Redux: The Harbinger's Oath

by Ringtael


A Date To Remember

Redux: A Date To Remember

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Dear Diary,

I didn’t mean to make a drug so potent that it could effectively repress my memories as I enjoyed a mild buzz, but here we are. I actually managed to subconsciously make something strong enough to make me feel like me again, and the only thing I have to do is puff on the little ACC (Atomic Cannabinoid Converter) once or twice whenever I needed to clear my head and voila! I mean, it was probably enough THC to kill a regular person, or the heat would certainly do it, but fit was perfect for a Goddess on the Go™! It also meant that I dropped my power-level like a rock and actually managed to sleep for a full hour!!! I don’t know why that’s so important anymore, but I feel like it is, and it’s just wonderful~

Speaking of wonderful things, Max decided to come and give me a wake up call, though some of the sweetness of the moment was a little spoiled. My boyfriend had a pensive look in his eyes when he gave me a gentle smile and asked, “Wakey wakey, got time for eggs and fakey?”

“... Fakey?” I asked, the fog of sleep not really inhibiting me, oddly enough.

“It’s not real bacon, but let’s not get into that so early in the morning,” he kissed my temple. “Breakfast is already done, so you’ll have to meander a little later in the morning.”

I sighed and grabbed the ACC to nullify some abilities. “Mm. What time is it?”

Max looked at me strangely. “Are you seriously a vapist?”

My cheeks flushed as I exhaled through my nose. “It’s essentially a dab strong enough to put you in a coma.”

“That’s my Cherry.” Max chuckled earnestly, catching a contact buzz in two blinks. “Oh fuck.

“Whoops.” Was that convincing?

Yooo.” He gained a goofy grin and a certain gleam in his gaze while he started giggling.

“Max, how high are you?” I’m sure my concern was very apparent through me forcing myself not to laugh.

Aren’t we inna tree? We godda be hiiigh…” His smile melted and his expression went from dopey to wonderstruck. “Yooo! When’d we climb the tree!?

Oh, he was so fried.

As a mare with dignity and respect for her fellow pony, as well as love and admiration for the man whose eyes were currently ‘glowing’, I chose the high road instead of messing with him. “Max, we climbed the tree last night and got our bed up here. Would you like to climb back down?”

Like… Can we?” Max tried to stand and fell over. Thankfully he fell away from my night stand, but I wouldn’t have let him hit it anyway.

I popped out of bed and gave him a hand, but he could barely stand on his own two feet. Max swayed like a reed in a gentle breeze, going from side to side seemingly at his own whim. I held his hands tight so he wouldn’t fall, but I couldn’t help but focus on the fact that the only time I would most likely ever get to see Max so happy was when he was intoxicated. It turned my smile a little bittersweet, but I knew that we could still have fun if I decided to stoop just a little.

“Hey Ma~ax.” I crooned mischievously.

He smiled and stuck his tongue out at me. “Bwaaah!

I kissed his nose because he was being cute. “I’m gonna go take a shower~”

Max’s smile turned a little goofier as his cheeks flushed. “Heh heh. Smel~ly Po~ny.”

“I am not smelly!” I protested playfully.

My coltfriend wrapped me up in a hug and continued to giggle. “You smell like wine!

I briefly thought about that while I held Max still and considered the fact that I apparently smelled like alcohol and tasted like it to him. I wondered if he actually had a problem for a moment before deciding to let it be and go on about my own business. My business being how to get back at Max for calling me smelly.

“Hey Ma~ax. You can come with me to the shower if you want~”

He let me go and beamed. “I’m the best back washer!”

I let him go and went to go start finding an outfit for the day. “You can come in if you can get there yourself~”

Max stayed and swayed in his spot while I went about my duties, satisfied with the simply adorable outfit I managed to put together while Max was busy trying to figure out what he was supposed to be doing. My blouse and skirt combo wasn’t exactly awe inspiring, but I thought it was more than cute enough to be worth wearing. When I held it out for Max to see he said that he thought it was pretty cute, or something along those lines. I was mostly focused on the tent in his pants at the time, though I was wondering where he’d gotten whatever object was in his pants until he casually told me that he needed looser underwear as he adjusted himself.

After that, I really did take a shower just so I could wash the syrup off of me. I’d been planning to save it until after breakfast, but twenty minutes is quick, right?

We went down to go have something to eat, and when I say that, I mean that I practically carried Max around because he was so incredibly inebriated. He was very giggly, and upon making eye contact with Spike he cried, “Dude! It’s a super reptile!”

He gave Max an odd look before turning to me. “Is he drunk?”

I gave him a grin and a wink. “No, but he is cute. How’s it feel to be a super reptile?”

Spike looked at Max and puffed out a little flame, making Max’s jaw drop like a gold nugget through foal oil. My little brother cracked a smile and said, “Have you been messing with him all morning, or what?”

I shrugged. “I’ve only been teasing here and there. Nothing too bad.”

Aww,” Max muttered to himself as he wandered over to where he usually sat. “Food…

“What about it?” Spike asked, looking at Max’s half-full plate.

Who munched my munch, maaate?

“... You?”

Aww…

My little brother chuckled and smiled. “I’ll make you some more if you promise to help me with my chores for a day!”

My handsome little Human gave Spike an easy grin. “Yeah!”

With a chuckle, my dashing little Dragon finished off his breakfast while I got Max sat down and had some of my own breakfast. Max ate slowly enough for Spike and I to get through some of our meals, though my brother only needed to eat so much to just be done since he’d never been fond of waiting people when food when involved. After Max polished off his pancakes, Spike made him five more and Max demolished all of them without missing a step for any bite, putting honey on some, syrup on a couple more, and jam on the last one, eating it like a crepe. It was odd to say the least, but when Max burped, I could hear the faint echo of a Dark Worm in his throat, so I cast a spell or two to make it fade into the Ether so Max wouldn’t eat us out of house and home.

I’d always wondered why Max ate so much when we were married, though the only reason I thought to rid him of the worm was because of my budget. It wouldn’t have hurt him or anything, but my bits. After Max was cured of his extra special tape worm, he was actually full from breakfast, so I had him go and find a book to read in the library while I finished with readying for the day. There was little I actually needed to take care of that was outside of the norm, but finding something that I wanted to do for the day was pretty pertinent until I realized that I had to take Max to Canterlot to have him turned into a ‘tough guy’ at the Institute. Sadly he was busy being too high to function when I came downstairs.

Max was looking at one of Spike’s comics while wearing gloves, but the thing was that he was reading it upside down. Mild amusement took me over while Max blearily stared at a couple of pages for a good few minutes while Spike giggled and asked how he liked the book so far. Apparently Max thought the pictures were moving, so I looked at what had his attention and saw that Spike was reading another comic about that team of super-heroines and that Mane-iac mare or whatever it was supposed to be. Again, I was a little lost as to how mane-tentacles were supposed to be a power, let alone something funny, but Max was stoned out of his gourd, so I gave him a pass.

He was easier to get moving than he had been before, though Max was still wobbly and wasn’t fond of the idea of leaving the house since it was hot outside. I made him do it anyway, and he didn’t complain for so much as a second when we got to the train station, which I thought was nice of him. Having him board the train and watching him enjoy the ride was fun in and of itself. By the time we got to Canterlot, however, I needed to hit the ACC again and Max was sobering up, so I made sure that he wouldn’t get my fumes again when I exhaled this time.

As we walked along, Max was happy to hold my hand and chat about random things from his past, like video games. I didn’t actually know what video games were, but when Max talked about their ancestors, the ‘Arcade Cabinet’, I knew just the place to take him. It’s not like we had to go to the Institute right away, though I was mostly worried about the general audience that Solar Eclipse brought in and how they’d react to Max. I wasn’t expecting a bunch of fillies and colts to exactly leave us alone, so my thinking was that I could just cast an Aversion Spell and get us through our visit unharassed if need be.

Much to my surprise, nopony bothered us when we initially walked in anyway, though the mare who ran the coin counter was a little more than just talkative. We eventually got away from her and Max started picking out two player games for us to try, often being the victor in whatever we decided to play, though I blamed that on his experience in the gaming industry. I’d never really been one much for the pew-pew ‘bling-bling-blop!’ noises in the first place, but even while Max was becoming more and more sober, he seemed to be having more and more fun with the place. He usually set a highscore on whatever he played, so we did attract attention after awhile, but it was mostly just fans of my boyfriend that were captivated by his skill and kept around by his jokes.

Once I managed to drag Max away from the games and pretty lights, it felt like a good time to go and grab a drink since the beverages in the arcade weren’t exactly Human-friendly. Well, Max mentioned that he could drink kale juice; he just wouldn’t enjoy it at all. We decided on a smoothie bar for our little diversion, and the Bonkers Banana-Date-Lime smoothie I got was tasty while Max’s pineapple-coconut was fine. I preferred mine, and so did Max, which probably played a part in how many kisses I got before we got to the Institute Guess who wasn’t complaining?

Older couples passing by often gave Max and I looks of envy, or rather, they seemed to be taking in the nostalgia and missed the old days. I made sure my Special Someone knew that I enjoyed spending the day with him, and while he was still riding a bit of his high, I started asking questions, stopping us outside of the Institute to take a stroll around campus. As innocent as I may seem, I can be a little subversive when I want to be. Instead of directly inquiring about what all he was feeling, I asked about some of his activities while he was away from me.

“Hey, Amour? What do you even do when you’re not around? Like, what did you do at Rarity’s while you were staying there?” I asked innocuously.

“Ah. Yeah. Um…” He blushed and my heart just sank.

“Max…?”

“It wasn’t my fault! I swear, Sweetie Belle-”

I stopped him in his tracks. “Wait, what.

He blinked. “Um… I was helping Sweetie Belle pick out an outfit and she kinda flashed me?”

Oh

Kill her.

‘We’re not killing her! Why would you even go there!?’

Well, we’re going to have to have a chat. Little whorse has her claws in Spike too, I’m betting.

‘Shouldn’t we ask Max-’

If he liked what he saw? Yes.

‘...’

“Max…?”

“Twilight, I swear, as soon as I realized that I wasn’t looking at a pale person wearing a white shirt, I covered my eyes and left.”

“Why… Why haven’t you mentioned this before now?” I asked, a little confused.

“Mostly because I didn’t want you to misunderstand and think I was some kind of creep.” He answered with an uneasy look on his face.

“Okay, explain what happened.” I sighed.

“Alright, so Sweetie Belle asked me to go through her closet and her wardrobe for something that matched her coat from a ‘stallion’s’ perspective, right? So I go digging around and actually find a lot of shit that would go with her coat since she’s not exactly neon green, but when I turn around to hand her a dress I thought was cute, she’s stripping. Thus, I covered my eyes like so,” He put his hand on the side of his face, “and put the dress on a chair in her room. She never brought it up and I don’t want to remember, so I didn’t say anything about it.”

“I understand that, but… Don’t you think it’s odd that Sweetie Belle just started taking her clothes off in front of you?”

He bit his lip and raised his brows. “Thought it was just as weird as you and Rarity picking blouses and not much else to wear to breakfast.”

The blush that hit me came full force. “... You just assumed all Ponies were…”

“Less modest than your average Human?” He said kindly.

“Yes.”

“Yeah, I really did. I thought I was just imagining things or just being struck by the culture shock, but here we are.”

I’m sure the look on my face wasn’t a pleasant one, but I wasn’t exactly mad. “Has there been anything else like that you can remember?”

“The incidences with you are the only other ones.” He replied confidently, nodding once.

I pinched him. “Shush! We don’t need to talk about that!”

“Oh, just relax and give into Max~” His chuckles were adorable as my mind fogged up.

“Sure. What do you want me to do?”

He gave me an odd look. “... Nothing?”

I stood as still as I could and stopped breathing, cleared my mind, and waited.

“... Twilight? Cherry?”

I nodded.

“... I didn’t literally mean nothing.”

I started breathing again and gave him an odd look. “... Why did I do that?”

“... Just relax and give into Max.”

“Okay.”

He took four steps away from me. “Get over here.”

His tone was sharp and disapproving, but I didn’t really care until I stood in front of him. “Hey, that wasn’t very nice!”

Max’s brow furrowed in befuddlement. “I’m sorry, Cherry. Would you mind doing me just one more favor?”

I gave him a look. “I don’t think so, Mister.”

“Okay. Just stay right there, okay?” Max held his hands up and moved away from me.

There was no discernible reason for him to be acting so strangely. “Max, what are you trying to do here?”

“Just stay there, alright? No matter what I say, stay there.

I rolled my eyes. “O-kay.”

“Thank you. Please come here.”

“You just told me to stay away!”

“Just relax and give into Max.”

“Sounds good.” I smiled at him.

“... Come here,” Max asked shakily.

I started walking towards him without a care in the world until I was standing in front of him again. “... Wow, I am bad at following directions.”

Max shook his head. “... Do you remember giving me your… Privatewear, back when we were shopping to get you a new table?”

I flushed and pinched him. “Why are you bringing that up now!?”

He swatted my hand and said, “Because I said the same thing back then and you didn’t think twice. The phrase I keep saying before you blindly do the thing I said either has some control over you, or you’re fucking with me hardcore.”

“Hmm… Try telling me to do something that I don’t want to do and we’ll see if I do it,” I said, suggesting an easy test.

“Rub your horn on my chest.”

“... Why?”

“Nuzzle me.”

“I actually want to do that.”

“Just relax and give into Max.”

“That’s a good way to have some fun if I’ve ever heard one!”

“Hmm… Let me cop a feel.”

I swung my arms behind my back and presented my chest to him. “All yours~”

Instead of touching me inappropriately, Max kissed me briefly and said, “You don’t have to do that.”

I blinked and my face lit up like a Hearth’s Warming Day tree. “... Oh.”

“So I’m not going to say that anymore.”

Chewing my lower lip, I thought of the possibilities that might ensue if I let Max close off this interesting avenue. It was like one of my most well hidden secrets had come true, Diary! Well, one literally did, but you can’t prove that I actually feel that way so ha! With a little trepidation I replied, “I wouldn’t mind as long as you don’t abuse it…”

My coltfriend gave me a strange look and asked, “... Are you asking me to… Take control?”

“Well…” I squeaked out an awkward chuckle or two.

“... We’ll see,” He said neutrally. “Let’s take it slow as far as that goes.”

The little smile I gave him bolstered my own confidence. “I think I’d prefer that over jumping right in.”

“Speaking of jumping right in, I just came down hard and where the fuck are we?” He asked carelessly, like he hadn’t just realized that he was in a different town.

“We’re at the Institute in Canterlot, silly,” I giggled at him. “We can go inside and finally get you enhanced so that ponies don’t leave bruises by flicking you.”

“Oh, sweet. Let’s head on in then.”

“Alright! Here’s hoping Mom’s working today,” I said more to myself than to Max.

“If she is, then we’ll have to stop by and say hi. I like your Mum.”

“I think she likes you too, you just need to… Well… Smooth out a little and you’ll do just fine.”

“I’ll try to be smoother than chunky peanut butter.”

“That’s not hard to do, Amour.”

“I know, that’s why I set the standard so low. That shit was so smooth you can glide across it.”

“Oh, shush!” I tittered. “You’re so full of it.”

“And you’re full of smiles and kisses, but you don’t always share,” He grumbled bitterly, faking a bad mood and a pouty look.

I gave him an especially loving smile placed my hands on his chest. “All you have to do is ask, Smokey.”

He claimed his kiss. And then he took another since I was passing them out to Humans with green eyes for free that day. Smooching Day and Kissing Day were different from Kissy-Kiss Day and Smoochum Day because they’re all different days of the week with different traditions attached to them. For instance, on Kissy-Kiss day, Max gets two kisses for every one, and on Kissing Day, every kiss must last at least three seconds. It’s a very difficult business to run, you know!

Anyway, we strolled into the foyer of the Institute and I loved the sight of the millennia old artifacts that were on display as much as I had the first and last time I’d seen them. Max, on the other hand, was rather nonchalant about the third air balloon ever known to have flown, the Axe of Tree-Felling, and even Starswirl’s second favorite staff! I was a little upset by his complete and utter indifference toward magical history, but I withheld my comments because it wasn’t Max’s fault for not recognizing the historical significance of artifacts from a different planet. However, I’d chided Rainbow the entire time we’d been there together during one of our trips to Canterlot since she hadn’t even bothered to try and pay attention. Max put forth the effort for the pieces of history that involved the other races, but when it came to Pony history, Max just didn’t seem to care.

His general disinterest made me stop the tour I was giving him, thus prolonging the thing we needed to get done. Despite dragging out the event, I just wanted an answer to my question. “Max, why don’t you care about the history of my kin?”

“Hmm?” he asked, turning toward me after looking at an old suit of armor. “Did you say I didn’t care about your people’s history?”

I nodded. “Yes. Would you care to answer?”

“Yeah, sure. Pony history has to be bullshit. Nothing adds up.” He said simply.

The look I gave him had been named by a select few ponies as the ‘Did You Truly Just Commit This Crime Against My Intelligence?’ look. “... Beg pardon?”

“Alright, so let’s start off with the beginning: There were just three Pony Clans in a frozen wasteland, right? Well that wasteland was supposed to be north of Gryphonia, but the shit there literally isn’t livable, and without Unicorn Magic and Earth Pony Magic to make the land itself arable, which would have been impossible due to persistent permafrost in the ground, there wouldn’t have been any means to grow food. And where did they come from in the first place? The Arctic is notorious for its lack of nutrition, and the animals that live there are highly specialized to live there. Ponies wouldn’t have had the materials or the technology necessary to scrape out a living in that climate for any period of time, which tells me that the origin story must be false. Then you have the Unification, which was supposedly made possible by rational minds under the threat of the Windigos, but the only mentions I ever find of Windigos is and are in history books, and there’s virtually no data on them otherwise. Plus, if the Ponies migrated from the icy reaches above Gryphonia, they would have had to either sail the coast, which has never been mentioned, or they completely avoided contact with the Gryphons entirely because, again, there’s no mention of the native inhabitants of Gryphonoia in Equestrian history. In fact, history’s so vague between the Unification and the Tyranny of Tirek that it’s pointless to try and figure out what happened back then, and what few accounts there are of the Tyranny of Tirek contradict themselves in a dozen different ways depending on who’s telling the tale. The only thing that stayed constant about anyone’s depiction of Tirek was that he was tall and muscular, but multiple people had said that he walked on four legs and some on eight. Some say he looked like a Pony with red fur and a cows lower half while others say that he was a Windigo. Then you have the reign of Discord, after which the Royal Sisters took over, but if the Royal Sisters took over from Discord over two thousand years ago, then why is there only fifteen hundred years of accounted-for history in most of the books you gave me to read? And the only history in your entire library is Equestrian. I don’t care about fake information because it’s untrue, Twilight.”

I stared at him.

“You okay, Cherry?”

“... Let’s get you toughened up,” I sighed.

“... Just rocked your world, didn’t I?”

“Eeyup.”

“Sorry.”

“We should travel and read some real history.” I said, making a face.

“Sounds good to me,” Max said casually.

I nodded a few times, shrugged off the fact that everything I thought I’d known about my country was a lie, and took the guy who apparently paid attention when no Pony ever did to the receptionist to get a stupid ring put on my horn so I wouldn’t do anything completely normal. As with most Unicorns, I hated having my Magic bound from the base, but I kinda-sorta understood where they were coming from. Still, it took us a good hour or two to find the right department since the halls are magical and they sometimes like to lead you astray depending on the day. Some ponies ended up wandering for days if they had a particularly bad vibe about them, so it wasn’t that bad that Max and I only took about an hour and a half to get where we were going. Once we found our department, we didn’t have to wait long for a dozen ponies from two more departments to rush in and try to convince Max to let them experiment on him, but all he wanted was the Enhancement Spell, so that’s all he got. They did, however, manage to bend him a little bit by having him step into a Rune Circle to test his natural magical aptitude only to find out that Max was a freaking Conduit!!! While he’d been born with no Magic of his own in any manner of the word, Max was essentially the perfect candidate to hold pretty much any kind of Magic there was on Equus.

We barely managed to get out of the laboratory to avoid the raging mob of scientists that was gaining steam as ponies shouted about the alien that was walking among us. By ‘walking’, I mean running after we found out that Max was a Conduit. Once the news got out that there was a one-in-a-million ‘Test Subject’ in the Institute, things started getting fuzzy fast. Breaking the line of sight was all we needed to do, and getting to Mom’s lab took less time than it should have due to Max being able to finally carry me like a Princess. It wasn’t something terribly important in the moment, but it was definitely nice. I loved the way I could hear his heart hammering in his chest over the din of the mad scientists trying to get a sample of his blood, or the one mare who kept trying to goose Max with a probe. She was very adamant about getting a rectal sample, which I wanted too, but Max’s butt is my butt.

When I pointed out Mom’s lab to my own personal pick-me-up, Max slowed down, dropped me onto my hooves and got us both inside just as we heard more hoofsteps echoing in the halls. Instead of relaxing or saying hi to the mares and stallions who were staring at us, my coltfriend said, “The first one who gives us up is getting a black eye and a bloodied nose!” before he practically dragged me to the back of the room to hide behind a free table.

Mom was walking over to us with an amused look on her face when the door burst open and the mare with the probe shouted, “Bring that flank here for SCIENCE!

My lovely mother turned to look at the crazy gal and tilted her head as the door to the lab shattered from the force of being flung open. It mostly just spider-webbed, but Mom…?

Well, her patience cracked too.

“Filly, did you just bust into my gosh-darn lab and break my damn door?

The woman put the probe down. “... Umm… I’m searching for an alien?”

Mom popped her neck and gently picked something up from the table while Max and I watched from the side and top of the workspace respectively. “I’m searching for a reason not to shove that probe down your throat.” She replied pleasantly.

“... I’ll be-” The mare started as Mom threw the thing she picked up, “Eep!”

The sound of rapid hoofsteps beat their way down the hall as Mom looked down to Max, all earlier amusement gone. “The next time you intend on bringing trouble to my place of work, consider it twice.”

“In my defense, I was looking for a reliable parental figure to help me feel safe and un-” Max said, getting cut off by the sound of more hooves drumming their way into Mom’s lab.

She turned her attention away from us for a moment to glare at the intruders. “Do you buckheads seriously not have your own labs to do your work in? I am not putting up with this crap.”

There were a lot of awkward chuckles and the chase ended there for the most part, save for a stallion I knew my Mom despised. “Tch, we’re just checking to see where a specimen could have run off to.”

“Pump said there was an alien. I’m assuming that you’re well aware of the fact that nothing likes being experimented on when there are a hundred ponies watching.” She replied drily.

Doctor Snide Scribble scoffed. “It doesn't really matter when you’re making the scientific discovery the millenium. The alien is a Conduit!

“... So you’re chasing a magically volatile being around with what it could assume to be weapons and you expect it to…? What exactly? If you do manage to find this creature, it should try to hurt you, and I do mean that in the worst of ways, Scribble. Your ethics are abysmal.

I could practically hear him roll his eyes. “We don’t even know if the thing can feel. It might just be another Extra-Pony race for all we know, so why does it matter if it gets a little maimed during the process?”

Mom bristled and her lip curled in disgust. “All lives are equal, you curr.

“Oh please. Like Unicorns haven’t always been more valuable to society than anypony else.”

A life is not measured in how much Magic it expends.” Mom seethed.

“Stuck-up nag.” Scribble scoffed.

“Tactless, honorless, moral-bereft foal.

“Tch.”

For the last time, another few sets of hoofsteps exited the room and Mom looked down to Max. “Honey?”

“... Yes Ma’am?”

“Call me Mom.”

“Can I say Mum?”

“Yes, as long as you do me one favor.”

Max nodded. “Anything.”

“If that stallion tries to take you, BREAK HIM.” She said, one of her eyes flashing red.

“... Yes, Mum.” He replied, shocked.

“Good colt.” She looked to me. “Sparkly, Dear?”

“Yes, Mom?”

“Do you happen to know of any… Creative, hexes?”

“I know one that can make him feel like he’s constantly shrinking down there.” Dear Stars, was that a horrible feeling.

“Can you actually shrink it?” She asked evilly.

“Um… Sure?”

“I’ll scry him if you want to do it now.”

… Writing down evidence is a bad idea. We didn’t do anything, but it was probably a bad idea to mention that Mom was thinking about it in the first place. I guess I’ll just add another Privacy Spell or two to this and… Done! Anyway, once I didn’t do anything at all and Mom gave Max and I hugs, we snuck out of the Institute and had the receptionist take the darned Magic-Cancellation Ring from my horn before we got back into the streets of Canterlot. I feel I should mention that Mom had the tenure to take it off so I could cast my spell; she just didn’t want her magical signature on the deed. If there was one, that is. There wasn’t anything I wanted to do in town, but just as we were passing one of the clothing stores that sold Fleur’s special makeup kits and other Fleur de Lis merchandise, we saw an old family friend that wanted to stop and catch up for a couple of minutes. The event wasn’t exactly time consuming in the beginning, or terribly important, though it did give me a chance to see how Max acted when he wasn’t vulnerable to every little thing that might decide to push him over.

I noticed that he smiled a lot more often and his laugh sounded more genuine than it had before as the conversation carried on. His smile cooled the frustrations in my heart surrounding the Institute, and his laugh breezed the bad thoughts out of my ears, making me smile and giggle along with him. Mountain Mix and Mesa Muddle took to Max like ducks to water, and Max evidently found himself some new friends since he got us invited to a party later on in the evening. It was a little surprising since, for one, I wasn’t technically invited, and for two, Mesa kept giving Max little winks and conspicuous smiles that set me on edge. Apparently Max noticed the specific phrasing of Mountain Mix’s invitation because he jokingly asked if he was allowed to bring his date or if he was supposed to go to a stranger’s house alone. That was when I actually got invited to the party, but it just became even more obvious that I wasn’t important when Mountain Mix offered to take Max to his favorite herb shop. Without me.

Mesa evidently thought it was a brilliant idea and told Mountain to be back by sunset, but Max gently denied their offer, stating that he’d rather spend his day, as little of it as there was left, with ‘his mare’. That put a huge smile on my face and earned Max a kiss to be cashed in for the trip home, whenever we actually got to go back, which brought up a problem: Max and I had nothing to wear to the mini-ball, but that particular conundrum was dashed and solved as soon as I said something about it. Mountain, being a legendarily generous stallion to his friends, offered to buy Max a tuxedo to wear while I was going to be on my own. While I was glad that somepony was finally treating Max with something other than contempt or disdain, whether for his feelings or general well-being, I was a little perturbed by being essentially cast aside every time I said something until Max brought me back into the conversation.

We eventually got Mountain and Mesa to just go away when Max told them that he was feeling a bit worn out, but when we were out of earshot and about as alone as one could get while having company in a capital city, my coltfriend said, “We’re not going to that party.”

I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest, but I still had to ask, “Why not?”

Max passed me a sidelong glance. “Mountain and Mesa want something from me that I don’t want to give them. That woman gives me the creeps, but Mountain is alright.”

“... What do they want?”

“Either my wang or my arse,” He said frankly, “and both belong to the woman they decided to ignore. Even if we had an open relationship and I actually wanted to sleep with either of them, we still wouldn’t be going to that party because of the second reason.”

I couldn’t help myself as the tiniest smile crept its way onto my lips. “So you’d rather miss out on a potentially great party just because some ponies were a little rude to me?”

“Oh, I’d skip out on Celestia if I didn’t like the way she talked to you. You know I don’t like it when people disrespect you.”

“So you know how I feel?” I asked sweetly, hugging his arm because walking while doing a normal hug is really hard.

“I wouldn’t say I know the full extent. The worst I’ve seen was Mesa trying to flirt with me while you were standing around.”

“Wait, she what!?

“Yeah, that’s why I kept telling jokes about old women. I was trying to send her a message.”

“She probably didn’t know what a woman was since she didn’t ask.”

“Didn’t you know what a woman was?”

“I am supposed to be a little smarter than average, Max. The things I catch onto might not be the same as what everypony else understands.”

“Fair enough. You are a bright little star, aren’t you?” Max asked softly. “Not bright enough to find a better guy to date, but that’s a good thing. For me, anyways.” The stern look I gave Max was enough to jog his memory. “Oh, right, the self-deprecation. Sorry, Cherry.”

“At least you didn’t need me to say anything about it.” I sighed, my lips smiling while my mood soured.

Max leaned over to kiss my temple. “Now you know how I feel, right?”

“I don’t exactly go around calling myself a bad pony, Amour.”

“No, but you do say that you’re unattractive, and that’s just a lie.”

“You… Have a point, I guess. I’ll say I’m… Not ugly, I guess, if you’ll admit that you’re at least decent.”

He scoffed. “See, just being ‘not ugly’ is neutral. Being ‘decent’ is positive. Say something positive about yourself and I’ll say something equally positive about myself.”

I chuckled nervously, the fair trade being too much to pass up. The only thing was that I couldn’t think of anything nice to say about myself… “Um… I have a pretty mane?”

He’s going to know.

He knew before you opened your mouth.

Shush!’

“I know you didn’t mean that,” Gosh darnit! “but I never said you had to, I suppose. If that’s the tone you’re setting, however, then I’m going to go with, ‘I have nice eyes.’.”

“... But that’s true.” I said slowly as we approached the train station, just able to sight the tracks off in the distance.

“And you have a pretty mane, you just don’t think you do. I don’t think my eyes are anything other than green.”

“Oh.”

Max chortled at me. “Would you like to try again, or do you want me to try?”

Oooh! Tell him to lead by example!

... Okay?’ “M-Maybe you could lead by example?”

He blew some air through his nose, though it didn’t sound as deep or as loud as when a Pony did it. “Sure. I actually do like how quiet I can be. I was able to walk straight behind the counter at Sugarcube Corner and just stand there until I felt like leaving when I first got here.”

“Oh. I didn’t think you took pride in being sneaky.”

“It’s a valuable skill. Your turn.”

Dumb struck me like you wouldn't believe. “Um…”

“Anything?” He asked jokingly. “I know you take pride in your scholastic slash academic stuff.”

His words relieved some of the tension in my tummy. “W-Well, when you put it like that…”

“It doesn’t hurt that you’re downright adorkable, and it’s even better that you’re so damn knowledgeable about whatever I need to know. Well, as far as most things go. Not only are you generally pleasant to have around, you’re also nice to look at, nice to talk to, and nice to cuddle with. I couldn’t really ask for much more, other than a change in color.”

I’d been smiling like a regular goofball until he said the last part. “Hey, what’s wrong with purple and pink!?”

“I don’t like pink, but I do like purple. You’re a good shade of purple.”

“So what? You’re just thinking of what I’d look like without the pink run in my mane?”

“No, I’m thinking of what you would look like if you were royal blue with a navy mane and sky blue and periwinkle streaks.”

That actually sounds really cute.

Punch him for his treachery!

‘We’re going with cute, Miss Punchy.’ “That actually doesn't sound half bad, but I think I’m happy with my current color scheme.”

“And I wouldn’t change you for the world,” Max said warmly, his voice clear and true.

My heart skipped a beat in my chest. “Aww! You’re so sweet!”

“No, I taste like burning wood. You’re literally sweet.” Max deadpanned.

I gave him a look. “Oh, shush! You’re just so full of it today.”

“I’m being serious,” He said drily.

“Hmph!”

That was the last of our conversation before we bought our tickets back to Ponyville, though the conversation picked back up when I hit the ACC. Max was interested in it, but was surprised that I refused to let him try it. He became a lot more understanding and a lot less amused when I admitted that I was essentially using a drug many times stronger than whatever he’d had on Earth. Much to my chagrin, Max wasn’t fond of me doing drugs for the sake of deleting memories, but I explained that me remembering everything that we’d ever done together and facing the reality of him never being able to know just how long we’d spent in each other’s arms pulled him to my way of thinking. Once I got my motivations on the floor, Max understood why I didn’t want to be with an amnesiac when I could have the option of living in the same timeline as he did. Yes, it was and is wrong of me to try and run from my problems with drugs, but a woman with twenty Graham’s Numbers at least under her belt falling in love with a twenty year-old? It would be like a Pony from before the Unification living until the last generation of Equus was born, just to pick the right Special Somepony before they were even out of the womb.

In other words, it would’ve been super weird and creepy. Max didn’t want to be the molested child and I wasn’t trying to be the ancient priest with wandering hands, so we had that to worry about. Well, as long as I kept the ACC, we didn’t really have to think twice about it, and even if I lost it, all I’d have to do is wait for the effects to wear off to make another one. I personally didn't think of it as much of a problem. The pen, I mean. Max still wasn’t fond of the fact that I had to be high to be around him now, but he understood that I couldn’t possibly love him and his company; his presence and his spirit, any more than I already did. It was because of the aforementioned love that I couldn’t bare to be around Max while sober… I just knew him too well; knew too many things that would no longer come to pass, and the conversation we had about that was a sober one that we needed to have.

After a bout of silence that lasted about halfway through our walk back home, Max opened that conversation with, “Twilight, how much of our old life do your remember? Like right now?”

I gave him a sad smile. “I remember everything up until a certain someone met the former Big Guy.”

“... Isn’t that when I-”

“Yes, and I wish I didn’t remember.” I chuckled, feeling a little ache in my heart at Max’s glossy eyes… The stillness… The coldness…

“... Sorry for bringing up a bad memory.”

“It’s fine, Amour. I just… I’m just glad that things have worked out the way they have so far,” turning toward him, I watched as he mulled my words over. “This… This is special. This isn’t easy, but this… This is something that I don’t want to lose. Even as rough as it’s been since you arrived, there’s no part of me that wishes you weren’t by my side.”

Max glanced at me, a smirk already on his lips as he said, “There’s no part of you that wishes I would go somewhere and leave you alone for a little bit?”

“I have my moments, but they’re just moments.” I giggled. “Really, Max. We’re meant to be together.”

There were few enough ponies on the streets to impede, so my ever-precious boyfriend- Er, I’ll probably flip back and forth between Pony words and the common one, Diary. The memories keep mixing up and doing weird things in my head… Anyway, Max came to a stop on the cobblestone road and pulled me over to a knick-knack shop that Fluttershy liked to go to whenever they were having the weekend sale. The sun was past its zenith and was casting a warm glow on the world beneath it, giving Max’s pale face a slight rubescence that made it seem like there was light dancing in his eyes. I could’ve sworn that I was looking into pools of glistening Scutch with Bluegrass mixed in for extra effect, the fading light of day giving his eyes a captivating quality. His words echoed through my head until his lips stopped moving, the meaning finally breaking through to me after he finished speaking.

“Yeah, we are. Damn near opposites, and yet how many people could say that their love runs as deep as ours?” He’d asked to his temporarily incapacitated lover.

The kiss we shared… It was my answer. It was the only way I knew how to answer him, or at least that specific question. It would’ve been simple to say ‘no one’ or ‘nopony’, but even without the memories of my interactions with Max from the other universe(s?), I knew that physical affection was the way to make sure my point got across. Knowing your partner’s Love Language is a very, terribly important part of any relationship, and I needed to speak to Max in the way he understood best. The prolonged nature of the kiss was a little unnecessary, but I’m sure it was appreciated from both ends.

From the contact we shared, I knew that my message was received, so I looked at my lover, my heart, and said, “I love you, Maximus. I wish more days would be like this.”

He hugged me to his chest and murmured, “I love you too, Twilight. Thank you for being in my life. Lives. Lifeseses.”

I giggled and gave him a squeeze. “The only way you’re getting rid of me is if you make me go away.”

“Just be lax and give into Max~”: He chuckled.

“Hey!” I slapped his chest lightly, trying to frown. I failed miserably, but I tried.

“I didn’t even say the thing!”

“You were trying to make me think you did!”

I couldn’t blame him for being immature since he was younger than me, but I still made an attempt at a disapproving look when he said, “No, I was trying to trick you into giving me your knickers again.”

My face flushed and my gaze fell to the road, my hands finding their way over my heart. “Why don’t you give me some of yours?” I asked weakly.

He chuckled and kissed my forehead. “Pick a pair and they’re yours.”

I perked up at that. “Really!?”

“We need to exchange gifts that aren’t undergarments.”

“Eventually.” I waved his worries aside and got us moving again. “First we have to get you out of those clothes!”

Max had a laugh at that and took my hand, leading the way back to Golden Oaks. The sensation of walking hand-in-hand with my Dearest was familiar and comforting, the warmth of his hand invigorating, and the synchronization of our steps and breathing was just… Natural. Like we’d already been together for our Golden Anniversary and had known each other since we were foals. It was prosaic in a way that it felt like Max and I often spent our time doing exactly what we’d been doing all day, but even as we walked down a road I’d been down a thousand times before, each second felt like it was full and bursting with yet another piece of elation to be caught. Every little blink was like opening my eyes to a new day with someone I couldn’t possibly love anymore; who could never push me far enough away to never come back. The steps I took with Max felt as though they were carrying us toward something new and exciting, something worth the wait, but time-sensitive. The breaths we took in tandem felt as though they were flowing through two pairs of lungs, and as we strolled, just enjoying each other for who we were, our emotions began to mix and mingle like never before. I wasn’t aware of the slight changes at first, but I soon realized that I had been content rather than ecstatic a few seconds ago, and rather than feeling calmed and collected, I felt a trickle of energy and euphoria bleed from my heart with every beat.

The nearly imperceivable changes in my emotional state only raised flags because they came in fits and spurts, but when Max went to open the door for me as we arrived at the library, he stopped before he could finish opening the door and let his hand fall back to his side. We’d been casually chit-chatting and flirting until a lighting bolt of pure silence came down, striking us both. It was like the words had been taken straight from our mouths as something happened. I could feel it in my chest: the swelling in my heart; the occasional skipped beat and the more frequent thudding that happened while Max and I both started gasping for breath. I sat down on the stoop first and Max joined me soon after, clutching my hand as my heartbeat went from irregular to outright painful in the course of a few seconds. We let out a little croak slash burp at the same time, in the same tone, though in different octaves. I didn’t care about the ache in my chest so much as the one in Max’s up until reality slapped me with a new piece of information.

I could feel Max.

It wasn’t just him sitting beside me or holding my hand. I wasn’t just feeling his personal warmth or his aura. I was in tune with him, and through the connection, I knew he could feel me too. Once we got our breath back after a few seconds, Max and I looked at each other and said, “I blame you.”

We burst out into giggles, but Max was the first one to recover. “I bet it’s your fault! You’re the only one who knows how to use Magic!”

Pffft! Only a little foal points the finger, Amour,” I teased.

“I’m younger than you, Granny.”

“Hey! I’m young and spry!”

“Young, spry, and you can catch an eye.” He winked at me, setting my heart aflutter. His hand went to his chest as we both blushed. “Wow, is this what you feel when I tease you?”

I giggled and kissed his jaw because I didn’t want to kiss his cheek. (Mary) Sue me. “Mhmm. It sure is.”

“Wow, what else do I do to you?” He giggled, sounding like he was waaay too amused with my emotions.

I ‘glared’ at him and pouted. “We’ll find out if we actually go inside.”

He leaned down to kiss me again, but this time neither of us pulled away. It wasn’t a passionate or enstickening stickifying stickying arousing kiss. No… It’s… It’s almost hard to describe. The solace that Max’s lips held for me was ever present, the hearth filled with cherrywood still blazing as the snow fell out in the world beyond our microcosm, but there was a new sensation burrowing its way into the purity of our love. Whereas before I’d just felt the way Max always made me feel when we were doing well, the kiss that joined us was unique. Different. There was something new that I had to delve into, but I knew that letting my lust for knowledge interfere with the moment would ruin it completely, so I bided my time and let the flow of the motion carry me to the answers I sought, rather than continuing to look for them myself.

The new feelings… I felt… The safety that overcame me was an oddity. Instead of having the sensation of being hugged in a bubble shield (Weird, I know), I felt more like I was being held by someone smaller than me; someone who loved me with their whole heart, a person who cared for me so deeply that no request was too much. I wanted to cry, but the pure joy that was filling me from the inside dammed the tears and convinced me to bring my hand to Max’s face, cupping his cheek gently to keep him close while we took a second or two for the sake of gathering our thoughts. Neither of us had backed away per se, despite no longer being joined by the lips. It seemed as though we’d just thought to end the moment at the same time to meditate on what we’d experienced.

“... Wow…” I breathed.

“... Woah…” Max murmured simultaneously.

“Did… You felt that, right?”

“... You actually teleported twenty dudes into the ocean. Two of those fuckers weren’t even there when you zooped those science guys.”

I blinked. “You’ve had to run away from a full gang of people multiple times. Same gang.”

“Gollum never really did like me if I didn’t have Savage’s permission to be in town,” he replied uneasily.

“You saw the reception I got at the Institute.” I replied drily.

We shared a chuckle at that, but just as Max was (probably) going to make me laugh some more, the porch light flipped on and Spike opened the front door. “Oh, I was wondering who was out here. How’s it going, guys?”

Max waved and gave him a crooked grin. “Well, I would consider today one of the, if not just straight up the best dates I’ve ever had. I’m pretty sure it only could’ve gotten better if Twilight was included in everything I got to do today.”

“Oh, that one conversation was barely even a bump in the road.” I chided playfully.

My coltfriend shrugged and kissed the tip of my horn. “If it’s nothing to you, it’s nothing to me. Kinda. Situation dependent and all that.”

I rolled my eyes and got off of the hard step we’d been sitting on, with Max following suit shortly after I said, “Mhmm. So if I told you that Rarity’s been picking on me, you wouldn’t do anything because I asked you not to?”

His smile faded. “I’d still talk to her regardless of your feelings on that one.”

“But if I asked you not to?”

He shook his head. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Even Celestia doesn’t have the right to fuck with you. No one does.”

Dude, you are so big brother material! Marry her already, Max!” Spike cried before I could say anything.

My face betrayed me in my time of need, and I’m sure that I would’ve been practically glowing if Spike hadn’t turned the outside light on. “Spykoranuvellitar!”

He looked at me with innocence in his eyes. “What? This guy is way too cool to not marry!”

“Men get scared when you spring the topic of marriage on them out of the blue-”

“Yeah, shut up until I get enough money to buy a decent ring.” Max said flatly, aiming his words toward Spike rather than me.

My neck popped with how quickly I turned to face Max, my face growing even hotter as a strange dichotomy raged on inside. Where there was jubilation, there was also a certain kind of anxiety that would have left me breathless if it weren’t for the calm assurance that rolled off of my boyfriend. Coltfriend. Whichever. Either way, Max’s demeanor spread its way into me and soothed my nerves, leaving the happiness where it lay and picking up the litter that was cluttering my heart. Of course my heart still hammered as I remembered our first wedding day, and then the day we renewed our vows, but I couldn’t help but see an even better wedding in our future. Neither of us had wanted an audience for our wedding, and now that neither of us were royalty, we didn’t have to worry about that level of attention. Max would have to build his family from the ground up all over again, but we didn’t have to get married anytime soon. If my own words were anything to go by, then we had all the time in the world and most of it could be spent in each other’s company. That in and of itself was a blessing like no other, though that’s not to say that we wouldn’t spend time away from each other. I was mostly just happy that Max had stated his honest intentions, though the way he’d thrown them into the conversation like dirty laundry into a hamper was a little… Well, blindsiding is a good word for it. I may as well have been emotionally tackled by an ethereal Rainbow Dash going at full speed.

Um…” I said with the utmost elegance, eloquence, and a slight warble to my voice.

Max raised a brow at me. “What, did you expect me to just be satisfied with being your boyfriend forever? Nah, I want a place by your side that only you can take from me.”

See!? That’s so girly-mushy-gushy! Don’t mares love that stuff!?” Spike cried.

He was out of whacking distance, so I corrected that with a brief Levitation Spell and put him back where he was once I’d doled out my dose of ‘Shush!’. “It’s not mushy-gushy. It’s romantic.”

My little brother rubbed his arm where I’d hit him and stuck his tongue out for me. “Fine, but if you don’t marry Max, then I’ll never let you forget it!”

For some reason, Max decided to be a butthead. “Trust me, Spike; if Twilight somehow manages to turn all this down,” he gestured toward himself, “then she needs more help than we can give her.”

I rolled my eyes hard enough to help turn the planet and shook my head, grabbing Max’s hand and taking us inside. Spike had already made and eaten dinner, so it was up to Max to make us something edible since my little brother was obstinate about not cooking for the mare who’d shut him up. I’d kind of expected it shortly after hitting him in the first place, so I wasn’t surprised, per se. Just a little let down that I wasn’t going to get a latke since it was potato pancake night. I love latkes, but Spike only makes them so often, which made me curse myself after I realized what day it was. Max gave me a strange look for ‘swearing’ at the dinner table when we’d just been talking about maple syrup and how it seemed to be extremely niche in its uses, so I had to explain why I was ‘cursing’. He promised to figure out how to make latkes for me, earning himself a leafy smile that he was all too happy to poke fun at.

Bedtime came and went as Max and I went from the kitchen to the library, just talking and cuddling throughout the night, though he let me write in you long enough to get this done, which brings us to today’s conclusion! Unlike last time, it’s actually a good day to do some retrospection, so we’re doing this!

ↂ✶✵✶ↂ

In conclusion, today honestly couldn’t have been much better. I got to wake up with Max, accidentally get him to the point where he was so high he forgot the first couple of hours of our day... The latter part of that sentence was more funny than anything, and I might just see how high I can get him before the week is through. However, the day just went uphill from there at a downhill pace, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s because I got Max to indirectly open up about his feelings by connecting to him through True Love. Today taught me for certain that Max isn’t one to put his feelings, his true inner thoughts, out for just anyone to see. It wasn’t and isn’t his style to talk, but to hug his sorrows out. All along I’d been trying to crack Max’s walls by going in through the darn-near impenetrable front gate when there was a side door made of wood with well-oiled hinges that just needed to be pushed to open. That little push just so happened to be physical affection, which is a little out of my comfort zone at the moment, but it’s not so bad when I’m actually hugging and kissing my… Well, dare I say my future husband?

Yes, I do! My future husband just needed a little fur-to-flesh contact to start unloading the burden he bore, and it’s not like I minded at all. It would take some doing on my part to fully ease up around him, but I was and am confident that I’ll pull through for Max because it’s Max. I know in a place deeper than mortal emotions go that my Special Someone fully intends on trying to be the Vanguard, even though it’s his turn to be the Harbinger, and that’s so incredibly touching. If power were bits, I’d be Fancy, Celestia, Healthy Wealth, and Ignis all rolled into one while Max would be somewhere near Apple Bloom, and he’s still worried about protecting me! Day after day goes by and Max… I… How do you truly, and I do mean well and truly, transcribe what this is like, Diary? I suppose you wouldn’t know, but it almost feels like Max and I squabble and quarrel so much because we need to know each other as intimately as possible, which would align pretty well with what Mom told me about worthwhile relationships back when I never thought I’d actually have one. Her words at the time were something along the lines of, ‘A relationship worth having is a relationship worth fighting over, even if it seems like it never stops.’

As it is, I feel like the brunt of the storm has passed as far as the initial steps of my journey with Max are falling behind us. I’m excited and a little nervous about the next step and what it’s going to be. Well, a little excited, a lot nervous, but still; there’s no one I’d rather face the rest of my life with than the man sitting beside me, knocked out light a light…

Today was a good day, Diary. Thank you for letting me share it with you~❤

ↂ✶✵✶ↂ

Dear Diary,

Instead of going upstairs to sleep on my far more comfortable bed, I couldn’t bring myself to get out of the library without Max, so I grabbed a blanket from the chest Spike evidently thought was a good place to stow his journal (I just know it’s there, I’d never invade his privacy like that.) and returned to my sweet so we could share some heat. Of course it wasn’t actually so much as chilly in the library, but my words rhymed and that makes me smile, so that’s how it’s going to be. To get back on track, I got to snuggle up to Max, which unfortunately woke him up. That being said, with his newfound strength, Max just pulled me on top of him so he could lay down. Guess who wasn’t complaining? Again.

I slept like an old stallion that’d had a bit too much to drink, which is to say that my sleep was deep and restful. It was unusual for me to wake up before Max, but for once I was the one who got to see the other before they rejoined the waking world. After a quick toke from the ACC, I was feeling fine and dandy all over again, the dose pushing back millions of similar mornings to the back of my mind. It couldn’t have taken more than ten minutes for Max to wake up, but I easily could have spent hours just letting my head rest on his chest, listening to the soft, steady thumping of his heart, letting my head arise and fall as he breathed. It was such a perfect moment that I could’ve been a little pouty that Max had to go and wake up, but what point would there have been in that?

In lieu of being salty, I chose to be sweet and kissed Max’s breastplate when he started stretching. “Good morning, my sleepy Prince~❣” I sang softly into the slowly lightening library.

Max craned his neck so he could look at me before giving me a squeeze. “Morning, my sweet Cherry Sundae. How long have you been up already?”

“Not long. I don’t think I can sleep for more than a couple hours at a time anymore anyway.”

“Damn, it’s going to be a lot harder for you to pretend that you’re dead.” He said flippantly.

I patted his chest and chuckled, nuzzling him. “Now, why would I want to play dead?”

“I don’t know, maybe you’ll become evil one day and see how fast you can break my heart. I don’t think you have it in you, but you never know. It’s the cute ones you have to lookout for.”

I giggled some more. “Oh, you silly goose! You know I would never try to mess with your heart like that.”

“Which is why you’re better than any woman I’ve ever had the pleasure of hugging. Period.”

“Pshaw, you’re not even setting the standard at knee height!”

“My standard’s are weird. You might get over the first couple of hurdles with no problem. Then again, the kinky, kinky things I want to do to you might be a little harder to hop past.”

I propped myself up and stared at him in the low light. “... Didn’t you say we were-” Max grabbed my derriere with both hands. “Yeep! Ma~ax!”

He bit his tongue and chortled at me. It was probably because I almost went as straight as an arrow and twice as stiff when he did it. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself.”

Max let his hands rest on my bottom rather than squeezing it and I actually found it more nice than anything when he started massaging me with careful attention. I eventually let myself lie on him when the awkwardness of the sensation was replaced by a touch of stickiness. With the blanket over us, I shouldn’t have been afraid of Spike seeing anything he shouldn't, and that was even without it being just bright enough to make out Max’s face, but there was still some anxiety in me that wanted Max to stop it with his mild advances. The vast majority of my will was leaning towards letting Max continue as he pleased, however, so that’s what happened.

[CTRL+F Scene is over to Skip]

Even if I was a little more skittish like Fluttershy, I don’t think I would’ve stopped Max when he slipped his hands under my skirt to touch me directly. As it was, the thrill of being caught sent a trill of excitement down my spine since we were actually stepping into the territory of lewdness. To be realistic, I shouldn’t have been so wound up with just Max’s hands on my third most private place, but I swear every moment of intimacy shared between us was just as new and heart-pounding as the last. Just the gentle, soothing warmth of my future husband’s hands helped put me at ease, clearing my mind of pretty much anything other than the sparks that were turning to flames inside me.

Out of nowhere, Max moved his hands from the outer parts of my flank to the place where my violet rose was hidden, pulling my cheeks apart and making me squeak as his grasp went from soft and nearly negligible to being firm, bordering on rough. The little whimper I let out let Max know that he was squeezing a little too hard, which is probably why went back to what I assumed was either foreplay or increasingly intense teasing. I knew that I was getting stickier by the moment, but when Max touched my rosebud, I had to withdraw. Even with him, I did not like the idea anyone touching such a dirty place with the intent to possibly enter.

As I arched my back, Max chased my hands and held them to his chest. “So don’t do that. Understood.”

“Thank you…” I said nervously.

He sat up and scooted me up on his lap, bringing me forward from his thighs so that I was resting directly on top of something… Pokey, as he kissed me. “If you’re so much slightly uneasy, just let me know and we can slow down.”

Drawing a little spiral on his chest, I murmured, “Anywhere but there…”

“Hmm…” He hummed, moving his hands from my hips to my thigh, caressing them lightly enough to tickle just a little. “Is this okay?”

The giggle that escaped my lips pushed out the intimacy-related misgivings I was having at the moment. “This is nice...”

He smiled at me, making my stomach do more funny things that it wasn’t supposed to be doing. In fact, I’m going to give my tummy a good what for whenever I finish writing this! You hear that you little gurgling ninny!? Stop messing with me- Oh, I was writing about something way more important than my gastrological conundrums…Let’s see.. Left off there, so the next part would be when Max initiated the second kiss of the day, though we both quickly realized that it was more than just a simple smooch. No, when my lips met his, something new started that neither of us had anticipated:

I was ready.

I just knew. I don’t know how I knew, but I just did, Diary. It was like a switch was flipped in me and the studious filly that had grown up sheltered and innocent finally became ready for marehood. Yes, I’d been managing my own finances (and a few other pony’s as well) for years, and I’d known about adult stuff, but as Max’s peppermint stick pressed against the sodden gates of my Cupcake Castle, there was just something anomalous about the way I perceived the moment. Before that point, Twilight Sparkle would have had a panic attack the second Max touched her naughtiest place. At the moment? At the moment I could hardly fathom being anywhere else doing anything else with anyone else. Nothing could have convinced me that the morning was going to have any other avenue than where it was currently going.

Then I heard Spike’s claws scraping down the stairs. I was not about to miss out on the perfect chance to give Max my first time, so instead of waiting for my little brother to arrive and snacktually frustrate both me and Max, I teleported us to my room while still ‘snogging’ Max like our lives depended on never breaking the connection. I don’t think Max even cared when we plopped down on my bed, though the moan he let out through his nose when I lifted myself off of his rod and stroked the tip with my fingers was a little wistful. His pants were in the way, and I severely needed them to be somewhere that wasn’t covering the thing I wanted, so I pulled away from him and somehow managed to unbuckle his belt and free his loins without needing assistance.

With my momentum slowly building, I tried to take over for a little bit by way of giving Max a favor, but he stopped me and stole every bit of my mojo by simply swapping spaces. Now that I was on the bottom, I was apparently going to be on the receiving end. My boyfriend and I shared an opinion on how unneeded clothing and words were, though when his fingers flew down my blouse and left it open in less than ten seconds, I had to speak up.

Woah.

Max chuckled. “You wouldn’t believe the reason I’m so good at that.”

He followed up his odd statement with yet another arousing kiss, distracting me from my sudden lack of a blouse. Yes, I did realize that I was shirtless while kissing Max some more, but it mattered about as much as it did when he got rid of the cute-but-not-the-right-kind-of-cute bra that I was wearing. Not one to lag too far behind, I pulled Max’s plain blue Tee off of his lithe, almost feline form, letting my hands wander over the taut, corded muscles that stood out so well on his slender frame. Even though there was a certain part in both of us that remembered every inch of the other’s being down to the Anima, nothing could beat back the rekindling of our love, the hot, fiery passion that had come to make its move.

As we explored each other, Max’s hands glided over my fur wherever he touched, making his foreplay/torture just that much more intense. My body felt like I was burning from the inside out with a steady heat that wouldn’t dissipate, no matter how innocent or benign my future husband’s touch was. Every point of contact was just a little more fuel to the fire, every kiss another flame to thepyre. My mind was so occupied with trying to keep myself quiet that I almost forgot that I could just cast a Hear-Me-Not Spell on my room and be done with that mild concern.

I didn’t even have to break our latest kiss to cast the spell, which was all fine and dandy by me since it meant that I didn’t have to go without the amalgamated emotions that lie between us during our kisses. It was a little heart wrenching when Max finally let my lips have a rest, but I didn’t stay disappointed long. When my own personal Fount of Love unbuttoned my skirt and whisked it off, hope for release filled my breast like a tidal surge coming in from a storm at sea. The brushing of his lips against my fur and the soft, sultry gusts of his breath that swept underneath to my bare flesh drove me wild. I squirmed and wriggled a little while Max trailed his way down from my lips, kissing my jaw and throat to make me lose the functionality of my lungs. There was nothing that could have persuaded me to make him alter his course, although my patience was wearing thinner and thinner by the moment.

As my first boyfriend stalled at my breasts, I wondered why he’d stopped doing the damn thing until his tongue flicked my left teat. It was barely enough to count as a lick, but that little move nearly got Max’s face crammed between my legs. As it was, my lover’s lips and dexterous, nimble fingers brought me more pleasure than I thought was possible from everyday, mostly useless breasts. His occasional pinch on one breast was often accompanied by a nibble on the other with each action pushing me closer and closer to that point without him having ever touched me below the waist. For a second I wondered if Max just had that much experience up until he messed up and accidentally bit me with one of his sharp teeth. When I yelped, he immediately removed the pressure and started sucking on my breast for some strange reason that I cared about less and less as the new sensation pushed me over the brink.

I’ve never been the terribly vocal type, so imagine my surprise when I had a ‘breast orgasm’ and moaned louder than I spoke when I was upset. Max growled at me before coming in for the hottest, sauciest, most suffocating-est kiss yet that had me breathing like I’d finished a race with Rainbow across town in less than ten minutes. Before I could get my bearings or shove a clear thought into my head, Max ran his fingers down from my breastplate to my navel, picking up a few inches away from where he’d left off.

Before Max started dipping below my belly-button, I’d thought that I’d just experienced one of the best climaxes of my life. It was certainly an unusual one, but then Max kissed my pink pearl over my embarrassingly wet undies and I knew for certain that I hadn’t even seen the beginning of what my man could do to me. There was no hesitation in me as I let him strip me of the last article of clothing between the two of us, and much to my surprise, I wasn’t even shy about him giving my Cupcake Castle a good, thorough look before he licked me between my folds. The shiver it sent down my spine was almost too good to be true, so I looked down at Max and spread my legs as far as was comfortable only to see that my icing was attached to his tongue by a thin translucent string. I don’t know why, but the sight of my nectar on Max’s face was enough to show me another good time, though it was nowhere near the level of the last climax. I would honestly just call it a burst of pleasure rather than any kind of orgasm.

Speaking of… I never knew that tongues were so great! As little as I wanted him to waste time on tasting the petals on my flower, Max refused to penetrate my gates until he’d lapped up every errant drop of my arousal, making the moment that much sweeter when his flexible little muscle parted me. The fire was being stoked even before Max popped one of his fingers in his mouth, confusing me until he cautiously entered me, almost as though he was afraid that he was going to hurt me with just one finger. Granted, I only use one when I take care of business myself, but Max’s fingers weren’t much thicker than mine. They just so happened to be long and able to reach just the right spot. The insertion of Max’s finger was fun, and having him take his time with my climax was even better, but when he hooked his finger?

It sent me over the edge all over again when he did the thing while he kept up his wonderful endeavor. This time my vision went blurry for a few seconds, but I barely made a peep when I found my release. My voice left me, but Max’s finger never did. No, while my Cupcake Castle was throwing a party in anticipation for the guest of honor, my slippery little boyfriend slipped a second finger into me and began anew with a different, even better method of affection. He licked the dew that I’d created off of the base of his fingers and around my entrance, making sure to swallow before his free hand went from my thigh to my exposed pearl.

As if he’d known just what to do, Max waited until he’d just about left my flower entirely with his fingers to stroke my favorite button as he ‘fingered’ me. Even if he’d waited until I wasn’t pumping out my brain cells with my icing, I’m pretty sure I still would’ve been thrown back into the pool of bliss that Max seemed to want me to drown in. By the time I was done with that climax, I was coated in sweat and a little worn out, but my future husband apparently remembered enough to slow down before he actually made me ask to stop.

I was plenty grateful for the breather when it came, but Max never stopped adding more kindling to the dying flames, keeping me ready for what was going to be the main event. Even as he rose from my private place, he continued to stroke and caress my thighs, or tease and manipulate my breasts until I was begging him to just give it to me already. My fervor didn’t wear down until Max’s tip slid between my flower petals, my nectar coating the throbbing, hot appendage as he held it down and ground it against my Love Button. We never broke eye contact: Not even as Max’s girth stretch my inner walls to the point where I had my doubts about whether or not I was made to accept such a gift. I was lost in Max’s gaze, even as one of the most important milestones in my life approached. The stage was nearly set as Max slowly pressed his rod further into my depths until he met the part that was going to hurt. The temptation to balk reared its ugly head as the coward I try to keep in a mental closet voiced some worries about getting gored on the inside, but it was silenced with the final application of Max’s lips upon mine.

We made contact just before Max rammed the rest of his length past my hymen, the bliss of the kiss nullifying a lot of the pain I’d experienced in the last sticky dream I’d had. In fact, I can barely even say it hurt since I couldn’t form the words at the time due to the vivid, rapturous euphoria that course through my veins. My entire being from my horn down to my hooves was all manners of tingly before I became numb to all but the one man who’d received my virtue and returned the trust I’d given him with mind-boggling bliss. Thankfully, Max didn’t make a single move other than to let me scream his name at the top of my lungs, immediately garnering his completely unnecessary concern.

He babbled apologies until I grabbed his face and kissed him with energy I didn’t know I had, desperate for him to find the peak of his pleasure at least once before I surrendered. “I-I’m okay,” I breathed, my horn resting on the top of his head.

“Are you sure? We can st-”

No! Just a little more!” I protested, giving Max the best combination of sexy and sad that I had.

He kissed my nose and let his length leave me at a snail’s pace, and he only reversed the action when I could feel him about to slide of of me. If mares actually had control over that sort of thing, I would’ve tried harder to keep him inside, though it turned out that I was worried about nothing. Instead of pulling out because he’d thought I was just acting tough, I was pretty sure that Max was just going slow to give me some time to get used to him. I honestly didn’t need it, so I ‘requested’ that he… Um… Well, ‘Buck me like you love me!’ was said, but I deny any involvement in the speaking of those words.

My wish was his command, and he proved it by tarrying no longer. Max gave me what I wanted without going too far, even poking my cervix whenever he thrusted with the full force of his member. I couldn't decide if I was fond or frightened of his length at that point because it kinda felt like he was going to break my insides if he wasn’t careful, but then I remembered that I couldn't have foals with Max in the first place, so I chose to be fond. It was most definitely a good choice, because the longer we consummated our relationship, the more frequent his visits to the Nursery of my Cupcake Castle were. I lost count of how many times he knocked on the door around the same time I lost count of which orgasm I was on, well and truly being ‘bucked silly’ as I giggled and moaned for the fun of it half the time. Or because I was in the middle of peaking. It practically didn’t stop because Max only stopped long enough to change positions, going from being on top to lifting one of my legs and trying a new angle, which eventually turned into having my legs together in the air before Max just picked me up and kept thrusting in mid-air, lifting and dropping me on his Princess Pleaser to go faster or buck harder depending on what noises I was making at the time.

I’d lost all sense of anything other than snacktime when Max said, “I’m getting close, Cherry!”

I probably replied to that.

“Sounds like a plan to me!”

I would have tried to understand what he meant or count the thrusts of his pelvis into mine if I even knew what was really going on at that point. What I knew for certain was that Max was thrusting into me harder than before, and as he drove his lovely ‘little’ friend for the last few times, he hit the Nursery with every attempt until the final thrust. Then he just let himself into the room and started passing out warm mugs of cocoa to everyone but me. I got eggnog. An especially thick, essentially useless, super tasty eggnog, but eggnog nonetheless. When I realized that Max had stopped moving and was now panting half as heavily as I was, I barely had time to think about whether or not we were done before I fainted with a smile on my face.

{CTRL+F Scene is Over to Skip]

I woke up to Max licking my nose, but I didn’t have the strength to push him away. “Shtooop.” I whimpered pathetically, hoping that Max would take pity on my poor, fatigued form.

“I will once you can look me in the eyes,” he said, concern laced throughout his voice.

I didn’t feel like it, but I still opened up to give Max the sternest look I could muster, which was a goofy smile and furrowed brows that couldn’t stay furrowed. “I’m okay, you worrywort.”

Max gave me a gentle smile, stroking a sweaty lock of my mane away from my face. “Went a little too far there…”

I wouldn’t trade a second for the world~

He leaned down to kiss me since I wasn’t doing much any time soon. I couldn’t even feel my legs. “So? How’s it feel to be a bona-fide adult who does sex and everything?”

I was too sensitive for Max to be rubbing the inside of my thigh, so I asked, “Can you give me a break?”

“Still relearning how to move, I take it?” He inquired with an amused smile.

“It’s your fault!” I objected half-heartedly.

“It’s seventy-five percent your fault. I asked if you wanted to stop a few times.”

“I don't even think it was a real option. I mean, would you have asked me to stop if you were in my position?”

“Yeah, but for shitty reasons that I don’t really want to get into while the afterglow is still glowing.”

“Mmm~ Yeah, let’s do your thing for once.” I murmured, closing my eyes again.

“Twilight, it’s one in the afternoon. We’ve been in here for nearly seven hours.” He chuckled mirthfully.

“Who cares? Lay down and snuggle already~”

“And just like that I have something fun to do.” He chuckled, laying down as I rolled onto my side so he could be the big spoon.

We just stayed like that for a good while, and what a good while it was! I’d never felt closer to Max, and I’d never felt so satisfied before, like nothing would ever bring me more contentment than making love with him. Through the True Love connection, I knew that Max was every bit as relaxed as I was up until the tummy rub. If only Humans knew the pleasures of a tummy rub~ I’d happily do it for Max since I knew how good it felt, but apparently he preferred me playing with his hair over me touching his tummy any day, and that wasn’t a problem at all. When he’d first arrived, Max’s hair kind of looked like a mess on a day to day basis, but it was a mess that looked like it belonged on top of his handsome little head. Now his mass of waves drooped over his brows, silky smooth with a satiny sheen to them.

As afternoon stretched on into the early evening, Max finally managed to help me massage some feeling back into my legs to we could go take a shower. Neither of had noticed in the heat of the moment, but I’d bled more than I thought a mare was supposed to and it just felt icky. Max wasn’t fond of having dried stuff on his thing either, but I was a little more enthusiastic than him about getting clean. I may or may not have been anticipating an especially fun shower, and I was not let down in any sense of the word. Max somehow managed to help me stay on my hooves, wash me, and nearly make my legs give out all over again in the span of thirty or so minutes, though we would’ve taken longer if my word counted. Unfortunately, Max just laughed off my completely serious proposal to get dirty all over again, which was probably because I tried to come off as extra sexy when I suggested it.

Look, I know I can’t do sexy. Cute? Yes. Cuddleable? Yes. Sexy? More like goofy.

I swallowed my teaspoon of disappointment while Max, again, proved to be worth his weight in rose gold when he even went so far as to help me get dressed when I was having difficulties with my undies and tights. Making my legs go higher than my average step just wasn’t happening, so my lovely, perfect partner held out my bottoms for me at floor-level and grinned the entire time he looked at his prize. The parting kiss he gave my muns was cute to say the least, but it also put more ideas in my head about things I could do with Max, like getting on top while he sat back and enjoyed the ride. I made a mental note to ask either Applejack or Rarity how to do it properly and tuned back in to hear Max commenting on the dopey look I was wearing.

“You know, I’d warn you that your face is gonna get stuck like that if it wasn’t such an adorable smile,” Max said, the Sugar Factor turned up to ten.

I tried to quell my smile long enough to kiss his jaw and barely managed to get my lips together. “I’m just in a good mood~ Someone special helped me with that~!”

Max chuckled and kissed my temple and the base of my horn. “Good God, I love you.”

“I am pretty great, aren’t I?” I teased.

He blinked and burst out laughing. “I just slept with God!

I didn’t get what was so funny, but I was willing to let him get his giggles in before making an attempt to drag him to get food. It was only an attempt because Max was officially as strong as a Pony, and I didn’t exactly have much coal to fuel my legs, so I basically tugged on his arm until he came along. Spike had left our breakfasts in the fridge, meaning that I got to show MAx another marvel of household Magic: The heating pad! It was simple in that it used Aetherial Magic to auto-cast Warming Spells at the press of a button, but the actual experiments that went into making such a common everyday thing were legendarily perilous. Many of the developing inventors either ended up with missing patches of fur that required spells to grow back, or in a few unlucky cases, they completely burned down their own workspaces. A lot of tweaking and tuning went into making the modern heating pad, and I was sure to avoid boring Max with all the details until he actually asked about it.

Trust me, Diary, I know. Someone who actually gave a darn about magical conveniences!

Once I’d made Max as knowledgeable on the subject as he wanted to be, we actually ate our food, although we ended up having to make more because both of us were ravenous. Max ate six eggs, four links of sausage, four more eggs, but with cheese, and then some toast. I, on the other hand, restricted myself to five eggs and two sausage links, but Max was still finished with his seconds prior to Spike bringing Apple Bloom over, both of them giggling and laughing at weird filly and colt stuff that stopped making sense to me after I hit sixteen or so. Unlike with Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom’s presence in my little brother’s circle of friends didn’t give me a strange, maternal feeling like I needed to protect him from her, which is why I didn’t think twice when Spike told me he was taking Apple Bloom to his room.

Oddly enough, Max asked for a word in private with Spike, which I would have loved to eavesdrop on if I didn’t feel like it would be a gross invasion of their privacy. With Max and Spike having their talk, I decided to have a little one with Apple Bloom at the dinner table. “So, Apple Bloom, what have you and Spike been up to today?”

She smiled, pink showing through her coat. “Well, we just been hangin’ out, helpin’ Granny cook, doin’ stuff on the farm… Nothin’ too interestin’, y’know?”

That piqued my interest, and made channel a bit of my inner Max. “Oh? So the little birdy told me wrong?”

Apple Bloom’s face lit up while I watched her with an amused smile. “I-I-Er, um… Wh-Whatcha mean, T-Twi?” She asked, fumbling her words.

“Hmm? Are you sure you wouldn’t rather tell me yourself, would you?” I teased.

“I-It was just the one! W-We only did that one time!” Apple Bloom cried. “Please don’t be mad, Twi! I know ya don’t want Spike ta have a fillyfriend yet, but he’s sooo cute an’ smart an’ loyal an’ sweet an’ nice an’-”

“Wait, hold up,” I raised my hands to forestall the flood of words tumbling from her mouth at a breakneck pace. “You were doing what? Let’s start with that.”

She looked at the table. “... We only kissed the one time…”

A part of me wanted to be a little mad at her, but a larger part of me wanted to ask, “Was it worth it?”

Apple Bloom looked me in the eye and said, “I’d do it again in front a’ the whole town.”

“So it would be okay if I told Big Mac that you were smooching on my little brother?” I watched as she blanched before I said, “Tell you what. Why don’t you and Spike just keep things quiet for a little bit longer so I can talk to Big Mac about when stallions should start dating?”

“I-If that’s what you think we should do…” She said quietly, obviously giving it some thought.

I propped my head up on my chin, my mind wandering to a seventeen year-old Spike and the pure love in his eyes whenever I saw him dancing with Apple Bloom at my wedding. There was an equal amount within her own eyes at the time, and even now I could see the sparks flickering in her Aura. It honestly gave me a lot to consider in a short amount of time, but it wasn’t something that I was anxious about per se. I knew what I wanted to convey within fifteen or so seconds; enough to let Apple Bloom mull her own thoughts over for a bit.

“Apple Bloom?”

She looked up. “Yeah?”

“I want you to date my little brother. Nopony else is good enough for him.” I answered judiciously, my Big Sister Voice coming out kind of harsh.

A filly I would call a little sister flinched before blushing furiously, bumbling with her words. “I-I… Ya mean…?” She waited for my cue.

“You’re the only filly I think will treat my little brother with the love and respect he deserves. We both know that Spike’s a gentle soul on his worst days; wouldn’t hurt a wasp after it stung him. I don’t know what he’s like romantically, and I hope that things aren’t getting much more than sweet between you two, but my point is that I assume Spike’s as kind as he is in a relationship as he is normally. That being said, Sweetie Belle can be a mean, entitled little filly, and she will try to use Spike for whatever she wants at the moment. I want you to stop her from doing that.” I sat back in my chair and levelled a cool, calm look at her.

“... Ya… Ya want me to look out for Spike as his… Fillyfriend?” Apple Bloom squeaked, biting her lip, just needing me to say one word.

“Yes.”

She knocked her chair over in her rush to give me a hug, but I’d come close to toppling mine since she was so darn fast in getting to my side of the table. “Oh, Twi! I won’t let ya down, I-” Apple Bloom stopped hugging me and stepped back to look at me. “Wait, were you jus’ badmouthin’ Sweetie Belle?”

“I can see the future.”

“... That kinda makes this suck.”

I brought her in for another hug and let her head rest on my shoulder. “You’re already growing up so fast. When love’s involved, there seems to be a lot of ‘suck’ going on, but it just adds to the moments that make memories, Sweetie. It just makes it all so much more worth it~”

“You say that like you’re head over hooves.” She giggled, squeezing me before we both let go.

“I’ve got it pretty bad, but it’s because my stallion is really complicated. I can’t decide whether I’m lucky or cursed half the-”

“Oi!” Max yelped from the doorway, giving me a look. “After all the ‘luck’ I just brought you this morning?”

“Oh, will you shush!” I tittered, feeling my cheeks heat up. “You got lucky too!”

“What? Did y’all go somewhere this mornin’?” Apple Bloom asked.

Max walked in with Spike en tow, my little brother saying, “I didn’t see you guys go anywhere.”

“You didn’t see our note? We left it on the table,” Max covered smoothly.

“Oh, no. I guess it must’ve blown off somewhere.” Spike scratched his dorsal scales because he’s simple.

Apple Bloom was busy giving me a scrutinizing look, so I chose to give my attention to the guy who wanted it most. “Oi, Cherry, have you had enough walking for one day or would you like to have a little double date?” Max nudged Spike and got swatted for his teasing.

“It’s not-” My little brother started.

“That sounds lovely! I’d feel a lot better about Spike dating if we chaperoned every once
in awhile.” I replied pleasantly, surprising both of the young men I loved.

My boyfriend smiled back at me, giving me an approving nod. “I was thinking malts.”

“It’s more of a cone kind of day, don’t you think?” I winked at him.

He tried not to make it obvious that he was biting back a smile, but I just felt like it was a paper thin attempt. “But it’s warm enough to make the cream melt onto our fingers.”

“I’ll clean yours if you do mine.” I answered, giggling.

Ewww!” The young ones said simultaneously, garnering chuckles from Max and I.

We’d gotten an awfully late start on the day, but we still had daylight to burn, so we paired up and got to walking. Spike and Apple Bloom talked about random information they’d heard, gossip around town, silly stuff their older siblings did, and silly stuff they did. It was honestly just super cute to see how Apple Bloom acted around Spike, backing in and out of her shell whenever he gave her a compliment, or whenever he mentioned something that she held a similar opinion on. They disagreed on a lot of things in retrospect, but their different viewpoints were just more conversation topics to them, and the strange way that young people delve into their information just astounds me. I suppose that one loses touch with their youth after a certain age, or rather, that mindset fades after a certain amount of time and warps into the adult brain. Max tried to get my attention from time to time, but he didn’t seem too upset when I told him that I just wanted to watch Spike for a little longer. In fact, he just held my hand and kept quiet until we got to Sugarcube Corner.

There were a fair amount of ponies trying to escape the summer heat for the day with ice cream, so our choices were a little limited by the time we got up to the counter. Max chose black walnut and amaretto as his scoops while Spike asked for Clustered Cinna-burn. I got Turtle-Turtle since I was a part of the Canterlot Turtle Club back in my early years, and Apple Bloom picked the oddest flavor Sugarcube Corner offered; Pudding and Tall Grass. Max gave her a weird look for eating grass flavored ice cream, but it wasn’t unheard of for some ponies to like the taste of good old aged meadow grass. The short stuff that usually grows around knee high is generally pretty flavorless, but the taller grass gets, the more flavor it has. Explaining that to an Omnivore that couldn’t eat most Pony foods was a little hard since he didn’t get why grass got better as it got taller until I mentioned that Ponies in the Far East ate bamboo too.

After we got our ice cream, we took to the Whitetail Woods because Max was fond of the area. He took us to a copse of trees that form a nearly perfect circle around an open meadow that had but one tree, and that tall, lovely shade tree was almost exactly like the one Max had been sitting under during the picnic dream. It took me a second to realize that Max was plucking buds off of one of the thin green, so I got him a jar from my lab via teleportation and he started filling it with different nugs from different trees depending on what he saw after he broke them open. He ended up collecting a couple light green buds, a few bluish ones, and a few more dark green buds with fiery orange hairs all over. Apple Bloom and Spike asked what he was collecting the plants for and Max told them that he wanted to conduct an experiment with them if I was willing to help him.

Well, since he asked, we crammed a lot more weed into the jar and I promised to get him sorted by the end of the night. With that, we headed to Sweet Apple acres to drop Apple Bloom off for the night, and Max asked to stick around after he managed to get a couple of chuckles out of Big Mac. Applejack was just finishing up with washing off for the day, so I asked for a word in private with her.

“What did ya wanna talk about, Twi? We never really have too many heart-to-hearts.” Applejack commented truthfully.

“I know, but this one is pretty serious.” I said, not able to stop my lips from curving.

Her jaw dropped, one hand going to cover her heart and the other going to my shoulder. “You didn’t!

I blinked. “I was talking about our younger siblings.”

Applejack practically deflated. “Ah. What about ‘em?”

I gave her a conspicuous grin. “Don’t you think they’re kinda cute together?”

That got her smiling again. “Don’t tell me ya done gave Spike your blessin’ ta start dating!”

I pointed at her. “Only Apple Bloom. Your sister is a sweet little filly, but I don’t want my little Spikey-Wikey around Sweetie Belle too much. I think that filly was trying to get Max in trouble when he was staying with Rarity.”

“Hmm? What makes ya say that?”

“Well, according to the information Max volunteered, Sweetie Belle had him give her a stallion’s opinion on a dress and started stripping in front of him.”

“... We might wanna cast a Truth Spell on that one.” Applejack said uneasily.

“When Max lies, I can tell. He never really wants to give me false information, and he was rather forthcoming with what he said. I think we should be asking Sweetie Belle why she started stripping with a stallion in the room.”

“Well, ya know I’ll stand beside ya, but iffin’ what Max says is true, then I don’t want Spike ‘round ‘Belle. Not like Rares sets the best example as far as stallions go.”

“I know, which is why I’m worried, but I feel like there was something else I wanted to share with you…” I rubbed my chin, trying to think.

“Twi, I already know ya done ‘special snuggled’ Max,” Applejack said amusedly.

My face heated up and I giggled a little. “I-Is it that obvious?”

“Ya been walkin’ funny since I seen ya today,” She replied mirthfully, her own cheeks pinkening after a second, “and when I stopped by earlier I kinda caught a peep.”

It was my jaw that dropped this time.

After a few minutes to calm down and un-faint, Applejack got the smelling salts and said, “Ya gotta stop doin’ that.”

Whaaa?” I asked blearily.

“So you an’ Max are officially official, right?” She asked patiently, standing over me.

I sat up on her bed and rubbed my eyes. “Um… Yeah. Yes. Yes we are.” The corners of my mouth started lifting without me telling them to as I steepled my fingers.

“If what I heard this morning is anythin’ to go by, then ya got yerself a good one.” My lewd friend gave me a dirty, dirty grin and a wink.

“Applejack!” I exclaimed.

She chuckled and wrapped me up with her strong, solid arms. “Oh, I’m jus’ funnin’ ya, Twi. Still though, I’m surprised ya didn’t see me.”

“Um…” I thought back. “... I lost track of a lot of stuff, to be honest with you.”

Dayum.” She let out a low whistle. “And it was your first time?”

“W-Wait, what’s that supposed to mean!?”

“My first time kinda sucked. Guy just stuck it in.”

“Oh, no. Max was very gentle. I actually had to ask him to stop teasing me once the hard part was over.”

What!?” Applejack’s face was overcome with a look of pure jealousy. “Okay, Max can sleep alone tonight; we’re havin’ a slumber party.”

“Uh, I kinda promised to make something for Max before he went to bed, but… I don’t think he would mind too much, would he?”

“... You realize it ain’t that bad sleepin’ alone, right? And ya can just hop in bed with him tomorrow if ya want.”

“It’s not just that Max wants me to be around when it’s bedtime, it’s more that he has nightmares unless I’m there. I’m sure he’ll sleep well enough once I make the thing for him though.” I gave her a hopeful smile.

“Ya do a lot for that guy. It’s obvious that y’all love each other.”

“I try, but it never feels like enough, no matter how many times Max tells me all he wants is my love.”

Applejack chuckled a little at that and gave me a longing smile. “When he starts askin’ for the brown cherry-”

“We already covered that. It’s not happening.” I said flatly.

“Twilight Sparkle!” She gasped.

“What?” I asked, my face flushing. “I don’t like it like that!”

There was a knock on Applejack’s door, so she just left it at that and went to grab it, revealing a very amused Granny Smith. “Well, wouldn’t I jus’ love ta be a fly on the wall for whatever that was~”

“She’s trying to kiss your granddaughter!” Max shouted from the living.

“I know that, I’m jus’ tryna see why!” The old nag shouted back.

“Granny!” Applejack and I objected, though she was more admonishing and I was definitely embarrassed.

“Oh, take a joke, you two, “Granny chuckled, “I was jus’ comin’ ta ask if ya wanted some hard cider.”

Applejack looked at me, so I nodded. “Sounds lovely!”

“Thanks, Granny. I’ll be headin’ ta Twilight’s here soon though. Gossip.” My orangest whispered with a wink.

Granny made the ‘OK’ gesture and gave me a toothy grin, making me blush and smile at the floor.

Applejack and I joined Granny, Big Mac, and Max for a few mugs of cider before I told Max that I was going to host a sleepover and that he could sleep in my bed if he wanted. When I mentioned that I wasn’t planning on sleeping there, he replied with, “Well, at least it smells like you in there.”

“Your sense of smell is so weird.” I giggled. “How do I smell like wine to you?”

Max pointed at Applejack, “The same way she smells like baked apples and cider, “ his finger moved to Big Mac, “he smells like fresh apples,” Granny was the last one left, “and she smells like apple pie straight out of the oven. Spike smells like reptiles, Fluttershy smells like yellow cake, Rarity smells like toasted marshmallow, Pinkie like cotton candy, Rainbow like some fruity kind of candy, and your Mum smells like jasmine. Very calming.”

I blinked. “Oh.”

“... So everypony smells like somethin’ to you?” Applejack asked.

He nodded. “It’s usually food or something you can drink. I haven’t smelled a lot of people that don’t smell like some kind of consumable thing.”

“Weird.” Big Mac commented.

“‘Bout as weird as that thing on your face.” My boyfriend commented flippantly, like he was mentioning a blade of grass on the road.

Everypony looked at Big Mac just long enough for Max to disappear, making me look at his seat with a sigh. “Darn it.”

“... Doesn’t he not have Magic?” Applejack asked slowly.

“He has some, but he can’t telep-” Something grabbed my shoulders and spooked me straight out of my seat and into Applejack’s arms. “Aiiee!

Nopony was surprised when Max popped up from behind my chair, but we were surprised when he ducked down and got Applejack not even a second later, making her practically crush me out of fright. “Dear Celestia!

Max rose from behind the couch and laughed some more. “Aw, man, this is great! Why didn’t I think of doing this before?”

I gave him a pouty glare that got me kissed on the nose. “Stop scaring ponies!”

“Aww.” He pouted back at me.

Applejack yanked his arm while he wasn’t paying attention and put him in a headlock. “Who taught you manners, eh? Did your Momma teach ya ta go around scarin’ innocent mares?”

Max bore his noogie with as much grace and poise as a guy could while being manhandled by a woman. “Nah, she taught me how to be slippery though.” As soon as he finished his sentence, he jammed his thumb into the back of Applejack’s neck.

At first she just noogie him harder before she let him go. “Ow! Why’d that hurt so bad!?”

Max rubbed his head and gave her a devious grin, standing up straight. “Five bits and I’ll teach you, young grasshopper.”

“I’d rather just pay ya ta not do it again.” She grumbled, rubbing her neck and giving him a salty look.

“Hey, I was just spooking people. You were the one who shoved my face in your boob.”

“Well, now I kinda wanna thank ya for gettin’ me off ya…” Applejack admitted with a blush.

He waved it aside. “If Twilight’s not worried, I’m not worried.”

My friend gave him a little smile.”At least you’re not the complainin’ type. I half expected ya ta moan about me messin’ up your mane, Pretty Colt.”

Max thumbed his nose and laughed at that, apparently finding the ‘Pretty Colt’ part funny. “I can’t say I’ve ever thought of myself as a ‘Pretty Boy’, but if that’s what you wanna call it, Love…”

I rolled my eyes and pulled Max to the side of the couch I was sitting on since he was between me and Applejack. “You’re more like a dashing rogue than a Pretty Colt.”

“I wouldn’t say ‘dashin’’.” Big Mac grunted.

“I’d say ‘pretty’!” Granny cackled.

“The popular guy from school got with the biggest Bookworm on the block!” Applejack giggled.

“Opposites really do attract, don’t they?” Max laced his arms around me, setting his chin on my shoulder.

I licked his nose and he jolted. “Not so funny now, is it?”

How does your tongue do that!?

“It just does.” I giggled.

“Wow… Ponies must make fantastic lesbians.” He said frankly.

Granny lost her teeth, Applejack lit up bright red, Big Mac choked on his cider, and I considered it. “What would that have to do with anything?”

He kissed my cheek. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I wouldn’t.” Applejack said quickly.

“Ya might have to at the rate you’re goin’.” Granny said flatly.

Granny!

Due to my nature as the Element of Magic, the binding force that makes friends friends, I decided to lend one of my sisters a helping hand. “You know, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover if we want to get all of the gals invited over to my house.”

“Yes! We sure do, Twi!” She exclaimed, snapping her fingers and pointing at me.

Max chuckled and let me go. “I’ll grab Spike and go on ahead. See you at home, Cherry.”

“See you soon, Amour.” Here’s hoping I don’t have to wait forever to sneak off and see you.

He leaned down to give me a kiss. “Love you. Be careful on the way back, okay?”

“I love you too, and you’d better look out for Spike, Buster!”

Max chuckled and fondled my ear for a moment, making me press my head into his hand. “Will do, Cherry.”

While Max was getting Spike, I went with Applejack to ‘help’ her pack and overnight bag, but all I really did was stand around and talk to her while she actually did the thing. We ended up taking until nightfall to get all of the gals together, but the only pony who seemed to know anything about my news was Applejack, and I preferred to keep it like that. When we got back to my house, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack tasked themselves with setting up the library with the lamps, snacks, sleeping bags, and blankets while Rarity, Rainbow, and I decided to go digging around in my basement for cool things that glowed for ambiance. It was actually a lot easier to find my radioactive things when the lights were off. We almost started getting some of the odd, abstract shapes hung prior to Max asking why we had glowing metals and rocks instead of magical lights. When I mentioned radioactivity, Max made me put everything back in a box and send it to the least populated place I knew of, though the only reason I did what he asked was because he was so freaked out about it.

Then he told me about cancer and I understood his point.

After my boyfriend stopped me from killing myself and all of my friends by way of accidental exposure, he tried to get out of my mane before I got started on processing the marijuana we’d collected, but much to my surprise, Rainbow asked him to stick around and ended up talking to him in a corner for a little bit before they both started making more hand gestures and generally becoming more animated with the conversation. I kept an eye on both my mini-project and my boyfriend, but the last thing I saw was him shrug and Rainbow nod. When I asked her about what the topic had been, she said that they were just clearing the air. I had a funny feeling that it was more than that, but I let it go for the time being.

I’d wanted to make Max some dabs so he wouldn’t have any troubles falling asleep, but the old method I was using (I had a really wide mane straightener) didn’t yield much, so I cheated and used Magic to extract the rosin from the herb I’d already pressed and the raw bud that still hadn’t seen heat. We’d collected about thirty or forty grams of different buds, so Max ended up with three grams of a mostly indica dominant strain, two of a sativa dominant, and about four grams of hybrid stuff since it had been growing wild and cross pollinating. All I had to do to make a little vape for Max was focus with the intent to break reality for a few seconds, and it wasn’t really all that hard to do since I hadn’t puffed on my ACC since before we’d gone to get ice cream. A couple seconds later and I had a few cartridges with different colors on the tips so he could tell them apart. Red for sativa, blue for indica, and purple for a hybrid. Simple!

Max mentioned that it felt like I was bribing him to sleep alone, which I kind of was, in a manner of speaking. I just wanted him to be comfortable, even if I wasn’t going to be laying next to him. Either way, Max wasn’t upset about getting to sleep in my big, comfy bed by himself, and he even promised me kisses if I could sneak away to come see him before he fell asleep, assuring me that he’d wait for me for a night or for a lifetime. Both would be tedious, but the prize would be worth it in his eyes, which got him kissed for being sweet.

When Max sent himself upstairs, I watched him go up until the gals chorused, “Aww!

“You two are so precious!” Rarity gasped.

“Jus’ gives ya th’ warm n’ fuzzies, don’t it?” Applejack asked, smiling knowingly.

Pinkie set her hands on her hips and gave me a look. “Why aren’t you following him up there for dance lessons!?”

Pinkie!” I cried, not able to stop myself from smiling. “Will you have some tact for once?”

Rarity’s jaw dropped. “You didn’t!

Rainbow’s brows lifted as she beamed. “No way! I was just telling Max to do it right!”

“W-Wait…” Fluttershy looked around, confused.

Pinkie clapped her hands. “That’s why she needs lessons! So she can do it right too!”

“Oh, that stallion can do it right.” Applejack said naughtily. “Somepony happened to walk in on ‘em this mornin’ and I never woulda believed it was Twilight in there-” I teleported her two feet into the air and dropped her on her rump. “Hay!

I clutched my pounding heart. “Will you not talk about that!?”

“That’s what we’re here for, isn’t it?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, this is the news, right?”

“Well, yeah, but-”

“Then you must know that a mare’s first time is an event to be shared with her closest friends in the privacy of her own home, no?” Rarity chimed in.

“Um…” Fluttershy’s face turned a bright, florid red.

Applejack nudged Rarity. “I can’t wait ta hear this one.”

“D-Do I have t-” I started.

Every detail.” Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie all said simultaneously.

... Eep.

Pinkie grabbed my hand and lead the charge to the library, despite my weak, pitiful protests and bargaining. Before I knew it, I was sitting in a circle with my best friends, my sisters, all smiling at me with different levels of ‘Spill it, spill it, spill!!!’ in their eyes, so I asked, “So… Wh-Where should I start?”

“From the beginning, Darling!” Rarity exclaimed. “What was it? What set the mood?”

I curled a lock of my mane as I focused through my buzz to reminisce on the morning and the pleasures it had held for me. “Well… Max and I went back to Canterlot yesterday to make his physiology more suitable for living on Equus, and we made a date out of the day… For once, nopony bothered Max or called him nasty names; threw stuff at him or tried to have him arrested over nothing-”

“Wait, you’re saying that your coltfriend, Max, is basically a pariah and be hasn't even been on the planet two months!?” Rarity asked, dumbfounded. “While I can’t say that I’m the stallion’s biggest fan, I will admit that he has a certain charm to him that’s far too obvious for the refined ponies of Canterlot-”

“Prince Blueblood and the cadre of Dimbos he keeps around threw trash at Max and the guards that were going to arrest Max saw the whole thing happen. Equestrians are extremely xenophobic and racist, Rarity. There’s no arguing that at this point in my relationship with Max.” I said sadly with a sigh.

“So that date y’all had was extra special.” Applejack said softly.

I smiled and nodded. “For once, it was I was the one on the outside, not Max. We stopped and talked to some of my parents friends, and the only reason I got to talk was because Max kept bringing me back into the conversation. After my Uncle got stopped Max from being arrested and got him out of jail later, I think Celestia put out an order for the guards to be on the lookout for ponies coming after Max for no reason.”

“Wait, who’s your Uncle?” Rarity asked, interested in the Canterlot tale.

“Oh, you probably know him since you’ve worked with my Aunt Fleur.” I replied foalishly.

“... You’re related to one of the most influential couples in the country.” She said with a numb grin.

I shrugged. “They’re just ponies. Good ponies, but ponies nonetheless.”

“Alright, but what about the douches that were ignoring you and paying attention to Max. How’d that work?” Rainbow inquired irritably. I wondered if it was because she didn’t brain good.

“Oh, they just invited us to a party they were having later in the night that Max asked if he could bring me to and they barely said yes, despite knowing my parents on a personal level.” I said amusedly. “As soon as we got away from them, Max told me that we weren’t going because he didn’t like the way they’d disrespected me~” I stuck my chest out a little as I spoke, pride in my partner shining through.

“Aww, that is so sweet! It would’ve been sweeter if he’d said something-” Pinkie began.

“And made a scene as well as ruin a possible connection? The slight was minor, as far as the Canterlot Scene goes, gals.” Rarity clarified.

“Still, that was rude of them!”

“Yeah, but Twilight doesn’t care, so why should we? What happened after that crap?” Rainbow asked.

I blinked a few times. “Um… Well, Max and I came back home and on the walk home, the day just… It just got perfect. It was like everything was falling into place. Max and I walked in sync, breathed in sync, and when we got home, we had to sit on the stoop together because we just felt each other… It wasn’t like we were touching, but it was like his emotions and the way he felt started spreading into me and what I felt mixed into his heart. I’ve never felt so close to someone before.”

“And then what?” Fluttershy asked breathlessly.

“Well, Spike turned on the porch light to see who was outside his house and the moment was over from there, but then Max and I stayed up late last night reading on the couch until he started dozing off. Well, he was reading and I was writing in my diary, but he was still the first one to fall asleep, so I grabbed a blanket from the chest and went to snuggle up to him, but he woke up and pulled me on top of him and we slept like that for a few hours.” I had everypony wrapped around my finger at this point, so I carried on. “I woke up before Max and got to watch him while he slept for a little bit. Listen to his heart. Feel him breathe… I was almost a little mad that he woke up, but then we just flirted for a little bit until Max put his hands on my…”

Five mares leaned forward as my face lit up, making me hide behind my hands. “Will you stop staring at me!?”

“C’mon, Twi! Ya can’t stop there!” Applejack urged

I wrung my hands and looked around, all of the gals either giving me dirty grins or interested looks. “W-Well… Max p-p-put his hands on… M-My b-b-butt…”

Aaand?” Echoed around the circle.

“W-Well… He started off a little too hard, but he started getting softer and it started feeling n-nice…” I admitted through a trembling voice and a bright, glowing blush.

“The sooner ya get through with it the sooner ya can be done~” Applejack needled.

“W-Well… M-Max just did that… Er, massaged me for a little while before he s-slipped his hands under my skirt…” I looked at my hands. “He-He touched the wrong place and that got cleared up pretty fast, so... Um… Well, he sat up and had me on his lap so I could feel… it-”

“Was it big?” Pinkie asked.

“Save it for the good part.” Applejack shushed. “Keep goin’, Twi.”

“Well… It’s a nice thing, I’ll say that much… I-Um… Well, from there, Max started touching my thighs and that felt good too. Then I got another kiss and… Well, it just clicked. It just felt like the right moment until I heard Spike coming down the stairs.” I finished a little irritably.

“That’s what you get for getting busy in the library~” Rarity sang.

“Shush.” I huffed.

“Don't stop there! What happened next!?” Rainbow urged.

“After I teleported us to my room, we started getting… Busier, and I really have to say that Max is way too good with blouse buttons.” I tugged at the front of my Tee.

There were giggles around the circle as Applejack asked, “What, did he have ya shirtless in ten-” I started nodding and she blinked. “Oh.”

“If it even was ten seconds.” I said, still a little stunned. After that, we took each other’s clothes off and… Explored…”

“So how big was it?” Pinkie asked again.

I made a face and tried to figure it out, imagining that I was grabbing with my arm straight. When I made a little line in my fur where his tip stopped, Rarity said, “You’re lying!

The look I gave her must have been innocent or something of the sort as I shook my head. “No, that’s about right.”

“And it’s how thick?” Pinkie asked breathlessly.

I shrugged. “It’s hard for me to get my hand around, I’ll say that much.”

Applejack stared at me. “... And… I’m sorry, but the guy I had was smaller than that an’ all it did was hurt.”

“I concur.” Rarity said uneasily.

“That’s because you tarts were fucking: Twilight and I were making love.” Max commented loudly, passing by the doorway on his way to the kitchen.

“Hey, get that flank in here!” Applejack yelled.

“Water first!” Max shouted back.

“We’ll be waitin’!”

I threw a pillow at Applejack. “Don’t bring him into this!” I hissed.

She shrugged. “His hands are bigger.”

I choked on my own saliva, Fluttershy and Rarity gasped, Rainbow didn’t look like she really cared, and Pinkie looked far too interested for comfort. “Why does it matter how big he is?”

“Because that thing shoulda split ya in half!” Applejack said in low tones.

“I already told you he was gentle!” I murmured hotly, not liking her implications.

“Ya keep sayin’ that, but what is your definition? Cause when I saw him buckin’ ya silly-” I silenced her with a spell for talking too much.

“It was not like that!” I protested.

Eyes turned to look off to my left, leading me to see Max as he knelt down next to me with a cup half full of ice and water. “So why am I in here?”

“We got a question for ya that Twilight just can’t answer, and it’s been botherin’ me since she told me she gave ya her first time.” Applejack said bluntly.

I slowly covered my face, knowing that Max was looking at me. I was worried about how he felt until I felt a trickle of acceptance pass through our connection. It was tainted with disappointment and loneliness, making me lean on my future husband to support him. “I tend to answer questions. Lay it on me.”

“How do you make a mare’s first time not hurt?”

“I never said it didn’t!” I mewled pathetically, getting Max to wrap an arm around me.

“Like I said, AJ; you were fucking. Twilight and I were making love. The difference is in foreplay.”

“... The buck? How would that help Twilight?” Rainbow asked.

“Um… How would it not? After a few extra fun favors, who isn’t ready to go?” He replied, not understanding why it was so odd.

“While I hesitate to ask for the sake of proper etiquette, I must know what constitutes as foreplay for you.” Rarity asked.

“Yeah, this is as awkward as I thought it’d be, yup.” Max said plainly. “Seriously, have none of you ever heard of oral?”

“What you did to my chest wasn’t that!” I cried.

“That was a breast orgasm, and I’m honestly surprised you reacted so well to it. Most women don’t know what the fuck is going on when that happens.” My boyfriend answered pleasantly, giving me a squeeze.

“Wait, you… Did a thing and Twilight got ‘happy’ from just that!?” Rainbow asked, her face screwed up in confusion as I peeked out from behind my fingers.

“Yeah. It’s uncommon, not unheard of.”

“... So… Was that all?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’m pretty sure Twilight doesn’t want to talk about our bed life anymore.”

I grabbed his hand. “I-I don’t mind… I-If it felt good for me, they could ask a stallion to do it for them too…”

He shrugged. “Alright. After the breast orgasm, I went down on Twilight-”

“What?” Echoed between Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow.

You went down on her?” Rarity asked. “St-Stallions… Stallions don’t do that.

Mares don’t do that.” Rainbow scoffed. “I should buckin’ know by now.”

“... Seriously…?” Max asked.

“Yep,” Rainbow grunted.

Applejack nodded. “Mhmm.”

Rarity just shook her head, Pinkie shrugged, and Fluttershy kept looking around, her hands firmly between her legs. Max looked around, his gaze settling on the orange mare. “No fuckin’ wonder your first time hurt! Were you even wet? Like, how ‘in the mood’ were you? Seriously. It shouldn’t hurt that much if you have half an idea of what you’re doing.”

Applejack blushed and coughed, clearing her throat. “Um… Well, I was inta it, but there were better times for it later, i-if that’s whatcha mean.”

“You couldn’t have been less interested in sex at the time.” Max said flatly.

“Yeah.” She sighed.

He looked to Rarity and she shook her head. “It was during a special time and it still hurt, but then again, it sounds as though you gave Twilight plenty of time to prepare for the moment of truth.”

Max nodded solemnly. “In the future, just keep in mind that waterslides are more fun when there’s water involved. Otherwise it’s going to hurt.”

“Gosh, I wish you weren’t dating Twilight! It sounds like you’re a good first stallion!” Pinkie said, making Max’s heart ache.

“Yeah, she caught her a good one.” Applejack sighed. “Darn, the cute ones get all the luck.” Another thorn stabbed its way into Max’s heart.

“I’d rather have you as a friend, if it’s all the same to you. I don’t think I could put up with your nonsense for long.” Rarity teased, making Max smile.

“What, are you saying that my little Twiwight is more ‘mare’ than you? Or are you saying I’m too much ‘stallion’ to handle?”

“I bow to Twilight when it comes to supernatural beings.” Rarity huffed.

“How am I- An alien, yup. Forgot.” Max sighed, leaning into me.

“There are worse things to be.” Rainbow said brashly, catching my attention. “You could always have a little dick and be the biggest stallion around.”

“Yeah, you got a point there.” He admitted, shaking against me as he tried not to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

His look of betrayal was ruined by the smidgiest smidge of a smile on his lips. “Me? What do I find funny? A great many deal of things, so let me tell the tale!”

Oo~oh

Once there was a sailor and his name was Troglodyte!

When he reefed the sails the whole ship did shake with fright!

For fear he’d bend and break the mast with his Manly Might!”

I hooked a finger in his mouth as he started another verse. “Shush, smartass.”

Even as Max bit my finger (Which hurt) the gals were giggling their heads off, save for Rarity. She didn’t find randomness as funny as the rest of the foals with too many endowments, but I had to admit that Max was too cute for his own good at times, and this was one of those times. I yanked my finger out of his mouth and tackled him to the floor, careful not to poke him with my horn as he let me pin his arms to his sides. With a handy-dandy spell, I made sure he wasn’t going anywhere before pushing myself up, grinning triumphantly.

“Oh no! I have now known defeat! Da-hoof! Whichever!” Max chuckled, his eyes gleaming.

“And I know exactly what I want for winning~” I leaned down and planted a kiss on his nose before getting a taste of his face.

“Oh my gosh, if this gets any gushier I’m gonna hurl.” Dash said pointlessly. It’s not like I was gonna stop.

“Oh hush, Rainbow! This is better than any novel~!” Rarity sighed.

I flipped my mane to one side of my face so I could give her a look. “Of course we’re better than a book! We should be a book.”

“I’ll help you write it if you get your slobber off ma’ face.” Max grunted.

I rolled my eyes and obliged him, releasing my spell a second later. “Now-”

He quickly turned the tables on me, but my constantly paranoid boyfriend was careful not to let my head hit the floor before he gave me a kiss. “Next time you drag me into Girl Talk, at least give me a kiss for my troubles.”

Sure, Amour. I’ll be sure to give you a better one in the morning if you let me up to give you a quick one now.”

Max scoffed and looked around. “Why would I get a quick one when I could jussst…”

The wolf-whistles and giggles were unappreciated, but the kiss was a different story when my mind started wandering towards other things. Tasty things. Either way, Max still went to bed and left me doing my best to not watch as he left, though the girls helped with that by teasing me relentlessly to little effect, for once. Instead of feeling embarrassed or ashamed of having been seen at that level of intimacy with Max, I was a mixture of happy and smug that probably leveled out to ‘proud’, which was all due to my loving friends and boyfriend. The way my silly Human seemed to mix in with the gals when they were all together was effortless, and I was definitely going to bring up an interesting idea for a prank to him.

I should mention that I only got devious because I was sobering up to the point of becoming ‘older’, in a manner of speaking. If I wasn’t accounting for thousands of years of Prank Wars with Max, then there was no way that I ever would have thought of my cute little idea, but it was already in my head by the time I hit my ACC, so it was too late for me to save the gals. I mean, I could’ve always just cast the thought aside, but where’s the fun in that?

… Hmm… I don’t think I need to go into the rest of the sleepover since it calmed down a lot from there, but when I snuck off to go see Max for a moment, he was sound asleep with the blouse I’d worn the day before in his grasp. The sight was heartwarming to say the least, so I just left him with a quick smooch before going back downstairs to get this written down and sorted out. Now should be a perfect time for a conclusion~

ↂ✶✵✶ↂ

In conclusion…

Holy moly. My morning was epic. My day has been perfect. If I don’t understand how I was feeling today just by reading this in the future, then I’m going to regret not finishing this. I need some alone time to properly reflect on how my morning went down in the basement where nopony can bother me for a bit. In any case, it’s been good talking to you, Diary~❣