Airships, Sandskiffs, and Locomotives

Chapters

1. The Simple Plan
2. A Risqué Railcar Ride
3. Suds and Floods
4. Saddle Arabian Nights
5. Mountains Tall and Caverns Deep
6. Mile High Club
7. Le Jouet en Rose
Epilogue: Afterglow Accomplished

1. The Simple Plan

Author's Note

Many thanks to the incomparable CarcinoGeneticist for editing this silly thing across a multiyear hiatus.

1. The Simple Plan

The cottage looked cozy, even from the outside. It was a little two-floor affair with cool blue siding and a clean white door. Most of the windows were propped open to let in the cool air of the fine summer evening, evidenced by the gently waving leaves of the maple tree in the front yard. To most ponies, the only interesting thing about it would be the name on the mailbox: Sparkle, just like Equestria’s most recent additions to the royal family. It was the faint lamplight coming from the living room window, however, that caught Twilight Velvet’s eye as she strolled up along the empty street.

That took longer than I’d expected, she mused. She’d made a detour from her usual route today on the way home from the university; ordinarily she was home well before Night Light. Velvet checked the grocery bag again, but the clear glass bottle was still there, filled with fizzy white wine. She readjusted her hold on the bag with her magic, lifting it over her shoulder.

There was a skip in her step as she crossed the neatly-trimmed lawn. She’d been waiting for this day for a very long time, and now that it was here she wanted to celebrate. Nothing too fancy—she and Night Light were both a little past the age where they could go out partying till three on a weeknight and not regret it the next morning—but dinner and a drink with her husband were plenty enough.

As she came to the door, Velvet set the bag with the wine on the doorstep and began digging in the satchel for her house keys. Her hoof brushed against the envelope inside the bag, and she felt another urge to start dancing on the spot with glee. Yes, yes, yes! She was still having trouble believing it, quite frankly. She’d been an adjunct professor for so long she was starting to consider leaving for a different university. The only thing stopping her was the location—here, at least, she had been close to her daughter all through her schooling, and her son during his career in the Royal Guard. Not to mention that if she moved, Night Light would’ve had to find a different job as well.

But all that was irrelevant now. The huge smile she’d been wearing all day got a little wider as she found the key at last. Her horn glowed, and the key leaped from the satchel and into the door lock.

The door swung open before she could turn it, revealing a dark blue stallion with an expression that was both pleased and mildly relieved. “Velvet, there you are! I heard you coming through the window.” He reached down and picked up the bag with his mouth. “Oud buyin grofferieff, huh?” he mumbled around it, stepping back to let her inside. “I waff tarding to ged worried.”

Velvet gave a guilty shrug, but her grin remained irrepressible. She shut the door, and the two of them made their way into the kitchen. Velvet rubbed her hooves together, still jittery with excitement. “Honey, I’ve—I’ve got big news.”

Night Light raised an eyebrow and set the bag down on the countertop. He leaned back against the counter with a wry smile. “Uh-oh. The last two times you said that, we had to go crib shopping.”

Velvet burst out laughing. Night Light’s face grew a little worried. “Wait, are you serious? I thought you were still on the pill—”

“I am, I am,” she said, waving a reassuring hoof, still giggling. “Sorry, honey, I didn’t mean… oh, you should see your face. No, the news isn’t quite that big, but it’s pretty exciting nonetheless.” She pulled out the letter and laid it on the kitchen table.

Night opened the envelope and unfolded the letter within. “‘To Professor Twilight Velvet Sparkle, on behalf of the board of…’ blah, blah, legalese…” His eyes grew brighter and his grin bigger as he read with rising enthusiasm. “‘And so, due to your long history of academic and administrative excellence…” he paused, and glanced up at her. “Wait, Velvet, is this what I think it is?”

She nodded, her hooves pressed to her mouth. Night’s eyes flicked back down to the letter. “‘… history of academic and administrative excellence, we are pleased to offer you a position as a Senior Professor of Arcane Studies!” he read, practically shouted the last words. He dropped the letter and sprang up from the table. “Honey, you did it!”

“I know!” Velvet squealed, pressing her hooves to her cheeks. “It took twenty years, but I’ve finally got tenure!”

Night picked her up in a hug and spun her around, no easy feat for two quadrupeds. He looked as exhilarated as Velvet felt. “Was it that last paper your group did? That ‘Prismatic Luminescence in Arcane Manipulation’ one?”

Velvet hugged him back, nuzzling against his neck. “Partly. I think the other half of it is that the dean’s afraid for his government grants.” She grinned. “Our daughter would never compromise academic integrity with nepotism, but he doesn’t know that.”

“Well, Twilight does take after her mother,” said Night Light, leaning back and giving her a wink.

“So,” said Velvet, sliding her hooves off of Night Light’s shoulders, “I went out and got a bottle of champagne to mark the occasion.”

“Aha!” Night Light let her go, walking over to the counter. He pulled the bottle out of the plastic bag, sitting on his hind legs and bracing it with his forehooves. “You do the honors.”

Velvet squinted in anticipation, and popped the cork. A spray of fizzy wine came shooting out, and both of them jumped. The two shared a glance, and then broke out laughing.

Dinner was a simple but delicious meal of carrots, alfalfa, rose petals, and watercress. The champagne seemed to vanish from the bottle in prodigious volumes, fast enough that Velvet’s head was soon pleasantly warm and heavy. By the time dinner was over, she was sitting in Night Light’s lap, forelegs draped around his shoulders, and her head leaning on his. Velvet always got cuddly when intoxicated, but she didn’t have to worry about it with Night Light.

“Thanks, Nighty,” she said, giving him a squeeze. “For the evening, and for pushing me all these years to keep going with the university.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” said Night Light, tapping her chin. “You worked hard for this. You’ve earned it.”

“Yes,” said Velvet, giving him a kiss on the cheek, “but you’ve been a big help. A little encouragement goes a long way. I’d never have gotten that last paper ready in time for the yearly peer review cycle if not for you.”

“Hey, we’re married. It’s my job to nag you,” he teased.

Velvet snuggled her head down on his shoulder. “Mm. I think maybe we should go to bed, before I pass out on the couch. I forgot how tired wine makes me.”

Night Light helped her up the stairs and into their bedroom. Their bed, warm and inviting, welcomed Velvet as she nestled under the sheets. With an absent smile, she fluffed her pillow and lay down sideways on it, facing off the bed. She closed her eyes and pulled the covers up to her chin, sleepily content. Behind her, Night Light flicked off the lights with a flash of magic. As he slid into bed beside her, she pressed her back against him, smiling at the comforting warmth. He draped a hoof over her, leaning his head over her shoulder and giving her a kiss.

Then he gave her another, and another, and she felt his hoof trailing down her belly toward the space between her legs. Velvet smiled in the darkness. “Ooh, you’re going to get me all hot and bothered.”

“That’s the idea,” said Night Light with a grin in his voice. “After all, this is a big occasion.”

Velvet pushed her hindquarters back, brushing against the familiar firmness of Night’s growing erection. She let out a throaty purr as his hoof slid between her thighs, stroking her softest skin. His touch soon grew damp as her body began responding to the attention. Honestly, Velvet felt more sleepy than aroused, but she certainly wouldn’t mind a little fooling around before passing out.

Velvet rolled toward him onto her back, as Night Light propped himself up and over her. His length rested along her slit, held against it with gentle insistence. Velvet smiled and reached her hooves up to gave his flanks a rub. Though the room was dark and they were covered by sheets, she and Night Light had made love so many times that she knew exactly what he looked like right now: the trembling eagerness in his hips, held back until she was properly wet and prepared; the quick rise-and-fall of his chest as he grew more and more excited, before that first puff of relieved breath as he penetrated her; and that midnight-blue speckled shaft that had been inside her more times than she could count, lying along the glistening mound at the crook of her legs.

Night Light ground up against her entrance. Velvet’s lower lips were already flushed with warmth and slippery with arousal, and she could hear the faint wet noises as they rubbed skin on skin.

“Ready, honey?” Night Light drew back so that his tip teased the tender, sensitive base of her pussy, right outside the hole that she could feel pulsing with anticipation.

Velvet nodded, but then realized he couldn’t see her in the darkness and giggled. “I’m ready.” She wrapped her hooves around his back to pull him closer. “Come on, Nighty. Put that cock inside me.”

Not wasting time with words, Night Light pushed forward, burying himself in her pussy. Velvet inhaled sharply. “Mmm.”

Pressing his whole body against hers, Night Light began thrusting repeatedly, his shaft sliding along the walls of her insides with all kinds of pleasurable friction. Velvet’s eyes fluttered closed, and she lay her head back to enjoy the rising heat under the covers.

Her head was still thick with the wine. She never had quite figured out whether alcohol improved or detracted from sex with Night. It made him a little bolder, and she secretly loved it when their lovemaking got a little aggressive, but it tended to put her out like a light.

And thinking of lights, she and Night Light really ought to send a letter to Twilight about the tenure news. After all, Twilight’s obsession with scientific rigor had started as admiration for her mother’s career.

It had been a while since they’d sent any letters to Shining and Cadence, too. Velvet was trying not to pester them about grandchildren, but she was starting to wonder when they planned to get on with it.

Though, part of her was glad they were waiting till they were good and ready. She and Night Light hadn’t quite planned on Shining himself, especially not when they were both such young newlyweds, but things had worked out thanks to the couple’s supportive parents. It was nice to know that her son had learned from his parents’ stumbles.

Then there was the fact that having grandchildren would be an unmistakable signal that she and Night Light were getting older. She’d managed to do a pretty good job convincing herself that thirty-six was still young, so far. Especially for a Senior Professorship at Canterlot Tech! she thought, a rush of pride joining the heady mixture of alcohol and the distant pleasure from her nether regions.

The university position was more than just a secure source of pay, it meant that now she could focus most of her efforts on research instead of hustling for tenure. More experiments, less letter-writing and backstabbing academic politics. She sighed happily.

“In or out?” asked Night Light, his voice strained.

Velvet blinked. “Sorry?”

“I can’t hold back much longer,” he said, still steadily thrusting. “So in or out?”

“Oh!” Velvet grabbed his flanks and pulled him tight against her pelvis, his cock as deep inside her as it could go. “In. Definitely in.”

Night Light gave her a deep kiss, and she tasted his tongue and the faint bite of the wine. “Thanks, honey.” He redoubled the thrusting of his hips.

Velvet grinned. Night Light loved dirty language in bed; it had long been her surefire way of bringing him to climax. “Hurry, honey. I want you to come in me.” She pulled him tightly against her, trapping his hips with her hooves, wanting to finish him off with words alone. “Come for me, Night Light. Coat me with that big, sticky load, I want to be filthy with it!”

He groaned, and his hips jerked under her hooves. Velvet felt the first flood of heat deep inside her as he came, quickly followed by a second. Her pussy was clenched so tightly around him that she could feel each pulse of his cum as it traveled up his shaft and burst out into her. Velvet relaxed, rubbing his flanks as he emptied himself into her. “That’s it, honey,” she whispered. “I love this.”

Night Light, still heaving for breath, propped himself up on his hooves so as not to smother her. “You’re amazing,” he said, brushing her cheek. “Love you, Velvet.”

“Love you too, Night.” Velvet smiled sleepily. She was a long way from her own orgasm, but the gentle heat suffusing her body was pleasant enough that, combined with the contact high from Night Light’s climax, she didn’t mind very much. “I’d better go clean up. Don’t want to wake up all messy tomorrow.”

“Wait a minute,” said Night Light, running a hoof down to her slightly-leaking pussy, “you haven’t finished yet, have you?”

“Well, no, but—” Velvet shrugged. “It’s fine, honey. You know me and alcohol; it’s like liquid sleeping pills. I’m just ready to turn in for the night.”

“Nonsense! This is your special day,” said Night Light, stroking the sticky, wet lips of her slit. “I wouldn’t feel right giving you a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am for the culmination of two decades of hard work. I want to treat you nice.”

“Oh, it’s fine, really,” she said, kissing him. “There’s always tomorrow.”

Night Light’s horn glowed briefly, and the lights flicked on. He pulled back off of her and sat up on the bed, a concerned expression on his face. “Velvet, you never used to let me go to sleep without giving you at least one orgasm. But lately… I mean, just now, you seemed sort of like you were zoning out. I like making love to you, not just your body.” His shoulders slumped. “You’re not bored with me, are you?”

“What? No!” Velvet sat up, not caring about the mess she’d be making. “Of course not, love! Don’t even say that; of course I’m not bored with you!”

“Then why—” he paused, looking confused and worried, “why don’t you seem to enjoy sex anymore?”

“I do, honey! It’s just…” Velvet felt horribly conflicted. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt her husband, but it seemed clear she’d already done that by accident. “I just feel like… like we’re going through the motions. It’s not that we don’t enjoy sex anymore,” she said, giving him a pleading look, “I just think we’ve gotten a bit complacent. Our rutting’s in a bit of a rut. We need some… some variety.”

Night Light took this with admirable fortitude. Instead of looking wounded, he slowly nodded. “So… should we try some different positions?”

“I don’t think it’s that,” said Velvet, feeling both guilty and relieved to finally bring this out in the open. “It doesn’t matter who’s on top or how flexible we’re feeling, it just seems like we skip the foreplay and go straight for the fucking, every time. Like all that matters is the climax, and getting to it as quickly as possible.” She pressed her hooves together, worried that she sounded accusing. “And it’s not just you, I do the same thing. Last Tuesday, I came twice before you did, and I nearly fell asleep before helping you get off.”

Night Light took her hooves between his own, giving them a pat. “Well, you’re the most beautiful mare in Equestria,” he puffed his chest out in mock pride, “and I'm a complete stud. I mean, we still love each other, right? So what’s wrong?”

“The kids, I think,” said Velvet with a sigh. “We had at least one of them in the house for the better part of twenty years. We got really good at stealing time for a quickie whenever they were off at the library or whatever, but we forgot how to do anything else.” She sighed, putting a hoof to her head. “Oh, and now I’ve completely ruined the mood. I’m sorry, honey.”

Night Light hugged her. “No, I’m glad you told me, Velvet. I’d rather know when you’re not happy.”

She returned the hug. “I’m plenty happy, Night Light. I just think we’re not having the best sex we could. Look… why don’t we talk about this tomorrow, when we’re both sober?”

“I… okay,” he agreed, sliding over beside her. “Love you, Velvet.” He gave her a kiss, and then flicked off the lights and lay back down.

“Love you too, Nighty.” Velvet put her head back down on the pillow, so flustered that she barely even registered the fact that she was going to wake up with a mess in her lap the next morning. She put a hoof on her face, silently cursing herself. Oh, he’s going to feel so guilty! It’s not even his fault, Velvet, how could you?

Night put a hoof over her side and gave her a reassuring squeeze. Velvet sighed and relaxed. They’d figure it out. After all, they’d stayed together for almost twenty years; a little bedroom trouble wouldn’t keep them down for long. She closed her eyes and let the wine drag her off into unconsciousness.

* * *

The next evening, Night Light pushed his way into the house, drawing the magazine he’d spent the last twenty minutes acquiring out of his pocket with a twist of magic. The door shut behind him with a click, and he began taking off his tie and hat to hang on the coat rack. Before he made his way into the kitchen, he tucked the magazine under a foreleg, and took a deep breath to prepare himself for the coming conversation.

Velvet was waiting for him at the dining room table, the place where they held all their capital-T Talks. She had a cup of strong green tea, her typical nerve-calmer, clutched between her hooves, her shoulders drooping. She looked up as he entered, smiling nervously. “Hello, Night Light.”

“Hi.” Night Light sat down beside her, putting a hoof on the table and tapping it a few times, trying to find a way to bring up the thing he’d bought after work. Oh, damn, she looks miserable, he thought, faltering. Hopefully this will cheer her up.

“I’m sorry,” she began, “last night, I…”

“Last night, you told me we had a problem,” said Night Light, smiling brightly. “So being a practical pony, I thought a bit about how we might fix it. I stopped down by the adult store on the corner by my office after work and picked up this.” He placed the magazine on the table and pushed it in front of them both.

“Is that a—” Velvet turned pink, “a catalog of sex toys?”

“Yes it is.” Night Light tapped his hooves together, a little anxious. “I know we’ve never done anything like that before, but I thought maybe this would help us kill two birds with one stone: we get a little variety in the bedroom, and we’ll slow the pace down while we get used to these things.”

“I… well…” Velvet put an uncertain hoof on the magazine’s cover. Her eyes narrowed. “Well, why not?” She flipped it open and looked at the first page, and her cheeks immediately tinged pink. “Oh. I’ve, uh, never seen so many dildos before.”

“Erm… See any you like?” asked Night Light, feeling a bit awkward—though also a bit amused. Velvet was always cute when she was embarrassed.

“Well, um… This one looks interesting… The Pedigree, ‘based on six of the world’s most famous adult models, with multiple firmness and color options. Also see the vibrating option on page 23.’ It seems, um, well-made…”

Velvet’s right hoof rubbed her lower stomach almost absently, and Night Light grinned. If just looking at pictures is turning her on, this might actually work. “Want to buy it?”

“Well, no reason to settle for the first thing that catches our eye.” Velvet turned the page.

At the next catalog item, Night Light raised an eyebrow. “We’ve never done that before.”

“Uh, no,” said Velvet, wincing. “I’m vetoing anything with double penetration. If we’re going to do anal… at least start small.”

Oh? She hasn’t wanted to try that in a long while. Night Light stifled a snort at the memory. The last time the two had attempted it, Velvet had been so tense that he hadn’t even been able to get in, no matter how much lube they used. He made a mental note that she was willing to give it another shot.

Velvet turned the page. “Oh, boy, now we’re getting to the kinkier bits.”

“I’ve never really thought about doing any of this…” Night Light scratched his neck. “You?”

“I don’t know… maybe some hoofcuffs, that could be exciting; but all that leather looks awfully hot, and not in the fun way. I’m not even sure what half of this stuff is for. Besides…” She blushed, glancing over at him. “I don’t think either of us are really dom or sub material.”

Night Light nodded, making another note. “Fair enough. Whips aren’t my cup of tea.”

He reached down and turned the page, and both of them leaned back. “Oh, my,” said Velvet faintly.

Night Light blinked. “What in the world…?”

Velvet read the description aloud, her eyebrow rising. “The Fornicatron 3000: The Ultimate in Pleasure for Partners or Personal Use. Comes with built-in vibrator, magical construct generators with pre-programmed bondage blueprints, full internal and external body massage for both genders, mind-tickling arcane psychosomatic emitter, vibrating sleeve with randomizable interior texture and ridges, separation capability and full remote-linked control for long-distance couples, as well as a host of other features listed in the 240-page manual.

Due to Equestrian trade laws, this item cannot be shipped; all purchases must be made from within Griffrench territory (Item can be legally transported in personal belongings after purchase). Additional fees may apply when using the long-distance features.”

“It’s Griffrench. Of course.” Night Light tilted his head. “I can’t even tell which end goes where.”

Velvet wiped her lips. “This looks pretty incredible. I wonder if it comes in anything besides bright pink.” She glanced further down the two-page spread and said, “Ow, forget it. Twenty-three hundred bits and change.”

“Hmm.” Night Light rubbed his chin. “We could afford that if we scrimp a bit. That’s only a few months of not eating out on Fridays.”

“Well, it’s not just the price, we’d have to go all the way to Griffrance to get it!”

Night Light nodded, a plan already coming together in his mind. “We haven’t been on vacation for just ourselves in years. We’ll make a trip out of it!”

Velvet bit her lip, then shrugged. “Well, I guess that could work. I’m supposed to take a sabbatical this year, anyway.”

“And I’ve still got all three vacation weeks saved up for the year,” he said, rubbing his hooves together. “Hey, we can even go up to the Crystal Empire a few days before our flight to see Shining Armor and Cadence.”

“Okay,” said Velvet, with rising excitement. “Let’s do it!”

Night Light gave her a kiss, and together they raced off upstairs to find the travel listings. This would be just what they needed. A week or two of adventure, sight-seeing, and really great sex. It was the perfect plan, he thought proudly. What could go wrong?

2. A Risqué Railcar Ride

Canterlot Central Station was a cavernous facility. The high, arched ceilings with brass embellishments hung over the wide floor. Friezes of great ponies surrounded the upper levels between the marble pillars, staring down dispassionately at the station-goers. The tiled floor was covered with an immense depiction of Equestria, with the rail lines all done in bright red, though it was impossible to see through the hundreds of ponies milling around, jostling with each other to get to the ticket booths or their trains, or simply to escape the building and the crowd.

Velvet yanked her rolling luggage tightly against her side, letting a harried pegasus with a monocle and a scowl slip through the ticket line into the other side of the crowd. She shook her head to her husband. “This is ridiculous. I haven’t seen it this full since the holiday season.”

Night Light looked a little tense and annoyed himself. He had never been very fond of crowds. “You know these Canterlot high-society types. Probably some new five-star restaurant opening in Manehattan.”

“I hope they’re not all headed to the Crystal Empire. I don’t want the train to be this crowded.” Velvet had to dodge another pony as he barreled past, clutching a briefcase in his teeth. “Goodness!”

“If so, I won’t be surprised—” Night Light was interrupted when a young unicorn mare in a business suit bumped into him as she raced past, sipping a cup of coffee held aloft by magic. Night Light brushed his shoulder with an irritated glance after her. “I should have had the tickets delivered by mail when I ordered them.”

The minutes passed and the Sparkles made incremental progress, still fending off the occasional rushing Canterlotite. At long last, they arrived at the front of the line, where a lanky teenage stallion with frizzy hair and dark circles under his eyes greeted them from behind the booth’s glass wall.

“How can I h-help you?” he stammered, glancing over their shoulders at the enormous line still behind them and wilting a little.

Night Light placed his and Velvet’s passports down on the counter, sliding them under the glass. “We have a pair of tickets to the Crystal Empire on reserve.”

“Right away,” mumbled the exhausted-looking stallion, grabbing their passports and ducking under the desk. They heard drawers opening and papers rustling, and then a “Damn!” followed by the sound of a folder hitting the ground and spilling its contents. The ticket issuer poked his head back up, a very forced smile on his face. “J-just a moment, please.”

Velvet massaged her forehead as Night Light gave a beseeching look to the ceiling. The stallion in the booth ducked back down again and re-emerged with two slips of paper and their passports. “H-here you go. Two international tickets. Did you send in the F2-30 forms when you made the reser—”

“Yep!” said Night Light, snatching the passports and the tickets, and together he and Velvet made a rapid escape into the crowd, ignoring the stallion’s protests.

It took them a full three minutes to fight their way to the doors leading out onto the actual train platforms. Briefly checking the number on her ticket, Velvet scanned the array of locomotives that were currently pulled in. “Platform thirty-two, platform thirty-two…” She spotted it at the far end of the line and nudged Night Light.

The two made their way over to their train, squeezing through the throngs of ponies. The conductor tipped his hat as they stepped into the front cabin. “Welcome aboard, friends. Tickets, please?”

They proffered their slips of paper impatiently. He seemed like a nice pony, but Velvet just wanted to get to their cabin and relax already. The conductor’s eyes whizzed over the paper, and he smiled. “Heading out of the country, are we? Enjoy your trip.” He nodded and motioned them inside.

Velvet and Night Light entered the train proper, carrying their luggage behind them with magic as they trundled down the central corridor. This train was a lot nicer than the one they took occasionally to go have tea with Twilight in Ponyville. Instead of benches, there were walled cabins on both sides of each car. Each had two facing booth seats, with a generously-sized table between them, and soft olive-green curtains drawn on each side of the doors. A large window gave a beautiful view of the outside.

Finding the one that matched the number on their tickets, number forty-three, they shuffled inside and began storing their luggage in the overhead compartments. “So,” said Velvet, extricating the latest book she’d been reading from her case, “have we got any plans other than meeting up with Shiny and Cadence? We scheduled all our sightseeing in Griffrance, but I thought we could check out the Crystal Caves while we’re up north.”

“Sure,” said Night Light amiably, closing the overhead bin and falling into the plush cushions of the booth with a contented sigh. “After all, our flight doesn’t leave from Atlantrot for almost a week. We’ve got time for a few diversions.” He grinned. “And I brought along a couple things to keep us entertained.”

Sitting down in the opposite booth, Velvet raised an eyebrow and half-smiled. “What kind of things?”

“Secret things.” Night Light’s grin turned wicked. “Naughty things.” He shrugged. “I made another stop at that store I got the catalog from. Figured we didn’t need to wait till Griffrance to start, uh, adding a little spice.”

Velvet trying to ignore the slight heat between her legs that caused, simply gave him a small smile. “I look forward to being surprised.”

There was a clunk from outside their cabin. The door opened, and the curtains were pushed aside to reveal a stallion, pulling a massive trunk and wheezing. Velvet and Night Light stared, astonished, as he stepped into the cabin, shutting the door behind him.

He was an earth pony, with a dark yellow coat, almost orange, and a short, curly brown mane matched by an absurdly small moustache and bushy eyebrows. He was a rather rotund fellow, with a cheap burgundy suit and a garish red tie. His trunk was almost as large as he was, a tacky-looking piece covered with hundreds of stickers, and judging from the cringe-inducing thud as he swung it up onto the table, it was filled with rocks.

The pony blew out a huge breath. “Whew! That thing’s heavier than it looks.” He turned between Night Light and Velvet with a broad smile on his face. “Hey there, friends!”

Night Light just blinked, looking stunned. Velvet set her book down, mouth open, trying to figure out where to start. “Uh… can we help you?”

“Sure can! I’m not sure I can get this up there by myself.” The pony slapped the trunk, shaking his head. “I gotta start carrying less stuff on business trips. So, wanna help a fella out with a little unicorn razzle-dazzle?”

Night Light tilted his head. “Look, I don’t think we’ve met, but—”

“Oh, you’re right!” The pony proffered a hoof. “Don Candy, at your service. I work in plumbing sales. Heading off on a business trip right now, in fact.”

Night Light shook his hoof absently. “I’m sorry, but I think you have the wrong cabin, Mr. Candy…”

“Number forty-three, right?” Candy opened the door and looked outside at the cabin wall. “Yep!”

Night Light’s eyes narrowed. “Well, that can’t be right. I had a private cabin reserved a week ago!”

Velvet groaned. “Did the rail company mess something up?”

Candy shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time. Say, are either of you gonna help with this?”

With a sigh, Night Light lit his horn and lifted the massive trunk above to the bin. Candy grinned and squeezed into the seat beside him, to Night Light’s obvious displeasure. Velvet restrained herself from frowning. This stallion had crossed the line between “friendly” and “annoying” remarkably fast. She sighed internally. So much for getting some peace and quiet on the ride up.

There was a loud ringing sound, and the conductor’s voice echoed through the train. “Passengers, we will be departing in five minutes. Please ensure all your belongings are stowed before we proceed.”

“So,” said Candy, “where are you two going?” He shifted, settling further into the seat with a loud grunt. Night Light closed his eyes and put his head in his hoof.

“We’re headed to the Crystal Empire, and then on to Griffrance,” said Velvet, hoping the questions would stop there. She flipped open her book.

Candy didn’t take the hint. “Oh, what a coincidence! I’m heading to Griffrance pretty soon myself. Maybe we’ll be on the same flight, eh?”

“Gods, I hope not,” said Night Light, before jerking upright. “Since we’re not supposed to be there for another week. You’d miss your flight.”

“I doubt it,” said Candy, seemingly not noticing. “I’m pretty good at grabbing seats.”

Night Light mouthed I’ve noticed, and Velvet bit her lip to stifle a laugh. She turned back to Candy, putting on a polite smile. “My name’s Twilight Velvet. This is my husband, Night Light.”

“Pleased to meet you both! Well, I won’t stop you from reading.” Candy pulled a rolled-up newspaper from inside his suit, unfolded it, and leaned back even more, forcing Night Light toward the window.

Velvet, shaking her head, shrugged an apology to Night Light, then turned to her mystery novel. The daring griffon detective Herrietta Poiroost was just about to deduce the identity of the infamous Trottingham Torso Murderer…

Across the cabin, Candy let out a tremendous snore, shattering her concentration. Velvet looked up, exasperated. The pony had instantly fallen asleep on Night Light’s shoulder, the newspaper draped across his chest. Night Light looked livid. “This guy is unbelievable,” he whispered.

“We should still be polite, I suppose,” she said, her voice hushed. “But there's plenty of room over here if you want to move.”

Night Light nodded, extricating himself from the big plumbing salespony’s foreleg with an eyeroll, and slipping under the table. He popped up on Velvet’s right with a coy smile. “Nice view under there.”

“My, aren’t you feeling frisky this afternoon.” Velvet grinned, turning back to her book. “We’ll have to do something about that later.”

Night Light rubbed her shoulder with his own. “Why wait?”

Velvet raised her eyebrows and tilted her head across the cabin at the comatose Candy. Night Light’s face fell. “Oh. Right.” His plans foiled, he crossed his forelegs and leaned back into the seat, muttering about rude strangers.

“Besides,” said Velvet dryly as she turned the page, “I don’t think these cabins are soundproofed.”

* * *

Velvet regretfully closed the book at last. That twist at the end—she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to strangle the author or push copies of the book on all her friends. Having the narrator turn out to be the killer all along, it just didn’t seem fair.

She looked over to her right. Night Light was leaning up against the wall of the cabin, snoozing. Velvet cast an acidic glance across the cabin. Candy was out cold, thank all the gods, though he’d managed to sprawl further across the entire booth seat. He’d spent the entire trip alternating between ten-minute naps and telling inane stories about various customers he’d sold pipes to and what kind of plumbing packages his company offered. Velvet wasn’t sure which was more annoying. At least the drone of his talking was easier to ignore than that hacksaw-like snore he had.

Outside, the sky had grown dark. Only a few hours had passed, but thanks to Candy’s incessant, pointless tales it felt like she’d been riding in this railcar for days. She couldn’t make out the landscape through the night, so it was impossible to tell whether they were getting close to the Crystal Empire with its snowy surrounding tundra.

The conductor’s voice blared suddenly, startling both Candy and Night Light awake. “Passengers, we will be arriving at our next stop, San Palomino Station, in five minutes. Please do not leave your cabins until an attendant gives you the go-ahead.”

Weird, thought Velvet. Isn’t San Palomino to the south?

“Hey, that’s my stop,” said Candy, sitting up with a massive yawn. He stretched his forelegs high over his head. “I’ve got a buyer interested in redoing all his copper pipes in plastic! Ain’t that something? Plumbing’s important out here. Heck, it’s important everywhere!”

“I’m sure you’ll sell a load of your… whatevers,” said Velvet, strained.

Outside, brakes screeched and the train began to slow. Candy stood and began wrestling his giant trunk out of the overhead. Rolling her eyes, Velvet lit her horn and pulled it out for him. It thudded to the table again, making both Velvet and Night Light wince. Candy tipped an invisible hat. “Thanks again, Twilight!”

“Don’t mention it,” she said, dearly hoping she’d never run into this stallion again.

There was a knock on the cabin door. An attendant pushed it open and poked her head in. “We’ve arrived at the station. You can disembark whenever you’re ready.” She slipped back out.

“Ah, I just love making new friends.” Candy beamed. “Tell you what; we ever meet up again, the drinks are on me. Hey, maybe I’ll catch up to you before we hit Atlantrot!”

“That’d be nice,” said Velvet through clenched teeth. If so, I’m practicing that invisibility spell. “Goodbye, Candy.”

“Oh, please, call me Don!” He waved at them as he pulled his trunk out into the corridor. “See you later, friends.”

When the door shut quietly behind him, Velvet and Night Light both exhaled in relief. “I swear, if I had to listen to one more story about U-bends…” said Night Light, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Passengers,” rang out the conductor’s voice, loud enough that Velvet was certain he must be using some magical device to amplify it, “our next stop is outside Equestrian territory. Please make sure at this time that you have your passports, or you may be turned back at the border. The Mareathon Transportation company is not responsible for refunds if a passenger does not have the proper documentation.”

The train engine hummed back to life, and they began moving again. Velvet sighed happily. “At least now we can get some sleep.” She leaned over against her husband, closing her eyes.

“We could…” said Night Light, his voice airy.

Velvet felt the tip of a hoof tap her thigh. It tapped again, a little further over, as Night Light walked it down her leg. “Dear… dare I ask what you’re doing?”

“It just struck me that with all that packing yesterday, I forgot to bring any reading material.”

Velvet opened one eye. “Completely on accident, of course. Not at all an attempt to get a little nookie in on the train.”

“Of course,” he said, all innocence. The hoof snuck back up, rubbing her flank. “What kind of husband would I be if I got you all… flustered in such a public place?” He leaned into her, whispering into her ear. “If I spread those legs and gave you a thigh massage…” His hoof gently slid between her hind legs, pushing them slightly apart.

Velvet licked her upper lip. “Oh, you’d never do such a thing.” She fluttered half-lidded eyes up at him. “You’re too nice.”

The hoof touched the skin where her inner thigh met the soft, white coat of her pelvis. Velvet felt a shudder run through her. And here I thought he was just teasing, earlier.

Night Light gently nibbled the tip of her ear, drawing a sharp breath from her. “You’re right. I’m far too nice to rub those lips till they’re dripping wet, till you’re shaking all over, till you just can’t take it any more…” His hoof went down, resting on the cushion just below Velvet’s now-warm nether regions.

Velvet kissed his neck, draping her forelegs across his shoulders. “Don’t make promises you don’t intend to keEEP!” she almost jumped as he touched her entrance at last. She was quiet for a moment as she felt him trace a triangle around the crook of her legs; the firm touch of his hoof on her soft skin, the blood rushing down to her labia as they began to eagerly spread.

Night Light brushed the tip of his hoof up along her slit. He brought it up to where both of them could see it glisten in the dim light filtering through the curtains. “That didn’t take much.” He grinned. “You must want this pretty badly.”

“We were so busy packing and making plans for the last few days that I haven’t, um, taken care of things in a while.” Velvet was finding it hard to concentrate on much besides how Night Light’s hoof had felt on her pussy. “And you were so tired you just fell asleep every night.”

His expression turned devious. “All part of the plan, dear Velvet.”

“Wha-ahhhmmm…” her protests got lost somewhere between her brain and her mouth as Night Light’s hoof slid across her rapidly dampening labia. She could feel his now-wet touch on her thighs, and bit her lip.

“You did say I should slow down when making love,” he said, with the air of an old opera villain explaining his evil scheme. “So I’m playing the long game.”

“That…” she struggled, panting, “that had better not mean… you plan to leave me hanging.”

“Oh, no, you’re going to come. All over this cabin, if I have anything to say about it.” Night Light pushed his hoof further into the crook of her legs, beginning his work in earnest. Velvet threw her head back, splaying her legs wide open.

Somehow, it always felt far, far better when it wasn’t her hoof sliding along that slippery trench. Every stroke sent a little wave of heat up her spine, and soon her breathing was labored. She inhaled deeply, smelling the familiar scent that told her the most entertaining part of Night Light’s body had joined the proceedings. Glancing down, she saw his stiffening shaft bob rhythmically as he worked at her with his hoof.

Velvet clenched her pelvic muscles at his hoof, her pussy doing its best to swallow it, unsuccessfully. She became aware that her breathing had gotten very loud. “Night Light, what I said earlier—I really don’t think these walls block sound very well.”

“We’ll just have to be quiet, then, won’t we?” he said, kissing her.

She felt his tongue push into her mouth, entwining with her own. She pulled him closer, trapping his hoof with her hind legs and grinding into it. A little of that old fire was burning in her. They’d been having safe, private sex for years, and this was very much not that. Just the thought of somepony in the next cabin over hearing her feverish moans or Night Light’s grunts—and she fully intended to bring some of those out soon—and getting aroused, maybe even touching themselves, was titillating enough to send another trickle of fluid running down toward her bottom.

Night Light brought his hoof up to their faces, covered with Velvet’s shiny juices. “That’s a lot of honey there, honey. I think I’m getting thirsty.” He ducked down, sliding under the table.

Velvet barely had time to process this before she felt him dive right into her pussy. She gasped as his tongue, thick and hot, plunged into her slippery folds, giving them a long, luxurious lick. She steadied her hooves on the table, releasing a low moan as he briefly suckled on her clit.

Night Light’s tongue darted in and out, landing with a wet slap over and over on her puffy pink skin. Velvet was burning up, every drop her highly aroused pussy released somehow stoking the flames. She felt his snout rub against her skin, getting completely drenched. Her right leg twitched as he thrust his tongue into her hole; that wet, writhing thing pushing further and further into her and drawing new shakes and shudders with every touch. She could taste the salt of sweat on her lips.

Velvet bucked her hips involuntarily, mashing his face deeper into her pussy. “Ohhh, fuck, Night Light…” In response, he swirled his tongue around, making her throw her head back with a long moan. She clapped a hoof over her mouth, wondering if anypony had heard.

Below, Night Light continued giving her sopping pussy a remarkably thorough working-over. His tongue licked every sensitive spot, lapped up every drop of feminine pre-cum, and sought out every crevice where it could bury itself. Velvet couldn’t remember the last time he’d explored her this completely. He was finding little pleasure points even she didn’t know she’d had.

Without warning, his entire mouth descended on her clit. He sucked it, rolling his tongue around it like it was a wet, sticky lollipop. Pushing her legs further apart with his hooves, he savaged her hot button with his mouth. She felt his teeth graze gently over it, and squealed. Night Light reached his hooves around and pulled her into him, shaking his head back and forth while lathering her clit with saliva.

There was a creak, and Velvet barely had time to sit up before the cabin door opened. It was the young attendant mare from earlier. “Excuse me, miss. I thought I heard someone in here call for service?”

Beneath the table, Night Light had paused, but then Velvet felt a mischievous lick. Surely you’re not going to keep eating me out with her in the room! “No, thank you, we’re fine.”

“We?” The attendant looked at the empty booth across from her, confused.

Night Light slowly, and very deliberately, placed his mouth against Velvet’s pussy and slid his tongue inside. Velvet forced a smile for the attendant, silently thanking the concealing darkness. “Sorry, I just woke up. My husband must be in the restroom.” Night Light, are you crazy?

His tongue slid along the inside roof of her pussy, shoving deeper, and she had to bite down on her lip not to moan. “Uh, I don’t really need annnnything,” she failed to stop the word from drawing out deliciously as Night Light gave her insides another hot, wet laving. “Maybe some w-water?”

“Certainly,” said the mare, bobbing her head and vanishing.

“Night Light, you horny little—you almost got us caught!” Velvet tried to sound indignant, but the words came out soaked in pleasure.

His tongue paused its ministrations for a moment. “Can’t help it, Velvet. You just taste too sweet.” He resumed, giving a little nibble to the skin between her pussy and her ass, then licking all the way back up and along her slit. Velvet collapsed against the booth, squirming helplessly under his delightful assault.

She could feel her climax coming in the distance, getting nearer with every slick lash of Night Light’s tongue. It was going to be a messy one, she could already feel it. Her husband’s efforts intensified, as if he sensed how close she was.

The door creaked again, and the attendant reappeared. “I’ve brought your water, ma’am.”

“Oh, th-thank you!” stammered Velvet, too loudly, trying not to scream in ecstasy. “Just set it RIGHT—” Night Light had stuck his tongue deep inside her, and begun rubbing his nose against her clit. “Right on the table there, if you please.”

The attendant set a glass of water down where she’d indicated, then nodded with another confused look. “Don’t hesitate to call if you need anything else. Oh, and, um… if you’re feeling too hot, please feel free to open a window.”

Velvet wiped her sweaty brow and gave the mare a weak smile. “ThankyouIwill!”

The attendant, still looking baffled, closed the door. Velvet listened to the hoofsteps leaving down the corridor, and then all she could hear was the wet, lapping sounds of Night Light on her pussy.

She felt a tightening all over, and crossed the point of no return; that wonderful moment when orgasm became inevitable, but there were still a few seconds to hold it in as long as possible. Velvet resisted for one, two, three, four seconds, and then the dam broke. She clenched her mouth shut and gave a muted squeal as her whole body quivered. Her pussy flooded, splashing into Night Light’s waiting mouth. Her spine electrified, arching backward as she came.

Just when the full-body shakes began to quiet, Night Light growled and dove back at her clit, giving it a savage licking. Then Velvet was off again, a whole new wave of intimate pleasure crushing her forward onto the table to heave as her hips trembled. She laid her head on the wood, and let out a guttural moan that lasted as long as her climax. Night Light’s tongue guided her back down, circling around on her skin.

After a few moments, Night Light’s head popped up to her right. “So that was new,” he said.

“Y-yeah,” she managed, still trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered brain. “I’ve never had a,” she remembered to breathe, “a double orgasm before.”

She looked over at her husband, whose face was covered with clear, runny marecum. He grinned. “Ready for another?” Velvet nodded, almost frantically. “Good. Want anything in particular?” Night Light got back up on the seat, revealing that his cock was standing fully upright.

It ought to be, after that amazing pussy-eating. Velvet’s mind was so fried that she couldn’t put five words together, let alone tell him what to do. “Whatever you like, honey.”

“Then get on up here.” He clambered onto the table. There was just enough room for him not to have to duck. “I figure if this is sturdy enough to stand up to that guy’s trunk, it can handle a couple of randy ponies.”

Velvet scrambled to join him. She squeezed onto the table in front of him, putting her head down to rest and pushing her hindquarters up. Swishing her tail back and forth, she could feel it smearing that wetness all over her backside. The powerful smell of sex filled the compartment, fanned further with every sway of her hips. At last, she held her tail up, the universal symbol for come and fuck me, you glorious stallion. “Get in there, Night Light.” She smirked. “Bet you don’t last a minute, after getting this worked up.”

He placed his hooves on her flanks and rubbed them in circles. “At this point, I can’t say I would mind.” Velvet felt the firm presence of his shaft lie on her backside as he moved forward, putting his forelegs over her back beside her own. He gave her a little nip where her neck met her shoulder, and she crooned.

Night Light pushed slowly against her, his dick sliding against her ass. Velvet felt a rivulet of lubricant go running down her leg, as her pussy eagerly awaited round three. But her husband seemed content simply to grind on her butt, slowly rocking them both back and forth. “So much teasing tonight,” she said, slightly out of breath. “I know I said foreplay was good, but sheesh.”

“Long game,” he said smugly, finally pulling back and sliding his dick under her. Velvet inhaled in anticipation, only for him to slide it along her belly instead.

“Niiiight,” she pouted.

“All right, all right,” he said, snickering. He reached a hoof back, and Velvet felt the flared tip of his dick push against her entrance.

Her eyes opened in surprise at just how big it was. Maybe it was due to how sensitive her pussy was after that glorious tongue-fucking, but Night Light’s dick felt more massive than usual, and hard as steel. She twitched as he pushed the head inside, clamping down on him and an “Mmmmm…” escaped her.

Night Light leaned over her back, whispering into her ear. “You planning to let me in? A little hard when you close the doors like that.”

“Ohhh, kaaayyyyy…” she managed, forcing herself to relax all her muscles. Night Light pushed a little further in, pulled back, and suddenly rammed himself all the way home inside her. Velvet’s eyes rolled up and she clapped her left hoof on the table, tongue hanging limply out of her mouth.

“Damn, Velvet,” he said, sounding strained, “You have the deepest—” he thrusted, making her squeal, “wettest—” again, “hottest cunt any stallion’s ever fucked.” He increased his pace, stuffing her dripping pussy over and over.

As his dick delved into her insides, Velvet squeezed it, desperate both to come and to make him join her. It jammed deeper in, pushing out the walls of her pussy, mentally lighting up every inch of her textured ridges. Velvet could picture it, that thick cock, covered in slick pussy juice, sliding through that dark cavern. And when he couldn’t take it anymore, its tip would burst, filling that tunnel with a hot, sticky load so big it would come squeezing out the sides, hanging down from her pussy in great big gooey strands that would shake while he fucked her…

She was moaning helplessly as he took her, a delighted, open-mouthed grin on her face. The rhythmic rocking of their slippery fucking shook the table, sending ripples across the cup of water. “Oof,” rasped Night Light, “I think you were right. Almost there, Velvet.”

“Me first, me first,” she begged, reaching her right forehoof under her stomach to feel his balls slapping against her belly. “I want to come while you’re still inside.”

Night Light’s horn glowed, and Velvet felt a buzzing sensation right on her clit. She gasped, trembling under the dual assaults inside and outside her body. Night Light intensified his magical pressure, making her squirm. His cock plunged as deep as it could go, and he gave a strangled gasp. “Oh shit, Velvet, wait—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Velvet felt the shuddering come back over her. She cried out, clapping a hoof over her mouth half a second too late, feeling her entire body tense and suddenly come. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, whimpering into her hoof as she clung to Night Light’s dick with every muscle she had, wringing out every last little drop of her orgasmic high. Little dripping noises told her she was making a bit of a mess on the table. Biting her lip, she wiggled her hips a little, riding out the last few waves of pleasure.

She blinked, panting heavily, and turned her head slightly to look back at her husband. “S-sorry, what?”

“I can’t finish—if I come, it’ll end up getting all over the table or the seats!” He looked a little panic-stricken. “Shit, they’d charge us for the cleaning.”

Privately, Velvet suspected they’d be getting charged anyway. The scent of a really hot, wet fucking was pretty hard to ignore in this room. But still, no need to make Night Light feel solely responsible. “Tell you what. I’ll take care of it.”

“Huh?” his head gave a quizzical tilt.

Velvet slid forward off of his dick, biting her lip and cooing as it brushed her clit on the way out. “Here,” she said, turning around and opening her mouth.

“Wait a minuteohwow,” he gasped, as she grabbed his hips and pushed his shaft into her mouth. “Velvet, you never do oral after I’ve been in your pussy.”

She pulled off with a loud slurp. “I do today,” she said, grinning. She dived back in, suckling on his cock. She wasn’t going to get to do anything fancy; Night Light looked like he was about to pop any second now. A shame, really, she’d always prided herself on her blowjobs.

Curious, she held the head of his dick in her mouth and rolled her tongue around it, sampling the flavor. The tang of what had to be her pussy was very strong, but she found it pleasing. We taste pretty good together, she thought smugly, stroking his shaft with a hoof.

“It’s—it’s going to be a big one, Velv—”

Velvet inhaled deeply through her nose and plunged forward. She felt his cockhead slide way into the back of her throat, so far it felt like it was halfway to her stomach. Her chin touched his balls, and she batted her lashes up at him. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Night Light’s entire dick seized up in her mouth. Velvet felt the first pulse travel along his length deep down into her throat, where it came firing out. Warmth flooded her belly, growing stronger with the second and third throbs.

Night Light’s face was contorted with absolute ecstasy, his cock spasming wildly inside her throat. Velvet swallowed, her tongue and throat milking out every boiling stream of cum. Night Light’s hooves were on her shoulders, pressing hard as he shook. Even more sticky semen came splurging out into her throat; he hadn’t been exaggerating about it being a big load.

She pulled back a bit to open her airways. Taking a breath through her nose, she licked the tip of his cock, getting another dollop of cum for her reward. She sucked on the tip for a while longer, making sure she got it all. Eventually, Night Light pulled back, stepping unsteadily down from the table and collapsing back into the booth. His still half-erect cock flopped sideways, twitching up and down. “Velvet… I… phew, that was…” he panted happily.

Velvet’s horn glowed, raising the glass of water to her lips. She drank it down, washing the last few wads of cum out of her mouth. She rubbed her belly, setting the cup down. “Impressive, honey. Were you saving up?” She burped, her eyes going wide and her hoof shooting up to cover her mouth.

Night Light laughed. “For a few days now, yeah.”

“Oof, I feel full.” She sat down next to him, still marveling at the load she’d just swallowed. Well, really, the load he’d just shot directly into her stomach. I feel like a cocksleeve. A very sexy, quivering wet mess of one. “Maybe we should ask the attendant for some napkins.”

“Probably better if we just take our luggage and get off the train as soon as it stops,” said Night Light, a little remorsefully.

“Mm, yes.” Velvet leaned over against him, suddenly very tired. “Hey, you didn’t show me any of your surprises.”

Night Light gave her an exhausted grin. “Ah, those are for later.”

“Oh?” she said, snaking her hooves around his neck and kissing his lips. “I can’t wait.”

* * *

A loud whistle woke them. Velvet snapped upright in the bright morning light coming through the window, which was covered by curtains. They must have fallen down sometime during her and Night Light’s… activities. Memories of last night’s unexpected and wholly unprecedented dangerously-close-to-public rutting immediately jumped into her mind. She should have felt mortified, or at least mildly embarrassed, but all she felt was horny. Night Light was certainly taking her foreplay advice to heart.

Her husband shook his head blearily. “Must have reached our stop, finally. Come on, let’s get our luggage down.”

The two were still wrestling with their cases when the conductor’s voice rang out loud and clear. “Passengers, we’ve reached the Equestrian border. Please have your passports ready as you exit the train. Those of you continuing on with us, have your passports ready for inspection by the border agent. And for those disembarking here in Hoofar Al-Batin, let me be the first to welcome you to Saddle Arabia!”

Velvet and Night Light both froze, turning slowly to look at each other. Night Light’s eyes swiveled over to stare at the curtains. Both of them rushed for the window at once, pulling the curtains aside to reveal an enormous, empty expanse of bright blue sky and dry, sandy dunes.

They stared out at the desert in silence for a moment.

“I’m going to write a very strongly-worded letter about this,” said Night Light.

3. Suds and Floods

The local offices of the Mareathon Travel Company were cramped, windowless, and stupefyingly stuffy. The only source of air was a tiny, cheap fan on the representative’s desk, and it wasn’t nearly good enough at its job to cool down Night Light’s rising temper.

He put a hoof to his head and flung out the other in desperate supplication. “What do you mean, there’s nothing you can do?!”

The travel company representative, a young mare in a crisp suit, shrugged unhelpfully. “I’m very sorry, sir. We can’t offer refunds after a passenger has ridden on the railway. If you had brought the error to our attention—”

“The error!” Night Light gave an indignant huff. He looked over at Velvet, who was seated beside him in front of the representative’s desk. “Show her, honey.”

With an arched eyebrow, Velvet flashed her horn and lifted their train tickets.

The travel rep scanned the tickets. “Admit One Each to Hoofar Al-Batin, one-day trip, for a Mr. Bright Flight and Mrs. Sunset Violet Sporkle. I don’t see the problem, sir.”

“The problem? Those aren’t our names!” Night Light groaned in exasperation. “That kid back at the Canterlot station must have mixed them up. We’re supposed to be in the Crystal Empire!” He felt himself dying a little inside as he realized that they’d ridden with that Candy fellow for hours because of a filing mistake.

The mare whistled. “The Crystal Empire? That’s quite a mix-up.”

Velvet had a very faint, dry smile. “I imagine there’s a pair of very confused ponies in sunglasses and sandals having a similar conversation up north right now. At least it’s not winter.”

The representative touched her hooves forward in a placating gesture. “As I was saying, if you had brought the error to our attention back in Canterlot, we could have re-booked you, but Mareathon company policy is—”

“To leave us stranded in the wrong country?!” burst Night Light, flicking his ear angrily.

“Of course not, sir. We’ll get you on the first train back to Canterlot, free of charge.” The mare pulled out a pair of paper slips and scribbled something on them with a pen clenched between her teeth. “We’ll even put you up in a hotel. Here, some vouchers for the Quality Inn.” She slid the papers across her desk toward them. “You can stay there at our expense until the train arrives.”

The fact that she had the hotel vouchers so readily available confirmed Night Light’s growing, disgusted suspicion that this wasn’t the first time such a mix-up had happened. This is why I hate travel.

“And how long will that be?” asked Velvet, wearing that glazed expression she always ended up with around bureaucrats.

The mare checked her desk calendar. “That would be… next Tuesday.”

“What?!” Velvet blinked. “That’s almost a week!”

“This is Hoofar Al-Batin, Ma’am. Everypony comes through here to get to Saddle Arabia; pilgrims, tourists, political envoys… but they all go south to the larger cities and head back up through the other side of the country on the way out.” The mare gave an apologetic shrug. “Nopony goes north from here.”

“Well,” sighed Velvet, “there goes our trip to see Shiny and Cadance.”

“And maybe more,” grumbled Night Light. “Our flight leaves from Atlantrot this Friday. If we miss that, we’ll never get our deposit back.”

“I’m sorry,” repeated the company rep.

Night Light had serious doubts about the veracity of that. “You’re telling me there’s nothing between here and the east coast?”

She put a pensive hoof to her chin. “There is one line… it used to run south of the badlands through the desert, all the way over to Trottingham, in the southern foothills of the mountains on the border. There's a tram there that goes over the mountain range to Atlantrot. But the blowing sand really does a number on the tracks, it’s been down for repairs for nearly a year with no completion date in sight.”

“Fine,” said Night Light, standing up so suddenly that the mare jerked back in startlement. “We’ll find our own way there. Come on, Velvet.”

The mare’s eyes widened in alarm. “Sir, wait! I can’t recommend that. The desert is very large, and there aren’t any reputable travel services across it with the rail down—”

Night Light snorted angrily. “Well, the reputable one just got us stranded two thousand miles south of our destination!”

“Again, Mr. Sporkle, our apologies—”

“It’s ‘Sparkle!’”

“—but traveling across the desert simply isn’t safe. There have been a number of stories in the paper lately about some extortion racket that strands tourists out in the dunes until they pay up. And then of course there’s the sand sharks—”

Velvet, shaking her head, stood up to follow him. The Mareathon representative’s jaw moved for a few moments as if to continue, before she closed her mouth in unhappy defeat and folded her forelegs. “Well, sir… if that doesn’t work out for you, please come back and we’ll discuss that train.”

Favoring her with a glare, Night Light grabbed the hotel vouchers and stormed out of the office.

As they walked down the stairs, rolling their luggage behind them, Velvet gave a discreet cough. “And just how are we going to cross an entire desert in time to catch our flight, honey?”

“Maybe we can rent a carriage or something.” A pair of double doors waited for them at the far end of the office lobby. “Like she said, this is a travel hotspot. The whole city was built to get you somewhere else; there’s bound to be somepony willing to take us across the continent to Trottingham. From there, we just take a tram over the mountains to Atlantrot, hop on our flight, and we’re home free.”

“Will it be cheap, is the question…” muttered Velvet. “Before we start looking, we should find the post office and let Shiny and Cadance know we won’t be making it.” They pushed through the glass doors and out into the Saddle Arabian morning.

It was the middle of summer, and hot as the surface of the sun. Night Light instantly felt sweat breaking out all over his body. He glumly hoisted his bag of clothing over his back, hearing the rustling of the thick coat and scarf he’d packed for skiing with his son and daughter-in-law in the mountains north of the Empire’s capital. Wiping their brows, the couple set off into the city to look for the nearest postal service station.

It wasn’t long before the tour guides and touts started coming out of the woodwork. In a city with this many tourists, it had to be a fairly lucrative business selling directions and cheap trinkets, but Night Light and Velvet brushed them aside repeatedly with toneless “no thank you”s until the sellers got the message.

One especially persistent salespony with a bright yellow keffiyeh atop his head finally made a useful offer. “You need map for the city, yes? I have one, very cheap.”

Night Light paused, debating. “Can we see it?”

“Of course, my friends.” The pony dug into his saddlebags before emerging with a large sheet of parchment. He unrolled it with a little unicorn magic, displaying a fairly detailed map of Hoofar Al-Batin.

“Could be handy for finding a ride,” said Velvet.

“All right,” said Night Light. “How much?”

“For good friends? Only thirty bits!”

Grimacing, Night Light began to open his bag to get the wallet within.

“Twenty,” said Velvet coolly.

The tout immediately returned with “Twenty-five.”

“Twenty.”

His smile turning slightly chagrined, the stallion nodded. “Twenty bits.”

Night Light paid him and took the map. After a quick consultation, during which the tout vanished in search of his next sale, the couple located the local Pegasus Express office and began making their way through the streets.

It was undeniably an impressive city. Fantastic-looking street performances sent fire and sparkling trails of magic into the sky, while masses of camel pilgrims in sheer white robes roamed the wide avenues. The sound of sizzling, juicy, grilled fruit out of the streetside food carts made Night Light’s mouth water, and the smell of a thousand fragrant perfumes filled the air.

After a lengthy journey through the alleyways while taking in the sights, they reached the post office. The line was so long that it stretched outside the building. As they took their place at the end, Velvet scratched her thigh absently.

“Maybe we should take the Mareathon lady up on her hotel offer.”

“And miss our flight? Not a chance.” Night Light adjusted his bag. “We’re going to Griffrance, one way or another.”

“It would be nice to have a bath first, though.” Velvet blushed a little. She lowered her voice. “I’m still kind of… sticky, after last night.”

The memory brought a grin to Night Light’s lips and a twitch between his legs. “Totally worth it though, right?”

“Oh, yes,” she purred.

While waiting in line, they slathered on some of the sunscreen that they’d brought for the beaches of Griffrance. Night Light wished he’d thought to bring an umbrella, but they hadn’t expected to need one during the mild summer in the Crystal Empire.

They stood in line for nearly an hour, sweating so much from the baking heat that Night Light was starting to share Velvet’s desire for a bath, before finally they reached the front of the queue inside the building. There, they bought some stationary and stamps, and stepped aside to let the line continue.

Velvet had the neater pensmareship, so she did the actual writing while Night Light dictated.

The travel company messed up and now we’re stuck in the wrong country. Your father wants to try finding alternate means of travel so that we don’t miss our flight. Still, it looks like we’re going to have to call off our visit, although maybe we can swing by on the way back from Griffrance. Once we get to Atlantrot we’ll send you another letter. Don’t worry too much about us, Shiny. We’ll see you soon.

Love, Mom and Dad

After shipping it with overnight postage—which cost a pretty penny, Night Light noted with dismay—they left the building. Night Light checked the map, running a hoof over his chin. “Hmm… no point checking any of the rail companies if the only line across the desert is down… but I see a hot air balloon service on the south side, if this map’s still up to date. I bet one of those could get us to Atlantrot with time to spare.”

“Well, the sooner we get started, the sooner we can leave.” Velvet rolled her eyes with a crooked smile. “Or give up for the day and head to that hotel.”

The next few hours were spend getting lost, checking the map, getting further lost, and taking sips from their rapidly dwindling bottles of water. The city was mazelike, the effect made infinitely worse by the lack of street signage that rendered it impossible to orient oneself.

Eventually, hours later, they stumbled onto the correct road, more by chance than design. They had nearly passed their destination by before Night Light noticed the sign above the door. The building was a squat stone structure with little decoration aside from the sign, which had a picture of a balloon and basket, and said Hot Air Transport in several languages.

Pushing inside, they found themselves in a tiny room. Stairs led up to the roof, and a short hallway stretched back into the building ending in a door with a bathroom sign above it. Beside the stairs was a desk staffed by a snoring earth pony.

Sharing a dubious look with each other, the two approached the slumbering clerk. Night Light coughed politely.

The desk pony jerked upright. “Wha? Oh!” His eyes widened. “Sharif! Sharif, alzabayin!”

Another pony appeared at the top of the stairs, calling down to the desk pony. “Asafa, la 'astatie 'an 'atakalam alearabiata! Hadha hu hrfya mjrd tarjamat al'iintarint.” He looked at Night Light and Velvet with a wide, beaming smile.“Hello, my friends! Equestrians?”

“Hi! Yes, we’re Equestrian,” said Velvet with a hesitant smile. “We’re trying to get to Atlantrot. Do you have any balloons going that way?”

“Flying across the desert, hmm?” The pony—Sharif, apparently—nodded. “This, we can do. Even past the border!”

Night Light raised an eyebrow. “Is that… legal, exactly?”

“Yes, yes, very legal!”

Velvet gave Night Light a side-eyed look. “Well, honey, we are in a rush.”

“Yeah, but… maybe we should land at Trottingham, instead. It’s on the wrong side of the mountains, but they’re a little less strict about… surprise flights.” He sighed. “All right, how much is this going to cost us?”

Sharif clapped his hooves happily, sitting and bringing them up to his chest. “For you, my friends, very cheap. One hundred bits.”

“Oh!” Night Light’s gloomy expression lightened. “That’s not so bad.”

“… each.”

“Ah. Well, still doable.” They’d brought quite a lot of spending money with them for this vacation, though he’d been hoping not to spend it until they landed in Griffrance.

Sharif beamed. “Excellent! Come back in eight days, I will have your balloon ready.”

“Wait, eight days?” Night Light grimaced. “We need to be there in four. And the tram crossing over the mountains from Trottingham to Atlantrot could take a while, so… two days travel, max.”

“Oh, I see.” Sharif frowned. “Well, our balloon could take you there in time… but it will cost more.”

Gritting his teeth, Night Light nodded. “How much more?”

Sharif named a figure.

“What?!”

“I am sorry, sir! But the only balloon available is already reserved. If you want to take it, you must give me enough to refund the customer who has already paid. He is a very nice stallion—good customer! I am sure he would not mind waiting for the next flight; but I will have to repay him.”

Night Light gave a little whine of despair. That would blow their entire trip fund; they’d have nothing left for when they reached their destination. “We… need to discuss it.”

Sharif shrugged, uncertainly. “As you wish, my friend. But my other customer should be arriving soon. You must decide quickly.”

“We’ll be right back.” Night Light and Velvet hurried back down the stairs and left the building. Standing outside the door, they bent their heads to confer.

“That’s a lot of money, Velvet.”

“Do we have any other options?”

Night Light frowned. “Not that I saw on the map… We could keep asking around the city, but you heard him. Either we take the offer now, or we’re out of luck on this opportunity.”

A new, distressingly familiar voice suddenly called out from the street, and Night Light felt his stomach fall. “Heyyy, look who it is! Night Light, Velvet, what are the chances?”

Both unicorns looked up with shared dismay to see an orange pony in a burgundy suit. There, walking toward them with a chipper grin, was Don Candy. He was still hauling that enormous trunk behind him, trundling along the dusty road on squeaking wheels.

Candy trotted up, coming to a stop and setting his trunk down with a thud. “Guess I caught up to you sooner than I thought I would!”

“Hello, Candy,” said Night Light. He put a hoof to his forehead to stave off an oncoming headache. “When it rains, it pours,” he muttered.

“Ha, not much rain out here, though, eh?” Candy clapped him on the shoulder. “You two taking a balloon ride, too?”

Velvet blinked in surprise. “Oh, so you’re the customer he mentioned.”

“Yep! I’m heading south to pick up some more piping. I’m nearly out of it after that stop in San Palomino.” Candy lightly kicked his trunk. “Sold a whole set this morning. Didn’t get full price for them, but now the San Palomino mayor owes me a favor.” He winked.

Night Light bit his lip. “Candy, I know this is asking a lot, but we need your balloon.”

Candy tilted his head. “I thought you guys were taking the train?”

“They made a mistake. We’re supposed to be in Atlantrot by the end of the week, but we can’t get there on the train now. This balloon’s our only shot.”

“Hmm…” Candy raised an eyebrow. “End of the week? You sure you want to take a balloon for that?”

“The owner said it would get us there in time…” Velvet’s brows drew together in concern.

“Ha, that Sharif! What a kidder. The only way a balloon will get you across the continent in less than a week is if you get blown there by a storm, and you don’t want that, trust me.”

Night Light and Velvet both groaned. Night Light shook his head. “I guess we’re screwed, then.”

“Maybe not.” Candy tapped his chin. “I think I can help you two out.”

Both unicorns looked at each other uncertainly. Velvet shrugged as if to say it couldn’t hurt. Night Light returned the shrug. “Uh… sure, Candy,” said Night Light, turning back to him. “What’d you have in mind?”

The plump earth pony leaned in close, and whispered conspiratorially, “I know a guy. Name’s Sal. He runs a little business on the outskirts of the city. Owes me a favor or two. I think I can get you two a ride to Trottingham from here—you’ll make it in just two days, even! But it’ll take me a while to get it set up. Can you wait until tomorrow morning?”

“As long as we get there in time.” Night Light nodded hesitantly. “We can stay at the Quality Inn overnight.”

“Swell!” Candy bobbed his head. “I’ll meet you out front of the hotel in the morning, then. Good seeing you!” He waved, then suddenly swerved and cantered off into the city, trunk rumbling along behind.

Velvet tapped a hoof pensively on the ground. “Can we trust him?”

“Well, he does seem to know his way around. And it’s getting pretty late.” Night Light looked up at the sky, which was already tinged with the pink of twilight. He gave a long sigh. “I say we give it a shot.”

“All right,” said Velvet. She smiled. “And this way, maybe we’ll still have money for that exceptional item we’re after.”

Night Light snickered. In all the frustration he’d nearly forgotten about their ultimate objective. “After this fiasco I think we could certainly use it.”

“Let’s go see what kind of accommodations Mareathon has set up for us,” said Velvet, pulling out the map. She pointed a dramatic hoof down the road. “Tally-ho!”

* * *

The Quality Inn… wasn’t.

Night Light chewed his lip, looking around the lobby with dismay. Calling the place ramshackle might be a bit harsh, but calling it clean would be going too far in the other direction. Dust covered every surface, even the cushion stuffing poking out of the decrepit furniture. The peeling wallpaper looked like it had been put up about forty years ago, and the carpet was positively prehistoric. Velvet followed him into the lobby, stepping gingerly over some unidentifiable stain.

The front desk had only one pony attending it, a supremely bored-looking pegasus mare who was absorbed in her crossword.

“Erm… hello?” said Night Light.

“Mm?” The mare didn’t look up.

Night Light coughed. “We’d like a room for the night. Mareathon said these would be valid at this hotel.” He tossed the vouchers onto the desk.

“Mhm.” She scanned them briefly. “Mr. and Mrs. Sporkle?”

Unbelievable. She wrote down the wrong—!

“Actually, we’re—” He sighed. It wasn’t worth it. “Yes. One room for the Sporkles, please.”

“Key.” Still not looking up, the pegasus reached under the desk and slapped a key onto the counter. She stabbed a wing in the direction of the stairs, scratching a new word into her puzzle with the pencil in her mouth. “Fourth room on the third floor. Just head on up.”

Tentatively taking the key with magic, Night Light left the counter and headed for the stairs with his wife in tow. As they plodded up the creaking, groaning stairs, he clenched his teeth, hoping desperately that the ancient steps wouldn’t collapse under the weight of two ponies.

They survived to reach the third floor, and quickly found their room. Night Light’s horn glowed, and the key slipped into the doorknob lock. The doorknob twisted, creaked, and fell out of the door.

Both unicorns stared at it. Velvet made a sound in the back of her throat. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

“It’s only one night,” said Night Light, shrugging. “We brought sleeping bags for camping up north, we don’t have to actually touch the beds.”

“Well, that’s a relief.”

They entered the room. Night Light lifted the doorknob and slid it back into place, though it remained unsecured, and closed the door. He turned around to inspect the place they’d be sleeping and was pleasantly surprised to find merely a seedy-looking hotel room, rather than a forest of health-code violations.

“Two beds, even,” said Velvet, nodding with surprise. “Wonder which one’s cleaner…”

“I, for one, am very glad we don’t have a black light.” He lugged his bag up onto the nearest bed, and Velvet followed suit with her luggage.

She stretched, yawning. “Well, that was quite a day. I’m going to wash up, assuming the shower isn’t caked in mold.”

“Good luck. Yell for help if a slime monster attacks you.”

She gave him a wry salute, and marched off into the bathroom. After a few moments, Night Light heard a valve creak and the sound of rushing water from a showerhead spilled out into the room.

Night Light sat on the bed, unzipping his bag and rifling through his belongings. He was certain he’d brought another bottle of water with him. Coat… boots... thermal underwear… won’t be needing any of that, he thought sourly. His hoof brushed against the plastic bag he’d snuck into his luggage before leaving, and his mood instantly lifted.

Grinning, he ran a hoof along it. Hmm… time to break these out? He gave the room a cursory, apprehensive examination. Maybe not. We’re liable to get infected with something if we try making love in here.

Re-zipping the bag, he lay back on the bed, over the covers. He tapped his hooves together on his chest nervously. Would Candy come through for them? It seemed like the only chance they had to get back to their scheduled safe, sexy vacation, but they barely knew the pony. Nothing for it, now.

Night Light heard a faint moan come from the bathroom, and raised an eyebrow. Oho! Had some ulterior motives for that shower, did she? He slipped off of the bed, stealthily making his way over to the bathroom door.

He opened it as quietly as he could manage, slipping inside. The room contained a sink and a standing bath that looked as old as the rest of the building, but in better condition than any other furniture he’d seen. A shower curtain on an oval rod was drawn completely around the bath, but he could see the silhouette of Velvet’s head leaning back over the end of it.

Another little noise of pleasure rumbled up from within the curtain. Night Light sidled up to the end of the shower, smiling coyly. Velvet was breathing hard, her head rolling slowly from side to side. “Ahh… mm…”

Night Light bit his lip eagerly, reaching his right forehoof up under his chest to touch his hardening dick. He rubbed his shaft once absently, taking another step toward the shower.

“Oh… Nighty…” moaned Velvet, softly. Night Light paused, tilting his head expectantly, but she hadn’t noticed him—it was just part of whatever she was fantasizing.

Night Light grinned. She thinks about me while she’s getting off in the shower? Now that’s romantic. He swung past the counter on his way over and snagged the bottle of liquid soap that Velvet had clearly forgotten to bring with her into the bath.

“Mm… that’s it, Flash…”

His eyebrow rose sharply. Flash? As in Flash Sentry? That airheaded royal guard they’d run into on their last trip to the Empire?

“Oh, you two… mmmmmf,” she murmured, and Night Light’s other eyebrow jumped up to meet the first. Oh, my, he thought. I guess that hard veto doesn’t apply to her imagination… Well, considering that he was included, he could hardly feel put out about her fantasizing about another stallion in the mix. He rubbed himself a little faster, feeling the head of his cock twitch with excitement.

The sound of the shower had taken on a rhythmic splashing. Velvet’s little gasps of breath were starting to ramp up. He was going to miss out if he didn’t make his move now. Inhaling and grinning with anticipation, Night Light poked his head through the curtain above hers.

Velvet lay within, her legs spread as wide as the tub allowed. She had the detachable showerhead down from its holder, held with magic over her belly. Her horn flickered as she rapidly jerked it over and off of her puffy pussy lips. Each time, she gave a little gasp.

Night Light nearly swooned at the sight. He smacked his lips once in anticipation. “Having fun without me?”

Her eyes opened, and she sat up with a jolt. “Oh!” Blushing, she smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, honey. I wasn’t really planning on it; I just started washing up from last night, and… well, to be honest, I’ve had that train ride on my mind all day long. The water felt so good that I—”

Night Light’s horn flickered and the showerhead jerked downward. Velvet’s chest shot up as if yanked, and she gave a little gasp. “Oh, Nighty—”

“Mind if I join?”

“Please do,” she said, panting. “Not much room, though…”

“I’ll sit behind you,” he said, gently pushing on her shoulder. Velvet scooted forward, keeping the showerhead pointed down, and Night Light stepped into the tub.

He sat with a little yelp as his skin touched the cold ceramic, but it quickly warmed. With a little effort, he settled down with his hind legs squeezed around hers. It was tight. Their bodies were pressed together so firmly that he couldn’t move his legs at all. His shaft squeezed between his belly and the small of her back, and he inhaled sharply at the feeling of her skin.

Velvet wiggled her butt a little as they settled in. She leaned back into him, lifting her hind legs up over his and resting her hooves on the edges of the bath. Her forelegs pulled up to her chest as she leaned her head onto his shoulder, smiling. “Comfy?”

“Mhm,” he managed, pushing his pelvis up and grinding his cock against her warm, wet back. “Now, let’s have some good, clean fun…” His horn glowed, and the bottle of soap settled upside down into his hooves, held up above Velvet. He flicked open the cap, and squeezed. A drizzle of blue soap ran out over his wife’s chest and hooves.

Resealing the cap and tossing the bottle aside, he wrapped his forelegs around her and began rubbing the soap into her coat. Velvet sighed happily, closing her eyes. Night Light hummed an old tune as he massaged her, feeling the slick soap spread under his hooves.

With a little magical nudge, he took hold of the showerhead from her. It lifted up above her chest, twisting to a low intensity setting. The water and soap quickly mixed, streaming down her sides onto his thighs. Night light ground up against her again, his shaft sliding in the slick, runny foam.

“Mmm,” Velvet murmured, pushing her butt into his lap. “Better get all the cracks, Nighty. You made quite a mess of me on the train.”

Night Light slid his hooves down her chest, rubbing them in the crook of her legs. He slid them out across both of her thighs, drawing a little sigh of pleasure. Giving her shoulder a gentle nip and getting a delighted squeal in return, he began to lower the showerhead back down to join his hooves.

Velvet twisted a little under the water as he cranked it back up a setting, her chest rising and falling with renewed energy. The stream of water sank lower… lower… Velvet put her forelegs out to steady herself on the side of the tub as the showerhead reached her pussy at last. She clenched her teeth and released a long moan.

His wife was turning to butter in his hooves. Night Light grinned triumphantly, increasing the pace of his massage. Twilight, alternating every moment between tense and limp, continued to squeak and tremble beneath his touch. The slippery soap all over them meant that every tiny writhing motion she made was amplified, squeezing his cock between the two of them and sending a little jolt of pleasure through him.

With another flick of magic, the showerhead cranked to maximum blast. Velvet instantly jerked backward into his cock, gasping. “Oh—!”

The showerhead floated closer to her, water raining into her puffy, rosy lips. Night Light whispered into her ear, “So… what were you getting up to with me and ‘Flash’?”

Velvet quivered, her chest heaving. “Oh, y-you… ahhhh… heard that?”

“Yep.” Night Light brought the showerhead closer, drawing a thin whine from her. He kept massaging her inner thighs, feeling the suds foaming up around his hooves. “Just curious, why Flash?”

“First other stallion who… mmf! Came to mind…”

“I’m really curious what you needed two whole stallions for…” He ground the showerhead into her pussy, and she took a jerky breath.

“W-well,” she said, her eyes flickering open and closed as she panted for air. “It’s… are you sure you want to… oh… want to… ah…”

“Of course,” he murmured, kissing her neck. “Anything that gets you this excited sounds like something I’d love.” He made a little nnn sound as his cock mashed against her back with her latest wriggling under the pressure of the water.

“We… we were… oh, Nighty…” Her tongue lolled out as her head fell back onto his shoulder. “We… oh…” Her forehooves clapped down to press the showerhead deeper into her crotch. “Ffffffffffuck,” she managed.

“I thought you weren’t into taking two at once?” said Night Light, grinning at the intense state of aroused distress his wife was in.

“That’s not… that’s…” her eyes rolled up into her head and she squealed again, “that’s not what we were doing…”

“Oh?”

“You were… on top of me… in… ah! In—inside me, and—oh, Night Light—”

He pulled a hoof up to trace the curve of her neck. “Mhm?”

“And Flash was…” She brought her eyes back into some semblance of focus, catching his gaze. Even through her labored breathing and pleasure-soaked expression, Night Light detected a flutter of anxiety. “You… you sure you want to know?”

He nodded, eyebrows raised in curious anticipation.

“Well, you were in me, and he was… ahhhh… in you.”

Night Light did the smallest of double-takes. “Oh!”

“Sorry… is that too… weird?”

He shrugged. “Nah.” With a grin, he began to rotate the showerhead. “I mean, I’ve imagined you with other mares plenty of times.”

She gave a relieved laugh that was suddenly overtaken by a loud moan. Night Light slipped his hoof between them, running it down her slippery back. “So…” he whispered, “describe it for me.”

“You’re—you’re fucking me, nice and slow, and F-Flash is on top, just…” Velvet shuddered, “thrusting his hips… You’re making these adorable little noises…”

Night Light couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her this worked up. He slid his cock up against her back, releasing a muffled groan. “Like th-that?”

“Mhm,” she said, her voice dripping with lust. “And then you—ah!—you seize up, the way you do when you’re about to come… and Flash grunts, and bends his head over your shoulder… He—he thrusts hard, and you moan, and then a big, hot load of cum comes trickling down from the two of you, all… all over me…”

That was apparently the last straw. Velvet’s horn blazed and she threw her head back. “Ahhhh!”

Her entire body shook and quivered, her legs squeezing around the showerhead. Night Light held her steady while she came, clenching his teeth and groaning with pleasure as her soapy back and butt rubbed against his cock.

Gently pulling the showerhead up to her stomach as the trembling subsided, he let her recover. Velvet felt completely boneless in his hooves, her face filled with blissful oblivion. “Ohhh… Night Light…”

“Well, honey,” he said, grinning. “That was pretty… detailed. Not the first time you’ve thought about this, is it?”

“A lot,” she said, rubbing his chin with a hoof. “Sorry. I know you’re not into stallions.”

“Really, it’s fine,” he said, kissing her. “Besides… maybe I’ve just never met the right one,” he teased.

She placed a hoof on his cheek and lightly shoved, grinning. “Oh, stop it.”

“Although—Flash Sentry? That colt couldn’t tell you the day of the week without looking it up on a calendar.”

“Like I said, he was the first one who came to mind. Better him than Candy,” she said, dryly.

“Oh, Sisters,” said Night Light, laughing. “You’d have to listen to an hour of blather about pipes afterwards.”

Velvet shifted away from him. “Lie down a bit more.”

Night Light slid down the back of the tub, resting his head on the edge. “Yes…?”

Velvet pressed her hooves to the sides, lifting herself up and back to sit on his lap. His cock was now in front of her, poking up between her legs. “Now, you sit back and let me have some fun.”

Grinning, he nodded. He let his hooves dangle over the sides of the tub as Velvet took back control of the showerhead. She gently ran a hoof down his shaft, drawing a delighted moan from him.

“Hmm… so, Nighty, what’s your favorite fantasy?”

“I don’t know if I have a favorite…” Night Light closed his eyes, resting his head and licking his lips. Her hoof rubbed his cock slowly, sliding along the soap-slicked skin. “You mean one with you and another mare?”

“Sure,” said Velvet, drawing the showerhead across the inside of his thigh. It felt tantalizing, his skin suffused with heat from the steaming water, the sensation of a hundred gentle needles on his skin so close to the nexus of pleasure, but just out of reach. Velvet rolled her hoof around his medial ring, cooing softly. “Who do you like to watch eating me out?”

“Ah… well…” Night Light winced in anticipation. “If you though Flash was awkward…”

She laughed. “Come on, it can’t be that bad.”

“Erm… sometimes, I think about you and… um…” He took a deep breath. “Cadance.”

Velvet paused, jerking upright and twisting to look at him. “Night Light!”

Sheepishly, he shrugged. “Told you it was bad.”

“Oh, my goodness, that’s dirty,” she said, shaking her head with a disbelieving grin. She turned back to continue her ministrations. As she pushed his cock back against her, he could feel the lips of her pussy squeeze around his shaft, and his head fell back to the tub with a gasp. “Your own daughter-in-law, my, my. Such a filthy, naughty stallion you are.”

Her hoof rested on the flared head of his cock, holding it steady. Night Light felt the stream of water trail lower, and inhaled eagerly. It didn’t go to his cock, though, or even to his balls—instead, Velvet drew the shaft down even lower, sending the water shooting at his taint.

Night Light let out a surprised mmmm. It felt good, shockingly good. He hadn’t realized how sensitive he was down there. His cock throbbed beneath her hoof as the hot water barraged the skin below his balls.

“And just what do Cadance and I get up to?” asked Velvet, shifting her seat on his stomach. “Which of us gets to have your cock stuffed inside them?”

“It—ooh, Velvet,” he groaned, his hips twitching under the stream. “It varies.” He took a deep breath. “Although I think my favorite… Cadance on her belly, wings spread out, butt thrust up in the air… I’m inside her, thrusting away. You’re sitting in front of her, facing me so I can see your eyes… with her muzzle shoved into your pussy, just like you did with that showerhead…”

“Go on,” purred Velvet, moving the stream upward. Night Light gasped as his balls were assaulted by a rush of hot water, jerking his forelegs forward instinctively. Velvet slapped them away with a hoof. “Ah-ah! No hooves. This is mine right now.”

With a half-laugh, half-moan, he let his hooves droop over the bathtub again. “She’s… she’s going at you hard, sticking her tongue way, way deep inside, and you’re… leaning over—ahhh… leaning over her, and we’re kissing…”

Velvet shifted. The showerhead remained steady on his balls, but she moved back a bit to sit further up his chest. Her legs closed around his cock, and Night Light felt the breath woosh from his lungs. She squeezed her legs together, drawing an irresistible moan from deep inside him.

Flashing him a quick grin over her shoulder, she suddenly lifted her legs, still pressed together around his cock. Night Light slapped his hooves helplessly against the sides of the tub. “Oh, Sisters, Velvet.”

“Keep going, honey… or I won’t let you finish,” she said, pulling the showerhead up closer to him.

His senses under assault from the combined stream of hot water and the slippery, foamy thigh-fucking she was giving, Night Light struggled to pull coherent details together. “While w-we’re making out, you… you start coming, making all those little moans you do, and then…”

He thrust his cock up between her legs, gasping. “And then I pull away, we’re both practically drooling, and I grab Cadance’s tail with my teeth…”

“Oh, Nighty…” Velvet turned to give him an amused—yet also aroused—look.

“Then she clenches down on my cock, hard, and she’s coming, coming all over me, it’s just dripping onto the bed… and you lie down on your back beside us, and put your hoof on her belly… and I can feel it while I’m fucking her…”

He was thrusting between her thighs with wild abandon, now. They were as slippery and warm as any pussy, and the harsh stream still blasting away at his balls was driving him berserk. “And then you lean up and kiss me, and I start coming right there, just filling her up, big wads of it squeezing out the sides of her pussy… and then…”

The pace of their fucking had reached a fever pitch. Night gasped the words between thrusts. “And then—you lean down—and lick—around the shaft—all the cum—licking it up—Velvet!”

He didn’t tip over the edge so much as fly off it like a cannonball. His cock erupted, releasing a huge jet of cum into the air, higher than the edge of the tub. It fell back in a short arc, splashing across Velvet’s belly. Night Light grunted and groaned, jerking helplessly as another shot followed it, then another, and another…

Eventually the haze of incredible pleasure in his head thinned enough for him to see Velvet settling back down into a more comfortable lying position on his chest. She twisted her head and kissed him. “I have to admit, honey… that sounds pretty hot.”

“Heh… th…” he let his head roll along the edge of the tub. “Thanks…”

They lay there, resting, as Velvet rinsed his cum away with the showerhead. “Well, dear,” she said sleepily, “we might be in the wrong country, but I have to say, I’m enjoying this vacation so far.”

“Me too,” he said with a tired grin. “I’m just gonna… take a little nap, I think.” His eyes closed. He felt utterly exhausted.

“Okay,” she said, yawning. “I’ll finish cleaning… up…”

The world dimmed. The last thing he felt was the warm stream of water running down the sides of the tub.

* * *

Night Light had to pee. He grumbled a little, keeping his eyes shut tight. The room lights were on, he could tell, and he wasn’t ready to wake up just yet. His body was insisting he get up and use the bathroom, but he was still completely out of energy. It felt like there was a large weight on his chest, keeping him pinned to the bathtub. If only that sound of running water would stop, he’d be able to hold it in for another hour, easy…

Running water?

His eyes snapped open. Velvet was out cold on his chest, snoring softly. The two of them were still in the tub, and the showerhead was still pouring out water, but that wasn’t the source of the sound.

Night Light gasped loudly as he saw the tub, now completely filled, overflowing on all sides. Water poured out onto the floor, which was already covered with a full inch of liquid. “Ahhh!”

Velvet jolted awake. “Wha?!” Her bleary eyes focused, then widened in terror. “Oh, sweet Sisters!”

Both of them scrambled up and out of the tub, spilling at least another gallon of water out onto the floor. It barely made a difference, Night Light noted with bottomless dismay. “Oh, gods, no…”

His wife’s horn glowed, and the shower switched off. The two of them stared around with growing horror. Night Light rushed for the door, his hooves splashing with every step. He pulled it open with a little effort, and revealed the rest of their room, also flooded.

Velvet, tight-lipped, pressed past him, levitating her luggage off of the still-dry mattress. “Night Light, get your things. We’re leaving.”

“But—”

“This place should have been condemned years ago; if they try to pin it on us we’ll just blame the piping. But we are leaving.”

Night Light grabbed his bag and hoisted it over his back. They quickly escaped the room, hearing a splash as the doorknob fell out of the socket once again.

The water was streaming out into the hallway, flowing down over the carpet like an insidious river. This is probably the first cleaning this poor carpet has ever had, thought Night Light in a daze as the two of them hurried toward the stairs.

The stairs themselves had turned into a cascade. The unicorns carefully descended, wary of slipping on the creaking wood. We are dead, thought Night Light. So very, very dead.

They reached the lobby to find that nopony was there. The bored-looking mare must have gone home for the day. “How long were we asleep?” asked Velvet.

“Uh…” Night Light looked out through the window. “I think it’s morning.”

They left quickly, shutting the door behind them, and flashing guilty looks in all directions. “Do you see Candy?” asked Night Light. “He’s supposed to be meeting us here…”

“Oh, no,” said Velvet, freezing still. “Here comes that pegasus.”

The lobby attendant was strolling toward them. She nodded at the two unicorns with a bored expression. “Morning, Mr. and Mrs… what was it, Sporkle? Sleep well?”

“We, uh—” Night Light licked his lips.

“Like babies,” said Velvet, grinning queasily. “Come on, honey, let’s go find our friend.” She hooked a foreleg in his and dragged him away at a swift trot.

They heard the door opening behind them. Night Light turned to catch a final glimpse of the pegasus staring into the hotel, that bored look finally replaced with one of absolute shock. “Run!” he hissed.

The two of them had only gone about half a block when Velvet let out a gasp. “Look, it’s him!”

Ahead, Night Light spotted that familiar burgundy suit and sighed in relief; the first time he’d associated that emotion with Don Candy.

Candy was walking toward them with that huge trunk in tow, whistling. He saw them at last, waving cheerfully.

The unicorns trotted up to him, still casting guilty looks over their shoulders. “Hey, Candy… any luck with that ride out of here? We, uh, we’d like to leave as soon as possible.”

“Sure did,” said Candy, winking. “Just follow me! We’re gonna have a great trip to Trottingham, let me tell ya.”

“Excellent. We’ll—” Night Light blinked. “Wait, did you say we?”

“Yep! You two look like you could use some help, so I figured I’d come with you.” Don nudged him with an elbow. “Good thing you ran into me on the train, huh?”

Night Light bit his lip, looking at Velvet. She jerked her head pointedly in the direction of the hotel. Night Light sighed, turning back to Candy. “Yeah… good thing. Glad to have you along.” He took a deep, sorrowful breath. “So… let’s get going.”

“Follow me,” said Candy, and he cantered off toward the outskirts of the city.

“If they charge us for those repairs…” said Night Light, feeling a looming sense of disaster.

“Ah, but why would they charge us?” said Velvet, laughing nervously. “Those vouchers were for the Sporkle couple, remember?”

They cantered after Candy, Night Light shaking his head. “And you called me naughty…”

4. Saddle Arabian Nights

Velvet wrung out her mane with magic as she and Night Light followed Candy into the congested streets. Despite the morning bustle, that absurdly large trunk was easy to follow. The brilliant light of morning filled the streets around them, as the blazing sun swept up to blast the desert once again.

Readjusting her magical hold on her baggage, Velvet snuck a mischievous grin to her husband. He caught the motion and winked, still blushing with embarrassment. There was going to be hell to pay if what they’d done back in that hotel caught up with them, but Velvet had to admit, it felt exciting to be breaking all the rules like this again.

When they were both newly-minted twenty-somethings, Night Light had been quite the troublemaker. Velvet still vividly remembered that time he’d come to her thesis defense and, during the break for lunch, given her some words of encouragement… along with a very welcome stress-relieving quickie in the third floor bathroom. She’d barely made it back to the room in time to resume giving her presentation, hoping sheepishly that none of the professors would notice her flushed skin and frazzled mane. Nevertheless, her nerves had evaporated like morning mist.

They’d both mellowed out with age, she thought. She loved how quietly dependable Night Light had grown to be; always doting on the children, always gently loving her despite her foibles and follies. Like last night—Sisters, how embarrassing for him to find out about all the little fantasies she had of him and other stallions. But he’d just grinned and gone along with it, finding his happiness in her own. Falling asleep on his chest, she’d never felt safer.

But now she realized that she’d been craving some of that little daring streak. Maybe that was the spark they’d been missing lately. It wasn’t that their sex life had gotten boring, just... routine. And now, with their whole carefully-planned vacation falling to pieces around them, with no idea what would come next, she discovered that she couldn’t wait to find out.

Although she assumed it involved enthusiastically jumping her husband’s bones.

The sun had baked both of them dry by the time they reached the outskirts of the city. Candy guided the Sparkles toward a small shack set about a hundred meters past the final clump of buildings at the end of the main road. Beside the tin-roofed hovel was what appeared to be the hull of a small boat. Velvet’s head tilted in bafflement.

As they drew closer, it became clear that the boat was standing on a pair of long skids. It had a huge circular cage mounted on the back, with a set of gleaming fan blades inside. Candy whistled cheerfully. “Either of you ridden in a sandskiff before?”

“No,” said the unicorns in united confusion.

“Oh, then you’re in for a treat. They’re fast enough to get us across the desert in two days, tops. Once I introduce you to Shady Sal, we can pile in and get going.”

“Er…” Night Light coughed. “Why do they call him Shady Sal?”

Candy paused, tapping his chin. “Now you mention it, I’m not really sure. Don’t worry though, Sal’s a good guy. One dark sense of humor though, hah! I sold him some lead pipes a little while back, heavy enough to ‘crack a skull open,’ as he put it.” Candy chuckled, apparently not noticing the way Night Light blanched. “Anyway, he owes me a favor for some help I gave him a few years back. He’s letting us take the skiff to Trottingham free of charge.”

Swallowing apprehension, Velvet nodded. “Well, that’s good.”

They followed Candy up to the shanty. A number of camels were lounging around the shack, most shielded from the sun with loose cloth robes and turbans. One especially wiry camel emerged from the shed, chewing on a cigarette. He watched their approach with a strangely vacant expression.

“Howdy, Sal,” said Candy with a wave.

Sal blinked slowly, taking in the newcomers. “So… youse lookin’ for trans-por-tation, huh.”

That was definitely not a Saddleic accent. Wondering how on earth someone like this had ended up this far south, Velvet nodded. “We’re heading east to the Equestrian border on the other side of the continent.”

The camel chewed lethargically on his cigarette, flicking it with a soft-toed hoof. “Youse gots money?”

“Y-yes,” said Night Light hesitantly. “How much will—”

“Hey, Sal, come on,” said Candy. “We had a deal, remember? You help me get my friends to Trottingham and we’re square.”

After a long, nerve-inducing pause, Sal gave a sedate nod, still squinting. He took another puff from his cigarette. “Lemme show youse how the skiff works.” He lurched away toward the vehicle.

Night Light shared a brief, wary glance with Velvet, who returned a shrug and a what can you do? look. Shaking his head, he set off after Sal. Velvet and Candy followed.

The three of them stepped up beside the camel, peering into the boat’s hull. Mounted at the rear end with the gargantuan fan was a great deal of complicated pipework connecting to a similarly huge engine. The fan faced backward off the end of the boat, with no obvious controls aside from a lever mounted on the engine casing. A surprisingly rich rug, dull red with gold embroidery, lay on the floor of the skiff.

“’Ere,” said Sal, pointing. “Youse pulls this lever, and the fan kicks on. Pushes y’forward, and the skiff goes sliding over the sand, nice’n’smooth.” He licked his lips. “That’s right. Reaaaal smooth-like. Y’steer with that.” He pointed at a wooden bar that extended down along the bottom of the boat to operate a rudder that touched lightly down onto the sand.

“Okay,” said Night Light, a little cheer returning to his voice. “We’ll have enough fuel to get to Trottingham?”

“Yeah,” drawled Sal. “Steam engine. W’give youse enough coal for the trip.”

“Great,” said Velvet, smiling. “How fast can we go? Are we going to make it to Atlantrot in time? It’ll take at least a day to ride the tram over the mountains from Trottingham…”

“Trip’ll take two days, mebbe.” Slowly, Sal stroked the wood siding of the skiff. “So long as youse don’t get lost, or run inta sand sharks.”

Night Light looked faintly alarmed. “Sand sharks?”

Candy laughed. “Quit messing with the tourists, Sal.” He shook his head, still chuckling. “How soon can we leave?”

Sal tilted his head and hocked a gob of spit to the ground. “Gimme… fifteen minutes.” He whistled, and his fellow camels immediately stood and started toward them.

Candy, Night Light, and Velvet all trotted off to wait in the paltry shade provided by the shack while the camels worked on the vehicle.

“Uh, Candy…” Velvet cast an uncertain glance over her shoulder. “Are you sure this Sal guy is on the level?”

“Oh, yeah, me and him go way back.” Candy thumped the lid of his trunk boisterously. “He used to be a traveling salescamel, like me. One of the most honest traders I know. Same way with his little travel business down here. Gets his customers to their destination every time. Well… as long as they don’t get lost. It’s a big desert, so you’d better keep an eye on that compass, eh?”

“We’ll just be following the tracks from that downed rail line,” said Night Light, nodding with a crooked smile. “No worries about getting lost.”

His confidence was positively dashing; Velvet wished she shared it. “Candy, have you ever actually taken a ride from him before?”

“Sure. Well, not here, but ten years ago when he was selling watches and some other stuff in Manehattan, I took plenty of rides in his boss’s taxi service. Dirt cheap and always reliable. Shame about the whole organization getting shut down though. Something crazy about being involved with a criminal syndicate, ain’t that nuts? I don’t think Sal was caught up in that whole thing, but he dropped off the grid for a while. Few years ago he popped back up here, running the skiff rental. Been really successful for him, too, as far as I understand.”

We’re going to die, thought Velvet, a little forlornly, before shaking her head with a reluctant smile. Oh, you’re being silly. We’ll be fine. After all, we’ve got magic. If worst came to absolute worst, she could try that teleporting spell Twilight had studied for so many years.

Velvet was a talented spellcaster, but she had never mastered the arcane arts the way their daughter had. She wasn’t entirely sure she could pull that off from vague memory alone. Besides, it only worked on one pony at a time; she’d have to get help and rescue Night Light from the desert somehow. Plan A—well, plan B, as plan A had long gone out the window—was still to find a more mundane escape from Saddle Arabia.

“Just curious,” she ventured, “but sand sharks aren’t a real thing, are they?”

“Well…” Candy wobbled a hoof. “They’re real, but they’re very rare. As long as you don’t go making a whole bunch of vibrations in the sand, they’ll never find you. And besides, there aren’t any left in the northern desert, as far as I know. The government likes to pretend there are, just to keep tourists from wandering in and dehydrating to death. That’d be bad for publicity.” He began whistling an old tune about mares, mountains, and dragons.

Velvet looked back over at the camels, who were still fiddling with the skiff. One was rubbing some sort of oil on the skids as the other two poured coals into a compartment under the steam engine. “Well, Candy… Don. Thanks for helping us out.”

Candy winked. “Sure thing. Us travelers gotta stick together, am I right?”

Eventually, the camels all stepped back from the skiff. Sal himself walked back toward the ponies, wiping his neck with a grease-blackened rag, apparently unconcerned about the mess it made on his fur. “All set.”

“Then I guess we’ll be off,” said Night Light, offering a hoof.

With the air of someone sealing a deal, Sal hocked a glob of tarry spit into his own hoof and shook it. Night Light made an admirable attempt not to cringe. Velvet winced in sympathy.

Sal chewed on his smouldering cigarette butt. “You gots it. Good, uh… luck.”

The three ponies climbed into the skiff, taking a few moments to situate their respective bags and cases. To Velvet’s pleasant surprise, the rug was positively luxurious. She settled comfortably down on it with a little coo of delight.

Night Light took up the rearmost position in the narrow hull, resting a hoof on the engine lever. “Everypony ready?” Velvet gave him a nod. Candy shot him a grin and a far-too-energetic wink. Night Light threw the lever.

The engine and fan thundered to life with a deafening roar. Instantly, the air exploded into a whirlwind of sand.

Velvet covered her face with a hoof, coughing in the sudden cloud of dust. Stinging grains slapped her body from all directions. Just as she was beginning to fear that they’d be stuck like this for the entire trip, the skiff lurched into motion. Slowly at first, but with ever-increasing alacrity, it slid forward across the sand.

In another few moments, the cloud of sand began to slip away behind them. It settled into a growing plume that trailed the movement of the skiff, leaving the way ahead clear.

Shouting over the incredible din of the combined fan and engine, Night Light waved to Candy. “Don! Where are those tracks?”

“Don’t worry!” yelled Candy, fishing for something in his trunk. “I’ve got some right here!” He pulled out a bag of pretzels.

“I said tracks!”

“Oh!” Candy let the pretzels drop. “Thataway!” He pointed east.

Night Light steered the skiff, and they went careening across the sand. Velvet held on to the side of the hull, enjoying the way the wind whipped at her mane. Their vacation had turned into a proper adventure, now.

In more ways than one. She was looking forward to getting Night Light to herself tonight. Out under the stars in the middle of the desert, all alone… that would be a romantic setting. There was a soundproofing spell she used frequently in her research that might come in handy to keep Candy unawares.

Actually, it might be useful before then. Blinking with the sudden realization, she lit her horn. A bubble of shimmering, nearly-transparent purple light expanded to cover the three ponies, and the roaring of the skiff engine instantly cut down to a muted rumble. Even the rumbling through the bottom of the skiff was dampened.

Night Light sighed with relief. “Thanks, honey.”

Candy beamed. “That’s a neat trick. And hey, now we can talk!”

Velvet sucked in a breath, instantly filled with regret. “Oh… right.”

“Let me tell you guys more about that stop I made in San Palomino…”

* * *

The distant mountains on the northern border between Saddle Arabia and Equestria loomed on the horizon. Their snowy peaks gleamed in the evening sunlight. Velvet’s chin rested on her hooves, both draped over the side of the skiff’s hull. Ever since the range had come into view, she’d been captivated. The mountains were enormous by any estimation, but they looked especially huge beyond the empty, flat desert. The sheer size of them left her breathless with awe, the age of the rock radiating out like a cold wind. A chill ran down her spine every time she looked back up at those peaks, those bones of the world older than the princess herself.

Candy’s droning tales had long faded into the background, but he suddenly re-entered her attention with a loud yawn. “But enough about my trip to Elketh. How are you two holding up?”

Night Light made a barely-awake mumble. Velvet looked aside at him sharply, wondering if she should take over the rudder and let him rest, but he smiled and waved off her concern. She nodded, her mouth twisting. I’m amazed Don hasn’t put us both to sleep yet.

“I’m just watching the mountains,” she said, turning her gaze back north with a sigh of wonder. “I’ve never seen their like. None of the ranges in the Crystal Empire are this big.”

“Yep, they’re huge all right. Reminds me of the last time I went to Antellucía. I’d just gotten my hooves on some new plastic piping, it was getting real big in Equestria at the time. The antelopes are a fun bunch, let me tell ya—not nearly as stingy about magic as unicorns. Er, no offense.”

Velvet just sighed internally and waved a hoof for him to continue.

“They use magic for all sorts of things ponies don’t. It’s everywhere. They cook with it, they run their machines on it, they’ve got impossible buildings held up with it… no magic plumbing, though, heh. Made a killing there. Enough for me and the wife to go on vacation for two weeks to the Carriagibbean.”

Night Light blinked in surprise, rousing from his stupor. “You’re married?”

“Mmhm.” Candy smiled, his gaze growing distant. “Her name's Marietta. She's the most beautiful lady I’ve ever met. I’m a lucky guy.”

Velvet smiled, despite herself. She couldn’t believe there was someone out there willing to put up with this pony long enough to marry him, but it was cute nonetheless. “How long have you been together?”

“We got married almost ten years ago.” Candy tapped a hoof on his trunk, looking suddenly nervous. “Our anniversary’s coming up soon… I haven’t seen her in months. I’ve been out of the country on sales trips since May.”

Frowning with sympathy, Velvet awkwardly pulled her mane. “She must miss you. When are you heading back?”

“Well, as soon as I sell enough piping to afford the airship ticket. I’ve been having some, uh… liquidity problems.” He grinned, blushing with clear embarrassment. “I’d been hoping to make a big sale here in Saddle Arabia, but…” He shrugged, suddenly brightening. “I’m not going to leave a couple of friends in the lurch! I’m with you till you guys get where you’re going. Atlantrot, right?”

Feeling the sudden weight of guilt settle on her shoulders, Velvet swallowed. “Don, you don’t have to stick with us after we get to Trottingham. We’ll be fine, really. I don’t want to stop you from making it home for your anniversary.”

Night Light looked equally upset at this revelation. “Candy, I… thanks for the help, but… are you sure…?”

The yellow-orange stallion waved this off with a hoof. “It’s fine, really. I’ll get by. I always do. I’m sure someone in Atlantrot owes me a favor or two.” He cracked open his trunk and fished around inside for a moment, coming back out with the bag of pretzels. “Anypony want one?”

“No thanks,” said Velvet, quietly grateful for the subject change. “My bottle’s pretty much out of water. Better not dry my mouth out, we’ve still got another whole day to go.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Candy checked the rail line that was on their distant right, their guiding path through the desert. “We’ll refill all our water tomorrow morning at the oasis.”

“Oasis?” Night Light’s face grew more hopeful than it had been all day. “There’s one out here?”

“Mhm. Very small, though. It’s a few miles north of the rail. They built it to pass by the oasis specifically, made it easier to supply the construction crews while they were laying the tracks.” Candy nodded. “I figured we could stop there for the night.”

Velvet cracked her neck, smiling. “Great. Well, then, if we’re getting a drink soon, I’ll take a pretzel or two…”

The ponies snacked as the sun set, their skiff still flying smoothly across the gently sloping sand dunes. The pretzels did little to quiet the rumbling in Velvet’s belly, but they were better than nothing. She was looking forward to getting a proper meal once they reached Trottingham.

The sun had just begun to vanish over the western horizon when Candy knocked an excited hoof on the skiff’s hull. “Time to turn this puppy north, Night Light!”

With a tired nod, Night Light yanked the rudder, and the skiff lurched into a leftward turn. “How far off is it?”

“We’ll be there in a few minutes.” Candy stretched, yawning, and Velvet immediately had to stifle one of her own. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m beat. Can’t wait to get some shuteye in…”

A short time later, Velvet spotted a tiny patch of green in the desert. Night Light steered them toward it, and the colors quickly resolved into a few stands of trees.

Night had fallen by the time they reached the oasis. Night Light wrenched the lever into the off position, and the fan and engine guttered to a halt. The skiff slid forward on inertia, coming to a rest at last on the outskirts of the little grove of palms.

Under the pale light of the stars, the Sparkles took in the place they’d be spending the night. There were clusters of palm trees scattered loosely around a large, central pool. The water bubbled near the center, clearly fed by a spring somewhere below. A cool breeze rustled through the fronds of the palms.

“Gorgeous,” said Velvet, a little dreamily. “Not a bad spot for a vacation, honey.”

Nodding with a chuckle, Night Light grabbed his bag and hopped out of the skiff. “Let’s get drinks.”

Velvet started digging through her bag for her water bottle, licking her lips at the thought of the thirst-slaking pool just a few meters away. “Candy, you can borrow my sleeping bag if you want. I can share Night Light’s.”

Candy pushed his trunk forward into the nose of the skiff and lay back, resting his head on it. “I’m good, thanks.” He smacked his lips sleepily. “Think I’ll turn in right here.”

“You’re sleeping in the skiff?”

“Yep. I’ve learned my lesson about sleeping on the sand. Hoo-ee, the morning after that wasn’t fun. Goodnight, you two.” He rolled over onto his side and immediately let out a disgusting snore.

Rolling her eyes, Velvet hopped out of the skiff with her water bottle levitating beside her head. “Wish I could fall asleep on cue like that.”

“It’s a neat trick… though not for anyone nearby.” Night Light sighed as Candy let loose another snore. “He’s probably right about the sand, though. I’ve got an idea. Can you fill our water bottles up while I get things ready?”

“Sure.” Velvet took his with magic as well, and trotted across the warm sand toward the pool.

The fresh springwater was crisp and cool, and she gulped it down straight from the pool. After she quenched the thirst that had been bothering her for hours, she sighed contentedly, and began to fill the bottles.

Resealing the caps, she wiped her lips and stood, the bottles floating beside her. Velvet looked around to find Night Light beneath a nearby palm, his bag resting against the trunk. He had the rich, red carpet from the skiff with him, and he was carefully rolling it out onto the sand.

“Good idea,” she said, walking over to join him. “Plenty big enough for the two of us to sleep on.”

“Yes, the sleeping bags might be a little too warm…” Night Light stretched. “This wasn’t exactly the kind of camping we’d planned on, but I’ll take it.”

“I’ll say.” She offered him his bottle with a little magical waggle. He took it with a grateful nod and began gulping down the water. Velvet took a sip from her own bottle as she looked up at the star-strewn desert sky. “Wow. Look at that…”

There were no city lights this far out. The celestial dome stretched out to infinity on all sides, luminous milky tracks of stars smearing across the void-deep black. They shimmered and twinkled in the desert air, still hot despite the vanished sun. The moon was just a sliver, its light dwarfed by the enormous sweeping streams of nebulae and distant stars.

Velvet lay down on the big rug, letting her bottle rest in the sand beside it. Settling onto her back, she let her hooves curl on her chest and stared upward. “A shame Twilight’s not here. She’d show us all the constellations.”

Night Light lay down beside her, chuckling. “I’m sure she would. But I’m glad she’s not here. Means I get you all to myself.” He snuck a foreleg under her, turning sideways to let his other one drape across her chest.

With a grin, she gave him a swift peck on the cheek. “Tell me, is one of your surprises a telescope?”

“No, can’t say I thought to bring one.” He sighed, looking up. “A shame. It's beautiful…” Lifting a hoof, he traced the white channel of the galaxy.

“So,” said Velvet, snickering a little, “what’s your favorite night light, Night Light?”

He gave her a very dry look, drawing another giggle. “If I had to choose…” he turned back to the sky, tapping his chin. “There.” Pointing up, Velvet followed his hoof.

“Ooh…” she murmured. He was pointing toward the little pink spot that marked the center of the Chariot, one of the few constellations she knew offhand. The nebula was visible to the naked eye, the columns of clouds within nearly discernable if one squinted. “Good choice.”

“And yours?”

Velvet twisted over, smiling, and traced a hoof down his chest. “That’s easy.”

Rolling his eyes, but grinning despite himself, he kissed her. “Your motives are entirely transparent, my dear.”

“Hmm.” Velvet drew her hoof a few inches lower, flicking the end of his sheath with her hooftip. Night Light instinctively bit his tongue for a moment, before recovering his composure. She nuzzled him. “I’m glad we’re doing this, Night Light.”

“We’re not doing anything, yet…” he said teasingly, toying with her tail.

She nipped his ear. “I mean this trip. Mixups aside, I haven’t felt this… sexy in ages.”

“This is where I say how you’ve always been sexy to me.”

“I know.” She kissed him. “Never had a doubt. It’s just nice to know that we’re not too old to have an adventure or two. In bed or out.”

“Which does this count as?” Night Light kissed her back, and they quietly enjoyed it for a few moments.

“Still to be determined… why don’t you tell me just what you packed in that bag of yours?”

“Just some basics,” said Night Light, blushing a little in the faint light. “Nothing nearly as fancy as that insane pink monstrosity we’re planning to buy.”

“Go on, then…” She nudged him with a hoof.

He rolled away from her, dragging his bag closer to the rug. “All right, put your hooves above your head and close your eyes…”

Velvet complied, raising an eyebrow. She rested her hooves against both sides of the palm trunk, feeling her pulse quicken. There was some rustling from her left, as Night Light dug through his things. She heard the unmistakable faint sound of an active horn as he lifted something into the air.

Something cold fastened itself around both of her fetlocks. Velvet shivered, recoiling slightly at the touch. Night Light fumbled for another few seconds, before saying, “Okay, open ‘em up.”

She blinked her eyes open, craning her head up to see a pair of pink, padded cuffs encircling the trunk of the tree to pin her hooves. “Oh, dear.” She gave them an amused yank against the trunk, and was surprised to find that they didn’t budge at all. Oh—I hadn’t thought these would be so firm.

Another shiver traveled down her spine, not from the cold metal this time, but from the realization that she couldn’t pull out of the cuffs, even if she wanted to. Turning her head back down to Night Light, she smiled, her breathing a little unsteady. “There’s not a gag in there, is there?”

“If I had a gag, I’d be using it on Candy,” he said dryly. Velvet laughed. “I thought about it, but I like hearing the noises you make.”

Velvet blushed, suddenly aware of how exposed she was. Lying on her back, her forelegs stretched over her head, her hind legs naturally falling to the sides, there was nothing but air between her and Night Light. Of course she felt safe with him, but some primal herd instinct was niggling the back of her mind, pointing out what easy prey she’d be to any passing predators…

Night Light lay down on his chest to her left, grinning. He traced her cutie mark with a hoof, gently bringing his lips to kiss her fetlock. Velvet inhaled deeply, laying her head back to enjoy the caress.

Her inner thigh itched. Instinctively, Velvet moved her hoof to scratch it, pulling up tight against the chain. Another little nervous flutter filled her chest. She lit her horn to give the area a little nudge—and realized to her shock that she couldn’t touch the flow of magic at all. “What the—”

Night Light raised an eyebrow with a wicked smile. “Elyritium-laced metal cuffs. No magic while you’re touching those.”

A rush of adrenaline shot through her. Oh, Sisters, I’m completely trapped, she realized. “Planning to take advantage, are you…?” she laughed anxiously.

“Oh, I’m taking plenty…” said Night Light, before his smile faltered a bit. “I mean, if you’re comfortable with it.”

“I am, I am,” she said, reassured. “This is just a little… phew, I don’t know.”

He placed a hoof on her chest, drawing it downward so lightly that she felt the urge to rub her skin, and pulled her hooves uselessly against the bonds. “Vulnerable?”

“Mhmmm…” Velvet jostled her left hind leg a bit. “Goddesses, you could do… whatever you wanted.”

He lay sideways, grinning. “Anything at all.” Velvet couldn’t help but notice his hard shaft, bobbing slightly between his legs. She licked her lips, partly in anticipation, partly out of nerves.

She shifted her leg again. “Honey, I’ve got an itch down there. Mind helping me out?”

“Certainly,” he said, the sinful smile returning. He leaned down into the crook of her legs, resting his nose against her inner thigh and breathing in deeply. “It’ll be my pleasure…”

“Er, no, I mean an actual itch,” said Velvet, stifling a giggle. “It’s driving me crazy. Right where your nose is.”

“Oh.” Night Light gave it a sheepish scratch with a hoof. “Better?”

“Much. Now, about that other itch… ah.”

He’d stuck his muzzle right into her pussy. His tongue flicked out, quickly lashing her already-trickling slit. Velvet’s hips bucked under the touch, her forelegs pulling helplessly. “Mmm…”

Night Light’s tongue slid gently between her lips, sending little tingles radiating outward. It drew slowly upward, stretching her labia to the side, the moisture on her flushed skin quickly cooling in the dry air. His nose rubbed against the hood of her clit, a pressure that glowed with pleasure.

Just as she was ready to lie back and luxuriate, he lifted his head. “Now, I did bring more than just the hoofcuffs…”

Velvet tilted her head warily. “Hmmm?”

His horn lit, he hovered a small purple object between them. It was rounded like an egg, with a flared base. Velvet swallowed. That’s not meant to go in my pussy, is it.

“Back home, you said you might be interested in trying, well, the other hole again, but… I wasn’t sure how serious you were.” Night Light had an expression that was half-hopeful, half-worried. “So, if you’re still interested, I thought we could start with something small. Are… are you still up for it?”

Velvet glanced down at her pussy, glistening with rivulets of liquid arousal. She bit her lip. “I… I do want to try it,” she said, almost wistfully, “I just… I’m worried it’ll hurt.”

“I’ll stop the moment you feel uncomfortable,” said Night Light, friendly but serious. “Just say the word.”

“Well…” Velvet took a deep breath. It’s got to feel good, right? Otherwise there wouldn’t even be a toy. “Okay… on one condition.”

“Of course.”

“Don’t agree till you hear it…” Velvet felt a dirty smile creep onto her face. “I’ll let you use that on me… if I get to use it on you.”

Night Light blinked in shock. “Uh—er—um—”

“Only seems fair, after all.”

“Right—right now?”

“No, no,” she said, waving her bound hoof on the end of the chain. “I’ll give you a day or two to get used to the idea. But sometime this week.” She brushed her tail against her wet crotch, wafting the scent of horny mare pussy into the air. Night Light’s nostrils flared, and he bit his lip. Velvet thrust her pelvis as much as she could, pulling her tail aside to reveal both of her quivering, vulnerable entrances. “Deal?”

“I—I… well…” His eyes slowly went from glassy to focused, his jaw working as he mulled it over. “I suppose it… might be interesting.” He smiled, looking almost surprised at himself. “All right. Deal.”

“Great.” Velvet beamed. “But I hope you have some lube in that bag of yours.”

Naturally, he did. Night Light levitated the bottle out, holding the butt plug in his hooves. Scooting up beneath her, he pressed it up against her hindquarters, the tip resting between her cheeks, ever-so-slightly poking against her hole.

As her heart quickened, Night Light brought the bottle of lube down, popped the cap open, and squeezed out a long drizzle of sweet-smelling lubricant. It dripped down between them, and she gasped as she felt the cool touch of the liquid between her legs. Her hooves jerked against the cuffs as she instinctively tried to reach down to touch the stuff, drawing a little grunt of effort from her.

Night Light placed his hoof against the plug’s flared end, slowly turning it under the stream. It soon glistened with lubricant, drawing little hahs from Velvet as it rotated on her skin. The ache in her pussy was almost pushed to the back of her mind by the sensations in an entirely new area. That is, until Night Light gave her pink-flushed lips another lick.

With a yelp, her hooves yanked the cuffs. She settled back again, panting. “Is… is it ready?”

“I think so. Are you?”

“I… think so,” she echoed, with a nervous laugh. “Go slow.”

The tip pushed a bit further between her cheeks, and she felt it enter the natural gap, the bare entrance of her ass. “Fffff…” she breathed, closing her eyes and lying her head on the ground. She did her best to relax her pelvic muscles. It felt big already, and he’d barely started.

Night Light applied a little more pressure, and Velvet thrust her head into the carpet, groaning. The toy stretched her, a little more every moment, slipping deeper in. The cool kiss of the lubricant was inside her, now, standing in sharp relief against the seething heat in her pussy. It slid further, and her hooves twitched uselessly in the cuffs.

It came to a stop, still holding her stretched. Velvet winced. “Is it in?”

“Not all the way. You’re pretty tight.”

“I’m trying to relax…”

Night Light blinked up at her. “Try pushing, maybe?”

Velvet squeezed her muscles like she was trying to force it out, and to her surprise it instantly slipped deeper in under Night Light’s hoof. She gasped as the cool mass entered her completely. With his free hoof, Night Light gently began to massage her pussy in slow circles. “It’s in. How’s it feel?”

“Fff-fffull,” she managed, her mind consumed with the sensation of the foreign thing inside her butt. “Ssso full.”

“Good full?”

“It’s…” She blushed. “To be honest, it feels like I’m in the bathroom, more than anything.”

“Hmm. Well, I did forget to mention one thing.” Night Light gave her an evil grin.

Out of breath, Velvet lifted her head, feeling a twitch in her pussy. “Huh?”

Her husband’s horn glowed briefly, and suddenly the plug hummed to life, vibrating inside her. “Oh!” she cried, pulling tight against the tree. “Oh, Sisters—”

It was more intense than anything she’d ever felt. The vibrations carried through her pussy, which quivered out of her control, little flecks of lubricant flying as she thrusted helplessly under Night Light’s hoof. Nerves she’d never experienced before were lighting up like a Hearth’s Warming tree inside her, making her legs quake.

“So, honey, if it’s all right with you…” Night Light removed both hooves and pressed them to the rug. “I haven’t actually gotten to come inside that juicy pussy since the night after you got your tenure letter.”

Velvet’s head twisted back and forth, overwhelmed by the sensation in her rear. Her whole spine trembled with the vibrations, her breath lost to uncontrollable panting. “Oh—okay…”

He stood over her, leaning down and planting a deep kiss right on her lips. Velvet clung to it, a little buoy of stability in the stormy sea of her writhing body.

His hooves pressed her hind legs a little farther apart. She felt his shaft rub over her burning pussy lips as he positioned himself. “G-g-go s-super slow,” she stammered, pressing her hooves to the sides of the tree trunk.

With a smile and a nod, he pushed inside her. Velvet slammed her head sideways into the carpet, gasping. Her legs squeezed his sides, her head bending toward her chest as she took one shuddering breath after another. Night Light slid deeper, releasing a low moan as he went.

“Oh, wow…” he murmured. “I can feel it…”

She’d never been so full. His cock was inside her, pressing against the plug through her, the vibrations filling her every cell. Velvet could barely think, drowning in the waves of pleasure. She felt like she was going to start squirting everywhere, and he hadn’t even started thrusting yet.

Night Light came to a halt, buried completely inside her. She felt the gentle warmth of his balls on her skin, resting against the cold weight of the plug. Her eyes kept squeezing shut and fluttering open of their own accord. “Ahhh… ahhhhh…” she mewled, weakly pulling at the cuffs.

“Enjoying it?” asked Night Light hopefully.

She couldn’t even respond, her shoulders tensing and going limp repeatedly. “Ahh…”

Then he started moving, and it got even better.

As he pulled back, a deep, guttural moan ripped from her throat, a bestial noise like some ancient cavepony in heat, desperate to be rutted by her stud. Night Light obliged, ramming forward and squeezing the walls of her pussy aside as his cock delved inside.

“Too much?”

“N… nahhhhh… not yet… But slooooow…”

He resumed his pulls and pushes, slower than that last thrust, but still faster than she could handle. Giving up the effort of speaking, Velvet surrendered to it—not that she had a choice, bound as she was. Her legs twitched against his sides with every thrust.

“Unh… gnh…” he grunted, resting on her chest, his hips jerking backward and forward. He lay his head next to hers, rubbing it against her cheek. Velvet pressed into it, wanting to clench him tight against herself.

“Night…” she whispered, her voice stolen by the hot wet thunder in her body. “Ohhhhh…”

“This feels divine,” he said, licking the nape of her neck up to her cheek. Velvet moaned at his touch. “It’s like your whole pussy’s vibrating…”

She kept clenching helplessly at his cock, as if to stop it from pulling out. Yet out it went, and in it came again, the slippery friction lighting her on fire. “I—I—oh, fuck, FUCK,” she suddenly gasped, pulling with all her might against the tree. “That’s it—get these fucking cuffs off me.”

His horn shone, and there was a metal click. The cuff around her right hoof popped open. Not even bothering to remove the other, Velvet slapped both of her forelegs around Night Light’s chest, pulling him into her with all her strength. “Oh, yes. Harder. As hard as you fucking can.”

With a look halfway between disbelief and elation, he obliged, ramming into her like a piston. Velvet clutched him with her whole body. In the blistering heat that filled her, he was the only thing she could cling to, the only thing keeping her from falling apart. She gritted her teeth. “Fuck, Nighty—”

He kissed her, still pounding into her sopping pussy as hard as he ever had. “I love you, Velvet.”

“Oh—fuck, Night Light, I love you, you giant, beautiful—ohhh…”

“Think we—” His whole body jerked, rasping for breath. “Think we can come together?”

“Y—yes, yes, please, please, Nighty—” Velvet’s eyes rolled back up into her head. She clung to him even tighter.

“Not long… now…” Sweat dripped from his chest to hers, their slippery bodies rubbing against each other with every shaky thrust. The cuffs dangling from her left hoof slapped against them in rhythm with his hips.

“I’m not—I’m not quite—” She opened her eyes, clinging to him desperately. “A little longer, Nighty.”

“Better idea,” he grunted, his horn glowing again.

Suddenly, the vibrations grew twice as strong, and Velvet nearly lost her grip on him. “Celestia’s flaming teats, it goes FASTER—”

“Th-three settings—” Night Light looked ready to fall to pieces.

Her pussy clenched around him, her tightening muscles also squeezing the buzzing toy in her ass. It was too much. “Fucking hell, Nighty, I’m—”

Night Light’s mouth dove into hers. She slapped a hoof to the back of his head, pushing his lips against her own, their tongues mingling with desperate need. Inside her, his cock pulsed, and she felt the first flood of sticky warmth as he came. A tremor shook her, and her own orgasm hit her like a freight train.

Together, they shook and shuddered, words impossible. Night Light moaned in short bursts, a helpless “Uh—oh—ah—” synchronized with the throbs as each new splash of cum spilled into her pussy. She felt it dripping out of her as the small thrusting motion of his aftershocks squeezed dollops of his load out around the shaft.

Velvet released a breathless litany of “Fucking, fuck, ffffuck…” as she came. In the sweltering heat, it was impossible to know where her orgasm began or ended. All she knew was that the feeling of her husband’s cum inside her, the weight of him on her chest, the taste of his tongue, it was perfect. Utterly perfect.

After an eternal moment, the heat subsided enough for thought to return. The vibrations had become almost painful. “Can… can you turn it…” The buzzing switched off, and Velvet sighed with bone-deep relief. “Oh—oh, thank the Sisters…”

“Did you…” Night Light slumped on top of her, too weak to stand. “Was that too much?”

“Just… just a bit…” Velvet kissed him hard again, pulling his mane with her hoof. “After I come, that second setting’s just too…” Her horn sparked, and she rubbed his back. “Just a bit too intense.”

“N-noted,” he said, pulling out. Velvet felt a flood of his cum slough after his cock, drooling out of her pussy. “Fuck, that’s a big mess,” he said, laughing breathlessly.

Velvet let the hoof with the cuff on it drop to the carpet, suddenly giggling. Her head felt lighter than air. “Can you… can you take this thing out? I want to cuddle…”

His horn glowed, and she felt the mass of the toy squeeze back outward. She squeezed her muscles again, and it came out with a pop. Velvet groaned as her butt relaxed at last, the toy sailing vaguely in the direction of Night Light’s bag to land in the sand with a faint thump.

Night Light collapsed beside her, embracing her. She hugged him, nuzzling her snout in the crook of his neck. “You’re the best, honey.”

“I know I’m repeating myself,” he said, pushing her head back and rubbing his nose against hers, “but I love you, Velvet. Every bit of you.”

They snuggled quietly under the stars. The minutes passed in comfortable silence, the two of them nuzzling and trading kisses.

Velvet shivered. After having her skin set on fire for so many minutes, the lack of aroused energy left her skin cold. “It’s getting kind of chilly out here.”

“Chilly? We’re in a desert!” Night Light nudged her. “You’ve always been a freeze baby.”

“Hmpf.” She gave him a good-natured, gentle headbutt. “Call it the wind. I’m cold.”

“All right, I’ll get a blanket… we probably ought to clean up first, though.”

Velvet stretched luxuriantly. “You still know that old stain removal spell?”

“Hah.” Night Light’s horn glowed. “You bet I do. My offer to teach you is still open, you know.”

“I’m not the one who kept making messes on the dorm common room couch in college.”

“You sure helped make them.”

Velvet giggled. “Let he who came, clean.”

The carpet glowed yellow, and Velvet felt all the slippery reminders of their lovemaking slide off of her skin. The fluid all drained upward, into a little airborne puddle, that Night Light lazily sent drifting off into the trees to vanish into the sand. “There we go, all done.”

“We should probably wash up, still.”

“That pool’s our drinking water, mind you.”

She shrugged. “We’ve got more than one water bottle each. We’ll fill them up first.”

“All right, then,” he said, giving her a quick kiss. “Just so long as you don’t start round two in there…”

“Phew,” she said, squeezing him in another hug. She unhooked the other cuff from her hoof with a deft mouth movement and tossed it after the plug. “I don’t think I could, Nighty. I’m wrecked.”

That put a little pride on his face, she noticed with amusement. “Then let’s get cleaned up and go to bed.”

She followed him toward the water, staggering on weak-kneed legs. Three settings, she thought, shaking her head. Sisters forbid we ever use the third. If that simple toy could leave her in such a state, she couldn’t imagine what the Fornicatron 3000 was going to do to her.

Of course, she was going to get the chance soon to give Night Light a taste of his own medicine. Velvet grinned, looking forward to putting him in those infuriating cuffs.

She looked up at the stars as Night Light filled their extra bottles, sighing with delight. This is the best vacation I’ve ever been on.

* * *

The next morning, Velvet woke feeling like someone had spent the night dragging sandpaper across her unmentionables.

“Owwww,” she howled, curling into a ball on the red carpet. It didn’t help. Her back and chest felt raw, scratched beyond belief. “What the—”

“Sand burn,” said Night Light through gritted teeth. He was lying beside her on the rug, clearly attempting not to move. “Apparently my rug plan wasn’t good enough.”

“Son of a—” Velvet bit her lip, wincing. “Oh, Sisters, it's like I've been flayed.”

“I must’ve had quite a bit of it on me from lying down to handle the toy,” he grimaced. “We didn’t notice in the heat of things because of the sweat, but…”

A distant voice called out through the morning air. “Velvet! Night Light! You two ready to go?”

Tears brimmed in Velvet’s eyes. “Please tell me we have some lotion or something.”

“Sunscreen’s about it. Don’t think it’ll help.” Night Light made to lean up and hissed. “Nope. Bad idea.” He lay back down to remain immobile.

Hoofsteps came plodding toward them, shuffling in the sand. “You two awake?”

“Yeah,” Night Light grunted loudly. “You were right. We should’ve slept in the skiff.”

“Heh.” Candy stopped beside the rug, grinning. “Might’ve been hard for me to sleep if you had.”

Velvet felt her face instantly inflame with pink. “H-hard to—did you hear something last night?” Beside her, Night Light made a little hrk noise, choking.

“Kind of hard not to,” said Candy, with a wink. “Sounded like you guys were having a good time.”

She put her hooves over her eyes and moaned with shame. Oh, dear Celestia. I forgot to cast the silencing bubble. “Sisters, Don, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s no big deal. Really. You guys are on vacation, right? You should enjoy it. Reminds me of…” he coughed. “Er, nevermind. Anyway, we really should be going.”

“You’re right,” said Night Light, trying and audibly failing to keep the embarrassment out of his voice. He stood and hoisted his bag—the toys having been rinsed with soap in the spring and safely packed away the night before—over his back. “We do have a flight to catch. Let’s, erm, get moving. Ahem.” He trotted off toward the skiff, very red-faced. Candy followed, stifling a laugh.

Velvet managed to stand, still wincing from the rough patches the sand had left on her skin. Glumly, she rolled up the carpet and followed Night Light and Candy back to the vehicle. This is going to be the most awkward road trip of our lives.

She arrived at the skiff to see Night Light already sitting at the helm, staring stiffly out at the desert. Candy had mercifully pulled a book from somewhere, and was reclining against his trunk at the prow.

Setting the rolled-up carpet in the hold—she didn’t think any of them wanted to sit on it, now—Velvet climbed into the skiff. Her luggage waited for her, providing a pitiful but much-appreciated barrier between them and Candy. She sat down in the skiff, still blushing fiercely.

Night Light sighed. “Well, then, off we go.” He pulled the lever.

Nothing happened.

Blinking, he yanked it back and forth a few times. “Uh…”

Candy set his book down. “Something wrong?”

Night Light jerked the lever a little more frantically. “It’s not working.”

Velvet’s eyes widened as it suddenly clicked in her mind. “What did that Mareathon rep say? Something about a strand-and-ransom outfit posing as a travel company?”

Both Sparkles’ heads cranked around to stare at Candy. The yellow pony’s jaw hung open. “What, Sal? Nawwwww, there’s no way. He’s not… I mean…”

“You got us stranded in the middle of the desert!” Night Light’s voice rose precipitously. “Oh my Goddesses, I can’t believe—”

Velvet dropped her forehead to the side of the skiff with a thunk. “Great. Wonderful.”

Candy rubbed his hooves nervously together. “I’m sure this is just—just a misunderstanding, or a technical fault, or something. Sal would never… he owes me!”

“His name is Shady Sal, Don.” Velvet shook her head before bumping it against the hull again. “What did he owe you for?”

“Well, one time when I was selling pipes, I ran into him hauling some really big, heavy bags of flour that his boss had asked him to get rid of—I don’t know why, maybe they were having trouble with the bakers’ union, or something.” Candy fidgeted. “Since Sal and I were both salesponies of a sort, I helped him out. We buried ‘em outside the city. He said he owed me, big time.”

Good Goddesses, this idiot’s an accessory to… who knows what. “Flour, huh?” Velvet moaned. “We’re gonna die out here.”

“N-no, no, wait, come on,” said Candy, with a placating hoof gesture. “We can fix whatever’s wrong with the engine, I’m sure of it. Let me take a look.”

Velvet and Night Light both hopped out of the skiff to let Candy have access. He began poking around at the engine, muttering to himself.

“Unbelievable,” whispered Night Light. “He’s going to get us mugged.”

“Maybe he can fix the steam engine if it’s simple sabotage,” said Velvet. “He’s good with pipes, right…?”

“Aha!” yelled Candy. There was a loud CLANG. “Uh… whoops.” His head lifted out of the hull. “Either of you have a welding torch?”

Night Light’s eye twitched. “Why would we have a welding torch?”

“Well, they’re really useful…” Candy wilted. “Um, this could take a while to fix without one.”

Velvet gave a long-suffering sigh. “Well, it’s not like we have any other…” her voice trailed off. She squinted into the distant desert. “Do either of you see that?”

There was a small, black shape moving toward them. Night Light grunted irritably. “No doubt it’s Sal, come to collect our money…”

“Wouldn’t he be coming from the same way we did? Not the south…” Velvet’s eyes widened. “Uh… that looks like a fin.”

“A fin?”

Velvet raced back toward the skiff. “Everypony in! Right now.”

Night Light hopped in after her. Velvet, teeth clenched and eyes wide, focused on the fan blades, her horn glowing. Slowly, they spun into motion.

“Honey, that’s going to be exhausting; we can’t just manually run the fan all the way to—”

“It’s that or get eaten,” she said, gratified to see the blades whipping into frenzied motion.

“Eaten by wha—”

The ground beside their skiff erupted. A massive maw, as big as the skiff itself and filled with hundreds of serrated teeth, burst upward like a torpedo, gaping in hungry anticipation toward their vehicle.

Both stallions screamed, but Velvet’s horn surged, and the fan blazed to full speed. The skiff shot away in a massive cloud of whirling sand, the sand shark’s jaws snapping shut on empty air. It roared after them, hidden from sight by the raging cloud in their wake. Velvet’s heart thudded painfully in her chest, her concentration on the fan never wavering.

Night Light, looking extremely pale, tapped her on the shoulder. “H-honey, are you all right?”

“Have to concentrate.” She licked her lips, focusing hard. Keeping the blades spinning that fast was taxing. “You rest. Take over for me in an hour.”

“If… if you’re sure.” Night Light sat down uneasily. “Candy, I thought you said there weren’t any of those things around here!”

“There aren’t!”

Night Light and Velvet made outraged sounds in unison.

“Well, there aren’t supposed to be—it must’ve been attracted by all the, uh, noise last night. Drawn by vibrations, remember?”

Velvet felt like crying, though with stress or laughter she wasn’t sure. She wanted to smack last night’s optimism right out of her past self’s head. “Oh, this is the best vacation, all right…”

5. Mountains Tall and Caverns Deep

Night Light stared dully at the fan blades, his horn flickering as they spun. It had been nearly an hour since he’d last taken over for Velvet. They were splitting propulsion and steering duties, but keeping the fan going was utterly exhausting. Night Light’s stomach growled, craving energy to replace that which he’d lost to keep them in motion.

They didn’t dare slow down, though. Any time Night Light thought about pulling over to take a break, he just had to remember those head-sized teeth coming up out of the sand to get his second wind. Candy had been keeping a lookout all around them for more sharks, and though he said that the coast had been clear all morning, Night Light wasn’t convinced enough to call a halt.

It was beginning to seem like they’d have no other choice, however. Night Light could feel how drained he was. His horn was running on fumes; his forehead ached from all the magic he’d been pouring through it since their narrow escape.

Candy, still self-exiled to the front of the skiff away from the tired and angry couple, cleared his throat. “Guys, I really do think we’re clear of sand shark territory. You want me to give the engine another look yet?”

“You said we’d be clear of sand shark territory at the start of this,” said Velvet crossly, keeping a steady hoof on the keel.

“Okay, okay, I goofed, I admit it.”

Night Light made a grunt of agreement.

Candy rubbed the back of his neck guiltily. “Look, I had no idea Sal would do that to us. He’s always been a great guy to me.”

Velvet rolled her eyes. “Let’s just hope we don’t run into any other old friends of yours.”

Night Light broke his gaze away from the fan for a moment, looking eastward toward the end of the mountain range, where it tailed off to sink into the ocean. They’d crossed a considerable amount of distance in just two days, he had to admit. “How much further to Trottingham?”

“Oh, not long. We should be there just another hour or two, I think.”

Night Light groaned internally. He wasn’t sure he could keep this up for another two hours. “Fine,” he surrendered. “Let’s break.”

Velvet nodded warily. “Keep an eye out for fins…”

“Great! I’ll have the engine up and running again in no time, guarantee you.”

Night Light let his horn’s light die, and the fan blades immediately began to slow. Slumping against the side of the skiff, he gave his wife a tired, questioning look. She shook her head, rolling her eyes toward Candy.

Well, if you think it’s a good idea to let him mess around with it… thought Night Light, shrugging.

The skiff slid to a halt, and the ponies all remained seated for a few moments, recuperating. At last, Night Light stood, cracking his neck, and hoisted their luggage out of the skiff into the sand with a flash of magic. He tumbled over the side of the skiff into the sand, barely staying on his hooves, as he dragged himself away to rest. Velvet followed, stifling a yawn. She took the unfortunate carpet with her.

They unrolled it and sat down a few dozen meters away from the skiff, up the side of a large sand dune, and took out their bottles of springwater to nurse in sullen silence. Below them in the skiff, Candy had already set to work on the engine, his burgundy suit draped over the side of the hull beside the morass of pipework. His tail bobbed in the air over his head as he bent over, hooves fiddling.

“Honey,” said Velvet, her voice hoarse and weary, “we have got to lose him once we get to Trottingham.”

“Can we? He sticks to us like glue,” said Night Light, rubbing his eyes and wincing as his sandy hoof scraped his skin. “He’s more persistent than Twilight in second grade, asking for more math homework.”

“Ugh. That wasn’t a fun school year.” Velvet took a long slurp from her bottle. “We’ll just tell him to go back to his wife once we hit the town. Let her deal with him.”

“He can’t, remember? No money.” Night Light scowled.

“I have no idea why he can’t buy a train ticket back into Equestria, they’re not that expensive. Or do you think he’s from the Empire?”

“He’s definitely not a crystal pony.” Night Light shook his head. “Who cares? I just want to see the back of him as he walks out of our lives.” He muttered darkly to himself, “Stranded in the desert with the world’s most annoying plumbing salespony…”

“At least we’ve got each other,” she said, smiling tiredly and giving him a little nuzzle.

He patted her shoulder, hugging her to his side. “That we do. If we had to deal with all the nonsense we’ve been through this week without all this excellent sex, I think I’d have gone mad days ago.”

With a slight pink tinge to her cheeks, Velvet nodded. “It sounds so… embarrassing when you say it like that.”

“Embarrassing?” Night Light grinned, poking her side with a hoof. “What happened to 'Oh, fuck, Nighty, as hard as you can?' I forgot how foul-mouthed you get when you’re that... excited.”

“You love it,” she said archly, trying and failing to keep a smile from playing across her lips.

“Oh, I do,” he admitted, kissing her on the cheek. “Now we just need to get back to being alone together.”

“Well, once we hit the town…” Velvet’s eyes widened. “Oh, sweet Celestia, please, no.”

Night Light turned his gaze back down the dune to see Candy dancing backward from the engine, yelping in panic as flames burst upward from the piping. He flapped his suit coat at it in vain, merely fanning the fire. Giving it up for a lost cause, Candy grabbed his trunk’s handle in his mouth and vaulted over the side of the skiff.

The two unicorns were too tired to even move. They simply stared in appalled dismay as the fire spread. The oil that the camels had put all over the skids was flammable, apparently, Night Light noted with vacant despair as the fire hit the wooden slats and streaked instantly across the entire boat.

Candy raced around the skiff, throwing scooped hoof-fulls of sand at it, to no avail. Velvet was the first to stand, dragging her hooves down the sides of the dune toward the skiff. Night Light took a sour drink from his bottle before moving to follow.

“Five minutes!” croaked Night Light, waving a hoof vaguely beside his head as he strode up to the blazing pyre. “Can't you go five minutes without causing some new catastrophe!?”

“I-I’m sorry,” blathered Candy, sweating profusely. “I hit the magicarburetor, I think, and it sparked up and, well, there must have been some oil on the piping, or something… Oh, jeez!”

There was a little boom as the fire hit the fuel compartment, and the fan exploded. Fragments of the metal blades rained down around the skiff. Velvet looked like she was struggling not to cry.

Night Light was so far beyond angry that he found a sort of tranquil calm. He stood there with a glassy stare, as Candy stammered more apologies.

“Better get our bags, honey,” said Velvet, turning wearily toward the eastern horizon. “Looks like we’re walking.”

Night Light tossed the carpet into the fire as they left, grumbling.

* * *

If Trottingham could be described in a single word, most would choose cozy. It was a tiny hamlet, about the size of Ponyville, tucked under the shadow of Mount Er and Mount Ardlinoer. The two bulky giants of rock were nearly at the end of the natural border of Equestria and Saddle Arabia, with only a tiny pass between them leading to the other side. The town rested in a tiny bubble of pony territory on the south face of the mountains that had been won in some war fought five centuries ago.

Those origins were long-irrelevant to the town, now. Snow-dusted rooftops and smoking chimneys ruled the town’s landscape, even in the summer. These mountains were perpetually cold, sitting right at the border and providing an excellent natural cloud-catching zone for the border pegasi. Plenty of raw weather was forged into rains and snows from down here, before being spread north into the rest of Equestria.

Night Light had never been less in a mood to be cozy. Though they'd left the desert behind some time ago to cross the scrubland between it and the foothills, his skin still burned all over from the blowing sand. His eyes and lips were dry beyond belief, his throat completely parched despite the springwater. His mane felt almost crusty with how much sand had wound up trapped in it, and every time one of his sand-coated limbs rubbed against his raw skin he wanted to scream. They’d walked for three straight hours, baking under the sun and being scoured by the wind. At some point, he’d started imagining little images of Candy’s face in the sand, stepping on them with vindictive glee as he walked.

To his right, Velvet looked ready to curl up and die. She’d stopped dragging her luggage with magic, clearly exhausted, and the grip she had on her bag with her teeth looked so tight Night Light thought he might have to disentangle her from it with a crowbar. Her eyes had none of their customary sparkle left.

A nap on the tram will do us good, thought Night Light, brushing sand from his shoulder with a wince. Goddesses, he was looking forward to a rest. A real one, even, without any sexy distractions.

Candy, meanwhile, had that same crestfallen look he’d worn since lighting their ride on fire. Neither unicorn had spoken to him much in the past few hours. After an inexplicable attempt to joke about how they were making blazingly fast progress, he’d fallen blessedly silent and remained so.

Night Light glanced upward with concern as they reached the beginning of the cobblestone-paved road that ran into town. The sky above was darker than it should have been at this hour of the day. High above, he thought he could spy the faint blurs of darting pegasi in the gathering clouds.

Extremely hungry, the trio’s first stop was a café right on the edge of town. Night Light was the first one to enter, pushing the door open with a faint ringing of a bell. The café was mostly empty, but a waitress in a light blue smock cheerfully trotted up to meet them.

“Welcome, welcome,” she said, gesturing for them to follow, cringing a bit as sand crumbled onto the floor. “Plenty of tables available, as you can see. Are you three new in town?”

“Uh huh,” mumbled Velvet, looking sanguine at the thought of sitting down for a minute.

The waitress led them to a window seat, a large round table with three seating cushions around it. The weary ponies sat, dropping their various articles of luggage beside them. There were menus already available on a little display set at the table’s center.

“Awfully brave, coming out here this weekend,” said the waitress, pulling out a notepad from her smock’s front pocket. Clenching a pencil in her teeth, she scribbled something on it. “What can I get you?”

“Water,” said Velvet, her voice dry and hoarse.

“I’ll have some wine, if you have any.” Night Light rubbed his forehead.

The waitress coughed. “Wine…? Sir, it’s about two-thirty in the afternoon.”

Yes, but it’s also day four of our journey into purgatory. “So that’s a no?”

“Well, we have some cheap stuff, but I can’t really recommend it. We’re more of a luncheon place.”

“Fine, I’ll just have water, then.” He let his head rest on the table.

Candy gave the waitress a wide smile. “I’ll get some Dr. Peg if you have any.”

“Sure thing.” The waitress made to leave the table, but Velvet cleared her throat.

“What exactly did you mean about us being brave to come here?”

“Oh,” said the waitress, her eyes widening. “You didn’t know? There’s a severe weather advisory out for this entire weekend. The Ponytomac’s practically dried up this summer, so the weather council decided to whip up a snowstorm to feed the river at the source, up in the mountains. We’re gonna have the biggest blizzard Trottingham’s seen in ten years over the next few days. They’re shutting the trams down and everything.”

Night Light’s head shot up off the table. “What!?”

“Er…” The waitress looked around at the three of them. “Were you planning on taking one?”

“Yes!”

“Well, you’d better hurry, I think the last one leaves at three o'clock, on the hour. That’s roughly… twenty minutes from now,” she said, checking her watch.

Candy’s trunk scraped along the floor as the three jumped to their hooves. “Forget the water,” gasped Velvet, as they dashed for the exit.

“Tram station’s just up the road!” yelled the waitress after them.

Candy, panting with the effort of dragging his trunk, spoke up as they ran. “At least we’re getting some exercise today, huh?”

“Oh, shut up,” they both groaned in unison.

The tram station was packed when they arrived. It seemed that the last tram from Atlantrot had just pulled in, and all the new arrivals were hustling to leave the station and get to their destinations in town before the snow hit. Night Light and Velvet pushed against the crowd, fighting their way through the masses of ponies.

Ahead, the line to board the tram was long. They reached the end of it at last, only to be greeted by a harried-looking unicorn mare in a tram service uniform. “Look,” she said without preamble, “we’ve got a limited number of spots on this last hop over the mountain, so I can’t guarantee we’ll fit you on.”

“We’ll pay,” said Night Light, panting for breath.

“It’s not a matter of money, sir, it’s a matter of space.” The mare winced as the tram whistle blew, casting a glance toward the big red vehicle sitting on the tracks. It was only three cars long, to Night Light’s dismay. “We’ll get as many on as we can, and sort the payment out in Atlantrot. We can’t delay even an hour. The weather teams have already started the storm off by now. If we don’t leave on time, we’ll get stuck in the pass.”

She left them to carry on up the line, repeating her message. The Sparkles sighed, leaning in to speak to each other under the rustling noise of the crowd. “Think we’ll get on?” asked Velvet.

“If not, then… I don’t know what we’ll do,” muttered Night Light.

“We’ll be fine,” assured Candy, poking his head in beside theirs. “We can squeeze in, I’m sure of it. Heck, I’ve been in tighter spots. Why, one time…”

Night Light was growing adept at blocking Don’s voice out on a whim. He traded a grim glance with Velvet. They shuffled on as the line moved.

The intercom buzzed. “Last tram to Atlantrot leaving in one minute. All passengers, please secure your belongings and prepare for departure.”

With a chorus of panicked yelps, the remaining line dissolved into a mob of twenty-or-so ponies rushing to board the tram. Night Light and Velvet leaped over the turnstiles, dragging their luggage with them into the press of frantic travelers. Night Light shoved aside a unicorn in a tracksuit, reaching out a hoof in desperation toward the open tram door.

The doors slammed shut. A whistle blew, and the tram jerked into motion. All those left standing on the platform groaned as one.

After a few crestfallen moments, the crowd began to disperse. Velvet and Night Light remained at the edge of the platform, staring after the tram as it raced away from the station.

“Well, shit,” said Night Light.

“Language, dear; we’re in public.” Velvet sighed. “I suppose that’s it, then.”

“Oh, no it’s not. We aren’t giving up now. Not when we’re this close.” Night Light whipped around, his eyes focusing on Candy like lasers. “Don!”

Glumly, he strode up beside them, his trunk rumbling. “Sorry, guys. I really thought you two were going to make it on. Good try!”

Velvet ground her teeth. “If we’d been able to ride the skiff all the way, we could have—” She bowed her head and sighed, apparently deciding that there wasn’t any point in castigating Candy now.

Night Light didn’t agree. “Candy, you’re the reason we missed the tram, so you’re going to fix it.”

“Uh—” Candy’s eyes flicked between the two of them nervously. “How…?”

“I don’t care,” he said tartly. “Think of something.”

Velvet cleared her throat, patting his shoulder with a calming hoof. “Don, is there anyone in town who might be able to help? I’m sure you’ve been through here before, there’s bound to be somepony here who owes you a favor…”

“Um, well, it’s been a while,” said Candy, tapping a hoof. His face scrunched up, deep in thought. “I mean, the last pipes I sold in Trottingham were to a group of fellas making some sort of distillery, but I don’t think they’re still in town. Said they were going up into the mountains. It was some pretty heavy piping, too, so that it could survive the cold and the dampness up there.”

“Into the—” Velvet blinked, cringing. “Moonshiners? Don, just how many criminals do you know?”

“They’re not criminals! It’s completely legal to make your own whiskey for personal use.”

“Yes,” said Night Light dryly, “I’m sure they needed industrial-grade piping for a small personal still.” He hefted his bag. “But you said they went into the mountains. Does that mean there’s a hoof-path through?”

“Oh, yeah!” Candy’s eyes brightened. “It’s pretty twisty, but it roughly follows the tram line. Takes you all the way through the pass and ends up down near the edge of the river, flowing right into Atlantrot.”

Velvet made an apprehensive noise. “Night Light, honey, I don’t think that’s a very good idea… remember the blizzard?”

“It’s a good thing we packed warm clothes, then,” said Night Light, unzipping his bag and yanking out the thick winter coat he’d brought for their Crystal Empire visit. “Time to suit up, everypony.”

* * *

“This is crazy!” yelled Velvet over the howling wind.

Night Light, shielding his face from the endless flurries of freezing snow with a hoof, squinted into the distance. It was impossible to see more than two meters ahead in the endless white curtains falling from the dark clouds above.

His horn glowed bright yellow, the only visible light anywhere. The three ponies forged onward, crunching through the ever-deepening snow. It was already past his fetlocks, and they’d run into at least one shoulder-height snowdrift they’d had to shovel through with magic.

There was no sign of the blizzard letting up. The wind shrieked through the mountain rocks, screaming warnings to turn around. Night Light pressed on regardless, more from stubbornness at this point than determination. They were still trudging upward, following the path that Candy had led them to. It was half-buried by snow in most places, but by hugging the face of the rock to their left, they were still on course and making progress. The cliff to their right was a dangerous drop, but the path thus far had been wide enough for it not to be an issue.

Candy, who of course had a winter coat he’d pulled out of that trunk, was close behind him and Velvet. The earth pony’s teeth were chattering, but even that wasn’t enough to shut him up. “I think a song would warm us up, don’t you guys? Come on! Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety—”

“Candy, so help me goddess, if you start singing I will throw that trunk off this cliff.”

“Er, okay. How about a story to pass the time, then? How’d you and Velvet meet? I bet that’s a good one.”

“CANDY!”

“Sorry! Personal business, gotcha. If you want me to be quiet, just ask! Last thing I want to be is an annoying blabbermouth. Like my old man always said, if you can’t keep your mouth closed you might as well—”

Night Light whirled around, livid. “Candy, just shut up for ten seconds!”

Candy’s rambling words instantly paused, his hooves slowing to a halt as well. “I… sorry, I—”

His mouth twitched into a forced smile, but his eyes were filled with hurt. Night Light knew he ought to stop now, but it was too late; the dam had burst. “I’ve had it with you.”

Velvet cringed, lifting a hesitant hoof. Candy’s eyes narrowed, and he frowned. “You’re not a very patient person, are you?”

“Screw you,” said Night Light, jabbing a hoof at him. “You barged into our cabin on the train, drooled all over my shoulder, dragged us into some mugging racket, burned down our vehicle, and stranded us in the desert!”

“Honey, please,” begged Velvet, putting her hoof on his shoulder, brushing aside the piling snow on his coat. “Not so loud! With all this loose new snow, you could set off an avalanche.”

Candy scowled. “Well who got you a ride out of the border city? A free ride? And showed you where to get some water in the middle of a continental desert, so that you didn’t dehydrate to death out there? Sisters, you’re an ungrateful jerk.”

“Oh, please,” growled Night Light, “like you’re doing this out of the goodness of your heart. You’re just hoping that we can get you back home, wherever the hell that is. That’s why you’ve been stuck to us like glue from the moment we met.”

He nodded furiously to himself, stepping toward Candy and poking his chest. “Yes, I’ve figured it out. That’s why you won’t leave us alone. You want us to owe you one of those favors, don’t you? What, you think if you pester us across the whole continent, we’ll buy you an airship ticket?”

Candy’s lip trembled. Velvet, pressing a hoof against Night Light’s chest and separating the two stallions, stammered in the cold, “Let’s n-not fight, please. Nighty, honey, just take a deep breath and—”

“You’re half-right,” said Candy quietly, his gaze falling to the snow. “I was hoping that you guys might help me out. But I wasn’t going to ask for any money, I swear! Maybe just a lift somewhere on your way back. And that’s not why I helped you in the first place. I thought… I thought we could be friends.” He looked back up at Night Light, swallowing. “I know I talk too much. I know ponies find me annoying. I just… I just wanted to get to know some new faces, maybe make the trip less lonely for all of us.”

The heat of Night Light’s anger sizzled down in the snow, extinguishing with a silent, mental hiss. He set his hoof back on the freezing ground, unable to hold Candy’s gaze. “I…”

Candy kicked the snow glumly. “I won’t bother you anymore. Once we get through the pass, that’ll be the last you see of me. I’m sorry I messed up your vacation.”

There was a long silence, aside from the piercing wind that whipped against their coat hoods. Night Light struggled to find appropriate words. “Don, I didn’t mean to… you’re not… our trip got messed up before we even met you.”

Velvet, biting her lip, remained silent. She glared expectantly at Night Light. This was his mess to fix, her eyes warned.

He gave her a small, guilty nod. “I’m sorry, Don. I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t have yelled. I know you’re just trying to help. I’m just very… very stressed this week.”

Candy’s face lightened a touch. “It’s okay, Night Light. I know how that feels. Apology accepted.”

“Look, when we get through the mountains…” Night Light rubbed his left fetlock. “Well, let me and Velvet talk about helping you out. Maybe there’s something we can do for you. We do owe you for the skiff ride.”

Don managed a smile, waving this off. “Don’t worry about it. Friends help friends for free, right? You don’t owe me anything.”

Velvet, shivering, gave an abrupt clap of her forehooves. “Well, that’s settled, then. Why don’t we all get moving before we freeze to death?”

Sheepishly, Night Light nodded. He turned to carry on up the path. His first hoofstep crunched down into the snow, and he heard a faint, distant rumbling from above.

All three of them craned their heads upward. “Thunder?” asked Velvet with evident apprehension.

“No…” Night Light’s eyes widened. “Avalanche!”

The rumbling grew louder. The shining light of his horn revealed the first skittering waves of snow as they came tumbling down toward the ponies. “Run!” yelled Velvet. All three of them raced forward, hoping to get far enough uphill to avoid the snowfall.

Giant chunks of compacted snow rained down around them. “Oh, Sisters, we’re not going to make it,” shouted Night Light. “Velvet! Get ready, I’ll have to make a shield—”

“Look!” called Candy around the handle of his trunk, pointing ahead. “A cave!”

“Go, go!” Velvet was the first inside, racing into the mouth of the cave and whirling her hoof for them to follow.

Night Light made it inside, turning to see a massive wave of snow sliding down toward them. “Oh, sweet Sisters—Candy, hurry!”

Don wasn’t going to make it in time. With the handle of that enormous trunk still clenched in his mouth, he was too slow to outpace the tremendous mass of ice and rock coming down at him.

“Get Don!” Night Light’s horn burst to life, and the trunk ripped out of Candy’s mouth into the cave. Candy had a moment to pause in shock before a violet aura enveloped him, and he was yanked after his luggage by Velvet’s more powerful pull.

The entrance vanished as ten thousand tons of snow and stone buried it in a thunderous cavalcade. The ponies recoiled, avoiding the snow that spilled into the cave. Night Light threw up a magical barrier, straining to keep the snow from pushing deeper into the cave and smothering them. The cacophony continued for a solid minute, as the three sat together in terrified stillness, lit only by the light from the unicorns’ horns.

At last, the rumbling faded. Night Light exhaled, finally releasing some of the tension in his spine and chest. “Well… we’re alive.” He let his shield down.

Velvet cautiously approached the wall of snow blocking them inside. “You think it’s safe to move?”

Night Light took a deep breath, rubbing his forehead. “Even if it is, the path outside has to be completely buried.”

“Hang on…” Candy looked around. “Can we get a little more light?”

The unicorns obliged him. The glow of their horns revealed that the cave went deeper into the mountain, a small tunnel leading off into unknown depths. Candy walked toward the beginning of the tunnel, peering at the rock wall. “Ha! I knew it.”

Velvet raised an eyebrow. “Yes…?”

“Check it out.” Candy pointed to a series of scratches on the rock. Night Light tilted his head, trying to make sense of the symbol, but it looked completely random to him. Candy seemed cheered, however. “Remember those guys I sold pipes to? This is their company logo!”

“Uh… huh,” said Night Light, slowly. “So you think they’re inside this cave, somewhere?”

“They might be, unless they got out before the blizzard hit. Come on, let’s go check it out! Maybe we can find another way out of here.” Candy started off down the tunnel, pausing when he reached the limits of their magical light. “You guys coming?”

Velvet sighed. “Well, honey?”

“If we try getting through that snow, we might trigger another avalanche…” Night Light hung his head. “Lead on, Candy.”

* * *

The caves appeared to go on for miles, splitting into innumerable forks every few minutes. They followed the twisting tunnels at Candy’s direction, always taking the path marked by the distillers' symbol. Night Light’s bag felt leaden on his back. He wasn’t sure how much more of this his hooves could take, but they didn’t have time to stop and rest—their flight left tomorrow morning. He was starting to give up hope of making it in time—by now, he’d simply be happy to escape this cavern with all their lives still intact. His sanity would be a nice, optional bonus.

At last, they came to a wide cavern. The chamber stretched out around them, lit not just by the horn light but by countless green gems, glittering on the domed rock ceiling. The light revealed a chasm, carved by a coursing river that sliced through the rocky floor from a waterfall above and to the right. After a short run through the cave, the river disappeared into a black pit on the far left. There was a natural stone bridge over the water, rocky but smooth from the erosion of the waterfall’s spray.

“We really should have brought a camera,” whispered Velvet.

“Careful, now,” said Night Light as they reached the bridge. “Looks pretty slippery.”

Candy went first, hauling his trunk. Night Light was reassured to see that the bridge took the combined weight easily. He and Velvet moved to follow.

“Hold it!” shouted an unfamiliar voice.

All three of them froze, looking around for the source. Night Light’s eyes landed on a light green earth pony standing up at the top of the waterfall on a tiny spit of rock that extended backward along with the river.

The newcomer glared down at them all. “Thought you’d sneak up on us, did you? Well, we’ve got that whole bridge rigged up with dynamite and ready to blow. So you’d better turn right around and head back to wherever you came from. The fuzz ain’t gonna get into our territory.”

Candy blinked in shock. “Gus, is that you?”

A pause ensued. “Don? Don Candy?”

“It is you! How are you, you old devil? Still making that crazy brew?”

“Yeah,” said Gus, sounding confused and wary. “We’ve been branching out into mining, too. What the hell are you doing here, Don?”

“Ah, well,” began Candy, gesturing toward Night Light and Velvet.

Night Light cleared his throat. “We’re trying to get through the mountains. We got trapped in a cave by an avalanche.”

“Oh.” Gus appeared to relax. “So, you didn’t know we were down here?”

“No, and we’ll forget all about you the second we’re out of these caves,” said Night Light. “Let us pass, please?”

“Hmmm…” Gus pointed to the opposite side of the cavern from them, where another tunnel waited. “Go through there. We’ll meet on the other side and talk.”

With a grateful wave, Night Light and Velvet continued on after Candy, passing the bridge and entering the tunnel.

After a few minutes’ walk, they exited the tunnel into another huge cavern. This one dwarfed the last, stretching out far into the distance. The ceiling far above them was speckled like the night sky, only with multicolored gemstones instead of stars. The floor of the cavern was split by half a dozen flowing cave rivers, all winding around small islands of rock to join together far at the left side of the cavern, disappearing into a low tunnel.

To the right of the tunnel exit was a camp of sorts. A number of tents, campfires, and various pieces of industrial equipment sat by the riverside, the metal piping on the machines reflecting the gemlight like kaleidoscopes.

A group of ponies approached the three of them from the camp, led by Gus. The earth pony gave them all a skeptical looking-over. “So, you’re trying to get to Trottingham?”

“Other way,” said Night Light. “We’ve got a flight to catch in Atlantrot at nine tomorrow morning.”

Gus whistled. “Got a tight schedule, don’t you? It’s already midnight.”

Night Light rubbed his eyes. Well, that explains why I’m so tired. It hadn’t felt like they’d been walking through the pass for that long, but he supposed it was easy to lose track of time without being able to see the sun.

“It’ll take you a good six hours to walk from here down the mountain pass,” continued Gus. “Assuming you don’t take a wrong turn in the tunnels.”

“Shit,” mumbled Night Light.

“Language, honey…”

He rolled his eyes. After all that cursing she’d done last night—or last last night, by now—he couldn’t believe Velvet was insisting on propriety. “Fine. So we’re walking straight through the night, then. Unless you know a faster way?”

“I… might.” Gus gave the river a side-eyed glance. “But it won’t be free.”

Candy made a little ahem. “Gus, buddy, come on. I kept quiet about this place for you, just like I promised. Skip the charge, why don’tcha?”

“For you, sure,” said Gus. “Hey, Blueberry, get Don a boat, would you?”

“Sure thing,” said one of the moonshiners. He jerked a hoof at Don to follow him.

Candy blinked, looking at his traveling companions. “Um…”

“It’s fine, Don,” muttered Velvet. “Go ahead.”

“I’ll wait for you,” he promised, hefting his trunk and heading after the moonshiner.

The rest of the moonshiners began to drift away. Night Light could see a huge still in the camp, vibrating slightly as it pumped liquid. These ponies didn’t even stop business for a blizzard, it seemed.

Gus gave the two of them a greasy grin. “So, you two ready to… pony up some cash?”

Ugh, he thinks he’s witty. Night Light gritted his teeth. “How much?”

“A hundred bits.”

“Done.”

Gus laughed. “Anypony who’d agree that easily would definitely pay two hundred.”

Night Light’s cheek twitched. “Fine. Two hundred, but no more. Now what’s this about a boat?”

Gus pointed down the river at the exit tunnel. “That channel feeds right into the Ponytomac at the base of the mountains. The river can carry you down there in an hour, tops. We use it to, uh, deliver our goods into the city. Helps to avoid all those nosy customs officers.”

“Fine with me,” said Night Light. “I’d rather not get entangled with any police right now myself.” After all, they technically hadn’t crossed through border customs on their way back into Equestria. Probably nothing to worry about, but with their luck this week, he wasn’t going to take the chance.

“Good.” Gus started walking toward the river shore. The unicorns followed. “We’ll lend you a little rowboat. Make sure you park it on the bank of the river when you reach the city, I want it back. I’ll send someone to pick it up on our next trip to the city.”

“Not a problem.”

“And this is important: keep right at all times. There’s a fork in the river about half a mile from this cavern, and you don’t want to take the wrong branch.”

Velvet nodded. “Noted.”

He showed them to their boat, and gave Velvet a brief primer on good rowing technique while Night Light fished out the payment. A minute later, and they were situated in the boat, their bags stowed at the front.

Candy drifted up beside them in another boat. “All right! We’re back on track again, huh?”

Gus knocked on the side of the boat once before pressing his hooves against it and shoving them into the water. “Have fun. And remember: stay to the right!”

Side-by-side, the boats set off into the river tunnel, the Sparkles’ oars propelled by magic. Night Light watched behind them as the camp vanished into the darkness, shaking his head. “I swear, we’re going to end up smuggling something by the time this is all done.”

Candy, huffing and puffing at his oars, rolled up beside them. “Hey, guys, mind doing me a favor?”

Velvet’s horn winked, and his oars began to slice through the water on their own. Candy gave a sigh of relief. “You’re the best, Velv.”

Her nose twitched a little at the awful nickname. Night Light coughed, hiding his amusement. She shot him an acerbic look.

Candy tapped a hoof on his trunk. “So…”

Night Light sighed, preparing for more droning, but Candy bit his lip thoughtfully. “Do you two have any plans, once you get to Griffrance?”

“Well, we’re going to make some… purchases, first, I think,” said Velvet, smiling at him. “Then a day or two at the beaches.”

“Purchases…?”

Night Light coughed. “Um. Entertainment… stuff.”

“Oh!” Candy’s eyes brightened. “You know, my wife works for an entertainment retailer. She sells magazines and other doodads.”

Trying not to blush, Night Light nodded politely. What we’re after isn’t exactly a ‘doodad’, he thought, stifling another cough. “To be honest, what I’m looking forward to the most right now is our airship ride. I want some sleep in the worst way.”

“You and me both,” said Candy, yawning.

“Oh, I’m looking forward to some other things,” said Velvet, sitting upright. “Hey, you two had better keep an eye out for that fork the moonshiners mentioned.”

“Right!” said Candy, looking forward with alertness.

Night Light peered into the dim tunnel ahead of them. He didn’t see anything but more gently curving tunnel. He was about to tell Candy to relax, when he felt a twitch on the inseam of his snow pants.

Raising an eyebrow, he turned his head ever-so-slightly to Velvet, who had a devilish grin on her face under the pulsing light of her horn. “Don’t get distracted now,” she whispered. “You’ve got to keep our little boat on course.”

Night Light nearly choked as he felt a brush over his crotch. Normally, magic didn’t feel like much of anything—you could push someone around, and one of his favorite moves was tweaking various elements of his wife’s anatomy, but it wasn’t the same as being touched. There wasn’t a sensation of pressure or texture, just movement. Now, though, with his sensitive bits surrounded by cloth, Velvet had plenty of material to rub against them. “Is this… really the best time?” he murmured quietly. “Candy’s right there…”

“Better not react, then,” she whispered, before giving a theatrical yawn. “Payback for nearly getting us caught by that mare on the train.”

Swallowing, Night Light sat up straighter, fixing his gaze forward. Between this and her reactions on the train ride, he was starting to think his wife had a thing for stealthy exhibitionism. He lifted an eyebrow thoughtfully. I suppose learning that is why we’re on this trip in the first place, hm? With a mental shrug, he decided to simply enjoy the attention.

The fabric of his pants stroked the tip of his member, which he could feel peeking out of its sheath. He pressed his forehooves into the deck of the boat, inhaling sharply as his hind legs twitched apart. He shot a glance toward Candy, but the other stallion either hadn’t noticed or was being politely oblivious.

Night Light let a smile creep onto his face as a slow, feathery touch drifted down the length of his shaft, coming down to hold at the base with gentle pressure. There, it began to rub in tiny circles, drawing another leg twitch.

He was hard, now. Every little movement he made brushed the whole length of his cock against the soft inner fabric of the snow pants. Trying to control his breathing, he wiggled his hips back and forth, burying a satisfied noise. Gotta be quiet, he thought, glancing again at Candy. Fortunately, he and his wife had gotten very good at that with two children in the house.

More tendrils of magical touch traced lines across his skin, on his inner thighs, his chest, and his back. Night Light closed his eyes, feeling his skin tingle under the feel of the stroking cloth. The pressure on the base of his shaft suddenly increased, still moving in small circles, and went lower, pressing down between his cock and his balls. They ached with tension as they were pressed down upon, and his shaft began to twitch of its own accord. Night Light set a hoof on the side of the boat to steady himself, glorying in the fingers of magic stroking him all over.

He hoped she wasn’t planning to take him all the way like this. Getting cum out of these clothes would be a nightmare. No, Velvet was good at thinking ahead; she’d have something else planned.

Unless that’s part of her revenge, he thought nervously.

Night Light nearly jumped as his entire shaft was suddenly seized in a magical grip, as much as the fabric allowed. It began pumping up and down, slowly at first, and he let out a shaky, quiet breath. The cloth was silky-smooth inside, sliding across the loose skin of his cock with pleasurable slipperiness. Another touch rested on his flared tip, pressing right over the hole and moving in slow, heavy rotations. It felt damp, likely smearing a drop of pre-cum all over the head.

“Hey,” said Candy, “I think that might be the fork up ahead.”

With a hint of sultry deviousness, Velvet said, “Ah, good. Keep to the right, now…”

Night Light’s brow furrowed. “Hang on. Are we sure that’s a good idea?”

The other two looked at him in confusion. Night Light frowned. “Remember what happened with Candy’s last old friend. I’m worried that Gus and his buddies might be trying to get rid of us so we don’t tell anyone about this place.”

Candy gasped. “No! He wouldn’t. Gus is—”

“A great guy, right,” said Night Light, his frown deepening. “I don’t buy it. Honey, we’re going left.”

Velvet bit her lip nervously under the purple light of her horn, and the rubbing on his nether regions paused. “Dear, are you sure that’s…”

Candy shook his head frantically. “We’ve gotta go right, Night Light. Who knows where the other path goes? It might not even head out into the Ponytomac at all. You could end up somewhere deep under the earth, with no way out!”

“Strand me in the desert once, shame on me. Strand me under the mountain after that…” Night Light shook his head. “Left we go!” His horn glowed, and their boat jerked to the side.

The pillar of rock dividing the two courses of the river loomed ahead. With a squeal of terror, Candy lurched over the side of his boat and grabbed ahold of theirs. “No! You can’t!”

Night Light kept the boat on course, the left oar still rowing, the right locked to the boat’s side by Candy’s own craft. “Let go, Candy, before you fall ou—”

Candy toppled. His boat slipped out from under him, and he went plunging into the river. Night Light sat forward in disbelief, stretching out a reflexive hoof. Candy surfaced with splashing hooves. “Whooooaah!” he yelled, “That’s cold!”

Velvet, her face filled with alarm, lit her horn with blazing violet and yanked Candy up out of the water to drop him back in his boat. He had just a moment to look up and stretch out a hoof, calling “Wait!” before the pillar swept between them. Then the river split, and Candy was gone.

“Honey, we’ve got to—”

“I know, I know,” said Night Light, reversing the rotation of the oars. “We can’t let him go off on his own, he’ll get…” He paused. The oars were moving, but their boat was still heading forward. “Uh… I think the current’s picking up.”

Their boat shot forward as the tunnel suddenly narrowed. The water was coursing fast now, far faster than their oars could counteract. Velvet gritted her teeth. “Oh, honey, we should’ve just gone right.”

“We’ll be fine,” said Night Light, swallowing. “Just hang on.”

The current was getting swifter by the second. Their boat rocked in the river as water splashed up against the sides. Night Light gave up on the oars and stowed them in the boat. Pressing his hooves to the sides of the boat to steady himself, he braced.

“Turn!” said Velvet. A wall flashed up at them, and Night Light’s horn flared. The boat yanked to the left, tilting so much that the unicorns nearly spilled out, and they followed the course of the river onward.

“Do you hear that?” asked Night Light faintly. In the distance, he could hear a rumbling sound. He looked over his wife’s shoulder and swallowed again.

From her seat in front of him, Velvet gave him a very dry look. “That’s a waterfall.”

“Yep.”

“A twenty meter drop?”

“At least.”

Velvet took a deep breath. “If we survive this, I’m going to slap you.”

“Fair enough.” Night Light clenched his teeth. “Just close your eyes and hang on tight.” His horn flashed to life, a yellow sphere encircling them. His shields were nearly as good as their son’s, though he wasn’t sure it was going to be enough. His heart was pumping hard, that familiar spike of adrenaline making him feel delightfully alive.

Velvet turned slowly over her shoulder, dread etched in her face. “Oh, Goddesses, I hate heights…”

The river shot out of the tunnel, and the rumble rose to a roar. Night Light’s eyes widened as he saw the water spread out to join a dozen other tunnel mouths, all feeding into the widest waterfall he’d ever seen. It had to be half a hundred meters across, and so loud that he could barely hear himself think.

Their boat raced toward the edge, and Velvet suddenly grabbed him with her forelegs. Even through their thick clothing, he could feel her trembling. They reached the drop, and hurtled over.

“Night Liiiiiiiiiiiiight!”

His stomach leaped up somewhere in his throat as their boat tipped. Twenty meters down, the water crashed into another river, but it only stretched on for two meters before dissolving into another series of waterfalls that seemed to stretch out under them forever.

The unicorns screamed; Velvet in terror, Night Light in a kind of exhilaration. Their boat, surrounded by a bubble of yellow magic, plummeted down. They crashed into the water, splashing it all around, some seeping through the shield to spray them both. It was freezing cold, enough to take his breath away.

They rocketed over the next fall, tumbling upside down. Velvet kept screaming, clinging to him, but Night Light grinned. “Ha-ha! Hang on!” They smashed into the water, plunging in, but held inside the boat by his shield. His face smashed up against the magical barrier for a moment and his bag hit him in the back of the head, before their boat flipped over again to right itself.

Then they were going over again. Crashing into the next river, their boat rocked violently. The unicorns, soaked by the water, were knocked against the side. They rolled over the next drop, then again, and again, a constant rhythm of falling and crashing and splashing that left Night Light dizzy. Their boat smashed against at least a dozen rocks with enough force to make his teeth ache, but the magical shield held.

The final waterfall loomed ahead of them at last, rushing toward their boat like a freight train. Night Light gave a gleeful holler as they shot off the edge. “Oh, Sisters!” The drop was almost forty meters, the river rushing up at them in the light of his horn. Velvet, her face buried in his chest, clutched him tighter.

They fell for what seemed like an eternity, the wind rushing past his face. The water loomed large, and they crashed into it like a cannonball. The boat and the bubble submerged completely in the frigid water, whirling around in the angry currents. It surfaced after a moment, Night Light spitting water out of his mouth.

The boat swayed, but they were no longer falling and twisting, just rocketing along in the grip of the river. With another adrenaline-soaked laugh, Night Light let his shield splinter apart, the light fragmenting and fading.

Velvet, quivering, lifted her head to look into his eyes. He beamed at her. “Now that was fun.”

She slapped him so hard his head spun around. Night Light blinked, grinning, before whipping his head back and planting a kiss on her lips.

“Mmf!” she managed, before he thrust his tongue into her mouth. After a moment of surprise, she grabbed his head and pulled him closer. Through their touching chests, Night Light could feel her heart thudding just as hard as his own.

She closed her eyes, her own tongue entwining with his, slamming her forehooves against his chest and pushing him down into the boat. Night Light yanked out of the kiss, gasping for air. His hooves flicked up, fumbling with the zipper on her coat. Velvet’s horn glowed, and his own coat unzipped in a single, swift motion. He wriggled free of it, dumping the sodden garment in the back of the boat. A moment and a few flashes of magic later and Velvet’s boots, coat, and pants were thrust aside to join it.

Velvet dove for his pants, yanking on them and popping the button open with her mouth. Night Light groaned as his erection popped free, then again more loudly as the wet heat of Velvet’s mouth enveloped him. The contrast between her warmth and the freezing water drenching his skin sent electric shocks running through his body.

He toppled down into the boat, drawing a little urk from her as she adjusted. Night Light plunged his head upside-down between her own legs, licking her delicious pussy lips, which were already flushed pink with arousal. He pressed the flat of his tongue against that triangle of soft, pink flesh between her clit and her pussy entrance, rubbing his head back and forth with frantic need.

Velvet moaned around his cock, sucking on him desperately. He felt her tongue roll around his shaft, and his breath escaped him with a hiss. His hips thrust forward, drawing another noise of surprise from her. She took it like a champ, as always. Night Light’s face collapsed into bliss as his wife deep throated his entire cock, her most incredible talent.

The damp, wet heat of her throat surrounded his shaft, squeezing it on all sides, tighter than her pussy could ever be. He groaned, licking her again. Lifting his chin, he thrust his tongue into her pussy proper, going as deep as he could. Velvet’s legs clenched the sides of his head, making him shiver under the touch of the cold water on her skin, and her tongue rolled along the top of his cock as she pulled back off of it to give the head some attention.

The incredible scent of her pussy filled his nose, his other senses blasted away under the explosion of lust bursting in his brain. With a hoof resting on her clit, he began to rub in time with the pulsing motion of his tongue.

Velvet’s tongue pressed down on the head of his cock, lathering him with saliva. He felt her hoof touch his balls, pressing up under them to touch his shaft through them, and he nearly lost it right there. Night Light thrusted, trying to resist the urge to let loose and full-on fuck her face, managing at least to keep his jerky motions slow enough for her to handle.

She slurped on his cockhead, before inhaling through her nose and letting him thrust deep inside her. Slap slip plop went his cock as it slid into and out of her throat, matched by the wet slaps of his tongue on and in her pussy.

Velvet was dripping everywhere, trickles of her pussy juice dribbling down Night Light’s chin. The musky smell of her soaking vagina obliterated all thought. He circled her midsection with his forelegs, pulling her hindquarters into his face as hard as he could. She squealed as he flicked his tongue down for a moment to brush against her clit.

A hoof joined her mouth on his shaft, the gentle pressure sliding over his slippery, spit-covered cock as he thrusted. Night Light pumped faster, unable to hold back. The hoof lifted, and without warning, he felt something warm and wet wedge itself between his butt cheeks. His eyebrows shot up. Velvet poked his asshole with the hoof, covered in her juicy spit, and rubbed in a tiny circle around it.

His eyes fluttered closed, unable to remain open under the pleasure wracking his body, and he began to suckle her clit. Velvet thrusted her own hips, mashing them into his face.

Little tingles ran through him from his ass to the tip of his cock, so good he couldn’t stop himself from moaning. Velvet dived down on him, as deep as she could physically go, her nose pushing into his balls and his head sliding deep into her hot, slick throat.

He felt cum boiling up from the base of his cock, trying to hold it back as long as he could. He ought to warn her, but he couldn’t string the words together, couldn’t pull his head away from his own efforts to pleasure her. Instead, very gently, he nibbled on the hood of her clitoris.

Velvet let out a whimper of agonized ecstasy, and that was more than he could resist. The cum came pulsing up in a sudden wave, mind-meltingly good, bursting from his cock inside her throat. She stayed deep, massaging his asshole with one hoof, and the bottom of his balls with the other. As his hips quivered and he spilled himself deep inside her, Night Light bucked violently. Velvet rode it out, her tender touch never leaving his body.

He slumped bonelessly to the bottom of the boat, feeling the aftershocks and the last reluctant dribbles of cum seep from his cock. Velvet’s throat pulsed around him as she swallowed, and Night Light jerked a hoof up to rub her pussy in the absence of his mouth.

His cock, soft and spent, flopped out of her mouth at last. Velvet coughed, wiping her lips. “Ah… ah…” she panted, letting her head fall between his legs to rest.

It was a struggle not to immediately crash into an exhausted snooze. Can’t… leave her… hanging… he thought, remembering the dreadful night that had started all this. That’s not happening again if I can help it. Night Light returned his mouth to her pussy, devouring it with his tongue.

The equally tired mare just rested against him, holding his pelvis with her hooves and letting out little satisfied murmurs. The water had begun to dry off of their bodies in the warming air, but her pussy and his face were still drenched with natural lubricant.

At last, Velvet’s hips gave a familiar tremble. Night Light smiled tiredly as he coaxed her to the edge, exulting in the sudden flood of fluid from her pussy. It splashed across his face, dripping down onto the wood. He licked her through her climax, her quiet nonsensical mumbles sounding like music to his ears.

They lay there for a solid minute, breathing heavily. Gradually, he became aware that the gentle rocking of the boat had calmed greatly, the current having steadied some time ago. He lifted his head and inhaled in surprise. Above them were stars, not rock. They’d passed out of the caves.

“Honey…” murmured Velvet, shifting to a more comfortable position. “Did we make it?”

“I think so,” he breathed, turning to look ahead of them and smiling.

The nighttime countryside was broken by the spread of an enormous city. Huge buildings and innumerable twinkling lights shone radiantly through the night, announcing to the surrounding countryside that newcomers were entering the grand metropolis of Atlantrot.

He yawned, letting his head rest on the side of the boat. Velvet dragged herself upright, chest heaving. “Don’t fall asleep, honey… we could miss our flight.”

“I’ll wait till we reach the terminal,” he assured her, rubbing his eyes. A grin spread on his face. “You’ve got a little, uh…” he pointed to the corner of her mouth, where a streak of white liquid remained splattered on her skin.

Smiling coyly, she stretched her tongue out and slowly licked the area, pulling the little droplets of cum back into her mouth and swallowing loudly.

Night Light leaned forward and kissed her, tasting the slight tang of his sweat still lingering on her tongue. They stayed pressed together that way for a long time, floating gently down the river, enjoying the warm summer air as it welcomed them back from the mountains.

* * *

The Ponytomac split Atlantrot nearly in half, before running down to join the sea on the nearby eastern coastline. As the winding river passed through the city, it was criss-crossed with hundreds of bridges, but the banks of the river were mostly vertical concrete walls. It took Velvet and Night Light nearly half an hour to find a good spot to land their boat.

There was a gap in the concrete by the side of a particularly large bridge. The embankment was taken up by a dirt trail that led down to a small pier, where a large garbage tanker waited to take the city’s trash away to other climes.

Wrinkling his nose, Night Light steered them toward it. They pulled up to the side of the pier, hopping out and pulling all their belongings with them. Thanks to his shield bubble, their bags had survived the waterfalls and even stayed in the boat. Their wet clothing was quickly stuffed inside the luggage, to be dried after they got on the airship.

“Hey, look,” said Velvet, pointing. Night Light glanced after her hoof and smiled. A second boat, identical to theirs, already rested by the pier, tied with a rope to one of the poles.

“So Candy made it. Maybe we’ll run into him on our way to catch our flight.” Night Light hefted his bag. “No time to go looking for him, though.”

“He’ll be fine on his own,” said Velvet. “I’m sure he has some seedy underworld connection here who’ll help him out…”

The two ponies, weary, hungry, and still very satisfied, left the boat tied at the pier and made their way up into the city streets. They had at least a few hours to find the airport, Night Light reflected, as he took a swig from his water bottle. He smacked his lips at the refreshing taste of the cool oasis water. They were so close, now. He wasn’t going to let anything stop them from getting on that flight.

6. Mile High Club

As the two trotted along the smoothly-paved street, Velvet smothered a yawn with her hoof. It was taking a considerable amount of effort to stay standing. “Honey, I think we were supposed to take a left back there… Do you still have that map?”

“It’s—” Night Light caught the yawn, smacking his lips tiredly. “It’s in my bag. Give me a second.”

While he ruffled through his belongings, Velvet looked around with a faint smile, taking in the city. Even in the early hours of the morning, the sounds of city life surrounded them: the trundling of cart wheels as street vendors took their positions for the day, the barking of distant pet dogs on their morning walks, and the cooing of doves as they soared between the towering buildings.

“What the—awwww, great.” Night Light swore, but there was little energy behind it. “Our boarding passes got soaked.” Sighing, he held up a wad of dripping paper.

Velvet put a hoof to her forehead. “Of course. What now?”

“I mean, at least we’ll still be able to get on the flight, they have our names on the cabin reservation.” He shook his head. “But I bet the map’s just as ruined, wherever it is in here…”

Biting her lip, Velvet scanned their surroundings. Her face brightened when she spotted the familiar logo of the Equestrian postal services on a building at the end of the block. “They’ll have maps at the post office!”

“For sale…?”

“Even if they aren’t, we can at least get directions to the airport. Besides, we need to send another letter to Shiny and Cadance to let them know we made it to the city.” She hooked a hoof through her luggage handle and began plodding toward the office. “Come on, honey, just another hour or two and we can rest.”

Nodding wearily, Night Light repacked his bag and flung it over his back. The two marched down the street in exhausted silence.

In a bit of long-deserved good fortune, they discovered that the post office opened early. Velvet snuck a look at the wall clock as they entered, sucking in an alarmed breath as she saw the hour hand pointing halfway between the seven and the eight. The clock sat right above a huge map of the city, to her relief. “We’re going to be cutting it close, honey. You check the map for the airport, I’ll get the letter made out.”

While Night Light busied himself in study of the map, she approached the desk and rang the bell. After a few moments, a sleepy-looking pegasus in a postal service uniform appeared, rubbing her eyes. “Can I help you, ma’am?” slurred the mare.

“I’d like to send a letter…”

After another short wait to receive stationary, a pen, and to pay for her stamps, Velvet quickly scribbled down her missive.

Dear Shining Armor and Cadance,

Your father and I have made it to Atlantrot. We’re still on track to catch our flight, but probably won’t be able to send you another letter until we reach Griffrance. If you send us any replies, address them to our hotel there. Sorry for the short message but we’re in a bit of a time crunch.

Love you,

Mom & Dad

Swiftly addressing the letter and slapping the stamps on it, she thrust it at the pegasus and turned back to her husband. “Got the airport directions, honey?”

“Yeah, and it’s close. We just follow this road another few blocks, hang a right, and we’ll be able to see the entrance.” Night Light smiled, despite the dark circles under his eyes. “Just a little longer.”

* * *

The ugly blocks of concrete that made up the airport loomed above them. The only interruptions in the gray walls were a series of windows that gave a view through the entire building lobby out onto the tarmac beyond, where dozens—no, hundreds of airships and small propeller planes filled the airstrip. Velvet watched an airship lift off, gently ascending into the clouds, with a delighted smile on her face.

“Come on,” mumbled Night Light, pushing into the lobby through the glass door. “I’m sure there’s a line to get to the gates…”

The airport was packed. Even Canterlot’s train station had more room. Innumerable ponies, ranging from the frantic to the bored, filled the cavernous lobby from wall to wall. Velvet spotted the large hanging sign that read GATE PROMENADE & SECURITY CHECKPOINT, and pointed. Readjusting their luggage, the unicorns made their way toward it, muttering excuse mes to the other ponies caught in the airport’s bureaucratic flytrap. They reached the end of the line and settled in to wait.

Night Light nearly dozed off against one of the poles holding up the waiting-line ribbons. Velvet had to shake him for several seconds to get him moving again as the line slowly ground forward through the security screening being conducted by a small team of ponies in blue airport uniforms.

At last, they reached the huge bag-checking machine. They gave their passports to the first officer, sitting behind a small podium, then moved forward to dump their luggage onto the conveyor belt. It would carry their bags into a small chamber to be magically examined by trained unicorns for dangerous items. While that took place, the two ponies walked around to pass through the magic detectors. Velvet went first, walking slowly through the metal arch without a beep, smiling and taking her place on the other side to wait for her husband.

Night Light was halfway through the arch when an alarm went off. A small, urgent doo-doo-doo filled the air, and all the ponies on the security team scowled. Her husband’s eyes rolled up to look beseechingly at the ceiling.

“Please step aside, sir,” said the stallion performing the detector checks. “We’ve found something in your bag.”

With a sigh, Night Light left the line to walk over toward the team sitting behind the luggage machine. Velvet followed him, shaking her head.

Their luggage had been pulled off the line, lying open on the floor with their contents strewn about, like roadkill. A stern unicorn stallion standing over Velvet’s dissected bag lifted the pair of hoof-cuffs, clearing his throat. “Elyritum, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Yes,” said Night Light, his eyes narrowing in irritation. “Perfectly legal to bring on transoceanic flights. I checked that before packing them.”

“Yes… normally we wouldn’t stop you over these, but hoof-cuffs?” The security officer frowned. “I can’t let you bring these. The material itself might not be on the restricted list, but there’s any number of ways you might cause problems with anti-magic restraints.”

Velvet blew out a disappointed sigh. So much for turning the tables on her husband.

Night Light had a different idea, apparently, raising an eyebrow. “You think I want to cause problems?” His voice sounded dangerously strained, and Velvet got a sinking feeling. After the way he’d blown up at Candy in the mountains, she was worried that this might be the thing that pushed him too far.

“Uh, honey,” she said, “it’s okay, we can—”

“Actually,” said Night Light, “those are for my wife.”

Burying her face in an embarrassed hoof, Velvet waited in mortified hope for the ground to open up and swallow her.

The security stallion made an unexpectedly alarmed noise. “What? You’re keeping your wife chained up?” His horn glowed. “Donnelly, sounds like we’ve got an equine trafficker on our hooves.”

“It’s a sex thing!” shouted Night Light, waving angrily, and Velvet sat heavily as her other forehoof joined the first. “Hear that, everypony? My wife and I have sex! Shocking, I know.” His eye twitched. There was some amused tittering from the ponies waiting in line.

The security officer had the grace to blush, but the stern look never left his face. “Sir, there’s no need to make a scene.”

“A scene? You want a scene?” Night Light’s voice had raised an octave. “Listen here, you puffed-up rent-a-cop, you wouldn’t know a bomb from your own dick, so let us through already and quit dragging our personal belongings out in public.”

Uh oh, thought Velvet, peering through her hooves. It might be time to intervene, before he got them any deeper into trouble.

The security stallion’s face creased into an unfriendly smile. “Well, well. I think somepony wants a cavity search. Donnelly! Let’s take our friend here to the back room.”

Definitely time to intervene. Velvet stood abruptly with a loud cough. “Sir, that won’t be necessary.”

He turned to her with a cross expression. “Ma’am, your husband is acting like a serious security risk. I can’t let you through until—”

“I highly doubt that either of the parents of Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor are security risks, sir.”

The stallion laughed. “Princess Sparkle’s mum and dad? Good one. And I’m the Marquis of Zyre.”

“Uh, Captain Briarhoof, I uh…” the security officer who’d been checking their passports looked up from his podium. “I think she’s telling the truth. Their documents check out. These two are named Sparkle.”

The security stallion’s laugh cut short and his face went very pale. “Y-you mean you’re—”

“Going to be late for our flight,” Velvet supplied smoothly, batting her eyelashes. “So if you’d be kind enough to let us get moving…”

“Yes! Of course, my—my apologies, my lady, I didn’t mean to hold up royalty, I just—”

“Thank you, sir,” she said with a nod, repacking her belongings, not bothering to explain that they weren’t really royalty, merely related to an awful lot of it. “Have a pleasant day.”

Night Light didn’t say anything, still busy seething quietly. Velvet was grateful that he managed to keep his mouth shut until they left the security line behind.

After they’d put some distance between them and the guards, his annoyed demeanor cooled a bit. He smiled sheepishly. “Sorry for losing my temper, honey. I’m at the end of my rope here.”

She patted him comfortingly. “I know. Try to relax, we’ll have a chance to sleep soon.”

“Anyway, good thinking back there. But what happened to no nepotism?”

“I figure the kids owe us,” said Velvet, returning the smile. “Goodness knows they’ve caused us enough trouble over the years. I’m sure you remember the plant incident.” She cracked her neck. “Which gate are we headed to, again?”

With a tired grunt, he rifled through his bag to withdraw the remains of their boarding passes. “Looks like…” he turned them around a few times. “E-5? B-5? Ugh, these are completely ruined. E-5.”

They took a right turn and walked along the airport’s main thoroughfare. To their left, the windows revealed the sunny tarmac. Velvet spotted their airship far down the line, tethered to the ground and surrounded by dozens of airport workers preparing it for launch. It was a huge ship, a real luxury liner with a full casino on one of the lower decks and a massive fine-dining restaurant, entrance to both included in their tickets. It was almost a shame that the flight to Griffrance would only take two days.

The line of passengers was already boarding by the time they reached the gate. A ship this big had hundreds of riders on each flight, but the line had already gone down to a bare thirty or so. Velvet was glad her husband had guessed the right gate.

After another wait in line, they approached the desk. The mare behind it had a perfectly coiffed mane and large, dangling earrings. She was idly waving passengers by, more focused on chatting to a friend on the other side who was clearly on break. “Oh, I know it, girl.” She gave a tinkling, high-pitched laugh. “I can’t cook to save my life. That’s why I married him in the first place.”

Her friend snorted. “I thought it was his giant—”

The two stallions ahead of the Sparkles reached the desk. The mare looked briefly at them. “Pre-checked tickets?” The two nodded, and she waved them on. “Anyway, Valerie, I said to him—”

Night Light cleared his throat as he and Velvet stepped forward. The mare’s eyes narrowed in brief annoyance. “Can I help you, sir? If you’re pre-checked-in, you can go right ahead and get on board.”

“No,” said Night Light. “We’re Velvet and Night Light Sparkle. Can we get our passes re-printed and checked?”

“Oh, no need for those. I’ll just find you on the list, dearie…” the mare looked down at a large piece of paper on her desk. “Hmm… Sparkle, Sparkle… well, now. It says you two have already boarded.”

Velvet blinked dumbly. “What?”

Night Light’s cheek twitched dangerously. “Well, clearly that’s a mistake, since we’re standing in front of you. If we are already checked in, we’ll just head on board.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but we can’t let you do that if you’re listed as already having boarded the flight. Mareathon Travel Company policy.” The mare gave them a sympathetic shrug. “I can refer you to our complaints office.”

“I don’t want to talk to your shit-for-brains manager,” said Night Light, his voice hushed with livid emotion. He’d been pushed entirely too far, Velvet feared. “I want the shitty cabin I reserved two weeks ago.”

Frowning, the mare leaned back. “Sir, I really don’t care for the way you’re speaking to me.”

“And I really don’t care for the way your shitty company stranded me and my wife in the ass-end of nowhere. Your shitty filing system sent us down to some dead-end in the wrong country, where your dumb-as-shit customer service representative got our names wrong again and sent us to the shittiest hotel in the world. While we were sleeping, the shitty pipework flooded the entire shithole. Next, thanks to your piece-of-shit organization not giving us a ride across the continent, we got caught up in some kind of crazy camel mafia shit and nearly died in the middle of the desert, where we almost got eaten by, I shit you not, a shark the size of a bus. Then we got trapped in another shitty little village during the mother of all shitstorms, nearly freezing to death, and then we wound up falling down the most pants-shittingly huge waterfall I have ever seen. And after all that shit, we finally, finally make it here, where you are now telling me that the cabin I reserved on your shitty airliner last month has already been claimed. So just give me and my wife the shit we paid for, right now, or I swear to Celestia I will lose my shit.”

The mare chewed her pen with arched eyebrows. “May I see your boarding passes?”

“They got drenched in the waterfall,” he growled, throwing the sodden wad of paper onto the desk.

She looked at the remains of their boarding passes and sighed. “Oh, boy…”

“Oh boy what?”

A grin crept onto her face. “Tough shit.”

* * *

The two unicorns stormed out of the airport, Night Light’s normally cool blue face burning red. “We ought to sue these idiots,” he said, still ranting. “Hundreds of bits, down the drain; unbelievable.”

“Night Light,” said Velvet, lifting her head. She gazed through the windows toward the tarmac. An idea was springing to life somewhere in the back of her mind. “Do you remember that Don’t-Mind-Me spell my team wrote a paper on a year or two ago?”

Night Light snorted a laugh. “Yeah.” He shook his head. “If you’re suggesting what I think, well… I appreciate the thought, but I’m really not in the mood right now.”

“No, no, I’m thinking something entirely different—though not exactly innocent.” Velvet rubbed her hooves together. “Look, any airship that big has to have a ground-level entrance, right?”

Her husband’s face lifted as he realized what she was suggesting. “You think…? They wouldn’t let us on, surely.”

“That’s what the spell is for.”

With a nod, he gave her shoulder a friendly punch. “What the hell, we’re already breaking all the rules this week.”

It took Velvet a few minutes to remember exactly how the spell worked, but in a few minutes she nailed it down. A shimmering, almost silky coating of glittering violet settled over her and her husband. The glimmering faded until there was nothing remarkable about either of them. In fact, it was difficult to come up with any distinguishing features to describe the pony standing in front of her.

“How do I look, honey?” she asked.

“Hard to say…” Night Light’s eyes drifted away from her like oil sliding off of a pan. “Can’t even focus on you.”

“Excellent. Nopony will pay enough attention to us to stop us from getting on board. Come on, they’re bound to be lifting off soon.”

The two entirely unmemorable ponies cantered around the airport building, finding a much-needed shortcut halfway through by cutting under an overpass to slip between the gates. Out on the tarmac, they made a beeline toward their airship.

Velvet saw to her dismay that the workers were already casting off the lines tethering it to the gate. “Hurry!”

They broke into a gallop, racing past more airport employees who spared glances in their direction before shrugging and turning back to work. Velvet’s hooves thudded on the tarmac as they neared the airship. The large underslung passenger gondola, where the boarding hatch was now disconnected from the gate, had windows filled with light and the shadows of the passengers still moving through to reach their cabins up in the body of the airship itself.

They nearly made it. Velvet could see the service hatch in the bottom of the gondola, but it was already out of their reach. Before she could even light her horn to try opening it, the last line was cast free and the airship began to rise away.

“No!” yelled Night Light, jumping uselessly. The two watched in despair as the massive liner lifted into the air with surprising speed. Engines mounted on the rear of the airship whirred to life, and it began turning eastward to begin its journey across the ocean to Griffrance.

Velvet sat on the tarmac, resting her hooves and head on her luggage with a heavy sigh. “Well, honey, we tried.”

“It’s so close!” He released a low whine. “We’ve come so far. We can’t give up two steps from the finish line.”

Velvet closed her eyes. “I’m too tired to even take those two steps, honey.”

Night Light sank with disappointment. “So close… if we’d been five minutes faster…”

She lifted herself off the bag and hugged him. “It’s okay, Nighty. The point of this trip was to try new things, right? We’ve certainly done that. Some of which… I would rather not repeat.” She grinned. “Namely the bit with the shark.”

He hugged her back, limp and tired. “I know. I just… I wanted this to be good for you. For both of us. And it’s been an absolute disaster every step of the way.”

“Not every step.” She nuzzled him. “I’ve had a lot of fun, despite it all.”

“Me too,” he admitted, squeezing her. “But I just… I think about that night we started this, and I can’t help but worry that we’ll end up there again.”

“We won’t,” she said, kissing him. “I don’t need some fancy sex toy to be happy with you, Night Light. All I needed was a little reminder that we can still mix things up. That we can still get out there and do some crazy things together—like surviving those waterfalls! You saved our lives, you know.”

“After putting us in danger in the first place…”

“Danger is fun,” said Velvet, smiling. “And facing it with you makes me feel alive, honey.”

He finally returned her grin. “And randy.”

She lightly butted his forehead with her own, their horns scraping together. “That too.”

With a sigh and a slow nod, he sat back from the hug. “Well… I suppose we’d better figure out where to go from here. We’ve still got the next week and a half off work, after all. I suppose we could swing up to the Crystal Empire anyway and spend it with Shiny and Cadence…”

Velvet nodded, looking around the airport while she mustered the energy to stand. Her gaze fell on a small, bright red biplane sitting outside the nearest hangar, and the colorful trunk sitting beside it. Her eyes widened. “Candy!”

“What?” Night Light followed her eyes. “Ha! Well, what do you know? Maybe he found a way to get home.”

“Let’s go say goodbye. And thank him for helping us out.” They gathered their luggage and began hauling it toward the biplane.

As they drew near the plane, they could see their newfound friend standing by the nose and propeller, arguing with another earth pony in a flight vest with a pair of goggles on her head.

“Come on, Amelia,” pleaded Candy, close enough now to be audible. “They’re my friends. I can’t just leave them out there to die!”

“Look, Don, I want to help,” said the pilot, frowning sympathetically, “but I’m not going to risk flying into that storm. They put the advisory out weeks ago saying to steer clear of the mountains for the next few days. It’s nasty up there.”

“But they could be lost anywhere in those mountains! If they’re still alive I have to at least try to help.”

“Don, the storm will be over on Wednesday. We can head out then to check.”

Candy shook his head urgently. “That’s too late. They could already be—”

Night Light cleared his throat. “Right behind you.”

Candy turned in confusion. “Sorry, who are you?” His eyes slid away. “Anyway, Amelia—”

Velvet jolted with realization. “Oh, right.” She let the Don’t-Mind-Me spell shimmer out of existence.

Candy’s eyes shot wide. “What th—Night Light! Velvet!” He raced toward them and embraced the two unicorns.

Smiling, Velvet patted him on the back. “Hi, Don.”

Night Light rubbed his neck, embarrassed. “You were right, Don. We should have gone right with you. But we made it out in one piece.”

“Thank Celestia.” Candy stepped back, beaming. “I was worried I’d gotten you two killed. Can you still make your flight?”

Velvet grimaced, looking up at the airship still drifting toward the horizon. “That’s it, right there.”

“Oh, wow, you guys were supposed to take the Florentine? I’ve heard about that ship. Doesn’t it have a casino? Er… I’m guessing you missed the flight. Shoot.” Candy frowned, before perking back up. “Wait a minute! Amelia, I’d still like to call in that favor.”

Amelia lifted an eyebrow. “You want me to fly these two up there? Candy, I could get in serious trouble for that.”

“Not if nopony notices you…” said Velvet, a sly smile creeping onto her lips. “I can keep your plane disguised with magic until you’ve dropped us off.”

“Hmm…” Amelia looked the two of them over. “Well, I do owe Don big-time for selling me those pipes for emergency repairs that time in the Ponynesian isles…” She sighed. “All right, Don, for you I’ll do it. But we can’t fit all of you in my little plane. Maybe two.” She pointed to her vehicle, which had only one seat behind the cockpit.

“Sure we can,” said Night Light. “I’ll keep the bags held outside the plane with magic. Velvet can sit in my lap, and Candy, erm…”

Candy shook his head. “No, it’s fine. You guys need to catch your flight. I’ll stay here.”

Velvet’s eyes narrowed. “Don, do you want to go to Griffrance?”

If not Equestrian or Crystalline, he must be from somewhere in the Europony Union. If that was the case, the freedom of movement meant that getting him to Griffrance would be nearly as good as getting him back to his homeland.

“W-well yes, but like I said, I’m not going to ask you guys to—”

“You don’t have to. Friends help each other out for free, remember?” Her smile took on a hard edge. “Besides, screw the travel company. If they’re willing to botch our seating twice, they can deal with a free rider getting on. You sit in the back of the plane. I’ll sit on your lap. Amelia, can you squeeze in on my husband’s? That seems like the only way all four of us could fit.”

Amelia cringed. “Well… maybe. I don’t know that my plane can handle the weight of four ponies, though.”

“Only one way to find out.” Velvet shoved the handle of her luggage down. “And the clock’s ticking.”

Reluctantly, Amelia made a get in gesture with her hoof. The ponies piled into the plane, levitating their bags and the trunk beside them. Velvet barely managed to get into the seat she was sharing with the bulky Candy, pressed tightly against the barrel of the surrounding fuselage. “Don,” she wheezed, “can you suck that belly in a bit?” He attempted to oblige, but it was still far from comfortable.

Her smaller husband was less crushed under Amelia’s weight, but looked no more pleased about the seating arrangement. “How long will it take us to get to that airship?”

“Not long,” said Amelia, sliding her goggles on and fiddling with some levers under the flight console. “This plane’s a lot faster than those big cruise liners. Hold on, everypony!” The engine thrummed to life, the propeller whipping into action. Amelia grimaced. “This is a bad idea, you know.”

“Oh,” said Night Light with a fond look at his wife, “we’re full of those.”

The biplane trundled out onto the runway. Velvet cast the Don’t-Mind-Me spell over the entire vehicle, and the few airport workers who’d noticed their unplanned takeoff with alarm quickly relaxed and looked away.

Takeoff was bumpy. With so much extra weight, the plane could barely lift from the runway. Just as they were about to hit the end of the tarmac and be forced to turn, the vehicle lurched up. The biplane jerked into the air, rattling its occupants, before unsteadily rising to pursue the airship.

The necessity of Amelia’s goggles quickly became apparent. The wind was whipping against Velvet’s face so hard that she couldn’t look straight ahead. She focused instead on helping her husband keep their luggage floating after the plane.

Only a few minutes had passed before Amelia yelled to them over the noise of the propellers. “Get ready! We’re coming up beneath it!”

Velvet looked up to see the enormous mass of the airship blocking out the sunlight. “Get ready to get the hatch, honey!” she shouted. “I’ll hold the bags!” She gripped them tightly with magic.

Amelia pulled them up beneath the rear-mounted gondola, matching the liner’s slow speed and holding steady beneath the square hatch. “Ready when you are,” she shouted.

Night Light’s horn surged, and the hatch sprang open. Gingerly, he managed to extricate himself from under Amelia without jostling her and the controls too dangerously. He cautiously climbed up onto the top wing of the plane, hopping up and grabbing the edge of the open hatch. Velvet watched with her heart in her mouth as he pulled himself inside, giving a relaxed breath as he made it safely in.

She sent the bags after him, to get them out of the way, and then it was her turn. The climb up onto the wing was more terrifying and thrilling than even the waterfalls had been. Velvet dared not look down, lest she lose her nerve entirely. With Night Light’s encouraging shouts over the noise of the plane, she managed to reach up for his hooves. With magic and some good old stallion muscle, he pulled her inside the hatch.

Velvet sat on the floor, breathing hard. Still not daring to look down through the open portal, she instead glanced around them. The gondola was empty, all the passengers presumably having gone to settle in their rooms before enjoying the luxury liner’s amenities.

“Honey, can you help me with Candy?” Night Light had his hooves stretched down through the hatch. Velvet took a deep breath, then moved to join him.

Candy was standing shakily on the plane’s fuselage. “I can’t get up on the wing, guys,” he yelled, quaking.

Velvet summoned up the last dregs of magic she could manage, and grasped the earth pony with violet light. “On three, honey. One—two—three!”

Both unicorns heaved, and Candy shot up through the hatch like a rocket. He rolled along the floor of the gondola, whooping.

Night Light gave a friendly wave to Amelia below, receiving a salute in return. As the pilot peeled away to return to the airport, Velvet removed the enchantment from her plane. Hopefully they were far enough away from land that nopony would figure out what Amelia had done, but even if not, it was better to get caught than to be unnoticeable forever.

They closed the hatch, locking it tight, and finally relaxed. “Well, Velvet,” said Night Light, laughing, “I’ve never had to work so hard to take two steps before.”

“We’re not at the finish line yet,” she said dryly. “The ship could still crash.”

“Shh,” he said, pressing a hoof to his lips. “Don’t jinx us.”

Candy stood, stretching. “What a day. Glad I got a nap in on the river after we split up. Say, this liner’s got a chef on board with seven Marechelin stars, doesn’t it?”

“I believe you’re right,” said Night Light, yawning. “Feel free to enjoy. I think we’ll retire to our cabin.”

“Ah, gotcha,” said Candy with the most obnoxious wink Velvet had ever seen. “I’ll find some way to keep myself busy till late tonight. Maybe I’ll hit up that casino on the upper decks.”

“Have fun,” said Velvet with a tired smile. “We’re in cabin 52-D, if you need a place on-board to stay tonight. You can borrow one of our sleeping bags.”

“Thanks. I’ll make sure to, heh, knock,” he said, winking again.

Velvet restrained herself from rolling her eyes. “Thank you, Candy.”

Tapping a knowing hoof to his forehead, he bid them farewell and ventured up the stairs into the decks of the ship that lay inside the main frame, beneath the hydrogen cells. He took his trunk with him, to Velvet’s amusement.

The unicorn couple followed him up after another minute of recuperation, nearly dead on their hooves. It took them some time to find their room, which appeared to be unlocked. Velvet pushed the door open, walking into the room with a raised eyebrow. “All right, time to see if another couple really did board under our names… Anypony in here?”

Silence greeted them. Night Light sighed. “I hate this travel company.”

“Well, at least we don’t have to throw anypony out,” said Velvet happily. She dumped her luggage beside the room’s generous single bed, stretching. “I’m going to take a shower before we go to bed. I’ve still got sand in places sand should never be.”

“Ugh, I’ll take the next one,” muttered Night Light, scratching his chest with a wince. “Let’s remember to turn the water off, this time.”

“Even if we don’t, they surely have a drain that works…” Velvet chuckled as she entered the bathroom.

A few minutes later, she emerged feeling refreshed and civilized once again. She lay down on the bed while her husband took his own shower, and luxuriated in the plush comforter that covered the mattress. She slipped underneath the blankets enjoying the softness of the fabric on her skin after two days of rough sand and freezing snow.

Night Light finally finished in the bathroom, stepping back into the bedroom while rubbing his dripping mane with a towel. He tossed it over her luggage to dry and slid into bed beside her. “Ohhh,” he groaned. “This is heavenly.”

Velvet rolled over to spoon against his side. “We deserve it, after the week we’ve had.”

He gave her a gentle kiss. “And now, we can do something I’ve been looking forward to for ages.”

“Oh…?” Velvet, her eyes closed, snuggled closer. “And that would be?”

A faint snore answered her. Velvet lifted an eyelid to see her husband peacefully unconscious, his head slumped against hers. She restrained a snicker. Sleep tight, Night Light. Yawning, she nestled up against him into a more comfortable snoozing position.

She needed the sleep just as badly, but she couldn’t help but think ahead with a flutter of excitement. Casting her husband’s bag one last look of anticipation, she sank into her pillow and closed her eyes. When she woke up that evening, she had some entertainment planned that had nothing to do with the casino on the deck below.

Her husband was in for a bit of a surprise.

* * *

Something tickled. Night Light’s brow knit with dismay as he tried to back away, but the tickling on his chest continued. Eyes still closed tightly, he reached a hoof down to his chest to push whatever it was away— and discovered that his hoof couldn’t move more than a few inches downward.

His eyes snapped open in alarm to see Velvet’s face, wearing a considerably more smug expression than usual, a mere inch from his own. “Morning, dear. Or late afternoon, I should say.”

“Velvet? What the—” He yanked his hooves and heard the rattling of metal. Craning his head up, he saw both of his forelegs cuffed and tied around one of the railings of the headboard. A jolt of panic shot up his spine. “Uh, honey, what are you…?” He instinctively tried to summon magic to unseal the cuff, but felt no cool rush of power in his horn.

“Somepony made me a promise,” said his wife lightly, trailing a hoof up his side. Night Light noticed instantly that the covers had all been thrown aside, leaving him entirely exposed on the bedspread.

Relaxing a little as wakefulness returned, he gave her a nervous laugh. “Oh. I see.”

“After all the things you’ve put me through this week, I thought it was about time you paid me back,” said Velvet, leaning in so close that he could smell the faint lavender scent of her shampoo. “You’ve been such a bad boy, Nighty. Sending us over all those waterfalls on a hunch, why… that deserves a little payback.”

Night Light’s pulse quickened, and he grinned. “You know, I’m starting to think one of those leather suits in that catalog might suit you after all—”

She pressed a hoof to his lips. “No talking.”

With a glint in his eye, he nodded. He felt her other hoof trace up his inner thigh and inhaled deeply, but the hoof paused just before reaching his rapidly-stiffening shaft. Velvet leaned up to the head of the bed and let her mouth hang open. Night Light felt a sudden, slight pressure on his forehead, and realized she was licking his horn.

His eyes crossed. “V-Velvet…”

“Shh!” she gave his leg a sharp tap, and his mouth clapped shut. Rolling his eyes up, he could see her tongue sliding up the length of his horn, leaving a slick trail of saliva after it. There weren’t any actual nerves in unicorn horns, so he couldn’t really feel her tongue, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t insanely hot.

He wiggled his hips, feeling his cock sway. Velvet’s hoof was still tracing lines across his thigh, but he wanted her touch to move up a bit. Trying to communicate that with a few pelvic thrusts, he twisted under the bonds. Velvet noticed and merely smiled. She lifted the hoof—and placed it on his chest. She began to massage him, giving his horn another long lick in the process. He wanted to return the favor, but his hooves strained uselessly against the cuffs. She was right, these things are infuriating.

“Ah,” he breathed out as she drew a ticklish circle around his navel, making his cock twitch with anticipation. In a good way, though.

She shifted down a bit and over him, and he felt the pressure of her entire body along his side. One of her hind legs swept over to lie between his own, and a warm, wet pressure came to rest against the outside of his thigh. He jerked upward against the cuffs with a slight gasp.

Velvet continued to rub her hooves all over his body. Every place but one, that was—Night Light made a needy little noise, grinding against her leg. Velvet leaned her head down to his collar, pressing her mouth against his skin…

Then she bit him.

Night Light squeaked. “Really—really aggressive today, huh?”

“No talking,” she reminded him with another nip, lighter this time. Eyes half-lidded, she turned up to give him a sultry glance. “How often do I get you at my mercy like this?”

As often as you want, he nearly said, but kept his mouth shut as ordered. Velvet rained kisses down his chest, her mouth drawing closer to that insatiable need between his legs. Dragging her pussy along his leg and leaving a damp trail, she sat back at the very end of the bed. She slid her forelegs along his hind ones, lifting them slightly. He gave another uncontrollable little thrust of his hips as the ache in his cock grew to downright uncomfortable levels.

“Mmmm!” he managed, glancing down at her over his twitching shaft. He desperately wanted to pull his hooves down and start pumping away, and she had to know it. She watched his useless struggle against the cuffs with visible amusement.

“Do you want me to touch you?” she asked, her voice low and filled with promise, hovering a hoof over his cockhead. Night Light nodded, breathless. Velvet sighed and put the hoof down, still smiling coyly. “I will. But first, I want you to make up for all the naughty things you’ve done to me.”

Night Light let his head fall back to the pillow and exhaled. Good Goddess, she’s going to tease me until I explode. Lifting his head again, he grinned and nodded.

“Well, then…” Velvet stood on the bed and slowly turned, stepping carefully over his legs. Her tail brushed aside, revealing the familiar, yet never-more-enticing slit of her pussy. She was as aroused as him, from the look of it. He inhaled. From the smell of it.

She pressed those flushed, parted lips closer to his head, sliding backward along the bed and arching her back. “Go on, Nighty. Don’t be shy.”

He strained to lean upward, but the chains on his hooves made the angle too awkward. He stretched out his tongue, trying to touch her, but her pussy hung just out of reach. The musky scent was driving him mad.

“Hurry up, or I won’t help you out,” she said, her voice sing-song.

Night Light whimpered, still struggling against the bonds. The tip of his tongue could nearly reach her. He watched a drop of liquid drip from her pussy, landing on his chest. His neck was starting to hurt from straining so hard.

“Hmph,” said Velvet mock-annoyed, suddenly pulling her pussy further up and standing. Night Light let out a groan of dismay. “Well, if you won’t use your mouth, then put that horn to use.”

“Can’t,” he gasped, staring at the pink slit just above his head, “the cuffs…”

“Oh, I don’t mean magic,” she said, scooting a little further back.

Night Light’s eyes opened wide, staring down between their chests. He met her gaze as she looked down at him, smiling. “Y-you sure?”

The sudden blush on her face wasn’t really compatible with the whole dominatrix-lite thing she was going for, but it was so cute that it just made him feel even hotter. “I trust you,” she said. “And I want to try it. Just hold still. And no talking.” She gave his legs another rub with her hooves, resting her chest on his belly.

Night Light took a deep breath, and put his chin to his chest. His horn pointed nearly straight up, still shiny from the saliva she’d lathered all over it. Velvet lowered her hips, guiding them down, and he did his very best to hold absolutely still.

She paused as the rounded end of his horn touched her entrance, and he could feel her tense up against his body. The lips of her pussy slid a little further, gripping the sides of his horn tip, and the sight of that was enough to completely destroy what little composure he had left.

Panting for air, but not moving his neck, Night Light craned his eyes up almost into his head to watch as Velvet’s pussy slowly slid down his horn. He felt the heat above him, and a little rivulet of juice came running down the side of his horn onto his forehead and face.

Those lips were so tight around his horn. Did they look like this when he had his cock inside her? It was hard to tell from the usual angle. Goddess, that is the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. Her pussy twitched, and he knew she was clamping down on the shaft inside her. A little bit of spit drooled from his open mouth.

“Mmmm,” she murmured. “It’s not as big, but it’s… ooh… got a really nice… texture…”

She pulled back up, her pussy stretching as if to stay around him as long as possible, and Night Light felt very lightheaded. Another drop of her pussy juice landed on his nose, and he released a strained moan.

Velvet came down again, very carefully, but the slow pace just gave Night Light a better opportunity to watch the way her pussy stretched around his horn as it slipped deeper inside her. She gasped a little, her head falling to the bed between his legs, drawing a little grunt from him as she brushed against his cock.

“Oooof,” she managed, “those ridges are something else.”

He had to close his eyes, or he was going to lose control and jerk his head. Not wanting to hurt her, he took a deep, calming breath. At least, it would have been calming, if not for the overpowering smell of her pussy, coming to rest snugly against his forehead.

His entire world went dark as his vision was smothered in the soft flesh of her crotch. He could feel her clit pressing between his eyes. “Mmmm, Nighty,” she mumbled. “We’re definitely doing this again.” She began to ever-so-slightly wiggle her hips, rubbing her clit against his skin and moaning softly.

Unable to move his legs, his head, or his pelvis under her weight, Night Light simply lay there, struggling not to wriggle violently under the fiery sensations coursing through his skin and nose. He could feel her pussy seizing his horn from the way her muscles tensed against his head, and the damp spot in his mane kept getting bigger.

She was rocking on his horn now, brushing her clit against the bridge of his snout with increasingly-loud noises of delight. “Oh, that’s… that’s fast… I think I might… be nearly…”

Night Light’s eyes snapped open, craning for a good view. He wanted to see what those juicy lips would do when she came. It was dark, but he could just make out the glistening outline of her pussy as it ground against the base of his horn.

“Yes… yessss… fuck, yes…” she murmured, more to herself than to him, completely lost in whatever ocean of pleasure was filling her up. “Oh… oh…”

Her rubbing motion added a gyrating sway to it. Night Light felt his head pulled gently around with her hips as she ground around his horn in a small circle. “Ahhhh…” she breathed, clutching his hind legs. “Mmm… mm! Mmm!”

The lips of her pussy seized tightly against his horn, quivering. Night Light felt a shudder travel up her spine, and waited with blissful anticipation. He was rewarded with another quake from her pussy and three sudden trickles of liquid down his horn and face. It dripped across his lips, which he licked with satisfaction. Velvet kept coming for at least half a minute, mashing her face into his inner thigh with unintelligible sounds of joyous release. Night Light just let her climax run over him, feeling the twitching of her muscles against his head and exulting in the warmth and wetness of it all.

Velvet abruptly lifted off of him, and he sucked down a breath of relatively fresh air like a drowning stallion. She slumped to the bed beside him, stroking his belly with a hoof and still panting for breath.

“Phew,” she exhaled. “I can’t believe we haven’t tried that before. That was fantastic.”

Night Light gave her a pleading look, and she laughed, a genuine, tinkling sound without any of the sultry airs she’d been putting on. “Oh, okay. You’ve been very good. Now spread ‘em.”

He flung his hind legs to the sides, thrusting upward with more than a little desperation. He ached exquisitely, so hard he could actually feel his balls pulled up tight against his shaft. At this point, he didn’t care whether she used her mouth, her hoof, or her pussy; he just needed that same release she’d obtained.

Velvet raised an eyebrow. “Now, there is still the matter of a certain unfulfilled promise…”

Her horn glowed and a familiar purple egg with a flared base levitated between them. Night Light felt a sudden cold pit in his stomach. Oh, boy.

“Now, you agreed to use this, but… I just want to make sure.” Velvet gave his hips a comforting pat with her hooves. “You still good?”

He bit his lip. Well, Velvet had seemed to enjoy it… He swallowed, and croaked, “Lube?”

“Of course,” she said, delighted at his acceptance. The bottle of lubricant floated up, and she wasted no time slathering the plug with it. She slipped it down between his legs, vanishing under his straightened shaft.

He closed his eyes, leaning his head back and taking one deep, nervous breath. Remembering the look of shock on her face when he’d put it in at the oasis, he felt a tremor in his spine; but then he thought of that absolutely pleasure-saturated expression she’d had when he turned on the buzzer, and smiled.

A cold poke on the tight opening of his ass made him tense up. “Okay, honey,” said Velvet, holding his cutie marks with her hooves. “I’m going to put it in, okay?”

Not trusting himself to speak, he nodded, eyes still firmly closed. The tip entered him, and he sucked in air through his teeth. It was cold, but… not so bad. He exhaled slowly as she pushed it deeper, stretching him. It was almost a burning sensation, but the cool lubricant eased it before it could become outright pain.

His erection had gone half-limp, whether from discomfort or nerves, but his attention was fully on the plug now. Little uh, ah, oh, sounds escaped him as she wiggled it deeper. “H-how far…?”

“About halfway,” she answered, rubbing his butt with a hoof. “You good?”

“Mhm,” he mumbled, nodding faintly.

The last half was far more difficult. He stretched, stretched, squeezing his muscles around it as it pushed him to his still-small limits. Finally there was a faint pop as the wide core gave way to the gap between the plug and the base. He panted in relief.

It felt huge inside him, even though he knew full well it was a fairly small size. It was rubbing against something inside him—the famous prostate, perhaps? Maybe it was just the bottom of his cock… whatever the case, it was a pleasant pressure.

“All right,” said Velvet, kissing the head of his cock. “You’re doing great, honey. Now just relax. We’re going to try the first setting…”

There was a flash of magic, and he felt the plug hum to life.

Oh.

Oh.

That felt good.

He was suddenly robbed of breath, quivering in the hoofcuffs. “Ah… ahhhh…”

Velvet smiled, all traces of the domineering act gone. “Nice, right?”

He nodded, tongue hanging out of his mouth. The rumbling vibrations were filling him up, running all the way to the tip of his once-more firmly erect cock.

Velvet beamed. “All right. You want me to leave it at that, or give you some more help?”

“M-more,” he gasped. “Please.”

“Sure thing.” She leaned down over his shaft, letting her hind legs hang off of the mattress. “I know you love it when I go deep, but I think that might be a little too intense… besides, I’ve wanted to try a different kind of blowjob for a while, now. I’ve heard there’s this spot called the frenu—well, you’ll see.”

Night Light nodded frantically. “Whatev—hah—whatever you want, honey.”

Winking at him, she took a hoof and pressed it to the base of his speckled-blue shaft, pushing it against his chest. She put her head down to the tip, extending her tongue, and pressing it firmly against the spot right beneath the head on the bottom of the shaft.

Night Light’s head lolled on the pillow, the vibrations surrounding him and crowding out thoughts. He waited for the warm cave of her mouth to envelop him, but she remained the way she was, just pressing lightly on his cock with the tip of her tongue.

She began to move her head up and down in the slightest of motions, still holding his cock steady. Her tongue rubbed against that spot, sliding the loose skin across his shaft with friction so pleasurable it was nearly painful.

It was shockingly… gentle, of all things. He wanted more, wanted her to push harder, or faster, or rougher, but she just kept up that gentle rocking pressure. The vibrator in his ass and the glowing pressure of her tongue warred for domination in his mind.

This was a different kind of pleasure than they’d shared over the last few days. It wasn’t as intense, or as sharp, or as high, but it was suffusing throughout his entire body with steady insistence. He was growing strangely aware of his limbs, which usually fell out of mind in the throes of lovemaking. Quivers traveled up his legs from the vibrator, tingling in his hooves. His heart felt feathery, beating just a little too fast to relax, but not the thundering pounding of a desperate climb to orgasm.

Whether from the strange sensations in his butt or the ones at the tip of his cock, Night Light found himself rendered unusually vocal. He moaned and panted like a mare in heat, whimpering and mumbling with delight under Velvet’s ministrations.

“Ah… mnnnn… ooooh… ohhhh… ahh… mmmmmm…” His noises melded with the faint background hum of the vibrator. Velvet seemed to be enjoying them, from the way she was softly grinding her pelvis into the edge of the mattress.

Time was getting fuzzy. It felt like she’d been at this for a while, now, but he still felt no orgasm approaching. He wasn’t complaining, though—there was a steady, light feeling filling him up all over. Occasionally, one of his hind legs would give a useless twitch, pushing at the bedsheets as if to crawl away from the slowly building pressure, but unable to make any progress.

A smile broke across his face as he felt a familiar sensation in his cock. “Mmm… a little more,” he murmured.

Velvet gave him a strange oh really? look, and continued rocking her tongue across that one spot. She hadn’t even touched the rest of his shaft, not even with her hooves, aside from the one holding his cock against his chest.

His breathing grew deeper and deeper as he felt himself start on that path toward the peak of ecstasy. It was strange, though. Almost like his orgasm was happening in stages, splitting into different parts that he’d never even thought to separate before. It felt like his cum was pooling deep inside him, preparing to burst out, but not yet being drawn up unstoppably. He inhaled in eager expectation.

Then… nothing. Night Light opened his eyes, confused, staring down at his shaft and moaning a little as the vibrations rumbled through him. Why wasn’t he coming? He could feel it in there, ready to burst, but it just wasn’t happening.

Velvet gave him a cheeky grin without removing her tongue. “I thee thith workth,” she said around it.

Night Light released a pained whine. “Wha…?”

“Jutht relackth,” she said, keeping up that gentle pressure.

Night Light let his head drop back to the pillow, feeling the sensation of imminent orgasm slip away. He frowned with dismay, twisting his head back and forth. “Nnnno… ssso close…”

She gave him a reassuring pat. The feathery weightlessness continued to fill him up, all through his body. Suddenly his cock ached, not with desire, but that same empty throbbing that always followed an ejaculation, like he’d already come and somehow not seen it. There was no ramping up of pleasure, no pulsing, no cum. He gave a confused mumble.

Then, he was wracked with tremors, all across his body, but most centrally in his shaft. There were no waves of pleasure, no rush of joy, no release; he felt possessed by the skittering ghosts of climaxes yet to come. Despite the strangeness soaking through him, he felt farther away from coming than he had when she’d started.

His thoughts floated around, trying in vain to assemble into something useful. His head was full of humming vibrations and light as air, flickering nonsensically from his wife’s beautiful mane, to the endless dark of the night sky and the stars, to the crashing of the waterfalls in the caves, to the wind in their faces as they lifted into the sky…

“Oh… Oh…”

He felt it at the edge of consciousness. It hit him with impossible swiftness. There was no buildup, just a direct shot from zero to a hundred. “Oh,” he groaned, feeling tension shoot through his entire body.

That pooling sensation returned, but this time it was so far beyond the normal feeling that he couldn’t even attempt to hold it back. His cock began pulsating like crazy, noises of terror and delight ripping from his throat. “Oh—oh my Go—oh—ahh—”

It burbled up through his shaft, suddenly racing to escape. He could feel every pulse, every massive load of cum as it traveled up his length to emerge from the flat tip. He expected it to shoot out, but it was more like an overflowing well. Cum came flooding out of his tip without any force behind it, oozing out onto his chest as he pulsed.

His entire body was part of this in a way it had never been before. His hooves, his head, even his horn all tingled with the shaking release. Gasping and muttering nonsense, his head flopped to and fro, unable to stay still, unable to find refuge. His chest was heaving spastically, almost more a source of pleasure than the dollops of spunk still spooling out onto his blue coat.

Velvet released her tongue’s pressure at last, and with a flash of her horn the vibrations ceased. Night Light simply lay there, breathing in stunned ecstasy, still trembling with aftershocks.

She crawled up to lie beside him. “I heard that’s a pretty different feeling… that sure wasn’t a normal cumshot. How was it?”

His thoughts felt fragmented, still floating in the cloud of bliss she’d pulled him into. “It was… wow… so that’s what a full… full-body…”

She nuzzled him. “I’m glad you liked it.” He felt another stretching sensation from his butt, and the plug popped out. A strange feeling of sadness briefly flickered through his still vulnerable thoughts, reluctant to feel that fullness disappear. Velvet rubbed his chest. “How was the toy?”

“Good,” he said, letting his head fall against hers. “We’ll have to… try more with it.”

“We’ve got time to bask,” she said with a smile, “though we’d better clean up before Candy gets back.”

“Yeah…” Night Light rubbed his cheek against hers. “But I want to hold you for a while.”

They cuddled on top of the covers, covered in the aftermath of their lovemaking, but Night Light was entirely content. Sheets could be changed, but moments like these… they were things to treasure.

* * *

A few hours later, the two were in the middle of a rousing game of rummy when a knock on the cabin door interrupted the latest deal.

“Hey, anypony in there?” came Candy’s muffled voice.

“One moment,” called Velvet, leaving the newly-made bed to get the door. Night Light shuffled the cards, smiling after her. Sisters, she’s beautiful.

She cracked open the door to reveal a very tired yet happy Candy. He dragged his trunk into the cabin, yawning. “I don’t know about you two, but I’ve had one hell of a good day.”

“Hit it big at the casino?” asked Night Light, splitting the deck.

“I made a few bucks, sure! Bought some drinks for new friends, too. There’s this great couple I ran into down there. Unicorns, just like you guys! We had a blast at the craps table. That Bright Flight sure knows how to party.”

Night Light’s gaze fell to the bedspread, his brow furrowing. “Wait a minute… I know that name. Bright Flight… Bright Flight Sporkle?”

“Yeah, how’d you know that? You guys met before?” said Candy with a laugh.

Velvet hissed. “You’re kidding.”

“So that’s how we were ‘already boarded,’” said Night Light, growling. Abruptly, the anger vanished. He shook his head, laughing. “Oh, whatever. Not our problem anymore.”

“You guys should meet them,” said Candy. “They’re great fun. Violet’s got some great stories about her job in the royal guard.”

“Er—” Night Light suddenly remembered the titanic mess they’d left at that hotel in Hoofar Al-Batin under the Sporkles’ names. “Well… maybe tomorrow, if there’s time. It’s kind of a short flight, after all.” We’ll have to avoid them at all costs.

“Yep,” said Candy, yawning broadly. “Anyway, do you still have that sleeping bag available? I’m all tuckered out.”

Velvet pulled it from her bag and tossed it to him. “Sorry if it’s still a bit damp… I didn’t think to pull it out after we got into the cabin.”

“No worries,” he said, waving off her concern. “Have a good night, you two.”

They wished him good night, and Velvet quietly surrounded him with a sound-canceling bubble as he drifted off in seconds. His snores were barely audible through the shimmering purple dome.

“Will that stay up all night?” asked Night Light.

“It lasts about five hours, unless I reinforce the spell before then.” Velvet returned to the bed, sliding in opposite him. “Now, I believe I was about to kick your tail again…”

“I’ve been taking it easy on you,” said Night Light, dealing the cards. “No more Mr. Nice Night Light.”

“Hmm,” she purred, giving his chin a brush with her hoof. “Planning to get those hoofcuffs out again?”

“Only if you beat me,” he said, grinning.

With a giggle, she returned to her cards. The two played long into the night, listening to the distant hum of the airship engines as they sailed to the sun-dappled lands of the griffons.

7. Le Jouet en Rose

Stepping down from the airship ramp onto the tarmac was like walking into heaven. Night Light breathed in deeply, the scent of summer filling his nostrils. All around the runways and hangars were thick trees, their rich green foliage turning even the airport environs into a thing of beauty as they rustled in the warm summer breeze. The sky above was a pure, cloudless cerulean.

Together with his wife and Candy, Night Light followed the temporary signage that had been erected on the tarmac toward the nearest gate of the airport, where they would pass through customs and finally begin the vacation part of this whole ordeal. Beyond that building waited the grand city of Maris, Griffrance’s great multispecies metropolis.

The sun-kissed air brushed gently through Night Light’s mane, bringing a grin to his face. “Well, it took us long enough.”

Candy released a low, soft sigh. “Ah, sweet Maris,” he whispered, using the Griffrench pronunciation. “It’s good to be back. I haven’t seen the city in a long time.”

Velvet’s smile was bittersweet. “I guess this is where we part ways, Don. You’re heading home now, right?”

Candy’s eyes closed wistfully. “Yes, I am.” Reopening his eyes, he gave them both a grateful look. “Thanks to you two.”

“The thanks are ours,” said Night Light. “We’d never have made it this far without you, Don.” He offered a hoof.

“Aw, don’t mention it,” said Candy, blushing and shaking it. “So, what are you two going to do first? See the cathedrals? Hit the beaches?”

Velvet pursed her lips, half-smiling. “We might check out the grand promenade before we go to the hotel tonight, but the main order of the day is shopping.”

“Oh! Well, there’s plenty to buy here. There’s this wonderful little boutique I know of in the—”

“Don,” said Velvet gently, “Your wife has to miss you terribly. You shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

He nodded with a reluctant smile. “You’re right. I’ll definitely be home in time for our anniversary now, though.” He took a deep breath. “Then I guess this is goodbye. Maybe we’ll see each other around, eh?”

Night Light grinned. “Stop by if you’re ever in Canterlot. We’d love to have dinner with you and Marietta.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” said Candy with a wink.

A minute or two of walking later, they reached the airport gate. Candy held back, blinking. “Well, I’d better find another way around. I wasn’t on the passenger list, after all.”

“Need a disguise?” asked Velvet, her horn glowing.

“No, I’ll be fine. There’s a guy here who owes me a favor…” Candy gave them a cheeky grin and waved as he walked away toward another gate.

The Sparkles watched him go, giving farewell waves of their own. Velvet sighed with evident melancholy. “I never thought I’d miss him, but it’s going to feel awfully quiet without his plumbing stories as background noise.”

“He does grow on you. Must be why Marietta married him.” Night Light took one last breath of the outdoor air. “Come on, now, let’s not get all weepy right when we’ve finally arrived! Let’s go see if this city lives up to its reputation.”

* * *

They passed through customs with merciful swiftness, and emerged from the airport as the barest hints of pink crept into the sky. Hailing a griffon-drawn air-cab at the terminal, Night Light gave the drivers the address he’d memorized back in Canterlot when preparing this trip, and soon they were flying above the city.

Velvet sighed, leaning against him and looking out over the sprawling city. Glittering edifices and gleaming towers jutted up into the early twilight, already flickering with artificial light. The grand river whose shores the city surrounded wound aimlessly through it, crossing under bridges and weaving toward the distant ocean.

“Look,” said Velvet, pointing with an excited glint in her eye. “I think that’s the Hoovre.”

Night Light craned his head over the side of the flying carriage and squinted at the distant building complex. The unmistakable glass pyramid rose from the central courtyard, confirming Velvet’s guess. “We’re still planning to spend a day there, right?”

“Yep! Looking forward to that ancient Pegasus statuary.” Velvet rested her head on his shoulder. “Professor Quillfeather from the classics department insisted that we check it out when she heard we were going.”

They spent the next few minutes trying to spot more landmarks, pointing them out with delight. The distant Eiffeline Tower, the magnum opus of the famous griffon architect Ser Gustave, was an easy one to spot; but they caught glimpses of others like the Arc de Triumph Ancienne, a relic of the formidable Gryphan Empire, and the grand cathedral of Notre-Lionne de Maris.

The sight of so many noble architectural marvels was nearly enough to distract Night Light from the more earthly delights that they were after tonight, but he was steadily reminded by the warm brush of his wife’s breath on his cheek as they took in the view together. He rubbed his cheek against her horn, smiling softly.

When their griffon cabbies began to circle around and descend, the two unicorns grabbed their bags and prepared for the landing. After a short, exhilarating drop, the cart settled onto the cobblestones with a jolting rattle, rumbling forward as the griffons bled momentum from the touchdown.

“We ‘ave arrived, monsieur et madame,” said one of their drivers, doffing his cap with a dramatic sweep.

Night Light paid their fare and tipped the cabbies as Velvet got out of the cart to stretch. When finished, he hopped out onto the street, hauling his bag with him. “Thanks for the lift.”

“Of course, monsieur. Enjoy the city!” The griffons both waved goodbye, flapping their wings as they took flight to return to the airport.

Night Light looked around the street, glancing at the hundreds of shops that lined the thoroughfare. “Want to grab dinner at that little café half a block down?”

“Later,” said Velvet. “Come on, we’re on a mission, remember?”

Grinning, he hefted his bag over his back. “Yes, ma’am.”

Their destination was just across the street from the restaurant he’d pointed out. The windows bore the store’s name, Voyage au Désir, along with a tremendous array of nightwear and lingerie that was pushing the limits of what could be displayed on a public street—a few articles of which made Night Light’s pulse quicken a little. It was a classy-looking establishment, though, far from that seedy little shop he’d picked up the hoofcuffs and the plug in.

His opinion of the place only improved as they stepped inside through the glass double-doors, passing another unicorn couple who were on their way out. The store’s lighting was white but warm, the floors clean and the windows polished. It could have been any upscale clothing outlet from Canterlot, were it not for the massive—in multiple senses—collection of dildos lining the shelves to their right.

A lady griffon who was stocking one of the shelves paused her work and swept out to greet them with a beaming smile. “Bonjour! Je peux vous aider?”

He glanced aside at his wife. Normally she’d have been blushing intensely at this point, but apparently after the last week she was long past being embarrassed. Velvet winked at him, and leaned close to whisper in his ear. “I think I’d rather browse a bit first, hm?”

Night Light returned the wink with a smile. Velvet turned to the griffon and shook her head.“Merci, mais pas maintenant.”

The griffon’s beak twitched with a badly concealed smile at Velvet’s accent. “Ah, Equestrians! Welcome to Maris. Just let me know if you need ‘elp finding anything.” She returned to her task, nonchalantly lifting a cardboard box full of condoms to resume filling the shelf.

Velvet took the lead, and Night Light followed. The two took a leisurely stroll through the aisles, looking over potential purchases with curiosity. Some of the items were exciting, some fascinating, and more than a few verged on terrifying—the two brushed past the small rack of metal-studded flails with wide eyes.

They shared raised eyebrows and giggles at a few of the more outré objects, like the enormous silicon mass in a box labeled Le Derrière de la Reine du Soleil, a disembodied pair of buttocks bearing the unmistakable symbol of Celestia’s cutie mark on either cheek. “Goodness, I wonder if the princess has ever seen these,” muttered Velvet, prodding the box with a dubious hoof.

Trying to stifle a fit of laughter, Night Light did his best to keep a straight face. “Who knows? Maybe they got her to model for them.”

“Oh, dear, and there’s a Luna variant…” Velvet eyed him with a wicked grin. “Oh, too bad, honey, I don’t see one for Cadance.”

Blushing, Night Light coughed. “Hey, I haven’t brought up Flash Sentry.”

“Fair enough.” Velvet’s eyes suddenly crossed. “Oh, no, I hope they don’t make one of these for Twilight.” She made a gagging noise.

“Gah,” said Night Light, wincing. “Thanks for that image. She’s not very famous outside Equestria, so hopefully not. Let’s move on.”

Eventually, they found their way to the lingerie section. Velvet raised an eyebrow. “My, my, some of these look fun.”

“I’ll say…” Night Light grinned, pulling a pair of elaborate lace black panties up against their hangar hook. “The thought of you in these is downright enticing.”

“Say, how much wiggle room do we have—”

“Not much, in these.”

“—in our budget?” Velvet finished, rolling her eyes with an unwilling smile. “If we can spare the cash, I wouldn’t mind picking up some new clothes…”

She nearly laughed as her husband’s face lit up like a foal on Hearth’s Warming Eve. Dropping the panties back to their hook, he swallowed with badly concealed excitement. “You mean it?”

“Oh, yes,” said Velvet, suddenly wearing a dastardly grin. “Tell you what. You pick out the clothes, I’ll pick out the sizes.”

Giddy, Night Light began hoofing through the racks, pausing momentarily to glance at her flank with a bit lip and lust in his eyes. Velvet obliged him with a sultry smile, putting her hind leg out in a fair semblance of a catwalk strut.

Oh, goddess, he thought, put that mare in stockings and I think I’ll have a heart attack.

When he’d decided on a few items, he pointed them out to Velvet. She flipped through the rack toward the back end. “Hm, let’s see. Small, medium, medium… they’re calling fifteen a medium!? I guess we know where Cadance buys all her clothes... Ah, here we go, thirty-two large.”

Night Light blinked in confusion. “A large?” He did the laundry often enough to know his wife’s clothes were nowhere near that big.

“Oh, you know,” she said quickly, “these things shrink terribly in the wash. I’d like to be able to wear it more than once.”

He tilted his head. “Uh, if you say so.”

“Anyway! Let’s go check out that last aisle. I bet our prize is buried in the expensive stuff.”

Walking around the shelves to the final area of the store, they spent another few minutes oohing and aahing at the higher-end merchandise before Night Light’s stomach reminded him with a grumble that their last meal had been before noon. “It’s getting late, honey.”

“Yes… I don’t see the F3000 anywhere.”

“Well, let’s ask that griffon. I want to get out of here and grab some food.”

“Done browsing? Oh, all right,” said Velvet with a wistful sigh, tracing a hoof along the shelf below a very expensive set of glass beads. “After all,” she added with a faint grin, “we want to get to the hotel in time to try it out tonight.”

They found the griffon employee again, who was now sitting behind the register with an inventory sheet and a quill. She looked up at their approach, smiling congenially. “‘Ave you found what you were looking for?”

“Not everything,” said Night Light. “Where do you keep the, uh, Fornicatron 3000 models?”

The griffon whistled. “Ah, you ‘ave good taste. I bought one of those to try out with my husband… but I’m afraid I just sold the last one we ‘ad in stock less than an hour ago.”

There was a long, silent beat. Velvet made a noise like air escaping from a balloon. Night Light felt a tremble in his chest. He blinked slowly, his lips trembling.

“Ha… haha!” He quivered, his mouth curling up into an irrepressible grin. “Ahahahah,” he laughed, doubling over. “They’re out of stock!”

The griffon gave him a concerned look, but it was too late to stop now. Night Light placed a hoof on the counter to steady himself, great, big, unstoppable guffaws rumbling up from his belly.

Velvet’s head thudded to the counter. “Don’t tell me it was that unicorn couple who left right before we got in.”

The griffon cleared her throat with an anxious glance at Night Light, who was still caught in the throes of desperate, despairing mirth. “I am afraid so. Lovely folks, though. Said they ‘ad been having an ‘ard time of things this last week; apparently there was some mix-up with their train tickets… they were so happy to ‘ave something go right for them.”

Night Light made a noise halfway between a snort and a snarl. “The Sporkles!” More giggles burst forth. “This is all punishment for that damn hotel room, I know it.” He gazed beseechingly up at the ceiling. “But do we deserve all this?”

“I am sorry,” said the griffon, frowning with sympathy. “We will get more in next month.”

“But we’ll be gone by then,” said Velvet mournfully. “And they don’t ship them over the border…”

The griffon shrugged helplessly. “Well, I do not think any other stores in the city ‘ave our inventory selection, but you could try Jeanette’s down on 332 South Street.”

Night Light had checked that out in detail when making travel arrangements; this was the only store in Maris carrying the luxury item in question. He shook his head with a sigh. “We’ll keep it in mind, thanks. At least we can get these…”

He placed the clothes on the counter, and the griffon began to ring them out. Turning to Velvet, he stretched a hoof toward the door. “Well, honey, I think I could use some wine and a few black truffles. Let’s go get dinner.”

Crestfallen, the two left the store behind, crossing the street toward the small restaurant. Ponies and griffons still filled the streets, even though the daylight had faded to the creamy pink of sunset.

They placed orders inside the restaurant, then retired to one of the outdoor tables to wait for their food to arrive. Setting his bag down with a thump, Night Light relaxed on one of the seating cushions and rested his hooves on the table. “It’s a gorgeous night out.”

“Yes…” Velvet leaned her head on one hoof and sighed. “I can’t believe that after all this trouble they were out of the darn things.”

“The important thing is, we made it. The whole city’s ours to explore. A week in Maris, not a care in the world… that’s better than any toy, no matter how elaborate.” A waiter appeared with their drinks. The two thanked him and took their wine glasses.

“Mmm…” agreed Velvet, taking a sip. “You know, this reminds me of our honeymoon.”

“Yeah.” Night Light sighed, smiling. “That Dromedarian pyramid tour was something special. I’ll never forget that view from the top level.”

Velvet gave a nostalgic purr. “Funny, the part I remember best was when we snuck off behind the Sphinx to play hide the obelisk. There’s just something about big, rock-hard monuments that stirs me up.”

Night Light snorted. “Is that why you want to go see that statuary exhibit?”

“What can I say? All those big, well-muscled pegasi, posing heroically, mmm. I’m just terribly fond of large… stiff… stallions,” she said, running a hoof along his hind leg under the table. She leaned over and kissed him.

As they broke apart, Night Light spotted the door of the store across the street opening. The griffon employee emerged, carrying a bag with the store’s name on it. “Hmph. That lady said she bought one of the last F3000s, right? Looks like she bought it today.”

“I can’t blame her for not giving it up,” said Velvet, shrugging. “She said she wanted it for her husband. We’re just some random customers.”

Nodding absently, Night Light’s eyes flicked down the street and widened. “Wait a minute… is that—it’s Candy!”

Velvet twisted to look. “Well, well!”

The salespony was trundling down the road on the opposite side of the street with his trunk in tow, whistling a tune. Night Light was about to wave a hoof to get his attention when suddenly Candy’s eyes lit up and he broke into a swift canter. Night Light paused, thinking that he’d seen them—until he noticed that the griffon was racing toward Candy with equal vigor.

The two collided not far from the Sparkles’ dinner table, hugging each other. “Oh, Donald, mon amour,” cried the griffon, encircling him with her wings. The other passersby didn’t even pause; apparently this sort of thing was common in Maris.

Night Light tilted his head in befuddlement. “Oh.”

“Unbelievable!” said Velvet. Night Light turned to see his wife fuming. “All that talk about his anniversary, and he was really just trying to get out here to see some Marisian mistress.”

“Er, mistress? What makes you think—”

She gave him a very dry look. “Does Don seem like he’s Griffrench to you?”

He shrugged. “Well, no, but—”

“Then why is a local is calling him mon amour? Clearly he’s got some hussy on the side that he sees while he’s on sales trips.”

The pony and the griffon were having a rapid, hushed discussion, staring doe-eyed at each other. Velvet gave a furious snort. “Who knows if she’s even the only one? I’ve got half a mind to go over there and…” She stood abruptly, rattling the table.

Night Light stood with her, sucking in a breath through his teeth. “Honey, it’s really none of our business…”

It was too late to reason with her. With another angry huff, she set off across the street toward Candy and the griffon. Night Light followed her, dismayed.

Candy and his paramour were now locked in a very deep kiss, completely oblivious to their approach. Night Light noted with a detached interest how one had to turn their head at almost a right angle to kiss someone with a beak.

“Don Candy!” shouted Velvet.

Candy and the griffon broke apart, startled. Candy’s eyes shot wide open as he saw the two of them. “Velvet! Night Light!”

There was a brief pause. Night Light could see his wife’s jaw twitch as she gathered verbal ammunition, yet it was Candy who fired the first shot. With his trademark wide, beaming smile, he lifted a hoof to gesture at the two of them. “Marietta, these are the two I told you about! We’ve been through a lot together.”

The griffon blinked in surprise. “Oh!” She let her wings fold to her back and stretched out a claw. “You are the Sparkles! Donald mentioned your names in a letter this week, but I did not realize when we spoke, earlier—it is a pleasure to meet you both!”

Velvet looked quite blindsided, her hoof still lifted in now-aimless accusation. “You’re… you’re Marietta?”

Night Light swept in to the rescue. “We’ve heard a lot about you,” he said, shaking her claw with his hoof. “Although when Don said you worked in retail, that wasn’t quite what I’d pictured…” he gave a small laugh.

Marietta laughed in return. “You are not the first to be surprised. Ah, and on the other claw, whenever I tell anyone that my husband works in plumbing, they think I am using a euphemism.”

“It’s—it’s very good to meet you,” said Velvet, offering her own hoof, which Marietta shook. His wife was blushing fiercely, Night Light noted with amusement. “Your husband’s been a huge help to us both.”

Candy looked absolutely delighted at the unexpected meeting. “How have you guys been enjoying the city? Our hometown can be a bit of a maze if you don’t know your way around already.”

“Don,” said Velvet, now recovered somewhat, “you never told us you were from Griffrance!”

“Well,” he said sheepishly, kicking the cobblestones, “I didn’t want you to think I was just trying to bum a ticket off you. Like I said in the mountains, I never wanted to be a burden.”

Night Light blinked, still surprised. “You don’t have even a trace of an accent.”

“Oui, oui,” said Don, winking. “I’m from Fillydelphia originally. I met Marietta here on a sales trip ten years back. Since I spend most of my time on the go anyway, it wasn’t hard to uproot and move out here to join her.” He clapped his hooves in excitement. “We’ve got to show you guys around town!”

“Well let’s finish dinner first,” said Night Light, laughing.

Marietta nodded, smiling. “May we join you? I would like to hear about this marvelous journey Donald tells me you ‘ave ‘ad.”

“Of course,” said Velvet, still rosy-cheeked at her initial error. “And dinner’s our treat. Like I said, we owe Don for getting us here.”

As the group crossed the street, she leaned closer to Night Light and whispered, “Next time I start playing Love Cop, please shoot me.” He snickered, and gave her a reassuring wink.

She led them back to the table, and the four took seats. The waiter returned, a bit flustered at the addition of two guests to the table, no doubt throwing off the simultaneous delivery of their entreés. After the two newcomers had ordered, he raced back inside toward the kitchen.

The Sparkles regaled the Candys about their misadventures over the past week, glossing over or leaving out the more private episodes. Even without those, it was a wild tale, he realized. The kids weren’t going to believe them when they heard about it.

Marietta was doubled up in laughter by the time their food arrived. “Oh, oh,” she gasped, “it flooded the whole building? Oh, goodness…”

“Yeah,” said Night Light, rubbing the back of his neck. “And we’ve been paying for it ever since, I think.”

She wiped a tear away, shaking her head. “Ah, Donald, you simply must help those poor souls at the hotel on your next trip.”

“Definitely on my list,” said Don, tapping his chin. He smiled as the waiter appeared, bearing trays on his back and in his hoof.

The quartet dug into the food, and the conversation continued sporadically throughout the meal. By the time they were done, the sun had long set and the crescent moon had risen high in the sky.

Sitting back, full and satisfied, Night Light patted his stomach. “Ahh, now that’s what I call a meal.”

“Oui, our cuisine ‘as no parallèle,” said Marietta, making a kiss blowing gesture with her claw. “We must take you to my sister’s restaurant this week. She makes the best onion soup you ‘ave ever tasted. Simply divine.”

“We’d love to,” said Velvet, her embarrassment long replaced by enjoyment of the company. “We didn’t have a very strict itinerary planned. I’d love to see the sights with some locals.”

“Although,” said Night Light with a yawn, “perhaps we should start tomorrow. We haven’t checked into our hotel yet.”

“Oh right!” Candy’s head bobbed. “Of course. Where are you staying?”

“The Mareiott on 24th Avenue.”

Candy nodded. “I know the place. Not far from here, actually, we can show you the way on hoof if you want to save on cab fare.”

“Sure!”

“And we can meet you guys there tomorrow morning, if you like. There’s this beach about twenty minutes west of the city that I think you’ll really enjoy, we could make a day trip out of it.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Velvet, smiling tiredly. “Let’s go.” She stood to leave, and the rest of them likewise got up from their seating cushions.

“Oh, I forgot to ask,” said Candy as he led the party down the road. “Did you two find whatever that thing you were shopping for was?”

The two of them and Marietta all paused for a moment, sharing a glance. “No,” said Night Light, a little regretfully, “they were out of them.”

Marietta glanced at her bag. “Ah… again, my apologies.”

Candy’s eyebrow lifted as he looked between them. “Wait a minute…” He barked a laugh, elbowing Night Light. “Oho, so that’s what you were after. Well, judging from the previous model that Marietta brought home from work, it’s definitely worth crossing an ocean for.”

“Don, please,” said Velvet, covering her eyes in embarrassment. “Bad enough that you heard… well, all that stuff in the desert.”

“Ah, relax,” he said, waving a hoof. “What’s the point of being married if you don’t get to try new things together? Good for you both.” His grin faded into a thoughtful frown. “Although you say they didn’t have any left?”

He looked at Marietta with a plaintive expression. She blinked in momentary confusion, then tilted her head with a chiding frown. “Donald, no! This was your anniversary present.”

“I know,” he said, kissing the tip of her beak. “But these two traveled a long way for this. And this is their only chance. We can always get another one later.”

“But Donald,” said Marietta, resting a claw gently against his cheek. “I ‘ave not seen you in months. This was supposed to be special.”

“Any night with you is special, ma petite plume,” he said, rubbing his nose against her beak. “And I owe them for bringing us back together.”

“Ah,” she sighed, resistance crumbling. “I ‘ad to marry the most generous stallion in Equestria.” Smiling ruefully, she looked up at the Sparkles and offered her bag. “Go on, then. And thank you for bringing him home to me.”

“W-we can’t take that!” spluttered Night Light.

“Don, that’s not—” began Velvet.

Candy held up a hoof, smiling calmly. “I’ve already gotten the best anniversary present I could ever hope for—a way back home, and two new friends to share my city with! Take it. Please.”

Night Light chewed on his lip for a moment. “Well, at least let us pay you for it.”

Marietta snorted a laugh. “I will not turn that down.”

Pulling the enormous pouch of money he’d brought with him to purchase the toy out of his luggage, Night Light offered it to the griffon. They exchanged bags, Marietta flipping open her husband’s trunk and dropping the pouch within.

“Great,” said Candy, chipper once more. “Now come on, let’s get you to that hotel.”

Twenty minutes later, they stood before the huge Mareiott building. Night Light craned his head up and gave a happy laugh. “Beats the Quality Inn, that’s for sure.”

“We will see you tomorrow morning at ten ‘o-clock sharp,” said Marietta with a smile and a wave. “Bring sunscreen. The summer sun can be fierce.”

“We will, thanks,” he said, looking over to Candy. “And Don… if you ever need a favor, just ask. We’ll help however we can.”

“Huh,” said Candy, a sly smile creeping onto his face. “I’ve never been owed a favor by the parents of royalty before.”

Night Light and Velvet wore equally startled expressions. Velvet coughed. “You know who we are?”

“Have since you first introduced yourselves. Your names have been in every paper in Equestria ever since Princess Twilight’s coronation, they weren’t hard to recognize.” Candy winked. “But you two didn’t make a big deal out of it, so neither did I.”

Night Light felt a rush of gratitude. Half of his and Velvet’s relationships had acquired an anxious level of formal distance ever since the coronation. Having friends you could relax and be yourself with was more valuable than gold. “Thanks, Don. That means… more than you might guess.”

Velvet hugged Candy. “Goodnight, Don. And thank you.”

“Don’t thank me till you try that gizmo out,” said Candy, chuckling. “All right, me and Marietta had better get going. Goodnight, you two. Try not to get too wild, we’ve got a decent walk tomorrow morning.”

With heated cheeks, Night Light nodded. “Enjoy your anniversary.”

“I already am,” said Candy dreamily. He parted with a wave, vanishing into the Marisian streets with his wife at his side.

* * *

An hour later, Velvet whistled a faint tune as she strode down the hotel hallway. Trying to remember the words of the song’s chorus, she pushed back into the hotel suite she and Night Light were staying in with a bottle of Malbec still dangling in her magical grip.

Her husband was lying on the lily-patterned bedspread, surrounded by packaging. He’d thoroughly disemboweled the box during her little wine-gathering expedition to the hotel bar, and now paper and plastic were scattered all around him. But the thing that inexorably drew her eye was the object the box had contained.

The Fornicatron 3000 hovered a few inches off the surface of the bed, apparently under its own power. It was a featureless pink sphere, looking nothing like the strange contraption she’d seen in that catalog weeks ago. I guess you have to activate it somehow, she mused, watching it for any signs of movement.

Night Light was buried in the thick instruction booklet, mouth screwed up in concentration. He glanced up as she entered the room. “How was the bar?”

“Very nice. The patrons weren’t all that observant, though. I didn’t get any funny looks.”

His brow furrowed. “Why would you get…” His eyes opened wide, and his mouth gaped a little. “You didn’t wear that down there, did you?”

In reply, she winked before turning around and lifting her tail, giving him a good view of the flared end of the plug nestled firmly inside her. “Put it in right before I left. I thought I’d get warmed up.”

Her husband swallowed, wiping his forehead. “In public? Um. Wow.”

Velvet’s horn glimmered to life, and she gasped a little as the plug popped out. “How are your own preparations going?”

Sighing, he dropped the instruction booklet on the bedspread. “Velvet… I’ve been thinking.”

She took another sip of the wine, raising her eyebrows and gesturing for him to continue.

Night Light bit his lip for a moment. “Look, I know… I know we went to a lot of trouble to get our hooves on this thing. And I know it’s the whole reason we set out, to start with. But… is this what we were really after?”

He sat up on the bed, pressing his forehooves together. “Or was it just… variety? Novelty? A reminder that we haven’t tapped out yet, that there’s still more to discover? Maybe what we wanted wasn’t some toy, or a cruise, or even a vacation… maybe it was inside us, all along, and we’ve discovered it on our journey. I don’t think we need this after all. I think we should just… enjoy ourselves together, without relying on some silly pink toy as a crutch.”

Velvet took another sip from the bottle. “You can’t figure out how to turn it on, can you?”

He wilted. “W—well, I mean, the manual’s three hundred pages long, and it’s almost entirely in griffrench…”

Snickering, Velvet rolled onto the bed. The wine bottle hovered after her. “Here, have a taste. This is some good wine.”

Sheepishly, he took hold of the bottle with a glowing horn, and brought it to his lips. “Hey, how much of this have you had?”

“Ohh,” she said, trying not to slur her words, “a few sips here and there.”

“A quarter of the bottle? Big sips, Velvet.” Grinning, he took a drink. “Be careful, or you’ll knock yourself out before we get to the fun parts.”

“Mmm. Not tonight.” Her eyes flashed. “I’ve got something special I’ve been looking forward to since our shopping trip. But we’re both going to need a little liquid courage. Drink up.”

His second sip was a bit nervous. “Something special?”

“Here, give me the manual. I read enough academic papers in griffrench, I’m sure I can figure this out.”

Night Light pushed it across the bedspread toward her. “Have at it, honey.”

“While I’m doing this, I’ve got a request.” She inhaled, biting her lip with gleeful anxiety. Is he going to agree? This is a bit much, even with all we’ve done already. Horn glowing, she lifted the bag they’d brought from Marietta’s store, pulling out the boxes that contained Night Light’s hoof-picked lingerie. “I want to see what these look like when they’re all worn at the same time.”

He gently tugged one of the boxes. “Want me to help you put them on?”

“No. I want you to put them on.”

There was a moment of shocked silence. Night Light made a little eep sound, the anticipation on his face suddenly replaced with something close to terror. “M-me?”

“Please?” She batted her eyelashes at him. “Remember that little fantasy I told you about with Flash? I’ve always kind of wanted to see you, well…” She giggled. “On bottom. In every sense.”

“Er… and this’ll help…?”

“I really want to see you wear these, dear. Like a pretty little mare.” She kissed him. “Do it for me?”

He gave an embarrassed cough. “I… I guess if you really want, I can… I can give it a try.” He stood, looking at the boxes with trepidation, rubbing his forehead. With a pained sigh, he lifted the cover off of the box with the panties. “Oh, the things I do for love.”

“Not just for love,” she said, giddy at his acceptance. “You wear those for a bit, and I’ll let you put something bigger than a plug in this tight little booty of mine.”

That returned a bit of pep to his step, she noted with amusement. He nodded, eagerness warring with shame. “Well, I guess I’ll—”

“Not in here! I want to see it all together. Go change in the bathroom.”

Nodding with reddening cheeks, he gathered the boxes and left for the other room. Velvet rubbed her hooves, setting the wine bottle down on the nightstand before turning down to glance at the manual.

She flipped to page one and read through the introductory feature text. “Remote provided for non-magical species… direct activation through magic, there we go. Ooh, a self-sterilization function. ‘Ass-to-mouth? No problem!’ Not the most tasteful slogan…”

Her eyes scanned further down the page. “Automatic self-lubrication, interesting; I wonder how they managed to generate a liquid without reducing the mass of the toy? Fluid simulation with instant cleanup, now that’s nice.”

The manual had the disconcerting habit of always referring to the toy as The Device, but it was clear enough on how to operate the thing. Velvet began paging through the various sections, pausing to examine the settings that caught her eye. Two in particular were quickly added to her short list for the night. Her horn flickered as she powered the device on to test the magical charge, and she was greeted with a brief, low hum. The surface of the pink sphere rippled like water, little circles of texture appearing and vanishing before her eyes. Velvet peered into the depths, fascinated.

The creaking of the bathroom door drew her attention like a lightning rod. The light within switched off, and the door pushed further open. Hesitantly, a black stocking-clad hoof emerged, pressing down on the carpet. Velvet’s eyebrows rose until they threatened to jump off her head as Night Light shuffled out into the bedroom.

“Oh, sweet Sisters, you’re adorable!” she squealed.

Her big, strong stallion was wearing full-length stockings topped with lacy frills on all four legs. His back and chest were covered by a black chemise, so sheer that she could see the faint blue of his coat through it. His tail poked through a hole in the elaborate lace panties, black to match the rest of the outfit. They covered his cutie mark, but the faint shape of the moon was still barely visible underneath.

The overall effect was startling; he looked more naked than if he’d been wearing nothing. The tight black choker with the violet gem dangling from the center set the entire ensemble off marvelously.

Night Light’s cheeks were scarlet. He shifted from hoof to hoof, trying and utterly failing to look dignified, like a guilty filly caught stealing from the cookie jar. It was the cutest thing she’d ever seen.

Velvet swept a hoof across the bedspread, knocking all the packaging aside. “Come on over here, you beautiful stallion, you.”

He dragged his unwilling hooves across the carpet to join her on the bed. Not quite able to meet her eye, he sat on the mattress, sliding in from the edge, and said something in a tiny voice.

“What was that?” Velvet tried not to lick her lips at the sight of the bulging triangle of cloth over his crotch.

“I asked,” he said, voice dripping with embarrassment, “if you had any luck getting it working.”

“Yes! But it needs us both to activate it.”

He blinked in confusion. “That’s kind of strange.”

“Only for the first activation. See, for the couples’ options, it simulates our… well, our bodies. Parts of them, anyway. Exact replicas. But for that, we need to leave an imprint.” She pressed a hoof up to the side of the pink sphere. It sank slightly into the surface, but soon encountered resistance and paused.

Night Light lifted a stocking-clad hoof—Velvet felt a shiver of delight—and rested it on the sphere opposite hers. The device gave a long, high-pitched tone. The surface flashed yellow, then violet, then another tone played, before the light and sound vanished.

“Done!” Velvet set her hoof down. Night Light had barely let the sphere go when she pounced on him.

Rolling him under her, she leaned down and planted a kiss on his nose. “You look great. You’ve got a good eye for sexy sleepwear, honey.”

“Just please, don’t ask me to wear anything like this in public,” he said, still blushing madly.

“No, no… this is our little secret.” She looked downward, devouring him with her eyes. “I want you all to myself.”

His chest rose and fell shakily under the thin silk chemise, as nervous as a virgin mare with her high-school boyfriend. Velvet had the cathartic sensation of corrupting some poor, innocent youth. Payback for all the things he’d done to her back in those days. All those sweet, delicious things…

She placed a hoof on his belly and slid it up under the fabric. “How’s it feel? Comfortable?”

“Th-the shirt’s okay, but the, um. The p…” He swallowed. “The panties are a bit tight.”

“I guess someone’s too big for a size large,” she said, brushing the hoof up to his chest. He was sweating a little, to her satisfaction. “On the plus side, that means I might be able to wear them after a wash or two.”

He brightened a little at the thought of that. “I hope so. They’d look a lot better on you.”

“Oh, don’t be modest. You look so cute in them.” She placed her other hoof on the bulge, putting slight pressure on his hidden sheath. Night Light made a little ah sound, before covering his lips with a hoof and blushing further. “I’ve always loved how in touch you are with your feminine side, Nighty.”

“N-not that in touch,” he said, wriggling slightly under her hooves.

“Oh, plenty enough.” She leaned down to kiss his neck, right under the choker, drawing a sharp intake of breath from him. “After all, how many stallions would let their wife plow them in the ass?”

“Wh-what!?”

Lifting her head, she raised an eyebrow and smiled. “You did say you wanted to try more after our experiments on the airship.”

“Well… the plug felt pretty good, I admit, but…” He swallowed, shyly pulling his forelegs up under his chin to cover his chest. “I don’t know if I’m ready for that.”

“You sure?” She glanced down. His cock had begun to stiffen, already poking over the waistband of the black, lace garment. She flicked the tip with her hoof. “Having you inside me is the best, Nighty. I’d love to share it with you… show you how a mare feels.”

“I, um, uh… I…” He took a deep breath. “I’m gonna need another drink.”

Velvet grinned. “A polite lady says ‘please.’”

“Please?” he asked, somehow growing even redder in the face.

She floated the bottle of wine between them, taking a sip before letting him do the same. Between them, his cock had grown fully erect, several inches sticking out of the top of his panties. The triangle couldn’t quite contain his balls, either, falling a bit short on either side.

Oh, he’s enjoying this. He just doesn’t want to admit it to himself, yet.

“Nowwww,” she said, stretching the word out in a sibilant drawl, “it’s time you get a taste of your own medicine.” She spread his hind legs apart, enjoying the way they trembled at her touch.

She’d fantasized about this sort of thing a lot, over the years. That little scene with Flash Sentry was just one of hundreds. It wasn’t so much the thought of her husband taking a thick, pulsing cock up the ass that got her sweating; it was the way his face crumbled with delight, the way all that strong, sturdy confidence melted like butter under the attention of another, bigger stallion. She’d never expected to get the opportunity to do that to him herself.

With a flash of her horn, the pink sphere behind them suddenly whizzed into motion. The sphere raced around to fly between them, smacking down between Velvet’s legs. She gasped a little as the cold material touched her skin, but it instantly warmed to match her temperature. The ball flattened against her, deforming to match the curves of her body.

With another horn flash, she activated the first setting on her list, le Réciproque. The toy twitched, a magical current running across her skin wherever the surface touched her. She looked up into her husband’s face with a sultry smile.

Night Light’s eyes widened as the unmistakable shape of a cock, rendered in bright pink, rose from the mass of the toy like it was coming out of a pool of water. He gulped. “W-wait a minute, that looks like my—”

“Mhm! That’s why we needed to imprint it.” Velvet rubbed her hooves. “Told you, a perfect copy. Aside from the color.”

She leaned over him, letting her surrogate cock rest atop his own, the pink shaft resting atop its perfect twin, already bound to his stomach by the panties. “You’re going to get to feel exactly what I do.”

His cock twitched. “How… how does it… feel?”

Velvet’s hoof crept down, tracing the line of the panties beneath the bulge down across his spread cheeks. “Shh. Be a good little mare, and I’ll show you.”

“Mmmm!” he bit down on his lip and his hoof twitched as she poked the head of her cock against the thin lace shielding his entrance. “Be gentle,” he whispered, hiding his eyes with a stocking-covered foreleg.

“Of course. It’s your first time,” she said, winking.

Her horn glowed softly, and the pink cock began to shine as the magical self-lubrication kicked in. She could hear the faint, wet squishing noises as she prodded his entrance through the dampening lace. His cock was straining against the elastic band, a little dribble of precum already spilling from the tip.

With sensual slowness, Velvet pulled the bottom of the panties aside, exposing his hindquarters. Night Light was breathing hard, burying his face in the crook of his leg. He hadn’t even looked this vulnerable when she’d had him in the cuffs.

Her pink flare pressed in between his cheeks. He was panting now, more from anxiety than anything else. Velvet placed her hooves on his belly, beginning to rub them in calming circles. “Don’t worry, baby, I’ll go slow.”

With his head still nuzzled deep into the safety of his leg, he nodded. Velvet smiled, and pushed forward. As the flare met his entrance, she felt resistance, and slowly, slowly leaned into it.

Night Light gasped as the head popped inside him, and Velvet let out a shuddering breath as she felt it enter her. The toy was generating two shafts, one outside, one inside. She’d been literal about feeling everything he felt, though not in the same hole. “Ready, Nighty?”

“Yes,” he whimpered, peeking an eye out at her.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed forward. Night Light let out a whine that trailed into a soft moan as she went deeper. The internal cock pulsed inside her as it slid in, just like the real thing did, and Velvet instinctively clamped down on it with a suffused murmur of pleasure.

“Oh,” Night Light breathed, letting his hooves fall unsteadily to his sides. “It’s so… big…”

“Yes, you are,” she said, continuing to rub his belly. “Don’t you love it?”

“Mmmyyyyeahhhh…” His head lolled back.

Taking that for assent, she began to move. It only took three slow pumps for Night Light to devolve into a quivering mess. He was making moans and strange noises she’d never heard before, his face still flushed with embarrassment but his mouth hanging loose with helpless desire.

Aside from the cock thrusting inside her with every jerk of her hips, she felt powerful like this. Watching him turn completely to butter was everything she’d hoped. His cock was twitching against the fabric, pushing so hard that the elastic could no longer hold it to his stomach. It wobbled with her every pump, bumping against his skin and leaving shiny drops of precum on his fur.

The chemise rode up his chest as she fucked him, exposing more soft skin for her to rub. His legs twitched constantly, curling in and dropping back over and over, warring between shyness and surrender.

“Vvvvelvet…” he managed, between soft hahs and ohs, “kiss me. Please.”

She leaned down over him, still thrusting. “Since you asked nicely…” She sank into his lips, murmuring with delight as his tongue entwined with hers. Her hips jerked forward, a little faster than she’d intended, and his breath puffed out from his nostrils. “Mmrrrmmm,” he moaned.

“You ready for me to go faster?”

“P-please… hah…”

The wet schlicking sound of the cock in his ass filled the air. “You want to get fucked like a good little mare?”

He nodded frantically, squeezing his eyes tight and failing to keep a trembling smile off his face. Humiliation had completely given way to lust, she noted with satisfaction.

Velvet shoved forward, so hard that Night Light half-rose from the bed in shock, grabbing her shoulders with his hooves. The stockings felt to her like targeting lines, leading her back down to his ass as she pounded him.

A minute passed as her thrusts grew more intense. Night Light writhed uncontrollably under her assault, his hooves feebly clawing at her chest and rubbing his own, his horn sparkling with misdirected energy. “D-don’t stop,” he burbled, reaching a hoof down between them.

He pushed the panties down, and his cock sprang free. Velvet licked her lips as it began bouncing wildly in time with her gyrations. She plunged as deep as she dared, her breath instantly stolen by the massive cock shoving into her pussy.

Blinking out of her brief daze, she whispered, “You like getting fucked?”

“Yes,” he whispered back, his cock giving a sympathetic jerk.

“How’s it feeeel?” she asked, panting, “to be my bitch?”

“Oh, Sisters,” he moaned, eyes rolling up into his head. “So good.”

Velvet pulled back and slammed back inside, forcing them both to gasp. “I’m getting close, honey.”

“Me t-too,” he said, biting down on his lip. “Ffffffffffff…”

She fucked him hard and fast. Both of them made incoherent sounds of pleasure with every movement, too caught up in the new sensations to speak. Velvet pressed her chest to his, resting her head against his cheek. She humped as fast as she could, desperate for release. His cock was wedged between both their bellies, rubbing against her as she pumped. The soft fabric of the chemise was soaked with sweat.

Night Light was whimpering and gasping like a teenage filly, hopelessly lost in throes of pleasure. Velvet groaned as she buried her head in the crook of his neck. “Want me to come inside?”

He nodded, clinging to her with his forelegs. Velvet grinned. “Beg.”

“Honey, I am begging you, come inside me.” Night Light’s voice was breathy. “I want to know how it feels.”

“Ah,” she groaned, horn glowing. She managed to assemble enough concentration to send the signal to the toy before resuming her attack. The pink cock plunged into Night Light’s entrance with squishy, wet sounds, matched by the one inside her.

She felt it tremble between the walls of her pussy, and arched her back. “Oh—oh, here it comes—”

The cock pulsed, and sudden warmth flooded into her. Night Light squealed, scratching his hooves along her back. Velvet let out a low, guttural growl as the magical cum splurged into her pussy. She kept pumping, aching for her own climax.

Night Light found his first. His cock, still rubbing between them, erupted without warning. He cried out, covering his face with both forehooves. Velvet felt his sticky cum smearing across both their chests, half-smiling and half-moaning at the sensation.

Her orgasm hit her like a lightning bolt. Velvet clamped down tight on the still-pulsing cock inside her with a joyful groan, her hips shaking as the waves of pleasure wracked her body. She trembled for several long moments, eking out the last dregs of the climax.

Eventually, her pulse settled, and she exhaled heavily. Pulling out of her husband, she felt a sudden wet flood in her lap. She looked down with curiosity, seeing a sparkling white goo spilling from his ass. “Wow. This thing makes… a lot.”

Night Light had the back of his hoof pressed to his forehead. “Ah… ah… wow. So that’s… what it feels like.”

“Did you like it?”

He nodded, his face filled with bliss. “Very much.”

“Yesss! We get to do this again!” Velvet pumped a hoof. Her husband laughed at her excitement, a reluctant smile hanging on his face. She beamed at him. “You make the cutest bottom, dear.”

Pursing his lips he tugged at the choker. “Can I take these off, now?”

“If you want to… I think the stockings are sexy, though.”

“I will keep that in mind,” he said dryly, horn glowing. The choker was the first to go, unclasping and lifting into the air.

Velvet sat back as he undressed, her attention falling back to the toy. She sent the signal for it to return to neutral, trying to remember how to activate the next setting. The surface of the toy flashed green, and the cock melted back into the mass against her crotch. The cock inside her withdrew as well, shrinking out of her cream-filled pussy.

The sparkling white “cum” splattered all over the bed between her husband’s butt and her thighs flickered and suddenly dissolved into sparks of light that floated away into nothing. The load inside her remained, however, sealed in by the toy. It probably only vanished in air, or something. “That’s convenient,” she murmured. “We’re going to have some messy fun with this thing later this week, honey.”

“Later?”

She winked. “Not sure we’ve got three rounds in us tonight, and I did promise you’d get to put your real one somewhere new.” Her eyelids were heavy, the mix of alcohol and the come-down from her orgasmic high warring with her desire to stay awake. But she’d given her word, and she meant to keep it.

He grinned, pulling the last stocking off to lie in a crumpled heap at the edge of the bed. “Well then, speaking of bottoms…”

Velvet felt a sudden yank on her hips. “Oh!” she yelped as she was dragged down onto the bed, face down. Night Light rolled over to straddle her from behind.

“Now who’s a good little mare?” he asked lightly, giving her right cutie mark a little spank.

Trying not to giggle, she cooed, “I am.”

“Very good,” he said, lifting her tail. “So, that plug got you warmed up?”

“I'm hot-to-trot, sweetie. Are you?”

She heard a rustle of fabric as he dug the bottle of lube out of his bag. “Soon enough. That quivering little ass of yours is helping.” He growled under his breath.

Just because his effort to reassert his masculinity was so obvious that it was silly didn’t mean it wasn’t working. Velvet wasn’t sure whether she wanted to laugh or beg for him to touch her. She settled on wiggling her butt in the air. “I think I can get you going a little faster.”

“Oh?”

“The other mode I wanted to try out tonight is Cunnilingus Quatorze: Le Dragon.”

She heard his breath hiss out a little at that. “Ooh. That sounds…”

“Amazing, right? Too bad you don’t have a pussy, huh…” She flashed him a smile over her shoulder. “Course, I bet it works in other places, too.” Her horn flickered, and she felt the toy stir back to life.

The feeling of something thin, wet, and fleshy slipped between her pussy lips. Velvet laid her head on the pillow, breathing slowly out. “Ohh…”

She felt a sticky weight on her back as he leaned over her, pressing his half-erect member up against her. “Describe it for me.”

“It’s like a… a ribbon,” she breathed, closing her eyes. “Flicking up and down along my slit… So wet already with all that… with all that magic cum…”

“Are you controlling it?”

“N-nope, got a mind of its own…” She dragged a hoof along the sheets. “Ohhh, it just went inside.”

“That’ll do it,” muttered Night Light with satisfaction. She heard the bottle of lube pop open, and felt a cool dribble over her backside.

“Mmmm,” she mumbled. “It’s twisting.”

A thick, firm prodding drew her attention backward. Velvet spread her legs obligingly, giving him full access. Her butthole suddenly stretched as Night Light pressed against her.

Velvet bit her lip, burying her face in the pillow. He was bigger than the plug for sure, but she’d had it inside her enough times now that his presence wasn’t too much to handle. Wearing it most of their second day on that airship had certainly helped.

Her concentration jerked back down to her pussy as the dragon tongue began to flick in and out of her tunnel. “Ah,” she panted, losing the words to describe it to her husband.

He pushed deeper, and Velvet was filled with a sensation of warmth and pressure. “Ahnnnnfff,” she burbled meaninglessly. She couldn’t tell how deep he was until the sudden bump of his medial ring met her entrance, pausing for a moment before pushing past. A squeal escaped her lips.

“Oh, Velvet,” he murmured. “It’s so… tight. Way tighter than your pussy. Tighter than your throat, even…”

“Then you’d beh… better…” her eyes crossed as the tongue suddenly shoved deep inside her pussy. “You’d better grease it up a bit.”

He pulled back, almost leaving her, and more lube spilled onto his shaft and her butt. Velvet cooed with delight as the tongue moved even deeper.

“Woooow,” she groaned, rolling her head sideways to breathe. “It’s going way deeper than… than anything.”

After a moment, the slithering thing in her warm, gooey tunnel paused, apparently reaching its limit. It wriggled inside her, forcing her to bite her lip to restrain the noises of ecstasy trying to bubble up from her throat.

Night Light suddenly slammed back into her. “OH!” she gasped, her head jerking down to her chest. “N-not so rough, honey.”

“Sorry,” he said, strained. “You’re just so slippery. And tight; goddesses, this is good.”

“We’re not going to last long at this ra-ayyyyyyyy—oh!”

The tongue hadn’t reached its limit. It had reached hers. The thing itself had plenty left to go, and she felt it actually doubling back on itself, still sliding across her internal ridges through the toy's cum. It was coming into and out of her at the same time, more length spilling inside as the tip crept back toward her entrance.

Night Light was keeping his thrusts measured, to her gratitude, but he was picking up the pace. His slick shaft filled her ass again and again, the rhythmic, meaty slapping of his balls against her butt filling her ears. Velvet curled her forelegs up to her chest, trying to withstand the combined sensations of his cock and the tongue. Wet, filthy noises filled the air as both of her entrances were pummeled.

Slap… slip… slop… squish… squelch… plop… slop…

The tip of the tongue emerged from her folds, so wet she could feel it even through the existing dampness. It slid up her slit, lighting the skin of her puffy labia aflame with sensation, until it reached her quivering clit. The tongue wrapped around it, and began gently pulling on her clit and hood, like a sucking mouth. Velvet pounded the bed with her hoof. “Oh Celestia, that’s amazing. Nighty, it’s—it’s—oh, goddess…”

The doubled ribbon inside her suddenly moved as one. It began sawing back and forth, pushing in and out simultaneously, making her whimper with needy pleasure. She stretched her back, straining uselessly to escape the incredible sensations.

Night Light was stuffing her with wild abandon. “Velvet,” he said firmly, but too out-of-breath to be stern. “You called me a very mean word, earlier.”

“I’m ssssorry,” she moaned.

“I think I ought to remind you who’s the boss around here, don’t you?”

She nodded weakly, her eyes fluttering closed. “Ssshow me.”

“I’m going to come in your ass.” He spanked her hard with a hoof, and she yelped. “And it won’t be that fake stuff.”

“Goo… good…” she mumbled, putting a hoof back to rest on his stomach as he humped her ass. “The real… the rrrr...”

“The real deal, that’s right. Thick, hot cum, splurting into your ass, slopping all over while I fuck you. Dribbling down your legs… Like a big, sticky sign, saying Night Light owns this mare.”

She gave a cry of exquisite pleasure into the pillow, too overwhelmed to speak. His cock was already tensing up inside her, matched by an increasing speed from the tongue. He’d burst inside her any moment…

The thought of it tipped her over. Velvet shuddered, then gasped, then screamed in delight, every muscle seizing up at once. Orgasm gripped her pussy, clenching and squashing the slithering ribbon inside, which wriggled at full intensity. Velvet’s eyes squeezed shut so hard that she felt a tear smear across her cheek and the pillowcase.

“Nnnf!” grunted Night Light. She felt him pulse, and then a warm glob of fluid filled her in a place it had never entered before. His cum flooded into her ass, lubing up her insides even more as he continued to pump. Her butt was so tight around his shaft that she could feel each spurt running up the length, pulsing out of his flaring tip.

Velvet lay weakly on the bed as he finished, his hooves still gripping her flanks tightly. She fumbled with her magic, sending the off signal to the toy, which gave another high pitched beep before zipping out of her pussy. The entire thing jumped away from her crotch, rolling back into a featureless pink ball, and floated away to the side. It flashed green as the sterilization spell activated. The sparkling fake cum seeped out of her, dissolving into violet specks of light as it left her pussy.

Her husband pulled out at last, and a flood of real cum followed him out. Just as he’d promised, she felt it drool down her inner thigh, and she cooed with delight. “Night Light owns this mare,” she mumbled.

Night Light laughed. “Sorry if I overcompensated with the boss talk…”

“I liked it,” she said, twisting her chest sideways but leaving her dripping hole up in the air. “Gentle Nighty is nice, but sometimes I want wild stallion Nighty instead.”

He leaned down and kissed her. She put her hoof on his cheek and pulled him deeper into it, enjoying the taste of his lips. When he finally pulled away to lie down beside her, she sighed happily. “This has been a crazy week.”

“I’ll say. When I brought that catalog home I never thought I’d end up begging for you to fuck my ass.” Night Light shook his head, grinning. “I think… I think we’re going to be okay.”

“Me too.” Velvet nuzzled him. “You’re right. We don’t need a fancy toy to keep things interesting.” She leaned closer to his ear and whispered, “But it certainly helps…”

Laughing, he poked her nose with a hoof. She smirked, and let her head fall back to the pillow. Night Light laid his head down beside hers, his smile growing crooked. “Does this mean I’m going to have to start getting you off twice a night again?”

“Maybe not every time,” she said, laughing softly. “We’re not twenty anymore.” She rubbed her nose against his. “But as long as I get to make you walk funny once or twice a month, I’ll be satisfied.”

“Deal,” he said, rubbing his nose against hers.

The two lay there for a while, basking in the afterglow. After a pleasant few minutes of cuddling, Velvet stifled a yawn with one hoof, and slid the other under her pillow. “I think I’m going to take a nap,” she said. “You know me and alcohol…”

“Ohhh, no you don’t,” he said, poking her. “You’re not leaving me with all the cleanup again…”

Velvet let out a theatrical snore. Her husband sighed softly, before snickering. “All right, lazybones. But you’re wearing the stockings next time.”

Without opening her eyes, she grinned. “It’s a deal.”

Epilogue: Afterglow Accomplished

Velvet yawned, stretching her hooves. Above, the warm sunlight bathed her entire body. There was heat from below, too, as the baking sand beneath her blanket warmed her stomach. Resting her head back down onto a foreleg, she closed her eyes under the sunglasses and let the gentle sound of waves rolling onto the shore rumble in her ears. It was their second day on the beach with the Candys, and she was more relaxed than she'd been in months.

A cool puddle of liquid dribbled onto her back. “Brr,” she muttered, shivering a little.

“Oh, don’t give me that,” said Night Light, rubbing the sunscreen into her coat with a hoof. “A few seconds of cold to not deal with days of sunburn seems a small price to pay.”

“I can’t believe there’s no anti-sunburn spell,” she mumbled. “Ancient ponies must’ve thought it was heresy or something. Gonna have to make that my team’s next research project.”

“Hey! I thought we agreed, no talking about work on vacation.”

“Hrmph.” Velvet flicked her tail at him. “All right, then, let’s talk about our plans. We still heading to the cathedral with the Candys tomorrow?”

“Mhm,” said her husband, smearing the sunscreen down onto her lower back. “Though we don’t have anything set for the afternoon, yet. I thought maybe we could explore our little pink ball some more. Having two dicks last night was pretty good, but I bet we can find something even better...”

Velvet grinned, though she didn’t open her eyes. “A worthy proposal.” The double dicks had been fun, and having him fuck her while the toy matched his thrusts in his own ass was going to be hard to beat, but anything was possible. “But I had something else in mind.”

“Hmm?”

“There was a flyer in the hotel lobby for a bungee jumping attraction near the edge of the city.”

Night Light laughed. “Bungee jumping? You want to go leaping off bridges, Miss Terrified-of-Heights?”

“No better way to get over your fears than facing them, right?” Velvet’s horn flickered, and she heard her husband inhaled a tight breath as the bottle of sunscreen brushed against his sheath. “Besides, I have fond memories of the last time we went hurtling off a cliff.”

“Oh, no,” he muttered, “don’t tell me I’ve turned you into an adrenaline junkie.”

“I admit, there’s a certain link in my mind now between mortal danger and good times with Night Light. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“All right,” he said reluctantly, rubbing her cutie marks with lotion, “but if the line snaps and I turn into a pony pancake, I’m blaming you. Posthumously.”

“Oh, don’t be a baby. Just make one of those shield bubbles.”

She could almost hear him rolling his eyes. “That worked because we were in fluid water. I’d still go splat on solid ground. You’d think a professor of arcane studies would know some basic physics…”

“Ah-ah-ah, no talk about work,” she shot back, smirking. She scratched a cheek, luxuriating in the warm sunlight and the soothing massage she was getting. “Hey, do you have that letter Shiny sent? The one the porter gave us this morning? In all the rush to get to the beach we completely forgot to read it.”

“Oh, right, I’ve got it somewhere in the bag…” Night Light rummaged around noisily for a few moments. “Here you go.” An envelope landed on the blanket right in front of Velvet’s face.

Blinking her eyes open, her horn glowed and the envelope opened. Pulling out the letter, she scanned it over. She began reading it aloud to Night Light, who didn’t pause his hooves. “Dear Mom and Dad…”

There was the expected paragraph of glad you’re okay and send word to let us know that you’ve made it, which they already had—their most recent letter to the kids was probably still in transit across the ocean. After that, though, things got interesting.

She squinted at the letter. “Huh… Shiny says, ‘It might be for the best that you two went via another route. We’ve been having some bad problems in the Crystal Castle lately.’”

“Oh, no, not another changeling infestation, is it?”

“No, sounds like… oh, dear. ‘There have been major issues with our sewage system for the past week and a half. The entire west wing is flooded with things I don’t want to describe. We think the initial fault was a jam in the piping—the poor janitor who volunteered to go after it found train tickets wedged in there, of all things. Looks like somepony on a castle tour flushed them in a rage. Sp something, we couldn’t make the name out under all the, uh, mess.”

Night Light sat back, laughing so hard Velvet was afraid he might burst. Restraining herself to a grin, she continued. “The jam built up enough pressure that the entire pipeline exploded. There’s filth everywhere, all over that new carpet Cadance had installed four months ago… she’s been livid. Really, it’s probably for the best that you guys skipped out. I wish I could escape the city for a while—Maris sounds like heaven right now. But I’m stuck until we find a plumbing company willing to fix things up within our budget limits.’”

Her husband returned his hooves to her flank. “Oh, poor Cadance… poor Shiny, for having to be there with her. She’s got to be tearing the place up...” His hooves paused mid-rub. “Hey… they need a plumbing company, huh?”

“Sounds that way.” Velvet leaned her head back, grinning. “Maybe we should tell Don to call that favor in early.”

“We’ll let him know when he and Marietta come back out of the water.”

Velvet looked up toward the ocean. Among the hundreds of heads bobbing in the waves, she spotted the two she recognized. “You wouldn’t think someone who's half-bird would like swimming so much.”

“Did Shiny say anything else?”

“Just this cryptic bit at the end here. ‘Cady and I had something to tell you, but it can wait a while longer. We’d both like to give you the news in person. When you’re back from your vacation, we can talk about setting up a trip to Canterlot to see you both. Have fun in the meantime! Love, Shining Armor.’”

“Hmm.” Night Light’s eyes narrowed. “Big news they want to tell us in person. You think…?”

“I think that speculating is pointless,” said Velvet, trying to bury the little spark of parental glee that the letter had ignited. “We’ll find out in due time.” Filly or colt? she wondered, smiling irrepressibly.

She wasn’t going to be able to recapture her blissed-out state of relaxation after that. Still, there were ways to burn off excited energy. Clearing her throat, she said, “Don’t stop with the sunscreen, unless you want your wife to go walking around with big red marks on her backside this week.”

“Depends on how they get there…” He resumed his application, squeezing another dollop of it out above her tail.

She shivered again, flanks twitching. “You know, honey… you’ve already covered that area pretty well. Mind rubbing a bit lower?”

Night Light lifted an eyebrow. “I hope you’re not suggesting something indecent on a public beach.”

“Of course not,” she said, giving him a wink. Her horn blazed to life. “Just thinking out loud. Don’t-Mind-Me, dear.”

Grinning, Night Light bent down beside her. His lips met hers as the shimmering purple light covered them both.

If anyone passed their blanket at some point in the next half hour, that pony or griffon might have found it strange that the most bland and forgettable spot on the entire beach was making so many giggles and strange noises…

… but then, it was probably just the wind.