Princesses and Stepladders

Duskwind's day spent perusing the palace archives was not fruitful. Transformation spells were few and far between, and the couple that he had found were well beyond his moderate but unremarkable magical skills. He suspected he could manage one that purported to turn beans into peas, but it hardly seemed worth it. In any case, there were none he could find that would make him temporarily an alicorn, or even scale him up to something closer to Princess Luna's dimensions.

He was sitting on the floor, leafing through a book almost as large as he was, when he was startled by a quiet cough from above. A liveried palace page stood over him.

The pale blue earth pony looked down her nose at Duskwind, (in more ways than one) and said, “I have been instructed to find you and tell you that Their Majesties, Princesses Luna and Celestia will be holding their dinner engagement in an hour, and your presence is requested.”

“Oh, right,” Duskwind muttered as he rose to his feet. He began to put scrolls and books back on shelves and in pigeonholes, saying, “Let me just...”

He was interrupted by the page. “These will be seen to. I was instructed to tell you to go and freshen up.”

“Oh, right, I guess I should.” He looked at his reflection in the glass of a window, and he had to admit that he looked a bit rumpled and dusty.

As he walked to the door, the blue page just watched him, not moving to escort him. He had never been that good with ponies, but there seemed to be a note of resentment on her face. He turned this over in his mind as he found his way through the twisting hallways to Luna's suite. “I suppose it makes sense,” he muttered to himself. “They're used to serving actual important people, but I haven't really even done anything; I'm only even here because one princess liked the look of me, and the other wanted to... keep me.”

This thought weighed heavily on his mind as he brushed his coat and mane. He still wasn't sure what his place was, when he wasn't actually in Princess Luna's bed.

He checked himself in a full length mirror, and adjusted his silver moon necklace. Taking a deep breath, he put on his best attempt at a winning smile, and trotted out the door of the suite to find the dining room he'd been told about earlier.

The small (for the castle) dining room room would have awed him a month ago, with its vaulted ceiling, stained glass windows, and other decorations. To his eyes that were now growing accustomed to the castle, it actually seemed a bit gaudy.

Apparently “fashionably early” was in vogue this year in Canterlot, because to his great embarrassment Duskwind found the round and heavily laden table fully occupied when he arrived, ten minutes before the time he had been told the meal started.

Almost fully occupied, rather. The seat to Luna's right was empty. When he coughed quietly in embarrassment and his hooves clopped on the marble floor, the Princess of the Night turned around in her chair and beckoned him with a wave of her hoof and a smile. For just a moment all of the fretful thoughts that had been swirling around in Duskwind's mind, from his place and value, to simply being late despite being early, evaporated. Even though it only took an instant, he saw her face flow from regal seriousness to warm affection. Her mane waved around her shoulders as her head turned, as if in slow motion... though it always did that. As if in a dream, all doubt gone from his mind, he approached the table and sat down, his eyes and hers never leaving each other.

This happy daze lasted only a few seconds. Once he was seated she gave him a soft kiss on the cheek, and turned to continue her conversation with several important looking ponies. A plate of salad was set before him by a quick and efficient waiter, but he ignored it and looked around at his fellow diners. Princess Celestia sat opposite to Luna. Many of the dozen or so other ponies were dressed much better than Duskwind had been led to believe they would be. One even wore a suit jacket and had a monocle in his waistcoat pocket. Despite not normally wearing clothes, the purple unicorn felt oddly naked to be wearing nothing but a necklace.

After only a few moments a pattern became clear. A bit more than half of the diners were involved in animated conversations, sometimes several at once. The remaining ponies mostly looked bored. It was pretty clear who were the invitees, and who were the dates.

As he munched his way through the first course of his meal, he examined the pony to his left. She was a tall, thin white unicorn, with a fleur de lis cutie mark and a vacant expression. Without trying to be too obvious, he watched her for several minutes, and the only things he saw her do were pick at her food, preen her hair a bit, stare vacantly at the windows, and occasionally fuss over the well dressed stallion on her other side. She didn't try to engage Duskwind in conversation, or even acknowledge him.

As he sat in sullen silence, trying and failing to follow any of the conversations going on around him, he felt a growing contempt for the generally pretty mare sitting next to him. When yet another small and overly elaborate course was laid before him (this time some kind of tiny quiches), something clicked in his mind. He looked at “the dates” in their bored silence, sitting next to much more important ponies, discussing matters of state and commerce. Then he looked at Luna, who was clearly one of the latter group, and it hit him like a ton of bricks. Here he was, a librarian and a young scholar of some minor note for his age, and his only purpose here was to sit next to Luna. He wasn't even particularly good looking compared to the other decorative ponies at the table.

He felt even more useless and alone, he reflected to himself while chewing sullenly, because it didn't even feel like he was here with Luna, what with her hardly even looking at him, and speaking in passable modern Equestrian. It still sounded wrong to his ears to hear her speaking in anything but the language that she...

His self-pitying silent tirade was interrupted by something brushing his leg. He jumped slightly and stifled a squeak. A quick, embarrassed glance at the other diners revealed that nopony had noticed. He had just convinced himself that he had imagined it when he felt a soft touch on his thigh, which didn't immediately disappear like the first one.

The tableskirt was long enough that it rested in his lap, and obscured the view under the table. He lifted up the edge of the cloth and peeked under. A soft magical glow rested against his leg, and it was obviously a simple telekinesis spell, because he could feel it pressing against the inside of his thigh.

He abruptly let the edge of the tablecloth drop back into his lap, casting a quick and nervous glance around to ensure that nopony was watching him. His mind raced... who was magically getting fresh with him under the table? Every horn he could see glowed with the casual use of magic, as forks and cups and in one case some sort of contract and a quill were moved about. The colour didn't look like Luna's, but he didn't want to draw attention to himself by checking again to be sure.

Everypony seemed to be consumed with their own business or their own boredom. Duskwind scanned the faces around him, and his heart leaped into his throat when he saw Celestia catch his eye just for an instant, and wink. Without breaking her stride the princess continued her animated conversation with a bright green pegasus in an expensive looking dress. If he'd blinked he would have missed it.

He stared into his plate and nibbled his quiche, putting on his best "bored" face. This lasted only a few moments, because his ears involuntarily pinned flat against his head as the warm tingling touch began to slide up his thigh.

"Chew, swallow, stare at the plate... nothing is happening..." he whispered to himself. He kept his cool this way for all of ten seconds, until he nearly choked on his food when he felt Celestia's tactile spell creep up between his legs and give him a playful squeeze.

The conversations around the table were loud enough that the skinny white unicorn next to him was the only pony who noticed his distress, albeit in a disinterested way. Duskwind waved her away with a hoof and smiled sheepishly as he cleared his throat. She shrugged and returned her attention to her dinner and the wall on the far side of the table.

With his ears still pinned back in distress, he desperately tried to decide what to do. He couldn't call Celestia out. Publicly embarrassing the co- (and it couldn't be denied, primary) ruler of Equestria in front of all of these people was surely a one-way ticket to the deepest dungeon. He looked at Luna, hoping to catch her eye, but she was so engaged with a conversation with the pony to her left that he couldn't hope she would see him.

Fretfully flitting his glance from one princess to the other, he was raising his hoof to tap Luna on the shoulder when he saw Celestia's eyes narrow threateningly, and she gave just the merest hint of a shake of her head. He lowered his hoof and the white princess nodded almost imperceptibly and returned her attention to the other diners.

At least, her visible attention. Below the table, hidden by the ruffles of white cloth hanging from the table, Duskwind felt her spell gently squeezing him. To his horror, he felt himself growing erect under the influence of the slowly pulsing pressure.

All he could manage was a startled squeak and a mumbled apology when he felt a waiter who had seemingly come out of nowhere pry his empty plate from between his hooves and set down another plate with some sort of tiny dessert pastry on a doily.

He closed his eyes, trying to catch his breath, but that was worse, because with the world shut out all he could focus on was the soft but firm telekinetic energy wrapping itself around his erection and sliding slowly up and down.

Forcing his eyes open, the panicked unicorn straightened his ears and smoothed his face with a tremendous effort of will. By the time he had focused his resolve enough to slow his breathing and casually nibble at the pastry, Celestia's hidden magic beneath the table had begun to jerk him off in earnest, and he had to casually measure every breath to avoid panting for everypony to see.

As luck would have it, Luna chose just that moment to turn back to him, rest her silver shod hoof on his shoulder and kiss his cheek affectionately. She whispered in his ear, "Sorry that this is so boring. We shall make it up to thee later," and winked before turning back to the bustle of conversation without waiting to see his reaction. As she was speaking to him, obviously oblivious to the hidden goings on just below, her sister across the table squeezed him more tightly and quickened her pace.

Duskwind stared at the half eaten pastry on his plate. He tried in vain to follow any of the conversations around him. He tried to think of dusty history books. He tried to think about anything but the warm, sweet touch stroking his aching member. He had done this to himself before, obviously, but the princess' magic was more subtle, more gentle, almost feeling like a warm, wet mouth engulfing him with just the perfect amount of pressure.

Thinking about that was a mistake, and he felt his gut and loins tighten as a seemingly unavoidable climax drew near. His heartbeat pounded in his ears and he gritted his teeth, using every ounce of self control to hold it back. His mind raced in renewed panic as he desperately tried to imagine how he could possibly explain the aftermath... and then suddenly, at the last possible moment, the energies teasing him to the brink of orgasm stopped completely. His loins were left aching, throbbing and feeling slightly cold.

He pressed his eyes tightly closed and took slow, deep breaths. He felt like the slightest touch, or even a thought, would set him off. Just as his still proudly standing erection was barely beginning to subside and settle into the soft pain of frustrated arousal, he felt a hoof stroke his hair. Startled, he opened his eyes and found himself looking into the concerned face of Luna, close to his.

"Art thou all right?" she said softly, her voice gentle and worried.

He took a moment to collect himself and told her, "I'm okay. I just... something I ate didn't sit well. I'm sorry if I worried you."

She nuzzled her midnight cheek against his purple one softly, and for a moment he was afraid that the gentle touch might set him off after all. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the other guests were standing and beginning to leave.

"Art thou coming, dear?" she cooed soothingly. "Some of the guests are having port and cigars in the Lodge Room, and that might settle thy stomach. Else thou canst retire if thou'rt too unwell."

Under any other circumstances, her loving smile and soft words would have washed away any disgruntlement he had felt with this evening, but just now her beautiful face close to his and her crisp scent in his nostrils was the last thing he needed. He wanted nothing more than to climb onto a chair and mount her, then and there... but obviously that would also earn him a swift trip to the dungeons, however fondly she felt about him.

"No," he said with a shake of his head, "I'll be fine, I just need to sit here for a few minutes." He couldn't leave the safety of the table, not in the state he was in.

Luna stood and kissed the top of his head, saying "As thou wishest, dear. A page can help thee find me when thy stomach ails thee less."

With that she turned and walked to engage the standing guests, switching back to modern Equestrian and ushering them out.

Princess Celestia was the last to leave the table. As she passed Duskwind she leaned down to him and whispered, "That was fun, wasn't it? I won't tell if you won't. I can't imagine my sister would be very happy to hear what you almost did..." With a wink she ruffled his mane with a hoof and walked out after the others, her head held high and a regal smile on her face.

He sat with his face in his hooves for many long minutes. By the time a petulant servant coughed loudly at him, he was ready to leave the table without embarrassment. He heaved a sigh and slid to his feet unsteadily, unsure of what to do with himself. Spending time in a noisy, smoky room didn't sound very appealing right now, but the thing he wanted most was to be near Luna... and he realized that he could really use a drink.