A scarlet sky, peppered by saffron and sumac, looked down upon the Manehattan East Heights hotel. Behind lay Celestia’s grace, cool and late for the day, as it made its journey to the horizon through pools of elegant violet and sewn patches of harvest orange. Far to the west Luna waited patiently to turn the axis of the world towards night, but few had any doubt that the city that never slept would once again defy her. From high towers to long bridges, every tourist attraction and each city street had already begun the gradual process of lighting up the night, such that Manehattan might make its mark again all the way to orbit.
On this day, the second of a three-day weekend, a certain daffodil pegasus flopped in a most unladylike fashion upon stiff pillows that never felt so inviting. She had been there a day longer and would remain a day later, but the butterflies inside her that so matched the mark on her flank left no quarter. She was tired – moreso than the ache in her hooves or the crick in her wings would suggest – and though her task was one she believed in, she reveled in a moment of respite.
Strewn about her upon the quilts was a menagerie of her furry friends. They lay in recoup of their own exhaustion, and she suspected they would bat neither wing, paw, nor fuzzy tail clear on to morning. Their presence in her hotel room had been a matter of special dispensation, for she was horrified at the idea of the denizens of her petting zoo being remanded to crates while she slept in luxury. Thus she had insisted, on pain of her event occurring at all, that they bunk with her. Strings had been pulled, promises made, and additional security deposits had been received. She was alone with them, the recipient of a rare single staff room to accommodate her unique needs. She felt somewhat bad that her fellow staffers were crammed into a small room block like sardines, but her critters had to come first, and the ability to spread out on the bed was a golden treasure.
Her ear twitched, and she drew in the far away din of the city. Below her were the sounds of the convention in late-hour swing, but she was buffered from both of these by her quiet little corner. She had shed her purple lanyard and badge denoting her as somepony to whom questions could be asked and help sought, and smelled now of lilac from a fresh shower, her tummy full like those of her little friends. The moment was perfect, and would suffice to prepare her for tomorrow’s labor of love.
At once, a tremor of the Earth brought it all crashing down.
She was up like a shot, her turquoise eyes darting about in all directions. A tremor? Some monstrous assault she would be called upon to repel with her friends? Now of all times, on the very weekend of Manehattan’s own FriendshipCon 2019? Was nothing sacred?
But it was nothing of the sort, and she traced the nuisance to her own door. Somepony was rapping upon it, or perhaps from the intensity of the sound bucking it. She cringed and gathered blankets about her, expecting an invasion, but a voice threw her into deeper confusion:
“Starlight? Starlight are you in there?”
The banging persisted. Fluttershy sought to respond but found herself skittish, and at length shimmied under the covers until naught but her eyes and a shock of her coral mane could be seen.
“Starlight, I know you’re in there. Is the door stuck? The door must be stuck. Of course it is. But that’s no problem for—”
The voice paused, and in a cloud of smoke, the door napped back on its hinges so fast that it nearly fell from them.
“—the Grrrrreat and Powerful Trixie!!”
The miasma of blue smoke cleared, and true to the words spoken, there in the doorway stood the named mare. She strode in, brimmed cap and starry cloak attached, and nonchalantly closed the door behind her with a flare of soft pink from her azure horn. Beside her floated her burdens – a pair of luggage parcels and a trunk for her act, the latter wrapped in suspenseful chains.
Trixie parked her goods on the floor where she stood. The aura around each winked out, replaced by one about her hat, which she ensorcelled and tossed across the room like a frisbee. It missed the coatrack entirely and landed on a sleeping squirrel, while Trixie produced a colorful handkerchief to mop her brow.
“Really Starlight,” Trixie went on nonchalantly. “You could have helped me carry my things. That’s what friends do, isn’t it? I am not singing a song with any bellhops, and you just know that’s what they would want. I mean this is FriendshipCon, isn’t it? Imagine what would happen if we started singing. We’d probably drown in four hundred and seventy drooling friendship fans, turning cartwheels and belting out spontaneous background lyrics.” Trixie levitated her cloak from her body and sniffed it before removing and dropping it to the floor. “Ergh, I already have some funk on me. I’m taking a shower.”
Trixie was true to her word. She disappeared into the bathroom, and somehow completed the task of bathing herself without noticing or disturbing the fish. Fluttershy was quite glad that she had decided against adding piranhas to the ‘Misunderstood Critter Friends’ section of the petting zoo.
When Trixie emerged fifteen minutes later, her silver mane wrapped entirely in a posh towel and smelling of raspberries, she helped herself to a drink, fiddled with the drawers, and held an additional ten-minute conversation with Starlight Glimmer before sitting on the edge of the bed and making eye contact with the yellow pegasus who had not moved a muscle since her arrival.
Trixie paused, a complimentary cup of non-complimentary wine from the complimentary minifridge in the glow of her magic. Her brow arched.
“You are not Trixie’s roommate.”
Fluttershy’s voice was muffled by the quilt, but she couldn’t help the sass in it. “…y’think?”
Trixie’s lightbulb went off. “Ah yes, Trixie knows you, Buttershoo! Lovely job on the animal sidekick farm—”
“—petting zoo—”
“—for my act,” Trixie finished. “I’m sure it will do wonders to encourage young sorcerers to follow in my great and powerful hoofsteps someday, don’t you think? Even I can’t do this forever, after all. Not that future generations won’t pale by comparison, but somepony will need to take up my burden down the road. Anyway, well done!”
Trixie fell silent then. She simply continued to sip at her drink, letting out exaggerated gasps of relief every time, and glanced out the window at the swirling colors of the sunset. This went on for nearly five minutes, before Fluttershy got up the courage to speak.
“Um, excuse me?”
Trixie was humming a tune about having tricks up her sleeve.
“Excuse me,” Fluttershy repeated.
Trixie finally turned. “Hm? Oh, Buttershoo. I’m sorry, I forgot you were there. You may shoo now. But really, you shouldn’t go into other people’s rooms like that. Some might find it, you know…rude. Would you mind finding Starlight for me and sending her up? Okay thanks.”
“This is my room,” Fluttershy ventured.
Trixie laughed easily. “Don’t be silly. This is room 705.”
“Yes, I know that.”
“Well, room 705 is in the staff block and it was clearly let out to Starlight. Trixie checked the itinerary herself.”
“It was let out to me and Starlight,” Fluttershy corrected.
Trixie considered this. Her eyes went wider than they ought to.
“…something just poked Trixie’s butt.”
“You’re probably sitting on Gerald,” Fluttershy explained. “He’s a Saddle-Arabian scorpion. He’s very friendly and accommodating, but I don’t think even he wants to be sat on. Could you move please?”
Trixie nearly hit the ceiling. Sure enough, beneath her was the smooth, deep maroon carapace of a scorpion, who waved an easy claw at Fluttershy. The pegasus reached out, took the insect up, and nuzzled him.
“Oh Gerald, you and your antics. I never know where you’re getting to. You should really be more careful though, you could have gotten hurt!”
“He could have gotten hurt!?” Trixie squealed as she hopped around the room, patting at her rump like it was on fire. “What about Trixie! I’ve been poisoned! Oh what a world, what a world…Trixie’s going to die!!”
“You haven’t been pois—URK”
Trixie grabbed Fluttershy by the shoulders and shook her. “What will Equestria—nay—what will the world do without the Great and Powerful Trixie!? I’m beloved in thirty-five countries, plus the District of Cowlumbia! Without Trixie to pacify them with her showstopping power, there could be war! WAR! Do you understand!?”
Fluttershy spoke between rattles, “…Gerald…didn’t…sting…you…he…just…pinched…your…behind...”
“What?”
The shaking stopped. “Gerald just pinched your behind. He didn’t sting you.”
“H-how do you know that for sure!?”
Fluttershy frowned. “He told me, of course.”
“B-but why would he pinch Trixie’s great and powerful behind!?”
“You were sitting on him for like ten minutes,” Fluttershy replied drolly. “I’m very sorry, but would you mind keeping it down a little? If you wake up Beatrice or Cornelius, they’ll squawk and wake every critter up. And I just helped them all get to sleep.”
Trixie looked around, as if just noticing all the animals therein. “Why are all these creatures in Starlight’s room?”
“This is my room,” Fluttershy repeated as she sat Gerald carefully on the headboard. “There’s nopony else here because I needed the space for the critters taking part in the petting zoo.”
Trixie was not convinced. “Then where is Starlight Glimmer?”
Fluttershy sighed. “She was supposed to stay here too, that’s why her name is on the room assignment. But she couldn’t make it this year. She had too much work to do at the School of Frienshi—”
“Pfft!” Trixie scoffed with her tongue out. “Of course Trixie knows that. Starlight said she had some work to finish up, and that she would be a day late to the convention. So here we are.”
“I’m sorry, but Starlight Glimmer isn’t here,” Fluttershy reiterated. “She’s not coming this year. She sent a message this afternoon and they told me about it because she was supposed to stay in this room with me.”
Trixie cocked her head to the side; the towel slipping off until her bangs bounced free. “You mean I have to spend the rest of the convention rooming with you?”
“Don’t you have your own room?”
Trixie spat and turned away, trotting to the window. “I did. But then I found out that this substandard hotel’s substandard ventilation system can’t handle the most premium Acme smokebombs. I was minding my own business practicing, when the hotel ponies came in and told me there were complaints, and they were moving me! The very idea – complaints about my act! Taste, that’s what these Manehattan ponies lack!”
“And this has…what to do with my room…?”
“I was moved here,” Trixie explained. “This was the only room with any space left. So I guess that makes you the Great and Powerful Trixie’s new pretty decent for an assistant-detective-helper person. You can thank me later.”
Trixie went to work on her luggage before Fluttershy could garner her attention again. The cerulean unicorn folded her trunk out into a table, and set upon it an assortment of magic-act accoutrements. She upturned a top hat on the table and began to wave over it with a wand, paused, and looked about the floor. She brightened and levitated a sleeping rabbit, which she unceremoniously dropped into the hat.
“Excellent, this will do nicely. Your animal sidekick-farm is very helpful, Buttershoo!”
“It’s a petting zoo,” Fluttershy muttered as she glanced at Trixie’s original cap upon the floor, under which a squirrel was still struggling. She reached down to assist. “How many of my critter friends are you planning to stuff into your clothes?
“Oh, only half a dozen or so,” Trixie replied with a nonchalant wave of her hoof. Her attention was on the top hat. She lit her horn and concentrated, tapping the hat with her prop wand for effect.
“Abracazam!!”
In a flourish, the hat emitted a blast of sparkly chartreuse haze which exploded through the room as if fired from a party cannon. Fluttershy’s eyes watered. She attempted to speak but could only cough; the smoke invading her lungs whenever she tried. She floundered in the mist, staggering toward where she thought the window was, and yanked it open frantically, beating her wings with force.
“Oh no, oh no, Agnes is asthmatic…poor Penelope just got over the tickle in her throat…”
When the smoke cleared, the room was a demilitarized zone of fauna and stage magic. A long line of colored handkerchiefs, tied end to end and anchored in the top hat, snaked around the room. No surface had been spared the presence of faux bouquets, and it was by the grace of an unnamed deity that the playing cards embedded by their edges in the walls hadn’t skewered any creature. A flock of geese sped past Fluttershy at escape velocity, honking wildly, while the rest of the creatures, awake now, tramped about the room in a fit.
Amid it all stood Trixie. Coated in glitter, she blew some confetti out of her bangs and wore an expression that staunchly insisted she meant to do that.
“…eh…ta daa…?”
Fluttershy ignored the unicorn and set about the task of calming the animals. Trixie continued the conversation by herself in snippets while she dodged and ducked the action:
“Shoot, Trixie knew it was alakazam! Or…possibly abracadabra!”
“How is Trixie supposed to concentrate with all this noise!?”
“Is that a bear!?”
Fluttershy worked her magic without cease. Horton and Cassandra, Muriel and Cesar. She knew them all by name, and though their initial stampede might have been too much even for her, they were all already exhausted, and wanted neither for food nor affection. They were just a little spooked, and with a mothering hoof their guardian took to soothing them.
A few minutes (and a number of foul looks in the direction of the unicorn) later, those animals who had not, or could not take wing fell sated. Some returned to their slumber straight off, while others mulled about the room, looking for a place to lay down or some object upon which to cathartically chew. Many found Trixie’s flowers, and they were not so keen on giving them back.
Trixie was gaping, and hadn’t moved in some time. “Is that…was that…wh-why are there wolves under Starlight’s bed and a bear in her closet!?”
“This is my room,” Fluttershy repeated once more. She was back upon the bed, propped up and covered in small furry, scaly, or carapaced creatures who had sought her warmth for comfort. “And I already explained that. It’s because I needed the space for the animals.” She glanced at the damaged walls and sighed deeply, “…there goes my extra security deposit…”
Trixie’s lip was stuck out in a pout. She tossed her wand over her shoulder, which bloomed into another plastic bouquet as it hit the carpet, and let out a huge, dramatic sigh of her own.
“This wouldn’t have happened if Trixie had some privacy to practice in…Starlight is supposed to help Trixie with her performances…if she had reminded Trixie of the right magic words…” She coughed, “N-not that Trixie requires help, mind you! Just…having a pretty decent for an assistant-detective-helper person around would be useful for anypony, of course.”
Fluttershy tilted her head, her wavy bangs draping over one eye. “Have you even heard one single word I’ve said since you barged in here?”
Trixie blinked. “Huh? Buttershoo? I’m sorry, why are you in Starlight’s room again?”
“Fluttershy!” Fluttershy whisper-shouted to keep from disturbing the animals. She beat her wings and covered her eyes as she spoke. “Fluttering, like wings, and shy, like…like…me! How difficult is that!?”
Trixie rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine, yeesh. You don’t have to get so defensive, Shutterfly. Trixie can’t help it if you’re named after aerodynamics and angst.”
Fluttershy took in a breath, paused, and let it out slowly. Her voice came out even and collected. “I’m sure there’s some other room you can stay in. You know, if we’re bothering you.”
“Nope!” Trixie insisted as she went about recovering as much of her act as she could without disturbing a predator. “Trixie checked. All the other rooms have a bunch of ponies in them.”
“…fine,” Fluttershy sighed. “I’m sure my friends and I can just…go to your room, then. Swapping rooms. They should have no problem with that.”
“Oh, trust me, you don’t want to go there. Trixie was practicing her Daring, Death Defying Dredge of Doom in there. There’s a reason we have signs to warn the front rows about getting wet.”
“So what you’re saying is…”
Trixie plopped down on the bed and recovered her cup of wine, which miraculously hadn’t spilled. “We’re roomies! I bet it’s awfully exciting, being around greatness such as mine.”
Fluttershy reminded herself that she had stood up to some of Equestria’s most fiendish millennial baddies. Surely she could handle this. She watched Trixie get comfortable, ensured that Gerald was somewhere she could see him, and graciously requested her own cup of wine. Fluttershy didn’t actually care for wine. But that’s all there was, and a belt was quite well in order.
“So, umm…you’re running the magic show, yes?” The pegasus asked timidly.
Trixie struck a pose. “Yep! Or rather, I am the magic show! I had my trunk packed before the events were confirmed, but let’s face it, they couldn’t very well choose anypony else.”
“I’ve never been to that event,” Fluttershy mused as she stroked the crown of a snoozing gerbil. “I usually don’t see much of anything but the inside of the hall where the petting zoo sets up.”
“Don’t they have any other staff there?”
“They do, but…Gladys the hyena doesn’t work well with strangers. And the last time I left for just a few minutes, Bertrand the alligator ate half of somepony’s Twilight cosplay, and Flora and Herman – they’re vultures, they’re so cute – ended up mistaking a red velvet funnel cake for roadkill. In their defense, it was red, and though I don’t even know how you would make something like that out of that kind of cake, funnel cakes already do sort of look like…umm…”
“A pile of fried intestines on a plate?”
“S-something like that.”
Trixie was amusing herself by levitating her cup. “Trixie does beg your pardon, but is it really a good idea to have a bear, a pack of wolves, some hyenas, an alligator, and a bunch of vultures—”
“—two vultures—”
“—and two vultures at a friendship convention in downtown Manehattan?”
Fluttershy was used to this question, and it put her on the defensive. She waxed educational. “Animals don’t really want to hurt anypony. It’s just the cycle of life that makes some of them seem scary, but they’re just doing what their instincts tell them to do. You eat when you’re hungry, so do they. Just they’re not as good about understanding what is okay to eat and what isn’t.”
“…that doesn’t make Trixie feel any increased desire to pet a bear.”
“Be that as it may,” Fluttershy continued, “predators are the most misunderstood of animals, and so if any creature needs the magic of friendship, it’s them. I take very good care of them and see that all their needs are met, but if they get scared, things happen. So I don’t really leave the zoo area.”
“Huh,” Trixie pondered. “That’s a shame. What a loss, to sacrifice the showstopping power of the Great and Powerful Trixie.”
“Oh, it’s not so bad,” Fluttershy replied. “I get to meet lots of ponies, and teach them wonderful things about animals. It always makes me happy to see a little colt or filly get excited about petting a spider rather than being scared of them. And I get to see Twilight, um…everywhere.”
Trixie snorted. “You’d think the entire country was buried under the wave of a mighty Twigasm.”
Fluttershy’s lip actually turned up in a small grin. She glanced away knowingly. “Well, Twilight is the Princess of Friendship, after all.”
Trixie raised her cup. “Well, Trixie’s condolences to that costume the alligator ate, but I bet there were thirty other Twilights in the room at the time!”
“…thirty-six, actually.”
The two ponies stared at each other. Then they both laughed, one more raucously than the other.
“Oh my,” Fluttershy snorted, “that’s not even funny, that’s just awful…”
“Who’s the guest of honor?” Trixie asked. Fluttershy was still giggling.
“T-Twilight of course…eh heh…she always is…”
“So your friend the alligator just wanted some VIP variety! Trixie asks you, is that so wrong!?”
“…oh, eh heh, goodness no, just…oh heh heh…oh my…”
“Then what better way than to eat the guests??”
Fluttershy flushed with embarrassment, but could not stop her reaction. She didn’t guffaw for long, but the ice was broken, and she felt the tension ease out of her shoulders. She sat back, her muscles still sore from a nonstop day on her hooves, and allowed herself to relax again.
“You really need to get out more, you don’t know what you’re missing,” Trixie said. She yanked a few playing cards out of the wall with her magic and began to count on them. “There’s the bad friendship fanfiction panel, the ‘read the journal of friendship in silly voices’ competition, the friendship café – staffed by a bunch of ponies dressed up like Spike of course – the friendship games room, the everycreature diversity roundtable, the friendship soiree dance—”
“Oh, that’s Rarity’s event,” Fluttershy cut in.
“—the family fritter baking lesson—”
“That’s Applejack’s…”
“—turkey calling for charity—”
“…Pinkie Pie…”
“—the Wonderbolts old junk – I mean memorabilia auction, also for charity—"
“…Rainbow Dash…”
“—the battle of the bands, where you can bring your own instrument and pick a side—”
“…DJ Pon-3 and Octavia…”
“—the cake jamboree—”
“…Princess Celestia…”
“—beat the beat boxer—”
“…Zecora…”
“—making friends by smashing stuff—”
“…Yona and her friends…”
“—that weird thing they do with ‘gloves’—”
“…Lyra Heartstrings…”
“—the study group on thousand-year-old monsters, the airing of grievances, the spontaneous awkward sing-along that goes on the entire weekend, the vendor hall, you name it. Trixie can go on and on.”
“I know them all, I’ve read about them,” Fluttershy commented. “But I just don’t have the time to go. What do they sell in the vendor hall at a friendship convention?”
“Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie huffed.
“Like…buttons and pins and stuff with her picture on them?”
Trixie raised a brow. “Do you know what a ‘daki’ is?”
“…no?”
“You’re better off. Starlight owns one, and Trixie is not sure how she feels about that. Trixie also knows through a certain grapevine that Twilight Sparkle owns one, and that’s just not right, as far as I’m concerned. Not that Trixie would ever have something like that, eh heh! No ma’am!”
Fluttershy looked oblivious. She glanced out the window, and observed the last vestiges of Celestia’s sun as it dipped below the horizon. The sky was already deepening unto indigo and jet, but the city lights imbued everything with constant liveliness.
“Don’t they have events at night, too?” Fluttershy asked. Trixie let out a large yawn and fell backwards on the bed, her hind legs sticking out off the side.
“They do, but Trixie is too tired for that. Plus, I have to practice. The show must go on, and it must be perfect. Even the Great and Powerful Trixie requires rehearsal. Just not as much of it as mediocre ponies.”
Fluttershy took up Trixie’s yawn automatically. “Mmhmm, me too. Worn out, I mean.”
Trixie stared blankly at the ceiling. “Is a petting zoo really that much work?”
“Well, it can be, but…I guess not that much, no.”
Trixie lolled her head to the side and glanced at her roommate. “Then that’s not all of it?”
“…no,” Fluttershy admitted. “There are just…an awful lot of ponies at FriendshipCon. I know they all have fun in their rooms at night, but I’m happy that I have a place to be with my critter friends. Because, well…ponies can be a lot to take in. It’s not easy to explain, but I need a break sometimes.”
Trixie considered this whilst connecting dots in the ceiling panels in her mind. “Because you’re shy, you don’t know what to say to other ponies sometimes. And they think you’re being rude.”
“…y-yes, actually that’s exactly right,” Fluttershy said with surprise.
“And you talk a big game, because you want to be so good at what you do, because you want to be defined by it, but you’re always wondering if you’re not good enough, or if ponies are just laughing at you behind your back.”
“…um…no, what…?”
Trixie threw up her hooves. “Psh, been there, done that, got the Twilight Sparkle daki.”
“But you’re a good magician,” Fluttershy insisted. “I’ve seen your performances in Ponyville. They’re very nice.”
“I filled my hotel room with smoke enough to set off the fire alarms and then turned it into a gigantic aquarium.”
“I-I’m sure that was just…you were tired?”
“I nearly got mauled by a bear just now because I exploded everything in flowers and handkerchiefs.”
Fluttershy frowned. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. I’ve heard about your FriendshipCon show. Everypony says it’s just lovely.”
“Not this year,” Trixie admitted. She turned over on her stomach and buried her face in the quilt, her voice muffled beneath it. “Trixie had a very special show planned this year, on account of this being the very last Manehattan FriendshipCon. But Trixie needs her pretty decent for an assistant-detective-helper person! She promised she would be here! Only Trixie’s special assistant knows her routine well enough to pull it off!”
Fluttershy wasn’t a particularly close acquaintance of Trixie, but she felt sorry for the forlorn mare anyway. She considered offering her assistance, but she was well aware that her absence at the petting zoo could lead to disaster, and she had since learned not to hand out favors beyond her means. There was simply no way she could help. She looked for something to say, but Trixie was already on her hooves again, pacing about furiously over a section of carpet that was critter-free.
“It’s the last FriendshipCon!” Trixie repeated. “How could she not come!?”
“Well, it’s not really the last one,” Fluttershy consoled. “There are other conventions about friendship all over Equestria.” She smiled wryly. “You’re not one of those ponies who has it in their head that friendship is going to cease to exist just because of this one event ending, are you?”
“But those other conventions aren’t this one!” Trixie whisper-wailed, given she wanted no repeat of bears and wolves. “This one is special! Trixie is a busy mare – do you know how hard it is for me to just up and move around all over the place if there’s no show to put on? I can’t just go traipsing all over Equestria to all those places. I only have the time and bits for one convention a year, and this one, this one—”
Trixie wilted.
“—this one was special. I always go to this one with Starlight. Starlight is…she’s…Trixie’s only friend. I don’t feel right being at a place about friendship without my friend.”
Fluttershy softened. “I’m sure she wouldn’t have cancelled without a very good reason.”
“Well obviously she wouldn’t have, Trixie knows that of course,” Trixie replied. “It’s not just that. It’s that…we’ll never get to do this, exactly the way things are, ever again.”
Fluttershy watched Trixie trot to the window and park her rump on the floor. She could tell the unicorn was embarrassed, and felt bad that she could see Trixie’s expression clearly in the reflection of the window. She was downcast, staring at the city like a princess in a high tower over a lost battlefield, with a desire throw herself out at it.
For a time, there was nothing. Only the sounds of the city and the convention in the distance, marked by the much closer din of gently snoring critters. The silence became awkward, and Fluttershy noticed that she was doing nothing but watching the expression Trixie apparently didn’t want her to see. Trixie’s face was a dyke on the edge of bursting, and though Fluttershy had been denying it by burying herself in her work, she felt very much the same. At least she had her critter friends around her, and her pony friends who were all in attendance. Fluttershy had never seen Trixie truly relate to anypony other than Starlight Glimmer.
“The…show must go on, right?” Fluttershy finally meeped. Trixie didn’t move.
“Of course the show must go on, and the show is going to be fabulous. Trixie will see to that even if it kills her. I would dare do no less. But it’s not the same, and it never will be the same again.”
Fluttershy couldn’t say why, but a soft smile graced her lips. There was a certain understanding that glowed from inside her, and she rose to carefully make her way to the window. She placed a hoof on Trixie’s withers and stroked her gently there.
“Change is a part of life. You can’t spend all your days being afraid of it. Nothing is ending, it’s just…changing. You care about Starlight, right?”
Trixie looked lost. “Trixie does.”
“Well, she’s not going anywhere. And neither is Ponyville, your cart, your act, nor all the things you love. You can celebrate friendship every day of your life – you don’t need to have a place to gather, and no matter what anypony says, friendship isn’t going to end just because one event related to it ends. You only stop loving the things you love when you decide to. Nopony can force you to feel otherwise. As long as you’re kind, and honest, and generous, and loyal, and full of laughter and that certain magic, you can be a friend whenever. So what if you pick a different party next year to go to? Friendship is already inside of you. You’ve already learned what it has to teach. You’ll cherish these memories and make brand new ones.”
“But…Trixie’s going to miss this,” Trixie whimpered.
“So is Fluttershy,” Fluttershy smiled. “But you’ll move on, and you’ll still have friendship for as long as you want it. Everything’s going to be okay.”
Fluttershy’s words struck a chord, and she barely remained on her hooves when Trixie flung herself towards her. The unicorn buried her face in Fluttershy’s chest and shuddered all over. Fluttershy’s smile never wavered; she guided Trixie back to a posh lounge chair in the corner of the room and dragged her up onto it, creating a proper lap for her to melt into.
“There, there,” Fluttershy cooed as she stroked Trixie’s silver mane that glowed in the pale moonlight. “It really is going to be okay. I promise.”
“…T-Trixie has no friends…” Trixie muttered, “…nopony likes Trixie…”
“That’s not true,” Fluttershy amended. “Starlight likes you very much. You’re her best friend.”
“Trixie has no other friends…”
“Do you want other friends?”
Trixie was confounded. She looked up without thinking, exposing her puffy eyerims in the process.
“…what?”
“Do you want more friends,” Fluttershy repeated. “Friendship isn’t a competition. It’s not about how many friends you have. When you think about it that way your friendships become superfluous, or you end up thinking of friendship as a power struggle, like Cozy Glow did. It’s important to have friends and to be a friendly pony, but you don’t have to feel bad about not having a lot. If anything, it makes you an even better friend to the few you have.”
Trixie chewed on her lip, “This doesn’t seem like the advice Trixie would expect to receive about friendship from one of Twilight Sparkle’s friends. But then, Trixie always assumed you were too afraid of your own shadow to make many friends.”
“It’s true, I don’t have many friends myself. Not among ponies at least,” Fluttershy pointed out. “It used to really bother me. I thought that I should always be trying to make lots of friends, but when you’re a shy pony like me, it’s…very hard. I was stressing myself out a lot. I still like having and making friends, but I just don’t let making more bother me so much. I have my friends, and I still have time to do all the things I want to do with my day. But you’re right. I’m shy and scared about something every day of my life. But I’m learning how to deal with it.”
Trixie tilted her head; her wispy mane curled around her horn. “…you’re braver than Trixie then. Trixie is afraid to be who she is.” Her ears went flat, and her eyes downcast. She settled halfway on the chair, with her head in Fluttershy’s lap. “…I don’t even know what I’m doing with myself most of the time…”
Fluttershy felt her roommate shuddering again, though she could not see Trixie’s face. She held her, pulling her farther up on the chair, and once more stroked Trixie’s silvery mane. “Shh, it’s okay…” Fluttershy mused. “What do you really want then?”
Trixie did not answer.
In Fluttershy’s grasp was a small life, though no physically smaller nor younger than she. She reached over to yank on the chain of the only lamp present, and the modest hotel room went dark. Bathed only in the swirling glow of the city as it mingled with Luna’s grace, Fluttershy held onto that little life, and found within a level of unspoken understanding.
“…it’s okay…”
Trixie’s muzzle was buried again, but her muffled words could be made out. “Trixie is—I’m so tired. Starlight thinks I’m lazy, but it’s all I can do just to keep myself on the right track all the time. I’m so tired of always having to be in control of every little thing about me, every day…”
Fluttershy all but expected this, and the admission endeared her to Trixie in ways she couldn’t measure. It was the same thing she said herself, in the quiet embrace of those very most dear to her. She sat still, allowing Trixie to settle upon her, and let her heartbeat thrum in the unicorn’s ears.
“Have you told that to Starlight?”
“…no,” Trixie chuckled derisively. “I don’t even know why I’m saying it now.”
“Sometimes it’s easier to unburden yourself to somepony who’s not so close to the things you’re unburdening yourself about.”
In the relative darkness, the pair shared personal experiences about their fear of the world and how they dealt with it. The night deepened, and they spun off into a sleep-deprived stupor, their world morphing into a dream of passing ships, docked at a night port they might never again visit at the same time.
“…Trixie wants another friend…” Trixie whispered after she had somehow found her way up to Fluttershy’s ear. “Will you be Trixie’s friend?”
Fluttershy felt a nip. She waggled her ear against it, but it persisted through a second and third time. A syrupy sound rose in her throat – not words, but unmistakably affirmative, and she let it out in the darkness without restraint. In reply, she felt the broad, blunt wetness of a pony tongue as it trailed down the nape of her neck, pausing here and there to favor her coat with a gentle press. It gained her collarbone and traced that as well, forward and back, until doubling back on itself and climbing up the expanse of her sunny neck once more. It found her jaw, and traced between lips that chewed lightly at her while it made its way to her muzzle.
“…mmh…”
Trixie paused. She might have quit altogether out of uncertainty, but the pegasus jerked her head to the side and claimed those probing lips with her own. Trixie’s eyes went wide despite her initiative, but turned her head to lock with her partner’s muzzle. Her lids went heavy, and soon altogether closed, reducing the world to a dull glow.
“…mhh…hmmmnh…nnmh…”
Both made the sounds, which were soon set to the tune of smacking lips and the dance of swirling tongues. They dipped and twirled within each other, suckling and accepting as they probed the desires of the other. It went on this way until Trixie settled into a milking regime, and Fluttershy opened her eyes.
The unicorn was fully atop her now, but had made no other moves. Not a stroke or pet, not a single hoof of exploration. Trixie’s eyes were shut tightly and her ears were flat against her skull. Her cheeks were volcanic and her tail was swishing, but she seemed set upon a cue. Fluttershy placed a hoof on Trixie’s chest and gently pushed her such that her lips lost contact.
“…?”
Trixie’s expression was adorable – so much like Fluttershy’s beloved critters. It lit a certain fire within, and while stroking Trixie’s cheek, Fluttershy let out her voice in the softest coo yet:
“You want some other pony to take your reins sometimes, don’t you?”
Trixie was panting softly and her face was a mess. Mortified, she nodded.
“Because you’re in control all the time, and you’re just so tired of it.”
Trixie nodded again and nuzzled the hoof that stroked her. She seemed eager for more, but Fluttershy kept the contact to a simple pet. Trixie’s eyes began to wander.
“Look at mommy.”
Trixie blinked quizzically.
“You see, mommy loves her critters,” Fluttershy explained. “And mommy usually isn’t in control. Mommy’s shy and doesn’t have her way often or make her own decisions around other ponies. And I get tired of it too. So for me…things are in reverse.”
Trixie considered this, and came to realize the sense it made.
“Do you want to be mommy’s critter?”
Trixie was being given a choice. She knew that. But at the same time it wasn’t much of a choice, or rather…she didn’t want it to be. With a soft whimper she muttered her assent.
“What a good pony you are,” Fluttershy hummed. Taken by the hour, the moment, and her weariness, she began to draw swirls on Trixie’s tummy with her hoof, under which the unicorn satisfactorily squirmed.
“Oh my, are we ticklish?”
Fluttershy was merciless. She drew across Trixie’s coat with a light touch, and paid attention to those sensitive areas under the unicorn’s shoulders and down her spine. Trixie was biting her lip hard and seemed about to burst. Fluttershy leaned in to return the ear nip, and hovered there.
“…laugh for me, little critter…come on, don’t fight it…”
Trixie arched her neck and burst out into fits of laughter. She sought to pull her ticklish spots away, but Fluttershy wrapped a free foreleg around her and drew her close.
“No no no—” Fluttershy scolded gently. “Mommy wants you to laugh, let mommy make you laugh—”
Trixie’s desire outpaced her willpower, and she stopped struggling. She lay there like a lump, allowing herself to be mercilessly tickled as she guffawed like a fool. This went on for a solid minute until Fluttershy finally ceased the torment and wormed her muzzle into Trixie’s mane.
“I was right, you’re such a good critter,” Fluttershy sang.
It was a side of the pegasus she had precious little opportunity to explore, and the walls that so often kept her from it were finally down. Fluttershy took up Trixie in her grasp and struggled to carry the similar body weight to the bed, but Trixie lit her horn and assisted, even yanking back the covers, until they came to rest on the forgiving mattress.
Fluttershy kept Trixie atop her. She explored openly now, stroking with all her limbs and reveling in the squirms and meeps from her crass, yet great and powerful new friend. It was not her first tango with a unicorn – she began to trace her tongue around the coils in Trixie’s horn. The unicorn’s reaction did not disappoint.
“Oh, you like this?” Fluttershy whispered rhetorically. Trixie grunted through grit teeth and pawed at her benefactor like a foal for more. Slowly the pegasus swirled her way up to the summit, where she placed a single kiss and paused with her lips pursed just at the tip, patiently teasing. Trixie whined anew.
“…please…”
“Please what?” Fluttershy muttered.
Trixie flattened her ears, this time in defeat. “…please mommy…”
Fluttershy reveled. Tightly pursed she pressed down on the horn, allowing it to invade and push her apart as she went. She formed a tight seal and suckled, controlling the spire and forcing slow penetration despite the eagerness of its owner. Trixie pushed with the reckless drive of a virgin, but Fluttershy only allowed her to sink in at a measured pace. By the time her lips touched Trixie’s forehead, the unicorn was shivering harder than ever she had that night.
Fluttershy suckled and milked, drawing deeply from the horn as it sputtered with the light and harmless sparks of a unicorn in coitus. She had always imagined unicorn horns to each have their own subtle flavor to them. She hadn’t had so many to try, but where a certain friend tasted slightly minty and refined to her, Trixie’s horn was fruity and without subtle tones. Also, unlike a certain fabulous friend, Trixie was undulating the horn about, as though it were a twitching stallion organ in its own right. Fluttershy teased it at the base, wiggling the tip of her tongue under it, and heard from the unicorn another gasp.
“Mmhmmm,” Fluttershy mumbled. “Mmmm?”
The question was nonsensical, but Trixie seemed to understand anyway. Fluttershy began to draw back and up, pushing her back against the headboard, while Trixie followed along to stay within. She had no choice but to keep her head below that of the pegasus, and was quite helpless to respond to the yellow hind legs below, that were slowly pushing hers apart and forcing her to reposition herself lest she fall. When her stance became so awkward that she was dependent on those legs to keep her up, a foreleg traced down her belly towards a special place that only her own hoof and her special friend Starlight Glimmer knew. The hoof attached to it probed at her down there, staying maddeningly away from her needy button.
“…hah…nngh…”
Satisfied by the noises, Fluttershy slid up the horn and down two more times, taking her time of it before finally favoring the tip with another tiny kiss and slipping off. Trixie’s magic created an oscillating light – the weakness of an aroused unicorn, and nothing short of a bag over her head could hide it.
“So cute,” Fluttershy giggled. “I bet you want a whole bunch more…”
“Uh-huh…” Trixie whimpered shamelessly. Mauve eyes met turquoise, and Trixie melted under the surprising confidence in the latter. She never would have guessed, but maybe it really was the quiet ones.
Fluttershy kicked outwards with one of her legs. Helpless Trixie tumbled, but Fluttershy caught her and pushed her back, sitting up and moving forward as the unicorn sat and eventually fell back. They were the hands of a clock moving from nine to three, and with wings outstretched for presence, pegasus soon loomed over unicorn. Fluttershy’s eyes sparkled, and her smile was irresistible. A hoof tickled openly between Trixie’s legs.
“Come on now…open up little critter…”
Trixie became lost instantly in those eyes. She moved her hinds apart without thinking, and allowed herself to be watched closely as coital joy spread over her face. The yellow hoof finally made contact with her throbbing button, and Trixie tensed, as if somepony had just stabbed her with a whetted knife of pleasure.
Fluttershy’s hoof spun in circles. “You know, I actually do know what a daki is,” Fluttershy said casually. “You have one too don’t you.”
Trixie stifled a nod.
“I bet deep down inside, Twilight beating you and being better at things than you really turns you on. That’s why you try so hard to push all that away in public.”
Trixie’s cheeks were on fire. She shook her head sharply, but there was no conviction in it. Fluttershy drew close, and nipped at Trixie’s neck as the tip of her hoof pushed just slightly into the unicorn’s marehood.
“Tell mommy the truth…”
“…i-it…” Trixie stammered, “…it’s s-so sexy when ponies are better than T-Trixie…”
“Mmhmm,” Fluttershy agreed. “You put the Twilight pillow on top, don’t you.”
“…uh huh…”
Fluttershy’s hoof pushed deeper, but only just. She turned it over and dug at the roof of Trixie’s channel, until the bewildered unicorn began to weakly kick.
“Are you going to show mommy what you strap to it? I know you brought it with you.”
Trixie faltered. She tried her best to glance at her luggage, but the wide portion of Fluttershy’s hoof began to push past her walls, thoroughly distracting her from anything outside of the little world the pegasus had created on the bed.
“Oh, I didn’t go through your stuff,” Fluttershy smiled. “But I know you brought your toys with you anyway. I’m right, aren’t I.”
It was not a question, and Trixie could not refuse it. She nodded again.
“Show me—”
Trixie lit her horn. The undulating foreleg inside her made her magic weak, but she managed to unzip a duffle bag. From it she produced a considerable stallion shaft in black silicone, erect with a slight curve, sporting a ring and veins in all the right places. It even had testicles that dangled as it floated over, complete with a proper strap for Trixie’s pillow or the pelvis of a mare.
Fluttershy took the organ as soon as it was delivered, and as she continued to play with Trixie, made sure the unicorn could see that she was casually observing it. “Oh, now mommy will always know what your favorite toy looks like. The one you use when you and your special friend are both getting filled up and bred by Princess Twilight at the same time.”
It was another image Trixie thought buried deep, but Fluttershy seemed to know exactly what she was thinking at every turn. Embarrassment was assaulted the unicorn from all sides, but she didn’t care. She wanted to be examined. She wanted to be taken apart and brought low by a pony who had her reins wrapped around their hoof.
“There are reins, aren’t there.”
Trixie was so shocked that she wondered if she had spoken her thoughts aloud. Fluttershy’s critter control was a master stroke, and humbled beneath it, Trixie produced no less than a full bridle, bit, and set of reins from the same bag. She offered them up to her handler, and lay with her forelegs bent in a helpless praying position. Prone on her back her hind legs remained wide, and her pinned tail wiggled beneath her. She arched her hips, pushing onto the foreleg that gratefully began to sink in.
Fluttershy pumped her foreleg inside her partner a few times, rubbing over the spots that were special to her only to find them mutual in Trixie. She built into a small rhythm, but never took the pace too high, leading the spasming walls of her partner to medicore satisfaction that did little but increase Trixie’s need for more.
Fluttershy beat her wings and held them out again majestically as she stood over her prey, watching easily as Trixie was brought to the edge and taken down again over and over. Trixie’s hips rolled and angled, desperation taking her, but just as she felt she might be given her release, the hoof slipped from her grasp and was taken away.
“…b-but…but…”
Fluttershy sat up on the bed, licking the back of her damp hoof. “Oh, did you want more?”
“…y-you’re k-kidding…”
“Oh dear, that’s no way to ask for more.”
Fluttershy stood up on her hind legs on the bed, her forelegs akimbo. Her eyes were on the pony below her, but she did nothing else. Trixie glanced about uncertainly.
“Mommy shouldn’t have to do it herself, sweetie,” Fluttershy explained.
Trixie ohhed. She lit her horn, but Fluttershy reached down to touch it.
“No, not that way. No using that unless mommy says.”
Trixie’s horn winked out. She got up and crawled over to the stallion toy. Lifting it in her hooves, she scuttled over and began to put it in place, working the straps behind Fluttershy clumsily without her magic. She held the spire in place by putting it in her mouth, and though it took time, she finally managed to secure it around Fluttershy’s waist and between her legs. When she finished, an approving hoof came down on her head, and pushed her farther onto it.
“Good girl, very good girl. Show mommy how much you want Princess Twilight’s shy little friend to make your tummy all heavy.”
Trixie lavished her affections upon the inanimate toy. She traced each vein as though they pulsed with life, making a complex show of the effort for her handler, and rested its fuzzy sack in the frog of her hoof. She was on it and off again, drawing her tongue up the underside, pausing only when Fluttershy put a hoof to either side of her head and held her in place, just to make eye contact past the penis that covered Trixie’s muzzle.
The other side of the toy sported a little flared nub to provide pleasure to the wearer, but Fluttershy barely allowed it to stimulate her. Still fully in control of herself, she came down on her fours, allowed Trixie to marvel at the bouncy toy hanging under her, and finally took the unicorn under the chin.
“Come on, little horsey. Get up so we can get you ready.”
Trixie’s nether regions were throbbing with readiness already, but she understood. The touch under her chin was very light, but she allowed it to draw her body up until she too stood upon the bed. She stayed still and rigid, a proper mare, while Fluttershy trotted around her and inspected her from all sides. When satisfied, the pegasus stole Trixie’s voice away by placing the bit in her mouth, and began to secure the bridle and reins around her head.
“Oh that’s just lovely. You’re a proper critter now,” Fluttershy observed when the restraints were secure. Disallowed from her magic Trixie was helpless to free herself, and took a step dutifully forward as the hoof that twined her reins beckoned her.
“Come on, we’re going to take a little trip.”
Trixie didn’t understand. The room was rather small – did Fluttershy actually intend to parade her around the convention like this? Surely not, but then she had never expected the timid pegasus to act this way at all. She tensed up, but Fluttershy only yanked harder, and guided by desire she hopped off the bed.
Fluttershy did not lead her to the door.
In an instant, Trixie found her forehooves pressed against the window, along with the tip of her snout. She scanned the lit street – they were probably too far up to be noticed, but she couldn’t be certain, and a few lazy pegasi were flitting about to make homes for the night out of this little cloud and that. She stared until she realized she wasn’t getting any air, and wriggled her nostrils away. Fluttershy’s grinning visage was there in reflection over her shoulder.
“The things you unicorns and earth ponies don’t see way up high. You want them to see that you’re a good critter though, right?”
Trixie drank the words up. Her tail was going and she made no complaint.
Beyond the glass was a teeming sea of nightlife, but Trixie neither required nor wanted any part of it. It was enough to observe them, the little ponies going about their little business – bereft of the openness and joy that were about to be hers. Trixie felt hooves upon her rump, staying and shifting her, and a radiant warmth at her backside from the other equine life that shared the room.
“Mmm…” Fluttershy hummed, her melodious voice resonating between Trixie’s ears. A hard pressure probed along the unicorn’s backside, teasing and testing throughout. She felt one hoof leave her flank, and watched in the reflection of the glass as Fluttershy wound her silvery tail around one daffodil foreleg. The serpentine coils were slow and hypnotic, and Trixie’s breath became bated. She waited, the pressure from the toy tighter and tighter…
Trixie bit her lip hard to keep down a cry that would have woken the animals as Fluttershy’s flare invaded her. It dove in, sliding quickly to hilt; its journey eased by the silky soaking channel that had long begged for it. To Trixie it seemed as though every single defined vein that passed in had perfectly found her button, and she pressed her cheek to the glass just to steel herself against them all. Fluttershy had no remorse, and the toy’s large ring burst through with as much abandon as had its tip.
“…nnghhhahhh…hhhnnnghh—!”
“Shhhhhhhh,” Fluttershy whispered as she mashed her tip up against the cervix of her playmate. “We mustn’t wake the other critters…”
It was the most difficult thing Trixie had been asked to do in recent memory. She chewed hard on the bit in her mouth, biting down to choke off her pleasure as the toy took its time sliding out and then back in. Her favorite toy was not unfamiliar to her, but it had always been under the control of her magic – the timing and the rhythm and the speed had always been hers to command. Now it was the organ of a partner, flexing and twisting beyond her control, and she was helpless to do anything but ride the waves of mating pleasure it drew out as it slid across her nerves with every thrust. Her mind went white with the presence of overwhelming pleasure, and it was by the grace of her reins – which Fluttershy had switched to in lieu of her tail – that Trixie stayed on her jellylike hooves at all.
Fluttershy threw her head back, her flowing mane splashing out behind her. She yanked firmly on the reins, enough to keep Trixie up, and locked her other forehoof around the unicorn’s hip to support her. Yellow hinds stood firm on the carpet behind shuddering cyan ones, and Fluttershy finally chose to appreciate the nub at the opposite end of the toy. It pierced her but slightly with a normal thrust, and so she worked at it, all the while providing Trixie with collateral pleasure. In chasing her own peak, Fluttershy rocked Trixie to her core, slapping into her loudly with each meeting of their coats.
“…hahh…hahh…g-good g…gi…” Fluttershy managed, her mask of control failing under the ridges that fanned her special spots. “…nnh…oh…heh…m-mommy thinks you’re about t-to…”
Trixie whined hard against the bit as her walls went into involuntary spasm around her lover. She pawed weakly at the window, a delirious look on her face; the fur of her brow matted with perspiration. One hind leg stamped the ground, and with a powerful thrust she allowed herself to be pushed against the window to her chest. Her partner hammered home, tempering a chain of small climaxes that might have been just one long orgasm, but Trixie’s mind could not keep up with the peaks and valleys. She couldn’t even cry out with release. The thick, sturdy window thudded firmly before her, and the fan beneath the grate there chose that moment to spin up. Trixie’s mane and coat blew with a grateful breeze that kept her from overheating, though her eyes rolled back in her head with exhaustion.
“Ahh…hahh…hahh…y-yes…m-mommy l-loves her…criitt…criiii—” Fluttershy couldn’t manage the rest, for it was swallowed up by the first rolling thunder of her own orgasmic bliss. She was lost in it and didn’t want to stop, for the control she lacked in her life was hers here, and she could make it go on and on – take pleasure at the expense of her beloved little critter – as she desired. She rode one wave and then another, riding them high and skimming between each spiky crest. Like her partner she was prone to losing herself in a series of small strikes, until she could no longer count how many there had been, or barely register a time when she had not felt them.
It went on that way, biting back cries and staining the carpet beneath them, until neither could suffer a moment longer upright. Fluttershy, inebriated by lust, lurched backward and stumbled all the way to the bed, where she collapsed in a heap at its base upon the floor. She sat there, spread legged and quivering, gasping for breath, while the permanently erect organ between her legs stood tall and glistened with their love. Everything swam before her, and she was cognizant of none of it.
With dull thoughts the quiet pegasus pitied her friends, for she knew only few of them could ride the fireworks to such dizzying heights. The sparkle stayed with her, bearing her through the intensity, the assault on her senses, until desperate breaths became panting, and panting moved towards normalcy. At length the swirling brushstrokes of the world congealed again into a modest room at the Manehattan East Heights hotel. The fire inside her ebbed, but it did not wink out – she glowed with the embers of the moment after, warm and cozy without heed for the day or season.
Fluttershy’s head lolled. Her yellow legs were there, waiting for her next orders, and her pony tummy oscillated patiently before the toy she still wore. She heard the sounds of her sleeping critter friends, remembering them only now, and finally spared a thought for the other pony who had brought her to this.
“…Trixie…?” She offered to the room, uncertain if she had said the name or just thought it. Her reply came, and in a smattering of blinks she found the owner of the name she had called.
Trixie had crawled across the floor and collapsed on her side between Fluttershy’s legs. The faux organ blocked part of her from sight, but Fluttershy could feel her warmth and hear her breathing over the short distance. Trixie’s head rested against Fluttershy’s thigh, and she reached out to stroke the pretty mane that spilled over here.
“…good girl…” Fluttershy finally managed. “…I th-think we both needed—”
To her amazement, Trixie shot up to her haunches as though they were spring-loaded. She was a mare possessed – the want of lust mingled with need to fill a void within that had yet to be sated. With a yelp of surprise from her handler she was upon Fluttershy, straddling her, the curved spire running up her backside. A torrent of butterfly kisses peppered Fluttershy’s cheeks and lips, deepening unto saccharine smooches and twirling tongues.
“Mmh…mmm…” Fluttershy muttered with the assault, “…mmh…oh, mmmy…mmh…w-who knew…mmmnhhmhh…”
Exhaustion was hot on Trixie’s brow, but she did not care. She cooed and squeaked like a furry little critter, cupping Fluttershy’s cheeks as she went. Her bit had gotten off to who knew where, but her reins and bridle were complete, and Fluttershy threaded the former about her leg anew. She tugged playfully, but no encouragement was required. Trixie rolled her hips and ground them into Fluttershy’s stomach, her tail swishing like an overstimulated dog.
“…mmmhhh…l-littlemmgh critter wants m-morrghhh…”
Fluttershy slapped Trixie’s rump with two hooves and grunted. With the unicorn’s help Fluttershy had her aloft, and held her in place until the stallion toy could be brought to bear. With no mind for subtlety on either of their parts, she dropped Trixie down and let her to it; allowing her to swallow up the toy and take it to the hilt in the turning of a second.
“Nnghh!”
They cried out together, their stifled song in unison, for Trixie’s weight was more than enough to thrust the nub further into the pegasus than it had gone before. The pair became as one – their cries together, their limbs a tangled mass. Nature took their faculties away, for Fluttershy’s wings stretched to their inflexible limit and Trixie’s horn became a flickering, sputtering beacon across a stormy sea. They fell over and rolled about the floor, reason torn away; in their minds was nothing but the passion for release.
Fluttershy’s critters seemed to understand. Barely disturbed they moved about, finding other positions for themselves like a disinterested wolf pack. Their alpha was breeding – this was her right, and it was a sign of acceptance for the newcomer.
Time was gone. The hour was inconsequential, as was the venue. They found bliss in one another time and again, until even their exhaustion was spent, and they found themselves in a tangled mass upon the floor, neither knowing which way was up. Trixie’s bridle and reins had snapped off somewhere. Manes were mussed; coat hairs and scent were upon each other. Matted all over by mingling perspiration, they lay cheek to cheek, nuzzling with purile affection.
“…T-Trixie doesn’t…know where she is…”
Fluttershy blasted out a weak giggle. “…eh heh heh…s-silly…”
Trixie started only when she felt a warm presence at her back, where she was at least somewhat sure her lover wasn’t. She looked up to find a sleeping wolf there. Muddled concern showed on her face, but she hadn’t the strength to move, and the overwhelming onset of afterglow kept her from any desire to. Another wolf lay beside the mated pair, and a third.
“…instinct,” Fluttershy explained softly. “They like you, eh heh…”
Trixie shrugged, accepting the explanation, and her head flopped back down. She touched her lips to Fluttershy’s forehead. “Trixie…I…really needed that.”
“Me too…”
Trixie flexed her limbs, and found every one of them pinned in some way or another. “…Trixie can’t move.”
“Neither can Fluttershy,” Fluttershy muttered.
“What should we do?”
Fluttershy gave full vent to a deep, unladylike yawn. She smacked her lips and wormed the tip of her muzzle into the crook of Trixie’s neck. “…sleep. We have a big day tomorrow.”
“This is only day two…”
“Mmhmm.”
“Are you staying an extra day?” Trixie asked hopefully.
“Mmhmm.”
Trixie smiled between Fluttershy’s ears. “Trixie gets to have two more nights with you, then.”
“Mmhmmmm…”
Trixie pulled her head back, enough for her partner to see the weight on her brow. Fluttershy touched Trixie’s cheek and gave her a chaste kiss.
“You’re right, I don’t see enough of FriendshipCon. I need to trust Dr. Fauna to handle things more.”
Trixie blinked. “…yes?”
“Is being disappeared or sawed in half scary?”
Trixie’s lips parted in a broad, honest smile. “Nothing is scary for the Great and Powerful Trixie’s pretty decent for an assistant-detective-helper person.” She cleared her throat. “And…thanks. Trixie thinks maybe wolves and bears are also not as scary as I thought.”
Fluttershy ruffled Trixie’s mane with her lips. “Good critter. Snuggle with mommy.”
Trixie, her lover’s shaft still inside her, obeyed.
* * * * *
In the year 2019, Manehattan FriendshipCon came to a permanent close. It was not the only event of its kind, but it was among the largest and most memorable, where lasting friendships were made, and many tears of happiness were shed. As predicted by a certain daffodil pegasus, friendship itself did not expire, but was only strengthened as a bond by those who adored it enough to turn out for any event in its honor.
Somewhere among the hustle and bustle, an unlikely and brand new, lasting friendship was born. It was a great gift, that might never have happened if those involved hadn’t had their special event to share, and all the togetherness it brought. It followed them home and remained with them for the rest of their days, shared among those for whom they cared and special friends alike. In happiness they went boldly forth, with no fear for a bold new world so long as they had each other.
Truly, for them and for all, friendship is magic.
