Fly With You

by Foxtrot

Rating: mature
Tags: Sex, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Romance, Original Character
Length: 7127

Sabre Wing, weatherpony of Canterlot, gets a letter from the abusive ex who put him in hospital. She says she wants to talk things over - but there's more to it than that. Can he ever trust her again? Will he break his word?

Sabre Wing, weatherpony of Canterlot, gets a letter from the abusive ex who put him in hospital. She says she wants to talk things over - but there's more to it than that. Can he ever trust her again? Will he break his word?

Published 2013-07-24 16:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-07-24 16:10:02 UTC

Fly With You

Fly With You

by Foxtrot

Flighty squirted tea from pursed lips and fell off his chair. The resulting thump, ill befitting a pegasus, reverberated through the floor. I felt it in the soles of my hooves. He flipped onto his feet, surrounded by a mini avalanche of weather anomaly forms dislodged by his mishap.

Flighty shook his mane out of his eyes and stared at me. 'Sabre, she did what?'

'She sent me a letter.' I stated the news with patience. I waved the very thing, which I had clutched in my forehoof. 'I have it right here.'

'Hey, lemme see that.' He lunged forward. I was quicker, flap-jumping off the floor and zooming up to hover near the ceiling.

'Certainly not.'

He rose on hind legs to peer up at me. 'What's it say?'

'It says sorry.' I shrugged, mid-air. 'At some length.'

An odd look came into his eyes. 'What else?'

'It says...' I took a deep breath and concentrated on keeping my voice level. 'It says she wants us to meet.' I scanned the text, even though I knew the words by heart. I'd read them often enough. 'To talk things over.'

'You wrote her no, right?'

I didn't answer.

He gave me a scrunchy-muzzled glare then flew up, dodging round the mobile we had hung from the light fixture, to join me near the ceiling. 'Sabre, you cannot be serious. Pony, she is all kinds of crazy. You know it.'

Reflexively I rubbed a hoof over my right cheek – an unconscious gesture I was prone to repeat at stressed moments. Only this time, aware of what I was doing, I definitively felt the three parallel ridges of scar tissue under the fur. 'I was going to say it couldn't possibly hurt.' I shrugged and gave him an awkward smile. 'But then I remembered.'

That earned me another glare. 'Damn straight you remembered. Pony, that was one abusive relationship.' He jabbed an emphatic hoof at me.

'I was not exactly blameless.' Indeed I was not. I couldn't be. There's always two sides to every story.

'Stop making excuses! You didn't make her do what she did. I'm telling you, she's dangerous.' He gave me another jab for emphasis.

'I'll be on my guard.' Dear Celestia, that sounded limp, even to me.

'Hmmm.' He narrowed his eyes. I knew that look. It was the Flighty does not approve and will give you a hard time look. Nose-to-nose we floated down until our hooves touched the floor. 'There's something not right about this whole damn business. I'm telling you. She's been back in Canterlot for how long?'

'Three months and two weeks,' I replied without having to think about it.

'Three months and two weeks,' he repeated. 'Thank you. And in all that time she's never tried to get in touch with you. Matter of fact, you've never even seen her.'

Partly to forestall him, and partly to calm my nerves, I turned to gaze out of the window. Canterlot is a big town and from our office on the upper stories of the CWS (Canterlot Weather Service) building we could see maybe a quarter of it. This included the Old City and the gleaming spires of the Castle. The Oriflamme waving from the highest flagpole indicated that, as usual, Big Gold was in town. The view which on any other day would lift and restore my spirits had no such effect. The fact was, Flighty was right. Big as Canterlot is, there aren't that many flying creatures around. There were even less like her. I would have expected to run into her at least once, but I hadn't seen so much as a feather.

It was like he had read my thoughts. 'You haven't seen her, have you. Like, at all. Pony, she's up to something.'

At length I turned to face him. 'She's here, in Canterlot. We're going to meet again. It's destiny.' Flighty made a face which expertly blended scepticism and disapproval. 'I'd rather it was sooner than later. Under controlled circumstances, you might say.'

'You're thinking about... you are, aren't you!' He reared back in horror.

'What, sorry?'

'Giving her another chance.'

'Heavens, no.' I shook my head with a scowl. 'That's crazy talk.'

'She'll say she's changed. It'll be a lie. The two of you will go back to the same old same old.' He thumped an angry forehoof down.

'I don't know what you're talking about.'

He stared at me closely. 'You've got that look.'

'What look. I haven't got a look.'

'That faraway look. I know what it is, now. You only started doing it when you came out of casualty. Means you're thinking about her.'

'That's not so strange,' I scoffed.

He sighed and passed a hoof over his forehead. 'Sabre, mind if I ask you a question?'

'Not at all.'

'Why haven't you dated? Since it happened?'

'That's rather personal,' I blustered.

'If you want my advice...' I shrugged. He was going to give it to me whether I liked it or not. 'Do yourself a favour, Sabre. Date somepony else. Anypony. That way you'd get your mind off her. And you might... you know.' He looked at the floor, all of a sudden oddly bashful. 'Might meet some nice uncrazy mare and settle down and have foals. Or even, um...'

'I'm going to see her.' My mind was made up. It had been made up the moment the cream bond envelope had turned up in my pigeonhole and I had recognised the brisk but elegantly readable writing (she'd always been smart). From the moment my heart, buffeted as it were by a sudden squall, had plunged what felt like 2000 feet through clear air.

I sat back on my haunches and raised a placatory hoof. 'If it makes you feel any better this meeting will be in a public place. I don't think she's planning on murdering me in plain sight of everypony.'

He gave me a dark look. 'No, she's too smart for that.'

'Flighty, please. That is neither helpful nor useful.'

He fidgeted in place. 'I'm just worried about you. That's all.'

'It will be perfectly all right, I'm sure.' The truth was I was now feeling the tiniest bit resentful. Flighty had my best interests at heart but what business of it of his or anypony else? It was my affair if I wanted to meet the ex who had given me permanent facial scarring.

'Hey Sabre,' he called forlornly as I left. ''There's plenty of fillies who'd love to give you a chance. Stallions too, if that's what you're into. I mean, if you've never given it a chance, how do you know if...'

I shut the door behind me.

We had agreed to meet in the rooftop foyer of the CWS building. My work took me there all the time and it was a public area so we figured it was safe and neutral territory.

Me, an gainfully employed weather pony! Who'd ever have thought it?

I'm Flankaster born and Flankaster bred. The Old Country will ever be my home. But right from when I was a little tiny colt there was one place I wanted to go. Canterlot! Ground Zero of Equestrian civilisation. The great melting pot to which any pony of ambition finds him or herself inevitably drawn. The place where Big Gold and Big Blue rest their crowns.

I studied like the swotty little brat I am and got accepted to UoCC (University of Central Canterlot). It's not as prestigious as some of the ancient founded-by-Starswirl-and-Celestia-is-our-patron types of places but it has a first class aero department. And since a certain Princess of the Night appointed herself as chancellor it has fairly leaped up the league tables.

Flight Dynamics was my thing. I was well on my way to a perfectly safe and respectable academic career. But here is the thing. There is always the lure of the sky. The call of the great white-blue-grey-black which, once heard, can neither be ignored or denied.

I enrolled in a post-grad Weather Management course. It was a lot more physical than I had expected. But I worked at it. I trained until I thought my wings were going to fall off. Like a butterfly from a chrysalis, the flyer I was always meant to be emerged.

Weather Management has a strongly academic basis these days. The first class degree was a big help. CWS headhunted me right out of post-grad and here I am. Top of my profession. Working every day in the big blue sky. Life couldn't be better.

And yet.

I skimmed along the passageway which lead up to the foyer. It was a circular space able to accommodate maybe 200 ponies. There were low tables and chairs scattered about. Wide arches provided ingress and egress for winged folk. Today the shutters stood wide to admit the breezes of a cloud-tumbled spring day.

Perfect flying weather.

My head swivelled in a wide circle, scanning the room. There were plenty of ponies about but no sign of her.

Damn her. She couldn't even be reliably late.

I got a glass of water from the bar to soothe my suddenly and inexplicably parched throat. One table seemed as good as any other. I sat down and tried to relax. Fat chance of that. I swear by Celestia I've never been so nervous. Not even when I was viva'd for my first and had to defend my thesis. It felt like some small animal, say a parasprite, had taken up residence on my diaphragm and was continually fluttering its little wings against my heart.

Where was she? I glanced at the clock and saw that a mere five minutes had passed. Already I had drunk too much water and I needed to pee. I made my way on unsteady hooves to the stalls. As I stood and relieved myself my mind idled, as a pony's will under such circumstances. My thoughts took me back to places I'd prefer not to go. To her, at the moment I had first laid eyes on her.

It had been in the UoCC basement bar. Celestia knew how she'd gotten in there, she wasn't a student. She was propping up the bar, perfectly relaxed, not looking at anypony.

I had never seen anyone like her before.

I made a beeline straight for her – most unusual for me. I'm never normally that forward. Hi, I shouted. The sound system was particularly loud that night. Pale hunter's eyes glanced in my direction. Hi, she shouted.

We could hardly hear what each other was saying. It didn't seem to matter. At the end of the evening she leaned close to me. Are you taking me home, or what?

We lay together on the bed in my scandalously small student's apartment. Canterlot had seen a succession of blazing hot summer days. The Weather Team had scheduled a rainstorm for that night. Lighting flashed, lighting up the room. A wet thundery smell drifted in through the open window. Big fat raindrops spattered on the glass.

Around dawn she rolled over beside me, rested her head on the pillow and just gazed into my face. It seemed to me there was a glow in her eyes, like the light of earliest morning when Celestia's sun first blushes against the horizon. And I felt something pass between us. Between her heart and mine, a merging. I think that was the moment.

We were a crazy couple. We did everything together. She hadn't had the benefits of my Flankaster education but she was quick and clever. She picked stuff up in no time flat. Her mind as agile as her pinions. I took her to the summer show at the Canterlot Institute for Contemporary Arts. She loved it, couldn't stop talking about it for the next two days. Kept coming up with all sorts of crazy awesome ideas.

The carnivore thing, I found, didn't bother me at all. It just seemed so natural for her. I even got a bit of a taste for it myself. Small amounts of animal protein are perfectly all right for a pony, or so I'm given to understand. Don't believe me? Try bacon bits in your salad. You might surprise yourself.

There was this adorable little chirping sound she made when she brushed against me and...

Sorry.

It was evident pretty early on she had issues. She could change in an instant. Go from sunny skies to the blackest and most dangerous storm. She would insult and belittle me in front of our friends. We would always have the most amazing make-up sex afterwards. Nevertheless the sunny intervals became shorter and shorter. She got into the habit of denigrating Celestia. I'm not one of those ponies but when a person says things which are so blatantly unfair and untrue, well it gets to a pony.

She was suspicious as hell. She'd accuse me of sniffing after pony pussy. Didn't she know that pegasi were famed for their loyalty?

Then she went too far.

I'm willing to take a lot in the name of love. But there's a line in the sand. She jumped over it, so far I had to draw another line. Then she jumped over that, too.

I told her, with cold finality, that I never wanted to see her again. That I couldn't trust her any more, even if I wanted to. And then her head had drooped. My fierce and proud sky-lady. She turned and walked away from me. Her tail and pinions dragged along the ground.

Physical pain is bad enough. Emotional pain is so much worse. It stays at the same level but its nature is constantly changing, so you never get used to it. Continually you are thinking of what you had, and what you lost. And how love turned into that other thing.

When a very casual acquaintance mentioned 'how sad and distant' I'd been lately I realised how bad things had got. But, I suppose, in time I learned to get over it. Most of it, anyway. But a thing like that... it never really goes away.

By Celestia, I had wanted to be at this meeting in a clear and cool state of mind, but look at me now! It was like it had all happened yesterday. Cravenly I crept out of the stall. I was hoping against hope that the bravest person I knew would turn out to be a chicken-hearted no-show.

And there she was. I stopped dead still, frozen in place, tempted to sneak out of there before she saw me. At the same time I was drinking in the sight of her like a thirsty pony drinks water.

She'd kept herself in shape. Of course she had. It had always been so important to her. My gaze roamed at will over the swell of her hips, the pristine white of her flanks, the pale barred grey of the wings folded tight to her sides.

She had propped her powerful feathered fore-body up on the table. Taloned forelegs were crossed on the surface in front of her. The fierce head, crowned as I remembered by a short scarlet crest, gazed down. The eyes, under drooping violet lids, seemed engaged in minute inspection of the talons; fascinated, I speculated, by their deadliness. Her audience of one watched her open the elegant curve of her bill. The tip of a pink tongue emerged to lick the point.

At that moment, passively waiting with downcast eyes and forepaws crossed on the table she looked so gentle. She looked...

She looked sad.

She was wearing fawn thigh-length chaps on her hind legs. They left her hindquarters exposed. Holes were cut for her lion's paws which peeped through. The whole arrangement was held in place by a strap-like affair which looped over her rump. It was some utilitarian piece of griffon flightwear, to be sure, but the effect...

Let's just say it was the sexiest thing I'd ever seen.

Had she worn that deliberately? Was she gaming me, even now?

Then I looked again at her face. Oh, Zulieka. I never thought you'd lose that light in your eyes.

And I suppose the lover's connection between us was still operating at full force because for no discernible reason she turned her head sharply in my direction. Pale hunter's eyes widened in shock. She gave an audible gasp. Her wings flared before slowly creeping back to her sides. I stood shuffling my hooves and feeling like an idiot and she just sat there waiting. We couldn't stay like that so I forced my leaden hooves into motion. On nerveless legs I approached her.

'Hello, Sabre Wing.' Her voice was unchanged; that soft and husky purr I remembered. Her words gave me a jolt. To her I had always been 'Sabe' or 'Sabby' or 'Pony Boy'. Or 'Hey you,' 'Flying Lunch,' 'Four Legged Breakfast' etc when she was in a pissy mood. Using my full name was a mark of utmost seriousness. She glanced at my face and her gaze slid away. 'I never thought you were gonna agree to this.'

'Here I am. As you can see.' Celestia's gaskin, that sounded so weird and formal. I was going to have to relax. Try to, at least.

She gave a short, nervous laugh and swept a taloned paw over her crest. How achingly familiar that gesture was! Some moments passed while she nodded slowly and my thoughts galloped in small anxious circles.

She craned her neck sideways, looking round the table at my body. 'You're looking good, Sabe. Real good.'

'So are you, Zulieka.' It was nothing more nor less than the truth.

'Hey, thanks.' Her eyes narrowed with pleasure at the complement. 'I've been gettin' plenty of exercise. I, er... I got myself a job.' The corners of her mouth lifted in a hopeful little smile.

'Really.'

'Here, in Canterlot.' The way she pronounced it, the nation's capital sounded more like Cannerlot.

I asked her what it was, because she seemed to want to tell me. 'Small package delivery for the Royal Post.' She cleared her throat. 'For when magic doesn't make the grade,' she intoned, in near perfect imitation of the famous jingle. She'd always been a great mimic.

Right then, next surprise of the day. The Royal Post didn't take on just anyone. You needed references. With her 'reputation' Zulieka would need to have cast iron ones. Plus you needed to pass a fitness test, then a six week probationary period.

'The responsibility's good for me,' she told me, all eagerness. 'The routine. Gotta keep my stats up, ya know?' At last she met my eyes and I realised; she desired my approval. She wanted me to be proud of her. My sky-lady. An empathic knife twisted in my guts.

'I can imagine.' We both smiled and nodded at each other. The nods trailed into awkward silence.

'Sabre.' One claw-tipped finger traced a circle on the table top. 'I wanna apologise.'

I felt the first stirrings of alarm. I didn't want to deal with this, not here, not now. 'It isn't necessary. You already did. In the letter.'

She clicked her beak and gave me a brief intense look. 'I wanna apologise to your face.'

My face is what you should be apologising to since you almost clawed half of it off, gibbered a tiny mad voice in the back of my brain.

Her smile twisted. 'You're not having such a great time, are ya, Sabre. I don't want you to worry. I ain't gonna start anything.' I didn't reply. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one taloned forepaw advance towards my hoof. As subtly as I could I withdrew out of her reach.

She exhaled heavily. Her crest flattened against her scalp. 'I'm sorry I'm making ya feel this way. Half of me wants to get the whole damn lot out in the open. The other half wants to spare you a scene. You never did like scenes, did ya?'

'No,' I choked.

'Maybe if we'd yelled at each other a few more times things wouldn't have... you know...' her voice trailed off while I tried to think of something to say. I desperately wanted to put the brakes on the emotional runaway train which even now seemed to be gathering pace. I was afraid; afraid that it would get too much for her and she'd kick off, afraid that I would lose my temper. Above all I was afraid of pain. Emotional anguish. I'd had too much of it, my resistance was as good as nil. I didn't want to get shredded up inside again and that seemed to be about to happen.

'Hey, I want to tell ya. I never did say thanks. For not pressing charges. Sabre, look at me.' I did, briefly; she must not have liked what she saw because she tucked her head down and stared with desperate attention at the table.

That had always been the thing with us. We'd always communicated so readily. We were the talking couple, the ones everypony would tell to shut up at the theatre. Look at us now. An impenetrable barrier had sprung up between us and nothing, not words or good intentions, could break it down.

She'd always said I was the smart one (though it wasn't true). She'd always relied on my ability to set out the problem clearly. To think logically. So, one more effort. I took a deep breath. 'Zulieka...'

Her head jerked up. She stared at me, wide-eyed.

'Did you have some reason for wanting to see me? I mean, is there something you want to say? Anything?'

Her beak opened and then shut. She appeared to be trembling all over. Her tail slashed arcs in the air behind her. Together we hung on the edge of probability.

'No,' she gasped at last. 'No, I just thought... old time's sake. Nothin' more than that.'

'Oh.'

Her head drooped and I saw in the set of her body and the spread of her wings, she was going to leave. She would fly right out through one of those arches there and that would be the end of it. I might glimpse her in the skies over Canterlot, from time to time, at a distance, but Sabre Wing and Zulieka would be history.

That was what I wanted, wasn't it?

Then why was I racking my brains, desperate for something, anything to keep her from slipping away from me?

Then I saw it. The fractional brightening in the room. The murmur of shock. Everypony turning to look. And there she was, Big Gold, not six paces away from our table.

It wasn't terribly unusual to see her out and about. Big Gold's business was her own and took her all over Equestria. It was just... well. Some things you never get used to no matter how many times they happen in your life.

I had a sudden strong urge to kneel.

But what was this? She was walking towards our table! I exchanged a startled glance with Zulieka, who shut her beak with a snap.

No... she was walking past us. Like there was somewhere she needed to be and we just happened to be on the way. The blazoned flank with mighty pinions passed by, almost close enough to touch. As we achieved perihelion the magenta glance swept across us both. No-one can do inscrutable like the Regent of the Sun. Celestia knew what Celestia was thinking.

The Royal gaze fastened upon Zulieka. Just for a moment. My griffon's mouth went thin with shock. Then Big Gold was gone, vanished down one of the passageways. Her sun-glow went with her like receding torchlight.

Conversation in the foyer resumed. But we sat in silence. It felt like somepony had pressed the reset button on our meeting. Then Zulieka shook her feathers and released a long-held breath. 'She could reduce everyone in this building to itty-bitty piles of ash. With half a thought. Makes ya think, don't it. Provides some sense a' perspective.'

'Zulieka...' please can we try again?

'Sabre, shut up. Just for a second, will ya.' She closed her eyes. A look of terrible wrenching sadness appeared on her face. Her strong body shook all over. Then she looked at me and there it was, the morning glow returned to her eyes. 'Sabre, I want us to get back together again.'

At first I was sure I hadn't heard her right. But she was watching me with a hopeful wavering smile as the words filtered through my consciousness. Us... together again...

I reared back from the table in shock.

'Please! Please, Sabe, hear me out. You probably think I'm crazy for even askin'. But here's the thing.' She bowed her head and gave me a look of the deepest, most heartfelt appeal. 'I've changed.'

'You've... changed.' I could hear Flighty's warning in my mind. She'll say she's changed. It'll be a lie...

'Yeah.' She nodded emphatically. 'I wasn't gonna try and meet with ya until I had something to offer. I go to anger management classes, see. Also, there's this support group. For people who've abused their partners.'

I sat back and blinked in shock. 'That's... so unlike you.'

'I know, right?' She gave me a wry little smile. 'Only for you, Sabre.'

We sat in silence while she gathered her thoughts. One talon made minuscule scratches on the tabletop. 'I got so bucking sick of acting up and hurting people.' Her voice was low and heavy with hurt. 'I destroyed my life because of it. I lost you. Well, I decided. No more. No more a' that.'

A little gentle prompting seemed in order. I leaned closer to her. 'Would you like to tell me about it?'

'There are certain... techniques I can use when I feel like I'm about to kick off. Certain behaviours. Therapist tells me I'm making excellent progress. Excellent progress. And there's group as well. They help... we help each other.' Suddenly she switched to a gravelly joke voice. 'Hey, Zulieka. I talked myself down. Stopped myself from doing it. Didja, buddy? Sure did. Respect and restraint, Zu. Respect and restraint.' She gave a husky chuckle which, after a moment, I shared.

'They're good people, Sabe. They just made some shitty choices. It's why I didn't get back in touch with you the moment I hit Canterlot. Why I stayed outta your way. I wanted to get everything set up. That, and the job.'

Well, there was a mystery solved.

Only now did I see the first tears in her eyes. She reached out a gentle paw and stroked my wounded cheek. This time I didn't pull away. 'I hurt something beautiful. The shame of that can never go away. It shouldn't.

'Sabre Wing, I love you. I wanna be with you for the rest of my life. I wish I could promise you...' she clenched her eyes tight shut and again the look of self-loathing appeared on her face. 'I wish I could promise I wasn't gonna hurt you again but that'd be dishonest. But I can promise you this. I will never stop trying. Trying to be a better griffon. Hey, Sabe.' She gave a weak little smile and brushed away a tear. 'Ya know they always say you can't save anyone by loving them? Well it ain't true. You can save them... if they wanna be saved.'

She paused again, swallowing her tears, getting a hold of herself. 'Sabre, you can send me away if ya want. It's what I'd do if I was you. Say the word and I'll get outta here. I'll leave you in peace and never bother you again. But... if I have you by my side I know I can make it. I know you can be the saving of me.'

She was crying in earnest, now. 'Ah, crap. I swore I wasn't gonna do this. I promised myself I wasn't gonna beg. Shoulda known better. Please, Sabre Wing. Help me to be the person I know I can be. Take me back. Let me fly with you.' She thrust aside the table. Made a purring trill deep in her throat. Brushed her sleekly powerful body against mine and nuzzled under my chin. The bushy tuft of her tail brushed against my cheek.

It was then that I realised we had an audience. Ponies were staring at us, silent and spellbound. Meanwhile alarm bells were ringing in my brain. I knew what she'd done to me, what she was capable of doing to anypony who pissed her off. I'd said I couldn't trust her, hadn't I?

And yet, there is a wisdom of the body as powerful in its way as the wisdom of the mind. As she leaned against me light and soft as a butterfly I felt an ache of need all down my front. The void inside me, which had opened up when I told her to go, was sharply delineated and painful with cold.

Her warmth invaded me now. Her light and her heat filled the absence inside and drove away the pain. All those damned ponies were watching us. There was a couple at the next table, the mare was round-eyed and silent, the stallion nodded at me and mouthed the words say yes...

I licked my lips. Forced my paralysed vocal chords into action. 'We could, um, we could give it a try. I suppose.'

I felt her forelegs slip around my neck. She pressed her beak against my ear. Her voice was weak and shaky with astonished joy. 'Sabre, I didn't think you were gonna say yes.'

Everypony in the room thundered on the floor with applause.

'Zulieka wait,' I stammered. 'I said give it a try. There are going to have to be conditions.'

'I'll meet 'em and more. I'm gonna do this right, Sabre. You'll see.'

And even while she clung to me I realised why I had never been able to let her go. I understood the guilt which had haunted me. I knew what had kept me awake, silent and afraid. Why the Mare of the Moon had been invading my dreams with her messages and portents.

'Zulieka, I'm sorry.'

She froze in place just under my chin.

'I never should have sent you away, that time. You needed me and I abandoned you. I'm sorry.'

'Sabre.' Her voice broke and she plumped down on her hindquarters. Then we were face-to-face, beak-to-muzzle. She opened her mouth and our tongues met in a soft, sweet kiss. All around us the Weather Control Service foyer erupted into a riot of cheers and hoof stampings. To Tartarus with the lot of them, what did it have to do with them? Unless...

I pulled her closer. 'You didn't set this up, did you?'

'No idea watcha talking about. Sabre, come on. Do I do subtle?'

'No. But you can do clever.'

She laughed again, and still I was tense and afraid... Sabre Wing, are you really going to do this? After she crossed the line, twice? After you swore?

I suppose sometimes peer pressure is a good thing.

She leaped away from me, spun and started skipping in place. 'Hey. You wanna race?' Pale hunter's eyes looked coyly back at me over her shoulder.

'What, right now?'

She crouched low and spread her wings. 'Sabre, come on. You were always the best game. The finest I ever raced against. Maybe all that Canterlot living's gone and made you soft. Oh,' she wailed in mock sorrow. 'Say it ain't so!'

'You cheeky little flapster. I'll show you who's gone soft.'

With a yell of excitement she propelled herself into the air. I was about half a pony's length behind her. In moments we had sped through the arch into the sunlight. As we skimmed through the forest of Canterlot's spires, all I could see was her backside zipping back and forth in front of me. There was no way I could appreciate the view however because I was concentrating so damned hard on not letting her get away from me.

Seconds later we had left the Castle behind us. The city's gleaming heart spread out below. Up and up we soared, into the clear blue morning. Her broad, short wings gave her the edge in agility but I was by far the better climber. Soon I was ahead of her, piercing the pale void of a cloud. My heart was pumping, my lungs were heaving. The burn of effort in my wing muscles was pure joy. I burst into clear air, scattering shreds of vapour. Suddenly there she was, a grey missile curving in from starboard. She grabbed my hooves in her talons and we were face-to-face.

Laughing, we spun around our mutual centre of gravity, whirling like a winged seed through the blue and white. Down we went, past arcades of cloud, shoals of wind, fountains of light. We were almost at the rooftops when we broke. Letting go my hooves she sped off again, climbing through the air in a near ballistic trajectory. She'd worked on her stamina, I could tell. Well, I'd worked on mine.

I thought little of it when I saw she was climbing towards Freecity. It was hardly surprising. Lots of winged folk made their homes up there or generally hung out. For all I knew she had her own place there.

Freecity's cloudy ramparts swelled in our vision. Her flight curved in a familiar direction. When she landed on my balcony and went into my apartment I knew something was up.

I thumped down in a puff of cloud and followed her inside. She was waiting in the middle of my living room, totally unabashed. We stood regarding each other, hearts pumping, flanks still heaving from the energy of flight. I could see tiny wisps of vapour rising from her body.

'Zulieka, you know where I live.'

'Evidently.' She waved a claw in dismissal.

'Have you been checking up on me?'

'Well, duh. Sabre, I had to know if you were seeing anypony. If you had been it would've been all over.'

'Zulieka, this is not OK.'

She placed a paw on my shoulder and gazed, deeply and seriously, into my eyes. 'Sabre, we're cool, ain't we?' I hesitated. 'Come on, Pony Boy. I ain't done nuthin' wrong.' She nuzzled against my neck. 'Questionable, I'll give ya that.'

I sighed and nodded. 'I suppose it's all right.'

'Good.' She paced away from me and gave the room a sharp once-over. She seemed to be looking for something. Quite what, I couldn't imagine. Apparently satisfied, she gave a curt nod. 'Nice place you got here.'

'Erm, thank you.'

Then she gave me the look. I have never known anypony, or any griffon either for that matter, who could smoulder like her. 'I got no idea what you did to me. But ever since you I never so much as looked at no griffon. No pony either. Why you so good, Sabre?'

Because I love you. But I just mumbled something non-committal.

'Hey, Sabre.' Her voice dropped to a silky purr. 'Was there anyone else? While I was away?'

I didn't answer.

'Like I give a shit.' She stretched in pure unselfconscious physical joy. A magnificent creature revelling in her strength and beauty. It was the best of her I was seeing now, the perfection and grace that had drawn me to her, persevering moth to her flame. Then she looked back over her shoulder. Sweet Celestia, that look again. She raised and spread one hindleg in a catlike stretch. Beneath the tapered whip of the tail and between the plumply toned buttocks, enclosed by the delightful restriction of those straps, her treasures were displayed.

My eyes were drawn to her dusky cleft. I could see, deep in shadow, the dark disk of her ass and the swollen gleam of her labia. My griffon's arousal, so obvious, so proud and unashamed, provoked my profoundest lust. In moments I was erect, swollen tight and hard as a drumskin.

I couldn't help myself. I pressed my muzzle into her perfumed valley and i-n-h-a-l-e-d.

Ponies and griffons are different but the scent of sex, that sweaty-musky-sweetness – that's pretty much universal. It flooded my nose, invaded my brain. She spread herself wide and bowed her forebody until her chest feathers were brushing the floor. Her tail curled into an ecstatic question mark. I opened my mouth to taste her but before my tongue could do homage she sprang onto the bed and crouched there, tail lashing.

Fine by me. I placed my hooves on her buttocks, feeling their taut plump heat through my soles. Gently I eased them apart. The glistening lips, the colour of the flushed evening sky, opened stickily. I gazed into the depths of her hot pink cavern.

I said before that ponies and griffons are different. A mare's body will tell you when she's ready and what she wants. Her clitoris will thrust out rhythmically, an eager tongue licking against your own. With a griffon you have your work cut out. You have to seek the treasure.

I started with a swift dabbing of the crinkled bud of her ass. She had always loved it when I played around there. The shifting of her hips and a luxurious purr told me I'd hit the mark.

Then, with swirling licks, I worked my way down. Her breathing quickened. From somewhere ahead I heard the ripping of fabric. It wasn't the first set of sheets we'd ruined. All the while my cock was swaying beneath my belly, throbbing with need. I burrowed under her soft fleshy hood with my tongue, seeking the pink pearl in its sanctuary. It didn't take me long to find the familiar little slick roundness. Her body shook, her hips began to thrust...

'Stop,' she gasped. 'Sabre, not there.'

I paused, questioning, my muzzled buried in her slit.

'I wanna feel you inside me. I wanna feel your life quicken in my body. Sabre, please...' her voice darkened into a primal growl. I reared up and thumped down astride her on the bed. I gripped her around the middle, pinning her wings firmly to her sides. She was stronger than me, a dangerous and potent predator, yet she wanted me to mount her. To take possession of her.

Momentarily we remained tightly clasped like that – pony and griffon together. Then the body beneath me thrust backwards and she growled with the heat of her lust. I eased forward, hunting. Touching. Feeling her silky creamy heat envelop me. Her taut ring of muscle slid the length of my shaft to grip snugly around the base of my cock.

Sweet Celestia, she was so soft, so wet and yet she was tight. I tried to take it easy. Believe me, I did my best. But the months of abstinence, of sleepless yearning, had taken their toll. A demon claimed me. I fell into a frenzy, almost a derangement of lust. The bed creaked in protest as I pounded her as hard and fast as I could. Each thrust lifted her hindquarters clear into the air, drew from her a rhythmic gasp of pleasure;

ah... ah... ah...

Her gasps became cries, high and loud and urgent. And then words, commanding me to go deeper, faster.

For all my frenzy it was she who ascended first.

She clamped down on me with her wet pink fist. The contractions of her ecstasy electrified my cock. It felt like my balls were being squeezed in a vice of pleasure. I yelled her name, stars exploded behind my eyelids. I pumped my adoration into her body. I swear she milked me of pleasure, squeezed every last drop out of me. Groaning with satiated lust we collapsed sideways onto the bed. I slipped out of her, releasing a final spurt of pony cum over her belly.

Gasping hotly we held each other. I had my forelegs crossed over her chest, she was grasping my hooves against herself. The aftermath of orgasm was like a golden glow in my extremities. Everything had gone away but the moment. The two of us together.

Presently she stirred. She turned supplely in my embrace till we were face-to-face. 'Sabre.' With little dabs of her tongue she licked my nose, my lips, my cheeks. 'You took the rest of the day off, didn't ya?'

'Zulieka, just a minute.' I felt like an absolute villain breaking the mood like this but there were some things which needed to be understood. 'I said before there were going to be conditions.'

'An' I said whatever you want.' She rubbed her head against my neck. I felt the point of her beak, a delightful ticklish pressure, trail down my throat. 'What kinda conditions?'

'We need to take things easy. At least to begin with.'

She drew back her head to gaze at me. 'Sabre, we just had epochal buckin' sex and you wanna take things easy?'

'Hey,' I murmured. 'I'm thinking about what's best for us.'

She gave a deep sigh. 'You don't trust me, do ya?'

'It's not that.'

'Shhh.' She placed a finger to my lips. 'It's cool. Matter of fact I think it's a great idea.'

'Wait... you do?'

'Uh-huh.' She nodded sleepily. 'We gotta establish boundaries. Figure out stop signs and go signs. Safe words and no-nos. Besides... the both of us got a lotta healing to do.' I felt the sting of tears in my eyes. Astonishment that she could be so smart, so wise. So willing to change for our sake.

'Zulieka?'

'Mmmm.'

'Please tell me you meant what you said.'

'Promised, didn't I?' Then she laid her head down against my chest and closed her eyes.

So, there we were. The two of us, together again. Except it wasn't going to be the same. A beautiful thing can be broken and then patched, mended, repaired. But it will never be quite as good as it was. Its perfection has been forever marred.

That's us – all of us. We are the broken things. Life wounds us. We put ourselves back together and we struggle on. Lame and imperfect we shelter all together under Celestia's wings, trying to keep out of the rain.

But here's the paradox. No matter what we've done, what we've become, we have to be better than we were before. We have to shine in the light. We have to take wing. We have to fly.

Love Foxtrot XXX