Chapter 7: Further Experimentation

Sunset Shimmer lay naked in Flash Sentry's embrace.

This is happiness, reflected the young woman. This is contentment. I could really get used to this.

It was warm in her studio, but Sunset was cooling off as the air evaporated some of their mingled sweat. She was atop him on her couch, her cheek resting on the broad, well-muscled surface of his chest, her thighs around his, those parts of him -- and her hands -- sticky with sweat and other fluids. His arms were around her, nestling him comfortably against himself; she, in turn, had her arms around his middle.

It's so nice being held like this, Sunset thought. Not exciting and wild like -- what we were doing before. But really nice. Especially after -- what we were doing before. This -- sort of affirms it. That it was -- closeness, of our hearts and souls. Not just some kind of stupid animal thing.

Sunset Shimmer was a voracious reader, and -- while she normally read more serious sorts of books -- she had read steamy romance novels, both back home and in the Human world. She'd read about it feeling very nice to be held, afterward, by somepony special. She'd intellectually-grasped why -- sex itself was just a base instinct, but true mating, of the sort Ponies might know, was deeper than that. Holding somepony after sex, that was an expression of -- really liking. The kind of liking that could last a lifetime. Now, for the first time -- she really understood.

She -- technically -- still hadn't actually had sex with Flash. Yet, she thought, and smiled to herself at the speculations produced by that conditional. Then she caught herself. Well, I can't, ever, she reminded herself. My future lies in Equestria. His remains here. He has his own dreams, he has a family here, this is his world, barbaric as it happens to be. He doesn't know how to be a Pony; he wouldn't be happy in Equestria -- would he?

For a moment, she thought the unthinkable. That she, a mare of high birth and even higher destiny, might marry an alien barbarian. Bring him back to Equestria with her. When she Ascended and was crowned a Princess, install him beside her as her Consort.

The Mirror would change him, she realized. Just as it changed me. We'd both be Ponies. At least she hoped it worked that way. She'd never actually passed back through the Portal.

Not for the first time, it occurred to her that there might be no reverse transformation; or that the Portal might be keyed to only let Ponies in Human form pass back to Equestria. In the first case, she could never return; in the second case, she could come back, but he could never join her in civilization.

Right now, lying in Flash's arms, being stuck here forever no longer seemed so terrible.

She pressed her cheek against his chest, felt his warmth, heard his heart beating, drank in the scent of his maleness, mixed as it was with her own bodily fragrances. This form was nearly nose-blind compared to a Pony, but Sunset had the habit of paying attention to scents, and even her current pathetically-tiny nose could smell Flash in some detail: his sweat, the male musk from his armpits, the slightly-flowery scent of his soap. Cutting through all these, Sunset could smell something that brought a happy heat to her cheeks, a tinging to her loins: the scent of Flash's semen, testament to the truth that she had pleased her stallion -- her man -- every bit as much as he had pleased her.

There was something wonderfully primal about her situation, lying here with Flash, something antecedent to all sexual morality, but not amoral. Rather, it was at the root of the very concept of sexual morality. He was her mate, the stallion who would protect her and the foals he would sire upon her from predators; they would watch out for each other, until death claimed them.

She snorted and smiled wryly at her own romanticism. There would be no foals. They had not engaged in the specific actions which might produce them. And if they did, they would be not Pony foals, but rather ape-cubs -- cute little ape-cubs who would come from both of them -- no, long before then she would have returned home. If Celestia had rejected her before, she'd have even more reason to reject Sunset if she showed up pregnant, unwed and with no fiancee in sight -- or at least no proper Pony fiancee.

"A penny for your thoughts?" Flash asked her. His hand gently carressed her back and shoulders.

Sunset sighed, and smiled into Flash's face. What had once seemed an absurdly flat, anthropoid visage was now beautiful to her because of the warm and caring soul who lived behind it. No longer monstrous, no longer alien, for this was Flash Sentry: her dear beloved and friend, who meant only good toward her.

"Just ... thinking," she said noncomittally.

He arched an eyebrow quizzically.

"About you," Sunset added. Her smile broadened.

"Oh?" He tried to seem entirely nonchalant, but entirely failed. "Um -- what about me?"

Silly boy, she thought fondly. I learned to read others at the Court of Canterlot, where Ponies are expert liars. You're far too honest to bluff me, even if you don't have proper Pony ears to watch. Besides -- she glanced down his body, to the point where his member grew from a tatch of blue hair, excitingly near the place where her own red-and-yellow pubic hair provided some modesty for her own small Human sex -- you're naked. I'm not sure why that matters so much with Humans, but it does. Learned that in the girls' locker room. She grinned. Though I find looking at your naked body more enjoyable than I did looking at those of the girls.

In her happy, horny enthusiasm for Flash Sentry, Sunset Shimmer did not notice that the thought she had just conceived would have been rather alien to a Pony mare, who was used to seeing both mares and stallions nude on a regular basis. She was no longer the filly who had stepped through the Mirror Portal. In more ways than the merely-physical, Sunset Shimmer had long been immersed in the culture of the North Amareican Federation -- and it showed.

She let her eyes rove up and down the form of her lover, grinning in a manner that she considered quite wicked, and replied: "That you're very handsome." She half-raised herself on hands and knees and slid herself up his body. "Inside and out." The patch of red-and-yellow hair on her delta caught his limp maleness, bent it back, and moved up the underside, producing what for him must have been a delicious friction.

Flash gasped ... a long, shuddering sound. His maleness became considerably firmer.

"And ... manly," she added. She moved further up his body. With this motion, the tip of the external evidence of that manliness slid further down, furthe firming. She reached down with one hand, lamenting her lack of telekinesis in this form, and literally took the matter in hand, holding his member firmly in her fingers and moving it up and down, in the perfect rhythm that came naturally to a skilled musician.

She had speculated about a possible connection between music and magic in this world. This was not the sort of magic she had meant, yet still there seemed something special and wondrous to her in the way her lover gasped, moaned out her name, and became fully erect in her dextrous grasp.

She positioned the head of his organ against her own delicate little nubbin, hissing slightly at the sensation of contact between their intimate flesh. It's like our little heads are kissing, she thought, and snickered slightly at the concept.

"Sunset ... Sunny ..." said Flash, his voice thick with desire. "Are you ... do you want to ...?" His question was incomplete, but the general nature of the missing verb was obvious.

Sunset laughed. "Something a little different," she said, "at least for now." At his brief puzzlement, she added "I think you'll like it."

She held his shaft by its upper side, just as the diagram she'd consulted days before had shown her, then wiggled her hips, slightly repositioning herself. Sunset leaned back, placing her other hand on Flash's arm to steady herself, and pressed her hips forward. Her nether lips were already very wet with her arousal, and as her hips moved forward, she spread her thighs more widely, slightly parting the outer pair of those labiae. She let his member settle along that groove.

Flash groaned, and Sunset made a little involuntary gasp of delight at the sensation of his organ right against her own in such a fashion. They had touched each other there often enough in the last few months, but not with each other's private parts. They were now very close to actual intercourse, and the awareness excited both of them.

"Do you like that, Flash?" Sunset crooned teasingly, grinding her hips forward, rubbing her now entirely-exposed sex along the sensitive underside of his shaft.

"Oh, sweet freaking Goodness," replied Flash, using his people's name for the All-Father.

"I'll take that as a yes," Sunset said, herself breathing rather raggedly. "Hold on, honey -- it gets better."

With that, Sunset moved her his forward, sliding her slit over his shaft and bending it backwards and down against his belly. The pressure of his own erection pushed his penis up, keeping it in complete contract with her slick vaginal crevice, but in such a position that it could only slip along that crevice, rather than enter deeper within.

She had first encountered the concept of this form of frottage soon after she had turned thirteen, in a pillow book in the Library of the Palace of Canterlot. Fascinated with the intensity of her own awakening young sexuality, Sunset had devoured that book from cover to cover, even taking detailed notes -- which she then hid carefully, lest they be discovered and shown to Celestia.

Sunset had never gotten to use any of her new knowledge in Equestria: her breach with her Formerly Beloved Teacher, and subsequent self-exile, had deprived her of the opportunity to find a sufficiently serious lover for it to be even remotely appropriate for her to do anything so intimate with him. The closest thing she'd ever had to coltfriends had been escorts to formal events, with whom she had traded polite compliments, but with whom there had been no real romantic connections.

Now, in an alien bodily form -- adapting her actions with an understanding of her new anatomy and the Human equivalent of pillow books (which she felt were very dirty) -- she was finally getting to enjoy the fruits of her advanced sexual scholarship, in a form other than provided by her own aura or fingers upon her clitoris, aided by a very capable erotic imagination. And Flash, of course, was getting to enjoy those fruits as well.

Flash gasped and moaned at her actions, looked up at her. His hands gripped her hips; her buttocks. He looked up at her with a wondering expression of mingled lust and love. Despite his greater strength, he was completely under her control, yet trusting that she would use him kindly. He was totally following her lead, showing absolutely no inclination to simply lift her up and plunge her back down to her defloration, as she knew he might easily do from this position -- at least one of the pillow books had warned that this might be a dangerous act for any mare to perform who was trying to prevent her stallion from actually penetrating her. She knew that most male ape-things would have made the attempt.

Looking down at her lover; feeling the clear evidence of his male arousal pressing along her labiae and against her clitoris; feeling the strength of his hands, yet also aware of his forbearance, even when brought by her to such a pitch of excitement ... her love and respect for Flash grew at this further evidence of his sexual restraint. Sunset felt an enormous rush of warmth and trust. My dear barbarian, she thought fondly. My sweet stallion. You deserve pleasure.

She knew how to give him some.

Pressing their sexes firmly together, Sunset began to rock her hips back and forth, sliding her sex over his in a rhythmic mutual masturbation. His shaft was slippery with her juices; she could feel his manhood pushing against the entrance ot her vagina, restrained from penetration primarily by the fact that her pubis was pressing his head back and down into his belly.

She bit her lip with concentration. It would be extremely simple to slide a bit further forward, let his head into her slit, then slide back, bringing his organ along -- then impale herself upon him. The pillow books had explained that this was a natural transition, and a very deep and primal part of her agreed with the books that this was what she should do -- but Sunset knew that this was what she must not do, or she might be able to return home alone, with a clean conscience -- or at least one clean enough for her purposes.

She no longer knew what was clean enough for her purposes. Was what she was doing right now clean, or dirty? Love makes clean, the old aphorism said. Do I love Flash? she wondered. I can't, she thought despairingly. My destiny lies in Equestria. O my darling, my sweet stallion, I'm just using you. We can never really be.

She should have felt bad about this, but it was impossible to feel bad about anything when she was rubbing herself on Flash's cock (lovely naughty word!) and giving pleasure and getting pleasure and the whole world felt so incredibly awesomely good. She'd touched herself hundreds of times since coming to this world; Flash and she had touched one another down there a dozen times before, but something about the way they were touching each other now; the fact that they were touching cock to pussy (two lovely naughty words for the price of one, and together in concept as in flesh!): the knowledge that he was pleasing her and she was pleasing him with the exact same motions was overwhelmingly wonderful. Sunset knew now why -- even on the purely physical level -- mares would risk much to make love rather than masturbate.

It was impossible to remain intellectual any more: to think about morality or philosophy. Her remaining detachment was sweeping away, as a flood of feelings -- everything from raw driving desire to the most amazingly tender emotions regarding the Human stallion who lay and bucked his hips up under her, moving to meet her own motions. He was gasping and groaning as he thrust beneath her, and she began making involuntary little cries of pleasure. It was all, alarmingly, now quite beyond her conscious control.

Flash looked up at her in utter rapt adoration as his moans grew in urgency and volume. "Sunny," he gasped. "Oh damn, oh Sunny!" He reached up, cupped her breasts. His fingers found her nipples, carressing and rolling and squeezing them.

At most times, Sunset rather liked it when Flash touched her breasts. The increased sensitivity of the swollen Human teats was one of the few nice things about being a Human female -- at least when one was with a lover. Well, that and fingers. And right now, Flash was demonstrating the proper use of both.

With what was going on at the same time down below, it felt indescribable.

Sunset arched her back and neck, to the point that she would have been looking straight up at the ceiling had her eyes not been closed in sheer ecstasy, and began whimpering with her mounting passion. As she lost all control, she began crying out words and phrases, seemingly wrung out of her soul. She was scarcely aware of the time of what she was actually saying, though she was to find out later. Some of it was literally incoherent, and she repeated herself a lot, but much of it might be summarized as:

"Flash! Ohhh, Flash! My darling, my dear barbarian. O my sweet stallion, my sweet stallion!"

Then her exclamations became wholly incoherent -- neither of them was ever able to figure out what she meant to say -- as all awareness was overcome by white-hot pleasure, brighter than the surface of the Sun, her mind's eye shimmering like the Solar disc seen through maximum atmospheric thickness and heat, just before setting.

There was one titanic explosion of passion, like a nova flare, and she was pretty sure that she screamed then, because somepony was screaming, and it sounded too high-pitched to be Flash, though Sunset herself had a rather husky voice.

Then she collapsed onto her lover. She was half-fainting from the intensity of what had just happened, sweaty skin against skin, and a mingled pool of other fluids on his sac and belly. They gripped each other tightly, and she was suddenly kissing him in an uncontrollable frenzy of mingled fading lust and swelling love and gratitude. Her long, red-and-orange hair, wet with her own sweat, trailed around his face, forming a private little space between them within which they expressed their emotions -- within which they, and only they, were real.

Tears welled up and fell from her face onto his. Tears not of sorrow, but of exultation.

He noticed those tears and misunderstood. "Don't cry, Sunny," he said softly, and caressed her cheek with a gentle hand. "I ... I wasn't too rough with you, was I? I'd never want to hurt you ..."

She laughed, but very affectionately. "No, you big, silly wonderful stallion, you didn't hurt me," she explained. "Those were tears of joy. I've literally never felt anyting so amazing in my entire life. I didn't even know it was possible to feel anything so amazing. Oh, sweet freaking Life and Light, Flash --" and at that moment, it seemed entirely appropriate to invoke Fauna Luster, "-- that was incredible. I --" she suddenly felt strangely shy, too shy to say what she had first thought. "-- I really like you, Flash. Really really very much, like no one I've ever known before, there aren't enough words in your language to tell you how terribly much!" She was babbling now, and she knew it, and at this special moment in her life -- she did not care.

Flash smiled warmly up at her. "I really like you too, Sunny. To put it very mildly."

And Sunset knew what he had just really said, just as much as he obviously knew what she had really said.

He loved her. And she loved him. For real, not just as a stupid shallow sex game she was being drawn into by her always-on Human heat.

Somehow, impossibly, across the gulf of worlds and species, genuine love had bloomed between Flash Sentry and herself. She wasn't quite sure why -- perhaps it had been because, alone of all the ape-things, she really and truly trusted him -- trusted him not to break her heart, to betray his promises, as had her Formerly-Beloved Teacher.

She closed her eyes, and briefly dreamed a new dream.

She would stay with Flash; stay in this world, return his love wholeheartedly and unstintingly. She would trust in Flash, and he in her. They would continue to make glorious wonderful amazing love. Friendship had become Desire and Desire become Love, in the usual Pony way. Soon, she would drop her last defenses, and allow him the ultimate consummation. They would become lovers in full, and continue to be for the rest of their lives.

They would unite in marriage, produce foals -- babies -- and tend and teach and love them until they grew into fine young men and women themselves. And their children would find mates of their own, and in turn love and marry and have babies, and she and Flash would grow old together, happy and successful, embraced and surrounded by the love of each other and of their children and grandchildren.

With any other Human, she would have deemed her dream absurd. They were such amoral, fickle creatures they not uncommonly switched mates like changes of clothes. But she knew she could trust Flash -- she wasn't sure why, but she could feel his trustworthiness in her metaphorical hooves and mane, horn and wings (wings? Now that as an odd conceit ...). If she truly loved Flash -- if she gave him her heart without reservations -- he would not disappoint her.

She could see her choice clearly -- two paths lay before her. Love Flash -- and give up becoming an Alicorn. Become the Alicorn -- at the price of giving up the love of Flash.

To keep both -- that would be impossible.

Author's Note

As Sunset Shimmer points out in one of the Friendship Games shorts, "Studying ancient books is fine for some people, but I like to solve magical mysteries by rolling up my sleeves and getting my hooves ... uh, hands dirty." She takes the same approach to the Sweet Mystery of Life, but so far hadn't found anyone whom she felt was worthy of aiding her in the exploration.

Until now.

In her ecstasy, Sunset Shimmer actually has a Cutie Mark Vision. This is normal neither to the Ponies nor the Humanoids.

And she has just, without knowing it, sensed the Alicorn.

Wonder what she'll decide to do?