"-I mean we're not offering a legally-binding contract or anything," Cadance shrugged as she worked through the explanation. "It's moreso that we'll always consider you as part of, y'know, our thing."
"I... uh... married?" Dusk finally spoke up, a sick feeling cropping up in the pit of his gut as he did. "I don't know if I can... I mean..."
Cadance's ears flattened against her head, her brow furrowing as she watched the stallion squirm in his seat. The third pony in the conversation, Gleaming, crossed her arms over her chest and sighed quietly. Her blue eyes locked onto the floor, nobody seemingly being able to make eye contact with anyone at this point, before Cadance spoke up once more.
"If you don't mind me asking... could you at least tell me... tell us why?" she said in a sombre tone.
Dusk was quiet for a long moment, wringing his hands nervously as he looked back and forth between Gleaming and Cadance, eventually sighing quietly before attempting to give his reasoning.
"The idea makes me feel... uncomfortable," he finally managed to squeeze out. "I don't dislike either of you, I mean... I think that's obvious, and I'm beyond flattered that you'd even consider having me as part of something so important to you like this... but I just can't see myself as... as being part of it."
Cadance tilted her head slightly, confusion clear as day in her expression for the first time in a long time. A stallion as eloquent and well-spoken as Dusk talking to a mare as romantically-knowledgeable as Cadance, you'd have thought they'd both be on the same page at all times, and yet...
"I don't understand," Cadance responded, gently stroking a strand of hair out of her eyes.
"I... I don't feel like I do, either," Dusk muttered, barely being able to look at her any longer. "But just considering it makes me feel unhappy... and I wish I could tell you why."
"Maybe you're just not the marrying type," Gleam spoke up, shrugging dismissively as she did.
The two turned their attention to the much larger mare, a brief scratch of her nose making a pause in the sentence before she continued.
"I've served with more than a few guys like that. They can have friends and social commitments or whatever, but anything more than that makes them run for the hills," she continued in a low tone. "I know our grandma used to say that she never saw Dusk as the marrying type, and mom always said she was delusional, but as the older he got... the more I began to agree with her."
"D'you think so?" Cadance pouted, turning to look at Dusk. "Is that how you feel?"
"I... I don't..." he tried and failed.
"The way I see it-" Gleam picked up again, walking back over to the couch in the living room Cadance was sitting in and taking the cushion next to her. "Is Dusk is oriented around Dusk, and what he does."
"That's a bit harsh," Cadance commented.
"I don't mean that as a dig or anything, it's just how it is. He's dedicated to his projects, and his endeavours, and everything going on in his life," Gleaming's explanation went on, the large mare leaning back in the seat and crossing her arms over her chest. "Dusk's a philanthropist, a teacher, a researcher, and all other kinds of shit, and all the shit he does takes up every waking hour he's got. I've known more than a few guys and girls like that, and they're all allergic to the concept of anything else other than those endeavours."
Dusk's eyes fell again, his entire demeanour deflating as Gleaming continued to speak. The snow-white mare went to continue with her statements, only to catch the expressions on the faces of both others present, bringing her to a halt. She sighed loudly, rubbing her brow with a shake of her head before continuing.
"I'm doing an awful job of explaining this and I know I am, but... I don't want you to feel like I'm mad or upset at you for not wanting to be a part of this, it's just..." she tried again. "Everyone's built different for different stuff, and we don't all like the same thing. Some people dream of a happy marriage and a white picket fence... others dream of devoting their lives to the folk around them and not even focusing on that stuff."
"... and you're saying Dusk's one of the latter," Cadance hummed, nodding along slowly with her wife's explanation, joining her hands on her lap before another solemn nod.
"Yeah... I think that's what I'm trying to say," Gleam grumbled. "I'm sorry I'm not good at... at explaining this sort of stuff. I've never had Dusk's gift of the gab..."
"And neither do I at this point," the purple-hued stallion muttered under his breath.
Both mares cast their eyes over to him, seeing his small form looking almost non-existent as he crumpled into himself. His head hanged low, his shoulders slumped, and his expression nearly sank into the floor.
"This is my fault, really," Cadance sighed, getting up and going over to Dusk as he sat in the armchair, sitting on the side of it and gently cupping his chin. "I got up in my own head about what I wanted and sprang it on you without thinking how you'd react. I should've put more consideration into how this would've made you feel, instead of just doing what I wanted."
Dusk's eyes met hers for a brief moment, Cadance managing to coax a weak smile onto the stallion's slack lips before his eyes eventually fell away once more. She released him from her touch, allowing him to return to his slumped position before seconds ticked by. The silence stretched into something painfully awkward, barely broken by the sound of a clock marking every agonizing moment with a tick, before Dusk finally got to his feet.
He stood up, cleared his throat, and looked at the two of them. Another weak smile returned to his lips, as forced and as fake as ever, before he addressed them again.
"I'm really sorry for bringing down the mood after what was such a nice day, but... I, uh... I feel it'd be best if I left now so you two can... well, get on with your day, I guess..." he mumbled out, his eyes falling away from theirs halfway through the explanation.
"D'you want a goodbye hug?" Cadance asked, gesturing softly towards him.
"N-No, thank you," came the response with a shake of his head. "I don't want to offend you or anything, I'm just... not feeling up to it right now."
"Right, right... I understand," Cadance nodded, lowering her arms and joining them behind her back. "Well... I guess we'll see you later, then."
"Yeah, later... I guess," Dusk nodded meekly, waving at his sister, being completely unable to look at either of them anymore, before he teleported out of the house without another word.
The clock continued to time the silence once more, seconds stretching by without a word, before Cadance covered her hands with her face and groaned loudly.
"That was entirely my fault," she bemoaned into her hands.
"Hey, none of that, now," Gleam said sternly. "That was nobody's 'fault'."
"No, that was mine... am I stupid or something?" Cadance continued, dragging her hands down her face and screwing her eyes shut. "What the hell was I thinking jumping to a marriage proposal like that? Am I stupid or something?"
"Cadance, come on, don't beat yourself up about it," Gleaming continued, walking over to her wife and placing a hand on her shoulders.
"It was too soon, wasn't it? I did it way too early and scared him off," Cadance groaned.
"You didn't scare him off... though you might've... I dunno, you probably could've... started a little lower?" Gleam cringed through her sentence.
"You knew it was too early, didn't you?" her wife asked in horror. "Did you know he was gonna react like that from the start?"
"No, I thought he was gonna go along with it like he did with the surrogate father thing, I wasn't expecting..." Gleam struggled. "That."
"I've ruined everything, haven't I?" Cadance started again. "He's never gonna talk to either of us ever again and it's one hundred percent my fault."
"I wouldn't say it's that bad..." Gleam jumped in. "I just think he's gonna need a few... days or... however long to get over the shock... and we'll be back to normal, y'know?"
"You don't believe that for a second, do you?" Cadance glowered in disbelief.
"I... well, stranger things have happened to him?" Gleam suggested meekly.
Cadance blinked blanky, not responding vocally, before throwing herself into Gleam's embrace and burying her face into her wife's chest.
"I blew it... I blew it to pieces and it's all my fault," she repeated in a loud, aggravated tone.
"Look, just... let it lie for a few days and I'll go talk to him, alright?" Gleam suggested, hugging Cadance close and gently swaying with her as she spoke.
"Right, right," Cadance moped, letting out another growling sigh before completely collapsing into Gleaming's embrace. "In the meantime, I'm gonna go get a shower or... something."
"I think that's for the best, yeah," Gleam agreed quietly.
Dusk reappeared in the confines of his library, the place barely lit due to a small handful of candles and the fading natural light. Having been back for less than five seconds, he filled and emptied his lungs with a primal roar of rage, anguish, and self-hatred that bounced off the walls hard enough to shake them.
"What the fuck-" began a familiar voice followed by a loud shriek of terror and then topped off with a the sound of wood, paper, and a person cluttering to the floor.
Realizing he was not alone, Dusk bolted towards the source of the noise, already having enough anguish and guilt coursing through his body for the time being. He rounded the corner to one of the bookshelves and spotted a pile of papers, purple, and green struggling with one another as his oldest friend dug herself out of the parchment.
"Dusk?!" she shrieked in confusion and anger. "Was that you?!"
"Yeah, yeah!" he exclaimed, rushing over to her and helping her back to her feet. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were here."
The short-statured dragon steadied herself, her long, nubile tail lashing with leftover irritation as she straightened her clothing. A pair of blue jeans and a tight green T-shirt covered her buxom figure, her specific breed being a shorter one, but making up for their lack in height with curvature most women would kill for.
"I thought a demon had jumped out one of the books or something..." Barb sighed, placing a hand over her well-developed chest and exhaling slowly. "What the hell was that about?"
Dusk was silent for a long moment, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans as he glowered down at the ground.
"Uh-oh... that's never a good look on your face," a worried response came, tilting her head sideways to get a better look at his lowered gaze. "D'you need a hug or something?"
"I think I've just ruined two of my closest relationships in one fell swoop," he finally blurted out, gritting his teeth in agitation as he spoke.
"That's... not a good thing to think," Barb blinked quietly. "I'll go put the kettle on and then we can, uh, sit down and talk about this one... just lemme put all this stuff away properly."
Once tea was prepped, Dusk recounted everything that had transpired in the last few hours. From meeting with Gleaming and Cadance, to the proposition, to going through with it, and finally to the current predicament: the marriage offer. Barb didn't speak during the recap, instead listening intently with the occasional sip of tea as the stallion spoke to her. After finally finishing his story, he downed the remaining liquid in his cup and sighed loudly.
"So, there you have it," he blurted out. "That's the story of how I just ruined my relationship with my closest family members."
"Okay... while not entirely your fault... you could've handled a few things a tad better," Barb began, linking her scaled fingers together on the table.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. For one, leaving without making any attempt to brush it off or patch it up was a horrendous mistake," she began. "You could've at least accepted the hug for what it was worth to try and pretend like the offer didn't scare the soul off of you."
"Probably..." he nodded.
"No, not 'probably'. 'Definitely'. It's like not accepting the handshake at the end of a sports game, it just makes you look bad as a result. You can be as upset at the outcome as you want, but you've gotta at least be sportsmanlike about it," Barb described. "Secondly... I don't think you should blame yourself entirely for how you reacted... take it from someone who's been around you for a very, very long time... that kind of stuff terrifies you more than you think it does."
"You think so?" the stallion asked.
"I know so. You're not the anti-social mess you were when you were, like, fourteen anymore, but there's still that inherent fear of people in you-" Barb began.
"-I wouldn't call it a fear-" Dusk interrupted.
"-and that's where you start being wrong," Barb shut him down, shaking her head as she continued. "You're scared of social standings. You always have been, and whether you're a scientist, a teacher, or a prince, you're still afraid of losing the one thing you've always had at the end of the day: your alone time."
Dusk didn't speak this time, instead nodding along as Barb spoken.
"No matter how many adventures you've been on, speeches you've given, or evildoers you've thwarted, you've always been able to come home at night to an empty bed and a clear sleeping schedule, and you'll wake up the next day ready to do whatever else Dusk wants to do," Barb continued. "You do your research, your teaching, and your princely duties that you willingly accepted. But as for marriage... there's not a damn thing I've ever seen you want less."
"I... I don't think I'm that against it," Dusk mumbled.
"Oh, I think you are, little man," Barb chuckled. "People like you, people who thrive and recharge by being alone, need that alone time. You like slinking off into the darkness, not having to talk, not having to speak, and barely having to exist outside of your own head. It helps you relax, unwind, and function."
"Yeah, I know that," Dusk nodded.
"And you can't stand the idea of having that taken away from you. Of having your quiet bedroom invaded by someone else you have to deal with when you don't want to. I noticed the same thing crop up when you were telling me about Cadance wanting a kid with you. The reason why it scared you so much."
"And what's that?"
"It's not being able to have that alone time you need to recharge," Barb carried on, pouring them both refills of tea before continuing. "A kid takes up all your time. They live in your house, they sit on your lap. They're loud, they're obnoxious, they're needy, and they require almost constant attention all hours of the day for years, and you can't stand the idea of that."
"I... yeah... I think you're right," Dusk sighed quietly.
"Damn right, I am," Barb nodded. "And it's the same concept with a wife... even if it's not as bad. You wanna disassociate, go off to wonderland, be the only being in existence when you're in your room. You don't wanna have to talk to a partner, or go through the same social dance of asking them how their day went, or what they got up to, or any of that nonsense."
"That sounds... kinda dickish, to be honest, ignoring them like that," the stallion stated.
"It might be to some, but the fact is you don't like your alone time through choice. You like it because you need it. That's how you function on a day to day basis," Barb continued, taking another quiet sip of her tea before continuing. "You come home after a super-stressful, busy day doing whatever it is you've been doing, and the last thing you'd ever want to do is have to put on the 'husband and daddy' routine when you're already exhausted."
Dusk was quiet for a moment, unmoving, even unblinking as he sat there staring into the wood of the table between the two of them. Barb tilted her head once again, trying to get a better look at his expression before the stallion righted his position, sitting up and gesturing at her.
"Everything you just explained is everything I couldn't," he started, eyes narrowed with playful suspicion. "How the hell do you know me better than I know myself and make explaining that so easy?"
"Because I've spent nearly every single day of my life dealing with, following around, and cleaning up after you, so I like to think I've gotten a good handle on the stupid shit that ticks around in your head all the time," Barb chuckled, crossing her arms over her chest and smirking proudly. "Even better than you do, sometimes."
"Alright then, all-seeing and all-knowing one... what the hell am I supposed to do?" Dusk asked with another gesture. "How do I right all of my wrongs and fix what I have broken, oh-wise one?"
"The long and short of it is pretty simple," Barb shrugged. "Let it simmer down, go back to their place, explain why you're an idiot, and tell them you're sorry for it."
"That simple?"
"That simple," the dragon nodded with finality. "Easy as pie."
"Little bit harder than pie, I think," Dusk hummed.
"That's because you're stupid," Barb wagged a finger.
"That's not very nice," he pouted.
"But it is very true, and that's all that matters, really," the purple-hued reptilian nodded, downing another cup of tea before getting to her clawed feet. "If you're done with your mental breakdown, I've got more shit I need to sort out. Mind if I go do that, boss-man?"
"Yeah, sure, go right ahead," Dusk nodded. "I'm gonna grab a shower and try to wash away the shame."
"Sounds like a plan, man," Barb smirked. "I wish you good luck."
The knock at the door had roused Dusk's attention, ambling over to it quickly and swinging it open. He was surprised to see the towering figure of his older sister standing in it, hands stuffed in her jacket pockets as her attention seemed elsewhere for a moment.
"Gleam?" Dusk asked casually.
"Ah, there you are," the snow-white mare breathed, her attention returning to the doorway as she looked down on her younger sibling. "I figured I'd let you stew for a day or two before coming to check on you. I know how you get after, uh... big upsets."
"Yeah," Dusk agreed, shaking away the awkward haze from his head before clearing his throat. "Anyway, I was coming to see you and Cadance later today, actually, so it's good you've shown up."
"Right, yeah... d'you mind if the two of us have a talk before we go see Cadance?" Gleam proposed, eyes softening as she spoke.
"Um... yeah, I don't see why not," the stallion nodded, stepping back and gesturing for the larger mare to enter. "I'll get tea made or something... you remember where the first lounge is, right?"
The two went about the brief set up before the discussion, planting themselves down at the same table Dusk had discussed things with Barb a few days prior.
"Barb about?" Gleam asked, bringing up the dragon casually.
"No, she's out with Rarity and Fluttershy on some kind of... fabric adventure," Dusk hummed, scratching the back of his head. "Something about a... sheep or a ram that's wool grows infinitely if you sing to it."
"What?" Gleam asked in utter confusion.
"I don't remember exactly, but I'll tell you at some other point," Dusk waved away with his hand, pouring a drink for both himself and his sister before sitting back down. "So..."
"Cadance is fine, by the way," Gleam opened with, making sure the conversation didn't fall into awkward pauses if she could help it.
"That's good to hear," Dusk affirmed.
"Yeah, she spent about two hours moping and groaning after the fact, but she's perked up again... if a little embarrassed," Gleam explained.
"She's embarrassed?" Dusk asked, internally cringing with guilt.
"Not fatally or anything, just a little... I dunno, cringed out by the whole thing," the captain tried her best to explain. "She feels she sprang it on you way too early and that it was entirely on her."
"I don't think that's entirely true," Dusk sighed. "I probably could've handled myself with a little bit more tact, if I'm honest. I was just..."
"Scared?" Gleam suggested.
"Not scared, just... pressured," the stallion corrected. "I had a talk with Barb about it when I got home and she spun it in a way that made sense to me, honestly."
"What way was that?"
"That I'm someone that needs to be alone to recharge and unwind, and that constantly having to deal with familial commitments would wreak havoc on me mentally," Dusk answered.
"Y'know, I throw a lot of digs at Barb for the sake of it whenever I see her, but man am I jealous of how well she can break stuff down to brass tacks," Gleam nodded firmly.
"Yeah, me to... I know basically every word in the dictionary of, like, eight different languages at this point and struggle to put them together into short, concise sentences. Barb can take all that and do it in five and a half words," Dusk sighed.
"Well, to be fair, you've always been a wordy little shit," Gleam shrugged. "You were the only person I'd ever met that would genuinely use words like 'juxtapose' or 'pontificate' in normal conversation."
"Because those words were insanely effective at expressing what I meant," Dusk pouted.
"Yeah, and what little words you saved using them, you'd usually waste ten times as more explaining what they meant to everyone else because most eight year olds don't actually know what the word 'juxtaposition' means," Gleam sniggered, clearly wandering down memory lane as she spoke.
"It had it's uses," Dusk shrugged.
"Yeah, and it was usually bullshitting snacks off of people by coming up with some three-bit-and-some-change word to convince them to give you theirs," Gleam countered. "'Oh, you shouldn't be eating something like that, it's got an extremely irreputous amount of lycro-glycemites in the yeast they use and that can cause a cardio-defibulous breakdown of your lung tissue if you eat one, so they're doing a recall. Give that one to me, and I'll get rid of it for you'."
Dusk buried his face in the crook of his arm as Gleam cackled to herself, the stallion going red as possible from the memories.
"And that used to work!" Gleam exclaimed. "Every other one of those kids would go 'Man, Dusk's really smart and he follows all this stuff, so he's gotta know what he's talking about'."
"Yeah," he nodded.
"Remember when mom and dad got called to the principal's office because you'd conned people out of, like, three hundred bits worth of snacks that semester?" Gleam sniggered.
"You wanna know the worst part about that?" Dusk asked, sighing through gritted teeth.
"What?"
"That was the event that got me on Celestia's radar," he confessed.
"What?" Gleam exclaimed in shock. "Not the teleportation thing you did for the talent show?"
"No... basically the way she explained it to me a few years ago was that she constantly overlooked gifted and intelligent kids for her tutelage and instead focused on something else," Dusk began. "She looked for gifted kids who also had a history of irregular and troublesome behaviours."
"What?" Gleam asked, shock clear in her tone. "She was looking for Juvie kids?"
"In some cases... yeah," Dusk nodded.
"Why?"
"Well, her logic was that a lot of extremely smart kids with good behaviours go on to do good things naturally. They get involved in the community, they lead disease research, agriculture developments, stuff for the betterment of the people, that kinda shit, y'know?" he began.
"Right..." Gleam nodded, sipping from her tea.
"But on the flipside, a lot of extremely smart kids with bad behaviours go on to do terrible things with their gifts," Dusk continued. "They start manipulating people, become egotistical, arrogant, start doing really unkind stuff, and even going on to become borderline supervillains who're focused on furthering their own goals and interests, regardless of how it affected other people."
"And that was what she saw in you?" Gleam asked, cringing slightly as she spoke.
"Not at first... but as she heard about me and started looking into it, she had a few warning signs pop up here and there that she wasn't okay with," Dusk went on. "Supposedly my 'case file' was designated 'extreme intellect with sociopathic tendencies and a lack of a moral compass'."
"Y'know... that does sound a lot more accurate than it should," Gleam reflected.
"Yeah, so after requesting a chance to meet with me face-to-face, Celestia saw all of that intellectual potential... and the budding little disaster inside me she was worried would go on to do some real damage," Dusk chuckled under his breath. "So she decided to not only become my tutor... but also someone to try and prevent me from becoming a huge problem."
"So... if she was worried about you being some soulless lunatic... how did you end up getting to raise Barb and end up in Ponyville?" Gleam asked.
"Because Celestia played the long con with me," Dusk smiled. "So, y'remember that movie 'The Karate Colt'?"
"Yeah, yeah, it's like one of my favourite movies of all time," Gleam nodded along.
"Right, so y'know the bits where Mr Miyagi's making Daniel do all those household chores like painting fences and waxing cars?" Dusk asked.
"Yeah, who doesn't?" Gleam followed.
"Exactly, and then remember how Dan's all confused about it and shit, so he finally confronts Mr Miyagi about it and we get to see that all of those monotonous tasks were done to strengthen up Daniel's muscles and stamina for actual karate training?"
"Celestia do that with you?" the question came.
"It's not exactly the same, but the intentions were similar. She took a look at what she wasn't comfortable with about me and started assigning me 'tasks' and 'assignments' to complete that would... 'side-effect psychology' me into becoming better as a person," he continued.
"Does giving a newborn baby dragon for someone with sociopathic tendencies to look after sound like a good idea?" Gleam asked with a sideways glance.
"Well, that's also another one of Celestia's genius moves. Barb as a whole was loaded up with so many wards and protective spells before she even hatched, that if she much as stubbed her toe, it would've set alarm bells off with Celestia and she'd have stepped in," Dusk explained. "But he 'master plan' was to hand me Barb under the pretence of it being an experiment in recording dragon growth, while the real intention was to get me to assume some kind of caring role for Barb to try and get me attached to them."
"That's... a bit risky, I will say," Gleam commented.
"But again, Celestia had prepared for it," Dusk shrugged. "So what ended up happening was I took on that role of having to look after a newborn dragon, and with how often I had to talk to her, feed her, read to her, measure, record, and study basically everything about her as she went through her first few months, I ended up getting really attached to her."
"Yeah, yeah, I did notice that when you came home on vacation from studying with Celestia," Gleam nodded as her brother spoke. "You seemed a lot less... robotic than before. Especially whenever Barb was around."
"Yup. Then as she got better at talking, I'd spend basically every day going over my studies with her, thoughts, plans for food, and whatever else, and she started talking back about it," Dusk smiled softly, leaning on his elbows and getting lost in his own dreamland of memories. "She had a lisp when she first started talking, y'know?"
"I did not," Gleam chuckled. "Sounds adorable, though."
"I thought it was. She hated it, though," Dusk laughed. "It used to drive her absolutely insane whenever she got better and better at talking an enunciating, and yet still couldn't pronounce her S's properly."
"Poor thing," Gleam sighed.
"Apparently it's a thing her breed of dragon has to go through because of their teeth when they're still growing in," Dusk shrugged. "Until one specific one shifts a bit further forward, it screws up how they talk a bit. First time she ever breathed fire was during a tantrum about not being able to say the word 'serpent' properly."
"I'm assuming the irony was the funniest thing about that moment?"
"Yes, and only in hindsight. The thing she set on fire was one of the oldest bookshelves in Celestia's library," Dusk continued.
"Yikes."
"And the rest," Dusk agreed.
"So all in all, getting picked up by Celestia was one of the best things to ever happen to you, yeah?" Gleam asked.
"As much of an understatement as that is, yes, one-hundred percent," Dusk laughed quietly, refilling his teacup and taking another drink. "Getting Barb as a friend was probably one of the best things that's ever happened to me. Same with all of the girls."
"It did make you a lot more tolerable to be around," Gleam agreed. "Dare I say it, it might have even made you enjoyable to be around."
"Thanks, I think," the younger sibling nodded.
"So... anything blossoming between you and Barb?" Gleam asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Excuse me?" Dusk responded.
"Well, you two have lived together for years, you're as close as close can be, you trust her with all your heart... no little womantic feewings in there for her?" Gleam teased.
"I don't... think so," Dusk hummed, scratching the underside of his chin as he pondered the question. "I've never really thought about anything romantic with her before... not seriously, anyway."
"Oh?" Gleam piqued.
"Well, the two of us have made jokes about being husband and wife on and off for years... usually when one of us is chewing the other out or talking about something we forgot to do," Dusk recalled, leaning back in his seat. "But there's never been any... like, actual weight to it. I don't think so, anyway..."
"Maybe get Cadance to ask Barb about it," Gleam shrugged. "She's always been able to smell that kinda attraction on people."
"Are... are you joking?" Dusk questioned.
"Well not... smell... more like see," Gleam struggled to word it. "She has this weird sight thing where she can... pick up on people's emotions or their attraction or something? She explained it to me a while ago and I've kind of forgotten most of it, but she said that people start... glowing without glowing in her eyes whenever they get really romancy or horny around her... and I think she can drain that out of people and put it into others."
"Yeah, she did something like that to me..." Dusk nodded, taking another drink and setting it down with a sigh. "Quite the experience."
"I've heard it's way more intense for stallions," Gleam shrugged, finishing her own drink before gesturing for Dusk to refill it.
"Right... so, I've kind of been waffling for a while about my own stuff," Dusk changed the subject. "What exactly was it you wanted to talk about?"
"Well... I... hm..." Gleaming began, wringing her hands together on the table as she struggled to find a way to start. "You don't mind having a girlfriend, right?"
"Are you offering?" Dusk asked, slightly taken aback by the question.
"I... maybe," she squeaked out. "It's just that... I've been doing a lot of thinking recently... and with the whole deal with Cadance and the marriage-inclusion thing... I've had to go over a lot of things I used to think again and maybe... reassess them?"
Her brother blinked quietly for a short moment, his expression urging her to continue.
"And when you came back from your stuff with Celestia for a while and... after dad's funeral and us all sticking together a lot closer for a few months, I kinda felt like... a lot closer to you than I probably should've?"
"Did you?" Dusk asked.
"Ah... I rehearsed this like fifteen times on the way over here to try and make it come off as natural as possible and I'm failing miserbly," Gleam growled after a heavy sigh. "Cadance usually plays my interpreter for stuff like this... but I wanted to say it myself..."
"D'you want a minute to think it through?" Dusk asked quietly.
"I still think I like you romantically and I would very much like to be romantically involved with you," she blurted out, clearly not in the mood for any more overthinking.
Dusk pursed his lips, looking Gleam up and down, seeing a cherry-red expression and awkward fidgeting on a mare usually so fearless and in control of any situation. He smiled slowly, affection and care radiating off his lips, as the nervous energy seemed to melt away from Gleam's persona. She perked up quite considerably, returning to her full sitting height, squaring her shoulders, and smiling widely.
"There," she said with a proud, self-contented smile. "That wasn't too hard."
"It looked pretty hard," Dusk sniggered, getting an irritated glare from his sibling.
"I'll make it hard for you in a minute," she growled, her brain ticking over for several seconds before she realized what she just said. "Ah, damnit."
"A little early for that, isn't it?" Dusk asked with a chuckle.
"I mean..." Gleam began, clearly steeling herself as she spoke. "Is it?"
Dusk was quiet for a brief moment, eyes locked onto his sister and waiting to see any kind of crack in her expression to show she was joking. When none came, he questioned her directly.
"Are you serious?"
"I think I am, yeah," she nodded firmly. "I mean... we're both adults, aren't we? Neither of us have anywhere major to be for a while?"
"I kind of meant in a more... relationship-sense?" he raised a finger.
"What's the problem? We've been in a super-close and committed relationship for our entire lives, haven't we?" Gleam asked, a hint of lust creeping into her voice. "Besides... I still owe you one anyway, yeah?"
"Owe me one what?" Dusk asked.
"Come with me upstairs and find out," Gleam giggled, eyes narrowing playfully at her sibling.
Gleam's embrace was all-consuming when it came to the tiny stallion. Standing over six and a half feet tall, Gleam dwarfed her miniscule sibling in height alone. Her strong, muscular arms wrapped around his lithe form and squeezed him tight into her cleavage, face buried directly into her titflesh and almost cutting off his breathing.
"You're so small," she cooed playfully, tightening her grip on him to an almost-constricting level. "Such a teeny thing."
Dusk's hands wrapped around Gleam's wide waist, fingers sinking into the enormous asscheeks over the hill, risking losing them in the range that was her backside. A giggle fell from the lips of the powerful mare, lifting Dusk off his feet in her embrace and carrying him over to the bed.
She dropped him down onto his expensive sleeping arrangements, wasting no time before sitting her bare ass down on his crotch and feeling his already-titanic length begin to stiffen underneath her cheeks.
"You like, yes?" she asked, placing her hands behind her and leaning her weight onto him.
Dusk bit down on his bottom lip, cock now throbbing underneath the weight of Gleam's colossal ass, his hands wrapping around her slender waist. She began to grind her backside against him, the heat and the weight of her flesh moving along the length of his cock exciting him even further.
"I can't get over how big that thing is now," Gleam purred playfully, grinding slow circles against her brother's crotch. "You've always been big down there... but I never expected it to be dangerous like that."
Dusk hugged against her much larger body, his muzzle pressed into her firm, toned back as she continued to tease him. Eventually she shifted ever-so-slightly, allowing her thighs to spread open and his cock to slip through between her legs.
"Well, well, well..." she purred. "Seems somebody's finally decided to show themselves... and my, what an appearance..."
She wrapped both hands around his shaft, slowly and gently stroking his throbbing length with teasing intention. Dusk shivered from head to toe, his sister's strong and surprisingly-soft hands. She worked his shaft from tip to base, stroking and rubbing circles all along his twitching length as he gently bucked into her grip.
"Mhm... somebody's eager, aren't they?" she giggled. "Cadance told me you had quite a talent for making a mess... shall we see just how talented?"
"Only if you promise to clean it up," Dusk groaned, still hugging tight against his sibling.
"We'll see... now then," Gleam smirked, adjusting herself properly and placing the head of his cock at the lips of her pussy.
"W-Wait... d'you want me to cast something so you don't get pregnant?" Dusk asked quietly.
Gleam was still for a long moment, her entire form frozen in though, time ticking by almost in slow motion as Dusk waited for her response.
"No," she announced with finality before slowly sliding herself down Dusk's length.
Her tightness clamped down on him immediately, her excitement making the difficult job of taking something as large as Dusk easier, if only slightly. She placed a hand to her stomach as she felt it bulge out from her brother's length, teeth clenching as inch after inch of his obscenely-large cock slid into her deepest reaches.
Shivers rocked her entire form as head pushed past her cervix, sliding home into the deepest reaches of her womb, just as it had with Cadance. Her breath was strained and ragged already, massaging circles onto her bulging belly in a rhythmic, almost instinctual fashion.
Because of the weight of his sister's Amazonian size, Dusk had no chance of moving. He was at her mercy until she decided to let him go, and from how desperately she began riding his quivering length, it seemed he wouldn't be going anywhere until she was satisfied. Her large form was also much more nimble than Dusk expected it to be, using her trained and muscular physique to nimble, even gracefully, pump herself up and down his shaft.
He watched the strain in her sinews, the ripple of her ass, and the bouncing of her enormous tits with every subsequent slam she hit home on Dusk's slender legs. The bed threatened to buckle under the weight of her efforts, as expensive and well-made as it was, it still audibly strained under the exertion of supporting Gleam's efforts.
Dusk dropped back onto his elbows, jaw tense enough to almost hurt as he watched Gleam ride him hard enough to get herself soaked with sweat. He'd seen her in this kind of headspace before, usually in the gym when she was performing lifts with weights that made even the strongest of stallions cringe.
Her breathing was trained and controlled, inhales and exhales perfectly timed to keep oxygen in her lungs as her rigorous riding sent them both into wonderland. Dusk dug his fingers into the premium bedsheets, his own body soaked with sweat as wave after wave of pleasure coursed through his entire being. He felt like he was glowing from toe-tip to horn-point, ears flicking and body trembling as Gleam worked him just as well as Cadance did.
Soon he found it beyond too much to handle, his mouth open and heavy pants poured over his wet tongue, struggling to hold back his orgasm any longer. Without a word, Dusk grabbed hold of Gleam's hips and tried desperately to hold her in place. Thankfully the eldest sibling picked up on the gesture, slamming down hard onto his thighs once last time and allowing him to empty his thick, boiling load into her deepest coves.
She threw her head back with an orgasmic moan, her body twitching and seizing gently as her own river of pleasure poured violently over her. Her thighs trembled and shook with bliss as she felt her brother pour more of his virile cum into her womb, filling her up in a single spurt and yet showing no signs of stopping.
Like an overfilled wineskin, her belly began to grow larger and larger. Cum as thick as yoghurt sloshing and pooling in her insides, an impregnation so vigorous that Gleam swore she'd never feel empty again after this. Neither of them spoke, neither tried to communicate, they simply held one another as tight as could be and rode out the orgasmic storm between the two of them.
However, all good things must come to an end, and Dusk's wilting cock slopped out of Gleam's stuffed cunt, pouring hot cum out of her stretched gut and onto Dusk's nice, clean floor. They remained in the other's embrace as she drained, the sound of her womb emptying almost arousing the pair into a second round before Gleam finally got to her feet. She swayed on her legs briefly, Dusk sitting up and ready to steady her, only for her to gesture that she was okay.
"Well that... wasn't really the plan for today," she breathed after a moment, still rubbing circles onto her stomach with a gentle smile. "Cadance was right though... I could feel that in a different way. It feels really good when you know it's gonna happen..."
"I... sorry about that," Dusk sighed, sitting up and leaning on his knees. "I can't imagine you came here with the idea of getting pregnant."
"No... but it's not an idea I have an issue with, if that wasn't obvious enough," Gleam chuckled, sliding her sweat-soaked mane out of her face and smiling at her younger brother. "You okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Dusk asked.
"Well, after what we talked about earlier, I'd have figured you'd be a bit nervous about having a second kid..." Gleam gestured, clearly not wanting to bring down the mood but knowing it still needed to be talked about.
"I dunno... maybe I'm still high off the orgasm or whatever, but I'm not... choking at the idea of it, like I was with the marriage thing..." he explained.
"Right, right... uh... if I ask her and she says yes... d'you wanna be a bit more connected with Cadance, too?" Gleam asked.
"Connected how?"
"Well... when I asked you to be romantic, I meant like... dates and nights out and things like that," Gleam spoke, sitting back down on the bed and allowing Dusk to lean up against her. "I figured if the marriage thing scared you because you didn't have any you time... I felt like I could get us all in a place where we were together, just not... together, y'know?"
"No, not really... but so long as it makes you happy, I guess I'm fine with that," Dusk sighed, blinking sleepily as he continued to lean against his sister.
"I'll... or, uh, we'll have to talk to Cadance about the dating thing, I feel... she really loves you, you know?" Gleam mentioned. "Like, seriously."
"Do you love me?" he asked with a tired smile.
"Of course I do," she responded, gently thumping him on the arm with a closed fist. "D'you think I'd be sitting here smiling stupidly at having your baby about to start growing inside me if I didn't?"
"I've heard weirder..." Dusk chuckled, eyes drifting off around the room before sighing heavily. "Mom needs to know. From the two of us, I mean."
"Yeah... I didn't even think about that," Gleam nodded along.
"I haven't spoken to her in a good while. Too long, honestly," Dusk sighed.
"I speak to her every few days. We tend to run into each other a lot just out and about," Gleam continued. "And yeah, you really need to start visiting her more."
"I mean... it's not like she's some decrepit old mare or anything like that, right?" Dusk spoke up, trying to defend his lack of commitment. "She's not going anywhere anytime soon."
"Same way we thought dad wasn't going anywhere, right?" Gleam added on in a serious tone.
"I... fuck, you're right," Dusk nodded solemnly, taking a deep breath and steeling himself. "D'you wanna go tomorrow? I can do tomorrow if you can."
"Yeah, we can bring Cadance along, too. Then after that we can all discuss our... thing, or whatever we're calling it," Gleam finalized. "Sounds like a plan."
"Right, good... tomorrow," Dusk said with a weary sigh. "And until then... d'you wanna have a quick nap with me?"
"Yeah, I think I'd like that," Gleam smiled, gently kissing Dusk on the cheek before crawling up to the top of the bed with him in her arms. "I think I'd like that a lot."
