Ahui's breathing sped up and her eyes opened. She was warm, oddly comfortable, and the burning fire that had been consuming her was down to a low heat. What had happened? Did we really... Closing her eyes again, Ahuizotl had to think. Two options, slink away, try to find out what happened and-

"Good morning." Daring Do had a war raging inside him. He had to think clearly and it was completely and utterly impossible to do with Ahuizotl's lithe body spooned by his own. He needed to get up, get away from the mare, that smelled so good, and gather his thoughts. "Ahui, we both need to think, then talk."

"Yeah, we do." Ahuizotl blushed, she actually felt her cheeks redden as memories, triggered by the stallion's voice, flooded her mind. She knew she had to roll forward, get up, step away from Daring.

Daring groaned, he felt the gentle hand massaging his balls, it felt so good he was instantly dissuaded of his perfect plan. Wrapping his forelegs around Ahui, he gave her a little squeeze, leaning his head up and over hers, nuzzling her cheek.

Stunned by the one-eighty in the stallion, Ahui groaned softly as he began to grow against her back. She felt the stallion's tool push free of its sheath and make perfectly clear what Daring really wanted to do.

His body was so familiar with hers, Daring rubbed a hoof down the mare's side then back up again, tracing over her cute foreleg. "Maybe it would clear our heads if we just…"

"Yes." Ahui breathed the word, her brain barely aware she had spoken. She turned, rolling over and putting herself belly-to-belly with her greatest nemesis. "This is the… chalice?"

"I can't think of anything but you." Daring arched his back, drawing away from the mare for just a moment and, lining up, pushed forward and into her. It was like being on a comfortable seat, or wearing his shirt. She just feels right.

Ahui took control of her traitorous tail. She took a firm grip on her lover's shaft and began to stroke it. There was a stark difference in her feelings today, she was more passive. She hated it. Pushing forward, grinding her hips, claiming inch after inch of the stallion in her tight depths.

It was amazing to Daring, watching the mare shift gears. Ahui pushed and rolled him to his back. Looking up at the mare, his breath caught in his throat at how powerful she looked. But that power he had tamed the night before, tamed, and been tamed by it. He bucked up into her, watched her eyes go wide in delighted surprise as the stallion she had tried to control proved he still had fight in him.

Fighting fire with fire, Ahui stoked the inferno rising between them. Rolling her hips into Daring's next buck, she pushed down further, her hungry nether-lips kissing the stallion's groin as she had all of him inside her. Her tail had let go, squirming in the air. She tried to direct it to grab his balls, or claim his tail-hole, but it was too hard to think about it. She had what she wanted, she had Daring Do.

The tableau lasted too long, Daring's new urges driving the stallion to want to mount the mare who rode him. Reaching up, Daring grabbed the mare's shoulders with his forelegs and rocked forward, up. Where their bodies met became a fulcrum, rocking them so that Ahui was soon on her back, Daring above her. He was barely able to think past his lust, but Daring leaned down, kissed Ahui, moments before pulling almost all the way free of her tight depths.

He thrust back in. Ahui's body squirmed and twitched like she had triggered an electricity trap. She felt the stallion's hips draw back and thunder in again and her struggle fluttered within her. She wanted to control, to be the one with the power, but maybe she could share a little. It isn't like he is doing a bad job of this.

Daring stroked again and again, he felt a gentle squeeze at his balls and knew in that instant that Ahui was enjoying this every bit as much as he did. "Ahui?" Daring leaned down and kissed the mare. "Ahuizotl?"

Her name roused Ahui from the blissful devotion to the lovemaking. She registered that her lips were warm, then she realized she was still kissing the stallion. It's nice. Her cheeks flushed at the realization that she really was enjoying this. She shouldn't, it should be horrible and abhorrent. But it is nice.

"There you are. Faster? Or slower?" Daring wanted her to feel better, to feel some of the control he had stolen when he had taken over. And it didn't hurt that she blushed so cutely when she had to confront what was happening.

"Fast-" No sooner had the start of the word come out than Ahui tilted her head back, Daring had literally doubled his pace, bucking and driving, stuffing her faster and faster. Her pleasure peaked before Daring's did. She reached up with her forelegs and grabbed hold of the stallion's neck. Dragging him down, Ahuizotl kissed her lover.

Closing his eyes, Daring felt his body was on autopilot, but his emotions weren't. Why do I like her so much? She was gripping down tight on him, her tail rubbing and pushing down on his croup. The pressure was like a trigger, Daring felt his body tremble. "Ahui…" Daring grunted the mare's name out as his groin shoved sharply against her, every part of him focused on driving his essence deep into Ahuizotl.

She couldn't stop herself, Ahui leaned up and kissed the stallion, the flood of seed into her body making the sparks of aftershock from her orgasm arc and jolt around.

It took nearly a full minute, still linked together, before each realized what had just happened. "I didn't meant to-" Daring yelled and pulled himself free and away, just barely evading Ahui's tail-hand.

"What is that? When you touch me, I just… I can't help it!" Ahui scrambled to all fours and the two adventurers were panting hard, staring at each other from opposite sides of the hallway. Just looking at the stallion had Ahui relaxing, warming. "We should get out of here." She tried to look away, but kept stealing little glances across at Daring.

"Oh, uh, yes!" Daring turned his head fully, studying the plain wall. Her smell clung not only to the air, but also himself. "Ahui? You're very… nice."

Ahuizotl froze, her emotions wanting her to spin around, rush over to Daring and kiss him in thanks for the compliment. "Follow me, I can lead us past the traps I put in."

Daring Do was left staring at the mare's plot, her tail swaying before him. "You put traps in? When did you have time to do that?" His brain focused on the conversation, but his body was glued to the sight of the mare, her folds flashing a little with each step. He gulped.

"I couldn't have gotten past all of them without your help, but figured you could use some warm up." Ahui paused as she reached out with one foreleg, her fingers manipulating a low wire. She knew where he was, where he was looking. Why does it feel good to have him look? Ahui shook her head. "Come on, this one is down."

Daring blinked and managed to look away from the entrancing plot. "There was a trap here?" He leaned down, spotting the wire. "Ahui, you knew I would fly over this one!"

"Maybe, or maybe you would land and save your stamina." Ahuizotl looked back and grinned at the stallion. "So you were flying? What got your tail in a bunch?"

"You're kidding right?" Daring trotted past Ahui, his hoof bumping a trigger. From one side a spinning blade arced across the floor, Daring evaded it by flapping his wings. "Like I was going to be on the ground for the trap after-" Ahui jumped, grabbed him, yanking the pegasus down to the ground. Just as a second blade swung through where he had been. "WHAT WAS THAT?"

"Must have been a little stiff. Didn't come out the first time?" Ahui realized how close she was to Daring and shifted back a little. "You know how the cheaper traps can be, probably bearings are a little shot."

Daring's heart raced, for two reasons. "You saved me." He blinked a few times. "You could have taken the chalice and left."

"Well, we are still going to sell it. I have a commune just outside Las Pegasus who are going to pay a small fortune for it!" Ahuizotl rubbed her clawed hands together. Then she saw the scowl on Daring's face. "Oh come on, it isn't like it is any use anymore, how long until what it did can be undone, anyway?"

"It goes to a museum." Daring checked that the chalice was still in his pack. "As for how long it lasts, and when it can work again… I am going to have to study it a bit. Ahui-"

"I'm not! I can't be!" Ahui glared at Daring, her brain was angry with the stallion. If it wasn't for him, I would be the stallion, he would be the mare. She narrowed her eyes, wondering about grabbing the bag. He would be the one pregnant. The last thought was tiny, but the words carried impact. "I am, aren't I?"

Daring moved fast, he moved without thinking. He wrapped Ahuizotl in his forelegs, even reaching his wings around her to hug her and remind her that he was there. "The curse wouldn't have eased if you weren't, I know that much."

The care both insulted and reassured her. Ahui loved that the stallion apparently cared, but she resented that she had a need to be comforted. "Let… let go!" But as Ahui demanded he release her, she also wrapped her own forelegs around him. "Let go…" Of course, tears came now. Ahui raged against the emotions, wearing herself out mentally, fast.

"It will be okay… I don't know how, but I won't leave you like this." Daring felt Ahui hugging him and felt the certainty of his decision being the right one settle in. "But we have to give the chalice to the museum… once we are done with it."

A laugh bubbled up from Ahui's throat, putting a half-grin on her face. How did he do that? He spun my emotions around completely. "What about if we let the museum look at it, then sold it?" She wrapped her tail around behind him, squeezing more with the limb. "We should get out of here. No more showing off."

"Yes ma'am." Daring felt a sudden urge and kissed Ahui's cheek. "Absolutely no showing off, none at all, Ahuizotl."

"Follow me, silly stallion. I should have locked you in a box…" Ahui broke free from the hug completely. His wings are so soft. She blushed, hiding it by turning for the hallway ahead. "Did you spot the old dart trap here?"

"I did." Daring's vision was filled with plot again. "Hey, one thing, should we take aliases until we can undo all this?" Daring avoided the trigger for the dart trap, following Ahui, trusting her to keep him safe from her traps. "Ahuizotl… Ahuizota? Hey, that would be-" Daring froze.

Ahuizotl had turned, deploying a very effective stare on the stallion, halting him in his tracks. "No, I like my name. Why don't we call you Dashing Do, or Derpy Do!"

Daring stepped up beside Ahui. "Because I am too awesome, I am the hero! Daring Do!" He poked her side. "And you are my sidekick, Ahuizotl, brave, deadly, cunning." He gave the mare a look too, and could see it had an effect he liked. And one he didn't.

Reaching to the side, Ahui poked a trigger. Daring was suddenly snared up in a net, the ropes wrapping around him and hanging him from the ceiling above. "What was that, 'great adventurer'?" She put all the sarcasm she possessed into the title. "Getting a little forward, aren't we? I like my name, and I am keeping it. You can keep yours too," Ahui reached up, casually working a claw through the ropes, "I like it." She froze as she said the last words. Did I say that out loud? Why did I say that out loud?

"Can this really work?" Daring shook his head as he landed on the floor in a heap. He looked at Ahui with a questioning glance. "I… I want it to work. I like you, Ahuizotl." Daring watched her like a hawk. A pathetic, worried hawk. A hawk who realized that his prey held his heart in her talons.

No it can't, we should just split up now. This could never work. Not in a million years. Ahuizotl saw the look on Daring's face, it stabbed at her in an unsettling manner, every moment he looked like that. Years of working alone now seemed like wasted time. Is that me or what the chalice did? "Would it hurt to try?" You idiot! You can't say yes! What are you thinking?

Daring froze, the words echoed in his ears. "What?"

I might… sorta… kinda… like him. "I said, 'Would it hurt to try?' " Ahui's heart beat fast, faster than ever. So much was going on; she had a foal to look after. "Well?"

She said yes? Was that engagement? Are we going out? What do I do? Daring smiled. "I would like to try. But the chalice goes to the museum… you can have the next one?"

"How much do they even pay you?" Ahui stepped over to Daring, their flanks barely touching.

"Pay me? Nothing. I don't do this for the money." Daring started to walk forward, noticed Ahui had frozen and was staring at him. "It's true. I make all my money off book sales."

Ahuizotl's eyes narrowed and she trotted up to move along beside him. I like how his flank brushes mine. "We need to talk about this."

Author's Note

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