Several days had passed, and many things were getting better. Bucky’s horn was mending quickly, the crack nearly sealed now. Food was actually staying in his stomach for a while, and his near starvation seemed at an end.
The sessions with Bon Bon seemed to be having a noticeable effect, but nopony knew the whole truth, that it was the sessions with Bon Bon and the carefully introduced mental breaks being caused by Luna on a nightly basis. Bucky was being rebuilt brick by brick. Luna believed that her breaks were perfect, successful in every way, but Luna had no idea that her breaks were being chemically assisted by Bon Bon’s careful touch.
And so it happened that on one bright and promising morning, Derpy Doo Hooves woke up with an interesting visitor in the bed, poking her tail, and prodding her dock. She wiggled and moved her backside, intrigued by what she felt, and then, it moved.
Bucky awoke quite suddenly, feeling something silky soft and inviting rubbing up against something. Only partially awake, and thinking he was dreaming, he gave an experimental prod.
“My brownie oven!” Derpy cried, leaping very suddenly out of the bed.
Bucky awoke, realising suddenly what had just taken place. There hadn’t been actual penetration, but there had been a friendly knock at the backdoor. He kept his eyes closed, now squeezed shut, and cringed.
“What?” Berry snorted, now awake, sitting up, looking alarmed.
Derpy stood beside the bed, her wings fluffed out and a crazed look on her face. “I finally felt a friendly poke back there and it scared me, it has been so long,” she said, laughing.
Bucky did not reply, but groaned.
Berry, scowled. “I didn’t get poked.” Berry, never one to leave anything alone, rolled Bucky over onto his back, easily overpowering him.
She whistled.
“Would you look at that,” she said, still groggy from waking up. “He’s hung like a barrel. Not much length, but my goodness Derpy, would you look at that girth!”
Derpy turned and cocked her good eye on the squirming and exposed Bucky. “Oh… Ooooh!”
Sparkler came crashing into the room a moment later. “I heard a cry… OH EGADS, I AM BLIND!” she cried as she backed out of the room and slammed the door.
“I want to die,” Bucky announced in a firm monotone.
“No,” Berry said. “I am Berry needful.”
After having a good laugh at Sparkler’s expense, Derpy had crawled up in the bed and was examining the prone and supine unicorn. “That’s a little big to be stuffing into the ol’ brownie oven,” Derpy remarked. “You should always warn a mare before dropping into the bakery unannounced. I darn near dropped some brownies bedside.”
“I cannot believe this is happening,” Bucky whimpered.
“Well, I showed you mine, it is only fair,” Berry said, looking down her muzzle at Bucky, grinning groggily.
“And here is mine!” Derpy said, standing up and turning around on the bed. She flipped up her tail, splayed out her legs a bit, and presented.
That is an unusual shade of blue Bucky thought to himself, and then his brain revolted and tried to shut down everything.
“You don’t see a shade of blue like that often,” Berry commented, screwing on a fresh canister to the feeding tube and flipping the valve. “Kind of a blue purple grey. Like a sunset behind thunderclouds.”
Very much against his will, Bucky found himself nodding.
“Dinky squirted out of there, so you should be okay stuffing your caber into that,” Berry said, her eyes darting first from Bucky and then to Derpy.
Derpy turned around and eased herself down on the bed, smiling. She didn’t stay long. After a moment, she took off to use the bathroom.
“What a shame, look, the wee beastie is going back into his cave,” Berry said, using her “Berry-Disappointed” face and prodding Bucky’s side with a hoof.
Very much against his will, Bucky laughed, a nervous laugh that came out hesitantly and unsteadily.
Berry stared down at the unicorn that she felt such strong feelings for. “You know Buckminster,” Berry said, using his full name, “it is difficult to imagine life without those you love, this is why ponies tend to forgive certain ponies that make mistakes so easily. If I ever make a mistake, or do something foolish, I really hope that you will forgive me.”
“After everything you have done for me, how could I not?” Bucky asked.
“It isn’t a matter of obligation dear Bucky, you don’t owe me. I chose to do this,” Berry said, leaning down and giving a soft kiss on the good side of Bucky’s face. “You make my best friend happy and you look after Piña, you wouldn’t believe how often Piña is a deal breaker for a lot of my potential dates. It is why I stopped having meaningless nookie when I was out on a date… I wanted to see who was actually interested in me. It has been darn near a year since I’ve had my itch scratched. Once I stopped giving it away, and started looking for something serious, the long line of those interested dried right up. I am in an unnatural state of celibacy and it must end soon.”
Bucky nodded, saying nothing, but he did look Berry directly in the eye.
“Let’s take care of your needs, and then I need to go downstairs and help out a bit,” Berry said, smiling warmly.
Berry had gone to take the foals to school. Sparkler had left the house as well, off to school, completely mortified.
Bucky and Derpy were alone, Lyra and Bon Bon had gone to school with the foals. The unicorn and the pegasus were having a long conversation, but no words were being spoken. There was a great deal being said, with lots of nuzzling, stroking, gentle caresses, and soft squeezes.
The pegasus was quite beside herself, not knowing how to act. She was behaving like a school filly almost. She made little happy nickers, wickers, and the occasional whinny. She made no attempt to deny that she was a happy animal, and she made happy animal noises.
Which really inflamed Bucky’s passion, much to his surprise.
While he was in no state to actually do much of anything, and his morning wood had been only partially hard at best, he found that he took a perverse delight in seeing what made the pegasus squeal with gentle prodding of his hooves.
It was a not so innocent exploration of each other’s bodies and finding out what made each of them react. Bucky was hesitant and shy, but he was slowly overcoming his own reluctance.
More importantly, the mare was learning to trust again after being hurt so badly. Desperate for affection, needing physical contact, and finally getting it from somepony she truly trusted. While Berry had been ‘Berry affectionate’, Derpy wanted foals… and desired contact from somepony that could provide them.
It was in this environment that the timid pegasus mare finally opened her heart and took wing in a metaphorical sense.
“Bucky?” Derpy said, breaking the long wordless silence.
“Yes?” Bucky replied, his mind racing and his body feeling fatigue.
“I want to ask you a question,” the mare asked, suddenly very afraid.
“Go right ahead,” Bucky replied, wondering what was on the mare’s mind.
“Do you want to be a father?” the concerned mare inquired, her heart now beating in her throat, and her eyes now close as she rested her head on Bucky’s neck, her wings suddenly very still.
“I don’t know how, but I’d like to learn,” Bucky replied, suddenly very afraid.
“Well, you start by loving a pair of mares and earning their trust,” she began. “The next part is pretty easy. You let the mares have their way with you, they’ll know what to do. After that, you wait,” she continued. “After waiting almost a year or so, you’ll be a father. The only thing to remember at that point is make sure one end is fed and the other end is wiped regularly. That’s it. Everything else you learn along the way,” she finished.
“Seems like there should be more to it than that,” Bucky answered, looking thoughtful and rubbing the mare next to him.
“Oh, there is. But that is why you keep having them until you learn all there is to know,” Derpy explained, her tone patient.
“I see. Fascinating,” Bucky replied.
“I learned some very important lessons with Dinky,” Derpy quipped.
“Like what?” Bucky asked.
“Oh, important lessons! Like never feed a baby foal seven bean chili, no matter how much they might like it. That’s a bad idea. If a foal drinks bubble bath, it won’t kill them, but you might wish that you were dead. Never, under any circumstances, do you allow Berry to give a foal coffee to ‘warm them up’ no matter how cold it might be. She can be Berry bad sometimes, that Berry Punch. The numbers on the packages of diapers indicates the baby’s weight, not how many pounds of poop a diaper might hold. I learned that the hard way. Never try to hold and comfort a foal that has the combined symptoms of diarrhoea, sneezing, and cough,” Derpy said, going through the list of things she had learned.
“Oh dear,” Bucky whispered.
“Oh, and foals get runny noses a lot. They wipe their noses on you. I think it means they like you,” Derpy added.
“A rational part of my mind says that I should be screaming in terror,” Bucky deadpanned. “But my rationality took grievous injury that day that most of the city of Ponyville decided to chase me. I hope that nopony was declaring intentions, otherwise I’ll have the largest herd in history.”
Derpy giggled and pressed her nose against Bucky’s neck affectionately. “Can I ask you a very personal question?” she queried, nosing him gently as she did so.
“I suppose,” Bucky answered.
“I know you haven’t been with a mare, but have you ever, well, you know, got off somehow?” the curious pegasus asked.
“No,” replied the very embarrassed unicorn.
“Never?” Derpy said.
“Not once. I thought about it once. It made me hyperventilate,” Bucky confessed in a low whisper.
“I don’t get too many moments alone, but when I do, usually in the tub, I try to rub one out. I can’t imagine living without some kind of release,” Derpy said, her voice nearly overtaken by giggles. “I’m still very young, and I have needs.”
“I…” Bucky started, and then failed.
“Sparkler caught me doing it one time when she barged into the bathroom. She was really nice about it, gave me tips. We talked about being mares,” Derpy said, reminiscing. “She was right about one thing, sticking your filly bits directly under the water faucet and letting hot water run on them feels really good.”
“You…” gasped Bucky, and then he fell silent.
“I once rubbed one out while thinking about Berry Punch, just to get an idea of what it might be like. I’ve never told her. I think I will though. She isn’t the only one who can be Berry naughty,” Derpy admitted.
“She….” Bucky mumbled, his words trailing off.
“Sometimes, even though it makes my wings really messy, I like to tickle my jelly bean with my feather tips. Causes the nicest shudders,” Derpy said, her words open and honest and exposing her deepest secrets.
“Jelly bean….” Bucky repeated, still befuddled.
“I have a really big jelly bean actually. I’m kind of self-conscious about it. It peeks out a bit down there sometimes when I am excited and my tail hairs brush up against it and it has almost caused me to crash a few times,” Derpy remarked after hearing Bucky say “jelly bean.”
“Peeks out…” Bucky said with a gasp and then struggling to breathe.
“Yeah, it does. It is a very big jelly bean and really easy to find. It is really awkward. I also have a big plot for a pegasus, it makes me feel funny when I compare myself to others. My hips got spread out so wide when I was young so I could give birth and now I have these wide hips and a big plot,” Derpy said, sounding very timid and afraid, her voice filled with real worry.
“I… I, uh, oh damnit, I really like your big backside!” Bucky blurted, struggling to get the words out.
“What?” Derpy said in a tiny whisper.
“I like your big backside. You have no idea what I want to do with it,” Bucky admitted, his own voice becoming very quiet.
“Oh,” the grey mare replied, still sounding a little insecure.
“I can’t believe you’d think you’re not pretty, I mean, you’re beautiful,” Bucky whispered. “And I feel really funny saying that knowing you’ve heard it before from another that hurt you and I am so afraid of hurting you so I am too afraid to say it knowing that you might take it wrong or it might bring up bad memories and I just don’t know what to do!”
“I need to be held,” the pegasus begged, sniffling, and falling silent.
Unable to to do much else, Bucky allowed the mare to cling to him.