Author's Note

This contains M/F and M/M clop. You have been warned.

Chapter 04 - Unfamiliar Bedfellows

ACT II

As soon as the pain vanished, I found myself surrounded by white, like one of those fashionable dream sequences from TV. I had this odd sensation ripple through me, and I couldn't quite pin down what it was; it was as if I was floating in a sea of endless nothingness, but it felt like I was being dragged away in all directions. I turned in every direction I felt I was being dragged, and reached out with my hands expecting to find something, but I found no purchase on anything.

Time was meaningless to me here. In either an eternity or an instant, a figure appeared, clad in casual clothing that could only have come from Earth. Alex’s form materialized before me, and a moment later, our vista changed to a rural setting, one I distinctly recognized from my dream not long ago.

“Hello”, he spoke in his absolutely distinctive English-language voice twinged with Spanish overtones. “If you’re hearing me, well… you’ve just found yourself a mystery. I wanted to make a record of my thoughts in these crystals, in case something happens to me and I don’t make it out of this situation. I don’t know who you are, or what you are, but if you’ve found this, that means that you have access to magic. So, I’ve either succeeded in restoring magic to this world, or someone else has usurped that power.”

His arms were crossed, and his brow was furrowed in that trademark of his whenever he was displeased about something. “If you’ve acquired this power by unnatural means, I’m sorry to disappoint you: no magical secrets await you here. However, regardless of who you are, I must issue a warning to you.”

The mental recreation of Alex approached me, but I couldn’t tell if he was making eye contact with me or if it was just my imagination. “If you find this recording, and I’ve not yet returned to this world, I ask… no, I beg of you: Please leave me be. Don’t come looking for me. If you do, you risk undermining everything I’m trying to achieve. I know only one person I’d trust to try it, and if by some absolutely wild twist of fate he’s listening, I know that he would respect my wishes not to, in spite of that trust.”

Alex then sighed. “I wish I could record a message for everyone I knew, there is so much I want to say, to each of you… in fact, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ll leave a message for you all, each stored in a crystal.”

An image of the crystal I’d just grabbed came between us. “Each of the crystals, like this one, will vibrate at a specific thaumaturgic frequency that propagates over extreme distances. You already have access to magic, so this should be well within your ability. You can thank Starlight Glimmer for the spell matrix within the crystals for that idea to work. To other creatures, that frequency will be just like background noise… but if you can properly attune to it, you’ll be able to seek them out.”

Alex’s image turned to look over the view around us. “Beautiful, isn’t it? This is Ponyville, and I called this place home for many years. By the time you find this, it might be nothing more than a ruin. This…” he said, arms outstretched for a brief moment, “...is how I want to remember it. Maybe you’ll visit it someday. If you do… Please be respectful. Not much might be left of it, but it was home to many ponies… however, the place might be full of the souls of the dead by your time, in which case, if you do go, pay my respects for me; I only ask that you leave the place as you found it.”

The figure walked back a few paces. “I’m sorry that I disappeared. I had no control over it. I know that it must have left a void in all of your lives, and for that, I will feel guilty until the day I die.” The tone was one of someone far from happy about his situation. I hadn’t seen it often from Alex… but I recognized it when I heard it.

“But, I did carve out a life here… and I even found love for a time in this strange, strange land. I ask that you not be sad that I was taken from you, but instead remember the good times we had. Who knows? Maybe we’ll see each other again. And, if you’re as crazy as my old friend… crazy enough to want to go searching for these crystals… good hunting.”

I felt a force pulling back on me; but, before I could react, I was thrown back into the waking world, flailing where I lay as my senses returned to me with violent force. However, I wasn’t expecting to have ponies all around me, all visibly worried for some reason.

My eyes went around the room, and I spied Ace, Stopper, Flame, and Scar at my bedside. Ace and Flame were noticeably the more worried of the two, while Scar and Stopper were noticeably more reserved. That was until Stopper hit me over the head with a hoof.

“Has anypony ever told you that you’re a bucking idiot?” she barked, verbally laying into me.

I raised a finger in ineffective protest. “In my defense, nobody told me I wasn’t supposed to do that. It’s not like there are warning labels on anything here.”

Flame smiled. “It’s okay. She just wants to let you know that she cared and that she’s happy you’re alright,” she said, looking at Stopper with a barely concealed grin. Stopper just glared at her and stormed off, leaving the three of them alone with me.

“Well, I’m happy to know you all care. But, enough about that, why am I here?” I queried with the group, realizing that I was still tightly clutching the Mnemosyne Crystal from earlier as I brought it up to rest on my chest.

“I found you slumped in my chair. You’ve been in here for most of the night,” Scar mentioned. “You know that you ruined that chair, right? You soiled yourself while you were slumped in it, and you were still tightly grasping that damned crystal. We couldn’t even pry it from you, your grip was like a thousand pythons.”

My other hand instinctively felt its way down to my nethers, feeling the damp wetness of my shame. I winced, but deep down I knew that they understood that I couldn’t have helped it.

“What did you see?” Ace asked. I smiled, dropping the crystal onto me as I reached out to cup the pegasi’s chin, lightly running a finger across his cheek.

“I saw… Well, put it this way: I now have a quest to follow. See this crystal? It contains some of Alex’s personal thoughts, and there are more of them out there with messages for those who knew him. I… owe it to him to collect them. Not only to keep them away from others but also to preserve them for the future. Heck, maybe he even left me a message? Man, wouldn’t that be something?” I asked as a rhetorical question. I tried to get up, but Flame pushed me back down.

“You’ve just been through a nasty shock! You can’t possibly think about getting up!” she said, keeping a hoof pressed against me. Avoiding looking at her, I turned to Scar.

“I think my faculties are coming back to me… I believe you were going to talk about arrangements for me for Estrus?” I queried.

Scar just pointed a hoof. “Well, here's your volunteer. Isn't that right, Flame?” Flame blushed profusely under her fur.

“Um, y-yes… I-I volunteered.” She said, as her head now tried to avoid my gaze. Ace removed himself from my hand and went outside… I then remembered that he was supposed to be on duty this morning. I reached out to Flame and grabbed one of her hooves with my freed hand, gently squeezing it.

“That, uh… means a lot to me. I guess we'll be getting to know each other pretty well, huh?” I offered in a bashful tone, the earth pony simply nodding back. As she did, I swung my legs off the bed, despite her hoof once again protesting against my chest. I grabbed her hoof in my hand, gently bringing it down. “Sorry my dear, but I have to, for the very young do not always do as they're told.”

Without stopping to entertain her concerns, I left the lodge, gripping the crystal again tightly as both she and Scar followed me. Stopper hadn't gone far, and I approached her as she caught up with Tricks. As I got near them, they both looked at me, a somewhat guilty expression on Tricks’ muzzle.

I picked up on it immediately. “Morning, Tricks… is there something you want to tell me?” I asked him, unsure what the reason for his sudden guilt could be.

He nodded apprehensively, removing something from his cloak. In the early morning light, the faint pulsing of a gemstone could be seen. A gemstone that wouldn’t have looked out of place mounted on that gauntlet, in fact.

“I’ve… been using this for some time. I never really thought about it, but when you pointed to the gems in that gauntlet… I wondered if this might've been intended to be used with it.” he said, carefully hoofing me the precious stone. I gently ran my thumb over it, feeling weak pulses of energy emanating from it.

“What does this stone do, exactly?” I pressed, attempting to extract valuable information from the unicorn.

“It’s… hard to put into words.” He started to explain. “When I use it… it doesn't make me invisible, but it sort of makes me… ‘unnoticeable’, I think is the best word.”

I rolled the gem around in my hand. “So, this effectively alters the perception of you by others. Surely full invisibility would be better?” I reasoned.

Stopper shook her head. “Invisibility is a high-level spell; the power required to channel it is enormous. The spell in that crystal is a cheaper one; it doesn't require magic much to channel it… compared to a spell like Invisibility, anyway.”

“Fine,” I accepted. “I think it's time we got started on my magic training. You two between you seem to have an excellent grasp of magic, and that's despite being unable to wield it yourselves.” I said, gesturing to the barracks. “Shall we?”

With nods of approval, we all made our way over. I knew, with absolute certainty, that I was going to enjoy the next week.

That ended up only being mostly true.

—

The next seven days were a mixture of both exhilaration and pain. Stopper had been a massive help in my magical instruction; to say she was gifted as a teacher was an understatement. Tricks, meanwhile, was quite a good field supervisor, putting me through my paces in the outdoors as he got me to use my new skills in a productive manner. In the week since I’d been found slumped in that chair, we’d gone through seven new spells together. Some were easy… while others were very painful.

The first day had been spent combining Levitation and Telekinesis into a single spell, a development that had been made after the tomes publication, and had apparently been passed down to Tricks through his family. I ended up changing the command to ‘Levenesis’, but this only became necessary with heavy mass movements.

Each day that followed involved a new spell being taught to me, followed by field exercises to get me using it in a practical setting. The first new spell I learned was ‘Shield’, a protective weave of magic that deflected physical attacks. We asked Crush to provide the muscle for my instruction, and he was more than happy to accommodate our request, providing an ample demonstration of martial prowess even in the absence of the much-vaunted strength of his forebears.

Day two was spent learning the spell ‘Shell’; similar in nature to Shield, this spell was used for deflecting magical attacks; while ponies themselves clearly lacked magic, the rest of the world was a mystery, and we all felt being prepared was a prudent measure. The last part of the day had been spent combining the two protective spells together, a combination I'd termed ‘Wall’ for ease of casting.

One side effect of using these spells became abundantly clear early on; each time the shield was struck, I felt the feedback from it vibrate throughout my body. It required enhanced concentration to compensate, but I was beginning to realize that even defending myself here was going to come with a cost.

The next four days were spent learning and practicing what unicorn magi referred to as the ‘Elemental Basics’; Fire, Ice, Thunder, and Water. I learned that, while these spells were indeed low-level ones, their teaching had been strictly controlled, and limited only to unicorn guards in service to the Crown.

Each of those spells could be cast on its own, or together, with each combination capable of its own unique side effects. The actual casting of those spells had started to induce real pain for me, and after one particularly intense casting of Fire, I'd developed a reaction in my hand; tendrils of something had started to snake down my hand toward my wrist, all of them starting from an embedded piece of horn. But, after half an hour or so of resting, those tendrils had receded back.

The last day has been used to teach me a healing spell, which I'd mentally labeled as ‘Cure’. Casting it on myself was an odd experience… I didn't feel any different, but an old scar on my left hand was now no longer present.

We'd all intended to train for a few more days, but instead, Estrus Season arrived earlier than we anticipated. Scar enacted a well-tested playback of actions, leading to the separation of all ponies according to physical sex. Thus, I now found myself back in the lodge, surrounded by Crush, Tricks, and Ace. Each of us lay on a bed, waiting to be called to enact our ‘service’. Except for Ace, for whom I hadn't been surprised to learn had been given an exemption from participating.

It was a profoundly uncomfortable wait, so of course, conversation inevitably started between us, if only to distract us all for a moment.

“So, Crush… I take it that this isn't your first rodeo?” I started, causing the earth pony to give me his full attention.

“This is the eighth time now. I think I've lost count now of the number of foals I've sired… we get assigned multiple mares, you see, and no, that's sometimes not as great as it sounds. Although… the ones I have this year are pretty fine, if I do say so myself.” he said, trying in vain to cover up his growing erection, no doubt at the thought of pleasing those particular mares. As much as Crush tried to hide it, his pink-mottled tool stood proudly below him.

Way to make a guy feel inadequate, Crush. You are packing an absolute monster there!

That set off a chain reaction; Ace was the next to fall victim to improper thoughts, his ebony shaft also paying the group a visit; the difference between him and Crush, color aside, was that Ace’s erect member, while smaller, had a tapered point, which I was sure could be put to some very good use.

Tricks was the last proverbial domino to fall, his brown-colored dick now standing at full mast, with absolutely no attempt made by the unicorn to hide it, his hooves crossed as he, like the rest, eyed each other semi-covertly. I got up.

“I just realized that I’m not being very fair to the rest of you; it’s time to fix that,” I said, removing all pieces of clothing below my waist, the faint breeze faintly tickling my buttocks as everypony's gaze now fell on me and my contribution to the day’s festivities, most notably the pegasus to my right.

“Well,” I began, “I think some ponies here are as curious about me as I am about them, sooo…” I said, lying back down on my bed, with my tool in my hand that, honestly, felt like it was the hardest it ever had been. Crush, like Tricks, now crossed his hooves, giving all of us an unobstructed view. If I had to make a judgment call, I'd say that of the three stallions in the room, Tricks was the closest in size to me, as I observed that the tip of his rod was flatter than the others, and was probably the smallest of the three.

“Well…” the earth pony said, slightly hesitantly, “... this bit at the top expands when we’re ready to, uh… what's the human word for when you deposit your seed in your mares?”

I chuckled softly at him. “We have many, at least in my mother tongue. If I wanted to be fancy, I'd say ‘Ejaculated’. My favorite word though? Spunked, with Spaffed a close second. There's just something so utterly crass about those words, and yet I find them quite endearing.

I was keenly aware that Ace was letting his curiosity get the better of him; he'd long since hopped off the bed and was now getting quite the eyeful. I turned to him, “Ah you can see, Ace, humans are quite different to ponies. Check this out…” I said, as my fingers pulled back my foreskin, exposing the darker tip, and aided somewhat by the now somewhat-flaccid state of my cock.

“This bit of skin protects my little guy when he doesn’t feel like coming out, a bit like your sheaths do, and yes I have noticed. It's not like you can hide them, either.” I justified, remembering fully how exposed I felt Ace’s sheath was when I first saw him.

“C-Can I join you on the bed?” the pegasus asked, to which of course I nodded my head and patted beside me as I scooted over to make room. The pegasus practically leaped onto the mattress, before lying on his back beside me, his rod still very much letting the world know of its desire to be touched and caressed.

“I'm not forcing you two to watch, by the way; I just don't have the same level of shame as some of my fellow humans would,” I spoke to both Crush and Tricks, neither one of them choosing to look away.

“Who says I don't like looking?” Replied Tricks, his hoof idly stroking himself. Crush was a bit more reserved.

“I'm plenty curious… for educational reasons, mind you.” He asserted, quite possibly more to himself than to any of us.

Taking that as my cue to proceed, I turned once more to Ace. “You're allowed to touch it, by the way,” I reassured, gesturing to my nethers. It took the pegasus a moment, but he eventually overcame his nerves, inching a hoof forward to touch my shaft; it twitched as his limb made contact, and his eyes filled with a genuine sense of wonder.

Not to be denied some form of intimate payment, I snaked my hand across his chest, and gently grasped his penis, closing my fingers slowly around it. The supple yet firm flesh in my grip pulsed with the rhythmic beating of his heart, his breathing becoming noticeably shallower as my fingers exerted a gentle pressure around the stiffening appendage.

I always wondered how ponies gripped things, and I suppose I now had my answer; as Ace's hoof continued its curious journey against my flesh, I felt multiple, almost finger-like tendrils of force snaking across my skin, which was a very pleasurable sensation. My eyes closed as I allowed myself to be lost in Ace's ministrations, while I did my best to return the favor. I was enjoying this so much that I didn't even hear Scar enter, a curt clearing of her throat thoroughly killing the vibe in the air and snapping us both out of our combined desire for the touch of another.

“If you're… quite done in here, I believe Flame is ready for you now.” She said in my direction, a touch too coldly for my liking.

“He comes with me,” I said, fully serious to the clear surprise of the room.

“... Any particular reason?” Scar asked reasonably.

“Well, after talking to Crush here, I understand all this a little bit better… and I've come to the conclusion that I could do with a good fluffer… ma'am,” I said, attempting to persuade my commanding officer. “Besides, it's not like he’s been lined up for any activities this week.”

Scar looked at me quizzically. “I… don’t know what a ‘fluffer’ is, and I’m not sure I want to know. Fine, I trust you… come with me.”

I complied after restoring my dignity; Ace followed suit, and soon we were following Scar to where Flame was. After a short distance, she stopped and pointed to another building in the distance.

“Inside, the furthest left booth on the left row. You’ve got two hours to pump that mare so full of seed that she wouldn’t look out of place on a birdbath. Go get ‘em.” she said, smacking my clothed buttocks with a hoof, no doubt as payback for earlier.

As we very slowly approached the building, I turned to Ace. “Do you know what I asked you along for?” I asked him, talking in a hushed tone.

“Uh… I think so,” he replied with more than a hint of uncertainty, his muzzle snapping up to look at me.

“I’m going to need to do some… repeat performances in there. The spirit might still be willing, but the flesh needs… ‘additional encouragement’, shall we say. How do you feel about providing that ‘encouragement’?” I asked him, unsure if convincing him to take such a leap was truly a good idea.

He didn’t even need a moment to respond. “If it makes you happy, I’ll do it,” he said, and I could almost swear that his tail was wagging behind him. Smiling, I reached down and ruffled his mane.

“Thanks… and I’ll make it up to you, I promise. For now, though…” I said, looking around like I had something to hide. “... Hang around here for a bit… quietly; I’ll come out looking for you in due course, okay?”

Ace nodded, and slinked off into the shadows, leaving me to approach my duty for the evening. Stepping inside, I found two aisles, one on either side, with partition curtains of dense, opaque fabric down the sides of each aisle separating me from the carnal acts within. The whole thing reminded me of something far seedier and unpleasant than what I knew was waiting for me, and it was hard to break that mental connection. All around me were the sounds of squealing, grunting, and plapping, the collective noises of a society letting out its frustrations by indulging in the biological urge to breed.

Hehe. The Aisles of Rut. ‘twould be a good name if it weren't so utterly morbid.

Wishing that I'd had a very stiff drink, I summoned every ounce of courage I had and headed for the partition containing Flame.

It’s no big deal, Stuart; you’re just going to go in there and fuck a pony. Mummy would be so proud of you.

Dispelling my brain’s attempts to dissuade me from my commitments, I parted back the curtain; it revealed a bed on the left and a light refreshment stand on the right. On the bed itself lay Flame, who promptly sat up at my arrival before practically tackling me to the floor, such was her apparent enthusiasm.

“You came! You really came! I thought y-you’d disappear, or go into h-hiding, or-” She stammered as I put a finger to her lips to silence the runaway train of her thoughts.

“Let it never be said that Stuart Dennis Robinson does not follow through on his obligations. Still, this…” I said, gesturing to the room itself. “... isn't quite something I'm used to.”

I approached the stand to my right. “I see you have some tea, do you mind?” I asked her.

Flame shook her head. “Of course not. As long as you don't mind nettle tea…” She warned. In truth, I’d been curious about trying it since I'd heard it mentioned, and as today was all about new experiences, now felt like the perfect time to indulge.

Bringing the cup to my lips, my nostrils were hit by a bitter yet herbal fragrance, the smell swirling around my senses as I took a small amount of liquid into my mouth.

The floral taste was… unique, certainly, and I could now see why the drink was so despised. As the liquid went down my throat, it left an exceptionally bitter aftertaste, like I'd just binged on a jumbo pack of sour gummy worms. I gave the cup a disgusted look and returned it to the stand. “The only word to describe that is ‘offensive’,” I stated.

Flame giggled to herself and hopped back onto the bed. “That's everypony's first reaction to it… you just get used to it, I guess.” She opined.

Putting the cup back down, I turned to her. “So… how do you all do this?” I asked her with genuine curiosity.

“Well, um…” She said, hesitating for a moment, “... if it’s a young stallion, they’ll be unsure and embarrassed. Mares sometimes need to guide the younger ones at first. B-But the older they get…”

She looked at the floor, and I could feel a deep sense of pain from her words. I joined her on the bed, and held a hoof with a hand, squeezing it and running a thumb over the fetlock.

She looked at me. “... the older ones would come in, and… there’d be no joy in it. We’d p-present ourselves, a-and they’d just take us there and then…”

I was finding this all very hard to take in. I looked into the mare's eyes, and I… I couldn’t imagine subjecting her to something like that. It suddenly felt horrible to be here, like I’d stepped into someone else's nightmare. I brought up my other hand to also clasp her hoof. “We… don't have to do this, you know? I don't want to be just another layer of misery in this… well, whatever this shit is.”

“But you're not like that!” She protested, her other hoof pressing itself against my chest. “ When I first met you, you felt awful about accepting our offer to help you settle in. You felt genuinely terrible… and that means you cared… cared about more than just yourself. I haven't forgotten about that, and neither has anypony else!”

Without warning, she lunged forward and connected her lips to mine, and in a mixture of desire and instinct, they both parted ways for our tongues to gently dance together. I was finally starting to relax around her… until I heard something that made my blood run cold.

“... I need more time to rest! If you stick it in again, it’s going to hurt!”

“I don’t care! Now, present that ass to me before I come over there and do it myself!”

I broke the kiss and tilted my head to the source of the argument, which appeared to be next door. Flame just looked down. “S-Sometimes… s-stallions don’t listen…” She whispered, her heart heavy with what I hoped wasn’t from personal experience.

I got up and loudly barged into the partition next to us, the sky-blue earth pony turning around to face me. “Who the buck are you?” he demanded.

I lost it. I lunged forward and grabbed the earth pony with my hands, pinning him against the surprisingly sturdy wall, my face within point-blank range of his as I barely restrained a snarl.

“You don’t know me, but if you don’t start treating others with more respect, you are going to know me, and the day you do is going to be a very painful one for you. Do I make myself clear, you miserable little sack of shit?!”

That last part was directed into his ear with more than a little menace, spittle flinging itself at the earth pony's fur and lime-green mane, his eyes closed to avoid having to look at me.

I was fine with him not responding, and I lifted him again into the air, making my way to the exit as he weakly struggled against me. Once outside, and without thinking, I launched the earth pony forward with surprising force, causing him to land roughly on his side. Without even acknowledging me, he turned tail and fled into the night, leaving me to contemplate what I'd just done.

I turned back, and returned to the previous room, finding the golden-furred unicorn mare with a yellow mane sobbing quietly on the bed. I approached her, reaching out with a hand to hold her hoof. Instead, she threw herself at me, hugging me with what felt like the full force of her strength, leaving me with no option but to return the gesture, my hands reaching around behind her in a hug of my own. “Sssssh… it's okay…” I whispered into her ear as my hands lightly stroked her fur.

It was some moments before her composure returned, and once she released me from her grasp I knelt in front of her. “I need you to do me a favor, okay? I need you to find Scar and tell her what happened. If she needs to talk to me, she knows where I am.”

The mare nodded and gave me a small peck on the cheek before slowly making her way out, brushing past a curious Flame, whom I now turned my attention to.

“Is this how Estrus affects stallions here? Heightened aggress-”

The words died in my mouth as I realized that what I'd just done was definitely something that would count as heightened aggression.

Have I been infected by this place? I'd have never done that back home!

Flame just nodded back at me. “Sometimes… y-yes.” she said, in a tone of voice that told me that ponies here had already accepted that as a risk in these times. She turned to go back to our original room, and I followed suit, making sure to secure the partition fabric on my way back in. We both looked at each other before I remembered where I was; I sat on the bed, where Flame soon joined me, snuggling up against my side.

“Can I ask you a personal question?” I queried her, staring at the way out.

“You can ask me anything you want.” She said, resting against me.

“...How many times have you done this?” I inquired, my hand stroking her golden mane.

“... three times. I’ve had t-three foals in total… but none of them survived their first winter…” She explained, choking back tears. I reached down and gave her a hug.

“I’m sorry… Do you really think we can do it? Like, bring a new life into this world?” I questioned.

Flame reached up and gave me a peck on the cheek. “I can think of nopony else I’d rather have a foal with right now than you. You’d make a good father, I think.”

I reached down and gave her head a small peck. “Then I think we'd best get started. Hang on a sec, and let me get comfy. It’s too bad I don’t have my Spider-Man costume…”

I started stripping off my clothes; once again they found themselves dumped in an unceremonious pile on the floor, my naked body on full display to the mare in front of me.

In reciprocation, she changed her position to lay on her back, her head propped up against a pillow; she parted her legs and lowered her hooves to accentuate the raindrop-shaped purple lips of her genitals, gently parting them to reveal the pink flesh within. A small twitch occurred at the top, momentarily exposing a small, heart-shaped nub that was almost immediately pulled back in again. A small rivulet of clear discharge ran down her anus, her tight pucker reflexively contracting at the liquid seeping down it, before dripping onto the mattress below.

Kneeling before her with a semi-flaccid dick, I ran my hands down her sides while moving my head lower, with progressively stronger floral hints wafting into my nostrils the closer I got.

It’s okay, Stuart; granted, you’ve had rather more limited opportunities with women compared to men, but you’ve got this! You’ve read the textbooks, you know where everything is on a woman… you just need to hope that the mares here are wired in a similar way.

It was a good job that I enjoyed playing poker; if I didn’t have that experience to put on my best poker face, my expression would be awash with uncertainty and doubt as I crouched down. Looking up at her, now only centimeters away, I sought to at least pretend I had an aura of confidence. “I forgot to mention; when I get a buffet put in front of me, I usually want my dessert first.”

Before she could respond, I sealed my lips around the purple prize, gently snaking my tongue up and down Flame's slit, occasionally sinking my tongue in deeper to gently brush against her quivering walls.

Briefly glancing my sight upwards, I could see that Flame had closed her eyes, soft coos emanating from her mouth as I continued my ministrations.

Feeling her clitoris once again exposing itself, I quickly assaulted it with my tongue, earning an “Aah!” from the earth pony letting me know that I’d at least found my target. Even as it was smothered once again by her folds, my tongue insisted on delving deep within, providing much-needed friction against the mare’s love button. Meanwhile, my hands moved lower down and lightly massaged her mammaries, carefully running my thumbs over the teats as soft moans filled the air around us.

As my assault continued, Flame instinctively pushed back with her pelvis, pushing my nose into her fur; the scent of her arousal was more than noticeable now as the floral taste on my tongue intensified. Getting bolder, I started to thrust my tongue into her tunnel, feeling it immediately contract at the sudden intrusion as the sensitive muscles pleaded with the invader to go further.

“Mmmm! Yes!” was the mare’s ringing endorsement of my efforts, “D-Don’t s-stop!” she continued to plead as her nethers remained under constant assault; each wink from her clitoral hood was rewarded with extra attention from my tongue in a steadily rising feedback loop of ecstasy.

I started to pour all of my focus onto her clitoris as I subjected it to a merciless campaign of stimulation, taking turns between swirling my tongue around it and flicking it with broad strokes. Her body held out valiantly, but the involuntary spasms of her body betrayed her even as she tried to stifle her body’s release.

Despite her efforts, a “Mmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaah!” was screamed into the room, a tone that was music to my ears; it was followed by numerous smaller ‘Mmm’ and ‘Ahh’ sounds as I continued to lightly run my tongue around her cavern as she basked in her afterglow, my mouth greedily slurping up her sweet-tasting discharge as she rode the aftermath of her orgasm.

I lay down on the bed next to Flame as her breathing recovered, a hand reaching over to give her some belly rubs, her hooves reaching out and cradling my arm as my fingers lightly scritched at her fur.

“Well…” I said, breaking the silence that had fallen between us “... we still have around ninety minutes or so left. Did you want a breather for a bit, or should we skip straight to the matinée performance?” I offered.

In an assertive action that I wasn’t expecting, she pulled herself up to my ear. “I n-need you to stick that thing in me r-right now, or I’ll do it myself,” she said, a hoof now reaching out to grasp my rock-hard member in what I was mostly sure was a playful suggestion. Only mostly, mind.

Getting comfortable, Flame lay back and lazily opened her legs as I got up and moved in front of her. Gingerly moving her legs aside further, I grabbed her by the hips, and gently positioned her still-twitching marehood in front of my cock. With a shared nod, I gently eased her down, the mare eliciting a hiss through clenched teeth as she adjusted to the new feeling of my length burrowing itself within her.

After a few moments, I felt myself reach the hilt, and I leaned forward to allow us both to get used to our new sensations as Flare’s hot tunnel tightly gripped and convulsed around me. Reaching down, I pushed my lips to her, the earth pony reciprocating with an enthusiasm that I had rarely seen in my life, her tongue eager to explore every nook and cranny in my mouth while impaled on my shaft.

Breaking the kiss to get more comfortable, I started to extract myself from her moist cavern very slowly, the mare’s canal doing everything possible to keep me inside before I could thrust back in again, a small ‘Aah’ being my reward for my efforts. As we relaxed further, I was able to get a steady rhythm going, the room steadily being filled with the plap sounds of two souls enjoying an intimate union.

In a sharp deviation from my expectations, Flame shouted “W-Wait! Stop!”

Fuck.

Being uncertain as to how best to approach this, I fully removed myself from the situation and lay on the bed next to her. Reaching out a hand to calm her down, she instead got up and straddled herself over me, impaling herself once more on my still-hard erection in one swift movement.

Fuck yes!

Now it was Flame’s turn to take control, and I let her indulge that desire to her heart’s content; her hips steadily moving up and down my flagpole as her wet and hot vaginal cavity, desperately craving my seed, sought to extract it from me by any means necessary.

To say that I was pent-up was an understatement, and I was in no fit state to offer any meaningful resistance to the mare’s persistence; soon, that familiar feeling began to build, and I was about to cross a metaphorical Rubicon from which there would be no return.

“Flame… I’d, ah… get ready if I were you, this, uh… t-thing’s about to blow…!” I weakly warned as Flame took the cue to sink herself fully onto me as hot, thick ropes of human semen squirted inside of her, the collective outpouring of a month’s worth of unspent ejaculate now being deposited deep within the earth pony. I could only manage a guttural grunt as my body surrendered its gift to the mare on top of me, who by this point had a wide smile on her face that I only managed to glimpse for a moment as I felt my face contorting into an expression that extremely few people had ever seen.

I was in no position to do much of anything; I lay on my back for a moment as Flame slowly and carefully extricated herself, my receding member falling back down onto me with an audible smack.

After taking a few moments to catch my breath, I got up and started to get dressed to the confusion of Flame. “Leaving so soon?!” she queried, somewhat distressingly.

“You didn’t think you were getting just one, did you?” I asked semi-rhetorically. “Just… let me take some time to recover, and I’ll be back for Round Two, mmkay?”

Flame nodded, and I took that as my cue to exit, stumbling out as my body readjusted to the state of post-nut clarity that always accompanied men in the aftermath of coitus.

Stepping outside, I walked a short distance away and was soon accosted by Ace. “Do you have some water nearby?” I asked him. Using a hoof, he pointed to a location not far from us, and we traveled the short distance together to what turned out to be a well, with a large tent behind it that appeared to be storing the drawn water; numerous glass bottles were on display, each one filled with water, with many different colors and shapes of bottles adorning the shelves inside.

With nopony around, I felt that asking forgiveness was easier than asking for permission as I grabbed one of the smaller glass bottles. Uncorking it, I immediately put it to my lips and tilted the glass upward, letting the cool water flow over my tongue and down my throat as it quenched my thirst.

After I’d downed the entire thing, I turned to look at the pegasus. “Well, that’s one problem out of the way… fancy helping me take care of another?”

He nodded slowly, and with me leading the way, we found a secluded spot not that far away, obscured by tents all around it that, unless you went out of your way to go down it, would not be seen by ponies passing by… especially this late at night.

Going down the far end where an untamed bit of grassland was present, I sat down with Ace following suit as he lay down in front of me, his eyes looking at me with a hint of uncertainty.

I sighed, and looked into those eyes, the deep azure tones reminding me of the aura of my magic. “Ace… I’m about to ask you for something… and it’s something deeply personal. It’s not hygienic, and you are absolutely free to say no… “ I paused, shuffling down my clothes until I’d revealed Stuart Little, now concealed in his most popular habitat.

“I… need some additional stimulation down there. And yes, we both know where this little guy has been… what do you say?” I asked, curious as to the pegasus’ reply.

He was clearly thinking it over but eventually responded. “On one condition,” he stated. I, of course, nodded solemnly. Ace then very quickly rose to his hooves and pressed his lips to mine; stallions, like the men of my world, had colder mouths than the opposite sex, and that mouth was now eagerly accepting my tongue. I let him explore the foreign appendage to his heart’s content, and before long he was exploring my mouth, his tongue meeting mine and together battling with it for attention.

I was definitely getting something out of this, and I could feel myself getting hard again as the cool night breeze flowed between it and my sack while Ace and I shared a kiss under the stars. Eventually, as all things must, the kiss ended, and Ace eyed my half-mast shaft. With no further prompting or encouragement needed, he knelt down and took my entire length into his mouth, using his hooves to gently pull down my foreskin to expose the sensitive head, his tongue taking its time to get used to how I felt.

His inexperience showed, but that was fine for now, his attentiveness and methodical exploration doing everything needed to give me an extra dose of endurance for the night ahead. Eventually, I knew that I was at peak hardness, and I gently disengaged him from his task, a thin trail of saliva dripping to the ground as his lips left my tool.

Wishing to take full advantage, I kissed him on the head and pulled my clothes back up again before springing back to my feet, with Ace also rising to his hooves; as he got up, I could see that he was fully, and possibly rather painfully, at fully attention. “I might need to call on you again; wait for me like last time, okay?” I instructed, feeling a bit bad at leaving him in the lurch.

Ace nodded, and I sped back to the Aisles of Rut, eager to demonstrate how a human would perform with a Black and Decker on his hips.

—

Three.

Three fucking repeat performances that evening. The matinée performance was great, and even the encore was appreciably good, but chafing and fatigue were rearing their ugly heads on encore number two, and by the end of the third encore I was ready to beg for mercy.

Flame was everything I could ask for in a female partner; she was accepting when I stumbled, and patient when I needed time, and overall she was just happy to be on the journey rather than worry about the destination.

Ace had been amazing in his support role; his only frustration had been not being able to see each job through to its conclusion. I needed to pay him back, and I had promised to do so, a fact I reminded myself as I met up with him again after Flame and I had parted ways earlier, the time now well into the early morning as the moon shone down brightly from above.

“Where are we going?” Ace inquired, as I strode briskly through the settlement, albeit with a stranger gait than normal; to combat the chilly air, my hoodie was zipped all the way up and my hands were in its pockets.

“Not far, you’ll see,” I reassured, tussling his mane with my hand.

I took us both to an extremely large tree that was outside the settlement’s outer border. Stopper, Tricks and I had done some target practice here, using the massive hollow tree trunk as a natural obstacle as they sought to assist me in honing my magical prowess.

The tree trunk’s entrance was facing opposite to the direction of the settlement, so while it was exposed, it wasn’t exposed to anypony that mattered. Moving inside it, I gestured for Ace to follow me as I sat on the floor, idly brushing aside some loose sawdust. The trunk was big enough for us to sit next to each other as Ace deposited himself right beside me.

I reached out a hand and held his hoof in it while running a thumb over the hard keratin. “I… don’t really have the words to thank you for what you did for me back there, Ace. I… appreciate greatly that you wanted to finish what you began earlier, but buddy, let me tell you that, not only am I completely spent right now, but my todger here is spending the next few days at Lake Flaccid; in fact, I’ll be lucky if I’m walking right by the time I wake up tomorrow.”

I shifted in my chosen position as my buttocks started to disagree with the wood surface. “However… I could see how much it was making you frustrated. I’m offering to relieve you of that frustration, right here.” I said, in what I’m sure was the least-sexy way that anybody has ever propositioned another for a blowjob.

Ace looked up at me as our eyes met. “Y-You’d do that… f-for me?” he stammered, to which I could only nod slowly.

I rolled over to him and took a moment to savor the smell wafting from Ace’s groin. It was noticeably different from the mare earlier; stronger, muskier, and with more earthy overtones giving way to an extremely faint hint of lilac. His penis, meanwhile, was still recessed into his sheath, the ebony darkness of his telescope yet to be revealed to me in this impromptu intimate moment.

Acting a little bit on instinct owing to the late hour, I planted a kiss on his lips, and soon we were back to trading saliva with each other as we each explored the other’s mouth. Meanwhile, my hand had reached over and was now weakly holding the stallion’s partially hard member in my grasp, letting the expanding appendage fill my grip as our tongues continued to battle for supremacy.

I was intensely curious how a stallion’s dick would feel in my hand, and I was getting a thorough education on the subject; I gently moved it up and down the pulsating shaft, taking careful note of the ring mid-way down. As I’d noticed earlier, his tip was tapered, and I gently ran a finger around the raised flesh, causing the stallion to moan into my mouth as I spread the precum forming at the tip around the head.

Gently breaking the kiss, our eyes made contact for a moment, and I could feel him following me down as I headed straight for his pelvic region; gently cupping his scrotum, I wrapped my lips around his throbbing stallionhood, running my tongue over the head and sampling the slightly-salty taste of the already-slickened member as my lips formed a seal around the sensitive flesh.

Moving slowly down, my lips passed the ring as my tongue started to explore every contour and vein of the pegasus’ rod as I inched ever closer to taking in the whole thing. As I subjected him to my oral assault, I could hear his breathing become less steady as every twirl of my tongue caused his respiration to take a brief pause, his mind clearly struggling with what I could only assume were completely new sensations for him.

I felt that I had more than just a responsibility to Ace here; it felt like I had an obligation to make his first experience a good one for him. It was not my first time being in this position, but it never ceased to be enjoyable; that was especially true here as I looked up and could see the pony’s eyes closed, his face contorted in a way suggesting that this was indeed deeply pleasurable for him.

My nose then made contact with his tummy, having now fully enveloped him with my mouth, the tip now pressing on the back of my mouth; luckily for him, I had long since developed a way to suppress my gag reflex as my tongue continued to explore the entire length of his appendage. Further beads of precum continued to leak from the tip as I swirled the salt-laced liquid around the tapered point, further moans escaping the pegasus’ lips despite a clear urge to suppress them.

It’s fine, Ace… you don’t need to hide yourself from me.

I wasn’t going to pressure him; this was likely close enough as it was to his comfort zone to risk anything further. But, he was still going to get the full experience; my lips now started to rise and sink back down again along his pulsating cock, my tongue continuing to dance across the head while paying careful attention to any further leaks coming from its tip.

I raised a hand to lightly stroke his chest, and I could feel his breath quickening beneath my touch, his inexperience betraying him as I could feel him nearing the end of his endurance; now having established a regular pace around his twitching member, he could no longer hide his emotions from me.

“Ahhh!… Ahhh!...” he repeated as I willed him further to my goal, his shaft now starting to twitch reflexively under my campaign of stimulation. Paying deliberate attention now to the very tip, I started to lightly suckle on it as my lips focused on applying just the right amount of pressure, my tongue swirling around the tapered tip as I eagerly awaited what I knew was coming next.

“Hhhhnnnnnggg!” was the stallion’s final outburst as the metaphorical dam finally burst and sprayed copious amounts of semen into my mouth. While I had been prepared for the event itself, I had not been prepared for the sheer amount of it, the pegasus depositing a load far greater than a human’s beyond my accepting lips.

Everything about this next experience was interesting; it was saltier than I was used to, with a consistency not too dissimilar from a regular human male. I did my best to swallow it all while keeping up the seal around his cock, the duty of every true gentleman, but inevitably some of his seed did leak out and run down my chin as Ace’s breathing slowed back down again.

It took a moment or two for his tip to stop spurting, and I insisted on using my mouth to clean up anything I’d missed that had dribbled down his retreating rod. Once I was sure that he’d fully come down from his orgasmic high, I got up and sat back down, electing to pull him into my lap in a warm hug that was most welcome with the cold chill remaining in the air.

“Are you okay?” I asked him as my hands rested on his chest, pulling him semi-tightly against me. While he was not facing me, I could tell he was nodding. “Yeah. That was… nopony’s ever done that with me…” he said, now looking up at me.

“Like I said, I wanted to thank you. You didn’t tell me in as many words earlier, but I figured that you’d never done something like this before. I… hope it was okay for you.” I said, my mind still insisting on being a member of the Imposter Syndrome Club.

Ace smiled widely back at me. “It was better than anything I’d ever dreamed of. I-I don’t even think a ‘thank you’ will do, but… thank you… for giving me this.”

I rested my head against him as I exhaled sharply. “I think we should head back, and I think I’m going to go find a nice pot of nettle tea when I get there.”

The pegasus shot me a confused expression. “Isn’t that really disgusting?” he asked.

“Yeah, it is… but, I think I’ve found a new use for it,” I said, smirking until it turned into a full-on laugh with Ace soon following suit with a laugh of his own. The two of us just sat in that hollow tree, laughing with each other until we grew tired and sank back into each other’s company, basking in the aftermath of what we’d just experienced together.

I was exhausted, and fatigue was threatening to rob me even of my ability to walk, but I knew with absolute certainty that I was going to sleep well that night.