Both Sides Now

Their journey back to the hotel from the opera house was giddy and flighty, Twilight putting a wing over Rarity as if it were a chilly evening, Rarity pressing herself against Twilight as she walked as if she were cold, and both trying to contain their laughter. Twilight felt light on her hooves, like she could just prance off into the sky and carry Rarity with her; she had a very brief vision of doing just that, of scooping Rarity up and taking off, until she remembered all the flutes of bubbling wine that were currently responsible for her feeling so light in the head and warm in the belly.

At the hotel they ran across the bellhop who had carried their luggage when they arrived, on some unrelated errand that took him past Twilight and Rarity's rooms coincidentally just as they were arriving at them. If he thought it was unusual that the princess and her escort were being so touchy-feely with each other, Rarity thought as she disentangled herself from how she had been nuzzling Twilight's neck in the elevator, he kept it well to himself.

"Good, uh, good evening, ladies," he said to them. Twilight remembered telling him that it wasn't necessary to address her as "Princess". That felt like a hundred years ago, and if he had it might have been an absurd closing joke to her whole evening spent undermining the kind of composure and regality expected of royalty.

Twilight sketched a bow to him. To the moon with composure and regality!

"And a very good evening to you, fine sir," Rarity said, opening Twilight's door with magic and fishing around inside for something she knew was there but couldn't quite get her glowing bubble of force to latch on to. "Could you be a dear and make sure that we are not disturbed early in the morning? Thank you. We plan on sleeping in, you see."

"I see," he said, still all business. "Both rooms, or...?"

"No," Twilight said, feeling the giggles bubbling up in her throat, "just this one."

Rarity found what she was feeling for -- the Do Not Disturb sign -- and hung it off the ivory handle with a flourish. "Ta-ta," she told their bellhop, and she walked through the door beside Twilight and locked it behind her.

The full moon gave the room enough light to see by, but Rarity was so close to Twilight all she could focus on were her eyes, bright and sparkling like a schoolfilly's, like all of the stars in the night sky were dancing and playing in them. She let go of a choked snicker, which started Rarity tittering, which set them both into fits of full-throated laughter, a hoof around each others' shoulder for support.

"Can you imagine," Rarity managed as their mirth was subsiding, "what he must be thinking?"

For a moment, Twilight imagined it herself: touching Rarity, kissing her, stripping off her dress, making her moan. The images came very easily to her, like objects pulled from the depths of a murky river finally thrust above the water. But hadn't the whole evening been one long process of dredging those images forth, bringing them up into clarity and focus? They might have started as inspiration for the character Twilight was playing, but she was very, very similar to the real Twilight, and it was becoming hazy just what the difference between the two was.

She saw the lines that formed around Rarity's eyes when she smiled slowly fade as her face relaxed, and Twilight was struck with the sudden urge to see them again. To be responsible for making Rarity smile again. She really did have a beautiful smile.

A twinge in her stomach that could no longer be put down to the wine spurred her forward to act. As soon as she spoke, she imagined their bellhop, perhaps loitering just outside their door to hear a brief snippet of what was going on. What must he be thinking? What, indeed.

"Maybe something," Twilight said, taking half a step forward, leaning in to Rarity, feeling her breath on her muzzle, "like this."

There was a brief moment of hesitation between them, Twilight having offered the kiss and Rarity having accepted, yet neither quite bold enough to carry it through. Rarity half-thought this may have been a dream of sorts, an especially vivid daydream (but is it really a daydream, she asked herself, with the moon lighting our way?), and she paused because of a sharp and irrational intuition that closing her eyes would mean she would wake up. She feared she would wake up, and this would have been something she imagined alone, not a thing she had shared with Twilight.

And then Twilight closed her eyes, and her lips brushed against Rarity's.

Twilight's hoof left Rarity's shoulder to touch her mane, to run through its length. Rarity sighed into the kiss, the dual sensation of Twilight caressing her lips and her mane releasing some of the mounting pressure they had been building together all night. The sound Rarity made, quiet but cutting through the silence of the room, put all of Twilight's senses on edge, making her skin tingle, making her ears prickle. She felt as well as heard Rarity's exhalation, her breath playing over her lips, and she held her closer, wanting to breathe her in the same way she was breathing in the faint scent of lilacs coming from her mane. Rarity brought her hoof up to stroke Twilight's ear, unwilling (for now) to ruin her regal mane; she was rewarded with Twilight's ear twitching and a throaty nicker. She wanted to know what else would cause Twilight to make a sound like that, and was more than certain that tonight she would let her explore and discover for herself, and so was a little disappointed when Twilight finally drew away from the kiss.

They still had an arm around each other. In the dark, Twilight could still see how flushed Rarity's face was. Rarity listened to Twilight breathe, deep lungfuls like whenever she flew for more than a short distance. She had a smile on her face that was hopeful and excited and a little bewildered; Rarity imagined that Princess Celestia might have seen that smile more than once out of Twilight when she was her student. She was pleased with what had happened, with what she had made happen, but affairs wouldn't be complete until somepony told her she had done a good job. Until somepony had graded her.

She passes with flying colors, Rarity thought with a wry inward smile. Because in this hotel room, unlike out in the real world, when you passed your test, you got to take it again. And again. And again.

Twilight's heart pounded like a parade drum in her throat, waiting for Rarity to respond. Perhaps she didn't know how. She didn't quite know herself, to be honest. What exactly was the protocol for after kissing one's extremely close friend after a night of staged flirting? They were blazing new territory here, and the thought of that was just as exciting as the kiss had been. The pretty dresses, the fancy manestyles, the jewellery, the evening of formality, it all contrasted wildly with the clawing hungry animal that was stirring inside her, wanting to do all manner of things with-- to -- Rarity. It felt wrong, like the world had been thrown off-kilter and she was being tossed to and fro, her head spinning, her heart pumping, a slave of centripetal force. It all felt deliciously wrong, in all the right ways.

Rarity pushed closer to Twilight, not having the room to take a step. She eliminated all the distance between them. Their dresses rubbed against one another. Rarity's necklace brushed Twilight's coat. They were muzzle-to-muzzle now, breathing each others' breath, conspirators sharing secrets in the moonlight.

"Perhaps," Rarity whispered, able to feel Twilight shiver at her words, lips trembling against her own, "it was more like this..."

The second kiss was deeper, much deeper, a barrier having been broken through with the first that unleashed a torrent of need and lust. Twilight's body radiated heat, which Rarity felt everywhere as she caressed with her free hoof, the other firmly guiding the kiss from the nape of Twilight's neck. Her tongue sought Twilight's own, and as it made contact it caused a soft sighing mmm in Twilight's throat, and when Rarity massaged her ear, she moaned into her mouth. Twilight was always so composed, a little part of her that was forever reserved and distant, the part that had contained the seed of a princess and a ruler probably long before she had even come to Ponyville, but Rarity was discovering that it melted away beneath her touch. She was uncovering a side of Twilight that she had not known had existed, a part of her that could be uninhibited and free and wanton, waiting for its time to come forth from the depths. Perhaps Twilight had not even really known this part of her existed, and it was Rarity who got to help her bring it to the fore, to aid her in her discovery. That thought meshed so seamlessly with the roles they had been acting in all night -- the worldly and passionate escort who shows the prim and sheltered princess how to bloom -- that she couldn't think of things in any other way. It was now her mission to guide Twilight through tonight's journey.

Doing otherwise would be most ungenerous.

Rarity stroking and petting her ear was alerting Twilight to an erogenous zone she hadn't been aware of previously. Or perhaps it was just Rarity's touch that was the important factor, and she could have been touching her anywhere (and she could touch anywhere she liked, Twilight thought). Either way, she could feel her arousal growing, could feel herself being wet and slick as she clenched her thighs together. She would have bitten her lip, were Rarity not busily running her tongue over it. They were enmeshed, tangled in each other so it became difficult to say precisely where Twilight stopped and where Rarity began, as close to being able to be called lovers without the physical act of making love. Though Rarity was matching Twilight in her actions, she seemed reluctant to move things forward, to escalate. It was like Twilight alone held the reins, like Rarity would come along with her for as far as she was willing to go and no further until Twilight gave the okay.

Well, that was okay with her. Twilight planned on going further than this. As far as she could go, if Rarity wanted to keep up with her. (And she wanted her to, oh how she wanted her to.)

Twilight slid a hoof up Rarity's back, feeling the smooth fabric of her close-fitting dress, feeling for the groove where the zipper sat. There was something in the act of sliding the zip down herself, the teeth parting, the dress falling away at her touch, that was erotic and sensual and revealing in ways that Rarity wiggling out of her dress on her own could never be. Twilight knew what Rarity looked like without clothes, of course -- fashion-forward as she was, like almost all ponies she bothered with them mostly for special occasions and extreme weather. She had stood beside her enough times while dressing and undressing, but none of that was related to how uncovering Rarity felt, relieving her of her clothes while locked in an embrace. It was like another threshold to cross, another obstacle that was preventing them from being as close as possible being defeated.

The dress fell to the floor in a fabric heap, pooling around Rarity's hind legs. Twilight could feel her step out of it and kick it away to the corner of the room, which was a kind of confirmation she had not expected from Rarity; that she could just toss the dress aside (and was there a dress of her own making that Rarity didn't care deeply for?) like it was any old rag, a minor annoyance even, meant Twilight was the center of her undivided attention as Rarity was the center of hers. She broke the kiss and nosed aside Rarity's mane, nestling deep against her neck. Twilight kissed her there, nipped at her soft coat, explored that silky and smooth territory with her lips, and Rarity whispered her name over and over, gasped it out like a mantra.

But that was wrong, wrong in a wrong way. If it was playing roles that lead them to this point, Twilight undressing Rarity and Rarity murmuring against her shoulder, then they should stay in character. Twilight wasn't Twilight: she was the Princess, who had just paraded about with her romantic liaison and would now, as a dramatic encore, share in a tryst with her while retaining the royal finery. These thoughts were not clear within her head; they were muddled, broken images that only pointed to what was amiss and how to fix it.

So she surprised herself a little when she covered Rarity's lips with her own and, stroking a hoof across her cheek, commanded in a sultry tone: "Call me Princess."

A ripple ran through Rarity, chilling and exciting like a cold pocket in a lake. Twilight was still fully dressed, her tiara not even askew -- it was very easy to think of her as Princess Twilight, and if that's the part of her she needed to be now, Rarity would oblige. She melted into one of Twilight's kisses and murmured, "Mmm, Princess," holding the image of Princess Twilight standing before a great crowd, confident and self-assured and beautiful and regal, in her mind as Twilight returned to her neck with renewed passion. But there was something else now too, some tingling touch arcing along her flank like static in the cold wind that was both unfamiliar and recognizable at the same time. It was warm and chaotic, a liquid bubble of pressure rolling over her cutie mark in ways that were not entirely unpleasant and that were causing a much more familiar tingling in her nethers. She opened her eyes and saw the source of the sensation: Twilight had lit her horn, and had encased her in a swirling maelstrom of magic.

Twilight was still kissing her, now nipping at her ear, now probing her mouth with her tongue, and where her lips touched they left dancing trails of purple sparks, sputtering residue from the spell that she didn't even seem to be putting any effort into casting. She truly was a princess now, the Princess of Magic, and with her casual display of power she was making Rarity weak in the knees. Light and heat and touch buffeted her, raw sensation grasping along her barrel, rippling over her flanks, darting over her dock and the base of her tail, all crackling and humming like mad science. Scents came and went in the flashing lights: grass after rain, open fields in sunlight, the pleasant smell of Twilight's mane and the mixed aroma of their arousal. Rarity had never needed to come to completion this badly, this urgently; the magic was making her shiver and tremble with need, yet it was also holding her at bay. Lewd tableaux whipped through her mind and sped away before she could focus on them. She pressed her hind legs together, producing a string of firecracker-pops of light and lightning between them, wanting desperately to sink a hoof into her crotch but knowing she wouldn't be able to stand if she took it off the floor.

"Prin... cess..." she managed, her voice a breathy whine, a strained moan.

"Hm, it's good, isn't it?" Twilight was trying to sound naughty, but she couldn't help with being pleased with herself and the obvious effect it was having on Rarity: from the shaking, the panting, her putting nearly her full weight on Twilight as she leaned on her, it was definitely working as intended. "But," she said, and kissed her with a feverish intensity that matched the glowing thunderhead, "it gets better."

Better? Rarity didn't know if she could handle better; she was only barely coping with now. She gasped into Twilight's kiss as three probing magical digits pressed themselves against her most intimate of places: one up against her lower lips, another brushing beneath her tail, and the last finding her hidden pink button, aching and throbbing. As they washed over her, entered her with liquid grace, surrounded all the parts of her that were beating heaviest in time with her heart and the ebb and flow of the lightstorm, she felt a moment of blissful calm; this is how it is all meant to be, the crest of the final wave just before it crashes to shore.

The tendrils felt nothing like any stallion who had ever mounted her; they had neither weight nor mass, but they did have presence, a sensation that was warm and cool together, ephemeral but insistent. It was like Twilight was within them, riding on their currents, guiding each jolt and wave of pleasure, and of course she was: Rarity opened her eyes to look at Twilight, to see her horn still glowing, to see that purple light flickering across her pupils. She was smiling as she kissed her, smiling and watching her, studying, waiting. Waiting for the climax. You're so close, Twilight's eyes and smile were saying. You're so close now. Just a little bit more. I want to see it. I want to see you finish. Won't you show me?

Twilight brushed back Rarity's mane, caressed her ear, cupped her cheek, all while watching her with that intense, studious, inquisitive gaze. "Come for me," she commanded with a whisper, lightning arcing between their lips as she kissed her, "come for your Princess."

Rarity came for her.

Her eyes rolled up as the avalanche began in her nethers, and she screwed them shut as the rumbling roils of pleasure wracked her. She jerked and shuddered and pressed herself blindly into Twilight, trying to curl into a ball to contain the sensations washing over her while still standing. A high noise registered in her ears and it took her a moment to understand it was her own voice, a wordless shriek. The magic pressing in on her felt uniform, like one solid mass guiding her, cushioning her, stimulating her just as she thought this little aftershock must be the last, until finally it faded and she at last melted to the ground, spent. One of her hind legs twitched, dancing to its own silent and chaotic rhythm, and she was too exhausted to attempt to make it stop. She lay her head against her outstretched arm, relishing the solid ground, feeling the heavy drum of her heart, losing herself in her greedy breaths.

Oh, my, she thought from a place that felt far away from her body, somewhere far out by the stars in the dark, oh, Princess.

Twilight knelt beside her and lay her head over Rarity's own; Rarity appreciated the closeness, and she lifted a shaky hoof to touch Twilight's muzzle.

"So." Rarity could hear her grinning, pleased with her experiment. "How was that?"

"I'll tell you," she said, pausing to take a breath, "when I can feel my hooves again."

Twilight chuckled. "It's a bit like that, yeah. Intense."

Intense was an apt but mundane word, Rarity agreed silently. She thought she now understood why it was called le petit mort -- it felt like she was slowly coming back to life, regaining her senses and her faculties while she lay on the floor.

"I, um." Twilight stumbled in her words. Rarity couldn't blame her. What she settled on was: "Wow."

"I believe that just about covers it," Rarity sighed. She shifted so she could look at Twilight, who still had that curious eager smile on her face. "Wow."

She accentuated her last word with raised eyebrows and a saucy half-smile, which Twilight giggled at. This was the Twilight Rarity was most familiar with, the one that had lived in a loft above a library and got excited over finishing her checklists ahead of time, the Twilight who knew so much and at the same time knew so little. Rarity had given herself over to Princess Twilight, but with the warmth of the other Twilight pressed up against her -- the bookish Twilight, the wallflower Twilight, the wide-eyed, naive, sheltered Twilight -- she discovered she wanted her, too. She wanted to ravish her, to give her an education that could never be gleaned from books no matter how explicit or smutty their words may be. She wanted to see those wide eyes pinched shut with concentration and pleasure. She wanted to make Twilight gasp and moan and writhe, just as she had for her.

"You should stand up," she said, trying to be casual, wondering if she was ready herself to stand. "You'll wrinkle your dress."

This was practical advice, and maybe it might have seemed that way to Twilight, but Rarity wasn't thinking in terms of practicality. She leaned in to Twilight before she could move and gave her a steamy kiss, a hoof running along Twilight's dress under the obviously false context of smoothing it out but giving Rarity a good feel of the contours of Twilight's body.

She added in a sensual whisper as the kiss broke: "Princess."

Twilight gave her a knowing smile, the throb in her swollen clitoris momentarily forgotten as she had watched Rarity's stunning orgasm now springing back to life, reminding her like a shrill alarm clock that there was still work to be done. She stood as Rarity had instructed, feeling a calm descend over her even as her breath wanted to hitch and her nerves wanted to rattle. Unfamiliar territory this might be, but Rarity was with her, in for the whole journey it would seem, and that made it seem less like hacking through unrepentant jungle and more like a mountain climb with rock accepting of cable-hooks: if she fell, she would be caught, safe. If she made a mistake, it too could be caught. Rarity was with her. She would be safe.

Rarity rose with her, and continued to smooth out her dress, black and shimmering in the moonlight like a phantom. She was close to Twilight -- unnecessarily close, one would call it under ordinary circumstances, but this too was another act, another pretext, and Rarity was using it to swim around Twilight's personal space and brush against her, run her hoof through her coat, stroke along her wings, steal kisses. Twilight was reminded of the spell she had just used as Rarity's hooves and lips and tongue roamed over her body, but in a way it could not have been more dissimilar. The spell was pre-programmed, mechanical, choreographed, a puppet for Twilight to move around and not so different from her own hooves and horn; Rarity had a mind of her own, and she moved where she willed, a coiling serpent constricting closer and closer, a graceful dancer spinning and twirling in ever-more complex routines. Magic was predictable; Rarity was something new and fascinating.

She was insistently guiding Twilight somewhere in the room, but in the pale light and with her eyes half-closed, lost in a haze of peppered kisses, she couldn't guess where until she backed in to something soft. She felt a hoof behind her; it was the extravagant four-poster bed. Twilight made to climb on to it, but Rarity stopped her, holding her attention with a trail of kisses along her jawline.

"Ah, ah, Princess," she cautioned, and she reached her hooves around to settle them one on each of Twilight's flanks. "Allow me."

For a second Twilight wondered if Rarity wanted to lift her up onto the bed like a gallant knight of old, which might have been taking the role a little too far, but what she did instead was start wiggling Twilight's dress up her hips. When it was far enough to expose her cutie mark and her glistening vulva, Rarity kissed her with force, driving her into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. Twilight had to put her forehooves on the bed behind her to keep from toppling backwards, and she spread her hind legs to keep a better center of gravity while a very insistent Rarity started to kiss down her neck, slowly lowering herself.

Oh. Now Twilight got it. She watched Rarity's head sink between her legs, her mane spilling over them and tickling her coat, with a detached curiosity. It barely seemed real, like this was all happening to somepony else, and Twilight was just observing over their shoulder, perhaps taking notes, perhaps planning her review and summation at the end. She could feel Rarity kissing and sucking on the insides of her thighs, but even that wasn't enough to truly connect together her mind with what was happening.

But when Rarity's tongue swirled over her labia, that felt very real.

Twilight gasped at the sensation, warm and wet and smooth and slippery, thrusting her thoughts into the moment with intense clarity. Rarity chuckled, and although the sound was lost with her muzzle buried between Twilight's legs, Twilight felt rather than heard the vibrating humming resonance against her crotch, and she gave an involuntary groan. Rarity worked her tongue all over Twilight, lapping at her lips, probing within her, seeking the tightened cluster of nerves of her clitoris before moving away to another area that would cause Twilight's breath to catch and her heart to jump. She gripped the bedsheets, screwing them up in her hooves, while her hind legs squeezed Rarity tight, holding her close. The muscles of her stomach clenched and she began to double over, and for a brief flash behind her closed eyes Twilight saw what she must have looked like: propped up on the fancy bed, muscles taught, mouth open, tiara crooked, dress scrunched up around her barrel, silhouetted against the moon, royal trappings juxtaposed with raw lust. Except it wasn't a contrast; her sexuality was a part of her as much as her nobility. She could do this. A princess could do this.

And at that moment, Rarity stopped.

A flurry of thoughts whirled through Twilight's mind (no, why, don't stop, I didn't mean it), all of which were silenced as Rarity stroked a lazy hoof up Twilight's slit. Even in the near-darkness, she could see it came away slick and shiny.

Rarity was looking up at her with a sneaky smile, her eyes full of mischief. Twilight could see the pelt of her muzzle being matted with moisture. "Is my Princess enjoying herself?" she asked, her hoof pressing down between Twilight's legs in a way that made it awfully difficult to think coherently.

"Nnn," Twilight mumbled. Words were even more difficult. She dropped the pretense completely, fell out of character, and pushed Rarity back down with a hoof in her mane. "More..." she managed, her voice so thick and breathy she barely recognized it as her own.

As Rarity obliged, her tongue a soft and sweet pressure against her clit, Twilight collapsed back on to the bed.

The sheets were cool and accepting, and Rarity was burning hot and twisting a hard knot within her that Twilight could feel would soon come undone. She spurred Rarity on, whispered yes, yes, yes over and over, gripped her mane with her hoof. This was the final stretch, the moment where there was no duty or obligation or image, no hotel and no Canterlot and no moonlight, not even Rarity and not even Twilight: there was only that sensation, that wonderful pleasurable sensation where one's nerves are all switched on and crying out for more, more, more. Twilight came with a shuddering exhalation, frozen as her orgasm overtook her before she sucked in a deep breath and let out a shaky laugh, relaxing into the soft bed. She felt Rarity's mane fall away from her grasp, and then Rarity was beside her, draped over her, and kissing her, and Twilight drew her hind legs up onto the bed and wrapped an arm around her neck and kissed her back.

She was smiling as Rarity's lips covered hers. She was still laughing. She felt drunk again. Or maybe she still was. There was no protocol for this at all; protocol was also apparently up on the moon tonight. She imagined drafting a letter to Princess Celestia to outline the exact nature of her current friendship problem -- Dear Princess Celestia, I just slept with one of my best friends and I'm having a fit of the giggles, shouldn't I be freaking out or something? -- and that only made the problem worse.

Rarity drew away from her, a few stray chuckles escaping from Twilight like floating bubbles. She was also smiling. "What," she said, kissing Twilight's forehead, "may I ask, is so funny?"

"I don't know," she said. Shaking her head felt strange against the covers. That was because her mane was still pinned up, she realized. "I should be having a meltdown or a panic attack or something, but I don't feel like it. It just all feels... funny." She gave Rarity a huge grin. "Or maybe it's the endorphins or something, I can't tell. Sex can be kind of... uh..." Her brain scattered to find the right word. It didn't feel like she could rely on it for anything right now.

"Intense?" Rarity offered.

"Mm." She had used that word before, hadn't she? It fit. "Intense is right," she said, and she snuggled into the crook of Rarity's neck.

Rarity secured her with a hoof, stroking the wing tucked up against her side. That felt good, nice in a comforting sort of way. Twilight breathed in the fragrance of Rarity's mane, a complex flowery bouquet, and let her mind drift for a length of time she could not have measured. It was nice, being held like this, being touched. Comfortable. Her eyes stayed open, though. She didn't feel like falling asleep. Not just yet, anyway.

"Rarity?" she asked into the quiet room.

"Yes, Twilight?"

"Could I do that to you?"

"Do what, dear?" It sounded like Rarity, too, had allowed her thoughts to wander.

"Cunnilingus," Twilight said plainly.

Rarity snorted, caught completely off-guard. "N-now?" was all she could think to ask.

"Why not?" It was like Twilight suggested they go out for ice cream. "I mean, I understand if you're tired, I just thought--"

"That's not why I..." Rarity shook her head. "You just became so incredibly forward, all of a sudden!"

"Well..." Twilight bit her lip, looking at her with those bright hopeful eyes. "It's not like we need to be especially modest with each other."

Rarity laughed, and Twilight grinned at her again. No, she supposed, they didn't, did they? Inexperienced she may be, but innocent was something Twilight was not. She was like a still lake in the deep woods, some calm and humble surface one had no way of judging the depth of without diving in, and no telling what you might find at the bottom.

She was a little curious to see what she would find if she kept on diving down.

Leaning over her, Rarity gave Twilight a kiss, brief and ending with a playful flick of her tongue over Twilight's lips. Wordlessly, she separated herself from her, settled among the soft pillows, gave Twilight an unmistakable come-hither stare, and spread her legs.

Twilight did not approach her right away. First, she removed her dress all the way, lifting it over her head with a brief flash of magic that whisked it off to the wardrobe, hanging neatly. The spell also apparently took Twilight's necklace and tiara, for they were gone with the dress. Twilight wanted to be closer to Rarity, on even ground, equal. The dress and the jewellery were part of a costume, Princess Twilight's costume, and she didn't feel the need to pick the persona back up again. But there was still one thing left.

Feeling the back of her head with her hoof, she unpinned her mane and let it fall free. Twilight swung her head from side to side, feeling like herself again. Rarity watched her, a slow spreading smile blooming on her face. If this was Twilight's attempts at being a brazen seductress, waving her tresses to and fro, she was making an awfully poor job of it -- and Rarity didn't mind in the slightest. Twilight's mane was an adorable mess, kinked from sitting in place all night.

Rarity was looking forward to messing it up even further by sinking a hoof into it.

She nudged Twilight with her hind leg; she looked like she may have been on the verge of hesitating. "Like you say," she told her, "no need to be shy now."

Twilight crawled on the bed to her, kissed her slowly and softly. Before had been a race, she frantically needing to experience as much of Rarity as quickly as possible; now it was exploration, and she would take all the time she needed. Rarity's coat was wonderfully soft and smelled faintly of vanilla (some sort of wash? or just her natural scent? she couldn't say), and her lips were welcoming and pliant, and it was easy to become lost in both. Rarity herself was more than content to take things slowly, still reeling from Twilight's magic. She pulled Twilight close to her, feeling their coats brush, hooking her with her hind legs, running her forehoves up and down the feathers of her freed wings, feeling completely in place in this opulent bed and a beautiful mare to share it with.

There they lay with each other in the darkness, princess and seamstress. Rarity began to feel that familiar heat kindle within her from Twilight's kisses, and Twilight's touch grew bolder as her hoof traversed the inside of Rarity's thigh and brushed across her waiting mons. She sighed and tensed, and Twilight smiled as she kissed her, and both agreed in silence that it was time. Twilight's kisses trailed down Rarity's neck, down her chest, down her belly stretched smooth and taut, and Rarity watched her with her head propped up with a large pillow and a hoof resting in Twilight's mane. She never slowed on her way down, and when Twilight made contact with her nethers, muzzle pressed against her, tongue darting in to taste of her, Rarity sighed in the same way she would if she were sinking into a perfumed bath at the end of an especially long and stressful day.

This, too, unfolded all at the pace it needed to and no more and no less. Twilight did not concern herself with cataloging what areas of Rarity's anatomy were the most sensitive, what actions produced the most pleasurable and audible results. Rarity forgot the room and all its trappings, the night and all its spectacle, and let Twilight love her as she stroked and petted her mane. They were lost in each other, the moon still and bright in the sky just for them, and when Rarity climaxed it was not with a cry but with the quiet sound of a smile, and Twilight felt her stiffen around her and then become limp, and she climbed back up to Rarity's level to hold her.

Rarity buried her face in Twilight's chest, smelling sex and smelling her, scents primal and unfiltered and private. Twilight carefully spread a wing over her, and it felt lighter and more heavenly than crawling under the covers. She lightly caressed the large feather at the tip, in awe of its softness.

"So." Rarity's mind skipped back to waking up this morning, and how long ago that seemed. "Do you think we tricked everypony into thinking we're an item yet?"

Twilight laughed. "Oh yeah. Yeah, I'm sure we have them all fooled. I wonder what rumors will be like."

"You know, I find myself not caring too much about all that." She wriggled up to kiss Twilight. "It seems not to matter, somehow."

Twilight kissed her back. "It does seem a little silly."

She rested her chin on the top of Rarity's head, thinking. Rarity could feel her fidgeting a little, and she removed her hoof from Twilight's feathers. "I wasn't bothering you, was I?" she asked.

"Hm?" Twilight glanced down at her wing. "Oh. No, it wasn't that." She gave Rarity a smile. "That actually feels kinda nice."

Rarity returned her hoof to Twilight's primaries, fascinated with how they unlinked when brushed one way and reconnected when brushed the other. "I've just been led to believe pegasus wings are quite sensitive," she said, deftly glossing over any pegasi lovers who may have given her that impression. Now was certainly not the time to bring them up.

"I don't think mine are." Twilight flexed her wings, make the feathers ruffle. "Maybe alicorn wings are different."

"Perhaps they are," Rarity said, thinking of just how few alicorns there were, and the small number of ponies that could compare the intimate touch of their wings to that of a regular pegasus.

They settled into silence, but it wasn't more than a minute before Twilight started to shift again.

Rarity moved her hoof down Twilight's body, resting it on the sensitive area of her barrel. Twilight looked down at her. "Is something bothering you, darling?" she asked, now that she had Twilight's attention. There were other things, she felt, they didn't need to be so shy about.

"Was, um." Twilight hesitated before continuing. "...Did I do okay?" she asked eventually.

Oh, was that all? Rarity squeezed her a little tighter, thinking it sounded a little strange to hear Twilight voicing such a mundane concern, and one with such an obvious answer at that. "You did fine," she said, and felt Twilight relax in her grasp. "No complaints. Though..."

She let her hoof drift down, circling Twilight's cutie mark.

"...I didn't expect Twilight Sparkle to be so kinky. You are quite the dark horse."

Twilight suddenly remembered what she had asked Rarity to call her, it seeming awkward after the fact instead of as wild and exciting as it had in the moment, and she could feel the blood color her cheeks. "...It wasn't that unusual, was it?" she asked timidly.

"Would that I could do magic like that." Rarity uttered a polite parlor laugh. "I fear I wouldn't ever get anything productive done again."

Wait, magic? "Oh," Twilight said. "You, um. You can't cast anything like that?"

"Dear, I don't think I could get my horn to light up while I was, ahem, otherwise occupied. I don't think most unicorns could." She looked up at Twilight.

Twilight didn't meet her gaze; she was looking off at some dark point in the room. "Huh," she said.

"You are something of a special case, you know."

"I know." Twilight bit her lip, and her eyes found Rarity's. "I just... that's what I've always done, more or less." She gave her a smile that was somewhat sheepish, somewhat like she was sharing a secret.

The image of a younger Twilight in her bedroom at Canterlot Castle, hindquarters in the air, magic buzzing around her, eyes screwed shut, and a pillow muffling her cries of ecstasy flashed vividly in Rarity's mind, and she swallowed. "No, ah." She glanced away. "Nopony's ever made mention of it before?"

She felt Twilight shrug. "Nopony's ever had the chance to until now," she said.

Several things fell into place for Rarity at that moment. "Oh, sweetheart," she said, sounding crestfallen. "If I'd have known this was your first time, I would have tried to make it more special."

Huh, Twilight thought again. She kissed Rarity, cupping her muzzle lightly with her hoof, thinking that was such a strange thing for Rarity to be concerned over. Like she could have done more for Twilight than she had already tonight.

"But it was special. It was with somepony I care about."

She kissed her again, lightly, and left their muzzles touching.

"Somepony I trust," she said.

Rarity smiled through her kiss, and held her hoof to Twilight's. There was more to be discussed, but both parties simultaneously agreed without speaking that this was a good place to leave the conversation, and the evening. They drifted into sleep still holding each other, comfortable in each other's space, and let the morning come to them.