"One thing." Cadance set down a crystal glass before Umbra, swirling subtly with the dark red crystal berry wine within it. "Take off that tiara."
Umbra blinked, hooves going up to it defensively. "Why?"
Cadance leaned in, breath teasing at Umbra's furry face. "Because Shining knows what we're doing, and he can feel me, but not you. If he can't be in the room, he can at least be in the room."
"Oh..." That sorta kinda made sense... Umbra lifted up her tiara, held between her hooves, and set it on a small table nearby. "Cades, I will just say it flat, but you're making me a little nervous. Curious, sure, but nervous too. I've seen enough anime to know where this could be headed." Cadance did not see enough anime. She looked quite confused at the words spoken. "The way you were talking, either you're going to grow boy bits, or I am. If it's the latter, hard no."
Cadance skewed an ear to the side as she circled Umbra at a slow pace. "But the former, you're alright with?"
"With informed consent, sure." Umbra nudged the glass away. "Which is why I'm not drinking that." She folded her arms. "Besides, I prefer remembering things like this anyway."
"What makes consent 'informed'?"
Umbra threw up her hooves. "That you can ask that tells me so much about this world." Despite that, she flopped over onto her back, hooves curled above her and a smile on her face. "Consent is 'informed' when the per--pony you are asking understands exactly what you are asking permission for and isn't pressured, subtly or not, into saying yes. This makes getting informed consent tricky for you." She wagged a hoof at Cadance. "At least with most."
Cadance sat down and up at once, rising her head fully. "Why is that? So long as I don't zap them, I'm not forcing them. That isn't hard to do."
Umbra wagged her left forehoof at Cadance. "See, that? I bet the other princesses would get it. You're a princess. That carries a huge load of baggage. If you ask a pony to do something, they'll want to do it. They don't want an upset princess. That is pressure, even if you say nothing about it. Now, Shining's alright. You were married to him before you assumed the throne. He loves you to death. No consent issues there."
Cadance cringed at the idea being painted for her. "So... I can't even ask you, or anypony else, then?"
"It's tricky," sang Umbra. "But, in your favor, our power dynamic has shifted." She changed the balance between her dangling hooves. "I'm a princess too. No position, sure, but, princess. Our levels got way closer, and I've already thrown off your yoke, and you didn't stop me."
Cadance blinked softly. "Didn't stop you?"
Umbra rolled up to sitting on her haunches. "This world is adorable! In mine, if you told a King or Queen that you were on even footing with them, they'd at best, inform you that you are super wrong. Let's not discuss the worse options."
Cadance was still a moment. "You did say that. I didn't argue it." She wagged a hoof between herself and Umbra. "I want us on equal standing."
"Good!" Umbra hopped up to all fours. "Then that means I can say no, and you'll accept that as an answer I could give, right?"
"Right?" She inclined her head. "Though I am hoping you don't say that. I am allowed to hope that?"
"Of course." Umbra advanced, touching nose to nose. "It'd be a dark and terrible world where hopes are regulated. Not this one, I think."
Cadance smiled, keeping her nose in contact. "I'm glad to hear that. Now, Umbra, you noticed something about me before. Something even Shining never noticed."
"I did?!" Her ears went up, but she resisted recoiling, to keep the noses together, their breath shared in proximity. "What'd I see?"
"You saw I wanted excitement." Cadance gently cupped Umbra's round equine cheeks. "You saw I wanted a thrill. You are that thrill, on many levels. I want to soar with you. I want to explore dark places. I want to adventure." She sighed into that shared air between them. "I want to do things with you that don't fit the image I've built up for myself."
Umbra slapped a fetlock over her snout, backing away as she giggled a little. "Oh! Oh, yeah, alright, yeah... I get that." She started to waggle a hoof, but the motion was aborted, instead turning downwards to point directly at Cadance's haunches, or rather, her groin. "And you know what a stallion feels like, but you don't know what it's like to be the driver of that car. So, plowing the dark princess sounds really exciting right now."
Cadance's blush went from nothing to full intensity fast enough to make her look a little dizzy for a moment. "Shining is a straight shot. He doesn't want... me to do that to him. Perhaps the day we try him as a mare, but that's practically a running joke. He has yet to agree to that, so..."
"So there I am." Umbra pointed at herself. "An available mare you know, who Shining will let you even consider that with." Umbra nodded, understanding cemented. "I get it. This is the adult time, which means we be honest, with each other, and ourself." She thumped herself on the chest. "Part of me is curious what that'd be like... to be a mare under a stallion."
"With the right stallion." Cadance got a dreamy smile, her blush spreading but becoming less intense. "It can feel wonderful."
"Shining is good at sex, roger." Umbra smirked viciously. "But are you? You've never done it, as a stallion, gonna guess really easily."
"Are you?" Cadance pointed accusingly. "You've done it as a mare exactly zero times."
Umbra recoiled, but broke into laughter in the motion. "Ouch! Nailed me in one there. Alright, we're both clueless virgins then. We have experience, but... tangential."
Cadance leaned forward. "That you're talking about this... Does it mean you're interested?"
"I'd be lying if I said no." Umbra hiked a brow at the larger princess. "This is some straight fetish fuel right here. But I want to know something."
"Anything." Cadance set her hooves together with a bright smile. "I am an open book."
"Do you want to be a stallion?" She cycled her hooves in the air. "Just between you and me, but is this... a long term want, or a short term want?"
Cadance began to darken anew. "Short term! I am a mare, and quite happy with that. But just because... I want to try it, to put on different shoes for a time, but not as a fashion shift."
"Challenge." Umbra pointed at Cadance with a rigidly straight leg. "If you want me as a stallion, you're going to have to admit you're alright with mares, and that means you'll have to get kissy and snuggly with me as a mare first. Stallion can come after that." She rolled her eyes suddenly. "I refuse to have that relation be 'I only like her when I'm wearing this specific hat.'"
Cadance went still, just breathing and gazing at Umbra for a time. She set her forehooves out, drawing herself up to all fours. "I see..." She took two steps forward, enough to erase the distance between them. "I will note, I have no experience with what two mares... do."
"I can help with that." Umbra watched Cadance come closer, not moving away or towards, just watching her. "The intent is more important. Besides, lovers should support one another, not rate them. That's kinda mean."
Cadance smirked softly at that. "I just rated Shining, didn't I?"
Umbra snorted softly at that. "That's different! You were singing his praises. You're always allowed to do tha--" She didn't get to finish. Cadance was on her, mashing lips together. Cadance's head was angled to the side, allowing their lips to meet properly. Umbra could feel equine lips easily meeting her own, skilled things they were. Her own reacted in kind, wanting to join and feel at the pony that was kissing her.
Her heart thundered in her chest. It was a kiss, a real kiss. A romantic kiss. The first she'd had as a pony, and... it was nice. Cadance smelled so nice. Feminine, but she was a girly girl, all pink and round. Umbra pressed back against it, reaching a hoof to run along Cadance's sides, inviting her in closer.
An invitation that was accepted, hooves coming back at her, drawing Umbra closer. Cadance's eyes were closed, her nose flaring, taking in her own scent as they flopped over to the side, lost in one another's arms. Their legs kicked gently, brushing against the other in a way that Umbra didn't expect to feel so exciting. She was making love, as a pony.
It was not human love. The points of contact that sent thrills through her were not what she was used to, but she was loving every second of it. Finding them became a focus, letting her hooves wander slowly, seeking out what made Cadance tense and shiver. Cadance drew free of the kiss, only to start nipping and licking across her snout, exploring her face in a way that only felt good.
In another room, Shining sat, looking out a window, and coloring in whole new ways. He could feel himself being caressed and licked and loved, twice. They were doing things, and he was a part. He didn't even know how to stop it. He could plug up the outgoing, but not the incoming. He'd never even tried, and it was a bit late to worry about that... Their relationship had changed, in a way it would likely never recover from, only, one hoped, adapt to.
Part of him wanted to do something, anything! But if he did, he'd be intruding on them. Well, he could block off his part first? Though the idea of holding that barrier up while being bombarded with their feelings and also whatever he did himself? That was basically asking for something to go wrong. No... He'd sit and experience... And maybe like it.
"Eek!" Cadance drew her face away. "Watch your horn." She set a hoof on Umbra's horn, guiding it away as she came back in to nuzzle and groom at Umbra's head. "Hazard of being a unicorn."
"Sorry." They were virgins, mistakes would happen! But that brought up a thought. "You ever just... start chewing on your feathers?"
"Preening?"
"Yes! I forg--" Her words failed. Cadance snapped her mouth shut around Umbra's closer wing and she began to preen gently, setting the feathers in the right order. Preening herself had felt satisfying and calming. Having someone else do it? That felt intimate! "Oh..." Umbra lunged forward, grabbing Cadance's wing in revenge.
The two stopped looking for erogenous zones. They had a nice big target in front of them, grooming the other's wings. It was an evolutionary advantage, to be distracted a moment, that two pegasi would feel good when they groomed each other, helping both be at their best when they took flight. It brought wingmates closer together and built connections.
It was that evolution that led to their intimacy. They were making love through their twitching wings. Nothing else mattered in that moment, just the slow and methodic process of setting each feather in its precise proper place, layering them with a thin film that came from their lips as they worked, waterproofing them. But that was secondary, a side effect. The main point was that satisfied little sighs and gasps that came from their partner. To be preened by someone you liked felt great, and to do it felt almost as good.
"T-thank you," got out Cadance as she worked. "For not letting me rush ahead."
"A little girl time." Umbra nuzzled into the fluffy wing. "No rush."