A Scent of Spring

A week had passed since we took residence in Luna's castle. Spring Breeze and I had agreed to meet once a week to discuss matters of politics and of building the community. I knocked at Spring Breeze's door, then opened it once I heard her voice allowing me to enter.

"Well then, caribou", she said, sitting at her desk. "Please, sit."

I sat down on the second chair in front of her desk, facing her. "How is it?", I asked.

She looked at me coldly. "I have to say, you have gone out of your way not to get into ours. So far you kept your word. The other mares feel very well, they really like it here. Unfortunately, I'm not similarly well. Your doctor has removed my wing sheaths recently. I have to say, he is quite kind... for a caribou. He said that the other pegasi were red collars and will regrow their feathers and be able to fly again in maybe a year or two, if they train their wings. But the wing sheaths of black collars are less comfortable, so in my case, they have caused permanent damage. If we don't find a way to cure them by some magical means, I almost certainly won't be able to fly any more, and it's even doubtful whether I'll regrow my feathers. Anaphainos says he has no idea if there is any way to heal them. I'm thinking about having them amputated so they can't become the cause of any further medical problems, but we neither have the means for that nor a doctor that I would trust enough."

"I'm... really sorry to hear that", I said. "If I can do anything..."

"Unless you want to offer yourself as a punching bag for my frustration again, you can try to stay out of my way, thank you", she said rudely. But then she added, a little bit more friendly: "But to be fair, you haven't caused any trouble so far. You did what we asked of you, you stayed out of our way, and you did it with far more dedication than we expected. You also do your work on the fields, and it is good work. Seriously, I can't understand why your people put slave mares to work on the fields when most stags are much more capable of doing the same kind work." I couldn't argue with that. "But then again", she continued, "I don't understand why you enslaved us mares anyway. Your own females seem to be so much more suited to fit your needs." I glanced at her sheepishly.

"Interesting that you would mention the cows. That's actually what I wanted to talk you about", I said. "Of course we will continue to stay out of your way until you decide otherwise. But may I ask you... if you would allow the cows to spend some time around you?"

She looked at me suspiciously. "Is this a trick, caribou? Are you hoping that contact with the cows might make us a bit more like them? More subservient? If this is what you're trying, I can tell you in advance that it won't work. Some of us come from Ponyville, so we already know these kinds of tricks."

"No, nothing like that", I said hastily. "You don't even have to let them interact with you at all. Just... let them spend some time around you. I promise they won't be a bother." I sighed. "As a matter of fact, it's exactly the other way around. I ask this because I hope that they might become a little bit more like you. As they are now, they simply need us as their masters. But we're more like... a necessary evil, aren't we? I mean... I think you will agree that we're not exactly the best kind of influence. So while they still need us to give them direction, I don't want them to spend all the time with us. So I wonder if they could stay with you for some time each day. As I said, I think you might be a much better influence than we are. They won't bother you, I promise."

She raised an eyebrow. "I have to say I'm almost flattered. I still don't trust you though. But I will discuss this with the others. Expect our answer tomorrow evening."

The next evening, she came to me to inform me about their decision. "We have discussed your request and decided to allow this for now. But do not make the mistake to take this for granted. If the cows cause any trouble, we'll void this decision immediately. We will not allow them to touch us. Tell them that." I thanked her politely and left.

The next day, we gathered the cows. We still hadn't told them what to expect for the future, mainly because we weren't even sure ourselves, so they were still visibly afraid. I addressed them.

"You probably wonder why we have gathered you all here. First of all, we will still give you everything you need. Our guidance, our direction, our protection, our cocks..." I saw the eyes of the cows glow with happiness when I said those words. We were still settling in and we had work to do, so they hadn't gotten that much from us in the last week. "However", I continued, "there will be a few changes from now on. First of all, we are all one people now, so you won't belong to a single stag any more, but to all of us. Also, we have another new task for you, starting from now on. You will observe us. Observe the masters, and how we do things. And you will also observe the mares. You know that we've told you not to go to their part of the castle, but we cancel this order. From now on, you will spend a few hours each day with them. You will observe them, learn from them. If you have any questions, you can come to us and ask at any time, and about once a week, you will come to us and report about what you have seen. Can you do this?"

The cows nodded weakly, not sure what to think about this. I continued.

"You will not cause them any trouble though. If they tell you to do something, you will do it. If they tell you not to do something, you won't. Also, I know that touch is just as important to you as seeing or hearing, but you will not touch them unless they give you explicit permission to do so. You can touch us while you are with us though."

The cows' eyes went wide with shock. Had I said something wrong? One of them stepped forward. I recognized her, it was the one with the amber eyes that had belonged to Anaphainos. Bruna, if I remembered correctly. "Master, I apologize for speaking without permission, but... we may really touch you now without being ordered to do so?" Oh, now I got what I had just done.  I really hoped my brothers wouldn't hang me for this, but I felt experimental right now, so I decided to go along with it.

"We're giving you permission now, aren't we? Yes, you can touch any one of us whenever you feel like it. If it's not a good time, if we're busy otherwise, we'll just chase you away or order you to do something else. You don't have to worry, if that happens, it just means that the master is busy right now. So yes, feel free to touch us whenever you want."

Hearing this, the cows instantly rushed to us to make use of their newfound feeling of freedom.

This time, we didn't chase them away.

Five days later, I went to meet Spring Breeze with another request.

"Good evening, Spring Breeze", I said after I had taken place at the chair in front of her desk again. "How's the situation? I hope the cows haven't caused you any trouble."

"They aren't that bad, actually. They're quiet and not much of a nuisance. They can even be useful at times."

I grinned. "Yeah, that sounds like an apt description of the females of our species."

She was unimpressed by my joke. "There is one thing though. After only two days, we had already decided to only walk around dressed except in our own private bedrooms. A few former red collars objected, but they were overruled. The cows, however, are nude all the time except for their collars. I realize we can't ask them to remove those, they seem to place quite a big importance on them. It's almost as if they wear them with pride. Anyway, we just want to ask you that you tell them to get dressed when they're around us. Their nudity simply further fuels existing conflicts among ourselves, and we really don't want that to happen."

I grinned at her and said: "Why don't you tell them?"

"What?", she asked.

"Well, I've told them to obey your orders as long as they are around you. It was risky, I actually didn't even want to tell you, so please don't abuse this. But yes, you can simply tell them to cover themselves – if they're able to obey your order, they will. But this is quite a problem, isn't it? We only have males' clothing here, it's even a bit big for most of you, and our cows are even smaller. For now, I might suggest you give them some sheets or pieces of cloth to cover themselves. I 'm not sure if they'd know how to do this though. Since you don't want to touch them, we might show them, but as you may have guessed already, we are also not really experienced in getting a female dressed properly."

"Well, I think this won't be a problem", Spring Breeze said. "Frankly, I don't really want them anywhere near me, but there are a few of us, particularly red collars, who have already said that they have much less problems with touching a cow, as long as she doesn't get frisky. I think they would be willing to help them. Also, we'll provide them with what we can spare."

"Thank you, so this problem should be solved", I said. "I also have another request. We want to ask if we stags might use the library of your castle. We don't want to take it from you, we just want to be able to use it for our studies."

Spring Breeze was immediately back to her usual suspicious, abrasive self. Not that I could blame her. "And why exactly should we allow this to you?", she asked.

I sighed. "Well, for a start, some of us, myself included, know how to deal with old books. They are a quite delicate matter, you know? We can work to preserve the library. Second, we will also add most of our own books to the library for free. Most of us want to keep one or two books that are special to us for ourselves, but we are willing to spend most of what we have to the library. After all, we also have an interest in making those books available to each other. Third, you know that this isn't just a new kind of community, we are here to find ways to change and free all of Equestria. Maybe we'll find knowledge in the library that might prove useful for this aim. Never underestimate the power of knowledge!"

She relaxed. "I still don't exactly like you, but what you say makes a lot of sense. I will discuss this with the others tomorrow, and give you our decision tomorrow evening. This time I'll vote for your request myself, actually. I'm not really interested in books anyway, and you did make a reasonable argument. Oh, before you leave, another thing. Anaphainos asked me yesterday if we would allow him to use a small plot of land to plant some herbs, and maybe one or two cherry trees. Now I can get the herbs, he's a doctor after all, but do you know why he would want to plant cherries?"

I smiled. "I think it's for an alcoholical beverage. A secret recipe of his. Seriously, you have to try this, it's really good. I think he still has a few bottles left. I'll ask him to give me one, so we can have it next week."

"That sounds lovely", she said. "Now if you will excuse me, I have a long night of wing pain and uncomfortable lying positions ahead of myself." Once again, I gave her a sheepish look as I left the room.

The next day, I went to Anaphainos to ask for one of his bottles of Amber Glow. "What do you need it for?", he asked. "I only have a few left."

"Well", I answered, "Spring Breeze has asked me about the cherry trees." He smiled. I continued. "I've told her about Amber Glow, and promised to bring a bottle next week. I'm really sad to hear that you have only a few bottles left – we won't get any at least until autumn, will we?"

He still smiled. "I think I have an even better idea. Spring Breeze will come to you this evening to tell you their decisions, won't she? Why don't you invite her over to me next week? We can drink Amber Glow together."

"I will tell her", I responded, "but I really doubt that she'll come. As I see it, she still doesn't like or trust any one of us, and honestly, I can't blame her. Her alone in the same room with two stags... might be a bit much."

When Spring Breeze came to me that evening to tell me about her decision, I was happy to hear that all three requests had been granted. I told her about the invitation. Her answer surprised me. "What a lovely idea. Of course I'll come." She paused for a second, then continued with a more serious voice. "Of course, I don't want to be alone and drunk with two caribou, so I'll bring a friend. I have to talk to Anaphainos anyway, so I'll just go and ask him myself."

She left the room. I was left behind, utterly confused. Had she really just agreed to our invitation?

The next evening, I sat at my desk when I heard a faint knocking at my door.

"Yes please?", I answered.

"Master", I heard a voice say. "I have come to you to give you my first report."

I sighed. Bruna. It was exactly a week since they were given the order to observe the mares, so she was perfectly on schedule. I hadn't expected her though, I thought she would either go to Anaphainos or pick any stag she would encounter. But maybe she hadn't encountered any of us on her way back here, and I knew that my room was simply closer than Anaphainos'.

"You may enter", I said. She opened the door. I felt a little bit surprised.

"Bruna, are you still wearing your clothes?", I asked.

She blushed, immediately removed her clothes and dropped them to the floor. It wasn't too difficult, they were improvised and the mares had created something simple enough for the cows to put on by themselves. "I'm sorry, master", she said. "I just came back from the mares and I forgot to take them off. I made a mistake, I angered you, I know I deserve punishment..."

"You didn't anger me", I said. "I was just surprised, that's all. So, you're here to report about your observations about us and about the mares. Please sit down and begin."

I hadn't specified where she should sit, so she instinctively chose the bed.

"First of all", she said, "they don't need to be fucked that much. Not as much as we do, I mean. When we don't feel the closeness of our masters' bodies for some time, we become afraid and start to make mistakes. It's not like that with them. They don't need it. At least not that much."

"Well, that one is for certain", I said. "Good. What else?"

"I find it extremely odd that they want us to wear clothes, and that they don't like our collars. They also don't want to hear us talk about our masters, how good you are to us and how proud we are to serve you, to make and keep you happy. Or hear us talk about ways to serve you even better. We don't have many other things to talk about with each other or with them. So we remain silent most of the time while we observe them."

"Well, why don't you listen to them and find out what they like to talk about?", I asked, feigning interest.

"Oh, we've tried that. But they only talk about what they want to do, about things they like to do. They also make plans, and talk about what they want to do. We don't understand it. Females shouldn't think about themselves, or make plans. We are happy that you masters do all those bothering things for us and we may serve you. But they don't want us to say that. They also often talk about how horrible it was for them to serve you, and how happy they are that they don't have to any more. We also can't say anything to that as well. We don't even understand it. Usually we would try to find out about this by touching them and guess their feelings, but the masters have forbidden."

"Yes, and you will obey this order", I insisted. "For now, I also want you to ask the mares if they would introduce you to the things they do. Just the easiest and least dangerous ones. Maybe ask them if you can do a few chores for them. You know, all the little things we also let you do for us."

"We should serve them just like we serve you?", she asked.

"If you want to put it that way", I said.

She was a bit scared of the idea. "Well, they are... better at doing things on their own than we are. They make mistakes sometimes, but they don't need correction, they correct themselves. They are females, they shouldn't be able to do it. But they do. They are almost a bit like..." She stopped short.

I raised my eyes to look at her. She instantly had my full attention now.

"They are almost like... what?", I inquired.

I immediately realized that I had made a mistake. My reaction had made her think that I wanted to correct her. "Sorry, no", she stuttered. "I was mistaken. I thought something dumb for a moment. I sometimes think dumb things. I mean, even dumber things than normal for us cows." She giggled. But then her voice became frightened again. "Are you going to punish me?", she asked.

I know she expected it and believed to deserve it, but I simply couldn't bring myself to punishing her for this. And now I also really wanted to hear the rest of what she had to say.

"No, I won't punish you this time", I said. "Are you finished? Do you have any more questions?"

"How do they do it?", she immediately asked. "The mares, I mean. How do they do it. Making plans, doing things on their own. How do they do it? How do they know what to do?"

I thanked Hermaeus Mora. That girl had just given me something to build on.

"How do we do it?", I asked.

She was confused. "I don't understand... master."

Had she already forgotten that she wanted to make the same comparison herself only a second ago? Were they conditioned to forget thoughts like this one or was their attention span really this short?

"Well, how do we do it. Remember, we also gave you the order to observe us – your masters. We decide what to do all the time. And not just for ourselves but for you as well. So how do we do it?"

She became uncomfortable again. "I... don't know. I really don't know. A cow can't know such things. But... you are masters. You don't make mistakes, do you? You always know what to do."

I raised an eyebrow. "I assure you, we really don't."

Her nervousness turned to fright. "What? But... but..."

I know that I had to stop this now. I had pushed too far. This would need more time.

With a soft voice, I said: "Hush now. Don't be frightened, we're still quite capable of protecting you as long as you obey our orders. Let's talk about this another time."

She visibly relaxed. "Is there anything else you need now?", I asked her.

"Yes, master", she said, leaning back and spreading her legs. "I know I should just be content and grateful that you didn't punish me, I know I don't deserve this, but... I need to be fucked, master."

A week ago we had more or less given them permission to come on to us, and during the last week, Bruna had been particularly bold when it came to exploring the scope and limits of her masters' odd new command. She was really eager to please all of us.

I looked at her firm, big tits and dripping wet cowhood and found what I saw very pleasant. Sure, mares had always interested me more, but how could a healthy male like me not instantly get hard from this view?

I rose from my chair and smiled at her. "I think you do deserve it."

She left my room with a smile. I noticed that she picked up the dress when she left.

Only moments later, I heard another knocking at my door.

"Yes, who is there?", I asked.

The response came immediately. It was a voice I didn't recognize. "Excuse me for disturbing you. My name is Star Charmer, I'm one of the mares, and I would like to discuss something with you."

"Come in", I said.

The door opened and she came in. She was a unicorn with a bright purple coat and a long, blonde mane. Unlike Spring Breeze, she didn't wear stallions' clothing, she had improvised something for herself. I thought that it probably covered just as much skin as Spring Breeze and the others demanded, but nothing more. She might have been one of the few who had voted against the rule that made dresses obligatory except in their own quarters.

"Please sit", I said. She took place at the chair. "What can I do for you?"

"Well", she began, visibly nervous. "You see, I have been a red collar, and I'm one of those who thought that not everything was bad. Don't get me wrong, I am just as happy to have my freedom back as the others. But I still have... needs, and I can't... satisfy them alone."

I interrupted her. "So you want sex. You should really talk to Spring Breeze about this first..."

She interrupted me. "No! It's not just that I want sex! I want... I want to be taken. To be used and commanded. To be bent over something and f-fucked roughly." She took a deep breath. "Once again, don't get me wrong, I am happy and thankful for my freedom. So this would just be in the bedroom. But you see now why I had to come to you first, why I couldn't talk to Spring Breeze?"

I looked at her coldly. "But you really should have."

I stood up from my desk, went to the window and began to watch the horizon.

"You know, for a second I was almost tempted. I'm really grateful that I just had release – you might have noticed the cow coming from my room – for otherwise you might have made me do something really stupid. But you know as well as I do that Spring Breeze would have my head if I took advantage of this, and rightly so. I also can't talk to her for you, she would just assume that this was me making things up to get my wicked caribou way with a mare again – and honestly, after what my people have done to yours, I understand her worries. Now if you can find the courage to go to her and tell her what you just told me, I'm sure we can work something out. But unless you do that, there's nothing I can do for you. And don't even think about trying this with any of the other stags. Now please leave, I still have work to do." I noticed how I was still used to giving commands. I had just ordered one of my landladies to leave my room. But she left immediately.

I knew I couldn't give her what she wanted. Not now, not as long as we and the mares hadn't decided on how to proceed in such cases. I had guessed that this problem would have to be addressed sooner or later, but I certainly couldn't bring it up. I had to wait until some of them brought it up first. I just hoped Star Charmer would find the courage. I had looked forward to our next meeting in Anaphainos' quarters, to drinking Amber Glows and sharing a nice evening together, but this issue cast a shadow on the whole evening in advance. This was simply not a topic that I wanted to discuss at that evening.

There were still four days left until my meeting with Spring Breeze and Anaphainos. I decided to use these four days to go to Canterlot to do some research. But that would have to wait until tomorrow. Right now, I still had another very important date – a date with my own right hand.

Stupid, sexy Star Charmer.