Touch of the Sun

Gentle Light sighed, “Normally I introduce ponies to the oddities of this place before they can encounter them. I have a whole speech about how Sunshine Manor is a place of peace and love. How ponies in need come here and find a home. And…” She stops speaking as she notices that I’m giggling.

“It’s okay, really.” I say, trying to calm Gentle down, “I think I get it, this place is very different from the rest of the world. It’s a paradise for those who really need it, those like me.”

With a deep breath and a sigh Gentle Light began to properly explain the way the manor worked. Sunshine Manor, was created about three-quarters of a millennia ago, was intended to be a place of hospitality for those who had suffered greatly at the hooves of others or the country. Many years passed and as they did the place changed. Where once ponies were brought here to find normalcy in a tumultuous life the tedium of normalcy began to drive the ponies to experiment. New games and activities were invented, old games were given new twists, but even then they never did anything sexual. It wasn’t until the beginning of the last century that the taboo surrounding sexual activity started fading from the minds of “modern” ponies. As the change affected the rest of the world the ponies of the manor were also being affected, but in more extreme ways.

The ponies that had lived at the manor had tired of the endless different activities that they had tried and began experimenting sexually. As time went on they were encouraged to explore everything sexual they could think of. During their experiments they wrote many books on the nature of sexual arts, though most were never “published” they were printed and stocked in the library. Though, as with all the previous groups, the ponies that lived at the manor during that time moved on, finding love or happiness and a new life in the outside world leaving the manor permanently. That had the effect of spreading most of the fetishes out there among the common pony-

“Wait, you’re telling me that the majority of the fetishes that ponies have to day were started here?” I asked my jaw dropping in disbelief.

Gentle smiled at me, “That’s right, including some of the more ‘depraved’ ones.”

“That kind of explains a lot.” I said, thinking about how the ponies in the maze were fucking.

“I imagine so, but that’s also just the beginning. Over the last few decades things have changed here at the manor. As with all the previous generations there are always one or two ponies who have found their ‘true calling’ or ‘new life’ here at the manor instead of out in the rest of the world. Recently all the ponies we have rescued, that ended up here, have found that this is where they feel most comfortable and have rediscovered their love for life. That is the primary point of the manor, to help ponies who need it.” Gentle paused, probably to gather her thoughts and then continued. “I have the ability to tell where a pony will find their love of life again. It’s part of my natural talent and lately I have noticed that the ponies here are destined to find peace and happiness here.”

“I take it that means you’re taking on less ponies that before.” My face was pensive as I spoke.

“Yes and no,” Gentle told me, “Yes we are helping less ponies, but that is more a product of the times, thanks to the development of modern therapies, rather than this place having too many ponies.”

“So, is that all I need to know about the nature of this place?” I ask stretching a bit looking into her ice blue eyes, seeing a kindness that I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“For now at least, you can always ask me if there’s something you don’t know about. Now let’s go meet the others and tell them that you’re off limits,” Gentle said trotting over to the mirror.

“Actually, Gentle, I would prefer not to be off limits. While I won’t participate in the more painful or t-torturous types of activity I would like to experience gentler forms of sex, at my own pace of course.” I tell her, looking straight into her eyes to let her know that I am serious.

“Okay,” Gentle said looking back at me and nodding. With that she turns back to the mirror and taps three of the glyphs around the edge before calling out, “Everyone, it’s time to gather in the main hall, you’ll be meeting the newest member of Sunshine Manor. Please respect her wishes to stay away from the more punitive types of sex.” Gentle tapped the same glyphs again but in reverse order before stepping away from the mirror and gesturing towards the stairs she came up. “Come on, let’s go meet the rest of the family.”

As we walked towards the stairs a thought struck me, “You never did tell me about the gardener.”

“Strong Hoof and you’ll see soon enough.”

Gentle led me down the stairs into the rest of rest of the manor. It was then that I truly began to appreciate the size and intricacy of the place. Though this brought up more questions, the manor seemed so much bigger down here than up in Gentle’s room. When I brought this up Gentle explained that the windows in her room had a magnification charm woven into the glass allowing her to view the entire area in much greater detail. She also mentioned that it’s kind of hard to see anything without it, since her room is as high as the highest tower in Canterlot castle. This also explained why there were so many stairs for us to go down.

As we reached the main hall I noticed that it seemed a little crowded, though that’s not really saying much as the hall wasn’t as big as I would have thought. If I had to guess, I would say that there were about twenty to twenty-two people. To my surprise there were a couple of griffons and a changeling, though it was surprising to see how well it got along with the other people. As soon as we walked down into the hall every one turned towards where we were, and all of a sudden I was greeted by waves, smiles, and calls of welcome.

I was a bit taken aback by the reception, and the general cacophony of welcomes lasted for a minute before Gentle raised a hoof, silencing them all. “Thank you all for gathering so quickly. I know you all have things to do so I will keep this short. This,” Gentle said, indicating to me with her hoof, “is Crystal Clarity. See to it that she is treated like family, and is welcomed here. Please understand her wishes and respect them. You of course can engage her at your leisure, but for now she’s going to be adjusting to life here, and will be accompanied by Anni. You are all dismissed.”

With that almost all of the others left, save for three ponies. The first was an earth pony stallion, with a tan coat and a white mane that had a chef’s hat on. He immediately approached me, “Hello Miss Clarity, I am Sous, the head chef of the manor. Should you ever want something to eat you can ask me and I will make it for you.”

“It is nice to meet you Sous, and I certainly will, given how good the food I had earlier was.” I told him, a small smile crossing my face.

“I am glad you enjoyed it, but as much as I would like to stay and chat I need to get back to the kitchen.” Sous said, and with a bow he bid me fair well. As he let I turned to the pony that was next to him, only to see a green coated earth pony that had no ears.

“Hello Ma’am. I am Strong Hoof, I was told that you were curious about what was happening in the hedge. Specifically I was told that you were curious about why I wasn’t bothered by the noise.” Strong Hoof said offering a hoof, and a smile, which I gladly shook. “You see, with my ears missing and sever damage to my inner ears I cannot hear naturally. I was, however, lucky that Gentle was able to get my collar enchanted so that it could pick up sounds and relay them to my mind. So, to answer your next question, I can turn on and off my hearing, which is why I wasn’t bothered by Estar and Steel. Though they did make their intentions very clear to me before they started, which was nice of them.”

“Thank you for letting me know, with my talent relating to knowledge I probably would have sought you out at some point.” I said with a sort of sad smile. He must have known my smile was sad because he chuckled a bit.

“Don’t worry, I have long since gotten over having my ears hacked off. In fact, sometimes it’s a point of humor. I once had some attachable ‘ears’ and I lost one of them. So one witty Pegasi just had to joke about how I ‘lost’ an ear and she also joked about how is she tromped around maybe I would hear her and be able to ‘find’ my ear.” He said, mirth filled his voice like rain filled barrel.

“In my defense, I had just gotten your collar properly enchanted,” Gentle said, speaking up from a little ways away.

“That you did Gentle, that you did.” He turned back to me, his lavender eyes glimmering with humor, “So, don’t you worry…” He must have seen the look of shock and horror on my face as he trailed off.

“Y-your ears were hacked off?” I asked, my voice faltering a little as I did.

“Yeah,” He said with a sigh, “My Psychotic, alcoholic, father did that to me. Chopped off my ears, battered my head, beat me and nearly killed me. I was found by the royal guard just outside of my house, bleeding and nearly dead. Of course, after that my dad never saw the light of day again, since I was the one who put him down. Not my proudest moment, but I killed him in self-defense. Luckily my neighbors vouched for me and I was free to go, after a moth in the hospital.”

“I’m so sorry that you had to go through that.” I said, hugging him, a gesture which he returned.

“It’s okay, I’ve gotten over it.” He released me after that, “Though I do need to go finish trimming the hedge.” Before he left he gave me a small kiss on the forehead and whispered to me, “time heals all, in time I hope that you will heal from your troubles.”

I was admittedly a little shocked by his gesture, but he seemed to genuinely care for me, like an older brother. Turing away from where he was walking I looked over to Gentle, who smiled at me. “Crystal, this is Anni,” she indicated to the pony standing next to her, “She is my assistant and paramour.”

It was then that I noticed that the pony next to her was clearly young and couldn’t have been more than fourteen.