Talons and Lace

On the subway train, Artur pointed out, “This is the stop to change trains for Stallion Island. My place is one more stop along.” He was rather pleased, if a little surprised, to see his pony was still snuggled into his side. He barely heard her let out a content ‘hmhmm’. “This is our stop,” he announced a little later. “Coltaro College.”

Only Artur getting up and getting off the train prompted Filigree to move herself. She instantly missed the warmth of his feathers and fur. Quickly she scampered off the train walked at his heel. “So, this is Brooks, right?”

After they had passed through the turnstile and had moved up the escalator and finally were finally on the sidewalk above the station, Artur finally answered her. “Yes,” he pointed to the station sign, “This is Crops Street. West is the bay and my boat and townhouse. East is moving into town.”

Artur headed west, and Filigree didn’t argue or think. She was at his heel almost instantly. “Oh wow. You own a boat? Can I see it? Can I? Please can I see the boat?”

“I will take it under consideration,” there was a playful smirk on the griffon’s beak. He loved the way his pony walked at his heel. He loved even more her exuberance and eagerness. “It's not as big as your Whinnyapolis ocean liners.”

“Thank you, Master.” Filigree thought there was a joke hidden in what he said, but she couldn’t be sure, so she decided not to worry about it. Instead, she walked at his heel with a little prance in her step.

As they walked along together, the unicorn did notice the smell of the ocean, and the fish, got noticeably stronger. Filigree paused where she was and took a long, long deep breath. “That's new. You don't get smells like that at home.”

“And now you know why property is cheaper near the water.”

“Why?” Filigree was a little mystified, “Because it smells a bit of fish?”

“Yes,” Artur grinned, because he knew what she obviously did not. That the smell was only going to get more and more pungent and unpleasant from here. “Not a lot of ponies eat fish. We sell to the griffon and the hippogriff communities. A number of pegasi like fish too, but most of what we catch ends up as pet food. The cannery is south, and the wind normally blows out of the northwest.”

“Well, I like it.” Filigree stated assuredly, “It's different to what I usually smell. Cornflower and wheat and grass are so boring.”

“Check that,” Artur’s smirk returned, along with an idea for a punishment should the need arise. “Trip to cannery will follow.” As he spoke, he turned right to walk down a row of townhouses. “This is mine. One, eight, eight nine Shore Drive. Remember it.” He then pointed towards the west, “That elevated road is Shore Parkway. At least the trees help hide it and the noise.”

“One, eight, eight, nine Shore Drive, I got it.” Filigree looked to the west where Artur’s talon was pointing. “Is that where we're going?”

“The docks are on the other side of the parkway.” Artur led the way under the bypass. Almost as soon as they crossed over, the fishy smell was even stronger than it was before.

“Spin my horseshoes!” Filigree wrinkled her white nose a little and she even covered her muzzle with a hoof. “You never said it got stronger…” she muttered, then she saw off a fair ways a row of stores selling various fresh catches.

Beside her, Artur inhaled a deep breath. “This is life and money. Now, even I can only take so much of the cannery.” Continuing on, he led the way past the businesses and onto a long wide wooden pier. “Mine is the Askold, fifth one down.”

“I get that. I suppose it doesn't matter as long as we earn a living. Money to me is the smell of fabric and spiders.” Filigree walked the length of the pier until she reached the boat. It was eighty feet long, twenty feet wide sleek griffon made boat. “It looks amazing! Askold,” she noted the name painted on the bright orange hull. “Is there any meaning to that?”

“Askold was the name of a legendary griffon hero. He lived eight hundred years ago. He was responsible for the founding of Griffonstone after he cleared out the monsters. Come on board.” He looked around the apparently empty deck of the trawler. Without warning, he called out, “Pietro, Dimitri!”

Filigree stepped up onto the wooden deck of the fishing boat and giggled like an excited filly. “It's like the floor is moving! There was a fun fair ride like this!” she felt the ocean move the boat, and she couldn’t stop smiling.

A more high pitched voice, muffled by being below deck, called out from somewhere inside the boat. “Down here Arty! I’m fixing the bilge pump!”

“Again?” Artur grumbled and rolled his green eyes to the skies. “Wait here, Filigree, I'll be back in a moment.” Muttering to himself, the tall muscular griffon entered the hold.

“Hey Arty,” Pietro, a sandy brown griffon with a crest of jet-black feathers, and Artur’s younger brother by four years, greeted his sibling with a closed fist bump. “I lost the coin toss and got bilge duty and Dimi's gone to get steak slices from the market for lunch.”

Artur stepped up alongside his younger brother and stared at the malfunctioning equipment. He was grateful Pietro was as mechanically gifted as he was, it saved them no end of bits. “When will it be cheaper to replace instead of fixing this thing?”

“When I can't fix her anymore,” came Pietro’s reply. The griffon wore his overalls covered in oil smudges with pride, “Trust me bro, Bertha's got a lot of life in her yet, just got to treat her right, and not let Dimi overwork her.”

High above the row of ships and boats, flying in the cloudless blue sky, the jet black form of Dimitri made his way towards the Askold. When he was close, his sharp eyes detected movement. A pony snooping alone on the deck! That meant only one thing in his mind. “Thief…” he snarled and angled his wings to dive straight down.

Far below, Filigree was only alerted to the rapidly descending griffon when she heard the whistling of a rapid descent. “Wha...” she looked up and waved at the griffon as he got increasingly closer.

The griffon did not wave back. He got closer, and he extended his viciously sharp claws, ready to attack in a mere matter of seconds. It was only thanks to her Equido training and her dancing skill that she was able to dodge out of the way at the very last second, the unicorn performing bit of a sliding move to one side. “What gives?”

Dimitri landed on a hind paw and the jet black griffon spun on a wing, ready to lunge again. Filigree used her magic to levitate a crate from the side so that it was in between her and the attacking griffon. “I have permission to be here!”

“Thief!” Dimitri snarled, not hearing what the pony said. There was no way she was supposed to be on the deck. No way, no how, not a pony and especially not a unicorn! Angrily, he batted the crate away, breaking it on the guard rail and scattering the contents over the deck. In the same move, he swiped at the mare’s foreleg.

“Hold Brother, what are you doing?” Artur, alerted by the sound of the fight, demanded of his youngest brother as he reappeared on the deck.

“I caught this thief skulking around on the deck!” Dimitri held himself in a ‘ready’ pose, prepared to shred the pony up so small the sharks wouldn’t have to chew.

“Did you stop to think it might be a client?” asked Artur as he stepped in between his sibling and his pony.

“It's a unicorn!” scoffed Dimitri, waving his claws in a rude gesture, disbelieving utterly that his brother would have anything to do with one of those.

“And what does our cousin think of unicorns?” asked Artur, not backing down from his brother. While Dimitri wavered, Artur turned his attention to his pony, and he checked the wound on her left foreleg. “Brother, you're paying for the crate and what was in it.”

“But she…”

“Quiet,” Artur cut across Dimitri, silencing him without once raising his voice. He pointed to the door that led below. “Go to the galley and prep the steaks.” He was satisfied when his brother went below, grumbling only just under his breath, “It’s shallow, there’s a first aid kit here on deck.”

While Artur retrieved the kit and attended to her wound, Filigree trembled, hissing as the treatment was applied that would stop her foreleg getting infected. “I wasn't doing anything, I swear!” she squeaked, “I was just looking around. I didn't even touch anything!”

“My youngest brother is an act first and maybe think later type of griffon,” Artur judged the shallow cuts caused by Dimitri’s talons didn’t need dressing, just cleaning. “I'm going to guess that pork steak is not to your liking?”

“Not my first choice, no.” Filigree shook her head and forced herself to be calm. “So, what's his problem with unicorns?”

“I don't have a single unicorn client,” said Artur simply, not wanting to go into the real reason why his youngest brother hated unicorns. “Also, he went to Celestia, and a gang shouted insults at him and well, stuff festers.” In his mind’s eye, he saw Starsong, the last mare he ever wanted to have dealings with ever again.

“If it's going to be a problem, I can just go,” Filigree pointed back to where she knew the subway station was, pretty sure she’d be able to find her way back to her hotel on her own.

“No, you will not,” Artur shook his head. “Have you eaten fish?”

“Of course, mostly at the harvest festivals, but yes, Master.” After the fight, and after she had been attended to, Filigree remembered that her Free time was still not in effect, and Artur was due his title.

“Pietro, Dimitri up top!” literally seconds after Artur had barked the command, the two younger griffons appeared from the open hatch. When he spoke, he spoke directly at Dimitri. “I'm taking my pet out to eat, so enjoy the steaks. Pietro, make sure your brother's cooking doesn't catch the boat on fire.”

“Your pet?” snarled Dimitri, who earned himself a slap from Pietro’s wing.

“See you tomorrow, for the trip out.” Pietro, the more sensible of the younger brothers, said before Dimitri could say anything.

“You will,” Artur nodded as he turned and led his pony off of the boat.

“His pet?” Dimitri turned a dumbfounded look to Pietro, who simply shrugged his shoulders, “After all the crap we had to deal with the last time?”

Oblivious to the argument between the two brothers, Filigree hurried off the deck of the Askold. Like before, she walked right at the heel of her Master, keeping close to his side. “Is... everything alright?” she asked nervously.

“Yes, my youngest brother thinks he knows best.” He was pleased to see that in spite of her wound, shallow as it was, his pet pony still walked with a prance in her step. He led along the pier and into a building next to the fish vendor. “You allergic to any food?”

“No Master. Not allergic. I don't like celery very much, and I've never had meat.”

Curiously, Artur tilted his head and gave her a ‘look’. “Um, you do know that fish is meat, right pet?”

“I know it is,” Filigree rolled her eyes and giggled, “I meant proper 'meat', meat. like the pork you mentioned.”

That made sense to him, and the griffon nodded his head. “Snowclaw!” he called out, getting the attention of a female griffon with snow white feathers and pale icy blue fur. “Double portion of Fruit de la mer alfredo please!”

After he made the order, Filigree walked with her Master to an empty table where they took up seating pads opposite each other. “Thank you, for the lunch, Master.”

“I noted you didn't fall for my ocean liner joke,” Artur smiled, “You’ve never been on a boat in something larger than a lake?”

“No, Master,” she cast a glance to her left, to the impossibly vast expanse of water that was the north and south Celestia Seas. The great barrier that separated Equestria from Griffonstone and the Dragonlands. “I suppose the Celestia Sea counts as a big lake?”

Artur laughed out loud, “If you can't see land, it isn't a lake, my pet.”

“Alright, no then. I'm a typical farm girl, I suppose.” Filigree grinned, “Red Lake is pretty big though. It even has a cute little ferry on it.” Though she realised now she couldn’t really compare a three hundred acre lake to the ocean.

“To the north is the ferry port,” Artur pointed in the vague direction with his index talon. “Subway is cheaper if it goes there. Some things are best seen by the ferry. Been to the Statue of Harmony yet?”

“Yes!” Filigree squealed in glee, “I saw that on Tuesday, that was so big, and cool, and the Maresler building too! I mean, wow was that big! Pretty sure it’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Good,” Artur gestured to the menu, “What I ordered has squid, octopus, scallops, and mussels. I know the pasta and cream sauce will be good for you. Try everything, but not more than once if you don't like it.”

“Got it. Oh, and I know it hasn't come up yet, but it might, so, a head's up. I don't drink anything alcoholic. I get crazy drunk real quick, and then dumb stuff happens.”

“Noted.”

“Oh yeah,” Filigree giggle-snorted at the memory, “at last year's summer harvest festival, a lot of homemade beer was consumed, and a lot of mistakes were made. Like, I would've totally lifted my tail for this mare if Sandstorm hadn't intervened.”

“Alcohol wasn't on your list,” pointed out Artur as he cast his mind back to when he met the unicorn. “Was she at least, a pretty mare?”

“To be honest,” Filigree thought hard, but try as she might, the memory would not come. “I was thinking about sexy time things. And... I think she was pretty? I really don’t remember her. Sandy said she went home to Vanhoover the day after. Apparently, she was there for her family's harvest. At that point, I was recovering from a Maaaaassive hangover.”

You” may have tea with this meal,” Artur certainly wasn’t going to force anything on her that she wasn’t comfortable with. “Snowclaw, a pitcher of iced tea with the meal.”

~ ~ ~

To Artur’s great surprise, Filigree ate everything that he had ordered for them. She made short work of the squid, octopus, scallops, and even the mussels. Now, they were sat on the wooden bench enjoying a third refill of iced tea in the afternoon sun. All in all, it was shaping up to be a very pleasant day.

“Provided Pietro gets the bilge pump fixed,” started Artur as he took a drink of his tea, “they’ll sail on the evening tide, and return in the morning. But, for us, tonight is the BDSM night over at Caffeinated's place on Stallion Island.”

Filigree sat and mulled that over. Both clauses. There was going to be a bondage party at the zebra’s place, and she was invited, apparently. But, the other thing he said drew her attention first. “You'll only sail though if your brother fixes the pump, right?”

“They will sail if it is fixed,” Artur nodded, “I go to make sure they don't goof off, but I don't need to go. They are good hunters, and they know their work.”

“I could take a look, if you want?” offered Filigree, albeit cautiously. “I'm good at fixing things. I help my uncle with his farm equipment all the time, like the tractor engines, the oil pumps, fuel filters, hydraulic lines, you name it.”

Shaking his head, Artur held up a taloned finger. “First, I don't help him. Pietro is the mechanic, and I won't challenge his honour, but I do offer to replace it. Plus, Dimitri would tease him about it forever. Pietro will fix it, and they will sail. We can go tomorrow, as we do sail each weekday.”

“Alright,” Filigree bowed her head in defeat, “I get it, I don't want to step on your brother's paws. So, if I'm sailing with you tomorrow night, what are we doing tonight?” she had heard him say a BDSM night, but that could mean anything. And anything covered a lot of bases.

“Much like yesterday,” Artur smiled as he emptied his mug, his mind wandering to the past nights he’d attended at Caffienated’s ranch. They had all been different, and they had all been an experience, “but not as extreme. Plus, there will be food and drink.”

“Are we going back to that club we went to last night?”

“No,” Artur’s sharp eyes caught the shadow that crossed his pony’s dark blue eyes, clouded her fair features, “this is a much friendlier place. The club last night is for the extreme, and not always with love. This place is for love in the extreme.”

“Good,” Filigree didn’t bother to contain or suppress the shudder that shook her from her ears to her tail, “that place yesterday was...it was icky.” She couldn’t think of a better term to use. The whole place had been unsettling, unnerving, and icky, right from the start. Before she was put in the coffin.

While she shuddered, Artur laughed, “It was sort of a test. One that you passed, my pretty pet.”

“I gathered as much,” Filigree smiled in such a way that her whole face lit up, “Although, if you'd ordered me to have a drink in that bar, I might've safe worded out right there. I don't think that bartender knew what the word 'clean' meant. “

Now that, Artur was in agreement with her. There had been a reason he hadn’t finished the beer he had ordered. He was sure he could taste the other ponies on that tankard. “You will like the place tonight, of course you may not make the boat tomorrow either.”

“Oh, I don't know,” Filigree grinned, “I quite like the Red Lake ferry.” As if the ferry over a lake a few hundred acres across was in any way the same as going out on the open ocean. “I bet I'll be okay. This place later. What should I expect? Are there any rules I should know?”

“Don't kill any creature.” Artur held her gaze as seriously as he could for a few long seconds before he burst out into snickering giggles. “No pranking without at least three herd members, and if you want to fuck some creature other than me, you have to ask. You can always say no if you are asked.”

“I don't really like pranks, even Broadside leaves me alone back home,” Filigree’s eyes went a little wide at the idea he had proposed to her. “Why would I want to do it with anyone other than you?”

“You asked me for the rules,” Artur shrugged, “there they are. Do you like gaming?” he switched lanes abruptly on purpose.

“I do!” Filigree cried out gleefully, clapping her forehooves together, “I'm pretty good at monopoly, the zebra trail and dragon pit. Ooh, and I love Ogres and Oubliettes!”

“That themed night is in two weeks,” Artur noted that all the examples she had given were board games. He surmised from that, that she didn’t own a games console or if she did, she didn’t use it very much. “Now, I'll give you a tour of the boat, and we leave at five thirty for the party tonight.”

“Alright!” Filigree was practically dancing up on her hooves as she stretched her long legs. “Do you play O&O?”

“No,” Artur smiled as he led the way out of the pier diner and back towards the swaying row of moored boats a short distance away, “I play Pony Rebellion. I side with the Celestiaites.”

“I love O&O! It's a lot of fun! I have a level seven unicorn rogue and bard character I really like to use, I even have a cape and everything!”

Walking beside her on the wooden walkway, Artur couldn’t help but find her enthusiasm infectious and endearing. “Maybe I'll check it out.” He promised vaguely on the way back to his distinctive looking fishing boat.

Without being ordered, Filigree fell into step alongside her Master and she easily walked at his pace. She was also aware that she was getting a little babbly, but she just couldn’t help herself. “Last hearths warming, ma got me a set of purple and white crystal dice, it was so cool!”

“I can tell your mother loves you,” the tall muscular griffon smirked, “even if she wants you out of town.”

“It's not that she wants to get rid of me or anything,” Filigree pointed out as she kept up her pace. “I mean, I'm not that annoying. I think. It's like she said on the phone. If I want anything to do with fashion, and I do, I won't achieve it at home.”

A shrug from the griffon answered her. He’d never been to Whinnyapolis, in fact before yesterday he wasn’t aware it existed. “Tomorrow, you will wear something very fancy, and you will sing a fancy song. Then, you will remove the fancy and wear something plain. Then you will sing a common farm song for me.”

“I'd like that,” as it happened, the unicorn knew of a couple of farming songs, songs her uncle and his workers often sang out in the cornfields when they were harvesting the crops. She stepped in closer to Artur, so that their sides were touching. “Whinnyapolis is a fashion dead zone. That's not to say I don't love my home, I do, it's just...realising I'm gonna have to leave it, it's scary.”

“We will see after Thursday two weeks from now what your next steps will be, my pretty pet.”

“Yeah,” Filigree paused when she saw the sleek griffon fishing boat at its moorings. “Tell me about your boat. You told me why it's called the Askold. Have you had it long, like was it your dad's, or something?”

“He's fourteen years old,” Artur gave a proud look to the bright orange fishing boat, “but I've had it for nine years. My house loaned me half of it, and I'll have them paid back in six years.”

Listening to his every word, Filigree nodded her head, “and are most fishing boats that size?” she asked, looking over the boats swaying beside the pier. Theirs was the only one of griffon design.

“Yes, all the ocean going ones are seventy to one hundred feet, so the Askold is average at eighty feet.”

“Wow, so you go all the way out into the ocean proper?” asked Filigree, who now she was stood at the boat, realised a very stark truth. “On the ocean. With thousands of feet of water under us, and hundreds of sea monsters who can attack at any minute...”

“A sea monster might be tasty,” snickered Artur as he stepped up onto the deck of his beloved boat, “I'd be more worried about catching one of the merfolk.”

“You mean a hippogriff?” asked Filigree, her head cocked to one side as she too alighted the gently swaying deck, “That would be so exciting!”

“Yeah,” Artur said, his expression as deadpan as his voice, “exciting. Right up till they sink the boat.”

“Why would they do that?” Filigree was genuinely puzzled, “If they can't look up and see a net, that's their bad luck, right?”

“It would be because we were doing unauthorized fishing.”

“You aren't, are you?”

Just then, Dimitri emerged from the doors that led to the below decks. In his clawed hands he held one of the steaks he had cooked and was now eating. “No,” he answered the pony’s question, “we've got every license the authorities can invent, but that doesn't stop the hippos claiming what's under the waves as theirs.”

“Hippos,” Artur laughed, “We don't honour them with the Griff part.”

“Which is why we stick to the northern Celestia sea,” stated Dimitri. “Our boundary is Horseshoe Bay. Too far south is disputed waters, thanks to Mount Aris.” The griffon then looked over his older brother. “Where did you go?”

“Snowclaw’s place.”

“Did she eat the fishes?”

“Yes Dimitri,” Filigree snarked, “’She’ did,” she put heavy emphasis on the word ‘she’, “and they were tasty, too.”

“But after that other uni...”

“Enough, Dimitri,” Artur silenced his younger brother as effectively as if he’d reached out and clamped his beak shut with a clawed hand. “Did Pietro get the bilge pump fixed?”

Almost as if using his name had summoned him into being, Pietro appeared on the deck of the fishing boat. “It was pretty easy, without you pestering me.”

Dimitri shot Filigree a sly, calculated look, “You know,” he said in a dangerously snide voice, “after fish, there's only one thing left to try…” tauntingly, the griffon held out the very raw piece of steak to the unicorn.

Filigree’s eyes went wider than the biggest dinner plates. The smell of the meat hit the back of her nose and the look of it alone revulsed her. “What?” she asked as she watched blood dripping along the meat and on to the deck.

“I'm pretty sure you can still fish with a broken wing,” Artur said in a deadpan tone, staring at his younger brother like he was craven prey while Pietro snorted out a cawing laugh and Dimitri popped the meat into his sharp beak.

“Alright, jeez, just having a bit of fun, chill out Arty,” Dimitri shot his laughing brother a stark glare.

“Are you joining us tonight, or do you have your other Thursday plans?” asked Pietro curiously.

“Very much other plans,” Artur confirmed, planning in his mind to take Filigree over to Stallion Island and attend the party at Caffeinated’s ranch, “You won't have to listen to me nag all night. At least till Monday,” he added with a smirk. “Now, we will start the tour on the bridge and end in the engine room. Then we can shower before we go out tonight.”

Filigree watched the disgruntled Dimitri take off, muttering he had to go get something for the boat, then she searched her memory for a piece of information. “The bridge, that's where you control the boat, right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Artur began the tour with the bridge and an explanation of the various controls. He took a prideful delight in sharing what the many buttons did, how the radio worked, the functions of the navigator station and the steering wheel. He even let her have a go, to get the feel of it. Then, he showed her the trawling nets and in the hold, he led her first to the galley, then the sleeping area with the hammocks and finally, the engine room.

“Huh,” Filigree thoroughly enjoyed the tour, all the way to the engine room. It was a huge steam powered engine, and it was so dirty with coat soot and grime it was almost impossible to tell what colour it had been originally. “It's...well used, I guess,” she tried to be diplomatic as possible.

Pietro beamed with pride as he made his way down below deck, “She's dirty, alright,” he grinned, “but she gets the job done.”

“I haven't seen clean coal yet,” Artur snorted with a roll of his eyes.

“Oh,” Filigree felt suddenly foolish, “I didn't mean any offense.”

In response, Pietro simply snickered, “Oh, none taken. I like my best girl all dirty.”

“And on that note,” Artur decided to step in before his younger brother went on to detail how he’d anthropomorphised the engine, given it a name and a personality and at one time, had been caught asleep on it, “we'll take our leave. Good hunting tonight, brother.”

“It's always good, Arty,” Pietro bumped claws with his older brother and then he bumped his claw to Filigree’s hoof. “Make him earn it, little pony,” he winked, and then he set about some tinkering with his dirty girl.

As Artur headed back up to the deck, Filigree fell into step at his side. “That was fun!” she squealed happily, though she was grateful to be back up on the main deck. The fresh air was like taking a cold drink on a hot day. “Thank you, for sharing this with me, Master.”

“I'm proud of the boat and of my brothers,” Artur seemed to walk a couple of feet taller as he led his mare from the trawler and onto the pier. His destination wasn’t all that far away.

“I know,” it was obvious even to Filigree that her Master was incredibly proud of his family and his livelihood. She contented herself by nestling into the tall strong griffon's side, with her tail resting over his as they walked along. She didn’t really pay attention to where they were going, more she allowed his body to steer her along. “I could use that shower now, if you don't mind.”

“We can both use a shower now,” asserted Artur, who had fallen into his role of guide, steering the white unicorn along the pier and on to the residential part of the docks, “and to show you my house.”

When they arrived at the town house, Filigree found it looked like all the others on the street. Unlike Whinnyapolis, Manehatten was host to cookie cutter houses, it seemed. There was a white picket fence, a well kept lawn and plenty of parking in the lot, though none of the brothers owned a car. Inside was far more personalised. The ground floor had a great room, a kitchen, a dining room and a half bathroom. The first floor consisted of two bedrooms, one each for Dimitri and Pietro, a full bathroom and an office. The top most floor had two bedrooms, which were Artur’s and a gaming room, a full bathroom, and a walk out to a balcony patio.

“I totally love your place!” squealed Filigree in sheer delight. Her eyes were everywhere all at once, big and wide trying to take in everything at once. She loved the very rustic wooden build of the house, for it reminded her of her home, in a good way. Still with her head on a swivel, she followed Artur into the top floor bathroom, “It’s way bigger than my barn room!”

“It works for us,” the griffon replied modestly as he got the shower going at a nice comfortably hot temperature so they could wash the accumulated coal dust off each other’s bodies.

“It’s so nice to have plumbing!” giggled Filigree as she hopped into the bathtub proceeded to use her magic to thoroughly clean her Master’s feathered and furred body. “And with running hot water, too!” this was indeed a luxury, one she thought she could get used to.

After the very thorough shower and drying, once he was happy and satisfied his pony was cleaned to his liking, Artur nudged her out of the tub. “We have thirty minutes, and it is a ten minute walk to the subway station. So, I decree it is brush time.” She was only to happy to get a brushing. The unicorn approached his bed, and Artur beckoned her to him. “Lay here, my pet, and I'll make you beautiful like the Filigree you are.”

For her part, Filigree was all smiles. To be brushed by him, the moment she was in the required position, it was like getting her dessert before the main course. She started to purr like a contented kitten almost as soon as the brush touched her clean white fur. “My pet has such a lovely mane,” he cooed softly into her ear, his free hand caressing her black mane and down her neck, “So soft for me to run my claws and brush through.”

“Mmmmm…” Filigree moaned practically straightaway. Her eyes closed in contentment and the gentling was having its desired effect. Her muscles relaxed, her lithe body totally limp and completely at ease. “I'm so soft...”

Artur gradually and slowly moved his claw and the brush down Filigree's neck to her back and he spent a good few minutes on brushing her long black tail. After just a few passes of the brush her tail was glossy and smooth. “I have such a beautiful pet, who will make me proud.”

Filigree didn't even flinch when her Master’s claws passed over the deep scars on her back, her tail flicked up and swished side to side in time with his long, slow, calculated strokes. “Hmm, make you so proud…”

Casually, using his greater strength, Artur rolled the unicorn over onto her back and he then started with the brush at the top of her chest. He ran it all the way down to her belly several times, and then his free hand caressed its talons gently over her large breasts and on to her labia. “You are all mine, Filigree, to do as I please, and you do please me.” It pleased him greatly to see how her body reacted to his slightest touch, his deft caress elicited mewls of pleasure from her.

On her back, Filigree melted under his skilled touch. The brush moving effortlessly through her fur combined with the claw caressing her mane. Her hind legs splayed out wide, her breath came in short gasps. “All I want is to please you, Master,” she was incredibly moist between her legs already, his words were her everything.

Knowing he had her in the palm of his claw, Artur moved the claw holding the brush up and with the back of it, the griffon lightly tapped Filigree's horn, a smirk all over his beak. “Then we go, so you can please me tonight.” Without a look back, he got out of the bed and he headed for the door.

“Huh? Oh!” bought back to reality, Filigree quickly gathered her wits about her and she was up on her hooves and, with an almost glowing white coat and silky black mane, followed him out. “I’m right with you, Master.”

As he left the building, Artur chuckled at the door. “Pet, did you remember your shoulder bag with your subway pass?” he asked, knowing the answer already and waiting on the porch, keys in claw.

Without so much as a pause in her step, Filigree used her magic to float out her shoulder bag like nothing had happened. “Yes, Master!”

“You are a good pet,” Artur clipped a leash to her collar, took hold of it, and led her to the subway station.