"So, Dust," the older stallion said, leaning back in his overstuffed chair, "you've been coming here regularly for two months now. Do you feel like you've made any changes?"

Dust took a few deep breaths, buying time as he sorted his thoughts. Over the last several weeks, he'd come to know this sofa he was sitting on rather well, as well as the office it was housed in. There was something overwhelmingly peaceful and homey about the professor's office, stuffed as it was from floor to ceiling on every available wall with bookshelves, every shelf of which was crammed full of fiction and non-fiction alike. On the other end of the sofa, distant enough to let him think without interfering but never more than a hoof's reach away, was Tinker, as she had been for every evening's session preceding.

For his part, the professor who was handling Dust's therapy sessions was as patient as ever, sitting quietly but expectantly as Dust thought. The middle-aged unicorn always gave the impression that he was waiting for Dust's next sentence, and never seemed distant or cold as he sat with his thin-rimmed spectacles balanced easily on his muzzle.

"How do you mean?" Dust asked.

The stallion coughed lightly into his hoof before responding. "For starters, has your daily life changed in the last few months? Do you recognize yourself as a different pony now from what you were say, three months ago?"

"Well, I guess you could say that," Dust admitted with a smile. "I think I'm less withdrawn now. I mean, I'm still not as outgoing as I used to be, but I don't tense and avoid other ponies as much. It doesn't feel quite as much like I'm an outsider from everypony else." Tinker nodded in agreement from her seat against the hoofrest.

"And what do you think has been the biggest contributor to this change?"

"If I had to assign it to something, I think it's been Tinker's doing," he said with a nod towards his marefriend. "Having her around every night and having a regular work schedule and such has given me a sense of... normality, I guess. It really is nothing like how I used to feel, always coming back to an empty room with nothing but downtime and all that. It feels more like a home now. I have less time spent dwelling on the bad that happened before and more time spent enjoying the good that's happening now."

"That's a very good outlook. Though, I should hope that you aren't simply avoiding the past by staying busy outside of these sessions, correct?"

Tinker chimed in to answer for him. "We talk about it a lot, actually. Every time he wakes up in the middle of the night, anytime he feels kinda down; I took your advice and tried to ask him how he's feeling at those times. We've actually opened up a lot to each other. It's been..." she smiled warmly at her coltfriend, "very good for us."

The professor nodded, pleased, and the pen at his side quickly scribbled down a few notes as it wriggled in the blue-ish haze of his magic. "So, how has this affected how you see yourself? I recall it took a while to get you to open up about it, but you weren't a big fan of yourself when we started."

Dust nodded, a slight grimace tugging at one side of his mouth. "Yeah, I pretty much hated myself. Even hearing my mom say she still loved me didn't really do much at the time. I kept thinking of myself as something horribly broken that needed to be fixed." He took a breath and ruffled his wings, settling them on his back. "But I think I've reached a sort of truce with the past now."

The unicorn cocked his head slightly to the side, regarding the pegasus seriously. "Truce? Do tell, please."

"Well, the thing is, you asked me quite a few times about who I really am deep down. I still don't know if I really have an answer that satisfies everything—I mean, that's a really complex question. But Tinker's been pushing me to ponder over it at home, too, and I think she helped me realize something important.

"I'm a lot of things, but everything I am sort of gets filtered through what's happened to me in the past. I guess you could say that a pony is the sum total of their experiences. I know that's not the whole picture, but it's a pretty good starting point."

"It's an admirable place to begin," the professor said.

"But it really clicked when Tink asked me if I was happy or not. To be honest, I've been happier over the last two months than anytime in my life, even though I think I've cried more often in that time frame than my entire life combined." Dust took another breath, a smile starting to creep onto his face as he reminisced. "The key that Tinker got me to realize is that everything I've been through, all the mess and shit and pain—all of that got me to where I am now. And for my money, I wouldn't trade where I am now for anything."

He reached out and took Tinker's hoof, a faint but heartfelt smile on both their muzzles. "Once I said that out loud, things started to fall into place a little bit easier."

The professor scrawled a few more notes on his pad and nodded, his lower lip poking out thoughtfully. "I must say, it's impressive that you realized that. It's a very healthy view to have. Not everything you've been through has been nice, and certainly more things will go wrong in the future, but it seems like you're able to put things into a bit of a framework now."

"Most of the time, yeah," Dust conceded, blushing slightly. "The rest of the time I accidentally kick Tinker while she's asleep and she hugs me."

All three ponies chuckled quietly. "Well, Dust," the older pony said, closing his notebook softly, "I think you've made incredible progress thus far. Especially considering the kind of mare that you're living with now, I think you two are doing great work together. I think we can take these sessions down to once per month if you feel comfortable with that. Obviously, you should feel free to call me anytime if things start going badly, and my door will be open."

Dust nodded happily. "I think that sounds great, Doc. Thanks so much."

Tinker squeezed his hoof proudly. "From both of us."

Dust leapt off of the balcony and took wing with a happy sigh. He felt the stir of air currents that told him that Tinker was right next to him, slightly at his flank. Despite it being almost eight in the evening, Celestia's sun was only just recently set, owing to the increased daylight schedule of the late summer. As he swung around towards the apartment he lived in, Dust felt his breath catch. The moon's rise had given birth to a spectacular sunset, the last vestiges of which were just fading into darkness. Ahead of the pegasi, the sky was a deep, royal purple, fading into a sliver of rose against the horizon line.

Despite the nightfall, the air was still warm and active, leaving Dust and Tinker to mostly glide across campus on thermals. Dust chuckled to himself as he felt Tinker reach out and bat at the pinions of his wing. Rolling to the side, the pair dropped, diving towards their home.

The pegasi touched down outside the apartment's porch and walked inside. As she closed the door with a nudge from her back hoof, Tinker was enveloped in a massive hug from her coltfriend. Not wanting to spoil the moment, she simply accepted it without asking why.

Dust unwrapped his wings from around Tinker's neck and stepped back to see her more clearly. "Tink, I just wanted to say 'thanks'." She blushed, but he didn't let her respond just yet. "I mean it. There's no way I would have made it this far without having you there. And somehow, I'm not ashamed having you know all of this stuff about me, either."

Tinker tried to play her side coolly, blowing her mane out of her face. "Pffft, you know I don't mind."

"True, but having me as a coltfriend hasn't been easy, I know," he said, nodding knowingly. "I still wake you up at night when I have nightmares."

"Eh, I'm a light sleeper. It's not your fault. Besides, what kind of awful marefriend would I be if I wasn't there to give you a hug?"

He gave her a long-suffering smile. "You had to accept a crappy shift job that pays terrible student-worker wages just to stay here with me."

"What can I say? You're fun, and I'm mostly here on student aid anyway. The money isn't the most important part."

His smile became slightly sadder. "And I know you've been finding it hard to keep waiting on me, especially since I haven't been comfortable starting a physical relationship yet."

Tinker looked almost offended. "That's not true! I've never minded, Dust. I told you I'd wait as long as it took. I've shared your bed for two months without anything more than a kiss and I haven't complained once."

"Not complained, no, but I know you wouldn't prefer it this way. You've been... antsy."

"It's not so bad, really."

Dust's left ear twitched down to the side in amusement. "So, I didn't catch you the other afternoon on our bed with your hoof between your legs, biting your pillow?"

For her part, Tinker had the good grace to be ashamed, blushing scarlet straight to her eartips. "I—that wasn't—oh, Harmony, Dust, I—"

He chuckled. "You know I'm not upset or anything, Tink." His ears fell as he blushed slightly with the memory, too. "Truth told, it was pretty damn hot."

Tinker's tail swished behind her. "Oh? You liked that, huh?"

"Well, the fact that I could just barely hear you moaning my name helped, too."

She gave him a crooked smile.

"That's what I'm talking about, though," he said, reaching out to take her hoof in his as they both sat to their haunches in the living room. "Tink, after everything we've been through, after how much you've helped me, well..." He swallowed. "I think I'm ready..."

Tinker leaned forward slightly. "Y-you mean that? You're ready for... us?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I have no doubts about how much we care and how far we'd go for each other. I feel like I've been able to let the past go enough." His blush intensified. "I've tried to block the feelings for a long time now, but after seeing you like that, I realized that I was finally actually thinking about sex without having some sort of panic attack and hearing voices. Tinker, I'm ready."

A grin slowly spread across Tinker's muzzle, growing so large it almost looked like it might unhinge the top of her head. "Oh wow..." She shook her head, unable to banish her grin. "This is so weird, isn't it supposed to be the stallion who waits to hear that?"

"You started a serious relationship with a former prostitute with major emotional issues, and a little role-reversal is what's weird?" Dust quipped.

"Okay, you got me there," she responded, releasing his hoof and standing back up. "I won't lie, though," she said over her shoulder as she turned towards their bedroom, "I've been looking forward to this for quite a while."

Dust felt a shock run through his body as she flicked her tail to the side seductively, giving him a coy smile from behind her mane. His own tail wiggled behind him as he crouched like a cat, pouncing after the mare with a laugh. Tinker gave a flap of her wings and galloped for the doorway, shrieking with laughter as Dust skidded around the corner and through the bedroom door just behind her.

Tinker spun to face him just in time to catch a flying tackle to the chest which sent her sprawling back onto the large bed with Dust standing atop her, smiling widely. She smiled herself, but inside she could feel her heart fluttering with anticipation.

Without preamble, Dust kissed his marefriend passionately. He worked his tongue into her mouth and against hers as she reached out and wrapped her hooves around his neck, pulling his chest down against hers. As their fur meshed and their chests met, he could actually feel both of their heartbeats at once. They were out of synch, but both beating equally hard and fast.

Dust broke the kiss, instead choosing to trail his kisses down Tinker's jaw to her neck. The mare cooed happily, her hooves working firmly into the muscles between his shoulders. His tongue ran along the hollow under her jaw, down along her graceful neck. Dust could hear her tail as it rasped against the comforter and feel it as it whipped back and forth against his hooves.

"Ohhhhh," Tinker cooed happily. "Dust, get the lights?"

He hesitated, feeling a sudden burst of fear at the idea of being in the dark while being with his mare. "I, uh, I'd kind of like to keep them on, if that's cool."

"Sure," she said quickly, nodding. "That's fine with me."

Dust closed his mouth against the base of her neck, and Tinker felt fireworks go off behind her eyes. He was gradually drifting lower, taking his wings out of her reach, so she played with his mane and ears. If the vibrations against her skin were any indication, he appreciated the touch.

Leaning in, Dust allowed his body to lay against hers so he could put his hooves to use. His mouth ran slowly down the centerline of her body, taking its time as his hooves went down her sides, ruffling circles in the fur and just barely kneading at the flesh and ribs beneath. Tinker squirmed at the ticklish touches, letting out gasps as she wriggled against his muzzle. As his tongue reached her hips, he pressed hard with his forelimbs, rubbing deep into her braced-wrench cutie marks. The gasps turned into needy moans as Tinker bucked her hips forward against his chin, trying to coax his muzzle further south.

"Harmony, Dust, please don't tease me. I really can't handle it right now!"

Dust chuckled to himself and obliged, finally letting his torso slide off the edge of the bed and falling to his haunches against the carpet. Taking a deep, bracing breath, he leaned in and opened his mouth.

The taste registered immediately, and Dust screwed his eyes closed firmly as he was brought back into the memory of a unicorn mare presenting herself to his muzzle as—

With a grunt, he forced the memory aside, opening his eyes back up. As low as his bedframe was, he could see over the rise and fall of Tinker's light-grey body to where her muzzle pointed at the ceiling, her face and closed eyes half-covered by her wild mane. Instantly, a sense of peace stole over Dust's mind, and he began to lap at her velvet-furred mound with a gusto, never taking his eyes off of her face.

For the first time ever, Dust heard his marefriend let out a passionate sound. The delicacy of the moan almost felt out of place from so brash and bouncy a pony, but to Dust, it was music. It wasn't the sort of throaty, guttural moan that eagerly pushes a partner on, nor the meek sound of somepony trying not to feel guilty for what they were enjoying. Tinker was definitely enjoying herself, and in no real hurry to push Dust beyond where he was at that moment.

Dust began to lose himself in the moment, drawing in deep breaths full of Tinker's unique and tantalizing scent. His tongue parted her lips, dipping inside again and again to take shallow laps against her folds. His marefriend was soaking wet under his muzzle, and he eagerly drank her essence, not willing to let a single drop go to waste. Even as his mind filled with a pleasant haze of taste, touch, and smell, he kept his eyes riveted on her form.

Tinker's entire body heaved, waves of pleasure moving her body against his muzzle as his tongue dictated. Her head sprawled back as she reached over it with one hoof, desperately gripping the bedspread, her wings splayed against the sheets with a stiffness he'd never seen before. I'm doing that, he realized. I'm causing her to feel like that.

He nipped and licked at her swollen clitoris in between driving his tongue as deeply into her wet pussy as he could. The mare's gasps were almost rhythmical, the two seeming to dance to a tune that neither could name but both knew intimately well.

"Dust, oh, I'm—ahhhhhhhh!"

Tinker suddenly arched, her tail coming up off of the bed as she came. Dust kept lapping his broad tongue across her folds as she cried out, blinking in surprise as he felt pungent splashes of marecum against his tongue. He put his mouth over her mound, hungrily and happily drinking down his mate's gift.

After several seconds, Tinker began to come back down, still twitching and gasping with every flick of Dust's tongue against her slit. She weakly pushed his head away, trying to pull him back up onto the bed with her hind legs. "Oh, Dust, I—ah—please, no more!" Dust climbed back up and sprawled onto the bed beside Tinker as she panted. "Harmony, I—wow..."

Dust gave her a lopsided grin. "I was good?"

The mare returned him a flushed smile. "I—I've never cum like that before," she admitted quietly, laying her ears back against her head. Her breathing began to return to normal. "How are you?" she asked hesitantly.

"I'm okay," he replied honestly. "I just needed to keep seeing you, and I wasn't in any danger of drifting off somewhere else."

She smiled broadly at him, something inside her fluttering proudly at his words. "Ah, so the lights thing..." He nodded, not even bothering to feel ashamed or anything in his current state. She reached out and pushed him over onto his back, giving him time to settle his wings out to his sides so they didn't get cramped under his back. "Well then," she said quietly, her voice barely above a purr, "sit back. And don't you dare take your eyes off of me."

Dust nodded emphatically, feeling his sheath stirring and growing before a hoof had even been laid on him. Tinker ducked down, wasting no time as she stuck out her tongue and ran it up the inside of his left thigh, her muzzle bumping up against the underside of his sac. He gasped and fought the urge to close his eyes as his stallionhood practically burst out from his sheath, half-erect and growing quickly.

Tinker reached up and wrapped a hoof around the base of his shaft, gripping it loosely as she looked up, meeting his eyes. She gave him an eager, lusty gaze as she pressed her muzzle to the underside of his cock, never breaking eye contact. Dust's hips jerked as he instantly went to full hardness, more turned on than he had ever been in his life.

Whatever Tinker saw in his eyes she evidently liked, as she ran her tongue up the length of his shaft with a purring moan. Dust echoed her articulation with his own moan as she reached his tip and pitched forward, taking his turgid cock into her muzzle as she sank back down. The stallion's breath kept catching in his throat as he panted, the sight of his marefriend fellating him burned into his mind.

It's almost like when Footlight... his mind coaxed, but he quickly shut that thought down without a fight. No, it really isn't. It's just better in every way.

With a pop, Tinker drew his member out of her mouth, taking a deep breath of her own. Her face was still flushed, the pink tinge warming her cheeks noticeably in the lamplight. She crawled forward until she could lay against his side, pulling him into a passion-fueled kiss as her wing curled around to tease his member with her primary feathers. Dust broke the kiss, his head lolling back with a gasping laugh. "Oh, I—ah—guh, geez, Tink..."

The mare watched his face with a pleased, hungry smile. "You like that, don't you?" He could only nod in response. "I bet you'd love to make a mess of my wings, wouldn't you?" He nodded more emphatically. "You'd like to cover my feathers in your cum?" His nod sped up, testing the limits of his neck to hold his head on.

"That's a shame, because that'll have to wait," she said into his ear, drawing her wings back from his body. He gave a needy growl, looking down at her. "Right now, I need you inside me, Dust. I finally get the chance to enjoy you, to feel you twitch and cum, and I don't feel like letting that go to waste."

Dust smiled back, matching her hungry gaze. Tinker raised her rear leg, moving to straddle his hips with her own, reaching back under her barrel to grasp his stiff pride. His hips twitched in anticipation as she lined him up with her dripping mound. "You just keep watching me, love."

"I'm not sure I could stop if I wanted to," he replied, giving her nose a quick kiss. A warm smile flickered over her face, quickly replaced by a lustful gasp as she lowered herself down onto his stallionhood.

As wet as she was, she sank him to the hilt in her pussy in just two thrusts, her head pitching back, throwing her mane back over her shoulders. Dust felt his own back arch, pressing his hips firmly against hers as they met. Her insides gripped at his length, warm and tight. He reached out, grabbing her by the hips and massaging her cutie marks as she began to raise her body up.

Tinker drew his flesh almost all of the way out of her body before dropping, slamming him back inside with a thrust that pulled the air out of her lungs. She drooped, leaning on her hooves to each side of his shoulders. Unable to speak, she bent over and pressed her muzzle against Dust's.

Feeling his mate's tongue forcefully invading his mouth, Dust began to thrust himself up into Tinker's body. Her wings snapped back to full stiffness as he began to rock her body forward and back against the motion of his hips. The mare moaned straight into his mouth, and he could feel the vibrations against his tongue all the way down his throat.

The pace began to pick up, Dust arching his back as his hips left the bed, giving Tinker the ride of her life. Barely able to take the feeling, she straightened back up, her back arching like a bullrider as her body was stuffed to the brim with stallion flesh. Dust kept his eyes open and on his mare as he pulled at her body, drawing her hips as forcefully against his own as he could.

"Tink, I—ah—I don't have—puh—long left."

Tinker didn't answer and simply shoved her hoof down against her mound, furiously rubbing herself off as Dust slammed into her body, desperate to reach another orgasm at the same time as her lover.

He knew what her goal was, and he held back just a touch, biting his lip as he tried to find the resolve to hold out for another few seconds. Above him, Tinker's body was fully on display in the lamplight, wings spread like Celestia before the sun, covered in a sheen of sweat that glittered in the dimness. She clopped herself shamelessly, wantonly, wanting Dust to see her.

Just when Dust knew he couldn't hold out, Tinker pitched forward, let out a strangled gasp, and shook uncontrollably as her well-loved snatch tightened almost painfully around his cock. He moaned, long and low, as he arched his back one last time, searching for every fraction of an inch he could get into Tinker's body. The pair burst through into a shared climax, practically unable to feel the other through their own climax.

Tinker collapsed forward against Dust's body as he shot burst after burst of stallion cum into her body, painting her insides and filling her needy pussy. She could hear it squelch around his cock as he thrust deeply into her, depositing more each time.

It was several minutes before either pony moved. Tinker lay against his chest, panting. She could feel his seed leaking out of her body and onto his own, and everything about her body, inside and out, felt pleasantly warm.

She leaned on a hoof to raise herself just enough to look into Dust's eyes. Neither said anything, but they both knew that each had the same expression as the other. Tinker leaned forward, giving her mate one last heartfelt kiss before slumping back against his chest.

"I love you so much, Dust," she said quietly, stirring his wing feathers with a hoof.

“I know.” He craned his neck to kiss the top of her head before settling back against the pillows. "And I love you, too," he whispered back. "That's how you saved me."

• The End -

Author's Note

And that is finally the end. Thank you all for being generally awesome fans!

Special thanks go out to (in no particular order):

Armin Van Buuren (his A State of Trance broadcasts and albums helped a majority of this story get written)
Brand New (for inspiration and emo-ness)
Mountain Dew (do I really need to say why this is important to a writer?)
Boneywings and Wing Dancer (for being super awesome prereaders and idea-ponies for the last few chapters. I wish I'd started with them, honestly.)
Google Docs (for existing)
Everyone who commented with a video clip, gif, or memetic image (it's the best way to communicate. )