Purely Scientific Interest

Twilight Sparkle was in a state of complete panic.

And that usually meant Ponyville was screwed.

“Spike?!”

Bursts of red and violet magic could be seen all over town as the frantic young unicorn teleported herself to and fro, stopping for only a matter of seconds between each leap to overturn some stone she thought she might not yet have overturned. But as meticulous as the filly usually was, she often ended up merely overturning the same stones every time. Never mind how ridiculous it was that she was doing so, as there was just no way what she was looking for could possibly be hiding under some little rock, but Twilight was nothing if not thorough, and she wanted to exhaust all her lesser options before she started invading ponies’ homes.

Which of course she then did.

Not that that fact really registered in her currently addled brain.

“Spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike?!”

Some ponies had tried to stop her from doing so, certainly. They’d learned to recognize that twisted mouth, the uneven lavender coat and frazzled purple mane and manic glint in her eye when she seriously lost her cool, and most ponies had locked themselves in their homes and barred the doors the moment they saw her. But that did nothing to ward off the most powerful unicorn in town from teleporting into their homes at will and rifling through their cupboards and closets in her search.

“Where are you?!”

More terrifying still to the average pony was that trying to shoo her away was met with swift and frightening retaliation. Well, no, not retaliation exactly, because that implied actual intent on Twilight’s part. But they certainly earned themselves a few singed hairs trying to poke or prod her into leaving and instead finding their fur igniting from the sheer heat of the magical energy radiating from her body as she searched, oblivious to each and every one of them.

“Spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike!!!!”

At long last, and to the elation of every other pony in Ponyville, Twilight finally stopped for a breather as she ported herself to the center of town. Mares and stallions alike gave her a wide berth, and the Town Square was a lot quieter than it normally would have been, as though everypony was afraid loud noises would set her off again like a scared animal. But that suited Twilight just fine. It made it easier for her to sit and think, try to calm down, and reassess her situation.

Spike was missing. That hadn’t changed.

Nopony she had asked about it had seen him since sometime early the previous evening. Nothing had changed about that, either.

At first she hadn’t worried. He was older now, of course, and so was she. He wasn’t a baby dragon any longer. He was reaching adolescence, and had grown to right about the same size as Twilight now, maybe a bit bigger, even. She’d gradually relaxed his curfew, and Spike never abused the privilege. She generally preferred him to let her know where he was going to go, but she certainly no longer needed to keep tabs on his whereabouts at all times anymore. Still, it was almost like second nature to worry for him, and when there was no sign of him well past curfew she’d stayed up late worrying until eventually falling asleep on the living room couch waiting. When she’d woken up at the first light of dawn and found he was still gone, she immediately set out to look for him.

She had asked around to her friends first. Applejack, though quite polite and alert for being awake so early in the morning, was too busy with her usual chores on the farm to have noticed anything and hadn’t been helpful at all. Pinkie Pie was the only other pony who was already awake, baking fresh muffins and cinnamon rolls for the morning rush at Sugar Cube Corner, and upon interrogation assured Twilight that everything was “okey-dokey,” and that it was perfectly natural for growing boys to sneak out now and then. Fluttershy was startled awake by Twilight’s frantic knocking and the subsequent screeching of Fluttershy’s animal friends as they too were rudely awoken, and she needed a few minutes of trembling with a cup of tea between her hooves before she could properly inform Twilight that no, she hadn’t seen Spike since the previous evening. Rarity hadn’t bothered to answer the door at all no matter how loudly Twilight knocked, and she could hear Rainbow Dash snoring in her cloud house from all the way down on the ground. Neither of them were likely to have seen Spike either.

With her first idea a bust, Twilight had moved on to searching anyplace else in town he might have been hanging out, but that proved equally fruitless. He wasn’t napping in the park, he wasn’t at the stationery shop getting new parchment, he wasn’t collecting gems in the quarry, he wasn’t even hanging out with the Cutie Mark Crusaders in their clubhouse. It was at this point that Twilight began to panic, and it wasn’t long before she had gone just a wee bit off the deep end. Breaking into other ponies’ houses probably hadn’t been smart. She’d have to apologize to everypony for that later, she scolded herself, filing away the mental note in the back of her mind.

For now though, her top priority remained the same: Find Spike. There weren’t many more places she could look, but she certainly wasn’t going to give up by any means. She decided to make one more sweep to each of her friends’ homes, to ask if they’d seen anything new. Rarity’s boutique was closest at the moment, so Twilight headed straight for it with the hope that Rarity was awake by now and might have some clue for her, because she doubted Rainbow Dash would wake up any earlier than noon. So with a deep breath and a silent prayer, Twilight knocked again on the front door of the Carousel Boutique.

“Coooo~miiiing!” Rarity’s singsong voice responded, and a few moments later the door opened, revealing the white coat and long, neatly-curled violet mane of her fellow unicorn. “Oh, Twilight, good morning! How are you on this fine day?”

Twilight stared at her in vague surprise for a moment. Rarity’s expression was… strange. Her eyelids were half-hooded, the smile on her face was somewhat tired and lazy and almost drunken despite stretching ear to ear, and a little giggle punctuated her sentences.

“Er… Rarity? Are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m just fantastic, darling, never felt better in my life!” That woozy giggle and lazy smile swept over her again. “Whatever can I do for you today?”

That snapped Twilight back to reality. Important business first. She could worry about whatever had Rarity feeling so loopy some other time. “I just came by because I’m looking for Spike,” she began. “He’s been missing since yesterday and nopony has any idea where he is--”

Rarity’s giggle jumped in volume and intensity, cutting off Twilight’s words mid-sentence. “Oh Twilight, don’t be silly, Spike’s not missing at all!”

“Yes he is, Rarity, I’ve looked everywhere--”

“Well surely you haven’t, Twilight, or you would have found him.”

Twilight just barely resisted rolling her eyes at that. “Nnhh, Rarity, I don’t have time to split hairs here, I just wanted to ask if you’ve seen him recently--”

“Of course I have, dear, he’s right here.”

Twilight gave a full-bodied jerk. “WHAT?! He is?! He’s here?!” she demanded, leaning forward with suddenly enormous eyes.

Rarity’s giggles grew louder still, and they no longer seemed drunken, but rather almost… dreamy. “Why yes, he’s been right here with me for a while now.”

“With you?! Oh, thank Celestia…!” she praised as she heaved a sigh of relief. The immense weight that lifted off Twilight’s shoulders at Rarity’s words snapped her straight out of her momentary annoyance, so thrilled to hear he was somewhere safe that she didn’t even think to wonder about the circumstance. Yet. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?! I’ve been running around in a panic looking for him all morning!”

“Well you hadn’t asked me until just this moment,” Rarity pointed out.

Twilight couldn’t think of a response to that. “…Well, has he been here long? When did he get here?”

Rarity glanced up at the ceiling thoughtfully for a moment. “Oh, about six o’clock, I’d say.”

“Six?! What in Equestria did he come bothering you that early in the morning for?!”

“Oh no, no dear, I meant six in the evening.”

“Six in the--… wait, what? You mean… as in yesterday?”

“Mmhmm.”

“…He’s been here since six in the evening yesterday?”

“That’s right.”

“…Why?!”

Rarity leaned against the doorframe and, to Twilight’s further surprise, let out the happiest sigh she’d ever heard. “Oh, he came over to have a bit of a talk, and it was just so engaging we quite lost track of time. I didn’t want him walking home late at night all by himself, dragon or not, and we certainly weren’t in any hurry to break off our conversation, so I invited him to stay the night…”

“…What.”

“Mmhmm… oh, and what a wonderful night it was…”

“…What.”

Rarity seemed far too amused by the situation for Twilight’s liking, and she was beginning to giggle and heave dreamy sighs again, none of which were giving Twilight very good ideas about what the two of them had been doing all night. But before Twilight could interrogate Rarity further, a third presence interrupted her and shattered any lingering doubt she could have possibly clung to.

“Who’re ya talking to, Rarity? Were you expecting guests?” Spike’s unmistakable youthful drawl came wafting out from within the Boutique. And sure enough, a moment later the teenage dragon himself appeared at Rarity’s side, just about the same size as either of the two mares in the doorway, and began to flush brightly as he noticed who Rarity’s ‘guest’ was. “O-oh… uh, heh, h-hey, Twilight…”

“Mmm, good morning my little Spikey-Wikey,” Rarity cooed in a voice that made Twilight want to gag, and flung her front hooves lazily around his neck so she could lean on him and… nuzzle him?!

Yes, there was absolutely no mistaking it. She was nuzzling her cheek and the tip of her nose into the soft yellow flesh under his chin that ran all the way down his underbelly, and stroking his lime green scales with one hoof as though they were a pony’s mane. She was even pecking her lips against the corners of his mouth. It was the sort of public display of affection Twilight would have expected from a pair of teenage sweethearts, but coming from Rarity of all ponies, and directed at Spike, it was leaving her seriously weirded out and more than a little nauseous. Spike however didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, which came as utterly no surprise to Twilight. He was blushing all the way through his lavender scales, but there was an ear-to-ear grin on his face and his tail was twitching back and forth like a happy, excitable puppy. This must be a dream come true for him, Twilight thought with a mental eyeroll.

Whatever “this” was, exactly.

No! No, she couldn’t be distracted! There would be plenty of time later to figure out and/or repress all memories of whatever she was seeing. Right now her relief was rapidly being replaced by anger, and she had an assistant-slash-sort-of-little-brother to scold.

“Spike, when I started relaxing your curfew I trusted you to respect it!” she started into her sternest tone. “That does not mean staying out all night and into the next morning without telling me! Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?! I was up half the night wondering why you weren’t home yet, I’ve been running around Ponyville since sunrise looking for you, I’ll probably have to personally apologize to everypony in town for barging into their homes in a panic because I couldn’t find you anywhere else, and when I finally do find you, you’re making kissy-faces with Rarity?! I thought something was really wrong, Spike! I thought you were hurt, I thought somepony might have kidnapped you, I was absolutely worried sick!!”

Rarity had dropped away from Spike by now, and a much more sheepish and ashamed blush crossed the young dragon’s face. Rarity’s as well, to Twilight’s mild surprise, and the pair of them were wearing quite similar expressions of guilt.

“I, uh… w-well… aw, jeez, Twilight, I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you, honest, things just sorta… happened,” Spike stammered, in that moment looking for all the world like the child Twilight remembered from years ago. “B-but it’s not like I went anywhere weird or dangerous or anything, I was just, y’know, here, with Rarity. I woulda figured this was one of the first places you’d look…”

“I did! Hours ago!” Twilight snapped, a little more angrily than she intended. “I pounded on the door as loud as I could, but somepony ignored me!” she added, throwing an additional glare in Rarity’s direction.

Rarity, to her credit, already seemed to have realized what she’d done, and had the sense of mind to look appropriately remorseful for it. “Oh, dear, that was you, Twilight? I’m so terribly sorry, I thought it was some over-zealous customer coming to call before business hours, and… well, of course, had I known, I would have eased your mind at the time, but we were hardly going to get out of bed just to tell somepony to come back during proper hours of operation. Still, I’m most deeply sorry for making that incorrect assumption.”

Twilight snorted out a heavy sigh. “Well, thank you, Rarity, for owning up to that much, but it never should have even come to that,” Twilight said, returning her glare to her assistant. “Spike, you should have told me where you were going to be. You might be growing up, but you’re still under my care, and you’re to follow my rules, including your curfew.”

Spike was staring at the floor at this point, looking thoroughly shamed, but before he could properly answer, Rarity stepped between them to speak up again. “Twilight dear, please don’t be so harsh on sweet little Spike,” Rarity almost begged. “I am just as responsible for this situation as he is, if not more so. If you must blame somepony, then please, blame me.”

Twilight sighed again. “Rarity, I appreciate the show of generosity, but Spike disobeyed my rules and stayed out all night without telling me--”

“And I confess that is entirely my fault,” Rarity interrupted. “He stayed all night because… well, because I asked him to. As a matter of fact, I… quite insisted on it.”

It was to those words that Twilight’s stern tone finally gave pause. Her anger at the both of them slowly petered out, and in her natural desire for knowledge and understanding that bordered on instinctual need, she was at last forced to consider, really consider the circumstances in which she had found her two friends that morning. And as she looked at Spike’s sheepish smile and shining eyes that held neither guilt nor regret beyond having caused Twilight to worry, as she thought back on all the dreamy sighs and happy giggles Rarity had voiced in their ten minutes of conversation, as she recalled Rarity hugging and nuzzling Spike in far too affectionate a manner and her distinctive use of the words ‘we’ and ‘bed’ in close proximity, Twilight’s brain finally realized – or perhaps more accurately could no longer ignore – the obvious truth.

“I… I don’t… I…” Twilight stammered in disbelief. “Rarity, are… are you…” she paused, and her gaze slid over to Spike, “…and you…?”

Rarity placed a sympathetic hoof around the other unicorn’s shoulder. “Twilight, please don’t be upset. We haven’t been going about behind your back if that’s what you’re concerned with. Our evening together last night was the first; we had every intention of keeping you in the loop…”

“Yeah, Twilight, don’t get all freaked out. Rarity’s right, we only just talked everything out last night. We were totally gonna tell you, honest! Today, even!” Spike added.

“Tell me what exactly? That one of my best friends suddenly decided to start dating my assistant out of nowhere?” Twilight demanded, again more harshly than intended, some part of her still desperate to cling to the old status quo.

“Oh, really now, Twilight, you make it sound as though the idea were utterly repulsive,” Rarity admonished her. “I assure you first and foremost that I did not come to the conclusions that I did last night without careful and thorough consideration, and the honest truth is, Spike is the finest gentlecolt I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.”

“…He is?”

“I am?”

Rarity nodded, and although her cheeks remained a tint of red, she spoke without so much as a hint of embarrassment. “That’s right. And considering he is not a ‘colt’ at all, that is quite saying something. My initial aversion to the thought of partnering with a dragon – no offense, Spikey dear – why, it paled in comparison to the fact that he otherwise was and is everything I have ever wanted in a romantic partner. He is considerate, kind, chivalrous, helpful, and extraordinarily charming, but most importantly of all, sincere. From any other creature I might have rolled my eyes at the flattery oozing from their mouths, obviously calculated and faked in the hope of finding their way to my bedroom. But not Spike. Never Spike. There’s not an ounce of insincerity in his body. Why, he could rival Applejack herself for embodying the Element of Honesty, that’s how sincere he is.”

Twilight’s jaw hung slack. She couldn’t believe it. She didn’t dare believe it. After all these years, after rolling her eyes so many times at Spike’s youthful shenanigans as he worked tirelessly to catch Rarity’s eye even as she tried to dodge his in turn… had it really finally worked? Did Spike finally find the gesture that won her heart? Had Rarity at last given up on her lifelong vision of a pristine, handsome gentlecolt of renown and royalty whisking her away to a life of luxury in some faraway palace reminiscent of a fairy tale happy ending?

…Well, okay, when you put it that way, Twilight thought to herself, giving up that particular vision is probably a good thing. But still, something isn’t adding up.

“Rarity, that’s… very sweet of you and all, but Spike’s still a dragon. You’ve never said anything about being attracted to dragons before, that sort of thing doesn’t just appear without cause. And even if you were suddenly attracted to him, don’t you think that’s going to cause certain… ‘complications’ in the future?”

“I’m right here, y’know,” Spike griped.

Again Rarity hugged the young dragon and stroked a hoof over his spines. “It’s alright, Spike, I’m sure Twilight doesn’t mean anything against you by it…and were this some time ago, she would have a point. I am ashamed to admit it, Spike, but… back then, I did let our species difference unfairly color my preferences…”

At that Rarity paused, and returned her gaze to Twilight. “But we’ve matured over the years, and when Spike became more and more of what I wanted in a partner in that time… well, I simply could no longer justify dismissing him out of hoof merely because he was a dragon.”

Twilight shifted her hooves uncomfortably at that. She wanted to argue the point, to tell her that it wasn’t that simple, but seeing the way Spike’s face light up the way it did at Rarity’s words… suddenly Twilight didn’t have the heart to. She really didn’t mean anything against Spike, but if she kept arguing, it might have very well sounded like it.

“I do hope you understand, Twilight… I know it sounds a little strange, but it’s the honest truth. Spike deserved the chance he dreamed of after everything he’s done for me, and I’m not sorry for giving it to him.”

Twilight definitely couldn’t come up with an argument to that, and so simply nodded, though reluctantly.

“And as for not being attracted to him, well, I think you’re being just a touch unfair. It’s certainly not as though I found him un-attractive…”

Warning bells began going off in Twilight’s head. Suddenly she wasn’t sure she liked where this narrative was going.

“As a matter of fact,” Rarity went on, “at that point I’d come to know him so well that, species difference or not, physical attraction wasn’t all that far-fetched anyway. They say emotional attraction breeds the physical, you know, and I believe I was already starting to think of him as quite handsome in his own right. I won’t deny that I was a bit nervous at the thought of physicality, of course, what with the species difference, but as I said, I was perfectly willing to give it a fair chance…”

The alarm in Twilight’s thoughts graduated from bells to sirens. This had to be a joke. Or a very, very weird dream. It had to be. Because there was no way in Equestria that Rarity could be seriously considering--

“And after last night, well, frankly I haven’t a clue what I was so worried about. Intimacy is apparently quite universal, it turns out. The only ‘complication’ we really encountered was where to put the other one.”

…Okay, so maybe she had considered it.

Wait. Other what?

“Buh… but… you said you were just dating…” Twilight heard herself mumble.

“No, Twilight darling, you said that… the truth is it’s quite a fair bit more than dating.”

And just like that, Twilight’s last thread of denial was gone. “…You’re mating.”

Spike’s goofy grin and Rarity’s serene and only slightly embarrassed smile were all the answer Twilight needed. But rather than explaining things, now she was just more confused than ever. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be possible. There was no way it was possible.

“But… how?”

Now it was Rarity’s turn to looks confused. “Er… ‘how’ what, exactly? Surely I don’t need to explain the… mechanics of lovemaking to you of all ponies, do I?”

“I… well, no, but… I didn’t think… you’d be… compatible…” Twilight stammered, something on any other day she would have said with confident and convincing sureness, but now was having trouble making even herself believe it, because she was rapidly realizing that, in fact, she had no idea at all.

“Not compatible? Twilight, don’t tell me you’ve been raising a dragon from infancy and haven’t even studied their biology?”

Twilight felt herself backpedaling from Rarity’s front door. “O-of course I have! I… I just… that isn’t…! I never needed to…!”

The look on Rarity’s face grew swiftly and suddenly concerned. “Twilight, I apologize, I meant nothing by it, I… I simply assumed you knew all about--”

Twilight didn’t listen to whatever Rarity said after that. She couldn’t listen to more. She’d already heard far too much, and now her head was swimming and her face felt hot with embarrassment, and some other strange and unsettling sensation she couldn’t place. She had to get out of there, before she humiliated herself further. She turned on her heels and took off back toward the Ponyville library, the concerned calls of Rarity and Spike falling on deaf ears. She didn’t want them to worry, but she was in unfamiliar territory, left lagging behind in a matter of science. And that meant there was only one real solution.

She had a book to read.

---

“Okay Twilight… come on, now. You can do this.”

She was talking to herself in the mirror again. That was never a good sign. It meant she was avoiding looking at the subject of her anxiety, avoiding dealing with it, trying to convince herself that she didn’t need to face it. As if the pony in the mirror were another pony entirely, that she could reason with and ask for assurance or approval of her decisions. It was a habit she’d mostly broken herself of since she left Canterlot and made friends in Ponyville that could actually do those things, but it still cropped up occasionally, and it always made her feel a little bit crazy.

Her reflection was rarely ever helpful, either, the lazy bum.

Twilight shifted her gaze from her bedroom mirror to the familiar textbooks lying unassumingly at the hoof of her bed. With a knowing grimace her eyes rolled down the titles:

Les Enfants Terribles: Juvenile Draconic Biology
Of Spines and Scales: Adolescent Draconic Biology
If You Need This Book, Run: Adult Draconic Biology
Just the Facts, Ma'am: 'Adult' Draconic Biology

Twilight smothered the urge to smother the author of this series. Again.

With a sigh, she swept the first three titles away and back to their shelf with a whisk of telekinesis. There was no point in reading them, she had analyzed them front to back several times already over the years. It was only the fourth textbook she had until now avoided touching with a ten-hoof pole. None of her previous experiences with dragons, be they Spike or otherwise, had necessitated intimate knowledge of that particular area of anatomy and its functions, nor had she ever before felt the need – or desire – to read at length about draconic mating practices. But now, somehow, someway, it had inexplicably become relevant. Which now left her stuck spending the rest of her morning, and probably part of the afternoon, reading about… whatever it was exactly that dragons had down there.

“Ugh,” the unicorn chastised herself, glaring at her own reflection again. “Pull yourself together, Twilight. You’re well beyond the need for such childish euphemisms. You are a grown, mature mare. You can handle this.”

Her reflection said nothing.

“I mean, it’s just biology, after all. And if you could get through studying pony sexual anatomy without dying of embarrassment, this should be a walk in the park, right?”

Her reflection stared blankly back.

“It’s not like you’re studying out of actual interest in that sort of thing!”

More silence. More of the tight-lipped lavender reflection never breaking eye contact with her.

“And it’s certainly not as though you’re going to open this thing up and Spike’s going to be in the pict--”

Whoa, whoa, WHOA. Let’s stop THAT chain of thought right there, she told herself with shudder. She swiftly shook her head, and with a renewed look of determination, flipped the book open.

I am NOT going to let this get to me.

A quick glance at the table of contents.

I will be calm, collected, and mature about this.

A flutter of paper as her horn magically flipped the book to the relevant page.

No matter how gross, slimy, and hideous it might be.

She glared at her reflection again.

Mature. Right.

She took another breath. “Okay. Let’s get this over with,” she said, running her eyes down Diagram 2-1. “You’re making a mountain out of a molehill, Twilight, it can’t possibly be all… all that… bad…”

Her eyes widened.

Her cheeks grew pink.

I-is… is that…? Are there…?

Oh.

OH.

Oh my.

---

When Twilight at last emerged from the depths of the book, two long hours had gone by. Now she was lying on her back, staring at the ceiling without seeing it at all, because all she could see at that moment were mental images that would make any decent mare blush to the tips of her ears.

They have TWO.

Twilight was already blushing harder.

They have TWO PENISES.

Well, okay, let’s be specific here, she felt compelled to correct herself. Technically it was still just one. But one that, for whatever reason evolution had seen fit, split near the base of the shaft into two entirely separate but fully functional heads. So, practically speaking, two penises (penii?) might as well be correct. For a moment she wondered if that meant the females had some kind of… double-vagina to match, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to read quite that far yet, and she wasn’t sure if she ever would.

It was swiftly obvious that this was what Rarity had meant about wondering “where to put the other one.” There was nothing else she really could have meant, given the context. It was certainly a valid question too. Spike’s current size was probably about proportional to the average colt (she could only assume that included sexual anatomy as well, because there was no way she was going to think about Spike even having that anatomy, let alone a sex life, no ma’am, not thinking about that at all), and she was pretty sure the average mare wasn’t going to be equipped to fit what amounted to two entire penises simultaneously in the usual place. Then Twilight began thinking about what possible solutions Rarity might have come up with, and it took all of three seconds for the unicorn to start blushing again like a filly seeing her first unsheathed stallion. Because that was all the time it took to figure out that really, there was only one obvious answer.

Twilight wasn’t stupid, or sheltered, or some wide-eyed virgin. She was well aware of sex, and how to have it. And she was also well aware of some of the less… conventional ways to do it, though she hadn’t ventured into that territory herself. But knowing about them academically and picturing them in actual practice were very different things. And there was no denying that what she was picturing now was well beyond the ‘vanilla’ form of mating and into the realm of hardcore pornography.

She’s taking the other one in her rear.

She’s getting anal sex.

No, strike that.

She’s getting double-penetrated.

By a dragon.

By SPIKE.

Rarity is getting double-penetrated by Spike’s double dragon dick.

And LIKING it.

Twilight’s blush was so strong she could have fried an egg on her forehead.

Twilight rolled over onto her side and shook her head sharply, trying to expel the images from her head. Thinking so vividly about it was making her light-headed, and more than a little flustered. She needed to calm down, take a deep breath, and step away from the dirty details. This wasn’t the mature way to handle this realization. If she thought this hard about what everypony did in the privacy of their bedrooms with their mates, she’d give herself an aneurism. Twilight took a second deep, steadying breath, closed her eyes and forced her brain to strip down the graphic details of the situation, leaving just the bare facts.

Fact One: Two of her friends had consensually begun a romantic relationship together. This was perfectly normal of any sentient creature, and it was entirely within their rights to do so.

Fact Two: Nearly every single living creature on the planet was capable of mating in some form or another and did so relatively frequently. This was one hundred percent natural and in no way strange or unusual.

Fact Three: Two creatures in a consensual romantic relationship had every right to mate whenever and however they pleased in the privacy of their own homes.

Therefore, if Rarity and Spike were mutually interested in a romantic relationship, including sexual activity, then Fact Four was that Twilight had no right whatsoever to say a word against their decision. In fact, quite the opposite, she should be happy for and supportive of her friends, and wish them nothing but the best of luck together.

Yes, that was the mature thing to do. She would be happy for them. They were finding love; there was nothing wrong with that. Maybe it was a little unorthodox in the grand scheme of things, but so what? Was she really going to believe that they couldn’t work out simply because their particular combination of sentient species was a bit on the uncommon side? Rarity was absolutely right about that much, at least. Spike was a perfect gentlecolt to her, and he only got better at it as he grew. Rarity swooned over that kind of stuff. And of course she trusted them to treat each other right. They were both very kind and generous beings, not at all prone to violence. And while their interests weren’t exactly in line with each other, they did complement each other: Spike’s love of collecting gemstones and subsequent resistance to his natural hoarding instincts meant that what would otherwise be a tiresome chore for Rarity was instead a generous supply of gems to work with for her outfits that she so loved to design, which Spike in turn was not especially interested in as far as the fashion side of things but still adored helping her make them because of how happy it made her. In fact, now that she was giving it some serious thought, they seemed entirely compatible in nearly every way, and Twilight honestly had no objections to them dating whatsoever.

Almost none, anyway. The one thing that seemed to be causing Twilight any discomfort at all was thinking about the actual physical act of mating. She didn’t understand it. Or at least, she didn’t understand it from Rarity’s perspective. She was sure any male would salivate at the idea of bedding a pony as gorgeous as Rarity, and after years of living with Spike she knew he was no different. But what did Rarity see in Spike, physically? She knew without a doubt that Rarity wasn’t faking her interest in him; she wouldn’t dare toy with a friend’s emotions like that. There was a real, legitimate attraction at play here. But what could possibly have led her to giving intimacy with a dragon a chance? And how could she possibly like it?

Well. She wasn’t sure about the first two questions, but there was one glaringly obvious answer to the third:

Spike is really, really good at mating.

Twilight was blushing again, but this time she didn’t fight against thinking about the dirty details. She needed to get to the core of her issue, and it seemed this was more or less it. She might as well consider the obvious answer and explore it seriously to see if it held up under intense scrutiny.

So. What do we know for sure? Twilight began to reason. Rarity is mating with essentially two penises simultaneously. One anally, one vaginally. And she apparently likes this enough to override the fact that it’s a double-headed dragon penis she has inside her. The question is, why?

Twilight honestly wasn’t sure. There were some reasonable possibilities, of course. He had successfully serviced her to begin with, perhaps, either manually or orally, and the sex itself was more for him than for her… but no, that didn’t sound right. Spike would have wanted her to enjoy it just as much if not more than he did. And Rarity hadn’t made it sound at all as though the sex was a favor rather than a mutually pleasurable experience. No, she legitimately enjoyed what Spike was doing to her.

Maybe she had guided him, told him what she liked, and he’d followed her direction until she was satisfied? This seemed far more reasonable to Twilight’s mind. Spike had to have been a virgin, and Rarity almost certainly had some experience. Of course she would be providing direction on the mechanics of mating, and more importantly, direction specifically tailored to what she enjoyed, what excited her and gave her the most pleasure. And of course Spike would have been all too eager to satisfy. But then that implied that it had been Rarity initiating, Rarity in control, Rarity deciding where the line was (or perhaps more accurately, where it wasn’t), and thus Rarity that had asked to have dragon penises stuffed up both her holes, a thought that left Twilight right back where she’d started, and blushing far more hotly besides.

Goddess, it was getting stuffy in her room.

Deep breaths, Twilight, she ordered herself, obeying a second later and trying her best to relax. You’re freaking yourself out over nothing. So it’s a little kinky, that’s nothing to get worked up over. I mean, other than the two-headed part it was a pretty normal-looking penis, right?

This was true, she realized with a further heat in her cheeks. She hadn’t had to do a series of mental gymnastics to explain to herself what certain parts were, or how the organ performed the essential mating functions required of it. Aside from the fact that there were (sort-of) two of them, it really was perfectly recognizable. Normal-looking. Nothing she hadn’t seen before. Colored differently, perhaps, and a slightly different shape, but that was almost purely aesthetic. She could easily imagine it fitting a mare. It was pretty interesting, actually, that they were so apparently compatible. Maybe even kind of exciting…

Twilight jerked a little and her cheeks flared all over again. Exciting? Did she seriously just think that? What could possibly be exciting about it, it was a double-headed dragon dick, for Celestia’s sake! It was weird, it was different, it was something she’d never imagined, it was…

…it was something that had completely dominated her every thought for the last several hours, she realized with wide eyes. Her curiosity, her desire to know, her desperate need to unravel the mystery, it was burning in a way Twilight had never felt before. And as she sat bolt upright in bed and looked down at her front hooves, she found one of them traitorously buried between her hind legs and, she realized with her deepest blush yet and a throaty gasp, soaking wet.

Twilight jerked the hoof away and leapt out of bed, her hindquarters protesting far more than she wanted to admit to. What in Equestria was wrong with her?! She couldn’t possibly sit here and… and do that to herself, certainly not while fantasizing about her friends!

Not that she was actually fantasizing about them. Because she wasn’t. No, of course not. She was merely thinking about them. Wondering, in a strictly academic manner, how they shared their intimate moments. That’s all. She was not excited by this, she was not aroused by it, she was just curious. It was purely scientific interest, and nothing else.

And she was most certainly not touching herself in an erotic fashion while interested.

Twilight shook her head sharply, shoving the images from her mind again, and replaced the textbook on its shelf as she made a beeline for the front door. She’d learned about all she could learn from books and her own deductions anyway. If she really wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery, really understand what Rarity liked so much about her new intimate arrangements, she needed to go to the source. It was time to face Rarity again. She was sure that if she led with an apology for running off earlier, and gently steered the conversation in the right direction, Rarity would be willing to share some more precise details. Yes, that was a good plan.

Within minutes she was at the front door of the Carousel Boutique once more. Normally the trip would have taken a fair bit longer, but her pace had been unnaturally brisk, almost hurried. Not because she was excited, no. Of course she wasn’t excited. She was curious, and nothing more. No, her haunches were not shaking with unsatisfied desire. That would be ridiculous. It was just nerves. Thinking about this was not turning her on. What kind of perverted mind would think that? No, it was nothing like that. She was going to question Rarity about the dirty details of her sex life purely out of objective, academic desire for knowledge, and nothing else.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she imagined her reflection in the mirror giving her the most droll glare it could muster. Twilight quickly smothered the thought.

Twilight raised a hoof to knock on the door, but froze inches from it at the sound of a soft, feminine moan from just inside. Immediately Twilight was blushing yet again, a million fresh images assaulting her brain in connection with the sound and almost all of them utterly filthy. Spike had certainly not come home yet, which meant the odds of him still being here were quite high. Between that and the moan that had surely come from Rarity…

Oh Celestia, they could be mating RIGHT NOW, she realized with bulging eyes. If that was the case, it would be awful of her to interrupt them. She should come back later, that would be the courteous thing to do.

But on the other hoof, what if it had been a moan of pain? What if she was hurt, somehow, and in need of help? It was… a considerably less likely possibility, she admitted, but not out of the question. There was no way she could walk away if Rarity was hurt. She’d feel terrible about it for ages if she did.

If Rarity was hurt, that is.

And not simply getting her orifices serviced two at a time by Twilight’s dragon assistant.

No, Twilight answered her own question before it could even form. I can’t let that scare me away. If there’s even the smallest possibility that Rarity might be hurt, it would be irresponsible of me as a friend to not at least check on her.

Yes, that was the perfectly logical conclusion. And the rapid speed with which she had come to it was entirely out of concern for the safety of her friend and in no way connected to the possibility that she might be walking in on something… else.

She pushed down on the handle before she could talk herself out of it, and upon finding it locked, magically slid the deadbolt aside and nudged the door open. To Twilight’s fortune (whether good or bad), the creak of the door and the jingle of the bell above it that alerted Rarity to customers was drowned out by a second moan at the same moment, much louder and more shrill than the first one. This one, Twilight realized with a sharp rise in her heart rate, was impossible to mistake for anything other than sheer unrestrained bliss, if for no other reason than the sight that greeted her when she peeked inside.

Rarity was lying on her side, her hips in line with the open end of her strange half-couch-thing. Her eyes were clenched closed, her cheeks were flushed brighter than her fur could hide, and her mouth hung open, tongue lolling out as she struggled to breathe deep enough to meet her oxygen needs. Her top hind leg was raised up nearly vertically, held aloft by a pair of scaly purple arms. In that position, Rarity could not be more on display if she tried, and Twilight had the most direct and intimate view imaginable of Rarity’s private business. Or at least she would, if it weren’t busy being obscured by--

Oh…

Oh my gosh…

Twilight drew in a shuddering breath and let it out in an audible whimper. It was true. There were two. Two pale pink and fully functional heads splitting off from the same base penis, each head burying itself repeatedly between Rarity’s damp thighs and into her rear and her vagina at once in a steady rhythm, drawing sharp gasps from Rarity with each thrust. And as much as Twilight tried to tell herself she didn’t want to look, as much as her brain wanted to scream at her that it was clearly Spike standing at the edge of the couch holding Rarity’s leg upright and screwing up his face in concentration as he drove himself carefully into his lover’s willing body, there was just no resistance left in Twilight’s body or mind. Every cracked shield left over, every shredded mental barrier still standing, every ounce of denial and self-control she had remaining, had been exhausted beyond recovery by this moment.

Rarity and Spike were fucking, right in front of her eyes.

And it was the hottest thing Twilight had ever seen in her life.

On some level, somewhere deep down in the last logical section of her brain still managing to function, she recognized that she hadn’t been silent. She’d drawn their attention. They looked right at her, their motions froze, their jaws hung slack in shock. They even seemed to say something to her. But despite technically knowing these things, none of it really pierced the haze that now occupied the rest of Twilight’s brain, courtesy of the wet, burning heat in her loins. She needed to get away. She needed to get somewhere else, somewhere that wasn’t here, somewhere she would not be bothered for as long as she needed to not be bothered, because she was in desperate need of a release, one that she could not hope to satisfy in present company.

With a burst of lavender-tinted magic Twilight zapped out of existence, leaving the boutique and its stunned occupants behind, and returned to the physical plane a split second later in the relative safety of her bedroom back at the library. She was instantly out of breath – teleporting over longer distances was much more taxing than simply winking around the room as she sometimes did – but that just gave her another excuse to flop immediately down on her bed. And the moment she did so, her front hoof, so recently chastised for its mutinous behavior, was welcomed back into her folds with eager anticipation.

The first (conscious) touch to the trembling mound between Twilight’s hind legs was met with an immediate wave of pleasant sensations and a sigh of relief as the heat building there finally began to receive an outlet. She soon rolled over until she was fully on her back, so she could fully splay her hind legs out to the sides and give herself the best access possible to, well, herself. It was more direct than she would have usually done when masturbating – she would build up to it, maybe tease her nipples a bit or rub her cutie marks against something, before diving into the main event – but she was far too wound up in this moment to take it slow. Her hoof drove straight past her outer labia and dug into the warm, wet flesh further inside right off the bat, and Twilight was immediately in heaven. It felt good. It felt sinfully good.

She closed her eyes as she began to really work her hoof, and called up her freshest memory front and center in her mind’s eye. Rarity, hind legs spread, privates exposed to the world and she couldn’t care less because they were stuffed to the brim, the most pleasured expression Twilight had ever seen on the other unicorn’s face, an expression of complete and total ecstasy. Spike, adoration and worship and a generous helping of giddy disbelief written all over his face even as he concentrated with all his might on pleasing his dream mare, on rocking his hips rhythmically back and forth like a pendulum, on driving into Rarity’s sopping wet marehood and tightly clenched anus with his two throbbing dickheads—

Twilight shuddered from horn to tail and nearly came all over her hoof right then and there. She would never normally think in such uncensored terms, but they came to her like second nature now, and the effect it had on her self-enjoyment was undeniable. The level of pleasure coursing through her body was absolutely staggering. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d ever been this wet. It was wrong, so deeply, horribly wrong, but in that moment she couldn’t be bothered to care, because somehow that just made it feel so very right.

Somehow. That was the really interesting word, wasn’t it, Twilight thought distantly as she bit her lip against a moan. Because she still didn’t fully understand. The “why” of this entire situation continued to elude her. She didn’t know why Rarity liked getting sex like that, she couldn’t imagine why Rarity had agreed to it in the first place, she didn’t know why she herself found the sight of them in the throes of passion so incredibly hot that she couldn’t resist bolting straight home and hoof-fucking herself harder than she had ever done before. But that was part of the appeal, she realized. The thirst for knowledge, the hunger to explore, to unravel, to discover, even if it was weird and different… it had always been a part of her. And now, now that that drive was aimed at something this risqué, this erotic, this… kinky, it was turning her on in a way she’d never felt, filling her with sensations no book could adequately describe, until… well, until it left her lying in bed feverishly masturbating to the image of her two friends fucking and wondering why it was hot, and why wondering about it was also hot.

But these were all things to sort out later. She was agonizingly close to her peak already, and all thoughts not related to achieving that peak were rapidly disappearing. She didn’t need to know why it was hot at that moment; the simple fact that it was hot would more than suffice. She was already wet enough that her juices were dripping down to the bedsheets. When she withdrew her drenched hoof from her inner folds and pressed it instead on the magic button that was her clitoris, though, it was the beginning of the end. A few careful circular strokes and she could no longer keep her moans from escaping. A couple more, and her hips were quivering. And when she thought one last time of the picture she’d seen, of Rarity and Spike and the steady slaps of their thrusts and Rarity soaking wet and the twin dickheads pounding and pounding and pounding her, Twilight finally lost it. Her high-pitched moan echoed throughout the otherwise silent library as orgasm wracked her body and blocked out every other sense and sensation, and by the time she was done, when she at last stopped shaking and twitching and coming, her tail was soaked to the bone and her bedsheets were in dire need of replacement.

Twilight didn’t care in the slightest. She was far too happy, far too relieved, far too relaxed to even begin thinking about caring that she had made a sexed-up mess of herself. And she wouldn’t care for quite some time. Because when she at last opened her eyes and saw bright blue eyes that were very much not her own staring back at her, reality came crashing back down on her with an audible thunk, and she found she suddenly had much more pressing concerns.

“Having fun, Twilight dear?”

The satisfied smile that had been growing on Twilight’s face was wiped out in a nanosecond.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”

Twilight sat bolt upright and stared in horrified disbelief. Rarity. Rarity was standing there at her bedside. Rarity was looking right at me oh good goddess why what is she even doing here how much did she see oh Celestia don’t panic don’t panic okay yes panic panic PANIC—

The look on Twilight’s face had to have been as distressed as she felt inside her head, because Rarity immediately reached out to pat her shoulder and shush her. “Calm down, Twilight, it’s alright, there’s no need to fly off the handle.”

Twilight swallowed hard as she desperately covered herself back up and struggled to resist vanishing off the face of Equestria, because she could think of about a hundred justifications for doing an acrobatic pirouette off the handle right about now.

“W-what are you doing here, Rarity…?!” she demanded shakily. “W-were you watching me…?!”

Rarity stared drolly back at her. “Twilight dear, I love you ever so much, but you of all ponies hardly have room to criticize others for peeping in on an intimate moment.”

Whatever retort Twilight had been about to come up with died in her throat immediately, because she really couldn’t criticize. Rarity had her by the horn there, she admitted to herself with a guilty blush. Goddess she wished Rarity would stop staring at her, she must have looked revolting right then, flushed and sweating and covered in her own juices…

Rarity didn’t look away, but she did smile. “Don’t feel badly, Twilight, I didn’t say I was MAD at you, after all. Simply that you should be aware of with whom you are being indignant.”

Okay. She wasn’t mad at her for peeping. Thank Celestia. That made things… well, still bad, but slightly less bad than they were a moment ago.

“If you don’t mind, though, I do think you owe us a bit of an explanation.”

Twilight immediately locked up again and gulped in horror. Suddenly the situation was right back to being horrible. “…Us…?”

A third voice hit Twilight’s ears, at once expected and dreaded. “Um… heh… h-hey again, Twilight…”

Twilight turned her head agonizingly slowly, and sure enough, there was Spike once again, sitting at the top of the stairs. He was blushing about as deeply as Twilight and was trying hard not to look her in the eye, and his legs were crossed far too tightly to be inconspicuous.

Oh Celestia, did he see me too? Twilight groaned internally. Is it possible to literally die of embarrassment? …What is he doing with his legs? Is he hiding--… oh GODDESS, he couldn’t be… no, no no no please don’t be hard because of watching me hoof myself oh dear sweet Celestia please let it be leftover from doing Rarity please please please--

“Twilight! Calm. Down,” Rarity’s voice cut sharply into her thoughts, and her freaked out expression reigned in.

Slightly.

“Did you… were you both watching…?”

As Twilight was staring at Spike at the moment, he seemed to take the question as being directed at him, and he blushed even harder, his crossed legs squeezing tighter together. “U-uhhm… I, uh… well, I mean… it wasn’t exactly… we just, uh, happened to… while you were…”

Rarity sighed somewhat dramatically and cut in. “Yes, Twilight, we both saw more than enough of your little show… and I’ll remind you once again that you looked in on a fair bit of ours in turn. So if we’re all quite done satisfying ourselves for the moment, I think we should all take some time to have a mature conversation about this little… social faux pas of a situation like calm, civilized adults.”

“Spike is not an adult…” Twilight insisted, hoping to somehow deflect her.

Rarity didn’t bite. “He is an adult by pony standards, Twilight, that’s good enough. And frankly you’ll find yourself a lot more at ease if you recognize and treat him as such.”

“But--!”

“In fact, if anyone in this room has been acting the least like an adult today, it’s you. So please, stop acting like a panicked schoolfilly so we can have a civilized discussion.”

Twilight had no response to that.

Rarity apparently took her silence as consent. “Now then,” she went on as she magically tugged Twilight’s sodden bedsheets out from under her and deposited them in the laundry bin, “I really am curious, Twilight, why exactly were you watching us earlier?”

Twilight blushed again, though more out of guilt this time, and took a long moment to formulate her answer in her head. Rarity politely didn’t press her, wordlessly swishing her telekinesis through Twilight’s linen closet to make a fresh set of beddings unfold themselves and neatly re-fit her bed. She was nearly finished before Twilight actually spoke again.

“I wasn’t exactly meaning to peep on you,” Twilight answered as honestly as she could. “I heard noises, and… I thought maybe you were hurt or something…”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Oh, really Twilight, of all the flimsy excuses--”

“I know, I know, it sounded like… like you were probably mating in there,” Twilight admitted, flushing deeper, “but I wasn’t sure, I didn’t want to walk away assuming that was the case if maybe you actually were hurt, I’d never forgive myself for it! I swear, I was only going to check on you to be sure… and then I saw you and… I just kind of… froze…”

Rarity’s gaze softened significantly at that. “I see… well, I’m flattered you were so concerned about my safety… but what brought you back in the first place? I fully expected not to see you again for the rest of the day, after the way you ran off this morning.”

Here it was. Now was the time to ask. She had the perfect opening. Sure, Spike was here now, and maybe that was a little awkward – maybe a lot awkward – but that didn’t sway her. She still wanted to know. She still needed to know.

“Twilight?”

“Yes, sorry Rarity,” Twilight murmured, taking a deep breath. “To be perfectly honest, I… I was coming over to talk about your relationship with Spike.”

“Twilight, I believe we already covered that quite extensively before you ran away,” Rarity reminded her. “The first time, that is…”

“Yes, well, not extensively enough…”

“Twilight, we told you everything there is to tell, short of--”

And then Rarity got it. She must have, because her cheeks were suddenly tinted pink again, and she smirked from ear to ear and giggled. “Ohhh, Twilight, you naughty little gossip, you.”

“I’m not gossiping…!” Twilight countered swiftly, going pink again herself already. “I’m just… curious, that’s all…”

“Curious about the dirty details of my sex life?” Rarity pressed as she leaned over the bed, looking far too amused for Twilight’s liking.

“No! I mean, not exactly, it’s… more like… I don’t get it.”

“Get what, darling?”

“Any of it…” Twilight admitted. “I don’t understand what the appeal is in dragons… no offense, Spike…”

“None taken… I guess,” came Spike’s only mildly annoyed reply.

“I tried researching about them,” Twilight went on, starting to blush again, “but what I found… I mean… when I look at my dragon anatomy books… I saw… it didn’t seem…”

Spike audibly gulped at that. “D-dragon anatomy…?”

“Ahaha…! So you really didn’t know about their dual members?” Rarity deduced with an even wider smirk. Her amusement seemed to have been doubled. Appropriate. “And what did you think when you learned about that, hm…? How did it make you feel…?”

“I-I…”

“Surprised? Intrigued? Dare I say… aroused?”

“What?! N-no… n-no, of course not…!” Twilight stammered.

“It’s quite alright if you were, Twilight dear, I wouldn’t blame you in the slightest for being rather… mmm, curious, let’s say, about how such… appendages might feel inside you… after all, there aren’t many different ways a mare could take it… I’m sure you saw how I did… and I imagine something was fueling your little… self-pleasure session.”

“I was not--…!” Twilight started, her cheeks beet red now, but she couldn’t make the rest of her sentence come out no matter how much she tried. As if part of her knew her mouth was about to tell a blatant lie and stopped it. But no, that was preposterous; of course it wasn’t a lie. Being excited by the scene as an outsider was one thing, she could come to terms with that, as weird as it was, but she most definitely had not been wondering how dragon dicks felt when they were plunging inside her own intimate areas. Both of them. Simultaneously.

Of course, she was now.

Thanks a lot, Rarity.

“Of course, perhaps I’m approaching this the wrong way…?” Rarity suddenly changed tack, even more amused syrupy sweetness lacing her tone. “Perhaps what drew you to explore yourself was less a case of interest in draconic double penetration and more a matter of seeing a mare that you desire on such display?”

Again Twilight’s instinctual urge to deny lost steam before it ever really escaped her lips. She felt like she’d been caught with her hoof in the cookie jar, because the part Rarity herself played in the scene – both the live one she’d stumbled upon and the one in her imagination – had been a strong factor in Twilight’s arousal. Was that it? Was she merely attracted to Rarity, and seeing her in such a graphically sexual position, regardless of her mating partner, had brought the attraction to the surface? She couldn’t deny the attraction was there, yes. A base, physical, sexual desire sort of attraction, at least. And it was certainly a much easier answer to accept than the first one.

Or it would have been, if she weren’t still imagining her holes being filled with dragon dick.

In fact the only difference to the mental picture now was that Rarity was there too, nuzzling her and caressing her and stroking her horn and sitting those pristine white haunches on her face and letting Twilight taste her and she wasn’t sure whether Rarity’s juicy slit on her lips or Spike’s thrusting dickheads between her legs were making her hornier and Holy Celestia where did all THAT come from?!

And as if reading her mind, Rarity wore her broadest grin yet and spoke up once more, “Or perhaps maybe… just maybe… it’s both?”

Twilight’s whole body jolted and went and crimson as her cheeks. Rarity had finally hit the nail on the head. It wasn’t just figuring out the appeal of the draconic anatomy itself that was driving her crazy, it was figuring out the mare receiving it, too. It wasn’t merely a desire to be in Rarity’s place, it was a desire to be in Spike’s place, as well. And while at the end of the day she desired neither in a romantic sense, the sexual appeal of both was undeniable. And perhaps the most frustrating and enticing factor of them all, she still didn’t know exactly why. She had so little experience to draw from, such a small and simple and vanilla sexual background to her name, that this was a completely alien world of sex and attraction she had found herself in, and she was aching to know more about it.

“Yes…” Twilight finally broke her silence.

“What was that, darling?” Rarity pressed, smiling smugly because she already knew what the answer was.

“Everything you said…” Twilight admitted, her cheeks bright red and her breath husky. “All of it, for some reason it’s all more exciting to me than I thought was possible…! I’ve never felt anything like this before, I’ve never had an experience like this… and I don’t understand, Rarity, I don’t know why it’s affecting me so much and I want to understand so badly that… that the desire to understand itself is turning me on even more than I already am…! Please, Rarity, I have to know, I have to understand, please, please tell me…!”

Rarity never stopped smiling as Twilight’s confession tumbled out, but her smile did change somewhat. The amusement behind it was gone. It was no longer as if she found the whole scenario funny, or cute. Her smile had become something else, something… enticing. Magnetic. Sultry, even.

Uh-oh.

“Well, Twilight, darling…” Rarity began, climbing up onto Twilight’s bed and moving decidedly deep within Twilight’s bubble of personal space, “I could attempt to explain it to you by word of mouth, if that’s what you really want me to do… but to be quite honest, mating isn’t an experience that’s easily described and catalogued like facts in a textbook. Frankly, Twilight, if you want answers about… a particular practice of mating… you should experience it for yourself.”

Oh gosh she’s NOT.

“Spike, be a dear and come up to the bed,” Rarity called over her shoulder. “You don’t have to stand all the way back there like a statue. And I do believe you’ll be very interested in seeing this.”

No way. No WAY.

Out of the corner of her eye Twilight saw a wide-eyed dragon streak up to the foot of her bed and stare unblinkingly at the two mares on it. He was interested, alright. But the rest of her vision was filled completely by Rarity’s face, by her knowing eyes and her pale pink cheeks and her alluring smile. And before Twilight could have ever hoped to formulate the words to accept or deny her advances, Rarity thrust forward and gave Twilight the most experienced, seductive, open-mouthed, tongue-heavy and downright lustful kiss she’d ever received in her life.

And approximately three seconds later, entirely unbidden by any coherent thought or decision, Twilight felt herself beginning to kiss back.

It was at that moment that Twilight’s rational brain officially checked out. There was no more time to stop and think, no more time to wonder ‘why.’ She’d fallen down the rabbit hole now, and it was time to find out just how deep it went.

Rarity was a very direct pony in the bedroom, it turned out. Twilight probably could have guessed that ahead of time had she been in a more coherent position, but as things were at that moment, Twilight was quite surprised to realize how little time Rarity wasted. She knew what she wanted – Twilight herself, apparently – and was going straight for it. Twilight felt her body being coaxed by Rarity’s gentle but firm hooves into lying down on her back again, and as she did so Rarity laid fully on top of her, their underbellies pressed rather intimately together as they continued to kiss. No, strike that, Twilight corrected herself, kissing did not involve nearly this much tongue; they had moved well past kissing and into full-blown making-out territory.

She felt Rarity push her hind legs in between Twilight’s own next, and start to wiggle them apart. Twilight resisted at first, but a front hoof pressing on her left cutie mark swiftly put a stop to that, and drew a surprised moan from her besides. Her hind legs were spread apart and held open by Rarity’s in the next few seconds, and to Twilight’s embarrassment she realized her tail was already pinned off to one side under her hips. She hadn’t forgotten where Spike was positioned, and now she had no way of preserving her modesty from her young assistant. She was on full display. He could see everything. Twilight opened one eye to plead with Rarity to let her take it just a little bit slower, but she was clearly having none of that. Over Rarity’s shoulder Twilight could see the other unicorn holding her own tail straight up into the air, exhibiting herself just as completely. She wanted Spike to see everything. And see everything he could. On both mares.

Goddess why was that turning her on so much?

“Mmhh, Spike, love…” Rarity spoke up again, ending the make-out. “I’m sure you’re enjoying the view, but this isn’t a museum… feel free to touch… perhaps put that talented tongue of yours to use…”

Twilight couldn’t see Spike’s exact reaction with Rarity filling most of her vision, but the unsubtle shift in the pitch of Rarity’s moans told Twilight that he had obviously listened, and was doing something with his tongue that was making Rarity shudder and squeal. Twilight shifted and sat up a bit, trying to get a decent look out of helpless curiosity, but nothing seemed terribly unlike what she’d expected. Spike was buried face first in Rarity’s crotch, his hands gently gripping her rear right around her cutie marks while he worked, but that was about all she could see. And yet Rarity was clearly in heaven, trembling against Twilight’s body and moaning rather loudly in her ear. What was he doing to make Rarity this…loopy?

“Ahhnn, Spike dear… that feels wonderful and I just hate to stop you, but…mhhh…guests first, if you please…”

Well. Apparently, Rarity wanted her to find that out first-hoof.

Spike, however, hesitated. “Are you sure, Rarity…?”

“Yes, darling, quite sure,” Rarity insisted, and slowly rolled off to one side of Twilight’s body. “Go on, don’t be shy…”

Spike didn’t quite seem convinced though, especially now that there was no more Rarity-shaped barrier between him and his caretaker. Twilight noticed the absence as well; without Rarity playing the middle-pony, she could no longer mentally push Spike’s presence aside and focus on the other unicorn. It was just her and Spike in that moment, and she was completely exposed to him; and Twilight couldn’t ignore that the inverse was true too. His arousal was just as impossible to hide as her own, and the exposure was just making it that much more, well, arousing.

Yet still Spike hesitated, meeting Twilight’s eyes for what felt like the first time all day. “Is… is this really okay, Twilight…?” he finally stammered.

The sheer absurdity of the question was not lost on Twilight, all things considered that had brought them to this point. But Spike appeared to have reached the moment where, fantasy come true or not, he could no longer go on without being absolutely positive that Twilight was here entirely of her own volition. She could stop it. Right here and right now. It would have been the sensible thing to do. Or the sane thing, at least.

But Twilight’s rational mind remained blissfully absent, and Celestia help her, she was just too damn curious to stop now.

And way too horny.

“It’s okay, Spike,” she heard herself say. “Go ahead…”

That was all the assurance Spike appeared to need. He nodded his understanding and crawled forward, nestling himself between her hind legs, and with just a moment’s more hesitation he pressed his lips to Twilight’s wet folds.

Her instant reaction was a sharp gasp of surprise, because the touch was extremely warm, like sinking crotch-first into a heated bath, and it was with no small amount of trepidation that she suddenly remembered exactly from where dragons were capable of projecting very deadly fire. But the thought was swiftly banished; this was Spike, after all, and she trusted him completely. And with that small fear expelled Twilight was pleased to find Spike had a pretty decent idea of what he was doing down there; Rarity had taught him well, it seemed. His forked tongue began to flick in and out of her with impressive speed. It stroked her inner walls with both tips, already deeper than she could ever hope to get her own hoof in. And just as Twilight was about to declare herself decently impressed, he suddenly plunged his tongue deeper. And deeper. And deeper. And deeper still, until Twilight’s eyes were as big as saucers and her mouth was hanging open in a shocked moan, because suddenly his tongue was everywhere inside her, thin as a ribbon but incredibly long, and more flexible than she thought was possible. But most noticeable of all, it felt even warmer than his lips, filling her with one pleasant heat while soothing and satisfying another, very different heat. No wonder Rarity had wanted her to experience this; it was a sensation that surely no pony was capable of accurately replicating. This was a talent exclusive to dragons, and clearly Rarity did not want Twilight to miss out on the opportunity to see that talent in action.

And oh goodness was Twilight ever grateful. Her hips were quivering again, causing Spike to take hold of her flanks to keep her still, which only served to make her tremble more violently because he was gripping directly on top of her cutie marks. She was close to orgasming again, she could feel it, and as badly as she wanted it, she tried desperately to hold it back. She knew how wet her orgasms were, how wet she was already, and she wasn’t sure Spike would appreciate a face-full of that.

But then his tongue doubled back on itself, until the forked tip poked back out of her folds and flicked up to brush her clit, much to Twilight’s wide-eyed surprise, and there was absolutely no stopping herself anymore. Twilight arched her back clear off the bed as she orgasmed a second time, let out an earsplitting yelp that she quickly clamped down with her front hooves over her mouth, felt herself gasp and convulse and come full-force across Spike’s stunned, gawking face, until the pleasure ran its course and Twilight slumped back down and lay limply on the bed in a small puddle of her own juices.

“W-wow…” Spike said in an awed whisper, one claw slowly and absently wiping his face clear of Twilight’s expulsions.

“‘Wow’ indeed, Twilight dear… my goodness, you’re going to run out of clean sheets at this rate,” Rarity added with amused – and aroused – smile.

Twilight had no response to offer but a longing, desperate whimper that instantly caught the attention of the other two. She was still shaking, still panting, and above all still wanting. And she made sure they knew it when she met Rarity’s eyes.

“Don’t… don’t stop now…” Twilight whispered, and smiled as for once it was Rarity that was caught off-guard, staring at Twilight in stunned silence.

But Rarity swiftly composed herself and returned the smile just as broadly. “Got you hooked already, hmm…? Well, then in that case, I’d hate to leave you hanging, as it were… Spike, I believe I recall Twilight was especially curious about how she saw us together earlier…?”

Twilight gave Rarity a grateful nod of agreement, still feeling a bit nervous about asking for it herself, but indeed no less curious about it than she had been before they started. Spike meanwhile looked downright delirious, like he was trying to figure out whether this was really happening or the product of a truly insane dream, but either way he went along with it, perching himself upright on his knees and settling between Twilight’s splayed hind legs. She shuddered at the initial contact of one of his heads against her inner thigh, and had to gasp for breath when it touched her slit directly. She wasn’t sure if it was his natural state or simply the fact that her loins were hyper-sensitized fresh off her second orgasm, but the touch of his shaft felt incredibly hot; more so than his lips, more than his tongue, even. It wasn’t a burning heat, and in fact it remained a very welcome, soothing and satisfying heat, but it was definitely hotter than anything she’d ever imagined being in contact with her nether-regions.

And then both heads were brushing against her, prodding at her entrances, and Twilight stopped thinking about how warm they felt and started thinking about how good they felt. She squirmed and moaned softly at every stroke, at every slow brush of his members (goddess it still felt weird to think of that in a plural sense) across her copiously wet slit. He kept this up for a while, longer than Twilight would have expected Spike to have the patience for, and she very nearly started to beg for an end to the teasing, but he stopped just before she could, finally seeming satisfied. When he began to poke at her again, it was with purpose, the pressure mounting against her rear and her slit simultaneously, spreading both holes open, forcing them to accept the pair of dickheads. She had a brief moment of panic when some distant foggy corner of her brain fired off and she recalled a particularly compelling book informing her that thorough lubrication was highly recommended for this sort of activity if one wanted to avoid excruciating pain, and Twilight very nearly called for Spike to stop. But he had apparently been a step ahead of her; he was sliding and pushing against her holes quite comfortably and easily, and when Twilight glanced down her body toward their joining hips, she saw that both his shafts were glistening wet with--

Twilight let out a gasp of surprise laced with no small amount of pleasure. Holy Celestia, that’s why he was… Rarity must have taught him to… he was coating himself in… in my… oh gosh why is that so HOT…?

The pressure became too much for her body to resist any longer. Her entrances were spread wide enough for the tips of the twin shafts to inch forward, and Spike, sensing it was time, finally thrust forward and sunk both heads fully inside Twilight’s rear and vagina, and she gritted her teeth and very nearly had to hold back another scream. To say there wasn’t pain or that she immediately liked the feeling of something probing up the wrong hole would have been a lie; it was uncomfortable and it hurt. The proper hole, however, was pulsing in such wildly pleasured ecstasy at being filled with a warm (hot oh goddess it was so hot) throbbing dick that she could handle any pain the other half of him was causing. The sensations at both extremes only seemed to grow stronger as Spike pushed forward and sunk further into her inch by agonizing inch, and by the time their hips met and he was inside her all the way down to where his shaft split in two, she was moaning desperately for more even as tears of pain stung at her eyes.

“Are you alright, Twilight…?”

Twilight blinked away the moisture in her eyes and glanced over to her right, and remembered with a bit of embarrassment that Rarity was still there, still watching. Concern had found its way into her gaze; she must have seen the tears forming, the near-scream she’d had to bite back at the initial penetration.

“Twilight?” she repeated, leaning closer.

She wasn’t sure where the urge came from, or why it had been so strong. All Twilight knew was that it suddenly sounded like the most amazing idea in the world to make out with Rarity again. She grabbed her fellow unicorn with her front hooves and yanked forward, mashing their lips together with a throaty moan, and a delighted squeal from Rarity was the only delay between Twilight initiating the kiss and Rarity returning it with all the same open-mouthed vigor as the first one. They kissed like that for at least a full minute, mostly for themselves but at least a little bit for Spike, who they could hear groaning in arousal every time their lips broke apart enough to show off their tongues mingling with one another. How he was keeping himself from thrusting like a wild bronco, Twilight had no idea, though she had to admit she was grateful for him managing to keep still and let her get used to the massive dick in her ass.

Rarity broke away from the kiss at last, smiling down at Twilight. “Well… shall I take that as a ‘yes,’ then?”

Twilight flushed and nodded. “Y-yeah… I’m great… it hurts, but… I’m getting used to it…”

“I understand completely, Twilight, it does take some… adjustment. You’re doing admirably though… I’m quite envious of your position…”

That, Twilight could tell, was an understatement. Now that her worries were dissuaded, Rarity was fidgeting from head to hoof, her eyes were roaming over Twilight and Spike’s joined bodies, and one of her front hooves was working its way down between her legs. She was more wound up than Twilight would have guessed, considering she’d just gotten fucked silly that morning already--… wait, no, that wasn’t right, Twilight had interrupted them, and they’d followed her straight back to the library. She hadn’t gotten to finish. And once things had gotten frisky she had insisted on denying her own satisfaction in favor of letting Twilight have the first experience. She’d been teased up twice and denied her climax. Dear goddess, the poor girl had to be aching for just one release… and here she was hogging Spike and searching for a third. That just wouldn’t do. Especially not when there was a very specific fantasy she was on the verge of making a reality.

“Rarity?” Twilight whispered, a subtle smile crossing her lips. “You don’t need to sit there by yourself, you know…”

“Oh, it’s alright dear,” Rarity murmured back, her eyes drifting longingly over Spike now. “I can wait my turn…”

Twilight frowned slightly, almost insulted. “Who said you have to wait? He’s not the only one who wants to do things with you…”

That got Rarity’s attention. Her gaze snapped back up to Twilight’s face, saw her smile picking back up. “Pardon…?”

Twilight stared back and threw subtlety to the winds. “I want to pleasure you, Rarity…”

The words were more than effective enough. Rarity shivered all over, and moved closer to Twilight in a heartbeat. “W-well, darling, if you insist… but how--”

“Sit on my face…”

Rarity actually blushed. “Oh! My, how adventurous of you, Twilight… alright, then…”

Rarity obeyed Twilight’s direction, climbing up the bed and resting her front hooves atop the headboard as she settled her hind legs on either side of Twilight’s head. Twilight looked up with a breathy moan, her heart pounding with eager anticipation, and was rewarded as she finally got her first really clear, unobstructed view of Rarity’s slit, a pale pink divide offsetting her pure white coat and about as wet as Twilight felt she herself was, if the clear fluid gently dripping on her nose was any indication. She couldn’t help flicking her tongue out and licking her nose clean for just a hint of her flavor, a sneak preview of what was coming, and to her delight her tongue found Rarity’s juices to be quite a pleasant taste, in equal parts salty and sweet. Twilight immediately wanted more, and Rarity seemed all too happy to provide; her hind legs slowly knelt down, bringing her crotch slowly closer to Twilight’s face, and the moment Rarity was within reach Twilight gripped her hips and pulled her swiftly down the rest of the way, burying her lips and tongue between Rarity’s thighs and attempting to service another mare for the first time in her life.

It was a fair bit different, Twilight quickly realized, having her target nestled not between her hind legs but directly in her face, and attempting to satisfy with her mouth rather than her hooves. But that was as far as the differences went. It was the same pleasant warmth, the same gently-parted lips, the same sensual musk flooding Twilight’s senses that she was oh-so-familiar with from her own solo ventures, except it was all much more intense, much more in-her-face, literally, commanding nearly all of Twilight’s attention. Twilight gave as much as she could, her lips kissing and massaging the pale pink outer lips and her tongue stabbing deeper to stroke the darker pink further inside. She knew just where to touch, where to kiss, where to lick, as only another mare could, and soon she could hear Rarity squealing in delight somewhere far above her.

“Oh…! Oh my, Twilight…!” she moaned. “You’re a natural… are you sure you’ve never done this before…?”

“Heh, who, Twilight?” Spike’s voice wafted forth. “She’s had like one coltfriend ever, pretty sure she’s never eaten pussy before.”

“Spike!” Rarity fired back acidly. “There’s no need to be so… crude!”

Twilight however had shuddered quite pleasantly, a foggy corner of her brain again firing off and bringing a particularly strong revelation home.

I am muzzle deep in my best friend’s pussy.

My assistant who she is dating and his double dragon dicks are shoved up MY pussy AND my rear at my own invitation.

This following mutually peeping on each other and getting serviced to orgasm by a prehensile tongue belonging to said assistant while said best friend watched.

And everyone is completely okay with this.

Good goddess what a weird day.

But Twilight would sort out her feelings about all that later, she decided. Right now she had a friend riding her face that was desperate for a release, and a pair of red-hot shafts between her legs that were finally starting to thrust and creating the most incredible mixture of pain and pleasure Twilight could have ever imagined, and these things were far more interesting and engaging than stopping to lament on how mind-bogglingly weird it all was.

Spike had fallen silent again following Rarity’s scolding, save for his ragged, grunting breaths as he drove himself into Twilight over and over. Rarity however was anything but, her moans and wails of pleasure filling the library at a volume that Twilight would never normally have dared let herself reach, for fear of Spike hearing. But, well, obviously that wasn’t a concern anymore, and so Twilight let her friend cry out to her heart’s content and took a fair bit of pride in the knowledge that she was talented enough to make Rarity this vocal. Her hips were already twitching, her front hooves were unsteadily clutching the headboard of the bed, and her cries were climbing in pitch in a way that made it obvious how close she was. And then she was there, right as Twilight flicked her tongue toward the top of Rarity’s slit and over her clitoris for just the first time. Her thighs clenched tighter around Twilight’s head, her moans turned into a shrill squeak, and she came, warm sticky juices flooding past Twilight’s lips. Not as copiously as her own climaxes, but far more appealing and exciting to experience, if only because sweet Celestia she’d just made another mare orgasm, something she never expected to experience in her life. It wasn’t exactly glamorous, and her coat would be clumped and sticky and smelly – more than it already was, anyway – but it was worth it.

“Mmmhhh… oh my…” Rarity gasped as her mind came back to her, and smiled down at the other unicorn. “Oh Twilight, that was just incredible, I have been needing that all morning, but I never thought you would be the one to… oh my, are you alright?”

Twilight had been smiling back, but winced sharply mid-sentence at a particularly strong thrust from Spike. “Ahhnn…! I-I’m alright…” Twilight said as she found her voice again. “Just taking some getting used to…”

That admission however made Spike halt completely. “I-I’m not hurting you, am I…?”

Twilight blushed, not wanting to lie to him, because she knew he would stop for good if she told the truth and she definitely did not want that. The sensations he was creating in her loins were amazing, and she could definitely understand now why Rarity liked it so much. And she certainly didn’t want to deny Spike his enjoyment after he’d been so giving before. But she wanted her own fulfillment too, just once more, and it probably hurt just a bit too much for that to happen without a little more experience…

And then, just as it seemed the energy would be sucked from the room, Rarity spoke up and saved it.

“Not at all, Spike, dear, Twilight is having a miraculous time. She’s just feeling a bit guilty for hogging your attention for so long. But if she’s willing to… share, I believe I have a fun little idea…” Rarity pulled Spike close and whispered in his ear for a few moments, immediately piquing Twilight’s curiosity and only fueling it further when Spike’s eyes bulged absurdly wide and looked frantically back and forth between the two mares.

“A-are you serious…?!”

“One hundred percent… if you could be a darling and scoot back for just a moment, please?”

Spike gave Rarity a bewildered stare for a moment, but he soon obeyed, and Twilight groaned in momentary disappointment as his twin shafts were gingerly removed from her holes, leaving her feeling unpleasantly cold and empty. Rarity then slid down Twilight’s body and cuddled up close to her until they were in a familiar position again, face to face with their underbellies pressed together and their legs spread, except this time Rarity was making a stronger point of pressing their pelvises tightly together, her front hooves hooking around Twilight’s hips to help hold them in place. Twilight realized with no small amount of pleasant shivering that this left the top of Rarity’s slit just barely rubbing against her own, and with a little shifting Twilight was delighted to find that she could center the rubbing on her clitoris, and that Rarity could do the same.

“Mmhhh, perfect, darling…” Rarity sighed, and turned her head just enough to wink at Spike. “Sorry to make you wait, love…we’re all yours now…”

“Oh man, this has got to be a dream…” Spike groaned, and Twilight saw over Rarity’s shoulders that he was suddenly looming over both of them; Twilight had the briefest of moments to wonder what exactly Rarity had meant, what her little secret whispering had been about, and then Spike was acting. His claws gripped Rarity’s curvy rump and pushed down, squeezing the two mares even tighter together, and then the pleasantly warm feeling of Spike’s shafts returned, once again prodding one of them at her soaking slit and the other--

Wait. There was no other, Twilight realized suddenly. Only one member was pushing against her. The other one, where was it--?

“Mmmhhh, Spikey, please…” Rarity abruptly moaned right beside Twilight’s ear, “don’t tease us like that… it’s too sensitive, I can’t bear it…”

And then Twilight got it. They were pressed so tightly together that not only were their clits grinding against each other to wondrous effect, it also meant they were just close enough for--

“AAHHH!” Twilight and Rarity yelped in unison as Spike drove forward once again, burying a dickhead in each of the two mares.

Pleasure exploded throughout Twilight’s body, more than she knew she was even capable of feeling. There was no pain this time, no discomfort, no strange pressure in a place it didn’t quite belong, just a glowing hot fire radiating inside her, and it felt so much better now, so much more intense with no pain to push it down or suck it away. She felt so satisfyingly full now, and between that and Rarity grinding against her, she would be surprised if she lasted more than a few thrusts before she reached another climax. Rarity too had to be feeling every bit as incredible as Twilight did, their positions a literal mirror of one another, and with Spike hips-deep in two mares at once and his dream mare’s spectacular rear to stare down at and squeeze… well, there was no doubt in Twilight’s mind that all three of them were immensely happy with Rarity’s idea. Sweet Celestia, why hadn’t they started like this?

“A little better now, darling…?” Rarity whispered softly in her ear.

Twilight nodded swiftly. “Yes… much better, thank you…”

“Oh, don’t thank me yet…”

Twilight met her eyes with an inquisitive stare, but she didn’t have to wonder for very long, because Spike suddenly started thrusting, in long, full, calculated strokes, and…

Words failed her. Not merely in that she couldn’t speak anymore through her ecstatic gasps, but because in all her expansive vocabulary, there were simply no adequate descriptors for how insanely amazing it felt. Her body was screaming, her head was swimming, her loins were burning, she was almost suffocating, flattened into the bed under Rarity’s weight and Spike’s muscles, and she loved it, she loved every overwhelming second of it. It was perfect, it was magical, and above all else, it made sense. She finally got it, she understood. It wasn’t strange that Twilight loved having Rarity there. It didn’t matter that Spike wasn’t a stallion. She didn’t care whether the penis inside her belonged to a dragon or a pony or was merely a toy or even exactly how many other heads this particular penis might have possessed. All that mattered was that it was inside her, fucking her, driving her wild, yanking out and slamming back in hard enough to rock her whole body, all while Rarity relentlessly ground their clits together, making her flush and moan and tremble and oh buck she was going to come any second now. Rarity was right: pleasure really was universal.

“Oh my Goddess… Rarity…! Spike…!” she finally choked out, urgently clutching the former’s mane and neck and pulling her close. “It’s too much… I…!”

“I know darling… me too…!” Rarity panted back, and pressed her forehead to Twilight’s at the other unicorn’s needy tugs.

A second later the two attacked each other with powerful, desperate kisses and climaxed once again, together this time, shaking and moaning and coming, with what felt like enough force to expel Spike entirely if it weren’t for their bodies seizing up and their vaginal walls clenching tight to the blazing hot rods inside them, locking Spike in place the next time his hips met theirs with a wet slap.

“Aaaughh…!” Spike groaned. “Girls… you’re squeezing too hard…! I-I’m gonna…!”

That was all the warning they got. Spike’s groans grew heavy and labored, his hips jerking forward, and then it was his turn to come, and Twilight really did have to hold back a scream this time and nearly came again herself, because if she’d thought his actual shaft was hot before, it was nothing next to his seed. She still wasn’t sure how much of it was her vagina currently being overworked and insanely sensitive, but sweet Goddess above it felt like he was firing molten lava into her womb. It felt good, it felt so good. Too good. Every shot was a flaming dagger, every fresh burst pushed the line between pleasure and pain in a way even double-penetration hadn’t done, and there was so much, so much of it, filling every spare corner of her channel that wasn’t occupied by Spike himself, and it wasn’t until Twilight felt like she was about to either explode or melt from the inside before he was finally done.

Spike heaved a weary breath and fell backwards into a sitting position at the hoof of the bed, his twin shafts popping out of the girls, and as soon as he had Rarity rolled off Twilight and splayed out on the other side of the bed, gasping for breath in another mirror image of Twilight’s own condition.

“Mmmhh… my goodness, that’s certainly one way to spend an afternoon…” Rarity murmured between breaths, looking over at Twilight. “Well, Twilight…? Was it everything you imagined it would be…?”

Twilight didn’t answer. All three of them were sweaty and sticky and exhausted, but none more than Twilight herself. And perhaps that was for the best. There were sure to be hours of awkward conversation to follow Rarity’s question, and Twilight was not in any state of mind to have them just yet. So when fatigue and unconsciousness tugged at her, she gave in almost immediately, and was fast asleep without a word.

Somewhere far above her in a dark, rapidly fading haze, Rarity giggled. “My, I suppose I’ll take that as a ‘yes’…”

---

Dear Princess Celestia,

Forgive me in advance for the more graphic than usual nature of this letter. I agonized for hours over how much to tell you, if anything at all, and I must have incinerated at least three drafts before making up my mind. In the end I decided that at least two pieces of context were necessary to really illustrate the scope of the two lessons I learned. So… here goes nothing.

First, two of my best friends have begun a romantic relationship together.

And second, I had sex with both of them today.

Who those friends are precisely isn’t really important. What matters is that these friends are, in one way or another, outside what most ponies might consider the acceptable norm for a mare like myself to have a sexual encounter with. As a matter of fact their romantic relationship is outside this status quo of what is ‘normal’ as well. And for a while I let that bother me. They are very, very different, in a lot of ways, and many ponies will probably raise an eyebrow at the sight of them together. Some might even call them wrong and perverse for being in love with one another. But seeing how happy they are together, both by interacting with them in public and having shared a bed with them in private, I learned that love is universal. Love is something that should be embraced wherever we find it. And above all, love doesn’t discriminate. If two creatures truly love each other, then it cannot be nullified by barriers like race, or gender, or even species. Nor should it be.

And while it may seem unrelated, I also learned that sex, too, should not be a barrier, in love OR in friendship. It took a spontaneous sexual experience with these friends to teach me the first lesson, and after it happened I feared deep in my heart that it would come at the cost of hurting our friendship irreparably. But my fears were unfounded. Yes, the conversations that followed were necessarily awkward and difficult and embarrassing, but having come out the other end of them in one piece, our friendships are stronger than ever, and while it’s not an experience we’re likely to repeat, we don’t regret having it. Different sorts of relationships work for different ponies, and for some of us, sometimes, sex doesn’t have to be strictly for romantic couples. Sometimes it’s okay to share intimacy with close friends, as long as everypony involved is okay with it. It may not be common, but like the first lesson taught me, just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

PS: You wouldn’t happen to know of a good painkiller, would you? I think I’m going to be really sore in the morning.

---

To my dearest pupil,

I was immensely pleased to hear of the lessons you learned today. They are lessons that even some of the most long-lived ponies in history never quite realized, and it warms my heart to see that you are so accepting of your friends’ unique relationship. You truly are becoming a grown mare, aren’t you?

I look forward to hearing more lessons like this from you now that you are growing older, and while I of course respect your desire to keep the details private, you need never feel too embarrassed to tell me something, should you believe it necessary. I have been around a long time, and there is very little you could say that would surprise me.

Incidentally, I would recommend Eniphrom Herbs for your soreness issue. It helped me immensely in my younger days.

Yours always,

Celestia

---

THE END