Chapters "Flits..."
A whisper, or maybe a mumble, or maybe a far-off voice penetrated the calm warm veil sheltering her. With that perforation, light poured through, diluting the soothing darkness and letting other things in with it. Irritating things, like an insistent pressing and nudging against her collarbone, and a familiar voice.
"Flitter, yoohoo."
So it wasn't irritating per se. It was gentle and encouraging. She still blamed it for making her open her eyes and allowing the light of the morning sun to spill into them, washing away the relaxing residue of slumber and replacing it with vaguely defined shapes and colours. Even before the fuzzy purples and blues and whites came into focus, Flitter addressed her sister.
"Morning, CC..." she murmured at last, releasing an extended yawn in eulogy to her restful hours. The sight of Cloudchaser's smiling visage so near to her made her blink, and then naturally smile back, even as weary as she felt.
"There you are. Have a nice dream?" Cloudchaser asked, the edge of one of her lips turning up a bit. This gave Flitter pause. Had she had a dream at all? She could vaguely recall something pleasant in her attempts. It made her chest fill with a gentle warmth, and a subtle tingling spread around her ears and made her remember the taste of cinnamon.
"Yeah," She decided with a second, smaller yawn that it had been a good dream. Seeking Cloud's face, the pale indigo of her coat ringed by her as of yet unkempt mane, she found the light purple rings of her sister's eyes no longer fixed on her own. Instead, they had turned further along her form in the bed, where Flitter was shocked to discover the downy blanket strewn haphazardly about her rising like a proud mountain peak where it met her lap. With a sudden nicker of embarrassment, she twisted onto her side, hiding the impromptu peak amidst the soft blankets and sheets. Cloudchaser stifled an outright laugh into one of her snickers as her sister quickly explained, not for the first time, "It just does that!"
"Pfff, yeah, I know. It's nothing I haven't seen before," Cloudchaser was quick to recover, giving her flustered sibling one last encouraging nudge. "Don't think there's much time to deal with that, though. You got morning weather duty, right?"
"Ugh, that's right," Flitter groaned, the brief, hot bloom of embarrassment quickly supplanted by her memory of that particular obligation.
"Hey, it's not that bad. Up and at 'em! You don't see me complaining about formation drill today, do ya?" Cloud's voice was encouraging, as usual, but Flitter didn't want to let her think she thought so. Instead, she just groaned and flopped her head back onto the pillow.
"But you liiiike your drills," she whined, as fillyish as she could manage. Cloudchaser just rolled her eyes, earning a little smile.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, grab a shower and I'll get breakfast cooking."
Before Flitter had a chance to reply, her sister had moved off into the other room. The pegasus sighed and relaxed for a moment more, hesitant to relinquish the warmth of their sizable bed. Her gaze slowly wandered the features of their room, basking for a moment more in its soothing familiarity. They wandered over the framed photographs of herself, her sister, and their friends, starting on the left from a photograph of her proudly displaying her very first ribbon when they were still so young, along a short line rightward following their path together through life up to the latest, portraying her sister proudly displaying the uniform of the Wonderbolt Academy. That beaming expression behind the glass made her smile herself before her eyes meandered on, moving past their shared wardrobe to the bookshelf displaying an eclectic mixture of titles, 'History of the Wonderbolts', 'Entomology Equestria', and the latest Shadow Spade novel amongst them.
Finally, her gaze fell upon the trio of mesh butterfly enclosures sitting below the bedroom window. The verdant greenery within caught the morning sun, a small but vibrant display of nature that brought to mind the garden their mother kept when they were both still living with her. She strained her eyes for a moment for any hint of colourful wings amidst the leafage, before sighing. The last of the three Whitetail Swallowtail specimens she'd collected had yet to emerge from its chrysalis, making it later than its fellows by a whole two days. A little worry nipped at the back of her mind for a moment, and she considered wrapping herself up in a blanket cocoon of her own making, but both the sensation and the thought with it were dismissed by the sound of her sister's voice from the next room. "C'mon, Flits! I don't hear the shower running!"
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered defiantly in the knowledge that the other couldn't hear. She stretched and got to her hooves to make for the bathroom.
It took fifteen minutes for Flitter to wash off under the steaming water of their shower and another fifteen for herself and her sister to complete their shared morning ritual. After brushing their teeth, each thoroughly brushed out the fine blue hair of the other's tail and mane, and Flitter carefully combed and gelled and combed her sister's hair until it was satisfactorily swooshed. After a cursory inspection of herself in their bathroom's full-length mirror--and a suave wink to sell it--Cloudchaser returned the favour by adroitly tying her sister's ribbon into her long mane, forming a large pink bow.
Flitter took much longer to complete her assessment. She used her hooves to give the accessory a few tugs, this way or that, to make sure it was well secured, and she tossed her mane from side to side to the same end. Only once it was certain it would only be undone by persistent pulling at one of the loose ends did she move on. She turned around and lifted the blue cascade of her tail aside, craning her neck to inspect the rear view in the mirror.
Between her hind legs was the perfect seeming of a vulva, dark purple in colour and as puffy and round and plain as any other mare's. She sighed in relief, but nonetheless took the extra two minutes to shift left and right, up and down, and even moved one of her hooves back to press it experimentally up between her haunches. Even with the phantom brush of the truth against her limb, the image in the mirror didn't so much as shimmer at the edges. Smiling, she took a few more moments to simply admire the sight of herself, giving her tail a few emphasizing sways from side to side.
Cloudchaser watched quietly until Flitter seemed comfortable enough to flaunt at her reflection. The sight made her smile, and she reached out one of her hooves, brushing its leading edge against the three dragonflies marking the softest part of Flitter's hip. Flitter inhaled, and Cloudchaser winced apologetically. "Still feeling sore?"
"Just a little," Flitter exhaled.
"Alright," the older twin said, flashing a white grin. "Well, if you're done ogling yourself, let's finish up and grab breakfast before we're late."
"Just a few more minutes?" the younger twin giggled in reply, already moving aside to allow them both to wash their faces in the low sink. Instead, they spent those minutes applying the light makeup their respective duties as pegasi would allow. Each took it in turns to lean in close to the other, applying the lightest touch of foundation, and then more carefully still the waterproof eyeliner and mascara the other sister preferred. By the time they'd finished, Flitter had a slight, warm tingling in her ears, and the last of her sleepiness had been wiped away.
Ready to face the day, the pair finally moved on. The kitchen and the living room of their shared one-bedroom home blended freely together, offering a reasonably spacious room that neither could provide alone. The keepsakes of both sisters also blended freely. A smattering of Cloudchaser's medals from school were framed above a colourfully illustrated poster displaying a few of the rare chromatic species of dragonflies that were found only in the Everfree. A small collection of potted plants soaked in the light of one of the room's windows, while the light of another caught the red and pink and yellow of the Ponyville Township Team banner that hung in its sill. Photos dotted the walls, mostly from their life in the lively little town.
"Sliced fruit again?" Flitter sighed as they sat down together at the low table that centered the living room portion of the space. Turning her gaze from where the assorted fruit lay colourfully at the bottom of a shallow white bowl, she reached for the pair of pills next to it. She quickly swallowed them, and then drank down the clear silvery contents of the small tincture that had flanked them. Somehow, the tasteless potion always managed to make her eyes water.
"Hey, fruit is good stuff! Healthy and solid energy, and most importantly easy to make," Cloudchaser assured. Flitter rolled her eyes, but was glad for the sweet taste of the peach and melon as it soothed the intangible aftertaste of the medicine.
"Mmh," the barely younger mare affirmed with a swallow, "but I still wouldn't call it 'cooking'." Flitter checked the old wood-backed clock near the door while Cloudchaser vigorously chomped at her own mouthful. "Weather team is doing another picnic today, starting around three."
"Agh, that's right," the elder equine groaned, doing her level best to look dissatisfied by the obligation. "I guess if you're going, I have to show up." Flitter smiled around her breakfast. Cloudchaser tapped her chin, then asked, "Your appointment is today too, right?"
"That's right," Flitter echoed. "That's earlier though, so shouldn't interfere. At one-fifteen. Though Doctor Trotter is usually running a little behind."
"Guess I'll see you at the picnic, then," Cloudchaser said resignedly, but Flitter knew it was a promise. Their quick meal complete, Cloudchaser wiped her lips with the back of a leg and glanced down at the table to find the pair of tubes standing beside the empty bottle. "Balm?"
"Mm-hm!" Flitter answered, already a step ahead. They leaned in close, nearly muzzle to muzzle, and holding the little tube carefully between her lips she smoothly applied the glossy substance to the ring of her sibling's presented mouth. The spicy scent made her heart race.
Quickly completing her part, Flitter set the stick aside and presented her own soft lips as Cloudchaser's face neared with the other stick, its sweet vanilla fragrance already filling her nose. As first contact was made, though, both ponies jumped at the sudden sound of a 'thump!' against the edge of the table. Cloudchaser's muzzle wrinkled as she struggled to choke back her laughter and avoid dropping the lip balm. All the same, she managed to shakily carry out her duty. Flitter's ears pinned back against her head and she had to shut her eyes for the duration.
"Still all worked up, huh?" Cloudchaser smirked her way, ingratiating and irritating all at once.
Flitter sighed and admitted, "Yeah." Four violet eyes checked the clock.
"'Fraid it'll have to wait 'til later," Cloudchaser said, apologetically.
"Yeah," Flitter repeated more quietly. Still, she smiled as she saw her sister's near-identical features drawing closer again, and pursed her lips. Cloudchaser playfully evaded them, planting her kiss instead on Flitter's nose.
Another, smaller, thump resounded.
"Jeeze, Flits. Well, hopefully nothing a morning's weatherwork can't distract from, hm?" Cloudchaser teased, only answering her twin's glare by giving her a short nuzzle at the base of one of her ears. "Love you, sis."
Flitter huffed, but had no choice but to reply, "I love you too, CC."
"Heya, Flitter!"
"Hi, Blossomforth," Flitter answered as her hooves touched down on the verdant, sun-warmed grass of Ponyville park. She'd managed to spot the pegasus from above, tucked away as in a little corner between a weathered sculpture and one of the many spring floral arrangements that always came to dominate the park that time of year.
Blossomforth had already begun her routine with no qualms about subjecting her snow-white fur to the ground, and the glaring pink and green streaks of her mane and tail fell about her messily. Her front legs were bent sharply to bring her freckled face an inch from the ground, while her back flowed in a tight swoop up to where one of her hind-legs remained standing almost normally. Its counterpart, meanwhile, lifted slowly, very slowly, back and higher and higher, not so much as trembling from the exertion.
"Y'know, you don't have to stay after with me every time we have a shift together," Blossomforth's chirpy voice drew Flitter's gaze away from its course tracing the smooth musculature of her leg along to where it met her form. Flitter smiled as she looked down into the sky blue eyes of her friend.
"Yeah, I know. It's just interesting to watch you practise," she said, looking to Blossomforth's rear hoof, now nearly even with the freshly cleared sky. After a moment's pause, she admitted, "And, well... I do sometimes worry you'll get stuck again."
"You worry too much, Flitter! I haven't gotten stuck in, what, months now? Nearly a year?" she held this position as she spoke, just the slightest strain showing through in her tone. "I've improved a lot since, you know, that time."
"That's true," the other pegasus admitted earnestly. "Still... They spent the better part of the next day at Ponyville Clinic trying to get your legs going the right way. And Davenport couldn't look you in the eye for weeks."
A fit of warm, wheezy giggles sent little tremors through Blossomforth's form, threatening to topple her. One of Flitter's hooves shot forward without thought, bracing her leg and stabilizing the stretching pony's precarious position. "Don't remind me!" Blossomforth finally retorted after she'd gotten herself under control. "Though, it was actually pretty nice getting tangled up with him like that. You wouldn't expect the quills-and-sofas guy to smell that nice, but there ya go! Oh, well, and I'm grateful he found me, too."
It took a moment for Flitter to remember to remove her hoof from the warm, shapely surface of her flexible friend's extended leg. She felt herself swallow as she withdrew it, some half-remembered sensation from her dream made manifest by the reassuring strength she felt in that brief touch. She quickly navigated past it, focusing her attention on Blossomforth's face and their conversation. "You're lucky he did, or you could have been stuck that way all night."
"Yeah, yeah. Hooh!" With that brief noise of exertion, the white pegasus shifted her equilibrium wholly into her front hooves, and Flitter had to struggle for a moment not to stare at the other hind leg ascending to join its partner. There was a little more strain in Blossomforth's voice, but she spoke on with all of her usual chipperness even as her front legs trembled a bit in the exertion of slowly lifting her face away from the ground. "Haa, hey, speaking of the clinic..."
Flitter took the pause to be a matter of focus on her fellow weatherpony's part and only realised after a moment that those blue eyes were fixed on her expectantly. "Er, yeah?"
"You have appointments there pretty often, right?" Blossomforth continued, now a few more inches from the grassy floor.
"Well, yeah, I guess. I have one today, actually," Flitter murmured without too much thought.
"Wait, what, why? Are you sick?!" The mare lifted herself abruptly to eye level, peering concern-stricken into Flitter's dumbfounded face. The absurdity of the other pony's position combined with the intensity of her question stunned her, and she found her mouth silently struggling to answer the uncomfortable question for an inordinately long time.
"Uhh, ah, no," she finally struggled out beneath Blossomforth's gaze and the imposing shadow of her body smoothly bending upwards to support her now totally-upright rear legs. She could tell the other mare wasn't satisfied by this answer and breathed a little sigh as she found herself resorting to the usual half-truth. "It's, uhm, more... Just like, a condition. I have to check in regularly, but it's nothing life-threatening. It's something I've had for a long time."
"Really?" Blossomforth's worried glare intensified. For a moment, Flitter's breath caught as a knot of anxiety wrapped itself around her lungs. Just as quickly, though, it was dispelled by the sight of her friend's encouraging smile. "Whew, that's such a relief! Err, not that you have some kinda condition, but that you're not suffering some kinda withering terminal illness! All while working to support your twin sister in attaining her lifelong dream..."
Flitter giggled loudly in that way she always found obnoxious in herself, but Blossomforth only seemed the happier for it. "We're not in some kind of romantic tragedy, Blossom, gee!" She let another sigh escape, this time relieved.
"C'mon, you'd totally make a great tragic heroine!" the downside-up pegasus assured. "Hoo, okay, I've been practising the last step..."
Flitter watched with a smile as Blossomforth continued on through her pose with gradual confidence, although it made her wince to watch as the other pony's back gradually bent in a way she wasn't sure came naturally to the equine form. Her spine arched deeper and deeper as her hindquarters slowly descended, her wings and rear legs both slowly shifting outwards to help her balance. Every muscle beneath that fine white coat seemed to subtly strain in collaboration toward the final result, and Flitter couldn't deny the sight was fascinating and a little titillating.
"... And tadaa!" the mare proudly declared as her croup came to rest balanced neatly atop her head. Her be-ribboned friend beamed but before she could congratulate her, an avalanche of watermelon coloured hair obscured Blossom's freckly features. She offered only a little giggle and a pronounced 'oomph!' in surprise at her own tail suddenly rendering her blind.
Flitter, meanwhile, found herself the more surprised of the two. Her friend's haphazard antics left her neatly eye-to-ass and less than half a foot from Blossomforth's now explicitly displayed genitalia. The flexible mare's legs spread wide and balanced to either side of a plush, pretty mound, the snowy colour of her coat neatly transitioning into an even more pristine shade of bare white flesh, which itself parted just slightly to flash the vivid pink within.
To merely catch a glimpse of what lay below a mare or stallion's tail was normal enough so as to be hardly considered, and in truth it was more common between them even than normal, given Blossomforth's particular choice of pastime. Yet today the sight called a deep-buried instinct panting and galloping up into the fore of Flitter's already frazzled mind. With it came a confident and aggressive heat that left her cheeks and ears burning and filled her lungs and... other places. She huffed, trying to clear her head with a few breaths as she often did for anxiety, but this only exposed her to her friend's vibrant scent. The mildly sweet, fruity fragrance of her shampoo mixed with the earthy undertone of her exertion, and with the still louder note that one now-galvanized corner of her brain kept loudly reminding her was 'female, female!'
"Well, pretty impressive, right?" Blossomforth finally prompted after rendering the pegasus momentarily speechless. Flitter realised that she'd been inclining her head closer and suddenly straightened, her face practically glowing.
"Uh, ah, yes! Very..." she stumbled through her response. Her attempt to look her friend in the face was interrupted by the sight of the puffy ring that naturally followed downwards from the pleasing, feminine valley of her cleft in this inverted position. She glanced quickly back upwards. There was the slightest sheen of dampness marking those pleasingly-formed folds, which she knew must be from the morning's labour and her athletic display, but which the clamouring peanut gallery of her excitement assured her was a definite invitation.
"Right?! Actually, I was thinking that with practise, I could even take it up a notch, and balance on just one front leg!” the other pegasus, bless her, prattled on brightly, dashing any notion building in the not-horny part of Flitter's brain that this was possibly some kind of roundabout, strange, but not precisely out of character attempt by her friend to seduce her. All the same, the decidedly not-not-horny parts of her protested loudly as she took a step back and away, and the foremost among them throbbed, hot and irritable at her defiance. "... But I really should figure out what to do with my tail before all that, huh? Maybe I could get it cut shorter, or maybe tie it in place somehow. Oh, maybe I could use a cute ribbon like yours, Flitter! Er, Flitter?"
The embarrassed mare had managed to retreat a farther two steps despite certain mental assurances that Blossom calling her ribbon cute was a conclusive green light. "I, haa, I really... Really oughta get going. To my appointment..."
"Whoa, Flitter, you sound really out of breath suddenly," Blossomforth replied worriedly. Flitter could practically see that same concerned expression from earlier past the colourful hair of her tail and her enticingly flaunted flower. "... Oh no, is it your condition? It's flaring up right now?! Well, go on then, rrrf... I'll uhm... I'll get out of this one myself, then." Flitter watched her friend's trim form flexing to lift her rear half back upwards, but she didn't have the strength of will to stick around and observe.
"Hhhyeahthatmustbeitbye!" she blurted out as her feet were already leaving the ground, wingbeats carrying her off.
"Oh yeah! The picnic later! You and 'Chaser are coming, right?" the still grounded and contorted Blossomforth boomed out after her, only to find that Flitter had already flitted off. After a few more fruitless grunts of exertion, she sighed and chuckled to herself, "That Flitter can be so strange sometimes... Oh well, I hope her appointment goes well."
"Good afternoon, Miss Flitter."
The pegasus jumped a bit at the voice, her wings flaring and her eyes shooting from an informational poster on feather flu to the door. An earth pony of passing familiarity crossed the threshold, looking Flitter briefly up and down with a pair of blue eyes. She had white fur and a pink mane neatly tied up, and donned a nurse's cap and a light smile.
"Uh, hi," Flitter answered, trying to remember the nurse's name as she bashfully returned her wings to her sides. She knew she worked at the clinic, but couldn't recall if she'd ever heard it. She was quickly preempted.
"I'm Nurse Redheart. As you know, Doctor Trotter retired recently. I've been assigned to handle your checkups for the immediate future," Redheart explained, maintaining her smile even as Flitter's own dropped a bit.
"Oh, that's right." Flitter's ears lowered. Trotter had been the matter-of-fact but gentle mare who'd seen Flitter through the better part of her treatment. The memory of last month's appointment had largely faded over the last few weeks, but it returned in clarity now. As blunt as ever, Trotter had ended the last appointment by telling the pegasus that next week she was off to Silver Stable, and that she was proud to have watched Flitter mature into the bright young mare she was. The nurse waited patiently for Flitter to lift her gaze to her again.
"So, shall we get right to it?" Her voice was smooth and cool, but not cold.
"Sure," Flitter sighed softly as the practitioner took a moment to approach the nearby counter to look through the stack of papers on a clipboard detailing everything Flitter wouldn't be comfortable telling a friend. In the meantime, Flitter relaxed into the paper-protected cushion of the low exam room table, both hearing and feeling its distinct crinkling as she settled in. Cloudchaser would complain practically every time she had an appointment that she didn't care for the cold, sterile environment of the Ponyville Clinic, but Flitter herself had always found something calming about the neutral colours, the spotless tiles and counters, and even the slight lingering scent of disinfectant. It was tidy and reliable, which was the most you could want from a medical facility, and it had been for every one of her monthly visits since she and her sister had moved to Ponyville. She could already feel herself calming down from the lingering bout of embarrassment earlier, even if she couldn't quite shake the underlying... frustration.
"I understand you started a new treatment recently?" Redheart very neatly and politely recaptured Flitter's focus from the irritating heat between her thighs.
"Uh, that's right," Flitter answered, not quite able to look the nurse in the eye.
"And how have the results been so far?"
That question gave Flitter pause, but it was a welcome distraction from less welcome distractions. It took her a long moment to reflect on what changes she'd noticed, but as she recalled the subtle but vital differences, she couldn't help but smile. All the same, it was difficult to find the words to explain to another soul--especially other than her sister--and it was only Nurse Redheart's reassuring expression that finally helped them all tumble out.
"Well, ah, really, good so far?" the pegasus started, halting at first, but she gained a bit of confidence as she continued. "I think the biggest thing has been the hips. At first I thought I was gaining weight, and I only even looked closely because they were feeling sore, but they've definitely started to fill out even in just these few weeks in a way the previous treatment just... didn't. In, in another year, I'll look almost just like a real mare!" The bright hope in her words was contrasted by a self-conscious cringe as she realised just how poorly she'd expressed it.
"You are a real mare, Miss Flitter. The treatments are to help your body reflect what you already know," the nurse replied matter-of-factly, before taking a moment to jot a note in the records with a quick exertion of her lips and jaw on her pen. Then, she was right back with the patient. "And, for the record, you already pass very well. Any other changes to note?"
"Well, there's my voice." Flitter found it surprisingly easy to move right past her brief bout of embarrassment, feeling her ears warm a bit at the kind earth pony's compliment. "I didn't notice it myself, but my sister said she thought it was starting to sound a little higher." Another abrupt flurry of pen strokes took note.
"That's very promising progress for the first month of treatment," Redheart noted out loud, and Flitter had to hold in a giddy, relieved giggle of agreement.
"I think so too," she said instead, meeting the mare's smile with her own.
"Have there been any unwanted side effects?" the medical pony continued to the next point. Flitter's smile dropped from her features, and she scrambled to pick it back up before Redheart noticed. Unfortunately, the astute physician had immediately noticed, so the mare's hastily erected facade was immediately defeated by a skeptical glance.
"Uh... Ah... Just, one big one, really," the pegasus admitted with a hefty sigh, already feeling her face heating as she realised the practitioner would want to know the details. As anticipated, Redheart was looking at her expectantly, although Flitter appreciated that she seemed content to wait for her to work up the courage to speak again. "I've been really... excitable, lately."
"Excitable," the nurse echoed curiously with a single blink, glancing towards the clipboard. "Do you mean restless? Or unusually energetic?" Looking back towards her patient, Redheart seemed to immediately understand that she'd meant something else by the pronounced swivel of her ears back and down. Rather than make another guess, though, the pink-maned pony merely awaited Flitter to explain more in her own words. The room's singular clock ticked by the seconds.
"I meant... Ah, well... H-Horny?" Flitter finally managed.
"Ahh, persistent arousal," the physician finally supplied a more graceful term than Flitter's brain had seen fit to conjure. An immaculately clean white hoof lifted one of the pages of her file, scanning down through it momentarily. "Well, a significant uptick in libido is one of the rarer potential side effects. It should naturally smooth out over time, but if it persists past the first few months, we may need to prescribe you something to bring things back in balance." She diligently recorded this incredibly embarrassing detail with a few more jots of the pen. "And that's the only side effect you've noticed?"
"Yeah," Flitter mumbled.
"Then that should conclude our checkup."
"Really? That was fast," Flitter remarked, relieved. While she'd miss Doctor Trotter talking her ear off every time she came in for an appointment, it was admittedly pleasant to have a practitioner as prompt and professional as Nurse Redheart.
"Just a short checkup, after all. We'll just need to schedule some blood work before your next appointment." With a scratch-scratch and a clatter for punctuation, the pen fell to the counter. "And, of course, if you start to notice any pressing side effects you should try to come in as soon as possible."
Flitter privately guessed that chronic horniness must not have classed as a medical emergency, or else her sister would be here even more often than she was. She hoped the medical mare didn't notice her self-amused snicker as she started to get to her feet. She was stopped cold as Redheart looked from the clock to her and spoke, "One moment. I have about ten minutes before the next appointment. If you're not in a rush, would you mind if I gave you a cursory examination?" Seeing the skeptical look in the other pony's violet eyes, the tidy mare explained, "I find it helps to get a good idea of a regular patient's physical condition when we start. Then I have a better chance to notice any changes they might not notice themselves. There won't be any touching or prodding or checking your teeth."
The pegasus settled back onto her papery seat, starting to think maybe promptness and professionalism had their drawbacks, too. All the same, she nodded her assent. "Sure, I guess I don't have any place to be."
"It shouldn't take more than a few minutes," the medical mare assured, stepping closer. "Look straight ahead for me."
She wasted no time, leaning into Flitter's personal bubble to inspect her eyes in a way the pegasus had to remind herself wasn't intimate. Nearly muzzle to muzzle, Flitter couldn't help but notice all the little details of her new physician; how vividly blue her searching eyes were, how long and lustrous her eyelashes were, and how she'd so carefully applied her modest makeup so as to make it seem entirely natural. She leaned slightly, side to side, and then ordered, "Now follow me with your eyes."
The pegasus did as she was told, simply watching the pretty earth pony through her methodical movements. She carried almost no scent discernible from the clinic, likely foregoing any perfume for the sake of her patients, except for the slightest note of sweetness that left Flitter wondering. Its source only became evident when she noticed the stems of a pair of wrapped lollipops tucked between one of Nurse Redheart's ears and her cap.
"Good," Redheart cut into Flitter's counter examination, satisfied, "now wings." The pegasus pony stretched and flared her wings in a near-instinctual response to this request, years of similar examinations priming her to neatly spread them to display her feathers just-so. It was always awkward to feel another pony's eyes roaming them, but in this case she found it more bearable than having the other pony's face inches from her own.
"My! Not a feather out of place," the earth pony announced brightly as her eyes finished their circuit of the first wing and moved on to the second.
"Oh, thanks!" Flitter responded with a note of pride. "Cloudchaser and I preen for each other every few days. It's a lot easier than trying to do it alone, and cheaper than getting it done professionally."
"Coltfriend?" Redheart idly guessed at the name.
"Oh, uh, my sister.” The winged pony swallowed a bit, but before the other could apologise she dismissed it with a slight chuckle. "Don't worry, you're not the first pony to make that guess."
"I see. Well, tell her she has my compliments, and with a little formal training she could probably work in feather therapy." Finally, the nurse took a step away, catching Flitter's soft smile at the compliment paid to her sister. Those analytical blue orbs next traveled upwards. "I take it your ribbon provides your glamour?"
"What? Oh!" The pegasus nearly jumped in surprise as that singular object that provided her so much security and affirmation was openly pointed out by a stranger. She glanced up towards the bluish edge of her mane but she couldn't see the big pink bow herself. With trepidation, she answered, "Yes, that's right."
"Would you mind taking it off for a moment?" The medical pony patiently and politely confirmed Flitter's growing fears. Noting the downward movement of her ears and the increasingly pink saturation in her features, Redheart gave the embarrassed equine her most reassuring smile. "There's nothing to be embarrassed about, Miss Flitter. This is just a quick examination, and I'm already aware of your condition. I'm here to help you with the next few steps of your journey, that's all."
"I... Yeah, you're right. It's just weird," Flitter mumbled.
"It's only as weird as you make it," Nurse Redheart retorted, echoing Cloudchaser's long-held maxim on the matter.
"Then it's still pretty weird," the be-ribboned mare offered her long-held response with a sigh. All the same, after a long moment's awkward fidgeting, she raised her front hooves to fiddle and tug at the bow until it came loose, before setting the precious pink accessory beside her. The surprised upturn of Redheart's brow made Flitter immediately regret this decision, but there was nothing else for it now.
"Oh. Right now?" the nurse asked casually. Flitter had to admit that after that first split second's surprise, the white mare did a pretty admirable job of keeping it not-weird.
"Yeah," she managed to squeak out. She could feel Redheart's blue eyes studying it, but she refused to so much as glance downwards, doing her best to lose her focus in the pretty landscape decorating the calendar hanging on the door. All the same, she could feel it there, its presence so much more obvious to her for the lack of her bow and for another pony's attention. She could feel how it obtruded incongruously from the feminine form she'd struggled for years to shape and maintain through exercise and diet and medication. She could feel how, now that it knew she was thinking about it, it subtly pulsed in time with her anxious heartbeat, how it sat crude and clublike and masculine between her hind legs, how its dark purple colouration popped obtrusively against the light colour of her coat, how it-
"That's a very impressive glamour, maybe the best I've seen," Nurse Redheart said, moving nearer and leaning slightly downward to get a proper look.
"Th-thanks!" Flitter desperately seized on the offered topic. "It was a gift from my sister, from when we first moved to Ponyville. It's so much better than the one I was getting by with until then... It adapts to almost everything, even water, pretty important for a weatherpony. She got it specially made in Canterlot. She, she was even the base for the image. Our coats are really similar so it took just a little tweaking and came out perfect. It's... really the best gift anyone's ever given me." Flitter rambled freely, allowing her mind to follow the course of the memory her words accompanied, far away from the anxiety of the here and now.
"I... I was so upset," she forced out a chuckle. "I got her the lamest scarf, and she got me something so incredible. I kept telling her I'd pay her back, somehow, and she just, she just said, 'Just pay me back by being my sister.'" On second thought, telling this story was a bad idea. Thinking about this always made her throat cramp up, and the lovely rendition of Neighagra falls on the calendar swam and grew blurry. She realised she'd never told anyone else this story. Not even Doctor Trotter.
"You and your sister sound very close," Redheart spoke, and though Flitter dare not look an inch lower, she could tell from her tone she was smiling.
"Yeah, we are," the pegasus answered with a smile of her own, lifting a leg to wipe at her eyes. Those words, however, prompted her memory onward--too far onward--into that same night, their first night living together in Ponyville. Their first night with no parents to worry about, on the mattress on the floor, amidst the stacked boxes yet to be unpacked.
She found herself back in the present, suddenly intensely aware that it had just twitched at the memory of her sister, with a medical professional observing from what could not be more than a foot away. There was no way she hadn't noticed. Redheart had noticed, and she was judging her right now, and not purely as a medical professional, and that was painfully exciting for some reason. The irritating heat that had been harassing her all morning coursed through her with renewed vigor, painting her cheeks red and starting to fill her head with lascivious ideas about the very nice mare currently looking between her legs.
A very real and nonsexy irritation swelled along with it. Just what was taking her so long down there? She'd been down there forever. For an hour at least! This had to constitute harassment. She couldn't believe this professional pony she thought was so nice was sexually harassing her.
Flitter furiously looked towards the clock, to find that only the better part of two minutes had passed over the entire course of Nurse Redheart re-approaching her after asking her to remove her ribbon, despite the long emotional trip back to one of the most meaningful and affirming days of her life and the frantic night that followed. The anger drowned before the tide of shame, and Redheart followed in its wake, taking a step back and straightening her legs, smiling as patiently as ever.
"That should about cover it. I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable for you," the pink maned mare announced, looking only slightly but genuinely apologetic. "Although while we're on the topic, I'm obligated to ask. Are you sexually active?" Flitter's mind, already bewildered by the hour she'd just lost, raced backwards through time in an attempt to find the trail.
"With my sister?" Her mouth moved before her brain. The seconds hand on the clock audibly ticked out the marks between 3 and 4, during which Flitter was convinced she lost another hour.
"Or, with anypony else," Redheart explained, very nicely.
"Uh. No," Flitter replied, unable to meet the kindly mare's intimidatingly unjudgemental gaze. If she squinted, she could almost convince herself that it was only a half-lie.
"Alright. Well... With the Season coming up, keep in mind Ponyville clinic will be offering free condoms for the duration. Even if you're not concerned about pregnancy, those are prime spreading months, so be safe," Redheart informed the mare, taking all of ten seconds to mark down the results of her examination.
"Okay," was all the formerly purple pegasus could muster. Her face had finished its transition to red.
"Alright. I hope you have a good rest of the day, Miss Flitter," the nurse said, preparing to bustle off to her next appointment. "Oh, would you like some help with your ribbon before I go?"
"No! Uh, no. Don't worry. I've got it."
Flitter knew that tying her own ribbon without Cloudchaser, or even a mirror, to help her would be an awkward and arduous thing, but it would still be infinitely less awkward than inviting the diligent earth pony to touch her. That irrepressible annoyance between her legs gave a final pronounced throb of longing as she watched Redheart's neat pink tail follow her out through the door.
"Hey, Flits."
Flitter's wings snapped open, and she probably would have immediately shot into the air if her parents hadn't drilled her to 'check the sky before you fly'. The antiquated pegasus nursery rhyme was all that prevented her from immediately smashing into the dark-furred shape hovering a few feet above her like her own personal raincloud.
"What do you want, Thunderlane?"
Instead of a potential injury, the aspiring Wonderbolt was instead struck with Flitter's most withering glare. It was only potent enough to earn an apologetic chuckle, but at least he abdicated her airspace, swooping forward and around in a smooth motion to face her.
"Sorry, didn't think I'd startle ya," he said, hovering just off the ground. She could already feel her irritation with him eroding under his easy smile, leaving her with only that inescapable and more intractable irritant pressing stiffly against one of her legs. She sighed, and Thunderlane seemed to take this as an 'apology accepted' and continued to explain, "Saw you down here and just thought I'd swoop by to see what you were doing."
"No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bite your head off. I was just, eh, lost in thought." The purple of her eyes wandered away from him and back to the stream gurgling a little ways off. The water of the brook slowed as the bed curved around the raised spot where Flitter was sitting amidst the wild grass. It quietly lapped against the dark grey pebbles of its bank, and it wound between the gatherings of lively green brambles and young trees that sheltered the peaceful scene from the world, although evidently not the sky. She looked over the little pools that dotted the bend here and there, the same ones she'd built last spring by stacking rounded river stones into half-rings in the shallower water. The sun reflected where it touched these tranquil pools, and despite everything, she smiled at the sight of the little gatherings of water striders that rested amidst the calm waters, and then scattered before the disruptive red flash of a dragonfly darting by.
As she looked back to him, Flitter was surprised to find Thunderlane still watching her intently. The gold of his eyes glinted in the midday sun as they moved subtly, seeming to study her. A sudden rush of worry forced her to quickly and unsubtly glance downwards, but the empty space between her haunches confirmed her ribbon hadn't come loose, no matter how poorly she'd tied it. So why was he looking at her like that?
"Yeah?" he softly prompted. He'd been waiting for her to explain what was on her mind.
Her throat tightened. She almost wanted to. It had been nice, and surprisingly easy, to talk to Nurse Redheart about her ribbon and what it meant to her. But then, the nurse already knew why she wore it.
Thunderlane's curious stare quickened her already anxious pulse. As a stallion, he might at least understand why she'd come to this secluded thicket to cool off, to lay in the knee-high stream until she felt some degree of normalcy--or at least, only the usual level of strange. But how well would he understand the less calming cold she felt as touching the water had reminded her of how most glamours were revealed by the touch of water? The inevitable irrational fear that whispered frantically that even her hitherto dependable enchantment would still fail her? That even after a few years of working with the weather team, this old familiar dread always had the chance of manifesting at the shock of chilly water?
Suddenly, she could feel the inescapable pull of the anchor that fear was bound to, submerging her in an absurd, frigid memory of--of all things--a summer camp she and her sister had attended some few years after receiving their cutie marks. She could almost smell the downpour and feel the chill on her coat. She could feel how her claustrophobic, impromptu shelter prevented her wings from opening, and hear her sister's voice nearby as she redirected playing fillies and the occasional adult from her hiding place amidst the obstacle course.
She stared up at the look of abject confusion on the face of a camp counselor who had barged past her sister's blockade. She could hear the echo of the mare's laughter at the sight of the scrawny colt cowering in the middle of the filly's obstacle course in his big pink bow.
"Flitter? You alright?" The stallion's deep voice pulled her head above the surface of her thoughts. The curiosity in his expression had been replaced by concern.
"Oh! Yeah. It's nothing important," she muttered. Two-thirds of a lie still didn't count as a lie.
"You sure?" Thunderlane asked, hovering a little closer to finally land. Flitter looked up at him, surprised by his persistence and the worry undermining the sturdy structure of his face. He almost looked vulnerable himself out of concern for her vulnerability. It made her think of Cloudchaser and the coltish, devil-may-care smile she presented the world with, and the tranquil, loving smile that was just for her.
They'd both known Thunderlane for a long time. Almost as long as she'd had the name Flitter. Watching the way the reflecting light caught by the stream shimmered and danced over the gathering-storm-grey of his fur, she started to consider the words she could use to tell him. How she could begin to explain.
"I haven't seen Cloudchaser since this morning, Thunderlane," she said, giving him a pronounced roll of her eyes. He gawked for a moment, genuinely caught off guard, before bursting out into the brief, rumbly peal of laughter she knew so well.
"Hey, I don't only come to you when I'm looking for Cloudchaser, y'know." The stallion's rugged features resolved into the same half-cocked grin she remembered from their class' yearbook.
"Yeah, you also come to me to tell me to deliver her drill schedule for the week when you can't find her," she remarked flatly. His second bout of laughter and the way he animatedly tossed his short grey-and-gray mane was enough to bring a smile to her own slim muzzle.
"Hey, it's not my fault you're the only one who reliably knows where to find her," Thunderlane said in his defense. He squinted down at her. "It's got to be some kind of freaky twin magic, right?"
"That, or we just live together and know each other too well."
"So you're saying I should get to know her better?"
"Or move in with us," Flitter joked, her eyes darting away from stallion to follow a passing flash of red. She watched another dragonfly, or maybe the same one, flitting and weaving about them, before coming to rest on a long strand of grass a foot from her hooves.
"I'll pass. I'm pretty sure 'Chaser'd kill me if she had to deal with me more than she already does," he laughed again, and this time Flitter laughed with him. The dragonfly, startled by the merriment disturbing its domain, zipped off over the brook. A brief quiet followed, and Flitter looked up to find Thunderlane's gaze suddenly darting off too. Before she had a chance to think on it, he spoke up again, "Well, I don't know where to find Cloudchaser right now, so maybe I'll have to settle with getting to know you better."
"Glad to know I'm your second choice," the pegasus mare jabbed, although she felt a trace of warmth creep into her cheeks. She suddenly rose to her hooves, prompting the other equine to look back to her. "In that case, maybe you can help me."
"Yeah?" Thunderlane asked, not missing a beat.
"Just fly along the stream with me and help me inspect these pools." Flitter indicated one of the carefully constructed semicircles protruding from the bank some little ways out into the stream. The topmost stones broke the surface, separating the freely running white-edged water from that which was clearer and nearly still. "And if any of them have fallen apart, help me rebuild them."
"Uh?" the stallion sounded, only now seeming to notice them, before shrugging. "Alright, sure."
With that, both ponies took to the wing, following the streamlet upwards at a leisurely pace, their hooves nearly skimming the water. The coolness that rolled off its surface at least helped to soothe the persistent heat that had only grown less bearable throughout the day, if just slightly.
"So you're the one that makes these?" Thunderlane asked after a moment. She looked back at him past the rise and fall of her wings only to catch his yellow gaze retreating.
"Yeah, along this stream, anyway," Flitter replied. They briefly slowed to get a better look as they passed over one, and then a few seconds later, another, both neatly intact. She smiled to herself.
"Why?"
"Habitat diversity," the mare stated. It took her a moment's silence to check back on Thunderlane, only to find him giving her a confused look. She slowed to a hover as they came to the next wall, some half-minute later. It, too, was preserved, but she took a moment to turn and explain to her friend, one of her front legs tracing the outline of the rounded wall peeking from below the surface.
"Insects, and smaller fish, can use the pools to shelter, or to rest from the faster parts of the stream." She pointed further up along the stretch of water to where the straight, narrower part split in white hues over a few more prominent rocks. "Some species also prefer gentler waters to lay their eggs, or to develop in."
As he listened, he studied that intersection between the calmer and the more frantic waters. Thunderlane seemed to consider all of this for a moment, perhaps for the first time, and a smile slowly dawned on his face. "That's... actually really cool, Flitter. It must take a lot of work."
"I guess," she dismissed.
The next of them was some ways farther upstream owing to the unsuitable temperamentality of the faster current, and the two pegasi ascended before a short rock face where the stream splashed in long silver-white ribbons in its descent. It was a little way past this rise that they encountered the first of Flitter's stone formations that showed significant damage. At some point, a small section of the upstream portion of the wall had come undone, and the freely running water now coursed through the significant opening, splashing and swirling disruptively. Its builder eyed it for a moment, and then alighted on the bank, combing the stony stretch for suitably shaped repair material.
"And you're fine getting wet?" Thunderlane's voice came from behind. "Cloudchaser mentioned you have this thing about getting splashed with cold water."
"What?" Flitter wheeled about in a flash, her heartbeat suddenly dinning in her ears. He knew?!
Something in her expression must have told the stallion he'd said the wrong thing as the professional flier backed off, wide-eyed, and he was quick to continue on to explain himself, "She never said why or anything. Just... Well, remember how we had that group project together, back in school? During our last year."
Flitter's eyes narrowed, but reflected recognition. Her racing heart slowed to a jog, but she still felt out of breath. "Yeah?"
"Well, heh... I, back in school, I was big into pranks for a while, remember? One time, when me and 'Chase were waiting for you, I started settin' up the bucket trap prank. You know, door, water, bucket, the oldest trick in the book." The stallion continued to avoid meeting her gaze directly, but finally spared a glance towards her, chuckling at his own expense. "Well, Cloudchaser said she'd drown me in that bucket if I ever tried to pull a prank like that on you again. It took me a while to get it even after she explained that that sorta thing really messed you up, and I just sorta brushed it off at the time."
"Oh," murmured Flitter, very quietly. "So that's why she was mad at you all day."
"Try all week. That mare knows how to carry a grudge," Thunderlane offered a laugh, though it lacked the weight of its usual bass. At last, he managed to look her in the eye with an apologetic smile. "I deserved it though. I could be a real doofus back then."
"I guess some things never change," Flitter intoned seriously, but when she punctuated it with a smile, he laughed again, this time from the heart.
"Hey, I'll have you know I've changed a lot!" Thunderlane suddenly shot back, doing his best to sound angry. "Now I'm a doofus in uniform."
Now it was her turn to laugh, and the reedy sound made Thunderlane's dark muzzle break into a wide, white grin. A comfortable quiet reigned when the fit of giggling had passed, and it was in this quiet that Flitter found a stone of suitable dimensions. Taking it between her front hooves, she carefully hovered over to the breach, moving to slowly lower it into place.
"It's not so bad when I'm working on something like this," the mare explained softly, her voice just loud enough to be audible above the susurrus of the stream. With the new stone in place, she took a moment to patiently adjust it with her front hooves until it seemed secure. She could feel the other pony's eyes on her as she turned to retrieve another rock from the pebbly shore. "When I'm doing weather work, too. Just something methodical really. That's how I've been able to work through it over time. Now, it only really gets to me if I'm already anxious about something."
"Huh..." sounded Thunderlane nearly as quietly, watching as Flitter methodically put the next piece in place, before she floated away to repeat the process for the final time. "Like today, I'm guessing?"
"Well, yeah. But it's been nice," she said, hefting one last piece of stone, "having someone to talk to when I'm out here, I mean. Thanks, Thunderlane."
As she reapproached, though, she caught sight of the stallion flapping his own way into position and, following her example, depositing a rock in place, nudging and working it until it was secure. They both smiled as they watched how, with the turbulent waters directed away, relative repose returned to at least one small part of the brook.
"Anytime, Flits," he replied, but when he looked her way, he was confused to see her lowering herself nearer to the restored pool, her violet gaze searching its surface as silver stripes of daylight danced about her face.
"Look," she said. "With the colour of the streambed here, when the sun is right, it's almost like a mirror."
Flitter's features melted into clarity as the lingering ripples calmed, leaving her face to face with herself, and she blinked in disbelief as she saw the state of the mirrored mare's mane. The normally carefully maintained flow of her long blue hair was disrupted in several places by abrupt, rough upshoots, and her bow was haphazardly tied well off to one side behind an ear. In her rush to get her ribbon back on earlier, she must have made an absolute mess of herself, and she'd only just realised it.
A sudden snort sounded as the preamble to a cascade of giggles, and Flitter found herself unable to help herself even as she self-consciously cringed at the deeper notes that sneaked into her laughter. As the sound finally began to conclude, she heard Thunderlane's voice, "Hey, Flitter?"
"Haaa, yeah?" Her head and her gaze both lifted to find his face once more, but rather than the expected grin of amusement, or even confusion as to her own, he looked serious. His eyes fixed on her, keen and gilt, seeming to watch her every movement as she canted her head in curiosity.
"Listen, I, uh..." he started, hesitating briefly before changing tack. "What I mean is, are you, ah, seeing anyone?"
"Uh, what?" she responded dumbly. The mellow, murmurous voice of the creek winding its course below them seemed suddenly louder in the following silence.
"I mean… You know, a coltfriend, or a fillyfriend?" Thunderlane clarified, but she'd already known exactly what he meant. The shock in her eyes made his own very quickly retreat towards the opposite edge of the stream. Suddenly, the lingering looks he'd been giving her made a lot more sense.
The stallion remained silent, either awaiting her response or gathering his courage to speak up again, but her own thoughts loudly filled the interim with an onslaught of questions. How long had Thunderlane been interested in her? Had she just never noticed? Or had he only recently started to notice her? Maybe somepony else had actually noticed the more recent changes to her body?
Flitter found herself taking an interest in the stallion's body in turn, although not for the first time. With his head and attention turned aside, it was almost too easy for her gaze to be drawn down along the statuesque figure of the career flyer. The masculine set of his jaw smoothly progressed into the sturdy pillar of his neck, which in turn gave way to a powerful but aerodynamic build, largely in a state of relative relaxation, except for the muscles along his back as they worked, flexing subtly to keep him aloft. Lower still, hanging proudly betwixt his rear legs, his sizable testes dangled in monument to his status as a stallion. What was surprising, though, was what showed above; the first few substantial inches of his length peeked part-erect from the shelter of his sheath, thick and mottled pink on black.
Flitter's breath hitched and the already confused chorus of her mental council suddenly rose into a cacophony of yays and neighs. Could she have truly inspired even this much in a stallion, let alone this stallion? What did she really feel about Thunderlane of all ponies showing this interest? One of her sister's best friends? Should she feel so flattered to have garnered the attention of the same pegasus who had teased her for her scraggly, unflattering physique back in school?
Without giving her a moment to grapple with these issues herself, at least one part of her knew exactly what it wanted, and it asserted its authority with a warm, near-audible slap against her undercarriage. She gasped in shock, and felt the stone she'd been holding drop into the stream with a gruesome 'ker-plunk!' The resulting splash was barely enough to graze her barrel, but the sudden shock of the cold water and the accompanying jagged lance of anxiety that ran her down made her wings stop working. The lurching sensation of freefall followed close behind, and she braced to crash into the stream.
Instead, Flitter found her hooves touching down gently on the stream bank. She opened her eyes to find herself peering up into the wide yellow eyes of the other pony. His powerful forelegs held her fast to his front, and her own hooves naturally came to rest about his shoulders. His mouth hung slightly ajar a mere few inches from hers, as if he'd wanted to say something but had become frozen in time. His body felt so hard in comparison to her sister's, but his embrace was every bit as warm. That heat spread over her like a loose flame, driving away the chilly echo of her trauma and consuming whatever rational thought yet vied in her head. She allowed her eyes to drift shut, and her shaking, feverish form to lean totally on the support of the strong stallion.
While the whole of her body prepared to surrender at Thunderlane's first advance, it was not the corner of reason that raised the vital question. Instead, it was that last frigid holdout of the lifelong dread which tried to influence her every decision that asked: What would he do when he found out? When he inevitably noticed that she wasn't a real mare?
The overwhelmingly bright fires of lust in her chest, and between her ears, and pulsing between her legs all answered together. They did not assure her that she was real, or even that he would or could accept her. It was so much easier than that. With her back arched and her tail aside, it would be the easiest thing in the world to convince a horny stallion that she preferred he take one hole over the other. That wouldn't even be a lie, would it? Then he'd finally hold her down. He'd pant and press and stretch her around him until she felt almost like any other mare. She would nicker and moan for him, and she would at last be satisfied. Between her enchantment and some careful positioning, he would never have to know.
The sensation of his unfamiliar breath as his muzzle neared shocked her. She found herself instead anticipating the cinnamon taste of more familiar lips. She yearned to open her eyes not to find gold but vivid purple peering back, loving and lustful for every inch of her. She craved the reassuring embrace of that same feminine form that had been by her side since the day they were born, since earlier even than that, and that had held her when she cried and when she'd had her first kiss. How could she possibly give herself over in the convenient deceit of a passing tryst, no matter how handsome the stallion? There was already a pony in the world that required no such deceit, that knew everything about her and earnestly called her 'lover' and 'sister'.
"Cloudchaser!" Flitter barked, her eyes shooting open as she hastily pulled free of her friend. Thunderlane's own gaze met hers, wide and surprised, his lips still partly pursed in hopeful anticipation. That confusion deepened as that singular name sank past the layer of excitement that was written so clearly on his features. Flitter could see the gears behind his eyes struggling to start up with the morass of stimuli gunking them up. Given her own day--and the painful ache still between her own legs--she winced in empathy and promised to make it up to him somehow even as her mind raced for any way out of this situation.
"I mean, haha, ah, I… We, I mean, me and Cloudchaser, that is, not me and you, we... were supposed to meet before the picnic!" Flitter lied. "It's supposed to be starting soon, right? Yeah! So… I really, really have to get going. You know how she worries! It was… really, really nice, uhm, talking to you, and… things." She couldn't bear to look at Thunderlane's befuddled expression a moment longer, so she wheeled about only to immediately regret that too, painfully aware that she'd incidentally flashed the pegasus with her be-glamoured backside. It took her a stumble and several false starts before her wings would cooperate and finally carry her off into the sky.
Thunderlane remained dumbstruck as he watched the indigo point of the little pegasus frantically flapping off into the distance. Eying the stream and running a hoof over his short mane, he finally moved, stiffly stepping out into the brisk spring waters, and releasing a baritone groan as the cold did little to relieve him.
"Hi, Flitter!"
Flitter skidded to a halt as she touched down clumsily on the ground near the bubbly beacon with the bright green and pink mane that she'd spotted from above.
"Haa, huu… Hey, Blossom," she wheezed as she flopped into a sitting position, only for her hindquarters to as quickly shoot back up as she found even the caress of the grass was too much to bear. She knew that her disheveled appearance hadn't been helped by her frantic flight around Ponyville in the desperate hope that she'd be able to catch Cloudchaser before the picnic kicked off. Now she'd be forced to confront the better part of Ponyville's weather team in an attempt to track her sister down.
"How'd your appointment go? You look even more out of breath than this morning!" Blossomforth gave her a pretty, encouraging smile. Flitter bit her lip in an attempt to avoid drooling over the innocuous loveliness of her friend.
"Uh… Appointment?" Flitter thought back. Had that really been today? She was assailed by fresh memories of large blue eyes studying her and the scent of candy and disinfectant. How easy it would have been to put her hooves on the nice nurse's head and-- "Fine, just fine! I'm just, huuh, a little out of breath from rushing out here."
"Running behind, huh?" Blossomforth giggled, immediately accepting the explanation. "I get that! Actually, seems like the whole picnic is behind. They've only just started setting up." She vaguely gestured to the general vicinity of their wooded surroundings and the dispersed groups of bright-coated pegasi gathered in small groups or bustling around setting up blankets and baskets. "Can you believe Rainbowshine forgot she was supposed to be helping Derpy bring the food out, again?! It's sooo crazy that the mare responsible for organizing the spring season can be so disorganized with other stuff. And don't even get me started on--"
"Uuuuuugh," Flitter moaned in frustration as her frantic attempts at spotting the distinct blue and white splashes of her twin's mane proved fruitless.
"I know, right!" the other pegasus exclaimed. She tapped a hoof to her chin as she thought, studying Flitter as the antsy pegasus fidgeted. "Y'know, come to think of it, it's usually 'Chaser that shows up late, but she got here right on time. Did I miss Opposite Day on the calendar again, or what?"
"You've seen her?!" Flitter demanded more forcefully than she'd intended. Blossom blinked, as impenetrable as ever, into the flustered face of her friend as it crowded near her own.
"Sure! I think she said she was gonna try to save you guys a spot over at Dandelion Hill," the mare explained plainly, a white hoof indicating the rough direction of the landmark in question. Flitter would have kissed her, if she wasn't positive that she would have escalated quickly past that in plain sight of half of their co-workers, and complicate their already strange friendship besides. She was still tempted.
"Thanks I'll see you later!" Flitter spun about before that temptation could fortify itself, already retreating before Blossom could answer.
"Oh, seeya! Guess I'll catch up in a bit!" Blossomforth's voice carried after Flitter, but neither the white pegasus nor any of the other vaguely pony-shaped splotches of colour at the edge of her vision mattered any longer. Now that she knew where Cloudchaser was she raced for her with single-minded determination. She was unconcerned with the occasional gasp or cry of surprise as she narrowly avoided one of those unimportant shapes, unimpressed by the lively spring wildflowers lining the path, and only distantly aware even of the repetitive bump-bump-slap of something hot and very hard against her belly as she galloped. There was only one thing that mattered.
The wide path through Whitetail abruptly gave way at the foot of a small hillock rising from the surrounding wood, green and spotted here and there with vibrantly yellow flowers. Some tiny far-off voice in the rear of her skull vaguely reminded her that this was one of her favourite spots. Something about some butterfly liking yellow.
Flitter's eyes didn't so much as linger on the flowers or the spotted wings of the butterflies fanning themselves here and there amidst them. She sought hungrily amidst the small gatherings of ponies lounging about the hill, some laying in the grass and others on large blankets. It took her only a moment to hone in on the single important equine among them. She was standing near the crest of the hill with her back to her, the long blue and white cascades of her tail and mane rippling in the spring breeze. She'd have to repay that watermelon mare later, whatever her name had been.
In her haste to ascend the easy incline of the hill, she nearly tripped but finally she drew up beside Cloudchaser. She immediately and insistently pressed into her side and nestled beneath one of her wings. Only after she had did she realise that there were two other ponies present. They were intently looking at her with their judgemental, semi-familiar eyes. Her frustration welled up in her throat, but before she could say anything, Cloudchaser preempted her.
"Heyyy, there you are Flitter!" Her sister's comforting contralto voice soothed her nerves, but the familiar, downy press of Cloudchaser's wing stretching over Flitter's back and pulling her close was near enough to send the superheated ardor below the surface boiling violently up past the flimsy lid of her restraint. Cloudchaser, accustomed to her twin's usual doting, continued right on conversing with the pair with a brief half-glance Flitter's way, "Actually, I was just tellin' Helia and Parasol about those butterflies you've been raising. The really big ones?"
Two pairs of large eyes turned expectantly on Flitter, and she buried her face against Cloudchaser's neck to escape them. This prompted a short, ticklish laugh from the pegasus, and her rebuke was more fond than exasperated, "Ugh, c'mon now, Flits, we're not schoolfillies anymore!"
Flitter could hear the opposite pair of pegasi give a few little giggles of their own, and huffed. CC never said that sort of thing when they were alone. Whatever she said, her scent was exactly how she remembered it from when they were young. The energetic freshness of a gathering storm underpinned the more earthy fallen-rain-smell of her sweat, creating a familiar fragrance that was somehow calming and enticing all at once. She finally managed to muster the mental wherewithal to speak up, "Cloudchaser… I need to talk to you. In private. Please."
"Ah, alright," Cloudchaser spoke, and Flitter's heart fluttered hopefully until she continued, "just give me a sec here. Anyway, they're these really big butterflies, like the biggest in Equestria, outside of the Everfree. Right?" She prompted her twin with a careful nudge, but Flitter obstinately kept silent.
"You've maybe seen 'em around here. But if they have just the right diet--ah, hey!!" Cloudchaser's low voice jumped several octaves at the sudden pinch of Flitter's teeth against her neck. The onlooking mares laughed again, making Flitter's tail swish in indignation. When the older twin attempted to push the younger back with a raised hoof, Flitter merely locked her leg around it, trying to tug her sister even a step away from her amused coworkers.
"CC… Pleasssse..."
"Flitter, enough already! Just tell me what it is!" Cloudchaser answered her sibling's sibilant whining and tugging at last, wheeling on her to deliver a short-lived glare. Surprise dawned just as briefly, as it immediately became clear to her what the source of her sister's irritation was.
"... Oh, your bow is messed up!" she exclaimed in concern, earning a bewildered gawk from the exasperated Flitter. All the same, at least she started moving her hooves, sighing and following Flitter as she haltingly led her off. "Let's get that fixed up before someone gets our spot, then. Talk to you gals later!"
Taking this pretext, one pegasus shakily guided the other away from where the others congregated. First winding down a shaded sidepath under the green spring canopy of the Whitetail, Flitter then led Cloudchaser right off that path, weaving between trunks and flowering bushes until they were well out of sight and earshot of the main path, and any other pesky picnic-goers that might distract her sister. They were left with only the surrounding trees as witnesses, the viridescent ceiling above only giving way in narrow patches that no pegasus could navigate, but through which the narrow rays of the midday sun spilled.
"Alright, Flits, I think we're clear," Cloudchaser announced in time to feel the concurring press of her sister's lips against hers, hot and sudden. She gasped, caught off guard by this sudden turn, an advantage which her eager twin was quick to push. Those soft lips eagerly gripped and sucked, and the firm contact of a leg around her nape convinced her attempting to pull away was more effort than it was worth. Instead, she pressed into the kiss, allowing herself for the better part of a minute to get lost in the nostalgic taboo of this embrace. Flitter desperately drank deep of the spicy flavour she'd been craving all day and her sibling luxuriated in the sweet vanilla kisses she received in turn.
It was only after the initial surge of Flitter's passion faded that her twin placed a hoof below her neck and gave her an insistent shove away. It wasn't quite enough to force her to retreat, but she did break the kiss and draw away just enough to get a better picture of Cloudchaser's face. There she found that familiar annoyed leer, and that small but distinct tug of amusement at the corners of her mouth.
"So that's what this was about? Why you were pestering me in front of everyone?" Cloudchaser snorted in irritation, but the heat in her voice clearly wasn't from anger.
"Yes," Flitter immediately admitted, but when she tried to move in for another kiss, the other mare's hoof blocked her. Flitter diverted downwards, finding the soft fur of Cloudchaser's neck and giving it a few penitent kisses instead. She felt that same hoof on her mane, undecided on whether to try and fend her off or draw her closer still.
"Jeeze, Flitter. Couldn't this wait until we got home?" The annoyance in her voice and her stance waned as the named pony nestled and sucked at her neck, the exhilaration of the situation starting to stimulate her thrill-seeking propensity. She added, breathily, "Right out here in the open?"
"Like our first time," her counterpart reminded her, meeting her eyes from below with that wide, begging stare the older sibling could never refuse. A quiet moment passed in contemplation, leaving the pair with only the meditative sounds of the wind caressing the leaves and their soft, excited panting.
"... Well, you could've picked a worse spot," Cloudchaser answered at last, her voice piercing the quiet in a brief bout of husky laughter. "Let's just try and finish up qui--" Her sibling was a step ahead, cutting her reminder short with another abrupt, desperate kiss. This time, there was neither hesitation nor resistance, and her muzzle pressed and grappled with equal ferocity.
The pair of pretty pegasi pushed together, the near-matching hues of their lips gripping and pulling, sometimes aggressively, sometimes tenderly, but never breaking. Each goaded the other, at first teasingly withdrawing or softly nipping, but this skirmishing rapidly elevated as their passions built. It was Cloudchaser who first teased at the other's lip with the tip of her tongue, and then it was seconds before they were vying between one another, slick and hot and very wet.
As they went, Cloudchaser managed, somewhat awkwardly, to tease her sibling's poorly tied bow loose with her hoof. The pink of the ribbon slipped and fluttered from that long, messy mane to the forest floor below, and this simple sensation seemed to prompt something in the moments-younger mare. Flitter pushed, fierce and frantic, and the pair, wedged snug front to front, suddenly reared together. Cloudchaser gasped as she felt their lips part, and her vision spun as she toppled onto her back amidst the grass and ferns.
One sibling glared up at the other in obvious surprise; it was easy for Cloudchaser to forget just how much strength her dainty sister could muster when it was called for. Flitter giggled at the look as she took a step nearer while the other pegasus rolled her eyes. Their gazes met for a moment before Flitter's eyes inevitably began to travel down the trim, athletic build of her twin's prone form. Cloudchaser stiffened a bit at that hungry leer, but she quickly adjusted her position for the other's benefit. To be on one's back was an awkward and vulnerable thing for a pony, and a winged one especially, but the athlete maintained it with confidence. Exercise-sculpted hind legs jutted upwards, and with a subtle flex in the calves and thighs, they spread invitingly to either side, allowing the visual tour to continue unhindered. She briefly lingered on the sight of that slender tummy rising and falling to the time of the mare's quickened breaths, but finally moved on, her own breath racing in anticipation.
At last her eyes fell upon their hours-awaited destination. The familiar shade of Cloudchaser's coat, nearly identical to her own, parted in deference to the deep purple of her exposed sex. The velvety flesh looked near black in the shade of the trees, but the substantial beads of excitement clinging to her cleft were clear to see. Flitter's mouth watered as she drew up nearer.
"Haah… Jeeze, Flitter, you've been walking around like that all day?" Cloudchaser husked, catching sight of her sibling's state. Flitter's own sex was on full display, its dark purple silhouette a perfect match in hue to her twin's, but its form could not be more different. Of healthy length but somewhat slender, the dark colouration of that masculine member and its hanging orbs juxtaposed it all the more intensely with the mare's soft, girlish physique and features. Cloudchaser's breath hitched at the sight, her legs subconsciously spreading that little bit wider as she watched a single long drop of Flitter's need drip onto the forest floor.
"You can skip the warmup," Cloudchaser murmured heatedly as her twin's face dropped between her legs, but she received only a feral leer in reply. Her attempts to further convince her lusting sister towards expedience were hushed by the sound of her own gasp and the blunt press of a slender snout. The older twin's dusky lips were forcefully parted, hot and wet, around the younger's muzzle and the pegasus wasted no time, her tongue immediately flooding into the breach, sloppy and overeager. Flitter was vindicated by the solid press of the other mare's powerful thighs squeezing her cheeks, and drank deep the scent with her every excited huff, the same notes she remembered from their childhood now overpowered by another: need. The pair moaned together, and Flitter was the louder of the two. Her eyes rolled as she lost herself in the familiar salty-sweet taste of her sister's now freely dripping flower, her tongue dancing and probing and drooling openly.
Flitter's feeding frenzy was broken only by a pair of stiff pokes at her nose, and she crossed her eyes to find the fat bump of her sibling's clit winking invitingly. She abruptly broke from her oral efforts with a lick of her lips, satisfied that Cloudchaser now needed her nearly as badly as she'd needed Cloudchaser all day. A more pressing hunger asserted itself now, and she slipped further up the prone pegasus' panting form until they were once more muzzle to muzzle. They kissed again as they repositioned, doing their best to align despite the impromptu position they found themselves in, ill-suited as it was to equine anatomy.
Love nonetheless found a way, and one sister quickly found herself looking deep into the depths of the other's identical eyes as they lay against one another, glad to find her lust mirrored there as well. Cloudchaser's forelegs maintained just enough space between them to give her little sister some leverage to work with, while Flitter's own limbs shook and struggled to maintain her weight in the semi-kneeling position. Their breath mixed in a collective gasp as they each felt the other's heat against their sex, and there was a tense pause as Flitter jostled to make sure they were aligned.
The younger drove forward into the elder in single smooth motion, burying herself to the twitching hilt in her lover's sopping, slick hole. Both equines trembled at the distinct sensation of Cloudchaser's snug passage stretching around the throbbing swell of Flitter's corona, and shortly after her medial ring. The older twin kissed at the younger's blushing cheeks as she took a moment to rest and catch her breath, and Cloudchaser's interior gave that old familiar friend a loving squeeze in welcome.
When Flitter did start to move again, it was frantic and shallow, their position permitting her only a couple inches to work with now that they were interlocked. Twin tongues again wrestled and played as they bucked and rocked against each other amidst fallen leaves and moss. They panted and grunted and moaned in an intensely personal duet, straining and sweating together in an inelegant, animal dance beneath the trees. More quickly than either could expect they drove one nearer to their shared crescendo, the tension in their forms winding tighter and tighter in expectation.
Flitter suddenly collapsed on top of Cloudchaser, limp everywhere except inside of her. The day's emotional and physical tolls had finally caught up, robbing her limbs of their strength, and she wheezed and whimpered as she tried futilely to lift herself again. Cloudchaser blinked at her in disbelief for a moment, but catching sight of her sweet sibling's desperate pout as she desperately throbbed inside of her, she smiled reassuringly. Leaning in, she kissed her hopeless little sister on the nose and, in a single strong motion, rolled them both over together.
When Flitter's world had stopped spinning, she was looking up at her twin's smiling, flushed face. Her usually carefully-mussed mane was now genuinely untidy, her white and blue locks heavy with sweat and marked here and there with leaves. Before the younger mare could even begin to catch her breath, the older moved, slamming her lap once, twice down against Flitter's with a pair of damp claps, causing the gasping bottom mare to whimper and arch her back. All the same, she held out, and Cloudchaser leaned down to kiss her as a reward for her stamina.
Cloudchaser reared and moved, all four legs tightly coordinating to turn her in place without so much as breaking the intimate connection she shared with her sister. Taking a moment to ensure she was stable, she tossed her mane and snapped her tail aside to allow Flitter to drink in the full view. Flitter gasped shakily as her vision followed the natural course down, starting from the bump of her sister's dock flagging amidst her light hair, briefly mounting the dark, pronounced ring of her ass, before coming to settle on the final vista that was the messy meeting of their matched, familial flesh. Near-black netherlips stretched accommodatingly and gripped greedily around their paired pole, and the exhausted pegasus swallowed at the sight of a single thick bead of her counterpart's honey descending the dusky pillar.
The older sister turned her head to observe the younger from the edge of her vision, and laughed breathily at the dazed, delighted expression she found. Without warning or mercy, she pressed hard down against Flitter's base, rocking her hips side to side, grinding against and wetly spreading her delight over her twin's crotch. At last sculpted legs bent low, tensing and flexing, and she started to ride her sweet sibling in earnest, the sloppy percussion of their coitus echoing into the quiet wood.
Several times, Flitter's whole body tautened, her back arched and her voice raised into a high squeak or a low moan, only for Cloudchaser to stop just short of her climax. The first two times it happened, she thought it happenstance, that they were off tempo or that Cloudchaser had paused to rest. It was only when the younger twin spotted the amused glint in her older sister's violet gaze, and the tight smirk that accompanied it, that she figured it out. Cloudchaser was drawing it out purely to tease her, even as she herself trembled and gripped around her, as she winked vigorously against the base of her shaft, so clearly poised at the brink of her peak. After every embarrassment, her day's-long longing, her frustration and her anxiety, her own sister was bullying her!
Flitter moved in a flash, angry strength surging into her limbs. With the aid of her wings, she rolled suddenly forward and upwards, her front crashing down against Cloudchaser's back. Her cock popped free in the chaotic switch, twitching and flexing in the comparative cold of the open air, and she gave an irate whinny as she struggled to jam it back where it belonged. Her dripping, blunt head glanced off of her sibling's slippery mound several times in her exertion. Cloudchaser's voice came in a snatch of manic giggles at the sensation, but her laughter rose into a long moan as Flitter suddenly found her mark, slamming home with enough force to send a ripple through Cloudchaser's toned ass.
Unsatisfied merely with the desperate purchase of her legs holding her twin in place, Flitter lunged, biting into Cloudchaser's mane with a feral nicker. Her grip asserted, she hammered mercilessly away at the mare beneath her. The ceaseless staccato of their bodies crashing together gradually forced Cloudchaser's trembling limbs to bend as each penetrating spike of pleasure robbed the strength from them until she was being pushed and ground into the dirt. Flitter snorted in satisfaction as she heard her twin sister whimper and felt how she tensed and shook below and around her more and more intensely. All at once, that dripping wet valley contracted around her, constricting her length so fiercely that she nearly couldn't draw back far enough to keep plowing away at it. She felt the frantic prod-prod-prod of her partner's overstimulated nub frantically winking its submission, and a liquid, hot splash against the pressing, clapping surface of her balls.
Her mate was cumming. Her sister was cumming. She was making her sister cum!
She came, too. Violently forcing her flare home through the stiff resistance of her sibling's quivering quim, she hilted hard, finally emptying all of her day's frustrations deep inside of her sister in thick, hot ropes. Thoroughly locked in place by the velvety vice of Cloudchaser's cunt clamping around her swollen crown, she was left ineffectually rocking and spasming in an instinctual attempt at wedging herself deeper. Flitter's moaned, muffled into the other mare's messy hair, and Cloudchaser's own voice joined with it in a carnal harmony. The twins came on and on together, each minute movement coaxing the other's climax that one step further. Flitter's heart and mind raced in tandem. It had all been worth it! The wait, the anxious arousal, even
"Found 'em!"
Both twins' heads frantically shot around to look at the source of the voice. Standing not more than ten feet away, Blossomforth's familiar face and brightly striped mane was peeking up over a thick, feathery fern. She looked back at them in turn, confused, "Are you guys… Fighting?"
Panicked, Flitter immediately tried to dismount her still shivering sister, only to find herself still stuck fast. The pair wrestled frantically for something like ten seconds, and during the ensuing struggle, Thunderlane stepped into sight. "Fighting?"
The stallion arrived just in time for Flitter's still flared phallus to slip free with an audible 'pop!' She struggled to keep her balance before toppling clumsily onto her side. Her legs crossed protectively in front of her proudly erect length, not nearly soon enough to conceal it, and she stared at the pair of interlopers in disbelief. Her wings were unsure of whether to reinforce the impossible attempt at concealing her vulnerable, still-dripping shaft, or to try to cover her face in the hopes that the others would go away.
"Yep, fighting! Just… Just a normal sibling tiff, nothing to worry about!" Cloudchaser attempted to explain away the situation, even as a thick bead of sweat ran down her cheek, and viscous, white evidence to the contrary rolled down one of her thighs.
Understanding bloomed on Blossom's face. "Wait," she started, stunned, "you guys are boning?" Her hanging mouth drew momentarily into a pinched 'o', and then she gawked again. "And Flitter has a bone?" Another painful beat passed in silence, long enough for the white mare to blink her eyes twice. "Wait, Flitter's a colt?!"
Flitter squeaked, finally deciding to shield her burning features with her feathers so at least her former friends wouldn't see her crying when the laughing started. Seeing that her sister was completely petrified, Cloudchaser took a single long breath and stepped forward to her defense. She placed a reassuring hoof on Flitter's mane, where her bow was usually tied.
"She's a mare. Just… With a penis," she explained bluntly.
"Oh." Blossomforth looked between the twins. "And--"
"And we're boning, yes," Cloudchaser replied, plainly, despite the deep red of her cheeks and the subtle shake in her voice.
"Huh." Blossomforth's prying gaze was only drawn away by the sound of a muffled, fleshy thump beside her. She and Cloudchaser both looked at Thunderlane. His entire wingspan was currently extended downward in an attempt to hide the source of the noise. He cleared his throat.
"We, uh, got a blanket set up," He informed the sisters uneasily. He at least had the willpower to try to pretend he was looking somewhere else.
"Just give us a few minutes to get cleaned up and we can hang out, maybe chat a bit." Cloudchaser failed to look him in the eye. "Cool?"
"Cool," he confirmed.
"Cool," she said.
It took a nudge from one of Thunderlane's heavy hooves to pull Blossomforth's attention from where it had come to rest, peering curious and confused and concerned at the still silent Flitter. "C'mon Blossomforth, let's wait back at the picnic."
Blossom's big blue eyes only left them once she'd followed Thunderlane back off through the trees. It was only then that Cloudchaser heaved a huge, exhausted groan and finally allowed her shaking legs to collapse.
"Hey guys."
Cloudchaser raised her voice as she approached with Flitter in tow. Thunderlane and Blossomforth were both sitting together in awkward silence on a large blue blanket emblazoned in the middle with the Wonderbolts emblem, spread off to the side of the clearing. Four plates had been set out, each with a hearty salad of mixed greens and carrots, and with a muffin set aside for dessert. Occasionally, a happy, indistinct voice carried down from the hill from another of the other small groups yet remaining, not quite disrupting the ill-ease hanging over theirs.
"Hey," Thunderlane greeted, suddenly very interested in a distant cloud and its passengers.
"Hiya," Blossomforth followed, having a difficult time keeping her eyes on Flitter's face instead of openly staring at the empty space between her hind legs.
Flitter couldn't bring herself to return their greetings in kind or even really look at them. While it had taken all of 5 minutes for her and Cloudchaser to help one another get clean enough to be seen back at the gathering, it had taken another fifteen for her older sister to carefully convince her of the importance of actually talking things through with their friends. As far as she'd been concerned, it would have been far easier to live the rest of her life without setting foot outside of their house again. Instead, she found herself sitting down against her sister's side opposite the two ponies she least wanted to see her right now, bow once more neatly tied in her long sea-blue mane.
"So, hey," Cloudchaser was the first to break the heavy silence that had descended on the four of them. "I'll just come straight out with it. Please don't tell anyone about this. About Flitter, or about us… together. Even if you can never look at us the same way or..." she sighed, her stony expression tightening, "even if you'd rather not talk to us again after this. Our life here together in Ponyville is all we've got."
"Secret's safe with me," Thunderlane answered quickly to this earnest plea from his old friend. She was taken aback at his near-immediate response, and he smoothed down the two-tone hair along the back of his neck. He sat uneasily, his wings rustling restlessly at his sides, but after a moment's repose he continued, "Hey, you know I'm no good at this sorta thing. I was just thinking... Well, you've always stuck with me through whatever featherbrained stunt I've thrown myself into. And I couldn't imagine Ponyville without you girls. Both of you."
Flitter shrunk as she felt his familiar eyes settle on her, sure he'd never see her the same way, or look at her like he had beside the quiet stream an eon earlier that day. She had to try very hard not to sniff, but smiled wanly at the firm, assuring press of one of her sister's hooves beneath a wing.
"Thanks, TL," Cloudchaser said.
"Altius volantis," the stallion replied simply, but with all solidarity of a hundred shared drills and contests.
"Altius volantis," she returned. Cadets stuck together.
Three pairs of eyes turned towards the fourth pegasus at the blanket.
Blossomforth answered with a singular audible crunch as she had seen fit to dig into the salad at her hooves now that all four ponies were present. "Muh?" She regarded their baffled gazes with her own. She continued to chew her salad even as their expectant gazes gradually turned hostile, unbothered as she mulled over the request, or maybe just the taste of the salad dressing. Finally, she nodded a few times, mouth still occupied. "Mmhm!"
"Whew…" Cloudchaser sighed enormously, allowing her brave facade to slip for a vulnerable gratefulness. "I… wasn't exactly sure what I'd do if you guys said otherwise."
Thunderlane gave her a weak but supportive smile, and Blossomforth swallowed her salad. Everyone looked Flitter's way when she finally found her voice, speaking up softly as her own eyes fell to the untouched food in front of her, "It's… It's… Not too weird?"
"Oh, it's super weird," Blossomforth answered with a giggle. Flitter winced and Cloudchaser's wings snapped out aggressively, but the white mare continued on, unperturbed. "But who cares? Or, well, maybe some ponies do. But I don't."
"Clearly," Thunderlane grunted and rolled his eyes. Blossomforth just shrugged.
"Some folks'll say anything is strange. Believe it or not, even I get called strange from time to time," she said, and she smiled Flitter's way. "You guys have always been super close. I never figured, you know, rutting close! That's nuts! But as long as you girls aren't like, hurting each other, I'll just say 'it's a family matter' and leave it at that."
Cloudchaser stared in disbelief, but Flitter finally smiled at her friend's offbeat encouragement. The older twin opened her mouth to offer a comment of her own, but Flitter spoke up again, the pressing question tumbling out before she could stop it, "And, the… Other thing?" She swallowed, but made herself look Blossomforth in the eye. "You're okay that I'm," her tongue couldn't quite form the word, so she settled on, "different?"
"Oh, that," Blossom blurted, halfway to taking another bite of her salad. "Well, sure! That's the easy one. We've been gal pals forever, Flitter. I'm not gonna let a little thing like a penis get betweenus."
Flitter trembled as a giggle very nearly bubbled up past the cold shackle of anxiety that had been constricting her throat the entire conversation, smiling weakly even as her eyes misted up.
"Hey!" Cloudchaser suddenly barked angrily, gaining the stunned gaze of each of the other equines. "It's not that little." Her sister leered intensely her way, and she returned the look with an easy smirk.
Thunderlane suddenly burst out laughing. The rumbly, uproarious strain of his laughter stunned Flitter who, after everything, expected to feel hurt by the sound. Instead, the lilting notes of her own laughter soon joined with his. The cheerful duet of their voices dispelled what remained of the oppressive atmosphere hanging over them, and the next few minutes thereafter were spent with each eating in an amiable quiet broken only by the crunching of salad or the occasional re-emergent giggle.
"I do gotta admit though, I am curious… How do you, well, keep it so well-hidden?" Thunderlane was the first to finally speak up again. He both looked and sounded concerned this particular question might make Flitter upset, but she surprised even herself by smiling brightly over at him.
"There's a special enchantment on my ribbon," she told him simply. The easy freedom of this answer made her heart flutter like it had spread its wings for the first time.
"Well shoot. Magic like that's hard to come by," he said, seeming to look at the accessory with a newfound interest. He traded one of his broad grins for one of her small, unguarded smiles. "Heh, don't suppose you can tell me where I could get somethin' like that?"
"And just what would you need a pretty pink ribbon for, big guy?" Cloudchaser cut in.
"Hey, a stallion can accessorize too!" His golden eyes glinted as he glanced away, and the twins giggled knowingly in tandem.
"I'm a little curious, myself," Flitter started, drawing the stallion's gaze back to her face. She felt her cheeks sting at the painfully fresh memory of what she had been sure was a terminal case of humiliation back beneath the trees, but continued, "Why did you guys come looking?"
"Ah. That," Thunderlane mumbled.
"I told him I saw you two hurrying off into the woods," Blossomforth butted in, wiping the crumbs of a recently destroyed muffin from her muzzle. The siblings looked to one another before four alike eyes settled on Thunderlane. He mussed his own mane with one of his hooves.
"I… Wanted to apologise for earlier," the stallion admitted with a sigh. "When Blossomforth told me that, I figured I must've upset you before. Just, heh, well… it was really nice seeing you open up, y'know? And the way the light played on your coat. I just got ahead of myself as usual, and must've come on really strong."
"Wait, you came onto my sister?!" Cloudchaser bristled, her wings fanning threateningly. It was only the touch of Flitter's hoof at her side that seemed to stay the fired-up flyer.
"You're one to talk!" Thunderlane shot back. Flitter's eyes widened as she looked between her Cloudchaser and her old rival as the two glared at each other, the spans of their wings on full display.
"Heh, got me there." Cloudchaser couldn't hold her chuckle back any longer, and the old glint of mutual respect softened their stony leers. She relaxed again, but settled one of her outstretched wings possessively about Flitter's shoulders.
"Anyway," Flitter spoke, regaining their attention, "it wasn't like that. It was very flattering, honestly. Maybe too flattering." She flicked her ears in an attempt to keep them cool as she thought back to the warmth of his coat and the powerful muscle bristling beneath it. "I was really, really surprised, though. I always thought you had a thing for Cloudchaser."
"I mean, don't get me wrong. 'Chaser is really hot." Thunderlane took his time to assess the pegasus in question. "She's just, I don't know, sorta coltish."
"Thnargy, too," Blossom chimed in, halfway through Thunderlane's muffin.
"Snarky also, yeah," Thunderlane concurred.
"I'm right here, y'know," Cloudchaser snarked. The lopsided grin he gave her confirmed he knew exactly that.
Flitter giggled softly, "I like those things about her."
That finally made the red in her sister's cheeks tease through her fur.
"All that said, hey, if you girls ever wanna include a stallion in your fun..." Thunderlane's grin widened as Cloudchaser's eyes narrowed.
"Thunderlane," she snarled.
Another press at her side drew her eyes back towards Flitter, and her gaze softened as they looked at eachother. Flitter glanced to Thunderlane and widened her smile just a touch before looking back to Cloudchaser. Cloudchaser raised an eyebrow, and then knitted her brow as she also gave him a short-lived glance.
"Uh," the stallion cleared his throat.
Cloudchaser canted her head a bit to the side, and Flitter's ears rose. Finally, Cloud's ears rose too, and she rolled her eyes fondly. Then, both sisters looked at Thunderlane together.
"We'll think about it," Cloudchaser stated seriously, but it was Flitter's sweet smile that made him swallow.
"Cool," he said, not particularly cooly. Flitter nearly giggled as she noticed him shift a bit, uncomfortably arranging his hind legs protectively in a small adjustment the other two mares weren't likely to catch.
"Cool," Cloudchaser confirmed. She traded one last glance with her twin, and they both climbed to their hooves.
"Leaving already?" Blossomforth said, in the middle of retrieving a book from the nearby picnic basket. Its cover was dramatically emblazoned in red 'Shadow Spade', and the subtitle was too small and too long for anyone else to read.
"Yeah," the older twin said, rolling her neck. She smoothed down the back of her mane, which was still rough with saliva and mingled with twigs. "Weeee… really need to wash up properly, heheh."
"Then maybe take the rest of the night at home. I've had such a long day. I'm totally drained," Flitter sighed, feeling shaky on her hooves, yet somehow lighter than ever.
"Well hopefully not completely totally drained," her sister retorted, her tail snapping against Flitter's cutie mark.
"Cloudchaser!" Flitter yelped, but before she could retaliate, the coltish pegasus took wing, leaving the hapless mare with the fading sound of her laughter. She stretched her own wings to pursue, but stopped as she noticed her friends looking up at her. Blossomforth's amused smile was bright enough to be seen over the edge of her novel cover, and Thunderlane fixed her with a reserved version same half-cocked smile that could be at once so charming and so irritating.
"Thank you two," Flitter finally managed to force out. "I know it must be weird, but… just to have two more ponies that accept me, even after… well, it means a lot. You're the best friends I could hope for."
"Hey, I always sort of figured you had some kind of deep, hidden secret," Blossomforth said with a dismissive wave of her hoof, already looking back down at her book, "and now I find out you have two! You'll make tragic heroine yet."
"Any time, Flits." Thunderlane's smile softened.
Flitter beamed at her friends, and tried to wipe the haziness from her eyes. "I should catch up with CC before she uses all the hot water." With that, the pegasus took to wing, determined not to embarrass herself one more time by crying in front of them.
"Well, that was a waaay more interesting picnic than last time," Blossomforth chirped, turning a page. "Crazy day, huh?"
"You're telling me," Thunderlane grunted, collapsing forward onto the blanket. He watched as one indigo speck circled the other in the distant sky, before moving in unison towards Ponyville.
Only when they were completely out of sight did he lower his gaze. His lingering, bittersweet smile suddenly faded. "Hey, where'd my muffin go?"
Blossomforth buried her muzzle in her book. "Mmff, I'ummo," she swallowed, "Maybe Cloudchaser got it?"
Flitter's yawn broke the still morning silence.
She struggled briefly against the suppressive influence of the oppressively comfortable bedspread embracing her, only to find that she was held fast by a more insistent grasp still. Overcome with a sense of claustrophobia, her eyes shot open, but when the bright morning sun had finished blinding her she relaxed. Cloudchaser's sleeping face filled her view, surrounded by the choppy blue and white waves of her unstyled mane. Her lips were slightly parted, and Flitter could feel the soft warmth of each of her peaceful breaths against her muzzle.
Flitter opened her mouth in preparation to speak, but thought better of it. Instead, she opted to close the tiny gap yet remaining between them, losing herself in the familiar heat of those soft lips. When at last she withdrew, she expected to find Cloudchaser's eyes opening in appreciation of the good morning kiss. She was rewarded instead by only the slightest stir from her sibling, a little snort, and a thin trickle of saliva running from the edge of those lovely lips to mark their pillow. She shook against her slumbering twin in a barely repressed giggle.
When the little fit had finished, the pegasus began the laborious work of very carefully disentangling from the sleeping mare's embrace without disturbing her further. Flitter gingerly shimmied, first down and then back. A gasp escaped as she very carefully drew her partly-stiff shaft away from the insistent warmth of Cloudchaser's pressing thighs, and she searched her sibling's features in the expectation that this would rouse her. Cloudchaser remained as still as ever, and Flitter wondered at what quirk of biology allowed the pegasus to naturally rise just after dawn every other day of the week yet hibernate through Saturday mornings.
Finally freed from the loving death grip, Flitter yawned and sat up in bed, stretching her back and legs and feeling the slight, residual ache of her activity yesterday and into the night. As she did most mornings, she allowed her eyes to drink in the familial warmth of their shared living space, tracing a lazy arch over each of those tiny reminders of everything else they shared.
Her lazy reverie was broken at once by a colourful glint below the window. She nearly crashed to the floor as she rolled out of bed, barely catching herself on all four legs before bounding over to her butterfly enclosures. There, fanning its spotted wingspan among the highest leaves was a single large butterfly. Its wings moved slowly, catching the morning light and shimmering with rainbow incandescence.
Flitter spun in place, drawing a deep breath to shout, but the softly rising and falling silhouette of the pony beneath the blankets stayed her voice. With a little bounce and a flit of her wings, she fluttered to the door, deciding she'd rather surprise her sister by waking her up to a home-cooked breakfast.
