“Have you forgotten your place? I don’t think anypony wants to repeat that lesson so soon. You wouldn’t know love if it bit you on the ass!” Twilight retorted.

Her absence, even an absence of cruelty, had weighed heavily on me, the gloom of this downward spiral. Despair led to dark comforts: new scars pulled my skin taught where none might notice.

“I know love when she kicks me in the stomach!”

“I said I was sorry, idiot!”

I paused for a slow breath as she snorted angrily.

“And I said that I forgive you,” I said at last.

“There’s no way that any of this is love. I just need… ahem… certain services. I didn’t want to be like this!”

“You’re the one who brought it up, I didn’t even say the word, today, until you did. Instead of assuming that I must be wrong, just hear my side.”

Now Twilight took a deep breath. Thank Celestia, the near argument was de-escalating.

“Hey, you got me there,” she said, “That is what I am supposed to be known for, isn’t it?”

“It is, your Highness, yes. Listening to what ponies have to say. Finding the cause of conflicts.”

“How do you even know that? This spell was supposed to be completely anonymous. How long have you been stalking me?”

“I grew up on stories about you ever since I was little. I thought they were just make believe until I met you.”

“How old are you? How long do your species live?”

“I’m twenty-seven. With public medical and luck we can live a century, maybe a bit more more, pretty easy. If you are in the ruling class, you have access to med that can keep you alive three centuries or longer.”

“I’m only twenty-six. How could you have heard these stories? I hadn’t done anything much when you were little because I was little too.”

“The stories date from centuries before I was born. Like five or six hundred years.”

“How? That’s impossible.”

“I don’t know, time travel? Prophesy? Fate? But imagine if you thought that Starswirl was an imaginary pony until you fought the shadow and he popped out of the vortex with his companions.”

“That’s not quite how it happened, but you actually know about that?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“I’ve heard how you save Equestria with your bare hooves, over and over. And you inspire other ponies to do incredible things.”

“So you think you fell in love with an imaginary pony?”

“Yes. And then one night she trotted into my dreams.”

“I kicked you.”

“I forgave you.”

“I kicked you repeatedly.”

“I forgave you repeatedly.”

“I did worse.”

“And I forgive you.”

“I might do it again.”

“I will forgive you again.”

“Why?”

“I love you.”

“This isn’t love, it can’t be, it can’t be! It can not be. Why is this even happening?”

“What happening, Princess?”

“Never mind! Will you shut up about love?”

“You asked, Princess. I’ve been trying not to say things that would make you feel pressured. I’d be semi-willing to discreetly fail to mention my feelings at all if you’d stop fixating on asking me to deny them.”

“Only semi-willing?” Twilight raised her eyebrows.

“Oh my Princess, if I could, if you would permit, I would shout it from the highest mountain in Equestria, and greet Celestia’s holy dawn by decrying my adoration in a voice of thunder that all ponies might—”

“Shut up, who do you think you are, William Shankspur? I get the picture. But that's not how we’re going to be doing this. Speaking of ‘doing’—” she was making a conscious effort to calm herself again “—how about you do me now? No coming without permission! And you can tell me a little about these stories you grew up with. Maybe it was a different Twilight Sparkle and not me at all. Maybe there are thousands of Twilights Sparkle in the multiverse.”

I put my arms around her and kissed her forehead, stroking her horn with my cheek. Moving my kisses to her lips, I found her mouth was sweet and her tongue gentle now that she was no longer voicing the rejection of my love.

“Maybe it really was a different Twilight, Twilight, I will tell you about my idol and we can compare.” I nibbled her ear, my cheek pressed against the softness of her coat now. I rubbed her shoulders and massaged the muscles at the base of her wings until she was swaying against me to the music of our shared heartbeat. All her tension had fled and even if her command was reluctant, her actions were eager.

“Yes, I will tell you of her. She is noble and strong, the blood in her veins is the pulse of magic incarnate, she is the champion of Equestria.” I was kissing her neck now, kneeling before her, reaching up to smooth her mane with my fingers. From the top of her head all the way down to her shoulders I smoothed and combed the blue and purple and pink locks.

“As the greatest of all Equestrian mages, she possesses power and lore unrivaled. She learns new spells with ease and molds them to her will.”

“She avoids quesadillas.” A slight frisson of dread passed through Twilight’s body at the mention of the cheesy culinary nemesis – the shiver continued as I reached back to trace the periphery of her marehood with feather-light fingertips. She leaned towards my touch and I pulled away, eliciting an involuntary whine from deep in her throat; her wings quivered, ready to spread out.

“On her shapely flank—” I brushed my fingers across her cutie mark and she wiggled against my touch “—a rose star with a white counterstar behind it is surrounded by five smaller white stars symbolizing her five great comrades.” I touched the smaller stars one at a time.

“When summer passes and fall ends, she begins winter by catching snowflakes on her nose.”

I dipped fingers into the warmth of her vagina and massaged the moisture into her labia and clitoris, slicking her hot cleft before sliding digits further in. Her wings flared all the way out now.

“Maybe this different Twilight lives in a different Ponyville.”

She was breathing harder now as I reduced the pressure of contact against her and slowed my penetrating fingers.

“And in this Ponyville, her comrades, the other element bearers, a different Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity—”

She was ready, telegraphing her need in the rough urgency of her panting and the taut rigidity of her outstretched wings.

“—are her friends sticking with her through thick and thin.”

A single shuddering orgasmic precursor shook her body and ruffled her feathers.

“As the avatar of friendship, no pony is beyond her help.”

She was on the verge of detonation.

“Except one.”

I stopped teasing her and unleashed her orgasm with the touch and rhythm of my fingers, stimulating and sustaining her pleasure as long as I could.

“And maybe a different me could win her love,” I whispered as she moaned, oblivious to my words.

—

“Can’t you just say that this is purely physical?” Twilight was still panting as I stood very close behindher. “Get over your mindless fixation on the impossible and we can just be two consenting adults rubbing our genitalia together for moist mutual advantage. If you convince me that you’ll be good, I might even bring you to Equestria and let you do me for real instead of dream sex.”

“No, your Highness. I cannot practice untruth against you. I am greedy for every second of time I can possibly spend with you, but not at the expense of truth. If you cannot accept my love, please accept silence.”

I slowed my pace; she wasn’t quite ready and per her command I mustn’t come.

“Oh,” she said, “well I appreciate your insistence on honesty. That’s very sweet of you, and very stupid. Now get ready to start licking, I will trust you to do your best. Is that honest enough for you?”

“I guess I’m honored to be your living sex toy. In the name of honesty I confess that I want more, but as long as we are honest I will give you myself and hold nothing back.” I smiled. “Thank you for listening finally. I can’t ask for more than you want to give. But if you’ll at least be nice to me, I will serve you as best I can.”

“We should have had this talk sooner.”

“I tried, beautiful Princess.”

“You did. Kneel, Tangent, my toy. If you want to whisper sweet nothings of love, you can do it with your face in my plot where I can’t hear you.”

I did. I whispered love and adoration, praise and affirmation as I kissed and licked her. She didn’t silence me: she had given me permission this time. Instead she moaned and groaned her pleasure all the louder to drown out my voice. I grew louder as she did, and she reciprocated to my increase in volume.

At last she cried out, “I– oh-ohoh I- I- I- l- ooooooh!”

“You what, Princess?”

“I came,” she said primly. “Again. Now rise.”

Twilight turned around, eyes half lidded. Stepping closer to me, she kissed my navel.

“You’ve pleased me, human.”

She kissed me again, lower.

“Pleased me well.”

She kissed me lower still, just at the edge of my pubic hair.

“Love is out of the question, but I think you’ve earned this.”

She lowered her head further still.

“St-stop, stop please, Princess.”

She stopped, but her mouth was just millimeters from my cock, so inviting.

“Why?” she breathed her sweet warmth on my dick head, “what is wrong, my little human?”

“I don’t want you to do that unless you… well you know.”

“Why wait for what can never happen? I’m willing; you did well. Next time I may not be so—” she kissed me lightly and my cock throbbed at the gentle contact of her lips “—accommodating.”

“I will wait for love, my Princess, please. Are you ready for another?”

Author's Note

So the short story Selphian Dream takes place "sometime around" this chapter. Selphian Dream is posted elsewhere on account of being 100% Pony Free, so this is just a timeline note.