//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Love in Lowly Places 
// by Drynwhyl 
//------------------------------//

Dawn still waited a small stretch of eternity away when Celestia was roused from the fitful sleep of newfound lovers entwined, and her mind struggled to catch up with itself as the gentle susurrations of her lover nestled against the hollow of her throat teased a gentle gasp from her, entirely unbidden. She shimmied closer to her beloved even as the sheets, sodden with sweat and other remnants of the night's exertion, clung to her frame. The silken fur of her chest pressed against the hard surface of her companion's plastron. The alicorn felt her heart pause a moment upon contact.

"Oh, Tank..."

The night of their long-denied union had gifted them both a whirlwind of passion the likes of which they had never experienced before. She had given herself to him, utterly and irrevocably, and he in turn had drank from her so, so deeply. Under the passionate cries of the moon itself she had bared herself wholly to her reptilian other, and he in kind to her. 

Totally and completely.

It was funny. While she had rendered herself vulnerable, she had never felt safer. Celestia smiled at the seemingly paradoxical thought, the resolution of which now seemed so simple and trivial. She tilted her head down, looking over the slumbering form of her lover for affirmation that, while not strictly necessary, was something she desired more than anything else in the world.

Ah, yes, there it is.

Celestia gazed lovingly at her twin flame. His scent, thick with ecstasy, wafted oh-so-gently across her nose and the urge to wake him, to surrender herself to him once more was almost irrepressible. She scrunched her eyes tightly and bit the inside of her cheek. As much as she wanted to, it would be nothing but selfish if she disturbed him now. He needed his rest, so rest he would.

What is time to me, to us, anyway? A second is just as much a fraction of the rest of forever as a century. I can wait.

And she certainly was capable of doing so even if her willingness hinged on whether necessity were to demand it of her. She sighed softly before momentarily illuminating her horn. A gentle light sprung to life atop the bedside candle, casting her lover's features into stark relief, and she silently took it all in with eyes that smouldered with millennia of longing. 

He's so strong, so sure of himself. But there's also an underlying gentleness, a burning need to love others even if his outward appearance seems entirely indifferent. That's why I fell in love with him, I think.

Celestia closed her eyes and crooked her head down further, no longer being able to resist as memories of the night before smashed away her self-restraint. Her delicate features brushed against Tank's tough reptilian hide, lips meeting scales, and she nuzzled softly against the conical protrusion that stood atop Tank's forehead. Tank, finding his sleep suddenly disturbed, instinctively retreated back into his shell only for his horn to impede his progress at the very last moment. Celestia's hooves tenderly ran themselves through the fluffy down of his newly-formed wings, eliciting a strange grunt from the tortoise. The princess nickered lovingly into his ear in turn, holding herself closer to her beloved as their forms meshed together.

Or maybe, Celestia thought with a smitten grin, maybe it's just simply magic.