Starlight could blame it on her being drunk, except she wasn’t.

Two champagne glasses didn’t even scratch the threshold for that, especially since she had slowly sipped them over the course of the EEA afterparty, unlike the other members who took advantage of the open bar and got absolutely hammered. Sunburst only had one wine glass and he wrinkled his nose when the waiter poured it for him, but he accepted it anyway, taking it as another obligation he had to fulfill. They spent the rest of the evening sipping their drinks carefully, watching others get progressively more drunk until they got bored and decided to leave early.

Then, what was her excuse for being naked on top of Sunburst, bouncing on his dick like she knew what she was doing when she honestly had no clue?

All that Starlight knew was what her body was telling her—that there was no life without this (technically there wasn’t, right?) and that the pleasure was just an ounce of what it could be. With every sway of her hips, she could feel the pressure mounting, winding her up like she was about to explode in fireworks and confetti. Sunburst was urging her forward, not just with his hooves driving her hips into his but with his words, trying to soothe and force her to let go of the last stranglehold she had on reality.

A monumental task for sure. The breathy way he said her name made her dizzy, the strength in which he thrust into her astounded her, and it was all she could do to follow his rhythm. Sunburst surged upwards with a particular firm shove and hit something that made her see stars, and she threw her head back with a cry of surprise and ecstasy. His grip on her hips tightened as he angled his thrusts into that newfound sweet spot. Starlight stopped moving altogether, eyes half-lidded and panting, as she tilted her hips in a way that allowed him deeper inside her.

But…how did they get here? This was her best friend, her coworker, one of the few ponies she trusted to have her back at all times, and they were ruining it. And it was her fault, of course. There had been a boundary between them and this, and she worked for so long to keep it that way. Kept it clean and clear of emotional debris. Swept away all her muddled feelings that threatened to bend and smudge that line.

That was until about twenty minutes ago, when he shoved her playfully on their way to the hotel, with that stupid smile on his face that made his dimples more pronounced and she just, well, forgot herself for a second.

They chased each other through the dark streets of Canterlot, giggling like foals, which turned into a race that Sunburst “won” by some miracle when he entered the hotel lobby before her. The receptionist just rolled her eyes as they made their way to their rooms, snorting and snickering the whole way. When his gratified smirk didn’t disappear, she had threatened to wipe it off his face, and when he challenged her right back, she had no choice. Everypony knows that the easiest way to do so was by kissing, which opened the floodgates:

Sunburst yanking her inside his room, his foreleg around her like an iron band that she wore without complaint.

His teeth nibbling the soft flesh of her neck, eliciting his name from her mouth in a tone she’d never used in their entire life together—a pleading voice that got her exactly what she wanted.

Him rolling off her dress as she eagerly negotiated him out of his dress shirt and suit.

Her desperately rubbing against his shaft before he glided down to her opening, leaving them both gasping for air.

Without a second thought, without hesitation, without protection, without a shred of decency or common sense. Then it hit her, the icy cold realization that she was ruining this precious friendship all over again.

“Starlight, let it go.”

That pleading whisper was a last-ditch effort since all of this was honestly exhausting. Not only was he trying to keep himself from cumming, a feat that was astronomical for a stallion having his first-ever sexual experience with the mare of his dreams, but also trying to get her to relax enough so that she could climax. Add in the fact that he was still running game plans in the back of his head made for a terrifying amount of work.

Because two years ago, Sunburst made a decision: he’d wait. It was technically what he was good at, biding his time and thinking things through to the point of overkill. This kind of thing fitted him, played to his strengths. The kind of thing he was referring to was his hopelessly complex relationship with his best friend, Starlight Glimmer. It hadn’t taken him long to realize that Starlight was a tangled, elaborate web of conflicting emotions that she rarely got right the first time. That’s why, when he came to the surprising conclusion that he somehow liked that about her, he let go and settled into it.

So he planned. If there was a possible outcome, he thought of it. He spent nights creating play-by-plays of what would happen if they kissed on a trip somewhere, or if one day while working in her office she finally caved. Because he wasn’t being full of himself when he lived with the surety that she felt the same way he did. Once they were past the awkwardness of getting to know each other all over again, they were closer than ever before: casual touches that lingered, hugs that were a little too tight to be completely platonic, collapsing on the couch together, and more often than not falling asleep together, curled up in each other for warmth. But pushing her over that line was never going to be his job, since eventually, as with everything, her brash courage would take her exactly to where she needed to be.

Except, as predicted in one of his many daydreams, Starlight was only going to let herself go so far that first time.

He slowed down his thrusting and Sunburst resigned himself to not finishing. She’d actually kind of surprised him by taking the gamble of not using protection, something he felt fairly bad about since even with all his forethought, he’d gotten carried away in the moment as well. He wanted this, more than anything else in the world. And not just the sex, it was the idea that the stupid boundary between them would finally be erased.

But even with her mind a million miles away, Starlight didn’t stop the desperate grinding of her hips. He tried to stop her, but when he opened his mouth, he let out a gasp as his climax hit him. In the end, Sunburst couldn’t be the better pony, and he came with a helpless cry of her name as he sat up and pressed his face in her fluffy chest, holding her tightly. Five seconds were allotted to celebrate in his head, joyously memorizing the feeling of cumming inside her, before tilting his head back to come face to face with the predictable worry on her face.

“That was amazing—”

“That was a mistake—”

They fell silent.

Sunburst knew it was coming. It was number one on his list of “Wrong Things Starlight’s Going to Say When We Stop Toeing the Line Vol. 4” but there was nothing he could do to prevent the sting that her words brought. He cleared his throat and opened his mouth, finally ready to unfold the most well-rehearsed speech in his mind. “I understand, you’re scared. I am, too, but I’m done playing around, pretending I don’t feel the way I do. I want this, and unless you tell me no, I’m going to keep at it.”

“Tell you no?” She barely murmured, her eyes more white than blue for a moment.

“Tell me to stop,” he declared, “if you really don’t want this, I know you will and you know I’d never do anything you didn’t want. Like right now…” He grabbed the sheet off the bed, it was a hotel bed anyway, they probably cleaned worse messes than this one. With her eyes still wide, he lifted her hips and sighed as he slipped free from her and started cleaning the evidence of their lovemaking with the sheet. “Once we’re cleaned, I’m going to return the favor because you almost got there…unless you tell me no.” He brought the corner of the sheet between her legs and rubbed softly before pausing, bringing his eyes intently to hers. “Tell me you don’t want this.”

He hadn’t calculated for quite as long a pause as she took, just staring down at him as he sat frozen under her cerulean glare. This was the problem with all his planning: no matter how well he knew her, no matter how much time he spent picking apart her thoughts and little quirks, Starlight was still capable of surprising him.

Her lips latching desperately back onto his was just another one of those moments.

Starlight was supposed to be the one in control. She led, he followed, not the other way around. Her actions were supposed to move him, but in the bed, in the dark, the world was on an entirely different axis.

Sunburst’s weight, though pressing down on her, was a comfortable one. She had always known that his frame was a little bigger and stockier than her own, but feeling it now, her forelegs grasping his withers, her back legs wrapped around his waist as he rocked into her, made her appreciate it more. Her eyes fluttered closed when he kissed a sensitive spot on her neck and his pace increased.

The fact that Sunburst was so deft in manipulating her body was mind-boggling, and it was almost enough for her to let the wave of pleasure take her under. Almost. She felt powerless, ebbing towards an ending that seemed all under his authority until she clung to the only lifeline she had. “No.”

As promised, Sunburst rolled off her just as easily as he had on top of her, his hooves coming back to rest flat on his chest. His blue eyes were slow and blinking.

It took a lot of convincing on her part to look at him, fearful to see some kind of annoyance, but just finding his absorbing gaze. The only pony you’re frustrating is yourself, her mind whispered. She waited for admonishment, for questioning, for displeasure, but only found that his breathing had steadied and he’d fallen to tapping his hooves to his chest in a gentle rhythm. Starlight shifted her legs in the sheets, her body screaming anxiously with want she denied.

As soon as her mind realized her nakedness, he was leaning over the side of the bed, snagging a blanket and throwing it over her. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Starlight clutched it to her chest but it still felt useless. They were ponies, they rarely wear clothes, so it wasn’t just the bare skin, not even the fact that he touched her so intimately. Sunburst was the closest to her, the one she’d let in regardless of all the mired pain, but this was all of it, all of her. She had nowhere else to hide.

Sunburst offered a smile, making the tightness in her throat worse. She was drowning, about to give up, to let the fear pull her tightly under when he whispered, “Can I touch your hair?”

“Huh?” His words yanked her from the edge of the tangled ocean lapping at her legs.

“Run my hooves through your hair,” he clarified but he kept his hooves to his chest. “You can say no,” he added as a reminder.

Did it annoy her, the way he kept giving her an out? Or did it feel like he was just saying that to give her a delusion of control? It’s boundaries. All my little boundaries and he’s testing each one. “Sure.”

His smile grew more confident as he rolled to his side, not to renew the friction of his skin against hers but to decrease the space between them so he could reach for her without straining. His touch wasn’t as sure this time, not like when he’d been so delicately toying with the heat between her legs. Instead, it was exploration that was spelled out in the blunt edge of his hoof.

His touch had always been soothing to her, pulling her back to him regardless of the anxiety that was still scurrying in the back of her mind. There was no darkness that they couldn’t break through for each other and Starlight felt the truth so keenly that she finally found her voice.

“You said you were afraid.”

“Yes,” he gave one sharp nod but didn’t change the trajectory of his foreleg as it ran through the base of her neck.

“Why?” It was a dangerous question because Starlight knew it could come right back to her and she would deserve it.

“Change is scary,” he murmured as his hoof stilled, like his searching had ended and he found something tangled in her purple tresses.

“Change.” It was a terrifying word, and it warbled like an echo from her lips.

“But,” he added quickly, once again pulling her away from the brink of panic. “I’m not entirely sure we changed.”

“We had sex.” Starlight was quick to correct.

He snorted a laugh. “Sorry, you just said it so bluntly that it caught me off guard, horse apples, I was sure you’d use a euphemism or something.”

“Sunburst!”

Her admonishment didn’t kill the amusement on his face, the naughty grin that started it all making a comeback. “I’m just saying, for the past few years, you and me…we have gotten closer. We fit, we work, so this doesn’t seem anymore together than we were before, you know? Sure, it’s something new, but we are already in a place where there’s no pulling us apart. That change happened years ago, and neither of us stopped it then.”

She looked at him, his hoof moving from her hair to her jaw with a delicate touch. She didn’t say anything as he pulled her back in, not a word of protest spilled from her lips as he kissed her, his skilled hooves going back to work. He rolled on top of her again and Starlight didn’t fight him, she finally let herself go just enough to enjoy this because she would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy it, didn’t consider this, or imagine this on lonely nights when her thoughts wandered to dangerous places.

He kissed her deeply and she kissed him back just as passionately as he entered her again. They were past the point of foreplay, so it took little effort for him to find his target, but he went slowly as if he were savoring the moment. Starlight’s back legs spasmed in the air and she let out a shaky breath, a light gasp that could be mistaken for a sigh. She was still sensitive from earlier and the slightest touch sent shockwaves through her body.

Armed with the knowledge of what made her squirm and gasp, Sunburst started moving, aiming for those areas that would bring her the most pleasure. The bed rocked with their movements and Starlight held on to him, raising her hips in time with his lunges, lowering them when he pulled back. He was warm to her touch, almost feverish, his kisses open-mouthed and breathy, her name warbled with his moans and sighs.

She was surrounded, encase in all that he was, filled to brim with heat and fire that he was stroking into a raging inferno. She held on for as long as she could, but it was impossible, her conviction melting like a snowball in summer when Sunburst moaned her name and his cock hit the deepest part of her.

With all the denying, the waiting, the aching, her climax nearly crushed her, her mind and body completely lost to herself just long enough to be his and his alone.

Morning came with a milky white fog that was slow to dissipate. It was too early for the trains to start running, but the stores were slowly opening and the pair were the first to enter the pharmacy. Starlight seemed shell-shocked when Sunburst mentioned the emergency contraceptive, but he was prepared. This was another one of his contingencies. So they packed, cleaned up, got dressed, and now stood in line to pay for their items in silence. Well, technically, he had nothing to say, but he could see the thoughts racing across Starlight’s face, especially as they finally approached the check-out and Sunburst placed a box of condoms on the counter.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see her face turning red, her eyes darting between the cashier and the goods as if the poor early morning employee actually gave two horseshoes as to what they were buying.

Sunburst knew there wouldn’t be a fit, just a regular old Starlight implosion once they were alone, with that in mind, he threw the bits down before grabbing the bag and turning for the exit. The station wasn’t far and, as they stood on the platform waiting for the train to roll in, he put his foreleg around her withers and drew her close. She put up a good fight for the first few minutes before giving in, tucking herself tightly against his frame as if somepony would snatch her away if she didn’t.

Getting to Ponyville and through the door of the castle had been when he assumed Starlight would explode, and he braced himself for her shrill voice to skyrocket through the foyer, but she was decidedly silent.

Starlight snatched the bag from his suitcase and rushed down the hallway to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her and locking it for the first time in a year. With a resigned sigh, Sunburst plodded after her before letting his back meet the wall next to the bathroom door, sliding down to sit on the floor and do what he did best. Wait.

Author's Note

Welcome to my latest fic in which technically I have no idea where I'm going with it, pantsing at its finest you all. I just really dig the idea of Sunburst planning ahead, instead of getting caught off guard like in most fics I've read. Just keep in mind that this is more of a romance story than just pure clop. Enjoy.