From Behind Crimson Curtains

Linen awoke to the sounds of breathing. The night had fallen yet again outside, and his whole body felt as if it had been slammed against a brick wall repeatedly. Not the most pleasant of feelings to wake up to. His eyes lazily drifted across the plain ceiling as he struggled to regain his senses through the veil of nausea that permeated him. His body felt hot.

He heard a moan and turned his head to the right to find Colgate happily snuggling up against a pillow, fast asleep. And with that, he was reminded yet again of the events that had transpired: becoming a... toy of sorts for mares. His first inclination was to scream, but his head was thankfully in control of the situation, and he managed to cover his mouth before he could.

A hoof bumped into his left flank and he whisked around to see Roseluck, Daisy, and Lily all hugging each other, wrapped seductively in sheets. This was dangerous: Linen didn't know whether or not he'd actually satisfied the mares, having passed out before they finished. They might have just decided to have fun with each other afterwards... or used his body while he was out of it.

Swallowing hard, he slowly began to crawl his way out of bed, trying his best not to touch any of the mares that now surrounded him. A hoof found its way to the ground, and before long, he was sneaking out of Colgate's bedroom and down the stairs, trying to stay on the carpeted areas to avoid making noise.

Once he made his way outside, he let out a restrained sigh of relief. Now he needed to find a way out of town, or perhaps a place to hide until their phases passed. At this time of night, he would be hard-pressed to find transportation, and he certainly wasn't going to hoof it all the way to Canterlot.

So there were two choices: his house–where Colgate would most certainly check when she found him missing in the morning–or the Everfree forest. Horny mares or deadly beasts? It was a tough choice.

At this point, he was too exhausted to be able to fight back, and the mares would easily be able to overpower him. If he happened to go up against a beast in the forest, he wouldn't be able to flee quickly or fight back. So he decided on a compromise: he'd merely wait it out on the outskirts of the Everfree, and try to find some supplies for himself. It was meager, but it would have to do. Perhaps in a day or so, when his strength returned, he would try and escape.

He faded into the shadows as he trotted off for the forest, now realizing that he was actually pretty hungry.

The bells dinged as Twilight entered Quills and Sofas. Peeking over the large shelves of various quill-related goods, she saw Davenport working at the front desk, nibbling on the end of a quill feather as he was writing something down.

"Hello, Davenport!" she said, walking up to the desk.

Davenport looked up and placed the quill down when he saw her. "Hello, Miss Sparkle! What can I help you with today? Is it about the quill?"

"Oh, no, it's not about that!" she said, shrugging it off with a laugh. "I'm here to ask about... Linen Spool."

He raised an eyebrow, curious as to why anypony would be interested enough to ask about him. If Linen had been present, he would have most certainly wished that Davenport not tell too much, and as his close friend and boss, he would agree. "Well... what do you wish to know about him? I'll have you know that he's not exactly the most sociable type, Miss Sparkle."

"I could definitely tell that from the conversation I had with him this morning. I'm more interested about his... well, himself, really. What are his likes? Dislikes? Does he get out of the house much? He said that he moved into Ponyville a while back, but where did he move from, and why?" She was already aware of the last part pertaining to Linen's moving to Ponyville, but wanted to know more about it from a pony who didn't rut him several weeks back.

Davenport sighed. "I'm afraid those sorts of questions are the ones you'll have to ask him yourself, Miss Sparkle." He leaned forward, suspicion gleaning in his eyes. "What are you trying to get at here? Because I'll let you know that if you try to hurt him, there's going to certainly be some real trouble in this town."

"Oh, no, I wouldn't dream of it! He just seemed so interesting and–"

"That, right there, is the problem," Davenport said, leaning backwards against his chair. "To perhaps allow myself a single moment of selfishness, since I know he wouldn't want me talking to anypony about this: a lot of ponies in the past, all with good intentions, have tried to 'help' him before. If you're trying to, don't. Leave him be and don't try to force him to break out of his shell."

"Well, what happened to those who tried to help him?" Twilight asked. To hear that Linen was a special case that had not been solved was intriguing to her, especially concerning his rather reclusive behavior.

He shook his head and sighed again. "Okay, make that two moments, then. From what he has told me, the most preferred method that the helping ponies tried to do to break him out of his shell was to simply... well, put him in groups with other ponies, socializing, that sort of thing."

"But it didn't work?"

"Do you try to cure phobias by actively throwing them at ponies?"

"No, that sounds rather extreme, but–"

"Well, that's exactly what they tried to do to Linen. You see, he has a severe aversion to crowds, and ponies in general. Can't hold a conversation at all with someone he doesn't know well; he just locks up and starts panicking. That also applies to individual conversations, but it's worse when it's in groups. Following that, it goes full-blown when he's standing in the middle of a crowd of ponies he doesn't know, and if all their attention is on him, expecting him to talk..." He stopped, letting Twilight fill in the rest of the details.

"He just... stops working?" she quietly asked. Davenport simply nodded. Even though she'd never interacted much with other ponies when growing up, the idea of actually being too scared to talk to others made Twilight think that she actually had it quite well. "Does he have any siblings?"

"I'm just going to stop there," Davenport denied. "If you want to know more, you'll have to ask him yourself. I've already given myself too much liberty just by answering those questions. Besides, what made you so interested in him?" A grin spread across his face. "Oh, Celestia, does this mean that you're a secret admirer?"

"What?! No!" She realized that she'd reacted almost immediately and felt heat rising to her face.

"Sure, sure, whatever you say," he said, laughing. "But you do realize that Linen's practically invisible to most ponies, right? Even in Canterlot, when I first met him, it seemed like he knew how to blend into the crowd, but it was his attempts at doing so that caught my attention. Then again, you are the Twilight Sparkle, so I guess you just have an eye for these kinds of things."

"So you just finished saying that he's bad at talking to ponies, and now you're telling me to go ask him if I want answers?" she said, pointing out his contradiction.

"Not bad at it, per se. He's shy and downright terrified of ponies, yes, but you can get him to talk if you approach him properly. Don't come off as too direct, or mean, and he'll eventually open up to you. 'Eventually' meaning whenever he feels like it. But, yes, you look like the sort of pony that can deal with it."

"Any advice that could help me with that?" she asked.

"Speak softly, and speak slowly, and choose what you mean to say carefully. It's not the first time that I've seen him misconstrue something that another pony meant to be entirely innocent, or harmless. Trying to force results will get you nowhere, and then he'll never want to speak with you again."

"Right," she said, taking a mental note. "Thank you, Davenport."

"I feel like I'm going to regret this decision," he said. "But he's a good stallion, and he deserves to have more than what he does now. I mean, after all, he's practically kept my shop afloat with all the business he helps me get. Sometimes I wonder how much out of my mind I was when I opened up a shop for quills and sofas..." He chuckled to himself.

"I promise that this won't be an abuse of your trust, Davenport," Twilight said, smiling. "I just want to get to know him, and maybe become friends with him." If only I hadn't already made such a horrible first impression... She closed off her thoughts and made her way out of the store, shielding her eyes as Celestia's lowering sun covered the street with a red hue. It was probably too late to speak to him now, but perhaps tomorrow...

Linen hid behind a bush as he surveyed the eccentric building across the street. It was shaped roughly like a gingerbread house–most likely not made out of gingerbread, he wagered, but it made his stomach grumble–and the front doors were locked and the windows closed. That meant that the only other way to enter would be from the other side.

He was loathe to have to resort to stealing, but he needed immediate nourishment: he didn't have the sense to buy groceries–not that it would have worked out given that the mares would still be rut-crazy anyway–so his home wasn't the best place to hold out. Sugarcube Corner, or so the sign said, was most likely the best place to find something that could fill him up until he managed to find food in the woods.

Sneaking around the side, he carefully leaned against the back entrance's doorframe. He tried the lock and was surprised to find it unlocked. Perhaps the mares had been too occupied with their desires that they might have forgotten to lock the doors. Theft certainly wasn't a problem: any stallion caught in this town would be bucked to death, and any mare would immediately find herself at the mercy of the town's curious mares.

With a quick flash of movement, the door was closed and he was inside. It was dark; the quiet halls were barely lit by the moonlight from outside, as he moved forward. The delectable smell of stale baked goods came from the kitchen, and he could feel his mouth salivate at the thought of finally being able to eat something.

He took another step and nearly stumbled over, barely catching himself against the wall. Whatever that pink mare had given him had worn off long ago, and his body was now suffering from pulling such exhausting overtime. Food would do well to help rebuild his stamina. After checking around him to make sure nopony noticed, he forged on into the kitchen.

Amid the piles of various baking goods and materials, he saw it: a glorious plate of muffins, sitting on the counter in front of him, surrounded by a hodgepodge of random spilled flour and sugar and empty egg boxes.

Rushing forth, he immediately took to the muffins, gorging himself with food as he enjoyed the blueberry flavor they had been baked in. In record time, he had finished and lay down on the ground, heaving a happy sigh as he took the moment to relax and let the food settle.

"I'm glad you liked that!" a familiar voice called out, giggling. "When I saw you sneaking towards Sugarcube Corner, I just knew exactly what you wanted!" He felt his blood run cold for another time this day, and looked up. His eyes met blue ones, staring down at him along with a face that held the most devilish smile he'd ever seen. "Ready for another round?"

Linen panicked and ran for the kitchen doorway, only for the mare to appear from the hallway for some unexplainable reason and blocking his path. "Hey, it's not nice to treat yourself to somepony else's food and then just run!" she said, a look of annoyance plastered over her face.

Ignoring her, he turned around and looked for another way out, and made for the front entrance into the kitchen. Again, the pink party pony spontaneously appeared from outside and obstructed him. "Hello?! You're supposed to be a good guest! I gave you those muffins, so now let Pinkie have you!"

"Uh... um... i-if I knew those were your muffins..." he said, as Pinkie slowly approached him. He tripped over a small bag of flour and found himself staring up into the eager eyes of Pinkie Pie.

"It's alright, I don't mind. I just wanted you to eat them 'cause they're filled with all the things a stallion needs to go on all — night — long." Linen looked down and noticed that his member had somehow brought itself back to life while he was trying to run. So it was a trap! "And now... you're all mine."

"Wh... wait, what about the owners of this place? The Cakes?" He'd heard of them once or twice in Canterlot, but it shouldn't have been that surprising to him that they were out of town now of all days...

"No worries about that, my cute little cupcake, because they skipped town to avoid estrus! Oh, but it's so good that you showed up, because now you and I can have our own little private party..." She swooped down and licked him on the cheek, as Linen felt his body lock up. "It's all you and me now, Linen..."

Night had long since fallen and Twilight had retired to her quarters for the night, following a quick dinner with Spike. She sat at her desk, masterminding the best way to approach Linen when there was the sound of the front door opening followed by the thudding of hooves on the stairs. Pinkie Pie smashed through her door with reckless abandon, huffing and puffing as she brought news.

"Hey, Twilight! Guess what?!" she said, staring at Twilight as she expected a response.

"Uh... what, Pinkie?"

"He went along with my plan! Oh, but you're going to have to be the first one to apologize to him! I'm sorry for blurting your name out, but he said he thought you were okay 'cause he met you earlier today, so I want you to be the first! And when you actually do apologize, it'll be the first step to getting all the mares in Ponyville to apologize to him!"

"Yeah, but... isn't it late at night right now? Why'd you decide to pop in now of all times?"

Her excitability deflated. "Oh, I was busy making cupcakes as invitations for a party. You know, where all the mares show up and we can all talk over apologizing to him at the same time?"

Twilight recalled her conversation with Davenport. "Uh, Pinkie... I don't think that's going to work. Maybe you're better off just getting all of our signatures on a paper or something. I spoke with Davenport, and he gave me advice on how to speak to Linen. I'm pretty sure he'd probably faint or go off the deep end if all the mares apologize to him. Best to just keep things limited."

"Oh, alright..." Pinkie went into a somber mood. "I'm sorry, Twilight, it's just... I really don't want to mess it up, you know? So if you say Linen doesn't need to have a sea of mares whisking him away off his hooves with apologies, then I guess I can go along with that."

"Maybe just us and girls can do it? We can apologize on behalf of the entire town, and I feel that it's our duty as the Elements of Harmony to try to help him. Well, that sounds kind of selfish since it sounds like we're just trying to cover up for our mistakes..." She went silent as she continued thinking it over. "Agh, this is going to go nowhere. What happened, happened, and now we should look to trying to repair our relations with him."

"Okay, then, Twilight! I think I'm going to sleepie and then wakie in the morning so I can tell all of our friends!" Pinkie said, walking up to the second story window. "See you later!" She opened it and with a wave of the hoof, jumped out and landed on a tuft of leaves and branches, using it to reach the ground below. "That means you, too, here at the library!" Pinkie said back up to the window, before heading off back to Sugarcube Corner.

Twiilght blinked, staring out at the night sky for a moment. Did Pinkie Pie just place the plan she needed right in front of her?

Tomorrow, for sure...

Linen escaped into the night, heading off towards the Everfree Forest with a filled belly and covered with the white powder of sugar. Pinkie was most likely still snoring after he accidentally knocked over a huge bag of sugar and doused her with it. Apparently, Pinkie's affinity for anything sugary must have kicked in, because it immediately knocked her out when she swallowed a large amount of it.

With that, Linen made his timely escape, and was now en-route to the Everfree Forest. His body didn't hurt as much anymore, and he had a rather large pool of stamina to call upon, but the tradeoff was the thing now flailing between his legs. Those damned cupcakes sure packed a kick, though, and by this point, it was very much clear just how easily a stallion could actually be rutted to death. It was a wonder how he was still even able to walk.

He found a small tree at the edge of the forest, and decided to rest there. The grass was relaxing and the breeze was cool, but—that confounded phallus! He eyed it with an tired eye, just wishing that everything that happened today would just go away. Closing his eyes, he lay his head on the grass and let sleep, however temporary, take him.

...and suddenly, he was aware that he wasn't in the forest anymore.

"Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, it's a stallion...!" he heard a voice say. Was it a mare's?

"Shh, hush now, quiet now, Rainbow... can't you see he's trying to sleep?"

"I don't care about that! Just look at his... I mean, wow! He's just absolutely raring to go, right here, right now! Just let me have him, please?! Just the both of us isn't going to cut it and I just want him in me!"

He slowly opened his eyes and stared at the pink-maned pegasus that held his head in her lap. "Oh, look, Dash, now you've gone and waken him up..." She patted his mane with a reassuring look on her face. "Hello, there. I'm Fluttershy. Don't worry about where you are, we'll take good care of you."

His mind told him that they were nothing but lies: they were most certainly in heat, as well, if the other mare had anything to show. Looking over, he saw a rainbow-maned cyan pegasus nervously shuffling around in her seat on the couch, giving him an angry stare. "What're you looking at?" she spat.

Giving a short gasp, he looked away and rolled off of Fluttershy, getting to his hooves and looking at the both of them. "J-just leave me b-be, please..." he said. "I... I don't want any trouble."

"Buddy, if you want us to leave you alone, then there's obviously going to be some trouble. See, we want you. And that's... uh, putting it lightly." Her wings, as well as those of Fluttershy's, had been fully spread as they talked and—oh, no... Looking down, he saw that his stallionhood was in plain sight for all to see. "Not like your body's complaining about getting laid with some awesome mares like ourselves."

Linen held up his hooves. "No, wait, p-please, you have to let me explain—"

"What's there to explain, big guy?" Dash said, walking over to him. "You've got a raging spear all ready to use, and you need somewhere to put it..."

"Yes, um... we'd like to have you..." Fluttershy said. "That is, um, if you don't mind... but the urges are becoming harder to fight off, and... and you just look so ready for it..."

"I—I don't want to get you both pregnant..."

"Oh, that. Don't worry," Dash said, pulling out a couple of muffins from a bag at the foot of the couch, "we've got these awesome treats. I should really thank Pinkie for these sometime later, because they're totally going to get some use now." She downed the thing in a single bite and stared lustily at Linen. "Ready or not, here I come!"

She shot forth and immediately pinned him to the ground as he voiced his objections. "N-no, wait, please, I don't—mmrm?!" He was cut off as a small wad of cloth was put into his mouth and tied over with another nearby napkin on the table.

"Nope, no talking, just rutting, big guy." She positioned herself right on top of him, and slowly lowered herself on top of his stallionhood. "Oh... buck, it feels so good!" Moans echoed throughout the room as Linen futilely struggled against her forceful grip, shocks of pleasure slowly driving him to orgasm as she quickened her pace. Both of their increased drives synchronized with each other, and their bodies began to respond to each other.

Dash's head lowered to his shoulders, her gasps huffing so dangerously close to his face as she continued to thrust herself down upon him. Her wings brushed off his arms, as he recalled that pegasi wings were stimulated to spread upon arousal—something that he had picked up on in tidbits of conversation at social gatherings, usually at ones where couples had been present.

Amidst the intercourse, however, his heart rang louder than a bell in his ears, his mind so desperately wishing that he were elsewhere now, anywhere short of a social gathering. He felt a hoof bring his head into a warm embrace and opened his eyes to see Fluttershy smiling warmly at him. "You're doing well... don't be scared, okay? We'll take good care of you."

He knew he should fight against it, try to find a way to escape from this nightmare somehow, but the voice... it was like the sound of water rushing into his mind and relaxing him. His panicked state subsided as his pleasure and Dash's moans came to a peak, and he released within her with an unhindered moan, filling her with his essence.

"Hah... whew, big guy, you're not half bad yourself..." Rainbow coughed, gasping for breath as she laid on his chest. "Seems like we both wanted it pretty bad, huh...? Ah, the only stallion in town and now he's right here in our hooves... let's keep him until the end of the cycle!"

"Rainbow, that's not nice," Fluttershy said. "You know how terrified stallions can get when they get caught up in the middle of estrus season, so I want to make sure we'll be as gentle as possible with him. Promise me that when we're done after this night, we'll let him go of his own choice. No forcing him to stay, no matter how much you need to have him."

"I..." Rainbow sighed. "Yeah, alright, Fluttershy. I promise."

Fluttershy undid Linen's facial restraints and looked to him again with a pleading look in your eyes. "Do you still think you can go one more time?" she asked, clearly giving the hint of who would be next. Linen stared at her for a few moments, eyes half-lidded... and then nodded. "Thank you. I'll be gentle with you, okay? I want this to feel good for you as much as me. Do you think you could tell me your name?"

"I'm... Linen Spool."

She kissed him on the forehead. "Well, introducing myself again, I'm Fluttershy. Don't be worried, I'd like to take my time with you..."

"So... you're asking us to apologize to him?" Dash asked. Pinkie nodded fervently, looking to Fluttershy for a similar response as they sat in her home.

"I... I'd like to... I didn't really know that he was so shy before..." Fluttershy said. "Just... really scared... eyes can tell you a lot about a pony, you know." She took a sip of her tea and tried not to think back to the events of that night.

"Why do we have to apologize to him?" Dash turned her head away defiantly. "We needed to cool off, he was there, he was ready, so we did it. I don't think I need to apologize to him for anything."

"Dash, it's more of the fact that he didn't know that every mare in Ponyville was on the cycle, and he was just caught up in it by accident. Honestly, I'm actually surprised that he's actually taking it... well," Fluttershy said. "I feel bad for him, though, he must feel ashamed for what he did."

"It's not even that big of a problem, sheesh!" Dash crossed her arms and sighed. "He wasn't that bad of a lay..."

"Um... Dash, I don't think it's okay for you to think of him like that. He's a pony, like everypony else in Equestria. How would you feel if you forced yourself upon one of your friends when they didn't want you to?"

"I'd... feel really bad about it... afterwards..." Dash grumbled. "Yeah, okay, I get your point. So how are we going to apologize to him? Make-up sex?"

"Nope! All of us are going to talk to him one by one to apologize to him!" Pinkie leaned in to whisper. "Twilight says he's really bad with crowds."

"It can't be that bad," Fluttershy said. "At least, not as bad as mine, right?"

"No, it's even worse! She told me that he can't even handle a proper conversation with a pony he doesn't even know, and if he ends up in a crowd, he'll totally freak out! I think I was lucky that I even managed to talk to him at all!" Pinkie said, waving her hooves in the air for emphasis.

"So it's... worse than Fluttershy and her fear of performing in front of other ponies?" Dash asked.

"Duh!" Pinkie said. "Just think of it as completely being unable to work when you're around other ponies instead of just being scared to perform in front of them. Get it?"

"Oh, my," Fluttershy said. "It must have been terrible for him when he went through all the trouble when he first came to town, then..."

"That's what I'm trying to fix! But to do that, I need your girls' help! So, do you agree?"

"Yes, but—"

"Pinkie Promise!"

Dash and Fluttershy looked at each other and shrugged before going through the rounds of making the sacred promise to Ponyville's premier party pony. With that, Pinkie had a huge grin and nodded happily.

Fluttershy continued from where she left off. "Well, in any case, I think this would be a good first step to getting him reintroduced to Ponyville. So, when are we going to apologize to him?"

'"I don't know. I just wanted to talk to you girls first before I decided on anything! Actually, I originally wanted to make it a super-duper awesome party just between us and him, but Twilight said he probably wouldn't like that, and I trust Twilight, so I'm not going to throw a party even though I really want to throw a party. Oh, that reminds me, I have to go talk to Applejack next!" She gulped down her tea in one drink. "Thanks, girls, I'll talk to you again when I have a date ready!"

With that, Pinkie hopped out the door and shut it with a slam. She hummed to herself as she skipped down the road to Sweet Apple Acres. If all her progress was this good, then it'll only be a matter of time before the preparations were ready!