It's strange how different it felt—and how normal it had become—to just speak to Sunburst. My life had turned around in the time it had taken him to get used to me and I him. Some things remained the same, however. No matter how much more pony I felt, there were still things I couldn't give up. My collar and leash, my speech, and sometimes our private times still remained my canine side.

I waited in his chair, before the fire, for Sunburst to come home from work. When I heard the door open, I wagged my tail and lifted my head from the chair. "Welcome back!" I barked.

Sunburst trotted inside and closed the door, then barely got his glasses off before I was licking his face. The world was brighter with him there, with us together. I nuzzled and snouted at his mouth, not engaging with a kiss until he reached for his collar.

The world stopped as Sunburst kissed me. It was one of the more pony things we did together, and it always helped me remember who I am. By the time our kiss broke, he had the collar on.

"Did you have a good day, Screwy?" Sunburst asked.

I nodded and nuzzled him some more. "Something knocked on the door, so I barked at them until they left. It was probably a rabbit." My pony side mostly held sway now, but I still couldn't help some of my dogisms (as Sunburst called them).

"How were the activities today?"

"I can't think properly when you're not here. It's like the pony part of me goes with you. I remembered how to flush the toilet today." My news earned a frown and then a hug from Sunburst. The hug was the best of the two reactions and I returned it as warmly as I could.

"You need to keep trying to remember, Screwy," Sunburst said.

"Y-You can call me Screwed Tight if you want. You keep calling me that in your dreams—and sometimes just after your dreams." I smiled as he blushed. Our morning activities had become habits, thought the best kind of habits.

Sunburst pulled back from the hug and looked at me with one of his more serious expressions. "I'll call you what you like, but you know I can't help my dreams."

The truth was it was nice to have him dreaming about me in ways that left him waking up panting and frantic to have sex. I could have put up with him calling me Screwed Tight if only for that. My old name for him still rang true. "Then keep calling me Screwy."

"Right then. Now, what was it I was going to do before you distracted me?" Sunburst lifted a hoof to tap his chin idly in what I'd learned was his pretend-thinking pose. He was actually being devious about something. "Oh! Now I remember."

A clicking sound at my neck made me giddy as a kite with excitement. I wagged my tail and barked loudly for the fun of it now he'd clipped my leash on.

Sunburst removed his collar and tucked it into his saddlebags. We didn't need words when we were walking, after all. He led me to the door, opened it, and we were outside in the warm evening air.

"Good girl. Heel."

My shoulder met Sunburst's hip, and we walked down the road together. My mind was focused on the task of keeping at the right pace, so much so that I broke into a gallop at his side without realizing he'd stretched into the faster pace.

I laughed with excitement, glad to just run beside Sunburst through the city. Our hooves resounded on the hard pavement as the edge neared. Closer and closer we got, and when I expected Sunburst to slow down, he instead unclipped the leash and kept going into the snow!

This was new. I'd been playing pony games with him for a while, but this was the first time Sunburst played doggy games with me. We bounced and bounded through the snow until it was so deep it would have been easier to dig under it.

Sunburst didn't once use a word. He grunted and made all manner of groans, but we left all the pony things behind us and just had simple canine fun. And when a rabbit showed up, we lost ourselves completely to the fun of chasing.

The rabbit got away, but it didn't matter. What was important was chasing it together. We didn't lie down in the snow and share a moment—we bounced around carefree and chased things together.

But we had to go back.

Walking side by side through the snow, I kept finding myself leaning over and nuzzling at Sunburst's neck. When we reached the edge of the city again, and the fallen leash on the ground, I leaned down and nosed at the item.

"You want that back on?" Sunburst asked.

I nodded. Of course I wanted my leash, silly stallion. My leash is what defines me in the city.

Sunburst clipped the leash to my collar and, almost immediately, I jumped to his side to heel. The touch of his magic to my ears didn't cause the kind of fear it used to, and I was able to lean into the rubbing and closed my eyes.

"You like that."

I nodded just enough so that I didn't pull away from the rubbing.

The rubbing stopped and I got a kiss on the cheek at the same time. I snapped my eyes open and looked at Sunburst.

"Come on. Let's head home." He stepped forward and my training took me with him.

Walking at Sunburst's side was even more affirming for me than the play we'd done. I had a collar on, a leash was attached, and he held that leash. The best part about it was the way he accepted it all. He accepted the fact that I needed this, and he accepted his part in my needs.

We trotted home without any detour, but it wasn't until I saw the bushes around it that I felt the urge to use them as dogs intended. Rushing forward from heel, I tugged on the leash until I got my back end over the soft dirt.

Relief was instant. I looked back at a blushing Sunburst and couldn't think for a second why he was embarrassed. When I was done, I kicked some dirt and walked for the door. Turning my head, I looked back at Sunburst.

"You couldn't have waited?" Sunburst used his magic to open the door and unclip my leash.

I ran inside while wagging my tail. It felt great to be alive, and be who and what I was (the answer to both was more complicated than I cared to investigate right now).

Knowing what was to come next, it was hard to decide between running to the kitchen and bouncing around Sunburst in excitement—so I tried to do both.

I stopped my excited bouncing when Sunburst put the collar around his throat. I kept my tail wagging, though, when he asked, "Is this really what you want?"

"What I want?" Having done so much dogging, I felt an odd blend of both my aspects—a mix of pony and dog. "I wanted to find a good stallion and settle down with him, I wanted to find a pony who would take care of me, I needed someone to save me from that horrible place, and I wanted to love and be loved." My words, I knew, were a mix of barking with a few pony words.

I looked at Sunburst, waiting for his reply.

When he didn't say anything, I felt I should add more. "I found all those things, Sunburst. I found the stallion I loved, I found the master I wanted, the savior I needed, and somepony who would love me as much as I loved them—even if it wasn't perhaps how we all expected."

"I never expected anything like this," Sunburst said. He straightened his glasses and reached the kitchen. I watched him settle in and start cooking. "I was overwhelmed at first—I probably still am—but it's a comfortable kind of overwhelmed.

"You know you were the first mare I'd ever been with?" Sunburst was using up the collar greatly, but he seemed perfectly okay with it. The truth was I felt empowered more by his use of the collar than he seemed to. When he wore it, I had a voice. "Still the most amazing."

The pony side of me judged that comment as worthy of a kiss, but the dog side of me liked the idea of a doggy-kiss better. Leaning over to Sunburst, I licked his cheek twice.

"I thought life would be exciting when I became Crystaller, and it is, but no matter how crazy things are at the castle, coming home to you makes it all feel a hundred times better." Sunburst tipped a tin of tomatoes and other things into one pot on the stove, while he put pasta into another.

My mouth salivated at the wonderful smells. I found myself resolving to try harder with my tasks, but I knew that when he left, a lot of me would leave with him.

Sunburst took the collar off after a few minutes of us not talking.

I backed up to give him room to work, and when he started dishing up the food my whole back-end started wagging along with my tail.

"You know we eat in front of the fire." He had to push past me with the two dishes held high in the air, so I couldn't pounce on them.

I followed over to the couch and rushed to park my rear on the floor beside his old recliner. This was the same way we'd eaten for weeks—it was routine.

Sunburst waited for me to hold still completely before he lowered my bowl to the floor. "There you go."

I dove my face toward the bowl and started eating the delicious food. With my canine self distracted with the process of getting the food out of the bowl and into my belly, my pony mind wandered. I remembered the terrible food of the hospital. It wasn't that it was bad, there just wasn't any love put into the preparation. Even my doggy side could appreciate that Sunburst made this food with his own magic, and he was eating the same thing from his own plate.

Of course, I beat him—as usual—and licked my bowl clean before I sat up again and watched Sunburst eat. He was about half done, and eating so slowly I wondered if he'd finish it before breakfast. The solution was I needed to help him!

"Don't even try it," Sunburst said.

Leaning forward, I set my jaw on the side of his recliner and looked up at him with the same expression I'd used to successfully convince him of almost anything. A sad little sigh accompanied my deployment of sad puppy-dog eyes.

Sunburst managed to get one more mouthful of food before he let out a sigh to end all sighs. It was a victory sigh—a victory for me. "Where's your bowl?"

That was my cue! I jerked my head back and leaned down. Biting at the rim of the bowl, I picked it up and put it on the side of the chair. I wagged my tail furiously as Sunburst slid some of his food off his plate and into my bowl. When he put my bowl back on the floor with his magic, I rushed it and attacked my second helping.

"You're going to do this every night, aren't you?" Sunburst asked.

I wagged my tail more at the sound of his voice than the question. Of course I'd try to get some of his food when he only filled my bowl up once. His magic found my ear again, and despite my eating I managed to tilt my head into the attention.

It didn't take long to finish my second helping and sit up again. The worst thing had happened, though. Sunburst had already finished. No more food meant it was reading time. I circled around to the front of the recliner and looked up at Sunburst.

"Do you want a book tonight?" he asked.

His words were clearer now, and with my hunger and doggy side slipping away I felt I was up to trying a reply. "Yeah." The word was small and soft, with none of the hardness of complication of other pony words. I liked yeah because it felt like something I'd use even if I weren't part dog.

"Let's try this one again." Sunburst used his magic to float a book from the shelf over to him. He opened it up to a little card inside it and set it on one side of the recliner.

As he started speaking, I leaned forward and rest my head on his legs. The words helped remind the pony side of me what I was supposed to be, and with them I had a little glimpse of what my life could have been.

I don't even remember when Sunburst swapped books. When I lifted my head, my brain filled with cotton wool from a light doze, he was reading something else. Inching my head forward, I sniffed at the book and found a scent I recognized.

A nice pony, pointy and flappy, came to mind. I remembered her as always being nice, and even using her magic to rub my ears. "Twilight." The word had bubbled up from my memory, though I think I screwed it up a little. It didn't sound exactly right.

"Twilight wrote this, yes. Twilight."

"Twilight." This time I was better. My Ts had a T sound, and the L actually sounded like L instead of F. I smiled and inhaled the scent from the book again. Paper (something I knew the smell of having lived in Sunburst's house for some time), ink, the soft fabric used to bind the book together, the harder cover, and two ponies. The first pony was Sunburst, but his smell was everywhere. The second pony was Twilight.

This was a nice book, I decided. It smelled of ponies I liked (one a lot), and Sunburst seemed interested in it. I rolled my eyes up from looking at the book and caught Sunburst looking at me rather than the pages.

"You're wagging your tail a lot more." Sunburst's magic found my ear and started rubbing it.

"Yeah," I said. I really liked the word.

"I think I'm done with reading for the night." He folder the book closed and started floating it to the bookshelf. "Would you like to have a little, uh, fun?" The tone in his voice betrayed his excitement and worry.

I wagged my tail more. "Yeah!" I said.

Jumping to my hooves and bounding toward the stairs, I was only partially aware that—as a mare—I was putting on a show for Sunburst. The dog side of me had no clue about that beyond shoving my butt in a male's face.

When I looked down from the top of the stairs, I saw Sunburst watching me with an air of hunger. He was a stallion—a dog—and I loved how intense he'd become. I let out a bark of excitement and continued through to our bedroom.

Jumping up on the bed, I rolled around on my back in excitement. Sex was a game ponies and dogs played, and Sunburst was really good at it! By the time I heard his hooves step into the room, I'd tangled myself up in the sheets enough that my head was trapped.

Sunburst's magic freed me of my self-imposed prison, and the first view I had of him in the room was from my back. I tilted my neck so I was looking under him, and smiled at what I saw. He came closer and closer, his body pressing to my neck and barrel. This wasn't a doggy game.

I opened my mouth and took the tip of his growing shaft between my lips.

His shaft wasn't fully hard yet, which was okay since it let me play a little more. Keeping my teeth back from his tender organ, I suckled it, slurped it, and worked my tongue over the end.

Soft, hungry sounds spilled from his throat—and I'd only just gotten started. When I pushed forward and sucked more of him into my mouth, Sunburst let out a whine just like I imagined a big powerful dog would. When I slid back to his tip, the whine became a begging sound.

Down and up. Down and up again. Sunburst wasn't soft anymore. I pulled off him completely and leaned past his hard shaft. There was more to a stallion than a dog. Stallions liked to do more than just shove their dick in things until they felt good. I pressed my tongue to his medial ring and licked to the base of his shaft, then back and to his balls.

I nuzzled from one orb to the other, giggling when I felt him twitch them in time with my attention. I bathed each of his testicles with my tongue before letting out a gasp when he returned the favor.

This was a feeling that was wholly pony. Dogs didn't hang about for foreplay—ponies did. I lost track of what I'd been doing as his tongue worked along my entrance again and again. Completely undoglike sounds left my lips, and I pulled my back legs forward a little to give him better access.

Losing track of time, I squirmed about on my back until I realized Sunburst was losing the hardness I'd worked hard to instill. I nuzzled at the base of his sheath and then licked that sensitive flesh. The results were instantaneous—Sunburst's licking of me became erratic.

Regaining a little of my faculties back, I angled my head and scooped his shaft into my mouth again. Sunburst shifted atop me and his tongue left my vulva.

I didn't care that he wasn't reciprocating. Pleasuring him was enough to keep my desire hot and burning. A musky taste hit my tongue as I worked him in and out of my mouth, musky and sharp.

With him pushing to the back of my throat, I had to keep timing my breathing just right, and worked my tongue along him constantly. The smell of happy stallion filled my nose as I focused on my task. It encouraged me to continue.

"Screwy—" Sunburst's voice caught in his throat as I thrust my mouth over him again. "If you don't slow down—If you don't—" I liked that my actions affected him so much he couldn't get his clever words out.

Wagging my tail in complete happiness, I kept up my slow sucking, my head bobbing, and tongue lashing. Sunburst seemed to become more and more impatient, or maybe just excited. I just knew he'd given up trying to talk and resorted to simple moans and gasps to communicate. I understood him perfectly.

Unlike a unicorn or pegasus, all I had apart from my mouth was my hooves. Hooves required a lot of care to play with sensitive bits, so I was as gentle as could be when I cupped each of his balls with my hooves and began to massage them.

Every moment I continued I felt him twitch more, squirm, and even hump a little. It was adorable to see him so lost in what pleasure I could give him, but at the same time I was hungry for him.

I sped up, working my throat to massage him and get as much of the fluids he was already leaking as I could. I wanted him, all of him, and when I felt his balls jerk upward and his muscles tense atop me I knew he was about to give it to me.

The flare at the end of his shaft—deep in my throat—spread wider still, and his medial ring began to throb with the intensity of his heartbeat as Sunburst jerked forward and pushed as deep into my throat as he could. When the hot rush of his seed hit my belly I trembled in joy—but not sexual release. This was Sunburst's moment, and I was enjoying myself plenty just giving him pleasure.

On and on he went until, finally, Sunburst started to slow down. Wanting to taste him properly, I pulled back and got the last two pulses of his seed into my mouth. Rich with elements of the crystal fruits he ate regularly, his semen wasn't exactly a great meal, but I loved the personal nature of having his taste and smell so close.

Reluctantly, I swallowed the last of him and drew him out of my mouth. It was bath time for Mr. Pokey.

"That's really sensitive, Screwy." Sunburst's tone was a little whiny still, and even shaky, but there was a lot of satisfaction in my stallion's words.

To show him how much he meant to me, I slowed down. His breathing slowed, and after some time he started making happy little sounds again, but when he started getting hard again I got more excited.

Bracing my legs on one side, I shifted my weight and pushed him.

"Hey! What are—? Oh…" His realization came when I got him on his back and pinned him there.

I nuzzled and licked at him to build his shaft back to full mast, then I stood up and turned around. His eyes—his face—was a mask of amazement. He looked at me like I was the smartest and most clever mare in all Equestria.

Sliding my belly along his, I moved forward until I felt him spring up from under my belly and stand proud behind me. Our snouts were a hoofwidth apart, so I kissed him.

Of all the things we'd done together, nothing sparked my memories as much as that kiss. I was drowning in his smell and taste, and now I had the feel of his body against mine and his lips on mine. Staring into Sunburst's eyes, I remembered every moment we shared.

I was the confident mare with a first-timer stallion inside her.

I was the happy mare celebrating Sunburst's first big test.

I lay motionless in the hospital while he read stories to me.

I felt his lips upon mine though I couldn't remember who he was.

I was with him in the Ponyville hospital taking me away from that place.

I was on his belly, kissing him as his shaft kissed my vulva.

Tears rolled down my cheeks—tears of joy—as I bore backwards onto him. I let out the happiest moan of my life as his medial ring sank into me. Pushing still, I didn't stop until he was in me all the way to the hilt. I leaned backwards from the kiss and braced my forelegs so I was actually sitting on him. Cowfilly.

"You're crying!" Sunburst said.

"I'm so happy." The words had come out so easily, but I knew it was the moment that let me speak that way.

Sunburst opened his mouth to say something, but I lifted my hips with my powerful back legs and squeezed so that his next words devolved into a moan. I loved it when he moaned like that.

I waited, measuring time by the throbbing of his shaft that was still within me. When Sunburst opened his mouth again, I slid down him and took all his shaft within again.

He managed to get a word out at last—after three more strokes. "Faster."

That was exactly what I wanted to hear. My hips—my whole body—was built for power and control. I rocked upwards in a slow arc, then plowed back down onto him. Then repeated it, and again, then built my rhythm—though it wasn't fast.

Every muscle in my body worked to keep the pace, the angle, and the tension just right. I was in charge and in control, but it wasn't just for my pleasure that I sought. Sunburst had thrown his head back several times, only to lean forward again to look up at me. His eyes spoke volumes—he thought I was a princess.

The power of being all a stallion wants was heady. I sampled this new feeling lightly, not sure if it was too much—I'd have to keep going.

Unconsciously my pace started speeding up. A repeated thudding came as our bodies met, and I trusted Sunburst to tell me if he was being hurt by my strength. The only sounds that came from his throat, however, were needy moans and happy whimpers.

The longer I went the more my body built toward the peak that was every mare's silly-face moment. I wanted to pull the silliest. Our bodies crashed together, over and over, and the electric energy—what I believed to be the magic of life itself—built inside me to the point where I couldn't have held back if I wanted to.

I began with grunts and groans as I struggled to hold back my impending orgasm, but it was when his body swelled inside me that I lost all my control. I neighed and pulled the silliest face in the world as my world shook and shimmied.

Sunburst's magic held me tight and pulled me down against him so his forelegs could hug me to his barrel. Our lips pressed together and at that moment he sent the first blast of a torrent of heat. I squealed into our kiss and tried to thrash out of his grip, but he held me tight and showed that the strength of a unicorn stallion was enough to keep his mare close.

Each blast of his seed deep inside me sent another shock of pleasure through me. All my memories of our times together didn't reveal another moment where I was so completely taken by our lovemaking. When at last he stopped pumping my body full of his seed, I could relax and come down from the dizzying high.

We fell sideways—or at least I did. Holding each to the other, we kept our lips locked together the whole time that our bodies came down. I felt a tingle at the edge of my mind—the canine side of me wanting more influence. "I love you," I said quickly.

Before he could even reply I felt that part of me that spoke words slip back into the darker parts of my mind. The canine part of me might have no need for words, but there was now enough not-canine to understand Sunburst's next words perfectly.

"I love you too," Sunburst said.

I trotted along at Sunburst's side. The leash wasn't needed, but I liked wearing my collar, and I liked him wearing his. "I don't want to know," I barked.

"Are you sure? The doctors told me." Sunburst's words made sense thanks to the collar.

"Nope. I don't even want to know if they're pony or dog."

"That's not how it works, Screwy," Sunburst said.

We couldn't walk shoulder-to-shoulder now, mostly because my belly was swollen. At first it had been a shock, but knowing I was having Sunburst's foal/pup had made every day just that little bit brighter.

"Sure it can." My tone was more playful than forceful. If I focused, I knew I'd be having a foal—probably a unicorn or earth pony—but when I relaxed and just let things go, I imagined a litter of the cutest puppies ever inside me.

"Are you sure you don't want to know?" Sunburst adjusted his glasses with a touch of his magic.

I nodded, my mind well made up on the matter. "I already know I'll love them no matter what."

A gleam of light (not that uncommon in the Crystal Empire) distracted me a moment, and I stared off into the distance. There was a layer of snow everywhere outside the barrier of magic that protected the city. "I saw a rabbit."

"Well, I'd better go catch it for you," Sunburst said. He really was Best Stallion.

Author's Note

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