Twilight Velvet awoke with a yawn in the golden morning light. She stretched her feminine body, enjoying the softness of her luxurious, satin sheets and cotton blanket. This surely was the life. And on a weekend, she had naught to do but enjoy herself. Or did she? The mare groaned a bit, not wanting to leave the comfortable, plush palace of pillows in her squipper. Regardless, she had to do one critical thing before closing her eyes again. A quick brush under her nightstand brought the fine feeling of fresh bills to her fingertips.

The mare reached out and grabbed her cell phone. She hit the main button, getting a single text message. It read, "So are we still on for today?"

Duty called. She texted back, "Eeyup. See you there, Baby. ;)". She yawned and stretched again. She had to get moving. But first... Velvet felt that familiar stirring urge from between her legs. Time to take care of some things that definitely should cum first.

Velvet took one hand down to her breasts and the other between her legs. She groped her soft, feminine flesh. While she didn't have a thing for other mares whatsoever, she did enjoy the feel of female flesh. But what really got her wet was the thought of being taken by a stallion. Yes! Her fingers traced around her breast and opening. That felt nice. Then she imagined one of her many stallions taking her. He would start out kissing her, lightly at first, but soon growing stronger and more forceful. Oh no, a hunk like him taking interest in an aging mare like her? But her husband, her kids, and he still wanted her...A male with the choice of dozens of other potential mates, and he craved her body above all others. Ah yes, the intoxication of being wanted. She imagined him just one of the hundreds of hims moving hands down her back, from her shoulders to her hips, and then squeezing her ass. It had been tighter, but she'd definitely not had the same curves then.

She felt the moisture on her fingertips as her body awoke in earnest. She slipped a finger inside. She imagined him groping her, tasting her flesh with his touch before the main event. The first rustles of pleasure came to her. She ran a digit around the base of her clit, causing her to shiver happily. His hands exposed her breats. So naughty, having them out just like that, but before she could protest, they were both in strong hands. She brought her hand north to see to her second breast while keeping it going lower down by squeezing her thighs together. She lifted a mammary to her face and then kissed, suckled. Oh, how frisky her partner was getting. She let out a small, involuntary gasp. The memories were only half remembered, as if someone else had lived them, another mind even, but they were still so vivid. Then, the strong hands softened on her breasts as instead her illusive stallion laid down a trail of kisses from the crevice between them, down to her ribs, down to her tummy, down to her navel, and then even lower. Both her hands went south. To her mind came her husband, not her only lover, but by far her favorite. His blue coat, his dark mane, and his gentle surface demeanor, which masked a core of much sterner stuff, a stallion so understanding and so kind -- a stallion who could make her scream with passion, ecstasy, and consternation with no more effort than how she could make him stammer with a wink of her eyes and a wiggle of her hips.

She panted in anticipation. Hands parted her thighs, and there she was, vulnerable, her vulva oozing and aching for what was next to come. She imagined and remembered his kisses, strong and relishing, upon her labia. As her fingers retraced its route and pressure, the remembered sensation of a tongue around her clit came to mind, giving her a small quake of enjoyment. She touched herself, recalling that other her's rapturous enjoyment. As her heat and sensation grew, she felt a desire to have something inside her, to fill that void between her legs. An instinct urged her on. She massaged around the opening to her pussy, feeling it all hot and soaked. As she vigirously rubbed around her slit, writing around her sensitive clit in delicate cursive, she heard the faint sounds of her juices and smelt the aroma of her own arousal. If a real stallion were with her, she'd be begging him to take her before she lost control and pounced him like a manticore. She was offering herself to him, her favorite and only lifelong mate. She was ready.

The anticipation was nearly driving her mad. Three fingers entered her. She adjusted her hips to the intrusion and they went in. She could only just imagine her mate's face giving that delighted relieved feeling as their bodies joined, followed by realizing the overwhelming pleasure she was giving him. She closed her lower legs to hold him inside her, feel him close. Both her hands went to work down below. One was fucking her cunt, the other was playing her clit like a fiddle. The two of them together were going to make her sing like an angel. Oh how he could make her sing such sweet, high, pure peals. Nobody else but him could quite get her to those heavenly high notes, oh but how a select few of them could come close.

Twilight Velvet rocked her body as if she were making love in earnest. She matched her hands' rhythm with the rhythm of her hips. Oh this was good; this was what she craved! The fire from her youth had never gone out. There was no shame, only pure enjoyment. The pleasure rose as both a tingling in her front and a pressure building within. She imagined her dream mates, remembered them, too, and how they felt hilting in her. So full! How they could change their angle and rhythms to give different feelings. Deep and slow, shallow and fast. Center tunnel or on a wall. She couldn't wait to get laid again for real just for the love of it and a stallion and nothing else. The pleasure was spiking. One name alone came to her tongue -- she redoubled her resolve to hit her peak.

All five fingers on one hand plunged into her cunt as she fucked herself. Her three middle fingers on the other tweaked and strummed around her clit like made. That greatest warmth blossomed within her. More cries rose unbidden from her open red-lipped mouth. The mare trembled. She basked, teetering on the edge. She imagined her mate, kissing her breasts, touching her, pinning her as she read the increasing pleasure on his own features. She imagined him whispering her name with increasing ecstacy. She spread her legs all the way, beckoning him to hilt in her, to fully indulge in her body. He would have been shuddering, rippled muscles defined, masculine musk hanging heavy off him. His face tensing... A look of such perfect and complete love was on him. He was smiling and caressing her face, kissing her lips and stroking her hair, even as his body crept towards haywire. And then, three critical words.

"I'm gonna cum!"

She only had time to squeal out her response to what he would have told her.

"Yes, Night Light, cum inside me!"

Velvet cried out, her body plunged with abandon into orgasm. Climax gripped her as her hips rocked and she let loose gasps and grunts, high pitched and pure. White bliss flooded her nerves. A rush of fluids greeted her fingers. Her lower body shook. Her dream mate was over her, balls deep, moaning nothings and her name as he spilled spurt after spurt of seed into her nethers. She'd throw her legs around him to trap him inside and milk him for everything he had! Powerful stallion and gentle mare joined together most excellently and naturally. Sensitive, she kept the pleasure going. She wasn't done yet! She milked with her hips in a horizontally twitching dance, holding her palm rigid against her throbbing clit, just using the rocking of her body to send tingles of carnal static across her nervous system. She breathed hard, her heart pounding at this peak of mortal pleasure. She let out more nameless cries of ecstasy, imagining her husband staying deep and moving throughout, giving her special feelings from the inside.

And then she was done, lying happily on her back, sweaty and flushed. After several minutes, she stood and went to shower, still naked.

The warm water massaged her flesh, refreshing it after that fiery orgasm. She didn't have long to waste, however, and so, in a few minutes, she was soaped, shampooed, and dried. Now she had to get moving to her date. She got dressed and gathered her things. She decided to wait until she was there to administer the spells. She looked at the name in her texts again. Fletched Arrow... That one seemed familiar. And he seemed like a young, inexperienced stallion. Never mind that; so long as he was a nice paying gentlecolt, Madam would have it all under control like magic.

Not quite yet an hour later, a mare found herself stepping out of a shower again. She closed her eyes and lit up her horn.

There she was in her room. Well, not quite a room as a civillian may think of it, but more in the way that somebody in the business would think of it as the war room, or jokingly, the whore room. She reopened her eyes, seeing her cascading pink and yellow mane magically arranged into a perfect seductive arrangement, neither too ornate to mess up during the more spirited parts of work, nor too casual to suggest he had just happened upon her being lazy. The art of the performance lay in giving the illusion of greater effort and care than their really was without making it clear that it was all a practiced routine. It was like something gilded.

Madam Eventide Velour checked her watch. Twenty minutes to contact. She checked everything again, giving it all just another one once over, just to be sure. This was her performance and she had to be on point for it. Room white glove inspection level clean? Check. All her things hidden where he wouldn't see them? Check. Condoms and extra lube right by the bed but a bit out of sight? Check. Her hair and dress perfect? Check. Her magical glamour perfect? Check. her smile exactly on point? Check. Her silicone lube already applied intimately to make sure she was already "wet" for him? Check. All good. Now she had to check her phone again. Not even 10 minutes to contact! The jitters were real; strange, she had definitely done thousands of encounters by now, but this somehow always made her really nervous. A thought went to her client; poor guy was walking headlong into a professional predator sexuale like her.r.

A message came in. "Here! Where's the room?"

"Room 762, Babe. I'm waiting for you. Just knock :]" She hit send, then she mentally rehearsed what she had gotten out of him. He was 18, a pegasus, about to be nestmates, a 3'rd base virgin, and just wanted to be shown the ropes. He had booked her for two hours of GFE and a tutorial in basic lovemaking. That seemed to be popular of late.... She tried to remember any special requests. Other than being really gentle and patient, none. To that end, she had decided to wear a slightly too short cocktail dress over lacey, sheer black bra and panties with a pair of very thin stockings. She ran the plan over again in her head. Greet him when he knocked, kiss him lightly, send him into the bathroom while she took inventory of his donation, set the music going to time the encounter, and then sit him down on the couch with her to make him comfortable while she figured out how to ply her craft on him.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

She got up and answered the door. A tall, lanky, sienna-colored pegasus stallion was there with a nervous laugh. "Hi," he said, coming in after her beckon.

She kissed him lightly on the lips. "Hi yourself, Arrow," she grinned, feeling something touching her hand. She felt the paper of an envelope and the weightiness of what was in it. Good colt. She looked up at him. Uh oh, he was looking at her as if she'd sprouted a second head.

"I'm sorry, but I swear I've met you before somewhere."

Flashes of something ran through her mind, but they were more like silhouettes behind a veil. She forced them out, covering with a smile and a hand on his chest. "Maybe you have, maybe you haven't, think of it as the mystery..." She neared him and purred, "Come on, freshen up a spell, I'll be waiting...." Her nod indicated the bathroom. He took the hint and she made her way to the couch to count the donation. Appeal to his maleness, overwhelm him with seduction if something threatens to go astray -- crisis averted. He was on the Madam's turf now, and was going to play her game by her rules; she'd already made sure of it. So far so good. She finished counting and poured out two small glasses of wine -- prosecco. This one was going to necessitate it.

Shining Armor panted as he jogged through the park. The sweat was coming off him hard and he was indeed struggling against the strain. He had been going just over a mile and a half, and then perhaps maybe some more. In his mind, he imagined how his drill sergeants in the near future would be calling cadence and driving him forward. He muttered and chanted under his breath, "One! Two! Left! Right! Three! Four! Left! Right! Five! Six! Left! Right! Seven! Eight! Left! Right! Nine! Ten! Left! Right! One! Two!" and so on. He found the stupid, monotonous rhythm made him work harder but helped him muscle through the run, feeling a progress as he found himself further along with each repetition of left and right. The stallion had always sucked at running, but at least he was sucking less at it now. He could not have done this much even last month; while he had never been a physical flop like Twiley, and had a small sports athletic career, he had never been that into fitness just for its own sake. He would frankly rather lift weights than run laps; weights gave muscles that were nice to look at, and didn't strand him miles from home with nothing to get him back but his already spent legs. However, the cardio was undeniably good for him, and he knew by now from talking to guards and reading books that being trim and just able to move quickly for long distances was far more important to good soldiery than having a high bench press, an idea that seemed corroborated by how most of the guards he'd seen off duty he had talked too had definined muscles, but they were generally trim and toned rather than any form of ripped. He looked trimmer, stood straighter, was less pudgy, and from what Madam Eventide Velour had told him during their most recent sessions, the added swagger and stamina was definitely not going amiss between the sheets, not that she'd needed to tell him with the way she could sing for him for minutes at a time, grabbing at him and squirming around his cock. He blushed a bit. She had even said last time that he was getting to be a favorite, and perhaps was going to get a VIP treatment from her. He had been grinning stupidly at the time, fresh from another great orgasm inside that heavenly cunt of hers, but even now, just the thought of being the favorite of a mare like that made him grin a bit like an idiot; he couldn't help it. Perhaps he ought to ask about that the next chance he got.

Shining Armor pressed on with his jog. He was doing well until he saw a pink shape. Then it paid him some mind. "Oh, Shiny, hi!" called the pink shape with a feminine voice.

Cursing internally, the white unicorn came to a stop. "Huh huh hi, Cadance," he panted, his cheeks reddening with more than just exertion's heat.

"Hi, Shining. Mind if I run with you?"

"Suit yourself," he said, resuming his exercise brusquely, eager to get away from the mare he had so embarassed himself in front of the last time they had spoken. He went a little faster than he reckoned would be comfortable for her.

Not that he had too much paid attention, but the princess was wearing a tight sports bra and a pair of skintight yoga pants. Her outfit definitely gave a nice show for the male of the species. And if she had dared to say so herself, his outfit of a tight, sleeveless tank and short shorts definitely did the same for a female spectator. "So, what are you doing?"

"Training."

"For what?"

"The royal guard, Princess."

A flash went across her face. "Guard, you say?"

"Yeah."

"What service?"

"Don't know; infantry, maybe." He slowed down to converse more easily.

"That's cool. Why?"

"Oh, you know, family, country, honor, adventure, a paycheck..."

"Have you ever considered the ROC, Shining?"

"Roc?" Shining Armor asked, slowing down even more to a gentle gait. "Isn't that a giant bird in the Everfree."

"Yes, too, but this one is the Royal Operations Concern."

"So a personal detail like the Blades of the Darkmoon or the Shade of the Revenant?"

"Not quite; those are special forces units in it, though," Cadance explained, "ROC is what the guardy royal guards, the ones who protect Canterlot and the princess, serve in."

"Oh," said Shiny, embarassed at himself. He got a daredevil grin. "Is your protection detail looking scant?" On reflex, both of them looked around. Surely enough, there were some ponies in suits and eyeglasses following them at a trot, clearly not appreciating the stiffness of their clothes.

"You could say so," Cadance giggled, slowing down yet more to a brisk walk. Her companion copied.

"Why tell me?"

"No reason," teased Cadance, pulling her water bottle from her fanny pack. She took a big gulp of water from her bottle. "Water?" Cadance proferred.

"No thanks," the stallion said back with a wave of his hand.

"Shining Armor, you can't exercise dry; dehydration and heat can really hurt you." She fixed him with what he could only describe as an adorable glare. He caved and drank more water than he cared to admit.

"Thanks." Shining was sheepish again. Cadance was now looking at him funny.

"Shiny, I..." Cadance stopped herself.

Shining gathered his courage. "What is it, Cadance?"

It was her turn to hide her gaze. "I- I feel like I should apologize for back at the water park last month."

The stallion's eyes expanded like blossoms. "Why? I asked you out and you said no." He couldn't help but intone embarassment, tension, bitterness, sadness, and incredulity into those words.

They had stopped running. They were now standing and talking.

"Because, Shiny, I well, uh, I didn't, er, mean to shut you out quite like that; you see, I rather, urm, like you..." Cadance stuttered. Shining's jaw pierced the ground to the mantle. The vibrations of a cesium atom stopped. The planet stopped spinning on its axis and flung them all into space. Someone punched Father Time right in the dick. The galaxy's spiral arm got put in a lock by a cosmic cop. Then. before Shining Armor could do anything to stop her, speak, move, think, or react, Cadance had pulled something from her pants pocket and given it to him. "Bye!" Cadance squeaked, her face transformed from pink to magenta. She ran away, galloping like a deer. Seconds later, winded security agents in suits ran by him, silent swears engraved on their faces.

"What the fuck?"

Shining Armor was walking on his way home, sweaty and tired, and still utterly bamboozled, when he heard two pairs of steps approaching from behind him rapidly. He turned around. "Sup, dude!" Fletched Arrow hailed him with an entire factory's worth of extra spring in his step.

"Oh, God, have mercy," he panted back jokingly. "First exercise, then the universe scrambles my brains, and now you two."

"Chill, bro," said Sprocket. "We're all going the same way." He frowned a bit at his friend. "What's crawled up your ass?"

"You guys aren't going to believe this..."

"Dis gon be good... " Arrow teased.

"Not that we ever believe you," said Sprocket.

Shiny said, " Good. Because I was doing my run and Princess Cadance decided to tag along."

"Nice going; didn't know you were going to abduct her; didin't think you had kidnapping in you," his pegasus friend laughed.

"I'm not you," Shining growled back. "Anyway, she gave me this," he said, producing her phone number.

Both his friends gawked. "Shit, dude. Shit."

"I know."

"You better call her," warned Sprocket, "or else I will."

"Or I'll drop you from a cloud."

"And I'll help! " The pegasus and earth friends laughed.

"So, did we tell you, or did we tell you, hero, that Cadance's little heart breaks into a precious special little cadence every time she sees you?" Shining rubbed his sweaty, flushed face with his hand, wiping away exasperation and perspiration in equal measure.

Fletched gave a snort growl at Spring. "We? I'm the one who told dear Shinespark she'd totally respond with 'fuck me now.'"

"No you didn't."

"Oh yeah, that was you; I wouldn't say anything so barbaric."

Shining Armor noticed that Fletched was definitely more highly strung today than ever. While normally energetic, he always more gave it off most of the time instead of radiating it like a second, badly behaved, acerbic, teenaged son. Something had happened. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he definitely knew something was afoot. His friend had no busines being in such unapologetically high spirits, especially not with the rapidly approaching stress of having to become nestmates with Derpy Hooves. Scratch that, having to do anything within a four mile radius of Derpy would be enough to ge his own fur to go from white to even whiter white. At least Cloud Kicker could definitely offset that, somewhat.

"So, Arrow, what's up? Why are you looking like you've gotten away with some special perverse crime against equinity?"

"Because, Shine, something amazing happened last night."

Shining wanted to joke back, to say something about his home village finally finding him and begging him to come back as their idiot, but the spirit wasn't there. Something indeed was eating his brain that day. "So, what did you do? Who did you do?"

"I lost my virginity!" Fletched Arrow cheered, flinging himself into the air and triple looping. Shining Armor wanted to ask if this was for real, but the fact that Sprocket Spring wasn't displaying the same incredulity, even feigned, told him instantly everything he needed to know plus probably more than a little bit of what he didn't.

"How?"

He beamed. "Remember how I told you guys I just knew I was going to be next to get with a mare? Well, it came true last night. So I was at this bar, and I see this really sweet chick. I've had a few, and I get the crazy idea to go over to her. Turns out she's from Mustangia, new in town, doesn't know a soul. So we really hit it off and I ended up in her hotel room."

"How was it?"

Fletched had to pause for a moment to collect himself, half flustered and half misty-eyed with reminiscence. "Y'know, I always thought pussy would feel like electric or something, or maybe hot or soft like that, but it really just felt wet."

"That's because it's slicked with the tears of a million million cells begging to not be touched by anything as ugly as your dick," Sprocket interjected.

The pegasus challenged back, "So it's always dry for you then, Boing?"

"Nope, Moultar the Miniscule, but since you know about going in dry, I take it you got her in the ass somehow, didn't you?"

"Guilty as charged!" wheezed Arrow, slapping himself on the thigh with laughter. "I'm such a pain in the ass."

"And it's officially now," quipped Spring. He laughed, Shining chuckled.

The latter added, "I bet that's what she said, too." This time, his smile was more natural. The thing chomping away at his brain was moved from his temporal lobe to his cerebellum, and was about to shoved off to the occipital lobe. "Anyway, aren't you supposed to be virgins when you get to nestmates?"

His two friends answered together, "How many times do we have to tell you? Only luckless,, stuck up, horny porny unicorns have to do all that saving themselves for marriage crap?

"We earth ponies do it naturally; if you're old enough, nopony has any objections, and somepony or some herd likes you, you'll get yours before too long."

"And we pegasi don't mind learning stuff in advance, so long as nopony gets hurt or pregnant, and it's not with another pegasus." There was no denying that boning between the different races of ponies was extremely common. What were uncommon, however, were intertribal marriages. Pegasi alone could fly and generally hated being confined to the ground, which made most not like the prospect of having to live either grounded for an earther or unicorn, or needing to constantly worry about a unicorn spouse's cloudwalking spell wearing off. Earth ponies were the strongest, and while generally in great health and condition, not to mention their famously great stamina and cravings for activity in and out of bed, their cultural trend towards herds almost always alienated unicorns from considering them seriously as romantic partners, and their love of the ground posed naturally barriers to pegasi, and their children would neither be as strong nor aerobatic. And unicorns loved their magic and intellects, as well as their place as an unofficial presteige class, with most nobles and gentry being unicorns, not to mention the weakening of magic when bred with earth ponies, and the fifty-fifty shot that any foals born from a union with a pegasus with only ever express one side of their heritage, and more weakly, sadly, instead of producing an alicorn.

Shining raised an eyebrow. "Why can you do it, just not with other pegasi?"

"Because lineage is really important in the Flock. We don't really mind just doing it, so long as everypony knows whose fucknuggets come out of which mare at the end. Our communities tend to be pretty tight, so we like to make sure nopony's getting too close for genetic comfort. That and having foals already by the time nestmates comes around really just doesn't mesh well with our culture, or inheritance laws. Unlike filthy earth pony herd commune free for alls, the Flock is the old Pegasopolis regiment system, just modified for families. And unlucky stuffy unicorn family trees, we trust each other to not need a license to avoid fucking somepony they shouldn't. And speaking of degenerate heathens, how's it going with Cheerilee, bro?"

"Great. She's got bout a decade on me, maybe a little less, or maybe more-"

"Eeewwwwwww!" cried out Armor and Arrow.

"You'd be surprised -- never had a great one under twenty or a bad one over thirty."

"Dude, I'm from the tribe of Princess Platinum and love my matriarchy, but we gotta talk about your GILF thing, seriously."

Fletched Arrow sniggered at the unicorn's barb. "Shut up!" the yellow earth pony punched back lightly. "Anyhow, Cheerilee's the oldest; that makes her lead mare -- herding instincts and all. I met her maids, Aloe, Lotus, and Vera, plus their current stallion, Birch Bucket -- they're all hovering around my age; Birch's a tad younger than me by a year."

"And you've just realized what we've told you all along, that you're less straight than a changeling's tongue."

"Cheerilee's all for it. Birch, too."

"You must know how your way around meat and fish to pull that off," Arrow laughed, "so, what about the last three mares?"

Sprocket Spring kicked at the ground, stirring up dust from the gravel. "That's just the thing; they each want a foal by Birch first before they take on any new stallions. Cheerilee doesn't really care; she's never wanted foals of her own, but the rest want foals but don't yet have money or time for them. "

"So make like a unicorn and pathologically avoid babymaking."

"They like you, right?"

"It's not that simple. They all like me, somehow, but their tradition says the oldest stallion of the herd gets breeding rights plus greater claim over the foals. So, you see, if I join them, I'll be the oldest stallion. If the mares aren't pregnant before then, I'll be listed as the father over Birch, and may even end up taking that away from them. And Cheerilee can't bring herself to force that on them. Anyway, she's the local schoolteacher, and the others are starting a day spa. She's got money, but not enough to support a whole herd for long, especially with foals, especially by herself. Aloe, Lotus, Vera, Birch, all have families with that background in their homeland of Sleipneighr, but they don't know if this exotic day spa idea is going to pan out in Ponyville. They're taking on some pretty serious loans and working some pretty grueling hours." His smile was much lesser now.

Shining remarked, "I see. So as much as they'd love to have you-"

"They did love having me." Fletched mimed vomiting alongside Shining's smirk.

"I was saying that they'd love to have you, but Cheerilee dropped the ball on letting you know everything and how some pretty serious culture stuff was going to get in the way; it wasn't like you were getting involved with some serious ponies like Apple family mares, right?"

"Yuppo."

"I thought my people were the ones to ruin everything with rules and traditions. Sorry, Boing."

Sprocket shook his head. "It's okay, Shine. I thought it was a lot less serious than it really is. It's not all bad, though."

"Don't tell me you've got them as a booty call," said Arrow.

"Even better -- she pointed me towards Lyra and Bonbon."

"Please, don't take up music and sweets just yet; there's still hope." Shining Armor grinned.

"They're a couple of mares looking for a stallion."

Arrow joked, "They could definitely not do worse."

"Anyway, while those four sort their shit out, they say I'm more than welcome to move in with those two and get a herd going."

"I swear on Commander Hurricane's glaive that if you scored yourself nightly threesomes without telling us this whole time..."

Sprocket strutted, taunting the pegasus. "Better douse me in glaivey then." Shining laughed.

Fletched Arrow muttered, "I'll get you after the nesting." The other two made internal notes to watch their backs for the next several weeks to avoid being hit with a prank to remember.

"So, anyway," began Sprocket Spring, "when're you three pidgeons laying an egg?"

"Two weeks."

"Two weeks!?" He and Shining turned to each other in shock. "We have to start gathering straw!"

"And newspapers."

"And lint!"

"And leaves."

"And grass!"

"And bits of string."

"Immediately!"

"Don't bother -- enough fluff falls out of your ears every day to make sure I never have to worry about that."

"Feeling nervous?"

"Not as scared as you joining the Royal Guard. Getting my cherry popped means that I don't worry about nesting night anymore."

"Poor Cloud Kicker, she's going to be sad she didn't get to buck your cherry like a nimbus."

"And Derpy isn't going to get to get a chance to introduce you to the wonders of the adult world and the ER in one fell swoop," Shining laughed.

"Speaking of the guard," said Arrow. "What do you think you're going to sign up for in your quest to endanger us all?" They passed over an amber and dun cobblestone bridge across a tiny artificial stream.

Shining Armor looked down. He felt that thing chomping at his brain reemerge from his medula and start towards his amygdala. "I was thinking infantry-"

"Take it from a lifelong member of the Flock -- you're a total POG."

"Shush. But then Cadance told me all about the ROC -- Royal Guards who guard royals."

"You don't say," Sprocket snarked, lolling his tongue out dopily.

Shiny continued unaffected, "She made it sound like that's where my talent could be. And the funny thing is, right after we finished talking -- we'd been slowed and then stopped for a while, her detail ran by looking winded as hell."

"Ah, the princess wants a gentlecolt who can keep up with her in more ways than one."

"Well, whatever advice she gave you," said Arrow, "definitely don't follow it; chicks hate it when guys listen. That's why Prince Blueblood constantly has two actual goddesses fussing over him."

"I've never listened to a mare in my life and now look at me, about to move to a strange town to be subjected to endless threesomes by a couple of cuties. And don't be a hero; chicks really don't dig heroes, especially not hunky ones who save their lives."

"Yeah, Shine, whatever you do, do not follow Cadance's advice, do not take the hint, and whatever you do, definitely do not give her the D."

"That would be a D-saster."

Shining Armor gave both his goons a good finger flick to the ears. That feeling of annoyance was back.

"Sorry!" squealed Sprocket.

"Aihe! Okay, I'll quit it," moaned Fletched Arrow.

Shiny's expression instantly softened. "Sproing, Moultar, sorry guys..."

"Don't worry about it," the former said.

"We deserved that punishment," grinned the feathered one. Nopony said anything else. After several minutes, he rustled his wings. "Anyway, I need to fly to work. Seeya!"

"Don't forget to flap this time!" ribbed Sprocket.

"Hey, that was only one time and I was six!"

"Still happened."

"Whatever." And with that, the sienna pegasus flew away, leaving the white unicorn and the yellow pony trudging together alone.

The path came to a fork. "Well, see you later, dude," said Sprocket Spring.

"Same, man, whenever that is..." replied Shining Armor, touching knuckles as the other walked away along the diverging way.

"Cheer up; from the way you're acting, you'd think I was the one who was volunteering to get shot at." That got a chuckle out of the both of them. The unicorn wanted to say something, to call after him, but he held it in. He just didn't want to say anything. And as his friend's steps faded away into nothingness, so too did his smile descend into a frown. Mares in sundresses... orange and black bands of color... pink and yellow... He just wanted to go home.

The rest of the walk sucked. His feet hurt, he got rocks in his shoe more than once, it got really hot, and things just weren't sitting right in his brain. In his boredom, he checked himself for his phone, only to realize he'd left it at home like a moron.

Shining Armor arrived back at home more than an hour later looking quite through the wringer. "Mom, Twiley, I'm home," he announced.

"Hi, BBBFF," Twilight sparkle chirped at him. "How're you today?"

"Just fine, thanks. You, Twiley?"

"I'm bored."

"Hi, Bored, I'm BBBFF." She groan laughed. "Anyway, where's mom?"

"Errands," his sister replied. "She said that you are in charge of laundry and dinner tonight, as well as taking care of me." Her expression remained bright-eyed, mischevous. His fell invisibly. Just a couple dozen paces' journey was the sanctuary of his room with its sedative of internet and the lotus of his messages with his special courtesan. He was still tired from running, his brain still spinning from Cadance, feeling it with the stuff happening to his friends, and really just wanted a second to himself. But mom wasn't there to entertain her, and Cadance was paradoxically regretably and thankfully not there.

He grasped for a suggestion to get his LSBFF, Little Sister Best Friend Forever, or, depending on his mood, Little Sister Biggest Frustration Forever, veering towards the latter at that particular moment, off his back. "Uh, do homework?"

"School doesn't start again for another thirty-three days and I've already done all my summer school homework, and extra credit in advance by now." Of course she had, because Twiley must've hit her head on her first day of magic kindergarten and somehow ended up taking the "learning is fun" decoration on the wall a little too seriously, or maybe it was the "knowledge is power" one?

"Read a book?"

"But I've already read everything at least four times. I wanna do something."

Shining Armor was stumped. "Like what?"

"I don't know; something fun, maybe something you could show me, BBBFF?"

BBBFF looked at LSBFF. LSBFF couldn't possibly read with her naive eyes the quiet storm threatening to break out in BBBFF. He looked around the room. There was the kitchen, in the cabinets of which were were wax paper, cardboard tubes, glue, string, twine, markers, and popsicle sticks. An idea came to him in a flash. He begged his lower body to forgive him for denying it its promised scheduled break, but he had a duty to a dear little pony. "So, Twiley, have you ever flown a kite?"

"No..." She was drawing out her no -- she was curious, but something in the little whirring, hyperactive mass of carbon nanotube gears and superconducting fiberoptic wires she called a brain, was fixing to veto the idea. "But I don't see what's so fun about kites; isn't it just holding a piece of string?"

Shining quarterway grimmaced, but rescued it by turning it into a smirk. He was going to pretend it was aloof, mysterious and grown up -- that would get the little lavender braniac unicorn's attention. He saw her lean forward ever so slightly on the balls of her feet. He had her now. "Oh you'd think so. Buuuuut, what if I told you you could learn a little something about aerodynamics, a little field science?"

"Really?"

"Yeah." Maybe, just maybe she'd throw together a rhombus kite in ten seconds flat and be out the door to leave him in peace. A stallion could hope.

Without another word, she bolted upstairs. He'd gotten a split second glance of that manic flame in her eye. She was off to get a book, and it was going to come to them to build a technically and scientifically accurate kite to conduct rigorous, empirical experiements, and perhaps publish the results in a peer-reviewed scientific journal like she'd been threatening to do since she was six. He had half shelved his dreams of joining the Royal Guard to spend the next six months helping his sister with this, like he'd spent a huge chunk of his year as a freshman in high school when his sister got the bug for magical electromagnetism, when she returned with a surprisingly simple, think book, one with big, bright pictures on the cover. It was titled 45 Fast Home Science Experiements For Fun Fillies. Okay, this couldn't be too bad, hopefully. Then his little eggheard hurtled into the supplies cabinet and began ferreting furiously for all the materials she could need to replicate whatever was in the book.

Shining took his chance to begin sneaking upstairs. One step, two steps, three steps... Armor knew from long years of experience just where and how to step to not make any creaks from the floorboards. "Where are you going, big brother!? You're going to teach me how to fly this thing, right?"

Her cute eyes met his. As much as he genuinely wanted to be doing not that, he couldn't deny his adorable little sister, no matter how bonkers she drove him. "Of course, little sis, just let me get some water..."

"Why would we need water?"

Getting water, grabbing his phone, cleaning dishes left in the sink, and advancing the laundry were done in not even 10 minutes, such as he was practiced to domestic duties. He didn't like looking at the dress, panties, and tiger striped swimsuit, however. Regardless, flying kites with Twilight had been a surprisingly fun experience, considering the circumstances. He couldn't believe it at first, but it really did seem like the filly had just wanted to do something outside, active, and enjoyable just for the sake of having fun instead of conducting rigorous experiments. Nevertheless, Twilight Sparkle was still Twilight Sparkle, and a tweenage filly at that. Shining Armor for the first time in his life understood why adults did their best to sit on benches and lean on trees while their offpsring played in the park now, not that he got too much opportunity to do so, with Twiley still wanting to compare his technique to hers, not to mention getting frustrated that she couldn't quite run fast enough or lift high enough to reliably get the kite into the air. Fortunately, it wasn't anything that a little unicorn magic was unable to remedy. All in all, it turned out to be a good enough time that even helped keep his mind in more pleasant pastures. He even got a good sprinting workout from having to get the kite back up due to how often his sister kept crashing it. By the end, LSBFF was definitely firmly back on the Little Sister Best Friend Forever side of the spectrum. And for dinner, he decided to be a super cool, but more importantly, lazy BBBFF and just get them corndogs instead of cooking. And as a result, Twilight was happy as a breezy when they finally got back home after dark and as sleepy as an Ursa Minor, meaning she snuck away to bed quickly, finally granting the besieged big brother unicorn some repreive.

Shining Armor sagged into bed, his legs and feet mutinous, his head not doing too much better. He checked his internet stuff. Nothing new. He took a quick look at the ROC. He had to admit it didn't sound too bad, at least from what the official channels were saying, though he considered he ought to try finding some veteran guards from that particular service to talk to before he went and signed his contract. There were some very good quirkks; he could be stationed primarily in Canterlot, either in the city or the castle, while select guards got the great honor of protecting Princess Celestia herself. He noticed that it said nothing about Cadance for some reason, but there was a picture of her at a state function seated right next to Celestia. The benefits included having a cool job, good pay, getting to see the heart of the Equestrian state, traveling, extra pay for protection and function duties, getting a regular shift work schedule, overtime pay, getting extra special training in melee and unarmed and CQB fighting compared to a grunt, getting issued a kickass sword, wearing cool traditional armor, and not having to go out and rot in the wildnerness, or be stuck out for months on deployments being shot at like regular infantry grunts. He knew of some of the rumors about princesses and guards. This brought him to thinking about Cadance's phone number and their interraction. His only thought was still to be utterly baffled. Still, he checked for messages from Velour. Nothing new. Escorts weren't supposed to bombard their clients with messages for myriad reasons. He was thinking of booking a new session with her. Having emptied his balls for her twice just the previous day, he didn't really feel the urge to now; he'd learned that it was ultimately more enjoyable and rewarding to let his libido accumulate so that he could let it out in one epic orgasm, ideally balls deep inside his courtesan. He'd gone from ten faps a week to wanking maybe just thrice. Then he remembered the laundry. Dang. He had been too worn to even take off his clothes beyond his socks. Even his phone was still in his pocket.

He got out of bed and made his way downstairs. He advanced the laundry again, pulling the underwears from the dryer and transfering the very last load from the washer: the bathing suits. He heard a door upstairs close and open. The lack of forewarning and thuds from heavy suitcases told him it wasn't his father. Instead, there was a familiar pattern of trundling up stairs and then returning back down roughly half a minute later. Continuing with his task, he held back from them -- he could have put them on the rack to dry in the slightly musty atmosphere, but he didn't feel like it, instead hurling the bikini and his trunks into the dryer and starting a round on strong.

When he emerged from their cramped basement, he first heard the sound of fast, somewhat emotionally reserved yet terse and brusque talking. Then he saw the flickering of the blue-white light. Then he saw his mother, lounging on the couch, wearing just her pearly silk bathrobe, watching some kind of movie in black in white. On the coffee table was a bottle of malbec, and one glass three quarters full. He didn't know what posessed him, other than some simple courtesy, but he greeted her. "Hi, Mom."

"Hi, Shiny." He just stood here.

He wasn't going anywhere and had to say something. He'd been staring for at least two minutes and Twilight Velvet had just turned her head back around to catch him exact as she'd left him. "What's the movie called?"

"Chimeratown."

"Mind if I watch?"

"Sure," she beckoned. "Want some wine?"

"What would dad say?"

"Bad boy, you're too young to drink so lightly. And you, mare, what do you think you're doing corrupting Equestria's youth?" They both chuckled.

"Well, glasses are over there, kiddo..." Shining grimaced, pulling himself away from where he was about to sit to go get himself a wine glass from the cabinet. Dad would adamantly not let him touch alcohol away from a meal or celebration, but he didn't have to know his wife and son were having fun. He returned triumphant, plonking down next to her. He took a big gulp of wine. He was soon catching up to the end of his first glass, making up for her lead.

"How was your day?"

"Fine. Yours?"

"Fine. I did some running, met some ponies, came back here, did some chores, played with Twiley, did some more chores, now I'm here."

"Been running all day, too. Work called early, then I had lunch with some friends before I had to go run errans, and now I'm back here."

They just sat together, semi watching the movie for a good half hour at least.

The son refilled the wine glasses. "By the way, you can put bathing suits in the dryer, right?"

"Either gently, or just hang'em."

"Mmmhm. Thought so. I've never seen that bikini before. Is it yours?" He lied.

"No, it's another mare's, but it would fit me quite nicely."

In the movie, the plot was growing thicker. Someone had been murdered, and things were looking increasingly shady around the femme fatale and her father. The hero was penetrating deeper, though. The truth would be revealed and the best was yet to come.

One of the characters was in the Royal Guard. Both their glasses were running low again. This got Twilight Velvet to ask, "Any idea what you're going to do in the guard?"

"I was thinking of going to do infantry, but I had a talk with Cadance today."

"Cadance?" Mrs. Sparkle's body went 'ears open! eyeballs, click!' instantly.

"Yes."

"What did she say?"

Shining considered his next words carefully so as to preclude and omit awkwardness. "She told me that I I should consider going into the Royal Operations Concern."

"So you wanna be a ROC star now?"

"Mom, please, no puns; not after what Moultar and Boing subjected me to today."

"My poor baby," laughed Twilight, a slight flush appearing on her face as she patted him on the head without adjusting her seating one iota. She killed the rest of her glass and refilled it a hair beyond halfway before giving her son's crystal chalice a full replenishment. For this, she did have to move and lean a bit, ending up a bit closer to him than before. She was not doing a great job of keeping her robe as closed as it could be.

Shining continued, flustered, "Anyway, from what I've gathered, it's a pretty good job. I get to live either in cities or royal caravans, I get to serve royalty directly, meet important ponies. It's easier and less dangerous than infantry, and it sounds like they may be in more urgent need of recruits for it than they let on." He took three sips of wine. It was starting to effect him for sure.

"Good."

Silence again in another great episode. With a topped up glass, Shiny attempted to drink again, only to spill some down his front, staining his teeshirt and shorts with red wine. "Damnit," he grumbled, taking his shirt off. His mother looked at him as he was about to take off his shorts, too, just out of habit so he could get them ready for immediate remedial laundering. She shrugged, as if to say it wasn't something that she hadn't seen perhaps thousands of times in her life -- a male of her family in his boxer shorts. He took out his phone and put it on the table and then removed his shorts. Now he was down to his skivvies. He ran downstairs quickly with the dirty items and through them into the laundry, starting it immediately before the got stained too badly. He returned and they drank for a while more to the sounds of silence and the movie.

"So, what about your friends?"

"The usual. Everypony's wrapped up in their lives -- their foals, their husbands, their neighbors, their affairs."

His ears pricked up. "Affairs meaning...?"

"Jobs, things they do... So, what's new with yours?"

"Friends? Well, I told you that Fletched Arrow was about to get nestmated with Derpy and Cloud kicker. He was pretty nervous at the prospect of having to please two mares, but he says he met a very special mare last night and doesn't worry quite so much now."

"Oh did he now...?" Velvet gave him a quick up and down sweep before gulping down an alarming chunk of her glass, which she against bolstered from the dwindling bottle of red wine. She made sure that the hem of her robe was better tucked between her thighs, because she was now watching Shiny more than the movie, and he the same.

"And I got an update on Sprocket Spring and the Ponyville mares. He visited this last weekend, had a great time." Velvet licked her lips. "But they're caling it off."

"How come?"

"Because Cheerilee doesn't care to become a mother, but the other mares and the stallion in their herd do. They're also starting a business right now and are short on money and time. And if he joined the herd, he'd be the oldest stallion, making him the stud, so he'd have breeding rights over the entire herd before Birch Bucket gets a shot. The thing is that Birch wants to be a father and Aloe, Lotus, and Vera all want him to sire with them.

"So him getting involve would add stress, not to mention complications."

"That's exactly what I said, Mom."

"That's what he said!" the tipsy mare whipped out, suddenly thrusting her wine high, sending some of it sloshing out. It was not hard at all for even the world's most casual observer to know exactly from whom Shining Armor had gotten his sense of humor. "Who's head mare?"

"Cheerilee."

"So why doesn't she use her position to just bring him in anyway if it's really her herd and they don't hate him?"

"Because it'd be four on one with the one ultimately making the call, and at best four on two once he was in. Not to mention she doesn't want to subject her herd to that kind of hardship just on her whim. Maybe they'll invite him in once they're stable and have foals, but until then, he's been set up with a couple of mares also living in town."

"Good for them. Good for him. Gotta say earth pony customs are weird -- go ahead, fuck anypony you want, but you can't marry. and the oldest swaying manes of the bunch get the final say and first pickings in darn everything. Twangs of a musical Mustangia accent came out unmistakably. Shining Armor shifted uncomfortably, thinking of another mare with whom he had shared wine. "I gotta say, we unicorns have it figured out best. One stallion, one mare, together, in marriage, joined by love until death, or lawyers, do them part. No confusion over who goes to what house or lineage, no issues with breeding priority, no head mares or stud stallions, nor parents picking nestmates or awkward breafasts after all the brothers and sisters hear each other going at it all night, an nor do ya have to worry about the feathers of who you're fluffing in the flock, just civil unity. And best of all, family proceedings are very straightforward and logical. Eeyup. That's how you raise a family. Your father and I have been married for twenty-three years. I love him, but I wish he'd love me more often; momma needs some lovin'..."

They both weren't watching the movie anymore. They both killed their wine and each took one last round. She put down the bottle awkwardly, causing it to fall onto its side and roll onto the carpeted floor with a dully ringing thud.

Shining Armor couldn't tell what his mother was thinking. He was drunk, she was drunk. She was wearing her bathrobe with what he sincerely did not want to believe was nothing on underneath. And now she was asking him personal questions and saying some very unmotherly things. And the relationship between father and daughter in the film was getting squickier by the second.

Twilight Velvet was looking at her son with what she assumed to be a playful expression. They were both drunk. And something had been bothering her, and possibly him, ever since that damn bikini had come into their home. Like any good mother, she had to get to the bottom of things. The magic from earlier was stopping her from getting just one last vital piece of information...

He robe was partially open. Shiny could see the exposed side of a generous breast.

She broke the silence. "But all that chastity before marriage stuff is just crap. Nopony really does it, right?" She was fixing her gaze on him.

"I wouldn't call it crap," replied the young stallion to the older mare. "Chastity protects emotionally, against diseases, and against unwanted pregnancy."

"It's also no fun." She advanced upon him.

Since he was trapped up against an arm of the couch, he had nowhere to run. "But it's against the traditions of Princess Platinum and the laws of Clover the Clover, in place since between the days of the migration and King Vortex, even."

"But, that was a different era with very different folk and very different needs. Nopony enforces those laws now; there hasn't even been a single criminal fornication indictment in 545 years. Back then, when we didn't have contraceptive spells, condoms, means of chosing or terminating pregnancy, genetic tests, or medicine that can tame even the nastiest crotch rot, ponykind had to be careful, because every single fuck could have dire consequences."

"They still could now."

"But they don't." As she said this, her thigh slipped out from under her robe. Shining Armor turned red. He couldn't help it; maybe it was the stress, maybe it was the booze, maybe it was something else entirely, but he found himself blushing furiously and getting hard against his better judgement.

Twilight Velvet asked, "Shining, admit it, you've been with a mare."

Where was all this coming from!? She'd always loved to rake him over the coals every now and then, play with him, toy with him, make him squirm. He wasn't in trouble; he'd know unmistakably if that were so. He avoided her gaze as best he could, but a little voice within him decided that not only would lying to his mother about this get him nowhere, but that there couldn't be any harm in it. He admitted softly, "Yes, Mom, I've been with a mare." His cheeks could have set the couch fibres smoking.

"Nailed it!" She took a draught of air from her empty wineglass. She congratulatorily tapped him on the shoulder. "My little pony, once a colt, now a stallion! Now, don't worry about it being premarital; again, just don't tell your father. There's no shame in a bit of screwing around, unless you're a prude, or your father; I'm his only ever lover."

"You mean I don't have to feel like I'm hiding a big, terrible secret?"

"Of course not." Shining Armor immediately relaxed, or more accurately, deflated like a bicycle tire. "Feeling better now?"

"I didn't even know I was holding that in. I haven't even let my friends know about this; Fletched Arrow still thinks that I'll be the last to hand in my v-card. Thanks, Mom."

His mother nodded. "No problem, sweetie. You can tell me anything. I swear, no matter how bad it is or how crazy you think it gets, don't forget mama will always love you and has seen just so much more." She put a hand reassuringly on his knee. He reciprocated lightly. The two of them word sparring and teasing each other was a long game of theirs which sometimes just got a little weird. Unfortunately, this wasn't over; Twilight Sparkle had inherited that devilish fire in her eyes from Twilight Velvet. Now Shiny really didn't want to say anything more; the last thing he wanted her to find out was that he'd paid an older mare a not insignificant amount of money to take his virginity, and that he'd spent way more money than he wanted to think about to keep fucking her routinely all summer long. Competely ignoring his blatant discomfort, she persisted in the attack. "Who is she? What's her name? Is she hot? How did you meet. Did you remember to use protection? Would you marry her?" She leaned forward to get closer. Her breasts were getting precariously proximal to the precipice of exposure. Something about that jogged his memories of his compensated lover. Older mare, silvery fur, bicolor mane, playful demeanor, wine lover...

He knew the jig was up. "Her name's E-V."

"Ooh, tell me all about this Eevee."

The son swallowed like dust. He had to pray that giving her these tidbits, coupled with his mother's intoxication, would bring this to a close without forcing him to yield something she'd call juicy but he'd call embarassing. "She's an older mare. Nice, big boobs. She's hot for a mare her age, I guess. Yes, we used protection. I don't know if I'd marry her." There, he'd answered five of her six questions, hoping she was too wrapped up in trolling him to notice or care. He thought his mother might forgive or otherwise tolerate him paying for sex, even if she'd definitely rib him for it to the end of his days.

She smiled, "Wonderful. So, how did you meet?"

A subconscious impulse took hold of him. He glanced guiltily at his phone, causing his mother to lunge for it. He tried to stop her, but he was too slow, she too forceful, and both of them quite drunk. Her hands pounced first, but went wide. His hands pounced second, but soared true. For a second, Shining had a faint, mad hope of keeping his secret, but as he closed his fingers around where his phone was supposed to be, he instead merely brushed against warm fur and not hard platic. To his horror, Twilight Velvet unlocked the phone with his passcode, and then played around on purposefully for several seconds.

"Mom, please-"

His protest was strangled in its crib. "Oh, I see, in your messages, you have a lot with a certiain Ev Vel. Well well welll..." He never learned what was supposed to come next as her eyes grew first wide and then narrowed as they did when he was in a world of shit. The frolic went out of her voice as she tapped the screen. "What do we have here?" It was no use -- she'd already seen everything -- she knew he was a chronic whoremonger and had been pissing away his allowance and graduation money on a postitute.

"Mom, I-" He halted dead. She wasn't making scrolling motions -- she was making typing motions. Tap. Tap. Tap. Why? Her lips were moving with a silent tempest, her head repeatedly making up and down motions, sweeping up and down his phone's screen like a searchlight. Then she pressed one last button. Nothing happened. But then. Ding! His mom's phone went off.

This couldn't be.

Oh, fuck no!

The urge to run filled him,, but his logical brain told him the only chance he had to live through whatever the hell this was demanded he stay put and weather the story.

Don't tell him he'd been fucking one of her friends? Her boss? A coworker? A hitherto previously unknown aunt by marriage?

Twilight put down his phone, picked up her phone, read the message, and slammed her phone to the table.

She turned to him, an expression and look conveying nastiness unknown. When she finally said something, it was a quiet roar, no louder than a whisper, but every bit as menacing as a growl. "MOTHERFUCKER!"

"W-wh-wha-what!!!!?!?" Shining trembled, not daring to hear the word again.

"Motherfucker! Motherfucker, you've been fucking me!"

This could not be happening! Shining's mind was reeling. How could he have been having sex with his own mother the whole time!? "How? Wait, what!? How is that even possible -- I'd recognize you anywhere!"

"Apparently not naked in a hotel room bed!" This was even worse than it seemed; his mom never lost her temper. Annoyed? Yes. Angry? Yes. Snippy? Yes. Intimidating as hell? Yes. But actually shouting? Shining couldn't even remember the last time he'd hear her properly holler in anger. "What the fuck is wrong with you, fucking your own mother time and time again!? Answer me!" In her lunge, her robe came aside done low and one of her breasts was now exposed.

Instincts and alcohol took over, as well as a deep desire to not let Twiley discover this. "How the fuck do you justify whoring around when you're married with children! Does dad even know what you're doing!?"

The scandalized pair locked eyes. For a moment, a unique, volcanic outraged boiled up in Twilight Velvet's eyes, but then it subsided. Neither of them was thinking well; both their brains were flooded by emotion, alcohol, and hormones. Somehow, a semblance of reason got the better of her. She softened, "Dad knows. I don't take escorting home, don't link it to him, and he pretends I don't do it."

"But why!?" Shiny seethed, feeling disgust at this mare for the first time in his life. He too had to restrain himself. He had to let his mother speak.

"Once I'm done answering your questions, kid, you better answer mine! Kapeesh?"

"Kapeesh."

"Good." Velvet made a great effort to keep her composure, but turbulence bled through with every word. "I am a mare with needs, needs your father cannot meet on his own. I love him very much, and he loves mes, and I would never leave him, but I crave sex in ways just he simply doesn't. I need variety. I need different stallions to take me in different ways. I need a lot of it. I can't deal with him being gone a solid third of the time, at least. I know you're going to ask how long has this been going on. I've been doing this for the past seven years. After Twilight was born and no longer a baby, and you were old enough to look after her, I talked with your father about how to handle our sexual difficulties; he simply can't physiclally perform enough to fully satisfy me. After a lot of talking, we agreed to semi open our marriage. I would be free to pursue sex on the outside, provided it couldn't be traced back to him or the family, and provided it didn't come into our home life. And I had to use protection. I agreed." For some reason, her eyes seemed to seek forgiveness.

Shining asked more coldly than he ought've, "So why'd you go from a slut to being a whore?"

Velvet gave her answer, albeit less hotly this time. "For a while, I did it for free, but one, at an upscale hotel bar, a distinguished gentlecolt asked me for my rate. I told him something I thought was ridiculous, but he took me up to his room, gave me the bits, and we did the deed. I realized I'd just made a not small amount of money for getting laid. I'm a mare of bad morals and I couldn't resist getting paid to my brains fucked out on a regular basis by all the guys I could ever want." She saw he was out of questions for the moment.

"So, my turn." Shining Armor's heartrate exploded. "So, first of all, why me?" She was venomous like a manticore.

"I swear I didn't know it was you, Mom," he nearly pleaded to her. "It was some other mare named Madam Eventide Velour. She had a different mane, cutie mark, accent, and everything. Plus she didn't know me. She was like a totally different person!"

Velvet nodded her head. "A side effect of the magic I use for my disguise is that it changes not just how I look, but also my personality and my cognition. I'm not exactly the same person when I'm Eventide Velour as when I'm Twilight Velvet, even though we share the same body, and even though the memories do transfer over, it's like having just a really vivid movie or a partially forgotten dream. I won' t be able to connect all the dots or reflect too clearly on anything with too much focus, it's like a haze. You've been wasted drunk before, think of it as being rather like that. I do have access to it, a privilege I don't grant to her. She's just there to be the me who plays in bed, more like a fragment or a persona than a real person. You learned about gestalts and cores in school, didn't you? Same body, different characters. The important stuff, like my underlying personality, language, education, scars, and such gets transfered, and I can aesthetically change my cutie mark and colors, but she's a crafted persona -- using the magic to take on her guise means at least partially becoming her for however long the spell remains powered and isn't disrupted."

Shining's eyes lit up and his mouth popped open in realization. "The last time I had sex with Eventide, she came really hard and for a moment, I swear there was this bright light all around her body!"

"That was you giving her such an orgasm it interfered with her magic like static."

"And she also had a scar on her stomach!"

"Like this one?" Velvet asked, exposing herself to him, showing a visible but low and horizontal scar on her abdomen that would be easily hidden by most swimsuits and lingerie.

"Yes!" Shining declared.

But the mare wasn't paying attention. Instead, she was drawing up on the stallion, her mind still very much muddled, only this time, her approach wasn't violent The robe was untied now, granting the son a long look down the front of his mother's body, from the rounds of her breasts to the folds of her labia. She sat down on his lap and began rocking sensously over his crotch. She immediately felt his hardness prodding against her. "You didn't answer my question; you only told me how, not why. So, why'd you decide to pick me instead of any other of hundreds of mares out there? Why didn't you pick some fresher lady tighter, younger, skinnier than me?" The danger was still in her voice, just now mixed with honey and a kind of exagerated sugariness.

The stallion was blushing and trying hard to keep his hands and face away from her almost nude body. "I-I don't know. I just saw the ad and it all kinda snowballed from there..."

"Shiny, honey, be honest. Do you like mommy's body?"

"Well, Mom, I-" Cottonmouth -- he couldn't say anything. His outrage was now gone, just replaced with shock and arousal.

She rode up and down on him, simulating riding him like when she had taken his virginity. "Why did you choose little old mom when you could've done any mare?"

"I uh...-"

Twilight Velvet rubbed her pussy along his underwear-covered erection. He felt the stickiness and the heat sock through the fabric. She mare then removed her robe completely, now totally nude astride her son. "Touch me." Velvet commanded, grabbing his hands and putting them on her breasts.

"Do you like my breasts?"

"Mom, your breasts are the tits," he tried to joke, only to come out pathetically half choked weeze laughing.

"I agree they are nice big and succulent; I'm glad you like them..." He squeezed on instinct, but then her hands pushed his lower down to her hips. "And your mother's hips?"

"They give you a feminine figure."

"And my ass. Go ahead, grab it."

He hadn't noticed the faint hissing. She moved his hands again around to her backside, and pressed on his fingers to make him squeeze, but he didn't need prompting this time. WIth another grind on his crotch, she all but momentarily cradled his cock inside her pussy lips, letting the feeling of her arousal and the sent of her womanhood drift to his nose. Although Twilight Velvet was in control this time, she could exploit any colt's instincts every bit at well as Eventide Velour. Just like that pegasus earlier today, her young paramour hadn't a chance.

"Wow, Mom."

"Yes, Son. So you like your mom's body." She leaned in close, her lips almost beckoning to his, but as he leaned in close, she pushed him away and instead whispered in his ear. "Tell me why. Tell me why you're so attracted to me -- why you decided to fuck me over and over again instead of some other, younger whore."

"Because mommy has the biggest, best tits. Fillies don't have tits like yours. Because you have real hips with curves, an actual feminine hourglass figure. And because your ass isn't too big or too small -- it's just right and I can't stop squeezing it. Because you're just so fucking beautiful and I can't resist how you feel on the inside."

"If you like your mother's so much, then fuck me again, right here, right now, if you mean what you say."

She got off him and crouched down on her hands and knees in front of her, offering herself face down and ass up. She knew she'd played him perfectly, shoving his instincts into overdrive. Outrage, alcohol, and perverse lust were a maelstrom in her mind, and she demanded a release from it. She wiggled her ass at the poor stallion. "Fuck me already, you sick bastard!" She didn't even wait and began touching herself. Holy fuck, she was mad, she was disgusted, and yet she was soaking wet and turned on beyond belief.

Without hesitation, Shining Armor approached his mother from behind. With the tempest raging in his impaired brain, instincts took over -- here was an attractive, available mare he trusted deeply and cared about very much, and she was telling him to fuck her right that very instant. His brain wouldn't let him do anything else! Deep in the evolutionarily archaic parts of his brain, he recognized her lordosis posture as one signaling she was his for mating. He didn't even need to check his erection to know how hard he was.

He grabbed her hips, brought himself up to her entrance, and pressed in until he was all the way inside her. He couldn't beleive it -- he was fucking his mom and it felt incredible! He started moving, thrusting in and out. Her pussy was so hot, so wet, so tight, so soft, so smooth. And the way she answered his thrusts was incomparable. And without the condom in the way, overwhelming waves of pleasure blasted him -- he knew sex felt really good, but he didn't know just how good it really could get. Now he understood exactly why some guys bitched forever about condoms. And plus, he knew that he was really touching her as intimately as possible, no barrier between them, just raw flesh to flesh, body to body, mother to son and son to mother.

His thrusts were met by her motions. She touched herself frantically with a fury, glaring and snarling in between moans of pleasure. "Is that all you can do?" Shining responded to Twilight's barb by gripping her ass hard, digging his fingers into it with the nails. That was going to leave a mark, but he didn't care -- the animal in him had taken over, and it was going to fuck the shit out of this cunt, and the harder he rutted her, the better he felt. And this time, he understood that his mate's soaking pussy wasn't lube, but was all because of him and how he turned her on.

They fucked like wild animals, fast and frenzied, exchanging few words and fewer caresses. They funneled their betrayal, shock, fury, and disgust into carnal passion, the stallion hoping that his mare would at least not be angry at him for rejecting her and would understand the sincerety of his attraction as he pounded out his anger at her secrecy and double life, the mare hoping that her stallion could somehow reconcile her madonna and whore sides, trying to fuck him back as a kind of message about what she thought of his lust for her.

The two were rapidly reaching their ends. Velvet was quivering under the relentless pounding from her son, and Shining's body was threatening to lose control at any second to the heavenly feelings washing over his cock with every single motion. Her pussy was slickening and his balls were tightening. Both hearts were hammering and they were nearly gasping for air.

Velvet's body started to go first, the pleasurable spasms toppling her one-armed stance on the cushions, sending her falling face first into the sofa. Shining's body was not going to last, either. He was harder than he had ever been, the most aroused ever in his life, and the only thing that made any sense to him was furiously fucking this female who was his own mother. He did it slow and deep, he did it fast and shallow, but he couldn't stop the pressure from building in his cock. His balls were going to burst...

With a cry, Shining wrenched Velvet's hips, forcing himself inside her, as deep as he could go. He didn't know if he said anything or just imagined growling at her, the fucking amazing bitch, to take it all. Pleasure overwhelmed him and she held onto his mother for dear life, digging in with his fingernails hard enough to draw blood even as she shook and gave muffled cries beneath him. She was so impossibly wet, so good, so inviting. He spilled in her with white hot flashes of pleasure. He was so deep in her, so hard and masculine. And her body hungered for what he was emptying into her pussy. her cunt slightly flexed and greatly wettened as she tried on instinct to milk that sick son of a whore for everything he could offer while he overwhelmed her with paroxysms of twisted yet embraced pleasure. She was fucking him every bit as hard as he was fucking her. They struggled against each other, their primal fight coming to an end in a mass of sweaty limbs, flushed flesh, sticky organs, and the stench of sex. They wrestled, unable to deny their overwhelming pleasure from and need for the other. She felt the pain of his rough grip and the satisfaction in pushing him so far. He felt exhausted at what she had extracted from him and satisfaction with how he had made her crave and take him.

They were the closest pair to copulate. They were disgusted, appaled, shocked, but had been unable to deny themselves, much to surprises and satisfactions they dared not at that moment admit even in silence to themselves.

The colt withdrew from the mare, himself still leaking and her still dripping. He tumbled off the couch and bumped his head on the table. Winded, sweaty, and in a daze, the son tried to smile and touch his mother. She pushed his hand away, instead pointing upstairs. "Go." It was a command a nanometer short of a scream. Still in a daze, he got up wordlessly and collected his clothes, leaving without complaint.

The mother did the same. The movie was ending now. There was just one last line. "It's Chimeratown, Jade." She took herself upstairs, flopped into bed and immediately passed out into a fitful unconsciousness.

But as for the son, he had found his way into the shower. And under the calming blast of the too hot water, he struggled to begin to think, holding his head as he rocked back and forth, trying to meditate under the burning head, trying to wrap his head around what had just happened.

Author's Note

And the plot thickens yet further! What's going to happen next? Read next time to find out in chapter four! Thanks for reading this truly colossal chapter, and the longest I've written in years! I swear they'll be shorter in the future. As always, comments are welcome and in fact make my day. If you have anything to say, please do. For Fluttershy?

Thanks to Sparky Brony for editing, friendship, and putting up with my deranged early morning ideas and writing, powered by a revolving door of sleep deprivation, caffeine, and my special brand of insanity. If you got the reference to Herding Instincts, a fabulous fic by him, good for you -- you're totally cool. If you didn't, go read it. Now! I wholly approve it and I have edited significant portions of it, too.
URL: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/349678/herding-instincts

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