- Practice Sex -

Am I a bad pony? I like to think that I'm good and kind and caring and not at all like those mean-spirited colts that used to torment my best friend and I growing up. But there's one pony in my life that has a talent for getting under my skin in a way that makes me feel things I really wish I wouldn't.

Just like today when I heard a loud pounding on my door and found his smug, unkept face shoved right up to the peephole. I let out a long, exasperated sigh and opened the door. As much as I'd have loved to pretend to be away, I knew he'd stick around like old mold and it was better to rip the band-aid off than let it fester.

"Hello sis!"

"Zephyr, what are you doing here?"

"Just here to visit my beautiful big sister, why else would I be here?"

"Zephyr."

"No really, I've just missed you terribly!"

I couldn't help but snort. "You haven't written to me in two years. I bought this house last year and you haven't once darkened my doorstep." I stepped forward and poked him in his skinny chest. "What do you really want?"

"Oh how you wound me, Fluttershy! Maybe I just haven't come by because I know you wouldn't believe me when I say I just want to see you. I've missed you terribly and just want to catch up, maybe for a few days."

I reached up and gave my temple a good rub. A quick look over his shoulder showed me that he'd brought a few bags of his stuff, probably most of what he owned. He was clearly here to stay and I wasn't in the mood to play coy. "Come in and I'll make us some tea. I just finished putting the animals to sleep so please don't make any overly loud noises."

If I was a kinder sister, I probably would've helped him move his stuff in. Then again, if he was a kinder brother he wouldn't just spring this on me after not saying anything for years. I searched through the cabinet until I found a blend of tea we both could tolerate and set the kettle on the stove. It didn't take long for the water to boil and soon enough I had two sets of tea placed at the table.

He came into the kitchen huffing, clearly exerted from carrying his luggage around. Good. Maybe he'd finally fill out a bit and lose that coltish physique. I motioned to the seat opposite of mine and he flopped down into it with all the grace of a water buffalo. Try as I might to tease him about it when we were growing up, I never could convince him to fix his posture.

Once we were both settled, we took our time sipping our tea. He clearly didn't want to have that inevitable conversation that was looming over us and I'd always been comfortable in silence. Still, it was nice to get a chance to sit down and drink with my brother. When he wasn't busy running his mouth, he could actually be quite pleasant company. Just like when we were children. Still, we'd emptied our cups all too soon and I knew I couldn't put this off forever.

"So dad kicked you out."

"Uh... yeah."

"Figures. How'd you manage to get on his bad side? Even Rainbow Dash couldn't pull that one off and she isn't even his kid."

Zephyr chuckled. "No, no, I didn't do anything in particular. If anything he was more upset about what I wasn't doing."

"Really?"

"Yeah. He just barged into my room the other day, dragged the sheets off of my bed and took one look at me. Said no son of his would waste his life sleeping it away and that he was kicking me out for the next few weeks so I'd go and couch surf with some friends and maybe make something of myself. Said I should by with my friends on Nightmare Night."

"And rather than taking a page from his book and seeing your friends you came here instead. To me, a mare who hardly speaks two words to anypony that isn't a close friend or family. Why?"

"My friends lives have mostly moved on. I hardly see them anymore. What am I going to do, pop up at one of their doorsteps and ask to stay at their place?"

"Yeah, kind of. That's one way to rekindle old friendships." I shrugged. "It's how I got back into touch with Rainbow Dash. I didn't own this house when I first moved out here. She was already renting a spot and made room for me when I left Cloudsdale."

"I don't think I was ever that close with any of them."

I wished as he looked down into his teacup as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. I could already feel him slipping back into his routine, finding ways to wheedle out of any personal accountability and let life rule him like a serf. I felt my conscious harden as I got ready to confront him on it. As easy as it would be to just give him his way, I couldn't in good conscience let that happen. I loved my brother too much to allow it.

"Zephyr, look at me. He's right. You can't spend your whole life bouncing from house to house, mooching off your relatives and getting nowhere."

"I don't cost them a lot of money, so what gives?"

"It's not just the money, Zephyr. What are you going to do when Mom and Dad are gone? Who's going to take care of you then?"

Zephyr looked at me then looked around my house then back to me. I actually scowled. It was this kind of thing that really got under my craw with him.

"Oh no you don't. I won't have you mooching off me for the rest of your life! It wouldn't be good for you and it wouldn't be fair to me!" I narrowed my eyes at him. "What are you waiting for, Zephyr? Are you hoping life is just going to fall into place for you one day and everything will go your way?"

"No."

"Then what are you doing? Do you think I got this far by sitting around and waiting? I had to work to get this house! I had to spend years getting certified to care for the animals in my care! It didn't just fall into my lap."

"I know that."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

Zephyr looked away. "To die."

"Bullshit."

"There's nothing for me here anymore, Fluttershy. I'm not ready to die, but I'm not ready to live. I'm just... kinda stuck in limbo."

A part of me wanted to sympathize. I really did want to connect with him and feel what he felt. But a part of me knew that a lot of this was self-inflicted. And I couldn't be like our father and just roll over and let him take advantage of me. Of himself. I stared at him until he looked back up at me. I held his gaze and finally spoke. "If you're not afraid to die then you have nothing to be afraid of. Someone who has nothing to lose has nothing to lose in trying."

Zephyr shook his head. "It's not that easy, sis. What am I going to do now? I'm already turning twenty. I'm two years late go to college and I didn't do that great in high school. Everypony there would be younger than me and they'd wonder why I hadn't already gone."

"You're wrong about that, but go ahead and give me another excuse."

"I don't know the first thing about making friends. Even if a college would take me what would I do with a degree once I got one? You're right that life won't fall into my lap. I'd need to make connections and secure a job before I even graduate and I don't even know where to start."

"Do I look like a great font of knowledge when it comes to social skills?" I looked at him critically. "I still got my job as the local vet and I managed to put a down payment on this house within a year of starting."

"Yeah, but you're you."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"I mean just look at you! You're talented at what you do, you're really insanely pretty, and you're very charming when you want to be. Just because you're socially anxious doesn't change that!"

"You think it's any different with you?" I got up and circled around the table, taking his chin in my hoof and turning it side to side. "You look incredibly scruffy and unkept but you can't hide the fact that you have great natural features. You're very slim but wiry and strong. You could look great if you bothered to take care of yourself. The way you talk is grating but you actually have a nice voice. And yes, you can be charming when you want to be. That's how you've managed to live off of others your entire life."

Zephyr looked up at me at that last bit. He seemed lost in thought for a moment, chewing what I'd said to him before he circled back to something I'd said.

"So you're saying I'm good looking?" he asked.

"Don't get a big head about it, but yes."

"I don't believe you. You're saying that the same way mom says that." He poked me in the ribs. "I'm certainly nowhere as good looking as you are, even as a stallion.

I couldn't help but snort. "Yeah, because you actively try to look like you crawled out of a dumpster." I flicked his unwashed bun. "Really digging that homeless look, Zephyr. You used to have a real sense of style when we were growing up. You helped me make my own style and everypony loves it. What happened to you?"

"My mane is an expression for how I feel. Why would I make it look good when I feel like trash?"

"You're not trash, though. And I'd rather you stop treating yourself like it."

"You're just saying that."

"I'm not. Stop tearing yourself down. You've been making a self-fulfilling prophecy out of your life for years now. You're a good-looking, charming stallion with a serious self-esteem problem."

"Everyone sees the best in their family. If I was so good-looking I'd have had mares lining up for me. If I was so charming I'd have been offered better opportunities."

"Didn't you say you weren't expecting life to fall into your lap?"

"Yeah, but--"

"But what? You don't expect to be given something for free but you're surprised nopony approaches you out of the blue? You have to reach out to them if you want them to notice you." I rubbed my hoof in his mane. "And you need to clean yourself up if you want them to notice how you look. You can't put your worst hoof forward and then be surprised when they make judgements off of that."

"I don't even know how to approach anypony, let alone a mare."

"Then you need to practice."

"How?"

"Hmm..."

He really did need practice. While he knew how to talk to ponies in an abstract sense like one stranger to another or a student to a teacher, he really didn't have much experience with anypony else. Not that I was the most social pony, but even I could see he needed work. Actually...

"Well I wasn't going anywhere for Nightmare Night anyways. How about you clean up in the shower for a minute and I'll whip us up some dinner. This house is far enough out of town that most ponies don't come out here for candy anyways. When you get done, we're going to practice a bit of back and forth like you would with a mare on your first date."

Zephyr gulped. I could see a slight red tint spreading across his cheeks. I rolled my eyes at that.

"Don't worry, it's not like you're on a real date or anything. I just want you to get used to talking to mares. Consider this a trial run."

"Alright, where's the restroom?"

I led him upstairs and showed him to the bathroom. I knew he knew enough about care products to take care of himself, something that was kind of unusual for stallions but not unwelcome. If he wanted to, he could really put a shine in his mane.

"Oh and Zephyr? Please do make yourself presentable and not just clean. Treat it like you would if you were going to meet a mare for the first time."

"Alright."

- I -

Half an hour later a much cleaner Zephyr stepped into my living room. I nodded approvingly as I looked him up and down, noticing the nice sheen in his coat and the fact he'd let his mane down to frame his long jawline. He looked less like an unkept vagabond and more like a rockstar. And he knew it. His posture was already improving, his head held higher than I'd seen it since high school.

"Not bad," I said, walking around him. "You could front a band with that look."

"Thanks sis."

"Don't mention it. Now I don't know about you but I'm starving. Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

And with that the two of us sat down at the kitchen table. I was no master chef but I'd certainly made enough pasta in my life to get by and by the expression Zephyr made it was clear he hadn't eaten in a day or two. I couldn't help but wonder what he'd been up to between getting kicked out and showing up at my doorstep. Still, there wasn't time for any worries.

We went through the motions of a date, me letting him take the lead in conversation and pointing it out if he spent too long talking or drifted into a subject no mare was likely to be interested in. He seemed to really pay attention, constantly trying to adjust his conversation style to the mold I'd made for him. It wasn't long until he seemed to fall into a pattern and he seemed far more charming than when we'd started out, no longer the self-effacing loser he'd become. Maybe, just maybe, he'd have a real chance.

"Not bad, Zephyr! You might actually make it to a second date if you keep improving."

"Thanks, I think?"

"No, I actually mean it!" I said as I pulled him close and nuzzled up to his neck. "Mmm, you even smell good. Some mare will be lucky to have you."

"I wouldn't know what to do with one even if they fell into my lap."

"Well I mean the exercise we just did applies to more than just the first date. You just have to keep your conversations balanced and know when to lead and when to follow."

"No, I don't... uh..." Zephyr paused, looking away as his face turned bright red. "I don't know what I'd do with a mare if we ever got past just talking. You know, if things got heated and we..."

"Oh. Oh!"

"Yeah."

"Surely Dad gave you the talk, right?" I asked. He just shrugged.

"You mean like where tab A goes into slot B? Yeah, but nothing else. I know how animals mate to make offspring but I don't know how to treat a mare right and I've always been self-conscious about it."

"Oh dear."

That... actually made a lot of sense. Our father wasn't really well known for being appealing to mares, even if both of his children were good-looking by any metric. While our mother had been pretty thorough when she had The Talk with me, she was evasive about any details about her relationship with our father. A part of me wondered if she was just being polite or if there was an underlying reason for her to be. Given how little Zephyr knew, I started to lean towards the latter.

"That's it," I said, getting up. I trotted over to one of the cabinets and pulled out a bottle I kept hidden behind a bag of flour.

"What're you doing, sis?"

"We're going to have a good little chat and I'm far too sober for this." I pulled a couple of shot glasses out of the cabinet and placed one on each side of the table. As easy as it was for me to talk to my own brother compared to ponies I wasn't familiar with, I was still shy about this topic even with my kin.

"Bottoms up!"

- I -

Our conversation started out awkwardly enough, but as we got a few shots in it really became easy to open up and we had no issues talking about the finer points of sexual intimacy. He actually seemed surprised that there was more to sex than just mindlessly rutting with the stallion mounting the mare, and a part of me wanted to scream at our dad for teaching him so poorly. Or, well, maybe raise my voice by a few decibels. Same thing.

Somehow we'd migrated up to my bedroom in the middle of that, and eventually I found myself splayed out on my back, my legs spread apart to give Zephyr a good look at what I was working with. I had my hooves between my legs, spreading my pussy lips apart so he could get a good look inside.

"If you look closely you can see that there's a rougher texture along the top of my vagina. That's actually a mare's rugae and what you should focus on during penetration if you want to make her feel good," I said. I blushed deeply as I looked away from him. "You could also stimulate her clitoris with your hoof during intercourse. It feels really nice when you do both at the same time. Still don't overdo it. A lot of stallions are either on or off about that and can overstimulate a mare in the hopes of bringing her to her orgasm which actually makes it worse."

"Really? So how much pressure should I put on one?"

"Well... you could try softly teasing it sometimes at the start but put more work into it later when she's getting closer to climax. Just don't be too rough. I know our hooves aren't as hard as they look but they aren't soft either. It'd be like if a mare squeezed your balls too hard. A gentle touch can feel nice but too much hurts."

"Sheesh!" Zephyr said, drawing closer. "Yeah if it's anything like my balls I can see why you wouldn't want that. How much pressure should I put?" He placed a hoof on my thigh and pressed down gently. "This much?"

"At the start, sure. Maybe a bit more as it goes. Try moving your hoof in circular motions too. You don't want to just press down like it's a button."

He put a bit more weight on his hoof and started to draw circles in my fur with it. While his hoof was on my thigh his eyes never left my pussy. I felt my hips starting to move a little bit as he kept stroking my thigh and I knew that I wasn't entirely dry down there. Maybe it was just the alcohol but I was really starting to feel uncomfortably hot.

"So like this? While I'm going back and forth with my penis?"

"Yes." I groaned a little as he moved his hoof a bit higher up my leg. "Don't forget to push your penis up a bit to the front of her vagina. I don't mean the entrance, I mean the front like here," I said, resting my hoof right above my marehood and started rubbing. "And not my back as in where my spine is. It's about location, not depth. Mares have a lot of nerves there compared to the back."

"Is there a book that shows where?"

"Probably but you have a front-row seat right here."

His hoof moved a bit further up my leg, almost reaching my crotch now. My breath hitched as the edge of his hoof rubbed up against my outer pussy lips. I looked away from him, not wanting to meet his gaze.

"I'm an experiential learner," he said, leaning over me. "Do you mind if..."

I didn't meet his eyes but I did nod. Maybe if I was more sober I'd have told him no, but right then his hoof was driving me crazy and I hadn't been lying when I said he smelled good. Maybe I was just horny. And it's not like he didn't need the experience.

"Just once, okay? And don't cum inside."

"Alright," he said. He scooted up a bit until he was hovering over me, his hoof still resting in my inner thigh and drawing slow figures as his other hoof rested next to my head. I felt him prod around a bit in my lower region, the tip of his phallus poking around to find my entrance. I giggled a bit at that before reaching down to line him up.

"Here, let me. The actual hole is a bit lower than you think in this position."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. This is why we're practicing."

His tip brushed against my nether lips and once I had it in place I pulled him forward a bit to push the tip inside of me. He got the message and pushed further in with a groan. I panted next to his ear as his length slipped in inch by inch and we both let out a long moan as his median ring finally slipped past my entrance. It took a while but eventually I felt his balls brush against my butt and I knew he was as far in as he was going to go.

"Oh good, it doesn't hit my cervix," I muttered.

"I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing, silly. It's actually a good thing. I wouldn't want you to be slamming up against my womb when we really get going and I doubt you'd have the self-control not to hilt me when you're getting close."

"True. Are you feeling comfortable?"

I looked up at him and met his eyes. A part of me couldn't believe that we were really going this far. Another part of me wondered why we hadn't already done this. Either way, nothing short of a meteor strike could stop us at this point.

"Yeah. You can start now, if you'd like."

And he did. His pace started a bit slow, but he soon found a rhythm that worked for him and after a while it worked for me too. He was a bit frantic but seemed to be trying not to just go wild and blow his load. His hips slapped into mine over and over as he worked his length back and forth, and I leaned back and let my head rest on my pillow as he leaned down next to me, his heavy breathing in my ear.

I snaked my hoof around his shoulder and started to rub his back as he thrust into me. He moved his own hoof down between us and started to gently rub my clit, trying to find the right balance of pressure and gauging my reactions to see how I liked it. Eventually he found the sweet spot and I had to bite down on his shoulder to keep from crying his name out. His penis never did quite hit the spot I liked, but his hoof more than made up for it and the fact that we were doing it with the help of some social lubricant didn't hurt.

We kept at it for what felt like a while but was probably only a few minutes and his rhythm eventually grew more frantic. I stopped trying to hide my enjoyment entirely and leaned back, moaning his name out as his balls slapped against my ass over and over. The room felt hot, his body sweaty against mine, and the wet sounds of his member moving around in me made it feel like we were in one of my wet dreams.

"Oh Zephyr!"

I couldn't help it. The mix of our relentless fucking and his hoof on my clit finally sent me over the edge, and I was so distracted by my orgasm that I forgot to remind him to pull out. I didn't even notice as he burst inside of me, thick ropes of semen pushing up into my womb as he gasped out my name and fell on top of me. Our hips pushed against each other as he painted my insides white.

We pushed against each for a bit, riding out our climaxes before our breathing finally stilled and he rolled off of me. I rolled onto my side and he turned to meet my gaze. I pushed my snout forward and brushed his lips with my own. He was a bit sloppy as a kisser, but he definitely had potential. As our lips finally parted I pushed my head under his chin and let out a sigh.

"Now I'm going to be jealous of whatever mare gets to keep you."

"Hmmm," he said. "Why? Do a lot of ponies around here know about me."

"Other than Rainbow Dash? No."

He seemed lost in thought for a moment before he put his arms around me and pulled me close. He nuzzled into my mane and I let out a long, contended sigh. We lay there in each others arms for a bit before he spoke up.

"Help me get a job and I'll save up for us to go on a date."

"Are you nuts?"

"Am I? Nopony around here knows better and you could always make Rainbow spit-swear not to tell."

Was it really that simple? The idea was insane, guaranteed to fail, and definitely going to come back to bite us both in the flank. And yet it just might work. Try as I might, I couldn't shake the idea, and the more time I spent cuddling with him the more certain I was that if it was going to be a mistake, it would be our mistake.

"For practice?"

"For practice."

- Fin -

Author's Note

Hitting the contest deadline harder than you hit the local McDonalds.