Color Dance

She, the big She, Celestia, spoke to me. She came to my office while I was packing up, moving languidly through the halls with her head scanning. "Oh, how tidy. My secretary's quarters are much busier than this." A hint of amusement was heavy in her soft voice. "So, you're Sharp Tongue? You don't look all that acidic."

I bowed. My voice fried in my throat, the noise closer to a grunt or flustered whinny than to anything coherent. I feigned a cough and stood upright, figuring I'd give myself an edge by not strangling myself with my tie by standing on it. Not that I'd done that, but not that I hadn't. "Princess, welcome. I thank you for the compliment. I'm sure Raven is forty times as busy as I am though, her office should reflect that."

Celestia hummed thoughtfully. "I'm sure. Well I was told that Luna had finally found a unicorn to employ. I wasn't surprised when I found out it was you. Your position does require a certain aptitude with language and literacy. And I think a change in scenery might do your mind some good given your...problems." She tried not to sneer, her contempt a frightening thing even if I couldn't tell if it was aimed at me or Keystone.

"Ah, yes. I suppose you would have heard about that as well." I bowed my head. "My apologies--"

"Not at all." Celestia shook her head. "Of course, we always have had problems with the guards...boning each other. Not that palace life is all that exciting, but that's no reason not to keep it in your sheath." Actually, maybe contempt was just her default emotion. She stood there, lost in thought, noble and dignified, like she hadn't just used a phrase I hadn't heard since...well, actually, Tap said it a lot. Then she seemed to recollect herself. "Yes. Anyway. I heard what you said. I thought it was quite funny."

I just stood there neither noble nor dignified. "I--I see. Well, I'm happy I could help. But I take it you didn't come down to comfort me about my romantic issues."

She sighed. "No. I'm afraid we need to discuss the specifics of your job duties."

I felt a chill of anxiety wash over me--except my eyes, which still burned a little from her luminosity. "I'm sorry? I thought Princess Luna's envoy was fairly straightforward. Clerical work--translation mostly. Travel?" I added hopefully.

Celestia grimaced as she levitated a stack of papers from my desk to her. "Something like that. I have apprentices all over Equestria at the moment, researching hippology, sociology, psychology. Their primary duty is to record their own feelings and experiences. Do you know why this work is so important?" She flicked her head and sent shimmers skating through the strands of her mane.

Despite the name, Scribe College is riddled with oral exams. I remember being grilled every week or two on some esoteric subject or another. During those tests, "I don't know" was worse than a blatantly wrong answer. I had a feeling the opposite was true in this case. "No, Your Majesty," I answered with the blandest tone I could muster. "Not at all, Your Majesty."

Celestia sighed and unfolded a piece of paper from her saddle bag. "It's easier to show than tell. Listen to this." She cleared her throat, even that sound somehow musical, and began reading. "'Dear Princess Celestia,

"'I can't decide who to bring to the Gala. My new friends have been so wonderful I'd hate to leave any of them out. I'd rather not attend than--'

"It goes on," she cut off, throwing me from my reverie. As she read, her horn, her mane and then her coat had begun to glow, her voice growing even more soothing, her presence radiating peace. "You see?" she asked me as the glow began to fade. "It's called the color dance. The power of Equestrian royalty is contained in these stories of true emotional fulfillment and kindness." She smiled gently. "Twilight is one of my favorite apprentices. She is bright, she's cunning. She's also surprisingly sweet for such a bookworm. But..." She began to read another note.

"'I can't even begin to apologize for my conduct at the Gala. I fully intended to meet you after the festivities. But I was tied up by other things, and to be honest, Your Majesty, I think my friends and I are closer than ever before! I can't describe how amazing the Gala and the night after were. I think I'm truly beginning to understand what you meant about the power of friendship, and I'm even more grateful now that you were generous enough to let them all accompany me--' ugh.

"I know full well what happened the night of the Gala," she said crisply. "They'd all had enough pony punch. They were sharing a suite. They weren't exactly subtle all stumbling off."

"Your Majesty!" I blurted. Did the princess really talk about her apprentices like this behind their backs?

"Oh, no, none of that." She pawed at the floor, nostrils flaring. "This is important." There was definitely no way I could bolt around her. I gulped.

"Listen to me." Her aggression suddenly dropped. Her voice was seductive and conspiratorial. "It's all part of it, the color dance. And it's rare...these days," she muttered before continuing, "and powerful."

"You want me to write pornography?!" I cut in. "Majesty..."

She shook her head. "My sister is in a sad state after her banishment. I want to get her back on her feet. You could help us." She looked at me with such liquid eyes I almost forgot what we were talking about. I crossed my back legs, glad to be behind my desk. "And--" she added with offended dignity, "It's not pornography. I'm asking you to share your lived experiences. Do you understand?"

"I--"

"Your task is to go out into the world, meet new ponies, have new experiences, and have them deeply. And as you write back to my dear sister, that faded blue and dull horn will shape up into something majestic. Because of you," she breathed, huge lashes fanning like fairy wings.

I was backed against my desk, my heart thumping against my ribs, head dizzy. I fought to recover my dignity. "Surely you can't be serious. Twilight Sparkle is a heroine--a pony of note! What you're asking is...is downright tawdry!"

"Oh? So was getting caught in the mare's barrack with your balls resting on somepony's chin. And what about getting sloppy with a mailmare after vomiting outside of my sister's office?" She sneered. "Not to mention your record in scribes' college. Or your trysts with your filly-friend, what was her name...Keystone, center of attention?"

She had me there. "I didn't know you were so interested in such things." I was straining behind my desk. And yes, maybe I had made it with the batpony from last night. And maybe I remembered all of it. Except for how I got there, and what happened after, but I remembered all the important things: burying my muzzle in her mane as I climaxed, the pinch of her teeth in my neck, the air cooling my head as she lay splayed out underneath me, oozing like a freshly-broken egg yolk on toast. Come to think of it, I was kind of hungry on top of everything else. I realized with a jolt that Celestia was speaking.

"I know, I know. I find the stiffness of my court obnoxious, to be honest. All the public stuff is staged. I mean, I do send apprentices out to harness the power of friendship. But we need more. Do you understand?" She asked, for probably the fourth time. I was starting to suspect she may be getting impatient with me. She pressed on. "I could wait. I have resources. But Luna...there's a reason she hasn't appeared publicly since the Nightmare Moon incident." Her ear flicked. "She needs power...oh, me...yesterday. Tell me you're willing to do this, Sharp. I need you to accept this apprenticeship or--or get out." Her nostrils flared again. Later, when I wasn't so petrified, I could appreciate this glimpse into the mind of a desperate princess.

At the same time, everything clicked. "You mean I'm an apprentice?"

She nodded, a little slow and condescending. "Something like that. You'll take notes on your experiences in the world, and I mean in detail. So if you're shameful, bashful, or if you need--"

"I just--I only feel a little old for this position. Didn't most of your apprentices start out as children?" That had been what I'd heard. Advanced schools, special training, some rumors of indoctrination. Really it all seemed rather silly, as the one time I'd met one of her apprentices it had been while picking up a dress, and she'd been rather...normal, perhaps awkward but hardly some cultist.

"Yes well, that's why your listing is as an envoy. It used to be I'd take both, but with Luna gone I will admit that much of my interest in the more mature aspects of the position have been muted. It's a little hard to read something tawdry with one's sister on the mind. Sort of ruins the mood."

There had been long standing rumors about a lot of the Canterlot elite in that regard. Blue blood was apparently thinner than most, richer some might say but if you sprout a horn on the side of your head I think it's rather telling about the worth of keeping it in the family. "I see. Yes, I suppose if my sister was banished to the moon I'd be a bit preoccupied by friendship and kindness. But then, Luna's only just returned. Is this really the most important thing to be cultivating?"

Celestia walked up to my desk and let her shoulder rest against the edge, letting her mane drape onto my table with one amazingly colorful eye leer at me. "Sailors and exiles tend to have a lot on their mind. To deny any one thing, especially that clawing need is unhealthy. Besides, Luna has apprentices, she has students, and even I'm starting to look for envoys. So, I think it's hardly fair to say it's all she has on her mind. Just something she does."

My throat began to feel dry, my stomach droopy, the rest of me tense. "You monitor your sister's...um, cultivations?"

"In some capacity." She nodded, clearly unbothered by the somewhat incestuous implications. "She had been looking, mentioned you had applied, and I signed off on the transfer. I thought you'd be a good fit. Especially with how fired up you got over Keystone, clearly you care, clearly you can articulate yourself, besides to be honest there aren't too many bachelors that last long in Canterlot. It's a rather..." Celestia leveled her horn at me, looking like a lance pointed at my eye. "It's either dispassionate humping, political marriages, but no matter which surprisingly little romance. But you, you went and did all three at once without even realizing. I think you're a hopeless romantic unafraid to get messy. And that--that is what I need."

The way her lips moved was starting to get distracting as she inched closer to me, looming over my desk, lustrous mane shimmering, smelling like fresh apples and honey butter. Then she had to go and say something about need and I froze up. "I alr-sai-I did--yeah?" I cleared my throat and shook my head to shake out all the fractured thoughts. "Princess you've got me backed against a wall."

"And tongue tied." She bit the tip of her tongue and pulled herself away from my desk. "Now go write about this, I'll have your first assignment transferred from Luna's desks as soon as they're finished drying. Oh, and I'll put you in touch with the mailmare until we can find a better means of transporting your letters."

"Alright. I'll do it. And the letter," I squeaked out, breath caught far forward in my chest. She was looking at me with so much anticipation, one step from biting her lip. Was this our princess? Was this what she was really like? Or was she toying with me? Why would she, why wouldn't she, could I-- I stopped that train of thought early and nodded to her, "I'll get right on that."

"Good." She trotted out daintily, smile wide and eyes closed oh so happily. I dared a thought of thinking of her as a young mare, that same smile, that same walk, but not a giant among ponies. Then about other things, difficulties of height, complications of position. I hobbled behind my desk and tried to pick up my quill, my body so tight and aching in places I hadn't felt ache since my first colthood flirt.

"Oh and Mister Tongue--oh." She stopped when she saw me one hoof above the desk, another below, pen attempting to stab into my ink pot but failing. I was distracted getting things in order, rearranging parts of me far less cumbersome before she'd come in. "Already at it. Perfect. Do remember to CC me on that letter. Make it to Luna, but...think of me when you send it."
My head started spinning and I nearly snapped my quill in half. I struggled to write, the whole time distracted, then too focused for my own good, sure I was leaving a smear or stain without realizing it, subconsciously aware of how easily I'd been played but lost in a sweaty session of writing I was fumbling my way through. By the time I put my quill down I'd spilled a fat dab of ink across the bottom of my page. It seemed fitting for what was about to happen when I got home.

***

'Dear Princess Luna,

I had a meeting with your sister, the lovely Princess Celestia. She had nothing to say but kind things, and spoke highly of your beauty, kindness, and tenderness. She has a presence about her that I can only imagine is only matched by your own. Slender legs capped in precious metals, beautiful flowing mane, preciously intoxicating eyes that demand to be seen. I look forward to furthering our correspondence and perhaps meeting you in person that I might have a chance to see comparable beauty again in my life. I can only imagine the power of your voice, the sweet undertones of your scent, the way you envelop a room and command to be seen. One barely dares to think of you and your sister as less than perfect, but after our talk I have found her supremely approachable, welcoming, demanding of attention and deserving of worship. I am sure that these are qualities shared, and I feel only honor to be writing to you, anticipation of our first meeting still heavy on my mind, demanding my attention, to have my gratitude expressed in every way towards you.'

***

I looked through what I wrote, body aching. I'd lost the plot a little, but my mind was lost between two royal sisters one who had just shown part of her hand and nearly crushed me under her influence, and one who's rumors were yet even stronger and I could only imagine being crushed by.

When Glimmer arrived it wasn't long before she had my letter. We made small talk until she noticed what was dripping on the floor and asked what had happened with a cheeky little laugh. I told her about my position. And then before long we were both in position.

I remembered her saying be quick before I mounted her, there in my office, head hanging out of my window. I made her yelp and coo as I slid my head in, ground my throat along her soft mane, groaned past her ear as bit by aching bit of my cock slid into her, testing, nestling before I bottomed out and rocked her hips forward into the chest at the base of the window.

I shifted my weight into her, planting my hooves over her head and leaned against her back with my belly. Then with a testing hump I took her, felt her tighten up and suck me in, hug me tight and tenderly as I pulled back and just as eagerly clenched around me as I went back in and felt the fat of her flank jiggle against my hip, her back hoof jittering against the floor as she panted under me.

I lost myself in the heat, in the headiness, the smell of her sweat and mane-wash mixing into her smell. I bit the back of her neck when I felt myself peaking and held on, eyes shifting from her mane to the outside world over her head, then snapping back down to the tongue hanging out of her mouth as I leaned further over her, saw her muzzle panting, her pussy trying to hold me in and keep whatever rush was coming at bay for another second, or maybe to pull it out faster.

But when I let go I did so fully. I felt my head flare out and touch her deepest depths, felt the ridge halfway up my cock seal her near the entrance, felt everything tighten, flex, and shoot. Over and over I lost track of how long, how much I was drooling on the back of her neck, how breathy she was, and how much she squealed and yipped from each jerking protracted hump that signaled another injection, another load, another piece of me to her, something to make her remember me, to mark her, to let her know that I did this, I made her feel this way, complete, whole, hole.

Then I zoned back in, cock sliding out of her and a gush of fluid hitting my floor in a series of increasingly watery jolts. Then one other as he back leg started to tremble and I felt her push back on me.

"Luna's--ghost." She panted, looked down between her legs. "I think you made me squirt!"

I kissed her jaw when she turned. Felt like a big man in that moment. Maybe if this was the job I'd like it. I'd do it well. Maybe I was made for this. Or maybe I'd gotten lucky. It was hard to naval gaze too long with her tongue in my mouth and mine in hers. Or when I took her home, and told her about Celestia, and I got to play the taller pony for a change.

***

"Sister, this letter!" Luna stomped over, hovering the letter her newest envoy had sent beside her head. Her face was flushed, her rump flushed, her mane sparkling brighter than ever before, beginning to show traces of those stars once ever-flowing and now even weeks after her return still muted. "You didn't tell me you'd gotten somepony so filthy! This isn't what I was expecting, this isn't--this isn't love, it's--it's, pornography!"

Celestia held up her copy of the same letter, eyes lazy and clearly basking in the content if only mildly. "Oh no, this is a teaser. He kept it very clean considering my visit."

"What!?" Luna charged over, the blue of her fur nearly turning a sharp violet. "What did you do? What did you tell him? These were supposed to be romantic not tawdry."

"You have that poet in training for sappy. What's his name? Sincere Flank?"

Luna balked. "Precious Thinker is barely a stallion! He's just graduated scribe college, and--and--at least he isn't so direct!"

"But did you like it? Which, by the way I thought it was sweet, and I'm the one who made him nearly roll over and beg." Celestia casually drew a circle with her hoof, "He would have too."

"Sister! I've never s--" She stopped, squinting at Celestia, now prostrating herself over a chaise, nearly swooning and batting her eyelashes to make a point. "If this ends anything like last time you're going to have to found two Ponyvilles! These things grow exponentially!"

"Methinks you mean we'll each have to. Because he's currently breeding one of your mailmares. Pretty well if the gossip is to be believed."

Luna's voice went shrill with upset, "Sister! How will such filth help me!?"

Celestia cleared her throat and levitated over a mirror. "Your stars are coming back."

"They are not coming back because of your--smut peddling!"

"I will take that bet." Celestia said, leaning on the edge of her chaise as the mirror retreated to a nearby table. "I will bet you that your mane will start to glisten after each letter he sends you, more so than your other less tested apprentices. If I win, you go on a date with him. If I lose, I'll give you the first crown for the next...oh, hundred years."

Luna squinted. She was sure she would win, very sure. But that bet, the odds were off. Celestia didn't often bluff. If she was right about these letters then the humiliation of dating this smut swilling reprobate might just kill her. But this did come down to self-control. If she could contain herself, even if she saw something in those letter, then she could still win. She could pull these kind of pranks, misdirection, everything on Celestia instead of being on the back hoof.

"Fine! But if you lose, you have to date him as well! Suffer the humiliation of vulgarity!"

"Oh I was thinking about disguises after I heard your mailmare." Celestia stuck her tongue out just as the doors to her chamber opened.

A harried looking mare with white fur and a brown mane scrambled in, her secretary Raven. "Princess--oh, apologies, but this is urgent! Twilight Sparkle has reported that someone has damaged Ponyville's water tower!" She scratched her chin, "As well she's sent letters saying she'd fended off an Ursa Minor attack, but I don't know if they're connected. Ostensibly."

Celestia straightened up, "Raven, can I ask you something? Do you read--or look at, pornography."

Raven froze, slowly backing out of the room, "Princess, that's a very strange question."

"You'd be settling a question I have. And I'd appreciate an honest answer."

Raven froze, "Um. I--occasionally look at stallions on...stallions. The--the bits always, there's just so much of it."

Celestia nodded, covering her mouth with a hoof. "Go on."

Luna stamped her hoof, "No! I see what you're getting at Celestia! Yes it's not as deviant, and you!" She whirled towards Raven and her voice boomed into the traditional volume of proclamation. "A simple yes would have sufficed!"

Raven backed out of the room.

Celestia's wings flapped as she settled herself back into a cozy recline. "I should have known. She stares at the guards sometimes. I don't think she even notices." She stood up, shaking herself out. "Well, it sounds like there's a water tower to fix. Would you mind? I'm expecting a letter from Twilight shortly, she's rather prompt. Message to Canterlot about damages, then one about the situation and her victory, then one to me personally on thinly veiled sexual tension with her friends."

"You're ill!" Luna shouted at her sister.

"I have a fever I'm afraid. You're correct."

"Yes I'll fix the water tower!" Luna shouted once more, stomping her way out of the parlor and scaring the guards on her way out. She needed the cold air to clear her head.

Celestia ambled off to her sitting room, planning to call Raven back for some personal time while she read through the pair of letters, basking in the pure emotional fulfillment of it all, and of Raven.