Putting the Pieces Together
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Breakfast for Rarity and I is a plate of blueberry crepes with various fruits arranged around them. For Twilight, who actually can and does eat meat, there are eggs, bacon strips (which don't look like they're made of hay), and a slab of bloody-looking beef that takes up half of the plate. A large platter of hash browns sits in the center of the breakfast table, along with a pitcher of orange juice, another platter piled high with toast, and two large bowls of (what else?) gems of various size, shape, and type. Everything is arranged in neat, intricate patterns that showcase Rarity's designing skills, and it all looks delicious. However, seeing as Twilight and I have still not received any explanation whatsoever as to why we woke up in Rarity's bed together minutes ago, I'm not feeling too hungry. In fact, I'm still wondering why I can't remember what happened; I think I might have a serious memory problem, between the whole "how did I get to this world" thing and what's happening right now.
Rarity sits down at her seat (designated by a rather grandiose cushion placed on her seat) and grabs some gems with a pair of tongs sitting in one of the gem bowls. When she notices that Twilight and I have not sat down with her, she pauses, sets the tongs back in their place, and gives us a patient look.
"Is something wrong, darling?" she asks me. She turns to the dragin beside me: "Twilight?" She's being playfully oblivious. This only troubles me more; why is she not as disturbed by my bedmate as I am?
"Rarity," Twilight says, voicing my concerns for me, "please, please tell me why Emerald and I woke up in bed together?"
Rarity giggles and looks at me. "Care to explain, Emerald?"
I almost snort. "Uh..." I take a little too long to figure out what to say. "I don't know why either?" I didn't mean for that to come out as a question. Rarity fixes me with a dirty look, and I realize why a second after the chills finish running down my back: you'd be pretty mad too, if somedragon you'd just confessed your love to had seemingly forgotten said confession.
"You don't?"
Such accusation in her voice! I'm almost frightened to answer her with "No." So instead I say, "Uh, past the sunrise, that is," which is the truth and has probably just saved my life.
"Mm. I thought so." Rarity's harsh look softens, and I swear I can see a smirk on her face as she turns away from me. Turning her attention back to Twilight. "We had to bring you here, Twilight. You were... incapable of staying at the library safely."
"Incapable?"
"In a word, yes." She hesitates, and then tells her, "You were drunk, Twilight. Hideously drunk."
Twilight blinks a few times. She reaches up and slowly begins to squeeze her head. Her eyes are wide and staring at something that neither Rarity nor I can identify. Her voice comes out slow and filled with care:
"I don't remember anything... after Pinkie and I left the restaurant... I know she stayed by my side until that point, but..." She starts shaking her head, claws still clamped around her skull. "Pinkie... Pinkie has to know what happened... I..." Her eyes shoot open and flash at me, filled with malevolent accusation. "You! You were in bed with me! How do I explain that?"
"What?"
"To Pinkie!" she yelps, squeezing her spines as though they might pop out an answer. "What'll she say when she hears that I slept with you?"
"Um, you didn't actually sleep with me that way," I say. "At least, I hope not." Looking to Rarity provides me with no new information whatsoever.
"Oh, like she'll believe me!" Twilight insists. "Telling her that I've been in bed with another dragon is going to throw our relationship out a ten-story window!"
"Well, when you phrase it that way-"
"What Emerald is trying to say," Rarity cuts in, "is that you don't have to tell Pinkie that you slept with him. Simply say that you spent the night at the Boutique."
"But that's lying!"
"Not at all. You did spend the night here."
"But if I don't tell her-"
"Who said you couldn't? Tell Pinkie you spent the night here, by all means."
The purple dragoness points at me and blurts, "But him!"
"Twilight, I can assure you, you and Emerald had no relations of any kind last night." Rarity pauses, scratches her head, and mumbles, "Er, earlier this morning, I mean. And if you're word's not enough for Pinkie, send her to me. I would be more than happy to vouch for you, should it prove necessary. Which, by the way, it shouldn't." She gestures to the buffet before us. "Now then, would you care to join me for some early-afternoon-breakfast?"
Twilight is staring in the direction of the kitchen sink, through Rarity; it's very clear that she hasn't been listening to a word Rarity's said. She doesn't respond when Rarity calls her name again. Listening closely, I can hear her muttering to herself:
"Pinkie wouldn't just leave me... she couldn't have been so careless as to lose me... something... somedragon must have... if she's still out there..."
She looks up and straight ahead, and announces in a loud, clear voice and a twitch of her right eye, "I have to go now."
Sensing the instability in her voice, Rarity gets up and puts a reassuring claw on Twilight's shoulder.
"Twilight, dear, maybe you should get some more sleep. You've only had a few hours..."
Twilight shakes her head again and speaks in her metallic voice again: "No. I have to find Pinkie. Something's wrong. I can tell. I need to find her." She turns and heads for the door, mumbling to herself once more. Rarity reaches out to stop her, but Twilight's horn sparks once, twice, and suddenly she's gone, replaced by a rather chaotic burst of magenta sparks.
I stare at the remains of Twilight's teleportation spell as they wither on the carpet, wondering if it actually sent her where she wanted to go. Rarity says, "Oh dear. I hope this doesn't turn into another 'Smarty Scales' incident," and I suppress a giggle, recognizing the parallel immediately. Dumbly, I reply, "I don't know, this doesn't have anything to do with a friendship report. At least, I hope not." I turn to Rarity, and she's giving me this weird "and you know this how?" look. It takes me longer than I'm proud to admit to realize that what I just said was something that only somedragon who'd been there for the incident in question would say (it is an unspoken secret amongst Ponyvillians to this day). I absently wonder if she's noticed how familiar the colors of my scales and spines are. I hastily throw in, "Spike told me," like it's some sort of scapegoat. Thankfully, Rarity nods slowly, choosing not to question my abnormal knowledge of Twilight's near-insanity. She heads back towards the breakfast table, but I stop her before she reaches it.
"Hold on," I say, turning her around to face me again. "I'm still kind of in a daze. I remember us getting off that ride after Celestia showed up, and that's it. What happened?" I notice the look she's giving me, and add, "And, uh, how far, exactly, did we, uh..." That's my question.
Rarity smiles gently, and puts the arm I'm not grabbing around my neck. She moves very close, and tells me, "Well, to answer your first question, it was early morning by the time we stepped out of our little loveboat, and you seemed very tired all of a sudden." She chuckles cutely. "Almost as if you'd spent the whole night chasing some dragin around like a little dog."
My eye twitches, for whatever reason. "I'm not a dog. Why did I wake up with Twilight in bed with me, and not you?" Oh sweet mother of mine, I just asked that. "Uh..."
Her claws run tantalizingly down my back, running across each and every one of my spines and silencing me immediately. Rarity's smile becomes more and more suggestive, and she starts swaying back and forth, as though she's dancing. Without meaning to, I join her.
"Well," she continues, "I decided that you needed a place to stay, and I wasn't going to let you go back to the library even if you'd begged me." I've let go of her other arm by now, and she uses it to tease some scales on my chest. "I was almost carrying you around, you were so exhausted. You can imagine my relief when the Boutique came into view, after what seemed like an eternity of walking along with you leaning on me, and I rushed to get there. Then Twilight came tripping out of a bush next to me.
"It seems as though Pinkie Pie had decided to play Hide and Seek with Twilight, who either could not take alcohol as well as Pinkie or had had much more than Pinkie that night. She was stumbling around looking for her, and she asked me to help her. And I did, in my own way. I brought her inside the Boutique, and she pulled herself up my stairs and into my room, asking nodragon in particular where the bathroom was." She pauses in her swaying, gripping my back tighter; her claws dig into my scales, deep enough to sting a little. Her features darken momentarily, but are almost immediately replaced with the gentle expression from before. "After I cleaned up that mess," she continues, " I found that poor Twilight had passed out on my bed, and after the ordeal she'd put me through, I really didn't have the energy to move her: I'd been up for such a long time, you know."
I find that I've been staring directly into her eyes the entire time that she's spoken: did I mention how enchanted I am with this dragoness?
"So, that left you to deal with," Rarity says, sighing, "Or so I thought. I turned to exit the bedroom, and who should be slumped against the door almost completely asleep but my tired little drakefriend. So, doing the only sensible thing a dragin such as myself can do, I put you in my bed as well and let you sleep with Twilight. I myself went down to sleep on the couch for the morning. I only woke up an hour ago or so, and made some breakfast for us." She glances at it briefly. "It's a shame that Twilight left; I've made far too much for only two."
Sensing that an opportunity has opened up, I ask, "So, we didn't, uh...?"
Rarity's smile grows just a bit larger and just a bit more sensual. "No, dear Emerald, we didn't. Twilight's unexpected sleepover made sure of that."
"Oh."
For the first time this morning, no one is making any noise. Rarity and I sway back and forth; I notice that I've settled my claws on her hips. I wonder, as I take in how close she's put her snout to mine, how in Celestia's glowing ethereal mane we've managed to have a perfectly normal conversation with our faces merely half an inch apart.
"Um... I'm hungry."
"So am I."
"Well, you made us breakfast."
"Mm."
"Don't want it to get cold..."
And that's as far as I get. With absolutely no interest in breakfast, I lean in slowly and kiss Rarity on the mouth. She meets me halfway, using the split-second before I meet with her to wet her lips with her tongue. Warmth spreads through me as claws move from my back to my chest. Besides that, there's no other movement, beside her tail flicking at mine beneath our legs. We (barely) part when we need air, and spend a moment taking deep breaths that blow against our faces when we exhale. That's the first kiss. Then the next one happens, and whereas the first was gentle and sweet, this one is more active, more fiery, more alive. I move a claw up and cup her cheek, turning her head so that our lips fit perfectly together. She purrs in response, and a tingle runs up my spine as her slender white tail sensually wraps around mine, which is rigid and pointed straight at the ground, and strokes it slowly. In response, I squeeze her hip, and she squeaks against my lips and pulls away, blushing and panting. That's the second. For this one, the third, Rarity pounces and kisses me open-mouthed. Somehow, she forces my mouth open, and our tongues tangle in a struggle for dominance, which I give her almost instantly. One arm wraps around my neck while the other moves down to where my claw is. Her hand grabs mine and guides it down her backside, leaving it only when my claws are snugly fitted to the curve of her flawless ass. Her tail tightens around mine, and a series of quick strokes elicits a squeeze from me. Rarity moans loudly into my mouth, and her other arm joins the first around my neck and pulls the rest of her body as close to me as possible. I feel heat building in me, as though a letter might come roaring up any second. Instead, it's a puff of smoke, and I try to funnel it through my nostrils so as not to ruin the moment. Then I feel Rarity's tongue dive straight into the smoke puff in my mouth. She shudders in what I think is disgust, but when her grip on my tail intensifies and her own puff of smoke comes bursting from her throat down mine, I feel a rush of adrenaline pump through my veins and realize how damn good it feels to swallow her smoke. She sucks mine out of my mouth, and we separate hesitantly. She tilts her head back and blows my smoke out slowly, in a thin greenish stream. Mimicking her, I let out a blueish puff that joins with the green stream to create a vortex of swirling color that mesmerizes me long enough to get a good, deep breath. That's the third.
I look down at Rarity, who's eyes are half-shut and glazed with what I can only guess is pleasure. A dreamy smile sits on her face, and she gives my tail long, gentle strokes as she comes down off of her high. When she opens her eyes, they're shining brighter than they had last night. She watches the smoke float upward for a while, and I try to talk to her as best as I can. My throat feels as though it hasn't been used in years.
"That was..." There isn't a suitable word for what that was, so I have to settle for, "fantastic."
Rarity gives me a cute smirk. "Oh? Was that your first time trying that?" She giggles when I nod, and runs a playful claw down my chest, teasing at loose scales. "It would seem as though you've just had your cherry popped, then."
The innuendo catches me by surprise, but at this point I can tell she's too turned on to care what she sounds like. And honestly, so am I. When she looks back up at the smoke, giggling at her little joke, I get a nice, long look at the pearly white scales on her neck. The idea comes to me in an instant, and I waste no time in executing it. I dive in and start kissing her neck sloppily, and her gasp is all the payoff I could ask for. Except perhaps the words that coming spilling out of her mouth a moment later:
"I-I think we'd ~ah!~ enjoy this more in the ~mmmh!~ bedroom, don't ~uhnn!~ you?"
The breakfast's going to get very, very cold, and I couldn't give less of a crap.
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About five minutes later I'm pushed into Rarity's bedroom and onto her bed. She falls on top of me, peppering me with her lips. She only gives me a second to breathe before kissing my mouth again, and again, and again. I can't even begin to describe how it feels, when she's pouring affection down on me. I manage to wrap my arms around her, and we roll over in the bed so that I'm on top of her now. She pulls away from my lips and rests her head on one of the enormous, soft pillows that litter her bed. She's panting and looks like an angel on a cloud of pink silk.
"No more waiting..." she moans, staring up at me with a lust-filled half-lidded gaze. "I want-"
I don't give her the time to finish. I pounce, and she cries out in a mix of surprise and excitement. She traces her claws around the spines on my back as I suckle her neck again. They slide slowly down my body, teasing at the sensitive spots between spines. I mimic her, trailing my claws down her stomach until I reach her waist, and then I go lower. Her claws reach my tail as I reach a sensitive spot on her inner thigh, and she coos in my ear as I hiss in hers. Something that's been burning in between my legs for a long time needs to let loose, and Rarity finds it in a second and I lose myself to something primal deep inside me.
We kiss again and again and each time we do she seals one kiss with another one a smaller one that's like a promise a promise that says that she'll never let me go and I never want to go and she pulls me down on her and I promise her I'll never leave this bed without her and I can't stand to let her out of my sight I have to hold her tightly her claws digging into my back my claws digging into the sheets somehow we still have our outfits on tearing at the fabric it's ruined but I don't care she doesn't care feel her warm smooth scales shining like pearls kiss her chest heaving with needwanttake up to her shoulders her neck feel her breath catching in her throat her lips warmer than anything I've ever felt leaving burn marks on my mouth and my face and my neck and shoulders and chest I'm growling so loudly but it's alright she told me her sister won't be home today she's with friends and we can be as loud as we want and I want to scream it out scream out loudly how much I love her but I can't because each time I try she kisses me again again again again and there's lilac and vanilla and the whispering remains of a glass of cherry wine in her mouth her taste I can't get enough it's never enough we're struggling together I feel like I'm holding up the world even though I'm on top and it's taking all of my strength not to fall down but wait that's what she wants and so I let it go and she cries happy tears our chests pressed together so tight can't breathe until she pulls away and then I dive back into her I need more of her more of her love her love her love our love the heat around us is melting us together and the bed can't possibly be holding us up like this the world outside is frozen time stopped to let us have our time is slipping out the window I have to hold onto the time because I don't have enough of her love my body's burning with her she's asking me to bite her shoulder and I do and she's screaming yes yes yes yes yes I feel constricted by her grip she's choking me there's smoke billowing from me or her or the bed or out the window but I don't care I can only feel her and there's nothing else that matters right now because she needs this deserves this after what I've done to her what I'll do to her when I go no don't think can't think more more more of her love in and out and in and out the bed is shrieking with protest it's breaking I can feel it amazing that it wasn't already broken she's shrieking too quiet her with another kiss she grabs my neck she needs more long slender tongues sliding past her and there's nothing better in this world or my world or any world nothing better than her sweetness and her sweat beading soaking the bed wet with heat and ecstasy and out of control can't stop won't stop never ever stop I promise cross my hearts hope to fry stick a diamond in my eye her scent surrounds me I can't think I can't breathe I don't have to all I need is more of her and her taste harvesting sweat on my tongue harder she asks harder please and I feel her body shuddering as it builds and builds a fire in my chest and she's tearing scales off my back tearing skin and muscle and pulling me apart and it feels so damn good I don't want her to stop need her love another kiss another taste of wine filling her cup up and up and up soaring searing fearing what's going to happen next and how long have we been here oh it doesn't matter I would stay here until the day I die and I just might because whatever's in my chest might burst but no it just keeps building and building and she's smiling and crying and screaming at the same time for another kiss her on the lips so full and ripe like a sapphire in her eyes shining bright and rolling in her head my claws grab her her curves so soft my claws moving lower lower her head sideways on the pillow eyes shut tongue lolling out of her mouth she can't even scream anymore I find a spot that wakes her up and she pounces back up at me like a tigress beautiful and dangerous and I love it I need it I take it from her and she loves it gives it her tail flailing finds mine warps around it playing with it just playing with it so sensitive why and ah her tail moving up and down and in and out and in and out and we're reaching breaking point and I think I want that want that so badly she does and she's showing it too her arms trying to pull us together like we're one being and it's amazing but I think it's working there's a well of ecstasy building between us and I think it might just fuse us together and then what ah wait something's happening am I bleeding no she's just ah my shoulder ah can't hold back ah I feel it building up in my chest in my throat and it comes roaring into my mouth past my teeth ah I let out a burst of flames and our mouths are connected and she breathes in my fire and hers comes bursting out too and I take it in and it feels ah unimaginable pleasure and she shudders in giving and I take it and shudder too and suddenly it all comes pouring out from that other place we were fused ah together and she's roaring my name and I can't say anything ah because there's too much pleasure flooding synapses in my brain overloading dopamine and ah and waves crashing on a beach somewhere and ah how can this be real coming it's too good I'm coming I'm ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh and then everything's still and my body tries restarting and then it all happens again and then we're done for real and we're just lying there panting, holding each other in the bed that somehow hasn't broken thanks to our antics.
I'm back again. My clothes and Rarity's are all torn apart, and there are bits and pieces scattered all over the bed and the floor of the room. Outside, the summer sun shines down on Dragonsville as though nothing of any importance has happened. Rarity is burying her face half into a pillow, half into my shoulder, panting like a dog. A beautiful, flawless dog that I love more than anything in the world. She's still coming down from the high, and her arms are limply wrapped around my shoulders. Our smell is intoxicating.
"Aghhh..." She's trying to say something, but she's exhausted and still lost in the pure loveliness of the moment. So am I, actually, and I would really love to sleep right now. I turn my body so I'm facing her, not the ceiling, and I tilt her head to look up at me. She still has sweat on her face, and I kiss her once more on the lips before letting her say anything. Finally, her eye's open, still shimmering brightly, she speaks:
"Em... erald..." She pulls herself closer to me. "Y... You..." She really wants to tell me something. I get another passionate, tired kiss. "I love you." There it is.
"I love you too," I say, meaning it more than anything. I pull her in so that our chests are pressed together again. I plant small kisses along and down her neck.
"Mmm... ~Ah~ Emerald..."
"Hm?"
"Will you stay with me tonight?"
I can't help it; I laugh, hard. I move back up to look her in the eye and ignore her annoyed stare.
"You must really be out of it," I say, stroking her spines. "You're talking nonsense." I peck her on the lips. "Of course I'll stay with you." Another peck. "I want to stay with you forever."
"Oh yes," she sighs, resting her head on my shoulder. "You can stay here, and I'll have Sweetie Belle go and stay with our parents, and we'll get married and have lots of adorable little hatchlings that I can make cute little outfits for, and..." Poor dear. She's so tired, she can't even keep her eyes open. Before I can say anything, she's asleep, curled up against me. I kiss her eyes, and she sighs into my chest. I love her, and I never ever want this moment to end, but I can feel my own exhaustion getting the better of me. I can't keep my eyes open very much longer, and after a moment of fighting it, I let sleep take me over. As my vision fades, I think about what Rarity said, and my stomach tightens. I want it to be just as she described it more than anything in the world, and yet it would all be a lie. Faintly, as though from across a wide, empty field, I hear an echo, of something I think I might have said or heard last night. Something about it is very unsettling, and I can't remember why.
Forevvvveer...
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I'm dreaming again. The exhaustion I felt a moment ago is gone now, lost in the realms of sleep. I'm back in the window room again, or maybe it's the window plane, or the window dimension, or whatever. I have the weirdest dreams.
Behind me, hoofsteps. I don't bother turning this time, because I figure I won't be able to see anypony when I turn around, just like all the other times. So I stand there, and the hoofsteps grow louder and louder. I notice, eventually, that there's some sort of glow radiating behind me that's tinting the grayness around me a little blue. I realize there actually is somepony behind me when they speak:
"Hello, Spike."
I turn, recognizing the voice immediately. She's blue, very blue, and the stars of the night sky shine in her mane, which flows like smoke up and into nothing. She's regal, tall, and wears a crown and necklace that display the same motif that resides on her flanks. Her wings stretch out wide, and her horn is glowing faintly with magic. An aura radiates from her, and as it spreads out, everything crystallizes. The world becomes real, and shapes begin to form around us.
"Can you see me?" asks the Blue, who in reality has a much less silly and more regal name.
"Yeah," I answer, finally piecing the puzzle together, "and I really hope there's some kind of explanation for all this, Princess."