Heated Into Weakness

~ III ~

Together in Bed

Spike swallowed as his claw pulled away the strands of her tail, which were wet, and stuck across the mounds of her sex. His every heartbeat exploded in a tension that pounded in the inside of his chest. The tail drew back, and he laid it on the side.

Revealing the one part on the mare he never expected to see.

Her flanks were parted a little to reveal her glistening sex. Glossed by her wetness with the thickness of her vulva encapsulating his vision. Air sweltered here. Stinging his snout and nipping at his scales with burning musk. His mouth opened to reveal it salivating. Dry. Parched. Thirsty.

His claws reached for her thighs, to raise and spread them, to squeeze and hold them. He looked up at Twilight; she always was above him. Looking over herself to see him down here. Always so high. So mighty. So great and everything.

How her mane swayed before her panting face. Redness over purple and a cute muzzle delightfully wrinkled by pleasure. The embodiment of adorableness. None were able to see this side of her. Much less him seeing her so much like a girl. Always so smart, snarky and powerful.

He almost wondered if any other side of her existed. If she was just different from all mares.

But he'd never been so wrong in his life in seeing the beauty that she could become now. How lucky anyone would be to see her so much like a girl. His heart panged. More so wanting to please her than his fear of her. Enough that, no matter how much his heart stumbled, or his claws fumbled.

He'll follow through on what he felt he needed to do.

"Any, uh, guidance on this?"

"Uhh... have you tried licking it?"

"Are you reading me a manual, Twilight?"

"No, no! It's just that's what they always say! It's not like I've been able to do that myself—it's still new for me!"

"Right, right." Spike looked at the plushness of her vulva, unsure if it was something meant to be licked. The slit between was what scared him the most. As did the nub at the top. How it peeked out, growing and twitching, a little redness aflame beneath its skin. "Well. Here goes nothing."

His eyes closed, and he went for the lick. Feeling softly coals that burnt his tongue with a taste of something close to honey. It didn't have flavouring. Thin. Sticky. Devoid mostly of taste. There was a touch of something.

"Huh." Spike pulled away for a second. "Romance novels always make it out to be like honey or butter or something like that."

The flanking legs closed onto the sides of his head before immediately pulling away. Once he was this close, she could no longer hide away from him. There was a moral in that, somewhere. Although he didn't think too terribly long about it.

"D-Does it taste bad? Because the other stallion said..."

"...said what?"

"Whmmmm." Twilight whimpered and buried her face into her hooves. "That I was beautiful and that I tasted delicious."

"Pftt."

"Hey! Don't you push this!" Another mummer and whimper and a crossing of forelegs over her chest. "Not when my heart's about to explode."

"Then we can explode together, Twi." Suddenly he was becoming calmer. Smoother. Able to float in the new kind of air—even the feminine sauna before him—with ease. It all still scared him. But his partner no longer did. "I'm not so sure about delicious. But that stallion was right. You are beautiful."

She was still in heaven, hiding behind her mane, where her words passed through. "Everywhere?"

That wasn't a question to be answered with words. She knew of his fear, and now, he was grateful for it. He went back into her sex, licking it, exploring, experimenting, his snout brushing into the flesh. Her back lifted and dropped as the rest of her spasmed from the contact. Little shivers that wiggled her barrel in place.

His tongue dared to slip into her slit into a sensitive place. He was inside of her. Inside of Twilight. Where everything was living, breathing, opening and closing, wet and slimy, the air, within, prickling on his tongue. His heart stopped, but he went one. Testing against a wall, its curve and shape, the warm, spongy surface, that he pressed a little into.

To legs closing onto his face and those bulbous thighs snuffing him into her pussy.

The intensity lasted for only a second as the dragon surrendered himself. Feeling his face buried into her vulva as the thighs rose and lowered on his head, that amount of squishy, rubbing into him itself a delight. His snout brushed into that nub at the top of her lips. Different ways due to the direction of her legs.

Then a gasp from above caused the legs to fall away.

"Spike! I am SOSOSOSO sorry! I swear to you that did not mean to—"

"Everywhere and everything." His breath caught in time to be used. Inhaling her fumes and not minding if that was the case for the rest of his life. "You're beautiful. In how you looked in losing yourself and how it felt to be buried into you. But, uh, warning next time?"

Twilight nodded. "Of course."

"It seems like you wanted something from me there." He coughed and resumed his smile. "Did you, um, have something you'd like me to do?"

She nodded quicker than she would have liked. "Do you see at the top of me there? Little round ball? My clitoris—or 'clit' for short?"

Spike chuckled as his muzzle rose to the fuzzy nub peeked from its hood. His breath washed across it, to the shaking of the thighs within his claws. He stopped them crushing him this time. "Sexual slang and anatomy with Twilight Sparkle."

"Spiiike."

"Sorry. Don't wanna kill the mood here. Continue."

"Now you're making me feel like a teacher reading from a textbook."

"I'd be down for that fantasy, teach."

"When is it my turn to be the confident one again?"

"Dunno." Spike shook his head, and his frills brushed across her skin. "The feeling kind of fluctuates, doesn't it?"

"Mmhmm." Twilight decided to get on with it. "A-Anyway. You're going to have to be super careful with this, okay? You can't be doing what you did with my thighs."

The clit seemed to be throbbing toward him. Wanting something. Needing anything.

"Too little of a good thing hurts," Spike rattled as his head bounced with the thought. "And too much of a good thing also hurts. I guess even sex is down to a balance."

"So please be gentle." Twilight leaned back into her chamber of pillows, trusting in him. She looked to the ceiling, fearful, like a patient in a dentist's chair. "I'll try to talk through what I feel. I-If I can't... well... my reactions should be enough to guide you."

"No more words to dress up how you're feeling?"

"Spike."

"Sorry. Really am. Sorry. Just never got this point of... being the one not as scared."

"You don't have fangs about to be set on your most sensitive part."

"I won't hurt you, Twilight."

"Promise?"

"Whisk out my own teeth if that'll make you feel better."

"Something tells me bloody gums won't be much of an improvement."

"There's your confidence back."

"Bravado."

"Bravo!"

"You're an idiot."

“Your idiot.” He raised her legs apart for better access. "Here goes nothing!"

His lips settled on it, the feeling of thin fuzz to soft flesh, a little squish to a density behind it. Kissing it drew a shudder of kicks from flanking legs as he deepened it. Loving the murmurs. The halted breaths. The wiggling inside of goodness that rocked the mare.

Spike's eyes closed as he took the nub into his mouth, very gently, not even allowing his fangs to so much as grace it. His frills kept attentive to her sounds. Those hitched groans. The tapping of a hoof into a bed. Flanks grinding back and forth to endure the goodness in store.

He let it rest inside for the moment as to let the mare transition into it.

"Mhmm! Mhmmm."

His eyes glanced up over the sheet of a purple field and up at the mare. Twilight had laid her head back into the pillows, her eyes, clenched, with forehooves that searched across her chest—fuzzing it up. Unable to stop a whimper and a whinny as sweat rolled down her face.

Seems like she's used to the feeling of it now. She's in pain. Too little of a good thing? At least it means I'm doing good.

Spike started to suckle on the little ball, pushing upon it with his lips, moving it around, little by little, to listen to the different moans. To the left, they were lower but, in being raised, and touched to the right—she nearly screamed in a growl of satisfaction.

Something warm dribbled onto his chin. His eyes glanced down to catch the honey smearing across it. Pressed into her folds, which glistened from the love, which also splattered onto her thighs, catching to her coat, the rest dribbling onto the outward swell of her flanks.

It should have been terrifying to be between the legs of a girl. To have never seen a pussy, now, to having to pleasure one. To get close and to lick and to do several things. It should have been scary and disgusting and the whole thing awkward.

But those years of fear, after a conversation of acceptance, and moments of practice, made the whole thing easier. Twilight wasn't faking those sounds. The reactions of her body. They were real, raw, and caused by him. He saw a direct response to his service.

He always liked to make others feel good. And being able to do that, now, to a mare... to Twilight. It caused his tongue to wrap around her clit, wrapping and wrapping, to a lurch from the girl in feeling her pleasure now squeezed on.

His tongue wrapped around the sides of the nub as his lips massaged the top and bottom of it. His warm breath soaked its shape, and the end of this tongue flicked all over it. Testing. Eyes set over the expanse of her tummy. Watching for everything.

Spike wanted to learn more about this. For countless reasons that did not matter as only the act itself did. He wanted to learn where all her spots were. The overly sensitive places where he could draw a happy scream if needed.

It reminded him of when they were younger. In bed in the covers together, his claws searching over her body, caressing Twilight, searching for her ticklish spots. Where she was strong and weak. Nearly like a dog as some areas could get her left leg to kick and others her right.

It was that same urge, now, to study her everything. To know where to please, for how long and in what order, watching her writhe in pleasure. Spike licked and flicked. Watching her shudder and flick from one side to another. The set inch that would cause her hips to arch off the bed for but a second.

You were supposed to be walking me through this with words.

But maybe... this way... is more natural...

...and better.

Twilight could barely suppress the urge to close her legs onto the back of his head, stuffing him as much as she could inside, all to ride more of that amazing feel. The licking of fire, the bathing of steam, the euphoria that ranked supreme.

And she hardly could take it anymore.

"Mmhmm... S-Spike.... p-please..."

Twilight looked over her barrel and down at him, his eyes lifting to return the exchange, slowing in his movements. She could barely speak over her panting and the occasional slip of a moan. But she swallowed. And tried.

"F-Finish me... p-please... I've... be-en like th-is for so long... it hurts... d-don't... m-m-make me a-a-a-asssskkkk...."

It was in the glow of his eyes. The glint to tease and expose her. To make a harmless wisecrack of how sensitive and vulnerable and horny the know-it-all, nerd and princess, that Twilight Sparkle had become. It would have annoyed her but not much more. Embarrassing to exist in this kind of state.

But that glint faded in catching her expression. Just how vulnerable she was. Never having asked someone to fuck her before. The wisecrack and snarks and like died inside of Spike. Instead, he nodded.

Then she could feel it. The need to shut her eyes and open her mouth and let whatever rage through her take its course. How that tongue still kept on her clit as it extended downward. Passing inside of her, searching, travelling further than before.

Twilight bucked her hips and rode into his face, no longer caring as the dragon did not raise a fuss, being a conduit for her pleasure. There was that itch deep inside. Building with the pressure that was behind it. Tickles of his tongue sliding toward it. Everything inside, closing, to clench on what little there was.

And then he found it, and a gasp broke from her.

"S-Spike! There! There! Focus there!"

There were better words unable to be said as the mare lurched forward and, supporting a hoof to the back of the dragon's head, stuffed him harder between her legs. They closed as well, her thighs on his sides, locking him against her pussy.

She'd always thought that something more would be required to do that. More experience, confidence, or something like that. It wasn't a power play or anything more. Rather just what her body did in wanting to capture more of that melting and gooey goodness inside.

His tongue brushed over a swell in the flesh that was hard, sensitive, and enough to make her leg kick onto the bed. Driving her hips to rock forward and her thighs to clench tighter on his head. Spike must have held his breath and gone in, suckling on her clit, licking at her spot, without restraint, feeling the building happening inside of her.

Twilight couldn't do anything else but have her hooves set into her muzzle as she finally came. The torment of weeks, and the highest heat that boiled inside, were released, in all but a moment. She felt it. That expansion beneath the skin like steam inside a potato in expanding pressure to escape.

Everything inside had lowered and condensed and flushed out from between her legs. The burning skin, cooling, as that bite was taken with her releasing current. Everything about her was calming as she moaned into her hooves with a squeak behind them.

Douses of honey had splashed out from between her legs, splash after splash, current after current, that building pressure, released into pleasure, as the girl lurched, clenched, and then deflated. She fell back with a goofy expression and a panting mouth. Eyes dilated and glowing much softer now.

She loved the feeling. Everything flushing out between her legs. How it slowed and thinned and left her empty. Deep breaths were composed of her musk and, while it stank, it was a smell she was getting used to.

And the nuzzling into her folds, and the tickling on her thighs, also were lovely.

"Spike... mhmm... o-oh—OH!"

Twilight peered up and over herself to see the dragon still buried into her crotch, looking at her legs and their lock, coming to unwrap herself at once. Spike's head slipped free from her valley as he came to rise and sit on his knees. His eyes opened, and he breathed for the first time in a while, starting to blink in seeing the world again.

Something dripped from his chin.

The lifelong friend sat a foot apart from each other, both panting for different reasons, each having travelled to the other side of intimacy for the first time. They'd done everything together—but they doubted they would do this as well.

Twilight didn't say anything as she didn't know what to say.

Thanks?

Are you okay?

Did you want me to return the favour?

Her heart startled on that last one. But the gleam on his face caught another interest. Without words, she raised a hoof to her cheek, brushing it, to notion something on his. Spike's eyes carefully narrowed as he wiped a claw on his face and wiped some of her honey.

Holding that claw before his face, and looking at hers between his digits, he then brought it close... and started to lick.

"S-SPIIIKE! C'MON NOW! SERIOUSLY?"

Spike chuckled as he faltered onto his knees. He looked down at himself. "Sorry. Just... after that. I couldn't keep myself from a joke."

"You're the worst."

"Now I can't say 'your worst.'"

Twilight sighed and laid back on the pillows enough to still see him. "Maybe I am the worst, though." Her legs closed, and she winced. "Sorry about that, b-by the way. Closing you in there and..." her voice trailed away in a squeak.

Spike held up a claw. "Don't worry about it! So long as it helped you—I didn't care what happened to me." Her hurt expression caused him to turn his claw, seeing the remaining butter dashed across it and, bringing it to his chest, wiped it off there this time. "And... to be honest? It felt delicious too."

Twilight laid on her mane and looked at him from under her bangs. "Really?"

"Y-Yeah! I mean." He cleared his throat. "You're really soft. Fuzzy too. I just want to squeeze every part of you." His blush over his snout caused him to look away. "I've always been scared of a mare's... y'know, thing. Just of all the ways it could go wrong. How I would need to live it up for Rarity and..."

Spike exhaled and fell onto his rump. "Just that there were a lot of expectations that I was afraid of. Then you started to make a lot of good sounds, and you would rub your thighs into me. After that... all I cared about was making you feel good."

He started to wipe the rest of his face. "Even though I don't think I can get used to tasting a girl's... one of these days I'll be able to use that word... none of that mattered in making you happy. I was willing to do anything for that."

Twilight once more had to clench her heart and cross her forehooves to block herself off from what was developing. Spike was speaking about how all of this was to him. His talks of making her happy... it was to get her off. To help. This was his first time, but he would want to make any partner, happy.

You're nothing special to him. Don't read into his words. Stop it.

"And..." Twilight muttered in breaking from her thoughts. "It felt good?"

"Y-Yeah! Once you get over the smell—it's actually kinda addicting."

"Even with the legs and—"

"They were soft and being pressed against you, dunno, for the same reason I want to squeeze you, I think, is the same reason why you squeezed me there. Er, get me?"

"Think I do... and it really felt good?"

"Well... yeah? More so getting you off than anything else."

"Me me?"

"Yes. You you."

"No no. Like getting a mare off?"

"No no. Getting you you you off."

"H-How can you be sure?"

"I dunno... feeling? Maybe I'd go through all that to get someone else off if I had to but... I-I... don't think it would have felt as good." Spike lowered his head, thinking it through. "I love you, Twilight. You're my greatest friend. You're the only friend I could do all of this with and have nothing change. We're weird, yet, we understand and accept each other. It's because of you I want to throw a mile at."

“Run a mile for.”

"Nah. I'm straight up picking and chucking a mile to show how much I care for you."

"Mile of stoooone or?"

"Does it matter?"

"Mile of road is heavier than a mile of grass."

"Isn't a mile of anything already good enough for you, selfish mare?"

“I am a selfish mare. Asking my best friend to do all this. Yet... I... like it?"

"I'm sure there's a lot of girls that like being pampered out there."

"I never expected myself to be one of them! But I liked being sexually pampered and—GAH! NOT LIKE THAT! NONONO!"

Spike chuckled and started to crawl forward on his knees, hovering over her body; something pink had glinted beneath him. He then lowered, his scales brushing against her fur, his hardness dropped onto her softness, his face set onto hers.

All to kiss her cheek.

"I do this so you don't have to taste yourself." Twilight would have smacked him off if she could not feel his heartbeat against her own. How quickly it pumped, not from getting off like her, but rather, still the fear of all this. It didn't get easier for him. Just that his bravery increased for her. "But you don't have to sweat yourself, Twi. You're entering a new world."

Twilight groaned and looked away from him, and she prayed he did not leave, despite not hinting for him to stay. Still, he kissed her cheek. Leaving a trail all the way to her ear—which twitched in anticipation. "A-Already did that in becoming a princess."

"Not like that." That voice whispered into her ear, tender and fragile, which did it's best to reassure her in a way not done before. She'd never been this close, in all regards, to another. Spike used to give her pep talks. But never had he delivered it like this—which felt raw and more fulfilling. "Being a princess learning how to conduct yourself to the world. What you're already like with friends."

His muzzle dug beneath her ear, sniffing the lavender in her mane, drunk on the smell, unable to get enough. Then he pulled back to speak again. "But this? You... have to surrender yourself in it. No knowledge or magic or power to hide behind. You have to expose yourself. Sensitively revealing all that you need—which someone can easily hurt you with."

That night... never... never again.

"How... when did you start talking like this?" Twilight didn't turn her head but knew her words reached him. "You're not normally like this."

He chuckled and planted his face into the side of hers. "One too many mistakes with Rarity. I... don't normally act like this either. New w-world for me too. You... can easily use all of this against me too."

"I never would."

"And neither would I against you."

Twilight knew better than to open her arms, but she did so, wrapping them around the dragon, the best she could, before pulling him in. Hugging him as to refill that emptiness in the center of her being. No more words. Pure contact needed. The refilling of love that no other, friend or book, could provide.

"I know it all sounds so... scary... and strange... but you'll be okay." The dragon whispered through her coat and into her skin as his breath washed across it. "It may be a great surprise to you that you like... s-sex and whatnot... because of how you lived. But you're not different from other mares. Just didn't have the same life as the rest of them."

Twilight whinnied and turned her head. "Still wished I phrased it better."

"It's okay... I'll sexually pamper you as much as you like... and wished I phrased it better as well."

Twilight groaned with hidden delight. "You're so sweet that I hate you."

"What can I say? It's my mission in life to disappoint mares."

"Not cute."

"That tends to be the reason why."

“Spiiike!”

"Sorry."

Twilight didn't know when sleep had come in the late hours of the night, held by another in her bed, feeling loved and scared, for so many reasons, from the cock that had been pressed into her belly, to the words of the loving dragon.

She recalled closing her eyes, and keeping awake, in his arms, listening to his breathing, feeling the idle stroking of his claw. It came to stop when he fell asleep. She had turned, tucking herself into his torso, and he hugged her like a pillow.

Thankfully his dick had eventually gone away.

She wanted to think more about it all.

Until sleep had come.

Sensations of life thickened and spread throughout her frame as consciousness blossomed from a little light inside. The urge to groan and stretch out her legs and arch her back to feel the pleasant bend of her spine. The popping of overnight kinks flooded relief.

But the crinkling of the sheets, the shifting of the blanket, the warming rays of the morning sun, were nothing, zero, compared to the sensation behind and around her. It took a few moments of being alive to feel the arms around her barrel. Wrapped. Tightly. Hugging her close.

Twilight's eyes slipped open to the blinding of gold to the calming of the morning. Sunlight washing in from the distant window and drifting across the side of her bed. Her forehooves laid over the blanket, skin licked by the sun, furs warmed by it.

It took work to inch her muzzle down the pillow, a bunched cheek so eyes could see below, over her chest which had been claimed. Two strong arms wrapped over it with glimpses of claws set on her sides. Tuft of coat was out in the spaces between. And she felt nicely squeezed.

Twilight didn't need to look behind to feel the sensation there. Of the large, smooth frame, curved to her own, which she was snuggled against. So big and so smooth. Vast enough to be appealing but not so much as to be scary. It was a feeling of paradise.

Of feeling protected.

"Mhmm..." Twilight groaned in a girlish whimper in not wanting to twist as to break away from him, but wanting to feel more of it, whatever it was that they had. How his scales brushed into her coat. The feeling of her skin rubbing into him. "Mhm."

It was silly for her to feel protected. Her friends did that for her, of course, when it came to certain matters. But Twilight had never needed the aid of a stallion before. Her size, magic, power, and royalty were often the reasons why she had saved the world countless times.

Her friends were there but, most of the time, it was just her, and that was that.

But it would be nice to know it all didn't depend on me.

That little voice whispered. Those battles and fights. How nice it would have been to have faltered, to not have invented the plan. To have laid defeated, and another walked in her place, finishing the fight, coming back to pick her up, walking away with her in Spike's arms.

Waht?

Twilight wiggled against the thought and in so doing, caused a groan from the dragon who, even in sleep, fearing the worst, decided to let go. His arms fell away and he rolled the same, freeing the mare into being alone.

Twilight flipped to her other side, feeling and hearing the brushing blanket, the impressing mattress, and the sinking of pillows beneath their weight. She looked over the foot of distance to the back of the dragon. Turned away. Giving Twilight her space.

She looked down.

Even beneath the covers, bathed in sunlight, she felt, suddenly, a frost shivering over her coat. That warmth that had been hugged into her, now spread and thinned out. She had everything she needed.

But nothing of what she wanted.

Twilight snaked a hoof to her face to stare at it, not sure why it had grabbed her interest, only that she would imagine that it belonged to someone else. Or that they were suddenly holding it. Her eyes glossed over to the dragon and reached out to him—but that did nothing as he slept.

The hoof dropped.

What was she to do? Hug him from behind? His spines were in the way... though maybe nuzzling into those would be nice. Another shake of the head at that. Twilight didn't have any reason to hug him now. Her problem was heat and that lust was taken care of last night.

And the dragon only hugged her in her fear of waking up, alone, like she had done that night so long ago. Now, though, there was no other reason for them to be close. This wasn't even him hugging her.

But the reverse.

He doesn't need it. I wouldn't be doing it for him. I... oh... what am I even thinking about anymore? Hugging feels good. That's why you want to do it. But... maybe... he'll get the wrong impression? After all, for you to hug him, it means the initial hug was broken, and that you went after it again because—

Twilight was breathing through her mouth to repress the beating of her heart as the morning anxieties whizzed the bubbling beach inside her head. She'd already exposed herself enough last night. Allowing herself to be weak as so he could tend to her better. That itself was already too revealing.

Becoming a princess had meant to be strong and, nowhere on the way, had Celestia taught her how to be weak. Twilight needed to appear as better. To seem like she was more. From that book-nerd to the one able to save the world. A mare that others looked up to. Place hope in.

She swallowed and her heart thumped and the world seemed like it was about to be over for her. Her body shuffled over the bed as the thoughts raced to the dragon. How he'd lost his love, was scared of romance, and yet, did it all as to help her.

But he was only there to help her. With the heat. That would be it and all. Not only that, but because he had broken through that first barrier of intimacy—something that terrified him for years—maybe now he could go back to Rarity. Or some other mare. He'd gotten what he needed from her.

Spike would help her. But only with the issues she stated. She needed to get rid of her lust to be a good ruler. The other insecurities could be taken care of by her friends. It wouldn't be fair to dump all that on him. Or place any more expectations on him than the ones he was already struggling to fulfill.

Once the heat was gone, he would be the same, as he was before, leaving her once more.

Don't get attached to a best friend that won't be there.

Twilight's eyes broke from the thoughts to look into the world once more. It layered in purple scales as the smooth and leather-like texture of a frill was brushing into her cheek. She blinked. Her foreleg laid over the side of the dragon, as she laid into him, taking his heat, loving his texture, and needing his embrace.

And the dragon gave a satisfied huff on the other side.

When had she scooted over and hugged him? So consumed by her thoughts that her body acted on what it needed by itself. Able to go on for so long without another due to not knowing what she had been missing out on. Now she had it. If only for a little while.

And the time that came afterward would be all the more worse for it.

Unless I... find somebody else...

Did that mean she would find someone else? That she would be the first princess to rule with a prince? Or would someone else even want to be a prince? Not only to date her but to also endure the scandal of politics and the weight of responsibility.

Celestia did it alone for a thousand years—but did that mean Twilight had to base everything on her mentor? Do it like her and like so? Would it be wrong to have another? Why did Celestia not have another did? Was there something wrong with it?

There was no stopping the thoughts, and Twilight whimpered, pressing her face into the dragon's back.

Maybe there was a fear in being betrayed. Or knowing that the stresses wouldn't allow the relationship to survive. Or maybe the love would perish and the two would keep together for show. That wasn't much better than being alone. She could maybe date on the side—but a princess couldn't simply take a colt, now and again, into her room.

It'd have to be a proper romance.

And she couldn't even find that before the tiara.

Would she have to become stronger than? Enough to take care of herself? To win all those fights without much else to depend on? To lose that feeling of being protected and replace it with the notion of protecting others?

Celestia was a mother to the world who did all the above, as was expected with a ruler like her and, maybe, the same was expected with the soon to be ruler of Twilight. Maybe that's why she fell the course she did. Never finding love or romance but rather strength in practices and nourishment from friendship.

She wasn't any better than Spike in having avoided romantic intimacy herself throughout her life. The idea of a kiss—and more—always so appealing as well as intensely scary. Showing her naked body to another. Something she could barely look at... somehow expecting another to love.

How could someone else love what you did not love yourself? Was it because they saw something you didn't? But Twilight pondered every matter from incalculable angles and never came away with a better answer than self-loathing at everything that dealt with those parts of her.

Princess Celestia knew that Twilight would also become a ruler, and so, in knowing that the girl would like to keep alone, that her closest act of intimacy would be a hug with a friend, choose her, knowing that she would become strong like her, through fights and challenges, and would not ever stumble onto the path of love.

That's why she was chosen, maybe.

Because Twilight would walk her life without ever considering what it felt like to love another and be loved in turn. Were it not for lust, or the heat of her body, this would have kept true, maybe.

"Remember your breathing. You're alright now. Count to three with me."

Twilight snapped from her thoughts in shock and embarrassment and the need to fall back into character. Smart and high and snappy. Witty and with a comeback that hid her vulnerabilities. Trying as she might, however, she couldn't seem to surface through the usual consciousness that haunted her.

In being alone, she got better in enduring it, but sometimes...

"C'mon now. On the squeeze of my claw." The dragon turned, and the mare scooted back, but his other arm came over her side and pulled her back. The two were close enough for their snouts to touch. The green of his eyes drew her into those peaceful pools. "One... in... keep it in... now out. Good. That's it. Rep two now. In..."

Twilight couldn't think about what she was being told, a deep trust of the dragon, taking over, that did everything he said. Her change in breathing surprised her, a soft squeeze to inhale, it kept as oxygen did the same in her lungs, that was, until it released, her mouth did the same with an exhale.

It took a few intervals, something that should have taken moments, going on for minutes, which she needed to be better at. The dragon didn't mind. Seeming as though he could keep this way for hours. His lack to rush allowed her to feel the same.

And once her breathing, and heartbeat, return to cadence, of course, a joke was the first thing out of her. "And where is the dragon supposedly afraid of intimacy?"

His claw squeezed her hoof. "Still right here."

Twilight smiled. It was always the dragon cracking jokes and she got annoyed at him for it. Though, in thinking back, he probably got it from her in the first place. Her eyes retreated beneath her bangs as they were her eternal protection.

"...thanks, Spike."

His claw kept squeezing her hoof.

"Um."

His claw stopped.

"Aren't you... going to ask me... about stuff?"

"How's stuff going?"

"Spiiike."

"Sorry! Just figured you'd tell me if you need to."

"Don't you want to know? I-I mean. Hugging you and b-breaking down and—"

"Careful! Or we'll be going back to step one."

Twilight took her breaths, fairly spaced apart, and went again.

"Sorry."

His claw hovered to her muzzle and, while she twitched away, his claw paused and, after a few moments, came closer, and she remained still. His digits brushed through her mane as velvet stroked between them. Her blush increased, and shame rose at revealing so much of her forehead.

And her cover.

"Spike! Don't! You know I don't like how I—"

Her words stopped at feeling his kiss below her horn as his claw brushed her hair, tucking them to the side, all so that, when he pulled away, they could properly look into each other's eyes. He was smiling. Genuinely. No forced, but rather, something evoked.

By her.

"Sorry." His smile almost made the apology insincere. "I just wanted to see your face."

Twilight's blush took to anger and she looked aside, heart still hammering, chest still clenched, finding it harder to breathe. Anxiety, however, did not rise. Embarrassment and shame. Maybe. But never fear. These things to anyone else, maybe.

But she could not fear her dragon.

"With a line like that—Rarity should have been yours."

Her words stabbed inward at the insult meant to be harmless. Despite it all, she didn't want to hurt him—no matter what he was putting her through. Yet she couldn't will herself better on it.

"She was." His smile softened as his claw pulled away, allowing her mane to cover her face, though it lowered to her neck, brushing the hair there. "Told her everything that was right. Just... couldn't follow through on it at the end."

That'd been enough.

"I'm sorry, Spike." Twilight peeked out from her mane to stare up at him with glinting eyes. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know what I deserve when I tease you like that." His smile did not go away even as it was slashed by the words of the past. They stung. And he looked away as he talked about them. "But there's not much use in a dragon who can say sweet things but not do them. Plus, with Rarity... well, it was beyond sweet that gave me trouble."

Spike turned and dropped onto his back, lying there, staring into the ceiling. Moments later, a muzzle hovered over his vision, Twilight, peering down, doing her best to smile. She lowered for a moment. Kissing his cheek. As she had done for him so many years ago.

"Am I about to hear some details about my friend that I shouldn't be hearing?"

"A gentledrake never speaks poorly of a lady—especially when there's nothing there to speak poorly of." The dragon hadn't been expecting the mare to lower onto him, with a snuggle into his side, laying her head on his chest. It caught him. And a moment later—it caught her too. "Just that I couldn't fulfill the needs of that lady—or that mare."

Despite the shock to them both, the mare did not move, keeping close, intimate, with the two enjoying a tinge of familiarity. Spike looked to the ceiling, with an arm around Twilight's neck, stroking her mane still, needing to do so to have the courage to speak.

"The romance was easy for lack of better words." His arm became snug around Twilight's neck, rubbing against it, delighting in how it felt. How she felt. So good and so close. So warm and so nice. There was always the urge to take her into a hug and be like that until the end of time. "All the dates and gifts and conversations and even kisses. Could do them all alright. That's the part of me that Rarity fell for."

Twilight shifted against him. "But the sex?"

"Couldn't do it." Spike huffed longingly to feel the mare nuzzle into his deflating chest, with a hoof pressing onto it, rubbing, to help set him at ease. She didn't seem like she knew what she was doing. Nothing told her what was. Rather she fell into a sense. "Was a coward to her every advance. Leaving the shower door open. Moaning loudly in the bedroom as I got home from work."

Another sigh. "All the stuff a normal guy could rave about."

Twilight laid still against and atop him. Her muzzle rose up on his pec to gaze into his face. "None of you was turned on by that, though? I mean. Surely. Some part of you wanted to... y'know."

And then there was this again. Where the friends could be close, closer than close, and speak about anyone or anything. That they would be understood. Never judged. That the full story could come out without fear to how it would be perceived.

"Of course." Spike nodded. "Rarity was rocking because I have no way to phrase it better. Just... augh. She was dynamite, Twilight. Rump and it all. Just that rump. Oh, Celestia, that rump."

Twilight snickered and bopped his snout with a hoof. "Always knew you were heavily into flanks."

"A-And don't forget flanks that are heavy."

“Which makes me wonder why you didn't grab mine...”

"Come again?"

Twilight huffed and flushed and her mane rubbed into her chest. "N-Nothing! Just... w-wondering, y-y-y'know? Why you..." She cleared her throat and, on it clenching to ask him that question. Instead, she had to redirect and go for something else. "...you loved her, w-w-wanted her body so... so... wh... what held you?"

Spike breathed deeply and looked as high as he could in pondering the answer. "I guess... I just couldn't get over myself, is all. Certainly... j-jerked it enough after those advances. Celestia, I don't think I ever told you I did that before."

"Kinda figured you already did."

"Har."

"But I... I just don't know." Twilight laid her face into his scales and breathed against them, needing to escape him while still being close. She was a mess. Nothing ever making the sense that it should. Her voice came muffled against his body. "Just everything was there. And Rarity is so much better than me. So why..."

Spike looked down in finishing the thought. "Why was I able to push through for you and not her?"

Twilight's face rubbed up and down against him, her mane brushing the place, as nothing else of her could be seen.

Spike took a deep breath. "Don't think I can answer that question, really. I had months to get over myself and get with Rarity." And then let go. "But always walked away from the door. Went back into the hallway. She tried to assure me with words. But she... never quite assured me like you."

Now Twilight's face brushed up to gaze at him. Her voice sounded swollen. Defeated, nearly.

"Come again?"

"It's just, well, with you... we're... already close." His arm kept brushing down her mane and neck, which she wiggled into, subconsciously, to both of their delights. "It wasn't all that hard to get intimate with you. Like all those nights in Canterlot, you and I, snuggled beneath the covers, reading a book before bed."

A sore past crept into his voice. "We always were a bit more affectionate in Canterlot, weren't we? More 'I love yous' because that was what we were taught to say—without grasping what that meant."

Twilight grumbled and looked down. "And all the times I let you fall on your face."

"Hey! I didn't say you'd become a good mare yet."

"Spiiike."

"Am I wrong?"

Twilight huffed and wanted to cross her arms and instead wrapped them over the dragon. "Mmhm."

Spike chuckled and raised his claw to her head, rustling her mane, to which, her eyes closed, and a blush appeared beneath. He went on as his head dipped in a loving tilt. "Point is... we were already close. I could hug and snuggle and say 'I loved you' without suffering a breakdown for it. Then we came here and, well, things started to diminish but..."

Now it was Twilight's turn to laugh. "Now that you mentioned it... sharing a bed... enjoying a hug... getting me through a breakdown... helping me with a stack of work... all of it." She climbed over his body, sliding her chest over his, all so her face could touch his. "I always thought I was alone then. Yet, I never felt it. Because I always had you."

She paused in her advance as her selfishness dawned. She looked away. Now ashamed.

"Now I just sound like a horrible contradiction." Her voice slashed at itself. "Getting everything I needed while thinking I d-deserved better. Put... putting you through so much wrong... and never showing you the appreciation that you deserved for it.”

She retreated an inch and still looked away, and would have gone further, were it not for the claw that cupped the back of her head. "Little love and a whole lot more wrong. Taking you after you failed with Rarity to again help you with my needs. And I never did anything in return for you."

Her eyes squeezed to suppress the stinging that welled from them.

"Why Spike? Why... do that... o-or anything at all... for a mare like me?"

Her eyes opened despite the threat of tears, the risk of exposing herself as broken, to see whatever was painted on his face. Treat someone poorly; ask for more than you deserve. That's how they come to dislike you. Want less of you. Or nothing to do with you at all.

It was only logical.

And yet.

"You're a silly girl, Twilight." Spike was smiling with his head still in that tilt, looking at her, happy with whatever he saw. His claw brushed to her cheek, which he held, which she fell into, which he stroked with a thumb. "I already told you. It's because I love you." The warmth of his words evaporated the coldness of her anxieties. "Ever since they told us to say it, and even more so when I discovered what it meant and felt to say it."

Twilight was aware of the tears. Of her quivering lips and the shudders throughout her frame. The hitching in her breathing and the squawks that were supposed to be words. Rendered weak and having been like that for too long. A mess for one reason before. Now a different kind of mess for a better reason now.

She knew the love he spoke of was of friends, best friends, the kind that only they could be. How someone could relieve her of her lust, fulfill her with love, and do it all without the notion of them becoming lovers. That last part, stung, and it shouldn't have.

But despite that all.

Twilight leaned forward to take the dragon onto her lips, not knowing that she would, a move that didn't appear in the mind. For it was not the creations of her ingenious mind, but rather, the expression of her virgin heart.

She'd always thought that lovers knew what they were doing. That they were normal ponies unlike her. Their experience allowed them to make such moves, to know what they were doing that, somehow, their love was all planned out.

But that wasn't the case at all as Twilight's lips laid upon his.

Her body had moved forward, and her lips had stolen what she desired. Not even knowing how to kiss, but wanting it regardless, following through on whatever felt right. Was it good or bad? Doing it well or poorly? Should she have done it another way?

Those questions. Doubts. Ended before they began.

Twilight's tension had melted into relaxation as she worked against him, her eyes closing and lips moving, feeling his move against hers, the light sounds, wetness breaking, teases of suckling in the air. She collapsed more onto his frame in taking more of the kiss.

Soon her body slid over onto his, her back legs, spreading, draping over his midsection, her thighs hugging into it. Her forelegs reached around his neck and tightened into a hug. Commands she didn't know how to do, now done, on pure bliss alone.

A compulsion leading her through.