A Tender Touch of Snow
A story by Duskhoof, Edited by Synesisbassist & AmorousArts

Chapter One

Cloudsdale’s weather factory was slowly but surely ensuring that Equestria was dressed for the seasonal festivities. It was truly going to be a white Hearth’s Warming this year, enough flakes falling to provide the lands with the material for a snow pony for everypony. The clean dust filled the air, floating over rooftops and gardens, some kissing the windows of the palace of Canterlot.

The preparations for Hearth’s Warming were well underway in the palace’s Library Tower. Food and drink had been made for guests they expected any minute, and the occupants were putting the finishing touches to the room so that it was more festive. Once belonging to (the recently appointed) Princess Twilight Sparkle, it was now more regularly used by Moondancer than any other pony these days.

“Not that I don’t appreciate the help, Twilight,” Moondancer offered as she held one end of a streamer in one leg and, multitasking, pushed her glasses up along her nose with the same hoof, “but what made you and the girls decide to come along to Canterlot for Hearth’s Warming this year rather than spending it in Ponyville? I figured all your friends’ families are there so that would be where you celebrate the holidays…”

“Normally, we would,” answered the princess, pinning the colorful chain of paper up on the ceiling, pushing her tongue into the corner of her mouth as she wiggled her hoof until the tack was firmly in the plaster. “However, this year I got a request from Princess Celestia...” She glided down from on high and hovered before her old school friend with a hoof over her chest, mimicking Celestia as she used to do so many times before for fun.

“Dearest Twilight. I hope this little letter finds you well. I’ve been running over old memories from long ago and I wanted to reach out to you to remind you of those old days as well. I did so enjoy the old days when you and Spike would spend Hearth’s Warming Eve in my company and I was wondering if, for old times sake, my most faithful student would mind if we could relive those days once more on this Hearth’s Warming coming. Please respond as soon as you are able. Your proud teacher, Celestia.” Moondancer giggled the entire way through the re-enactment and then pushed her loose-fitting glasses up once more as Twilight took the other end of the streamer and flew up to pin it into the ceiling.

“I can’t believe you remembered the whole letter.”

“I might have read through it a few times before I RSVP’d to it,” she grinned as she made sure the decoration would not be coming down before Hearth’s Warming was over. “I flew over ahead of everypony else, but the girls, Shining and Cadence all agreed it would be nice to have a change of scenery this year! Phew, there. It’s in! I’ve got to say, this task is so much easier with wings. I remember doing this from the ground with magic and I could never get the layout of the decorations to look exactly perfect. Something always seemed out of line.”

“...So then she’d send me up on the ladder to check,” grumbled Spike, his new wings helping him to hover in the same airspace as he put up sparkling depictions of the windigos from the Hearth’s Warming legend. “As though I was supposed to help when I was being rocked about in the middle of the room inches from the ceiling.”

“Oh hush, Spike,” his closest friend plucked him out of the air for a cuddle and slowly drifted them down towards the ground once more. “I would never let anything bad happen to my number one, best baby dragon friend of all time.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” he grumbled but returned her embrace with affection all the same. Moondancer added to the squeeze and together they looked up at their hoofiwork. Since ‘Dancer had been in possession of the keys to the tower, she’d put a lot of hard work into getting the place tidy, keeping it clean and thoroughly in order. It had been a big change in lifestyle for her; in the time that Twilight had moved away to Ponyville, she’d developed a few bad habits and more than an ounce of sloppiness but that changed when the Princess of Friendship reached back out to her to prove that she cared about their relationship after all. Since then, the bespectacled mare had done her best to hold onto the positive changes in her life, including the friends she had reacquainted herself with and the library she had been entrusted to uphold.

“This place is looking better than ever, Moondancer,” Twilight gushed, and gave the old pal an extra squeeze, “thank you for letting us stop over while we’re here.”

“Twilight,” the mare chortled again, “it’s your place. I’m just keeping the cobwebs away for you… And studying some of the old books you’ve got...” She paused at that and glanced to the plinth on one of the balconies above them. “Actually, I was going to draft you a letter before I got yours saying you were coming for a visit. You see, I found one of your old books and I wondered if you could help shed some light on it.”

“Of course,” giggled Twilight, creating a glow from her horn with a playful grin, “lumos, the light spell, is basic horn spellponyship 101.” Moondancer rolled her eyes and smiled wistfully, alighting the stairs with a shake of her head. Twilight spread her wings and followed, arriving at the altar before her learned companion.

“I’ll go make us some cocoa,” Spike offered from the ground level, thumbing towards the stove in the next room.

“You’re not curious what Moondancer has found, Spike?” Twilight inquired, peeping over the rail. The young drake rose his brow and glanced back up at the pair of mares knowingly.

“After all this time, I’ve learned to just let you get on with it, Twilight.” He shrugged, “you usually figure this stuff out in about fifteen minutes or less and then I get the quick answer instead of the random muttering you expect me to decipher during your research.” He wandered away to get started on their cocoa, leaving the Princess to glance at Moondancer.

“Do I really mutter?” she asked softly.

“You say the odd word now and again,” her old school sidekick offered noncommittally, before redirecting Twilight’s attention to a leather-bound book on the retable. “This is what I was talking about. Did you write this journal? I assumed you did but then I didn’t know if you had made factual notes in this from other history books or you were writing a sort of fictional story based on the past. I couldn’t find any mention of what’s in here in any of the other books I looked in.”

The Princess trotted to a halt in front of the large book on the raised table and stroked her hoof over the cover. The wrapping was dark blue with a gold leaf finish, although oddly no title. Somepony had gone through a lot of trouble to keep it pristine, and there was not but a scratch on the front, however, the way the top rose from the yellowed pages suggested it had been opened many times. Twilight nudged the cover open gently with the edge of her hoof, and her suspicions were confirmed by one look at the first page.

“This isn’t a book I’ve ever found in the library, Moondancer. It’s definitely not one of mine and that’s not my hoof-writing.” She pushed down the page that was trying to turn itself and read out the words written in beautifully swirling black ink.

“~Memoirs from the quill of Helia.”

Twilight Sparkle read those simple words three more times before she looked to Moondancer, her thinking face prepared for the task but confused by the first puzzle. “Who the hay is Helia? I’ve never heard of a historian by that name before? The closest pony I can recall with a name like that is Hittite, and they were more of an astronomer close to Starswirl the Bearded than a chronicler.”

“Maybe it’s a misspelling, or a pseudonym,” Moondancer offered, causing Twilight to re-examine the words on the back of the front cover. This time, however, she saw how the words were written rather than what they were saying. She let out a surprised and yet enlightened gasp.

“Moondancer, you’re right. It’s not a pony’s actual name, it’s their pen name! Better still, we know which pony this belongs to! We’ve seen this writing before.”

“We have?”

“Mhm! She’s marked our homework, written us Hearth’s Warming and birthday cards and left us little inspirational notes when we’ve needed them,” The pony in the coal-colored sweater looked again, trying to see what detective Twilight had seen. In response, Princess Sparkle reignited her horn and slid a rolled scroll from the saddlebag by the front door, shooting it through the air over to them before unrolling it before Moondancer’s eyes. Together they watched it as Twilight lowered it down against the note inside the cover of the mystery book. Both sets of eyes darted from one to the other, noticing the way the ‘f’s shared a flourish on the tips or the ‘m’s curled instead of pointed and how the capital ‘H’ in ‘Helia’ and ‘Hearth’s Warming’ dominated the rest of the text. gasped in unison.

“This journal was written by Princess Celestia?”

~~

The book sat on a new fluffy rug Moondancer had bought from a flea market weeks ago, looking as innocent as a foal that did not know it was in trouble yet. The two mares sat side by side looking incredulously at the humble cover that hid the unnerving information inside. Spike took several journeys to bring the girls two mugs of hot chocolate before finally arriving with a cup so large it was more reminiscent of a pitcher jug and overflowed with cream, marshmallows, and chocolate dusting. He sat down beside Twilight and made sure he took a long happy sip of his treat before he asked any questions with a snout as frosted as the world outside.

“So what is it, and do we need to go on a long walk to throw it into some special volcano like that weird ring you found in here once?” He slurped the dairy from his mouth. Moondancer sipped her beverage daintily and shook her head.

“Magically it’s harmless, but some of the stuff Celestia’s written in it is a bit alarming, especially if any of it is true.” She murmured, letting her spectacles slip to the tip of her snout and this time letting them stay there, focused on not letting the journal leave her sight.

Summoning up the courage after a bit of blowing on her own beverage but not drinking from it, Twilight finally turned the first few pages over and leaned over it. Ordinarily, a book written by Celestia herself would excite and even arouse the ever faithful student but Moondancer’s apprehension had set her on edge. She speedily looked over the beginning of the beautifully curled regal hoofwriting to ensure it was safe for Spike’s ears. It was unlike anything she’d seen Celestia write before. Checked and comfortable with the baby dragon hearing the works of the disguised princess, she started to read it out aloud. She didn’t get very far.

“Sombra was a good prince-“

“What?” Spike cried out, nearly spilling his drinking chocolate over his claws at his start. “That can’t have been written by Celestia! Somepony’s playing a prank on you!”

“It’s Celestia’s writing, Spike,” Twilight assured him, her ears flat as she started again, “Sombra was a good prince in the beginning. He cared about his subjects and he had a compassion in his heart that I had never known in anypony else. He had a good sense of humor, he delighted in entertaining foals and was a good son to his mother.

“When his change came, it could have been prevented. There was one close to him who observed the changes and was in a place to stop him before the transformation took him over, but she did not. For, she was in love with him and could not imagine him as anything other than the kind Prince he had once been. Thus she let him become King Sombra and allowed him to break her heart.

“This is my confession on the eve of his destruction. The mare he loved and who loved him in return - was one of the alicorn sisters of the sun and the moon.

“When Princess Amore was fatally removed from power over the Crystal Empire and Sombra’s heart went from crystalline to black, he offered his beloved a choice. She could have joined him and become his Queen, more powerful than she had ever been in her whole life or she could refuse him and be counted as his enemy. Many believe she refused his offer. I can tell you she did not.

“The Princess only tore herself away from him when her sister’s pleas grew louder than his promises to reform. She stood by her sibling and together they ended the powerful King’s reign, but she never truly accepted her final decision. It would haunt and change her from that day onwards…”

Twilight tailed off at the end of the last paragraph and stared ahead, her mind full of a thousand and one questions. She could not contemplate an answer for any of her thoughts, as soon as she attempted to do so another five questions stopped her from resolving the problem. She released the breath she found she’d been holding and turned to Spike and Moondancer.

“The rest of the journal explains how the Prince and Princess met, fell in love and their last days as a couple,” Moondancer summarized, “the only thing it doesn’t say anywhere in the book is which sister fell for him…”

“It’s kind of obvious, isn’t it?” Spike piped up, their shock discovery having not been enough to stop him from continuing to gulp down mouthfuls of his giant mug of sugary goodness. “Princess Luna.” The faces of the other two showed that they wondered how he could come to such a conclusion so fast. “Oh, come on, it makes perfect sense! Luna was a different mare back then, she wanted to be noticed and loved as much as Celestia. Heck, I bet that was even why she let herself become Nightmare Moon as easily as she did,”

“Language, Spike,” Twilight chided, “and you may be right, but we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. I’m going to give this,” she closed and tapped the book, “a full read through… Later.” She paused before she finished speaking as she noticed Moondancer’s expression try to hide a hint of disappointment. “We won’t let this ruin a good evening. Let’s try to put this to the back of our minds and-“

Bong!

The sound at the front door indicated that Minuette, Twinkleshine and Lemon Hearts had arrived for the night’s festivities. Relief filled Twilight as the distraction from this predicament couldn’t have come at a better time.

“-And enjoy ourselves,” she concluded quickly, “Spike, go whip up some more cocoa. Moondancer, go let our friends in from the cold. I’ll uncover the buffet.” As she headed to the table stacked with a feast fit for the Alicorn sisters, Twilight’s gaze dropped to the book once more with worry in the pit of her stomach. What was her old teacher hiding? Why had this book only surfaced after all this time?

When Twilight looked back up, she found herself facing an early gift Moondancer had put together. In the time she’d been here, the butter yellow pony had found a bunch of old photos, a class picture, and a pin board. With some glitter, colored paper and pens, she’d soon built a personal and very sweet timeline of their friendship so far, with the future as just a big friendly question mark.

The sight of this and sounds of elated squeals from the main entrance shook Twilight’s concerns away. She had a date with friendship, and old troubles she could do nothing about had no place interrupting it. The mare smiled, dropped the book into her spare saddlebag by the stairs, and then waved to the visitors stepping in from the biting cold.

~~

The sky had transformed from a cloud of white to a black and blue patchwork, where the stars fell as chilled peelings from the ceiling above. They glided to the lamps and windows where light remained, attempted for a brief second to regain their heavenly rays before drifting past to join their fallen comrades covering the entirety of Canterlot. Those that did not need to be out in the cotton wool covered streets, were tucked up warm and comfortable in their heated homes and cozy beds.

Twilight Sparkle had laid herself belly down on her old mattress with Spike sleeping in his smaller cot at the foot of her bed, the old journal between her forelegs. She illuminated the material with a soft glow from her horn, allowing her to read the written words flowing from page to page. She turned the last leaf, following the passages all the way to the end.

“... The sisters swore that they would keep the knowledge of the Crystal Empire’s fate a closely guarded secret, telling all who asked that they knew little about the lost city and its ruler. However, together they knew that when the time came for the King and his lands to return from the banished realm, that they would be unable to face him together once more, as one would always be too weak to his power. Therefore, it was their shared responsibility to find ponies with the knowledge, strength, and heart to face him. I hope, for our sake, the sisters succeed.”

The battle-weary mare took in half a lungful of oxygen and kept a hold of it until it no longer felt like a comfort. As she released it, she noticed the last page did not flutter in the same way the others did and her curiosity was pipped again. She lowered her nose all the way until she could smell the sweet mustiness of the old parchment and examined the heavier page by pushing it back and forth with her hoof. Both sides of the sheet seemed pregnant with something and at once, the mare realized what this meant.

Switching spells in a flash, the amethyst mare felt through the bag she’d brought to bed and tumbled out; a quill, the keys to her lavish home in Ponyville, a bunch of heavily annotated flashcards (they always seemed to turn up in her stuff ever since she expected a test from her mentor), and a scepter (Discord always managed to sneak it into her bags somehow, and the creepy grinning likeness of her own face intimidated her every time) before finally she found her hoof file. Sailing it across to the book, she pushed the point carefully into a split at the bottom of the page, and slowly sawed along the join. Progressively, one page became an envelope and if she had continued to cut, it would have become two pages. But the Princess did not want to be unable to repair the damage she was doing. Brief guilt for destroying a historical artifact, and a book at that, tiptoed along her mind but she pushed the thought back, her desire to find an explanation overriding her nerdish concerns.

With the split between the two pages found, Twilight turned the book around in the air and gave it a small shake. The lump between the sheets shifted and out of the parting was born more notes onto her upturned hoof, flattened by all the time it was gestating in the journal. She set the hardback down on her bedside cabinet and unfolded the papyrus as delicately as she could, scrutinizing the details intensely.

It was a letter.

“It’s not Celestia’s writing, at least,” she affirmed to herself, “I can make out that much from-“

She stopped. At the top of the message was the name of the pony it had been addressed to.

“My Beloved Helia~”

She read the three words several times, believing less and less that they actually existed and having to bite herself to prove she had not fallen to sleep. Physical proof sat in front of her, the chosen epithet of the Princess who rose and set the sun every single day. She committed the cardinal sin for most readers and skipped ahead to the end, as sure of who she would find to have written this letter as birds were sure of the dawn when they returned to their roosts at night.

“~Your Once and Future Shadow.” Shadow. The Equestrian word for Sombra. Twilight’s stomach knotted itself several times over. How could this be? How could Princess Celestia, such a benevolent ruler, have been so easily swayed by a wicked demon like Sombra? Then again, were the signs already there?

Twilight’s brain began to betray her. It conjured ideas and theories to try and prove that Celestia had been touched by the dark side all along. It reminded her of the day she arrived in Canterlot expecting to be quizzed and instead sent to the frozen North. Celestia had shown her a glimpse of the sinister power Sombra could have brought upon Equestria if he had succeeded. She did so with such ease.

She recalled the disagreement between Celestia and Luna which Starlight Glimmer was sent to resolve. Had Starlight’s nightmare created the dark version of the Princess known as Daybreaker or was it Celestia’s presence that caused it? Speaking of which, how had Celestia sent her own sister to the moon for a whole millennia? Twilight could not even imagine sending her brother Shining Armor away for a week, or Spike away for a day without worrying about them. Was it truly her strength of character that kept her going, or a more malicious streak hidden deep inside…?

“No,” the orchid pony defiantly uttered to herself, “Celestia isn’t like that. She cared enough for everypony else to defend them numerous times from Discord, from Tirek, from her own sister… From Sombra.” Twilight’s curiosity was too great. She needed to know what the letter from Celestia’s shadow had to say.

My Beloved Helia,

I understand that this letter finds you at a difficult crossroads in our relationship. I am aware that the next time our eyes meet it will not be with a loving gaze, but across a battlefield. I am not writing this to sway your mind or regain you from the clutches of your sister. I simply wish you to remember what you are losing.

You believe that my mind is warped by power and that my hunger is only for the conquest of Equestria. Your assumptions are wrong. These are merely ambitions to me. You also call my treatment of the ponies of my kingdom cruel and barbaric, but the chains and imprisonment are merely a temporary procedure until they recognize me as their true ruler. I am not changed from the Prince you fell in love with. I, am improved.

“This was written after Celestia left Sombra but before she and Luna defeated him,” Twilight mused before she continued reading.

If you have made up your mind once and for all about me, then these words will not affect you. But, if you are still reading this, then I know some love still remains. I told you I wanted to remind you of what you were losing. To do that, I wish to recall my fondest memory; our first Hearth’s Warming Eve together.

The reading alicorn pondered briefly whether this would simply be a sick love letter from a deluded and mad king, and quickly scanned below to see if her presumptions were correct. Barely two paragraphs later she knew they were not. Five paragraphs later, she was hyperventilating. Ten, and her hoof subconsciously drifted south…

~~

Years before Nightmare Moon’s first fateful appearance, Celestia had not expected a gentle rapping, like some lost owl at her bedroom balcony doors, to wake her precisely one hour after her head had embraced the goose feather pillows. Even in the days of old, her castle in the midst of the once tamed forests of Everfree, was heavily fortified and guarded. It should not have been an easy feat for somepony to be tapping at the window of her private sanctuary, and yet here they were. A lost shadow of the night hoping to get in from the blistering cold, Hearth’s Warming night.

Vanity protected by a long, floaty silk nightgown, the resting princess rose from her bed and trotted to the curtains, hesitating as she reached for them.
”Thou does know we are but a shout away from calling all thy guard to this room if thou does not announce thine intentions, stranger,” she whispered loud enough to be heard through the fabric and stained glass.

”My intentions are to be reunited with the one and only holder of my heart,” came the reply, which prompted a surge to action from the usually halcyon mare. Celestia flung open her curtains, unbolted the locks and clicked open her door to a young dark prince, his obsidian mane flattened by the wetness of the sleet and his usually unwavering posture shaking from the temperature. Without a thought as to what might be said, she pulled him directly into her room and relatched the doors. When she was sure she had kept Luna’s weather at bay, she spun around and greeted him with the passion of teenage lovers, lips mashing to his, no matter how frozen his muzzle was. With her love and her embrace, she planned to warm him.

Together they created a blizzard of their own. One of day tangling with night, where her wings sprang open in delight as they swirled around her room in a draft of an unseen Windigo, connected by lips, teeth, and tongues. While their mouths dueled, they did so with the discipline of a pair of fencing sports-ponies. He flicked forward, she would defend. She would parry, he would riposte. Finally, they drew away as equals, panting gleefully at the end of her four-poster bed and unable to tear their eyes from their adoring lover.

“I am here-“

“We know why you are here, loving Shadow,” Celestia interrupted with a voice that could bloom a garden of bright flowers, “thou made us a promise; that on the anniversary of our first meeting, thou would find your way to us again and prove your worth.” Sombra could not find words adequate enough to confirm that was his intention, and could only give a hopeful nod. The Princess sucked on her bottom lip briefly, then gave a gracious bow of her head.

“We are yours, fair Shadow. Your Helia to light your darkest days. Please, show us what we really mean to you.” She said the words with barely any volume behind them, but the magnitude of meaning was not lost on her lover. Instantly, he was kissing again, and this time with purpose.

They danced to the tune of reckless lovers, spiraling again until Celestia’s hind legs hit the edge of her large comfortable bed. She manipulated the way her chest puffed the wind from her body, the manner her eyes dazzled in the winter moonlight through the window, the luminescent curls of her mystical mane and tail, all to attract him further. Not that there was any need. He already knew she was the only mare he would ever keep the flames of exaltation, burning bright for. Gently, his magic took hold of her nightdress, and with the utmost care he slipped it up and off of her, like a clingy ghost being shown its place. In return, she chose to free him from his hooded cloak not with a spell but with her mouth on the metal clasp holding the waterproofed cloth around him. A well practiced flick of her tongue later, and he was released of one piece of clothing.

Together they worked on the rest of his ensemble since he had not been foolish enough to brave the harsh weather in a mere coat. Crevate, jacket, waistcoat, and shirt all flew away until the stallion stood in only his fur, looking abashed but dedicated as he trotted towards her pale smile once more. Only as he did so did he find he did not get close to it until he discovered that Celestia’s rear and legs had slid onto the mattress, while her forelegs and torso still hung over it. She tapped a hoof on her bed frame gently and gave him the hypnotic eye no stallion can ever resist from their heart’s desire.

“Up,” was all she commanded and all he needed to hear. His forehooves moved to either side of the bed and his sweet snow angel wiggled back a little more in preparation. He gave her a last long nuzzle as he built his confidence up to provide for her, then he reared himself up and forward and nickered sharply, as he felt his most private area touch her on the tip of her snout.

He opened his mouth to apologize but the words never had time to form on his vocal cords. Instead, she made him moan right off the cuff. Not offended or disgusted by the sheath pressed to the soft pad of her snout, she pressed into it and immediately began to explore it with her salmon mouth muscle. She swam her tongue along his pouch, amazed that it breathed and posed just like the rest of him. She slid her little fish up to the hole at the top and tried to dart and hide in it. Unfortunately, it was forced out quickly by his swelling eel, which slid over the bridge of her snout and between her eyes without a care that she was a princess. Her eyes crossed at the proud snake still filling and growing before her and she pulled back to stroke it encouragingly.

“Mmf… oh… m-my lady,” Sombra gasped above Celestia, injecting pride into her that she could make him murmur such loving words. She became resolved to earn as many of these whimpers from her robust and well-hung prince as possible. She collected his inflated mast with telekinesis as it slowed in growth, licking her lips at the sight of the bubble of seed, waiting for her on his tip. Not wanting to be kept waiting, she moved in and wrapped her lips around his first inch, with her tongue lunging to clean and taste it.

Sombra could not fully observe what his dearheart was doing to him, he could only go by the touch of moist sunshine enveloping the helmet of his soldier and sucking on it. He could not see what she would do next and yet she was one of the few in his world who he would ever trust to act without his orders. Complimentary moans and nickers created the symphony around them, the slurps and suckles bringing subtle percussion to their sweet melody. The stallion could not believe this moment had come, as he had always assumed that when it did come around, they would laugh away the idea and do something less risque. Nonetheless, he never grew tired of Celestia’s daring energy and passion for life, for love, and for the love of him. He swept one hoof along her wing delicately as though he was going to pay it some affectionate attention, but changed his task and cupped the back of her head as his hips moved.

“Mmmf-hrk… gulp, mmmm,” Celestia’s groans grew in passion and her mouth squeezed the pole she enjoyed and loved him taking control. She trusted him, no matter how possessive and fierce he grew, she knew he loved her unwaveringly and that would always come before his strongest urges. She adored him in return, as his piece pitted itself into the darkness of her throat. She let him hump harder and faster and sang out in joy to his rough and eager melody. She used techniques countless vocal teachers had taught her over the years so that she breathed in when his staff of life pulled from her windpipe and serenaded it when it returned. So, on the impassioned hymn continued until…

“A-Ah… m-my …. huff… Helia! I-I’m going to-“ His face scrunched and, despite his warning, his hoof pushed her heavily in an attempt to hold her there and gift her lovely voice with his sticky nectar.

She tugged her head back sharply, then snatched his hugging leg away with her magic and pushed him off. The startled unicorn at the brink of a deliverance floundered at the sudden crash to his senses. Had his hallowed princess betrayed him? Had he done something wrong? As he shook on bent legs and tried not to waste his ambrosia across her varnished floor, his eyes pleaded to her for an explanation and, if necessary, to accept his apology.

His dreams came true in three breaths.

Sigh~ she lifted her head, brushed the back of her ankle over lips to wipe away the clear cord of his arousal from them. Her soft salt lamp eyes were still lit with wanton flames of infatuation.

Sigh~

“Such a special offering to your lady should be accepted in a special way, my Shadow,” she had whispered as she lifted herself up on her bed. Her wings reset themselves so that feathers which had shifted out of place could be corrected, and she turned steadily, her eyes always on him.

Sigh~ her front settled longways on her bed, but her back end remained as erect as Sombra. Through the phantom strands of a faded rainbow, her delicate entrance could be seen. The final sigh allowed her lungs to return to normal, for that brief sharing of hearts through their amorous stares.

“Come,” she crooned simply and then gave no further instructions. None were needed, intentions were clear and Sombra knew what his duty was to her now. He stepped into her threshold on the spongy mattress and swept her swirling tail from his goal. Lowering his head, he moved down to look over the unspoiled slit and watched it shudder and flex when his breath met it. The drenched skin glittered in the light of the wintery moon, while the slight pink areas of her inner thighs bore darker shades of arousal. Her scent pulled him in, but he did not need it to. The musty but feminine smell filled his lungs on the next deep inhale, reminding him of the tender scent of vanilla. He could FEEL her radiance calling him in, just as she called her sun into the blue painted skies every morning.

He sank his lips to her wet sex and kissed it with as much passion as he would kiss her mouth. It was her turn to be treated to an unseen Casanova who shared his worship for her, through the snuggling and smoothing snout along her soft, supple labia. He praised her clit for blessing his tongue with the taste of her delicacy, and he drank like a hungry foal from the goodness she trickled into his muzzle.

“Ah-Oh! Ohh… My dear sweet Shadow!” Although he could not see it, her exhales and mewls drew the pictures in his mind of the pleasure in her expression for him to see. He felt like he could keep this up forever and live on the fruits of her ecstasy, but that was not the duty she had placed in his hooves. There was another task he could not neglect any longer and so, despite her rapture, he had to pull back and sever the spider string connecting his tongue and her folds.

When she looked back again, she knew it was time. His hard stallionhood slapped between her flanks and his stomach as he took up his mantle on top of her. His eyes shone with power and pride, yet she could not fear it, she could only feel honored to be giving herself to him this night, out of her Hearth’s Warming wrappings and ready for him. His horn produced a crimson light, and hers met it with a summer’s blue as together they clasped his waving length and steadied it.

Conjoined by their enchanted grasps they straightened him and helped him forward until his tip stroked her quivering butterfly wings. She cooed at the brush of his flesh on her tissue petals and she bit her lips, her eyes assuring him the moment had arrived. As a partnership, they ensured his aim was true and as he finally let his weight move forward, his bow breached the warm, inviting gate.

“Ah~Celestia!”

“Ohhhh Sombra~”

Just as her subjects would part their curtains every morning to greet her daylight, so too did Sombra part her to accept her resplendence. He marveled at how close she held him inside and yet how softly and wooly her canal was. In the same instant, Celestia was awed by the way he filled and stretched her, and yet, how he felt like he had always belonged inside her. It was to both of them as though the stars had deemed this a fixed point in time and nothing, not war, nor tide, nor universal intervention, could have stopped this coupling.

“You’re so-”

“It’s so-”

“I love you-”

“Yes. Yes! I love you!” For those were the perfect words. The right words to describe what was happening. It was love. Pure, unadulterated love. Both could feel it burning like a fire in their hearths, a strength of heart able to keep even the harshest Windigo away.

He let her body tell him when he needed to stop and reverse, and she entrusted him with knowing when her core needed him back. They started at a gentle rhythm, continuing their intimate music as a true duet, no more solo sessions for either of them tonight. With their instruments in perfect tune, they performed together in a lustful, emotional piece of beautiful opera.

“Ohh~ hold n-nothing back, my dear one,” slipped from Celestia’s lips and almost immediately received a reply. His piston powered up, his body pulled back and slammed, and the Princess had to hurriedly attack her pillow with her mouth to stop the guards from coming to her screams. Into the feathers and fabric, she wailed and wept as he drove deeper and deeper with each plunge of his prick until at last his muscular hips met her toned and tight flank. Even though her squeals and yells continued into the muffling cushion, she showed and he knew that it was not out of pain or anguish that she cried. Her shouts were born from the fantastic vibrations rolling like seas of gold beneath her ivory fur, which built up and up from the pounding penis blitzing her.

“I-I can’t -I can’t- I-ahhhhhhhhhhh~!” What she could not do, Sombra realized, was hold back as her channel clamped onto him when he slid back and threatened to force him out. He constrained her face back into the muting pillow and propelled himself back into her, as her whole body shook and swelled, wings beating the bed like the complaints of a fallen angel. She soaked his steadfast trooper, she spilled onto his lap and his testes, and she infused her bed with a drizzling of her delightful orgasm.

Although she arrived at her climax, he did not stop. He kept her in a permanent state of frenzy as he continued to drive again and again against her tsunami, bashing at the door to her womb and demanding that she take delivery of the spasming package he was holding. She writhed from left to right, tugging at sheets and biting the drool-sodden pillow, avoiding replying until she knew her body could take no more of this beautiful torment. Her closed eye cracked open and her begging gaze flashed him his final green flag.

The buildup started in his loins, charging up his body for the ultimate burst of power. He tried to prepare her for it with a shuddering hoof of comfort along her spine, but he could not prepare himself for it let alone her. His body took over his movements as his mind melted from the sheer strength of the gathering storm below his gut. He was now a puppet to his carnal, animalistic subconscious. His five senses became enhanced as he watched his beloved thrash under his mercy, his member throbbing savagely within her.

His sack pulled in tight under him. The stew in the two orbs boiled up the spout at speed, accumulating at the peak until the pressure was just right. He clumsily thrust once, twice, thrice - and the canon detonated.

“Celest-Ahhhhhh~!”

The princess was near catatonic by the time the flurries of winter soldiers had spilled into her heated paddock, her frosted form alive with the new life he had filled her with. She hummed happily as he slowly relaxed atop her, his long rifle splattering her sanctum over and over. Her eyes shut again, her cheeks spread with a smile, and she did not reopen them for a long while.

Before he was done, Sombra pulled back, the last splashes crystalizing her hind. He dipped low to the place he had last kissed and returned his oral attentions to it, not caring that it now had been slimed by the casualties of his milky bombardment. In the bitterness of his flavors lay the flowery juices of her orgasms and so he braved tasting his own medicine to get spoonfuls of hers. Above him, Celestia brayed hoarsely and sighed, shaking as she eventually rewarded his cleansing tongue with one last sugary shot of her syrup.

His mouth was not even a breath of air away from her puss when she gathered him with the last of the magic her exhausted frame could muster. She slid him over the covers into her waiting forelegs and cuddled him, smooched and cradled him. Although not said, she dearly thanked him for appearing as her own darling Hearth’s Warming miracle by holding and cherishing him for the rest of the night.

“I love you,” they repeated to one another in numerous ways until they finally settled, glowing as one.

Celestia’s eyes did open when she felt something small but weighty land on the bed. Before her nose lay something wrapped in velvet and ribbons, held by Sombra’s red energy. He let it transfer to her magic and smiled, his own nose against her jaw.

“Something to remember me by,” he told her.

“You say that like you are going away,” she mumbled sadly. She unwrapped the gift from the yellow and scarlet ribbons, tugged off the azure cloth and found herself holding a smooth redwood circular box. She opened it to find a tiny Clover the Clever statuette in mid-dance twirling on a plate with the blizzards of the windigos swirling around her, unharming her. The start of a tune she knew so well played to her . ‘Hearth’s Warmings Dreams’. She associated it with him.

“Happy Hearth’s Warming, my love,” he whispered adoringly, kissing her ear.

“Happy Hearth’s Warming, sweet Shadow,” she murmured, looking to him and kissing his lips. “Be with me when I wake?” She asked with hope, not wanting this feeling to ever fully end. He merely smiled calmly, kindly, and gave a small nod. He wrapped his legs around her and held her, both winding and rewinding the box until sleep carried them together into their brief taste of paradise.

~~

“...If you are still reading this, then I know you still long for me. You know you have a part of my heart you can never release.

“Dear Helia, come back to me. Together we can change Equestria. Our destinies were poised to keep us apart and yet we found love in each other, let us defy those odds again. I am not ready to release you and watch you fly as I fall.

“I shall be waiting in my kingdom for your answer.

“~Your Once and Future Shadow.”

Twilight let her intake of air shake for many reasons, as she levitated the letter away and placed it on top of the book. Then she glanced to her hoof and gulped at the moisture that clung to it, her aroma clinging to the room. She hadn’t realized until the last words of the letter how much it had turned her on and what she’d done about it as she kept reading. She looked down to the sight of a damp circle beneath her sated crotch. She’d petted herself to her release three times before she’d finished the love notes, and was glad it at least did not wake Spike. She was not ready to explain “the birds and the bees” to him just yet, she thought. Now she just had to remove the evidence.

The young mare slipped out of bed and crossed the room, into the corridor where she took a trip to the bathroom. A quick toilet break and a wash later, Twilight felt as good as new, and all she needed following that was fresh bed sheets. She found some in the airing cupboard and turned, expecting to be tucked up in a clean bed in a minute or two. Though, the night had one last surprise in store before that could happen...

A lone figure, much too large to be Spike or even one of her friends, stood directly beside the old bed. The sheets tumbled out of Twilight’s purple shimmering magic as she saw who was by her bed, examining the dark stain on sullied covers with a softly sniffing snout. The figure noticed her and instantly straightened up, an awkwardness to their posture that she had never seen before. She swallowed hard and gave a small, worried wave.

“He-Hello, Princess Celestia.”

“Good morning, Twilight.”

~~

Author's Note

Want to discuss the story? Follow me to get ‘Switched On,’ on Discord...

One of the songs I was listening to while writing this was ‘Music Box,’ by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, have a listen...

Edit - 100 views already? Wow, thanks everpony :)
Hope you look forward to the next chapter...

The gif is not a clue...
... No, honestly. It's not...
... I promise it is not a clue...
... stop thinking it's a clue!

Thank you to Syn and AA for their editing on this story.

Thanks to JimboTex for the hot tip!

If this is when you stop reading, goodbye and safe travels.

If you're still strapped in for the ride, see you in the next chapter.

All good things,
Duskhoof