//------------------------------// // 70 - Gossip // Story: A Penny for your thought // by Damaged //------------------------------// Whoa there! Penny and Stick really seem to get up to something naughty here, would you like to know what? Head on over here to find out. Warning: Link contains sex between a pony and a hippogriff (changeling), contains roleplay. Penny woke, warm and snuggled. The sensation of a third pony in her bed was a mild surprise, until her mind worked properly and she remembered. She was pressed between the pair, her changeling mate on one side and her best friend on the other. It had been shaky at first, trying to work out who or what might happen, but in the end they had just cuddled and curled up together. She had time before the pair woke, it seemed. She wouldn't move and disturb them, either of them. But she got an idea. Starting with the smallest trickle, Penny began to channel. She had to focus her thoughts, she didn't want to exclude her feelings for either in this. Her devotion and love for Stick, everything about the changeling made the joy inside the lunar mare just burst and fizz. She looked over to Hay. It was a new experience this love for her. It was young, untempered by the experiences she had been through with Stick. Slowly, she fed her magic through the emotions, letting it bait the hook. Stick stirred first and Penny felt her, still wrapped in whatever dream her lover was experiencing, reach out with her mental bite and latch on. Penny loved it when she was a little rough, like this, she wasn't really sure why, but it just felt good to her. Hay took more, she wasn't experienced in feeding, and it hadn't become a full instinct for her. But after a little more energy was expelled Penny felt a matching grip from the other mare, although hers felt completely different. There was no sharp fangs, no grip, Hay just fed like a filly would suck a milkshake through a straw. Penny closed her eyes, feeling absolutely serene in the moment, letting her two closest friends, one of them her lover, enjoy her gift. She hadn't felt when Stick woke but she did when Hay did. The mare opened her eyes wide, jerked a little and almost let go of Penny. There was a little instinct there, the lunar mare noted. "Good morning." Penny didn't open her eyes still, knowing that both the other mares were awake. "You." Stick leaned in and set her physical mouth to work with kisses. It took a few before she came up for air. "Really know how to wake a changeling up." Hay nodded, pressing her head down on Penny's back. There was some whispering going on and Penny felt her ears swing around and try and focus on it. "I might just duck out, I want to visit mom today. She must be in quite a state." Hay stretched, her grip on Penny's emotions softening and finally, with a deep sigh from the mare, releasing. Penny tried to get up, to wish the mare well on her trip when a voice behind her, deeper than usual, gave a little growl. Penny turned to see the oddest thing, it looked like a mix between a gryphon and a lunar pony. Big bat wings and a beak the first features the unicorn noticed. "Rrrr, come 'ere my filly." Penny giggled as Stick-the-hippogriff pinned her down. Hay Cart trotted to her own room, grabbing her saddlebags and pulling her new dress on. In all the excitement the previous day she had completely forgotten to wear it. Today, to visit her mother, it would be perfect. Her horn lit and she was tugging it into place, pulling it around herself and squeezing in. It fit perfectly! It took some work to get the little bags sitting just right but, by the time Hay was done, she looked not only amazing but practical. The new hunger she had taken on was sated, Penny having shared so much with her that Hay found herself giggling. A deep breath stopped the emotions from boiling over. The mare looked into the mirror and smiled. She couldn't believe what had happened with them. She had actually spent the night curled up with the pair and it felt… it felt. "Good." Hay spoke to an empty room, her eyes closed. A warm tingle flowed all over her. "Okay, enough with this." She trotted out and made her way through the city for her parent's house. Everything felt so good, she could almost sing to everypony she passed. She could feel the potential for love in almost everypony around her and, if she weren't so well fed, she would have been sorely tempted to feed on them. The mare stopped and shook her head. That really wasn't a good thing to think. "A whole new set of social graces I need to learn." Hay sighed and continued on her way. "Hay?" Hay spun around and her face lit up. "Mother!" She galloped and, in two steps, fell over the hem of her dress. Magic gripped her and set her back on her hooves. "Just like my little foal." Pretty Cart trotted up and inspected her 'little foal'. "We are looking very pretty today, off to find yourself a pretty colt?" Blushing at her mother's comment, Hay shook her head. But she couldn't get the images of her two friends from her mind. It just made the blush worse. "I think you are, surely you wouldn't dress up to visit your mother." Pretty pinched Hay's blushing cheek. "But in case you did, would you like to go out for breakfast?" Hay wasn't feeling hungry in the least, but she nodded, smiling brightly. "Of course I would come to see you wearing my new dress. Do you like it?" She flicked her flanks one way then the other, the dress spilling out and turning with her. "It is gorgeous, wherever did you get it? And how much for me to get one too?" Pretty gestured to a nearby ice-cream parlor. Hay moved in beside her mother. "My friends got it for me, actually. From Rarity in Ponyville." Her mother stopped dead. "THE Rarity?" She hadn't even registered who the 'friends' might be. "Oh that explains so much! To think, my daughter wearing THE fashion line that is sure to be a hit during this year's ball season." Pretty was lost in her own little world, imagining her daughter being the pony to emulate among high society. "Mother! Calm down. It is just one dress, she doesn't even have a shop in Canterlot." Hay tried to slow her mother down as they entered the ice-cream shop. "Oh it's been ages since we came in here last. Do they still have that mint swirl?" She was over by the glass, gazing in at the labeled tubs. "We sure do ma'am!" The unicorn working behind the counter was rake thin, a stallion who likely burnt up the produce he ate working. "Would you like a little to try?" It was a question that didn't need an answer, he was already getting a little of the ice-cream in question out, on a little wooden spoon. Hay took it from him when offered and her feet clopped on the floor quickly as the taste of it washed over her. It was good. As good as ice-cream got. "Can I have a large shake, berries and mango, with a good dollop of that in too?" The stallion dipped his head and was already preparing it. "Make that two please dear." Pretty Cart was moving up beside her daughter, her manners never wasted. "If you want a table I can bring these over?" The sound of the little machine behind him whirring away brought back memories for Hay that had her mouth watering. It then hit her, would this food do her any good? "That would be most agreeable." Pretty turned, leading her distracted daughter to a table. "Now tell me dear, your blush was a little too quick earlier. Who is he?" Hay froze, blinking. "Uh… well…" "She?" Pretty didn't seem at all upset, after all, it was perfectly normal for two mares to find love. Hay, unfortunately, blushed, suddenly wishing she hadn't come to see her mother. Her dam knew her far too well. "You are at least learning how to keep quiet at that school, but they seem horrible at teaching a mare to lie to her mother. What is the story?" Defeat, utter defeat. "Penny… Stick…" It was reflex for Pretty, shock hit her. "My daughter with one of the-" She cut off, lowering her head and sharing part of her daughter's blush. "You must forgive me." A hoof reached across to the older mare. "Mom, of course. It was all a misunderstanding with dad." Hay pressed her hoof against her mother's own. "A misunderstanding that I need to get over. Practical mares do not dally on their failures, they learn from them." It had shaken Pretty, how easy it was to feel that disgust rise inside her. She could easily look past it with Dray, their bodies knew each others foibles so well that forgetting he was a changeling was easy. "So, the two mares at school? How serious are things?" Hay could see it was costing her mother to fight her misplaced prejudices. "We started as friends, it got… more. We slept in the same bed last night." The blush was back, but Hay didn't care. Her mother, however, raised an eyebrow. "Just shared?" Pretty got a nod from her daughter. "How close are they? Mare… herds, are not common, not now and not in older times." "They are to be wed soon. Penny has a foal on the way." It hit Hay how close the pair was, how tight they are and how whenever she thought of one the other popped up. "So you are a newer addition to their pairing, and a foal? Do they already have a stallion hidden somewhere then?" Pretty pondered the problem. Sure it was a bit odd, but the incident had shown that both the mares had Princess Celestia's favor, that counted for much in the higher families. "Mom!" Hay was blushing just thinking about what Stick had told her just before she had left. The reason why she had left in fact. "Stick is a changeling, she can… well, she can change her shape." Hay's mother suddenly looked very thoughtful, a sly smile growing. "I don't know if it will, if I can… well, I visited the hive with dad yesterday." Hay felt all her soul seeming to be baring itself to her mother. It felt very good to get it out. "We talked with the princess there. I asked them to teach me how to drink…" Pretty's eyes narrowed and she had to stop and breathe deep again. "Drink? As in, like a changeling?" Hay nodded. "I really picked the wrong family if I wanted to stay bigoted, didn't I?" Hay smiled at her mother, the lopsided grin the older mare wore was a symptom of her ongoing fight within. "It is nice, I just want to know that side of me. Of dad too. How was he last night?" Now it was time for Pretty to smile fully, her features lighting up. "I haven't seen my stallion looking that satisfied for a long time. I know it wasn't another mare's doing, he drank well I take it?" Hay remembered and tried to take a leaf from her mother's book, fighting the slight disgust that still lingered, given the source of her 'first meal'. "He did, Fast was most generous. She seems like a nice mare." "Princess, dear. She is a princess and please, never forget that." Pretty looked at her daughter with all the earnestness she could muster. "It is not often a mare rises to that rank, and when it does happen it is a signal that they are not only already quite something, but have more to grow into." Hay nodded, taking her mother's words as fact. "Still, she was a nice princess." Her repeated phrase with the right word made her mother nod. Just then a pair of milk-shakes floated to their table, straws leaning out and to the side. "Thank you!" Hay turned and called, momentarily sensing just how much the stallion loved his job, loved making ponies happy. It made Hay smile a little more.