

Whoa girl, said the voice of Calm Reason in her ear, Remember what your mother said; if you want to bag a stallion, you've got to be patient, like fishing. Cinny found herself nodding in agreement, before she had to tune the Voice of Calm Reason out when it decided to jump off the cliff and go on a strained metaphor involving hooks, line, and fishing rods. This was partly because she didn't really know much about fishing, but mostly because she was pretty sure using a fishing rod in that fashion was anatomically impossible.

Plus the Royal Guard tended to be a bit uptight about that sort of thing.

“Uh…” Cinnamon shook her head, trying to clear it a bit and relax her painfully extended wings. “Uhhhh.”

“So…” Lucent glanced over his shoulder at the theatre, and the part of her brain that been insisting she go home and forget the night ever happened promptly decided to cross the floor and vote with the ‘Stick With It’ Party. Incidentally, and for completely unrelated reasons, the Party also decided to change their logo to that of a dark blue unicorn stallion during their annual meeting in her loins.

Cinny shook her head again, no more political fics for her.

“…the documentary?” the tone of his voice suggested Lucent had been talking for at least two sentences, all of which Cinny had missed and she hoped weren’t terribly important.

“Yes!” Cinny blinked then blushed, “I mean, uh, I guess so… it’d be rude to walk out on everypony and everything too—that is… if you don’t mind?”

“Of course not,” Lucent’s flank brushed against hers as he headed towards the ticket office, making Cinny quiver—and smile. “And don’t mind Star.”

“Um, right.” Truthfully, she had momentarily forgotten that Star Sparkle would be waiting for them inside the theatre alongside what she was certain was going to be a very boring documentary. At least she’d have Lucent there. Then an idea bloomed in her mind, “do… do you think for the next date, it could be just the two of us?”

“I was just going to suggest that,” Lucent said as he paid for her ticket. Despite the fact that the film was half over, the ticket was still full price. What a rip off!

Cinnamon grinned and leaned against Lucent as she took her ticket from him. Maybe tonight wasn’t going to end so badly after all!

Now, if only she could get her wings to relax…

Author's Note

Hopefully there won't be too many spelling errors, but if you happen to notice them, feel free to point them out!

Update: 26/01/2014: changing the name of the Book from Elements of Excess to Elements of Love

Elements of Love Page 69

Author's Note

New:
Older readers will probably remember this; originally my intent was to write these silly little excerpts from Cinnamon Swift's novel, the one that's giving her so much trouble in the story. Mostly for the hell of it. However, after I published the original, I had the impression that many readers were confused by the whole thing, so when I went to publish the second and third chapters, I decided against writing extra excerpts and withdrew this one from publication.

However, after I did so, several people bemoaned the fact that I had done so, and after some convincing from archonix and Alamais, and my other friends on IRC, I decided to give it another go.

I'll be publishing the other excerpts over the next few hours, along with the next chapter of the story.

Old:
Every second chapter is probably going to be set up like this: excerpts from Cinnamon Swift's fictional Fanfic about the Mane 6! Where Rainbow Dash and Applejack are stallions! Because why not!

Elements of Love Page 69

Elements of Love By Cinnamon Swift

blinked as the prismatic stallion hovered at just the right level and swished his tail, showing off muscular flanks and ... oh, so much more... Her whole field of vision was filled with his firm, well-toned buttocks—and more importantly, what the pegasus kept between his legs.

Rainbow Dash’s testicles were large, and even at this angle Twilight could tell they were attached to an equally large member. Naturally, she did what any mare in her position would do; she licked them.

“Oh… oh yeah…” Twilight could imagine her friend’s eyes rolling in pleasure, which made her grin like a filly with a new toy. Well, she thought to herself, that’s not completely inaccurate.

Poor Dashie must have been hard up, though, since it only took her a couple of licks before the stallion’s body started to react. First there was the stiffening of his wings, causing him to drop onto his hooves—she had read about that, of course—followed by another sort—but related—sort of stiffening. As his cock appeared, Twilight ran her hoof down along its length; she could hardly wait to get the meaty appendage in her mouth.

If only I hadn’t promised Applejack I wouldn’t sleep with another stallion! Twilight thought wistfully. She’d just have to make do—maybe she could bring the two of them into the same herd? She knew they were sweet on her, after all.

“Urgh,” Dashie moaned, “yeah, just like that! I didn’t realize unicorns could be so skilled with their hooves!”

“Oh? And why’s that?” Twilight asked with a smirk, punctuating each word with a lick to the pegasus’ balls.

“W—well you know,” Rainbow Dash’s tail flicked against her mane, “magic.”

“You mean magic like this?” Twilight summoned her aura, and reached out with it to the underside of her stallion’s wings, and gently tugged on the feathers there.

Dash’s whole body shook like a leaf in the wind; but thankfully he managed to hold back for her. Which was good, because Twilight wasn’t done with him yet.

She gave his balls one more fond lick, rolling them with her tongue, before she stepped back and away from him. The pitiful look on the blue pony’s face made her grin. Oh, he wanted her bad, but he was going to have to work for it first. Twilight spun around and flicked her tail to the side.

“I’ve been meaning to see a weatherpony about a certain wetness I’ve been having every time I see Rainbows,” Twilight said, smooth as silk. “Would you be so kind as to…?”

“Uh, of course, Miss. Sparkle.” Rainbow Dash flicked his head as if he was trying focus on what was important; good boy.

If he was confused, it didn’t last; as Twilight watched, he leaned forward until his muzzle was completely buried between her cheeks—she could feel his hot breath against her flesh and his nose rubbed against her flower like

Page 69

Movin' on up

Cinnamon groaned as she flopped out of her bed and dragged herself into the bathroom. It was a quarter past three in the afternoon, which wasn’t terribly surprising, given she had spent most of the night not sleeping—like a good filly should, as her mother might say. She didn’t exactly feel bright eyed, of course, but after she splashed a couple of hoofuls of water onto her face and started brushing her teeth, she felt a little better.

It was somewhat hard not to feel a bit excited, considering that today was the day that she moved out of her apartment, and moved in with Lucent. Excited, and if she was going to be honest with herself, more than a little bit afraid. Well, afraid was probably not the right word: wary or nervous, perhaps.

She had, of course, moved before, several times at that, but this was different. Every other time she had moved, it had always been into an apartment or residence complex or something similar to that. This was the first time she’d be moving into a home, someplace ponies had lived and continued to live. More than moving into a house, Cinny supposed, she was, in reality, moving into a family, into Lucent’s herd. Officially.

Which in and of itself was rather scary, when she paused to think about it. So she tried not to do that too often.

Cinny had been dating Lucent—or courting, as she supposed it was called in the nobility—for something like three months now, and she still didn’t know what to make of the ponies in the herd. After their disastrous first date, most of their dates had been just her and Lucent. Well, not really, she supposed. Some of the dates were private affairs, but more often Lucent might invite one of his other herdmates along too—usually Twilight or Scintilla or Crincile. Sometimes Glint, when Lucent was feeling particularly frisky. Those date nights always ended memorably, with memories that made Cinny’s wings stiff weeks later.

The only pony she didn’t interact with on a regular basis was Crystal Glimmer. For the life of her, Cinny couldn’t figure out why the mare was so… cold to her. And it was a weird sort of coldness too. Sometimes—usually during one of the suppers Lucent invited her to before they went off on their own—the mare would be really friendly, and then, for some reason, it would be as if she suddenly realized their relationship was supposed to be chilly, and the next thing Cinny knew Crystal Glimmer would be ignoring her all together.

In a way, it hurt. Cinnamon would be the first to admit to herself that her primary interest in the herd was really more with Lucent than any other pony within the herd, but it still wasn’t very pleasant.

If only she would be so lucky to have Star Sparkle ignore her as well.

Lucent’s lead mare, for some reason, seemed to be particularly unhappy with her. Whether it was with something Cinny had done, or just because Star Sparkle was a bitch, was a mystery Cinnamon thought she could base a Fetlock Holmes fanfic around, and reasonably present it as the case that stumped the great detective. Unfortunately, while Crystal was content with ignoring her more or less, Star liked to butt in on things and… just be… herself.

That wasn’t a compliment.

Star would show up—more than once when it was supposed to be just Lucent and Cinnamon, alone—and just be there with them, making snide comments about whatever sort of date Cinny had decided to put together, or what Cinny was wearing. When she saw Cinny’s apartment, Star nearly laughed herself into the floor.

Of course, her favourite target for her teasing was Cinnamon Swift’s career choice. In retrospect, it felt a bit stupid to bring up that she wrote erotic novels and stories, especially within earshot of Star, and the mare had made her regret it almost every time she saw her.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle a bit of teasing; Cinnamon was used to that, even from her close friends, but Star made it so utterly virulent. Her words would stick in Cinny’s head, although she had no idea why.

Thank goodness she had the sense to keep her almost published novel under wraps. Maybe when she had a nice fat paycheck—Cinny hoped it’d be a nice fat one, at least—Star would finally shut up.

It was a long shot, but who knows?

Cinny frowned as she finished brushing her teeth. Hopefully, Star wouldn’t drive her out of her mind or out of her new home. Truthfully, she was starting to get rather low on funds, and if she had to leave, she wasn’t sure she could afford a new place. At least nopony was going to be making fun of her apartment now.

She didn’t have a lot of things, of course, and what she did have were already packed away in boxes, except for her bed and a few things in the little cubby she called her kitchen. The only major thing she hadn’t packed was her writing stuff, like her typewriter.

It sounded stupid, but the last time she had made a major move—from Cloudsdale to Canterlot—it was a struggle to start writing again. Whether it was because of the fact that everything was different, or something else, Cinnamon had no idea. It was part of the reason she had been up so late the night prior—she wanted to get as much writing done as possible, so she wouldn’t feel too rotten when she couldn’t write for a bunch of days. Or weeks. Or months.

Either way, there were a bunch of boxes strewn around, so she had to step lightly to avoid tripping and hurting herself.

The kitchen was much the same way as the rest of her apartment, although most of the boxes were smaller and contained mostly things like utensils. Obviously, the fridge, stove, and what not were too big to bring with her, and it wasn’t as if she was going to be needing them in her new place either. Unfortunately, it only took Cinny a couple of minutes of opening drawers and cabinets to realize she didn’t have any food left. It wasn’t unusual that she’d eat while she worked, even late at night, and now it seemed she had eaten her breakfast long before it was time to actually eat it.

Well, in the late afternoon, at least.

All she could find were some sodium crackers and a mostly empty jar of peanut butter—hardly a filling meal. Of course, she gamely gave it a try, but after a few minutes of trying to find the peanut butter in the jar she thought was only mostly empty and discovering it was completely empty, she was no closer to having something in her stomach. Which sucked.

Cinnamon bit her lip and glanced up at the clock. It was about three forty now, which wasn’t terribly surprising, although her head insisted that much time couldn’t possibly have passed. It put her in a bit of a bind.

Originally, she had planned to just try to haul the boxes across town herself, possibly renting one of those carts or wagons and hitching herself to the haul. Lucent wouldn’t have any of it. He claimed to know a few ponies who would be more than capable of helping her move, and Lucent certainly did know a great number of ponies—but Cinny had trouble imagining most of the ponies Lucent knew as capable of doing manual labour.

If anypony showed up with Lucent, it’d probably be servants or maybe a moving company that she couldn’t afford but Lucent probably could. Maybe he even owned a moving company—or Scintilla did. He must make his money somehow, right?

Of course, the beauty of hauling the stuff herself was that she wasn’t waiting for anypony else to show up. If she wanted to eat, she’d have to go to the store—or more likely, one of the corner cafés or sandwich shops. All of those were a fair walk away, not so far that it was particularly taxing or such, but far enough that if she left now, there was a good chance she wouldn’t make it back in time. Assuming they didn’t come early.

There wasn’t much to do, except try and pack away her writing stuff, she supposed, so Cinnamon put her stomach out of her mind for a little while, folded her wings, and picked up the only empty box left in the room and started dropping the loose bits of quills and papers and napkin notes into the box. Then she unlocked the drawer where she kept her personal preprint copy of Elements of Love, and pulled that out and dropped it into the box too.

She had received it a couple of days ago, but given how Star was continually teasing her about it, Cinny hadn’t bothered to bring it up that her novel was almost published. She also hadn’t bothered to tell Lucent or Glint or any of the other mares either. Lucent, at least, found her erotic writing amusing, and she partly wanted to surprise him when it did get published—rather than walking him through the boring, messy, crappy, not-at-all-fun adventure of rewriting and fixing stupid errors. It wasn’t that he would mind it, per se. Lucent seemed to have the ability to look attentive even when Cinnamon knew he was bored out of his mind. Plus, she suspected he had already gone through all that with Twilight, who apparently was also an author.

So she buried the copy under some more papers and quills, and then found herself eyeing the typewriter. The thing was really heavy in her experience, which was why she didn’t move it much once she had placed it. The last time she had moved, Cinny had relied on an earth pony friend, but she was long gone, having moved back to Manehatten now that her education was finished. The more she thought about it, the more silly her idea to move all this stuff was becoming, and—

No sooner was the thought out of her head than somepony decided to kick her door in. Well, not really, it was more of a loud knocking, but it was enough to get Cinny to jump out of her skin, figuratively speaking. She took a moment to clear her head before heading to the door.

Rather than trying to dodge boxes that seemed to jump right in front of her hooves when she wasn’t looking, she half-jumped, half-flew over them.

Her first thought, upon wrenching the door open before the knocker could cause damage to the door and get her in trouble with the landlady, was that somepony was in trouble. Outside her door stood a rather imposing unicorn dressed in golden armour that had been painted or lacquered or something purple. He looked her up and down then smiled brightly. It was only then that Cinnamon recognized him as Shining Armour.

Of course, the fact that he was standing right next to Lucent probably should have been a give away.

At first glance, the relation probably wouldn’t be clear to a pony, since Shining was almost pure white in coat, whereas Lucent was a dark blue, but a closer look revealed they had the same ears, same curve in their jawline, same well toned flanks—

Cinny blushed a bit as her wings half-heartedly stiffened up. It wasn’t that Shining Armour wasn’t handsome, of course—in her opinion he got all his looks from his father, after all—but she was pretty much his herdmother regardless of him being older than her. Granted, it wasn’t as if she was going to be raising him or any of the herd’s foals, as most of them except Twilight Velvet’s little filly were grown. Cinnamon probably hadn’t even met them all yet!

Actually, she hadn’t really ‘met’ Shining Armour either. He had been busy—apparently as a Royal Guard, something she apparently missed when he was introduced—and Cinny only really had time to shake his hoof before he galloped off to… slay cockatrices or save maidens or water the Princess’s garden. Whatever they did while not looking like pretty statues. But she did remember his smile.

“Um, hello,” Cinny said after a second, once she had recovered from her shock. “I… wasn’t expecting you to bring anypony else.” Actually, she had expected Lucent to show up with a bunch of burly Earth Ponies she could drool over while they carried her stuff out. Her body was all confused now.

“I was, but I just happened to run into Shining here, and he so generously volunteered,” Lucent said with a smile, then he stepped forward and into Cinny’s apartment. Lucent sidestepped, mostly, but not far enough that her body didn’t rub against his. Of course, he was wearing one of those fancy suit thingers that all high class ponies wore—it was probably in their union contract or something—but it was still very nice, almost as if they were in bed and—Cinny’s wings stretched up a few more notches.

Perhaps she wouldn’t need burly Earth Ponies to watch after all.

“Yes, volunteered,” Shining said with a roll of his eyes, and took off his helmet. He followed his father into Cinny’s apartment, but naturally she gave him a far more room when he stepped past her. “I do have other things to do with my time off than help you fill out your herd, Dad.”

Cinnamon had never thought of her apartment as small, but with the two stallions in it, and with boxes strewn around where a pony would normally walk, the place felt almost claustrophobic. Not to mention Shining was a fair amount heftier than Lucent was. Not fat, of course, but in terms of muscle. After a couple of moments of calming thoughts, her wings loosened enough that she could at least hover over the boxes instead of stretching to step around them and the two ponies.

“Oh stop complaining; Cadance is going to be visiting for dinner, isn’t she? It’s on the way, and we could use the help,” Lucent said as he glanced over his shoulder. Then he turned to her. “Is there any particular place you’d like me to start, m’dear?”

“Not… really?” Frowning, Cinnamon Swift turned slowly in the air, trying to figure out how to direct the two ponies. “I guess we should take the heavier stuff first, and pile the lighter stuff on top of it?”

“Good idea,” Shining said with a nod. Despite his complaining, he didn’t seem to be particularly troubled by the task ahead of him. “What’s heaviest?”

“Well, the couch and the typewriter, I guess.” Cinny pointed to the two things in turn with her hoof, before fluttering over to the end of the couch and dropping down. “On… the count of three?”

“No need,” Shining said, and without further ado, he lit up his horn and suddenly the couch was coated in a film of magenta light. It shuddered for a second, then lifted off the ground and spun slowly so it’d fit through the door. It wasn’t until Shining had it halfway out that Cinnamon realized he had also picked up the cast iron typewriter at the same time.

“Wow.” Every unicorn could levitate an object, of course, but it took real skill to do multiple ones—or really heavy ones. Cinny looked at the spot where her couch had been and cringed at all the dust that that was suddenly visible. Yikes!

“That colt,” Lucent said fondly as the last of the couch slid through the door without such much a bump against the doorframe, “likes to show off.” Lucent grinned at her. “I’m surprised it’s only him and Cadance in his herd, to be honest, I’m sure there’s many a mare after him.”

“Who’s Cadance?” Cinnamon asked, as she grabbed her dustpan where it was sitting on one of her tables, and tried to clean up the newly visible mess without looking like she was. She thought she had heard the name before, but with a herd as big as Lucent’s, with as many foals—who were mostly at the age where they’d be pairing off into herds—names tended to get lost in the shuffle.

“I’m sure I’ve mentioned her before…?” Lucent said as he pointedly ignored Cinny sweeping the floor up. “Princess Cadance?”

“Wait, that pink Princess? Of love or something or rather?” Cinnamon frowned and let the dustpan drop to the floor. Princess Cadance was one of the so-called ‘lesser Royalty’: ponies with the same titles as Celestia and Luna, but none of the actual power that went with it. Except in social circles, of course.

“The very same,” Lucent beamed before letting out a low chuckle. “And Star says you don’t pay attention.”

Her first thought was to say something like “ugh, she would,” but in a fair bit ruder wording and tone, but instead she changed it to: “And Shining is dating her?”

“Hmm,” Lucent shrugged and poked one of the boxes with his hoof. “I wouldn’t say they’re dating, really, they’re more or less a herd. Been so for a while. But Cadance is practically part of the family, though. Even if they weren’t, she’d still be welcome.”

“Huh.” She felt a couple more questions pop into her mind, but before she could ask them, Shining returned.

He glanced around the room once, at all the unopened boxes, and snorted gustily. “What the hay, were you two making out up here or something? Chop chop ponies, time’s a-wasting!” Shining’s voice carried an unmistakable note of command, and he didn’t wait to see if they’d follow it either, before grabbing the chair and her writing desk—but thankfully not her ‘special box’ where her novel was—and headed back down stairs.

“Well, we better do what he says, Cinny,” Lucent said with a roguish wink, “before he puts us in the stockade!”

“Sure sure,” Cinny couldn’t help but want to get it over with too—the sooner they finished up here, the sooner she could get a snack or something to eat to stave off her hunger before the main meal was served.

As it turned out, Lucent had brought a few earth ponies that he had hired to help her move, but they were all hitched—or would be, once they got off their coffee break—to the wagon where all her stuff was. It wasn’t terribly fancy, more functional than anything, which was fine.

Of course, Lucent—and by extension herself—wouldn’t be riding in that.

Beside the roughly hewn wagon sat a carriage. There was a bit of gilding, around the edges of it’s window frames and door, but for the most part much of the decoration was just carvings in the wood itself. Still, it was far fancier than anything Cinny had ever ridden in before—or even really stood next to. It wasn’t like she could afford such a vehicle herself, and those that had them didn’t really like ponies rubbing up against them.

It was certainly pretty, in the sort of way that made everything else look like crap in comparison. Including her stuff, which only half-filled the wagon as she paused to drop her box off. She hadn’t really paused to think about it before, but compared to the sort of fancy stuff Lucent had, like this carriage, her stuff looked really worn and second-hoof—if not third or fourth hoofed. It made Cinny frown slightly.

Maybe she shouldn’t even bother trying to save any of her stuff, it looked rather out of place and didn’t really fit in. It wasn’t the first time Cinnamon had felt out or place with Lucent, but normally the contrast wasn’t so obvious—in her mind—to every other pony in the world. Like her whole street, most of whom didn’t even know she was dating Lucent, and were currently hanging out their windows or peeking out their doors curiously.

And they weren’t the only ones. The earth ponies Lucent had hired were mostly ignoring her as she stood there, probably because they had no idea who she was, but the two ponies pulling the carriage were glancing at her over their shoulders with puzzled expressions on their faces. Like the carriage they pulled they were very pretty, and wore some sort of dull-grey armour with gold trim. Both were mares, and they didn’t look like they were part of the Royal Guard, but what did she know?

Lucent glanced at her sidelong as he dropped his own box off in the back of the wagon, which only really reminded her that the only way she was going to get out of their uncomfortable stares was if she went and finished hauling her stuff… junk… down.

It took several trips, and if Cinnamon was going to be honest with herself, Shining did most of the work. When he wasn’t lifting her heaviest boxes, he grabbed multiples, so it was as if she had a whole army of ponies helping her pack. Within half an hour, the apartment was completely empty—except for her fridge and other things she wouldn’t be taking with her. After that, it was a simple matter of finding the landlady and handing her keys off to her.

The mare in question had stopped halfway down the street with a bag full of groceries, and Cinnamon had the good sense to trot away before the Landlady decided that her tenant having a rich boyfriend meant she should surcharge her for a bunch of things.

Once that was taken care of, and Cinny was sure she wasn’t leaving anything behind, she grabbed the box containing her copy of Elements of Love, she wanted to keep her copy with her, just so it wouldn’t slip out somewhere or get lost, and hopped into the back of the carriage with Lucent and Shining. The interior of the carriage was, if anything, more ornate than the outside, with overstuffed seats and carvings up to the ceiling. It even had a mini-bar. That was probably Star’s, and Cinny had the good sense not to mess around with the mare’s alcohol.

As soon as she hopped in, one the mares who was going to be pulling the thing closed it behind her, and a few seconds later the carriage started to roll forward. If she could have figured out how to open the window, she probably would have watched her apartment retreat out of the side as they pulled away. Like a country yokel or something. So she decided to content herself to small talk with the other two ponies in the carriage with her.

“So, Cinnamon Swift,” Shining said as she turned back towards them. Lucent was beside her and Shining was on the seat opposite. Apparently, they had been waiting for her to join in. “What’s in the box?”

“Oh, uh,” Cinny clutched the box a bit closer to her barrel. “Just you know, some writing stuff. Unfinished stuff. I don’t want to lose it.”

“So you’re a writer, then? What sort of writing?” Shining asked, although Cinnamon could tell the first question was more of a polite statement than a question. He probably already knew that, considering she owned a typewriter, not to mention her cutie mark—a quill overlaying a heart. The second question though, was an actual question, but it wasn’t one Cinny knew how to answer. Most ponies reacted poorly when she told them what sort of writing she did.

“Uh, well,” Cinny rubbed the back of her head as she tried to think of an explanation.

“Romance?” Shining prompted, eyeing her cutie mark for a second longer. Normally such attention would have roused her, but between being on the spot and trying to think of a way out of her son-in-law’s questions, well… there wasn’t much time for any other thoughts.

“Don’t be modest, Cinny,” Lucent said as he patted her leg absentmindedly. “Cinnamon here writes some of the most… stimulating… erotica, I’ve ever read.”

Cinny blushed, mostly, at Lucent’s compliment. It wasn’t the first time he had said so, and she knew he enjoyed reading the little scraps she let him see—and she always knew he enjoyed them too, rather than him just saying so. But she hadn’t expected Lucent to say so, out loud, to his son of all ponies. So a good chunk of that blush was also to do with simple embarrassment.

To her surprise, though, Shining didn’t seem to be put off or bothered in the least. “Oh, I see.”

“Aren’t you…” Cinny frowned lopsidedly as she studied the unicorn. Shining caught her eye and smiled brightly.

“Of course not,” Shining said, shaking his head. “Cadance reads enough of the stuff, so it’s not like I’m unfamiliar with it. And, as I recall, Mama used to write a few passages of straight up erotica too…”

“Hrmp,” Lucent said with a frown, “I didn’t think you kids knew about those writings of Twilight’s.”

“If Mama didn’t want us reading her stuff,” Shining said with a chuckle, “she ought to lock her doors.” Shining paused and looked thoughtful. “Well, Cadance and I, I guess. Twilight was a bit young when we found it. Took one look at it and ran off.”

“You’ve known Cadance for long?” Cinny asked, as she tried to place this ‘Twilight’. Despite what a pony might think, Mama, Cinny was certain, referred to Twilight Velvet, not his actual mother Star Sparkle. Partly because she knew Twilight was a writer like herself, except published and relatively famous—although not necessarily in the genre she wanted to be. But mostly because she couldn’t imagine anyone referring to Star Sparkle as ‘Mama’ and not saying it ironically.

Which meant there was another Twilight floating around, a pony she hadn’t met yet. Still, it seemed crass to ask who she was, since Shining sounded like he expected her to know.

“Cadance used to foal sit for us,” Lucent explained for Shining, “so I suppose you could say they’ve gone back for a while.”

“We’ve only been dating for a while, if you’re wondering,” Shining said with a laugh. “But don’t say that to Cadance, I think she’s been under the impression we’ve been dating for years. I’ve just been too thick to notice it.”

“Ah,” Cinny said, and decided she’d leave her pondering for another time. She couldn’t think of who this other Twilight was, but there wasn’t much point in beating herself up over it. “Thanks for helping me move, Lucent. And you, Shining.”

“Think nothing of it, m’dear,” Lucent said as he wrapped his foreleg around her body and pulled her into a hug. Cinnamon sighed contently and wrapped her wing around the stallion.

“I’m always happy to help,” Shining added, as he smirked at the two of them slightly. “It must be nice to move out of that tiny place, though.”

“I suppose so,” Cinny sighed, “I hope I don’t miss it too much.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be right at home in your new place,” Lucent said as he nibbled along her ear’s edge. “I’m glad you finally accepted moving in with me, Cinny, that place made me worry about your health.”

“It wasn’t all bad.” Cinny flicked her ears out of his lips. She might enjoy sex and all, but it wasn’t as if she didn’t enjoy just being close with a pony too. She suspected Lucent went after her ears because it turned her on so much. Bastard.

“And I’m glad you’ve decided to join the herd too, I know...” Lucent paused and ran his hoof down her back, “you haven’t gotten along with everypony—” by which he meant Star “—but I think in general we all care for you.”

“I hope so,” Cinny added, and tried to keep the quiver out of her voice. She wasn’t afraid of Star, of course, but…

“Don’t worry, everything’ll be just fine,” Lucent said softly, and then he reached down and guided her muzzle to his.

The kiss was electric, it almost always was, and as she felt his tongue slip between her lips, and her wingtips flutter, it washed away most of her doubts and—

Shining coughed insistently, causing Lucent and herself to freeze mid-kiss. After a second they pulled back from one another.

“Should I, I don’t know, get out and get a cab or something?” Shining’s voice was filled with more than a hint of laughter. “Or can you two keep it under your tails for the time being?”

“Um, I think we missed a turn or something,” Cinny said as she glanced out the window. Most of the journey had been pleasant, and it was actually really interesting talking with Shining, who seemed to have an endless catalogue of stories about his adventures in the Royal Guard. So, it wasn’t that surprising that she didn’t realize they were apparently lost until now. “Aren’t we supposed to be headed to your place?”

Currently, the carriage was heading along a fairly narrow road around the side of the mountain, one with a sheer drop off to the side—not that it bothered her too much, given she had grown up in Cloudsdale. But it wasn’t Canterlot, and she thought they were supposed to be heading to Lucent’s place in Canterlot.

“We are,” Lucent sounded a bit mystified, causing Cinnamon to frown at him.

“Has she been to Lachrimose House?” Shining asked. Cinny noticed he was shying away from the side of the carriage that was nearest to the edge, and the thought made her smile. The stallion was obviously very brave, but it was nice to know he had normal fears like any other pony too.

“Oh? Oh! I suppose not!” Lucent laughed and shook his head before turning to Cinny. “Lachrimose House is my main residence, not the townhouse you’ve been to. And yours, now.”

“It’s, um, very big,” Cinny pointed out needlessly. The closer they got, the more of the building filled her vision. It wasn’t tall so much as it was wide, occupying a huge area, although it wasn’t like she could think up the square footage or something on the fly. She wasn’t an architect. But compared to the land leading up to it, which was mostly well maintained lawns and a few equally well groomed trees, it looked relatively small.

She had always known Lucent was rich—he was, after all, a duke—but it was only now that she was realizing her appreciation for his wealth was more or less purely academic than anything else. He always seemed to be more down-to-earth than the sort of snobbish individual Cinny had always imagined would live in a mansion like this, and never complained when she took him to places that, while not cheap by her standards, were probably no better than a stable, given what he was used to.

The shadows her doubts were casting in her mind got a little bit longer, and she shivered slightly.

Lucent didn’t notice, although it was hardly his fault: “A bit big, I suppose, but that’s good, isn’t it?” Lucent asked her rhetorically. “More than enough room for you—and all my herdmates—” so you can avoid Star Sparkle if you need to “—and, of course, our foals.”

Foals? Cinnamon thought. It was perhaps ironic, given her cutie mark, that she had never really gave much thought to the idea of having children herself. She hoped Lucent wasn’t expecting her to jump on the idea or whatever, it was just too scary. And right now, she was having enough scares.

Before she could respond or ask him what he meant—not that she would, given Shining was right there, even if he didn’t appear to be paying attention—the carriage rolled to a stop in front of the front steps that led up to the door. Cinny could see a couple of servants there—several donkeys and a couple of other ponies—start forward to open the carriage’s door, but before any of them could, the door was wretched opened by somepony else.

“Shining!” The somepony else turned out to be a pink pegasus—no, alicorn—clearly, this was Princess Cadance. Especially since between saying the stallion’s name and the time it took Cinny to recognize her, she had thrown herself into Shining Armour’s forelegs and locked lips with him. They kissed for a moment, although Cinnamon did her best not to watch too closely. It was only polite, after all. Plus she imagined Cadance wouldn’t want her watching anyway. Especially not the way she pressed her body up against his, or the way her wings’ fluttering grew characteristically stiff or how—

Maybe she watched a bit.

After they broke off the kiss, Cinnamon couldn’t help but notice both of them were panting as Cadance turned her attention to Lucent and her.

“Nice to see you again, Lucent,” Cadance said with a chuckle, probably at the way Lucent was rolling his eyes. Keep it under their tails, Celestia’s backside! Cinny thought to herself, although she didn’t dare say it out loud. Clearly, she was out of her depth with these ponies. Then Cadance’s eyes shifted to her, and Cinnamon did her best not to flinch.

It wasn’t that the Princess’ eyes were particularly intense or scrutinizing, but there was a certain weight behind them. Even if Cadance didn’t really sit on any throne, she was still a princess, and Cinny couldn’t help but suspect she hadn’t missed anything about her, no matter how small the detail. Compared to her—or Lucent, or Shining Armour—she was a complete nopony. At least her smile was friendly.

“You must be Cinnamon Swift, right?” Cadance asked, and extended a hoof towards her. “Lucent’s newest herdmate?”

“Uh, Yes. Your highness,” Cinny added the last part hastily. “Yes, I’m just moving in… uh, your Highnessness.”

Cadance barked a laugh, before shaking her head and reaching over to grab Cinny’s hoof in her own and shaking it. “There’s no need to be formal, Cinnamon, this is hardly a court function!” Cinny returned the hoof shake limply and tried to smile—a weak effort that, for some reason, only made Cadance’s own smile bigger. “I can see I’m making you uncomfortable,” she said, releasing Cinny’s hoof, “and I imagine you’d like to get your things unpacked and freshen up as well, but you and I should talk later.”

Before Cinny could decline the invitation or even squeak out a reply, Cadance hopped out of the carriage with Shining in tow, and headed up to the mansion, disappearing between the huge doors that marked its entrance.

“I know she can get a bit energetic, but she’s really quite sweet, you know,” Lucent said, and wrapped his foreleg around her, pulling her into a hug. Now that Shining was gone, there wasn’t any reason not to kiss—except they probably were expected to get out of the carriage eventually. “Are you okay, Cinny? You seem a bit… reserved.”

“I’m just…” She tried to figure out a way of putting her concerns into words, without, more or less, insulting the stallion accepting her into his herd and home. She couldn’t. There just seemed to be no right way of saying ‘I’m scared of the fact that we’re two very different ponies and you might not love me if I don’t fit in’. Thankfully, her stomach rumbled, reminding her of her other, more pressing problem. “I guess I’m just a bit hungry,” Cinny half-lied. “I haven’t eaten yet today.”

“Why didn’t you say so, we could have stopped and gotten you something!” Lucent said with a chuckle. Somehow Cinny had difficulty imagining the carriage pulling through a drive through. “Well, more room for supper, right?” Lucent stood up and hopped out of the carriage, offering his hoof to Cinny.

She couldn’t help but smile as she let him ‘help’ her down the steps.

“I don’t know if your room is ready just yet,” Lucent said, glancing at one of the Donkeys—probably his major domo—who in turn, shook his head. “Right, well, it’s not a formal meal, so it’s not like you need to dress up—” although everypony there will be “—so don’t worry about freshening up.”

“I should shower, or something,” Cinny said as Lucent led her to the front door and into the house. She hadn’t done so yet today, and with all the boxes she hauled around—even if Shining had done most of the heavy lifting.

“Oh?” Lucent’s eyes sparkled merrily. “I suppose I can see your point. Don’t worry, I know just the thing.”

They had sex. In Lucent’s shower. Cinnamon had never done that before, if only because her own showers were never really big enough to allow something like that. Lucent’s shower, on the other hoof… Well, they weren’t cramped for space, that was for sure.

Unfortunately, it also made them late for the supper, once they got themselves and one another dried off and looking relatively proper. Truthfully, Cinny was glad Lucent was there with her, since if she had tried to find her way through the mansion unaided, it was doubtful she would have found her way there at all. The corridors were very long and filled with doors, and there wasn’t any obvious direction to anything, really.

The dining hall was, well, a hall. If Cinny had to pick one word to describe it, she’d probably use ‘stereotypical’. It looked like something out of a movie, with a long, polished wood table down the middle with seats on both sides and at the end. The walls themselves had a number of paintings, many of whom were unicorns (or, occasionally) other ponies. Almost all of them looked ancient, and none of them depicted any pony Cinny suspected was still alive, except, of course, for a couple of relatively small paintings depicting the Princesses. It was generally considered bad luck, as she recalled, among the older nobility to have portraits done of herdmates until they had died, although she had no idea why that was.

It really wasn’t surprising that everypony had already started eating by the time the two of them slipping into the room, but they all stopped and watched them as the door shut behind them. They weren’t, mostly, unfriendly stares, of course; Twilight and Crincile both smiled and waved at her as she entered, and Cadance gave her a knowing smirk as the princess caught her eye.

“I hope you saved room for supper,” Star said as Cinny took her place. As the newest mare in the herd, Cinnamon had to sit at the head of the table with Star, the lead mare, while Lucent sat on her left-hoof side. She would have rather have sat elsewhere, but tradition was tradition, and it was only temporary, for a few days or so.

“Um, pardon?” Cinny asked as she sat down and tried not to drool over the food before her. It looked vaguely like a salad, except most of it wasn’t green. But it did smell awfully good. Given she had been late, she had no idea when she’d be allowed to eat—considering every other pony had stopped—so she decided to wait until Lucent started to eat.

“Well, we wouldn’t want you to have filled up on Lucent’s seed, would we?” Star said, sounding and looking impish. There was a low-key chuckle from the other ponies at the table, but Cinny just felt herself blush. Grained, these ponies were her herdmates, and she had done more or less the same to most of them, but… “Well, enough of that,” Star added, and picked up her glass of wine with her magic.

Before Cinny could think or move, one of the servants—a Donkey from the smell of his foreleg, appeared out of nowhere and poured wine into her glass, while another did the same with Lucent’s. The sudden appearance of the servant made her flinch, but Lucent just smiled and licked his lips as his glass filled up. When the servant withdrew, Lucent’s horn lit up and lifted his glass up as well.

It only took her a moment to realize every pony was doing the same, and apparently, she was in for a toast. So she did her best not to fumble her glass as she picked it up with her hoof.

“I’m not one for tradition,” Star said, “so, welcome to our herd, Cinnamon Swift.”

As the ponies around the table tapped their glasses, Cinny found herself blinking in surprise. It had probably been the first nice comment the mare had said to her in all the time she had known her. Part of her wanted to believe Star really was being sincere and wanted her to be in the herd, but the other part of her, the cynical side, felt that it was more likely that Lucent had just put her up to it or she was just doing it because she was lead mare. It really seemed unlikely that Star would have a change of heart, and it wasn’t as if Star wasn’t… the same way, with the other ponies in the herd. Twilight and her were always fighting over something, when they weren’t just pointedly ignoring each other. Over what, Cinny had no idea.

She might be young, but she knew better than to stick her hoof into that bear trap.

Sincere or not, though, the rest of the meal passed quickly and without anything big happening or anything falling apart. In a lot of ways, she was the center of attention, but the fact that Shining and Cadance were both there as well drew at least some of the attention away from her. It let her relax without being too overwhelmed. It was, in all, a pleasant meal, and Cinny probably ate better than she had ever done before she had met Lucent.

After the meal was finally done—Cinny had never seen so many courses—the whole herd, herself included, retired to one of the many sitting rooms. Like the one in the townhouse, the place was big and full of interesting and exotic items, but unlike the townhouse, it wasn’t so cramped that Cinny felt like it was a storage room and not a place for family. She had taken to laying out next to Twilight on some sort of sofa, while the mare helped her filly read.

Well, sort of. Twilight was, in theory, reading to Guiding Light, but mostly the filly was doing the reading while Twilight acted as cushion and seat all in one, and helped her hold the book up. It looked quite heavy and old, probably from the family’s personal libraries.

Still, it was a nice sight to relax to—Cinny was technically using Twilight as a pillow too, but the older mare didn’t seem to mind—while she digested her meal. Maybe having a foal wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Then Lucent got up and cleared his throat.

“Well, I can’t say I don’t enjoy welcoming somepony new into the herd,” Lucent said, drawing everypony’s attention to him. Cinny smiled sheepishly at him. “Because my father always told me never to lie.” Lucent grinned quickly before dialling it back to just a smile. “So, welcome to the herd, Cinnamon Swift. I’m sure over the next couple of days we’ll be saying that a lot—“

“I don’t think what you’ll be doing falls under the definition of ‘speech’, Lucent,” Cadance quipped, causing Cinny to snort—and her wings to stiffen slightly. Ah well, looked like the reprieve from that was over. The Princess was occupying the only love-seat in the room with Shining, and the two seemed perfectly content—although clearly no less aware.

Lucent chuckled and shook his head. “Yes, well, that’s true enough. I do have something else I wanted to say though—”

“Actually, there’s something Cadance and I wanted to bring up as well,” Shining interrupted. Cinny noticed the stallion and Cadance exchange a look, as if they were having a private discussion between them. Then they shared a small nod and tried to get back on their own hooves.

If Lucent was perturbed by this turn of events, he didn’t show it, rather he stepped away and allowed Shining—and Cadance—to take his place as center of attention.

“We were thinking of holding this off until after we got back from the Gryphon Kingdoms,” Shining said, pausing only for a second to look at his mare. If the fact that the two ponies were going to be heading into the heart of the Gryphon territory was news, none of the other ponies in the room seemed surprised. Of course, that wasn’t the actual news.

“We’ve decided to get married,” Cadance said with a wild grin.

There was what Cinny could only call a stunned silence. She had only ever heard the phrase in books and never experienced it herself, but it was quite something. After a moment, the two ponies’ eagerness started to wear off. It was easiest to see in Shining, of course, as his grin turned to a half-smile, and then to something resembling the stony face Cinny had only seen on guards. Cadance, on the other hoof, maintained her smile, but somehow it dimmed and became dull without actually changing after a couple of moments.

Marriage was relatively unusual, but if that’s what the two of them wanted, to officially tie their hearts and souls together, well, that was up to them. Besides, both of them had been really nice to her in the short time she had known the two of them.

“Congratulations,” Cinnamon cleared her throat and struggled up into a more dignified position. She was really going to have to watch how much she ate, if every meal was going to be like that one. “The two of you will be very happy together.”

“Thanks!” In a heartbeat, whatever had disappeared from Cadance’s face resurged, twice as strong as before, and Cinny couldn’t help but grin in return. Shining’s smile didn’t reappear as quickly, and he kept glancing at—

“Oh, shut up, child,” Star snapped, glancing at Cinny. She couldn’t tell if she meant her or Cadance or both. “What’s this nonsense about getting married?”

“But mother,” Shining said at once—he had probably be expecting this. “I love Cadance, and besides, marrying into the Crown means we’ll—”

“So?” Star made the word into a curse. “It’s bad enough I had to endure Lucent marrying Crinkle here—”

“Crincile, Star,” the mare in question corrected with an air of futility.

“—but there was nothing I could do about that,” Star snapped as her horn lit up. Twisting her head, Cinny managed to notice, and dodge, a fast moving decanter of what looked like rum. Somehow Star had managed to find herself a glass, and took a quick shot. “I’ve gone through this backwards crap once already, I’m not going to go through it again!”

“I think attending another marriage could be fun,” Crystal Glimmer said, sounding a bit excited. Cinny noticed Twilight nodding, but she didn’t seem as certain as Crystal sounded. Star, perhaps naturally, ignored both ponies.

Shining opened his mouth to say something—Cinny suspected it would probably be something most of the ponies involved would regret—but before he could, Lucent stepped between Star and his son and fiancé, and murmured a quick something to both of them. It was low enough that most ponies in the room couldn’t hear what he was saying, but it wasn’t so low that Cinny couldn’t.

“Shining, Star, can we please not do this now—yes, I know,” Lucent’s voice was soft and weary. “Star, we did this enough times when I was getting married.”

“Good, so you should already be well acquainted with what I’m going to say. I’d hate to waste the—”

Cinny rubbed her face with her hoof, and realized Cadance was looking at her with a sad-looking smirk on her face. It took her a second to realize the Princess’s ears pointed towards the arguing threesome as well. Was Alicorn hearing as sharp as Pegasus hearing? She shook her head. Questions for later.

“Fine, Dad,” Shining was saying as Cinnamon refocused her attention. “I’m sorry I yelled, Mother.”

“It’s alright, Shining,” Star said in a normal voice, before waving Shining off and returning to her seat.

Shining went back to Cadance, and the two of them pressed their muzzles together briefly, before returning to their seat as well, while Lucent looked suddenly rather tired.

“Well, congratulations, you two,” Lucent smiled, but his voice sounded less than energetic. “I’m sure it’ll be quite the event.” Lucent paused and smiled a bit brighter. “Now, for my bit of news. I know most of you weren’t expecting Cadance and Shining here, but I just happened to run into them while I was holding Court with the Princess—Princesses, rather. I won’t bore you with the details, but after all was said in done, Celestia gave me—” There was a flash of light and two golden tickets appeared in his magical grasp. Cinny’s eyes grew wide. Everypony in Canterlot—if not Equestria—knew what those were. “Two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala.”

“OH!” Crystal said. The Earth Pony jumped out of her seat like she had sat on something hot. “Pick me! Pick me! I want to go!”

“I—” Lucent began, but Scintilla cut him off.

“I can only imagine the sorts of contacts I can make at the Gala,” she said, rubbing her hooves together. She was excited, of course, but apparently, not in the same way Crystal was. “Do you think the dragons will send an envoy? I know the last bunch didn’t work out so well but—”

“I need to meet ponies too!” Crystal shot back, stopping in mid canter and slamming her hoof down on the floor with a crack. As an Earth pony, it was enough that the room gently shook.

“It’s just been forever since I’ve been in the spotlight, Luci,” Glint’s sigh was low and breathy, somehow managing to sound sexual and needy. “Why not me? We could have a colt’s night and—”

“I’m going to bring Cinnamon,” Lucent had to raise his voice over the din, which was swiftly followed by another shocked silence. “We get these tickets every year, and we always fight over who gets to go. As our newest herdmember, I think I should take you, Cinny.”

“Uh,” Cinny tried to gather her thoughts. The Gala was probably the biggest party anypony could want to go to, at least it was in Equestria. On the other hoof, it wasn’t like Cinny was fitting in too well in high society either, and the Gala was as high society as a pony could get. Plus, she wasn’t sure it was worth the trouble with the rest of the herd. Twilight looked thoughtful—and Guiding Light, despite everything, had fallen asleep—but Scintilla was frowning at her, which was nothing compared to the expression Crystal was giving her. Even Glint’s expression wasn’t that friendly. The only ponies that apparently didn’t care were Cadance and Shining—who were having a private whispered conversation in their love seat—and Star. But the latter was to be expected.

“I… I don’t think so, Lucent,” Cinny said finally, managing to hold in her sigh. “Thank you for thinking of me, though, it means a lot.”

“Oh,” Lucent’s face fell. “Why?”

“Pff,” Crystal jumped up, looking eager again. “She said no, so the logical choice would be me! And—”

Crystal’s voice cut off, although Cinny could still hear her mumbling against her lips. But her mouth was being held shut by somepony’s magic, although she still hadn’t managed to clue into which colours belong to whom. Still, it only took a second to glance around the room, and to her surprise, it was Star’s doing.

“I just don’t think—I mean, it’s not like I have a dress or anything,” Cinny said, trying to explain herself. She shrugged.

“I really would like for you to come with me, Cinny,” Lucent said, “I want you to meet my daughter.”

“Huh?” Cinny tilted her head, not quite following Lucent’s logic.

“Twilight never goes to the Gala, Lucent,” Star said pointedly. At least she sounded a bit calmer with a bit more alcohol in her system. “Ever.”

“Ah,” Lucent nodded, first to Cinny, and then to Star. “Yes, but you see, that’s why Celestia pulled me aside. Apparently, she is going this year, along with all her friends. The other Element Bearers, that is.”

“What.” The only Element Bearers that Cinny knew of were the ones that defeated Nightmare Moon… The ones she had written a book about. An erotic novel about…

“I know I didn’t really get to see much of Twilight, in recent years, what with her being busy with her studies and all,” Lucent said with a forlorn sigh, “but I miss her—and I’d like for you to meet her, Cinny, I think you’d have a lot in common.

Twilight. As in Twilight Sparkle. Cinny felt a headache building behind her eyes and she tried not to frown too severely. Of course. Of bucking course. It was right in front of her the whole time—how did she manage to miss the fact that she was dating Twilight Sparkle’s bucking father? Oh sweet Celestia’s behind, she really wished she could go back in time and slap herself silly. She wanted to scream or swear or something.

Of course, she couldn’t go and do any of those things, so she just smiled sweetly, and said: “Well, when you put it that way… I’ll think about it.”

Author's Note

Originally written as a a single chapter, I had to break this next section into two chapters, the second of which I'll post tomorrow or monday.

You may have noticed that the title has changed, this is mostly because I realize that not including the 'Xenophilia' title in it was probably leading to a fair amount of confusion. That's why I've also decided to remove the 'excerpts' of Cinnamon Swift's book. It's possible once I've written everything I'll go back and add them back in place.

There's probably a great number of spelling errors, as this often seems to be my bane, but I've had multiple people look over it several times, so hopefully the worst of it is gone. But if you see anything, feel free to point it out.

Elements of Love Page 214

Author's Note

Behold the return of the excerpts!

Don't... look at me like that, Archonix made me do it!

Elements of Love Page 214

Elements of Love ----------------------------------------------------------By Cinnamon Swift

Cooed softly as Twilight rubbed her hoof against her belly. Fluttershy was as soft and warm as she looked, if only she could coax her out of her shell a bit more…

“Oh, I don’t know, Twilight,” Fluttershy whimpered. “I’ve never… done… it with a filly before?”

“Truly?” Twilight bit back a giggle. No wonder Fluttershy was so bashful! “I’ll just have to show you, won’t I?”

“Show me I don’t—eep!” Fluttershy’s protest was cut off as Twilight’s hoof traveled a bit further down her friend’s belly, pushing against her teats and tugging them. As much as Twilight wanted to be gentle with her new friend, she couldn’t hold back; every squeak and half-hearted protest just egged her on.

As Fluttershy’s wings flared open of their accord, Twilight rolled her friend onto her back, forcing her wings out and flat against the wooden floor of her friend’s house. It was a bit difficult not to notice the various animals around the room watching them intently, but Fluttershy didn’t seem to mind—if anything, it seemed to turn the mare on more so.

Well well, Twilight smiled to herself, I’ll have to keep that in mind.

“Ohhh, Twi-Twilight, please!” Fluttershy moaned, and Twilight noticed the very wingtips of flicker with excitement.

Not missing a beat, Twilight leaned over, draping her barrel over Fluttershy’s belly and pushing her muzzle against the most sensitive parts of the mare’s wings. She plucked at the feathers gently with her teeth, careful not to pull those sensitive parts of her anatomy too hard—somehow she doubted Fluttershy would enjoy it as much as Dashie had. She only wished she had brought some toys!

“W-wait!” Fluttershy said, before pushing Twilight’s muzzle away from her wings with her hoof. Had she done something wrong? Perhaps Fluttershy’s wings were just too sensitive… “Um… um, I have some, um, things in my drawer, I think you might like.”

Reluctantly, Twilight allowed Fluttershy to get up, and her friend waddled over to her bedroom drawer, winking all the way. Twilight couldn’t help but grin—compared to Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy was all too easy to please, which would make defeating Nightmare Moon easier.

“Um,” Fluttershy said as she pulled out what was easily the largest dildo Twilight had ever seen—it would have made Dashie freak out, if he ever saw it, that was sure, and would have given Applejack’s cock a run for it’s money too. “I-if you want, I… um.”

“Will it fit?” Twilight blurted out, trying not to cross her legs. She didn’t want to be ruined for her herd—she had no idea Fluttershy liked it so… big.

“We’ll, um, just have to find out?” Fluttershy said, sounding as if she was trying to be assertive and failing. “I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

“I… if we take it slow…” Twilight offered after a moment, before rolling onto her belly and presenting her rear and her soft petals for Fluttershy. Even though she had second thoughts, the size of it and the thought of it being in her… excited her, in more than one way. That’s why she was a bit surprised when, instead of the blunt, hard head of silicone stallionflesh, she found her flower being assaulted by a warm, moist tongue.

“F-fluttershy!” Twilight gasped out, as her folds clamped down on

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 214

Persuasion

Cinnamon Swift, her mother had told her when she was growing up, never let your stallion see you cry. That was always her way of explaining why Cadmium Dash, one of Cinny’s herdmothers, locked herself in the bedroom closet before crying. She had left the herd after a few months of those crying episodes, but Cinny had never really understood why. Until now.

Cinny didn’t really have a closet.

Oh, she had a room where she could store her clothing, of course, but the room was only slightly smaller than her bedroom in her old apartment, so it didn’t really feel just right to even call it a closet. Therefore, she ended up on the bed, trying not to cry too loudly while she let the tears out.

She was going to lose everything.

Losing the material things really didn’t bother Cinny as much as the fact that she was going to lose Lucent and Twilight and Crincile and Glint and Scintilla... she was even going to lose Crystal and Star, and neither mare really seemed to like her very much. But the… idea of having any of them angry at her, of never seeing them again...

Well, that’s why she had excused herself to her room so she could cry it out.

Her… her herd of course didn’t know that was what she was really up to, since she had begged off staying up longer with the other ponies by saying she had to unpack. Which was true, but she hadn’t bothered touching the boxes or bags by the front door. She probably shouldn’t even try, considering she’d probably be homeless once they found out.

Her first thought was, perhaps they wouldn’t find out? She could always just tell Lucent she wasn’t interested in going to the Gala, which was only sort of partly a lie. She didn’t think there was a filly or colt alive that hasn't, at some point, dreamt about going to the Gala. Some part of her still wanted to go, even though she was a grown mare and knew full well she probably wouldn’t fit in. But that would only really delay the inevitable.

Even if Twilight—or Celestia forbid, one of the other Element Bearers like Rainbow Dash or Applejack, who probably wouldn’t take too kindly to being stallions in the book—didn’t find out, it wouldn’t surprise her if one of her herdmates did. Even if it wasn’t their forte, several of them had expressed interest in reading the novel once it was published. That is ignoring the fact that Lucent certainly would. Somepony was going to find out, and everything was going to fall apart.

Cinny rubbed her eyes with the back of her fetlock. It was ironic, if she hadn’t been in such a rush to get published, to get known and established, she probably would have met Lucent, and through him, Twilight Velvet. She probably have been more than willing to help get an editor to take a second look at her more original stuff, give it a better chance. She had the sort of connections she needed.

Maybe she should just grab her things and slip out. She didn’t want to hurt anypony, but she figured she was probably going to end up doing that anyway. Although, she had no idea where she’d—

Her ears perked up and after a second or two of silence, Cinny heard it again, a faint knocking. Well, the knocking probably wasn’t faint so much as her rooms were so large that it wasn’t easy to hear. Somepony wanted to come in. She hesitated, thinking. It was, technically, her first night in the herd as a full member—she couldn’t help but bark a bitter laugh at that—so if it was anypony, it would probably be one of her herdmates, checking on her and trying to get her into bed.

She couldn’t help but bite her lip a little at that. She probably could use the companionship right about now.

Still, it wouldn’t do for them to realize she was crying, so she wiped her eyes again and took a couple of slow breaths before crawling out of the bed. With luck, her eyes wouldn’t be too puffy or red.

It took her a moment to cross the space between the side of her bed and the doors that led to… Cinny wasn’t sure what the proper term was, but given the various seats and small tables, she had taken to calling it a sitting room. That room was connected to the doors that led to the hallway, and by the time she had reached the door, the visitor was on her fourth or fifth knocking session.

Cinny took another deep breath, and pulled the door open.

“Hello,” Cadance said as her lips curved up into a smile. What was a Princess doing here? At her room? “Can I come in?”

“Uh,” Cinny said, feeling a bit numb. She wasn’t sure she really wanted to entertain a Princess. Firstly, she had no idea how, and secondly, she really wasn’t in the mood to spend the evening fidgeting nervously and trying her best to not get thrown in a dungeon for insulting her.

Cadance’s smile seemed to take on a bit of a softer edge, and she tilted her head a bit. “Don’t think of me as a Princess, just think of me as another mare.” Cadance looked thoughtful for a moment, before her crown levitated off her head and she tucked it under her wing. “Better?”

“I…” Cinnamon sighed, and sidestepped before gesturing with her wing for Cadance to come in. Another mare? Yeah right. Next she’ll be telling her Celestia goes to the washroom and puts her horseshoes on one at a time.

The Princess didn’t wait to be offered a seat, which was good because Cinny had no idea how to do that, and sat down on the biggest couch. Cinny was about to sit in one of the other seats when Cadance patted the spot beside her with her hoof.

Part of her wanted to refuse out of irritation, but after a second’s hesitation, she accepted the offer taking a seat on the opposite side of the couch so she wouldn’t violate the mare’s personal space. that lasted about five seconds before Cadance pulled her into a hug.

What.

It took Cinnamon about five seconds to do anything, which in this case was flinch in surprise and let out a squawk of protest. “W-what are you d-doing?”

“I believe the common ponies of Equestria call it a hug,” Cadance said with a wink.

It took her a moment to realize that Cadance’s grip wasn’t exactly vice like. If she really wanted to get out of her legs and wings, Cinny probably could do so with ease. On the other hoof though… it was sort of nice. “Why?” Cinnamon asked, after a second. Hopefully it wasn’t going to turn out that she and Cadance were supposed to have sex or something, because she was a princess and Cinny was the new mare in a noble herd. There were all kinds of rumours about the decadence of the older noble families, but she rather doubted that one. Never mind the fact that Cadance was supposed to be the alicorn of love.

“You looked like you needed it,” Cadance said simply. “You seemed rather upset when you left us to go…” Cadance’s gaze flicked to the stack of untouched boxes near the door, and she smirked, “unpack.”

Cinny frowned. She could have sworn she had done a better job of hiding it. Still… “Thanks.”

“Not at all,” Cadance’s legs slackened and Cinny struggled up to an upright position. “Want to talk about it?”

“No,” Cinny said at once and perhaps too quickly, earning a curious look from Cadance. Part of her wanted to talk to Cadance, explain her fears about how she didn’t fit in and now, because of her own stupidity, she was probably going to lose everything she had gained. The latter part she certainly couldn’t bring up, since Cadance was Shining’s fiancé, and unless she missed her mark completely, both she and Cadance were rather close to Twilight Sparkle. Telling her about Elements of Love would be like going and telling Lucent right then and there. At least her boxes were already packed. Maybe just getting a few of her concerns off her chest would be helpful though.

“I mean, I guess. I don’t know.” Cinnamon paused as Cadance quirked an eyebrow at her, before gesturing to the room. “I see stuff like this, and all I can think is, I’m not going to fit in. With Lucent. Or even the other mares… I mean, I know they’re not all nobility but—”

“You’ll fit in fine,” Cadance said with an airy flick of her wing. “Lucent is one of the most down to earth individuals I’ve met, and besides Crincile the other mares aren’t really that different from you.”

“But…”

“I know it seems scary, and yes, you’ll probably make a few mistakes or whatever, use the wrong fork or stuff, but that’ll come in time,” Cadance continued. “Star doesn’t typically stick to protocol when she can get away with it either. Moreover, Lucent’s a duke, and you’re a duke’s herdmate. Nobles like Lucent tend to be far more laid back about this sort of stuff than what you might expect, Cinnamon. Most ponies think Auntie—Celestia that is—would be stern and cold, but she isn’t. There’s no need for her to be because she’s already at the top.”

“Oh,” Cinny wasn’t sure if she really believed her. Even if Lucent rolled around in the mud all day, he’d still be a duke, and she’d still be a pegasus who half the time can’t fly anywhere.

“You doubt me,” Cadance said with a smile. There was no accusation in her voice, but it still made Cinny flinch.

Cinny nodded slowly.

“Let me tell you a secret,” Cadance leaned in close and whispered in Cinny’s ear, her hot breath causing Cinny to shiver. Also, her breath smelled like minty chocolate. “I used to be a pegasus, like you.”

“What?” Cinny couldn’t believe it. Ponies couldn’t just… become alicorns, could they? For a brief moment she imagined herself with a longer frame and great big pointy horn coming out of her forehead. She almost laughed aloud.

“It’s true, but it only happens rarely,” Cadance said, “sometimes we refuse the title, or an alicorn will use magic to appear normal. And so on.” Cadance looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head. “My point being that I was once in your position too, going from a filly to princess overnight. It was hard, but I survived, and so will you.”

“I… I guess. Thanks,” Cinnamon agreed. Of course, Cadance had no idea that she had written something that was probably going to get her thrown out of the herd. Then again, if she wasn’t in Lucent’s herd, she wouldn’t need to learn how to pretend to be a noble either. “Thanks for talking to me, Princess, I guess I…” Cinny shrugged unhappily.

“Call me Cadance,” she said, her lips twitching, “Is there anything else you’d like to talk to me about?”

Cinny opened her mouth to refuse, when a question occurred to her. “Why are you doing this at all, erm, Cadance? I mean, we don’t really know one another…”

“True,” she admitted, running her hoof through her tri-colored mane absentmindedly. “The Crown has always been close to the Noctis Family, going back to when Nightmare Moon was defeated and—” Cadance caught her eye as Cinny tried to hide a yawn. She really wasn’t yawning because she was bored, but the princess seemed to take it as such. “That’s beside the point, I suppose. I guess in some ways, I feel like I’m sort of an unofficial member of Lucent’s herd. He was always good to me when I was growing up… Plus, I like you.”

“Oh.” Cinny couldn’t help but feel it wasn’t a particularly useful answer.

“But don’t try to change the subject; is there nothing else you’d like to talk about?” Cadance’s lips twitched as if she was trying to resist grinning.

“Not really,” Cinny lied.

“Oh?” Cadance smirked, “So you’re okay with possibly meeting Twilight Sparkle, whom just happens to star in a rather erotic novel you’re having published?”

Cinnamon Swift felt her heart stop and her eyes go wide as she did a passable imitation of a goldfish. Part of her brain started to wonder how solidly those windows were set in their frames, and if she could fly faster than Cadance…

Cadance looked at her levelly, or tried to, since her smirk was sort of marring the effect. Cinny stared back, and after what felt like forever forced out a reply that was supposed to be ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, good pony,’ but came out sounding more like a cross between a grunt and a squeak.

“Okay, I’ve had my fun,” Cadance’s smirk dropped and she looked more concerned than amused now. “Does it help if I say I’m not mad?”

“Uhhh,” at least she sounded less like a dumb horse this time. Finally, after several tries, she got out, “H-how do you know?”

“Well,” Cadance’s horn lit and there was a popping sound as a copy of Elements of Love materialized in her telekinetic grip. Whereas Cinny’s copy of the book was well-treated and cared for, this copy looked worn and older somehow. It mostly looked well read. “I suppose you could say I’ve been enjoying my copy…” Cadance licked her lips and let the book fall into her hooves. “I'm the owner of Warm Times Publishing, my little pony.” Her grin turned wolfish, “and sometimes editor too.”

“Wait, you’re Platinum Corona?” Cinny said as her brain finally decided to make the connection for her. She had been communicating with a pony named Platinum Corona for months, slowly working to improve her novel to the point of publishing, but she had never met her. It didn’t really surprise her, she hadn’t expected to meet with her… although now she was wondering if she should have been a bit suspicious.

“Indeed,” Cadance gestured with her hoof, and mimicked a bow, “at your service. I’ll say I rather enjoyed your novel. Your grammar, not so much.”

Cinny grimaced—she didn’t need to meet her editor face-to-face to know that much. However, that left her with another pressing question:“Aren’t you… mad?”

“Mad?” Cadance echoed, sounding a bit lost. “Because…?” the alicorn blinked as realization overtook her before Cinny could explain. “Oh, I see, you mean because you wrote an erotic novel featuring my friend?”

“Err…” And here she thought Cadance had only foalsat for Twilight Sparkle. “Yeah.”

“Not particularly,” Cadance said at once without the slightest hint of hesitation. “You’ve written a story where Twilight goes out and finds friendship and love, what’s there to be mad about?” Cadance smiled warmly. “But I’m guessing you’re thinking more about the erotic parts.”

She nodded, and did her best not to look at her hooves to avoid Cadance’s gaze.

“No, not really.” Cadance’s hoof reached over and forced Cinny’s muzzle up towards her. “Sex, after all, is a part of love, yes?” Cinny wasn’t sure what to say. Of course, but that didn’t mean Twilight—or her birth herd—was going to be happy about it. “I’ll grant you that Twilight will probably be a bit… peeved, I suppose, about it, but in the end I think it’ll do her good.” Cadance smile widened a bit at Cinny’s expression. “Sometimes I think she forgets there’s more to life than books—maybe if she sees herself in a book, doing those sorts of things, she’ll think about dating again. Did you know the last time she was in a herd was when she was in school?”

Well no, Cadance, of course she didn’t know that. She didn’t even know she was dating Twilight Sparkle’s birth herd until a few hours ago. Cinny resisted the temptation to roll her eyes.

“Maybe,” Cinnamon said noncommittally. Oh sure, that’s how she’ll sell the idea to her herd. She was just helping Twilight get laid. Community service and all that. Yeah, of—or… “Maybe, but maybe we should just… stop the presses?” Is that even the proper term?

“Don’t you want to be published?” Cadance asked, tilting her head as she looked at her. For some reason the expression of bemused confusion made Cinny want to scream.

“Of course I want to be published!” Cinny snarled as she popped off the couch with a flap of her wings. Thankfully, the ceiling in the suit was quite high, so there wasn’t much chance of her hitting her head. “I want to be famous or loved or whatever, but I don’t want to…” Cinny let herself drop back down onto her hooves with a thud. “I don’t want to lose my herd over this. I’d rather you just stopped it and I tried again with something else.”

“Mhmm…” Cadance muttered, looking thoughtful. “Have you talked to Lucent about this? Or Star?”

“No, I—”

“Maybe you should? I don’t think Warm Times is going to be happy with me if I tell them they need to recall a bunch of books they’ve already printed, many of which are already being shipped,” Cadance added. “You’re afraid Lucent is going to reject you, but I don’t think he will… He’s more of a lover than a fighter.” The alicorn smiled, then she blushed—an odd sight on somepony so dignified. “In some ways, he’s kind of a pushover.”

“Hey!” Cinny snapped as she jabbed her hoof at Cadance, “Don’t you talk about… him…” her voice trailed off as she realized what she was doing. And with whom. It was one thing to get in a mare’s face when she was badmouthing her stallions, but this was a bucking Princess! “…like that… err.” Her throat seized up as she tried to choke out a ‘sorry’.

“Don’t worry about it,” Cadance said, gently pushing Cinny’s hoof off her chest. “I should have spoken with more tact. Still, I doubt Lucent would hold a grudge.”

“What about the others? Or Star?” It was a large herd, of course, so it might be difficult for the herd as a group to decide whether or not she should get kicked out. Lucent was only one pony, even if he was the lead stallion of the herd, and Star already didn’t like her. Plus, she knew from the time she had spent with Twilight that Guiding Light was her only foal, which meant Twilight Sparkle had to be Star’s.

Different herds exercised power differently, and in some herds the lead mare had rather significant amounts of… well Cinny could only think to call it political power. But this wasn’t always the case—growing up, she had known fillies who came from herds where the idea of a lead mare wasn’t something they talked about, whereas her own birth herd had been, more or less, ruled by Updraft with an iron hoof. Cinny didn’t know how it was with Lucent’s herd though, mostly because that sort of thing was never discussed with outsiders.

When Cinny had originally been asked out by Lucent, she had assumed it was because his herd tended to be more progressive than not. Now, having spent some time with the herd, many of them—like Twilight Velvet or Crincile—seemed to be more traditionalist than anything else. Perhaps not too surprising, given that the nobility tended to be slow to change with the times.

“Star… Star’s a bit of a tricky pony,” Cadance admitted, rubbing her chin. “I wish I knew her a bit better, and my first instinct is that… well, she’s probably going to find the whole thing a joke.” She let out a sigh, “On the other hoof, she is a bit of a traditionalist, even if she would never say so.”

“How can you be a bit of a traditionalist?”

“By being Star Sparkle, apparently.” Cadance barked out a laugh. “Keep in mind I’ve only known this herd from the outside, and I don’t know Star as well as, say, Lucent or Twilight would.”

Cinny nodded. It was better than her big box of no knowledge whatsoever.

“She dislikes traditions, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t hold traditionalist views, so keep that in mind…” Cadance pursed her lips thoughtfully. “You’ll notice how she reacted, when I said Shining and I were getting married?”

“She said it was backwards thinking…” Cinny couldn’t see how that wasn’t progressive, although she didn’t really agree. Weddings were fun! Or so she assumed, since she had never had a chance to go to one.

“Oh yes,” Cadance agreed, a bit sadly, “but I suspect what’s really upset her is the fact that we went behind her back. Marriage, far more than joining a herd, is about power and things like inheritance.” Cadance shrugged. “It’s a bit like getting bucked in the face.”

“I guess…” Cinny hadn’t thought of it this way. It brought to mind the times Updraft hadn’t gotten her way. She had been too young to really understand what was going on, but she did remember the shouting.

“She pretends to be progressive, but deep down her rather—I’m sure you’ve noticed—dominating personality keeps the other mares in your herd in line.” Cadance looked slightly embarrassed, “if you’ll pardon my frankness.”

Sure, why not? She was a Princess, after all. Still, that left the opportune question.

“So you’re saying,” Cinny said with a gulp and a wince, “that I should go and talk to Star?”

**
Finding Star wasn’t as easy as it appeared. Even though Cinnamon would have preferred to get everything squared away as soon as possible—Or at least, that’s what she told herself. Truthfully, the idea of approaching any of the herd with her confession was rather terrifying on several levels but at the end of the day she told herself—repeatedly—to just pony up and get it done. However, she didn’t have much of a chance to seek out Star that very night, considering Cinny was trying not to be rude to the Princess.

Cadance didn’t stay too long, Cinny supposed, after dispensing her advice, but she did decide to spend some more time to talk about herself. It was only later when Cinny was leaning against the door and just trying to centre herself again that she realized Cadance probably had done so on purpose to give her time to figure out what to say and how to approach the mare. So she had sat down and done so.

The delay, plus the fact that it was getting fairly late and between moving and dinner and finding out about Twilight and crying her eyes out… the excitement had taken a fair amount out of her, so she planned on approaching Star in the morning, perhaps right after breakfast. It seemed a bit early for anypony to be drinking, which concerned Cinny a bit since having a bit of booze in her system seemed to even Star out a bit, but it’d be better than continually waiting all day for her to get drunk.

She planned carefully, selecting words and phrases she might use—going so far as to take detailed notes on her thoughts so she could study them in the morn.

It was a little bit distressing then, when she woke up the next morning and hurried down to the dining hall, only to find it empty of everypony except a half-asleep Lucent and the servants. At first she thought perhaps she was early, but then she noticed one of the donkeys taking away a used plate and a couple of forks.

“’mornin’,” Lucent mumbled, as Cinny cautiously pulled out the chair opposite him, with Star’s spot conspicuously empty between them. Cinny couldn’t remember seeing Lucent this early in the morning, except on the occasions he had spent the night in her grubby apartment. On those occasions though, the two of them didn’t exactly make any effort to wake up early. Lucent half-opened his eyes and groped for his coffee. He kept missing, and after a second or two of watching him struggle, Cinny leaned over and nudged the mug into the path of his questing hoof. Thank goodness he wasn’t trying to use magic on it!

“’hanks,” her stallion mumbled, before he disappeared behind the rim of his mug as he took a long drink of it. When he finally emerged, he looked noticeably better, although Cinny couldn’t help but notice that one of the servants—a unicorn this time—hastened to refill the mug. “Sleep well?”

“I guess,” Cinny said in a noncommittal tone. She had managed to fall asleep fairly easily, but she had also woken several times that night with nightmares. Not that she could remember what they were about, although she could guess her herd and their reaction featured heavily. For some reason she kept recalling some sort of dark-coated mare who was either an unicorn or a pegasus, who kept showing up too. “Where is everypony?”

“hrmp?” Lucent said, having just now received a newspaper from a servant and was perusing it. “Oh, work I’d imagine. I think Glint and Crinkle might have spent the night together though. They usually get breakfast in bed after that.” Lucent started and blushed, which made Cinny smile fondly at him. “Don’t…. don’t tell Crincile that I called her ‘Crinkle’, its bad enough that Star does that.”

“Sure,” Cinny said. Yeah, because I don’t have enough troubles without making you mad at me in other ways. “Speaking of Star… where does she work?”

“Eh? Oh, at the university. Canterlot University, that is,” Lucent took another deep drink and looked slightly better. “Not in the astronomy department though, in hippology and archaeology and… some other stuff I imagine. Knowing Star she’d gone and gotten another degree behind our backs and never said a word.” He shrugged and his eyes narrowed as he peering a little closer at Cinny. “Why?”

“Oh, uh,” Cinny hadn’t really expected everyone to wake up early and leave before she got a chance to talk anypony. So much for the idea that nobility lazed around all day. So naturally she had to think of an excuse right away. “I wanted… to talk to her. She is the lead mare, after all.”

Lucent snorted and shook his head. “She’d probably call it an outdated term, if she heard you call her that.”

“Even so… I mean, I don’t think she really likes me much, and, well…”

“I see,” Lucent took a bit of his breakfast, which was some sort of light salad, as he considered her words. As she watched, Cinny’ stomach growled.

Before she could think of finding the kitchens however, one of the servants placed an equally generous serving of salad next to her elbow without speaking. He—a rather handsome looking donkey, although Cinny wasn’t really into them—held up two different pots, clearly telling her to pick one without actually saying so. Cinny stared at him for a moment before murmuring ‘coffee’. Apparently, she wasn’t the only pony at the table struggling with cognitive processes that morning.

As she helped herself to generous helping of sugar and cream, Lucent came back to Equestria and started talking again.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” he said between bites, “after so many years, I guess it’s just difficult to tell when she’s being especially prickly towards somepony. I’m partly to blame as well, I suppose. I… err… never asked Star if it would be okay to approach you—not that I didn’t tell her!” Lucent hastened to add. “But not until after you had already…”

“Oh.” Cinny wasn’t sure if she should be mad or not. On one hoof, she was pretty much in the barn already over the whole Elements of Love thing, so if anything they were even. On the other hoof, however… Well, she wasn’t sure how she felt, but she knew she didn’t like how Star had been treating her. “Oh,” she repeated at last.

“Apparently she went and bought all the flowers the same colour as your coat for a week or so before our date,” Lucent added with a chuckle, not seeing Cinnamon’s twisted expression of mingled love and anger. “I didn’t find out until I went into her ice storage place and found it full of…” he finally realized Cinny wasn’t laughing with him and let his voice trail off.

Cinny let out a sigh. Stallions…

“I don’t know if talking to Star will do you much good, though,” Lucent said, as he got back on topic. “But she’s pretty malleable if you make the effort. She might respond better to straight sex though—”

It was rather unfortunate that Cinny had just taken a big drink of her coffee at that moment, and had to spend several additional moments suffering through her windpipe being scalded.

“And if anything she’s probably more pissed off at me,” Lucent concluded, pausing as Cinny coughed several times. “Are you alright?”

“Uh,” Cinny coughed and shook her head in a weak attempt to make the sensation go away. “Just went down the wrong way.”

Sex with Star… well, that was something to think of. It wasn’t that Cinny didn’t like sex, that much was obvious to anypony who spent more than five minutes in her presence, nor was it that she was opposed to sleeping with her herdmates, as some mares tended to be. After all, she had spent several nights with most of her herdsisters and Glint. But she hadn’t approached Star yet, although she suspected it might be breaking some small number of traditions or whatever by not sleeping with the lead mare.

She liked sex, but that didn’t make her a whore. Rude or mean ponies just made her cold, and Star seemed to be both. Still, Cinny thought to herself with a mental sigh, if it comes down to it, it couldn’t be too bad… right? For a brief moment, Cinny considered seeking out Twilight Velvet for her advice on the topic, since, of all the ponies, she was pretty certain that the grey coated mare was off somewhere with Guiding Light or working on one of her books. In other words, she’d be around. Then she remembered the Velvet wasn’t exactly friendly with Star at the moment, so that wouldn’t be of much help to her.

Talking to Lucent about sex with Star wasn’t really an option either. He was far more versed in foreplay than most stallions she had taken to bed, but he was still a stallion and she doubted he’d understand a mare the way another mare would. Oh well, she’d be flying blind, but she was already pretty much in the middle of a twister anyway.

“I have to try,” Cinny said at last.

“I understand,” Lucent gave her a small nod and smiled. “Don’t worry if it doesn’t work out, okay? I love you, even if Star struggles with it.”

“I…” Cinny’s heart seemed to leap into her throat. She probably wouldn’t react that way if it weren’t for the fact that she was keeping something so big from him. “I love you too, Lucent.”

“I missed you last night,” Lucent continued, “especially since it was… you know, your first night in the herd.”

“I’ll make it up to you, I promise,” Cinny dearly hoped she’d be able to, although she suspected it was going to take a fair amount of effort to make up for her other transgressions than just her missing sleeping with Lucent.

“I look forward to it,” Lucent grinned and it made the whole room seem a few shades brighter. “Oh, one last thing with Star, bring her a bottle of gin.”

Despite living in Canterlot for slightly over two years, Cinny had never been able to figure out if the buildings looked the same on purpose, or if unicorns were just particularly dull and uncreative when it came to architecture. While not every building had the same sort of high-strung style decked out in white and gold, a fair number of the structures did. Except, oddly, Canterlot University.

The University was nearly as old as the Royal Palace, but where the palace soared and looked as if created on whole by a single master artisian, the University was rather squat and spread out. Bits and pieces popped up over the years, and these days there always seemed to be some sort of construction going on, renovations, or both. Despite its haphazard and transitional nature, it still managed to project a certain aura of importance and stateliness. Possibly due to the massive statues of Princess Celestia everywhere—although, Cinny noted as lightly trotted through the main thoroughfare of the university grounds, several of them had been replaced with statues of Luna as well.

In some sense the whole thing was rather intimidating, but after two years, Cinny had mostly learned to ignore it.

Truthfully, she hadn’t expected to ever come back to the university, now that she had graduated. Without the university, she wouldn’t have met Lucent or fallen in with his herd, but on the other hoof she hadn’t exactly had the best experience with the school. Mostly because she had to struggle to get her pay out of them; perhaps, if they were going to spend all those bits on making a cloud-based telescope, they should have checked to see if there were any unicorns willing to actually go up and use it. For a bunch of ponies who made their homes on the side of a mountain, they seemed to be rather skittish around heights.

Still, it was familiar, just like her old apartment, yet the familiarity here made her feel out of place. It wasn’t her school anymore, and she didn’t belong. She had no tests to write, no papers to do… for all that it was the same, it was different as well. Thankfully, the halls leading up to the Department of Archeology and Ancient History were deserted. Apparently, the only ponies who could stand Star Sparkle were ponies who were already dead and long gone. It also happened to be in a section of the campus that, as far as Cinny recalled, she had only visited once or twice before, and never to that department’s offices.

It was quite the climb, but despite her nervousness keeping her wings limber—in spite of all the sexy young stallions and mares around her—she didn’t dare fly, since her wings were currently occupied with carrying her book. She also stopped and bought the best gin she could afford, and hoped it was the sort that Star liked. Or at least didn’t hate.

The halls of the department were pretty typical, full of wood paneling and tiled floors. Like all universities, it somehow managed to look both fancy and ill-maintained. As she slowed to a walk she couldn’t help notice the walls were long-since scuffed, and several of the tiles looked like they had dirt ground into them so often that they’d be forever dirty. As chair of the department, though, Star had an office near the middle of the floor, and one with its own waiting room. It was currently occupied by only two other ponies, one who was clearly the secretary for Star Sparkle: a rather bored looking stallion with a pale yellow coat. It was odd to think of Star, of all ponies, as having a secretary, but Cinny supposed he came with the office.

The other pony was a nervous looking pegasus stallion, who despite being fully grown and well muscled, looked more coltish than anything with the way he glanced around the room nervously. Somehow, he apparently didn’t notice her entering the room until Cinnamon sat down beside him. He didn’t look half bad, but her mind just wasn’t into it—and neither was his, apparently, as he continued to fidget and twitch, occasionally checking on the clock—and Star’s door.

She was about to open her mouth and ask the soft-yellow pegasus what he was waiting for, when the door creaked open and the pony jumped out of his seat and practically galloped into Star’s office before the secretary could finish saying ‘she’ll see you now.’

It was also then that the selfsame secretary apparently noticed Cinny as well, although all he did was cock an eyebrow at her questioningly without actually asking what she was dropping in for.

Cinnamon wasn’t sure how long she’d have to wait before the student was finished with Star, since it was starting to get near lunch and she hadn’t properly finished her breakfast before running out to catch a chariot back downtown. As it turned out, only five minutes had passed before the same coltish stallion dragged himself out of the office, looking all the world as if he had taken the thrashing of the lifetime. She had no idea what he had done, but it was clear Star was the source of the pony’s distress.

Of course, seeing the pony go away in tears and the secretary not telling her Star could see her now made Cinny realize she hadn’t gone and made an appointment in advance. For all she knew, Star wouldn’t see her at all.

“Penny Candy,” Star’s voice came from within the office as she trotted out and apparently addressed the pony in front of her. “I don’t suppose you’d like to get a…” Star licked her lips “…bite?”

“Not today, Madame,” Penny Candy said. His tone suggested he got asked the question a lot.

Part of Cinny wanted to swear at Star, or throw something, since it was pretty clear what Star was implying with this ‘Penny Candy’ character. The very notion that she’d go and sleep with somepony outside of the herd—presumably without the herd’s knowledge or consent—boiled her blood. It took her a few moments to calm herself done. Extra-herd affairs weren’t unusual with unicorns, and it was probably one of the things she’d have to get used to, if she was going to stay in the herd; after all, it was mostly made up of unicorns.

But if she ever caught Lucent in bed with one of the servants or something, she was going to break something. Possibly his balls. With the bimbo’s head.

“Besides,” Penny Candy continued as he pointed a hoof at Cinny, who in turn did her best to smile back. “Somepony else is here to see you.”

Star stared at her for what felt like a minute, with an expression that suggested she was having trouble placing Cinnamon at all. It didn’t exactly help her self-esteem.

“What are you doing here, Swift?” Star asked at last. Apparently she just wanted to make her feel uncomfortable. “You’re not one of my students,” the corners of the mare’s mouth quirked up in a smirk. “Or do you want to enroll and get a real job? Admissions are—”

“No,” Cinny said firmly. Or tried to. It seemed a bit weak-sounding in her ears, all things considered. Still, if she didn’t force the issue, Star’d probably continue baiting her and they’d get nowhere. “No, I… I want to talk to you. As, you know…” Cinny wasn’t sure if she could get away with calling Star the ‘lead mare’ or not. Whether or not Cadance’s information was good or not, Star didn’t seem to like the trappings of tradition, even if she liked what it provided her.

Star’s eyes narrowed slightly, giving her joking smirk a slightly more sinister edge than normal. Clearly, she had heard the unspoken title. “Very well, my little pony, step into my office.” Her voice was a mixture of sarcasm and condescension—referring to her as ‘her little pony’ was a very old way a lead mare would exert her dominion over the other ponies in the herd.

Still, there wasn’t anything she could do about it now.

While the outer office was cluttered with all manner of stuff ranging from various pamphlets and posters about university related things, it still maintained an air of being fairly well looked after. Star’s office was not exactly in the same vein.

The room was relatively large, but Cinny had the impression that Star might have used it as a bedroom once or twice at least. It wasn’t that it didn’t look like an office—if anything it looked almost stereotypical, with papers everywhere including on several of the chairs (which Cinny suspected Star brought into the room so a pony would have them to sit, only to eventually pile onto them with work). But there was also a couch that looked suspiciously well-used and clear of the debris that occupied the majority of the room. There was—naturally, given whom she was dealing with—a mini fridge and a liquor cabinet in one of the corners as well.

But what struck Cinny the most, however, was the fact that despite the obviously lived in and well used state of the room, there weren’t any pictures of the herd. Not of Lucent or Twilight, nor of her foals. In fact, if Cinny hadn’t already known Star had a herd, she wouldn’t have thought the mare to have one at all. It made her uncomfortable, since it was clear how Star treated the room: it was her escape.

Herds can be a lot of pressure at times, even when they’re well functioning and harmonious, so most ponies, whether by intent or by accident, tended to take a small slice off of the living area and make it some place they could retreat from the pressures of herd life. For Twilight Velvet, it was her study where she wrote all her stuff, for Crystal, it was the wine cellars, and so on. It wasn’t that the rest of the herd wasn’t welcome into those areas, but it generally wasn’t done. And Cinny was stepping right into Star’s with a problem about the herd.

She sat down as non-nervously as she could manage.

Before Star could speak, Cinny ducked under her wing where she was holding the peace offering, and yanked it out. She did her best not to shiver as it tugged against some of her more sensitive areas, and with an awkward twist of her neck, she dropped it onto Star’s desk. Star blinked at it for a moment, and wordlessly, Cinny nudged it closer to Star with her hoof.

“I take it Lucent told you to bring me something to drink?” Star asked, although Cinny decided to treat it rhetorically and licked her lips. “Wise stallion, that one,” Star added, then pulled the bottle towards her and produced two shot glasses out of nowhere, causing Cinny to blink in surprise.

Star’s ability to produce liquor and drinking implements out of thin air didn’t surprise Cinny so much as the fact that the mare clearly was intending her to drink with her. She hadn’t had gin before, and she was pretty sure you were supposed to mix it with something, not drink it straight. Yet within a couple of seconds, she found herself with a shot glass full of gin.

“Well then, to Lucent, the best stallion a mare could ask for!” Star saluted, and downed the shot in a single gulp. Then she sighed and poured herself another. “So, what sort of fresh dragon droppings are you about to drop on me, m’dear?”

This would probably be a good time to start talking again, Cinny decided, although she didn’t let go of her drink: she might need it in a few minutes. “Well… let me start off by saying I’m sorry…”

“That’s not good.”

“and I never meant to hurt anypony…”

Star downed her second shot and poured a third.

“er…” Cinny’s speech stalled. It was hard to think while Star seemed to be on the fast track to getting herself drunk while she talked. She didn’t want Star to be so out of it that she confessed everything and then Star didn’t remember a word of it the next day. Partly because she needed to do something now, but mostly because she didn’t need the stress of going through this again. Perhaps she should put something in Star’s hooves. “Read this.” Cinny pulled out her copy of Elements of Love and dropped it in the middle of Star’s desk.

For her part, Star frowned at the book as if she hadn’t seen one before. Of course, outside of the title, it wasn’t really clear what the contents of the story were. Most books had covers that lied, but this book had a cover that was vague beyond belief. After a second of staring at it, Star took a sip of her shot and opened it.

“So,” Star said sounding as if she hadn’t drunk two shots in rapid succession. “This is the mysterious ‘novel’—” Cinny could hear the scare quotes around the word “—you’ve been blathering on about for the past few months, Mmm?” She flipped the couple of pages. “You know I’m not going to… edit… it… uh huh.” Star’s eyes grew a bit wide as she started reading.

Cinny took a sip of her gin out of nervousness, and then had to spend the next five seconds trying not to spit the drink all over her host and her things. Sweet Celestia’s teats it was strong!

While Cinny righted herself, the office grew silent as Cinny tried not to make noise and Star read a number of pages. She couldn’t be sure where the pink unicorn had picked up, but when Star made a sound like a cross between a choke and a gasp, Cinny was certain she had come across one of the sex scenes.

Star started shaking, as if she was about to explode, and Cinny eased herself out of the seat so her wings were free, encase she needed a quick getaway.

Then Star burst out laughing. Cinny had seen Star laugh a number of times, mostly at her, but not like this. There was some sort of genuine gaiety in the way she threw her head back and her whole body shook. After a couple of seconds, Star’s magic broke and she was on the floor, still laughing. Cinny smiled half-heartedly at her, and waited for her lead mare to recover.

“Woo,” Star climbed back to her hooves, looking as if she needed to catch her breath after such a workout. “You… you wrote this?”

“I didn’t know Twilight was the herd’s foal,” Cinny said. It was best if she couched it in terms of the herd’s problem, rather than any one individual pony’s. “I… I wrote it before I even met Lucent. Only realized last night.” Cinny looked down at the half-drunk gin bottle and took a second sip of her drink. This time it was less of a fight to keep it down. “It’s going on sale really soon.”

“Let me get this straight,” Star said, as she settled herself into her chair. “You’ve gone and written smut about Twilight Sparkle, one of this herd’s members, my own daughter, and not only that, it’s going to be sold, I presume, everywhere in Equestria?” Her voice was no longer amused. “And you didn’t even realize Lucent was her father.”

“N-no.” Cinny tried and failed to keep her voice from wavering. “I didn’t think—”

“Didn’t think what? That Twilight was born? That she might have parents out there somewhere?” Star’s eyes narrowed. “That they might find out? Why are you showing me this, anyway?”

“I…I…” Cinny drank the rest of her gin. And reached across the desk and poured herself a second. She drank that too, before continuing. “I love Lucent,” Cinny declared, which felt rather off topic but good to say anyway. “I love him and I love this herd, warts and all!” Oh, clearly she couldn’t hold her liquor. “I just wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.” Cinny fell silent for a moment and calmed herself. “I don’t want to leave.”

“You expect you can just walk in here, offer me gin and say you’re sorry?” Star asked sternly.

“You laughed! You thought it was funny,” Cinnamon grunted at her. “You can’t be mad at me! It’s against the rules.” Cinny wasn’t sure it was, but it seemed like the right thing to say.

“Of course I found it funny,” Star said, “you wrote clop about my daughter, of all ponies. I think that mare’s still a virgin.”

Cinny shook her head to try to focus her thoughts. Why did she think drinking was going to help with any of her problems? “I want to fix this, I want to apologize to the herd. Or something.” There was always a small chance that Star would say there wasn’t anything to apologize for and—

“Truthfully, there’s nothing you really need to apologize for.”

Huh.

“At least not to me. You need to apologize to Twilight Sparkle,” Star continued.

“Right.” Cinny nodded her head, perhaps a bit more vigorously than was strictly called for.

“Of course, the herd’s quite fond of Twilight, so you’re probably going to be out on your rump anyway,” Star finished with a mean looking smirk.

“W-what?” Cinny could feel tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “But I said I was sorry.” She stared across the desk at Star for a moment, trying her best to blink away her tears, although she wasn’t sure why. Star certainly wasn’t going to help her, she didn’t even like her! She was probably glad she was out of the herd…

Ultimately, it would come down to some sort of vote, but if the herd was ‘fond’ of Twilight as Star put it, there wasn’t much chance that they’d keep her around. Slowly, Cinny dragged herself out of the seat and turned towards the door. She didn’t even bother trying to take her book back from the mare. What was the point? She was screwed either… way. Mmm.

Cinny paused at the door, and steeled herself. She knew what she was going to have to do. She took a moment to dry her tears with her fetlock. Then she looked over her shoulder at Star, and moved her tail aside.

“Are you sure there’s nothing I… I can’t do?” Cinny asked, trying to make her voice sound light and flirty. Sometimes you had to give something to get something, and Celestia knew she had seen her birth herdmothers do the same. It wasn’t always this, of course, sometimes it was a romantic evening or jewellery or… Cinny bit her lip and gave her hips a shake. “Star?”

Star, for her part, had gone back to reading the book, which rather pissed Cinny off, given she was planning to throw her out over the darn thing. However, as she called her name, Star looked up with an irritated expression on her face, only for the expression to slide off like oil on water as she noticed what Cinny was doing.

Cinny winked at her.

Star blinked.

She forced herself to smile at the mare. It wasn’t easy. Nor was it easy letting Star have a full-on view of her behind and her… bits. Her pussy. It wasn’t that she was a particularly shy mare—goodness knows her high school teachers had wanted her to be a bit more modest at times—but she also wasn’t the sort of pony who just did it to anypony. Star wasn’t exactly Cinny’s first choice in bed. Not that they had a bed, now that Cinny thought about it.

The realization that they were, for all intends and purposes, in a rather public place made Cinny blush and she could feel her body reacting to the thoughts, with her pussy winking slightly and her wings stiffening at a rather alarming rate. It was so naughty, she couldn’t help but get turned on, even if it was with Star and not, say, Lucent or Twilight.

Or it would be with Star, if the mare ever got off her behind rather than staring dumbly at her flank. In the worst case scenario, she’d be offended by what Cinny was doing, but she couldn’t get kicked out of the herd twice. Right?

“Well,” Star said at last, then paused and took a sip of her gin. “I guess I can see what Lucent finds attractive about you.”

Cinny blushed a bit more, and she took a step backwards, bringing her behind closer to Star. “Wouldn’t you rather… see for yourself?” Her wings were almost painfully extended now—not to mention it was a rather embarrassing display if Star didn’t take the bait and she had to walk through the university halls like this.

As she watched, Star’s eyes flicked towards Cinny’s wings, then back to her behind. She licked her lips and set her shot glass aside, before pulling herself out of her seat and walking around the desk.

She gave her hips a shake again, but before she could do anything else to improve the ‘display’, Star’s horn lit up and suddenly Cinny felt something like a feather stroking on the inside of her thighs. It was gentle and the sort of thing only a pegasus could do. Or at least Cinny had thought so—Lucent certainly never touched her like this with his magic. She couldn’t help but half close her eyes and moan. It was almost as good as having the feathers under her wings stroked.

Star apparently took her moan as a signal to go further, and before Cinny could recover from the pinion brushing, she felt a warm puff of air against her cheeks and lips, followed by an equally warm and wet tongue. Star lapped against the flesh slowly, carefully (and cruelly, in Cinny’s mind) avoiding all the really sensitive areas in favour of teasing her.

Still, it felt amazing, and Cinny could feel her eyes rolling into the back of her head. Despite her misgivings, Star clearly knew how to work a girl up, how to make her feel. It wasn’t that Lucent was a bad lover, of course, but there were certain things only one mare could do for another.

On the other hoof, though, this wasn’t going to work if she was the only pony receiving any attention, so, despite what her instincts were telling her, against every pleasure-seeking reflex in her body, she stepped forward and out of the range of Star’s admittedly long and muscular tongue, and spun around. It wasn’t particularly graceful, and Cinny suspected it looked rather stupid, but she shoved her wing against Star and pushed her onto the couch.

The pink mare let out a startled sounding yelp, and ended up partly on the couch in a rather compromising position. Exactly where Cinny wanted her. Before Star could move or adjust herself, Cinny dove down onto her knees and buried her muzzle right between Star’s teats. With her nose literally tickling Star’s nipples—which were stiffening in interest—Cinnamon could tell Star certainly was a mother, at least some point in the past. Star wasn’t, to use the stupid phrase, ‘wrecked’, but her teats weren’t nearly as firm as most of the foalless mares Cinny had enjoyed over the years. She wore it well, though, and oddly it only made Cinny feel more aroused—as she could clearly tell by the dribble of liquid she felt running down her leg.

Cinny bit on the teat flesh oh-so-softly, eliciting a sharp gasp from Star, and a commanding hoof between Cinny’s ears, encouraging her to go on. So she did.

Alternating between nibbles and licks and kisses, Cinny worked her way around Star’s left teat in small circles until she came to the nipple itself. It was hard and dark against Star’s flesh. She teased it with the flat of her nose for a second before gently sucking on it. Star moaned in pleasure, and out of the corner of her eye Cinny saw Star’s hind legs twitch.

Cinny reached out with her wingtip and stroked along Star’s thigh like she had done with her magic, curving in a beeline for Star’s own pussy. It was a common misconception that a pegasi’s wing was completely immobile when he or she was aroused—they just weren’t good for anything except touching another pony softly and slowly.

Still, it wasn’t the best tool for the job, so Cinny shifted her muzzle, nibbling at the flesh between her teats as she moved towards Star’s behind. Like her own pussy, Star’s was opening and closing as if it was seeking a cock. Cinny didn’t have any cock, but she had never known a mare to object to her having a stern tongue lashing with their slit either. She wasted no time pushing her tongue into Star and licking the wet inner walls. Thankfully she wasn’t the sort of pony who had a particularly foul taste, and it was easy to lap up and just enjoy the moment.

To her surprise, though, it barely took any effort on her part before Star’s legs were shaking and her breath came out in short, halting gasps. It wasn’t a particularly great orgasm, but it was one, and it made Cinny smile; at least she had done something right today.

But a single orgasm wasn’t going to give her what she needed from Star, so Cinny gave the winking muscles a kiss and withdrew, returning to her lead mare’s teats and nuzzling them and breathing on them. With her already so sensitive, it was easy to push Star over the hill again into a soft rolling orgasm. She let Star rest for a moment before continuing.

Blindly, she fondled Star’s behind with her wing, stroking the sensitive lips with her feathers’ very edges, then moved on; she pulled back and started kissing and nibbling up along Star’s belly, chest, and neck, until she was more or less straddling the mare belly to belly.

While she could have done it without kissing Star, Cinny knew it she couldn’t hold back or make it seem like she was only doing it to get something out of the mare. So she nibbled up Star’s cheekbone and then—

Before she could kiss Star, Star kissed her, turning her head by surprise and nearly shoving her tongue down Cinny’s throat. It was sudden and surprising, and felt oh so good. Cinny had trouble focusing for a moment as Star’s tongue played against all the right spots, sliding up and down her tongue and cheeks. There wasn’t anything really romantic about it, it wasn’t like the sort of kiss Lucent and her would share—the differences between making love to a stallion and making love to a mare notwithstanding—it was raw passion, hunger and need.

It was so hot.

Cinny felt her pussy contract in not exactly an orgasm but in lustful need. She also felt another trickle of that need hurry down her legs and drip off her.

Star kissed her for a long moment before they broke it off, panting, giving Cinny time to move on to her goal: Star’s horn.

Everypony knew—or thought they knew—that a unicorn’s horn was an erogenous zone, and it was. There was always the chance that it would just be wasted effort on Cinny’s part, if it weren’t for the fact that Lucent had told her (after she had tried this out on him and failed to get a reaction) that Star was particularly sensitive in that area.

First she nibbled around the base of the horn, where it erupted from her forehead, and then slowly licked up the length of it, grabbing Star’s body with her legs and using her as leverage. Halfway through the lick, Star lit her horn and suddenly the sort of dull, slightly salty taste changed. It wasn’t her first time ‘tasting’ magic, and all of it had a faint o-zone taste or scent—she could never tell which—about it, but all unicorns had a slightly different flavour too. Star’s reminded Cinny of something sweet and fruity.

Star shivered and shook against Cinny, and she could feel Star’s breath on her neck as she panted in pleasure and let out a long, almost pained-sounding groan. It was sort of amusing to see such a proud, arrogant mare brought so low just by a pony licking her horn, but Cinny also had no desire to get Star to experience a ‘horn-gasm’ as they were known in some circles. Mostly because she hated the taste of it. So she let Star squirm for a couple of minutes, bringing her closer and closer, then pulled back at the last second and wiggled out of Star’s embrace.

It took her a second to reposition herself so her head was between Star’s hind legs again. It was, admittedly, a bit disappointing that her own body’s needs were going unattended, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. This was more about Star’s pleasure than anything mutual. If it worked, maybe she’d try swirling with the mare another time. So, with her hindquarters draped haphazardly over a pile of papers, Cinny flicked her wings and pushed Star’s legs apart with her hooves.

Star winked at her, and dribbled a bit more juice down her butt and over her pucker and tail, so the first thing Cinny did was lap that up. She used short, quick flicks of her tongue, moving closer to Star’s hungry looking pussy by inches, making sure to give every part of Star a good teasing wash.

For their part, the two of them had been mostly silent, and the few noises they had let out were fairly quiet, not the sort of sounds that travelled particularly far. This time, however, Star let out a whinny that Cinnamon was dead certain Penny Candy in the office—and any student who had shown up in the meantime—could hear, and for a moment Cinny froze.

Fear only seemed to enhance her own arousal—she hoped the papers her pussy was leaking on weren’t important, or that if they were the ponies they were important to wouldn’t mind them smelling like her juices—but it seemed to turn Star on as well. If the way her lips opened and closed rapidly, flicking droplets of her own fluids against Cinny’s nose was anything to go by.

There was only silence outside, so Cinny shrugged and pressed forward, against Star’s winking flower. She nosed it, letting her lips clumsily grasp and try to pull the flat of her nose, then she opened her mouth and licked against them. Star let out a moan again, just as loud as before, which made Cinny think she wasn’t holding back anymore. Good.

It took Cinny a moment to locate Star’s clitoris, but the hard, erect nub was throbbing and firm, ready for a few nibbles or licks. She gave her lead mare a few of both.

Clearly Star was far closer to coming that Cinnamon had imagined, since no sooner had her tongue snaked around and against her clitoris than Star let out what Cinny could only describe as a roar and spurted all over Cinny’s face. The walls of her vagina clamped down on Cinnamon’s tongue, but she didn’t let that deter her from continuing to lick and nibble every part of Star’s pussy she could reach while she came.

Eventually however, Star collapsed against the couch out of breath and Cinny knew it was over, so she gave the mare’s lips another kiss—which elicited a half-hearted clench out of the muscles—and stood up.

Star looked as if she was in need of a good grooming, with her mane and tail out of place and her body coated in various fluids, some half-dry, most not. Most importantly, however, she had a goofy sort of smirk or grin on her muzzle. Cinny grinned back.

“Clever,” Star said at last, “but I’ll have you know I’m not so easily bought…”

Cinnamon frowned and then stroked her pinion against Star’s sodden lips, making Star gasp and arch her back.

“Okay, okay,” Star gasped, as she eyed Cinny with her eyes half-lidded. “I… maybe I can help you… with… that book thing.”

She smiled. Obviously it wasn’t going to be easy, but if Star would support her, and help her, then she might survive the herd’s anger at her. Then she suddenly found herself flipped over and on her back, with her wings spread out flat against the floor. It took her a moment to realize Star had done the very thing Cinnamon had done to her, but with magic. Before Cinny could react, Star slid off the couch and draped herself on top of her belly, with her nose buried up against the joint where her wing met her flank. Cinny shuddered and let out a whinny of surprise and pleasure.

“But first, let’s talk about something else…” Star added as her teeth gently tugged on her feathers.

When Cinnamon Swift finally left the office an hour later, she found herself experiencing a strange mixture of glee and morbid embarrassment. Star was going to help her, and she had managed to scream far louder than Star had.

Generous Forgiveness

As a filly, Cinnamon Swift was used to a close-knit sort of herd. Everypony in the herd, regardless of what they did during the day, would fly home and they’d at least have one meal a day together—not to mention that her father tended to stay at home, and there was always a couple of mares around the house too, even if they weren’t her mom. The same, apparently, was not true of unicorn herds.

Obviously she knew the different pony tribes had different customs when it came to herd structure, yet she still found it rather odd that a chunk of Lucent’s herd had just up and left seemingly overnight. Scintilla had, according to what she gathered from Star Sparkle, some sort of ‘thing’ in Manehatten, and Crystal Glimmer had gone with her. The two mares were apparently very close. Crincile was technically home, but working on some sort of paper and simply didn’t want to divert her attention elsewhere. And, of course, none of the children were home.

In many ways, it was something of a blessing in disguise; while Crystal Glimmer was sort of cold to her, and Scrintilla wasn’t her favourite pony, it was going to be hard enough coming clean as it was. If someponies only got the news through the grapevine, well, that was fine by her.

Of course, that still left Glint, who as far as Cinny could tell, didn’t work at all—which was fine, because he was very easy on the eyes—along with Twilight Velvet and, of course, Lucent. Thankfully the foals were scarcer than snow in summer—what a thing to have to tell Dawn Chorus or, Celestia forbid, Shining Armour!

Star had arranged the ‘sit down’ as she so cheerfully called it for the late evening of the next day. This gave Twilight time to put Guiding Light to bed and be free enough to attend, and it meant that Cinny got to eat what would hopefully not be her last meal. It did strike her as particularly odd that Star had gone to such lengths—sort of—to make sure Twilight could be there. Cinny didn’t doubt Star was going to use this against her for a very long time, and it just seemed odd that she wouldn’t want to get a jump on humiliating her in front of the herd.

Plus, she considered Twilight a friend—it was going to be bad enough confessing to Lucent, but Twilight Sparkle shared part of the mare’s name! The two of them must have been close.

Cinny tried not to think of what it’d do to their friendship, as she sat in the chair opposite every other pony. It was the same chair Shining and Cadance had used during their visit, and she did her best to look a big as possible so Lucent—or any of the other herdmates—wouldn’t think to sit beside her. Normally she’d love to cuddle, and Celestia knew she could use comforting right about now, given how her wingtips were twitching, but she also didn’t want to put herself into striking range of any pony’s hooves.

Although, given they were all unicorns, she probably should be more worried about their horns…

“Alright, Star,” Twilight said wearily from her slumped position on the couch. Cinny had no idea how much work it was to look after a foal, but given how tired Twilight looked, it seemed like a fair amount. Cinny made a mental note to herself never to have children. “I’m here, what’s this meeting about?”

“Meeting?” Star said in a teasing tone of voice. “Can’t we, as a herd, spend time together?”

“Star…” Lucent cut in before Twilight could retort. The last thing Cinny needed was one of the infamous verbal tussles between the two mares breaking out. Star glanced at Lucent momentarily, and there was a flash of something across her face—something Cinny couldn’t identify. Before she could think about it, though, Star shrugged and turned toward her, with a sly grin on her muzzle.

“Well, it’s really not my meeting. Cinnamon, our lovely new addition to the herd,” Star’s smirk sent shivers down Cinny’s spine. “Has something she needs to get off her back. Cinnamon?”

“Um,” Cinny swallowed. Then blinked slowly. Then licked her lips. Then ran her hoof through her mane. Then—

“I can tell them, if you’d like,” Star suggested, which, if anything, scared Cinnamon moreso than simply confessing.

She needed Star, but she couldn’t trust her not to twist the truth to make Cinnamon look as bad as possible—which Cinny couldn’t really figure out how should could look worse, but if there was a way, Star would have found it. It had to be her. It had to come from her, and be in her own words, as painful and frightful they might be. Cinny took a deep breath.

And she told them. She told them everything. Naturally, this meant it was something of a rambling monologue where she jumped back and forth and sideways and once took a shortcut through a forbidden forest of off topic nonsense.

“…I’m so, so sorry.” Cinny slumped in the seat. The confession was so draining, she felt more numb than afraid. Maybe coming clean was a good idea, after all.

Well, it seemed that way for about five seconds, before it became clear that the rest of the herd was staring at her in… shock? Rage? Utter disbelief? The silence was stifling, and Cinny’s heart started to beat violently in her chest. The only pony who wasn’t entranced was Star, who for the most part had alternated between looking bored and distracted the whole time Cinny was speaking.

For a moment, it looked like Glint was going to say something, but then he just sneezed. Even so, the sudden sound seemed to jostle everypony awake, and Cinny’s stomach twisted.

Suddenly eating before confessing didn’t seem like the best idea she had ever had.

Lucent cleared his throat, and Cinny’s own throat clenched. But Twilight beat him to it;

“Why?” Twilight’s voice was tinged with anger, naturally, not to mention disbelief—she looked sad too, in a sort of utterly defeated sort of way. “Why would you do this?”

Cinny frowned—slightly, she didn’t want to look like she was trying to defend herself or anything. But hadn’t she already answered that question? Surely she had been listening, during her Speech Of Shame? Oh well.

“I didn’t know Twilight Sparkle was part of this herd—I didn’t even write any of it here,” Cinny began again, but Lucent shook his head.

“No, Cinnamon—” She flinched, her stallion hadn’t really called her anything but ‘Cinny’, and that was ignoring the frosty tone in his voice. “Why? Why write about somepony like our daughter at all? You don’t see ponies writing about the Princess—Princesses that way, do you?”

The answer was yes, but Cinny had serious doubts if bringing up Fifty Shades of the Sun or Story of L would help her case any. Plus, she didn’t want to be a smart-ass, she wanted to be forgiven.

“It… it was just fanfiction…” Cinnamon tried to figure out how to explain it. “And an accident. I only sent it to the publisher as…” as what? A joke? On a dare? Because it was the only thing she had written in six months? Because it, to her, seemed good? “I’m almost a complete unknown, and when they said they were interested in publishing…” Cinny glanced down at her cutie mark. “I just wanted to do what I was born to do.”

Twilight opened her mouth again, but Lucent cut her off again—if he kept that up, he might find himself in the mule house too. “Your stuff is good, Cinny. I don’t understand why you had to hurt somepony, when your work stands on it’s own…” Lucent’s voice had taken on a softer tone, but Cinnamon suspected that was something of a warning sign, not a favourable one.

“It can be hard to break into, Lucent,” Twilight frowned, and Cinny saw Star do the same. Neither of them had expected Twilight to try and defend her. “If you’re not a big name, most publishers just throw your stuff in the trash without looking.” Cinnamon resisted the temptation to nod in agreement. Small and meek, that seemed like the best course of action. “Back when Star and I lived together, I used to get mountains of rejection letters.” Cinny blinked—Star and Twilight had lived together? “It wasn’t until just before we started going out that I got in with a publishing house, after all.”

Lucent frowned, and Glint reached over and patted the stallion on the back.

“Of course, that doesn’t really excuse what you’ve done, Cinnamon.” Twilight continued, and Cinny flinched, again. “And why do I get the feeling Star knew about this before any of us did?” Twilight spared a withering stare for the pony in question for a brief moment—not that Star seemed to notice.

“I know.” Cinny let out a long, heavy sigh. “I…I went to Star because—” there was no point in lying “—I was afraid… when you knew…” Cinny choked back a sob and shook her head. “I hoped she’d… help.”

“Cinnamon,” Lucent said, his voice hard—she couldn’t bare to look at him, so she stared as her hooves. “Cinny…” his voice softened and the couch squeaked as he got off. Then he was there. In front of her. With his hoof holding hers. “Cinny, we wouldn’t have kicked you out of this herd. Not for this, and not when you’re so obviously upset about it.”

“Indeed, Star here has done far worse than this, m’dear,” Glint said, speaking up for the first time—only for him to earn a disapproving glare from Star Sparkle.

“Yes, well,” Lucent shifted uncomfortably before Cinny, clearly not interested in exploring those… things again. She wondered what Star had done to earn the herd’s disapproval, but that was a question for another time and place.

“You wouldn’t have?” Cinny said softly, her own hoof gripping Lucent’s more tightly. “But…”

“We’re a forgiving sort—” Twilight snorted in the background “—not to say we’re not… unhappy with you.”

“I didn’t mean it…” Her voice sounded weak, even to her ears. Of course she didn’t mean it, people who do bad things rarely mean for anypony to get hurt.

“I know. And I’m glad you finally decided to come forward with this… instead of keeping it secret all these months.” Lucent’s voice grew cold, and Cinny could swear she saw embers in his eyes. “But—”

“But I didn’t keep it secret, Lucent.” In retrospect, it didn’t seem like a good idea to cut him off when he was reprimanding her. But she didn’t want him thinking things about her that simply weren’t true, either. “I… I kept the story’s content’s secret, it’s true, but not because I thought I was hurting you or the herd… I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“A surprise.” Lucent said flatly.

“Well, yeah,” Cinny shrugged. “Didn’t want to spoil the plot, right? I mean, it wasn’t until you were talking about the Gala that I realized you had a daughter named Twilight.”

“What?” Cinny’s reply seemed to confuse Lucent so much that he forgot to be angry. “It’s not like that’s the first time I brought her up.”

“You always call her Twilight, though,” Cinnamon shifted uncomfortable. Looking back, it probably should have been clear to her that her stallion was talking about two very different ponies. “And… well, Twilight Velvet… It’s not like I’ve ever met Twilight Sparkle.”

Over Lucent’s shoulder, the only Twilight in the room rubbed her face with her hooves, while Glint just snorted. Lucent, for his part, just looked mystified—and maybe a bit horrified that he had brought such an idiot into his herd.

“Be that as it may,” Lucent’s voice didn’t sound angry anymore—if he had intended to become enraged at her after reassuring her of her part in the herd wasn’t in jeopardy, he seemed to have lost that now. “You can’t just confess to us, Cinny, we might be upset, it’s true, but it’s going to be our daughter who’s going to be affected.”

“Yes,” Cinny heard herself say. In a lot of ways, she was feeling too tired to be fearful anymore. Surely the worst of it was over. “I… I can be on a train to Ponytown—”

“Ponyville,” Star corrected absentmindedly. “And the trains aren’t running currently.”

“Well, whatever!” Cinny snapped, glaring at Star. To think, she had… done those things to her for no reason what-so-ever. “I’ll take a coach, or a wagon, or I’ll walk. I’ll go tomorrow, if that’s what you want. Lucent.” She added, so it was clear she didn’t care what Star thought.

“I… well…” Lucent frowned and rubbed his chin.

“As quant as such a gesture might be, m’dear,” Glint said, “I’m not sure showing up on the dear foal’s doorstep and telling her you’ve written erotica about her would send the correct impression, yes?”

“Well…” Cinny tried to imagine what that would be like; but the thought of a mare or stallion showing up on her doorstep and telling her they had written erotica about her seemed to have a certain appeal…

“Stick with the original plan,” Glint nodded to Lucent before explaining, “go to the Gala with Lucent, meet her, introduce yourself… and apologize.”

“At… the Gala?” surely she wasn’t going to be going now.

The thought, however, hadn’t, apparently crossed Lucent’s mind, considering he seemed to be nodding admirably at Glint’s suggestion.

“And it’d give Twilight some time to digest the situation herself… you know how explosive her temper can be.” Lucent said thoughtfully.

As a matter of fact, Cinny didn’t but that didn’t sound exactly promising. “But… at the Gala?”

She didn’t really want to go to the Gala to begin with, she was already outclassed—in ever sense of the word ‘class’—by the sort of society that Lucent lived in, and it just struck her as being somewhere between impossible and insane to jump into an event like the Gala. It wasn’t that common ponies didn’t go to it—of course they did—but if you weren’t special or talented or somehow important, you wouldn’t be invited at all. The Elements, after all, had saved Equestria, not to mention Twilight Sparkle was Celestia’s personal student. Cinnamon didn’t have any doubt in her mind that she’d be nervous enough just trying not to speak out of turn, or insult some minor Prince or spill wine on a dress that cost more than a year’s worth of rent at her old place. Top that with meeting Lucent’s daughter, who was not only famous, minor nobility, and a national hero herself, but somepony who might be justifiably mad as the sun is hot—and have it aimed at her…

Cinny suspected it’d be a small miracle if she made it through the night without her heart giving out. Not to mention the small fact that the rest of the Elements were supposed to be there too. She had heard that Rainbow Dash and Applejack were both hotheads—which was why she wrote them as stallions in her story to begin with, since firebrands tended to be exciting to write and read. Good in a book, less good in real life, in front of her, where they could hit her.

“It’s not a bad idea,” Twilight Velvet said, rubbing her chin. “Plus, then we won’t have to listen to Crystal bound around like an over-excited colt. One foal in the house is enough, thank you.”

Cinnamon sighed, it looked like her fate was sealed, however unpleasant it might be. “Right, I’ll… apologize at the Gala.”

“Good,” Lucent nodded and pulled back, leaving Cinny alone in the chair, by herself. Her hoof felt cold where his hoof had pulled off it, and her heart skipped a beat. “Let’s talk about how you can make it up to us…”

Somehow, she doubted she was going to enjoy this…

The next week was torture.

Cinnamon had never openly discussed her ‘condition’ with the rest of the herd, not even Lucent, for a number of reasons—and in many ways she probably never would. Strictly speaking, there wasn’t anything wrong with having an active sex drive, and really if her wings were betraying her it was her own fault. Even so, it seemed rather cruel that she wasn’t going to have any sex for a month or more leading up to the Gala. At least, that was the theory anyway. It had only taken about eight hours before Star had offered to help her ‘unpack’, and it wasn’t particularly surprising that very little unpacking got done.

But it wasn’t particularly easy to enjoy being with Star. Cinny couldn’t say Star’s ‘support’ and taking advantage of her had made her like the mare any more, and the fact of the matter was before and after sex, Star wasn’t particularly pleasant company.

Still, it was better than having nothing, especially since the other mares in the herd weren’t particularly amused by her book either. Crincile, somehow, had managed to grow up into an adult without ever hearing or reading any sort of erotica at all, and when somepony had slipped her a copy—Cinny suspected it was Star, but she couldn’t prove anything—she had been more or less appalled. Partly because the idea of, essentially, written porn, seemed to horrify her, but mostly because she had been quite close to Twilight Sparkle too. Which was just fantastic.

It didn’t explain why, two nights later, Cinny could hear rather suspicious noises coming from Crincile’s room when she passed, though.

The reaction from the other mares had been relatively muted—mostly because it seemed Star had informed them by mail, and therefore their anger had cooled somewhat by the time they had come home from their trips. It didn’t stop their disapproving glares, or Crystal’s repeated attempts to suggest to Star that she ought to go to the Gala, not Cinny. It wasn’t that Cinny was really looking forward to it, of course, but at least Star slapped Crystal down every time.

As for Lucent… that was the hardest part. It wasn’t that he stopped speaking to her, or gave her a cold shoulder or what not, but there was something fundamentally awkward between them now. It had taken her several days to realize that he wasn’t pausing to nuzzle her neck, or kiss her—even on the cheek. In fact, he hadn’t been alone with her since her confession. She didn’t expect him to jump in bed with her, but the loss of intimacy… the loss of trust… that hurt. Nights seemed to stretch out as she tossed and turned over it. Simply because she wasn’t kicked out of the herd didn’t mean things were going to go back to the way they were.

The Princesses knew Star and Twilight were example enough of that.

Thankfully, by the end of the first week, Cinny had something to distract herself with—getting ready for the Gala. The Gala itself was still sometime away, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t work to be done. There were a number of things, ranging from mane styling to—Glint insisted on this—learning how to dance as a ‘proper, upper class mare’ should. If she was being honest with herself, Cinny didn’t think any amount of dance lessons was going to disguise the fact that she was about as high borne as a turtle. She tried not to think of all the ways she could embarrass herself—or worse, her herd and by extension, Lucent.

The ‘most’ important part, however, was getting a dress. Cinny’s wardrobe had been limited in the extreme. She had a number of hats that she liked to wear, but besides from some stylized saddle bags, she didn’t have much in the way of real clothing. Growing up in Cloudsdale, few ponies wore much unless they absolutely had to, and rarely was it something loose like a dress. Too easy to get tangled in your wings by accident.

However, the Gala was all about presentation, and there was little reason to think she’d be doing much flying at the Gala, even if she felt up to it. Plus, she didn’t want to argue with any pony. It really wasn’t her dress, since she wasn’t doing it for herself.

Of course, Cinny knew about as much about dress shopping as she did about dancing, so she was relying on her herdmates to tell her what to do and what to get… and she also wanted Lucent there. It seemed like a good idea, and a good chance to spend some time with him. It wouldn’t be alone, of course, but at least he would be there. Plus, since he was going with her, they probably needed to coordinate the colours. Or something.

Still, she had been nervous about asking Lucent, so she had decided to do it the morning of the big shopping day. Cinny had woken early, a bit before dawn—which was no surprise, given how badly she had been sleeping of late, and had spent the next few hours fiddling around her room. Mostly she unpacked, but she had also sat down and tried to write. It was supposed to be her talent, but try as she might she couldn’t get anything down. A lot of that time was spent lying on her bed, trying to convince herself everything would be all right.

Eventually, she decided she had waited long enough. She took a few moments to dry her face, and then she set off for Lucent’s bedroom.

It wasn’t that early, but for the most part, Lucent—and the rest of the herd—tended to sleep late unless they had something to do. Cinny hoped that waking Lucent a bit earlier than normal—not that it was that early, all things considered—wouldn’t bother him too much.

The halls weren’t empty, of course, they were filled with the House’s servants, tidying up before the day started and hurrying to and fro to do whatever it was they did. Most of them were polite to her, but Cinny was certain one or two of them had given her a dirty look as she passed. Star had probably informed the servants what she had done too. It seemed the only ponies who didn’t know was the herd’s children, and Cinny hoped that Star would have the decency not to tell them.

Lucent’s bedroom door was just as she remembered it, big and imposing. Of course, so was every other suite door in the House, but she had no trouble picking it out from all the others. Of course she was going to know where her stallion’s rooms were, even in this maze.

She knocked twice, but there wasn’t any response—not that it surprised her—and after a moment’s hesitation, Cinny pulled the door open and slipped inside.

Like her own suite, the rooms Lucent shared with his lead mare were large and ornately decorated. But unlike her’s, Lucent’s was even larger and more complex, mostly so he could comfortably fit the whole herd into the place, if he—or, in olden days, his lead mare—desired it. Plus he was a Duke. Unlike her rooms, though, Cinny could see Lucent’s personal touch everywhere, in the paintings on the walls, the way the seats were arranged in the sitting room… it made her heart ache, so she tried not to pay too much attention to it.

However, just before she reached the doors leading to Lucent’s actual bedroom, she realized she could hear noised coming out of it. Her wings stiffened ever so slightly as Cinny frowned. Star and Lucent shared the room, but Star, as far as she knew, didn’t use the room as consistently as Lucent did. She didn’t really know if she wanted to walk in on Lucent making love to—

Oh who was she fooling, of course she did.

Cautiously, Cinny eased the door open and slipped inside. Cautiously because she couldn’t help but feel that, at the back of her mind, this might get her in even hotter water. But she couldn’t help herself.

Besides, it wasn’t as if she was forbidden from watching…

The lighting was low in the room, and it took her a moment to adjust to the dimness. To her surprise, it wasn’t Star that Lucent was having sex with, it was Glint.

Cinny grinned.

Back when she was a filly, the first time she had encountered two colts kissing one another, she had found the whole idea rather silly and frustrating—after all, they weren’t kissing her—but over the years she had grown to appreciate it for what it was. Although ‘appreciate’ was putting it rather mildly. It wasn’t the first time she had seen the herd’s two stallions go at it, but she always enjoyed the show, especially when she got to jump in between those rolling, sweaty, jizz covered— Cinny let out a low sigh. That probably wasn’t going to happen this time.

So all she could do was watch. All things considered, it wasn’t the worse thing to happen to her. Provided she didn’t get caught, of course.

Carefully, Cinny backed up into what she hoped were deeper shadows, before settling down on her behind (her hoof somehow and mysteriously getting caught between her rump and the floor in a most delicate position) and licking her lips.

As far as she could remember, Cinny had never seen Lucent on the ‘bottom’ when the two stallions made love with her in the room, and she had always assumed it was simply because that’s how the two of them liked it. Yet here, Lucent was not exactly dominating Glint, considering the latter had him pinned to the bedsheets. It wasn’t violent or overbearing, mind you; it was clear Glint was playing the role of the gentle lover if anything, given how slowly and warmly the unicorn was kissing and rubbing Lucent in all manner of areas. But all the same, it didn’t surprise Cinny when Lucent started to apply the lube to Glint’s cock, while Glint helped loosen up Lucent’s hole.

Cinny bit her lip as she watched the two stallions kiss. It wasn’t that she particularly missed anal sex—it was, all things considered, one of the few types of sex she wasn’t personally very keen on—but as she watched, she couldn’t help but realize how much she missed being the object of Lucent’s affections. It wasn’t that she had spent the past week ignorant of the fact, but watching Lucent’s lips gently suck on Glint’s outstretched tongue, or the way his hooves stroked his lover’s flanks… it really drove it home. For the first time in her life, she suddenly found herself not really enjoying playing the voyeur.

With some difficulty, Cinnamon pulled her eyes off the two just as Lucent was rolling onto his belly, and with greater difficulty pulled her hoof’s soft-but-firm mass out from between her legs. It was quite damp, but a quick rub on the side of one of Lucent’s chairs quickly solved that. She took a moment to check herself over, just to make sure it wasn’t completely obvious that she had been watching the two, before taking a deep breath and stepping back into the bedroom.

At first, it seemed that neither stallion noticed her stepping into the room, which wasn’t totally surprising since both of them had their eyes shut while Glint was setting a slow, deliberate pace. It wasn’t really surprising, of course, when Cinny found herself staring at the supermodel stallion’s rump while he did so, either. Regrets or not, Glint still was a beautiful stallion, not to mention blessed with a set of balls that Cinny couldn’t keep her eyes off of. Especially not when they kept swaying and slapping against Lucent’s rump ever couple of seconds, making a most pleasing and—

“Enjoying the show?” Lucent’s voice snapped her out of her hypnotic trance. To her horror, both stallions were looking at her, and neither of them looked particularly surprised to find her there. If either of them were unhappy about being walked in on, though, they weren’t showing it. The smile Lucent was giving her made her heart skip a beat. Or twelve.

“Um…” Cinny felt her lips curl into a crooked smile. “I… Glint was going to take me dress shopping, and, uh. I was hoping you’d come with us…”

“My dear, if you plan on sneaking in on somepony, you might want to be a bit more stealthy about it.” Glint commented, as he came to a rest halfway in, presumably to make carrying on the conversation easier. “We heard you come in.”

“Oh.” Cinny pawed the carpet sheepishly.

“It’s been a rough week for you, hasn’t it?” Lucent asked gently. “I can’t say I’m not sure you don’t deserve it, mind, but…”

Cinny looked away from the two lovers and stared at one of the walls. Of course it was hard and she deserved it, and she wasn’t totally sure why Lucent was suddenly being so warm to her. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that he was half filled with stallion meat—she’d have to remember that for future reference. “I really did come to ask.”

“I don’t mind coming along,” Lucent said breathily. “Assuming you don’t mind, Glint?”

“Of course not,” Out of the corner of her eye, Cinny could see Glint’s eyes twinkle. “Perhaps we’ll get you something nice to wear too, eh my little mare?” Cinny rolled her eyes at the same time Lucent did. She could never understand why some stallions liked to refer to the bottom as a mare—the whole idea seemed rather absurd to her, and Lucent apparently agreed.

“Oh can it,” Lucent retorted as Cinny looked back. She felt kind of silly staring at the wall—it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen it all before. Lucent kicked one of his legs out, but of course, given his position relative to Glint, it was hardly effective—if anything, it seemed to make Glint grin all the more. The two stallions glared at one another in what Cinny assumed was mock anger, before Lucent returned to looking at her, still smiling. Whether or not she was forgiven, the smile made her feel so much better, and hopefully it was a good sign. “The real question, I think, is what to do with you, o mare ‘o mine.”

Before Cinny had time to puzzle out what Lucent meant—or why his voice had suddenly slipped into a strange mix of silky smooth seduction and country bumpkin (really, that cock must have magical powers)—Cinny suddenly felt the most unusual sensation in her coat and feathers, followed by a headtiltingly nauseating experience of being rolled over. It took her a moment to realize Lucent and Glint were lifting her up telekinetically, and pulling her over to the bed. It was a lot different than flying, and while she didn’t fly often, she did fly enough that she could pick out the differences between that and being carried. Before she could protest, however, she found herself falling into the soft sheets and mattress of Lucent’s bed.

She found herself lying on her back, with Lucent and Glint both to the south of her; she was completely exposed, far more than normal, and neither stallion were exactly discrete about the fact that they were looking. Then Lucent shuffled forward, draping his body over hers and bringing his lips to meet hers. It wasn’t the most passionate kiss, mostly because of the relative angles and positions of herself and her stallion, but it still felt like the best kiss Cinny had ever experienced. It was also short lived, for obvious reasons, but then she felt something firm and flexible press up against her behind, rubbing against her already wet-from-before lips.

“Did you know,” Lucent muttered in an almost conversational tone of voice, “that in the olden days, this wasn’t considered to be sex?”

Clothing, Cinny decided halfway through her umpteen measuring, is idiotic. It wasn’t a particularly new or creative thought on her part, if she was going to be honest with herself, and she had always found the idea of wearing clothing a bit silly on the face of it. But after throwing herself head first into the strange and mysterious realm of fashion, she was even more convinced that the whole thing was borderline insane. Never mind the general discomfort she had discovered upon being measured and prodded—literally, as the case maybe—but after she had gone through all the trouble, and the seamstress finally stopped hemming and hawing over how to match her coat, she had brought out a number of dresses.

Each dress was more absurd then the last. The seamstress seemed to have what Cinny could only assume was a fetish for lace and frills, in all manner of shades that made her eyes water. The only dress she thought looked reasonably good was a tight looking thing with slits that, when a mare wore it, would empathise her flanks and cutie mark. Granted, it wasn’t as if she was looking for a herd anymore, but Cinny knew sexy when she saw it. Not that she got to try any of them on, of course.

Every time the seamstress came out, Glint would pounce on her the way mares and stallions usually pounced on him. If it weren’t for the fact that the seamstress was—in Cinny’s humble and not-at-all-biased-because-she-just-wasted-two-hours opinion—a bit of an ugly hag, she might have been jealous. Once he pulled the dress out of the mare’s telekinesis, he’d spend the next few minutes examining every inch of it before tossing it back to the seamstress on the grounds that it didn’t work for her. How the stallion knew what did or didn’t work for her seemed a bit unusual, but after the first five dresses were rejected, she stopped following why Glint was rejecting them.

Lucent, to Cinny’s pleasure, had come along as well, but to her displeasure, there wasn’t a whole lot she could do. She could certainly talk to him, of course—and she did, about all manner of small things—but she wasn’t supposed to move off the pedestal where the seamstress had taken all her measurements. Even when she wasn’t being measured. For some reason. Still, it was nice having him there.

Originally, Cinny had hoped that she’d be able to get a dress quickly—one that Lucent liked, since she didn’t really have an opinion about it—and then convince Lucent and Glint to just spend time with her, either window shopping or such. Mostly it was because she had hoped to reconnect with her stallion, but their improvised session from earlier had left her wholly convinced that he still loved her. This would pass, in time, and then they could be happy together. Provided Star wasn’t in the room. Regardless of her plays though, it all came off the rails when Glint finally declared the seamstress to be ‘insulting’ them and that they’d take their ‘fine business and fine flanks’ elsewhere.

Taking up the rear of their group, Cinny had very nearly lost her tail to the seamstress’s vicious door-closing abilities.

Fortunately—or, as Cinny’s thoughts grew more cynical, unfortunately—Canterlot had a great number of tailors, all of whom she was beginning to suspect she’d end up meeting before the day was out. She’d be happy just going and wearing nothing, but she was also wholly aware that it would be something of a major breach of etiquette and probably wouldn’t be the best idea, all things considered. Still, when they had left their fourth shop with nothing on hoof to show for it, it was getting a bit difficult to keep a cheerful smile on her face and not drag her hooves like a scolded colt.

At least she got to walk behind her two herdmates, and neither of them were wearing that much clothing.

Still, as she admired the sight, it struck her as kind of strange really. As far as she knew, wearing clothing for non-protective purposes really seemed to be something only unicorns did—none of the other tribes did, nor did any of the other species like minotaurs. Which was odd, since the latter walked around in a fairly lewd fashion, exposing their belly and… things. Sure she walked around just a naked, but she wasn’t exposed like that.

Regardless, it took every ounce of her energy and willpower to follow Lucent and Glint into yet another shop.

It took her a couple of moments to realize that, in fact, they hadn’t walked into yet another slice of tartarus, but rather a café of some sort. Once her stomach clued into the fact, it woke up with a fierce rumble that made her blush hard, not that anyone—not even her herd—noticed. This was, in Cinny’s opinion, mostly because the café was only sparsely populated, probably due to them coming in on an off hour, but partly because Glint let out a shockingly girlish squeal. If she wasn’t so… familiar, with Glint, she would have thought he was a gelding or something. Whether he realized that or not, didn’t seem to deter him from half galloping across the room to the table of one of the other patrons, a grey and haughty looking stallion. Glint apparently didn’t mind or care that the earth pony was eating lunch (or was it dinner? Breakfast for the next day?) with his fillyfriend, a white unicorn. Her purple mane and tail were styled meticulously, and even Cinny, as stressed as she was, had to admit they looked good. Although they did painfully remind her that she was due to get her mane ‘worked up’ too.

Ugh.

Perhaps it was some sort of obscure unicorn ritual, but apparently squealing and charging a stranger’s table wasn’t considered to be rude. Although five seconds later, when herself and Lucent got close enough to listen, she realized Glint was probably getting away with it because he knew the stallion, although the unicorn apparently was just as mystified.

“It has been too long!” Glint was saying. It seemed like the sort of thing one would hug the other pony you were saying it to, but stallions didn’t seem to be the hugging sort. Stallions were weird.

“Indeed!” The earth pony’s accent was certainly distinctive, although vaguely Cinny thought she could recognize shades of it in Crincile’s voice, if she thought about it. “Goodness, what has it been, fifteen years?”

“Oh,” Glint waved his hoof in front of his face dismissively and demurred. “Don’t remind me, please. I’m afraid I fell off the wagon—so to speak—when I met my leadmare.” He shook his head, and Cinny wondered who exactly he was referring to—not Star, certainly. “Not to mention I daresay I’ve gained a few pounds—in all the wrong places!”

“Nonsense, nonsense!” For the first time, Cinny noticed the stallion was, in fact, dressed, although Cinny had seen dresses that day that were easier on the eyes than what the earth pony had on. Given that, and how Glint was talking to him, he must have worked in the modeling industry at some point.

“A-hem,” the white unicorn coughed into her hoof politely, “I don’t wish to be rude, Hoity, but might you introduce…?” Like her companion, her voice was heavily accented, although Cinny was reminded more of Scintilla than Crincile’s.

“Of course!” Hoity cried. Literally cried—it would have been very dramatic, if they hadn’t been standing in the café. “This is my dear friend and colleague, Glint Garnet,” Hoity gestured to Glint, before his gaze turned onto Lucent and herself. Perhaps she was imagining it, but she thought he saw him sniff as he did—at least when he was looking at her. “I’m afraid I’m not as acquainted with your… herd?”

Thankfully, Lucent apparently was waiting for such an opening, “I am Lucent Noctis,” he paused and reached over to take the unicorn’s hoof, which he kissed in a gentlecoltly manner. Some small part of her grumbled, and she hoped he wasn’t thinking of taking the mare as a mistress or something. “And this is my herdmate, Cinnamon Swift.” Lucent added, a bit hastily, as he straightened up. Perhaps he had seen the look on her face.

“Charmed,” The mare said with a pleasant smile. “I’m Rarity, and if you don’t mind me asking, are you not Duke de Smaragdvea?”

“Well, I…” Cinny didn’t think she had ever seen her stallion look so confusingly surprised before. Perhaps no pony called him by his title in a long time. “Yes, yes, you’re correct. But please, call me Lucent—the only mare who calls me that is my mother-in-law.” Words punctuated with a shiver. It felt uncharitable, but Cinny hoped the mare was dead, since she had the impression she was rather dreadful and she had enough of those sorts of mares in her life right now.

“I don’t know if that would be proper, your grace,” Rarity simpered, although the way her eyes sparked, Cinny got the impression she was secretly pleased to be on such a familiar basis with a duke. “Won’t you join us?”

Lucent said, “I’m afraid we’re in a bit of a hurry” at the exact same time as Glint said, “of course!” which naturally led to a fair amount of confusion. Ultimately, it was Cinny who stepped in and got the two stallions to sit down. Her hooves were killing her, and she couldn’t remember the last time she ate. Still, she couldn’t help but feel like she was overstepping her bounds ever so slightly when she gently knocked Lucent onto his rump and ordered him to stay put while she got some food for the three of them. She was already on thin ice, and she suspected she hadn’t done herself any favours. Not that Rarity’s shocked and horrified gasp made the situation more comfortable.

Perhaps she was a bit grumpy, since she was feeling a great deal calmer when she finally returned to the table with a tray of goodies and hot drinks for the three of them. It was a bit difficult to manage, considering the tray was designed more for unicorns than pegasi—even though she used her wing tips to try and stabilize the tray. So naturally she was grateful when one of the three unicorns took the tray from her and laid it on the table—although it turned out to be Rarity’s doing, not Lucent or Glint.

For Glint’s part, the stallion was practically kissing Hoity, the way the two of them had their noses pressed up together as they chatted in what she could only assume was fashion-world-talk. He barely looked up when he took his meal and drink, leaving herself alone with Rarity and Lucent. Lucent, on the other hoof, smiled appreciatively at her, which was worth everything she had gone through thus far today. Sort of.

“I hope Hoity and I don’t delay you too long,” Rarity said—apparently resuming a conversation already in progress. “After all, I’m sure you and your herd are very busy… what was it you said you were up to—if you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

“Dress shopping.” Cinny said between bites of her sandwich. Hungry or not, she didn’t want to just sit there. At least Rarity didn’t seem to judge her like her coltfriend did. “For the Gala.”

“Really?” Rarity said, her voice growing a few notes higher with excitement, “Oh, how wonderful! Everypony who’s anypony is going to be there—which goes without saying, seeing as you’re going, your Grace.”

“Please, just Lucent.”

“Of course… Lucent.” Rarity’s eyes twinkled, and Cinny wondered if she had just been testing to see if the offer was genuine. “Are you hoping to see Twilight there, per chance?”

Lucent’s smile grew into a grin, “A-ha, I knew it; you’re Miss Rarity, aren’t you? From Ponyville?”

Oh for the love of— Cinny resisted the urge to plant her head in a nearby pot of soil and pretend she was a sunflower. It was insane enough that she had managed to sleep with Twilight Sparkle’s herd, and now she was having lunch with one of her friends and one of the Elements of Harmony. As if her life couldn’t get any worse. Hopefully she wouldn’t know anything about her exploits thus far—the last thing she needed was for Rarity to spill the beans to Twilight that her dad was sleeping with the author who had written such nasty (if loving) things about her.

“Oh my!” Rarity exclaimed, “I didn’t realize I was so famous.”

“You did help save Equestria,” Lucent said with a shake of his head, “I’m shocked, really, that you’re not being mobbed wherever you go.”

“And thank Celestia for that,” Rarity laughed, “All those hooves pawing at me—with a coat like mine I’d be more earth pony than unicorn in a week!”

Lucent joined her in her laugh, but Cinny couldn’t muster better than a weak feeling smile. She wasn’t exactly happy with dress-shopping, but minute by minute, it was looking to be the preferable option.

“Well, I can assure you, darling, that your little filly will be there,” Rarity said once the two of them had calmed down. “I made her dress myself, and—at risk of being immodest—it is simply splendid! She looks like a Princess in it.”

“You’ve gotten my daughter to wear clothes?” Lucent said with a chuckle, “better luck than Twilight ever had, I guess—Twilight Velvet, that is. One of my herdmates.”

“Oh yes, Twilight speaks about Velvet quite fondly,” Rarity said with a smile, that ever so slightly turned into a frown after a moment. Cinnamon wondered if that meant Twilight talked about Star as well… she doubted Twilight would have kind words about her mother. “Now,” Rarity, for the first time since Cinny had sat down, pulled her gaze off of Lucent and fixed her in her sights. She had a scary sort of intensity in her eyes. “Might I offer my services as a seamstress? I couldn’t help but notice you looked a bit harried when you came in, darling, and I can’t say I blame you. The so-called seamstresses are giving us couturiers a bad name, if you ask me. Honestly, I saw three dresses today, all of which were a nasty shade of green—” Cinny hastily tried to stuff as much of her mane into her hat as she could. It didn’t work. “—it’s amazing they haven’t been laughed right out of business!”

“Oh, uh,” Cinny wasn’t sure what to say. Her first instinct was to simply say no—it just seemed like a bad idea on the face of it. It was going to be awkward enough talking to Twilight about what she wrote—and while she wasn’t under any obligation to tell Rarity the same, she’d know she what she had done and written about her, and there was no doubt in Cinny’s mind that Twilight would be spilling the beans as soon as she had a chance. She could only imagine the outrage Twilight would feel when she found out that not only had she written erotica about her and her friends, but also taken advantage of Rarity’s generosity. Even if they paid, and they would, it’d still be incredibly awkward. Cinny didn’t like hurting ponies, whatever her herdmates might think.

“Well, we’ve tried every other pony in this dreadful strip,” Glint said, breaking into the conversation for the first time since they sat down. “Perhaps a breath of fresh air is what we need… You wouldn’t happen to have a portfolio on hoof, would you…?”

“Of course, Darling.” Rarity lit her horn and pulled out a large but not particularly thick book from her saddlebags. “These are a bit old but—oh, excuse me!” The book opened and a couple of pages and photographs whizzed out and returned to the saddlebag. “I’d rather like to keep those dresses a surprise for the big night. Spoilers, as Twilight might say, mmm?”

Rarity passed the book to her, which was somewhere between ironic and completely pointless, considering what Cinny knew about dresses and fashion was next to nothing what-so-ever. The ‘crash course’ she had received over the past few hours hadn’t exactly made her any better at it, mostly because it wasn’t like she had been doing much more than being Glint’s dress-up doll. Yet she had the feeling that it would be rather rude to pass it over to Glint, now that Rarity had given it to her—and besides, Glint had gotten up and was looking over her shoulder anyway.

There was no escape.

So, putting on a brave face, Cinny started to slowly flip through the book, doing her best to make it seem like she was both interested, and knew what she was doing. Which boiled down to nodding every now and again and making safe-and-vague comments like ‘I like the colors on this one’ or ‘that’s nice.’ She just had to make sure not to use the same comment too many times in a row, les Rarity grow suspicious.

“It’s… uh… quite the portfolio,” Glint said at last in the sort of tone that made Cinny’s heart twinge. She really didn’t want to wear one of Rarity’s dresses, for obvious reasons, but it made her feel rather horrible to hope that Glint was about to put her down and dismiss her too. It wasn’t Rarity’s fault, after all.

Besides, she was getting tired of hoofing it all over the place. It was just a dress, after all; why unicorns got all up in knots about it, she’d never know. It wasn’t like the Princesses wore dresses or something.

“It is quite impressive, isn’t it?” Hoity said, either missing the tone in Glint’s voice or else trying to defend his fillyfriend by ignoring it. The thought almost made Cinny giggle; a stallion standing up for a mare? How silly. “You should see the work she did for your daughter and her friends, Your Grace. Some of the finest dresses I’ve ever seen.”

Cinny gently closed the book as she heard Glint take a deep breath—probably to tell Hoity off—but the unicorn never got a chance to dismiss Rarity.

“Well, I’ve never been a great one for fashion,” Lucent interrupted with a shake of his head. “Not like Glint here, of course—or the two of you. Me, I think my mares look lovely whatever they dress in.” Lucent shrugged and gently pulled the book out of Cinny’s hooves and briefly flipped through it, as if buying himself to think. “And I think Cinnamon Swift will be no less beautiful if she went to the Gala wearing rags.”

“My dresses—well, except those abominations that we shall never speak of again—are hardly rags, Your Grace!” Rarity said with just a hint of melodramatic outrage. Cinny couldn’t decide if Rarity would get along well with Crystal Glimmer or not. They both seemed to tend towards the dramatic…

“No, no!” Lucent waved his hoof in front of his face dismissively, “Of course not, I didn’t mean to offer any insult, my lady—” Rarity’s outrage disappeared into a bright blush, which only made Cinny smirk; her stallion certainly knew how to handle a mare. “—rather, what I was trying to say is that I’d rather the money go to somepony I know, and like, then some stranger!” Lucent’s lips twitched. “Besides, if you can stuff Twilight into a dress, who knows what you’ll be able to do with Cinny here?”

Writing had always been, to pardon the pun, Cinny’s passion, and she certainly found herself writing whenever she could. But after meeting Rarity, she couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps she wasn’t nearly as into it as she thought. She certainly didn’t carry around several suitcases of writing supplies, for example. Rarity apparently felt the need to bring with her several bolts of fabric and measuring tapes and thread and all manner of things that Cinny had no names for. It was as if she expected that she might need all of it at a moment’s notice, although as far as Cinny could tell, the mare was in Canterlot for a mixture of pleasure and work—but the latter wasn’t the sort of work directly related to dressmaking.

Cinny was well versed in the fact that if she wanted to make any money at her passion, she’d have to deal with things like publishers. Not something she particularly enjoyed or thought was particularly glamorous, but what could she do? Perhaps Rarity enjoyed the fashion industry more than Cinny enjoyed the publishing industry, but that didn’t really explain the suitcases, considering she didn’t really need to carry that stuff with her.

Of course, when she had asked—in the vain hope that small talk would make the fact that a complete stranger was poking her in all sorts of intimate areas with a measuring tape—Rarity has expressed the idea that she had to be prepared in case inspiration ever struck her while she was away. Which only made Cinny feel rotten, more so than she already was. As far as she could remember, she had never really felt such an urge to ‘create’ like Rarity did, and she had never really felt a sudden inspiration that she had to get down on paper either. She couldn’t help but wonder if she was really meant to write—her only claim to fame wasn’t even something she had originally dreamt up.

It didn’t help that several of Elements of Love’ chapters had been dedicated to the white mare prancing around the room, and it was difficult for Cinnamon to keep what she had written out of her head and her eyes off Rarity’s behind. Especially since it kept wiggling back and forth in front of her face while Rarity rooted around in her suitcases.

Thankfully, they hadn’t stayed at the café. Obviously the place wasn’t exactly suited for… getting suited, so they had all moved back to Rarity’s hotel room. For some reason Cinny had imagined she would have been staying with Hoity, but apparently not. Naturally, the room was fairly small and cramped, especially with a small herd of ponies in it, so after a bit, the three stallions decided to take off and ‘leave them to it’. A bad idea by Cinny’s estimation, considering she had no real understanding of fashion. Not to mention she didn’t want to see Lucent go.

Still, repairing their relationship wasn’t going to happen over night or one day spent together, and some part of Cinny wasn’t particularly happy with the way Lucent kept eyeing Rarity. She’d say the mare was too young for him, but that would be a bit hypocritical…

Nevertheless, that’s how she found herself half-dressed, alone, and in a hotel room with Rarity.

Only half-dressed, since, even though it had been, by Cinny’s estimation, over two hours, Rarity still hadn’t settled on anything. At this rate, she was beginning to suspect going to the Gala nude might really just be the better choice after all.

“A-ha!” Rarity exclaimed with a fervour and energy that made Cinny jump a bit. “I have it! I simply don’t know what’s wrong with me today, it should have been so obvious!”

Cinny was pretty sure Rarity wasn’t actually talking to her, but she was getting a bit tired of being an object, rather than a pony. “Err, what is?”

“You’re a pegasus, darling.” Yes, that probably qualified as an obvious observation. “I’ve been going about this all wrong! All wrong! Strip! Strip! We have to start over!”

Normally, if a pretty mare asked her to strip—not that she normally wore clothing to begin with—she’d be pretty excited, but given the situation and the fact that they were starting over yet again, Cinny only managed a half-assed grimace of a smile and slowly wiggled her way out of the never-to-be-a-dress dress she had been wearing. Rarity, for her part, didn’t seem to notice at all, although it could have been more because she had yanked open another suitcase and was currently unrolling a bunch of pale blue fabric.

“It’s always a bit different, isn’t it, darling?” Rarity asked rhetorically and she pulled the fabric off the bolt and started to wrap it around Cinny. “You have to understand that I very rarely get to design for pegasi, mostly my clientele are unicorns—or earth ponies, given Ponyville is an earth pony town.”

Perhaps Pegasi were the only tribe to keep their heads about them and not bother with dresses.

“But with you, I think we should emphasize that! Starting with some sky blues—“ Cinnamon did her best not to flinch as a series of pins flew out of a nearby pincushion and tried to jab her in a number of misses that came very close to turning herself into a dress. Perhaps this was the ‘zone’ Rarity kept going on about—she certainly hadn’t been this energetic before.

“Whites, of course, are out of the question; it’s a dress, not a painting of the sky, of course, but we can get around that with some silver trim, I should think—” Now Rarity’s aura was pulling out more fabric—this time some silver-glinting lace. “Maybe some gossamer? Yes, I think that would do lovely. Oh!” Rarity clapped her hooves. “And some feathers!”

Considering Rarity had only just observed the fact that she was a Pegasus, Cinny found herself wondering if the mare had forgotten she had feathers. It was only natural that she blurted out—she had been doing her best to keep her tongue to herself all day, but this was boardline silly in the extreme; “I have feathers!”

“What?” Rarity looked momentarily confused, as if she had completely forgotten she was there. She shook her head, although whether it was in disagreement or to clear her brain, Cinny couldn’t tell. “Of course you do, darling, and it’s really a very lovely plumage too! But we can put some feathers here—” a bunch of what looked like oversized pinions appeared from one of the bags, all of which were varied from stormy grey, spun around her neck like some sort of weird necklace. “and perhaps a few by your tail as well.”

Feathers? On her tail? She was a pony, not a bird—and she could tell right now she’d probably never be able to fly with this dress on, flight magic or no.

“Of course, it simply won’t be complete unless you accessorize—I’d suggest some silver false feathers myself, they’d simply complete this wonderfully.”

“False… feathers?” Cinny felt like she should know what that was, because it sounded familiar.

“You know, jewellery you wear in your wings? They go over a normal feather, to add some visual interest to your wings, especially when you move them.” Rarity adjusted her glasses and peered in closely at the fabric before whipping it off Cinny and beginning to cut. “Obviously, I can’t do much for you in that department, darling, but I do know the name of a good silversmith, who is, in my opinion, a small miracle worker! Of course, they’re a bit on the pricy side, but I’m sure you can convince your dear Lucent to make a gift of it.” Rarity smirked shyly at her and went back to her sewing.

Cinny bit her lip and frowned, it hardly seemed like the time or place to be asking Lucent for expensive gifts, and Celestia knew the dress would be expensive enough as is. Perhaps she’d be able to scrape together enough bits to buy one or two herself, if she really needed them for the dress.

“Might I ask how you met the Duke?” Rarity asked with a tone of someone who desperately wanted to pry, but would be mortified if you called her out on it.

Briefly, Cinny considered letting the question slide, but it might be the start of a conversation, and given how listless and bored she was feeling, conversation would undoubtedly make the time pass quicker.

Or at least, that’s how she’d like to justify the fact that she blurted out: “I accidentally passed some of my work in with an essay, and I guess it caught his eye.”

“Work?” Rarity asked in an absentminded tone. “I take it you’re some sort of author, judging from your cutie mark. No, no, don’t tell me… Romance?”

“Uh…”

“Oh, it must have been terribly romantic!” Rarity said with a dramatic sigh as her needles sewed a few edges together. “Clearly his lead mare recognized you had a beautiful heart, perfect for dear Lucent, I can only just imagine it!”

“Actually,” Cinny almost stopped herself. It was one thing to make social mistakes in the first place, she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to detail them for someone outside of the herd. On the other hoof, lying, even by omission, didn’t strike her as a particularly wise course of action either—Rarity would probably find out about the actual circumstances eventually. Sooner if Star spread it around, which Cinny couldn’t see her not doing. “Actually… no, I asked him. Lucent that is.”

“Really?” Rarity’s tone was somewhere between shocked and interested. “I hadn’t realized your herd was so progressive! Usually, the nobility does tend towards the conservative side of things, after all.”

For a moment, Cinny struggled with trying to explain to Rarity the minefield that was the politics within the herd, before sighing heavily. She wasn’t even sure she understood it herself, let alone enough to explain it to a third party. After a few moments of indecision, she finally settled on a noncommittal; “I guess so.”

“Still…” Rarity’s voice trailed off as she focused more on her work. As far as she could tell, the seamstress was done with her for a moment, so Cinny flopped onto the hotel’s bed and watched as Rarity put her Gala dress together. It wasn’t terribly interesting to watch, truthfully, but despite the long day and the surprisingly comfortable bed, Cinny didn’t find herself in danger of falling asleep. Rather, she found herself feeling increasingly guilty as she watched Rarity pour herself into the dress.

Rarity was, out of the goodness of her heart, taking the time to make her a dress, but Cinnamon Swift seriously doubted she would be so generous or willing if she had read what Cinny had written about her in Elements. It wasn’t particularly nasty stuff, of course, but it was still erotica, and she doubted the mare would have appreciated it. Part of her wondered if Rarity and her could be friends—she was certainly friendly enough—but it would never work out. And that realization only made Cinny realize she had probably sunk her relationship with Twilight before the two of them had ever met…

“Perhaps you’ll lend me a copy?” Rarity asked suddenly, as she held the dress up, apparently to look at it in the light.

“Huh?” Cinny shook her head to clear it of the melancholy thoughts that seemed to plague her of late.

“Of your work, darling. I’m something of a connoisseur of the genre myself, and I’m always on the lookout for new talent to read.” Rarity smiled at her warmly. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t hoping for some prince to come sweep me off my hooves, but until then…”

“I… I…” She seemed to surround herself with lies lately, and Cinny wasn’t sure she really wanted to continue. “Rarity, I think you might be under the wrong impression… I write erotica, not romance.”

“Oho?” Rarity’s eyes sparked, but not—apparently—in anger. “And?”

Cinny stared at her. “What?”

“Darling, erotica isn’t really much different from romance, as I’m sure you’re well aware… and it’s a terrible sin to be ashamed of one’s talents, wherever they might lie.” Rarity shook her head.

“I’m not… ashamed of it.” Cinny said, feeling her face start to turn red. Ashamed? Of her talent? Of course not. She loved what she did… it’s just that years of experience had taught her that… well, not everypony she met was going to be as pleased with it. “But someponies take offense and…” Cinny shrugged helplessly.

“I see.” Rarity said in a tone that seemed far too understanding, especially since Cinny wasn’t certain there was anything to be understanding about. She wasn’t ashamed.

Right?

“Is that why, in the several hours we’ve been together, you’ve not mentioned your novel, darling?” Rarity asked innocently as Cinny’s heart skipped a beat. Or nine.

Oh dear.

“Uh…um…” Cinny’s wings twitched, but somehow she doubted she’d be able to fly fast enough to get away from the mare. Plus the windows looked pretty thick. “You…” Cinny’s voice dropped to a whisper, as if saying it quietly would diminish the impact of it. She couldn’t even bring herself to finish her sentence.

“…know?” Rarity finished for her. “Didn’t I just say I enjoy reading those sorts of stories? Obviously I’m discreet about the more… erotic novels, like yours, but I do have quite an extensive collection.”

“You… you do?” Cinny said faintly. Rarity, on the other hoof, continued to work on the dress as if nothing in particular had happened or was happening.

“Mhmm. Under lock and key, mind you—the last thing I need to Sweetie Belle getting into them, goodness knows she’s tried.” Rarity shook her head while Cinny found herself wondering who exactly Sweetie Belle was. “You can imagine my surprise when I opened my latest package this month and discovered… well…”

“Uh…” First Cadance, now Rarity. Cinny was beginning to think she’d show up to tell Twilight about her mistakes and find her and Celestia reading it out loud or something.

“I have to say, I’m a bit surprised that you’re one of Twilight’s herdmothers,” Rarity continued, as she folded the fabric in a few spots and added stitches for some Luna-forsaken reason. “After, well… on the other hoof, given what Twilight’s told me about her mother…” Rarity glanced up at Cinny over the top of her glasses. “But you don’t strike me as that sort of mare.”

“It… was a mistake,” Cinnamon choked out. Incidentally, this seemed like a very good reason to figure out what she was going to say to Twilight before meeting her at the Gala. “I wasn’t thinking… it’s hard to get recognized as an author, and when they said they’d publish it…”

“I understand completely, darling. Truly, I do. I know mares who have done absolutely despicable things to get noticed in the fashion world—thankfully, I’ve never been one of them.” Rarity patted the top of Cinny’s hoof with her own as Cinnamon’s heart sank a bit more.

“You think I’m despicable?” But how could she not?

“No. A poor choice of words, Cinnamon, forgive me.” Rarity frowned and shook her head.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you for forgiveness?” Cinny couldn’t help but blurt out.

For the first time since she had brought up the awkward topic, Rarity stopped her work on the dress completely, and turned her whole attention to Cinny, with a thoughtful look on her face. “Because, I take it, you’re worried that you’ve angered me with what you’ve written?”

Cinny nodded.

“I can’t say I was too pleased, truthfully, no,” Rarity said. “And if you want to apologize, I’d readily accept it; but, Cinnamon, darling, I can’t hold it against you for trying to follow your talent, whatever that talent is. You should follow it and be proud—never you mind what other ponies might think.” Rarity gave her a soft smile. “I remember when I was first starting out as a dress maker, oh you should have heard the comments—and even today I’m not sure all my friends really understand my passion. But that’s no reason to be less proud of it, or want to stick with it.”

“I suppose so,” Cinnamon said, although if she was going to be honest with herself, she didn’t think the problems Elements of Love were causing her were nearly on the same level as ponies disliking the design of a dress. “And I will… but with original stuff, I think.”

“Glad to hear it!” Rarity exclaimed, before lighting her horn and pulling the dress up off the table. “Let’s try it on, shall we?”

Getting into the dress proved easier than Cinny thought, given it’s appearance, and it fit surprisingly well given Rarity had essentially made it from scratch and sewn it together in so short a span of time. Moreover, Cinny found, as she looked at herself in the mirror, that she actually rather liked it. It was… not what she’d usually wear, or even wear it everyday, but for the first time since she had met Lucent, she looked like the sort of upperclass mare one would expect him to have in his herd. It was very beautiful.

“Thank you, Rarity.” Cinny said, and for a brief moment she wondered if she could confess her other fears to the mare—but in the end decided against it. Rarity wasn’t really her friend, at least not yet. But maybe one day…

“Think nothing of it, m’dear.” Rarity said as she hurried to make a few more adjustments that Cinny felt weren’t totally necessary, but Rarity insisted on making. “I was wondering if you might answer a question of mine?”

“Oh, of course.”

“In your book, why are Rainbow Dash and dear Applejack… colts?” Rarity blushed ever so slightly.

“Oh, err, well…” Cinny flushed as well. “No pony really wants to read about an all mare herd…”

Elements of Love Page 333

Elements of Love ----------------------------------------------------------By Cinnamon Swift

“Are you quite alright, darling?” Rarity asked, her voice sounding amazingly faint to Twilight’s ears. It took her a moment to remember where she was, and more importantly, why she was soaked and tied to a bed.

“I’m okay,” Twilight forced herself to say, each word punctuated with little pants. She had never experienced such an intense orgasm, not even with her dearest stallions. “Just, surprised, is all.”

“That’s quite understandable,” Rarity said, and as Twilight turned to face the mare, she could see Rarity’s grin was a bit crooked. “But, uh, if it’s all the same to do, my sweet, I’m quite…”

It was a testament to the situation that it took Twilight a moment to realize the mare wasn’t exactly satisfied, given that she hadn’t, in fact, been satisfied yet.

“Oh, of course, Rarity. Untie me please.”

It took them several minutes to switch positions, with Rarity being tied to the bed. Truthfully, it didn’t do nearly as much for Twilight as it seemed to do the other unicorn—oh, she enjoyed how exposed Rarity was, her lips glistening in the soft candles set up around the room, the way her teats stood hard and exposed against her belly… but she much preferred it, Twilight suspected, if everypony involved was participating.

Still, it was a two-way street.

Tentatively, Twilight picked up the crop with her magic and gave it a few experimental whips through the air.

“Oh no!” Rarity said, causing Twilight to pause. “Don’t, please! My fur’s too thin and I’d simply die of embarrassment if I was walking around town with red marks all over my butt!”

Twilight stared at Rarity for a moment. “Okay, I’m not sure if you’re playing in character or not.”

“I’m serious,” Rarity shook her head. “I learned that lesson back in high school! But don’t worry, Twilight, my dear, I’ve got plenty of toys.”

“Uh, okay.” Twilight trotted over to the chest Rarity had shown her earlier in the evening. Or tried to. She certainly wished Rarity had told her before whipping her ass about the side-effects, although she probably should have guessed. The chest was filled with all manner of objects, several of which seemed to be more medieval than the next.

“Oh goodness, you poor thing,” Rarity said with a laugh. “You should see your face, m’dear! You don’t have to use anything if you don’t want to…”

But how…? Twilight thought to herself helpless, before her eyes alit on one of the candles around the room, and vaguely she remembered something.

Carefully she lifted the candle off it’s holder and hovered it over to Rarity, where she titled it ever so slightly…

“Ah! Oh!” Rarity withered as the hot wax fell on her belly—Twilight adjusted her aim until the globs were falling on the truly sensitive areas of her lover’s body.

As Rarity squirmed and moaned, Twilight began to see the appeal, but she couldn’t help but feel like she was missing something too.

After a pause, Twilight lowered her muzzle between Rarity’s stretched out legs, first nibbling the delicate eye of Rarity’s soft, damp flower, before moving a bit lower—all the while drizzling candle wax over the rest of the white mare’s barrel. Rarity bit back a groan and

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 333

Author's Note

I strongly suspect this might be a very bad idea to do in real life.

The Last Supper

Cinny tried not to scratch, she really did, but her head just felt so...weird. Her mane and tail had been styled to what felt like, at least to Cinny, an inch of their lives. The hair felt lighter and somehow tighter on her head, and while it wasn't painful, it was a bit distracting, mostly because it just felt different. More troubling, however, was her tail. The stylist, and by extension Crystal Glimmer, had insisted on doing more with it than merely washing it and untangling it, which was all Cinny would have done if she was 'dressing' to impress. It was considered too little for such a grand party as the Gala. But why they had thought it was a good idea to put some sort of gel in it and wrap a ribbon around it, Cinny would never know.

It made her feel particularly exposed—especially since she had always relied on her tail to cover her hindquarters. With it tied up so, it felt as if more of her behind was exposed to the whole world than she would normally like. On some level, it was kind of thrilling, but thrilling wasn’t always the best thing for her, given her… problem. It took every shred of her will to keep her wings loose and limber, and she was grateful that she had an excellent excuse not to go flying around: the wind would muss up her meticulously groomed coat, and the Gala was tonight.

Besides exposing her behind, though, the stiffness in her tail hairs made it feel like somepony had jizzed all through it and let it dry. She might enjoy sex, but the mussed feeling that came after, from waiting too long to clean up, was something she could have done without. Of course, she was a long way from a shower now, and she just hoped she’d get used to the feeling before long.

After Crystal had ‘helped’ Cinny with her hair—if one could consider the continual badgering, snide comments, and passive aggressive behaviour, ‘helping’—the mare had more or less dropped her on a street corner with instructions to “be back at the townhouse before four” and to “not screw up the Gala or Lucent’s reputation or her mane, or Celestia help her, she would find herself buried in a deep hole out back.” Cinny was pretty sure she was joking about that last comment. But there was little reason for her not to follow Crystal’s… advice. She wanted to look good for Lucent too, and she certainly didn’t want to embarrass her stallion, rich and powerful he might already be. Not that she had particularly hopeful thoughts about that last desire.

At the very least, Lucent had commented favourably on her dress when she had shown him—although Rarity seemed a bit unhappy about that. Something to do with the date not seeing the dress before it was time… or something. It was rather strange, but Cinny had a hard time holding ill feelings against a mare who had so kindly accepted Cinny’s mistakes and forgave her.

She just hoped Twilight would be able to do the same.

Rarity had promised not to tell Twilight, or any of the other Element bearers about what she had wrote, and Cinnamon wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. After all, if Rarity had told them, their anger probably would have gotten, if anything, less violent. Unless they were the sort of ponies who held grudges and their anger just got stronger and stronger over time. That would be bad.

The long and short of it, though, was that it was nearly noon and Cinny had several hours to burn before she was expected to be anywhere or do anything. Perhaps the wisest course of action might have been to return to the townhouse and just quietly read or perhaps work on something, but her inspiration had more or less evaporated the closer they had gotten to the date, and she doubted she’d have the concentration to read, either. That only left the herd to spend time with, but Star Sparkle had been in a fairly grumpy mood from what Cinny had seen of her that morning, and most of the rest of the herd, if they weren’t exactly cold to her, were still warming up—or rewarming up, as it were—to her. Even Velvet was coming around, but she suspected that the only way the wounds were going to heal properly or completely would be after she made her apologies tonight. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly the least tense homelife Cinny had ever experienced.

Besides, she had other plans.

It just so happened that today was also the one day of the week where Cinny could go to her favourite coffee shop and meet her friends. She had seen far too little of them over the past few months, and Lucent had suggested a few days before that maybe she ought to go spend some time with them. Given how trying Star had been to her during that dinner, Cinny had been inclined to agree—and not simply because Lucent had suggested it while nibbling on her in oh-so-wonderful ways.

But with the Gala literally days away, it wasn’t as if she could just hop into a cab and show up at her old haunts. This had been the first real free time she had got in a week, and better yet, since Crystal was supposed to stick with her rather than running off to some winery or wherever the mare got to in her spare time, none of the herd knew where she was. So it was unlikely that Star would be able to track her down and interrupt them.

Tasseomancer’s Haunt had been one of her favourite places to get a drink and work on some of her writing—in a corner, of course, so no pony got an accidental eyeful, either of her story’s contents or her own inability to repress her desires while writing, and the building felt and looked old. As far as she knew, the place had been standing for nearly five hundred years, and the name came from a time when ponies thought one’s future could be read by looking at the contents of one’s cup. Or so Bitter Brew always liked to tell her, whenever she had been alone and writing. Cinny knew full well that older stallion was trying to catch her eye, but he was never her type.

It was one of her favourite places to be.

Or, at least, it had been.

She hadn’t been there in weeks, and the first thing she noticed about the place when she pushed open the door and stepped inside was how dingy the place was. It wasn’t particularly dirty, or particularly dark, or cheap (Cinny had spent enough bits on Bitter Brew’s mochas to attest to that), but it felt run down—old, but not in a good way. For a brief, mad moment, Cinny thought that perhaps the place had gone to seed in the few months she hadn’t been visiting, that her lack of patronage had caused the place to come apart at the seams… then she realized it hadn’t really changed at all. It was exactly the same.

It was she who had changed, however minutely, and now this coffee shop, this place that had, at one time, felt almost like a home to her, wasn’t to her tastes anymore. Suddenly, Cinnamon couldn’t help but realize that she wasn’t just a stranger in the high circles that Lucent trotted around in… she was a stranger in her old world too.

As if things couldn’t possibly get—

“Well, hello, sexy thing,” whispered a voice in her ear. A familiar voice.

Cinny grinned as she pulled the mare into a hug. “DeeDee!”

“Ugh, Cinny!” DeeDee, whose real name was Dawn Dreamer, protested half-heartedly as she returned the hug with equal energy. “You know I hate it when you call me that.”

“Everypony calls you that,” Cinny pointed out as she released DeeDee and took a step back, “even your parents.”

DeeDee rolled her eyes, and sidestepped so Cinny could see the pony still seated at one of the far tables, who grinned back at her like a cheeky colt.

“No hug for me, Cinny?” He chuckled, “I’m hurt, I truly am!”

“Oh shut up and get over here,” Cinnamon said with a laugh as she crossed the intervening distance and gave the requested hug. Gear Quill was, despite his name, an earth pony, not a pegasus like herself, and despite the fact that he seemed to spend most of his time writing extremely technical papers about engineering, he certainly showed the best attributes of his tribe. Besides his muscles and strong back—not to mention handsome hide quarters—he also had a brilliant rainbow mane to contrast with his grey coat. Cinny would be lying to herself—and everypony else—if she didn’t admit that she found the stallion extremely attractive, and it seemed like a cruel twist of fate that the colt only had eyes for other stallions.

“What brings you back here, Cinny?” DeeDee asked as she trotted over with a goofy grin on her face. As if to complete the metaphor for the three tribes, DeeDee was a unicorn; her coat was a dusky shade of blue and her mane was an equally dusky (or dusty, as DeeDee liked to call it) shade of purple, both of which made her orange eyes stand out more. She wasn’t gay like Gear Quill, but Cinny had never really given significant thought to going out with her, although she wasn’t sure why. “I like what you’ve done with your mane, by the way,” DeeDee added with a smirk. “Is that ribbon I spy in your tail?”

Like that’s all you were looking at, Cinny thought to herself with a giggle, before shaking her head and pulling up a seat before the situation became awkward.

“Do I need an excuse to drop in at the old Haunt?” Cinny asked rhetorically as she eased herself into the seat—careful not to muss her tail while she did. “I missed you guys.”

“Well, sure,” Gear said, his grin slipping slightly. “We missed you too… that’s why we’ve been wondering where you got to.”

Cinny’s heart sank. Had it really been that long? Between moving in with Lucent’s herd and the revelations about her novel… it felt like she hadn’t had the time for anything or anypony outside of the herd. She just hadn’t realized it had been so… long.

For a brief, sickening moment, Cinny wondered if she was becoming as stuck up and wrong-headed as Star.

“Whoa, whoa, m’dear,” Gear exclaimed, reaching over across the table and patting her hoof with his. “I didn’t mean to criticize, I’m sure it’s all a bit of a big change, moving and hooking up with your coltfriend’s herd…” Gear looked vaguely awkward for a moment. “We just missed you, is all… How about I get you something to drink, eh? Give you mares a moment to catch up. Still like mochas, I take it?”

“Uh, yes…” Cinny shifted on her hindquarters nervously, and then bent down to her saddle bag to pull out some bits. “... I can pay, I—”

“No need, m’dear,” Gear said with a laugh. Despite his cheer, it seemed a bit forced to Cinny, and it only made Cinny feel even more awkward. surely she should be paying? Between the money coming in from her book sales and the herd allowance that she had somehow started to receive—although who was in charge of the money bags and kept leaving coin purses on her dresser remained a mystery to her—she had more than enough bits to pay for her own drinks.

DeeDee’s eyes followed Gear’s behind as he walked over to where Bitter Brew was working his magic, although Cinny knew the mare was well aware of Gear’s preferences. Once he was out of earshot, she smirked at Cinny. “I’ve missed you too. Had to work through my heat all by my lonesome, and I never thought you’d miss that!”

Cinny blushed. DeeDee was one of those ponies’ who biological cycles never seemed to sync up with the community around her, and since Cinny had been in the same boat, the two of them had always made a point of helping one another out… and Cinny had completely forgotten. She really was a horrible pony.

“Oh, don’t look so glum,” DeeDee’s eyes gleamed with mischievous light. “Just because you weren’t there in body doesn’t mean you weren’t in soul… I daresay that novel of yours helped me more than once.”

“You...uh,” Cinny mumbled. She wasn’t really sure what she was expecting. Of course ponies were going to clop to her work. Celestia knew how many time she had found herself curled up with a good piece of erotica and her free hoof between her legs. Yet suddenly the whole idea just seemed to disturb her. Sweet Celestia, Cinny thought suddenly. Did Rarity do that?

“Mhmm,” DeeDee’s eyes fluttered. “Nothing like a good friend, though…”

“Well, I… I am in a herd now,” Cinny shook her head to clear it of thoughts of a certain white mare touching herself to a story about herself being touched. She didn’t need her wings stiff right now, for one thing, so the sooner she could steer the conversation away from that topic, the better. “So… I mean…”

DeeDee frowned in confusion, “Lucent’s a unicorn, isn’t he?” Lucent was the only herdmember she had introduced to her friends—hopefully, when things calmed down a bit, she’d be able to invite her friends over to meet the rest of the herd. “And didn’t you say most of the herd were unicorns?”

“Yes?” Cinny’s ears twitched in irritation.

“Oh honey,” DeeDee said, “you know we unicorns sometimes take lovers on the sides…”

“I only just joined, I don’t think I should be rocking the boat like that,” Cinny felt like rubbing the sides of her head. Truthfully, DeeDee had warned and/or teased her about that fact, and Star Sparkle had certainly made no bones about it, but Cinny doubted she’d ever be comfortable with it. Her loyalty was to Lucent and her herdmates, she wasn’t about to betray them. “And that’s not me.”

“Yeah, okay.” DeeDee said, looking ever so slightly disappointed, which only made Cinny feel guilty. She didn’t want to hurt her friends.

Cinny nuzzled the mare’s ear gently, hoping she’d understand that she still cared for her as a friend. DeeDee gave a weak smile after a moment, just in time for Gear to return with a steaming cup of mocha, which he placed in front of Cinny with bright grin.

“That’s what I like to see from my two favorite fillies!” Gear said with a chuckle.

“Don’t let Berry hear that,” DeeDee said with a snort, “or you might find yourself missing a few choice parts of your anatomy.”

“Ouch!” Gear winced and clutched his legs together. “But you have to admit, if Cinny hadn’t been snatched up…”

“Who’s Berry?” Cinny asked. The only Berry she knew was a pink mare she had briefly known in university—a friend of Gear’s, but not one Cinny had ever gotten to know particularly well. Then her brain caught up with the rest of what Gear had said. “And what do you mean by… ‘been snatched up’?”

“We’re all very happy for you, Cinnamon,” Gear said, sounding as if he was expecting her to understand some sort of subtext. “But we would have been happy to to have you…”

Cinny stared at him blankly.

Gear stared back, before slowly shifting to a glare that he directed at DeeDee.

“Dawn, Didn’t you tell her?” Gear said, sounding frustrated. “I thought that would have been the first thing out of your mouth!”

“Oh, uh,” DeeDee blushed and looked down at her own half full cup.

“Will some pony just tell me what’s going on here?” Cinny asked, glancing between her two friends.

“We, err,” DeeDee rubbed the back of her head. “We met this stallion, probably the same day as you moved out.”

“Mithril Mail.” Gear supplied.

“One of the Royal Guards, actually,” DeeDee added, before continuing. “Well, one thing led to another and the next thing we know…. uh…”

“We’re a herd, Cinny,” Gear summed up simply. “Me, DeeDee, Ril, and Berry.”

Cinny stared at the stallion for a long moment. For some reason the idea that Gear would have herded, given his orientation… it just seemed so foreign to her. No. That’s not right; she knew full well bent ponies found ways to make a herd relationship work.

No, what seemed strange to her, what seemed impossible, unbelievable, was that her friends would herd without her. She wasn’t delusional, she knew her friends were their own ponies, but… it was as if life had continued on some sort of natural path without her. She certainly liked DeeDee and Gear, perhaps even loved, if she allowed herself to think of them in that way, and she didn’t regret joining Lucent’s herd, but…

“We wanted to tell you,” DeeDee interrupted Cinny’s thoughts. “But we haven’t seen you in ages, and we weren’t really sure where to go to find you.”

“Or if you’d even want to see us, after you had moved in with your herd,” Gear said with a shrug. “After all, we’re hardly nobility.”

“No,” Cinny growled, to her surprise and theirs, judging by their reaction. “Never think that. Never. You’re my friends, both of you. Never think I’m too good for you. Come see me anytime. Everyday even.” Cinny closed her eyes and let out a sigh. It seemed no matter what she did, she was going to screw up somehow. First with her herd, and now, without even realizing it, her friends. “I’m happy for you, really,” Cinny added in what she hoped was a gentler and warmer voice. “Just surprised is all.”

“I think it surprised us all, really.” DeeDee said, sounding very relieved.

“It does seem a bit sudden,” Cinny said carefully. She didn’t want to seem like a nagging mother or trying to spoil their happiness because she was bitter or something ridiculous.

“It was, that’s true.” DeeDee agreed as Gear nodded. “But, well, we’re not getting any younger, and Gear and I have been friends for ages, even if he might not be… into me.”

“We make it work, though,” Gear added, before glancing at Cinny’s drink pointedly. Without thinking she quickly took a big glup, only to sputter and wince as the hotter-than-expected mocha burned her tongue and throat. “But enough about us. What about you? How’s it going with Lucent’s herd?”

Cinny flicked her tongue and panted, trying to cool her burnt mouth down while she considered the question. She didn’t want to complain, of course, it seemed wrong to speak ill of her herd, even to her friends… but on the other hoof, if she couldn’t tell her friends, who could she talk to? And yet…

She took a moment to shake herself mentally. If nothing else, she had come here to get away from her problems and worries and difficulties, before she had to plunge into them head long.

So: “It’s great,” Cinny said, trying to make herself sound happier and less stressed than she really felt. “Lucent’s so sweet, and you should see Glint.” Cinny smirked at Gear. “I know you’d like him.”

“I see,” Gear said, and shared a glance with DeeDee, making Cinny feel rather awkward. As long as she had been going to Canterlot’s university, she had always felt particularly close to these two ponies—but now it was as if there was some sort of rift between them. Of course, it was easy to imagine that it was partly from the fact that the two ponies were herdmates now, and she was the only one of the three ponies sitting at the table who was an outsider. Still, she wasn’t so much of a stranger that she didn’t realize DeeDee and Gear were skeptical.

Probably best to change the subject before they pressed it.

“I’d rather hear about you two, though,” Cinny said, hoping she didn’t sound desperate. “How’s everything going with…” Cinny groped for a topic, “your writing, DeeDee?” Like herself, DeeDee was an author, but as far as Cinny knew, her friend still hadn’t made it to the big leagues yet. Yet with so much changing…

“My writing?” DeeDee said with a laugh. “Not nearly as well as you, Miss Top-of-the-charts.”

“That’s right!” Gear said with a grin. “I’ve got to say, I particularly enjoyed the scenes between Applejack and Rainbow… very yummy.”

“Y-you read it?” Cinny stared. Gear had never expressed much interest in reading her erotic work, which was fine because—if she was going to be honest with herself and her writing—she didn’t write the sort of stuff Gear would be interested in very often. Then her brain caught up with what DeeDee had just said. “What do you mean by ‘top of the charts’?”

“Well, maybe not top,” DeeDee said, waving her hoof dismissively. “Surely you know your book’s… what? Twenty-sixth on the bestseller chart?”

“I…” Cinny hadn’t been, in fact, paying much attention. She had been doing her best to ignore the whole thing, barely glancing at the checks she had been cashing into the herd’s account. Was it really selling that well? For a moment, Cinny felt a momentary, perverse, thrill of excitement. Ponies really enjoyed her work! She was a success! Then, abruptly, her excited mood vanished as she realized that, if it was selling well, there was simply no way of hoping that the book was relatively obscure and only a few ponies had read it. “Oh. I see.” Cinny said with a sigh.

“Cinny, m’dear, what’s wrong?” Gear asked softly, sounding concerned and upset. Great, not only had she betrayed her friends, she was hurting them in other ways too.

DeeDee approached from a different angle. “You just told us that we’re you friends, yet you’re clearly bothered by something.”

“It’s… not something I really think I should be talking about outside of my herd,” Cinny said weakly.

“Cinnamon, even if you’re not in my herd, I think I speak for us—or at least Dawn and I—when I say I consider you family. Please don’t be closed to us.” Gear added, making Cinny squirm in her seat. It was hardly the first time that Gear Quill had suggested he considered her part of his family—from her experience, it seemed to be the sort of thing many Earth Ponies did—but it only made her feel more guilty.

Perhaps she should just come clean, maybe she would feel better…

Cinny twitched her wings nervously and glanced over her shoulder to make sure no other pony was listening. Then with a resigned sigh, she leaned in and whispered; “I… made a mistake with that book. I shouldn’t have published it.”

“Why not?” DeeDee demanded, but at least she had the good sense not to shout it out loud. “And since when have you been embarrassed by your clop?”

“It’s less—I’m not—” Cinny stammered and Gear gave DeeDee a hard look, which the mare ignored. “It’s complicated.”

“Then explain it, please Cinny.” Gear said softly.

“It’s… It’s… Lucent is Twilight’s father.” Cinny forced out finally, before taking a long draw from her mocha. It still burned on the way down, but the pain helped her focus… sort of.

“What?” DeeDee gasped, “You mean Twilight Velvet is Lucent’s daughter? And he’s fucking her? Sweet Celestia's behind, I knew nobles got up to some weird stuff but—”

“Ew!” Cinny shook her head vigorously to clear that thought out of her head. Even she found it too much. “No, Twilight Sparkle…”

“You mean, the Twilight Sparkle?” Gear said.

“Wow!” DeeDee exclaimed, apparently jumping to the wrong conclusion again. “Did you meet her? I—” DeeDee’s mouth froze part way open, in an almost comical fashion, before dropping into a perfect ‘O’ of shock.

“Does… she know?” Gear asked, “Does the herd?”

“The herd does.” Cinny shifted uneasily in her seat. The last thing she wanted to do was to talk about all this, but here she was. “I… I couldn’t live with it. With myself. I hurt them, all of them… the ponies I love… So I confessed.”

“That’s very brave of you,” DeeDee said, reaching over and rubbing her hoof. “And I can’t imagine it was easy on you, either.”

“No…” Cinny blinked, suddenly feeling her eyes burn. “But… I had to… It’s going to be some time before everything goes back to the way things were. If they ever do.”

“But… they must have forgiven you?” Gear prompted gently. “You’re always telling us about how nice Lucent, at least, is…”

“I don’t know if they’ve forgiven me, but…” Cinny wiped her eyes and smiled weakly. “I’m sure I’ll get through this, it’ll just take time. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about confessing to Twilight…”

“When…?” Gear asked, sounding as if he was struggling with his own perverse curiosity.

Cinny sighed. There seemed to be no escaping it. “To… tonight, actually. At the Gala.”

“Whoa, whoa whoa,” DeeDee practically bounced out her her seat. “The Gala? The Grand Galloping Gala? The big one? Why didn’t you say anything before?”

Gear rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“It’s not something I’m particularly looking forward to, DeeDee.” Cinny said, sounding harsher than she had intended. “If things go badly, I might find myself herdless by this time next week!”

“No, you won’t.” Gear shook his head, and pointed his hoof at Cinny. “I refuse to believe that Lucent would be so callous, not from what you’ve told us of him— nor from what I’ve heard of him from his reputation—” Cinny briefly wondered what Gear meant by that “—and, if I’m wrong, and somehow you did kicked out, you’d always have a home with us, isn’t that right?”

“Of course,” DeeDee nodded, “We’d love to have you—” DeeDee flinched as if she had been kicked under the table. Which she had. Gear didn’t have terribly good aim, and his sheepish smile hardly made up for the painful brush on her frog. “—but I’m sure everything will be just fine.”

“Great,” Cinny said half bitterly, half amused, “You’ve gone and jinxed it.”

“Oh hush,” DeeDee snorted in a very unlady-like way. “Let’s talk about something happier, eh? How about you and Lucent—you two thinking of foals yet?” The unicorn brushed a strand of her mane out of her face. “Or you and Glint?”

Cinny blushed and shook her head. It wasn’t really the sort of thought she had allowed herself to entertain over the past few weeks—or months for that matter. For some reason, she simply didn’t see herself as a mother… It wasn’t that she disliked foals—she found Guiding Light to be every bit adorable as her mother described her, but… Somehow she just didn’t see it. Then a thought occurred to her.

“You… you’re not pregnant, are you DeeDee?” Cinny couldn’t think of any other reason why her friend would bring up such a topic. It wasn’t really something either of them had discussed before… although neither of them had access to a stallion before either.

“Me? Celestia’s teats, no.” DeeDee shook her head vigorously. Then she paused. “Berry is, though. Turns out she’s one of those mares…”

“Goodness, I leave for a few weeks and you’re all off on adventures, aren’t you?” Cinny said with an honest laugh. She really didn’t know Berry that well, but it was interesting that she was apparently so eager to start a family. “This… Mithril Mail must be a hell of a stallion if he’s already knockin’ your herd up.” Especially, Cinny thought to herself, since they hadn’t met that long ago.

“Actually…” Gear looked extremely uncomfortable. “I’m…”

“No way!” Gear? A father? But that would mean…

“It helps when there’s another… colt… there.” Gear said, sounding embarrassed. Stallions usually didn’t discuss their sex lives as freely as mares did, after all.

DeeDee giggled, and Cinny couldn’t help but join in. She cared deeply for Gear, but the look on the poor pony’s face was just too much.

“Oooh,” Cinny sighed as she finally brought her giggles under control. “I’m sorry, Gear. But tell me about this Royal Guard you’re all in bed with…” Cinny smiled; if the dreamy look Gear got when she brought up the stallion’s name was any indication, Gear Quill had plenty to tell. “How’d you all meet?”

“Well, it’s a bit of a funny story,” Gear said with a relieved sounding laugh. “You see, I was going to the baker’s and—”

Four o’clock came far too soon for Cinny’s tastes. It seemed that she had only just started to really reconnect with her friends when she realized she was very nearly late for getting back to the townhouse. It was, relatively speaking, a bit of a long walk, but flying was completely out of the question. Even she knew it would screw up her coat and mane; as it was, just sitting around and carefully sipping her mocha had, in all likelihood, messed up her coat at least a little bit. It wouldn’t surprise her if more than a few of her feathers had been bent out of position too.

She swore her friends set her off on purpose.

Perhaps, however, she could convince Twilight Velvet to help her preen before she had to get into her dress… Probably a bad idea, if only because she doubted it would stay ‘just preening’ for long—and because, frankly, of all the mares in the herd, she suspected Twilight was putting a lot of stock in the outcome of tonight. Probably better not to ask for sexual favours just yet.

The fact that her relationship with Velvet had soured so badly since she had confessed, was, in many ways, nearly as painful as the distance between herself and Lucent. She wasn’t openly rude or mean to her like Star might have been, nor was she passive aggressive… but sometimes, Cinny could swear Velvet was giving her dirty looks when Cinny wasn’t looking. There was anger there, obviously, but there was also something Cinny could only describe as frustration or disappointment. When this was all over, she was going to have to work it out with the mare.

Still, walking back wasn’t all bad. For one thing, DeeDee insisted on ‘escorting’ her back to the townhouse, although Cinny knew she was probably more curious than anything. She had hoped that Gear would want to follow, but as he was so fond of reminding her—and DeeDee—he actually had a job. He meant it jokingly, of course, but before she had sold her first novel, she had always felt a bit uncomfortable when he had brought it up. It still made her a bit uncomfortable, of course, but she couldn’t help but wonder what DeeDee thought, especially since she was now herded with the stallion.

The idea that her friends were suddenly in a herd still made Cinny feel weird. Times certainly changed.

But DeeDee was still a comforting presence, one that Cinny found herself realizing how much she utterly missed.

“You live here?” DeeDee asked in awe as she stared up at the townhouse. “Wow?”

“Sort of?” Cinny said helplessly. She wasn’t sure she felt up to explaining that this was really only one of the properties Lucent owned, and part of her felt more than bit guilty over her good fortune; not everypony fell into a herd that was so… well off. On the other hoof, she also couldn’t help but smile slightly at DeeDee’s expression. Had she looked like that?

“Wow,” DeeDee said again, without pressing Cinny for detail. Then her face fell and looked a bit awkward. “I suppose you’ll be wanting to get inside. Get ready for the Gala…”

“Do you want to come in?” Cinny offered, before she had a moment to think about it. For a second, she felt a brief moment of uncertainty; should she really be offering? After all, it wasn’t as if she had cleared it with Star or Lucent or any of the rest of the herd. Then she mentally shook herself. It was her place too. Sort of. For now.

Cinny swallowed nervously.

“Nah,” DeeDee declined casually, but Cinny could swear the mare gave her a knowing look before shaking her head. “I have to get back to my herd; we’re still feeling stuff out, you know how it is.”

“Y-yeah.” Cinnamon let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding in. “But soon.”

“Soon.” DeeDee agreed, before pulling Cinny into hug and nuzzling her cheek. “Come tell us all about how it goes?”

“I will!” Cinny said, trying to sound braver than she felt. Hopefully she wouldn’t be showing up on their doorstep looking for place to spend the next few nights. Maybe she ought to ask where DeeDee lived now… she couldn’t possibly be in the same small apartment she had before.

Or maybe she did. Cinny frowned. It seemed strange to her that she had to remind herself that not everypony had the same means as she did to go where she wanted and do whatever she wanted.

Cinny did her best to keep the farewell short, but it was difficult—far more difficult than she would have expected. Thankfully, the street was mostly deserted, so it wasn’t as if she was making a scene by standing on the townhouse’s doorstep and chatting with her friend. Finally, however, she got inside.

Only to come face to face with a grumpy looking maid, wearing a Pranch maid uniform. Unless Cinny was mistaken, she was the same mare she had met the first night.

“Madame!” The maid exclaimed as Cinny shut the door behind her. “You’re late.”

“Uh, sorry.” Cinny sheepishly smiled as she looked at the clock. Yup, it was long past four o’clock. Blast. Hopefully Lucent would be forgiving. “Is Lucent ready?”

“His Grace is always ready,” The Maid said, sounding as if she had been personally insulted. “You, however, are very decidedly not. Up! Up stairs now!”

Cinnamon was just so glad the night was off to a good start. So glad.

It didn’t take her long to trot up the stairs into the room she had, for most of the time she had been courting the herd, spent the most time in. It wasn’t her room, if it was anypony’s room, it was probably Lucent’s, but she had spent last night there, so it seemed reasonable that was where she’d find her dress. Rarity had, of course, dropped the the dress off as soon as she had finished it, but after that it had been whisked off to some sort of pocket dimension by the servants, and Cinny hadn’t seen it since.

If she was expecting to find Lucent in the room, however, she was sorely disappointed.

“Finally,” Crystal Glimmer snapped, leaping up off the bed and onto her hoofs. She was followed a moment later by a mussed looking unicorn— one of the servants, unless Cinny was mistaken—and Cinny did her best to avoid both mare’s gazes. She found it difficult to believe that Crystal would be… fooling around… with a pony outside of the herd. Crystal was, after all, an earth pony, not a unicorn like Star. Although, Cinny felt with a twinge of guilt, it might be partly her fault. She had, after all, monopolized a great deal of the herd’s time, and suddenly Cinny couldn’t help but wonder whether or not the moodiness she had been experiencing with ponies like Twilight Velvet had been affecting the other mares’ relationships too.

Still, if Crystal was ashamed, or embarrassed, she didn’t show it.

“We need to get you dressed!” Crystal said, gesturing with her hoof to the dress that was now hanging on a hook inside the dresser door. It was as beautiful as she remembered it. “Let’s just hope all those treats you’ve been stuffing down haven’t ruined your fit.”

Cinny flinched. Was she supposed to have been watching her figure? She thought they liked the way she looked.

“This is Prim Press,” Crystal continued, smirking somewhat maliciously at Cinnamon’s reaction. “She’ll be helping stuff you into it and—well? What are you doing? chop chop!”

What followed was a blur of fabric, grunting, and swearing the likes of which Cinnamon doubted the room had ever seen. As it happened, she hadn’t actually put on any pounds, much to Crystal’s apparent disappointment, nor had she managed to mess up her coat or mane either. As late as she was, and as apparently unprofessional as Prim Press turned out to be—given how she kept tugging Cinny’s mane and feathers as she forced her into the dress—Cinny had barely lost any time at all. By the time she was carefully putting her false silver feathers on—something she insisted on doing herself—it was only five o’clock, just in time for Lucent to push open the door and stick his head in.

“Well, somepony’s looking very sexy!” Lucent said with a grin, making Cinny blush and look down at her hooves. She knew Lucent liked it, and he had said much the same when he had seen her in it the first time, but it was still lovely to hear.

But she couldn’t help but notice that Crystal looked more than a little crestfallen. When all this was said and done, perhaps she ought to nudge Lucent to spend more time with the rest of the herd, rather than just with her. As mean as Crystal had been to her, she couldn’t help but feel a little bit sorry for the mare… after all, Cinny had managed to completely screw up, yet in some sense had barely been punished at all. Plus, she knew how much going to the Gala meant to Crystal, and it wasn’t like Cinny particularly wanted to go. Especially not with that… confession looming over her.

“Ready to go?” Lucent asked after a moment.

Cinny opened her mouth to reply, but suddenly found her throat closing up on her. This could go badly. It was going to go badly. She just knew it. All she managed to force out was a weak “Yes.”

“Excellent!” Lucent pushed the door the rest of the way open, and despite her worries, Cinny felt a smile creep onto her face. Lucent, being a stallion, was wearing a fairly standard tuxedo collar, and Cinny hadn’t expected anything else… but he really made it work. She couldn’t help but notice that he was wearing a flower in his lapel the exact shade of her coat. The sort of flower she should have given him when they went on their first date. “What do you think?”

“You look…” Cinny groped for a comment, before Crystal beat her to it.

“Wonderful!” Crystal exclaimed, trotting up Lucent and giving him a kiss on his cheek. “Very Handsome. I just hope you don’t end up bringing home another mare, dressed the way you are!”

“Don’t worry, M’dear,” Lucent said, before returning the kiss. “And don’t worry, there’s always next time,” Lucent glanced over Crystal’s head at Cinny for a moment. “I imagine Cinny’ll be all partied out, after tonight.”

The icy claws of panic seized her again. What did he mean by that? Suddenly, all Cinny could imagine was Lucent suddenly dumping her at that Gala, kicking her out of the herd in the most public way possible. Was Lucent madder at her then he let on? Was this whole thing just an elaborate ruse, to humiliate her and publicly make sure everypony who was somepony knew he wanted nothing to do with her?

Cinny forced herself to breathe.

That. That wasn’t going to happen.

She hoped.

Cinny forced herself to breathe. Again.

“Well, come along Cinny,” Lucent said, smiling at her, which for once did nothing to lift her mood.
Together, the two of them trotted downstairs to the main entrance hall, which, despite what Cinny was expecting, was completely empty of any other ponies, including servants. It was in some sense partly a relief, but she still felt almost completely overwhelmed and they hadn’t even made it to the Gala yet.

This was going to end badly.

“Oh Celestia’s—” Lucent cut off with a sheepish smile, and Cinny wondered if nobility wasn’t supposed to swear or something. “Forgive me, Cinny, I need to go fetch something. I’ll be right back—if the cab comes, feel free to hop in without me.”

Considering she felt vaguely paralysed and slightly disoriented, Cinny doubted she was going to be hopping anywhere soon. Out of the corner of her eye, Cinny watched Lucent hurry off down one of the side hallways, and only very briefly wondered what he had gone to get.

Mostly, she stared at a nearby vase, not really seeing it, as she tried to keep from panicking. It’ll all be over soon. Yet, if anything, the weeks of planning and anticipation only made her anxiety worse. She had been nervous when she had confessed to the herd, too, but this was like a wave crashing over her. It was all she could do to avoid being swept away.

Then, unbidden, a strange, curious sensation swept over her, it was similar to when she got a really good idea, a sudden inspiration about how to resolve a problem with her story… It wasn’t planned, but Cinny found herself opening her mouth and beginning to sing:

At the Gala

I will confess,

to the ponies I have wronged,

all of my sins,

I do not know,

if I will stay strong,

At the Gala,

I hope you can forgive me, Pinkie.

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, I am so sorry,

I hurt you, I know, Fluttershy.

And Twilight…

Amends, I owe you most of all

At the Gala,

My future will be decided,

for better or worse,

It happens tonight.

At the Gala.

Words caught in Cinny’s throat, as she suddenly found herself pausing, as if other ponies were singing their own lines to the song Cinny couldn’t actually hear, but was nevertheless an unwilling participant in. Then, finally:

Into the Gala~
Into the Gala~
And I’ll have the worst night ever,

At the Gala!

Cinny panted and frowned as the urge to sing passed. She had, of course, heard of the Magic of Harmony, and its ability to draw ponies together into a song, or do things like telling mares what they should name their foals. It didn’t happen to everypony, of course, and it had certainly been a first for her… but normally singers were in close proximity to one another, and Cinny was completely alone.

Of course I am, Cinny thought bitterly, it was the first—and likely only—time she’d ever be caught up in the magic of harmony, and she was the only witness to it. Just bucking great. It wasn’t really something she wanted to share with other ponies, despite the seemingly happy tune of the song, but still. It was just her luck, wasn’t it?

She was just about to bang her head against the wall, when Twilight Velvet stepped out of the shadows from one of the lesser lit hallways. “You have a lovely voice, Cinny.”

Hopefully Twilight didn’t notice how high she jumped.

“I… I don’t sing,” Cinnamon said with a frown, as she tried to smooth her dress out and look more dignified than she felt. “That wasn’t me.”

“I guessed,” Twilight stepped close, and the air between them seemed to grow awkward. “I… wanted to wish you good luck.”

“You… do?”

“I like you, Cinny, I do,” Twilight said, “and I think, despite everything, you’re a good pony in your heart.”

“But… what if Twilight doesn’t accept my apology? Or hates me?” Cinny whispered. “I mean… if it was the other way around, I’m not sure if I could.” But Celestia knows she’d like to think she’d give a good shot at forgiving whoever wrote that stuff about her. Probably depending on how hot or clever the whole thing was.

“Then…” Twilight Velvet shrugged, and seemed to consider for a few seconds. “I guess family dinners will be rather awkward. But they’re already pretty tense as it is.” The grey mare half-heartedly smiled. “I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, but we’re not exactly the most functional herd out there.”

“Every herd has its share of problems,” Cinny decided it was best to leave it at that, and not point out that a pony like Star would have been out on her ass long ago. “Where’s Light?”

“Crincile is looking after her for the evening,” Twilight nodded vaguely in the direction of the up stairs. “I love the little filly, but even I need a break sometimes. Plus, it’s good for Crincile too.”

Cinny didn’t ask her what she meant.

“I wanted to wish you luck,” Twilight said again, “and to tell you not to worry too much.”

“Why? I thought you were angry with me.” Cinny winced. Good move, a pony comes to you offering forgiveness and good luck, and you complain about it.

And she wondered why she was in this sort of trouble.

“I’m not… angry. I’m more disappointed, I guess,” Twilight shook her head. “We’ve always seemed to have so many problems, as a herd, especially since… I guess I just thought, perhaps, you’d be more normal.”

“So… you’re upset that I’m damaged goods?” Truthfully, it was a strange way to apologize to somepony. Probably not a technique she should try to use on Twilight Sparkle.

“No, no!” Twilight, at the very least, had the good graces to look horrified. “I just wish, sometimes, that…” Twilight let her voice trail off and her frown deepened, as if she found herself saying more than she wanted to say. “Listen, I should go… I promised Crincile I’d do some editing on one of her papers… Good luck, I’ll see you when you get home.”

Before Cinny could say anything or intercept the mare, Twilight Velvet turned tail and darted out of the entrance hall, leaving her feeling a bit put out and slightly miffed. When this was all over, she was going to have to find out a bit more of what the hay was going on with this herd. But that was a problem for another time.

“Has the cab not come yet?” Lucent asked as he trotted back into the room.

Cinny shifted guilty; she hadn’t exactly been keeping an eye out for their ride. If Lucent noticed, however, he didn’t show it. He only glanced out the window and assumed it had just shown up.

“Well, m’dear,” Lucent said as he pulled open the door into the cool night air, “Let’s get going!”

Elements of Love Page 100

Elements of Love ----------------------------------------------------------By Cinnamon Swift

don’t hurt him, Applejack!” Twilight pleaded, as Applejack pushed her aside and strolled up to the other stallion. Rainbow took half a step backwards, but ended up pressed against a tree trunk.

“Well, what do we have here?” Applejack said, as if he hadn’t seen Twilight sucking the prismatic stallion’s long, hard shaft only a moment ago. “I’ve seen you around town, haven’t I? Some sort of weatherpony?”

“Y-yeah?” Rainbow Dash said, glancing helplessly at Twilight. Applejack was dangerously close to Rainbow now, and Twilight wished she could jump in, but no matter how much she tugged on the rope tied around her rear leg, she couldn’t get loose. It didn’t help that all she could think of was how compromising a position she was in, tied to the apple tree like this.

“Well, I’m guessin’ you know all about rainclouds and rays of sunlight and stuff, am I right?” Applejack said, leaning in even closer. “Maybe you even know about rays of sunlight, yeah?” When Rainbow didn’t answer, he continued. “So naturally, I’mma ‘sumin’ that’s how come that little ray of sunlight over there caught your eye.”

Twilight blushed as Applejack pointed his hoof in her direction and she realized he was talking about her. “Oh, Applejack—“

“Hush Twi, your stallions are talkin’,” Applejack cut her off, making Twilight blink in surprise. “Well, Rainbow? Cat got your tongue?”

“I don’t know if I’d describe her as a ray of sunlight, Applejack,” Rainbow said with a snort, glancing in Twilight’s direction. “In my experience, she’s more like a storm, wild and unpredictable.”

“Is that so?” Applejack murmured, “and how do ya find me, Rainbow?” Before Rainbow could answer, Applejack pressed his lips against his, closing his eyes and drawing the pinned pegasus into a passionate kiss.

Rainbow’s—not to mention her own—eyes went wide with surprise, and Twilight smiled in a satisfied way as Rainbow’s cock, which had been slowly drooping and softening, twitched, growing hard as Rainbow closed his own eyes.

The kiss lasted only a few seconds, but when Applejack pulled back, both stallions looked a bit dazed, and Twilight couldn’t help but notice Rainbow wasn’t the only one who had enjoyed it.

“Well now,” Applejack said in a whisper, “My Twilight sure knows how to pick’em.”

“Heh,” Rainbow seemed to be getting lost in Applejack’s deep green oceans of eyes.

“Alright now, on your back there, Rainbow,” Applejack said with a hint of command in his voice. The rugged stallion spared Twilight a glance and a wink. “I hope you aren’t too uncomfortable over there, sugar cube.”

“Not at all, Sweet Apple.” Twilight said, sticking out her tongue as her stallion rolled his eyes.

“On my back?” Rainbow frowned as if he wasn’t sure what Applejack meant. “What do you mean?”

“Come now, Rainbow,” Applejack said, tapping his hoof against Rainbow’s toned behind, forcing him to the ground, “one kiss ain’t enough for a big’ne like me! I’ve got to try out the whole package, don’t I?”

“Uh…” Even in the dimming sunlight, Twilight could see Rainbow blush hard. “You mean you want to

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 100

Author's Note

Probably the last page of Elements of Love. It simply wouldn't be complete without some stallion on stallion lovin', amirite?

At The Gala

When Cinny first moved to Canterlot, one of the first things she noticed, aside from the number of ponies wearing clothing, was the walls. It seemed, no matter where she looked, that there was always a wall or two. It wasn’t that there weren’t any walls in Cloudsdale, obviously they still had homes and businesses even if they were made out of clouds rather than stone or wood, but there were also huge, wide open spaces. It wasn’t that it was particularly crowded or that Cinnamon ever felt particularly claustrophobic living in Canterlot; it was—according to her friends and everything she had read—one of the better designed cities in Equestria. Yet, however wide the streets, it simply didn’t compare to the wide open skies of Cloudsdale.

Cinny, of course, had never been inside the Castle.

It wasn’t really possible to visit or even approach Canterlot without seeing the Canterlot Castle. Even if Cinny had never visited Canterlot, she probably would have recognized the structure regardless, simply because it was so iconic. More over, the Castle’s towers were so large that no matter where you were in the city, you could at least see part of it if you looked in the right direction.
What she hadn’t known, however, was just how big it really was. It made the Lachrimose house look small by comparison, despite the large amount of land Lucent owned around the building itself. Also, although Cinny was no architect, she was certain the Castle’s designer— whoever that might have been, probably multiple ponies—had designed the gigantic halls and rooms in such a way that Cinny could have sworn they were bigger on the inside.

Or maybe they really were.

Furthermore, as big as the place was, it was utterly stuffed with ponies. There had to be hundreds, all of them wearing their finest dresses and suits and jewelry— although a few ponies wore less. At one point, Cinny was certain she had spotted a couple of members of the Wonderbolts, but before she could be certain, the crowd had swallowed them up again. She’d say there were ponies of every stripe there, and there was certainly a mix of all pony tribes as well as a few donkeys and zebras, but truthfully every pony there was either rich, important, or powerful. Unlike her.

Her only claim to fame was being a total fuckup.

All of it served to make Cinny feel very small. Very, very small. She wasn’t a skittish pony, but she couldn’t help but feel like the best course of action would be to gallop away. Very fast.

“Well?” Lucent’s voice was remarkably warm, considering Cinny was finding herself on the edge of panic. Again. But then, he had been doing parties like this all his life as far as Cinny knew.

She glanced at him, then around the room again, before returning her gaze to her stallion. She swallowed hard. “Um, it’s… there’s a lot of ponies… and, uh.” Cinny licked her lip. “Are… Are you sure you don’t want to go back and grab Crystal or something, Lucent? I know I said I’d apologize to Twilight, but… uh…” Cinny’s voice dropped to a whisper, “I could do it tomorrow? I just…”

“Cinny, I would have wanted you here, regardless of…” Lucent let his voice trail off and let his eyes wander over the crowd. “Just relax sweetie, everything will be okay—besides, you’re with me.”

“What difference does that make?” Cinnamon asked, feeling momentarily confused, on top of everything else.

“It means, my dear, this,” Lucent leaned over and kissed Cinny on her lips.

For a brief moment, Cinny felt paralyzed, then a gradual wave of warm and comfort washed over her. Of course, this was hardly the place or time to go further, but after a few moments, her wings twitched upwards and stiffened every so slightly. All too quickly, Lucent broke the kiss, and smiled at her.

And she smiled back, feeling ever so slightly better.

“Right, well, what do you want to do first?” Lucent asked, while pulling her closer to him and deeper into the Grand Hall. There was, of course, an unspoken question in the offering; did she want to go find Twilight, and, presumably, the rest of Elements?

It wasn’t an easy question to answer. When she had originally confessed to the herd, she really had been ready to go apologize to Twilight right then and there, and she still was. However, the terrified part of her kept pointing out that, given how badly this night was going to go—and there was no question about that—she should delay confessing for a long as possible. Like, forever.

But she couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t.

“You pick.” Cinny said, briefly wishing she had brought some money with her. Obviously she was going to have to leave, once the horseshoe dropped, and she didn’t want to ruin Lucent’s night while she was at it by making him leave with her. But it was best if he got done whatever he wanted to get done, in case that’s what it came down to.

“Well, how about a bite to eat?” Lucent said, suddenly steering them in another direction through the crowd. After a few moments of weaving their way through the crowd—well, Lucent was doing the weaving, Cinny was just following and doing her best not to make eye contact with any other pony—they came to the food table. It probably wasn’t the only table at the Gala, but it was long and covered in white cloth. Not that anypony could see the table cloth under all the food and drinks piled on top of it. The food was obviously not the same as a four course meal or, in Cinny’s mind, proper food, but it was just as fancy as the ponies in the room. Everything seemed to be garnished to within an inch of it’s life, and most if not all of it was stuff she had never seen before. There were fruits from distant lands, and fruits from not-so-distant lands that just looked weird. Like rainbow coloured apples. And those were the least of the strange foodstuffs on the table.

Another time and place, Cinny might have found the whole display appetizing, but at the moment, her stomach was doing somersaults. The very notion of eating just made her feel nauseated.

Lucent, on the other hoof, didn’t seemed to have any problem with grabbing a number of items onto a plate. They weren’t paper of course, they were fine china. Nothing at the party was cheap. Or he did, until he glanced over at her.

“Not hungry?”

“Not… really,” Cinny grimaced and frowned as Lucent put his plate back. “Don’t. Not on my account.”

“I can eat at home,” Lucent said honestly, and warmly, and only managing to make Cinny feel a bit worse. “Do you want to mingle?”

Mingling was something Cinny had never really never really tried to do. After all, most of the parties she had been to had really only involved ponies she already knew. And what would she talk about, with these ponies? It’s not as if she could talk about her own work, and she wasn’t really interesting enough otherwise.

“Or,” Lucent’s face broke into a smile, “we could dance.”

“I don’t dance,” Cinny pointed out. Perhaps she should have asked for dance lessons.

“Don’t worry, Cinny, I’ll lead,” Before Cinny could make her objection clearer, Lucent grabbed her by her hoof and pulled her through the crowd and through the hall into another room. It was just as big as the first room, but with large, stained glass windows at the very end of the room. There was, of course, a band playing the sort of high class music Cinny knew to associate with what nobility considered dancing. It was slow, and frankly, more than a little bit boring.

“I remember this song,” Lucent commented as he stopped tugging her along and turned to face her. Cinny just stared blankly at her stallion, but her lack of response didn’t seem to deter him at all. “Star and I danced to it at my wedding.”

“You did?” Cinny said despite herself; she had hardly heard anything about Lucent and Crincile’s wedding, other than it happened and Star Sparkle hadn’t been happy about it. Yet she had difficulty mustering up any amount of curiosity at the moment. Every second just seemed to delay the disaster pointlessly.

“Sure. Just follow my lead,” Lucent pulled her close to himself, and slowly began to move. At first, Cinny resisted; she couldn’t help it. All she could think was every other pony must be laughing at her, it was obvious that she didn’t know what she was doing. But after a couple of moments, Cinny’s eyes met Lucent, and it felt like the rest of the world disappeared. She still didn’t know how to dance, of course, but Lucent was an able teacher—or, at the very least, an excellent leader.

The song ended, but if Cinny thought that’d be the end of it, she was very much mistaken. Immediately, the band started on the next song; different notes, different tempo, different dance. Despite herself, she found herself starting to smile.

And enjoy herself.

Even if everything came crashing down, at least she’d always have these good moments.

One song led to another, and another, and another. Cinny was almost ready to ask Lucent if they could take a break—not because she wanted to stop dancing, but because her hooves were starting to get very sore and she needed to catch her breath—but the music suddenly cut off. Then restarted, in a more discordant fashion. Then cut off again.

“What the—” Lucent said, pulling away from Cinny for the first time since they started dancing, and glancing in the direction of the band. Cinny followed his gaze, but the disruption was no mystery.

On the raised stage that had been set up for the band-ponies, there was a pink mare, hugging several of the band members, although the look on the ponies’ faces seemed to imply she was an uninvited guest, at best. Before anypony could intervene, however, the mare had jumped from the stage to a stylised statue of an alicorn—possibly of Celestia herself, Cinny couldn’t tell—and was doing some sort of wild dance, and singing.

It was no music created from the magic of harmony, and it was fairly off key, but Cinny couldn’t help but smile. There was something infectious about the mare’s shameless energy and excitement… although it seemed most of the nobility was relatively immune, given the way they were glowering at her. Even Lucent seemed dismayed, and some sneaky, evil part of Cinny decided then and there to take her stallion out to a club at some point—the look on his face would undoubtedly be worth it. Still, after a few moments, the pink mare seemed to clue into the fact that the rest of the room was pissed off at her rather than joining in, and it was as if her whole body slumped.

Cinny couldn’t help but feel sorry for her… then with a queer little chill, Cinny thought she recognized the mare. It was… Pinkie Pie. Cinny had only seen pictures of the Element Bearers in black and white, but there was no way she could mistake Pinkie Pie from her description.

It looked like she wasn’t the only mare having a bad night, and Cinny sighed. It wasn’t just Lucent’s life she might be ruining, it was Twilight’s as well, and suddenly she just wanted to get it all over with.

“Lucent, I want to see Twilight now.” Cinny found herself saying. It wasn’t that she wasn’t still afraid, but… she didn’t know. Maybe it was the magic of harmony pushing her towards what she needed to do. It wasn’t that she wanted to ruin Twilight’s night, but it seemed best to be quick and get it over with, like ripping a bandage off.

Lucent looked surprised, but then nodded. “Alright, let’s go find her…”

“Where do you think she’ll be?” Obviously the Elements hadn’t stuck together, since none of the others seemed to be in the same room.

“Celestia— err,” Lucent blushed and glanced around the room at the other ponies and corrected himself. “Princess Celestia, rather, indicated Twilight would be helping her greet guests on the Grand Stairs.”

“W-what?” Cinny didn’t want to meet Celestia! Then she shook her head. But she had to do this. She really did. “O-okay…”

Even though Lucent was a duke, and, as far as Cinny could tell, a very important pony, the two of them still had to get in line with all the other ponies waiting to shake hooves or… bow… or whatever it was one did when meeting a princess. It wasn’t a particularly long line, at least not for Cinny, who had experienced queues much longer; however, she hadn’t experienced a wait so… troubling, before. For the first time, Cinny had laid eyes on Twilight, who was standing next to Celestia looking slightly frustrated.

Despite the situation and herself, Cinny couldn’t help but smile at how pretty Twilight was. It was obvious from the way she held herself that she wasn’t used to this sort of royal function, nor did she seem particularly interested in the proceedings, but she did at least try to smile. In many ways, she seemed to have inherited all of Star Sparkle’s best attributes, and Cinny wondered how pretty her lead mare would look if she spent more time smiling and being nice to ponies.

Then Cinny shook her head, forcing those sorts of thoughts out of her head.

It really didn’t help that she was in the mess by writing such extensive and naughty things about the mare she was just about to meet, and in spite of herself, Cinny’s wings kept twitching. Thankfully, as they drew nearer, fear overcome those particular thoughts, and by the time they reached the head of the line, they were twitching more with a need to get away than anything.

“Ah. Welcome to the Grand Galloping Gala, Your Grace,” Princess Celestia said as the ponies in front of them moved aside and Cinny stepped forward with her stallion. “I’m glad to see you’re here.”

“Thank you again, your Majesty, for the invitation,” Lucent said with an air of formality. Thankfully, Cinny had been able to watch the ponies ahead of them, so she had some idea of what was expected of them: formal introduction, followed by some informal chitchat. Or at least, that’s what others had been doing. “Allow me to introduce this lovely mare, Lady Cinnamon Swift.”

Cinny blinked, and before she could stop herself, she blurted out, in a hiss; “Lucent! I’m not a Lady!”

Lucent smiled at her crookedly, but it was actually Twilight who replied for him.

“Actually, since you’re part of Daddy’s herd, you’re granted a noble title by association, and—” Twilight frowned as Celestia glanced at her. Cinny doubted Celestia was actually angry with her, given the small, understanding smile Celestia gave the much smaller mare.

“This is, of course, my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia gestured with her wing at Twilight, who blushed ever so slightly. Then Celestia turned to meet Cinny’s gaze.

Even though Celestia wasn’t the first alicorn princess Cinny had met, it was clear that Celestia wasn’t exactly on the same level as Cadance. Cadance was, as far as Cinnamon knew, relatively young, but as she looked into Celestia’s light pink eyes, Cinny could almost feel the weight of the years the mare had lived. And there was power there, of course. One didn’t raise and lower the sun on a daily basis without having the magic to back it up, though obviously Cinny herself had so little magic in her that even the weakest unicorn had more. Her gaze wasn’t unfriendly, but it seemed to pierce her, as if she was being x-rayed or examined very closely and deeply. It felt like she could guess her whole life history from a simple glance… After a moment, Cinny looked away and focused on her hooves.

“Pleased to meet you, Lady Cinnamon Swift. I can see Lucent’s taste in mares hasn’t dulled over the years.”

“I, err…” Cinnamon wasn’t sure what to say. “T-thank you. Your Highness.” Cinny glanced up at Celestia in panic, before deciding that wasn’t the best idea she’d ever had, and looking away as she hastily repeated herself. “Thank you, Your Highness.” There, that was much better.

Right?

“I hadn’t heard you had grown your herd again, Lucent,” Celestia said, apparently giving up on Cinny as a lost cause. “I had some faint hope you might bring Glint with you, I daresay it’s been a while since I’ve seen that lovely colt…”

Cinny didn’t bother feeling insulted. She had wished Lucent had brought Glint too…

Of course, that only reminded her of what she had come here to do. She just hadn’t expected to have to confess in front of Celestia, and once she managed to get her panic under control, Cinny glanced up at Twilight, wondering how to begin.

Twilight, for her part, was looking at her with an expression that was best described as a mixture of curiosity and something far less easily defined. Cinny frowned. No, it was recognition. It had to be. And…displeasure.

“C-can we talk, um, Twilight? Miss Sparkle.” Cinny forced out. Had Twilight recognized her from her name? It was, after all, on the cover of every copy of Elements of Love. “Uh, alone?”

Celestia paused, looking mildly curious, although for the life of her Cinny had no idea what her stallion and the Princess had been discussing before she had interrupted. Twilight glanced at her teacher, then back at Cinny, as if asking for permission. If the Princess gave it, Cinnamon must have missed the nod, though.

“Okay,” Twilight said, sounding more than a little bit cold. Then, before Cinny could respond, Twilight turned tail and walked up one of the side flights of stairs, to the actual second floor. It took a moment for Cinny to focus enough to follow her, and she did her best to keep a respectful distance.

It only took them a moment to reach the second floor landing, and Twilight turned to her with an expectant look on her muzzle. Of course, Cinny’s words caught in her throat, and she just stood there staring at Twilight like an idiot.

“Well?”

Cinny closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then… “I wrote an erotic novel about you and your friends and I’m really, really sorry, and I didn’t mean for it to be published but I wanted to be a published author but I hadn’t had any luck and that was the first thing they accepted and I wasn’t thinking and I’m sorry and I don’t know if you can—”

It took her a moment to realize Twilight had cut her babbling off by shoving her hoof into her mouth. Cinny did her best not to lick it or anything, and then she smiled half-heartedly around it.

“You’re the Cinnamon Swift, author of that,” Twilight’s voice grew a bit disgusted, “book?”

Cinny’s smile fell a bit.

“I… know,” Twilight said, causing a momentary stab of panic in Cinny. How did Twilight know? Had Rarity gone and told Twilight? She had promised she wouldn’t, but, on the other hoof, she did seem like the sort of mare to gossip. “Daddy wrote to me a month ago, explaining what you had done.”

Oh.

“He wants me to accept your apology. To forgive you.” The coldness in her voice seemed to drop the temperature of the room a few degrees, but Twilight looked away, and pulled her hoof out of Cinny’s mouth.

Cinny waited for Twilight to say something more, but she didn’t. She just kept looking down at the ponies enjoying themselves down at the Gala. After a moment, Cinny risked following her gaze, and noted that Lucent had apparently finished talking to Celestia, and had now moved off into a crowd. He was chatting with some other pony, another stallion Cinny didn’t know, but as if he could feel the weight of his daughter and herdmate looking down at him, he glanced up in their direction and waved at them, with, Cinny hoped, a smile.

“But… I can’t.”

Cinny’s heart froze in her chest.

“I really can’t. I’ve tried and tried, but it’s… it’s…” Twilight turned back to Cinny, with hot tears in her eyes. Out of, Cinny assumed, anger. “How could you write something like that? What’s f-fucking wrong with you?”

Cinny opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

“I mean, it would be one thing if it was j-just me,” Twilight continued with a choked sounding voice. “It wouldn’t be the first time somepony tried to s-slander me… b-but… m-my friends!” Twilight clenched her jaw. “I’ve tried my best to keep them from finding out, I… I don’t n-normally have those sorts of books in my library, b-but the previous owner—” Twilight shook her head and rubbed her eyes with the back of her fetlock. “I can’t imagine how much they’d be hurt, by what you wrote, if they ever found out.”

So, obviously, Twilight had no idea that Rarity at least had her own private collection of erotica.

But that sort of thought wasn’t particularly helpful.

“How could you?” Twilight repeated herself, as her gaze focused into a glare.

She had to say something, she had to… defend herself? But Cinny really wasn’t sure she should defend herself, or, if she was being honest with herself, if she really wanted to. It hardly seemed to matter though—Twilight had already decided she wasn’t going to forgive her.

“I was wrong,” Cinny said a tiny little voice. “I… I’m sorry.”

“Oh good,” Twilight’s voice took on a sarcastic edge. “You’re sorry. I’m sure that’ll make explaining to Applejack why she suddenly has a penis easier, won’t it? Or Rainbow Dash, for that matter. Do you have any idea how insecure Rainbow is?”

“I—”

“Oh, of course you don’t,” Twilight looked out over the crowd again, before adding bitterly. “Sometimes I wonder if he really loves me.”

“W-who?”

“Daddy. Lucent. His Grace,” Twilight snapped. “You know, the pony you’ve been fucking? Or did you not figure that one out either, Cinny?”

Cinnamon had never had her nickname used as an insult before. It was certainly different. And she couldn’t help but wonder what exactly Lucent put in that letter he had sent Twilight.

On the other hoof, as bad as her crimes were, she wasn’t going to stand here while this filly doubted her stallion.

“Of course Lucent loves you,” Cinny said, “the whole herd loves you, Twilight. I should know, they haven’t been—”

“He has a funny way of showing it. They all do.” Twilight said, sounding more depressed than angry now. Then she turned back to Cinny, and poked her with her hoof. “No, I don’t forgive you, and I’d very much prefer it if I never had to speak with you again. Goodnight.”

Twilight turned to go, and looking past her, Cinny could swear she saw Celestia’s ears twitch in their direction.

“Wait,” Cinny said, trotting out in front of Twilight and blocking her way.

“Why? You came, you apologized, you did what you said you were going to do,” Twilight pointed out. “You can’t make me accept it.”

“Can’t I… I don’t know, make it up to you?” Cinny tried to ignore the part of her that was pointing out that she had spent the past several weeks trying to figure out how to make it up to Twilight.

“Can you turn back time?” Twilight asked rhetorically, “Undo what you did? No? Then just f-fuck off.”

Twilight didn’t seem to swear very often. Cinny couldn’t help but find it endearing.

“I don’t know.” Cinny shook her head. “I don’t understand why you’re so mad about this.”

Well, that wasn’t true, but maybe if she could get Twilight to talk through it…

“You…! You!” Twilight sputtered. “You wrote erotica about me and my friends, you made us perverted fools to satisfy your own sick pleasure… and you wonder why I’m angry? You should be wondering how Lucent could forgive you at all.”

“Even if I wasn’t part of Lucent’s herd, or hadn’t published it, I never meant it maliciously!” Cinny blurted out. Now that she was saying it outloud, it seemed to be so much clearer to her. “I mean, I wrote it because… I cared about you.”

Twilight looked like she was trying to set Cinny on fire with her eyes.

“You’re all heroes you know,” Cinny continued, despite Twilight’s attempts to murder her with her gaze. “I… I looked up to you, all the Element Bearers.”

“Normal ponies write thank you letters,” Twilight hissed.

“But… I would have wanted you to be happy,” Cinny looked away from Twilight, out over the crowd. “Lucent… your birth herd, they’ve made me very happy, but when I wrote the novel, I had nothing like that. Writing what I wrote, it’s because, well, I think you and your friends probably deserve that sort of happiness.”

“Oh, sure,” Twilight said in a mocking tone, “You so clearly did it out of the goodness of your heart! And what was all the sex about, hmm? You’re unbelievable.”

“Sex is part of love too,” Cinny said with a sigh. “You can’t tell me you’ve never…?”

Twilight blushed hard. “What I do—or don’t do—with my friends, is my business, not yours.” Twilight lit her horn. “I have to get back to the Princess… get out of my way.”

Cinny had no illusions about Twilight’s power, and quickly stepped aside to let Twilight pass. It wasn’t until the mare had reached Celestia that she realized she had failed so completely. She had gone and confessed and Twilight hadn’t accepted it. She had rejected her apology and it was pretty clear she wasn’t exactly shy about expressing it.

It… was over. There was little doubt in her mind that, if Twilight rejected her, Cinny’s herd would too. There just wasn’t anyway around it. She didn’t have a foal by Lucent or Glint, and it was obvious her continuing existence as a member of the herd wouldn’t be conductive to herd harmony… Maybe Lucent loved her, maybe he didn’t, but if she was in Star’s position, she’d want Cinny out. It wouldn’t be the first time she had seen a pony kicked out of a herd for that sort of reason.

She didn’t even feel sad anymore, just cold. Very, very cold.

It took her a moment to locate Lucent in the crowd again, then she turned and went to find the exit. She’d have to figure out what to do later.

Immediately, Cinny got herself lost.

Like the Lachrimose house, Canterlot Castle was a maze of hallways and corridors, filled with doors and paintings and vases. Naturally it looked all the same to Cinny, and it wasn’t until she had been walking for about ten minutes, not seeing a single servant or Royal Guard, that it occurred to her that there probably weren’t going to be too many exits on the second floor of the Castle. But It wasn’t as if she could go back. Behind her was the Gala, her failures, and… Lucent. And she simply couldn’t face them again.

Thankfully, and to Cinny’s completely surprise, Rarity obviously knew what she was doing when she made the dress. Despite it’s appearance, a few experimental flaps with her wings had shown Cinny that the dress barely hindered her ability to fly at all. After that, it was just a matter of finding a window that could be opened, and slipping out into the night air.

It wasn’t that Cinny didn’t feel guilty, leaving Lucent at the the Gala without saying goodbye, but she didn’t really think she could face him right now. What was she going to do? Tell him his daughter didn’t want to forgive her? Part of her wondered if she should feel angry that Lucent had gone behind her back and contacted Twilight in her place. Maybe if he hadn’t, Twilight might have been so shocked or surprised that she might have forgiven her… but then, that wouldn’t be a real forgiveness, nor would it have lasted. He only meant well, and she could hardly fault him for trying to support her as much as possible.

Well, it was over now.

The night was cold, but not unpleasantly so, at least not for her. Obviously the weather pegasi had done their best to keep the Gala night as clear and beautiful as possible, though Cinny doubted most, if any, of the Very Important Ponies at the party would bother going outside. That said, it wasn’t as if the Gala was the only party going on. Below her, Cinny could see a number of parties going back and forth to bars or shops—all open late to take advantage of ponies who felt like enjoying themselves, even if they hadn’t received an invite to the big event. Cinny couldn’t see herself joining any of them though. She was hardly dressed for a bar after all, and she wasn’t sure she really wanted anypony to see her crying either.

But, in the same vein, she couldn’t fly back to either of the herd’s houses. Crystal and Twilight Velvet were at the townhouse, and she doubted she was nimble enough on her wings to find her room at the House. At least not without making a lot of noise and attracting the attention of… everypony.

So, she flew in circles. Around and around, over the city with its bright lights, just letting the wind ruin her mane and sweep back her coat and gently wipe away her tears. Hopefully they weren’t falling on ponies’ heads below her and making them wonder why it was suddenly raining salty rain on a clear night. Not that she was the only pegasus up there, of course, but few bothered to approach her.

Finally, however, she had to land anyway. Her wings were starting to ache in a wholly unpleasant way, and Cinny suspected that if she didn’t get back on her hooves soon, she’d be too tired to do anything for herself. Obviously she needed to find a hotel—or try to find where DeeDee and Gear were living now. Perhaps meeting the rest of their herd would cheer her up, although she suspected it would just make her feel worse. And, on top of all this, Cinny couldn’t help but feel a bit hungry. The mocha so long ago was hardly a meal to begin with, and despite everything her stomach was starting to growl. But she hardly felt like eating at some fancy restaurant or even a less fancy one. Truthfully, she didn’t really feel much like eating a proper meal at all.

She sort of felt like having a donut, and another coffee or so. Her dress was still a bit of a problem, however, since she’d look out of place if she popped in at most coffee shops. There just didn’t seem to be much helping that, though.

Cinny was just about to turn and head back to the coffee shop in her old neighbourhood—after all, at least she wouldn’t be a total stranger and Bitter Brew might have some idea where she could find her friends—when she happened to swoop by an almost completely empty looking Donut shop. Donut Joe’s, apparently.

In her circling, she had apparently returned to flying fairly close to Canterlot Castle, and Cinny suspected the reason the place was so empty was that most of the locals—being relatively rich or important even if they weren’t nobility themselves—were probably at the Gala. Plus, she doubted the Royal Guard would want any drunk or disorderly ponies approaching the Castle at this range anyway.

Her landing certainly could have been more graceful, but given how hungry she was, Cinny could hardly care. It wasn’t until she had pushed open the door and was halfway to the counter that she realized she still didn’t have any money on her. Because her day couldn’t possibly get any worse, could it?

The stallion at the counter, a unicorn who managed to look slightly scruffy while remaining as absolutely clean as the shop—Donut Joe, she assumed—just stared back at her while Cinny tried to figure out what to do.

“Bad night,” Joe said in a knowing tone of voice. It suddenly occurred to Cinny that this shop was probably used to getting the rejects from the Gala; the ponies who, rather than ‘making’ it, had been utterly ‘broken’ by the make-or-break event.

“I… don’t have any bits,” Cinny found herself saying.

“No worries,” Joe said as he pulled out a tray from behind the counter and placed it in front of her. Then added a tall mug of coffee beside it. “On the house.”

“Really?” After all the body blows she had taken tonight, Cinny supposed she had to get some breaks. But she couldn’t help but sound a bit suspicious.

“Yup.”

Cinny stared at the offered goodies for a moment, before hurrying over and plunking herself down at the counter on one of the barstools. The first bite was almost painfully delicious, and the second bite was even better, Within seconds the first donut had met it’s timely demise—and Cinny was halfway through her third donut before she realized Donut Joe was staring at her. Cinny nearly kicked herself as she blushed faintly.

“Thanks,” Cinny mumbled around a mouthful of fried heaven. Then she swallowed and smiled sheepishly, before repeating herself. “I mean, thank you. How much do I owe you?” She could come back later, once she had her bits again, and repay the stallion’s kindness in full.

“No charge,” Donut Joe grunted with a wave of his hoof. “The Princess—excuse me, Princesses—pay everything on Gala night.”

“So…” Cinny frowned and suddenly felt the urge to laugh like a filly. Apparently she was right, this was the shop for the rejects. It was only natural she’d find it, she supposed. Fitting, in it’s own way.

Donut Joe didn’t really prompt her to continue, just glancing over her shoulder towards one of the other booths. “Excuse me,” the stallion paused to pick up another tray of donuts, apparently going to serve some other mares or stallions who had fucked up the night.

Even though she hardly wanted company, and she didn’t really want to share her pain with another pony, Cinny couldn’t help but follow the stallion with her eyes as he carried the tray to the booth. He didn’t linger, but as he turned away and got out Cinny’s line of sight, she could feel her eyes widen.

She couldn’t bucking believe it.

It really was just her luck.

Behind her, in the booth, sat all six Element Bearers. And Lucent. And some sort of creature Cinny couldn’t identify. Maybe that was the infamous Spike, Twilight’s supposedly dragon familiar? Cinny had no idea. She’d imagined he would be taller. But really, that was neither here nor there.

Like herself, all of the Element Bearers looked somewhat worse for wear, although several of the ponies, like Pinkie Pie and a mare who could only be Rainbow Dash seemed to be trying to make the best of it. Or perhaps they were just the only ponies around the table that were less bothered by what Cinny could only describe as a sort of chilly coldness between Lucent and Twilight. Clearly, the two of them weren’t talking. Or something along those lines. Both seemed to be pointedly avoiding each others’ eyes, and the small talk they were having with the others—Twilight was talking to Spike, whereas Lucent was chatting with Rarity—was decidedly awkward, even from a distance.

It would probably only get more awkward if they spotted Cinny there, stuffing her face. So, naturally, they did.

“Cinnamon!” Rarity called out suddenly, sounding for all the world as if she was very relieved to have something or somepony to save her from whatever forced topic of conversation Lucent was trying to engage in with her. “Darling, how are you? I looked absolutely everywhere at the Gala, but they told me you had left! Join us, won’t you?”

Biting back a frustrated retort, Cinny nodded to Rarity to acknowledge that she had heard her—while avoiding looking at Lucent or her herd-daughter—before putting her mostly undrunk coffee onto the tray and preparing to carry it to the table. Obviously she wouldn’t be staying long, but she didn’t particularly feel like she should or could be rude to Rarity. After all, Rarity had forgiven her… in her own way. Not that, in the end, Cinny felt like she could really blame Twilight for not being so merciful.

Before she could even pick it up, however, Cinny suddenly found herself in a bone crushing hug from behind—and a particularly intimate one too, given how the pony was rubbing her through the fabric of the dress. She didn’t need to smell his deep, comforting scent, or feel the whisper of his lips against her ears to know it was Lucent.

“Cinny—! I, I didn’t know what happened! One minute you were there, the next you weren’t and—” Lucent babbled as Cinny wiggled around so she could return the hug. She wasn’t sure why she did so, since it seemed it was only going to prologue the pain when she got officially booted from the herd, but she also couldn’t stand to see her stallion cry. “Twilight said…” Lucent’s voice took on a slightly angry edge, then he shook his head. “But you’re here now.”

“Awww,” Rarity fawned, fluttering her eyelashes and smiling at her. The yellow pegasus—who Cinny suspected was Fluttershy—echoed her a moment later, if in a far quieter voice, while Twilight’s face grew ashen and, if possibly, more frustrated. She really did look a lot like her mother, with that irritated look on her face.

“Lucent,” Cinny finally forced herself to say after a moment. She couldn’t help but be acutely aware that everypony in the room—except Donut Joe, it seemed, was watching the two of them. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”

“But where were you?” Lucent asked pulling back. “I mean… one minute you’re there, and the next you weren’t…”

“I… I…” Cinny tried to formulate something to say, but it was difficult when there were seven pairs of eyes looking at her with looks that ranged from sincere interest—those were Rarity and Fluttershy—to indifference, like Rainbow Dash and Applejack. At least Twilight was the only pony who looked particularly angry, so Cinny could be assured that the others didn’t know who she was, or what she had done. But she hadn’t expected Twilight to tell them anyway. “Can we talk privately?”

“Of course,” Lucent nodded at once, before directing her towards the front doors. Given how quiet the shop was—and given that Rainbow and Fluttershy were both pegasi and had excellent hearing—putting a wall or two between them was probably a good idea. Lucent certainly learned quickly.

Too bad it was all for naught.

The night air was as cool and crisp as it had been before, although the streets seemed to be slightly more crowded with, unless Cinny was mistaken, plain-clothes Royal Guards. The fact that the crowd was nearly all stallions was a bit of a give away. But that wasn’t important.

“Yes?” Lucent whispered as the door swung closed and Cinny turned to face him.

Cinny licked her lips and wondered, briefly, how to explain all that had happened. It wasn’t an easy thing to think about, or to put into words. “She… she didn’t accept it, Lucent. My apology.” Before she could complete the sentence, she was already staring down at her hooves.

Silence.

Then:

“And?”

She forced herself to look up at her stallion, feeling a wave of disbelief come over her. She had always considered Lucent to be a smart pony—maybe not smart in the same way as Star or Velvet, but certainly he wasn’t an idiot. Surely he could connect the dots? Yet Lucent was looking at her with a bemused expression, hardly looking mad or unhappy at all.

“I don’t… Lucent, surely you realize Star’s going to kick me out?” Cinny felt her stomach clench unpleasantly as she said it outloud. “She’s not going to keep me around, not if Twilight… your daughter Lucent! Your daughter hates me!”

Lucent stared at her for a good half a minute; all the while Cinny’s heart began to beat faster and faster. It wasn’t an angry stare, or even an unhappy one… if anything, it was more disappointed than anything. “Cinny, why didn’t you believe me, when I told you the herd was a forgiving sort?”

“I…” Cinny frowned.

“M’dear, Cinny… Cinnamon…” Lucent placed his hoof under her chin and looked into her eyes. “I forgive you. The herd forgives you. We love and care about you—yes, even Star.”

That seemed a bit far-fetched, but Cinny couldn’t bring herself to interrupt him. For the first time in what felt like centuries, she felt… hopeful. It was a small hope, of course, but and one Cinny suspected might betray her and hurt her badly if she wasn’t careful, but it was there. It filled her with warmth. After a moment, she kissed him. Just softly, but… well, every kiss with Lucent was special, but she had the feeling she wasn’t going to forget this for a while.

“I’m sorry I doubted you,” Cinny whispered as they pulled away.

“Here, I wanted to give you this,” Lucent said, lighting his horn and pulling a thin looking box out of his suit. Cinny frowned. It hardly seemed to be an appropriate time to give jewellry, nor did she feel like she deserved it. Especially since she had already received those false feathers as a gift—not to mention the dress—because of this whole Gala fiasco.

Nevertheless, she accepted the box without complaint, and after a second, opened it. Inside was a silver necklace, with a large pendent, set with a ruby or other red stone. While it wasn’t quite tarnished, Cinny could tell the necklace wasn’t exactly new. There was an air of age and crudity to the make of it, although it didn’t mean it was no less beautiful.

“I know, among pegasi, you sometimes give feathers to loved ones,” Lucent explained as she looked back up at him. That was a rather ancient tradition, and one that Cinny doubted more than a hooful of pegasi bothered doing anymore—not that she was going to correct her stallion on that point. “And, well, I always thought it was a lovely gesture, even if we unicorns don’t have a similar tradition… so this is the best I can do, I’m afraid.”

“I don’t understand,” Cinny looked down at the necklace, before Lucent’s magical aura enveloped it and placed it around her neck. It wasn’t a particularly long necklace, and the pendent sat quite close to her throat; nor did it particularly go with her dress, but she wasn’t about to correct Lucent on that point either.

“This necklace,” Lucent said with an air of concentration as he set the clasp on the back of her neck. “Was my mother’s, and before that, my grandfather’s, and… well, you get the picture. It’s a family heirloom, one as old as my House. Our, House. I want you to have it, so you’ll always know you belong in the herd, with me. Consider it my feather to you.”

Now, Cinny was wishing she had thought to give Lucent one of her feathers. Of course, they were some of the most boring looking feathers in existence, and truthfully, most of the feathers from her younger years had either been destroyed or turned into quills. “Thank you, Lucent…” Cinny couldn’t help but wonder if Star would have gotten the necklace, if she hadn’t come along. Cinny opened her mouth to thank him, when her buttcheeks started to tingle. Her thanks turned into a surprised yelp.

“There it is!” Lucent said, apparently unbothered by her reaction; rather, he was staring at the pendent. Cinny glanced down too, and to her surprise deep within the stone and glowing softly, was a representation of her cutie mark. “I always wondered what it looked like! I’m afraid my mother never wore this necklace, so I had only heard stories. See? The necklace is yours now, and nopony can take it away from you.”

“I can’t take it off?” Cinny said, sounding a bit more alarmed than she wanted to. It wasn’t that she didn’t like it, but she couldn’t see herself wearing it everyday, wherever she went, for the rest of her life. She had, of course, heard of necklaces of that sort, although usually they were more collars than necklaces, and typically displayed the owner’s cutie mark, not the wearer’s cutie mark and—

Cinny’s wings flared slightly as she blushed.

Lucent didn’t seem to notice, however, and just shook his head. “No no, it’s enchanted so that, so long as you own it, it will always return to you, and it’ll always display your cutie mark.”

“Oh.” Cinny took a deep breath and tried to relax her wings. “Thank you, Lucent, it… it means a lot.”

“I love you,” Lucent murmurred.

“I love you too,” Cinny replied, as she leaned in for another kiss. That lasted longer, much to Cinny’s enjoyment. But all good things had to come to an end.

“What about Twilight? I don’t want to…”

“Don’t worry about her, she’s always been a stubborn little filly, just like her mother.” Lucent shivered. “Shall we go back inside?”

The inside of Donut Joe’s hadn’t changed much in the few minutes they had been gone, although Cinny couldn’t help but notice, with a grimace, that her tray of donuts had mysteriously vanished. Whether it was Donut Joe’s doing or one of the Element Bearers, Cinny had no idea. As for the ponies themselves, Twilight still looked remarkably grumpy, even though she looked up and over with the rest of her friends as the door’s chime rang.

“You’re back!” Rarity exclaimed, looking happy to see them. Pinkie Pie looked fairly excited too; but, then, that seemed to be the mare’s thing. “Oh? And what a lovely looking necklace!”

“Daddy!” Twilight exclaimed, “Don’t tell me you gave her the Soulheart!”

Suddenly, Cinny wondered if Twilight was supposed to inherit the necklace, and Lucent had inadvertently given Twilight yet another reason to hate her. Great.

“Yes, Twilight, I did,” Lucent’s voice had a hard edge to it, as if he wasn’t about to discuss it further. Somehow, Cinny doubted that was going to stop Twilight… “Cinny’s been… upset, lately, and it’s not like Shining was ever going to wear it. Cinny can pass it on to her foals when it’s time.”

“Upset?” Twilight echoed, sounding all the world as if she had never heard the word before, or was confused as to its meaning. “What does she have to be upset about? It’s not like she wrote about her…” Twilight’s voice trailed off as her eyes grew wide with shock. Clearly, she hadn’t meant to say that, and some small, petty part of Cinny crowed in glee, before the rest of her told that part to shut up. It’s not as if the rest of the Element Bearers finding out was going to be a victory for Cinny.

“Wrote about?” Rainbow Dash echoed, glancing at Cinny. “What are you talking about, Twilight?”

“Yeah Twilight!” Pinkie Pie waved her hoof at Twilight. “You’ve been a grumpy-bumpy pony-butty all night, especially when you see Cinnabuns here! What’s going on?”

“I…” Twilight bit her lip, glared angrily at Cinny as if it was somehow her fault, and pointedly looked down at her mug.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Rarity said with a shake of her head. “Twilight, darling, I care deeply about you, but if you don’t tell them, I will.”

“You… you know?” Twilight said, looking up at the white mare with an almost comical look of shock on her lips. “But… but how?”

“You’re not the only pony in Ponyville who gets her books straight from the publishers,” Rarity said simply, then glanced at Cinny.

For her part, Cinny was frantically trying to signal the mare and tell her to say no more about it. But, they weren’t exactly friends, or at least they weren’t familiar enough to each other that Cinny could do much more than vigorously shake her head in the hopes that Rarity would pick up on this subtle clue that she should shut up.

Rarity was remarkably obtuse about that.

“Cinnamon here is an author of… a certain sort of romance novels,” Rarity explained as Twilight stared at her. “Quite skilled at that. And she wrote one about us…”

“About us?” Pinkie Pie said excitedly. Cinny wondered what she was expecting…

“Well…” Applejack scratched her chin.

“Oh come on,” Rainbow Dash said. “You couldn’t write, like, something cool about us?!”

“Erotica!” Twilight half-shouted, her anger apparently resurfacing. “She wrote erotica about us, not… romance.”

“Erot-a-what?” Applejack’s muzzle turned quizzical.

“It’s a story with significant sexual content,” Fluttershy explained softly, causing every other pony to look at her in surprise. “Eep!” she squeaked and disappeared under the table.

“Why’d you write somethin’ like that about us, missy?” Applejack snapped, turning to glare at Cinny with hard eyes.

Cinny blushed and stammered, “It… my cutie mark… it’s my talent… writing that sort of story.”

Applejack’s glare softened, and she gave a small nod as she glanced at the necklace. “Well, I can’t say I rightly agree with it, but… well, a mare’s gotta do what her cutie mark is telling her. Can’t argue with that.”

Rainbow Dash frowned and sighed heavily, looking a bit wistful more than anything else, although she covered it up before anypony—Cinny suspected—noticed except for her.

“Can’t argue with it?” Twilight echoed in disbelief. “Of course you can argue with it! Applejack, she turned you into a stallion! And Rainbow Dash! And we had to… to… f-fuck to defeat Nightmare Moon!”

“Say what?” Rainbow Dash said, sounding shocked.

“A stallion eh?” Applejack said, sounding thoughtful… “I can’t say I’ve never thought about it, but I just can’t imagine myself with one of those things between my legs.”

“Applejack!” Rarity said, sounding scandalized. Apparently even Rarity had her limits.

“Oh… Oh my,” Fluttershy’s voice came from below the table.

“I’m sorry,” Cinny forced herself to speak up. She had the feeling that the group of them were going to end up discussing the book in depth, but this wasn’t really the time or place for it. Besides, she owed them an apology. “I really am… I know I’ve probably hurt you all, and… well… I’m sorry. Maybe one day you’ll forgive me.”

“Apology accepted,” Applejack said simply, ignoring the look of mangled shock and horror on Twilight’s face. “Can’t say I agree with you, but, well…”

Rainbow looked a bit green, but her face seemed to harden slightly as Applejack apologized, and seemed to take on an air of ‘if she can do it, so can I’. “Oh, yeah, it’s… uh, totally cool.” She tried to sound breezy about it, but Cinny could tell she wasn’t as comfortable. “Not my thing, of course, but, uh, it’s… cool.”

“It is?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed happily. “Awesome!” Before anypony could do anything, Pinkie Pie reached over and pulled Rainbow Dash into a shockingly deep kiss. Rainbow gasped and sputtered as she tried to get away, but it wasn’t until Pinkie released her that she was able to scramble backwards.

“Pinkie!” Rainbow wiped her lips with the back of her fetlock. “What the hay!”

Pinkie Pie licked lips and shrugged. “Nah.”

“Pinkie!”

“You said you were cool with it, Dashie!”

“I meant—what Cinny—-” Rainbow continued to sputter.

“Maybe another time, Dashie!” Pinkie Pie said with a giggle. “I’ve got a lot going on right now.”

Naturally, everypony was staring at the pair, before finally deciding to move on.

“I guess I’m, uh, okay with it too…” Fluttershy said, peeking up from under the table, before her eyes grew wide with imagined horror. “You’re… um, not going to ask me to… um, r-read it? Are you?”

“Of course not,” Cinny said with a shake of her head. If anything, she wish she could withdraw it from publication and put this all behind her… but there wasn’t much hope of that.

“Oh… oh… good.”

And then there was an awkward silence, making Cinny shift uncomfortably on her hooves. Lucent glanced at her and smiled, while Twilight seemed torn between shock and confusion as she looked at her friends.

“Well, Twilight?” Rarity prompted suddenly, breaking the silence. “We’ve all forgiven Cinny…”

“I… don’t see how you can!” Twilight snapped, then looked like she regretted it. “You haven’t read it, you don’t—”

“Would it really be so horrible?” Rarity asked, “if we were a herd?”

“I—I didn’t—” Twilight stammered. “I mean—you girls, I—”

“Yeah, what gives?” Rainbow said, sounding a bit grumpy. “We’re not good enough for you, or something?”

Twilight’s eyes kept growing bigger and bigger, darting back and forth between her friends with growing horror. “O-of course you are! I just—I don’t—”

“Twilight?” Pinkie Pie’s voice was filled with sadness, as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing because it was too heart breaking.

Cinny couldn’t stand it.

“Twilight’s upset because she thinks you’re being hurt by what I wrote,” Cinny said, hoping she wasn’t too far off the mark. “She’s worried you wouldn’t want to be her friends anymore, if…” Cinny groped for the words “...if this was the price you’d have to pay for it.”

“Twilight, we can’t blame you for what other ponies say about us,” Applejack said, as Rarity and Fluttershy—who had popped back up from under the table—nodded. “I won’t lie to you, I’m not one for the spotlight, none of us fillies are—” Cinny couldn’t help but snort as Rarity looked offended at that, and Pinkie Pie and Rainbow rolled their eyes “—but I reckon we wouldn’t trade it for the world, not if it meant giving you up as our friend.”

“You… really mean that?” Twilight asked, sounding hopeful and a bit like she couldn’t believe it.

“Mhmm” the other ponies nodded or agreed in unison.

“Oh, girls!” Twilight half-sobbed, before pulling her friends into a big group hug.

“I think we better let my daughter and her friends enjoy the rest of the night,” Lucent said in a stage whisper, before nodding towards the doorway. “Come on, the night’s still young.”

As the two of them walked away, Cinny’s ears twitched, turning to face the group as she heard Spike speak up. “Um, this is nice an all, but is somepony going to explain what erotica is? Or sex?”

Lucent must have heard it too, since he half stumbled, half laughed—as Cinny looked askance of him.

“Spike’s still a baby dragon…” Lucent murmured, “I daresay the conversation is about to turn very interesting.”

Cinny’s eyes grew wide. Hopefully everything was going to work out between Twilight and her friends, but that was certainly not a talk she wanted to help with! “Let’s get out of here!” Cinny said with a laugh, and darted for the door—only to run right into the broad barrel of…

Of…

Oh Sweet Celestia’s behind! It was Princess Celestia!

“Mhmm, yes,” Celestia murmured as she glanced down at Cinny with a knowing smile, where she lay sprawled on the tiled floor. Lucent was bowing, of course. “I always did feel my… behind was one of my best features.”

Oh.

Oh no.

Celestia chuckled musically, and shook her head. “Worry not, my little pony.” Celestia turned her gaze to Lucent, “I take it Cinnamon’s come clean?”

“Y-yes, your majesty…” Cinny answered for herself. Honestly, she was right there! Also; she couldn’t believe Lucent would tell Celestia about that—or maybe it was Cadance or—

“Good!” Celestia smiled warmly, “I’m glad. Well, I have to speak with my faithful student and her friends, if you two would excuse me…”

Cinny nodded furiously, and only scrambled to her hooves as Celestia stepped around her. She really did have nice flanks and—Cinny shook her head. Those were… uh… bad thoughts.

It took all her willpower to look away from the mare.

Then, Celestia glanced back at her with a conspiratorial smile on her lips. “I should mention that Nightmare Moon, Luna, is my sister… I wonder if she might enjoy a copy as a birthday present?”

Well, naturally, Cinny recovered from fainting and woke up several hours later, back in the townhouse, with the sincere hope that the Princess was joking.

Please let her be joking!

Author's Note

Well, here we are, at the end.

This is definitely an end.

Unless I write an epilogue.

Elements of Love page 123

Elements of Love ----------------------------------------------------------By Cinnamon Swift

Wind blew through the courtyard, and Twilight couldn’t help but place herself in between the monster and Applejack, despite the scowl on his face.

The name ‘Nightmare Moon’ was certainly an apt one, her coat was black as the night and her mane burned with the souls of ponies she had killed and harvested. Twilight could almost feel the waves of power rolling off the mare as she stood laughing before them. All around her and her herd, the other ponies were screaming or fleeing, but Twilight knew she had to stand fast. That much was expected of her.

“You’ll never see your precious Celestia or her sun again!” Nightmare Moon crowed. “Poor, foolish Celestia, couldn’t even be bothered to warn you ponies what was coming…”

Twilight grimaced. Celestia hadn’t told her, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know what was going on—more over, she knew if there were answers to be found, they’d be in a book somewhere. After all, she had been defeated once before, this so-called Nightmare Moon, and she can be defeated again. Twilight’s face hardened. If it was the last thing she did, she’d see this through.

“Yes, flee! You should fear me, for tonight will be your last,” Nightmare Moon crackled gleefully. “Spread the word! Nightmare Moon is back, and the night shall last forever!”

In a blink of an eye, the monstrous mare transformed into a cloud of bats, and the swarm flew out of the window. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. She was gone, for now, and as far as she knew, no pony was seriously injured.

“What the hay was that?” Dashie said, as he gazed up at the window Nightmare Moon had escaped out of. His wings were twitching nervously, and Twilight couldn’t help but give her poor stallion a nuzzle and a comforting hug, before explaining.

“That was Nightmare Moon, she’s been imprisoned in the moon for the past thousand years, and now she’s back for revenge.” Twilight’s ears drooped. “But it sounds like she’s already gotten it.”

“Now, don’t you give up, sugarcube,” Applejack rumbled, as he pressed his muzzle against her own. “If there’s a mare out there who can save us, I reckon it’s you. What do ya need?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie said, bouncing up and down. “Let’s throw a ‘help Twilight think of a way to save us’ party!”

“Maybe later, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash said with a warm grin. “Besides, shouldn’t you save your energy for when we do defeat her?”

Twilight blushed hard. Her herdmates were so good to her. She could hardly believe she had only met the three of them only recently; they already felt like they had been with her all her life. How could she live without them?

“Thanks, you guys,” Twilight paused to nuzzle each of them in turn. “First, I need to get back to the library—I know there’s at least one book there, Elements of Love, that should help us figure out what to do… you guy’s will be there, with me… right?”

“Wouldn’t miss it!” Dashie exclaimed, jumping up into the air. “We’ll always be there for you, Twilight…”

“Rainbow’s right,” Applejack said with a nod. “We aren’t nothing but a family, by my reckoning, and I can’t say I’d have it any other way.

“Unless it was with sprinkles! Or balloons! Maybe candy! Yeah! Lots of candy! I love candy almost as much as I love

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 123

Author's Note

What is dis, dis isn't clop!

Because the book wasn't supposed to be all erotica.