I went to sleep nice and peacefully. But I was not alone. I should rephrase that. I was laying in my bed, ready to go to sleep when the mattress of soft material(feathers?) jostled and another form joined me.

They were too large to be Twinkle, and far lacking in energy to be Pinkie. They also touched my side with what was clearly a talon of a finger, tracing gently. Griffon. There weren't many other options. "Gallus?" I cracked open an eye to see who I was sharing space with.

That was a griffon, but it was not Gallus. She smiled at me gently. "He said we should not reach for this fire, but its warmth calls to me, good sir." She rubbed gently at my chest, gazing into my eyes. "May I sleep here tonight?"

I tensed, startled by the bold griffon volunteer's sudden proximity whispering brazen desires my way in our unexpectedly intimate arrangements. But her fiercely intense gaze brooked no rejection as talons teased smoldering embers within despite risking social and spiritual conflagrations alike...

I carefully rolled over meeting her eyes directly as tension jangled nerves barely braced against this brash beauty's smoldering stare. "Er, tempting for sure, but seriously, questionable impulse control seems a bad move before crucial tests and all, y'know?" She frowned as my awkward hoof pushed hers firmly yet politely away.

"You seem nice and eager, but I don't even know you. I prefer to know who I'm with, you know?" I shrugged self-consciously clearly out of my depth here. "Think hard if you might regret things later, that's all."

She studied me curiously talons lingering meaningfully along my tense shoulders. "You sound cowed by punishments should supposed superiors notice you're being a little 'naughty'." Her beak smirked subtly as quills stroked tender flesh. "Scared by their scared scriptures?"

I gulped nervously - she read me rightly in some ways and it stung. When had obedience become preferred over understanding? "There's principle and then there's just preserving leverage..." I managed softly stilling wandering limbs insistently testing boundaries.

It didn't help that some parts of me didn't agree with my brain. I could feel the heat within me growing ever warmer, and it seemed to be pleasing my guest as she snuggled in closer to it. That I gently pressed against her in the 'wrong' place also didn't help.

She would be my first, if I allowed it. But to allow it meant my first would be with someone I didn't know, at all. The thought of that was a cooling splash, but the fire was quite hot indeed. "Who even are you?" As if knowing her name would somehow fix the entire problem.

She smiled subtly, dangerous and alive with her own self-authorship that dared chains chaining her potential however alluring the gilded cage. "I am me - is that not enough now?"

Beak tenderly traced quickening pulses as boundaries blurred between judgment and desire. But words rang true - beyond roles imposed, simply being fully sufficed didn't it?

I shivered, of lust yet also exhilaration witnessing fierce flowering refusing imposed sterile order. "Y-yes" I managed huskily, "But names can be shields too - why unshared still...?"

[clop]

Gold gleamed knowingly as she claimed her place. With my weak resistance, half-baked at best, she casually wrapped her legs around me and sank against me. It was done. She was the first. I was nestled in her warmth, and the sensations of it were just perfect.

In that moment, it was better than I had ever dared imagine. It didn't matter who she was, just that she was willing, sapient, and fully grown. Did I hold power over her? Not that I could figure out.

I laughed at myself for running through the consent checklist, but I could find no problems immediately. I had run out of objections. It was time to burn. I kissed her on either side of her beak. "I still want your name. I want to know who is my first. I want it to matter. I want you to matter. Please."

She pecked me, more of an avian gesture of greeting. "Giselle, curious fire pony." She ground against me with increasing fervor. "Now let me feel that fire. Set me ablaze with your passion."

"Hello." It felt dumb to say, but I had said it. I stopped trying to say things and focused on the act. She wanted what my body had, and, in that fiery pit, I wanted what she was offering in return. I reached around her, cloven hooves pressing at her back as we rocked with mutual notes playing the most ancient song of meeting life.

I confirmed that kirin did not combust in the act of lovemaking, or at least, I didn't. No, I just drew an excited yelp from her as I hit that wall and discovered what it was like, to do that. My stiffened rod pulsed with every jet, firing deep into her as I pushed through it. Stubborn willpower let me keep moving, wanting to hold her and please her forever, at least in that moment.

[/clop]

But the lethargy that came as a man came for me, gently lulling me. I didn't want to sleep, not then. I wanted to be close, to hold and somehow become one with her, but such a union was not happening. "I'm... happy to have met you, Giselle. Are you going to vanish?"

"Like the flicker of flames." She tapped me gently on the nose. "But you are a sweet thing. Even after you are done, you keep calling me. Most males wouldn't care so far." She pecked me, which was growing into an even interesting feeling. "When you find your partner, they will be happy, I feel."

"But it won't be you?"

She chuckled low, a sound felt more than heard that somehow soothed lingering loneliness. "Even if our roads now diverge, know you will travel with me as inspiration towards truth beyond convention's golden compromise."

I clasped her talons tightly in my magic as she slipped from the bed and moved towards the exit with a teasing sway of her tail.

Finally, sleep claimed me, and I awoke a changed kirin. There was no special first time to offer the world anymore. But what was done, was done. I wouldn't bemoan the past. I would think fondly of Giselle.

I figured my odds of meeting her again were slender, the way griffons seemed to operate, but the meeting had been pleasant. "Gallus?"

"Hm?" Gallus sat up, awakening. "What?"

I wondered a moment when he had returned to the room, but he was there, so I pressed, "Just checking, but can a pony and a griffon end up with, uh, foals? Kittens? Hatchlings?"

Gallus sat up swiftly, as did Twinkle and Pinkie. They were all staring at me.

"Hypothetically?"

Twinkle's brows fell. "I don't think you're being hypothetical."

Pinkie shook her head. "I leave you alone for one moment. You're fast." She giggled, rather than fire any scorn. "Did you have fun?"

I colored at that. "I didn't expect you to ask that."

Gallus rolled a hand. "When did that happen?! I swear. Anyway, since you asked." He took a shuddering breath. "Hippogriffs are a thing, so it is possible. Does that make you happy, or scare you?"

I tensed as three curious faces crowded closer inquiring coyly just what misadventures my slumbering self managed the prior evening. Pinkie simply giggled playfully as ever while Gallus eyed me shrewdly clearly judging potential impacts from my unplanned romantic interlude.

Twinkle hovered anxiously clearly torn between adult insights comprehending risks and her diminutive doppelganger instincts fixating on exciting escapades without grasping consequences fully. "Oooo, so the pretty griffon lady spent the night? Did you have fuuu---I mean, pleasant time?" She hastily amended catching herself mid-breath.

I flushed scarlet scuffing a self-conscious hoof through rumpled bedding as recollections from passion's hazy aftermath surfaced under their scrutiny. "I uh, yeah quite educational I assure you!" I waved hooves placatingly. "And zero winged foals will result no worries heheh..."

Gallus rolled his eyes knowingly. "Riiight...'educational romps' eh? Just take precautions if more 'lessons' get scheduled." He shouldered past winking brashly. "C'mon loverboy, sunrise waits on no Phoenix protégé's lazy rump!"

Pinkie shot me a thumbs up, despite having hooves, giggling madly clearly enthralled living vicariously through my audacity however unplanned! Face aflame I hurried their laughing wake bracing for fresh revelations whatever this day held after last night's adventures.

Twinkle landed on my back, riding me as I went out. "Unfair."

"What is?" I turned an ear back to her as we emerged into the main room of the temple.

"I wanted to be that first. I wanted it to be my first." She inclined her head on my back. "Impossible, clearly. Unfair."

I colored faintly, thinking about Twinkle. "Let's focus on Gallus' situation. We have a hen doing some kind of sacred test to be worthy to learn how to be a phoenix. I don't like the idea of her being hurt."

"Me neither." Her thoughts shifted swiftly to that brave griffon hen, standing stiffly in the center of the room. "I hope she does well." She paused. "I don't suppose that is the griffon that visited you?"

I hesitated responding to Twinkle's murmured curiosity over exactly which lovely griffiness graced my intimate company the prior eve. I looked over the griffons, trying in that moment to pick Giselle out. Griffons were not ponies. Giselle had been a classic eagle/lion combination, but she had a stripe of red just over one of her eyes. The kind the hen had. I swore silently.

I simply smiled mysteriously Twinkle's inquiring way. "Kissing and telling is rude." Delicately I redirected focus towards the tense volunteer awaiting dramatically unrevealed tests.

"But this determined damsel waits words impacting her entire tribe." I nodded respectfully Giselle's way sensing heavy destinies pivoting on her proud shoulders and watching eyes above. "I don't know what these tests are, but let's cheer her on at least."

And as imposing priestly figures billowed ominously from shadowy recesses I added sotto voce towards Twinkle "Keep an eye on that one. Religious folks have their own motives.

I watched as other griffons stepped forward to anoint Giselle with paints they applied with holy reverence. The priest nodded. "Know this, you will be remembered. If you fail, and burn in the fire, you will be known as being brave enough to make the move. You are already beyond many, for standing here."

He smiled perhaps cruelly. "But this is not the winning step. You must succeed at each test, one to the last, to be allowed an audience with the phoenix, and be permitted to be ignited." He snapped his fingers. "Do you understand, and do you consent? This is your last chance to bow your head and back away. Do so in peace, and we will only mock you in quiet. Better than death, some would say. Worse than it, others would say. Which path do you take?"

Twinkle bristled atop me. "That one is most foul in tempérament."

Pinkie nodded. "I'm with you there, being a real bummer. Go Giselle!" She waved a hoof excitedly at the hen.

But I had not shared her name? Pinkie remained Pinkie, known to do things that didn't make much sense.

Giselle marched ahead towards heavy doors that opened before her. "I will take the test, to rise from the flames, or die in them."

With the same firm devotion, she was lost to sight as the doors closed with the grinding slap of stone against stone. The priest turned to the rest of us. "Now we wait. She emerges, or she does not. There is little more to be done until then."

He extended a talon towards Gallus. "Be ready. If she does emerge, she will be eager to share in the phoenixes' fire, and will be worthy of it."

Gallus laughed tensely. "Yeah, I got it, sure." He didn't sound as confident as his words implied.

Author's Note

Say hi to Giselle. Was she just looking for a fun little meeting? Time to be tested.

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