Quiver

On the command of her Sovereign, Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, the human stepped into the Council Room, to the surprised looks of the assembled members of the Council of Friendship.

In front of the wide eyes of those colorful mares, the human could not help but feel a bit self-conscious, instinctively covering herself with an arm, as if that could hide the fact that she was wearing a dress. She felt naked without tubes of cloth encasing both her legs at all times, which was perfectly fine when it was just Twilight and her, but it was the first time most of their friends would have seen her like this. She gave a nervous smile and waved.

Pinkie smiled back and waved happily, as she usually did, but the rest of them seemed to be stuck in molasses, still wearing the same confused expressions they had shown when she first walked in the room. She understood. They all looked very tired and bedraggled, and from the scattered sheaves of reports and forms that were stacked high on the giant conference table they were sitting around, they had clearly been working themselves to the bone. It seemed to take them a few seconds to process things.

Then, Rainbow Dash blinked, and raised a wing in protest.

“What are you talking about Twilight? I thought that you were going to share with us something secret and awesome, but we already know who she is! Humans aren’t some sort of super-awesome Princess-level secret! Wait, are they?”

“No, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight laughed, a smile coming to her face despite the tiredness in her eyes. (Something the human brought out a lot in her, she happily noted.) “She isn’t the state secret! Our relationship is.”

At that, the human wrapped her arm around the seated Twilight’s withers, which were at the level that an average human woman’s shoulders would be in height, and kissed her warmly on the lips. They both turned to smile at the other five mares, who were looking at them with a mix of surprise and confusion.

“Girls, I know I introduced you all to her as our newest friend back when we all lived in Ponyville. But now, I would like to introduce her to you all as my concubine.“

This seemed to surprise and confuse them further, a mix of quizzical looks and frowns.

“Concubine?” asked Rarity with concern. “Darling, if this is your way of announcing your new relationship as marefriends together, I must say, this is quite the strange way to go about it.”

“Oh, we’re not marefriends,” Twilight corrected, as her concubine nodded silently in agreement. “I did mean what I said, and everything I said earlier.”

“Everything?” asked Fluttershy, her mouth half-hidden by the wings she drew in close to her face. “But you said that you wanted to introduce us to a new side of your life up here in Canterlot, one that might be hard for us to understand. Even if you two have a relationship that’s hard to define, it doesn’t really seem like something to be so nervous about.”

“Oh, I’ve been in relationships that were hard to define before, Fluttershy!” the human interjected with a laugh. “This is nothing like any of those! Why, one time—”

Her words stopped as she found her mouth full of Twilight’s wingfeathers. Twilight calmly spoke over her.

“You’ll see what I mean soon enough. You all will.” She sighed as she looked around the table, the mess of papers strewn all over it, and the tired eyes that looked back at her in return. “In truth, I’m worried about us, girls. All of us have our friendships with one another, but that’s different from what it’s like when all six of us are together. And before I became the Sovereign, all six of us being together meant getting our manes done together at the spa, or going on a grand adventure to save Equestria. Now what it means is that we’re sitting in this room, arguing with each other and working ourselves to death deep into the night! That’s not what I want us to feel like.``

Everyone frowned sorrowfully at this except for Pinkie.

“Well, don’t worry about that, Twilight!” she said dismissively. “It’s not like we’ve stopped having spa days together! In fact, we all get together to do it once every week, on Thursdays! All of us are there! Me, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and… uh…” Pinkie frowned at the realization.

“That’s exactly it, Pinkie! You girls are still living the lives that we all once shared when we were all together in Ponyville! But even though I’ve only been in Canterlot for a few moons, my life is already way different from what it once was. In a lot of ways you couldn’t understand. And well... “ She smiled warmly at her concubine, who smiled back at her. “I thought that it would be nice for us to share in something really fun, to take a load off of all our stress.”

The rest of the mares looked at each other in confused silence as Twilight pressed a hidden button underneath her side of the massive table. With a mechanical groan, the much-hated massive conference table with all of its accursed forms and papers disappeared underneath the floor, replaced soon enough by an equally massive bed.

“Well, now that’s more like it!” Applejack said excitedly, as she crouched down in her throne for a leap. “Geronimo!” she yelled, cannonballing herself onto the bed’s surface before unfolding into a very relaxed-looking starfish. “A nice nap is just what we all need to take a load off after a long, hard day of work. Great idea, Twi!“

“Darling,” Rarity said, who stepped daintily onto the edge of the bed from her throne. “I do get the feeling that, er, that is not quite what she had in mind.“

Applejack looked up at her with a confused expression. “Now, what else could a giant bed be for if not a giant nap, Rares?”

Rarity frowned, and made the kind of Rarity noise that meant that she was not comfortable answering the question too directly. Thankfully, Twilight intervened.

“She’s right, Applejack.” Twilight’s voice had a tinge of apology in it. “I was hoping we’d do something a bit more active than napping.” She used a wing to brush the body of the human next to her, gently. “Like I said, she is my concubine, and I would like to share her with all of you.”

“Share her?” peeped out Fluttershy, her face in a confused frown. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you know!” Twilight grew visibly flustered pretty much instantly. “Uh, I just thought that it would be a nice way for all of us to destress! Using her!”

“‘Using’? What are you talking about, Twilight?” asked Rainbow Dash, not at all enlightened.

“I mean! Um, err…”

Twilight’s concubine brushed the alicorn’s neck with her hand, getting her attention. “Maybe it’s best to be direct?”

The alicorn was bright red, and hardly able to speak. “I can’t. They’re my friends.”

“They’re mine, too,” the human pointed out.

“But not in the same way! I mean, sort of not!”

Her concubine sighed, and gave her a warm peck on the cheek. “I’ll tell them, then. You get so cute when you’re flustered.”

She turned to address their friends, and was suddenly overwhelmed herself by all of their confused stares.

”She, uh,” she hesitated, finding it pretty difficult after all. “Ah, screw it. She wants you all to have sex with me on this bed.”

She winced at her own words as soon as she said them.

“I mean, uh, not all at the same time! Unless that’s what all five of you agree to do, which actually would be really cool and good and something I’d be extremely into. But, you know, it really is up to what each of you wants to do and are comfortable with, which definitely includes not wanting to at all! Just want to make that clear. No matter what, all of you really are our very best friends. It just sounds like adding this new dimension to our relationship would be really fun, again, if that’s something you’d be into.“

“I think they get it, babe,” Twilight whispered, cutting her off. She smiled sheepishly.

“Ah, sorry, I’m rambling! Don’t proposition five of my best friends every day, you know? So, uh, what do you guys all think?”

A tense silence stretched over the room, as Twilight and her concubine glanced at each other nervously. Thankfully, Pinkie broke it pretty fast.

“I think it sounds fun!” she exclaimed brightly. She then turned to face the others. “But, you know, I think most things sound fun, at least to try once! That shouldn’t make anypony here feel like they’re a prude or anything if they don’t think so! Not wanting to try something is just as valid, and nopony should ever feel pressured to say ‘yes’ out of fear that they’re bringing down somepony else’s fun.”

“Oh, of course!” Twilight insisted, horrified. “I mean, I actually agonized over a long time if I should propose this at all, in light of the power imbalance that now exists between us now that I’m the Sovereign!”

“Oh, Twi!” Rainbow Dash dismissed. “You might be the absolute monarch of Equestria now, but to us, you’re still that wingless bookworm we all met in Ponyville all those years ago! If any of us ever felt like we didn’t feel like doing something you asked, I’m sure none of us would have any problem saying ‘no’!” The pegasus rubbed the back of her neck with a wing, looking the human’s body up and down. “And, uh, I wouldn’t say ‘no’."

Rarity was whispering something in a frowning Applejack’s ear. “Yeah, I know,” she grumbled mutteringly. “But her?” Rarity then whispered something more intense, and Applejack sighed. “Yeah, I know, you’re right. I should try.” Then, to Twilight, at a normal volume: “Rarity and I are in.“

All eyes turned to Fluttershy now, who was covering nearly her entire face with her wings. All faces showed a bit of concern as they realized what kind of position they had placed her in.

She spoke up in a soft voice. “Um. I think I know what you’re all thinking now. And I know in the past I had trouble speaking up for myself in a lot of different situations. But I’ve grown over the years, haven’t I? I mean, it does make sense to want to check in with me especially though, and I am thankful you girls are thinking about that. I guess what I’m saying is that, well, I wouldn’t mind participating. I mean, more than that. I’m curious to try. I’ve always found animal reproduction so fascinating.“ She looked at the human and eeped. “I mean, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to call you just an ‘animal’!”

The human laughed. “It’s okay, Fluttershy. It’s not like I wasn’t curious about how you ponies worked when I first came here. Though I thought I’d mostly learn about things through anatomy textbooks rather than, uh, firsthand experience.”

“Heh,” Twilight chuckled. ‘Firsthand is more like it!”

“Ugh.” Her concubine rolled her eyes and smiled. “I am rubbing off on you in the absolute worst way.”

“Rubbing off is—”

Twilight was interrupted with a kiss, as her concubine stopped her mouth with her lips. They held their kiss for a bit before breaking it off, then looked into each other’s eyes in silence for a few moments, soft smiles on their faces. Twilight sighed happily, then looked back out at her friends, beaming.

“Oh, girls, I’m so relieved! I mean, not that I would have been disappointed if any of you said ‘no’, but, you know! I’m just so excited!”

“But Princess!” her concubine interjected with a smile. “There is one more thing you wanted to propose to them, remember? The spell?”

“Oh, that’s right! That one’s really hard to explain.” Twilight cringed. So hard that her friends were looking at the both of them with confused expressions on their faces again.

“I think it’s better that we just show them,” her concubine pointed out, soothingly rubbing her muzzle.

Twilight’s cringe melted away, and agreed with a smile. “I think we should.”