A Whisper on the Wind

Expecting to find myself in bed come morning, I instead suddenly found myself walking through a woodland forest in broad daylight, atop a hill with trees and foliage that appeared to be in the grip of autumn. Before me was a dirt road that led down into a valley with a row of trees on either side of it, the buildings of a town visible in the far distance as clouds hung low in the skies above me.

It took me a few moments to realize that I had autonomy of movement, and I started looking around me as I came to a stop. As inevitably as night follows day, Ace was a short distance away, he too coming to a stop as we made eye contact with each other.

“You’re wearing clothes again,” he observed, which I confirmed by running my fingers over my body, feeling the familiar sensations of my hoodie and jeans against my touch.

“That’s… a very good point,” I mused as I looked behind myself briefly, “I was in bed, naked… next to you…”

“So… this is…”

We both sighed and agreed together, “A dream.”

“God, this amulet is making us share everything. Not even our dreams are safe from each other, are they? That said, though… I don’t recognize this place,” I conceded as I walked down the dirt path, beckoning the pegasus to follow me. “How about you?”

Ace shook his head as he began to walk alongside me. “I think I’d remember a place this beautiful.”

I was about to agree with him when my eyes caught sight of something running toward us. Definitely pony-like in stature, they bounded up the path toward us; as they came into view, they appeared to have a coat of minty green with a mane of white and green. Sensing an opportunity, I came to a stop and stood in their way.

“Hello there! Perhaps you could tell me where we-”

The pony ran through me like an ethereal specter, running off into the distance without even giving me the time of day. Looking down once again at the bottom of the valley, another much taller individual was now sprinting towards us. It didn’t take long for me to see who it was.

“Shit! It’s not our dream, it’s his dream! Quick, hide!” I shouted as I dived behind a line of trees beyond the boundary of the road, Ace following just as quickly as the very familiar sight of a human came into view; Alex wheezed as he seemed to struggle to make it over the hill as both of us watched from our hidden vantage point behind a tree.

“Why would he be dreaming about this? It makes no sense,” Ace commented, a fact I couldn’t disagree with as I reached across Ace to pick up a smooth pebble, about half the size of the palm of my hand. “What are you planning?” he said to me as I lined up my idea.

“Something very reckless, that’s for sure. Time to test a hypothesis,” I fired back as I darted right and took my shot, firing my projectile at the other human as he breezed past us, the spheroid missile making direct contact with his skull and knocking him off balance as he crumpled into a heap on the ground.

“You've killed him!” barked Ace as I shook my head.

“It’s just a dream! He’ll be back on his feet… probably,” I said with a sharp exhale. Sure enough, the toppled body of Alex rose and got to his feet, dusting himself off and looking around very confused.

“That wasn’t how this went…” he muttered as he shook a finger at nothing in particular, his facial expression continuing to express a mixture of concern and bewilderment.

“How what went?” I asked as I emerged from the shadow of the tree and into his field of view, ready to test just what exactly this was. The air, such as it was between us, went deadly silent as Ace followed me, taking up a position to my left; all the while, the mental image of my friend appeared to scrutinize me before briefly looking up at the sky.

“Oh, look; another ghost of my past is here to tell me what a failure I am, just like he always does here. Go ahead, lay into me; it's nothing that I don't deserve.”

I sighed, looking up and down the mental projection of my friend, kitted out as he was in a white vest and lime green running shorts. “Maybe the old me would do that… but not the new me. I don't know what part of you needs to hear this, but whatever you think you've done… I forgive you.”

The apparition moved closer to me, looking over me as if not believing his eyes. “Kind of you to say… that's not what you usually say in this place.”

“Look, mate, what the fuck is this place? I’m reasonably sure you’re not a figment of my imagination,” I reasoned, causing this apparition of Alex to once again turn to me, but this time approaching me as his slightly taller body came within smelling distance of me, the odor of sweat becoming very noticeable as he and I locked eyes.

“This…,” His palms open with his arms spread wide, “... Is just a lucid dream, a side-effect of stasis; keeps the mind healthy across the centuries, but memories can’t persist into the waking world. I don’t know why I’m explaining this because, well, you are just my imagination, and you know all that I know.”

I could only shake my head in response. “No! I mean, I’m not part of this… fantasy! This isn’t your mind talking back at you, this is me talking, the real me!”

Even as I persisted, I could see his mind having difficulty grasping this new information; he moved closer to me, putting his hand on my chest. “Stuart… could it really be you? But… you’re not here, you’re back on Earth. I got taken here and… I left you behind.”

“Alex… I’m here. I don’t know how and I don’t even really know why yet… but, I’m stuck here now, just like you. Only I’m… something like fifty years in the future compared to when your stasis started. The world’s gone to hell out here, my friend.”

That revelation did something, the conjuration of my friend turning crestfallen and morose. “The dreamscape has grown unstable; if you really are here… this is not a good sign.”

“Probably not. But, I know that you’re planning something,” I continued, “I don’t know what it is exactly, but I know that you’re going to try to fix a mistake that you think you’re responsible for; and, that’s fine. I don’t need to know anything; I know enough to leave you well alone to do… whatever it is that you’re planning to do. But… God fucking dammit!” I exclaimed as I punched the air around me impotently. “This is the closest I’ve come to you and you won’t even remember this conversation when you wake up!”

Neither of us said a word, but Ace decided to break the silence as he sidled up alongside me and addressed Alex directly. “Sorry about that, he’s had a rough month here,” he said, prompting Alex to, for the first time, properly take notice of Ace as he turned around to regard him with a furrowed brow, followed by him crouching down to inspect the stallion more closely.

“Well aren’t you adorable?” he said, reaching out to cup Ace’s cheek and give it a gentle stroke, much to Ace’s simultaneous enjoyment and chagrin. “But, why are you here with him? If every pony could join my dreams, I'd be seeing a lot more of them.”

“This is why,” I said, pulling out the amulet from behind my shirt, the artifact making itself apparent even in the dreaming world. “We found this, and something happened when we got close to it. We can’t be more than a few meters from it before we get weaker, and it’s bound us together at the mental level, too; thoughts, dreams, memories… all of them are shared with each other.” I mentioned, before putting it back where it was.

“That’s… the Amulet of Truth!” He said, standing y
up. “It went missing about a year ago; where the fuck did you find it?” he queried of me, arms crossed.

“A tomb to the north. Final resting place of somepony called Prince Blueblood, apparently a pony of some minor renown.”

That got a hearty chuckle from Alex. “The only renown he enjoyed was being an object of ridicule. So, who’s this cute little guy, Stuart? I certainly don’t remember him.”

“There’s no way that you would know who this little guy is… probably because he wasn’t alive when you were last walking around. Alex Kintobor, please allow me to introduce you to Aerial Ace. He’s my…” I stopped as the next words failed to land in my mind. Boyfriend? Lover? What’s the right term to describe what we are?

“I’m his coltfriend,” Ace said with an eye roll “And you can call me ‘Ace’. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, sir,” he interjected, extending a hoof toward Alex that he then bent over to accept.

“He thought I was you when we first met. He helped rescue me from my captors, thinking that you had returned,” I said, followed by a sharp exhale that Ace immediately filled the gap of.

“He got tortured on his first day here, too,” the stallion confirmed, which changed Alex's demeanor for the worse.

“What the fuck did he just say about you being tortured?!” he sternly asked as he pointed a finger at me.

I stopped for a moment as the painful memories of that day flooded back. “My captors thought I was you. I paid the price that day for a mistaken identity, from a pony that blamed you for unicorns losing their magic.”

Alex's brow furrowed and he sighed with a heavy exhale. “Well… she's right. Even in stasis, I still seem to cause suffering.”

“No!” I responded with, rather forcefully, “It's… fine; I've made my peace with it. In part, due to this little guy…” I said as I leaned over and gave the stallion’s mane a tussle. “Needless to say, everypony was disappointed when they learned that I wasn’t you. But, this guy right here… he seems to be enamored with me, for some reason,” I said with mock disapproval as Ace smugly grinned in retort.

Alex nodded before smiling widely, giving me a big bear hug that lasted for several moments until he pulled back. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear that you’ve found someone. If you really are here… holy shit. I’m so, so sorry you’re living in the… well, the aftermath of what happened; If you really are in Equestria… You’ve got some tough times ahead, my friend.”

“Tougher times than you know, mí amigo,” returning the salutation with one in Alex's mother tongue, “The land is dying, Alex,” I added, this new information causing a sea change in Alex’s demeanor.

“It’s… dying?” He said slowly, looking up directly at me, “Explain!” he demanded, in a manner consistent with this being completely new information to him.

“I, uh…” I scrambled, trying to put my thoughts in order, “... Harvests are dwindling. No matter what the ponies try, their crop yields are getting smaller. If I… if we don’t do something, you won’t have much of a world to come back to.”

Alex suddenly turned away from us, pacing up and down the dirt path we mutually shared for a few moments, his hands animating silently as they highlighted his mind in deep thought before he turned his attention back to me.

“A pony called Sunburst once told us that this might happen. Twilight overruled him, judging the risk as far too small to matter… Fuck! You need to fix this!” he pointedly asserted, my arms going wide for a moment.

“Yeah, but how?” I asked him, seriously stumped for answers as Alex put his hands in his pockets.

“Are you familiar with something called Harmony? As in… an actual creature called Harmony?”

“Um, yeah. I got a crash course from Celestia and Luna on how she works. Bit of an eye-opener… in the most horrifying kind of way,” I shuddered.

He smiled and chuckled to himself. “They’re both with you, right now?” to which I nodded. “Well, I hope that they’re well. They were a rock for Twilight and me; make use of them, their knowledge could be invaluable to you. Anyway, Harmony…” he trailed off as he walked away before coming back, “Go ask Harmony how to repair the land. If those two sisters don’t know what to do, Harmony is probably going to be your… our only hope.”

His concentration was broken by a chuckle as he again looked down at my four-legged friend. “Ace, wasn’t it? Your name reminds me of something… Stuart, do you remember when you took me to that karaoke bar in… where was it again?”

“Uh… that was in Soho! Quite how I got that past the approval board at the university, I’ll never know. Why, what does that… Oh!” I shouted as the memory clicked. “Deep in the blackened void of space…” I began to lightly sing, moving my arms in memory of when we sang that song together.

“... There flies many of an Ace,” he countered as we both momentarily looked down at the pegasus with a smile shared between the two of us.

“The dark abyss, it calls us forth…” I continued as my hands continued to move to the imaginary beat.

“... To fight on another day,” he finished, as I pointed finger guns at him for our joint successful recollection of that particular song.

“Yeah, we fuckin’ trounced the other team with that performance. So, yeah… I’ll fight on. Not that I have much of a choice… what is this place, anyway? Why would you be dreaming of this dirt road?” I asked him, holding a hand up and moving it against our immediate scenery.

“This? I think it’s the first time I did the Running of the Leaves, an old earth pony tradition to welcome in the autumn season. I think I…” he stopped, clutching his head suddenly with a hand as something overcame me, too, a booming voice echoing from all around us.

“Both of my vessels, gathered here together? What luck…”

“It can’t possibly mean…” Alex said as he shot me a look of disbelief. “The Nightmare has only targeted Empyrians like me before!”

“Well, it seems to be chasing after me! I had to fight it off once before!”

“And you will have to do so again!”

The world got darker around us as twilight descended suddenly in the skies, an apparition of twinkling lights bound in a dark, violet haze swirled and coalesced in front of us, taking the ethereal form of an alicorn pony before us both. A bright light shone from where Alex was standing, causing me to look over as one of his hands now sported a metal gauntlet, his body appearing to recover from whatever had overcome him.

“One of the benefits of lucid dreaming; I can conjure whatever the fuck I want. If you’d like, I can conjure one for you, too,” he offered, but I shook my head, dispelling with it the last of the mental pain from the Nightmare’s earlier arrival.

“No thanks… I don’t need one to cast magic.”

I wondered if a summon was going to work in the dream world, but I felt like I had no choice but to try. Extending my hands, I burned the needed summoning circle I’d remembered from the tome’s final chapter into the ground below me, causing both Ace and Alex to take several steps back.

“How the fuck are you doing that?” asked my human friend with a mix of wonder and concern.

“Long story,” I said, finishing off the summoning circle’s runes.

“You can wield magic?! And not only that but summon magic?! That’s… impossible!” he shouted at me with incredulity. “Leaving aside how it's even possible… Do you have the slightest idea how dangerous that branch of magic is? It could kill you!”

“Hey!” I returned with equal volume, snapping my head and pointing a finger at him, “If you have any better ideas on how to fight this thing, I’m all ears!”

Alex smirked, turning to look at Ace. “Hey, Ace! Try seeing if you can fly here!”

Doing as he was bid, the pegasus flapped his wings unsteadily, no doubt drawing on his tribe’s innate inner knowledge as he achieved lift after a short delay to his significant enthusiasm. “It’s working! Haha, I‘m actually flying! This feels awesome!”

“I take it that you have an idea on how to best use my pegasus, then?” I asked Alex, as he raised his gauntleted hand.

“Reflecto!” he shouted before pointing his gauntlet at Ace; the stallion was soon momentarily covered in a green orb of magic that faded almost as soon as it appeared. “Now she can’t hit you with magic. Go and do some hit-and-run attacks to try to keep it off-balance!” he commanded, Ace flying off as soon as I nodded in approval; the creature immediately seemed to notice the pony taking flight from the ground as Ace appeared to have successfully drawn its attention away from Alex and me.

“Reflecto, really? Do all of your spell names sound so… grandiose?”

“Do yours not?”

“Well, how does this one sound? Levenesis!” I shouted, picking up a nearby rock in my telekinetic grasp and firing it at the shadowy apparition while Ace soared in the sky, ready to begin as instructed. The rock bounced off of a shield surrounding the entity as it kept its focus on the stallion, a shrill shriek filling the air and betraying the effectiveness of my strike.

“It’s vulnerable! Ace, do your thing!” I shouted up at the heavens as the pegasus swooped in low. The Nightmare struck him with a bolt of lightning that appeared to ricochet off of the shield that Alex had placed on him; the spell bounced back on itself to hit the entity as it screamed in a fiery mix of anger and pain while Ace zipped away into the darkened skies.

“Levenesis, huh? And you call my spell names grandiose…”

“It’s functional! Anyway, here’s another: Frostfire!” I shouted as I extended my hands outward, willing the combined forces of fire and ice directly at the Nightmare. The spells struck the creature simultaneously, encasing its lower half in ice while engulfing its upper half in a blazing inferno, with several panicky and angry noises now coming from it. “Okay, that’s a bit more powerful than I can normally pull off,” I observed, folding my arms.

“Nice moves. Let me show you mine, though…” he said, raising his gauntleted hand into the air before aiming it at the Nightmare as Ace came in for a landing next to us. “Fulgur Maxima!” he shouted at the top of his lungs; an all-exposing bolt of lightning came down from the heavens to strike the creature’s head directly, briefly illuminating everything around us as the spell extinguished the flames and shattered its icy prison, replacing both maladies with a new one of arcing electricity across its spectral body that caused it to writhe and contort in audible anguish. Yet, the creature refused to yield.

“That spell’s shocking, I’ll tell you that,” I admired as I looked down at the summoning circle I’d assembled earlier. “We need to finish it off, now. If you have no other ideas, I’m going to perform a summon.”

“Not alone you fucking won’t,” Alex said, lifting up his arm to offer his gauntlet to me. “Grab hold of it.”

Doing as I was told, I put my hand on its cold, metallic shell as my other hand activated the runes beneath us. “They say that a summon is a prayer… I think I have the perfect recipient for it.”

Holding onto the gauntlet tightly, a warmth started to spread outward from it and into my body as my other hand performed the summon. “Answer is in our hour of need, I beseech you, listen to my heed. May ice and diamonds shower your presence; now, appear before us with our reverence, Shiva the Ice Queen!”

My knees threatened to give out as a surge of magic left my free land that I somehow managed to aim into the sky, the darkness of twilight immediately giving way to a shimmering white aura that formed amongst the clouds and descended to ground level. A swirling mass of snow, ice crystals, and mist coalesced in front of us to take the form of a large, Celestia-sized alicorn, with a fur of stunning white that connected to a pair of translucent blue wings that, if they hadn’t moved, I would have guessed were made of the purest solid ice. Its tail was a mix of blue and lavender, twinkling as if it were filled with ice crystals as they shimmered in the creature's own light.

“Buck me!” came a sudden shout from Ace as we all looked on.

“Holy shit,” I uttered, transfixed by the sight in front of me. “I summoned that, huh?”

“Holy shit, indeed. Yeah, you did; nice choice of Aeon, by the way,” he complimented as I steadied myself, keeping my hand firmly grasping one of the gauntlet’s digits.

“Thank you for answering my call, Shiva. Now, finish off this despicable creature with your Diamond Dust attack!” I shouted, stretching an opened palm toward the being I'd just summoned.

The Nightmare was still immobilized from the arcing electricity that danced across its translucent body, leaving it utterly defenseless against the onslaught that was about to be unleashed as more and more warmth spread from the gauntlet and across to my other hand, almost feeling like someone had lit a bonfire within my chest as a searing pain rippled across my body.

At my command, the battlefield’s newest entrant lit its horn as magic surged from my free hand toward it, the creature's spell causing a sudden localized blizzard to sweep in and utterly consume the malevolent entity, soon freezing it within a pillar of pure crystal ice. Then, the summoned creature reared itself onto its hind legs and brought together its front hooves with a sharp clack, causing the pillar to shatter and the malevolent creature to give one final cry of pain as it fell to the ground, the inky blackness of its ethereal form dissolving before our eyes.

After it went back onto all four hooves, the remaining alicorn turned to me and bowed, before disappearing in a snowstorm that carried it off into the distance. The fire within my chest died down but didn't entirely subside as I took my hand off the gauntlet and sat down harshly on the ground.

“Ow.”

I put a hand on my head while the other rubbed my chest. “Feels like my chest’s in a vice,” I complained as Ace came over to me to sit beside me while Alex crouched down.

“Told you; Even here, it's a dangerous form of magic. Luckily for you, my magical endurance is much, much higher than yours, even here; I took the brunt of the magic needed for that summon, but if you do that in the real world, you won't survive.”

I nodded with a grunt, shakily getting back up on my feet as Alex followed suit. “‘Both vessels’ it said… Did the Nightmare target you, too?” I asked.

“Did and still does, it seems,” he observed with an air of lamentation about his words. “Once it chooses you as a prize, you'll spend your whole life running from it… Just like I have since I got here. But, why is it chasing after you, I wonder?”

I crossed my arms as my gaze alternated between Ace and Alex. “I don’t know. I know why it wants you, Empyrean… But, maybe it’s seen another human and it’s just hedging its bets.”

Alex laughed as he shook his head. “The alicorn sisters really have told you a lot. Well, if it thinks that you will be an Empyrean… Words alone can’t explain how much danger you’re in. To think Starlight convinced me to do those memory crystals… did she foresee something that she couldn’t tell me, I wonder?”

I was about to point out that I’d found some of them when parts of the world started to flicker, trees and flora alike phasing in and out of view like they, too, were ethereal in nature.

“This instance within the dreamscape is breaking down. We've got only a few minutes, at best before we get catapulted away,” Alex confirmed as he turned to my pegasus companion. “Look after him, Ace. He'll lead you to great things, I know it,” he said as he also leaned in to give the stallion's mane a tussle of his own before turning his attention to me.

“And you?” He pointed a finger at me once more. “Especially after seeing you in action here… know that I'm proud of you. It's a shame that you can't join me in the future; I always intended to fix my mistake alone, but… if you were to show up, I think I'd be grateful for the extra pair of hands.”

“Alex… I will find you. I might be a little late to the party you're throwing, but I will find my way there to join you… eventually, even if you never remember this conversation.”

“Don't worry, I'll make sure that he does,” Added Ace to Alex before looking up at me. “If I can tag along, that is.”

I chuckled and reached down to pick up the pegasus, who only feigned expressions of dissatisfaction.

“Only if everypony can tag along. I'm not leaving any of you behind if I can help it.”

The very ground beneath us started to flicker and fade, prompting me that we had only mere seconds left.

“Take care of yourself, Alex! Give the future hell for me!”, a verbal goodbye that was responded to only by a salute from the other human before I fell, and the world went black.

When I came to, I tried to steady myself for a descent that never arrived by gripping hold of the mattress before my faculties returned to me. Turning around on the bed and rubbing my eyes, I spotted Ace lying peacefully at my side, his head drooling on the plush pillow as he lightly snored.

Of course, my new apparent status of coltfriend warranted a privilege enjoyed by many; the right to rudely awaken my partner as he slept, a right I then exercised by pressing on his snout with a finger, the momentary interruption of his breathing lifting him out of his slumber and stirring him awake. He, like I, instinctively reached out for something to hold onto, finding a pillow that he squeezed for a few moments until his eyes opened and caught sight of my still-naked body on the bed.

“Please tell me that I wasn't the only one here who had that dream last night…” I asked Ace as he groggily sat up and wiped the sleep from his eyes.

“That… was a dream? It felt so real, though….” He said, lazily scooting over to lay closer to me. “That Aeon was so pretty. Where'd the name ‘Shiva’ come from, anyway?”

“Well,” I began, “I took Alex to a museum once. There was an exhibition of many artifacts from a particular region of the world that I escorted him around; ‘Shiva’ is the name of one of the three main deities for the culture those artifacts represented. In fact…”

“Oh!”

I was interrupted by a muffled, yet very audible sound that didn't come from either of us. It piqued my curiosity enough for me to step out of bed and approach one of the walls.

“What was…” was all Ace managed before I briefly turned to him and put a finger to my lips with a low ‘Shhhh’ sound traveling between us before I turned my attention back to the matter at hand.

“Yes!”

I put my ear to the wall and got a lot more than I bargained for, with much lower sounds of heavy breathing, creaking, and the odd very muffled moan or two coming through the drywall. Not really knowing how to process that, I slowly returned to lie on my side of the bed. “It seems that we're not the only ones in a good mood this morning,” I noted with a smile as I picked up Ace and deposited him in my lap as I sat back up again with not even a huff of disapproval.

“I think somepony is overdue a little gift,” I whispered as I put my hand on the stallion’s barrel; that move, coupled with a mental reinforcement of what was about to happen instantly caused his wings to pomf out from his sides, causing me to chuckle as I pulled him close.

“A certain pent-up little pegasus…” I continued, teasing Ace with a little nibble of one of his ears, causing him to moan softly as his wings lowered, with another cry of ‘Buck!’ then traveling through the wall to us.

I was about to move my hand lower and down his undercarriage when a thought struck me.

This is going to be his first time. I have a duty to make it special for him.

I knew what I had to do, but that didn't mean I couldn't have some fun in the meantime as I finally brought my hand to rest over his genitals; the pegasus was already quite aroused, and his erection, while not at full mast, was well on its way there as my hand gripped his shaft, giving it a gentle squeeze as the warm rod pulsed within my grasp. I held him for a few more moments like that, feeling his dick stiffening and steadily pushing my grip as it grew in my hand.

Once I felt like he’d run out of length, I slowly started to rub it as a hand moved up and down its smooth and taut surface, stopping momentarily to slip the head between my grip and smear my palm with his liquid arousal. Ace, meanwhile, offered no words to my ministrations, only hitched breathing and the occasional moan when I hit a particularly sensitive spot.

Suitably prepared, I spun the pegasus around and put my arms behind him, immediately slipping his moist erection past my lips as my own no doubt made itself known to Ace down below as it poked his fur and ached for some attention of its own, my flesh twitching as yet more lewd sounds came from the bedroom next to ours.

The stallion’s taste flooded across my tongue as the salty moisture mingled with my tastebuds, every inch of the stallion’s tip now being caressed by me as little drips of precum started to form, each one eagerly lapped up by me before I had to remind myself that, while I wanted him to blow, I didn’t want him to blow just yet.

Extricating myself from him with a wet plop, I put him to one side of me and got on my knees, slapping one of my buttocks with a hand gently. “I think it’s time you put that thing to use,” I said, an invitation he didn’t need any convincing to accept as he reared himself on his hind legs, placing his front hooves on my lower back as he attempted to steady himself in his new position. “Don’t worry about being gentle, either; I’ve had my fair share of backdoor bandits back there,” I reassured as Ace inched himself forward, and I soon found his tapered tip awkwardly stabbing against my buttocks.

After a further stab and missing the mark, I raised myself to my knees and guided his erection with my hand to its proper destination before getting back down on all fours. “Now, scoot closer to me and the rest will take care of itself.”

Following my instructions, he put his hooves on either side of me and pushed his hips toward mine. “Urgh, fuck. It’s fine, keep going,” I uttered through gritted teeth as my back passage adjusted to the new sensations as Ace’s penis burrowed within me, the hot and thick rod doing its best to stretch me open as he got progressively closer. With a soft grunt and an inversely harsh one from me, the pegasus hilted himself and came to a halt as he practically rested on top of me.

“How you doin’ back there, buddy?” I asked him, getting a slow nod from him in return.

“I’m f-fine. You’re so… warm in there,” he responded while he wriggled about in there, my tight pucker giving him a few squeezes for good measure.

“You’ve got this. Just… push it in and out,” mentally bracing myself for the stallion to shift gears as he started to gyrate his hips slowly, rewarding myself by meeting his hips with a push back, allowing his pointed tip to stab me in juuuust the right place. “Fuck!” I said with a raised voice, wondering if that expletive had crossed the walls into the other bedroom, a thought interrupted by Ace as he started to practical piston himself into me, the bed starting to noticeably creak as he slammed his body forward, his scrotum slapping against mine each time he thrusted forward.

“Told ya y-grugh!-got this!” as I held his head against me with a free hand, the stallion was already getting breathless as he made up for his inexperience with remarkable enthusiasm. Being a newbie to this, his endurance had limits, a wall that the pegasus was about to smack into as his breathing became shallower and his thrusting started becoming irregular.

With an almighty groan, he slumped against me with his full body weight and pressed himself against me as deep as he'd go, soon followed by a familiar, warm feeling as he unleashed himself in my backside.

“See? I knew you had it in you,” I complimented as the stallion, still spurting within me, took deep recovery breaths and he rested his body atop mine, still weakly thrusting into me to drive his seed as deep as he could.

As his release started to finally taper off, rivulets of fluid ran down my legs that cooled and pooled onto the fabric of the bedsheet, the earlier towels having been displaced during the night.

“That was…” was all poor Ace could manage as his senses returned to him while my body very much felt him softening up as he removed himself from me, a wet shlick greeting us both while a low groan left my lips as he withdrew, now replaced by a feeling of equal parts emptiness and warm, gooey sloshing.

After giving his cheek a kiss, he leaned down and noticed something. “Hey, you didn’t finish…” he pointed out as he crouched and sniffed at my aching erection.

“Yeah, in real life, having an orgasm together is rare. Fancy lending a hoof with mine?” I asked, Ace then immediately darted forward to envelop my length in his mouth, causing a particularly loud moan this time to escape my mouth as Ace used his to great effect, reminding me of the first time we'd done this, only now we were doing it with zero pressure.

Using a free hand, I coaxed him to move as I swung around, now able to use the headboard for leverage as I looked down at him bobbing his head on my cock.

“Just remain still for a moment,” I asked as I started to move my hips toward the pegasus as he welcomed me further into his mouth and down his throat. In spite of my thrusting, Ace kept still, willingly offering himself as a receptacle for my frustrations.

Keeping up with my movements, his tongue slathered over every inch of me as I upped the tempo of my thrusts. “Yeah, that's it! Good boy!” I praised as my assault into his mouth continued while I continued to clench my anus to hold the worst of Ace's seed in there.

I wasn't far from my orgasm, taking my hands off the headboard to instead grip the stallion’s head directly, pushing and pulling him as my strokes threatened to overtake me. “Get ready, hon,” I warned before I reflexively scrunched my eyes and pulled Ace all the way down onto my dick, letting out a loud, primal “Fuuuuuuuck!” as I unleashed several day's worth of abstinence down the pegasus’ throat as he hungrily devoured every drop I had to give.

I felt him pull back a bit, offering no resistance to the adjustment as I felt his tongue continue to lick and caress the head of my rod, even as it continued to spray into his mouth; the sounds of loud swallowing and heavy breathing filled the room as cold trickles of fluid flowed down my thighs from my leaky backside.

Opening my eyes again, I looked down and saw that he was looking up at me with the happiest eyes I'd ever seen a pony wear, even now continuing to nurse me for the last few dribbles of semen I had to offer as my hands cupped his cheeks and softly caressed his fur.

Gently lifting him off me, I lifted him up and pinned him against the headboard, diving in to join our lips together as I tasted the last remnants of my cum in his mouth and on his tongue while sheath and shaft mutually rubbed against one another.

Eventually, we both came up for air with the pegasus leaning in to breathlessly whisper into my ear, “P-Put it inside me…” as his hoof stroked my softening length.

“Are you sure?” I whispered back, getting a silent nod in confirmation as we looked into each other's eyes, feeling a surge of arousal flow into me upon hearing the sexiest four words known to man. Lowering my hands, I firmly asked him to turn around without uttering a word, the stallion turning his back to me and flagging his tail as his virgin tailhole came into view.

Feeling adventurous, I lowered my head and traced my tongue across his ballsack before going higher to run it across his ponut, the taut ring of muscle immediately contracting as my tongue traced lazy circles around its circumference.

“Ohmygoshohmygosh, that feels so weird!” He loudly commented in a heightened voice as I ever-so-slightly pushed the tip of my tongue into its hole, tasting nothing beyond sweat and musk due to the rather thorough cleaning I gave it earlier.

Reaching a hand around to grip his steadily hardening sheath, I finished up by giving his puckered hole a kiss as I raised myself up and pressed the tip of my renewed erection against his freshly lubricated backside.

“Just tell me if this gets too much for you, okay?” I stressed, getting a short ‘Mmm’ in reply as I pushed myself into him. He wasn't as warm as Flame, but he was much tighter, a fact demonstrated by him as he relentlessly squeezed my cock as it slipped within him. “Just relax a bit down there, buddy,” I advised as I stopped and gave him some time to get used to me inside him.

After a few moments, I could feel the vice-like grip around me diminishing, so I pressed myself further into him until our hips softly collided; I then started to use my fist to give him a simultaneous handjob as copious amounts of fluid leaked from its tapered tip, allowing me to practically soak his shaft as he got to experience first-hoof one of the perks of having hands.

“That f-feels so g-good…” he uttered as I continued to rub his length while slowly withdrawing from his rear until only the head remained, letting his tight pucker twist and flex around it before I sank it deep within him again, causing a deep, satisfied moan to saturate the room as I timed my hand to rub along his tip at the very apex of my thrust into him.

“Such a good boy… you're doing well, bud,” I again praised, pressing the stallion against the wooden board as I leaned in to gently nibble one of his ears; I then applied just a little bit of pressure as I withdrew from him once more before clamping down with my teeth on an ear, using a bit more force to nip at it to coincide with another deep press against his insides, aided by both of my hands pulling his rump as far onto me as it'd go. This seemed to encourage a much louder moan from the pegasus to bathe the room and probably bleed over into the next.

The room next door had grown silent; either that, or we'd been loud enough to drown them out. Regardless, I now was buried balls-deep within my favorite pegasus, his relentless squeezing encouraging me to keep myself in my current position as I gave some short, sharp stabs against his innermost depths, making Ace release some brief, high-pitched squeaks in response.

Despite the stallion's behind doing all it could to keep me contained, I put a concerted effort into breaking past his resistance; I wasn't sure how comparable our respective strengths were, but I was determined to not be found wanting in that arena. After a few attempts to dislodge myself, I finally found my figurative footing and started a steady rhythm of repeatedly thrusting myself inside his rear, figuring that speed might keep his muscles off-balance and keep the way open for me to spread his inner walls deeper.

Ace's hooves, hooked over the rim of the headboard, were now trying to grab on with renewed purpose as our rodeo commenced, our hips smacking together as flesh met fur, our shared space now being filled with the visceral sounds of lovemaking as the pony under me whinnied against my huffs and grunts.

“F-Finish in me,” he commanded me in between shallow breaths, a request I had every intention of granting as my movements down below became a blur, my fingernails practically digging into his fur as I roughly rode him on the journey of our mutual enjoyment.

“Ace, I'm…”

As the bed now started to noticeably creak, my peak hit me with barely any time to sound a warning to my partner; pinning him properly this time, my body seized up while I held my breath and gritted my teeth as I felt myself cum hard, unloading a torrent of spunk into my coltfriend, his insides harshly clamping down on me as my warm goo splashed within his tight embrace.

With my body preventing the pegasus from moving, I had enough presence of mind to return a hand to his obviously aching erection as I vigorously rubbed along its length while Ace offered short grunts of his own at the dual assault on his senses.

His relative inexperience showed itself once more as my hand easily coaxed another orgasm from him. “Oh, buck!” He loudly exclaimed as I felt him spray in my hand; looking down, I saw a veritable fountain of fluids splashing against the headboard and pillow as I aimed his dick upwards while I continued to unload inside him, his inner depths milking me for every drip and drizzle possible.

“Yeah, t-that’s it, let it all out,” I whispered as our bodies collectively discharged their second loads of the morning, my hand long since soaked in with his seed as his spurts started to die down, my hand continuing to massage his erection even as his leaking ceased.

Neither of us wanted to move, it seemed, although a coldness from below told me that we probably should, if only to clean off.

“Shower?” I softly suggested as the stallion nodded.

“Shower.”

Extricating myself from him, I leaned over to grab the amulet before crawling over to hop off the bed, quickly entering the bathroom to turn the light on and get the water stream started as Ace followed me just as quickly.

“I hope they won't be too mad at us,” I remarked, directing my voice to him. “There's no way to hide those kinds of stains,” I noted as Ace briefly looked behind him at the disaster we'd just unleashed.

“Fun, though,” he mentioned as he walked over to lap at the hand that less than five minutes ago had been jacking him off.

“How do you like how you taste?” I asked as he thought for a moment.

“Hmm… I prefer yours,” he said with a grin as he hopped into the wooden tub with a happy spring in his step, dousing his head in the water stream before turning around to soak his rear. Meanwhile, I squatted down to make use of the toilet recessed into the floor. “Why're you crouching like that?” to which I shot back with a piercing glance.

“Well, it ain't comin’ out any other way…”

—

After getting suitably cleaned up, we both stripped the bed to at least make everything we'd defiled easier to wash; the headboard and mattress might some attention, but I'd help in any way I could with them should I need to.

Now fully dressed again and with Oathkeeper firmly sheathed at my side, I finally summoned the courage to open the bedroom door, escaping to the landing as my companion followed. The air was filled with aromas that made me think I was at a bed and breakfast, making my mouth salivate as my stomach reminded me that I was very, very hungry.

After a brief mutual nod, we headed down the stairs to find the two sisters occupying a sofa each as they both looked up at us.

“Good morning, sleepyheads. How was your rest?” Asked Celestia, who seemed to be in an exceptionally bubbly mood. Both sets of eyes remained fixed on us as I took an unoccupied seat with Ace hopping up to lie down on me.

“Before we get to that… we might've turned the bed into a Jackson Pollock painting,” I explained, causing the older sister to chuckle.

“I don't know what that is, but I heard enough to guess,” a light blush overcoming her features.

“Yes, well,” I began, “We heard you,” a revelation that caused Luna to blush so hard that it practically shined through her dark coat.

“Our… apologies,” the former Princess of the Night offered, “I trust that you are not offended?”

I shook my head as Celestia continued. “After a few centuries of living… well, things start getting a little boring.”

That caused me to laugh to myself as I patted Ace's rump. “You remind me of someone else I knew who told me their life journey.”

All eyes were now on me as I cleared my throat. “First, he started off with one woman… or, mare, if it were here. Then, he gets to two women, followed by two women with toys, and then to two women with toys while he watches. Then he asks to watch his best friend nail his wife, moving on to them both double-teaming his best friend's wife. Then, they nail each other's wives, before watching their wives nail each other while they then watched.”

The princesses each took a sip of their tea as I continued. “Eventually, he found himself canvassing the local hotels looking for a room with a glass coffee table so that he could be under it while a prostitute he hired took a shit on the glass.”

Both of them looked at me with mouths agape, before Luna cleared her throat.

“You, uh, certainly kept interesting company,” she said, giving their own coffee table a side glance that she was probably hoping I wouldn’t notice.

“Just saying that I… understand the effect age has on what, for many, are taboo subjects. I’m not judging… I like to think of myself as open-minded… perhaps a little too open-minded sometimes.”

Ace then batted me with his tail from his prone position. “Tell ‘em about that summon!” he said with a grin, looking back at me as both of the princesses darted both of their gazes toward me.

“What summon?” came from Celestia as Luna narrowed her eyes.

“I am… now reasonably sure that Alex is alive. Ace and I saw him in our dreams last night; this infernal necklace is binding us together there as well.” Pointing at it, I exhaled. “The Nightmare found us. We battled it and won, but it took an Aeon-level summon for us to defeat it… a summon that I called forth, with Alex’s help.”

Luna immediately sprang from her seat, pointing a hoof at me as a voice boomed from her mouth. “This has gone on long enough! You are ill-equipped to deal with the dangers of that infernal curse! Forthwith, I demand that you undertake training to control that power, to be instructed by me! Is that understood, human?”

I sank into my seat, looking at the other alicorn as I naively expected her to call off her sister’s oral assault.

“Alas, while her use of the Royal Canterlot Voice was… uncalled for, she has a point.”

Feeling like the time I was scolded by the headmaster in front of the entire school, it took me a few moments to fish myself out of that mental rut with even Ace being made to feel small.

“... You present a compelling argument, your ladyship… mareship… whatever. When do you propose we start?”

Luna merely pointed toward the front door. “You have had your fun this morning. The time for thy instruction is nigh. Perhaps you had best retrieve your sword while we retrieve the summoning gem.”

The plan sounded good in my head; although I was unsure what exactly she meant by ‘training’; her mention of Oathkeeper, however, was enough to at least hint to me that there was going to be combat involved.

“By your command,” I addressed with a salute. “Ace, let’s go.”

Both of us made our way outside, the morning breeze greeting us as we both looked at each other and nodded, thereafter briskly walking in the direction of our previous accommodations. A feeling of contentment filled my mind, both from myself and my pegasi companion, a feeling that was disturbed by a mechanical sound from their air.

As both of us instinctively looked up, the sight of a plane came into view, the craft taking a rather conservative approach for a landing back to the village as we both followed it in hot pursuit, catching up only when it was in the final stages of touching down, the wheels kicking up dirt and grass as it landed in the same open field they’d originally departed from.

Breaking out into a sprint, we immediately started to close on the vehicle as it slowed down, its engines dying as the propeller started to slow. Both of its occupants waved to us as we came into view, the unmistakable body of Stopper hopping out of the plane before it came to a complete stop, immediately doing an awkward three-legged run toward us with something clutched within the grip of her occupied hoof.

As we caught up with each other, she unfurled her hoof and offered a device to me. “Take it,” she instructed as my hands immediately reached out to take it into my grasp. The form was unmistakably that of the handgun I’d shown Crush to provide to his apprentices, but it was exceptionally well-crafted; it had a metallic shell, polished to a mirror shine with two red crystals contained within its barrel. Those were a surprise to me, having already planned to use blue-aspected crystals. The handgrip had the pulsating gem I knew about socketed within it, while the mechanism at the rear had the pointed tip of one of those blue gems, designed in such a way that its flat surface would impact against the smooth surface of the first crystal in the barrel.

“Where’d you get the red crystals from? I don’t remember us having any of those,” I said as I stroked my beard.

“After you left, we scoured the camp for anything else we could find that was magical and organized them in the tower. Found a few things of note, those two crystals included. Scar was apparently keeping them in reserve for something.”

“Nice of her to only just now tell us, but better late than never, I suppose,” I turned away from everypony and held the weapon up against an imaginary point in the distance, feeling like a badass for a very brief moment.

“I think I need to break this bad boy in. Did you bring anything else with you?” I asked as I turned my head back toward her.

“Come have a look,” she offered as Jet Stream joined us; all four of us then walked to the Tornado as she invited me to peer inside the rear compartment, seeing that she'd managed to pack in the three magical tomes, plus a metal shield.

“You can thank the apprentices for that shield; They said that it’s been reinforced, and that it'll pair well with that pistol.”

I fished out the aforementioned shield and admired the long diamond-shaped off-hander, my eyes immediately recognizing the large “Cool S” of my sigil imprinted on its surface.

“... I need to thank them properly when I get back. I'll take these tomes with me,” grabbing them after placing the pistol in one of my hoodie's pockets and donning the shield on my wrist. “Sorry to be a bother, Stopper, but could you grab my backpack from my room at the inn and bring it to the House of the Two Pony Sisters? I need to head back there and ask them if they wouldn't mind holding onto these for a bit.”

“It’s no bother. I'll return with it soon,” she said as she bounded off into the village.

“Jet, prepare this girl to fly again,” I asked him directly. “I want to be in the air with her this afternoon.”

The pegasus nodded. “You got it.”

Giving him a salute, Ace and I returned to the alicorn sisters with our new equipment in tow, Luna’s eyes going wide as she saw us approach.

“From whence did you get these?” She demanded, although not nearly as forceful as I felt that she wanted to.

“These were, uh, ‘liberated’ from another encampment. I've only read the first one so far.”

Placing them on the ground next to the front door, I retrieved my pistol from my pocket and brought up my new shield to pose with them, facing the gun away from all present as any marksman worth their salt should.

“These were a present from the blacksmith apprentices at the settlement. Look pretty good, don'tcha think?” I smiled as I felt the alicorn approach me from the side, scrutinizing the weapon with curious eyes as I pointed it into the distance.

“I have never seen such a thing. What manner of device is this, human?” she queried with an energy I’d rarely seen anypony here radiate.

Turning to look at her, I brought the pistol lower and adjusted the shield to fit better on my arm. “Find me a target and I’ll show you,” I offered, a proposition that the alicorn seemed to have already anticipated. Holding a gemstone in one of her forehooves, she pointed to a field some distance away from the house with her other one.

Seeing no choice but to follow her instruction, Ace and I were soon in the middle of a patch of smooth grassland, with Luna following but keeping some distance between us.

“I am about to bring forth a Gigas!” she barked, “I can dispel it, but I want to see how you tackle it first; Now, prepare yourself, thy little human!”

The stone seemed to respond to her wishes, and before I had time to ask why, a summoning circle formed below the mare, followed by a featureless ethereal materializing between us in a flash of magical fury, causing me to instinctively bring my shield up and raise my new weapon to the side of it, the barrel peeking just over the metal rim of the buckler.

“This is a summon that was specifically tailored to be a facsimile of Alexander!” the alicorn continued, a smug grin now adorning her face. “It learns every move used against it and it forces the opponent to drink deep from their training! Now, be unleashed, my Gigas!”

The creature, sporting a polearm of sorts, immediately came for me, and I fired off a single shot from the pistol directly at its chest. The gun’s barrel seemed to fire a wave of light directly at the summoned being, causing an impact that radiated a rippling wave of magical energy from it, making the construct pause in silent, seemingly deliberate thought.

Luna, meanwhile, narrowed her eyes at me as the impact from my weapon seemed to veil everything in silence. “A curious weapon. One wonders how potent it will remain. Now, attack again, my Gigas!”

The construct once more resumed its course toward me, and I fired off another shot from my new pistol in response, once again reverberating against the ethereal being as a shower of prismatic light radiated out from the impact site. This time, the construct didn't pause, slowing instead on its relentless path toward me.

I discharged yet another round, but the Gigas was now wholly unimpeded by its impact, in fact quickening its movement toward me. As it neared, I brought the shield up and struck whatever was approximating its head with a forceful impact, causing it to fall onto its back as I retreated further to give me additional space.

The alicorn, meanwhile, gave nothing away as she looked on dispassionately.

Sensing the Gigas was now adapting to my choice of weapon, I pocketed the weapon in my hoodie and unsheathed Oathkeeper, bringing both it and my shield to bare as I banged both against each other, letting off a deafening clang as metal struck metal.

It thundered after me, almost like it was pissed off at having been bested; it swung the polearm in a blur of movements until it made contact with my shield, toppling me over and making me land on my back as my hand lost its grip on Oathkeeper, my sword landing precious inches away.

The creature swung at me again, leaving me no choice but to use the shield still attached to my wrist to take the brunt of the impact, the sheer force of it rippling through me.

“Dismissed!” came a voice from the distance, the creature dissipating in ripples of light until naught of its form remained as the alicorn walked calmly over to me.

“You have been defeated, a rank amateur to your predecessor, it would seem,” she commented, with a hint of disdain in her voice.

Retrieving my weapon, I got up on my feet and dusted myself off, sheathing Oathkeeper once again and inspecting the shield, which had sustained only light scratches against the summoned Gigas.

“He had years to learn this stuff, while I am barely in my second month here! I can’t be expected to be an expert at this stuff already,” I explained, removing the shield from my arm as I spotted Stopper making her way over with the backpack I asked her to retrieve, eventually coming close enough to fling the bag at me.

“Thanks,” I said to the unicorn as I fished around in the backpack for the crystal we’d retrieved from the Tomb earlier as Celestia made her way out of the house, probably to see what all the noise was about.

“I need you to hold onto this,” I nodded to Celestia as I handed the crystal to her, the elder alicorn accepting it with a wing.

“What… is this?” she asked, looking at the crystal with a look of profound concentration.

“That is, apparently, the final resting place of somepony who called himself Prince Blueblood. He seems to have bound himself to some other dimensional plane, and uses that crystal to see into the world… not that he’s been able to do that since I took it, but still… it’s probably safer in your hooves for now.”

As she looked at the yellow crystal was curious eyes, a smirk traveled across her lips. “Always looking to cheat something, aren’t you, my dear nephew?”

Putting my hands on my hips, I chuckled incredulously. “He’s your nephew?! Bloody Hell… I suppose that explains the royal title…” to which Celestia raised a hoof in the air to counter.

“He's not a blood relation; I took him in from a young age, much like I did with Princess Cadance. Did you know that ‘Prince’ is actually his first name, and not a royal title?”

I snorted, shaking my head in disbelief. “Well then, I guess that makes him the pony formerly known as Prince,” as I looked over at Luna. “You honed Alex's skills into a potent weapon, didn't you?” I queried, to which she nodded curtly. “Then I ask you to help me accomplish the same.”

The former Lunar Princess sauntered over to me, possibly giving my body an appraisal. “If we do this, we go all in. You would endure many moons and many a sleepless night filled with rigorous training. Are you prepared for that, my little human?”

I looked down at Ace and Stopper before returning my gaze to Luna.

“With these two behind me… I can't fail.”